To make people actually remember, here's it once for posterity: Minako is nonbinary and uses they/them. This message will be pinned so you people stop getting it wrong and pissing me off. If you get it wrong in the future I'm going to be much less nice, considering you have to scroll past it just to read the quest.
It might in the short-term, but I think, like, understanding what Minako can do is pretty important for helping them. For one, they might well have both dealt with people with empathic powers before? Moid said, elsewhere, that empathic wishes in *general* aren't that uncommon, though each person's wish is different and how it manifests can change. So the Meguca-Moms might actually have some pretty good general advice? Once they get through the trauma of it all, of course.
But it'd also at least give them something to focus on?
If it'll hurt them to find out our wish, it'll hurt them more for them to find out later, you guys. There's no scenario where they never find out our wish.
Who says we aren't already feeling witches? The hands of grief pulling minako down, the imagery of their moms emotions. That could all be feeling the witch in every soul gem.
Who says we aren't already feeling witches? The hands of grief pulling minako down, the imagery of their moms emotions. That could all be feeling the witch in every soul gem.
WELL NO SHIT MINA, WHO'D HAVE THUNK THAT THIS WAS A BAD IDEA? MAYBE YOUR PARENTS, EVERYONE IN THEIR SOCIAL CIRCLE, YOUR GIRLFRIEND... EVERYONE BUT YOU, ESSENTIALLY?
Who says we aren't already feeling witches? The hands of grief pulling minako down, the imagery of their moms emotions. That could all be feeling the witch in every soul gem.
WELL NO SHIT MINA, WHO'D HAVE THUNK THAT THIS WAS A BAD IDEA? MAYBE YOUR PARENTS, EVERYONE IN THEIR SOCIAL CIRCLE, YOUR GIRLFRIEND... EVERYONE BUT YOU, ESSENTIALLY?
If a Magical Girl regrets or rejects their wish hard enough, they'll subconsciously block off access to their powers. A prominent canonical example is Kyoko herself, who lost access to her illusion magic in canon due to what happened to her family.
Magically speaking, it's almost easy to do, once you know how, but that doesn't mean it isn't one of the hardest things you've ever done.
Even in experiencing others, peering down through their very souls, you exist at the distance afforded by the differences between them and you. But experiencing yourself leaves no room to look away, nor to rationalize what you're facing.
The private psychodrama of your existence sprawls out before your mind's eye, inundated with icons, and each image can't help but remind you of exactly what it represents, unfurling you like a mythology for your own consumption. There is no self for you to touch, only the ceaseless torrent of understanding and gnosis that is the story and the experience of you. Even as you think it, the image of the ouroboros sears into being in an explosion of nuclear phosphenes, dripping with brack water and guttered ash.
It seems almost grotesque that childhood memories can blaze so extravagantly in your mind, as if bullying and being bullied is just as important as the love and loss that hangs in the balance now. You know what you need to do.
Trying to find your witch is just as hard as finding yourself in the narcissism of your unfolding psychic labyrinth. There is no one center to your being, let alone to that of the doppelganger you're seeking -- only the seamless flow of the people you could have been and could still become, all the rejected un-selves you're still trying very hard not to be.
You can never allow yourself to be them, but you know them, and you've felt their pain. You're not so different after all.
Please, you say to them, reaching out across the nonexistent gulf of your existence. Talking to yourself at your very worst in the hope that even at your lowest, you can still do what needs to be done. I need your help. I believe in you. I know you can help me. I know we can do this together. I know that I can do this, if you believe in me. If I believe in me.
You can feel something stirring in you, all your shadows rising up as if to meet you, to pass their torches forward.
To elaborate
If you go by this quest's canon that freedom of Will is paramount and mind control doesn't work
That, as Kyubey says, becoming Magi refines your soul to transform into a pure receptacle of Grief your free will
What's the catch, you may ask?
Freedom of Will is gut, dast ish?
Well, yes and also terrifying no rising from the very depths of your soul ( spoilers that's your inner Witch screaming how much you fucked up )
Why does your meatsack interfere with your freedom of will?
For your protection
It's an evolutionary process to create additional barriers between you and the cold uncaring universe
Like self-deception
All the Magi emotions intensify which is weird since the hormones affecting them aren't so important now right
Only your mind now feels these emotions raw, undulating through your very soul without constraints of your stupid pre-transhumance meatsack abode that's primarily focused on your survival and a bunch of other things
So yeah, TLDR feeling Witches depends on how close your powers interface with their souls and whether you can dampen the connection with training which you probably can
But feeling them
Absolutely freaking yes
Yes yes yes yes why not
You have no constraints and no defenses except for those you create for yourself now
Arguably Minako feels the emotions of their parents so sharply because that's specifically what they Wished for so their parents' emotions will be specifically very clear and intense in their eyes so
Who says we aren't already feeling witches? The hands of grief pulling minako down, the imagery of their moms emotions. That could all be feeling the witch in every soul gem.
The absolutely terrifying thing here is I think the whole falling into despair analogy is about Koko and Seykuu only
That's their mental representation of what's happening to their child atm
And them grabbing at them?
That's KokoSeku finding one of the only reasons why they shouldn't Witch out on the spot
Because they wholeheartedly believe that their child needs them
And they are right
"I wanted to understand," you say. "That's it. I wanted to get you and mom and my girlfriend and stuff. So I wished for that and I'm uh..." You breathe in through your nose. "Not great."
"Is it bad?" your mama asks. "If...okay." She's processing.
Another flash and this time you see a hanging noose made of prayer beads and a cross, just over a pool of blood and the silhouettes of two people: a mother and a child.
That was a mistake. You reel backwards before clutching the sides of your head. You knew mom was thinking about that but you weren't expecting that. You weren't expecting to see that at all.
