[] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.

Edit: Nvm. Not sure what I want really. Just going back on what we already did seems... like a bad idea in it's own way?
 
[X] Computers are in your domain, and Truth ought to be good at restoring lost records. Try and fix the problem yourself before anyone notices anything more than a temporary glitch.
 
Approval voting y/n? If not, I'm putting my most-preferred option last.

[X] Try and trash the backup server as well, so that they can't figure out who has user ID 11009735.
[X] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.
 
[X] Computers are in your domain, and Truth ought to be good at restoring lost records. Try and fix the problem yourself before anyone notices anything more than a temporary glitch.
 
I think I'll echo Sonata here.

[X] Try and trash the backup server as well, so that they can't figure out who has user ID 11009735.
[X] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.
 
[X] Try and trash the backup server as well, so that they can't figure out who has user ID 11009735.

Insofar as the backups exist they'll be able to recover their data on the connections between our party members, which is precisely the thing that we were trying to break, so breaking the backups seems like it's just about necessary for our plan here to actually work.
 
Approval voting y/n? If not, I'm putting my most-preferred option last.

[X] Try and trash the backup server as well, so that they can't figure out who has user ID 11009735.
[X] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.

I'm fine with approval voting.
 
Well... I mean, sure? But it counts separately from normal voting, so you'd have to basically restart the votes, which is... Yeah.
I'm not sure how approval voting means you have to restart the vote - the central idea at least as the term seems to be used as here is that you can vote for more than one option. You don't explicitly rank them - you select all options you would be OK with. Sure, people who don't realize approval voting is an option might miss out but it doesn't seem to require a re-vote to me.
 
Uhhh dang howd I miss this...

[X] Computers are in your domain, and Truth ought to be good at restoring lost records. Try and fix the problem yourself before anyone notices anything more than a temporary glitch.

The truth is that we don't to be found so lets make it so.
 
[X] Computers are in your domain, and Truth ought to be good at restoring lost records. Try and fix the problem yourself before anyone notices anything more than a temporary glitch.
 
I'm not sure how approval voting means you have to restart the vote - the central idea at least as the term seems to be used as here is that you can vote for more than one option. You don't explicitly rank them - you select all options you would be OK with. Sure, people who don't realize approval voting is an option might miss out but it doesn't seem to require a re-vote to me.
What? No, approval voting is a thing programmed into Net Tally or whatever the SV vote counter is called and it's explicitly about ranking them:

~ [1] Blah Blah Blah
~ [3] Blah Blah Blah
~ [2] Blah Blah Blah

(using the tildes to break the vote so the counter won't pick them up)
 
[X] Try and trash the backup server as well, so that they can't figure out who has user ID 11009735.

We fucked up in multiple ways this update (well, our character did), so all options are pretty bad. I don't think it's a good idea to try restoring a database we just trashed - might as well finish the deed. Not the mention the fact that computers isn't even our Primary domain, and that we have little idea how our magic works or how good it is.

Getting access to an admin account is fine too, but it would probably take more time, and I doubt that the whole giant database becoming empty would go unnoticed for long. Since we are apparently doing multiple voting:

[X] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.
 
[X] Computers are in your domain, and Truth ought to be good at restoring lost records. Try and fix the problem yourself before anyone notices anything more than a temporary glitch.

Using Truth to conceal a secret of erasing information on a computer.
Yes, that is the magic route.
 
Hmmm... You know, reading about Truth gave me thoughts... Especially as it made me think of how Quantum Mechanics is described/thought of so...

My thoughts are that the 'Truth' is that there is no singular Truth. Instead there are a countless number of 'Truths', with some making up or being a part of others. And that a Truth is a definition.

Or to put it into other words, everyone has a Personal Truth, which is the Truth to them. Said Personal Truth is made up of countless other Truths, with each Truth being a definition of something. For example, a person's personal Truth is what they define as themselves. Their body, their thoughts, their biases and knowledge... Everything all mixed in together. Some Truths are just... greater? More successful? Than others. So a Truth comes in two parts. First, there is the definition that makes up what the Truth is. Then there is communicating that Truth to others, and doing so in a form that means the Truth keeps the same definition.

Or something like that... How hot or Cold might I be @Evenstar ?
 
How hot or Cold might I be @Evenstar ?

That's definitely a position you can take!

I'm going to call this a lock for the magic option:
Adhoc vote count started by Evenstar on Nov 26, 2018 at 4:32 PM, finished with 37 posts and 19 votes.

