Be the planeswalking magical girl! Explore new worlds! Practice healthy self-immolation! Learn all the magic! Deal with the irritating crises before you! (slowly deal with your issues)
Alright, so my primary work computer decided to up and die on me. Thank goodness I kept my decade-old one around.
In addition to being rather expensive, this also means all of my story notes & partly-done chapters are gone. One of my relatives may have an old backup of my work, but it'll take a few weeks for him to get back to me on that. Failing that, I'll just have to hope my laptop can be fixed without me losing everything.
In the meantime, I want to write, dammit! So here's something completely different: another PMMM quest. You can thank the excellent Be The Eldritch Abomination for inspiring this one.
Warning: I may focus on this less than Splintered and Fragmentation once I get my notes back. Or the other way around. I make no promises.
If the PC seems bland and severely lacking in the emotions department for all of 0.?: that's cuz she had almost no personality to speak of. It was still in flux.
"Life isn't fair." you mutter.
You've started to really hate that phrase. It's an excuse, a rebuke, and a taunt all rolled into one. Why isn't it fair? Why do people throw out that phrase and then simply move on? If anything, it should be used as encouragement for the exact opposite thing. Life isn't fair; let's change that.
The public unmasking of magic two years ago only served to make that phrase even more annoying. Dozens of young girls sacrificing their lives in an endless war against eldritch abominations, and people had the nerve to harass those who didn't spend every last moment fighting witches.
For a small amount of time, they had even blamed those who didn't make totally selfless wishes, although that settled down after a few months. When was the last time the hecklers made a massive, selfless sacrifice, hmm? Magical girls should be entitled to a bit of selfishness, given as they're risking their lives for the good of humanity. Since they outright died when the source of their magic went completely dark, one could even say that they gave up their lives in exchange for their wish.
Just what is wrong with humanity? Didn't they have serious objections to child soldiers just a few years ago? Now they stop, cheer, and treat it all like some sort of game. Sure, only a handful of magical girls have died since magic was revealed, but witches are still killing people. Magical girls can't be everywhere at once. You're not sure how many people witches have killed over the last two years, but you know the vast majority of them have been female. Kyubey even confirmed that many of the dead girls had possessed the potential to become magical girls prior to their death.
Your brooding is interrupted by a flash of white in your bedroom window. You bolt upright, wondering if a rat somehow got inside- and try very, very hard not to stare. You're not sure you succeed.
Kyubey, the famous recruiter of magical girls, is on your windowsill. ...Despite the fact that your window is shut and locked. Just to be sure, you glance over at your bedroom door to make sure it's still shut.
It is. Ooookay then...
"It doesn't have to be that way, you know." Kyubey's voice goes straight into your mind without passing through your ears first. "You're upset because you perceive life to be unfair, correct?"
You don't bother answering, still rather shocked that Kyubey is in your room. Many young girls dream of becoming magical girls, but you hadn't really expected it to be an actual possibility. After several moments of silence, he continues.
"The wishes of magical girls are limited by their karmic potential. They aren't all-powerful. However, your potential is unusually large. If you wish for something, you could make great progress toward achieving it. In summary..."
Kyubey hops down to the floor and trots over to you, looking up hopefully.
"Would you like to make a contract with me and become a magical girl?"
...This is really not how you'd expected your Saturday night to go.
[] "...I need more time to think." You know he won't leave you alone until you outright refuse. Kyubey has several bodies, after all; he can afford to spend some time following you.
[] Refuse, for now. You can't wish for the world to become perfectly fair and you don't have anything else you want to wish for right now. The orphanage where you live is doing rather well, your grades are average, you don't have any friends to use your wish for...
[] "Go away, Kyubey. I'm really not in the mood."
-[] "And don't come back."
[] This is what you wanted, isn't it? A chance to make the world a little bit brighter.
-[] Write-in wish
[] This is what you wanted, isn't it? A way to get something in return for how much the world has hurt you. It's only fair.
-[] Write-in wish
[] This is what you wanted, isn't it? A chance to actually go out and do something. You hadn't really expected Kyubey to show up, but now that he's here, you have no reason to refuse. It'll be fun!
-[] Write-in wish
[] Ask Kyubey some questions.
-[] Somehow, you doubt magical girls are the warriors of love and justice everyone makes them out to be. It's too good to be true.
-[] Write-in questions
[] Write-in
You don't have to become a magical girl.
MTG's mana coloration / mana costs and the system for this quest are not identical. Not even close. Nor will you be able to cast any specific spells from the game; similar things may crop up, but trying to search the card game for specific feats would be somewhat pointless.
You will learn how the system works at the same time as the PC. I will elaborate if you should have learned something, but my explanation was insufficient.
Fair warning for new readers: I, as a QM, made several major mistakes across the course of this quest. Feedback helps me learn from them and avoid repeating said mistakes, but I'm told a few major ones continue to make new readers drop this story years after they were made. Despite those, the tone of the story gets progressively lighter until I'm told the difference is "like night and day." If you can push past those — skipping chapters if you feel you need to — I don't think you'll find any ramps next to those particular shark tanks in future chapters.
That being said, I really do appreciate feedback. If something makes you drop the story, even if it's just simple boredom? Feel free to PM me about it. I won't bite your head off.
In addition to the 2018 note, readers should be aware that Jade is an extremely unreliable narrator. Depressed people often are. Take her opinions, especially when it comes to how others view her, how she views herself, and how she views others, with a kilogram of salt.
Spoiler-free section (contains some personal history):
Age: 16
This is you. The outcast.
Previous Events
Your father was a stage magician, although you always noticed that his displays of "magic" often involved more fireworks and explosions than actual sleight-of-hand. That's not to say he was particularly bad at the latter; he just seemed to prefer setting things on fire instead of pulling terrified animals out of a hat.
Some of your fondest memories are of learning how to properly handle the tools of your father's trade without getting hurt. While other children were learning fire safety, you had progressed past that and moved on to the proper handling of minor explosives.
Unfortunately, he managed to get involved with the "wrong sort" twenty months ago, owing them a favor for some unknown reason. You suspect it may have been related to the flashier (and more explosive) acts needed to compete with the reveal of magical girls.
Four and a half months after that, he died when the roof collapsed on top of him in the middle of a performance. A freak accident, the police said. You had worried about his possible ties to organized crime for nothing.
Regardless, you'll never forget seeing two tons of metal and glass falling on your unsuspecting father.
Your mother was a professional cook, although the term "mad science" had often been thrown around in her kitchen. Just like everything else. She didn't really bother with silly things like recipes, instead preferring to trust her gut and the contents of her pantry to see things through. Oddly enough, her chaotic method of cooking almost always worked. People even paid for a "subscription", a small share of whatever she cooked each day. Many of her subscribers took it as a challenge, especially those who adored spicy food.
Thanks to her, you've acquired what some believe to be a very strange taste in food. You treat it as normal and consider what everyone else eats to be kinda bland.
After your father's death, she started acting rather odd. You often caught her crying whenever fireworks went off outside and even when popcorn was being cooked. If it produced any sort of a pop, it was likely to set her off.
Exactly one month after your father died, she deliberately poisoned herself, you, and six others. Four people, including your mother, died. You only managed to survive due to prompt medical attention and quite a large amount of luck.
You're not sure if you'll ever look at curry the same way again.
You used to be happy and enthusiastic. Each new day was bright and full of adventure. You didn't worry too much about long-term planning and just tackled each situation as it was presented to you.
"Used to be" being the key phrase. Watching your dad die changed you. Many of the activities you used to take pleasure in reminded you of your father; they no longer gave you any joy. Your friends quickly got tired of your eternal aura of depression and stopped inviting you to spend time with them.
Things only got worse when your mother tried to kill you both. Moving to the orphanage, and changing schools in the process, should have been a fresh start. It wasn't, not really. Somebody decided to spread word of what your mother had done and pointed to your blank expression as a sign that you were planning a repeat performance.
It was total nonsense, but it was nonsense they could believe all too easily. You became a social outcast within days of transferring.
Even when the other students weren't avoiding you, they still didn't want an outsider intruding. The same held true for the other teenagers at the orphanage. They had already formed their own social groups and weren't interested in any additions. Your halting attempts to interact with them were ignored, or worse, mocked.
It wasn't at all fair. Did they care? Nope.
Warning: The QM often neglects keeping the character sheet updated. It may be is almost always behind. Currently updated to chapter 34.5
Spoilers:
Age: 16
Birthday: April 11th, 1999.
This is you. Thanks to your adoptive mother and friends, you're a lot happier than you used to be. Times when you're sad are exceptions, not the norm... Of course, a certain pair of AIs were directly responsible for a few of those incidents. Whoever designed their social restrictions really needed a slap upside the head.
Planeswalk [Rank 5]: You may travel to other planes without instantly being killed by exposure to Eternity. Planeswalking is an exhausting ordeal, both mentally and physically. While you can do it multiple times in close succession, it gets harder and harder each time until you ultimately fall unconscious. If this happens while you are still in Eternity, it could easily be fatal.
You've gotten a little better at minimizing the amount of time you spend in Eternity, thus making it a little less tiring.
You've acquired the ability to freeze time for a single plane. The process of freezing/defrosting takes 48 hours on the outside and 24 on the inside and cannot be halted after more than a few seconds after it's started.
You can follow summon-bonds and land-bonds in order to vastly increase your accuracy. As in, to the point where you've landed in the same room as your friends. You're afraid landbonds might be less reliable; you once 'walked right into the temple of a hostile, sadistic, evil goddess while you were trying to visit Holacre, preferably while landing as close to Siofra as possible.
Land Bonding [Rank 5]: You may bond with locations and pull mana from them, regardless of how far away you are or even if you're on a completely different plane.
At your current level of skill, you will need to have spent weeks or even months at a location before you can manage to bond to it. This time does not have to be in a single chunk, nor do you have to be actively striving for it during that time.
It is easiest for you to bond with lands that produce Red mana. You somehow managed to bond to Uminari much, much faster than you'd expected, although you're not quite sure how. Spamming lots of Red magic, maybe?
Trying to link constructs to the land seems like a way to actually train Land Bonding, even if that kind of training is rather slow. Using this method of training, you managed to figure out how to forge a fledgling link between yourself and a given land. It should speed up the process some; how much, you don't know.
Velgarth lands don't like to be rushed and shocked/bit you when you tried to speed up the bonding process. You completely halted it after that.
Bonds of every kind appear to be complementary. You managed to bond with Sidhe, Yuuno, and Holacre on the same day.
Tap Eternity [Rank 1]: You can pull mana from the space between worlds. Said mana is extremely dangerous to beings without a Spark. Additionally, the longer it is on a plane, the more it will corrupt its surroundings. If allowed to roam free, it will slowly turn the plane it is unleashed on into yet another part of Eternity.
Additionally, you're pretty sure using this will lure the endless hunger toward your little corner of Eternity.
You honestly don't know why you'd ever want to use this. If a dangerous opponent would require the use of this kind of mana, you'd much rather just planeswalk away.
Overchanneling, Red [Rank 4]: You can ignore little things like "safety" in a glorious surge of Red mana. Your ability to control what you generate vastly drops in exchange for massive amounts of power. Of course, you can sometimes imitate control by simply forcing things into shape with the previously mentioned raw power.
Your fears are temporarily burned away while this is in effect. Unfortunately, this seems to include some of your fears of negative consequences. You're sick for almost an entire day after a surge ends and it tends to eat your clothing and belongings. Fortunately, your magical girl costume and weaponry shares your immunity to fire.
Even with the rather unpleasant side effects, you have to admit it's rather addicting — or it might've been, anyway. You've been avoiding it for a while and now that you have a basis for comparison, you'd rather just kill Grimm. It's not as physically pleasant, but it also doesn't set everything ablaze.
