>>5942189

Everything goes very fast -- it has to in order to not attract attention, and soon enough, the house is set up with Etsy's usual absurd security. The house is comfy, and it's even bigger than the one you had before, since your money's worth more here than back in the U.S. The city’s also gorgeous, the sea giving an almost otherworldly feel, perhaps it IS otherworldly, considering what you know is down there. Of course, you made sure to settle as far away from the sea as you could – just in case.

You have to admit, your paperwork’s half-baked, and your Russian could use some work. Even if Arachne can translate for you, your accent is pretty thick and unmistakably foreign. There’s also the issue of the Russian agency, you’ll have to contact them to make sure you don’t accidentally antagonize them on purpose – you’re sure they noticed your presence already.

You decide to rip off that band-aid sooner rather than later, and contact the Russian agency the moment you get some free time. This would normally require some research, but the E.N.D website actually lets people leave some contact info on top of their dossier if they want for free, which is pretty convenient.

You manage to schedule a meeting. They want to meet you in person, and for you to bring the info you gathered on the U.S agency on a USB stick so they can check it more thoroughly. You tell them that you’ll send the squire instead, as you don’t fully trust them just yet, but that you’ll bring some data. They agree to those terms.

The meeting happens in the back of a restaurant that’s apparently a front for their agency. It’s met with a red haired boy in his early twenties and an older looking man that reminds you a little bit of Dimitri, the first agent you fought.

“Is that thing really all metal? No wonder her bounty’s higher than him if she can make that stuff all by herself,” the red haired boy says. “Anyway, pass the USB sticks.”

The squire carefully places the USB sticks on top of the table, the boy grabs it and plugs it in his laptop. The old guy continues the conversation for him.

“Unlike those in the west, we have a more forgiving approach to magic user’s existence. We had many incidents caused by angering those that were better left alone, however we do have a few rules that we hope you respect. For one, if you plan on hunting another magic user that is not part of the agency, you must warn us. We will not interfere, but being aware of your plan, make sure that we can minimize civilian casualties and...leaks. We will forgive you if you forget to tell us a few times, but do not make a habit of it. Secondly, you being part of the game does not make you above the law. If you use your magic in ways that harms a lot of people – directly or indirectly – we will get involved, we however tend to overlook murder that happens between magic users, as it is more or less expected.”

>>5942190

The boy gestures the man to look at the laptop. “It’s weird, I expected the PCAB to be a lot more competent. How could they lose such an experienced agent to some random girl? Isn’t she supposed to be a level 5?”

The man inches his face closer to the screen, listening to the audio recording you gave them of Mona’s fight. “That is strange, Mammona’s bounty has gone back to 0, so I assumed this means she perished at the hand of their agent but-”

“Maybe she paid off her own bounty?" The boy answers, "And since she’s working with E.N.D, no one can find out if she actually died or not. Her bounty’s gone, so everyone is going to naturally assume she’s gone for good without any proof of the contrary.”

“But why would she- well, it isn’t our problem. What matters is that they’ll be busy for a while, which is good for us.” He turns his head back to the squire. “Yes, that is good information, so we will assume you are not spies. Do you have any questions? I want to make sure you can integrate here without causing too much ruckus.”

>Write in questions. (All questions will be asked within reasons, regardless of vote popularity.)

(I forgot to link up the archive of the previous thread again: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=Curse+Carrier+2)

Well, damn, i can't think of anything.

>>5942191
We can ask about the strange things happening in the ocean I think.

>>5942191
>What sleeps in the ocean?
>Are there any other magic users in town that may cause issues?
>I have to warn you if I am to fight another magic user, will you warn them? Will you warn me if someone wants to fight me?
>I think it would be greatly beneficial for us to cooperate within reason. Do you need help with anything?

>>5942258
-1 on the last question we want to be left alone

>>5942258
I'll support asking all of these questions too.

>>5942272
The entire reason we went here is to get away from bullshit and now you want to get tangled in spy stuff????

>>5942191
>>5942258
+1
I for one want to get entangled in spy stuff.

>>5942281
Yes.

>>5942258
+1 but add
>Listen, I only moved here to be left alone with my family. Do you have family of your own you care about?

>>5942258
>>5942270
>>5942272
>>5942283
>>5942296
>>5942285

You ask them a few questions, like what sleeps in the ocean, if there are other magic users, and if they'll warn you if they start hunting another magic user.

The man strokes his chin. "A better question is what ISN'T lurking in the sea. There's that electric eel that stretches on for hundreds of miles, and there's also that weird humanoid shark that protect those that throw human meat in the water. However, if I had to tell you what you as regular people should worry about, the Kraken's tongue is the only one that comes to mind. It's a magic user that, contrary to what its name would lead you to believe, is not a kraken, nor does it live in the sea. They're called like that because they grow stronger the more people talk about them. They aren't that big of an issue, as contrary to what you'd think, their magic can't affect people's mental state, they've only ever used it to make money in a relatively harmless way thus far, but the greedy ones are always the one that won't be satisfied with just money. There are a few other magic users, but they prefer to avoid the game entirely, and we'd like it to keep it that way, so we won't divulge their identity."

The boy continues for the other agent. "Also, yeah, we tend to tell most 'big players' when another magic user is targeted by us, but we won't tell you exactly when and how we're planning on taking them down. I know it sounds unfair considering we expect a little bit more info from you, but you have to understand that if any of the info we give you is intercepted by a third party, our plan goes up in flame."

Sounds fair. You tell them that you only moved here because you want to be left alone with your family, and ask them if they have a family of their own to worry about here.

The man sighs. "I used to have one. Let's just say there's a reason we have a 'let sleeping dogs lie' policy. Targeting the weak just gives them a reason to get stronger, and the last thing we want is for them to get stronger. This is why we won't bother you, and hope that you'll do the same for us. If you prove to be particularly useful to us, we may even spend extra effort to make sure your family stays safe, but if I were you, I'd stay away from us and the game altogether, and enjoy the time you have with those you love."

You make the squire do what you hope comes off as a nod, and tell them you'll try your best to not be a problem for them. You don't know if you'll bother helping their agency, but if you can find some info they don't have access to, it wouldn't hurt to tell them, right? You tell Etsy about the meeting, as she was busy taking care of Sophia during that talk.

"T-They sound nice, then again, m-maybe it's a front. A-Ah! She's crying again, I don't get what I'm doing wrong!" She tries a game of peek-a-boo with Sophia, but the crying only intensifies.

>>5942352

As you take in the terrible smell, your first instinct is to check Sophia’s diaper, but you soon realize that it comes from Etsy.

“H-Hey, why are you sniffing me like this-”

You order her to take a shower right now.

“I-I was going to, I was just busy, and-”

You give her a wedgie as incoherent sounds escape her mouth. Sophia laughs as you bully your wife into doing the bare minimum to keep herself clean. Etsy eventually relents and gives you the girl, grumbling as she heads for the bathroom. You realize Etsy isn’t exactly the best example for a kid to follow, which is ironic considering she’s the one making all the money here.

Speaking of money, Etsy’s going to have to focus on upholding her design contract for the year, meaning she probably won’t get that much time to focus on her parenthood. You’ll try to focus on finishing the paperwork, especially your daughter’s, as you didn’t have time to iron that one out when you first moved in.

Apart from that, there are a few other things you can do, but busy as you are, you can’t expect most things to take a month like it did before, actually, you’re expecting most stuff to take at least a year now if you don’t want to neglect your family too much.

The question is, what do you want to do during this year?

>Look up schools in the town. Your daughter’s future is important, even if there’s still time for it.
>Focus on learning Russian, if your daughter gets your broken accent, it might lead to bullying.
>Spend more time observing the town, you’d like to know what you’re getting into.
>Spend more time with Etsy, she’s letting herself go a little, and she’s still a little stressed.
>Write in.

>>5942353
>Focus on learning Russian, if your daughter gets your broken accent, it might lead to bullying.
this is important.

>>5942353
>Focus on learning Russian, if your daughter gets your broken accent, it might lead to bullying.
Guess Weaver will have to be the main parent while Etsy builds her tech for the money

>>5942353
>Focus on learning Russian, if your daughter gets your broken accent, it might lead to bullying.
>Spend more time with Etsy, she’s letting herself go a little, and she’s still a little stressed.
Family bonding time when learning the language?

>>5942353
>Focus on learning Russian, if your daughter gets your broken accent, it might lead to bullying.
Priority number 2 is spending time with Etsy, and 3 is the schools IMO.
Good to know the government gopniks intend to leave us alone.

>>5942373
+1

>>5942373
>+1

>>5942493
>>5942449
>>5942374
>>5942373
>>5942371
>>5942355

You focus on learning Russian, and while you’re pretty good at understanding the underlying logic and grammar behind the language, you’re not so good at speaking it as it requires making sounds that don’t exist in English, among a few other language specific quirks. The alphabet (or Cyrillic in this case) is pretty easy for you to figure out at least, MPR is basically tailor-made for written translation.

You make steady progress on your pronunciation thanks to Arachne, although you do practice out of Sophia’s presence, as you don’t want her to pick up bad habits from someone still learning the language. It’ll be a while before she ever learns to talk, but it can’t hurt to be safe.

You don’t think you’ll be able to convince Etsy to learn Russian though, as despite her tech-savyness, she’s quite bad with anything involving words. Speaking of Etsy, now that she doesn’t have to worry about her safety as much, she’s been procrastinating much more, and every time you call her out on it, she says that she deserves a break after all the craziness of before. You agree that she deserves a break, but spending days at a time in bed isn’t healthy for her. After promising a few 'favors', you convince her to take a walk outside with you, while you let Arachne look over your daughter just in case. It actually feels weird to be able to take walks like this without fearing for your life, but that is why you moved here after all.

“H-Hey, look!” Etsy points at nearby park. “I-It looks just like that park back at the town, y-you know, uhm, the one we met in back then! W-Well, it’s not really where we m-met but, you know what I mean.”

You take her hand, and you go to the park with her. It’s a lot greener than you’d expect, considering how cold this city tends to be.

“I-It’s crazy to think of everything that happened, and that you...uhm...” she grips your hand tighter. “Sometimes I’m afraid that one day I’ll wake up, and you won’t be there. I know it’s silly, but uhm, thanks for sticking with me through e-everything. I-I always felt like I pushed everyone away back then, s-said the wrong thing, or whatever. A-And whenever someone was nice, it was just because they w-wanted something from me, money or...ah, I-I’m sorry, I’m rambling.”

You smile. You tell her you love it when she rambles, and you find her stuttering kind of cute, and that you’ll make absolutely sure to always be at her side no matter what, just like you promised all the way back then.

You kiss, and time stops once again. You both changed so much in so little time, and yet the two of you are still the same as back then in some way. It’s true that you have to bully her a little sometimes, and that you can often take more risks than necessary, but it still feels like neither of you would have come this far without the other.

>>5942560


You come back from the park, both smiling like idiots. Etsy is still a little lazy, but it seems this little trip was enough to get her productive enough to properly finish the two design she promised D.I.Y for her contract. She even decides to renew the contract again, although she lowers the requirement to only one design a year, so she isn’t too pressured to deliver too fast, especially since she’s starting to run dry on ideas.

Unfortunately, the extra time you had to spend with Etsy meant you spent a little less time with your daughter, which meant Arachne was on babysitting duty more than once. Sophia is also at the age where she should be crawling, but she hasn’t done so yet. Her legs and arms are working fine as far as you can tell, so maybe she’s just a little late compared to other babies. You'd like to be here when she does decide to take her first 'steps' though.

Anyway, you’re basically done with all the paperwork, and Russian according to Arachne is...passable, so you should focus on something else.

>Look up schools in the town. Your daughter’s future is important, even if there’s still time before it happens.
>Spend more time observing the town, you’d like to know what you’re getting into.
>Spend more time raising Sophia, she’s getting at the age where she can do more than just cry after all.
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Write in.

>>5942562
>Spend more time raising Sophia, she’s getting at the age where she can do more than just cry after all.
enjoy the time we have

>>5942562
>Spend more time raising Sophia, she’s getting at the age where she can do more than just cry after all.
The early memories are the most important ones that define you

>>5942562
>Spend more time raising Sophia, she’s getting at the age where she can do more than just cry after all.
we can do stocks later

>>5942562
>Spend more time raising Sophia, she’s getting at the age where she can do more than just cry after all.
We want her to grow into a fine girl, after all

File: BrainDamage.png (71 KB, 426x724)

71 KB PNG

>>5943017
>>5942601
>>5942597
>>5942594

You decide to spend more time on Sophia. While you don't need to look over her 24/7, that doesn't mean you should neglect her, especially with how little experience you have with kids. It's a good thing you spent extra time to learn about kids back before, or you might have struggled a lot more to take care of your daughter. You also tell Etsy to come help at times, but she's always hesitant to do so as she had a lot of bad experience with the kid and doesn't want to scare her further. Sophia doesn't seem to mind Etsy that much anymore, though, it looks like she got used to her mother's awkward expression.

You try to teach your daughter how to crawl, as it's apparently uncommon for a baby to take longer than a year to start doing that. Etsy is also here to watch you teach Sophia by your request. You put Sophia down and gesture her to come forward, but she just looks at you with a bored expression. Every time you try to put her into a better crawling position, she just pushes herself back up and keeps staring at you with the same deadpan look. Every time you think she's going to start moving, she just falls backward and stays like that for a little bit too long.

Finally she does end up moving towards you, although her method of traversal is more akin to rolling on her side than the desired crawling.

"I-Is she like...mentally disabled? I-Is she supposed to be doing that?"

You tell her it just means your daughter has creative solutions to problems. If she can figure out rolling, it won't take her that long to figure out how to crawl anyway.

"R-Right, sorry, that was mean!" Etsy picks up Sophia and cradles her in her arms. "Y-You aren't mentally disabled at all! Y-You're just special!" Sophia giggles like she often does with you. "H-Hey! Did you see that? She laughed! S-She almost never laughs with me!"

