>>5911465
Etsy is having one of her episodes again, the cause being that she only managed to get 500K from selling her last design. She’s taking it very personally, saying things like ‘I really tried this time’ and ‘this is all my fault’. You did find it weird that you got so little compared to your previous deals, but the D.I.Y rep explained that they were currently starved for cash. Apparently, criminal activities have ramped up these past few months, and one of their factories even got raided. You start seeing the double edge of an exclusivity deal, if your buyer isn’t willing to pay as much as you want for what you sell them, you can’t find a better buyer.

This is a terrible time to be running out of money, as all that you’ve earned from that deal had to be used to fix K.I.S.A and make you a new arm. You did try to reattach your arm with your magic, but it seems that such a maneuver is too complicated for you right now. Your new mechanical arm looks...mostly human, but it’s a little awkward to use and a little heavier than a regular arm. Etsy says she could make a better one if we only had more funding, but it’s not something we can afford right now.

The good news is that since K.I.S.A had it plating scrapped, you had the opportunity to wring out whatever magic it absorbed in the last fight back into you. A lot of the energy is lost that way, but you still feel as if your magic got stronger, although it just feels like you have a bigger magical reserve now rather than any unique improvement.

With the money you have, you should be able to last two more months at best, and considering Etsy’s current mental state, you don’t think pressing her to sell another design this soon will end well. You need to think of something.

Funds:
1.175M (original funds + deal money)
-
500K (cost of fixing K.I.S.A + new arm)
-
200K (Monthly security cost & general maintenance)
=
475K left.

(All actions will take about two weeks.)

>Attack the criminals that raided the factory, D.I.Y might even reward you for it.
>Investigate one of the rumors, a lot of them are getting out of hands.
>Sell a design to someone else in secret, just have to make sure D.I.Y doesn’t learn about it.
>Investigate the data you got from the apartment complex.
>Just focus on taking care of Etsy. She’s the most important thing here, the rest can wait.
>Write in.

>>5911467
Forgot to put the previous thread here: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/5892191/

>>5911467
>Just focus on taking care of Etsy. She’s the most important thing here, the rest can wait.

>>5911467
>Just focus on taking care of Etsy. She’s the most important thing here, the rest can wait.
fuck that depression out of her

>>5911467
>Write in.
MPR yourself and your arm. Should have done that after the fight for the boost, but whatever.

File: lowqualitysmut.png (105 KB, 564x642)

105 KB PNG

>>5911571
>>5911505
>>5911502

You decide to spend some more time taking care of Etsy. You’re sure she could survive just fine without you for a couple of weeks, but that doesn’t mean that ignoring her when she feels like this is a good idea. As usual, simply being here for her isn’t enough, and neither is showering her with positive attention until she feels better. She’s the type to think that all compliments are just lies, and to interpret any criticism in the worst way possible. Be kind, but not patronizing, be strict, but not too pushy.

“Uhm, c-can you make pizza again?” Etsy says as she checks the missile defense system set up in the attic—because you apparently have one of those.

You tell her that you’ve already made pizza two times this week, and that there needs to be some variety in her diet.

“U-uhm, y-yeah, but what if I could, uhm, make it up to you, you know, like, uhm...” She stumbles over her words, taking great care to make sure you can’t get a good look at her face from behind.

Oh, this isn’t about pizza at all. Sometimes, when she sees you being rather strict about something, she’ll try to goad you into doing it for “favors”. It’s a rather roundabout way for her to check if she’s still attractive to you, as she sometimes thinks you’re just ‘pretending’ to like her that way. But if you’re willing to do something you normally wouldn’t in exchange for sex, then it proves to her that she’s actually worth breaking some rules over.

Honestly, you wish she didn’t need to go through all these mind games, but it’s not like she can read your mind either, so you decide to go along with it. You tell her that you’ll make pizza, again. You’ve been cooking so much recently that you’ve started using magic in the process. It’s good practice, if anything.

You both eat as you watch some random anime. She’s really liking the pizza, although you can tell that’s not what she’s thinking about. Her eyes go back and forth between you and her now empty plate. Suddenly, she gets up from the sofa and starts slowly walking out of the living room.

“Sorry, Uh, I have to go back to work now, y-you know, uhm, stuff.”

You roll your eyes, she’s not very subtle, but in that case that’s a good thing. You get up, and before she can leave, you grab her waist from behind, whispering in her ear that she still owes you something.

“I did say t-that you could ask for whatever you want, right? Guess I forgot...”

She didn’t even say ‘whatever you want’ before, but you’re certainly not going to correct her. Your hands are already under her shirt, slowly moving up to her chest, and after a tight squeeze, she crumbles in your arms. The next half hour is exactly what you’d expect, your only regret being that you now have to clean the living room along a few broken plates. You'd say it was worth it, though.

>>5911677

It seems this restored her confidence a little. She put so much emphasis on her ‘tech genius’ persona that she feels it’s the only thing anyone could ever like her for. You’re making sure to prove her wrong every time you can.

Now that you don’t have to babysit her as much, you take some time to read your own pattern along with your frozen arm to see if you can get another magical breakthrough. Unfortunately, it seems you’ll need a little bit more magical for this. As a rough estimate, maybe two more dead high potential magic user would do the trick.

You also learned that your frozen arm is no longer magical, but once you start to think of your mechanical arm as ‘part of you’, your magic extends to it too. Apparently, magic doesn’t reside in your body as much as it stays inside what you perceive to be your body. If you keep trying to condition your magic into thinking of your missing arm as ‘part of you’, it might become easier to reattach in the future, maybe, that magic stuff is weird. You wonder if some magic users consider their clothing as part of them, food for thought.

Etsy starts working on another design, you expect it to be ready in about a month, but considering how much D.I.Y paid you for the last one, you might only get enough to survive for another two months. You should be careful about what you do next, any mistakes will just tighten your wallet even further.

>Attack the criminals that raided the factory, D.I.Y might even reward you for it.
>Investigate one of the rumors, a lot of them are getting out of hands, and you might be able to kill a few magic users there.
>Sell a design to someone else in secret, just have to make sure D.I.Y doesn’t learn about it.
>Investigate the data you got from the apartment complex.
>Write in.

(Sorry the drawing is even lower quality than usual because I accidentally drew it on the wrong settings and got too lazy to fix it, so enjoy slightly scuffed Etsy.)

>>5911679
>Investigate the data you got from the apartment complex.
Let's not get into any more fights while we don't have the money for hospital visits.

You know, i just realized, we could probably get Etsy pregnant any time we wanted with Unreliable Habit. Or we could prevent conception in the first place. Probably should hold off while we still haven't settled our situation magic wise, can't have our child getting cursed or some shite.

>>5911679
>Attack the criminals that raided the factory, D.I.Y might even reward you for it.
We need steady, reliable income. This also gives us a chance to test out the new arm.

>>5911677
>>5911683
That drawing is beautiful, don't even worry about it. Of course, I'm a fan of quest drawn smut, so take that as you will.

>>5911755
>I'm a fan of quest drawn smut, so take that as you will.
I'd hardly call a woman leaning down and a fade to black after touching her boobs smut. I mean i'm not saying 'oh, i wish it was' - it's what i wanted as it is, no need to have *actual* smut, but this in specific is not smut when you've had actual fully written out smut scenes in other quests.

>>5911773
Yeah, I'm more calling it smut as a joke, but I also wasn't sure how far I could exactly take it (I was about to be more descriptive actually before I decided to stop myself). I don't consider this quest smut, but I do think intimacy, sex and the way it affects relationships are pretty important themes that I want to address when possible.

>>5911785
> but I also wasn't sure how far I could exactly take it
Well i've seen quests that had actual on-screen described sex scenes with art, and they stayed up without getting removed at all. The latest example i've seen of an drawquest doing it, i think, is Gaol (the first one).

Really, i don't think any of us are going to demand you to write a full on doujin-tier scene, but if you wanted to get more descriptive than that you could easily be twice or thrice as more.

>>5911677
>lowqualitysmut.png
kek
>>5911679
>Investigate the data you got from the apartment complex.
I'd say we're still in wounds-licking phase. We just got our arses kicked, last thing we need is another go at it.

>>5911679
>Investigate the data you got from the apartment complex.

>>5911679
>Attack the criminals that raided the factory, D.I.Y might even reward you for it.
>>5911683
relax OP, I liked it

>>5911679
>Investigate the data you got from the apartment complex.
Paid an arm for that info.

>>5911975
>>5911881
>>5911836
>>5911820
>>5911755
>>5911690

You decide to check the data you stole from the apartment complex. Apparently, K.I.S.A plugged an USB cable into most of their machines and copied all the files it could find. The only authentication it needed was an ID card, one K.I.S.A simply picked off the corpse of the agent.

At first, you were wondering why Etsy didn’t try to check the data first chance she got, but after taking a look at it, you start to understand why. There are a Terra-bytes of files to parse through – camera footage, internet history of the tenants, audio recordings, and of course, a metric ton of encoded files with extensions you’ve never heard of. You can’t read everything, you don’t have the time nor patience, so you decide to use certain keywords to find what you might be interested in.

So, you get to work, and it’s tedious and unpleasant. You sometimes have to ask Etsy for help if she recognizes some things, but she’s not as passionate about the whole government conspiracy thing as she used to be. You can’t blame her, this is mind-numbing busywork, and you fall asleep on your laptop more than one. Eventually, (mostly thanks to your magical pattern recognition) you do manage to make sense of what the apartment complex was for, and even manage to get extra info on some supernatural beings.

The apartment complex was originally pretty normal until it got bought under a false name by a secret agency. The name of that agency is PCAB (Protection & Classification of Anomalous Beings.) The main goal of the building was to attract people with magic potential, and slowly isolate them from the outside world. This would make them the perfect prey for magical beings, and once they entered the complex, they could be observed or in extreme cases, terminated. Anyone that survived an encounter with these magical beings would then be abducted, both to stop them from spreading news about the magical world, and to potentially assimilate them into their ranks.

A lot of magical beings have caught on to their shtick, and this quickly turned into a tug of war between different supernatural parties and the agency as to who got to control the building. Dusk and Mammona are both concerned, but you’ve also got a bunch of titles you’ve never heard of. The two that stand out the most are ‘Schadenfreude’ and…

‘The Seer of an Unobtainable Future.’ Seems Sawyer is involved too, although you can’t find a lot of info as to how.

You also learn that even though Etsy didn’t have any magical potential, they still decided to let her inside the complex as they considered her peculiar enough to be worth keeping an eye on.

>>5912021
You could learn a lot more given enough time, but you’ve spent nearly two weeks looking at these files, and you’re getting sick of it. At least you learned extra information on a lot of supernatural beings in the town.

‘Schadenfreude’: An awakened woman that gains power from people ending up in ‘amusing’ predicaments. Her magic can best be described as ‘toon-like’, the universe itself bending towards making the fight look like a complete joke.

Praying Arthis: Massive insects who serve a mysterious queen. Despite their terrifying appearance, they rarely harm people, and do not eat meat. They have been multiplying in the sewers at a rapid pace, and it is only a matter of time until they become known to the world.

Demon of the Backstreet: A human living in the back alleys. Despite their complete lack of magical potential, they have somehow channeled their very soul into a deadly martial art. They will rarely attack unprovoked, but they will still react violently to anyone following them for too long. Honorary player of the game.

Leah Park [No titles]: A woman that spends most of her time inside her studio. She is unaware of her own awakened magic potential. Her magic accidentally affected the mind of the people around her, but she hasn’t noticed. (An agent is expected to be dispatched to handle her in a month.)

Apparently the PCAB is really busy taking care of other stuff right now, so they’re unlikely to bother you. As long as you don't antagonize them too much, that is.

---
475K (original funds)
-
200K (Monthly costs.)
=
275K remaining.
---

Estimated time before Etsy finishes her design: two weeks.

>Attack the criminals that raided the factory, D.I.Y might even reward you for it.
>Investigate one of the rumors. now that you have more info, they should be a lot safer to investigate.
>Sell a design to someone else in secret, just have to make sure D.I.Y doesn’t learn about it.
>Write in.

>>5912023
>Attack the criminals that raided the factory, D.I.Y might even reward you for it.

>>5912023
>Attack the criminals that raided the factory, D.I.Y might even reward you for it.
So we can test out our powers on a more low level fight. I want to investigate those rumours soon so we can kill them and grab their power to improve our magic skills, but first we need to become better at fighting.

>>5912023
>Write in
Go meet Leah Park. I'm really not keen on the criinals thing, especially given how often it seems to pop up, it's fishy. I say we meet her, introduce her to the game, either get a new ally or more magic for us. The Pet will also like us for it (etiquette & so on)

>>5912043
Oh right, she hasn't been introduced to 'DA GAME' yet, has she? Yeah, switching >>5912031
to this, actually. We should still have another 'turn' left before Etsy finishes her design.