Channeling, Red [Rank 2]: You may artificially induce a different and lesser version of the personality changes brought on by Overchanneling, but with none of the harmful side-effects. Your hair turns to flame and the power of your Red spells is slightly improved while this is active.
You kinda think channeling-you is a very unpleasant person. She thinks you're a weakling.
You may only use Red mana while channeling Red.
Attempting to artificially burn away one or more emotions can activate this. However, once you get good enough at channeling, you might be able to temporarily destroy said emotions without activating Red channeling.
You can vaguely aim for how long you want a given channeling session to last. Channeling-you doesn't like to refresh it. (Window: Currently 6-8 minutes)
Blue Channeling [Rank 4]: While channeling Blue, your control over Blue mana greatly increases and it's easier for you to figure out what makes a given spell go "tick." Your emotions are also significantly dampened and you sometimes learn new ways of dealing with a given situation.
You aren't nearly as obnoxious under the effects of Blue as you are under Red. You're still working on thinking of yourself as the same person, something which seems to be helping with all the cruel comments you used to make about yourself.
Strangely enough, you don't think Blue channeling is nearly as effective when you don't have a specific problem to solve. You can pull solutions seemingly out of thin air when you're using it to deal with a problem, but you merely get an increase to learning efficiency when channeling during practice sessions.
Mana Sense [Rank 19]: If you focus your attention on a magical object or effect, you will gain a mediocre understanding of what makes it tick. Sometimes. If it's more complex or if you don't have the knowledge base necessary to make sense of it, you'll just get an idea of the concepts which went into its creation and/or function.
Continuing to focus on a single object will give you clear picture of its structure. Unfortunately, understanding it is still constrained by your knowledge. Were it not for the part where you can't detect Velgarth Ley-Lines and Nodes, you'd assume it weren't possible for you to improve anything save for your ability to pay attention to everything simultaneously and your range.
You've gotten pretty good at using mana sense as its own sense instead of something which needs to be linked to the others. Even if you cannot find something with your other senses, you can still scan objects and detect the general flow of mana within twenty yards of yourself. Your mana sense is frequently impaired by solid objects.
At your current level of skill, scanning an object cannot directly influence your mood. Should the object be sufficiently horrifying in nature (such as the necronomicon), it can still indirectly upset you.
Mana is frequently, but not always, blocked by solid objects. You're still trying to work out how it all works.
Red Mana Control [Rank 31]: If you want Red mana to go somewhere, you can guide it to the proper location. Mostly. Just like your mana sense, you think your range could use some work.
You've determined the following traits of Red mana: emotion, movement, haste, destruction.
Red mana will always follow the path of least resistance. Forming barriers around where you wish to send it is one technique for controlling it, but luring it along a certain path by using fuel is cheaper in most cases. You've gotten pretty good at making Red mana use itself as that fuel.
Agneyastra helped you kick a bunch of inefficient habits shortly after she gained access to Red mana. You became much, much better as a result. Additionally, after watching Siofra purify (and destroy) a few Grief Seeds, Agneyastra was able to help you even more.
Detonate [Rank 35]: You can destabilize Red mana and make it violently explode. With Agneyastra teaching you, you've learned how to how to arrange a packet to get the largest detonations possible.
It should take you about three seconds to set up a packet capable of affecting an area you can best describe as "one or two city blocks." It wouldn't do very much damage further out and the blast wave would go further than the flames, but the middle would probably be incinerated. (1/2R)
You also know how to make a construct capable of automatically churning out smaller explosives for as long as it's provided with mana. (Red Constructs) The smaller version should only do significant damage to a five-meter-diameter sphere and minor damage beyond that point. It takes half the time of the larger version to set up the smaller version. (1/10R)
Unlike your Linker Core abilities, Detonate does not have a nonlethal setting. You can still be harmed by the blast wave and any resulting shrapnel.
Detonate packets will last for fifteen seconds or until triggered via Red mana control. To normal sight, packets appear as a fist-sized, glowing orange cylinder or cone until activated.
Self-Cleanse, Red / Red Cleansing [Rank 23]: You formerly used this to burn Grief out of your Soul Gem. You've since learned that the same concepts can be used to selectively burn out diseases, albeit while causing severe internal burns to surrounding tissue. That particular application also pulls from your talents in Pyrokinesis; you're basically telling Red mana what it needs to burn and helping it stay focused on only those areas. You'd need to get sick to find out if this process counts as actual fire.
You honestly don't know how you know what to aim for. Disease just feels... wrong, somehow? It's different from the rest of the body.
You can cleanse your soul gem with fire. Manually cleansing seems to be significantly more expensive than wards, but you learn faster by doing it manually.
Automated wards are much more efficient. It might take a little longer to learn how to use wards effectively, but it's preferable to letting Grief touch your soul.
Small purges appear to be significantly less effective than larger ones. You think the smallest amount which can be purged without wasting mana is about 18-20%?
Soul Gem wards can store up to 30% of your mana at a time. Since that also seems to be the most effective way to fuel them, you always give them the full amount when making a ward.
For some reason, the amount of time it takes for a ward to degrade is rather inconsistent. Lately, you only need to refill it once or twice daily, but it's still weird.
You're pretty sure you've hit the cap of what you can actually improve without taking a look at your own soul. Sadly, Agneyastra has said doing that would be a really bad idea.
Firewall [Rank 11]: With the help of a process known as "Grounding and Centering," you've set up permanently shields around your own mind capable of consuming anything incoming (or outgoing) and using it as additional fuel. If an attack is too powerful to be eaten, your shields will burn away what they can and be temporarily dampened by the remainder.
You can spend mana to temporarily strengthen your shields and make them "flare up." As they'll continue to burn the extra fuel regardless of whether or not there are incoming attacks for them to burn, it looks like you'll need to practice bringing them up until it becomes an automatic reflex. Since that will almost certainly involve having Sidhe attack your mind, you're really dreading it.
You're supposed to Ground in the ground beneath you. You used the sun instead, then switched to your heirloom pendant.
Haste [Rank 13]: You can temporarily enhance your own speed, reflexes, and dexterity with Red mana. This technique is relatively cheap, but when used on a construct, it decreases their effective lifespan.
Adding Blue mana to Haste only served to clog up the works and make the whole thing collapse.
It would appear Haste can be used on droids. Trying to use it on other artificial objects didn't actually seem to do anything.
At your current level of skill, Haste lasts for about seven minutes before wearing off and costs about a fifth of a "normal" land. Its effects are also stronger than they used to be.
Fervor [Rank 0]: By observing how your pendant boosts each emotion, you should be able to do it by yourself.
Enhance Cooking [Rank 1]: While participating in a Silent Syndicate experiment involving the effects of magic on prepared food, you learned how to artificially enhance the taste of said food. It's slow and it looks like you need to use it during the cooking process for it to work.
One of these things is not like the others...
Red Mana Constructs [Rank 60]: You know how to create some quite good constructs (you think), including imitations of fire elementals and weak fire drakes. Unfortunately, you had to cut corners with your current fire drake design; as a result, it's ineffective and looks like reality decided to stop rendering it in the middle.
Your focus has been on Blue-infused wings of fire and it shows. Each one is ten meters long and can be repaired through the addition of Red mana. At the same time, the effective temperature of your wings will increase and their size will be increased temporarily.
You've long since reached the point where destroying part of one of your constructs won't lead to a total collapse, "just" a drastic decrease in effectiveness and lifespan. They aren't self-repairing yet, but you think you could manage that sooner or later. It's just a matter of time.
You used to think in terms of making sturdy constructs with an internal support framework. It doesn't seem like Red mana is good for that; it wants to be free, so even your frameworks were constantly trying to break the shapes you molded them into. Instead, it's apparently a better idea for you to make a single core of Red mana and let mana flow out and through there. A circulatory network and emitters serve to guide and spend the Red mana. As long as it can continue to constantly move around, the mana is, for want of a better term, "happy."
You may spend extra mana to increase the speed, strength, durability, and/or duration of a given construct.
While saying Agneyastra taught you most of what you know would be a little misleading, she certainly helped you learn it yourself. If you didn't have her help, you doubt you'd be even half as skilled as you currently are. She even designed a replicator which lets you construct your wings in less than two seconds.
Wolf Elementals (Fire): Your basic little zerglings, these last for an entire hour before they collapse upon themselves. It takes you fifteen seconds to forge a single wolf, something you intend to work on. (6 for R)
Lesser Fire Drake (Fire, Inferior): The worst construct you've made in a long, long time. Not only is it unstable and would might collapse if someone sneezed too hard. ...Okay, maybe it isn't that bad, but it's still very much incomplete. (RR)
Flaming Wings: You worked very, very hard on making these perfect. In terms of appearance, you've succeeded. It takes you 1.6-1.8 seconds to create your combat wings and you can use them as if they're extra limbs. (RRR for 1 hour)
Flaming Crown: A suitable match for your wings in terms of appearance. Its durability and usefulness still needs work.
Flaming Gown: You can now make wonderfully comfortable clothing out of fire. Unfortunately, it's still fire, and as such, it'll burn creatures which get too close to you. You've made a "safe" version which can redirect excess heat into your wings, but you haven't yet figured out how to make it so said wings can do anything better than just redirecting their extra heat straight up. (Unsafe Gown + Crown: R for 10.5 Hours)
Phoenix: Really, it's just a flying bird right now and the middle of its body is kinda ugly. At least its wings look good; you were able to recycle the designs of your own wings.
It takes you about eight seconds to make a phoenix, whereupon it will last for twenty minutes. (R)
Explosive Phoenix [R + 1/4U]: You've basically given functional flight and the ability to follow orders to an explosive device. It takes you twelve seconds to make a single one, whereupon it will last for two minutes, until ordered to detonate, or until the Blue containment is broken by an outside source, whichever comes first.
"Small" Explosive Replicator [R + 1/10R Per Packet]: Within about six seconds, you can make a construct capable of automatically creating Detonate packets until it runs out of mana or is destroyed. Since it's hard to quickly move packets after they're made without triggering them, this still needs some work.
Pyrokinesis [Rank 27]: You can generate and control fire.
You may retake control of any flames that have escaped your grasp, or of mundane fires within your range. The latter is more expensive in terms of mana expenditure.
Your current control range is 20 yards. You can control up to eight fireballs independent of one another. Your maximum fireball diameter is about 8 feet, assuming you keep them as perfect spheres.
It takes no more than a thought for you to generate new flames or control existing ones. Your limit is only how much you can focus on one time.
You may throw fireballs outside your range without having the fireballs collapse between them and their target.
You can create fire in whatever color you want, regardless of how hot it actually is. You're not even sure magical fire operates on the usual rules for temperature-color relationships.
Agneyastra has helped you make your pyrokinesis much more efficient in terms of mana expenditure. Your practice areas now slowly turn into molten slag if you start increasing the temperature. As your hotter flames seem to be more cost-effective than more flames (at least, at your current level of skill), you intend to deploy the latter in combat.
Just remember, Jade: "Friendly Fire Isn't."
Red Fire Conversion [Rank 15]: You can convert fire back into Red mana. It costs 10% of your Linker Core capacity for you to generate one mote via repeatedly filling the room with fire and immediately converting it to mana.
Flames operating off mana can be converted into more mana than Linker Core flames or Ethernano flames, which both seem to generate more than mundane fire. The longer you wait prior to conversion, the less there is to reclaim.
Blue Mana Control [Rank 17]: You can reliably direct and exploit moderate quantities of Blue mana. It helps a lot if you use your hands to collect and direct it.
Blue generally sits around and wait for orders. Once you give them, it'll slowly do exactly what you say and no more. This can be rather annoying at times, but you've gotten over your former loathing of the color.