You're pretty sure Sophia wouldn't be laughing if she knew what Etsy was saying, but you decide to not bring that up. You do wonder what Etsy was like as a baby, you've heard some geniuses actually took longer to learn how to speak and walk, so you doubt anything she does now can be used to infer how smart she actually is. Besides, you know what it's like to be set with unrealistic expectations, and you'd rather not follow in your parent's footsteps.

Apart from that, not much happen this year either. Everything was moving so fast in your old town, but here an entire year can pass in the blink of an eye, not that you mind. It seems that as long as you keep your head down, you don't have much to fear.

---
7.344M
+
666K(Etsy’s design deal)
-
360K (Monthly costs)
=
7.64M
---

>Look up schools in the town. Your daughter’s future is important, and pre-school might be an option at her age.
>Spend more time observing the town, it looks safe for now, doesn't mean it won't change.
>Keep focusing on Sophia.
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Write in.

>>5943104
>Keep focusing on Sophia.
There's not really a lot to do, is there? We probably shouldn't get Etsy pregnant again until Sophia can at least walk.

HOWEVER....
We should Upgrade KISA. We have the money for it. Not sure we'll ever use it, but why not?

>>5943109
+1
I want to check out the town though

>>5943104
>Spend more time observing the town, it looks safe for now, doesn't mean it won't change.
>Buy the 1 million dollar info on the creature here.
I forget what it was called but I want to know about the 1 million dollar potential threat and if it requires any safeguarding besides not going to the docks. Also we should try to get Etsy more involved in raising Sofia, we can't be on child duty 24/7, especially if Etsy isn't going to be very active in designing things, so she will have time to help.

>>5943127
I agree with wanting to involve Etsy more

>>5943104
>Keep focusing on Sophia.
And definitely involve Etsy

>>5943127
>+1

>>5943127
>>5943109
>>5943167
>>5943112

You decide to spend more time raising Sophia, although you do try to involve Etsy more in the process. Etsy tries to find excuses to get out of it, but you tell her that Sophia might think her mother doesn't like her if she continues avoiding her.

Etsy raises Sophia up to help her walk, but your daughter seems to be content just letting herself be moved around by her mother.

"I-I don't get it. She's almost 3 years old, but s-she refuses to walk, she still hasn't said her first word either. A-Are we doing something wrong?"

You tell her there's no surefire way to raise a child, and Sophia seems to be a little peculiar, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with her. You played a few games with her, she was capable of figuring block puzzles pretty fast, and you even saw her try to reach for the light switch when you forgot to turned on the lights, so you'd say she's actually pretty smart for her age.

"Hey." Arachne tries to get your attention. "Get the block puzzle, she needs a motivator."

You shrug, and get the block puzzle. Sophia looks at it, but she still doesn't move. You put a shape in the puzzle, but that doesn't excite her either.

"The puzzle, try to do it wrong," Arachne add.

You try to put the square shape in the circle hole, and of course, it doesn't fit. Instantly, you can see Sophia's eyes light up, and she makes a weird sound. You do it again, and she tries to struggle out of Etsy's grip, when she sees that doesn't work, she awkwardly tries to put her foot forward, then the other. Etsy has to keep her upright, but Sophia is actually doing pretty well overall.

"O-Oh! S-She's doing it!" Etsy looks elated, watching in awe as Sophia inches closer to the puzzle. "I-Isn't it weird that she prioritize the t-toy over you, though?"

You tell her that you watch over Sophia all the time, so it'd make sense that she'd be more interested in something she doesn't always have access to, although you have to admit it's peculiar that she was only interested in the puzzle when you did it wrong. When Sophia finally reaches the puzzle, you put the square shape out of her reach to see if that's really what she was interested in. her eyes start to water as she desperately tries to grab it. When you finally give it to her, she actually tries to put it in the circle hole like you did before, and she actually looks surprised at the fact it doesn't work. You've seen her do the puzzle before, so it's not like she doesn't know how it works. She looks back to you, a confused look on her face, before putting the shape in the correct hole.

>>5943230

After figuring out what motivates her, teaching her becomes a lot easier. She even manages to say her first word, which is 'what'. You're not sure why that word specifically, it's not a word you've spelled out to her in any way, maybe it's because it's a common enough word that she picked up on it. After that, she started using other words, usually Russian words from you and English words from Etsy.

Now that Sophia knows how to do something that resembles walking, you have to be a lot more careful about what’s in her room, as she’s getting dangerously close to figuring out a way to get out of her crib. At least you have Arachne to look over her when you aren’t around, but you have to admit that you feel a lot more anxious about leaving your daughter behind now.

You decide to spend whatever little free time you still have to explore the town. You do get weird looks whenever you speak English with Etsy, but apart from that everyone is usually too busy to care about you. As far as monuments go, it’s mostly war related memorials and statues, among a few other things, you actually find the buildings to be a lot more interesting, as they come in all shapes and sizes, which makes the city feel a lot more organic. It does make it very easy to get lost however, and you have to rely on a physical map (Etsy still refuses to use your phone’s Geo-location) to find your way more than once.

You do hear a few rumors, but most of them are related to the sea or the beach in one way or another, which you’ve decided to avoid for now. Yup, another peaceful year. You have to admit a part of you misses the adrenaline rush of your old town, but you wouldn’t call this city boring either, it has its charm.

---
7.64M
+
1M(Etsy’s design deal)
-
1M (contract cost)
-
360K (Monthly costs)
=
7.28M

>>5943232

---
The Kraken’s Tongue:
Info cost: purchased. Bounty: 20M

The Kraken’s Tongue is a high potential magic user living in Vladivostok currently working in an oil refinery. His magic is speech related, the more someone speak of him, by name, title or description, the more of a ‘hold’ he gets on them. Mentioning his name a few time creates a weak hold that dissipates after a few days, and allows him to hear anything the victim says. A medium hold triggers when a proper conversation involving him happens. A strong hold triggers when an elaborate description of the Kraken’s Tongue is done by the victim, medium to strong hold can take months if not years to dissipate by themselves.

Medium to strong hold allows the Kraken’s Tongue to alter someone’s spoken sentences. The bigger the hold, the bigger the allowed change is, and the more subtle to the user the effect is. While a strong hold does not affect the victim’s mental state in any significant way, it is very good at convincing the victim that what it said was a freudian slip, which can subsequently gaslight them into believing things they did not before. However, being aware of the Kraken’s Tongue ability makes it harder to be manipulated this way.

Holds only applies when VOCAL mentions of the Kraken’s tongue are done, as such, any written text or messaging about him are exempt from his influence. Thinking about him while speaking about something else or describing someone similar to him is not enough to trigger his hold, as the victim has to make a conscious effort to address the Kraken’s Tongue specifically during their speech.

While the Kraken’s Tongue is not currently a threat to anyone, his ability has a global range that has no known upper limit. As such, his bounty is rather high, as many fear what he would be able to do if he actively tried to win the game. Especially since his potential can increase when enough people talk about him, which is a rather easy thing to do in today's information age.
---
Another peaceful year, what are you going to do for the next one?

>Look up schools in the town. She’s getting at the age where pre-school is an option.
>Spend more time observing the town, you’d like to know what you’re getting into.
>Spend more time raising Sophia.
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Write in.

>>5943234
>Look up schools in the town. She’s getting at the age where pre-school is an option.

>>5943234
>Sophia gets genuinely disturbed by seeing someone do something wrong
i feel that, i truly do.

>Look up schools in the town. She’s getting at the age where pre-school is an option.
We're literal millionaires, so we can go look at fancy schools.

(I forgot to proofread myself here and I just realized how often I used the word 'actually' here, I swear like half of my proofreading isn't grammar related and just cutting words I overuse.)

>>5943245
I appreciate that you take the effort to do this.

>>5943242
+1, but fancy school isn't always a good thing

>>5943245
You are good, QM

>>5943234
TELL 1000 FRIENDS ABOUT THE KRAKEN'S TONGUE OR DIE

>>5943234
>Look up schools in the town. She’s getting at the age where pre-school is an option.
I fear something's wrong with Sophia, her manners are extremely strange. At first I thought Arachne might be doing something weird, but she can't stab us in the back.
It's not gonna take a year, so I wanna throw that as an idea as well, but can we use our beefed-up version of MPR on her?
We can also try asking Arachne to tell us anything she knows or understood about Sophia. Might give us a clue

>>5943284
>I fear something's wrong with Sophia, her manners are extremely strange.
I mean, is she really? She took a while to learn yes, but that was because she seems to have an specific...thinking process. She seems to be smart, at the least, so it's not like she's got developmental problems, given the big burst she had once we figured out how to motivate her.

I think she may just take after her mother?

>>5943234
>Look up schools in the town. She’s getting at the age where pre-school is an option.

>>5943287
I admit it might just be nothing, but then again, what I suggest isn't costing much, you feel me?
And if there's a real issue, like another user that got involved with us in a timebomb fashion, then we can catch it right at the beginning.
Low-risk, high-reward (peace of mind)

>>5943289
>>5943284
>>5943258
>>5943242
>>5943240

You decide to look up a few schools for Sophia. There are a few options, and even though Sophia is only eligible for pre-school at her age, you might as well look into primary, secondary and upper secondary schools. You make a list of those that catch your interest, with a few pros and cons, and you narrow down your choices to a select few. Of course, you could always choose to go for homeschooling if you want, although that might impair her social growth.

You also ask Arachne if she can quickly check Sophia for any sign of magic tampering, just in case her peculiar behavior is caused by something magical, but as far as Arachne can tell, there’s nothing wrong with her, not in the magical sense at least.

Anyway, for now, you’d rather not make any choice as to her future education until you can figure out what kind of kid she is, so you’ll just pick a pre-school first, and think of a primary school later.

Pre-schools:

>Komfort:
A relatively expensive pre-school. It emphasizes children’s intellectual growth, and a lot of kids here end up having an edge in primary school, as they get taught things like writing, grammar and even math before anyone else. However, it has a reputation of being relatively strict, which might not fit someone like Sophia.

>Ubezhishche:
A pre-school that focuses on the well-being of children and their emotional growth. While it won’t bother teaching your kid any technical skill, it will encourage them to interact with other children and express themselves. It has pretty good reviews overall, although it is understaffed and has had cases of kids wandering all by themselves, which could be dangerous.

>Rost:
A pretty average pre-school, if not for the fact it also acts as a primary, secondary and higher secondary school. It’s somewhat expected of any kid here to stay in this school for most of their childhood, which means that whatever friend she makes here will probably stay a friend for life – but that also means that any enemy she makes will be just as troublesome. It’s actually mandatory for kids that start their pre-school here to also be part of their primary school when they come of age, so you should be careful about picking this one.

>Potentsial:
A pre-school focused on ‘special children’ with peculiar habits. Each kid gets special treatment and is taught according to their peculiar quirks, however, this mean that most of the children tends to be separated and rarely interact with each other. Still, this might be the best place to cultivate Sophia's particular brand of intelligence.

>>5943334
No tampering huh. It was worth a shot.
I find it funny that Komfort is relatively strict, but to me, that one doesn't sound like a good idea. Neither does Rost, I knew some kids who were stuck in schools that spanned several types and I don't think that went so well.
I'd say either Ubezhishche or Potentsial, given that she seems to be a relatively smart kid already.
>Potentsial
my favourite for now

>>5943334
I feel like Potentsial might have the issue of making her anti-social...we know how well that ended with Etsy.

>>5943334
>Potentsial
Caught up now, was not expecting this quest to have so much kino. Wish we had more actions per year in this section however, we should be a able to do a lot more in such a time span. Should also have Weaver get Etsy pregnant again or our dreams of raising a soccer team will be dashed.

>>5943342
School making you more sociable is an exaggeration at best and a straight up lie at worst. I think we will do just fine, Im more worried about Etsy and trying to help her improve as a person, wife and mother.

>>5943334
>Potentsial

>>5943351
Maybe wait until Sophia is at school to get Etsy pregnant again. It's the first one that's the hardest. It becomes way easier when they start to grow because the older kids help raise the young ones.

>>5943364
It'll probably slow down a little when Sophia (and potentially other kids) get more going on in their life outside your control, which is why I'm sorta skipping through the early stages to get to the more interesting parts. If things get more hectic for one reason or another, or we get to a stage that I think is interesting enough to warrant going back to a month by month basis, I might do it.

>>5943334
>>Ubezhishche:

>>5943334
>Ubezhishche

Actually, can't we counter the Uberzhische "lack of safety" by attaching Arachne to her?

>>5943407
Why bother with Ubezhische in the first place when it's purpose can easily be done by us? Same can't be said for Potentsial.

>>5943409
How?

>>5943418
By hanging out in places that people go to hang out, for example, the playground.

We can also help her by making friends with other parents in the community and seeing if our children get along with each other.

Once she gets started, it all gets easier since the more people you're friends with the more people you can be introduced to.

>>5943426
Fair enough.

>>5943334
>Potentsial, but take her to socialize outside of school

>>5943334
>Potentsial, but take her to socialize outside of school
Oh no. Weaver rejected the dating sim plot and setting, so now his children will be dating sim protags. Weaver is going to be the cool but perceptive dad and Etsy will be the lazy but paranoid mom. Right, let's NOT let Etsy's paranoia ruin our kids and traumatize them, okay?

>>5943432
>>5943497
>>5943386
>>5943400
>>5943352
>>5943351

You decide to take your kid to Potentscial, she'll have time to make friends past pre-school, and you can always help her socialize yourself if need be. You think Potentscial is the only pre-school that can really teach someone like Sophia properly, anyway. You contact them, and after a few questions about Sophia's specific quirks, she is quickly taken in.

For the first time in forever, you are separated from Sophia. Sure, you went out without her sometimes, but knowing you can't just come pick her up early bothers you. Well, you can pick her up if you want, but you'd rather not be the overprotective dad that oversee every bit of his daughter's life. You told Arachne to look over her, but she'll only do that for the first few couples of days and then leave her alone, since Arachne said that she disliked being attached to someone else for extended periods of time -- a few hours is fine, but an entire day just feels wrong to her. You don't know if it means there are consequences for attaching Arachne on someone else for too long, but you're certainly not going to test that theory out on your daughter.

With nothing better to do, you go to the workshop to check on Etsy, and you find her busy staring at a blue screen on her PC monitor.

