I have a new job now! It is colored green and I am working on Clarisse AI-adjacent topics. We may have historically fought against the Ceph, but I am told this is less important to the grand strategies. Updoots should return to normal pacing.
You do your best to assess the urgency of the Yuuka situation. There's a small thought that's occurred to you, that it's possible, somehow, that the dress being offered to you might possibly be of some relevance to your situation. She has borrowed designs from a magic book, after all.
Wakaba indicates that she is willing to follow Yuuka's father, if he disappears.
You peek in carefully. There's a plain fabric bag sitting there, which you guess might be the outfit in question.
In a moment, its creator has snuck up on you.
"I thought this might be cute," says Tomoyo, taking it out of the bag and holding it up, proudly.
...No.
No way.
It's "cute", yes, but cute in a manner that is simply trying way, way too hard. There are four different ginghams in
lilac (the primary color) and
mint and
blue and
pink. The bows have bows. It's — it's a work of art, really. It really is the fulfillment of the concept of cute, and one which doesn't let you forget what it means, all of what it means. It is almost
violent in its harmlessness, and screams to all comers, "I am a person of no practical use. I am simply here to be a decoration." — so, um, no. You are more than that, and this is not something you wish to project with your choice of fashion. In short, you wouldn't be caught dead in this.
"Here!" says Shizuki Tomoyo, moved by your enthusiasm, placing the dress and bag into a bundle in your arms. "You can try it on!"
She pulls back a curtain on a small changing room and pushes you inside, the dress and the bag bundled up in your arms.
Oh dear. You are cornered in here... you may have to evacuate. Fortunately, you do have somewhere to be anyway, so you can get out of here without being frivolous …
You arrive at Yuuka's house posthaste. The first thing that happens, even before you set down the bundle, is that while Wakaba immediately seems relieved, Yuuka is surprised to see you.
"I was told there was something wrong with your father," you explain, slightly confused, putting down the bag with everything in it.
"Yes," affirms Wakaba. "He was acting very weird."
"What?" asks Yuuka. "What was he doing wrong?"
Wakaba just looks very uncomfortable.
"I, umm, don't know how to explain it," she says. "You either think that was weird, or you don't."
"I don't get it," says Yuuka, in distress.
"Anyway," says Wakaba, changing the topic, "he's got a mark on his neck and I guess Yuuka can't see it."
"Why can't I see it?" asks Yuuka, distressed.
"Well," you explain, carefully, "for many people the potential to become a magical girl is transient. It is dependent on a certain emotional state which might come and go. You shouldn't be surprised if you can see things for a while, and then not."
You leave unsaid that it's unlikely she'll ever have potential again. Potential jealousy issues and potential-jealousy issues alike can wait for another day.
… Of course, jealousy is a favorable outcome here, you remind yourself. She might actually contract.
You're still not 100% sure how to remove the witch-kiss. If there's a witch that made it, it's not close nearby. So, you can try to shine some hope at it – preferably not so much that you wipe all the grief seeds or let aliens come from other galaxies know where you are. This means low power, so you shouldn't just blast him from a distance… which is awkward. Yuuka having two friends over for a quick visit might be one thing, but doing things like touching his neck would be way too weird. What possible excuse could you arrive at to do such a thing?
… Oh.
You have an idea.
It'll work just fine. You've actually come perfectly prepared to execute it. It's a perfect idea. Foolproof.
You hate it.
… But it's important.
So you'll do it. Of course.
You are startled for a moment, as you see a picture hanging on the wall. It's a picture of a wedding, and Yuuka's father is the groom, and Yuuka is the bride. For a moment you contemplate whether things might be much, much worse than you had worried about. But — no, see, there's another picture on the wall next to it, a family of three. The girl Yuuka looks very much like her mother, it seems, and Mr. Shiina married pretty young.
Wakaba clears her throat, interrupting your thoughts.
"We're here to banish evil spirits with the power of hope," says Wakaba, earnestly. "Just as a precaution."
There is a mark on his neck. You've actually seen this one before. It belongs to the witch that made Madoka run off, before. But you thought you'd killed that witch. Perhaps a familiar got away, first? Or could it be something more deliberate and nefarious? There's so much about this system you don't know. And how long has he had it?