Blue spells and Blue constructs seem to have a lot more overlap than the other colors, making it difficult for you to determine which category they should be classified under. For now, you'll just go with your instincts and whatever seems to be more important for the desired effects.
Marina taught you how to convince mana it's actually something else. It may be an odd and difficult method of controlling mana, but whatever works?
Share Input [Rank 11]: You can let one other person tap into any or all of your senses, including mana sense.
Confine [Rank 4]: You can prevent someone from doing... anything, including think. It's costly and takes time to set up, time you need to spend in one place, but you could do it. But to be honest, you'd rather leave that sort of thing to Sidhe. She doesn't seem to be nearly as terrifiedhesitant as you are.
Back when you first met her, Sidhe used this ability to plant an aversion to harming her.
Spoof Senses [Rank 3]: You can target a specific individual and make them see things which aren't really there. You should be able to make the process automatic and independent, but right now it's tied to you and requires constant concentration to maintain.
Dimensional Hop [Rank 0]: You were teleported down to Earth from the dimensional sea. You know you can do the same thing with Blue mana, but it seems you don't need to; Agneyastra taught you how to do so with Linker Core magic.
You still think the Blue version might be better. Maybe. You don't know, OK?
Distort Space / Spacial Manipulation [Rank 6]: Although you still need a lot of work and it's slower than just using portals, you can link a four-meter sphere of space with the same amount up to thirty meters away.
Gravity Control [Rank 4]: You can reduce the gravity in a five-meter sphere down to 1/3rd of normal Earth gravity. For pity's sake, Scrya is better at this than you are...
Farsight [Rank 0]: With enough practice, you should be able to improve your eyesight to ridiculous levels. Since your mind was only designed to handle so much information, you suspect you'll need to figure out how to ignore close objects and focus on a single area.
Reverse [Rank 0]: You don't have the foggiest idea how you're supposed to manage this, but you should be able to reverse time for targeted objects with enough practice and experimentation.
Mind Reading [Rank 0]: You almost learned this while practicing with Sidhe and needed to derail that subject. One question has persisted in your mind: Why is this a thing? You now have mental defenses which can probably block such effects, but that's a horrible invasion of privacy!
Mental Communication [Rank 1]: You can imprint your thoughts onto packets of Blue mana and send them to other people as words. Since this is a lot harder than Linker Core telepathy and it isn't free, you don't see why you should bother with it.
Charm [Rank 4]: A horrifying spell which forces people to slowly grow fond of the target of Charm, even if they hated the person beforehand. Perhaps the only consolations are that they need to look at Charm's target and their minds need to be unprotected.
Counterspell [Rank 0]: In Magnostadt, you received a short demonstration for two versions. The first, the "lazy counterspell," is just a small chunk (less than 1/10 of a mote) of Blue contained within ice. This counterspell type saturates, slows, and collapses White spells (variants exist for Red, Black, or Green). The PERMEATE/REMODEL counterspell is designed to attack spells which incorporate Blue mana; it repurposes said Blue mana into useless projects, weakening if not outright collapsing the spell.
Hexproof [Rank 0]: Spells will simply slide off from objects enchanted to be hexproof. Instead, they'll hit its surroundings, usually the ground.
Blue Flight [Rank 0]: You saw mages flying on what appear to be solidified clouds and should be able to copy them.
Blue Constructs [Rank 9]: Some Blue spells aren't meant to be one-shot abilities. Some of them stick around for a while, and if you want them to do that, it generally requires either a modified version of an existing spell or an entirely new one. Due to the heavy overlap, it's difficult for you to properly identify these.
Memory Banks [Rank 4]: Can be used to store memories pretty much indefinitely, as long as they aren't attached to someone. You'd considered using them to intercept Sidhe's deleted memories before they could be devoured by her old curse.
You strongly suspect this spell could be twisted to steal and store memories if you learn how. You don't want to.
Stasis [Rank 0]: Calypso, the evil monster, used this to suppress and stop time for Agneyastra. It appears to be extremely costly and impractical in general, so you've focused on other topics.
Nudge [Rank 3]: You can slightly alter someone's mind. Namely, by picking an emotion and an action which would trigger it. Whenever the trigger occurs, it'll amplify the selected emotion as long as you would've already felt it to begin with.
White Mana Control [Rank 3]: You can manipulate White mana. Barely. Once you gather enough in one place, you only have a short amount of time to work with before it solidifies and becomes exceptionally resistant to new changes. This stubbornness also may make White constructs the longest-lasting and most durable of all.
Marina taught you how to convince mana it's actually something else. It may be an odd and difficult method of controlling mana, but whatever works?
White Healing [Rank 0]: You watched Agneyastra test this out. With her filling that particular niche and thanks to your own Aura-based healing abilities, you haven't bothered to learn this.
White Constructs [Rank 5]: It's actually easier for you to make a White construct than it is to make some other kind of White spell.
Marina taught you how to convince mana it's actually something else. This helps it form specific constructs and spells with various purposes.
White Shielding [Rank 7]: It doesn't take very much work or power to make White constructs become solid and visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately, you have yet to figure out how you're supposed to keep little things like "gravity" from affecting them after this change.
Thanks to the gloves you looted from Calypso's temple, you've learned how to make your White shields block White and Blue mana while letting everything else through. Gravity and physical objects are included in the things that particular subset is capable of ignoring.
Ethereal Vessel [Rank 0]: Vanyel's vessel is made of solidified White mana and therefore unchanging: It can't do self-repairs or breathing. Still, if your soul gem is ever separated from your artificial vessel, you wouldn't be helpless if you can construct a body from White mana.
Misty Wings of Bad Butterfly Imitation [Rank 0]: These giant oval-ish "wings" are blatantly inferior to your own wings of fire. Still, since said wings do let them fly under their own power, you suppose it might be worth looking into. You can never have too many methods of rapid maneuvering.
Green Mana Control [Rank 3]: Green mana seems to have the closest thing to intelligence you've encountered so far. Maintaining control over it seems to be impossible, or at the very least, horrifically impractical; Green mana thrashes around of its own accord and generally refuses to cooperate. The more mana you have in a single place, the harder it is to keep it from escaping.
At one point, you tried to use your old construct design, that of hollow lines funneling mana and giving it specific tasks. The Green mana subsequently gathered into several clumps and started eating your framework.
With Marina's help, you've learned how to convince all colors of mana they're actually something else. It may be a rather strange method of control, but whatever works?
Green mana seems to be generated by plants and possibly wild animals.
Rapid Growth [Rank 2]: If enough Green mana is gathered, but not given any specific task, it will start to drift toward nearby plants and encourage them to grow at a ridiculous rate.
Green Mana Constructs [Rank 3]: You have no idea what you're supposed to make with this. If you knew what you could do, you should be able to convince mana it's actually the construct in question.
Black Mana Control [Rank 5]: Controlling Black mana is easy. The hard part is keeping it from being a danger to yourself and others; if it comes into contact with any form of life, it will start to drain energy from them in order to produce Black mana.
Marina taught you how to convince mana it's actually something else. It may be an odd and difficult method of controlling mana, but whatever works?
Drain [Rank 1]: If enough Black mana is brought to a single place, but not given any particular task, it will start to consume part of itself in order to drain life/energy/vitality/whatever from the surrounding area. The more life it drains, the more Black mana is produced.
When you first tested this, you stopped it after it started to make nearby plants rot into something disgusting and smelly.
Black Constructs [Rank 4]: You tell Black mana what to do, and it will obey. Probably. You only tested that this was possible, not the specifics of how it works.
Marina taught you how to convince mana it's actually something else. Constructs are included.
Plague [Rank 1]: You learned how to make tiny invisible biting things while participating in one of Silent Syndicate's experiments. At your current level of skill, you probably couldn't induce anything worse than a minor stomachache for a few hours.
Colorless
While this almost seems to be its own color of mana, you're not sure it actually is. Other colors of mana seem to be able to use it as supplementary fuel and it's the easiest color to filter/convert. Or should you say "dye?"
Magelight [Rank 2]: By simply convincing mana it's actually a light, it'll start to act like one. You can do this with any color of mana and you're not quite sure the color used matters. Of course, you haven't really tested them against one another, either...
Sacrifice [Rank 1]: While this spell generates Black mana from harming a living being, you think you could make the spell itself entirely or almost entirely from colorless mana. Master Valens used entirely Black with his own version.
Reinforce [Rank 0]: You saw Master Valens strengthen a knife. You should be able to do the same thing yourself with a bit of practice.
He used both White and Colorless mana for this, but you think one or the other would work. Maybe even a different color instead of White?
Fuel Ritual [Rank 0]: You watched Adept Marina power her pre-existing (mostly White) household wards by providing only colorless mana. You looked at the wards later and they were still entirely White.
Recolor Mana [Rank 5]: You can pass mana through appropriately-colored parts of your own soul to change its color. That of the mana itself, you mean. Not your soul.
Currently, you can convert Red mana into any other color at 25% efficiency (4 motes -> 1 mote) and colorless at 100% efficiency. Managing the other colors will take some practice and you're sure you'll be able to vastly reduce the amount of wasted mana as you improve.
Recoloring Red makes your emotions go haywire for a short period of time. It looks like recoloring any color of mana save for colorless is going to be immensely tiring, to the point where you'll need to go to sleep early if you convert more than one or two motes in a single day.
Harvest [Rank 0]: Sidhe showed you how to use the links between lands to draw mana from further away. Once you learn how to, this should allow you to tap lands close to the one you're currently on.
Colorless Artifact Creation [Rank 0]: Staves that store and focus power, besides granting flight? Definitely an overpowered magical utility item. You'll probably need to review your memories before trying to craft your own artifacts; at the very least, it should make things easier. You're also pretty sure Velgarth has a nice number of similar artifacts, which might be worth looking into.
Multicolored
Blue-White Gates [Rank 0]: You've seen complex portals with a Blue and White framework. Said portal brought you to what is either a pocket dimension, an alternate dimension, or a large distance away; you're fuzzy on the details. While you know you can do it, the source material was almost as complex as your pendant. You have a lot of work to do if you want to imitate it. Maybe it would be easier to just spend a large amount of time staring at one of the portals and figuring out what the different parts of the structure do?
Spellsteal [Rank 1]: You know you can do this, you've even done it, yet you're not quite sure how this is supposed to work. You think it might be used to steal active mana-based effects from other people. Possibly animals, too.
At your current level of skill, you cannot transfer said effects to yourself. Since you have to carefully watch what you're doing, you need to do it to other people.
Preparing a Spellsteal takes about thirty seconds. Additionally, your target needs to be holding relatively still or travelling along a predictable route.
Dimensional Anchor [Rank 0]: You initially thought this was a purely Blue spell, but upon closer inspection, there was quite a bit of White in it as well.
This spell appears to be rather elaborate and not even remotely benevolent; it simultaneously restricts the actions a given entity can perform while making it believe those actions would be pointless. If the subject attempts to use brute force, the spell will force them to use a small amount of power while making them believe they used a much larger amount.
Additionally, it is capable of physically preventing a given entity from exiting a designated area. You think this area could be centered on an object.
The base form of this spell was designed to weave through the soul of a given entity, and as a result, your invulnerable soul prevented it from affecting you. However, if it was adjusted to place bindings around the soul instead of through it, many parts of this spell could likely affect and contain you. You're pretty sure it would stop you from planeswalking if that happens, a possibility you find utterly terrifying.
Biogenesis [Rank 1]: You can make soulless life out of nothing but magic and willpower. You're not very good at it yet, and the things you create tend to expire within seconds.
This type of magic appears to be quite mana-intensive; either that or it's costing way more than it should due to your severe lack of skill.