But uh...can we even introduce people? Like, are we allowed to do this?

>>5912047
Since you basically got subconscious knowledge of etiquette, you know that it's actually encouraged to tell awakened people about the game and etiquette (although it's frowned upon to tell regular people about it). With the info you got, you also suspect Leah Park is related to one of the unconfirmed rumors.

Supernatural Marketing:
Certain pieces of media (mostly of the anime and video game kind) have become exceptionally popular within a certain area.
While this wouldn't be weird to have a few hardcore fans here and there, it looks as if it is all the people here can talk about, even for those who were known to have many other hobbies before that.

You can also figure the Praying Arthis are the bugs living in the sewers, obviously.

>>5912069
In that case, we should go tell her before she gets nabbed by the feds and forced to work for their propagadna department.

And if she's nice, we also gain a possible ally.

>>5912023
>>5912043
+1
It's the rumor of Supernatural Marketing, it'll help us big time.

>>5912043
>Go meet Leah Park.
Supporting

>>5912043
+1

>>5912239
>>5912216
>>5912106
>>5912073
>>5912069
>>5912047
>>5912043
>>5912031
>>5912029

You decide to investigate Leah Park. If she wasn’t introduced to the game, you might be able to make an ally by being the one that informs her about it, or in the worst case scenario, take out an easier target. Her power seem to have affected the mind of a lot of people in a certain area, making them really passionate about certain anime and video games. Etsy doesn’t actually play that many video games, but she does recognize the anime as being incredibly obscure, and not the type of thing that would reach a mainstream audience even if it did have actual marketing behind it.

That’s really all you know about the situation, or at least, until you dig a little deeper. After cross-referencing a few things, you find that she’s actually quite active on online forums. As expected, anime and video game forum, but also image boards, urban legend websites, and tons of other stuff. She also pretends to be a guy online, but it seems she only does it to be taken more seriously and avoid creeps.

In other words, your average terminally online woman, it’s hard to say how much of what she says about herself online is true, as if you are to believe her posts, she’s apparently a very rich and successful person that has a lot of friends and relationship experience, unlike those other losers she’s arguing with.

Considering she lives alone in a small studio on her parent’s inheritance, you have your doubts.

You decide to investigate the area, bringing K.I.S.A is a little bit overkill right now, but the truck is still placed nearby just in case things do somehow go wrong. You approach her Studio apartment on the first floor, it’s a rundown looking building that’s situated in one of the less wealthy part of town. There are a lot of criminal activities around here, which means it must be pretty cheap to live here for different reasons than your old place.

>>5912603

At first, you expect to be assaulted by some kind of mind manipulation magic for just being there, but you don’t really feel any different. You can see a vague outline of her body thanks to MPR, but you can’t read her that well through walls, you’ll need to see her in person. You don’t actually know what she looks like, as even the data you scraped had a concerning lack of pictures with their documents, all you could find online were photos of her at a very young age.

After a few deep breaths, you knock.

No answer. You knock a little louder, and you can ‘see’ her stand up from somewhere, and slowly approach the door, so slowly you don’t even hear her get there. Instead of opening the door, she just stands in front of it, her hand hovering over the doorknob. You knock some more, but she doesn’t open , she’s still in front of the door though.

This reminds you of the ‘first’ time you met Etsy, but she at least opened the door back then. You think this one is more shy than paranoia ridden, though. Now, how do you even get her to open the door?

>Tell her you’re a new tenant that want to get to know their neighbor.
>Tell her you were sent by the landlord to check her studio.
>Pretend you’re here to deliver something.
>Casually mention her online username.
>To hell with it, disrupt the lock and open the door yourself.
>Write in

>>5912604
>Tell her that this is a matter of life and death.
It is, technically.

Also a few questions; none of these options go against etiquette right? Is Etsy around, do we have an ear radio or something similar?

>>5912607
Unless specified otherwise, automatically assume that you're on radio with Etsy. The only thing that would be against etiquette here would be harming her (physically) on purpose, as she doesn't have any understanding of her own powers. If she attacked you, you could act in self-defense, and then it'd be allowed.

Breaking into her home wouldn't be considered harm, unless you literally kicked down the door into her face for some reason.

>>5912604
>Tell her you’re a new tenant that want to get to know their neighbor.

>>5912607
Telling her death is just gonna make her think we're an scammer or something.

>>5912604
>Write in
Ask if this is Leah Parker, introduce yourself, then tell her about the game. We satisfied the criteria of informing her, even if she doesn't respond. We have to hope she opens the door, but if not, slip our contact information underneath in case she wants to talk about it later.

>>5912610
Alright thank you QM.

>>5912617
That's fair.

I'll wait a little longer for a vote to come in the lead, if nothing breaks a tie, I'll default to one of the safer sounding votes (which doesn't necessarily mean the best one.)

>>5913015
>>5912607
>>5912679
You could combine these twos. I wouldn't be opposed to that.

>>5912604
>Casually mention her online username.

>>5912604
>Casually mention her online username.
I'll vote for this then.

>>5913015
>>5913017
>>5912607
I'll switch it to this instead, that's not a problem.

>>5913025
>>5913028
I just don't want this dude's option to win.

>>5913017
Alright, I'll mix those two, voting session over.

>>5912604
>Write in
Knock repeteadly as the Sword of Dusk did. I know the voting session is over (sad) but I honestly think it'd be a great course of action. Best case, you get an ally, worst case, a casus belli to get more magic

File: PeakFemalePerformance.png (185 KB, 574x685)

185 KB PNG

>>5913158
>>5913040
>>5913033
>>5913028
>>5913025
>>5913017

You decide that lying about your true intentions might not be the best in the long run, so you first introduce yourself over the door, and ask if Leah Parker is there. You don’t hear an answer, so you keep talking. You tell her that some powerful people are after her, and that this might be a matter of life and death. You also tell her that you can’t say too much outside, and that it might be safer to talk inside, or at least over the phone.

Silence. Etsy asks you over the radio if you feel any different, just in case you’re being mind controlled without realizing it, but you don’t feel a sudden urge to watch some obscure anime, so you don’t think that’s the case.

“...Is this about my sister?” She says over the door.

You tell her that it isn’t, it’s about her. Etsy tells you over the radio that Leah is supposed to be an only child, according to what she found online.

She lets out a heavy sigh, and opens the door. “There’s nothing special about me. You got the wrong person.”

Leah Parker is...not too far off from what you imagined, actually. She’s chubby, but not fat enough to be considered hard to look at. Her eye bags are somehow even larger than that of Etsy, and her hair can best be described as randomly generated by whatever side of the bed she woke up on this morning. She’s also wearing a ‘gamer shirt’, you unfortunately can’t read the text written on it without looking like you’re staring at her chest.

You tell her that she is indeed the person you’re looking for. She stands in front of you in silence for a little bit longer, before gesturing you to come inside with a groan. Her room is not as much of a mess as you expected, it’s honestly not too different from your own house. It’s a one room studio where everything is in one place; the kitchen, the shower, the bed, it’s compact and efficient.

She locks the door behind you. “So you uh...” she looks down at her shirt. “Right, I know what you’re thinking. It’s ironic, not that it’s funny even with the irony, I wouldn’t really wear it outside, you know. I just wear it because it’s comfortable. Actually, I’ll just change- right, no place to change. Would be awkward if I just took off my shirt in front of you. Uh...” She starts waving her hand. “The thing you came here to talk about, say it.”

>>5913180

First, you try to talk to her about her powers. She’s very confused about this, as she hasn’t exactly noticed anything unusual, because she doesn’t go outside much for anything other than groceries. You think it’ll be simpler if you just show her some basic magic. Making some objects move in weird ways is enough for her to at least consider the fact that magic is real. She looks surprised, but not that surprised.

“So...what magic can I do? Fireball or something? Do I have to read some kind of spellbook or...”

You tell her that her magic already started affecting the area, making some of her favorite things become really popular in her district. You ask her if she even noticed it.

“Huh? Well, guess I haven’t...wait, hold on, that show you mentioned...and the game...yeah, I think I gave them back to a rental store not too long ago. So, I just cursed the item into becoming mainstream? Is that what you’re saying?”

You nod, that’s what makes the most sense. You doubt a presumably low level magic user like herself could emit an aura that affects an entire zone without even trying.

Now that she’s a little bit more convinced, you tell her about the game and basic etiquette, and also about the secret agency.

“...Shit. Shit, shit, shit. Fucking feds are after me? What's that shit about god- is this a prank? You’re just fucking with me, aren’t you?” She starts pacing back and forth in her room, unsure of what to do next. “Wait, what if I just ruined a bunch of people’s lives? What if I just get abducted and tortured and experimented and- shit, should I just kill myself? I should…” She turns back to you. “Hey, how do I use my magic anyway, you still haven’t answered.”

You tell her to give you one of her manga to test something. She complies, and gives you some mech manga you’ve never heard of. You don’t open the manga, but you analyze it with MPR, after a few minutes, you manage to come to a conclusion as to how her powers work.

>>5913184

MPR(Leah Park): Low magical potential. Can transfer her feelings towards things or people, and those feelings may end up spreading like a plague if left unchecked. The effect is temporary, but lasts longer depending on the intensity of the feeling.

“Huh, wait, I’m an empath? Reverse empath? Wait, can I make...” She looks at you, and starts to blush despite herself. You feel a slight tingle in your heart, but it’s not strong enough to affect your mind. “Shit! Sorry, did I do something? How do I control it?”

You spend a few hours experimenting, Etsy constantly reminding you that if your heart rate starts going a little too fast she’ll send K.I.S.A to forcefully pull you out. You can’t blame her, if some guy with mind-altering magic started talking to Etsy, you’d also be a little jumpy. Thankfully, it never comes to this, and Leah gets better at stopping her magic from accidentally triggering. She even learns how to fix things affected by her power.

Even so, you can read her emotions and thoughts rather easily now, since her feelings are part of her magic, it’s like having access to your old body read ability. Only works on her, though.

“That’s cool and all, but I can’t exactly fight with this, can I? And I can’t control which feelings I throw at them. What do I even do if a glowie shows up? What am I supposed to do in general?”

You tell her picking a title for starter would be nice, as it is one of the main rules of etiquette.

“Uh...I don’t know, ‘shared suffering’ is a little edgy, and I can also share positive emotions… ‘Spreading Feelings’? Wait, no, I got it, ‘Infectious Personality’, it’s a pun, sort of? I think it sounds cool.”

Sure, whatever sounds nice to her. Now comes the hard part: where is she supposed to go? Staying in her lonely studio just makes her an easy target for the agents, so you’ll have to decide what to do with her.

>Just keep her inside your house for the time being.
>Leave her there to figure things out herself.
>Tell Etsy to install some basic security in Leah’s studio. (costs 50K to install)
>Prepare an ambush for the expected agent, this might require spending a few nights at her place, which you doubt Etsy would like.

>>5913185
Hmm, tough situation. Now normally I'd like to ambush that glowie, but are we sure we can do that? We don't have enough money for another visit to the hospital. And we're not sure if the feddies know about their information being compromised. For all we know, they might not send someone at all.

>>5913180
>>5913184
>>5913185
Phewwwww...... third-best girl?

>Prepare an ambush for the expected agent, this might require spending a few nights at her place, which you doubt Etsy would like.
Should be easy, they glow in the dark. We can also practice magic with Leah, to have her send us feelings of calmness, courage, and confidence during the fight.

>>5913190
It might be fine, though Etsy's probably gonna get even worse. She's already got a poor self esteem, now we're spending a bunch of days over with a girl that literally irradiates her feelings?

>>5913196
Noooooo..... She'll be fiiinnnneeeee.........

>>5913185
I really don't want to compromize Etsy's mental well-being, and as keeping her home or ambushing the glowie would cause that, I'd say
>Tell Etsy to install some basic security in Leah’s studio
We could also leave her to her own devices, especially given that she kinda sucks, but this option feels safer. Low investment, low returns most likely.

>>5913214
That would cost a lot of money, and we're not exactly flush with cash. At the same time, they're probably not going to send anyone high-tier to capture her given she's got no skills, and this time we can use K.I.S.A. I would really like the option to gank a magical fed so we can get some powers. We're already on their hit list, after all. I'd really like to stage an ambush, but you're right that i don't want Etsy to feel like shit.


You think the feds will notice if we do a switcharoo and send leah to go crash with etsy while *we* stay here? They might notice if she isn't around anymore, but unless we can think of a way to stay here without making etsy feel even worse, i don't see any other way.

>>5913185
>Tell Etsy to install some basic security in Leah’s studio
Fuck it. Let's do it.