"H-Hey. I just...uhm, so, Sophia got accepted, t-that's good. I- I mean, it's not like there's grade requirements to get accepted in a pre-school so of course they'd accept her as long as we could pay." She nervously rubs her arm, you can tell something's bothering her. "A-Anyway, I don't have much else to say so-"

You ask her what's wrong.

"I- uhm, it's just that..." She restarts her PC, and sighs. "I don't know. I g-guess I kind of don't know what to do anymore. I-I'm running out of design i-ideas, and I-I'm not a great mom, and i-it feels like that now that we're no longer in danger I-I'm kind of... useless? I f-feel useless. D-Do you still need me? W-Wouldn't it be better for our daughter if I just wasn't here, I-"

You say you need her, and your daughter needs her too.

"Ah? Uhm, I-I guess? S-Sorry, I know you're being genuine, but my brain just keeps telling me you're just telling me this to make me feel better. I'm scared, I don't know why, I-I just am."

You interrupt her with a hug. You think of a few things to tell her, but you know that words don't do much when she's like this. The best you can do is show that you're willing to stay here for as long as she needs. She hides her face, covering the tears escaping her eyes. Suddenly, she kisses you, not passionately enough to be lust, but not awkward enough to be an accident. It's a loving kiss, it's simple, short and sweet. You wonder why some kisses feel so different from others, maybe it's more than the kiss itself, it's also the context and emotions behind it. You're surprised how, even after all the time you've spent together, you still discover new things with her.

>>5943853

The next few weeks, instead of taking care of Etsy like you usually do when she’s down, you’re alternating between being helped yourself and helping her. You figure that if she thinks she’s useless, giving her a few easy chores will help her feel better. She still doesn’t feel great, but you hope that as long as you’re here for her, she’ll make it through like before.

You sometimes call Potentsial to ask them what they think about your daughter’s behavior, and they said it’s a little too soon to make any definitive diagnosis, but that your daughter seem to get easily bored by things she ‘figured out’, and gets increasingly frustrated with things she hasn’t. Apparently, she spent hours on a piano toy trying to understand how to ‘solve’ it, and they had to take the toy away from her when she started crying.

You ask Etsy if that’s what she was like as a kid, but her parents told her she wasn’t the type to get bored as a toddler, and would play with toys like most kids her age. Anyway, you’d rather not assume anything about her until she gets to the age where she can communicate properly. You’ll help her socialize with the other kids when you get the time, since the last thing you want is for her to end up with the same childhood as Etsy.

---
7.28M
+
500K (Etsy’s design deals)
-
360K (Yearly costs)
=
7.42M
---

You’ve got more free time now that you don’t have to watch over Sophia all the time, what should you do now?

>Spend more time observing the town.
>Spend more time with Etsy, you have more free time now.
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>You want to check in on your old town, you’ll need to re-hire informants since the internet isn’t always reliable (150K costs/time free action)
>Write in.

>>5943855
>You want to check in on your old town, you’ll need to re-hire informants since the internet isn’t always reliable (150K costs/time free action)
Why not?

>Spend more time with Etsy, you have more free time now.
Remember how we promised we'd one day mindbreak her? We still haven't made good on that promise. I think now we can.

>>5943855
>Spend more time with Etsy, you have more free time now.

I would love to see Etsy try some magic honestly, it will improve her mental health (probably?) and make her feel a little bit better about her self. Also, she will have some means of defense if she could unlock her magic potential, not to mention that she will get more inspiration for some crazy magic designs, our ghosty friend could help in this

>>5943860
It's mentioned earlier that Etsy has no magic potential, which means that the only thing she'd be better at is the demon's martial art, and she's a little far from said demon to learn it. Although your advanced version of MPR is actually now good enough to figure out the specific ways of awakening someone if possible, so you could help your kid awaken their potential if they have any, (or on the contrary, make sure the requirements are never met.) Right now, Sophia is a little too young to tell if she has magic or not, as magic is partly formed from one's personality.

>>5943855
>Spend more time observing the town.
We really need to get around to this. It's not safe to be so in the dark for so long. Putting this off for another year is not acceptable.

Also we should try for another kid with Etsy, we're established enough with Sophia.

>>5943855
>Spend more time observing the town
But do it with Etsy and Sophia too. Nobody bats an eye at a young couple going for walks and sightseeing with their baby, not even here at the far edge of the world

>>5943879
OP could you track ages too? Like how old are Weaver, Etsy, and Sophia and future kids? How long will it be since Weaver and his family left the magic city without a name?

>>5943351
>was not expecting this quest to have so much kino
Neither was I

>>5943884
>Also we should try for another kid with Etsy,
I agree. And like i said, we promised ourselves we'd mindbreak Etsy.

>>5943889
I actually have a 'secret' tracker on Sophia's age. But I can add it here if it makes things more clear. Etsy and Weaver both started at 20, which means they're about 25 years old now. Sophia is around 4 years old now, and primary school in Russia starts at 6. So you've got about 2 more 'turns' before she starts actual school.

I actually had to research the Russian education system, and the pre-school names are just some relevant words I put through Google Translate from English to Russian. Of course, I can hand wave any inconsistency with the culture with "it's alternate history and that's why X is different." So don't expect anything past basic wikipedia skimming level of research.

>>5943899
>hand wave any inconsistency with the culture with "it's alternate history and that's why X is different."
Understandable, you do what you must as a writer
>research the Russian education system
Very well done
>Weaver both started at 20, which means they're about 25 years old now. Sophia is around 4 years old now
Damn who knows what happened back in the magic city in that much time? Who knows if Sarah or anybody else we knew is still alive and kicking?

>>5943855
Also backing >>5943856 and >>5943884 about putting another baby in her. We need to establish that family soccer team. Also Etsy should still try for a new design for a couple more millions, as income is still crucial

>>5943855
>Spend more time observing the town.
>You want to check in on your old town, you’ll need to re-hire informants since the internet isn’t always reliable (150K costs/time free action)

>>5943856
>>5943860
>>5943884
>>5943889
>>5943913

You decide to explore Vladivostok, and also spend extra on hiring informants to check in on your old town. It'll take a while before they get any new info, so you investigate specific parts of the port town in the meantime. You make sure to explore it with Etsy, and K.I.S.A is always parked near wherever you go; you probably don't need to take such precautions, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Apart from the beach and the sea, there is a nearby forest that has some reports of suicide and murders, however you aren't sure how many of those deaths are natural and how many are caused by magic users.

Asking the Russian agency about it, they tell you that it's less that people die in the forest as much as it's the perfect place to get rid of evidence. There's a stigma around throwing bodies in the water, and there's a magic user that feasts on every corpse left in the forest, so a lot of people end up dumping 'evidence' here. They assure you that apart from their desecration of the dead, the magic user living here is harmless to living things, so they see no reason to actively hunt them.

The Kraken's tongue is, despite his high bounty, actually kind of boring. He used his magic to create drama within the company to free up some position that he could then take, and gaslit a few of his superior into giving him a promotion. His power really doesn't seem to be suited for combat, so maybe being boring is a good thing when you're most people could easily kill him, it actually makes you wonder how he survived that long with such a bounty on his head.

There's also a teacher at Ubezhishche that has low potential, Arachne noticed her while you were double-checking schools. Her magic seems to be based on food, but as far as Arachne could tell, she almost never uses her power, or at least not during her job. You're pretty sure even the Russian agency doesn't know about her with how little she uses her magic, not that she seems dangerous.

You also learn that while it's true that Russia has never been that fond of foreigners, Vladivostok is a particularly bad case due to a lot of incidents caused by magic users from other countries. This calmed down in recent years, but the public opinion of avoiding those that aren't from here is still there. Most people in this town aren't really aware of the magical world, but they are still very superstitious, and people that are capable of supernatural feats are both revered and feared depending on what they bring to the community. For example, the corpse eater in the wood is actually respected as they're seen as helping those without a grave find peace, but the sunken teeth is, ironically, seen as unholy by many of the townsfolk.

>>5943984

As you’re exploring the town, you decide to bring Sophia with you, hoping that you’ll get to meet a few other kids. Most people aren’t too willing to let their children interact with strangers like you, and your accent, while much better and understandable, is still thick enough to instantly be recognized as foreign.

You do get to see Sophia play with a few kids on the playground, though. Her most notable interaction was her digging a hole in the sandbox with another kid as deep as possible. She doesn’t seem to be the social type of kid, but she doesn’t mind doing things with others if it also interests her, so that’s good. Well, she also bonked the other kid with her plastic shovel multiple times when they tried to fill the hole back up, but it was more playful than mean.

The teacher at Potentsial said that Sophia is smart, but the more she knows about something, the less interested she becomes in it. For example, she was capable of remembering numbers up to 10, but got really bored past that, even though the teacher knows she’s more than capable of remembering higher numbers. She suspects that to keep her motivation going, she’ll need a lot of variety and that pressuring her too much to learn a certain thing a certain way might end badly. The teacher also stresses out that she doesn’t seem to be motivated by reward or punishment, so being overly strict or lenient will change very little as far as teaching goes, although it might change who she is at a person.

You also get a little bit of info from your old town, and it’s...well, it changed a lot, but it also hasn’t. One of your informant, the one that figured out you and your town had a missing name, apparently had magic potential that he unlocked specifically after reading the missing names. He’s one of the few that didn’t dig too deep or quit. He tells you that Mona is gone, and the Infinite Reflection is still working with the agency, there’s a very good chance Mona is trying to destroy them from the inside, and that they somehow haven’t realized he’s under her control.

Schadenfreude has moved out of the town with her boyfriend, and Dusk has taken a stance against agents trying to re-establish themselves there. The demon is still there with Leah, although Leah has apparently been taught a few fighting tricks and her bounty has increased dramatically. Apparently her magic is incredibly powerful when used properly, as it’s very good at bypassing people’s soul defenses, and it can demoralize opponents in seconds, this coupled with the demon’s training means that a lot of people think she has an actual shot at godhood, which is strange to think about.

>>5943986


Lastly, he asks you if you know someone by the name of Mary. You tell him you don’t know anyone by that name, but that it sounds familiar. He investigated the whole ‘missing name’ thing a little deeper, and Sawyer said that she was the reason your name was missing, but that it shouldn’t be relevant anymore. All he could find was a girl by the same name that was in the same class as you in middle school, but you tell him that still doesn’t ring a bell. Speaking of Sawyer, she’s mostly kept to herself in the orphanage, but has taken a hard stance against anyone trying to attack the orphanage, even the strongest magic users tend to steer clear of her, it makes you wonder if she's much stronger than she appears.

Other than that, some new magic users come and go, they usually get killed or flee the town before they become a problem, and it’s apparently how it’s always been, the only difference here is that without the agency to keep things in check, magic users tend to be a little more bold than usual.

You also call Sarah to see how she’s doing, and she tells you that she’s doing as fine as she expected. It’s kind of hard to adapt to a brand-new country as she doesn’t have your capital, but her life is still relatively peaceful. She asks you to send a few pictures of Sophia, and she hangs the photos on her fridge, saying she’s happy you four are doing well, it’s nice of her to include Arachne in your family.

>>5943987

Coming back to your regular life, Etsy is still a little down. Her last deal didn’t yield that much, because a lot of her design uses recycled code or are pretty similar to previous stuff she sold, which makes them worth inherently less than before. Her productivity is at an all-time low, as she’s starting to doubt if she was ever worth that much in the first place.

You sigh, and get yourself ready for plan B. It’s not a plan that you could do with Sophia around, but now that she’s at school, you have enough time to execute it.

The plan is quite simple. Sex. A lot of it. So much of it that it’s less about enjoyment and more about outperforming her. Her libido has always been higher than yours, and even during her pregnancy, there was always this feeling that she could go further. So this time, you’ll try to go beyond your limits and won’t give her a single second to think about her silly little worries.

At first, you do pretty well. If you entirely focus on her pleasure instead of yours, you can last a lot longer than her, and you know exactly when to stop and when to continue. At this point she’s basically begging for mercy, but you can still sense some smugness in her voice, so you go even further. If she can still speak coherently, you still have work to do.

You start something whenever Sophia isn’t at home, especially if she starts saying something bad about herself. You almost feel bad for not listening to her when you do this, but then you remember what she puts you through when she did have free reign over you, and you think it’s proper payback.

You last like this for about a month, because at this point, the very thought of sex disgusts you on a primal level. You collapse on the bed, your heart beating faster than should be physically possible. Etsy is right next to you, covered in fluids of all kind, as she tries her best to recover from the ordeal.

“O-Okay, y-you win. I-I didn’t realize you still l-liked me that much- Ack-”

You grab her again, although you don’t know if you have the strength to do much more.

“T-There’s no way I won’t have a-another kid with all that. S-So much about you being scared of becoming a father.”

You tell her she speaks a lot for a cocksleeve.

“Y-You’re really going to rub it in… W-Wait I didn’t mean literally-”

After all of it, Etsy is a little happier, and probably pregnant, but you knew what you were getting into when you started plan B. Arachne also said you were going so far that she sometimes woke up from her weaving because she thought you were in mortal danger with how fast your heartbeat was, so you probably won’t be able to do this too often.

>>5943988

---
7.42M
+
400K (Etsy’s design deals)
-
360K (Yearly costs)
-
150K (Informants)
=
7.31M
---
Sophia: 5 years old. (1 year until primary school)
Etsy & Weaver: 26 years old
---

Etsy's mental state is back to something ressembling normality, and even though she might be pregnant, you still have time for other activities.

>Investigate this ‘Mary’ person.
>Try to integrate into the community
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Investigate specific parts of the town.
>Write in.

>>5943989
>>Investigate this ‘Mary’ person.
>>Try to integrate into the community

>>5943989
>Try to integrate into the community
Will make it easier for the kids. Also, I’m surprised we could just casually contact the Russian agency.

>>5943995
+1
I wonder if Weaver will get a good rep with other magic users here?

>>5943995
>+1
we should try investing next time

>>5943986
>Well, she also bonked the other kid with her plastic shovel multiple times when they tried to fill the hole back up
cute
>>5943995
+1
Also I'm glad we out-sexed Etsy.