  • [X] Computers are in your domain, and Truth ought to be good at restoring lost records. Try and fix the problem yourself before anyone notices anything more than a temporary glitch.
    [X] Try and trash the backup server as well, so that they can't figure out who has user ID 11009735.
    [X] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.
    [X] Try and trash the backup server as well, so that they can't figure out who has user ID 11009735.
    [X] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.
    [X] Walk away slowly and pretend this never happened. You can claim someone else stole your password.
    [X] Try and get access to an admin account so that you can delete the logs of your misdeeds.
    -[X] If that doesn't seem easily doable, Computers are in your domain, and Truth ought to be good at restoring lost records. Try and fix the problem yourself before anyone notices anything more than a temporary glitch.
 
(This part was written just after reading December's notebook.)
Dang it I just got it! The Prime Archetype for Truth is Pretender, with the implication of "learning a role well enough to pass inspection", and possibly "becoming the mask".
Which may have been known (or at least repeatedly discovered) already, but suppressed, because actually directly teaching it is really absurdly difficult.
So, what, you can store power by keeping a secret if you're a Truth mage? -
Hmm. Sounds like a heist film protagonist for some reason. (I am not hugely familiar with heist films, and may be projecting based on Prokopetz' claims that most RPG classes are Heist Film Casts in funny hats.)
Truth/??? Is interesting. Traditionally the fool has potential and is liable to reach transcendence. Half expect her to pull a Madoka because breaking the system. Wonder if the thing isn't that people don't know what the archetype is but that it's literally undefined currently.
No, I'm thinking it has something more to do with transhumanism and identity-is-malleable - there might not be a proper name for it yet, but it clearly exists.
The Truth Question:
Cycle Formulation (Lynde, circa 1470)
Truth Attunement (Grey, 1712/13)
First Secondary (Sheraton, 1727)
Theory of Primes (1870s, Lynde & Strauss)
Discarded Primes through 20th century
(Secretary, Librarian, Teacher, Inventor)
Cultural Theory: "Buried Prime"? (e.g. Royalty post-1900s)
At this point I'm thinking something to do with masks - more "gentleman thief with twenty identities", mostly based on memories of a Wikipedia article, than anything to do with superheroes. The latter might be relevant somehow, but... [here I got distracted]
- What is truth? Let's maybe not start by trying to solve one of the oldest philosophical questions in the world.
Actually, lets. Really old philosophical questions are almost always semantic arguments. "Truth" is a term for something you can rely on, because doubting it is pointless. [I then got distracted reworking that, so I guess December didn't make a bad call doing the other stuff first.]
A term for something you can rely on, because doubting it is pointless something which must be done only on a universal level, rather than as a doubt attached to the idea specifically.
Of course, that's a really single-mind-centric definition, but -nevermind, I just thought of a better definition.
"Truth is a term for the most accurate possible model, uncertainty included, given available resources."
Which sounds both universally applicable and useful in colloquial English, even if the specific uncertainty behind a claim tends to be guessed at using social shortcuts.
- I probably hit some fragment of Truth Prime by accident if it managed to override my Spite affinity, which is probably my strongest natural affinity for obvious reasons. Trying to reconstruct Truth Prime seems like a fool's errand, though.
Hmm. If Spite really is "challenge expected future", primarily in a social sense in this case, I strongly suspect that Truth Prime is based on "change the self in way others would not expect".
Oh, hmm. I think Spite may be "defy others' expectations".