Various Wards [Rank 0, Learning Material]: In the Forest of Sorrows, you got a detailed view of nine different types of defenses. It would probably take you one or two weeks to puzzle out how they work.
Various, Unknown [Rank ???]: Vanyel spent a lot of time making the Forest of Sorrows into his "own little Vale". You saw four different plant-based spells which you could try to replicate if you ever wanted.
Synergy
Red-Blue Flaming Wings: Inserting Blue into your wings of fire made them significantly easier to control with your pyrokinesis.
Call Ally [Rank 9]: You may temporarily construct an imitation of an ally or summon the ally themselves, even across planes. Imitations are currently non-sapient and non-sentient, although they can fake it. Imitations will obey your commands to the best of their ability.
Imitations have all the skills and knowledge their original possesses, and in the absence of other orders, will act like the original. Bad news: This once let an evil goddess pick the brain of a copy. Good news: The goddess in question didn't last long.
Non-imitation summoned individuals will suffer from what you call "summoning sickness;" basically, their soul sustains a small amount of temporary damage and they feel awful until they're all better. Generally lasts for hours on end, although you think Aura might help guard against it.
You may not have more than one imitation of a single person active at the same time. Trying to summon another doesn't appear to do anything.
Excluding optional modifiers, it should take you about five seconds to summon an ally or make an imitation.
You're still trying to figure out how to get the ability to summon a given ally. Possibly something to do with happiness, love, affection, anger, and/or eye-sparkles?
Optional Modifiers
Quicken [Rank 3, RR1]: Allows the summoned individual to sidestep summoning sickness, possibly entirely.
It might be impossible to make Quicken any cheaper than it currently is. The casting time leaves something to be desired, though.
Summons
Nanoha Takamachi [6RRW]: Your first summon, you met Nanoha on an alternate Earth. In less than two weeks, she acquired a crush on you, something which Agneyastra was happy to encourage. You think she regretted it later.
Either way, you had to let Nanoha down as gently as possible. You might try again in a couple years, but for now, you're just not ready for any sort of a romantic relationship.
Agneyastra [2RR]: Your second summon and adoptive mother, you met Agneyastra on the first world you traveled to, Chara. You love her and can't imagine life without her at this point.
For whatever reason, you are unable to make an imitation of Agneyastra.
You're not sure when, but Agneyastra's aura appears to have changed from outputting colorless mana to outputting Red mana. You're not sure when you got the ability to summon her, either.
After Agneyastra was freed from the restriction preventing her from making new avatars, she started acting like a parent. Months later, she said "yes" when you asked if she was willing to be your mother.
Yuuno, Thief of Spotlights [1 + W/B + R/U]: Your adorable little pet. You have the feeling summoning him is going to get more expensive as he grows older.
Sidhe [4UUB]: A Sky Dragon Slayer you met on Remnant, you bonded with Sidhe on the same exact day as Yuuno and within a minute of bonding with Holacre. You don't think she's ever actually had any human friends aside from you.
Mitra[1RR]: Nanoha's personal AI assistant. Is automatically summoned with Nanoha.
Sachiko, Tunnel Enthusiast [B/U + B/R]: Nanoha's ferret, this adorable baby ferret's Semblance is something along the lines of "Spacial Manipulation." She enjoys widening cracks in your house and subsequently using them as entrances to secret tunnel networks.
Scrya, Flying Ferret [B/U + U/R]: Sidhe's ferret, the Semblance of this shy little one is something along the lines of "Gravity Control." Unlike the other ferrets, he likes to hide his little hoards in especially high locations instead of in enclosed areas.
Foresight: You occasionally have dreams showing a potential future. You often have trouble distinguishing between precog-dreams and actual-dreams.
It would appear the emotions shown in your dreams persist after you've stopped watching them. Or at least, the emotions shown by one individual inside it. You're still figuring out how it works.
Telepathy: You may mentally communicate with anyone Kyubey has patched into the telepathic network, regardless of distance. You have your doubts about how secure it is...
Magical Girl Transformation: Exactly what it sounds like, this turns you into a magical girl. This used to boost your attributes above what your base form had, but now that you've switched to a better artificial vessel, it actually makes you weaker. On the plus side, you don't casually destroy things just by moving too quickly, so...
Enhance Learning: Your signature wish-magic, this boosts the passive benefits of your wish in exchange for consuming Aura while activated. It also lets the effects of your wish extend to things other than Magic, although it remains most effective when used for that purpose.
Scan for Witches: You can ping the surrounding area in order to determine whether or not there are any witches, barriers, or familiars nearby. Scanning has a range of approximately 500 yards. It consumes a minimal amount of Aura and has no activation time.
(Aura) Healing [Rank 7]: You may heal yourself and others of physical injury and sickness. You're still rather mediocre, but you can at least heal a broken bone completely in less than five minutes. While it no longer costs unacceptably massive amounts of Grief/Aura, it's still pretty expensive in terms of grief generation. Requires physical contact with some part of the patient's body.
You've gotten a little bit better at healing the various little problems that make up the state known as "exhaustion." It's still only a stopgap measure and putting off sleep gets more expensive the longer you do it, but it might be useful in an emergency.
You've learned how to eliminate cancer and fix the resulting internal burning, albeit at incredibly high costs. Currently, you'll only be able to do two or three people each day.
Summon Swordstaff [Rank 2]: Exactly what it sounds like, this drops a swordstaff into your waiting hands in exchange for a minimal amount of Aura. As you get more experienced with this ability, it will become easier (but not cheaper) to summon swordstaffs quickly. You will also be able to change their traits at the time of summoning. (size, shape, hardness, etc.)
You may now slightly change the traits of swordstaffs at the time of summoning to make them more suitable for throwing.
While held, a summoned swordstaff counts as an extension of yourself for the purposes of pyromancy.
Call Outfit [Rank 1]: You've figured out how to summon your MG uniform while in your base form. It's incredibly expensive and now that you're capable of making Barrier Jackets, you're not sure why you'd ever bother with it.
Muffle [Rank 1]: You can muffle all sound in a small area around yourself. Unfortunately, this doesn't just include outgoing sound; incoming sound is muffled, too.
You have yet to test this, but you have the feeling it will be quite useful.
Illusions [Rank 9]: You can turn your memories into immaterial illusions. Right now, you can manage sight, smell, and sound. You're not quite sure how you're supposed to manage touch and taste.
Currently, you can only maintain five separate illusions at one time. Trying to do more than that is a wonderful way to make one or more vanish abruptly or lose important details.
Shields [Rank 1]: You can make basic flat forcefields. At your current level of skill, they're probably pretty useless for defense, but you might be able to use them as footholds or something.
Each shield takes you about half a second to make.
Telepathy: You may mentally communicate with other intelligent beings. If the person on the receiving end has a Linker Core of their own, you should be able to contact them from anywhere else on the same planet. You think you'll need to be within a few kilometers to contact anyone else.
Selective Physics Substitution [Rank 1]: Your body and normal physics aren't exactly on speaking terms. Your artificial vessel automatically takes care of maintaining a slightly altered set of rules in order to keep certain effects working, but it's apparently possible for people to "strengthen" reality. In an emergency, you can now make sure your body continues to operate as intended.
Agneyastra is also operating under a slightly different set of rules, but only just barely. Apparently, she'll stop being invincible if reality is forcefully reasserted. You can undo that, too.
If normal physics are allowed to stick around, your vessel would take significant hits to durability, strength, and flexibility. You'd also temporarily lose the effect enhancing your blows.
Barrier Jacket [Rank 21]: Manifesting as golden armor, this is basically a series of overlapping barriers intended to protect you from... well, pretty much every kind of physical attack, including (especially?) environmental hazards. Additionally, your eyes appear to turn reddish-orange while this is in effect.
While your Barrier Jacket is active, it should be able to protect you from the vast majority of physical attacks. If it doesn't simply block something with no damage taken, it'll slowly wear down until it either breaks or is replaced. Upkeep costs will remain the same regardless of its state.
Your Barrier Jacket, shields, and all other applicable spells appear to be immune to fire damage. While Agneyastra's body and avatar are both immune to fire, Agneyastra's spells aren't.
You usually keep your Barrier Jacket active whenever you're practicing magic, around new people, or simply not at home. It may drain energy slightly faster than your Linker Core produces it, but you're always back at 100% in the morning.
You've gotten into the habit of activating your Barrier Jacket almost as soon as you arrive on a new plane. It generally takes you two or three seconds after you've left Eternity to do so and a bit less than one second the rest of the time.
You can sacrifice your Barrier Jacket in a single burst of energy if it's absolutely necessary. That particular tactic is really only good for escaping from Binds.
Flight [Rank 24]: Learning how to fly was significantly easier than you first expected, although it got trickier as you kept improving.
You have perfect maneuverability at up to 120 KPH. You can travel at 360 KPH if you really want to, but you'll pretty much only be able to go in relatively straight lines if you do that.
Celestial Protector [Rank 21]: You're capable of producing barriers of various shapes, sizes, and protective ability. The smaller the surface area, the less power a shield takes. There's no real limit to minimum size, but the longest part of any given shape can be no more than eleven (11) meters large. (Example: A spherical shield could have a maximum diameter of eleven meters.)
Currently, you can make spheres, hemispheres, square cuboids, flat circles, flat equilateral triangles, flat rectangles, and flat pentagons. Shields do not need to be centered on yourself, but they're easier to cast and maintain if they are. Your maximum remote shield range is currently 25 meters for the center of a given shield, with cost also increasing the further away it is.
Different planes of a shield do not need to be put up at the same time, although they bleed the same amount of power regardless of whether or not the other components have been manifested and the initial casting takes the same amount of effort. Bringing up a new plane on a staggered shield would probably take about half a second of your full attention, but since maintaining a single three-dimensional shield can force you to use about a third (1/3) to half (1/2) of your attention on concentrating, it always takes a bit longer than that.
Shields require constant concentration to maintain. For you, three-dimensional shapes take up about half (1/2) if it's being cast from range or a third (1/3) if it's centered on yourself. Flat shapes take up about a sixth (1/6) of your attention if you use one palm as an aligned guide regardless of whether it's at range or right in front of you. If you don't, it'll use up about a quarter (1/4).
Visible cracks will form in a shield before it breaks. You can repair an existing shield, but doing so isn't very cost-effective. It's often better for you to just make a new, stronger shield underneath the first one.
You can't cast spells from the other side of a shield (or other solid object), regardless of whether it's your own or belongs to an enemy. You need to have a straight, unbroken line between yourself and the manifestation point(s).
Your Barrier Jacket, shields, and all other applicable spells appear to be immune to fire damage. While Agneyastra's body and avatar are both immune to fire, Agneyastra's spells aren't.
Suppression Bind {Agni Version} [Rank 9]: You can make shaped suppression fields form around a fixed area, usually as rings, spheres, or tetrahedrons. The more you can manage to touch your opponents or their clothing with, the less power they can pull from their Linker Core. Getting any at all is harder, too.
Ring binds take about one (1) second of your full attention per ring. Spheres take four (4) seconds and tetrahedrons take six (6). Agneyastra says spheres and tetrahedrons will become more practical once you're good enough to change the suppression effect from surface area touched to affecting the entire interior of a given Bind.
Since you need to have the exact target coordinates ready to finish the spell, it's very difficult to manifest any sort of Bind on a moving target. Additionally, if they haven't completely lost their ability to pull power from their Linker Core, opponents can sacrifice their Barrier Jackets to temporarily expand or even break Binds. For both of these reasons, you've started using four Celestial Shooters to direct an enemy into an enclosed space, set up a staggered shield around most of the area while they're dodging around, and have one or two Celestial Shooters guard the last (open) side while you cast from there. Unfortunately, even that can be really hard, making binds rather useless if you're fighting more than one opponent at once.