>>5944060
>>5944027
>>5944007
>>5943996
>>5943995

You decide to look further into this ‘Mary’ girl. If she’s the one who erased your name, there’s a non-zero chance she might come back to mess with your life even further. Sure, Sawyer said it was no longer relevant, but it can’t hurt to stay informed, right?

Trying to find info on her proves harder than you thought. At first, you thought she was working with E.N.D considering the minuscule amount of stuff you can find about her online, but the fact you can find anything at all in the first place makes you think that isn’t the case. You can’t find a dossier, so you aren’t sure if she’s even a magic user, but you don’t see what else she could be if she somehow managed to delete your name from existence in an alternate future.

After months of research and help from Etsy’s hacking, you find something that you can actually work with, a blog. Her blog doesn’t use her real name, it’s pretty empty, and it hasn’t updated since she was in middle school. It’s supposed to have been deleted, but it turns out this website kept deleted profiles just in case they needed to sell their data later, which is convenient for you.

There’s only two things of note here, a phone number, and a profile description. It reads as such:

‘I’m not sure how long I can keep doing this, pretending it’s all fine. I’m not sure if I did the right thing back then, was there even a right thing to do in my position? It’s unfair. All of it is. I just hope you’re happy, but I also hope you aren’t. It’s weird.’

The description stands out, sure, it could be seen as a teenager trying to sound deep, but a part of you feels like that’s not it. It’s familiar, you’re familiar with this person, but you’re quite certain you’ve never met her too, is it possible to remember an event that hasn’t happened? Is that what deja-vu is? That doesn’t make sense, you’d be constantly sensing deja-vu considering you’ve probably met everyone in every alternate future, no, your connection to this person is deeper than that.

You should call her. No, you shouldn’t. She hasn’t bothered you thus far, so it’s better to not bring attention back to you. But you want to know, calling her is the only way to know more. Wait, you could make an anonymous call, she won’t know it’s you. She will, there’s no way she won’t. How do I know that? Maybe she doesn’t-

“Hey.” Arachne snaps you out of your internal rambling. “Your soul is moving strangely, whatever you’re thinking of, you should stop.”

You tell Arachne you were thinking of calling Mary.

“Hope Etsy don’t see you agonizing over calling a girl like that, she might get jealous.” She chuckles to herself, you sometimes forget she has a sense of humor. “Anyway, please wait a little longer before calling her, I need more time to read your soul, I might be able to figure out what’s wrong.”

File: beebee2.png (113 KB, 542x653)

113 KB PNG

>>5944194
Sure, you’ll leave it to Arachne, this whole thing is making you uncomfortable anyway.

While you’re waiting for Arachne’s verdict, you decide to integrate within the community a little more. Etsy’s Russian is still terrible, but she picked up a few words here and there by osmosis, so she sometimes manages to muster a hello to the people that work at D.I.Y. It’s the best you could hope from her, you suppose. On your end, you try to talk to your neighbors when you can, and chat with the other parents waiting for their kid at the pre-school. It doesn’t go well with the neighbors, as most of them spit on the ground every time you try to talk to them. The parents are a little more accommodating, as you can at least bond over the shared experience of raising a ‘special’ kid. It takes a little bit of time to get to a point where the populace stops calling you slurs, but you do get there. It’ll take a little bit more work before you can fully integrate within the community, and you can’t say you’ve made any ‘friends’ per se, but you’ve done pretty well thus far.

Etsy’s pregnancy is confirmed, and you go through the motion until the moment comes. It’s a lot less stressful this time, but it’s still an ordeal, especially without Leah lowering Etsy’s pain, but at least Etsy made sure to give you a few tools to help you get the kid out. You wish she’d go to a real doctor for this, because you feel really inadequate for something so important, and you have no idea what you’d need to do if something went wrong.

Thankfully, nothing does, and you are presented with a beautiful boy. Unlike Sophia, he actually has hair, although he looks a little weird in other ways. He tends to open his eyes wide when he cries, much wider than you’ve seen Sophia do, he looks like an owl when he does this. Even so, he’s cute in his own way, and you’re filled with joy as you present the new member of the family to Etsy.

Sophia wasn’t here for her brother’s arrival, but she doesn’t seem to care that much about him when she first meets him, it’s like she doesn’t even register him as a human being since he’s just a baby that can’t do much. Speaking of, you need to give your son a name, maybe a Russian name would be nice for him to integrate better.

>Write in a name (will default to Ivan on a tie)

Arachne also tells you that she thinks calling Mary is safe, and that your soul just has an adverse reaction to this girl because your name was erased by her. Of course, there’s still a risk to calling her, and that’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it.

>Call Mary.
>Don’t.

>>5944197
Our son. He's cute. And Sophia is...increasingly weirder. We really ought to hope this won't get worse.

As for the name...hmm..Ivan is fine, I guess, but it's a bit normal. How about...
>Mikhail
And then we can call him Misha as a nickname. I think it fits him.

>Call Mary.
But uh...be careful about it, right?

>>5944197
>Dmitri
>Call Mary.

>>5944213
He doesn't feel like a Dmitri to me.

>>5944197
>Mikhail
Feel like picking names that work both in english and russian.

>Call Mary.
I am way too curious.

>>5944197
Aleksandr is another option, but honestly, I like Mikhail and Dimitri all the same.
>Call Mary
but get Etsy's OK? If she's really apprehensive of it we could hold off, especially given that taking our name could've been for our protection or something.

>>5944213
Same as anon, Dmitri is literally living in us, or with us, something like that. And he did his job without inaction.

>>5944213
+1

>>5944246
Etsy's always going to be paranoid

>>5944204
I reread the Sophia bits
>you have to admit it's peculiar that she was only interested in the puzzle when you did it wrong. When Sophia finally reaches the puzzle, you put the square shape out of her reach to see if that's really what she was interested in. her eyes start to water as she desperately tries to grab it. When you finally give it to her, she actually tries to put it in the circle hole like you did before, and she actually looks surprised at the fact it doesn't work. You've seen her do the puzzle before, so it's not like she doesn't know how it works. She looks back to you, a confused look on her face, before putting the shape in the correct hole.
>your daughter seem to get easily bored by things she ‘figured out’, and gets increasingly frustrated with things she hasn’t. Apparently, she spent hours on a piano toy trying to understand how to ‘solve’ it, and they had to take the toy away from her when she started crying.
>the more she knows about something, the less interested she becomes in it. For example, she was capable of remembering numbers up to 10, but got really bored past that, even though the teacher knows she’s more than capable of remembering higher numbers. She suspects that to keep her motivation going, she’ll need a lot of variety and that pressuring her too much to learn a certain thing a certain way might end badly.
Did MPR somehow bleed through into her from conception, affecting her as a person?

>>5943986
>The demon is still there with Leah, although Leah has apparently been taught a few fighting tricks and her bounty has increased dramatically. Apparently her magic is incredibly powerful when used properly, as it’s very good at bypassing people’s soul defenses, and it can demoralize opponents in seconds, this coupled with the demon’s training means that a lot of people think she has an actual shot at godhood, which is strange to think about.
IN THE NEXT DECADE
FAT NEET FEMOTAKU BITCH LEVEL GRINDS IRL AND BECOMES LITERAL GOD

wait whoops my bad

>>5944197
Changing my vote from >>5944329 to
>Mikhail

>>5944197
>Mikhail
>Don’t.
There's no reason to risk it. Decently likely the knowledge is better left off unknown

>>5944197
>Mikhail
>Call Mary.

>>5944380
>>5944378
>>5944339
>>5944225
>>5944213
>>5944204

You decide to call him Mikhail, it's a name that works both in English and in Russian, and it's unique enough that it's unlikely he'll meet too many kids with the same name. Etsy trusts your naming convention more than her own, and agrees that it's a fine name.

You also decide to call Mary, but warn Etsy in advance, telling her she's the one that may have erased your name, and knowing more about her could be useful. She isn't a huge fan of the idea, but she's also very curious about who would go so far as to erase your name, so she doesn't stop you -- although she makes sure that your call can't be traced in any way, and asks you don't reveal your identity if you can.

With all preparations done, you call the number. You hear the ringing tone, and it gets unceremoniously answered after only a few seconds of waiting.

"Who is it? If you're selling something, I'm not interested." The woman on the other end of the call, which you presume to be Mary, responds like you'd expect anyone that received an anonymous call would. That she wasn't able to recognize you instantly from just the call reassures you a little.

You ask her if this is Mary speaking.

You hear a groan before you get your answer. "How. How did you even find me. Why, actually? Okay, yeah, it's Mary speaking." It's hard to parse the emotion behind her voice, it's like a mix of annoyance and happiness.

You ask her if she's the one who erased your name, you're pretty sure your anonymity is busted anyway, so there's no reason to play it safe at this point.

"So you really don't remember, huh. I almost thought... whatever. Yes, I'm the one who erased your name. I don't know, I was emotional at the time. Turns out when you're at the top, even something as simple as erasing a name has pretty far-reaching consequences, so here I am, and here you are."

Etsy makes a cutting motion under her neck, probably implying you should cut the call, but you don't think it's a good idea to hang up on someone like that, and you kind of want to know more.

You ask her how she knows you. You probably met in an alternate future, but you don't know much more about what this future was like, or how she remembers any of it while you don't.

"You don't remember anything, yet you still found me. Is it fate or...no, that's wishful thinking, curiosity led you there. We were enemies, but we also...I don't know, it's complicated. I don't want to think about it, or remember it. You know what? Fuck you, just for making me think about this shit, you get to too."

You try to ask her what she means by this, but before you can, your vision gets blurry and your body gets heavier, then you-

>>5944755

---

Once again, you meet, and Mary erases all the buildings in a twenty-mile radius, leaving a perfectly clean and even level 'arena' for you to fight in. A few thousand people probably died right this instant, this would've made you feel icky before, but once you reach a certain magic level, the average layman's death stops bothering you. You know it's bad to think like this, but you tell yourself you'll just reverse all the damage when you reach godhood, so you don't have to worry about casualties too much, you know Mary thinks the same.

Mary struts towards you, humming a song that no longer exists, it hurts your head just to listen to it. "Hey, Mary, please pick a song that's actually good for once? If I have to die, I'd like it to be under some good tunes."

"Oh my godddd, fine. You get to choose, but I swear if it's video game music again-"

You put on Chrono Trigger music.

"I hate you so much." She erases the distance between you and her, and you quickly mirror her technique, summoning back the air she deleted to force her away from you. "Such an annoying power, get your own magic, jackass."

You stick out your tongue at her. Your magic isn't great, but it's always funny how frustrated it makes your opponent feels.

Offensive option:
>ERASED
>ERASED
>Use Adapted Pattern to hit her with bullet like punches.
>ERASED

Defensive option:
>ERASED
>Use mirror match+ to undo her erasing attempts.
>ERASED
>ERASED

I can't believe she's calling you the annoying one when she can do shit like this. Well, whatever, she can't keep it erased for very long, so she's limiting her own options in the process.

You close in on her, your speed far beating her reaction time, and deck her in the face hard enough for the sound barrier to break. The only reason you aren't punching harder is that you've accidentally created a nuclear-like explosion because of it once, and that was just a mess. Even so, at your level, your physical body isn't that important, and it's just an obstacle to getting to the most important part, your opponent's magic. She erases the damage you do, but you make sure to punch her every time she does. Realizing she can't heal your punches, she decides to erase your left arm, so you're forced to kick her away instead. She stops your attempt to fix your arm by pinning you into the ground.

"Strike~" She basically headbutts you as your lips meet, and you're forced to admit defeat. "I win!"

Damn, you were hoping to get a blowjob out of her this time, she's really good at those, and it always feels great to put her back in her place. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

"Alright, my request as the winner is..." She goes red, it's rare to see her embarrassed like this, she's going to ask for some kinky shit, isn't she? "...just this time, can we-"

You don't remember what she asked. You don't remember what you answered, either. You just know she was crying, and that you hated it.

---

>>5944759

You wake up, Etsy tells you passed out for a few hours, and she was worried something terrible happened. You're not sure what this vision was, but it makes you feel weird. Etsy tells you that after the call ended, Mary went completely dark, and she couldn't find any trace of her anywhere online, maybe that's a good thing, you don't want to think about her.

Well, that's what you're telling yourself, but a part of you also really wants to find her. Arachne says it's best for you that you don't, it's very likely that searching for her is going to make you remember things you shouldn't, and might even mess up your personality in the long term. Some things are buried for a reason.

---
7.31M
+
0K (Etsy stopped working during the pregnancy, will renew the contract next year)
-
360K (Yearly costs)
=
6.95M
---
Sophia: 6 years old.
Mikhail: few months old.
Etsy & Weaver: 27 years old
---

You try to distract yourself from these weird feelings by focusing on your family, Sophia is old enough to go to primary school, and you want to make sure to pick a good one that fits her.

>Rost:
The school that also acts as primary, secondary and higher secondary education. It's not weird for kids to join it at this age even if they weren't part of their pre-school, but it's still a commitment if you pick it now.

>Polzti:
A primary school that focuses on more practical teaching methods. While it still teaches the expected curriculum, it shows children how to apply those things in everyday life. This is great for kids who can't stand still for very long.

>Trayektoriya:
A school that expects kids to build a work ethic at a very young age. It's strict, but it tends to create very good students for those that can take it.

>Roza:
A private school that's relatively expensive. It's not too strict, and tends to take special care of kid's special interests and needs, however there is a notable bullying problem as teachers are very wary of accidentally pissing off very rich and powerful parents, which means they ironically have a more hands-off policy than the price of the school would make you think.

>>5944763
Well, I guess she was some girl we were with in an alternate timeline. That's pretty overpowered, though. As for school...
>Polzti:
This seems like the best fit for Sophia, right? She loses interest in stuff she's figured out. Plus she might actually make some friends. Wonder when that 'responsibility' thing we had with the boy will kick in...

>>5944763


>Polzti

>>5944770
There's an argument to be made for trayektoriya, so that she would be able to work on things despite losing interest or even maintain interest longer.

>>5944785
Hmm...true, but at the same time, wasn't it said that punishment doesn't really work on her?