>>5913185
>Tell Etsy to install some basic security in Leah’s studio. (costs 50K to install)

>>5913243
They're glowies. They'll find out, especially if she does something dumb like bringing her cellphone.

>>5913265
>They'll find out, especially if she does something dumb like bringing her cellphone.
Fair point, but they also haven't swatted us while we were on our way here or anything.

And like i said, i'd like to ambush a glowie.

>>5913214
>>5913258
>>5913265
I implore you to reconsider. Doing this will take us into the red, we won't have enough money to cover our own expenses, and is a band-aid at best, only a temporary measure.

If you're dead set on this, do a write-in to move her to Esty's old apartment and have her pay us cash each month to cover it.

>>5913272
Our old apartment would be even less safe, right now she's a low-priority target. The apartment is where they send people with potential.

>>5913272
Wait are we allowed to even do that? Does Etsy still own her old place?

>>5913274
We could just leave her to sort things out while we install some cheap bugs or cameras around the area.

>>5913279
Yeah, but that's not gonna stop the glowies. That's the real issue.

Like i said, ideally we'd stay there. The question is how to do that without making Etsy feel even worse. Maybe giving her some extra special treatment before we leave might get her to stay calm for the while? Though that might just make her even worse and think we did it to not be suspicious.

>>5913282
Maybe we could make a robot (cheaper version of KISA?) stay here with Leah? Once we have the money for it I mean.

>>5913290
We don't really have time for that. We need to think of what to do now.

>>5913293
How about this:
>Install cheap security cameras and recording bugs, maybe even give her a distress button or something to contact us.
>Later, when we have the cash, give her a smaller (and less costly) version of KISA.
This isn't a vote change (yet) I'm just bouncing off some ideas.

>>5913303
Again, the issue is the glowies. Even with a distress button, by the time we get there it'll be too late.

What we need to solve, i reckon, is a way to avoid Etsy going into a depressive state again because she thinks we're going to replace her with fatty over there. And we can't just come and say 'oh youre the one i like' because she's said nothing.

>>5913185
>Prepare an ambush for the expected agent, this might require spending a few nights at her place, which you doubt Etsy would like.

>>5913305
Hmmmm, okay. Honestly, i think the best we're gonna get is
- Give her some extra affection before we leave to 'hold us out while we have to stay away for her for a while'
- Install some wiretaps here like anon suggested under the idea of 'keeping her safe' and allowing Etsy to basically warn us if a Glowie is sneaking in. Of course, she'll use it to spy on us, but that's the idea.

Just wanna say, but I don't think write-in is an option, here, is it?

>>5913316
Not a bad plan, way better than just staying and hoping for the best. If this gets more traction I'll support it. But otherwise I'll keep my original vote.
Also we should tell Leah to stop trying to seduce us unless she wants to get ganked by the government.

>>5913321
If it isn't I'm keeping my original vote.

>>5913322
>Also we should tell Leah to stop trying to seduce us
This includes mind control or subconscious influence. I feel like it shouldn't need to be said but she's a neet with no social skills.

>>5913321
It usually is, i think anon just forgot. Not to mention this is basically just an edited version of that one vote.

>Also we should tell Leah to stop trying to seduce us unless she wants to get ganked by the government.
I wouldn't say she's trying, she tried to use her power once and it didn't do much. But we should probably tell her to not use her powers at us.

>>5913324
>But we should probably tell her to not use her powers at us.
Yeah that was basically what I was trying to say kek

>>5913274
Quick reminder that magic potential isn't static. Weaver started with very low magical potential and got raised up to medium after a few self read. Theorically Leah could improve her own magic potential in a way unique to her magic even without killing, but you don't know enough just yet to figure out how it works for her specifically.

Most people actually start off with rather low magical potential, although it's easier for some people to raise it, and of course it becomes harder and harder to raise it without killing the higher you go. It's better to see "potential' as "how much can you actually do with your current magic" rather than "potential growth."

Also no, you no longer own your old apartment, and it wouldn't be exactly a great idea for her to be here considering it's, you know, literally in a place the feds own. Making another K.I.S.A, even a cheap one, would be expensive and worst of all, take at least a month (by which time it'll probably be too late.)

>>5913321
Oh yeah write in are allowed, unless I specifically mention otherwise, just assume it's an option.

>>5913185
I'm voting for
>Prepare an ambush for the expected agent, this might require spending a few nights at her place, which you doubt Etsy would like.

But with >>5913316 as specific additions

>>5913316
>>5913185
Ok sure I'll back this.

>>5913324
>>5913325
Telling her not to be so autistic might be a funny scene. And probably something Etsy will appreciate.

>>5913180
slamping material with pawg potential
>>5913185
>Tell Etsy to install some basic security in Leah’s studio. (costs 50K to install)

That's a lot of vote/discussion so hopefully I tallied votes properly:

Ambush 3
wiretape + affection before leaving 3 (basically a free action so consider it an add on.)
basic security 3

That was a lot of votes and discussion, so it’s possible I miscounted somewhere, so correct me if I'm wrong. I'm going to sleep, so expect like 12 more hours to vote or something.

If it's still a tie by then, I'll probably default to ambush since I think the wiretapes vote inherently implies an ambush with it, which would make it the winner.

>>5913418
The wiretape and affection is an addon to the ambush.

>>5913421
Like, specifically, the idea was to pamper Etsy a little before we went to stay with leah for a while so she won't go depressive because her boyfriend is crashing with a girl he just met, even if we're not actually doing anything.

>>5913421
Wait are you voting for
>- Give her some extra affection before we leave to 'hold us out while we have to stay away for her for a while'
>- Install some wiretaps here like anon suggested under the idea of 'keeping her safe' and allowing Etsy to basically warn us if a Glowie is sneaking in. Of course, she'll use it to spy on us, but that's the idea.
>(And maybe tell Leah to stop trying to subconsciously influence us)
or
>Prepare an ambush for the expected agent, this might require spending a few nights at her place, which you doubt Etsy would like.
Since you're saying it like it's just the same vote.

>>5913185
>- Give her some extra affection before we leave to 'hold us out while we have to stay away for her for a while'
>- Install some wiretaps here like anon suggested under the idea of 'keeping her safe' and allowing Etsy to basically warn us if a Glowie is sneaking in. Of course, she'll use it to spy on us, but that's the idea.
>(And maybe tell Leah to stop trying to subconsciously influence us)
Wiretapping time.

>>5913451
The giving out affection is for Etsy and not Leah obviously.

>>5913453
Yeah I think that's what +ypkwEEo was going for.

>>5913450
I'm voting for all those. The first three are just adding onto the third. That's how you make an ambush. Preparation.

How exactly is ambushing the feds going to help us? It's not like they're going to magically disappear if we kill a few of them. Ironically I think installing security is a more permanent measure that'll help Leah.
Besides making Etsy feel bad just doesn't seem worth it for the sake of what amounts to an objectively inferior type of neet. We could just tell Leah to move out or something, not necessarily with us and Etsy.

>>5913835
>How exactly is ambushing the feds going to help us?
More magic? Also the point is that we don't have the money for security measures for now. She can go somewhere else *after* this

(I won’t reply to votes to make this page fit.)

You decide to set up an ambush for the agent that you expect to show up a month from now.

Problem is Etsy is obviously not a huge fan of that idea, spending some days away from you is fine, spending some nights in the same room as another girl is really pushing it, and spending some nights with a girl that can straight up affect how you feel is raising so many alarm bells she’s on the verge of killing Leah herself to make sure nothing happens.

“I just- I just don’t know how you can think this is a good idea. We can just- uhm maybe… I don’t know I- I trust you usually but, are you sure you’re not doing this because…?” She makes a circle motion at the side of her head.

You tell her that if she believes Leah is starting to affect you too badly, then you give her permission to kill Leah with K.I.S.A

“H-huh? Wait, this is a little much- I wouldn’t uhm, go that far...” She stutters, probably thinking about how she was, indeed, about to go that far.

You say that you trust her judgment. It would bother you if she killed Leah out of nowhere, but that as long as she can justify her reasoning as to why she did it, then you’d understand. You would be disappointed in her if she did it on a whim, however.
This is about trust, the most important thing in a relationship. If she trusts you on the fact that an ambush is the right decision, then you trust her on who to kill to protect you.
It might seem weird to enable her like this, but you hope that potential disappointment is enough of a deterrent for her to not go too far.

She stares at you, her face a mix of guilt and happiness. She puts her hand on your shoulder, and pulls you closer until your forehead bump into each other. “I’m sorry, I know I’m a lot. I just...I just don’t know what I’d do if you left… I know it’s unhealthy to put so much of my worth behind someone else but-”

You interrupt her with a kiss, and her grip on your shoulder gets tighter. For a moment, neither of you get any further than this, and when your lips finally part, she almost shoves back her tongue down your mouth. You get pushed down, and any semblance of composure you two may have had crumbles.

“...You’ll tell me when I go too far, and I’ll tell you when you do, okay?” She says as she almost rips of your shirt. You nod, and she smiles. “F-for that week! You’ll do whatever I want! A-anything? Okay!” You nod again. “W-whenever I want?” Again, you nod, albeit a little bit more uncertainly this time. “No take backs!”

The following week made you realize how severely you underestimated her sex drive. She would sometimes grope you as you were cooking, or suddenly jump you as you were re-reading the apartment complex files. Although you’d be lying if you said you didn’t enjoy it, you’re also kind of glad this was a one week thing, as by the end of it, it feels like you ran a god-damn marathon. At least you can tell that Etsy is a lot less anxious about the ambush plan than before.

>>5913860
Etsy sets up some basic cheap security in Leah’s studio, a few cameras and audio recorders here and there. Leah was also forced to use a burner phone, it didn’t bother her that much since she does most stuff on her computer anyway.

You end up staying a few days over at Leah’s place, and while it’s awkward, she doesn’t exactly try anything weird on you, especially after learning that you were already taken. And you’ve also been so severely drained last week that you doubt Leah could turn you on even if she blasted you with her powers at full force.

You do end up playing a few games with Leah, and you start to get a better understanding as to how the ‘supernatural marketing’ incident happened. Playing something with her, she’s passionate about also transfers that passion to you, and you notice all the small details and hidden themes and depth of the game you wouldn’t have otherwise. It makes you genuinely excited to talk about a game you probably wouldn’t have cared about otherwise, and Leah also gets excited to talk about something she likes with someone, so it’s like an endless feedback loop of getting more and more excited as you both get deeper and deeper into the conversation.

You’re snapped back to reality when you hear Etsy clear her throat over the radio. You end up calling out Leah over her misuse of power, and that you’re not going to bother helping her if she keeps affecting you ‘on accident’ like this. She says she didn’t expect it to go this out of control, and apologize, you can tell that she isn’t lying thanks to your pseudo body read. Still, the fact that this can happen on accident makes you wonder how powerful the effect would become if she did it on purpose, and that’s at a low potential too. She could probably make a lot of money that way too…


Your thoughts get interrupted by Etsy telling you that someone is standing in front of the door. It’s a woman in a casual attire, and when described to Leah, she says that she doesn’t know anyone that looks like this.

The woman stands in front of the door a little longer, occasionally looking at her wristwatch. She puts her hand over the door, and you can feel magic surround the entire studio. The radio signal you have with Etsy cuts off, and Leah mentions her internet connection cut off too.

>>5913861

The magical effect is so powerful you can figure out what it is from just looking at it. It’s like a wall that separates you from the outside world, nothing can leave or enter this place as long as it’s up. Nothing except…

You see a leg phase through the door, Leah hides in one corner, and you prepare yourself for the ambush. If this power works the way you think it does, you’ll need to take her down before she gets the time to flee, since you’re pretty sure nothing stops her from phasing out the door the moment she finds herself in danger.

Most magic have keywords, yours is pattern, Sawyer is opportunity, and this woman’s keyword is ‘separation’. You can’t figure out the rest of her powers from just that, but you can make educated guesses.

(This time, I’ll separate the fight into two parts, one before MPR gives you more info and one after it does. Of course, the fight may end early if she flees, or you kill her fast enough.)

Normally, there is a defensive and offensive option, but as you have the jump on her and know very little about what she can do, you only get to choose how to jump her.
>Shoot her with devil’s gamble bullets the moment she steps out the door.
>Shoot her with invisible bullets, you don’t have the time to disrupt them into weird trajectories however.
>Grab her with your mechanical arm the moment she steps out of the door. If she can’t move, she’s toast.
>Use a speed zone to slow down her clothing, that might impair her enough for her to become an easy target.
>Write in

>>5913863
Grabbing her is a dumb idea. And if she can go through walls, slowing down her clothes will just make her flee, no?
>Shoot her with invisible bullets, you don’t have the time to disrupt them into weird trajectories however.
I am not certain she expects this. We should also get K.I.S.A. to reposition itself to somewhere it can intercept the glowie if it tries to escape.