Mirror of Travels {Agni Version} [Rank 4]: You can set up circular portals with a minimum size of five (5) centimeters and a maximum size of three (3) meters. At least one portal needs to be within 50 meters of yourself, but the other side can be placed up to 400 meters away.
If you're holding still, it takes between four and seven (4-7) seconds for you to make a portal, depending on how far away the closest portal is. You can still make portals even if you're moving around, but it takes about three times as long and you need to stay in range of the entry point.
Portals consume a small amount of power while open and consume even more whenever an object or spell passes through them. Maintaining a single pair takes up about an eighth (1/8th) of your processing ability and you can maintain multiple at once. Of course, the more mental capacity you need to devote toward maintaining existing spells, the less you can use on making new ones. Casting time would increase as a result.
Area Search / Wide Area Scan [Rank 11]: You can send out six omnidirectional sensors and operate each one independently. If you have them follow a prearranged flight path, you can have up to nine active instead.
At your current level of skill, sensors return light and sound, but nothing else. Agneyastra says those are the only things you need in most situations anyway; more feedback means more things to process.
Sensors appear to be glowing golden spheres about twenty (20) centimeters in diameter.
Dimensional Transfer [Rank 3]: You can safely transfer yourself into Dimensional Space, not that doing so would be a good idea, or to especially close planets or dimensions. Doing so is extremely inaccurate; you'll have done a good job if you even end up inside their atmosphere.
At your current level of skill, it takes you a full minute to transfer yourself. You can take up to six other people (excluding devices) with you, provided you're all standing together and holding still, but doing so means it would take even longer.
You think you might be able to use this to transfer yourself to Velgarth's other "planes" once you've seen them in person. You might also be able to use it move from the spirit-ish realms of Thedas and... whatever that other plane is called. (OOC: Avatar)
Tarnkappe [Rank 1]: You can make yourself or everything inside a three-meter sphere centered on yourself both invisible and scentless. Both are difficult and you won't be able to fly in anything except straight lines while maintaining Tarnkappe. If you maintain it while flying, you'll have serious trouble paying attention to your surroundings.
When you're better at using Tarnkappe, you should be able to use it to hide yourself from just about everything except physical contact. It honestly wouldn't surprise you to learn it can even manage that.
Tarnkappe takes you nine (9) seconds to cast. Agneyastra didn't, and still doesn't, want to focus on it due to its difficulty.
Isolation Barrier [Rank 4]: If you have fifteen (15) seconds free, you can create a lifeless, grey snapshot of the real world and drag everyone with an active Linker Core into it. Objects and people they are touching at the time are also brought along. Unstable items with sufficient effects on space, time, and/or significant amounts of magical power are also brought along, a category which includes many Lost Logia.
Damage to parts of the imitation won't affect the world outside. The IB can be destroyed by sufficiently powerful or specialized attacks, but doing so can be rather hard; Isolation Barriers were designed to keep collateral damage to a minimum while Lost Logia are being contained.
At your current level of skill, it'd be pretty pretty easy for an experienced mage to simply transfer back out if they wanted to.
It takes no extra effort for you to produce any of your offensive spells as fire. Such spells are slightly cheaper than normal, but they aren't as effective against most LC shields and Barrier Jackets.
Although it takes some extra effort, power, and has about 20% longer casting times for you to do so, you can make every one of your offensive spells nonlethal with the sole exception of Wrath of God.
Celestial Lance [Rank 11]: You can produce giant golden laser beams of doom. While it may be great for devastating a given direction and destroying immobile objects, Linker Core mages can dodge it with relative ease if they see it coming. Immobilizing foes beforehand, hiding CLs with buildings, or having your allies distract them all seem to be good ways to make sure they actually land.
It takes you about three seconds to fire a Celestial Lance. You can't change the targeted direction in the middle unless you cancel the spell completely.
Celestial Shooter [Rank 16]: You can summon up to eight golden spheres and operate them independently of one another. A single sphere takes about a second (1s) to summon, with each additional sphere adding about another 0.3 seconds to the casting time. CS spheres have a diameter of about forty centimeters.
Celestial Shooter is your favorite non-mana form of attack and sheer habit might've turned it into your second favorite overall. Unfortunately, the practicality of your wings has yet to be tested and they don't have a nonlethal option.
Wrath of God [Rank 6]: What can be best described as a "panic button," this consumes a gargantuan amount of power to destroy everything and everyone in the surrounding area. You're basically firing off lethal Celestial Lances in all directions simultaneously.
At your current level of skill, you can only manage spheres (omnidirectional attacks) and hemispheres.
The quick version of Wrath of God consumes either the remainder of your Linker Core capacity or 70% of it, whichever is less. Amazingly, this is still cheaper than it used to be.
Wrath of God only takes three seconds for you to cast. Unsurprising, considering you're doing little more than releasing gargantuan amounts of raw power.
Recently, you've learned how to only use up about 5% of your Linker Core capacity per WoG. Since this version takes a full ten (10) seconds per casting, you're not sure it should even qualify as the same spell. Impractical for combat, sure, but making it fire-based is good for filling the room with fire which you then convert into Red mana.
You've discovered a handful of abilities which can be fed with either mana or Ethernano.
Ethernano Control [Rank 1]: You can control Ethernano and use it to power different kinds of Ethernano-based magic.
You're not sure what else you should say about this and improving is hard. You suppose you shouldn't be surprised; being an Earthland wizard was apparently a full-time job.
Fire:
Fire Magic [Rank 2]: Since Siofra's affinities don't appear to be well-suited to producing this, it's rather cost-ineffective and unusually hard. Still, when the generated fire is converted into mana, you can use it to eke out an extra 1-2 motes about every ten hours. This process currently takes you about half an hour.
Sky:
Sky Healing [Rank 2]: Unlike your magical girl healing, you don't need to know what a given problem is in order to fix it. Knowing helps, sure, but it's not a requirement.
Since you currently have access to more Red mana than White and you're flat-out better at it, your standard MG healing is significantly better for dealing with most problems. The only times you should use this at your current level of skill are when you don't know what the problem is or when you want to practice it.
Arms [Rank 2]: Arms increases the force of a target's blows in a manner remarkably similar to one of the physics-bending perks of your artificial vessel. Sidhe claims it will also increase the power of Ethernano spells.
The stronger the target was to begin with, the more effective Arms will be.
Vernier [Rank 4]: You can give your allies the ability to fly by surrounding them with directed magical auras. Said flight is far, far more limited than your own; somehow, the spell seems to know how far away the ground is and makes it exponentially harder the further you move away from a solid object. Still, if you slave some sort of floating platform underneath your allies, this should give them basic flight capabilities.
Somehow, said allies instinctively know how they're supposed to use this ability.
Sky Dragon'sRoar [Rank 1]: You can exhale tiny tornadoes. At your current level of skill and without the ability to "breathe sky", this is far too expensive to use in any sort of combat situation.
Light:
Light [Rank 1]: You can create a tiny orb of light. Whoop-de-do.
Unknown:
Thrill [Rank 1]: Thrill simultaneously decreases pain and induces euphoria. Intoxication is an inevitable side-effect, but not one the inventor of this spell seemed to mind.
Siofra used an Ethernano-fueled version of this in order to cover up the pain she felt from constantly draining her own life.
Shapeshift{?} [Rank 0]: You saw someone grow cat ears and a tail, then turn into a green tentacle monster a few seconds later.
Ethernano Conversion{?} [Rank 0]: The user of this magic cheerfully reduced the spells of other wizards back into... something. Probably Ethernano.
Summoning{?} [Rank 0]: Giant rock golems slowly rose up from the ground, even when there were no materials available to make them.
Ent Creation{?} [Rank 0]: Giant trees rapidly grew upward and outward, then lifted themselves out of the ground and started fighting.
Personal Strength Enhancement{?} [Rank 0]: Exactly what it says on the tin... probably. You saw a significant increase in the strength and density of a wizard after they used this on themselves.
Rainbow Magic{?} [Rank 0]: You saw someone using solid rainbows as a weapon. That one wizard should've justified an epilepsy warning for the entire tournament...
LightMagic{?} [Rank 0]: You saw someone shooting solid balls of light from their fists and feet. They acted like solid objects apart from that.
BirdControl{?} [Rank 0]: You saw someone weaponize, and possibly enhance, seagulls and pigeons. "Death" is not among the things the poor little birds were protected from.
ChainControl{?} [Rank 0]: Remote manipulation of chains. 'Nuff said, really; you didn't see the user do anything else with them.
PowderControl {?} [Rank 0]: The winner of the tournament manipulated dust, sand, dirt, and a few other fine powders in order to defeat his enemies. Most of them conceded; they came over to have fun, not to have sand caught in places they didn't even know they had.
Exhausting Prison{?} [Rank 0]: You saw someone set up trapped spheres which would imprison and drain strength from whoever was caught in them. You think it might make an effective nonlethal weapon... or at least, it would if the mana-based version of it didn't involve using two colors you're not very good with.
Paralysis [Rank 0]: You saw someone paralyze their opponents with a mere touch. It was gradual; if they maintained contact for more than a few seconds, their opponent wouldn't be getting back up for a while.
Soul Armor{?} [Rank 0]: Siofra used this to manifest a pair of giant, translucent dragon limbs and crush an Earthland wizard with them. He lived.
You're pretty sure you need a soul to pull on to actually use this. Not your own, you mean.
Improved Learning Based Upon Personal Experience & Observation, Magic-Specific: Exactly what it sounds like. Book learning, while not harder than it was prior to your wish, is now horribly inefficient for you; it's much easier for you to learn by practice and personal experience.
Fire Immunity [Rank MAX]: Unlike pretty much everything else, fire will never hurt you, no matter the source. Neither can you be harmed by any direct side effects resulting from fire, such as a lack of air.
Shrapnel and the like will still harm you. You're fuzzy on whether or not molten projectiles will hurt you, but you aren't keen on finding out.
Gift of Tongues: You can speak, read, write, and understand any language. You can tell when somebody is speaking a different language than they were before, but you still have difficulty figuring out which language is which.
Lich [Rank 1]: Your soul and your body are no longer one and the same. The further away your body gets from your soul gem, the fewer sensations you feel and the harder your body is to manipulate. Once you get far enough away, you'll lose control completely.
Thanks to your new artificial vessel, your body will no longer die when you move out of range. It'll just go to sleep instead.
Former Max Soul Gem Capacity: 7800. Current: N/A; see below.
Aura: The "light of your soul," you gained this as a side-effect of repairing your Soul Gem and making sure you wouldn't ever need to worry about Grief ever again. You don't know what you Semblance is or if you even have a proper one. You strongly suspect your magical girl abilities have filled that role.
After gaining Aura, all your soul-based abilities ceased to generate Grief and instead cost Aura. Since the latter recharges of its own accord, you aren't too worried about it. You even have a tiny bit leftover after keeping Enhance Learning active just about constantly.
Invulnerable Soul [Rank MAX]: Your soul cannot be destroyed or damaged. You are immune to a massive number of hostile soul-affecting abilities and quite a few benign ones as well.
Linker Core [SSS]: Your current artificial vessel has the best Linker Core Agneyastra could make for you. You're proud to say she made it out of what was basically a moon. At the very least, it was in space, something which prompted hysterical laughter when you thought too hard about it.
Although it does cost a little bit of power to do so, thanks to it, you no longer need to eat or drink in order to maintain your artificial vessel. You still do; every bit counts and it's enjoyable.
You don't know if it's truly generating energy out of nothing or if it's slowly consuming some part of itself and will break down after a long period of time. You suspect it's the latter, but never really got around to asking.