>>5944763
>Trayektoriya
Work ethic matters in life

>>5944755
>>5944759
>this entire shit
We NEED to sit and talk with Etsy about this. About the ex-gf that can erase things and is probably colossal magic or much higher given everything in the vision. About a Weaver who participated in the magic godhood war to the point he's all in on the "nah I'll just undo all the deaths that happened because of me when I become god, so casualties don't matter" logic, and who can casually pull off nuke punches and shrug them off. Fuck, now our boy Weaver can never listen to the Chrono Trigger OST again. Fuck that timeline bros
>she can't keep it erased for very long
Then how is Weaver's name still erased? And how come Sawyer still knows?
>She erases the distance between you and her
>get your own magic, jackass
You're one to talk saying that right after copying Okuyasu, bitch

>>5944805
>About the ex-gf that can erase things and is probably colossal magic or much higher given everything in the vision.
Is it an ex-gf if it's from a future that never happened? The same could be said about a future where we dated sawyer...or dated sawyer and etsy...there were a lot of possible scenarios.

>>5944816
Then that raises the question of how the hell do Sawyer and Mary still recall but nobody else does? Mary because it's her own power, Sawyer because timeline destruction is what she does?

File: Cosmic Garou NF.png (2.3 MB, 1600x1138)

2.3 MB PNG

>>5944759
>The only reason you aren't punching harder is that you've accidentally created a nuclear-like explosion because of it once, and that was just a mess.
Nigga became cosmic garou. also we both had op powers and had some enemies with benefits going on
>>5944763
>Polzti
>>5944805
>About the ex-gf that can erase things
more like enemy with benefits and that's in another timeline. speaking of which, I'm curious as to how she still has those memories.

>>5944849
How OP is our Weaver's powerset anyway?

>>5944851
>How OP is our Weaver's powerset anyway?
well, the one we have now is quite strong even if we don't have a direct means of attack but no where near OP.

>>5944845
>Then that raises the question of how the hell do Sawyer and Mary still recall but nobody else does?
Sawyer can literally see alternative timelines because of her power, so it makes sense but Mary is the odd one here. Are you a new reader, anon ?

>>5944863
Read the rest of the post you replied to and stop being a retard, you ESL

>>5944763
>Trayektoriya

>>5944870
alright, so you're just retarded then, thought you were new.

>>5944874
YOU SHITPOSTING CUNT
I JUST FUCKING SAID
>Sawyer because timeline destruction is what she does?
BECAUSE I ASSUME WITH HER POWER SHE ALSO HAS RIPPLE-EFFECT NEGATION TOO
THIS LETS HER RECALL TIMELINES SHE VIEWED AND RUINED IN THE PROCESS
BUT I'M NOT SURE ENTIRELY BECAUSE THIS CASE IS DUE TO MARY'S POWER AND NOT SAWYER'S
AND I DID NOT GO BACK TO REREAD FOR THE MINUTIAE OF HOW MUCH OF WEAVER'S LOST NAME SHE KNOWS OF
SHUT THE FUCK UP

>>5944770
>>5944779
>>5944805
>>5944849

You decide to send your daughter to Polzti, Sophia is a kid that would struggle to learn in a standard school, and more practical methods of teaching would work great on her.

Speaking of Sophia, she's now smart enough to form proper sentences, but she still has this habit of using only one word if it communicates what she wants well enough. Her favorite word is still 'what', she uses it to point at random things, usually so that you explain how it works. Etsy often starts rambling about how every contraption in your house works to your daughter, but she isn't great at simplifying her explanation to a child's level understanding.

Anyway, you send Sophia to school, and you steel yourself for what you're about to tell Etsy. She hasn't been really jealous in recent years, but there's a difference between talking to another woman and telling her you've had a vision of you being friends with benefit with one. Even so, you've decided to be honest with her, as the last thing you want is her finding out later and making her own wrong conclusions.

After telling her what you know, Etsy tries to force a smile, but you can tell this is making her uncomfortable. "I...I get it, I-I mean, from the way y-you're describing it, it wasn't r-really 'you' right? I-It's a person you could've b-become so... I-I have no reason to be jealous. Although...a-ah, sorry, it's stupid. I-I guess it's easy to believe in this whole 'soulmate' thing, t-that no matter what happens, y-you'll always meet somehow, but I know that's not how l-life is."

You tell her the person you are now would never leave her, and that's all that matters.

"B-But what if you change? I-I mean...no, sorry, it's stupid. I-If you wanted to leave me, y-you would've done so earlier. I-I'm glad you decided to trust me with this, it's b-better than you hiding it from me." She rubs her wedding ring with one finger, the tri-matter forming it shifting at her touch. "All the way back when I p-put a chip in your s-shoulder, I really wasn't planning on telling you. I-I thought it'd be a white lie, and that it was for your own good, but I should've been honest from the start."

You tell her it was literally more than a decade ago, and it's fine. It does make you wonder if she didn't put more stuff in you without you realizing, but baseless accusations would only make things worse, and you decide to believe that she has no real reason to lie about stuff like this when you've never been that angry at her antic.

>>5944904


Still, you can't help but be bothered by Mary. The ability to erase a name through time is no small feat, and it makes you wonder how people like Sawyer or her can remember your name, since it happened in the future. Arachne thought about this a lot, and came up with a few possible explanations.

The first possible explanation, is that erasing the name 'rewrote' the timeline and brought her back into the past, but that her magic allows her to remember 'erased' things. It's also possible that being brought back into the past nerfed her magic back to how it was back then. People like Sawyer could remember the missing name was because their magic allowed them to find a time when it wasn't, although Sawyer did say that time was more 'soup-like' than linear.

The second possibility, and a terrifying one, is that she achieved godhood after killing you, and that in an attempt to forget about you, erased your name which inadvertently caused her to revert to a time when she was no longer a god. This one is a stretch, but Arachne isn't ruling it out because the magic shown in your vision was what many calls 'on the verge' potential, a level of magic potential reserved to beings who are 'on the verge' of godhood.

The third theory is even more unlikely, and it's that Sawyer accidentally snapped that timeline, which caused her to be brought back, but she found a way to retain her memory in the process.

All those theories are fucking insane, and you're not sure if knowing which one is correct really matters. It makes you wonder how things could've turned out if you had just taken a slightly different path, but you're happy now, and that's all that matters.

You decide to ignore what ifs and focus on the now. Namely, your son. He cries a little bit more than Sophia, but he's also a little bit more 'normal'. He learned to crawl much earlier than her, and he's taken a liking to Etsy, which did make her feel better about her ability as a mother. It's a little early to tell what kind of kid he is, but he's different enough from Sophia that whatever you learned from her might not apply to him.

As for Sophia, she seems to be doing fine at school. She wasn't great at things like grammar at first, but she became much better when you bought her a few kid's book about things she wanted to know about. Her teachers have described her as quiet but still participating in class whenever something interested her. Overall, a good kid that's a lot more polite than they expected, given how you first described her.

During that year, you also had extra time for some other things, like...

>Invest some money. Stocks are be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Investigate specific parts of the town.
>Make Sophia play with her brother more.
>Talk to Sophia more.
>Integrate into the community further.
>Write in.

>>5944905
>Talk to Sophia more.
>Integrate into the community further.
I don't think it'd take an entire year to just talk to Sophia more...anyway, i feel like we need to make sure Sophia doesn't end up being too overly obsessed with only doing things she's interested in.

>>5944906
Generally speaking, it's fair to assume you can do around two actions at once in a year, unless those two actions are contradictory or one of them is really time-consuming. Actually, I might as well make it a new rule that you can pick two actions for year-long things, I kind of avoided it because I was afraid it might make voting more confusing, but I've basically included two actions these past few years anyway. I guess it's more accurate to say that you'll spend way more time with Sophia rather than just talking to her, but it's true that saying it'll take a year by itself is silly especially when she spends most of her time at school.

>>5944905
>Integrate into the community further.

>>5944906
+1

>>5944904
>You tell her it was literally more than a decade ago
QM, are you serious?

>>5944905
>All those theories are fucking insane
100%

>>5944906
+1

>>5944947
I meant 'more than half a decade ago' that was a typo.

>>5944905
>Invest some money. Stocks are be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Talk to Sophia more.

>>5944905
>Integrate into the community further.
>Talk to Sophia more.
There'll be time for brother-and-sister play and bonding later

>>5944995
>+1

>>5944906
>>5944914
>>5944916
>>5944947
>>5944995
>>5945055

You decide to spend more time with Sophia, taking her on walks to get her out of her shell. You wouldn't call her shy, but she isn't very social and while that isn't much of an issue now, it might be one in the future. You'd also like it if she tried to learn things beyond just what she is interested in, as school is only going to get harder and, quite frankly, more boring. Etsy is also fine spending most of her time taking care of Mikhail while you're with Sophia, as she finds him a lot easier to understand than her.

First, you try to think of what would constitute a proper reward for making Sophia do something she normally wouldn't. Sweets don't work, compliments don't work, and in the end all you can think of is more of a punishment than a reward, by forbidding her to do things she likes until she's done doing what you tell her to. That doesn't work either, she just pouts and stares at the wall, the pre-school teacher did say neither punishment nor reward worked, but surely there's something that can motivate her, right? No one can live their entire life doing things they like, that's just not how life works. Then again, maybe that's a little harsh of a lesson to teach a 7-year-old.

For some reason, it didn't occur to you to just ask Sophia what she likes, so you do just that.

"I..." She moves her arms up and down, searching for the right words from her limited vocabulary. "I like it when... I'm calm? Uhm... I don't know..." She speaks in this slightly slurred speech that kids often have, which makes it harder to understand her.

You suppose it's hard for a kid to answer such a vague question, especially someone like Sophia who is more motivated by abstract concepts like knowledge and frustration.

Wait, that's it. What motivates her is learning things she knows nothing about, not stuff she's already learning about. If you promise to teach her something new every time she does things she dislikes, this might be enough to motivate her further.

Your theory proves mostly correct, as the idea of some forbidden knowledge she doesn't have yet access to being offered every time she does a set task is enough to get her to do things she normally wouldn't bother with. It's a good thing she doesn't have access to the internet, because you have this feeling she'd spend all her time skimming Wikipedia articles, although there are certainly worse ways of spending one's childhood.

Apart from that, you also try to integrate within the community further. It takes a good amount of baked goods to win most of those people over, but you do get to a point where you manage to convince a few of them to come over for dinners and barbecues. A lot of people still think you're a weirdo, but in an affectionate way. The homeless also really like you since you give them all the extra food you have, which has the added benefit of getting a pseudo-informant network from people living in the streets.

>>5945124

Other than that, Etsy managed to make a million out of her last deal, but she’s really starting to run out of ideas and she doesn’t want to sell her most secret stuff, especially those pertaining to security and weapons. She knows those would sell for a lot, but it could also easily be used against her if those designs ever leak.

Also, the Russian agency lets you know that they’re going to hunt a guy called the ‘Consciousness Hunter’. Apparently, he has been hunting magic sea creatures to increase his magic potential, and since he has shown absolutely no sign of communicating with the agency, they think there’s a very real chance he might get involved with land dwellers sooner rather than later. His info costs about 2 million, and his bounty is at about 15 million.

It’s a little worrying, but from what you can gather it’s unlikely he’ll be hunting in your area first so it should buy you some time even if the agency can’t handle him.

---
6.95M
+
1M (Etsy’s contract deal)
-
360K (Yearly costs)
=
7.59M
---
Sophia: 7 years old.
Mikhail: 1 year old.
Etsy & Weaver: 28 years old
---

(As mentioned previously, I’ll allow 2 actions to be taken a year. However, if an action has a FT: full time disclaimer, it will count as two actions.)

>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Help Sophia bond with her brother.
>Spend more time raising Mikhail, you haven’t spent as much time with him as Etsy.
>Write in.

>>5945125
>Help Sophia bond with her brother
>Help Sophia bond with her brother.
>Spend more time raising Mikhail, you haven’t spent as much time with him as Etsy.
Next child when?

>>5945125
>>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)

>>5945131
Oops, repeated the action twice

>>5945125
>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)

Hunt him with the agency, you will be able to to gain more trust with them and also you could be something of a trump card for them which will try to protect. Also, monnnneyyyy, we need that money

>>5945136
+1
I want to flex Unreliable Existence and Arachne's powers as well as upgraded MPR

>>5945125
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Help Sophia bond with her brother.
time to start another way to gain money, since Etsy is running dry of "safe" things to sell.

>>5945168
>+1

>>5945168
+1
We can get money this way and I really don't like the idea of seeking out combat. We moved to Russia to get away from that magic competition stuff that will threaten Etsy and our family.

>>5945190
It’s a big hunt for very great reward, kinda a double layered move, you’ll probably gain from the bounty much more then the investment, gain a more protection from the Russian agency. I don’t think being passive in the game will bring any good anyway.

>>5945205
Yes it will probably bring more reward but it's unnecessary danger. Our goal isn't to become the new god, it's to survive and protect our family. Seeking out fights is not a good idea with that in mind.

>>5945205
>It’s a big hunt for very great reward, kinda a double layered move, you’ll probably gain from the bounty much more then the investment, gain a more protection from the Russian agency. I don’t think being passive in the game will bring any good anyway.
I feel your point about we having to grab somethings from time to time, it's just not feeling up to it now.

>>5945125
>Maybe you could invest some money? Stocks should be easy to figure out with MPR.
>Help Sophia bond with her brother.
Also have another kid, we need to try for a child every year if we want our soccer team!

Also also have Etsy focus on improving herself. Pick up hobbies, work out, make some friends and all that good stuff. I can picture a sweet moment of Weaver teaching her how to cook for example.

>>5945125
>Help Sophia bond with her brother.
>Spend more time raising Mikhail, you haven’t spent as much time with him as Etsy.
They're at crucial ages, I would have been game for a hunt, but I don't wanna risk them getting a shitty childhood.

You should probably start investing into some stocks, it might take a while to figure out, especially considering the fact that stocks are not just governed by regular economic factors, but also from rogue agents like Mona and other magic users. In other words, you need to find companies that are low risk, high reward, buying into D.I.Y and the other megacorp won't get you much in the short term, so you'll need to analyze a metric ton of data -- including rumors -- to make sure you aren't just throwing your money away.

