How does it know Abraxas? Why is it displaying in runes instead of Standard?
Is this a ribbon shenanigan?
Let's see, some candidate explanations to finding strange data in your nomenclator system:
- It's an illusion of some sort
- Someone hacked you to put it there
-- Nanami? Simona?? Machina???
-- (why????)
- Someone used magic to put it there
- A wish placed it there
If someone is deliberately placing it there to manipulate you, I'm not sure they'd want to use runes. The runes have activated your suspicion, after all. On the other hand, if magic is involved, especially automagic forms of magic, runes may be a natural representation for this. Are there notable recent magical phenomenon that involved you, and Simona (or her witch), but not other witches?
if we want to indulge in paranoia the grief seed could be an elaborate illusion to deceive us too. I guess I'm just not as worried about being deceived as you are, if we go down that path anything could be illusion magic and we can't trust anything, which isn't a sane way to live.
I think this would try the patience of the readers. Honestly, I do that enough already without actually intending; to do so
deliberately would be highest folly
After (quite legitimate) complaint
s earlier, I have been working hard
to move material questions out of the Disco
rd
and onto this thread. Besides being inclusive to those who are on S
V,
it makes things easier o
n me to be able to say "a
sk it on the thread" so that I ma
y have more time to arrive at a good answer (or just to finish my commute).
With that in mind, I am going to aggressively drag this speculah from yesterday evening by
@13th Madman onto the thread and address it here.
14th Madman @ TTS Discord said:
Guys, if I put forwards a point for future consideration, can you all promise not to propose any reckless experiments until we have more answers?
The soul gem is an egg cage, with, presumably, an egg in it. How do we go about ritually hatching the thing?
The term "hatching" is interesting here. While it destroys the egg, it is clear that it preserves something important in a way that, say,
frying the egg does not, sunny-side-up or otherwise.
But let's talk rituals. Clarisse will have some of this theory available in her databanks. She knows that magic is ultimately a force of the soul, but, as the soul is attached to a mind and body in practice, things that affect the mind and body can affect magic. We see that magic gladly participates in patterns of showy symbolism (e.g. the decorative look of enchanted objects, minus Oriko's crystal ball). We can also see elements of ritual used in some of the more exotic forms of magic, like when the clairvoyants run a seance with Mami to view future-Homura. But even with battle magic and the like where it's not
necessary, and might be a distraction to many magical girls, you can expect that Tomoe Mami gets just a
tiny little bit extra from her attacks by throwing herself all the way into it with a cry of "Tiro Finale!" — while Misa Virani invokes an ancient incantation before her own moment of glory:
Misa Virani said:
Lord Jupiter! Father of lightning! Grant my wish! Call down the thunder!
(I learned of this catchphrase long after TTS.)
So rituals are a thing, and if you're planning something like "make the magic egg hatch", then they may be of help to you. If you want to hatch an egg, what you're looking for is something that will strongly engage both mind and body, and do so in a manner which is relevant to the concept-space where "hatching eggs" lives: new life, Easter, rebirth,
spring. You could probably design a ritual from scratch if you wanted, and this approach would have advantages: you are doing a new thing with a new rite. But you do gain something from a rite with a legacy too, as the ideas of new life and fertility have been celebrated for ages, and the tradition is powerful. A hybrid approach is also available, a new adaptation
of some existing
rite.
Please direct further questions about this matter to a knowledgable in-universe source.