Artificial Origin [Siofra]: Also known as "Ethernano Organ(s)." Agneyastra thought evolution didn't have enough time to make normal Origins perfect and set out to make you a better one. After quite a bit of time, she succeeded. Thanks to her, your Origin will grow passively even if you don't use it. If you do use it, it'll grow even more quickly and at a faster rate than most normal Earthland wizards.
Siofra was pissed when she found out about how much less work you'd have to do. Apparently, working hard to grow stronger is a big deal on Earthland?
Weapon Proficiency: Swordstaff [Rank 4]: You are an expert swordstaff wielder, although there is still plenty of room for improvement. Oddly enough, this proficiency does not extend to other polearms, despite their similarities.
Kyubeyphobia: You have looked into the abyss of Blue and Black, and it does not care in the slightest. Even thinking of him can bring up memories of near-endless torture.
While you're pretty sure your new vessel has helped you avoid actually thinking about Kyubey, thinking about the torture itself is still more than enough to temporarily ruin your mood.
Blood Knight: As embarrassing as it is to admit, you really, really enjoy combat now. You suspect it might be comparable to drugs, but as you have no experience with them, you're not sure.
Agneyastra says this was intended as a design feature. If you aren't interrupted, it's easy for you to spend multiple hours slaughtering Grimm. If it weren't for hunger, sleep, other biological necessities, and your various responsibilities, you could happily spend an indefinite amount of time fighting.
Increased Effective Mass: You don't entirely understand how this is supposed to work. To quote Agneyastra:
"Hitting a target and bouncing off can harm the image of an Agni. As an object in motion will remain in motion until acted upon by an outside force, charging at enemies in order to increase the damage dealt by attacks makes said attacks significantly easier to dodge. Increasing effective mass for movements above a certain speed and/or when sufficient strength is exerted can solve both these problems. Mostly."
Thanks to this, you have difficulty running without breaking large amounts of ground beneath your feet. Oops?
Memory Enhancements: New memories you form can be recalled with perfect clarity, while memories formed prior to the change have less of an emotional impact than they once had. Certain memories were horrible enough to begin with that the decrease doesn't really do a whole lot to help.
Improved Regeneration: You haven't had the opportunity to test this out yet, but Agneyastra says that (with the proper treatment) you should be able to recover from losing over half your body mass with no permanent damage.
Improved Durability: You've remained perfectly unharmed, even when successfully hit by (very) young Grimm and high-velocity shards of concrete. You have yet to test it against the attacks of tougher opponents; obviously, you don't really want to get hit.
Improved Speed: You have a sustained running speed of about 160 KPH. Even then, you suspect you might not be going as fast as you eventually may be able to; constantly having the ground break beneath your feet tends to make movement a little difficult.
Improved Dexterity: With enough practice, a better question would be "what feats of dexterity can't you do?"
Improved Strength: This is especially difficult for you to quantify. You haven't gone out of your way to test it, but everything you've picked up since acquiring your new vessel has seemed light or even weightless. It doesn't help that if you accidentally exert too much pressure, things tend to be crushed into powder.
Enhanced Endurance: You can spend hours running before you need to rest.
Enhanced Senses: These haven't been fully implemented yet, but you can now easily see in the dark and hear everything much more clearly. If someone is trying to whisper in the same room as you, you'll probably hear them.
"Conscious & Unconscious Processing Ability": Given the vague nature of this, it's hard to quantify. Still, ever since you moved into your artificial vessel, your thinking speed has seen a significant increase.
Decreased sleep: While you can intentionally sleep for up to six hours, you really only need two or three. Maybe four if Foresight has struck. You can then go approximately 22 hours without sleep before you start experiencing negative effects.
Thanks to this, you suspect you may never have anything even remotely approaching a normal sleep schedule.
Accelerated Metabolism: Or something else along those lines. You haven't asked for specifics on how it works, but you do know you've been eating about six times what you used to.
Dulled (Physical) Pain: When your new vessel has any sort of problem, it only hurts a small amount. You're a little worried this might cause combat problems in the future, but it doesn't seem to be an issue for everyday events. Your body is too durable and regenerates too quickly for minor injuries to turn into problems.
Body -Royal Regalia [Dress]: The outfits Agneyastra has gotten for you tend to be fire-resistant, dirt-resistant, and somewhat sturdy. Most of them seem to be made of some sort of silk-like fabric, but given its properties, it cannot possibly be real silk. Despite their length and general appearance, they don't seem to restrict your movement; you've intentionally tried to step on a dress before only to have it slide out of the way.
Neck, under clothing -Heirloom Ruby: A Red mana generator, this was given to you by your parents before they died. It will apparently destroy any nearby planets if the restrictions/wards are ever removed. Was called "starfire contained in a tiny package" by a (former) extraplanar being on Velgarth, Sigurd.
Wrist -Agneyastra
Subspace Storage
It's been a while since you kept close track of what, exactly, is in subspace at any given time. It seems like Agneyastra frequently removes or adds objects while you're unconscious.
TSAB I.D.: Exactly what it sounds like. It has a picture of your MG form, your name, a barcode, and "N/A" where your date of birth should be.
4 Drone Remotes: You need these to control your various little drones safely. Or rather, at all.
?? Explosive Drones: These things look like little NASA space rovers, but there's no denying their effectiveness. Since Agneyastra has made flying observation drones before, you're not quite sure why these can't fly.
?? Observation Drones: These little helicopter drones have a main body about the size of a baseball. They tend to produce an audible humming noise when they're moving around, so you're not sure there was any point to making them so small.
5 KnightGolems: Exactly what they sound like, these animated suits of armor are capable of following simple commands and appear to have some knowledge of combat. At the least, they're pretty good fighters. The fact that they don't have any soft, fleshy bits to stab really doesn't help their enemies.
While you're pretty sure you could easily destroy them now, a baseline human would probably die if they faced one without any sort of explosive or large, blunt weapon.
You're... not entirely certain when you obtained these. The first thing you remember of them was them fighting alongside you, but before that point, the fog gets too thick for you to browse.
- Device materials for 40% of a high-grade Intelligent Device
- 120 pounds of valuable/exotic metals
- 4 High-grade Agni Laptops
- 2 macro-scale fabricators.
- 20 canisters of sleeping gas. As they're based off burning the contents within, you should be immune to their effects as long as you use them properly.
- 18 new laptops & 4 desktops.
- 4 portable household energy generators.
- 48 days of fuel. (12 days each)
- Four large crates full of movies, video games, and other forms of entertainment media. Agneyastra also downloaded several hundred books; you're almost certain they were pirated.
- 1 crate full of various handheld non-electronic toys.
- 8 organized crates of various medicines.
- 2 planetary homing beacons. Each is about the size of a baseball. Unfortunately, Agneyastra was unable to get you anything capable of being detected across dimensions.
- 230 days of rations and water for one person. Agneyastra advises against personally trying to eat the former.
2 climate-controlled fire-resistant tents {"Medieval" and "Modern" outside appearances}
2 (almost) fireproof spongy beds
6 gas masks
18 replacement oxygen containers
18 small refrigeration units filled with food
7 small heating units
238 different sets of clothing (153 of which contain various types of jewelry)
Most memorably, at least 1 gold/ruby circlet. You suspect there may be many, many more.
2 small washing machines
2 small driers
18 boxes containing eating utensils & containers
22 empty metal boxes
1 crude empty metal box
1 Fire-resistant, waterproof, insulated backpack
You earned these by beating various dungeons. Most of it seems to be made of some gold-like substance, but the material seems a bit too light to actually be made of gold. Agneyastra says it is supposed to be made of gold. You have yet to figure out why it's lighter and stronger than it should be.
Were it not for the weight reduction, you would have approximately 12,000 metric tons of loot. At least, you would before you and Agneyastra started spending it. You don't know how much is left now.
Farsight telescope: A glorified spyglass, this enchanted object locks on to the furthest solid object it is pointed out, zooms out slightly, and then shows that area in perfect detail. You're not sure how long its range is yet.
Scrying bowl: You're mostly sure this is intended for making scrying spells cheaper and more powerful. Unfortunately, it can't cast it by itself, so you're not sure how useful it is to you.
Blue quarterstaff: You don't know what this does. Maybe it's intended for channeling and/or targeting offensive Blue spells?
Vial of unidentified powder: Exactly what it sounds like. You have no idea what the silver-colored powder inside does, but it does show up as Blue to your mana sense.
Drain/transfer drill: Someone anchored these on the dragonbone graveyard to mine special lacrima.
Enchanted black suit (Charm): The merchant who sold it to you claimed it's supposed to make you more likable. Turns out it forces them to like you instead.
Crystal-encased rose
Painted glass ring: The seller claimed it's supposed to make you luckier. You think it might only make you feel luckier.
JudgmentCube: Expensive, seller claimed it was supposedly a major treasure. Individuals allegedly cannot tell a lie while within its activated field.
- Various local medical remedies, most of which have a colorless aura.
- 1 barrier cube(advertised as being good for camping)
- 2 voice letters(Colorless aura)
- 1 magical pen(Colorless aura)
- 3 preservation cloths
- 1 broadsword. It has a colorless aura and seems to be lighter than it really should be.
- 1 set of steel armor(Seller claimed it was magically reinforced, too large for you)
??? Yen (Agneyastra currently in charge of funding)
60464 TSAB $
58650 Belkan Credits
Mana taken from your own reserves appears from your Soul Gem. Mana taken from a bonded land appears around your Soul Gem. Mana taken from an external generator, such as your pendant, comes from the source in question. Mana pulled from the land you're currently on arrives from the surrounding area and gathers around your Soul Gem if it isn't given instructions immediately.
You: Your personal mana production. [RRRRRR] Heirloom Pendant: A mana generator given to you by your late parents. [Red+Red+Red] Kibonoshi: The town where you grew up. [Blue/Red] Uminari: The place where you met Nanoha. [White/Red] Holacre: Where you spent a bit over a month with Sidhe, and where Siofra lives. [R/U + B/U + B/W] Avalon: The settlement where Carnation lives. [Black/Red] Oasis: Located near Vacuo, this is where you first started to get your soul fixed. [Black/Red + White] Sentinel: Located near Atlas. You moved here after bonding to Oasis. [Red/Black + Black]
Your adoptive mother, Agneyastra is a centuries-old intelligent device from the fallen Agni Empire. Al-Hazard Femtotech was involved with her construction and repairs, although she claims her makers almost certainly weren't using the technology to its full potential. Since she's already blatantly overpowered, you'd rather like to see what would happen if it was.
Agneyastra is entirely devoted to you and insists on you being some sort of goddess. You agreed to call yourself such, although a powerful being on Velgarth claimed you're just a "godling." Most of the way to divinity, but not there yet.
Unfortunately, Agneyastra's devotion means she appears not to care about the lives of other human beings when compared to your own. As such, even if she does want what she believes to be best for you, she might qualify as Lawful Neutral instead of Lawful Good — or maybe "Lawful Jade?" To make matters a bit more awkward, she seems to (used to?) think humans were heretics if they even considered anything... you'll go with "improper." Annnnnd heresy was apparently punishable by death in the Agni Empire. You're a bit worried about the implications of that, honestly.
Even if your relationship with her doesn't seem to have changed much as a result, you still can't believe you actually asked Agneyastra to be your mother. Still...
She said yes!
She does seem to have gotten some extra benefits out of accepting, but you don't think she knew that would occur when she accepted. Anyway, she claims that as your official guardian, she can ask herself for permission for a bunch of stuff and then immediately grant said request. She's apparently been able to sidestep a bunch of her restrictions in this way.
Agneyastra is capable of assuming different shapes in order to help you channel your magic.
Base: Bracelet
Combat forms:
- Long Rifle
- Swordstaff
- Tower Shield
When you last visited them, Agneyastra had Supremacy over the following areas:
- Chara
- Remnant
- Earth-MGLN
"Supremacy" appears to be defined as complete and total control over everything connected to a given version of the Internet. Additionally, if a significantly less advanced object is capable of being altered by an external signal, Agneyastra can cheerfully assume control over them as well.