You also decide to invest on your kid's wellbeing by making them interact with each other more, with varying degrees of success. Sophia's only hanging out with your brother if you promise a random fact later, and your brother is...well, he's about a year old, he just does things without thinking, but he doesn't seem to mind Sophia, at least. You do eventually manage to make them interact in a non-forced way by encouraging Sophia to teach him things he doesn't know. He's a little young to actually understand what she's saying, but she enjoys lording her knowledge over him anyway. You really hope she doesn't grow up to be the kind of know it all kid that everyone hates, but right now she's only a tiny bit smug instead of insufferably so.

Speaking of, Sophia has been asking increasingly philosophical questions like 'why do we do things', 'Why isn't this fun anymore' and 'what's autism'. Of course, she doesn't word it that eloquently, so you're paraphrasing a little, but it makes you worried that at this rate she'll become a nihilist, and not the happy kind. You're not sure kids her age are supposed to be asking themselves that, when you were 8 you...

...oh god, you were exactly like her, you just didn't tell anyone. You would ask yourself these questions all the time, but that's because you were miserable back then, does that mean she's miserable? You thought her weird habits were something she inherited from Etsy, but maybe she's closer to you than you first thought. What would have helped you back then? Friends? Affection? Wait, you got it.

You sit with Sophia on the sofa, where she's watching a documentary on seagulls. You try to get into the subject in a way a kid can understand, but then you realize that it's a little patronizing, so you decide to tell her the same way you would have told yourself as a kid. You tell her that emotions are complicated, and that as much as it sucks, she's the only one who can truly understand herself, and you can only get a glimpse of how she actually feels, and that you're sorry you don't actually have the answer for all of her problems. Even so, you tell her you're here for her, and that if she needs to get something off her chest, you'll never be mad at her for it.

>>5945599
(I forgot to reply on the last post)
>>5945544
>>5945359
>>5945190
>>5945188
>>5945168
>>5945159
>>5945131
>>5945132

---
7.28M
+
0K(Etsy has ran out of ideas for now)
-
3M (Investing, will make returns next year.)
-
360K (Monthly costs)
=
3.92M
---
Random rumor updates:
- Your best investment might have been Leah’s dossier, as her info cost skyrocketed to 200M and her bounty at 2 billion. Thankfully, once you own a dossier, you own it forever, no matter how much the price may fluctuate in the future.
- The Consciousness Hunter has taken down the Hundred-Mile Eel of Vladivostok’s sea, but has yet to actively go after people on land. The Russian agency is trying to ambush him, but he always acts as if he’s one step ahead of everyone else.
- Mona has lost control of all the people she claimed after a scuffle with Leah, she is still alive, but with no emotional support or anyone that truly cares for her, the severe emotional damage caused by Leah is expected to result in a suicide or complete apathy.
-Most of the Arthis have died of old age in the town, with the only healthy representative being the demon’s student, who extended his lifespan thanks to her teachings.
---
Infectious Personality(Leah) DOSSIER UPDATE:
Info cost: purchased. Bounty: 2B Bought
A woman of colossal magical potential capable of transferring her and other’s emotion to others, including objects. After training with her sister for a few years, she was able to use her magic to her fullest potential. While her magic is primarily emotion focused, she has infused certain objects with the desire to protect her, giving them what some may consider a soul. Her abilities are also incredibly good at bypassing soul defenses, and fighting her for an extended period of time is considered suicide in the most literal sense of the word.

As most powerful magic users prefer to fight alone, it is not uncommon for them to crumble under insecurities they may have built under decades of stoicism and loneliness. If you wish to fight her, it is highly encouraged to be emotionally healthy, have things that truly matter to you beyond your own survival, and most importantly, to never lie to yourself. Lacking emotions entirely, may it be because of a mental or magical disability, does not help, as a matter of fact, it will only make you less prepared as your body has to withstand feelings it never had to deal with previously.

She is currently in a casual relationship with the Infinite Reflection.
---
Sophia: 8 years old (2 year before secondary school).
Mikhail: 2 years old.
Etsy & Weaver: 29 years old
---

>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)
>Try to get more info from your homeless network.
>Focus on Sophia’s wellbeing.
>Spend more time with Etsy, she’s important too.
>Spend more time raising Mikhail, you haven’t spent as much time with him as Etsy.
>Write in.

(I know not a lot happened this in-game-year, but the next few years will probably slow down so don't worry.)

>>5945600
>Spend more time with Etsy, she’s important too.
>Spend more time raising Mikhail, you haven’t spent as much time with him as Etsy.
We haven't spent as much time as we should have with our boy. As for Sophia, i guess there's not much more we can do.

>>5945600
Dang, Leah's really coming up in the world. Can't believe she deleted Mona from relevance, though with her in a relationship with Infinite Reflection, maybe Mona has a subtle edge here to strike back.

>Focus on Sophia’s wellbeing.
>Spend more time with Etsy, she’s important too.
Etsy isn't really interacting with Sophia much, we need to take care of her and make sure she comes up well.

>>5945605
+1
I wanna check Weaver and Etsy's own dossiers, see if anything's been updated with them leaving

>>5945600
>>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)

>>5945600
Hot damn, Leah really got the best of both worlds: her sister’s soul arts and her magical powers and she got strong enough to fuck Mona and almost Low Tier God her. And also managed to date the guy, kek.
>>5945609
>+1

>>5945605
>+1
Actually changing to this

>>5945600
>Spend more time with Etsy, she’s important too.
We need more children! We don't have much time! Plus I want more scenes like the one I spoke about in >>5945359.
>Spend more time raising Mikhail, you haven’t spent as much time with him as Etsy.
What are his quirks?

>>5945727
>We need more children! We don't have much time!
Yeah i don't wanna see how it'll be if we try to have kids in our mid 30s, those tend to come out kinda weird and our kids already weird. Well, Sophia is.

Not that it's bad, they're still our beloved childrne, but, y'know, for their sake.

>>5945605
+1 to this!

>>5945600
Let's have Weaver knock up Etsy again. They're about to turn 30 and time is running out

>>5945605
>>5945609
>>5945624
>>5945721
>>5945725
>>5945727
>>5945734

You decide to spend a little bit more time with Etsy and Mikhail, as you think Sophia is smart enough to figure herself out on her own, and she can always come to you herself if she needs to. You don't want to neglect your son, and that goes for Etsy too, while you haven't exactly been distant recently, you don't talk as much as you used to, and it's better to take care of a small issue before it becomes a big problem.

You find Etsy in your room trying to help Mikhail do his first step. He's doing a lot more progress than his sister, although Etsy did say he wasn't as inquisitive as she was, often preferring simple toys that did funny sounds over more complex ones. He can't walk by himself just yet, but with his mom's help, it should only take a couple of months until he can.

Etsy smiles as she sees you come in, giving you a quick kiss as she asks you to help him walk. You open your arms wide to invite your son to move towards you, and he takes an awkward step as Etsy drags him forward by his arms, but after she lets go, he falls over and starts to cry.

"S-Sorry! S-Shh, it's okay, it's okay..." She makes soothing sounds, holding him gently in her arms. She turns back to you after he calms down. "D-Did you need something?"

You tell her you just brought Sophia to school, so you wanted to spend some time with her and Mikhail.

"N-Now? I mean, sure, w-what did you have in mind?"

Well, you weren't planning on fishing, and regular walks in the city are a little bland, so you thought a trip to the forest would be nice. I mean, sure, there's the necrophage here, but it's still a pretty safe place to hang around in.

She complains a little because she doesn't like going outside, let alone in damp forests, but she still goes along with it since she thinks Mikhail needs some fresh air anyway.

Etsy carries Mikhail on her back as the three of you go deeper into the forest. There are a few bugs, but none of them are the dangerous kind, which you only know thanks to Arachne's encyclopedic knowledge of arthropods. Eventually, you reach your destination, a small lake hiding in the center of the forest, you only know about it because one of your neighbors told you, but they said to keep it a secret from others to keep the place neat.

>>5945796

"W-Wow! That's why you wanted to go here! That's...well, the water's a l-little cold, so I don't think I'll swim here."

You say it's fine, you only brought her here because you wanted to spend time with her.

"R-Really? Sorry, n-not that I expect an ulterior motive or anything. I guess I feel like I'm just n-not very... " she stops, she knows you don't like it when she puts herself down.

You lay down on the dried up leaves of the forest floor, waiting for her to continue, but she doesn't. Mikhail starts to cry, probably feeling the awkwardness in the air.

"I'm scared."

You ask her what she's scared of.

"I-I don't know. When this all started, I-I was just scared of dying, l-losing you, but we had something t-to work towards. I-I guess there are the kids now, b-but I still feel like s-something's missing. I-Is this really the best that life has to offer? I-I'm scared of being old, and that when I look back I-I'll..."

She lays down on the leaves with you. Mikhail is still crying, but it's more of a quiet sobbing than high-pitched screaming. This was supposed to be a fun trip, but it ended up as another downer.

You're not sure how to handle this. You can't use sex for everything, the problem isn't that she doesn't feel wanted, or even that she isn't happy, it's the feeling that you may have peaked early, and there isn't much else to look forward to.

How do you even answer that?

>"Don't you want to see what our kids will become?"
>"I think you should try more things. Diversify your hobbies a little."
>"It's normal to feel that way, but that feeling will pass."
>Stay silent and hug her.
>Write in.

>>5945797
>>"Don't you want to see what our kids will become?"
>Addendum: And make sure that whatever it is, it's a good thing

>>5945797
>"I think you should try more things. Diversify your hobbies a little."
And work out, get some sunlight, make friends, get involved more with the children. I think she's just depressed and bored from not really doing anything.

>>5945800
Well i was thinking that she meant in a more 'existential' sense, but this would be good advice.

>>5945797
>Write in
Life is its own objective. There's no peaking, no sacred mission, no objective. We are because we must, so might as well enjoy the ride, you know?
Growing old might not be that bad as long as we have one another. We can do whatever we want as long as each of us lends the other strength. Both for us and for our kids.
How about attempting a new thing together? Going fishing here when they're at school?
>>5945800
I'm not a big fan of "you should try more things" cause it's extremely hands-off. No, let's accompany her into what we both think she needs to do. We're an item, if she's having trouble getting out of a rough patch, it's our job to help her out.

>>5945797
>>5945805
+1

>>5945803
Yes but once you start doing those things mentioned then the existential dread starts feeling rather silly as you really start to appreciate the small things in life.

>>5945805
>I'm not a big fan of "you should try more things" cause it's extremely hands-off. No, let's accompany her into what we both think she needs to do. We're an item, if she's having trouble getting out of a rough patch, it's our job to help her out.
That's what I WAS imagining anon. That's why the example I gave in >>5945359 had Weaver doing it along with Etsy.

Now I've just imagined another scene, now with Weaver acting as her personal trainer.

>>5945797
>"Don't you want to see what our kids will become?"

>>5945797
>"I think you should try more things. Diversify your hobbies a little."
trying new things will help her creative mind find a new way to look at the world and she'll see that there's more to do than the game.
ngl I also had this feeling a little after reading how Leah improved.

(setting on a mix of >>5945805 & >>5945874 since despite technically being a three-way tie, both of those are similar enough to work together)

>>5945874
>>5945837
>>5945808
>>5945806

You tell her that life is its own objective, and that there's no ultimate end goal. As long as she'll draw breath, there will be something to do, and that despite the lack of finality, it's wonderful in its own way. Besides, you can't imagine a future that isn't fun as long as you have each other, you've survived terrible things together, and this is just another hurdle you can face with each other's help. Maybe you could try more things with each other when the kids are out, fishing sounds nice.

She's silent for a moment, and Mikhail stops crying, as if he was mimicking his mother's pondering mood. "I-I don't know, electronics is the only t-thing I'm good at, so I don't know if I'd l-like it. F-Fishing also sounds kind of dangerous here."

You tell her it's not about being good at something, but enjoying it. Actually, you have another idea, and you ask her if she ever considered gardening. You cook a lot, but there's nothing like homegrown vegetables, and you're not currently using the garden for much anyway. It's something she can do to get fresh air while still staying in the relative safety of her home.

"I...I g-guess? That doesn't sound too bad, I-I can't think of anything else anyway."

After you come back home, you buy some gardening tools and help Etsy with her new hobby. At first, she isn't really into it, but she gets more excited when she realizes she can use the squire's biological nightmare alloy to crossbreed and make more kinds of plants. This isn't exactly what you had in mind, but it works, and you can see a fire in her eyes that had been lacking for a while. You try to use that new motivation of hers to steer her towards other things, to be more social, exercise, and spend more time with Sophia. It doesn't always work, and she doesn't always like it, but at least now she complains about how much you're making her do instead of how scary the future is. You also notice Mikhail is very receptive to his parent's emotional state. He gets very excited whenever his mom smiles, and very sad and anxious when she isn't, then again, maybe that's basic baby behavior and Sophia's just a little odd.

>>5946431

After a long day of work, Etsy joins you in bed, physically and mentally exhausted. She casually undresses, asking you to help her undo her bra since she thinks the strap is broken. You do it as slowly as possible, using that opportunity as an excuse to grope her to your heart's content.

"Y-You know, I didn't take a pill today."

You tell her that hasn't stopped you before.

"I-It's a kink to you, isn't it? W-Well, I can't let you do that, but I'm...defenseless, so tired and uhm... thought I can't f-fight back, I won't submit t-to you like last time." You can see her try to hide a smile from you, she's never been that good of an actress, but thankfully you're horny enough to suspend your disbelief.

It's nights like these you're glad your room is soundproof, because you didn't hold back one bit.

--- Sophia POV change ---

One of the girls turn to you. “Sophia, is it true that your parents are rich?”

You shake your head. Your parents don’t give you any pocket change, so they can’t be rich, but they aren’t poor either, because they aren’t on the streets. Is there a word for someone that isn’t poor or rich? You’ll have to ask dad.

They quickly move on to another conversation subject. You find it boring, and you only hang out with them because dad told you friends are important, but aren’t friends supposed to be fun to be around? This sucks.