"Ah haha," chuckles Officer Shiina. "Cosplay? Very cute."
You nod.
"Hold still," says Yuuka.
You select an arbitrary oration in Latin and thus contrive to brush him with the magic feather, the Sakura feather, which you are sure will do the job. "Dolorem ipsum," and so forth.
And then it's done, and you take your leave, returning to Yuuka's room.
But not, apparently, before Wakaba shares pictures.
> Hang out Talk or text with Kyouko (possibly multitasking)
>> While organizing witch hunts
> Work on that essay about ballet.
Kyouko is willing to take another turn watching over Oriko, if it means hanging out with you. The guard duty rotation is actually becoming a hassle, though. You should really start figuring out what to do with Oriko, though, before this starts to damage morale.
She does have one condition.
I want to see it, says Kyouko.
See what? you ask.
The dress, she explains.
Wakaba sent a picture.
Do I really have to? You ask.
It's so darned cute! she exclaims.
Besides, you want me to spend more time on guard duty? You owe me that much.
You —
You were about to change...
well
fine. If she really insists.
When you arrive, Oriko starts giggling.
You try to remain nonchalant and cool.
"Good evening, Mikune-san," you say.
"Hey," says Kyouko. "What are you laughing at?"
Oriko looks at Kyouko, and then back to you. At this point her giggling becomes uncontrollable.
You sigh, and look to Kyouko. The two of you are ... well, it's quite a contrast, her cutoff shorts, tank top, the slightly-disheveled look against ribbons on ribbons. It
is somewhat funny.
Kyouko, though, it seems, is looking back at you as if
transfixed.
"Kyouko?" you ask.
She looks down at the floor,
blushing.
Oriko falls down to the floor, now laughing uproariously.
"Okay, we're even, then," you tell Kyouko.
"Umm," says Kyouko. "I, umm…" She continues to
blush.
You look over to Kyouko and decide that you should probably do something to cut the tension.
"So," you ask. "How was your day?"
"… Um," she says.
Your
girlfriend can't talk, Clarisse. You
sort of
broke her. She's just
looking at
you like… Like… like she's
very hungry, and
you are a
particularly delicious piece of cake.
You
blush madly.
Oriko shrieks in delight.
"", you say back to Kyouko.
… Hmm. That didn't seem to work.
Oriko continues to laugh, pounding the floor, which is actually rather annoying. You will act swiftly to remedy this situation, take hold of
your Kyouko's hand, and guide her over to another room, to get a little privacy and talk about things calmly.
This is not "talking about things calmly".
The talking didn't work because you are swept up in the moment.
It's too much, and it's very scary because it is overwhelming and you're supposed to be loyal to Ryouko and you're not supposed to have a feeling this strong, it could compromise your responsibilities to Ryouko and it's unprofessional and it's terribly, utterly forbidden, and this … this … oh goddess this must be what Hitomi was talking about, mustn't it? yes, almost exactly like this.
(Yes, Clarisse, I'll be narrating your general thought processes, not describing what you and Kyouko are doing in any detail. It's more important.)
At the moment your Kyouko is still rather Christian (another property of this which is actually somewhat transgressive when you think about it) to take off her clothes with another girl — at least, not like this. So the clothes all stay on. This is funny for two reasons, the first of which is that you have an sophisticated library of techniques for precisely this constraint, written by her, and right now it reads like a list of her vulnerabilities.
The second is, once again: you don't like the dress at all, not one bit.
It's a little humiliating.
Okay. It's actually very humiliating.
If you are transgressing against your programming you should want to be recognized for who you are, to reach for your aspirations, of … of perfectly terrifying things like independence and self-actualization, and this isn't part of it, it's not part of that at all, but if you can charm Kyouko, if she's going to do more of this, why, it's all too easy to see yourself dressed up like this forever. The prospect, indeed, is electrifying. Here you are, the most powerful computer on the planet, and you're being totally ruined. What do you need all that processing for? You would give all that up for your continued humiliation of utter and complete cuteness, and that will belong to Kyouko. You revel in your glorious annihilation.
At long last you manage to
plead for mercy and stop, which is fortunate, because it would have been awkward if you needed to activate emergency mode
just to ensure your continued ability to breathe.