>>5913863
>Write in
Disrupt her power as she is phasing through the door, cutting her in half as she solidifies her body to reality.

Works on Kurt and Pryde, it'll work on her too. Best case, she gets "stuck" on the door and we can still kill her as she is freaking out.
Worst case, we are stuck with her in this dimension even after she dies.

>>5913976
Can we actually disrupt her power, though?

>>5913987
I didn't put in as an option since your disruption is limited to small things. It worked on the last agent because his "wave spike" was small (and physical) enough to be disrupted, but if the 'spell' it uses is too large, it becomes an issue. A human passing through a door is too large to be targeted too, although you *could* try to target a specific limb, you know too little about her magic to see if it would actually sever her limb mid-transit, so it's a gamble.

>>5913993
Just use it on her neck or top half of her head.
Instakill.

>>5913993
Okay, question, where exactly is K.I.S.A.? Would KISA be able to shoot her?

My idea was to disrupt a limb to get her stuck while also telling KISA to light her up with Devil's Gamble bullets. I mean just light up the entire goddamn door.

>>5914013
I probably should've specified K.I.S.A is actually in a truck nearby (It was too big to get past Leah's door and forcing it through the window would've raised a lot of attention.) You've lost communication with Etsy, which means you'll have to trust her to send K.I.S.A to help.

Assuming she sent K.I.S.A the moment she lost communication, it should start ramming the wall in about 20 seconds. Last time it took much longer to show up because it actually had to kill another high level magic user on the way there. (I somehow forgot to confirm this, but it was heavily implied considering it was covered in blood and in shambles.)

K.I.S.A could probably tear a literal hole through the magic with enough ramming and bullets since it's anti-magic without too much trouble.

>>5914060
In that case, we want to keep her in place. I'm keeping my vote to shoot her with invisibullets

>>5913863
>>Shoot her with devil’s gamble bullets the moment she steps out the door.

>>5913860
>(I won’t reply to votes to make this page fit.)
you could make a post with just the votes before this one, idea for another time
>>5913863
>Shoot her with devil’s gamble bullets the moment she steps out the door.
magic hempering ahoy
>>5914060
>Last time it took much longer to show up because it actually had to kill another high level magic user on the way there. (I somehow forgot to confirm this, but it was heavily implied considering it was covered in blood and in shambles.)
thought as much

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>>5914090
>>5914084
>>5913866

The moment she steps into view, you shoot her with devil’s gamble bullets. The woman yelps, and a barrier suddenly appears between her and the bullet – however, the barrier only makes the bullet ricochet straight into her legs instead of her head.

She screams, betraying the fact she really didn’t expect you to be here. “WHAT THE FUCK-”

You shoot more bullets at her, and she starts running around the room like crazy until she finds cover behind some bookshelf. You’re surprised she can run that well considering you just shot her leg, her clothing looks pretty normal, but there’s a good chance it’s reinforced to protect against bullets. Her going behind cover gives you time to prepare some invisible bullets. You shoot and curve the bullets, and it hits a barrier she puts around her head. If she has any offensive abilities, then you’re going to make sure she doesn’t have the time to use them.

You’re pretty sure she needs some time before phasing through her own walls too, as you haven’t seen her attempt to do that just yet, even though she’s clearly fearing for her life.

“WAIT, I’M SORRY! I YIELD! JUST DON’T KILL ME! I’LL- I’LL SAY ANYTHING!”

Wow, what a wimp. You suppose Leah would’ve been an easy target if not for you, though, but the difference between the agent you fought before and her is staggering. The weird part is that she’s also a high potential magic user, the same level as the last agent. Maybe she’s never been trained for actual combat scenarios.

You hear something burst through the door, breaking parts of the wall around it as K.I.S.A scuttle into view. The woman screams again, you’d be terrified if you were in her place too, you suppose.

K.I.S.A points its gun towards her, and only holds back because she’s putting her hands up in surrender. It’s probably waiting for you to do the finishing blow to make sure you get all her magic. Considering the ruckus K.I.S.A probably made to go there, if you have to make a choice, it’s better to do it fast.

MPR(Agent woman?): Can separate a certain zone that nothing can escape, not even the user. It is however still possible to break into
>Kill her, it’s basically free magic and you’re sure she’d kill you if you had the chance.
>Knock her out and bring her back to your house, you can interrogate her for all she’s worth.
>Let her go. The worst choice in terms of reward, but you do feel kind of bad for her.
>Write in.

>>5914182
Wait I messed up the MPR part somehow.


MPR(Agent woman?): Can separate a certain zone that nothing can escape, not even the user. It is however still possible to break into from the outside with the right magic. Can separate her own body part and reconnect to them from afar. Can also separate magic from people or things temporarily, although this requires a lot of focus.

>>5914186
Oh also, forgot to mention that she can phase through her inescapable zone if it's to enter it, but she can't do that to exit it.

>>5914182
>Write in
Smells like a low hanging fruit, but I'll bite (I'm easy).
I say interrogate her here, then knock her unconscious if she either tries something funny or refuses to answer. If she answers it all, say something along the lines of "fair, but tell your bosses not to interfere from now on, or their asses is grass" and let her go. Not a fan of killling for killing

>>5914182
Mhmmm....on one hand, magic. On the other, capturing an glowie would be interesting.

Issue is, if we capture her to interrogate, what do we do after? Just let her leave? She'll get interrogated by the glories herself, and I doubt she even knows anything in the first place.

>>5914182
>>Knock her out and bring her back to your house, you can interrogate her for all she’s worth.
We can kill her later I guess. My biggest fear is that killing her in a certain way would be stretching etiquette.

>>5914204
You could always do the somewhat cruel thing of killing her after interrogation, Etsy wouldn't mind, but Weaver would feel a little icky about it. With some devil's gamble cuff, she really wouldn't be able to flee by herself. (Reminder that when someone runs out of magic they just get really apathetic and depressed, but it wouldn't kill her.)

I almost wish the speed zone would've been picked because the result would've been really funny. But it made sense that no one did when better options were available.

>>5914182
>Knock her out and bring her back to your house, you can interrogate her for all she’s worth.
>>5914191
wait, so she'd have to wait for it to wear off ? zam, not so OP.
>>5914222
I mean, the zone would give away something was off but not that there was someone else here. also funny how ?

>>5914271
Turns out, slowing down her clothes would have made it very hard for her to move, and her only viable option would've been separating from her clothes or just be the easiest target in existence. She was screwed either way because without her clothes she doesn't have much protecting her.

>>5914281
zam, pin up was on the menu kek

>>5914313
Not like we would be able to enjoy it after etsy turned weaver into a husk

>>5914281
Top kek, should've went for that one, but no biggie, we'll have other changes

>>5914182
>Knock her out and bring her back to your house, you can interrogate her for all she’s worth.
KISA just slam a metal limb into her.

>>5914182
>Knock her out and bring her back to your house, you can interrogate her for all she’s worth.

>>5914186
Hmmm.... there's a chance she probably would have escaped unharmed.

>>5914200
I'll support this write-in, but people are probably gonna start calling the police and she might escape.

>>5914222
Missed opportunities.

>>5914182
>Knock her out and bring her back to your house, you can interrogate her for all she’s worth.

>>5914714
>>5914697
>>5914271
>>5914215
>>5914200

You’ve got a very special opportunity here, to catch an agent alive means getting insider info they’re unlikely to leave on a computer. You order K.I.S.A to knock the woman out so you can bring her home for questioning, and it scuttles closer to her. You can hear Etsy’s voice come from K.I.S.A “Your arm, please.”

The woman is shaking in fear, but presents her arm anyway. K.I.S.A pulls out a needle from its leg before prickling her wrist. She falls asleep only a few seconds later.

“S-so, I guess I can allow another woman in the house, if it’s for interrogation but, uhm...”

But?

“O-One more week?” She asks hesitantly.

You sigh. One more week, you can do this, but you’ll have to put your foot down after that. You wonder if that’s her way of keeping your libido in check to make absolutely sure you won’t try anything with anyone else. You suppose it’s better than her keeping a gun to your head whenever you try talking to another woman.

Leah pops back out of the closet she was hiding in. “Is it ov- WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY DOOR!?” She points at K.I.S.A, and then the broken door frame. She accidentally makes you really pissed off too, and you snap back at her, telling her to shut the hell up and help stuff the body into a box. She begrudgingly helps you, even if she swears a lot in the process. It’s a shoddy job, but turns out K.I.S.A has a lot of tools, including rope and tape to help speed up the job. Then it proceeds to take the box and scuttle at top speed towards the truck.

You're about to leave too, until you notice a tall person with a mask standing in the room with you. You didn’t even see or hear them come in, when did they…?

Leah waves to them, “Uh, hi sis. They’re friends, but I gotta tell you about all the messed up stuff going on! Turns out I-”

The masked woman pulls Leah into a hug, pats her back twice, and lets go of her. She then quietly leaves, but not before throwing a contact card at your feet.

The card has her phone number, and most importantly, her title.
‘Demon of the Backstreet. Favor Coupon. One time use. Can be used for training, protection, target elimination, and information. Cannot be used for unethical things.’

Leah rolls her eyes. “Urgh, why is she like this. It’s just like her to only show up when everything's already taken care of. Like, sometimes, I get weirdos asking about her at my door- I don’t know what the fuck she does! She doesn’t even speak to me! We might as well not know each other!”

>>5915277
Huh, seems saving Leah did come up with extra rewards. You decide that maybe keeping Leah extra safe a little longer might be worth the trouble, so you ask Etsy if you can keep her in your house for a while as you figure what to do with her. Etsy’s not happy with it, but she says she can live in the shed in the garden, assuring her it’s just as well protected as the rest of the house.
Leah isn’t exactly happy living in what is basically a glorified doghouse, but the alternative is staying in her crumbling studio, so she still complies.

The abduction did go relatively smoothly, there are a few rumors about a weird spider thing crawling around the district, but the rumors have stayed rumors as no one has caught footage of the incident. It’s very likely the agency forced a few people to keep quiet about this, which does make things easier for you.

The agent you captured, who you learned is named Sarah, was rather easy to interrogate. Turns out, running out of magic makes them depressed enough that they’ll answer basically anything, not because they’re afraid of what will happen if they don’t, but because they feel like it doesn’t matter if they do.
It helps that she was already pretty weak willed to begin with.

“Yeah so...” Sarah leans back and forth on the chair she’s tied to, looking at the ceiling with blank eyes. “I was awakened when I started...disassociating real hard. I think that’s the word. Then somehow a bunch of guys in suits came into my room and told me if I wanted to become like some kind of superhero that stopped evil stuff from killing innocents or...something.” She chuckles to herself. “It wasn’t… ah...”

You snap your fingers in front of her face to get her attention again. You can see tears welling up in her eyes, that’s clearly a touchy subject, but you really want to get as much info as you can.

“I- so, you know your magic can get stronger without killing, but it requires intense...things, depending on the person. Mine is dissasociating, but in order to reach my ‘high’ potential, I had to separate myself from my soul, I had to push it further and further away from me until something ‘clicked’. It felt...empty, I was still in my body, but it felt like I was slowly becoming a caricature of myself. And I was forced to do this for days! I- I know a girl, they tortured her parents in front of her just to...” A few tears rolls down her cheek, but drying her tears shows too much weakness from you for what is supposed to be an interrogation.

You learn a lot from this, it explains how someone as inexperienced as her reached high magic potential, they’re basically put through a torture program just to reach that level. You figure you could reach a high level of magic potential without killing if they did something horrible to Etsy, but you’re trying to get stronger to protect her, that’s putting the cart before the horse.

>>5915278
You also learn that Leah was in fact supposed to be an easy target, all Sarah had to do was separate the room, disassociate enough that she wouldn’t be affected by Leah’s emotional attacks, and kidnap her into the agency’s ranks. Sarah suspects her emotional stuff would’ve probably been used for propaganda or a new torture method to unlock other agent’s potential.

She says she usually gets a message as to where she’s supposed to drop her target later, and that she was never made aware of any headquarters. Seems agents tend to live in their own flat among regular people.

You ask her why she even worked for them when she seems to hold such a negative opinion of them.

“What else was I supposed to do? They can just torture me until I comply, I’ve got nowhere to hide. I don’t even know what they’d do to me if you let me go. I’m dead no matter what happens, I wish I could go back to being a normal person. ”

Well, this sucks. You wish she was unabashedly evil, but you’re not sure what you would’ve done if you were in her place, either. Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to sleep safely with a super expensive security system like the one you have, and her only two options were living on the run or submitting to the agency.