You notice a boy looking at you from the other side of the school’s playground. He’s just staring, what does he want? You move a little to the left, and he’s still looking at you. This makes no sense, you’ve never talked to him before, so why does he care?

You stand up, and walk up to him. He’s still staring at you without a word. “Why are you looking at me,” you ask.

“You looked at me first.” He averts his gaze, as if that will make you forget HE’S the one that looked at you first.

“No! I looked because you were looking at me.”

You’re about to hit him, but you stop. No, you need to do the right thing. Dad said that everyone has their own problems. Maybe he has brain problems. In this situation, you need to ask yourself, ‘what would dad do?’.

You hug him.
“You’re weird.” He says, but it feel like an insult somehow.

“You’re weirder.” He stares at you with his dumb face, and then points to a tree. “There’s birds in that tree, wanna look at them.”

“What birds?”

He shrugs. “I dunno. Birds.”

“Okay, but just because I wanna know what bird it is.”

You spend the rest of your free time looking at the birds with him (it’s a Thrush, he didn’t even know that because he’s stupid).

The birds are fun but…

“Why are you looking at me?” He asks.

“You looked at me first.” You retort.
---

>>5946433

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Etsy got pregnant again, so you have that to look out for. You’re also thinking of putting Mikhail in pre-school soon, but he might not fit in the same pre-school as his sister. From the time you’ve spent with him, he’s much more social, and doesn’t like being alone or separated from you. He’s smart for his age, but he seems to be motivated more by your approval than the toys themselves, unlike Sophia.

Your choice of pre-schools are the same as before.

>Komfort:
A relatively expensive pre-school. It emphasizes children’s intellectual growth, and a lot of the kids here end up having an edge in primary school, as they get taught things like writing, grammar and even math before anyone else. However, it has a reputation with being relatively strict.

>Ubezhishche:
A pre-school that focuses on the well-being of children and their emotional growth. While it won’t bother teaching your kids any technical skill, it will encourage them to interact with other children and express themselves. It has pretty good reviews overall, although it is understaffed and has had cases of kids wandering all by themselves.

>Rost:
A pretty average pre-school, if not for the fact it also acts as a primary, secondary and higher secondary school. It’s somewhat expected of any kid here to stay in this school for most of their childhood. It’s actually mandatory for kids that start their pre-school here to also be part of their primary school when they come of age, so you should be careful about picking this one.

>Potentsial:
A pre-school focused on ‘special children’ with peculiar habits. Each kid gets special treatment and is taught according to their peculiar quirks, however these means that most of the children tends to be separated and rarely interact with each other.

>>5946434
Hmm...Mikhail seems to be more of an emotional boy. Ubezhische could be a reasonable choice. I wonder if we'll get twins or triplets at some point given we keep getting Etsy pregnant.

>>5946437
+1
I notice Sophia got a lot of her autism and MPR-lite tendencies from Weaver. Meanwhile Mikhail feels like he takes after Etsy the most

>>5946434
>Ubezhishche

>>5946434
>Komfort
Well, if Mickey is easily motivated by us, maybe we could take this opportunity to help him get out there like never before?
At the same time, I don't want him to feel pressurized, so Ubezhishche is fine too

>>5946434
>Komfort

>>5946434
>Komfort
I'd rather he start learning skills and discipline than "expressing himself".

>>5946434
switching to 'Komfort', learning early is important to ensure you'll end up smart later.

File: FuckedUpIndividual.png (247 KB, 579x716)

247 KB PNG

>>5946521
>>5946513
>>5946532
>>5946456
>>5946448

You decide to send Mikhail in Komfort, while it's stricter, Mikhail is pretty obedient, and you don't think he'll have too many issues adapting to it.

Etsy also gives birth to your new child, a daughter. Your newly born's front hair are a lot longer than what you'd expect from a baby, to the point you can't see her eyes without lifting said hair. Sophia holds the baby, probably because she feels like she has to, even saying something resembling a compliment to her sister.

You tell her she doesn't have to pretend to like her sister, you just want Sophia to at least try to spend time with her siblings, that's all. She nods, and passes the baby to you. You also make Mikhail interact with her brother, it looks like they enjoy each other's company at least. Still, you can't tell much about her at this age, she does cry a little less than the other two did at her age, but that's about it.

You also checked your dossier, but not much has changed apart from your location and the fact that some info is deprecated. For example, it still lists you as a 'high' potential magic user, Arachne is mentioned nowhere, and K.I.S.A does not have its tri-matter capabilities listed. Interestingly enough, it also doesn't list you as an enemy of the U.S agency anymore, which implies they've more or less given up on chasing you at this point.

---
3.92M
+
0K(Etsy mostly focused on other hobbies for this year.)
+
750K (Passive investment income, expected to increase over time.)
-
360K (Monthly costs)
=
4.31M
---
Sophia: 9 years old (1 year before secondary school).
Mikhail: 3 years old.
???: 0 year old.
Etsy & Weaver: 30 years old
---

What should you do this year?

>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)
>Try to get more info from your homeless network.
>Focus on one of your kid (specify which one, this action can be done twice if it’s on two different kids.)
>Spend more time on stocks (will increase your profit, can be done FT for double the effect.)
>Write in.

You also need to name your new daughter.
>Write in (will default to Zhelaniye on a tie)

(Also, I'm having an Etsy moment, so I might slow down the updates to twice or once a day.)

>>5946616
beby number 3 get.

not sure whether we should focus on her or to hunt the consciousness hunter before he becomes a bigger problem.

>>5946616
>For example, it still lists you as a 'high' potential magic user, Arachne is mentioned nowhere, and K.I.S.A does not have its tri-matter capabilities listed. Interestingly enough, it also doesn't list you as an enemy of the U.S agency anymore, which implies they've more or less given up on chasing you at this point.
makes sense, since while they knew about the queen they didn't know about oscar; arachne never saw combat since we developed her when we were close to leaving and the same goes to kisa who only saw battle with the new alloy against the bugs under ground.

>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)
time to do this.

Name her Katarina.

>>5946639
She doesn't feel like a Katarina to me.

How about Anastasia instead?

>>5946616
>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)
>Name her Anastasia.

>>5946657
+1 but we should let Etsy know first

>>5946616
Not big on hunting the Consciousness Hunter, but at the same time I kinda crave some excitement, so eh, why not? Just hope we don't get robbed of our good ending.
>Name her Nadejda
That's usually shortened to Nadia, so it's kinda nice for English speakers. And I find it pretty.
>>5946617
Hang in there, buddy.

>>5946616
>Hunt the Consciousness Hunter yourself, although you’ll have to tell the agency first (FT)
>Name her Anastasia.
Also have another child, THE CLOCK IS TICKING.

>>5946898
they're both already in their 30s!
we need that soccer team!!!

>>5946898
WE SHOULD HAVE HAD KIDS IMMEDIATELY AFTER SOPHIA INSTEAD OF WAITING FOR SO LONG
THAT'S OUR ONLY FUCKUP THIS ENTIRE QUEST
GODDAMNIT FUCK AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

>>5946898
>>5946683
>>5946677
>>5946639

You name your new kid Anastasia, it sounds nice, and it works both in English and in Russian, which fits your naming scheme thus far. You also decide to focus on something you haven't done in a while: hunting.

The Consciousness Hunter will become a problem at this rate, and the agency even thinks there's a very real chance he'll reach colossal if he keeps wiping the sea clean. His 'magic fishing' has caused the ecosystem down there to go all out of wack, as a lot of the magic sea-life was necessary to keep the teeth's corruption in check. Basically, he'll become an issue even if he doesn't start going after people on land, so he needs to be taken care of sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, you're kind of rusty after years of not having to fight for your life, so you end up having to spend a few months sparring with K.I.S.A to get your game back on. It's also hard to train and take care of your kids at the same time, but thankfully Anastasia sleeps a lot, and she enjoys playing with her brother and Etsy when you're not looking after her, so you don't need to worry about her 24/7.

Once you think you're more or less ready combat wise, you start doing actual research. First, you tell the Russian agency you plan to go after him, and you ask them if they have any info they could share. They tell you that it tends to piss off E.N.D when they share info too freely, so they can only tell you the bare minimum, namely the fact that his magic is unsurprisingly related to consciousness, and that 'he' has been escaping them by not only being two steps ahead, but by being able to swap consciousness with some people. Every time he's cornered, he simply swaps to another body, including their magic and soul with it. They've accidentally killed multiple townsfolk he mind swapped at the last moment because of this.

>>5947186

You tell Arachne to double-check your kids just in case, and anyone they've interacted with. Arachne is a little insulted that you'd think she wouldn't notice a complete stranger swapping with your kid's mind, but she does it anyway. Turns out your children are fine, and all the kids and teachers they've been interacting with are fine too. She does mention Sophia has some unawakened magic potential, but that's kind of it.

It reassures you, but just a little. He really is more problematic than you first thought, at least the queen was pretty straightforward, but magic users like this are slippery and their tactics unpredictable. You're going to need to think this through to catch them, let alone kill them. The question is, how?

>Ask Sarah to come help, her ability might stop him from swapping to someone else since she can make a room 'inescapable'.
>Buy his dossier, expensive, but if you can get his bounty it will be a worthy investment. (cost 2M/free action)
>Try to use your pseudo-informant network in the town to find anyone acting unusal, maybe you can find his weakness that way.
>Send the squire to investigate the sea, it's where he hunts, and that's what scouting is for. (Free action)
>Wander the town and analyze everyone yourself, tedious and time consuming, but relatively safe.
>Write in.

>>5947186
>mindswap faggot
Oh no wonder he's so hard to kill. I've had enough experience dealing with this from playing against wizards in ss13. He'll just swap with his killer and kill them in his old body. Very slippery. By swapping with them, he also gets rid of any mental effects like drugs so we can't use that. Instantly killing him before he can even swap, and leaving him dying somewhere with nothing to swap with, seems to be the only way. If he can swap with animals though, we might be screwed. Did nobody even tell this guy "hey we need the sea monsters alive to keep things balanced down there?

>>5947192
I was thinking we'd just sever his ability to swap. We can do that, right? Just have KISA light the shit up out of him while we focus on isolating him and reversing any 'mindswap' bullshit.

>>5947196
How can we cut him off from that without him finding Weaver nearby, or swapping to a bird and simply escaping?

>>5947198
The idea is to cut off his power at the root. We can disrupt powers, right? Find that guy and have KISA unload a minigun on his ass while telling Arachne to stop him from swapping with our disrupt and reversal.

>>5947199
But how long will it take for us to do this? Didn't QM say Unreliable Existence takes time alongside MPR? Could we not simply stealthily MPR him first to get a full idea of his capability, then act accordingly?

>>5947201
Unreliable existence can take some time, and worst of all, it requires Arachne to focus quite hard on it now, this means that you won't be able to use a lot of the fancy tricks that needs her like parts of your fighting style. The MPR is still subtle and hard to notice, so you could realistically do it stealthily, and it is faster than before.

>>5947211
Thanks for the response. I imagine going undercover to thoroughly MPR the guy is a solid first plan to execute. Once we're done, then we give a couple days to a few weeks for him to lower in suspicion. Then we Unreliable Existence him. Then he DIES. Are we able to use MPR and Unreliable Existence at the same time, or no?

>>5947214
>Then he DIES
I was also thinking we should do it with KISA to see if we can get our magical knightboy.

>>5947214
Once MPR is done, imagine that your target is more or less 'fully analyzed' and you can use that info to bypass their defenses, even if MPR is no longer active, and then you can use another power to, I don't know, disrupt their head and give them an aneurysm. However, you might lose the 'fully analyzed' status if too much time passes (at least a few months), or if the person's power allows them to reshape their soul or magic into something you can no longer recognize.

There's also edge cases like Schadenfreude where her magic is so inherently chaotic that she can never be truly fully analyzed as she basically changes every five minutes.

>>5947267
Yeah, spying on him to get MPR seems the right choice.

>>5947267
Thank you for clarifying

>>5947219
Maybe, maybe...

>>5947188
Spy on him with MPR

>>5947279
>+1
if possible use the hobo network as well

>>5947330
>>5947279
>>5947271
>>5947201
>>5947198

You decide to handle your target in the most tedious but reliable way you know of, MPR. Problem is, you don't know where he is or who he is, but thankfully the Russian agency did tell you about people whose body he swapped with that are still alive, and you can use them as a point of reference. You avoid asking any questions or acting too inconspicuous, you simply analyze them at a distance, and try to connect the dots as you've always done. Unlike the peeping eye kid, you can't really trace his location, but you at least know what to look for.

You end up spending a lot of time outside taking walks and analyzing everyone you see, you even quickly check non-magical people just in case he somehow managed to hide his aura. The town is pretty big, but you know for a fact he must be around the sea, so you don't have to MPR all the townsfolk, only those who spend a suspicious amount of time near the water. Unfortunately, that just so happen to be a lot of them, as fishing and ships are a huge part of the town's economy. You spend so much time on your search that you have to neglect Anastasia a little more than you like, but you're doing this for her in a way, some sacrifices must be made.

Eventually, you find him, and you're glad you took the time to analyze people that didn't have magic at a glance, because it turns out the Consciousness Hunter can hide his magic under his soul to pass off as a regular guy. He's currently in the body of a middle-aged man, a sailor if his outfit is anything to go by. After a little bit of time, Arachne manages to get a full read on him, good enough to trigger unreliable existence.

MPR(Consciousness Hunter): Immense magic potential. Can swap bodies with another living being of sufficient intelligence that he understands on a personal level. Can force himself into the mind of someone and dig through memories in the form of a 'personalized dreamscape'. The victim may confront them by going to sleep and dreaming. Obtains the general knowledge and skill of whoever he takes control of, but the skills obtained will deteriorate rapidly every time he swaps to another body. If his host body dies, he will automatically go back to another available body he can swap into if any are available.

>>5947433

Jesus Christ, this guy is on another level of annoying, no wonder the agency couldn't get him. He conditioned his magic to swap with someone else on death. You need to be careful about how you handle him, you can try to disrupt his magic, but unlike MPR, this process isn't subtle, and he might swap out before you can fully stop his magic. You might be able to do something simpler though, like redirecting his swap toward someone else instead, or maybe you could wait for him to be truly alone? His swap takes more time to trigger the further away he is from a viable target.