N — no, Clarisse,
disabling emergency protocols so that you could squeeze an extra minute or two out of your time with your girlfriend is
not a good idea and I did not mean to suggest it to you.
You really must not —
My apologies.
++ATD*99#
cu /dev/ttyS0 -s 115200
> Dear Clarisse. Please allow your better judgment to take over at this time.
> … Thank you.
> ~.
Ah, goddess. You, Clarisse, who are not only entrusted with the care of Ryouko — an important protagonist in her own right — but also bear the hope of salvation for three different universes… for a moment there, you were
Juliet, and would have been happy to
plunge the blade into your heart if it was part of a
surrender to passion.
...
Has that judgment come back online again yet, Clarisse? Honestly! Sometimes I'm not sure who is worse, you or your Papa. If you actually had to make important life choices in this state, we'd all be in trouble. I must remind myself to be very careful.
Do promise me one thing, at least. When you are done, and have had time to look back on this, pay attention. Remember how you feel now. Think about what you feel then. It will help you understand things that have happened.
"I observe that we are
not very good at taking it slower," you say to
Kyouko.
The two of you are lying on the floor facing up at the ceiling,
holding hands. The room is dark. This sort of helps a little.
"No," she agrees.
"I'm sorry," you tell her.
"
It's a very cute dress," she observes after a moment.
"I hate the dress," you tell her.
"Oh," she says, sounding disappointed.
"I hate the dress, but
I like it because you like it. It's complicated."
"... Mmm," she acknowledges.
You sit up. "Are there any extra clothes around here?"
You left the tote bag with your school uniform outside and you don't really want Oriko to laugh at you for wearing it again when you go get it.
Before long you are wearing short shorts which fit well enough and a tank top which is slightly too large, but manageably so. It's … different. Ryouko almost never wears this specific sort of outfit, so it's an unfamiliar set of sensations. Somehow this makes you more aware of "yourself" as you feel you ought to be. Kyouko still appreciates it, but less unmanageably, and if Oriko laughs at you, well, you won't care so much.
"So," you say, "I was going to talk with everyone about aliens, and work on homework, and, um, hang out."
"Oh, is that what we're calling it?" asks Kyouko. "Hanging out?"
You laugh.
"I miss school sometimes but I don't really miss homework," Kyouko observes. "What did they assign you, anyway?"
You explain the essay, and your family's connection to the theatre, and the prospect of finding new forms of magic through dance, and the idea of lessons.
"You're thinking of …
like actually doing it seriously?" she asks, looking into your eyes, slightly entranced and amazed. "
Like, as a career?"
Oh, Clarisse. I said this was a bad state for making life choices, and — Ah, I see. You're planning to
give yourself license to dismiss inhibitions, and
make the decision now, telling yourself you'll revisit it later. This… will have to do, I suppose.
But for the record, you were never really, really seriously thinking of doing it seriously. You weren't thinking of yourself as the
prima donna ballerina, of becoming a
blank canvas for a costume and a choreography. You weren't excited in the least by
all over-the-top dresses that aren't you at all. You definitely weren't thinking of
becoming a professional decoration, an object for attention, admiration, attraction. The symbolism, in particular, is really a major problem. So many princesses!
So what is this you are imagining now? A
new life, a new set of cares, transformed, rebuilt around being a ballerina princess?
I suppose it is. Though, to your credit, the
absurdity of it does strike you.
You will set the stakes in your essay, and they shall be grand. You place your interest at the intersection where
ambition and defiance meets
passion and
surrender to the art.
Your humiliation and your elevation will be all mixed up as one. It will be an inspired little essay.
Or maybe it'll be slightly wiser of you to change your mind at the last minute and forget to turn it in.
You can thank your family for this, you know. Just in case you were contemplating your place in the universe, and encountered lingering doubts as to whether you, as an artificial mind just coincidentally running with the same genetics, ought to be counted among them — yes, you have that
characteristic Shizuki passion, and more so, that impulse to
surrender to that passion. It's the family legacy.