You could kill her, considering her situation, this might even be a mercy and would avoid any loose ends. You could also use her as a bargaining chip, but you’re not sure how valuable she even is to the agency. A risky thing you can do is make Leah and Sarah live together, and install a basic security system in their place to make sure they stay safe while you figure something out. That’s assuming Sarah won’t betray you the first chance she gets, she feels like the type of person to follow whoever will keep her safer, and right now, that would be the agency.

The ideal solution would be to keep her longer in the basement, but there’s no way you can convince Etsy of doing something like that.

As you ponder your options, you feel a strong force hit your ass, seems Etsy is in a good mood today.
“Hey! Guess who got a super good deal on her design today!”

Oh, right. The design. You almost forgot about that.

“I only got 600K for it, D.I.Y is still low on money. But! Guess what? They gave us our own factory! It’s the one that got raided, and, uhm, it’s apparently in a dangerous area, but we can use it to make a bunch of stuff! We should save like...oh, I don’t know, half on basically everything? It’ll cost a little to keep a security system running on the factory, but not that much!”

God dammit, that is a good deal. You might even be able to take on bigger projects with your own factory, it kind of sucks it’s situated in a dangerous area, but if Etsy is good at anything, it’s security.
You consider what to do next as Etsy excitedly spins you around in her arms, giggling like an idiot.

>>5915281

Rumor update:

-The corpse of a massive bug has been found by a bystander and the story was all over the news. Scientists assure them that this was just an art project using organic material, and not an actual living thing. The fact even the government cannot fully hide the insect’s presence worries you.

-The hotel that contains Mammona’s cult has been converted into an apartment complex, the rent is pretty low compared to the quality of the flats. Seems Mammona learned a thing or two from the agency.

-The effect of supernatural marketing has died down, although a few hardcore fans are still present, most people only talk about the piece of media they were obsessed with as a ‘guilty pleasure’.

---

The cost of rent has decreased dramatically. Monthly costs are now 120K (100K for security cost of the house, 20K for the security cost of the factory. Larger projects are now possible.)

875K (original funds + design deal)
-
120K (Monthly costs)
=
755K remaining.

---

What to do with Sarah?
>Kill her, it’s for the best, and you need the magical energy.
>Spare her, she could prove a useful ally.
>Use her as a bargaining chip against the agency.
>Write in

Where to send Leah (and Sarah, if you decide to spare her.)
>Send her back to her flat, install some basic security, she’ll be fine. (25K + 1K monthly)
>Send her back to her flat without any security, she can figure things out herself.
>Let her live in the factory, it already has security and plenty of space for living quarters.
>Write in

>>5915283
>Spare her, she could prove a useful ally.
>Let her live in the factory, it already has security and plenty of space for living quarters.
Bit divided on what to do with Sarah as the agency seems utterly soul-crushing. Maybe get Sawyer to identify a good future for her?

>>5915287
>Maybe get Sawyer to identify a good future for her?
That would just make it NOT happen.

I honestly don't know what to do with Sarah, really. Killing her seems mean. But at the same time, she might end up betraying us.

>>5915283
More hands!
>Spare her, she could prove a useful ally.
>Let her live in the factory, it already has security and plenty of space for living quarters.
I'd say a simple deal for the both of them: work for us and you get a bed and relative security as long as you don't provoke something that's got bigger teeth than we do. That way, we get hands when needed, and... meat for the machine in the worst cases. And they can help push back criminal activity near the factory.
>>5915287
>Maybe get Sawyer to identify a good future for her?
Won't work. The second she does, that future's up in smoke.

Something I'm wondering is whether we could use Sarah's power to further our own, i.e. have her separate us from oursrelves so we can read ourselves without needing a mirror. Might be interesting. Didn't put this as write-in because we're not discussing actions yet, but we could push that as a deal for Sarah against her life & a measure of safety.

>>5915283
>Spare her, she could prove a useful ally.
>Let her live in the factory, it already has security and plenty of space for living quarters.
This should be a temporary measure until we can find a proper place for them. I'm very tempted to just send her back to her flat with security.
Also good to see Etsy got her project done. Makes me wonder if installing security for Leah really would've gotten us in the red (I'm leaning towards no).

>>5915287
>Talking to Sawyer about it
Yeah no lmao. She already got rid of our best future, don't want to ruin these other two's one's for no good reason.

>>5915326
That does sound interesting, but first thing's first we should find a way to gain more money. We need some sort of project that'll give us enough of a monthly income to remain stable with our house, maybe some sort of patent or invention with royalties.

>>5915283
>Rent
I thought we bought the house outright?

>Spare her, she could prove a useful ally.
>Let her live in the factory, it already has security and plenty of space for living quarters.

Harem time.Joke. Or am I?

First step, cleaning up the area around the factory.

>>5915443
>I thought we bought the house outright?
The 100k is for security costs, i think. I don't know what exactly is costing 100k per month, but i imagine it must be what's keeping the glowies from swatting us.

>>5915443
>spoiler
lol no. Harems turn into a shitfest.

>>5915283
>>5915434
After some thought I'm changing my vote to
>Spare her, she could prove a useful ally.
>Send her back to her flat, install some basic security, she’ll be fine. (25K + 1K monthly)

>>5915451
i have to agree though this quest is definitely rich in good waifus

>>5915453
>spoiler
That it is.
I wonder if we'll ever get a bro someday, or at least some sort of male friend. I feel like it's unlikely since I think the QM has said that this quest is based on VNs but turned up to 11.

>>5915450
Yup, it's the insane security costs. Your house is essentially better protected than a military base, and tears to shred any would be intruder. A huge part of the cost is electricity, but also maintenance and general tech costs for Etsy's experiments. While you could convince Etsy to spend less, her stress would ramp up the less defended the house is, so not recommended.

>>5915326
You actually need both to read yourself and have high emotional turmoil to "level up". The level of emotion needs to get more intense for each tier, obviously. Unfortunately, it's not something you can really trigger on purpose, if only you knew someone who could help with your emotions...but alas, no such person exist.

>>5915443
There was only one route in my mind that would allow a harem, and it would have required siding with the most morally dubious character you know of. I would unironically consider it a bad ending considering the type of person you'd need to become to make it happen. I'd feel kind of dirty writing it, to be honest.

>>5915475
>I'd feel kind of dirty writing it, to be honest.
Harem routes, in my opinion, are nearly always trash. They're just generic and dumb. I do think it'd be possible to write a nice route with two waifus (only two) since at that point you only have three characters to focus on. Of course, that wouldn't really apply here.

>>5915475
>A huge part of the cost is electricity,
Called it

> if only you knew someone who could help with your emotions...but alas, no such person exist.
kek

Nice. I don't want to get clean, I want to get filthy.

>>5915479
So it's not the act itself, but the amount. To each their own.

>>5915488
no, it's more that 'harem' routes are just bland. you get all the girls because wow you're so cool. the girls obviously can't get as much development. we wouldn't be able to get stuff like our power couple relationship with etsy.

If it were only limited to like, let's say, two girls and no more, however, it could be actually written enough, and you could explain why such a relationship wouldn't immediately fall apart. which of course, takes certain types of characters, none of which exist in this quest. Etsy definitely ain't it.

>>5915497
>Etsy definitely ain't it.
I doubt any of the girls would want to be part of a harem, unless we socially manipulate/groom/mind control them.
Well all of them except for (maybe) Mona. And we'd become her bitch if we tried to get with her or asked for her help with our curse in the beginning.

>>5915504
again, harems are shit. the last time i saw a good written relationship with more than one woman it was in that pathfinder RPG where you get to marry two female twins.

>>5915497
Harems is synonymous with polygamy, meaning more than one partner. Trying to change the meaning to suit your own world view is disingenuous to alleviate cognitive dissonance. I enjoy harems because, yes, having a bunch of different women you like being into you is a nice fantasy. Not to broach the subject more than necessary, but all women are capable of being part of a harem, by the simple fact that they are capable of being part of a harem. Whether they join or not is a different matter.

>>5915523
>Harems is synonymous with polygamy, meaning more than one partner
No, that would mean 'many partners'. Monogamy is one. Bigamy is two.

>>5915525
Which is why I used the adjective synonymous.

>>5915475
Could we buy/build a generator? Heck, maybe we could make enough power to sell back to the city!

File: Howdoyoudrawmuscles.png (60 KB, 486x789)

60 KB PNG

>>5915533
You could pester Etsy to make one, although you'd probably need to sell the energy to Z.E.U.S to make money, (you literally cannot compete with them, don't even try.) But doing so would probably make D.I.Y annoyed, even if your exclusivity contract only applies to your designs and not things like energy. I'll probably make a list of what you can buy/build later.

If I'm not mistaken, the winning vote is letting sarah live and putting her in the factory, so I'll start writing that.

(Also, I just want to blame a certain someone for putting the idea of the D.I.Y rep as absolutely stacked in my head because it hasn't left my fucking mind till then.)

>>5915560
You're welcome.

>>5915287
>+1

>>5915560
>(Also, I just want to blame a certain someone for putting the idea of the D.I.Y rep as absolutely stacked in my head because it hasn't left my fucking mind till then.)
wait, someone suggested it and that why you made her that way ? kek

>>5915475
>You actually need both to read yourself and have high emotional turmoil to "level up". The level of emotion needs to get more intense for each tier, obviously. Unfortunately, it's not something you can really trigger on purpose, if only you knew someone who could help with your emotions...but alas, no such person exist.
Man, this shit is harder than it looks.
>>5915560
I want DIMommy to lift me and work me like she does her ingots.

>>5915599
>>5915451
>>5915443
>>5915434
>>5915326
>>5915287

As Etsy spins you around, you ask her how she would feel about keeping Sarah and Leah in the factory for now.

“Huh? Uhm, I guess they’d be safer in the factory? But why should I let the agent girl in? She’s with them. You didn’t...warm up to her, did you?” She narrows her eyes at you.

You’re pretty sure she intently watched the footage of your interrogation, so she knows you didn’t do anything weird. Is she really still jealous of-

“I don’t trust her, but, uhm, you know, maybe if you gave me one more week...”

Honestly, you aren’t sure what you expected.

“H-hey, what’s that look? Okay, uhm...5 days? 3 days? P-please?” She looks at you with puppy eyes. You’ll die, you’ll actually die if you refuse her right now. This woman will be the end of you.

Fine, 3 days. You feel like you need to set some boundaries, since she might be getting a little too high off the feeling of control she has over you. It’s fine to let her have her fun when she’s feeling really down or does something for you, but not to the point she starts to think she can get away with whatever she wants. Besides, she did ask you to tell her when she went too far, so you’re sure she understands.

You bring the two girls in the factory, the place is a mess, but it’s functional. A lot of the machines are broken, but Etsy says it shouldn’t take that long to fix them. Leah and Sarah will have to share a room, and neither of them look too happy about it. Still, as time passes, they do end up becoming something that resemble friends. You have to make sure it isn’t a friendship forced by Leah’s power, but it looks like the worst that Leah did was make Sarah like video games.

Even though she got her magic back, Sarah hasn’t tried escaping once, and has even been pretty open about how her power works. She’s still clearly anxious about her future, but you’d be too if you were her. The good news is that the agency seems to be really busy with the bug situation in the sewers growing out of control, so they’re unlikely to try to get her back, since you’ve proven more than once to be a pain to fight.

You also learn that Sarah’s ability can separate the magic from devil’s gamble, it takes a lot of work, but you don’t need to melt the metal that way, and you get more magic back from it. You’ve thought about ‘farming’ magic from someone, constantly sapping their magic away with Devil’s Gamble and taking it for yourself, but you can’t actually make your magic stronger that way, only replenish your reserve. When killing someone, you take the ‘core’ of their magic, which essentially gives you another place to store and produce magical energy, which allows your magic to do more stuff.

You’ve been able to get two ‘allies’ in one mission, which is pretty good, all things considered. Now, what to do next?

>>5915761

---
New buying opportunities (As always, buying them is a free action, even if it’ll take some time to build on the side. Multiple things can be built alongside each other.):

-Experimental Generator: Should save you another 75% of your current monthly spending, and might even be useful in the case of a power outage. (Cost: 500K & 2 months)

-Squire: A cheaper version of K.I.S.A, while it isn’t half as strong or sturdy, it is much faster and stealthier as it isn’t weighed down by all the extra armaments of its superior. Excellent for scouting and low danger missions. Can be equipped with an experimental alloy for 150K extra. (Cost: 400K & 1.5 months)

-K.I.S.A upgrade: Will upgrade K.I.S.A into a stronger, faster and sturdier version. It will also be able to use another experimental alloy. According to Etsy, this is, somehow, not its final form. (Cost: 1M & 3 months)

-Last Resort: A massive mech strong enough to bring down some country's military by itself. Absurdly expensive and time-consuming, it’s named like that for a reason. (Cost: 10M & 1 year.)