Anyway, back to other analyses.
The Slow Regard Of Silent Things.
That's an interesting inspiration. Something to do with the affinities, maybe?
My mom likes that, but I haven't seen it yet. Maybe it inspired the characters, given that it seems to basically be a character study?
Oh, I've heard good things about that one. Haven't seen it yet. (Is it on Hulu?)
Lesbians, as is traditional in most magical girl series.
The stuff that gets localized as such, anyway. MGLN is at least a little creepy about it, CCS somehow isn't, despite existing mostly to showcase situationally-awkward crushes, and I've never seen Sailor Moon but I think the relevant couple were effectively phase-shifting hermaphrodites?
My understanding is that Japan tends to lump things like Kiki's Delivery Service into the same genre, though, and I don't think most of those involve Sapphists. Is that correct?
Message from ❀ on this. "Experienced mages can synchronize their magic so that they can co-cast even if they're of opposing Affinities. The going theory is that there's a secondary set of shared virtues we haven't figured out yet.
Ah, so that's how "boy" magic works - same system, different standard foci.
I wonder if you could use that same principle to supercharge a pentagram. It'd require a lot of effort from everyone involved to get to know each other well enough, but... - Dec.
Ah, so is that what killed Rill? Maybe not, but it's clearly what they were doing when they swore to break the world.
- Assuming Secondary Virtues exist, what would they be?
Good question. (I like how you gave us the worldbuilding notes as in-universe questions, by the way.)
At a guess, they're about one half-step rotated from the Prime Five?
- Secondary Archetypes have probably not gotten anywhere near the study they really deserve, and I ought to look into adopting one to boost my strength a bit. Or maybe a few. Is there any reason not to adopt as many Archetypes as you can? (Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot problem?)
Oh, that's possible? Whee! (I'm reminded of the both serious and hilarious discussion of Ninja Robot Zombies in Patchwork Champions, or possibly its' defunct webserial sequel. Just keep the aesthetics on-theme enough, and it's a great idea.)
The Labyrinth view ultimately takes the position that Truth is not humanly knowable: all we can do is try to model it as precisely as possible, report as accurately as possible, and continuously check each other's work.
Ah, so it doesn't notice that the map itself is a piece of territory labeled 'map'. That's an oversight, right there.

(The following was written after reading the first update.)
Ishmerai's calm and composed and her skin looks just the right color and her hair looks just like hair.
That right there is some very interesting characterization and I like it. (Presently, my image of her is "copper-blonde Professor Ursula", by the way.)
"Off-campus," says your traitorous mouth. "If she'd had her magic, she'd have just... kept on flying. Held the plane together. Called for help. Something. She'd be here by now."
Oh, that's clever. Hadn't been expecting that, and it works very elegantly.
Valerie just stares at it. You know exactly what she's thinking: Kira got the pink of Rill's hair just right.
Now seems like a good time to chip in that you wrote grieving quite well - it matches my own experience descriptively, even if it didn't make me feel it. (On a faintly amusing tangent, my own experience comes from reading Twig.)
Kira giggles. "It's just - that was pure, grade-A cowboy there. Sometimes I still forget you were raised as a guy."
I don't! It's the Ice Cold Nerd voice, mostly.
"We're fixing this."

Everyone nods.
And you aced the stand-up-and-cheer moment! Congratulations, you're now one of my favorite writers. Do you have anything else posted?
The exact wording of the oath takes a few days more to work out, but between Kira and you, you find the words. You swear it over a broken pentagram in a disused classroom over lunch, and that's that. Now you just have one simple task left over.
I just really like this part.
Just like their morals, the Academicum's computer security is still stuck somewhere in the sixties.
Okay, I assume this is a reference to their attitudes toward gender roles, but I did do a double-take - are they really "free love and no haircuts"?
To get everyone on the same page at least: What Sex you are (male or female) is what you were biologically born as, that terminology doesn't care about what one thinks of themself as. Gender is the term for the psychological/sociological aspect of how one views themself and is viewed by society.
Ah, so that's the semantic appropriation that turned "hey, maybe a righteous society wouldn't have double-standards" into the lasting trainwreck of a flamewar it's become.
(It's not even that it doesn't make sense - 'gender' was apparently the term for an object's 'sex', once upon a time - but the fact that people like me who are uncomfortable saying 'sex' had already repurposed 'gender' as a politer term for the same thing has caused enormous culture clash, followed by digging in. I blame American first-past-the-post voting.)
From context I can tell what this is, but it still gives me the image of "the title I took when I visited the necropolis" - which in turn sounds like a wonderfully strange anecdote.

Hm. Please pardon my rambling, it's been a while since I posted regularly on forums.
 
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The stuff that gets localized as such, anyway. MGLN is at least a little creepy about it, CCS somehow isn't, despite existing mostly to showcase situationally-awkward crushes, and I've never seen Sailor Moon but I think the relevant couple were effectively phase-shifting hermaphrodites?
My understanding is that Japan tends to lump things like Kiki's Delivery Service into the same genre, though, and I don't think most of those involve Sapphists. Is that correct?
Uh, you got it inverted dude.
MGLN has it as mostly just...happening. Significant look, spending time fighting monsters together, sending long letters and video calls, then eventually adopting and raising a kid together, and theres basically no fuss made about them sharing a bed(or for the matter, Hayate apparently still having a huge cuddlepile in her 20s). It gets about as much attention as a straight couple would really.