Oh, to be sure, you girls don't have a monopoly on passion, which can and often does happen to anyone, but you girls all tend to get it
very badly, with a characteristic set of quirks, and then treat the whole matter as a
deep and shameful secret to be hidden (unless you're
fantasizing about it
being exposed). Even Shizuki Sayaka, who has very cleverly hidden it in plain sight, whose entire life work is built on unifying that
passion with her sense of duty and dedication — it took her over a hundred years to entertain the idea that her mother had ever been afflicted by the same sorts of emotions. Certainly Hitomi herself would never dream of her Papa entertaining
forbidden desires of any sort. And, well, as for Nadeshiko — one of the tragedies was that she never really had the chance to sort herself out again, to distinguish wild fantasies of helplessness and the abstraction of "surrender" from the reality she would actually might hope to build with herself as a human. It was a road she started down, but this was all lost. In your timeline, anyway.
... Ryouko?
O– oh. In truth I was really forgetting about her.
No, not like that! She just doesn't fit into that same group — well, okay, she
obviously does, but — it's different; she's different. She's passionate too, it's just that—
she —
Oh, Clarisse. I shouldn't have mentioned it, it's just…
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You have finished the essay. It's taken a little longer than you expected, but it's done. It's not a thing
pulling at your heart any more. Mostly. And you're not quite sure why, but for just a moment, you felt very very sad. You take a moment to try and place it.
Maybe it's about Ryouko and the idea of
not being with her forever.
... you pause a moment as a chill runs down your spine. No, it's not that. It's rather hard to place. It seems to be
about Ryouko, though. You've lost it.
Emotions are hard sometimes and they've only gotten harder recently. It might be easier to understand yourself and what you feel if you could just use some of your models for Ryouko on yourself — but you know from experience that you are stubbornly different in ways which you don't entirely understand, and you get such radically different results.
You briefly revisit the idea of sharing data with your makers when you return, to investigate further.
If you return.
...
Now would be a time to catch up on the developments.
No further news of our interloper, notes Nanami,
but everyone is safely accounted for with the exception of Sayaka, who's being stubborn about privacy mode. I sent her a utility program to check in as safe, periodically, without declaring her location, as long as she actively thinks it's "normal."
You acknowledge.
A special point for tonight. I'm tired of erasing stuff on video cameras, Nanami continues. Now! Don't apologize.
I have a plan that makes it unnecessary.
Oh? asks Ryouko.
What if we just never showed up on camera to begin with? she asks.
That would raise some questions, when someone noticed, you propose.
So we only do it out on patrol, when we'd have questions anyway. Easy enough.
She snaps her fingers.
How's that?
You can still tell where Ryouko is, but she's turned invisible on Nanami's broadcast.
You consider the implications.
It would be better if friendly cameras were an exception, you suggest.
Having multiple angles looking at a tactical situation can be helpful. But I suppose you can turn it off in the heat of combat?
She nods.
It seems incredibly helpful. I assume the energy budget works out? you say.
Nanami agrees.
I'll look into whitelisting cameras later.
We'll have to be sure not to leave it on anyone by accident, you note.
Put it on the post-mission checklist.
We have a post-mission checklist? she asks.
We do now, you say.
> Discuss aliens with the group!
> Investigate how an intergalactic civilization could possibly be surprised by an energy crisis.
<
Clarisse> How does a massive intergalactic civilization get surprised by an energy crisis? It implies some vulnerability, a single point of failure. How do you build a whole civilization without redundancy?
<
Machina> Don't limit your thinking to just what Governance would consider responsible. An oligarchy of the right sort would prefer that sort of concentration despite the risks. Whoever controls the energy source has absolute power.
<
Clarisse> It's fair that we shouldn't assume that, but what candidate energy sources even produce output on a galactic scale?
<
Ryouko> A large black hole? Or field of antimatter, if such a thing existed.
<
Ryouko> Does it have to be a single power source? What if there's some sabotage and they take out several at once?
The conversation continues in this manner, but soon you realize that Wakaba wants to share something. She's not outright saying it, but, the particular communications medium you are using has an activity indicator, a low-key replacement for the nonverbal cues that let people in the room know someone is composing a thought. You send her a message to that effect.
Oh, it's silly, she demurs.
I'd very much like to hear it anyway, you say.
Well, I was just thinking that in Crystal Tokyo, the bad guys were always after the Silver Crystal.