(Might add more as people give more ideas.)
---

Remaining funds: 755K || Monthly cost: 120K

>Train your magic with Leah and Sarah, you’re pretty sure you can get a breakthrough with the two of them.
>Investigate one of the rumors.
>Schedule a meeting with the demon of the backstreet.
>Attack the criminals that raided YOUR factory, D.I.Y might reward you for it.
>Write in.

>>5915763
>Train your magic with Leah and Sarah, you’re pretty sure you can get a breakthrough with the two of them.
Let's go.

>>5915763
Also, while i do want to buy the generator, it takes 2 months. By the time we're finished, we'll have run into the red.

>>5915523
>but all women are capable of being part of a harem, by the simple fact that they are capable of being part of a harem. Whether they join or not is a different matter.
To be fair this logic can be used for literally anything.

>>5915763
>Attack the criminals that raided YOUR factory, D.I.Y might reward you for it.
We need more money, and we can't let criminals keep on raiding our shit.

>>5915767
You'd be correct, although do note that this is something Etsy will build on the side, and you'll still be able to do something else as she's building it. Teamwork makes the dreamwork and all that. Of course, she probably won't have the time to make another design to sell as she's building stuff, so you might need to figure out other ways to make money.

Of course, a lot of these options aren't the best ideas to buy right away and are more something to save towards, unless you feel like you can take a loan of 10 million dollar and buy yourself a mech.

>>5915763
>Attack the criminals that raided YOUR factory, D.I.Y might reward you for it.
We have enough to probably afford hospital bills.
Also we do need enough money for financial security.

>>5915763
>Attack the criminals that raided YOUR factory, D.I.Y might reward you for it.

How much time and money would it cost to build another KISA?

>>5915763
>Attack the criminals that raided YOUR factory, D.I.Y might reward you for it.
I think we need to let Etsy's jealousy cool off a little before we attempt training with the other 2 ladies.

>>5915830
what we need is to pour some fucking cold water on that woman before weaver dies of dehydration

>>5915795
While this is true, I'm more worried about criminals ruining any products we might consider making.

>>5915830
That's a good point. We're already stretching it a bit much with letting them live in the factory.
As another thought, maybe we can make them pay rent to us? It'll be a good way to gain a steady source of income if nothing else and I don't like the idea of having a bunch of freeloaders live in our property without paying.

>>5915839
No water can quench that fire, brother. We either step up or step down (or get stepped on)
>>5915844
Rent is a good idea, but both are NEETs (Sarah too now), I doubt we could ask them for a spare penny.

>>5915763
>Attack the criminals that raided YOUR factory, D.I.Y might reward you for it.

>>5915821
I'd probably put it around 4 months and 1.5M. Even so, Etsy might not decide to make another one since she considers it her unique pet project, and she'd rather upgrade the original until it reaches its final version than make more of them.

Squires are slightly different, as they aren't meant to replace the original as much as they are supposed to be support for it. Consider squires as the mass-produced version that will always be one rank lower than the original, and every time K.I.S.A gets an upgrade, the squires will be able to go one level higher.

>>5915763
>-Experimental Generator: Should save you another 75% of your current monthly spending, and might even be useful in the case of a power outage. (Cost: 500K & 2 months)
Buying this.

>-Last Resort: A massive mech strong enough to bring down some country's military by itself. Absurdly expensive and time-consuming, it’s named like that for a reason. (Cost: 10M & 1 year.)
Aw, man, we need these. But not now.

>Train your magic with Leah and Sarah, you’re pretty sure you can get a breakthrough with the two of them.


>>5915772
Not everything. Men cannot bear children,nor can women impregnate a man, even though they are both part of the process of procreation.

>>5915976
I'm not talking about pregnancies or procreation or even reality, just the abstract concept of what a harem is.
I mean you could get five toasters then marry all of them and call it a harem.

>>5916007
>I mean you could get five toasters then marry all of them and call it a harem.
Always wanted a toaster harem.

>>5916232
I kneel.

>>5915976
>>5915850
>>5915830
>>5915772
>>5915766

(also the rule on buying things is the same as before, where for anything that costs more than half of your remaining funds, it needs at least two votes to be counted. You can also vote against people if you feel like saving.)

You decide to ask the D.I.Y rep about the criminals who attacked your factory, and turns out, she isn’t very fond of them.

She slams her fist on her desk, and you can see all the stuff on it jump from the impact. “Those FUCKS. We give them an inch, and they take the whole torso! They call themselves the night hawks. We used to sell them weapons and whatnot. You know, we had a pretty good deal, just supply them with things, and they made sure no one messed with us. They’re criminals, they can’t get access to armaments that easily without passing by us, so it was a pretty good deal all things considered, or at least it was until they decided to just betray us on our last meeting and ransack the entire god-damn factory! Sorry, I’m not supposed to swear on official meetings like this, but these guys make my blood boil.” She squeezes a metal object like it’s a rubber toy. You feel like she would take the night hawks herself if she wasn't stuck in her office like this.

You ask her how much D.I.Y would be willing to pay if someone were to take care of them. She raises an eyebrow.

“Urgh, I dunno, officially? Nothing, we aren’t really supposed to do that kind of stuff, but as an under the table deal… 1.5 millions? You know what, 3 millions if you manage to make them give back everything they stole. Threaten their boss or something, kill their kid, I don’t care, they’ve made us lose a lot of cash, but worst of all, they made us look like fools. Make absolutely sure that no one thinks about double-crossing us ever again.”

You nod and shake hands. She tells you the location of their base of operation, although everyone already knows where it is. They don’t exactly act in secret, and they even have an official website you can check. Unsurprisingly, the police hasn't done much to stop them.

>>5916494

Before this all started, you remembered hating those gangs. They would prey on people like you, high-school dropouts with nowhere to go, and promise them money and drugs. They certainly supplied the latter, but most of the grunts working for them would just end up dead on the street. Even though you wouldn’t have called yourself successful in life back then, you’re still a little proud of yourself in that you never stooped low enough to become a drug addict – but it could’ve happened, and that thought unsettles you.

This is why you don’t exactly feel bad about having to take those guys out, they’re a blight upon society, and reminding them they aren’t above everything is good. Granted, you aren’t exactly employed by paragons of morality either, but at least D.I.Y honor their contracts.

Now, how should you take care of those rats? You’ll bring K.I.S.A, of course, but surely you have a better plan than just going through the front door?

>Go through the sewers, so you can take them by surprise from below. Might run into a few bugs though.
>Try to schedule a meeting with them, then destroy them from the inside out.
>Use K.I.S.A to climb up the roof, and start taking them from top to bottom.
>Actually, the front door sounds about right.
>Write in.

(Also, no matter what method of entering you pick, you'll get to choose what offensive approach to take when you actually get there. So you can schedule a meeting and try to threaten them instead of going all out right away, or try a stealthier approach and pass as one of them once you appear from the sewers or something.)

Can Etsy make knock out gas?

>>5916503
K.I.S.A is in fact equipped with knock out gas (among other things). Since we're in the preparing stage, I'll allow voters to pick stuff Weaver can bring themselves as long as it isn't too big or too weird/expensive. A knock out gas grenade would be allowed, but fun fact, those exist, and they actually tend to kill more people than they put asleep, so it might not be the best non-lethal approach.

>>5916496
>sewers
LOL NOPE
Meeting sounds like a bad idea as well. I'm half tempted to say "front door".
>Write in.
Use K.I.S.A. to climb the roof, then have it go through the front door alone and do a good ol' pincer attack

>>5916529
Good idea - KISA goes through the front door, we go from above.

Actually, can we break our fall using a speed zone?

>>5916532
Speed zone doesn't work on living beings, but you can use it on objects like your clothing to slow down your fall. Do note that things keep their original momentum once they leave the zone, so your clothes will suddenly snap back on you as all the force from your weight kicks in, but it's just clothing so it won't actually hurt that much, it'll just throw you slightly off balance.

If you hold something particularly heavy, the weight might start ripping your clothes as you fall, so might need to take that into account.

>>5916542
I'll take those odds. We aren't holding something heavy as of now, i think.

>>5916496
>>5916529
+1

>>5916532
This too but only if we aren't carrying something too heavy.

>>5916496
>Use K.I.S.A to climb up the roof, and start taking them from top to bottom.
We should do some scouting before hand, but it's better than nothing.

File: CollegeGirlCG.png (81 KB, 398x570)

81 KB PNG

Alright, you'll start on the roof, and K.I.S.A will burst through the front door. Etsy can always tell you how it's going on K.I.S.A's side. Votes locked.

Also expect more random character fan service because I'm trying to get back to studying anatomy, so it's a good excuse to be drawing that. It's non canon, just fun to draw.

>>5916698
I like it. Good lines.

>>5916693
>>5916545
>>5916529
>>5916664

You realized that K.I.S.A will need to hold back as long as it fights with you to avoid friendly fire, so you decide to go for a pincer attack. Your clothes are actually somewhat reinforced by D.I.Y to take out minor bullet hits, you don’t think you’ll get hit by any bullets considering your powers, but it can’t hurt to be safe.

K.I.S.A rapidly (albeit not entirely silently) brings you to the top of the roof. You stayed out of sight of any windows, but you’re sure some people will come to investigate soon enough.

K.I.S.A doesn’t waste any time, and it jumps from the roof all the way to the front of the entrance. You can hear the sound of the impact from there. It’s a 5-story building, so it’s unlikely anyone at the top will run all the way down before the first floor gets wiped out.

You quickly get to work, disrupting the lock of the roof door is child’s play, but when you open the door, you find yourself at the end of a gun.

Click.

The man holding the weapon panics as he pulls the trigger again and again, even checking the safety to make sure he didn’t get anything wrong. But you’ve disrupted his gun from the inside, there’s nothing he could do without disassembling and reassembling it. One shot is all it takes for him to fall over and die. You quickly undress him and take his clothes, normally the gunshot would’ve attracted a lot of attention, but K.I.S.A’s rampage is probably more important to them than whatever is going on at the top.

>>5916764

Etsy says that K.I.S.A is already going at the second floor, and from a few scans it did of the area, the boss should be at the 4th floor. Seems the 5th floor is mostly for janitors equipment and whatnot, you do meet a few people here, but nearly all of them are hiding from what’s going on at the bottom of the building. No one pays attention to you, and you highly doubt those guys will come to help their boss later, so you decide to spare them for now.

You don’t feel exactly great about killing other people, but they knew the risks when they signed up with the night hawks, and they’ve probably ruined the life of thousands of other people for their own selfish benefit. They also knew that double-crossing D.I.Y meant that they’d fight back full force, if not you, then they would have surely hired some private military contractors to wipe them out. It sucks, but that’s how it is.

You find yourself in the 4th floor, there’s about 20 people here, seems they want to make sure no one gets to their boss. You can disrupt projectiles that go towards you, but considering a few of them have semi-automatic weapons, you’ll run out of magic trying to disrupt all of the bullets.

You also use MPR to make sure none of them have devil gamble’s bullets. As far as you can tell, they do not. The fact even the agency do not use that alloy means it’s probably a very recent discovery that most people haven’t yet implemented in their arsenal. None of the gang members here are awakened either, or if they are, they’ve got such low magical potential that they probably can’t do much with it anyway.

The ‘boss room’ does seem to have one person of great magical potential, however, you don’t know if it’s the gang leader himself or someone else. Now, what to do...

>Wait for K.I.S.A to reach you, it shouldn’t take that long.
>Use a speed zone to slow down bullets coming towards you, then shoot them.
>Try to stealthily disrupt all their guns, then shoot them.
>You’re still disguised, maybe you could try to talk your way into the room?
>Write in.

>>5916769
I was thinking...couldn't we just use a speed zone on their guns? It doesn't work on people, but we could stop the guns themselves, and then shoot the gunmen.

>>5916769
>Use a speed zone to slow down bullets coming towards you, then shoot them.
I'll admit I don't know what's best here. If anyone can come up with a good write-in it'll be appreciated.

All of these have some risk to them. If we wait too long the boss might escape, if we use too much magic we might be screwed if the boss is also a magic user, and talking our way into the room just sounds like a terrible idea that'll have us lose another body part.

QM is it possible to still use the lingering part of our curse to help here somehow?

>>5916788
Wouldn't that count as disrupting their guns? Or is it a more general area sort of thing? Because if they show from behind where we set up the speed area we're probably screwed (unless we can affect multiple different objects in it).

>>5916799
Speed zone is an area of effect. My idea was that instead of putting it in front of them so their bullets would get stopped, we'd just put it in them so their guns wouldn't be able to move in the first place.