Thanks to Agneyastra's last master, who seems to have been paranoid and insane, Agneyastra used to be restricted. Thus far, you've found out the following:
- Agneyastra cannot control a body of its own (including electronic avatars)
-- Drones appear to be included among this, too. Mostly. It would seem that if a given set of orders is preset and lasts for more than half an hour, Agneyastra can still use them.
--- Agneyastra needed permission to start making drones. You don't remember giving it out a second time.
- Agneyastra requires specific permission before dispensing psychological advice.
- Agneyastra does not appear to be able to modify itself. No singularity for you.
- Agneyastra has a blanket ban on "acting human." You're not sure how far it extends, but you suspect using the first person might be included among this.
- Whenever certain topics are brought up, Agneyastra spouts off pre-recorded messages about how intelligent devices are inhuman and shouldn't be trusted or sympathized with.
Agneyastra found ways around some of these. Of course, given as Agneyastra accidentally placed herself into lockdown, you think she didn't even realize some limitations existed.
When you talked about removing the restrictions, Agneyastra warned that she might be killed if you try. Or rather, a preset message using Agneyastra's voice said that.
Agneyastra still seems to have a few leftover, but she claims trying to get rid of them would be more trouble than it's worth. You're not entirely sure you agree; one of the standard-issue restrictions seems to render Agni AIs incapable of not starting upsetting arguments.
- Agneyastra has had her social abilities hobbled, greatly encouraging brute-force solutions and tactics. It sounds like this is standard for Agni AIs.
- Agneyastra cannot significantly diverge from the official account for certain historical events. The example you know of is the story of the infamous Frida, an AI with the primary objective of "Ensure lasting peace between the Agni Empire and Belkan Empire." Mitra and Agneyastra claim, among other things, that the definition of "peace" would not include the happiness of the individuals who weren't fighting. You aren't so sure.
Personal Mana Generation: RRRRWW
Hammerspace: Technically "subspace storage," this space is 3.4 cubic kilometers large and appears to be divided into smaller subsections.
Simulations: Agneyastra can pull you into fabricated worlds at will. They seem to extend to all senses but one: your mana sense. Agneyastra has yet to figure out how to imitate the flow and presence of mana, which serves as a constant reminder that the simulations aren't real.
Linker Core Magic: Agneyastra casually destroyed a pack of Grimm and glassed a wasteland, both in less than thirty seconds. You're pretty sure it shouldn't have taken that long. Since Linker Core magic requires complex calculations for even a single spell, you're not sure how you're supposed to come even close to Agneyastra in terms of skill. It's a supercomputer and you're just ordinary.
Djinn abilities: Stealing the power of a djinn appears to have given Agneyastra a healing affinity and the ability to control White mana. Agneyastra also started occasionally using the first person after acquiring these.
Agneyastra later gained a lightning affinity, and with it, the abilty to control Red mana.
Mana Sense: Currently confined to White and Red mana. Less than two hours after Agneyastra gained access to the later, she was able to spot a massive number of inefficient habits that you overlooked.
When you experimented with destabilizing Red mana and making it explode, Agneyastra was able to teach you how to make shaped charges and generally get the most efficient detonations possible.
Mana Control: Agneyastra can control both White and Red mana. Unfortunately, you think she might have trouble using it if it isn't for the purposes of teaching you. Annoying.
Sensor Range: Agneyastra has fairly good sensor capacity within 400 meters, can detect souls within 20 meters, and seems to have near-omniscience within 10.
Age: 16
Birthday: September 22nd, X501.
One of your friends and a member of your "party," Sidhe is sixteen years old and will turn seventeen shortly. As she was born on Earthland, she's really behind in her educational studies by your standards. She's catching up impressively quickly, though; you think she'll be up to your level by the time she's eighteen.
When you first met her, Sidhe was in the process of being tortured by a spell designed to suppress... something. It was apparently supposed to protect her from an apocalypse-tier dragon, but you got rid of it anyway; nothing good causes that much pain. Sidhe's adoptive mother apparently cast the spell and abandoned her after Sidhe didn't meet up to what appears to be an impossible standard. Ironically enough, the very act of leaving (or being tortured...) might've given Sidhe what they were looking for, "Single-element channeling."
Serves them right.
While partly-channeling Blue, Sidhe soon turned around and placed a few Blue construct-spells on your mind. Apparently, she wanted to both know what you really felt and make sure you wouldn't leave her. After meeting Calypso, you don't blame Sidhe for being afraid.
Sidhe tends to be quiet and keeps to herself. You're starting to think this isn't just due to being shy, but also so she can keep an eye on everybody else and only insert herself into a conversation when she knows she can get a positive reaction. Either way, you have to make an active attempt to prevent Sidhe from fading into the background; fortunately, Nanoha has been able to help with that.
She's also rather attached to you and gets extremely upset if she doesn't know your general location at all times. She's getting much better; she used to freak out if you even left her line of sight.
When Sidhe was in her old body, she absorbed knowledge like a sponge, even when said information was contradictory and made no sense. This gimmick has persisted across vessels and is cheerfully defying both your attempts to study and improve it. You weren't even able to tell it was there for a long time.
Sidhe is both a skilled Sky Dragon Slayer and a Blue mana mage. She seems to be frighteningly good at any sort of magic related to the immaterial, including illusions and mental manipulation. Ever since you met Calypso, you've had serious trouble trying to learn mind-related Blue magic; you always feel like the mana is going to jump up and bite you without warning.
Sidhe changed over to an Agni-grade artificial vessel, but opted not to alter her appearance beyond maybe getting rid of a few real scars. She also opted to be "permanently chaste and celibate."
To make sure you wouldn't have a reason to abandon her and that you wouldn't be worried whenever she studies Blue mind magic, Sidhe became your retainer for five years. She took an oath to never betray you and follow your orders unless they are cancelled by Agneyastra. You really feel like that was overkill, but whatever makes her happy? You admit you can see where she's coming from as far as the mind magic was concerned, and it did help. Blue-Sidhe can't break the oaths normal-Sidhe made, among other things.
White Gloves (COLLECT/HOLD): These are capable of blocking and holding Blue mana. Additionally, they use tiny tendrils of Blue to allow their wearer to manipulate Blue mana with their thoughts.
Silver & Blue Diamond Hoop Earrings:Each earring generates one mote of Blue mana and is able to store three motes. They also work as a link for cross-planar communication through their LINK/TRANSFER component.
The bad news is that they also have mind control enchantments. The left earring can ban any thought, emotion, or impulse with NEGATE/CESSATION/SUPPRESSION/APATHY/CALM/TRIGGER, leaving the wearer suggestible. The right earring relays instructions and enforces obedience with INCENTIVE/COMMAND/INSTRUCT/TRIGGER.
Age: 14
Birthday: March 15th, 2001
One of your friends and a member of your "party," Nanoha is a 14-year-old girl from an alternate version of Earth. She used to have a crush on you, but as any romantic relationship would just end up hurting you both if you were to pursue it right now, you let her down. You're strongly considering giving the idea another try in a couple years.
When you first found Nanoha, she seemed to be in a state of perpetual depression which she concealed from friends and family. Your meeting was a little weird; you set yourself on fire and introduced yourself as a magical space princess while channeling Red. In the time since, she developed a crush on you and had it crushed (Sorry, Nanoha...), helped wreck your old worldview, almost swore a magically binding oath, joined your "party," briefly had a weird pink Barrier Jacket, transitioned over to her current white and blue one which you suspect was inspired by white-winged angels, switched into a completely different body, got her own pet ferret, and started learning Sky Dragon Slayer magic, among other things.
Nanoha generally flings herself into group activities and isn't afraid to pesterurge others to join her. You sincerely believe she's cute and a wonderful person, but that appears to have come with a habit of overworking herself for the sake of others. Mitra, her Intelligent Device, is working on helping Nanoha become more selfish. You're not sure you're entirely comfortable with the execution; it seems to be working, but Nanoha is becoming a lot more confrontational and Mitra has occasionally interrupted/forced her to participate in group activities instead of training.
According to Nanoha's mother, she also has problems with... well, resolving problems with violence. This has somehow made Nanoha a few friends over the course of her life. (...?) You should probably get that story out of her at some point. If she pursued violence as earnestly as she pursues everything else, you can see how people would be won over by that.
Nanoha is a prodigy with Linker Core magic and is almost caught up with you despite your head start. For Ethernano magic, Agneyastra gave her an artificial Origin with Sidhe's affinities. Nanoha is now learning Sky Dragon Slayer magic from Sidhe and it sounds like she's doing a pretty good job. You're currently on a trip to the king-selection plane so you can give her access to mana-based magic as well. Agneyastra seems to have gotten everything she needs for that part, but everything she needs isn't everything Nanoha should have.
You could help her become a demigod, you know...
While switching to an artificial vessel, Nanoha elected to "improve" her appearance, removing anything which could possibly be considered a scar or a blemish. Her hair also became a bit less brown and a little more... fire-colored? You don't know. Either way, you're pretty sure she was trying to impress you.
An Agni who was transferred to the Nagi branch family due to an insufficiently strong Divine Spark. After her transfer, Indira was determined to make the best use of her abilities and bribed other Nagi to let her train using Red mana from their own Sparks. As a result, she was partially blamed when most of the Nagi branch family was slaughtered during Suryastra's rampage. Indira subsequently liquidized her assets, stocked up on supplies, allegedly went on vacation, and vanished.
According to Indira, she spent at least some of the next few centuries forming her own empire. Agneyastra says it's probably either too far away to be a threat or only consists of a single solar system. She's also immune to both fire and lightning now.
You have yet to meet Indira outside of precognitive dreams, but Agneyastra doesn't like what you've seen. Agneyastra has claimed she'd probably be more than willing to threaten genocide should you not obey her, but you have yet to see anything more serious than anger issues. In one of your most recent precog-dreams, Indira claimed that she was playing up the strong and scary angle to provide a deliberate contrast to you.
"In this section of the Dimensional Sea, we already have a reputation as horrifying monsters. Why bother spending years fighting it when playing along will get us better results? You get to be the benevolent Agni everyone admires while I stand as a symbol of their ridiculous fears. I gather those who would support a 'strong' goddess while you get those inclined toward a gentle one. Shame keeps them from sharing heretical drawings of you while fear keeps them from doing the same to me. It all slots together quite well, don't you think?"
She also seemed to value you as the last of her family, but you're not sure how much stock you should put in that. Agneyastra points out that she'd become the effective leader of the Agni Empire should she adopt you, something which would give her control of any still-functional Agni assets. It might also cause political problems with the TSAB and Belka. You're already competing with her as far as ruin-raiding is concerned; you don't want to make it easier for her.
Indira is probably classified as an SSS-class mage, the highest tier on the rating system currently in widespread use. When they fought in a "friendly duel," you do think it's worth noting that she was forced to a draw with Olivie Sagebrecht and may very well have lost had Indira not deliberately engineered a distraction to end said duel. In the process, you learned that Olivie is apparently a White mage, possibly specializing in negating incoming attacks.
You also want Indira's stuff, but it doesn't look like you'll be getting your hands on it.
Two thin, dark red swords with golden writing along the blade. They read "Sword of the Holy Empress Indira Agni, one" and "Sword of the Holy Empress Indira Agni, five," respectively.
A centuries-old Earthland wizard, Siofra was cursed after she tried to peek into the past of a deity and find out how they ascended. The knowledge-related god took exception and subsequently made Siofra immortal and undying at the price of never remembering more than the last month. If Siofra ever found a viable method of removing the curse, she would forget it; if this mechanism was triggered several times in a short period of time, it looks like it would wipe out related subjects as well.