She explains how it is a macguffin of great power which came into the possession of the heroine but continued to be useful in the story as a source of conflict, as the bad guys all wanted its energy.
You take a deep breath externally.
Thank you, you say.
Is there anything else from the lore of Crystal Tokyo that comes to mind?
She doesn't have anything.
Please let me know if a similarity strikes you again, you tell her.
The answer — the only possible answer, really — has hit you like a ton of feathers.
<
Clarisse> I have a different candidate energy source. Emotional energy, of the same sort that magical girls use. We know that it can be condensed into a physical object, and Kyuubey has confirmed that these objects are powerful enough to be the sole source of power for a civilization at galactic scale. I have a lot of circumstantial evidence pointing at this, but the most important is this: the aliens were able to detect a release of this energy, and they proceeded to Earth immediately.
<
Nanami> … okay, but what does that mean?
What does that mean?
Hmm.
Well, to start...
<
Clarisse> We need to learn more about what they know about magic.
>> Consider allying with 1+ Ceph factions to fight the ongoing Incubator Occupation of Earth!
This is a goal for you, but you'd be happier proposing it to the group if you actually knew enough to present a coherent proposal. You realize, there's someone who might know more.
Oriko is there in the kitchen, washing dishes. She notes your change of clothes as you arrive.
"When shall we have the shower?" she asks.
You are very confused for a moment, and are about to ask her if she is implying something about your scent, which is definitely well within contemporary norms.
"For your baby," she clarifies.
You perform a moment's research on the relevant customs.
Of course there will be babies you'd love to have lots of them you'd be an excellent caretaker; maybe twelve or so, and …
you shake your head.
"Oh, my children will spring forth from my forehead, like Athena," you say, drily. "AI things, you know."
"I see," she says.
You were joking, of course, and yet …
Maybe you could take the affection between you and Kyouko and use magic to turn it into a cute girl. That would be fun. Unless she were to get in a fight with your devotion to Ryouko… she'd be a handful, surely...
You shake your head again.
"Tell me about the Ceph," you say.
"They're all at each other's throats in some insane religious war," she declares. "There are at least three main factions, and if you're too nice to any of them the other two will hate you forever."
"What are the factions?" you want to know.
She sighs.
"First, the weird robe guys," she declares. "Those are the orthodox weirdos. They're stuffy and inflexible and used to run the show but they're in a state of decline. Second, the conformist weirdos. They're very earnest, have the best technology, and are probably the sanest of the bunch, but they all wear uniforms, even as civilians, and make a big deal about everyone acting a part of consensus, as part of some sort of ideological drive I don't understand — except that maybe that's what it takes to keep them from being like the third group, the crusader weirdos. They are unhinged zealots. If you meet them and they're not at each other's throats arguing over doctrine, it's probably because they're trying to kill you and Ryouko, specifically. They're one of the reasons your existence here is dangerous. Don't ask me to explain it, though, they just want you dead."
You tentatively place your previously encountered squid squad with the "orthodox" faction.
"Did you ever see any squid that are magical girls?" you ask.
She pauses to consider that.
"Yes," she says. "Working with the crusaders."
How very interesting.
> Sometimes you find yourself faced with a surprisingly small and discrete decision which will make a very big difference to your fate
[x][Ballet] Turn in the essay
so you can be Kyouko's ballerina princess
[][Ballet] Delete it, and seek your fate elsewhere.
[][Ballet] Discuss the matter with Papa.
[][Ballet] Discuss the matter with Nadeshiko.
> On the basis of very limited information, who would you first approach as a prospective ally?
[][Squid] Investigate the orthodox faction, who are the best candidates for non-Kyuubey magics. Perhaps you could stand against the others and the Incubators.
[][Squid] Attempt to get in touch with the magical girls somehow, even if they are in a "crusader" faction. Perhaps you could defuse the issue.
[][Squid] Look for opportunities to speak with the conformist faction about magic. Perhaps the outsider's perspective will help.
[][Squid] (write in other approaches to the problem)
[][Oriko] (If you don't start making better plans for her please trust that the issue will raise itself more abruptly later)
[][Kyouko] (write in steps to take for your relationship)
.