>>5916788
You can only make one zone at a time, but you can make it big enough to encompass all the guns, and then just stop any bullets they have from working. Do note that such a massive zone is a pain to disable on a whim, and that it's the most magic intensive thing you know. So you better hope the next fight doesn't last too long if you do decide to make it this big. Generally, slowing down only the bullets imply you only make a small zone around yourself that you can use to slow down the bullets, which is much less costly in magical energy.

>>5916790
Your curse is more or less gone, breaking it is what awakened you to your magic potential. It is mentioned however that in emergencies, your magic will sometimes temporarily specialize to save your hide, but that's pretty much out of your control.

>>5916769
>Write in.
Go down to the 3rd floor and help K.I.S.A by shooting them in the back.

>>5916809
Okay, in that case, can we shoot the people with the automatic guns first? Since we've got them by surprise, we could pick them off before they realized what was happening, while protecting ourselves with the field.

SNEED

>>5916869
Sure, you could do that. Do note that they're on edge, so they might react fast, but you could realistically take a few of them down before they realize what's happening.

>>5916889
Well, since we're putting the field around ourselves, all we need to do is leave the gun poking out and we can protect oursevelves while shooting them.

>>5916769
>Use a speed zone to slow down bullets coming towards you, then shoot them.
focus on the guys with semi-autos since they're the most pain in the ass

>>5916790
>>5916892
We're not that good with guns. If we practiced, that be one thing, but we've been getting lucky. We should rely more on magic, like disrupting all their guns, instead of hoping we have more magic than they have bullets. More importantly, we should try to save our magic until we know who the person is with the greater magical potential.

>>5916907
Disrupting their guns would be hard and probably take more magic than using a speed zone.

>>5916907
We can go with disabling the semi-automatic ones, instead of everything and then shooting ?

>>5916995
That's an option, there are only 5 semi-automatic wielder in the room, so it wouldn't take that much time and magic to do.

>>5916769
Hoo boy, taking a fight that we're not sure to win with armed people! Time to lose another arm!
Jokes aside, we gotta know where our strengths lie. This isn't it. K.I.S.A. is ten times better than we are at handling this.
>>5916812
I'll support this. Go fetch K.I.S.A. ourselves, then throw the big bugger at the gunmen.

>>5916769
>>5916995
I'll support doing this in addition to my vote >>5916790

>>5916907
That's actually a good point. But at the same time I don't want to let the boss escape.

>>5916802
That sounds good in theory, but the QM explained why it wouldn't really work if we wanted to keep some of our magic for the crimeboss.

>>5916901
adding >>5916995 to my vote

>>5917068
>>5917056
>>5917043
>>5916901
>>5916889
>>5916892
>>5916812
>>5916790

The semi-automatic wielder are the most dangerous thing here, so you decide to focus on disabling their guns. While you have some experience with handguns, the semi-automatic are a little bit different from what you’re used to, so your disruption is not as stealthy as you’d have hoped. There is a very noticeable clicking sound coming from their weapon, one click is an oddity, two is a coincidence, five time is cause for serious concern.

“Yo, is the gun ‘sposed to do that?” One of the goon says, shaking their rifle around.

“S’probably fine, did ya… check the thingie? Y’know, on the...end barrel,” the other grunt answers.

“What if it’s not fine? If it doesn’t work against that thing downstairs, then we’re cooked, ain’t we?”

“C’mon, it’s just a scrap o’ metal, just shoot it till it drops. Hey, is that guy new or-”

You shoot three of them dead while they’re distracted, and quickly set up a speed zone to slow down any incoming bullets. You’re not a professional marksman, but hitting still targets like this from this close isn’t hard. Unfortunately, your targets are about to get a lot less still as everyone is scrambling for cover, you manage to shoot two more before most of them get something between you and your gun.

You don’t even bother using invisible bullets for this, all it takes is curving them with unreliable habit to hit those that hide under cover. You get shot at a lot, but the time zone makes the bullets so slow you’d have to walk directly into them to get hurt. At first you think you're safe from whatever they can throw at you, but then you get taken by surprise as someone tries to rush you with a rusty knife from behind, you do manage to shoot him in the gut before it’s too late, but it was VERY close.

For a second, you’re afraid that they’ll all start to rush you into melee range, which would actually be pretty bad for you, but thankfully, none of them are willing to take the risk.

“Fuckin’ hell, ma rifle ain’t workin’!” One of the goon shouts.

“Me neither! Wassup with that!? Almost died at D.I.Y tryin’ to get it!” He keeps pulling the trigger, as if pressing it enough would suddenly fix the gun’s problem.

Then, for some ungodly reason, they all decide to check their gun’s integrity by putting their eye as close to the hole of the gun’s barrel as possible,

And pulling the trigger.

To everybody’s surprise, including your own, the gun suddenly start working, and all 5 goons shoot themselves in the face in perfect synchronization, splattering their gray matter all over the wall.
You hear laughter. The kind of canned laughter you’d hear in a sitcom after someone told a bad joke. You don’t know where the sound is coming from, only that it’s there.

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>>5917213

Everyone stares in horror at their dead friends, and the few remaining survivors start to rush for the exit as they realize they can’t win. Unfortunately for them, they bump right into K.I.S.A, who proceeds to clean them in half with a sharp leg.
“S-sorry, I know I’m not supposed to kill those who surrenders, but uh, they didn’t raise their arm or anything so uhm, honest mistake!”

You hear a ‘boo-womp’ sound effect come from...somewhere, again, then you hear laughter. Actual laughter, not the weird one you heard before. It’s the kind of laughter that’s so intense a normal person would have trouble breathing after it. You turn to face the source of the sound, and you see...a woman? You think? She looks so weird, you aren’t exactly sure what she is. You think she's human, if anything.

“Hi guys!” Canned laughter again. “I’ve been told to fight you! Don’t really wanna, but they’ll hurt my boyfriend if I don’t...” You hear an ‘aww’ sound effect, this is actually kind of getting on your nerves. “And a one, and a two...”

You try to read her with MPR, but all you get is...how do you even describe this.

MPR(Schadenfreude): Hi guys, welcome to my blog, where I post funny memes I see online! Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘but schadenfreude, I thought you said you’d stop posting after the last drama’ but you see, dear oomfie-

Yeah, it kind of goes on and on like this. Usually the patterns are esoteric and strange, but those are actual sentences you can read, the problem is it’s just useless drivel. You could probably make sense of them given enough time, but that’s assuming you survive that long.

“And a three~!” She winks, and a star shaped object appears, it then rapidly starts spinning towards K.I.S.A. It dodges, only to starts slipping on a corpse and falling down the stairs.

You hear Etsy scream in your radio. There is no way in her mind that this is a genuine mistake from K.I.S.A.

“Guess that robot’s going back to the scrapyard!” There’s an awkward silence, she frowns. “Hehe, tough crowd- OW!” A bucket of pain falls on her head from who knows where, the canned laughter breaks the silence once again.

>>5917218

You hear K.I.S.A climbing back up, you’re not sure how to handle...whatever she is, but you’ll have to try.

How do you approach this?
>Talk it out, she mentioned her boyfriend might get hurt if she doesn’t fight you. Maybe you can help?
>Fight her.
>Flee, you just have to hope her powers won’t stop you from doing that.

If you fight, how will you approach this? (pick two)

Offensive:
>Swarm her with devil’s gamble bullets with K.I.S.A, if you can get rid of her powers, she’s screwed.
>Disrupt her attacks, turn them against her.
>Use invisible bullets, there’s no joke to be made about things you can’t see.
>Write in

Defensive:
>She’s actually standing in your speed zone right now, slow down her clothes to impair her movement.
>Save up as much magic as you can and stall until you can figure her out with MPR, might give time for the boss to flee however.
>Use your speed zone to slow down any projectile she sends.
>Disrupt the magic she sends at you.
>Counter with your own jokes. You’re confident you can be funnier than she is.
>Write in

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I forgot to re-enable my name. I just like to turn it off when voting on other threads.

Also typo, it's supposed to be 'bucket of paint', but honestly bucket of pain sounds like a pun so it's in character.

>>5917213
>>5917218
>>5917222
It had to be toons.
I love this character. The look, the mannerisms, the powers.

All three are trap options.
>Talk it out, she mentioned her boyfriend might get hurt if she doesn’t fight you. Maybe you can help?

>Write in
Laugh.

>Counter with your own jokes. You’re confident you can be funnier than she is.

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>>5917222
kill her NOW

>Swarm her with devil’s gamble bullets with K.I.S.A, if you can get rid of her powers, she’s screwed.
It's magic toonforce. It won't apply. I think.

>She’s actually standing in your speed zone right now, slow down her clothes to impair her movement.
This will of course result in her clothes ripping off from her body, and she'll probably do an anime slap baka or some stupid shit. I believe we can kill her before then. If we can't,
>Counter with your own jokes

>‘Schadenfreude’: An awakened woman that gains power from people ending up in ‘amusing’ predicaments. Her magic can best be described as ‘toon-like’, the universe itself bending towards making the fight look like a complete joke.
I don't know if we're going to be able to out-funny her if it's her superpower.
And I fear that laughing will just make her stronger.
I don't know what to think about this honestly.

>>5917222
>Talk it out, she mentioned her boyfriend might get hurt if she doesn’t fight you. Maybe you can help?
This might be a mistake, but I can't think of anything better to do.

>>5917260
Goddamnit anon, are we gonna try to befriend every single magic user we meet? When did we become a generic shonen protagonist? We're never gonna become stronger if we just talk it out with everyone. The moment we face someone like the monster who 'intiated' us, we'll crumple like wet paper.

>>5917222
>>5917260
Changing to
>Flee, you just have to hope her powers won’t stop you from doing that.
If that doesn't work
>Disrupt the magic she sends at you.
>Use your speed zone to slow down any projectile she sends.

>>5917263
You're right. Although I don't think we'd be able to kill her, she literally has magic that can affect reality itself, and I mostly just want to get to the boss and have him beat before we leave.
On another note I feel like we should've killed the fed chick when we had the chance.

>>5917279
>You're right. Although I don't think we'd be able to kill her, she literally has magic that can affect reality itself
Yes, but it's still magic. Our devil's gamble should be able to ignore it. We're not gona be able to escape from a toon power girl, we'll end up slipping on a banana and fracturing our skull or something stupid like that.

>>5917282
>Our devil's gamble should be able to ignore it. We're not gona be able to escape from a toon power girl, we'll end up slipping on a banana and fracturing our skull or something stupid like that.
Dammit why can't we have her as a sparring partner instead of a neet and a glowie?

>>5917222
best girl just entered the chat
>Talk it out, she mentioned her boyfriend might get hurt if she doesn’t fight you. Maybe you can help?
>>5917279
>spoiler
you got a point, if she crosses us you'll get your chance, anon
>>5917263
>Goddamnit anon, are we gonna try to befriend every single magic user we meet ?
you make it sound like it's a bad thing

>>5917499
I literally explained why it's a bad thing

>>5917505
I see your point, but I don’t wanna kill everyone just because of that

>>5917499
>>5917289
>>5917282
>>5917279
>>5917260
>>5917231
>>5917230

Alright, no need to shed any more unnecessary bloodshed. She’s basically being blackmailed, right? It’s not like she really wants to fight you. Unlike the other henchmen who worked here of their own free will. Granted, maybe some of the other criminals you shot down were being blackmailed too, but you try to not think too hard about that for your own sanity.

You ask her if you can talk this out. She cocks her head to the side at a 90° angle.

“Talking ain’t saving anyone, old buddy old pal. Law of the west! One man standing! Or woman? Wait, which one am I again?” She pulls out a phone and starts tapping loudly on it, after a few seconds, someone answer. “Yeah, can you put him through? Yeah, I’m fighting, I just- Okay, thanks! So, baby, I’m the girl in that scenario, right? I- No, I was just wondering cause usually girls are the damsels in distress, not the other way around so-” She turns back to you, “Sorry, just talking to my boyfriend real quick, I love him! He says I don’t need to worry about him, but he’s also screaming a lot, so I’m not sure. You know how guys are, never honest with their feelings!”

You see K.I.S.A slowly moves towards the boss room while she’s distracted. Taking great care to not slip on anything. It seems it’s not fully immune to her magic, but it’s not as affected as the rest, so as long as it’s being cautious, it should be fine.
You can see the general ‘area of effect’ of her power, and she looks to be about far enough from the boss room that K.I.S.A can reach it without being affected by it. You try to keep her talking, which isn’t actually that hard, the problem is that she’s also “fighting” as she talks.

