Of course, all of that is assuming the SDM doesn't have any unexpected trickery up their sleeves, which might be possible. More power would be a good safety net in that case, but for the most part, that would just have the result of "more likely Renko's going to lose, goto 'do we have to beat up the entire SDM' case." Which... wouldn't change too much.
Unless they tried to attack Mary and forced us onto one side, of course. But then we'd have backup, and the fairies would gain a VERY real counter to Sakuya's abilities. And Sakuya would realize that, wouldn't she?
Worst
worst case scenario would be Alice getting hired to help defend the mansion. Which would probably result in Renko losing and maybe Alice suggesting being a dick without us being able to bring up her ulterior motives. That... would be a problem if combined with getting forced into it.
I think we could stand to find out what the (implicit) limits are on the spellcard system - what the SDM could legitimately get away with imposing on Renko if they win. If they can't be complete douches, then that scenario is no longer relevant. If Alice jumping in in the middle of the match would disqualify things, then she'd be out of the picture. I rather doubt either of these is the case, but the general idea is important.
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It has also been ~brought to my attention~ that forgoing the enchantment for now would also mean spending our first night in Gensokyo with Renko.
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I was leaving that one out of the discussion because it's far simpler. Alice is my only concern, as I think the SDM will back down from trying to go overkill. They don't have the personnel to pursue vicious vendettas, even if they wanted to. If we're not worried about Alice, either because we think she won't show up at all, or because we expect we could take her down as we are now, then no, we do not need to make a decision tonight.
But it's still an option, and I think it's a good one.
Of course, if you're also of the mind that Maribel should get the second one, then I'm fucked regardless, so...
'fraid so, but I can also respect not getting one at all if people want that. Or at least, deciding to give Gensokyo a few months/years before considering something so major. (So, not getting one for the purposes of the Quest.) Actually, that'd probably be the best decision, all things considered. It's not something that has to be pressing, and if the lifespan issue does get discussed, then that's another nuance that hasn't been discussed with Renko.
Before I do much of anything else, I suppose I should put the question forth: if we ask several people that either have had or may have a stake in human-to-youkai transformations, and they all either tell us horror stories or generally warn against it, will any of you actually change your minds?
Depends on what biases they may have, though we could stand to hear more negative versions on principle regardless of validity. That said - if there's a serious relevant catch I'm quite willing to scale down or just reject it altogether. Or come up with some other loophole. Just not fond of half-assing it for a metaphysical reason, especially when Reimu and Marisa are already exceptional 'plain 'ol humans' in Gensokyo.
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I'm hungry and tired and there deserves to be some more general discussion on this before a final decision, so may I suggest taking it :yukkuri: in advancing things here until tomorrow IRL evening to get opinions from more than the midnight crew?