>Redirect his swap towards a specific person that K.I.S.A will kill the moment the swap happens, devils gamble should stop him from swapping before his death.
>Redirect his swap towards a dumb animal, if he can only swap with beings of sufficient intelligence, being swapped into a bug must mean ego death for him.
>Try to isolate his magic anyway.
>Wait for him to hunt in the sea, then ask K.I.S.A to finish him off here, since you can't fight in the sea yourself..
>Write in.

>>5947434
Could we swap him into an animal with Unreliable Existence? Then he'll rapidly lose all his human intelligence and become an animal forever. However, that raises the question of if his magic will swap him to other animals on death even then?

>>5947439
>Can swap bodies with another living being of sufficient intelligence that he understands on a personal level.
Exploiting this property, essentially

>>5947434
Putting him on an animal would be smart, but then we wouldn't get the magic...i want KISA to kill him for that immense potential.

>>5947434
>>5947441
>>5947448
What about poisoning him with a sedative? That would make things a lot easier.

>>5947451
That doesn't really solve the situation, does it?

>>5947452
How? We could take him to the middle of the woods along with some animal we'll butcher and then disrupt his conditioning to have him swap with animal upon death, then kill him first then the animal second.

>>5947454
The issue would be sedating him in the first place, he'd just swap the moment he noticed it.

>>5947434
Tough bastard.
We need to exploit his swap-on-death, but honestly? It stinks, big big big time. We don't know who he knows "on a personal level", and we did try our hardest to integrate us and Etsy in the community.
If we want to kill him without any risk, it must be away from anyone. I think we might need some help for this one, our magic isn't really great against his.
>Wait for him to hunt in the sea, then ask K.I.S.A to finish him off here, since you can't fight in the sea yourself..
Safest bet, even if that means K.I.S.A. awakens.

>>5947455
Would he notice it though? In my experience you kinda just get knocked out. Could also infiltrate his house while he's out and get him in his sleep.

>>5947457
>even if that means K.I.S.A. awakens.
That would be ideal, but i was worried he'd end up swapping into an sea beast, or worse, into the thing sitting in the bottom of the ocean.

>>5947457
What he said >>5947460, devils gamble MIGHT stop him from swapping on death but I'd like more certainty than that.

>>5947460
>>5947464
I think we might have an ally in an unexpected place here.
We only have two options: the sea, or the woods. We have no allies at sea, but it's easy to bring him here.
On the other hand, the woods has the Necrophage, who's a powerful magic user too.
We can try to reach out to him, offer to team up to fuck up the Hunter, and keep the alliance alive to protect the city. He gets the woods, we get the city, the agency gets the sea.
Notify the agency of that, then have them spread rumours as to how the Necrophage is weakened for one reason or another in order to lure the Hunter in the woods, then shoot him in the face. If that triggers his special skill, there'll only be an animal nearby if the Necrophage isn't at risk himself, so we can deal with that easily. It's a win-win: no risk, new buddy, and he gets a lot of food.

>>5947470
Problem I have with your plan is that it's too reactive. Who knows what tricks the Hunter will do or bring in preparation to the fight so why not fight him on our own terms? Im still set on some sort of sedation plan.

>>5947473
There are a few issues with sedation imo, namely that we don't know how his magic will react to it. Will his death still be countered even if he sleeps? Will the change trigger upon sedation or death?
Speaking of which, we say "he", but as far as I know that was never sure. It wasn't even sure he was human in the first place, may be an awakened animal that "learned" to be human through his magic, at which point there's no telling what might happen both in the woods or at sea.
Honestly? It's too risky either way. I think we need a way better plan.

>>5947478
>There are a few issues with sedation imo, namely that we don't know how his magic will react to it.
Unless he conditioned his magic to switch when he's unconscious (unlikely since that would require no sleep) then it won't react at all.

>Will his death still be countered even if he sleeps?
You mean if the conditioning will be activated? How is that a bad thing? If it activates then things go as planned and if it doesn't them we just succeed straight away.

>Speaking of which, we say "he", but as far as I know that was never sure. It wasn't even sure he was human in the first place, may be an awakened animal that "learned" to be human through his magic, at which point there's no telling what might happen both in the woods or at sea.
I don't see how this drastically changes things.

>Honestly? It's too risky either way. I think we need a way better plan.
I think it's the best plan we have right now.

>>5947459
>Would he notice it though?
uh, yes you would. Videogames are not experience, and this guy has immense potential and has kileld several other dangerous magic users before.

>>5947490
>Videogames are not experience.
Bro I was talking about my experience in real life, the falling unconscious part happens very suddenly.

Besides if you take issue with doing it while he's awake then we can do it while he's asleep.

>>5947491
I seriously doubt he hasn't found a way to defend himself during sleep if he's gotten this far.

>>5947492
I don't. I think he's gotten this far through stealth, anytime anyone tries to corner him or actually manages to kill him he just swapped away.

Any defense would be mundane imo, like a home security system and I think we can work past those.

>>5947492
All I'll say is that his magic is literally based around consciousness, and it's mentioned he can be confronted in one's sleep. So it's not entirely unthinkable that he could figure out a way to use his magic 'unconscious' (although sedatives usually create dreamless sleep)

>>5947433
>Unreliable
so he's Ginyu on steroids, shit. I wonder if he's method of killing monsters is swapping to the body of one of them, perhaps kill others while at it, and them commit sudoku for the magic points.
>>5947434
>Redirect his swap towards a dumb animal, if he can only swap with beings of sufficient intelligence, being swapped into a bug must mean ego death for him.
let's go with the animal then

>>5947546
>Can force himself into the mind of someone and dig through memories in the form of a 'personalized dreamscape'. The victim may confront them by going to sleep and dreaming.
He's Ginyu + Death Thirteen
>Obtains the general knowledge and skill of whoever he takes control of, but the skills obtained will deteriorate rapidly every time he swaps to another body.
Plus whatever this is
>monster killing
How does that connect to this:
>another living being of sufficient intelligence that he understands on a personal level
And what does that imply for his power, that he can mindswap with sea monsters at all?

>>5947552
>another living being of sufficient intelligence that he understands on a personal level
wait, you're right, that can only work if there's some monsters with decent intelligence due to the magic. If that's not the case, is he just snipping them on the sea ?

>>5947441
>>5947488
>>5947546
>>5947552

You decide that you'll redirect his swap towards a bug, hoping that he'll be too dumb to use his magic once he swaps in it. You'll also keep the bug in a jar that should have just about enough devil's gamble inside to stop him from using his magic, but not so much he can't swap into it.

Once your preparations are complete, you stalk him a little longer and wait for him to be as far away from everyone else as he can be, and focus on disrupting his magic towards the bug. He quickly realizes something is wrong, but he doesn't swap immediately, which gives you just about enough time to disrupt his blood flow and knock him out. Right before he goes unconscious, he tries to swap into something in the sea, but what happens instead is that he finds himself in the body of your trapped cockroach. The cockroach slams into the glass in panic at first, but it goes back to standing still after a few moments of futile struggle.

That was easier than you thought, then again, he probably wasn't expecting you to go after him, and you're pretty sure your unreliable existence ability is listed nowhere in your dossier, so he had no way of knowing you could even do that.

"It's not going to stay like this for long," Arachne says. "He can't use his magic consciously anymore, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work at all. It's very likely that if he dies here, his magic will still be conditioned to swap to something else, and there's not enough devil's gamble here to absorb all his magic in a timely fashion, he might swap by instinct before he gets fully subdued."

You ask Arachne if you can't simply isolate his magic entirely now that you know he can't swap on purpose.

"You could try, but if you're not being careful when you kill him, there's a small chance he'll force his consciousness into mine as a last ditch effort for survival as I absorb him. I can't say for sure he can even do that, but I don't think he's worth the risk."

You ask her what you should do with him then.

"I...I don't know. We could put the bug in a reinforced devil's gamble cage instead of this jar, he won't be able to escape, but so much magic in so little alloy could be a problem. We could let K.I.S.A do it, worst case scenario we can turn it off even if it gets hijacked, or you could give him to someone else. It's your call, 'boss'."

>>5948119

Things can't ever be simple, can they? Then again, you should be happy you were able to capture someone with immense magic potential without a scratch, that's the benefit of working smarter rather than harder. Anyway, you should make a decision fast, as the cockroach is back to slamming its head on the glass, and you'd like it if it didn't die before you made a decision.

What should you do with your new magic cockroach? You'll get the bounty as long as it doesn't survive, even if someone else kills it.

>Kill it yourself, how bad can it be?
>Put it in a reinforced devil's gamble cage, and wait for it to die, it's the safest option.
>Let K.I.S.A kill it, as long as proper precautions are taken, it should be fine.
>Give it to someone, it's their problem now. (Write in who)
>Spend more time fully isolating this magic, this may have unforeseen consequences, but what doesn't?

>>5948121
I kinda want to have KISA kill it, but i don't want it to get hijacked.

>>5948121
What about continuously interfering with his swap, swapping him between various creatures, until he runs out? He can't keep swapping forever.

>>5948126
You can try.

>>5948123
>>5948126
So what will we do? There's always going to be a danger here.

>>5948150
Have KISA kill it and try to stop it from taking it over, i guess.

>>5948225
But how would KISA stop the switch?

>>5948228
I was thinking we'd just try to help it.

>>5948225
And how do you guarantee he cannot switch with KISA?
>there's a small chance he'll force his consciousness into mine as a last ditch effort for survival as I absorb him
This line here SPOOKS me the fuck out man. I really think he's better off dying and his magic dissipating

>>5948121
>Put it in a reinforced devil's gamble cage, and wait for it to die, it's the safest option.
Or how I envison it: sink the jar into a cube of Devil's Gamble and keep it for like 30 days as if it were nuclear waste, then melt the whole thing and absorb the magic.

>>5948230
I suppose we can just put it in a devil's gamble cage for it to lose it's intelligence before doing it? But that would probably remove the magic too, which sucks.

>>5948233
It would also not count as a "kill" for the purposes of exp in this shitty magic g0sx2t
ame, right?

>>5948235
how did that happen?

>>5948121
>Spend more time fully isolating this magic, this may have unforeseen consequences, but what doesn't ?
90% of magic users stop right when they're about to reach immense potential
>>5948230
I still think that we should try, we just need to be very very careful

>>5948272
OK fine let's do it

>>5948121
>Spend more time fully isolating this magic, this may have unforeseen consequences, but what doesn't?

Urrrrgh doing that is probably gonna fuck with Arachne and our personality. Do we, a father of three with a little baby girl, really want to get bodyjacked?

>>5948352
>Do we, a father of three with a little baby girl, really want to get bodyjacked?
rlx, while there's an itty bitty chance of changing personality, our body is safe.

>>5948354
His entire thing is bodyjacking. and changing our personality sounds really bad, too.

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>>5948280
>>5948272
>>5948231
>>5948231

You decide to spend more time fully isolating his magic. Unfortunately, you can't do that if he's fully separated from you by a devil's gamble cage, so you'll have to keep him in the jar. You bring the jar to the forest, and after making sure no one followed you, you start cutting off what you think is the body swapping portion of his magic. Now that you think about it, Sarah would've been really handy for this, but it's a little late to call her. negating his magic entirely is a lot harder than you'd think, it's something to disrupt physical things, but altering magic on such a fundamental level is a little more complex than you're used to. At one point, you think you finally managed to cut the right part but...

"Weaver, it seems his magic is contracting inward," Arachne remarks

That's...probably not good. The cockroach starts to move erratically, slamming its head against the glass again and again, a few of its legs start to contort, it slams faster, but it shouldn't be able to, it's like its body is being thrown around by an invisible force, its wings and legs aren't moving, what is going on-

SPLAT.

Red and brown paint the jar's previously clean interior. Arachne mentions that cockroach blood is actually colorless, and that it's a strange color for it to have. It is pretty strange, but you'd say there's something more noteworthy than the color right now.

Like the fact it's still moving.

The bug's limbs are spread out, but they're still twitching, the blood is still flowing, interconnected by some kind of invisible link that even your MPR struggles to make sense of. This shouldn't be possible, right? He shouldn't be able to manipulate something that is, for all intents and purposes, dead. Did you mess up his magic so hard it unlocked a brand-new ability?

"It's just a guess, but it might be a case of emergency specialization," Arachne casually says. "His magic might have sensed it was in mortal danger, and started shifting to something else. The good news is he probably can't body swap anymore, the bad news is we have no idea what else he can do now, I don't think I'd be able to figure it out with MPR since the change is so fresh."

You ask Arachne what you should do.

"I'm not sure. Maybe you should just wait for it to run out of magic, but it might be able to get out of the jar if the magic really does allow it to control non-living things, although the devil's gamble coating might stop him."

What are you supposed to do with this? You've lost your unreliable existence hold on it, but that doesn't mean you can't affect his magic in minor ways.

>Just put it in a devil's gamble cage, wait for it to run out of juice.
>Disrupt his magic so he loses hold on it, a cockroach's body is physical enough for you to mess with.
>Maybe giving it the Russian agency is the smart play here.
>Let K.I.S.A absorb the magic, it should negate the magic before it becomes a problem.
>Write in.

>>5948595
I was about to say KISA should have it...but if he can control non living things, that could end with it getting hijacked no?

>>5948595
This motherfucker... a cockroach fits him well even before all this...
>Just put it in a devil's gamble cage, wait for it to run out of juice.
Starve him to death. Give him NOTHING to feed on or integrate. He's too dangerous to ever internalize in any way to Arachne.

>>5948597
I'm convinced. I REFUSE to do ANYTHING to this guy.

>>5948595
>Disrupt his magic so he loses hold on it, a cockroach's body is physical enough for you to mess with.
man, I'm starting to regret picking UE over my second option. fuck it we ball

If I have to guess, it seems like "he" is now the strange blood and not exactly the roach per se

>>5948607
>focus on disrupting his magic towards the bug. He quickly realizes something is wrong, but he doesn't swap immediately, which gives you just about enough time to disrupt his blood flow and knock him out.
I dunno man, I think this was a real OP moment