CCS has Tomoyo having apparently stalked her cousin enough to have a full wardrobe of handmade, close fitted costumes in Sakura's size on the first day Sakura went out as a magical girl, enough to never need to repeat a costume. And having caught Sakura sneaking out at night on video. Which her mom fully supports with an unlimited budget because SHE had a crush on Sakura's mother but Nadeshiko married her teacher instead after graduating.
It has Sakura and Lee both crushing on her brother's boyfriend because Clow Reed left a love spell behind in his works before splitting himself into two people, her brother ship teased with the Mirror card whose avatar is essentially Sakura.

As far as the weird stuff goes, CLAMP has everyone beat lol
 
EDIT: Let me see if I can lessen the derail. Short response:
What little I've seen of MGLN is a mostly-innocuous plot presented with just enough leering to make me uncomfortable, whereas CCS is a completely insane plot with no apparent leering. Also, I'd forgotten about CCS's second arc.
MGLN has it as mostly just...happening. Significant look, spending time fighting monsters together, sending long letters and video calls, then eventually adopting and raising a kid together, and theres basically no fuss made about them sharing a bed(or for the matter, Hayate apparently still having a huge cuddlepile in her 20s). It gets about as much attention as a straight couple would really.
I was mostly referring to it showing all the core female cast naked in the opening, even by the third series, when I'd been told they'd toned back on that.
(Also, if you think it's common for straight couples to get that little fuss made over their relationship, I want to see your viewing list.)
CCS has Tomoyo having apparently stalked her cousin enough to have a full wardrobe of handmade, close fitted costumes in Sakura's size on the first day Sakura went out as a magical girl, enough to never need to repeat a costume. And having caught Sakura sneaking out at night on video. Which her mom fully supports with an unlimited budget because SHE had a crush on Sakura's mother but Nadeshiko married her teacher instead after graduating.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten how far that went. I remembered the "the main character and her boy rival both have crushes on the same boy, and the main character's Superhero Assistant has a crush on her, and incidentally there's a teacher and a ten-year-old who are happily engaged."
That set the bar. The second arc doubled down on the same general theme, but I don't remember it quite as well because several of the bigger points seem to have happened Just Because.
(When your protagonist and their main rival's resolution seems like a blatant afterthought, you might want to reconsider how you storyboard.)
 
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@HoratioVonBecker:
Regarding inspirations:
- Slow Regard's Auri is a deep, deep inspiration for Rill, and therefore for the entire plot, conducted as it is in her absence.
- Violet Evergarden is a character drama, and deals deeply with loss and grief. Its handling of those topics is what mattered to me.
- Princess Tutu is about archetypes, roles, and how we work with and rebel against them.
- The magical girl subgenre I'm drawing from is "Revolutionary Girl Utena, and its inheritors." (Madoka, Princess Tutu, Flip Flappers, Revue Starlight, etc.) These shows tend to be gayer.

Some comments re: your worldbuilding questions:
Ah, so [Labyrinth] doesn't notice that the map itself is a piece of territory labeled 'map'. That's an oversight, right there.
I'm giving you December's current understanding of Amaranth and Labyrinth, here, which is not equivalent to my own. Holes like this are probably worth investigating.

Ah, so that's how "boy" magic works - same system, different standard foci.
I'd like to make clear that, according to every test December's been able to do, her magic is identical to that of any other Truth-affinity girl at the academy.

At a guess, [secondary virtues are] about one half-step rotated from the Prime Five?
What does that even mean, though?

Presently, my image of [Ishmerai] is "copper-blonde Professor Ursula", by the way.
She doesn't wear the traditional wide-brimmed witch hat - her public archetype is Princess, not Witch, after all - but the face and bearing seem right at a casual glance.

P.S:
I do in fact write other things. However, given that this thread is apparently still attracting interest... Chance of update within 1 week has increased significantly.
 
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What little I've seen of MGLN is a mostly-innocuous plot presented with just enough leering to make me uncomfortable, whereas CCS is a completely insane plot with no apparent leering. Also, I'd forgotten about CCS's second arc.
Naked barbie doll transformation scenes are pretty much genre standard ever since Sailor Moon anyway, so it didn't warrant much attention. And CCS well...its a lot more subtle about it in favor of cute interactions rather than visual service. That too is down to its age though
 
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