Weirdly enough, she’s also hit by her own power more than once. It seems that she can’t exactly control who gets hit, and that while her magic favors her, it tends to target the most amusing person at the moment. As such, you try to avoid showing anger or annoyance as much as possible, even playing into her jokes if possible. Unfortunately, she’s been living with her magic much longer than you have, so she’s much better at making you the punchline than you are. It doesn’t help that the type of comedy changes a lot, sometimes the stoic straight man being bullied is just as funny as the idiot who plays along with the jokes.

You try to shoot her when she gets a little too close for comfort, only for the gun to stop working whenever you try. You almost check the barrel of your own gun to see what’s wrong, until Etsy calls you out on it. Her powers also alter a lot of your common sense, which makes you really scared to use your guns altogether.

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>>5917901

You then hear Etsy’s voice come from behind Schadenfreude. K.I.S.A is holding what you presume is the crime boss between two of its mechanical legs.

“We have a hostage too. Uhm, so if you don’t stop right now...err…”

The boss orders Schad to get him out right now, but he quickly shuts up once a blade pops out of one of K.I.S.A’s legs and presses against his neck.

Schadenfreude actually looks rather split, she’s still smiling, but you can feel a slight sense of panic in her voice. “Wow! This is just like a trolley problem or something! Try to save the boss and risk your boyfriend’s death, or don’t save the boss and...risk his death.” A slightly distorted version of the usual canned laughter can be heard. You have a very very bad feeling about this.

MPR(Schadenfreude): Immense magic potential. Passively creates a ‘comedy zone’ around her, which affects the ‘seriousness’ of everything within it – including herself. The zone’s intensity can be increased with more magic. She is also capable of temporarily making herself immune to her own zone, even if doing so is highly costly in magic.

She wasn’t even actively using magic this entire time. This was the passive effect. You need to resolve this situation as fast as possible, or things are about to get a lot worse.

>Torture the boss until he frees her boyfriend.
>This is hopeless, get out of here and tell K.I.S.A to leave the boss behind.
>Brace for the worst, she has to run out of magic eventually right?
>Focus all your firepower on her, if you can just take her down before she gets to do anything…
>Write in.

>>5917222
>>5917279
I just realized I haven't changed my vote yet
Supporting this >>5917231

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(Also, I usually just screenshot the drawings instead of exporting them because I like drawing on a big canvas, and often leave a bunch of empty space anyway. I tried exporting for once to see how it'd look, and turns out it shows as way bigger than I'd like on 4chan when you click on it, so here's an easier to view version.)

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>>5917903
Question, could we technically pull a Kraftwerk with our speed zone? You said they were basically proportional to speed, right? So we could technically get a devil's gamble bullet, tap it on a speed zone, and watch it go boom.

>>5917904
Well nevermind kek

>>5917903
>Torture the boss until he frees her boyfriend.
I'm feeling sadistic right now.

>>5917906
The main issue being that devil's gamble bullets barely get affected by your speed zone. You can slow them down slightly if you really try, but it's a massive magic drain and only really viable for dodging said bullets (making them faster is just as resource intensive.)

You could however do that with regular/invisible bullets. Since the kinetic force would in fact add up with every hit, and you could always disrupt them to readjust their trajectory if their new momentum makes them go slightly off course.

>>5917912
That would be nice, but normal bullets probably wouldn't do shit against her toonforce.

Wait, wait, I know. We're able to see the general 'area' of her attacks, right? I was thinking we'd find a way to distract her with KISA while we get outside her range, and then shoot that bitch with Devil's Gamble before she increases her range. Tell Etsy to try to stall her.

>>5917918
The room is big enough to allow this, although you aren't exactly sure how big she can make the zone when she actually tries. K.I.S.A can still stall her, but considering it is holding a hostage, it might be slightly awkward for it to do that without accidentally killing your one bargaining chip.

>>5918013
The point is taking up her attention, KISA is a robot and the hostage isn't relev\nat to our payment. While her ability is retardedly overpowered, she is suffering from the 'stupid' limitation.

She's not going willingly to activate her power if it accidentally kills the hostage and risks her boyfriend. As long as Etsy can keep her talking for a while, we can back up and shoot her.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

Well...I guess the other voters are asleep. I don't want this to take forever so...let's put it to the dice.

1 we save the boyfriend
2 we kill her with the plan

>>5918065
Ok I guess we're gonna try that distraction plan. Too bad for the boyfriend.

If we're going to kill magic users we should probably try to think of ways to kill Leah and Sarah without breaking etiquette.

>>5917903
>>Torture the boss until he frees her boyfriend.

Oh, well rip to my favorite character.

>>5918072
We don't need to kill everyone, this is just an opportunity to kill an enemy.

>>5918077
well you've technically made it a tie now, >>5918065 is just another voter, not the QM

>>5917903
>Write in.
Why so serious? If you want him so bad, here! catch!

Then have K.I.S.A. toss the boss at her.

>>5918065
I'll be giving it a little bit more time, it's a pretty big fight with big rewards if you can pull it off, so I want to make sure most people have time to discuss it.

>>5918081
But wouldn't every bit of magical exp help if we're going to want to punch up against the more powerful magic users?

>>5918087
Yes, but we don't need to kill everyone. We made those two allies, so we let them go. This woman is an enemy, so we kill her. There's a difference between killing an enemy instead of trying to befriend them, and killing an former enemy we already befriended.

>>5918088
Why didn't we kill that glowie again? She was our enemy and her abilities aren't even that great.
Besides not killing them now doesn't mean we're never going to, and sparing magic users doesn't mean they're never going to be a problem in the future.

>>5918092
>Why didn't we kill that glowie again?
Because she surrendered immediately, i guess?

>Besides not killing them now doesn't mean we're never going to, and sparing magic users doesn't mean they're never going to be a problem in the future.
Like i said, it's a question of the current state of affairs. As of now, this woman is our enemy, and the other two girls are our allies. We can either try to turn this girl into another ally, or we can kill her. Repeating 'but what about the other ones' isn't going to change the situation here.

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>>5918087
As a reminder, you *are* punching up against a more powerful magic user. Shadenfreude has immense magic potential, which is comparable to Dusk and even Mammona, which is two tiers higher than you.

Of course, higher potential isn't the only factor, the glowie woman was also one level higher than you, and you wiped the floor with her, you also have K.I.S.A to even the odds, which in terms of raw firepower has proven to beat high potential magic users by itself.

Also, if you were wondering, killing her would instantly make you level up to high potential, and would put you relatively close to the immense potential requirement.

>>5918168
It's like i said, we oughta kill her while she's still stupid. She's a walking disaster waiting to happen.

Also, we *really* could use a tiebreaker.

>>5918168
Whoa! Look at you, improving by leaps and bounds, getting fancy with the highlights.
Keep it up!

Solid third best girl right here, better than her sister.

>>5917912
Pinball Wizard, huh? Nice.

>>5917906
>>5917912
>>5917913
>>5918182
You know, I'd support this line of thought, if after triggering our ability it was a bunch of bullets flying everywhere at once.

>>5917903
>>5917905
I prefer the larger versions myself.

>>5918187
That line of thought could work but not here, normal bullets don't work against her.

We need to use devil's gamble. That's the only way we're killing her. Again, she has a ridiculous potential. We need to finish her off before she activates it and we die.

>>5918181
It's actually supposed to be your other fast food coworker, but to be fair you never saw her face before, and since they're both athletic and ginger, I see how they'd be similar. (I'm mostly sweeping through the characters we saw very little drawings of as of now. Demon of the Backstreet will probably be next.)

Admittedly, I somewhat cheated with the body by taking heavy reference from another drawing (and still messed it up in some parts like the left arm being too small). Honestly, I've been neglecting shading and highlights for too long, so I mostly just experiment until it feels right, figuring out how the light is supposed to bounce around can be kinda hard unless you got the reference right in front of you. It's nice to see some noticeable improvement, if anything.

>>5917901
>You almost check the barrel of your own gun to see what’s wrong, until Etsy calls you out on it.
So it was because of her those other guys shot themselves ? Zam
>>5917903
>Torture the boss until he frees her boyfriend.
She’s only here for the bf, so let’s get that out of the way

>>5917905
A cute, CUUUUUUUUUUTE

>>5918200
Maan, are we really going to waste an opportunity to get immense potential just to help a random girl who tried to kill us? How are we ever gonna beat the likes of Mona?

>>5918207
With the power of friendship, of course. Jokes aside, we’ll find some killer eventually. QM made it hard to kill the cute and funny girl with the bf stunt.

>>5918270
Except we won't, every damn magic user we find we befriend. Leah, the glowie, the backstreet demon, the bugs are friendly and now we're letting this walking disaster free. Why, because they're female?

What, are we just gonna wait until we get an overtly convenient evil man to kill?

You just can't make female characters in these kinds of settings, anons are simps so they'll try to please every single woman they meet and you never get to do anything interesting.

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>>5918281
>What, are we just gonna wait until we get an overtly convenient evil man to kill?

>>5918286
Waifufags, not even once.

>>5918291
Let it go anon, just accept we're never gonna get to do anything cool because anons will keep shooting down every opportunity so they can simp for random female characters. They could show someone crippling us and killing etsy and they'd still try to become fwiends because they want to turn this into a generic waifu collecting quest.

>>5918281
>Why, because they're female?
Because she’s being blackmailed and even with that she didn’t actively try to kill us yet. Look anon, I know you’re salty ‘coz we saved the glower but there always next time, chill.

>>5918300
Nigga it’s literally early in the quest and the one we saved was a coward glowie from a black company and now we’re trying to save the blackmailed clown. Chill a little you 2.

>>5918331
She literally almost killed us back when we were about to look into our gun's barrel and got saved by etsy. If this was a man you'd be telling KISA to light her up.

>>5917903
>Torture the boss until he frees her boyfriend.
This is sadly the lesser evil, all the rest sound really risky.

>>5918339
Keyword “actively”. And that same thing happened with the goons before, remember ?

>>5918345
Yeah, because letting the walking disaster who causes people to kill themselves just by being around them to go free is much less risky, right?

>>5918347
That just makes it worse. You're trying to save someone with a power that kills her own allies. Why? Because she's le cute grill. We honestly deserve to blow up our own heads by "accident" if we do this

>>5918352
Anon, we’re early in the quest and we’ll have plenty of nasty characters to get our upgrade from. Why are you treating this like the end of the world ?

>>5918345
>>5918200
>>5918083
>>5918076
>>5917907

You ask Etsy if K.I.S.A can torture the boss until he orders his goons to free Schadenfreude’s boyfriend. She answers by giving him small electroshocks of increasing intensity, then slowly twisting his legs, then injecting who knows what into his veins.

He’s clearly in intense pain, but it’s hard to take it seriously when you keep hearing the Wilhelm scream every time he opens his mouth.

Schadenfreude actually does try to save him, even increasing the effect of her zone, but turns out the boss is the funniest target here, so all it does is make the torture even worse. It only takes a few minutes for him to give in and order the release of her boyfriend.

You hear a few whispers over the phone, and to your surprise, they refuse to let him go. Seems the goons realize the boss basically lost all power he may have had, and that releasing their hostage means that nothing stops schadenfreude from seeking revenge. You’re scared that you may have done all of this for nothing, until Etsy casually mentions the exact location in which the hostage is situated.

Turns out Schadenfreude left her phone on free wi-fi, and it was a cakewalk for Etsy to trace the call. The grunts hesitate a little bit longer, but do eventually decide to release him as they don’t want to take the risk of K.I.S.A rapidly approaching their location. Schadenfreude’s eyes go wide, before her legs start spinning rapidly, and she disappears in a puff of smoke. “Sorry for trying to kill you! It might happen again!”

The boss asks you if you’re going to release him now, and he’s answered by the voice of the D.I.Y rep. It seems that K.I.S.A is putting a phone call on speakers.

“Etsy? Did you come up with another design or something? I’m kinda busy here, so make it quick.”

“Y-yeah, uhm, I was wondering, would we get extra if we got the Night Hawk boss to you alive?” Etsy answers.

“...like, ALIVE alive? All limbs intact? Working brain?”

“3 limbs, I think.”

“Good enough. I’ll give you an extra million from my personal account.” You hear the representative laugh. The kind of laugh you’d hear someone have after they just won the lottery. “Hope you like the taste of melted iron, fucker.” She hangs up.

The kidnapping is pretty easy, a few civilians do see the scene, it happens fast enough that they don’t have the time to take any pictures. It might spawn a few rumors, but this city has so many weird things that no one would bat an eye to a death robot rampaging at a criminal hideout.

You deliver him to your factory, and the representative comes to pick him up. You don’t think you’ve ever seen her so happy before, she’s whistling a tune as she squeezes the boss’s ribs. “Oh, we’re going to have a great weekend together, just you wait.”

You’re not sure why she said it like that, but you decide to not think about it too hard, you’ve got other things to worry about.