"I hate this fucking power I hate this fucking power."
Your mama keeps silent as she clutches your shoulders.
"Shhh..." She takes a breath. "So you're an empath."
You stare ahead and of course they'd know how to classify your power. You nod weakly. "Y-yeah."
Your mama rubs your back and keeps her chin on your shoulder. She squeezes you tight, careful not to squeeze too hard, but you're not that careful. You clutch back as tight as you can. She doesn't flinch.
God, she really is superhuman.
"You chose the most difficult power you could have possibly gotten." Your mama keeps a hold on you. "Shit, Mina."
"Right. Right, I did. Of course I did." You squeeze your eyes shut and keep a tight hold on your mama. "I just...I should probably go to bed."
"Yeah. We...should." Your mama finally lets go, but before she lets you back to your room, she pulls out an oddly shaped gem. "Hey, here."
You take it quickly. It looks like a miniature Mitakihara monument...which means... "Grief seed?"
"Your girlfriend told you about that, too?"
"She used the Monument to heal up her gem, yeah," you say.
"...is that how you knew about soul gems, too?"
"She told me," you say. "I just...I knew about that, yeah."
"Hm." Your mama doesn't say anything. Finally, she does walk back to her room and the door shuts behind her. You decide to just go to bed. You lay on your side, wide awake, staring at a wall. You're waiting for the moment when you can undo how badly you fucked up.
You don't fall asleep for an hour.
[=]
Your name is Kyouko Sakura. Your door shuts behind you, and on your bed is your wife. Your beautiful wife. Her eyes are still wet. She's staring at her hands, quietly sobbing every few seconds. The moonlight floods in from just outside, bathing the room in a bright blue glow.
You keep your eyes on your wife. Your own cheeks are a little wet, but you stopped it before it got too bad. Minako didn't need both their moms to be a wreck. They didn't need that.
But now they're in bed.
And you can't do this anymore.
You collapse to your knees and bury your face in your hands. It takes all of your willpower not to scream out. Your nose is running and your eyes are streaming and you're just sobbing into your hands and you bury your own crying by biting down on your tongue hard enough to draw blood.
The room is dead silent save for the sound of you sobbing into your hands. It's ugly. You haven't had a cry like this in a long time. Your hands are a fucking mess and so are you. You clutch the sides of your head, breathing haggard as you try to keep it from getting too loud.
It's not working.
Your wife is finally moving off the bed. She slumps off the side, feet dragging across carpet as she reaches you. She pushes her hands into your shoulders and leans her forehead against yours.
"W-we fuckin' failed. We fucking failed as parents. We're just fucking failures and we thought we could-"
You're choking on your own words now. You're borderline incoherent. You hate feeling like this. You hate everything here. You hate how you have to handle your child making the same goddamn mistake that you did. You hate that you can't blame anything except for that invincible rat fucker.
Your wife presses her forehead against yours. She's not saying anything back. And honestly, you don't want to hear any words of encouragement or reassurance. They feel so fucking hollow and you want to puke.
Your wife rubs your shoulder. She runs her hand down your arm before using her left to try and wipe her eyes. She pulls her gem out.
It's halfway. You do the same. You're there too.
You didn't even notice the time. You pull out your phone and it's been twenty minutes. You didn't even notice it happen.
"Shit." Sayaka mutters. "I-" she sniffs "-I have work."
"Yeah." You rub your eyes. You should probably get up and get a tissue. But that would mean getting away from your wife. "I...I don't. Training's off until Thursday. I...ugh. I think I know how I-" a sob, but you try to turn it into a laugh, "-I'm spending the next few days."
She tries to laugh but it sounds even worse than yours. "I-I guess so." She shakes her head.
"Our child is an empath," you say.
Sayaka squeezes her eyes shut. "Of course they are." She sniffs. "Of course they are."
"They wanted to understand us. Just get us." You bite your lip. Your fang feels weirdly sharp today. "Maybe keeping the uh...keeping it from them was a bad idea."
Sayaka doesn't say anything. She curls up just underneath you before leaning against your stomach. You stroke her hair.
Finally, you curl up with her and fall asleep on the floor. You're both going to be sore in the morning.
You don't care. You can deal with it. Your wife can too.
But it'll take so much work.
[=]
It's morning. You wake up and make breakfast, but the morning is dead silent. You and Sayaka were fucking sore after waking up, and it took a bit of a shower to feel less gross afterwards. Minako, meanwhile, is equally quiet. They're poking awkwardly at their plate, and when they finally do eat, they don't finish their food.
You take a deep breath.
Sayaka gives you a brief kiss. She can't even look Mina in the eye as she runs out the door to work.
Minako winces. They know exactly how Sayaka felt. You get the feeling that they reached out to her emotions and felt what you saw.
You should probably make a decision on what to do. You don't know if Minako is in a state to go to school.
Minako should...
[X] Go to school. It's a welcome distraction from last night's...everything. And while they're probably not gonna pay attention, it's something different.
[X] Train. Nothing rigorous. Just let them know that they're not alone, and if they're going to be a magi, then they have two of the best magi in japan ready to help them out.
[X] Hunt. They should have a trial by fire, but with you as a safety net.
Adhoc vote count started by TheOneMoiderah on Jun 26, 2019 at 9:07 PM, finished with 52 posts and 22 votes.
[X] Train. Nothing rigorous. Just let them know that they're not alone, and if they're going to be a magi, then they have two of the best magi in japan ready to help them out.
[X] Just hang out. Yesterday was . . . and they've probably got a lot of questions anyway. Better work through whats on Mina's metaphorical plate before adding more.
[X] Train. Nothing rigorous. Just let them know that they're not alone, and if they're going to be a magi, then they have two of the best magi in japan ready to help them out.
I'm happy just lurking the thread.