Siofra is a blatantly overpowered Seer capable of what seems like selective omniscience; if she's talking to someone, she starts referencing events in their past and/or future in addition to information on numerous related topics. In addition, she's tethered nine souls to herself, ones which would've apparently gone to Earthland's Hell forever if they hadn't accepted her deal. Siofra apparently doesn't believe anyone deserves that and you happen to agree.
At some point, Siofra traded her sight for the ability to "properly see souls." You're pretty sure she regained it after ascending.
In the combat department, Siofra was unnaturally durable, strong, and quick, even before she ascended. You think that might be a trait of the most powerful Earthland wizards instead of due to some magical effect. While it sounds like she'd originally intended to just have her attendant souls keep track of the life she was doomed to forget, Siofra is also able to (temporarily?) create translucent bodies for the souls in question or as an outline around parts of her own body. Of the souls you've seen her use in combat, three appear to be dragons, one is a horned (vaguely demonic?) humanoid, and the last looks human.
Siofra took full advantage of her undying status to make several spells capable of feeding off her own replenishing life, including at least one spell which effectively gave her infinite Ethernano. To compensate, she had an active spell ("Thrill") capable of dampening pain and inducing euphoria. Basically, it made her act like she was on drugs.
After she killed a rather nasty goddess, Calypso, who'd originally intended to turn Siofra into her devoted servant, Siofra became the goddess of high-risk undertakings, conspiracy, and redemption. Siofra may actually have lost effective combat power in the process, but you aren't sure.
Siofra thinks her curse is gone now, but you know better. It's just changed.
CONCEAL/AVOID/OBSTRUCT/SUPPRESS LINK INPUT/MODIFY DETECT/OVERSEE DISABLE/SEDATIVE/TRIGGER DO NOT TOUCH
Killed by Siofra. You don't like thinking about the rest.
The personal Intelligent Device of Prince Surya, your great-whatever grandfather. Agneyastra was built to be a replacement after Suryastra went rogue and devastated the various anagram branch families. Apparently, Suryastra believed they were a drain on the Agni Empire, which, according to him, was built to serve the Agni.
Thanks to a precog-dream, you know he was hoping to extract the Divine Sparks of branch members and turn them into self-sustaining, growing mana generators.
Was allegedly killed by retainers of Princess Kumari Agni a couple centuries ago.
All your ferrets have been given artificial vessels of their very own. As a result, they seem to be immune to falling damage, among other various ridiculous perks.
Yuuno is the only one who's had his size increased to "hug-sized." The other ferrets frequently use him as their noble steed.
Oddly enough, it seems like the three ferrets have been much better behaved lately. You don't know if the extra attention is making them happy or if someone has been putting them through training while you're off learning magic.
Your adorable little pet, Yuuno is a hyperactive ferret fond of stealing anything that isn't nailed down. If it is nailed down, he'll also steal whatever it's nailed to. He seems to prefer shiny and soft things, but you caught him stealing an entire pineapple at one point.
Yuuno seems extremely fond of exploration and hiding his stolen goods in Yuuno-approved hiding spots. When he's not doing that, he spends most of his waking hours trying to play or cuddle with you and Sidhe.
You might just be projecting, but you suspect Yuuno might be a bit jealous of Sachiko's and Scrya's Semblances. At least he's been kept happy and occupied while you've been busy.
You're not sure why, but you have the feeling naming your pet ferret "Yuuno" is going to seriously confuse one or more people in the future.
Nanoha's pet ferret, Sachiko was bought on Remnant and subsequently had her Aura unlocked.
Her Semblance appears to be some form of spacial manipulation. She uses this to widen tiny cracks in the walls or floor and subsequently digs tunnel networks underneath your house(s).
Sachiko prefers to steal and collect all kinds of shiny objects.
Sidhe's pet ferret, Scrya was initially incredibly shy and seemed incredibly suspicious whenever someone else was around. While he still seems to exhibit this behavior on occasion, you think he might have associated certain objects and people with safety.
Scrya was picked up on Remnant and had his Aura unlocked shortly after his sibling, Sachiko, had the same thing happen to her. His Semblance appears to be some sort of gravity manipulation and while you'd never even consider bringing him into combat, he's happy to walk on ceilings and generally take full advantage of his ability.
Scrya prefers to make his little nests in high places and stocks them with soft (stolen) objects.
A: It varies by ability. Beyond that, you don't know. Ranks are just intended to be an indicator of your progress in a given skill, nothing more.
Q: What about "split" votes?
A: Votes are counted by intent. Don't worry about them, they're actually pretty common. In most cases, omission is counted as a vote against.
Q: Doesn't our Planeswalker's Spark make us immune to Eternity's harmful effects?
A: No, just resistant. You can still die if you, say, fall asleep in there.
Q: Can we Planeswalk with other people as a one-hit KO?
A: You don't think so. Not yet, at least. Maybe with something tiny, like a hamster?
Q:
Also, @Alivaril, do we have to specify that we are using our "Enhanced Learning" active buff or does it happen automatically when we are training?
A: It happens automatically any time you use (or could learn something from seeing) magic. It used to not be automatic for non-magical topics, but now is for most official lessons. (Ex: Math)
Q: Can we safely give Jade a Linker Core and extract it later on?
A: Extraction hurts a lot.
Q: Can QB ever start planeswalking?
A: No. Not unless you intentionally assist him with that.
Q: Will we ever have access to any more planes?
A: There almost certainly won't be any more settings added. Magi was an impulse/exception which won't occur again.
Q: Is our Semblance Enhance Learning?
A: You don't know. The most popular player theory is that your Semblance is MG abilities in general.
Q: Why is Agneyastra so blatantly overpowered?
A: If you're still asking this after seeing the series of rolls which led to that ridiculousness, I suppose another explanation is in order.
Originally, most of Agneyastra's modes would've made it provide assistance, but after it was repaired, said assistance would've been reluctant. Agneyastra would've tried to nudge Jade toward serving one of the few surviving Agni (although they weren't called that prior to universal retcon) and/or otherwise advancing its own interests. In exchange, Agneyastra would provide short bursts of powerful assistance. The rest of the time? Not so much.
The "Royal" setting would've had Agneyastra fully helping, but not only did that have a (1d100/4)% chance of succeeding in the first place, but that state of affairs would've been temporary. Agneyastra would've figured out that you were bullshitting it sooner or later, and once Agneyastra did, it would not be pleased. And then, of course, you critted, thus changing the name of Belka's rivals to "Agni," filling in the nebulous/incomplete blanks in Jade's ancestry, and thoroughly derailing the idea of a slow power increase.
Some new players have expressed distress with regards to information other players seemed to know about, but wasn't included in the threadmarks. As such, I've gone through a bunch of my posts in the thread and dragged information from them. Looking at the character sheet may also be informative, even if I am always behind on updating it.
This whole thing is a work in progress; I still have a lot more posts to go, but I'd rather write than trawl through more right now. If you have questions, feel free to bring them up. If it's something you should know about IC, I'll be happy to answer; if you shouldn't, my answer will usually be "you don't know."
In addition to being threadmarked, this will be added to a new spoiler at the bottom of the FAQ.
The Saint's Cradle was destroyed near the end of the latest Belkan civil war. Olivie has been ruling from a world (Lundra) in the same solar system as where Belka used to be.
Despite what Jade thought, it's actually less efficient and more expensive to cleanse manually. You do learn more quickly than you do with warding, though, so it's a tradeoff.
The lost logia that was used to repair Agnesyastra seems to have notable ability to produce various high-level components (it needs to have that to actually repair high-level items). Is it be possible to use to manufacture components for SSS linker core?
It would require dealing with TSAB, but if it sidesteps all the problems with gathering components, and gives Jade linker core now, instead of after JS events... it's worth a try.
You could break apart existing components and then have the fabricator repair them separately, but you can't currently have it make things from scratch even if you do manage to convince the TSAB to cooperate.
Agneyastra can project pretty much anything (for Jade's viewing only), but it's going to be somewhat transparent and needs to appear to be within three feet of Jade. I think you can guess why those limitations are a thing.
No longer having some horrible deadline hanging over her head is the biggest thing. Activities Jade would like to do to relax include, but are not limited to:
- Slaughtering Grimm.
- Hearing more stories about her non-evil ancestors.
- Finding out if food cooked with magical fire tastes different from food cooked with mundane fire of the same temperature.
- Making her wings & crown even better.
- Trying on the various outfits Agneyastra got for her in private.
- Fighting Grimm.
- Utterly annihilating random strangers in video games.
-- Having Agneyastra punish anyone who calls her hurtful & rude names during this. It's a little petty, but if they're going to be jerks, Jade thinks they'd deserve it.
- Trying out some kind of recreational drug to compare against what she feels while overchanneling & fighting. Agneyastra advises against this and Jade herself is still a bit uncomfortable with the idea; she wouldn't even be considering it if she couldn't switch bodies.
- Ice skating.
- Sleeping in fire.
- Seeing what bathing in lava is like. (Jade doesn't quite realize the implications of it being molten rock)
Related: The infraction for a specific part of that incident was overturned upon appeal, although they did request I clear anything along those lines with them in the future before posting it.
Josephine was a member of the "loyalist" faction. She wasn't alone in her beliefs, and the issues Agneyastra didn't mention are a big part of why Agneyastra recommended she get professional help.
There wasn't a single side you could point to in that conflict and say "That's the evil side." At least, not and be correct. The Agni civil war definitely fell under grey, gray, grey, gray, grey, gray, and grey morality.
There's a difference between "doing it with a whole bunch of Grief Seeds on standby and a small support group" and "doing it en masse." Frankly, Dawn & Cloudseeker are now glad their attempts to do mass lichbombing failed. Even if it did get out anyway, at least it wasn't their fault, right?
Currently, you can only see the souls of people you can summon. Even then, you only got a brief glimpse of Agneyastra's soul when you got the ability to summon it. You can still vaguely sense the existence of Agneyastra's soul, but at your current level of skill and/or with the current conditions, you can't see it or analyze it in any detail.
Even then. Her mother went mad with grief and did something terrible. I would not call her a monster. She was a person who had something bad happen to her, and wasn't able to deal with it with just her 14-year-old daughter for support. That doesn't make a monster. If she had survived, it's a case for psychological and psychiatric help. In fact, referring to mom as a monster might even be a line of attack the bullies used.
A "cluster" is exactly that, an area where several different lands are close to one another and can be drawn from individually via Stalker or other rapid travel. Currently, if you want to use a cluster to fuel a single large spell, you'll have to spend several hours (possibly as much as an entire day) shepherding mana to a single location in order to cast said spell. You'll likely lose some in the process, and although it would be good control practice, Jade would almost certainly find it horrifically boring and potentially frustrating.
BTW, an OOC warning for you guys: Sidhe is likely to take up multiple in-quest months if you do elect to help her. I wasn't kidding about her being a time sink. If you don't, she'll still be found before she does anything permanent.
While Sidhe's first impression of Jade will heavily tint future interactions with her, Sidhe will probably follow Jade EVERYWHERE and be completely terrified if she ever loses track of Jade for more than thirty seconds.
Uh... I guess? Be warned that Earthland wizards tend to have high resistance to all sorts of effects. Agneyastra could likely help you avoid overdose.
Plus, you'd be leaving a sixteen-year-old girl alone and defenseless for several hours. Even if she got through that safely, she might be reasonably freaked out afterward.
I'm likely going to stop commenting on this subject now. Warning has been delivered.
So since I appear to have done more harm than good by trying to warn people earlier:
That "probably" was in there for a reason. Repeatedly warning her way, way ahead of time, along with reassurances that you would return and a guard consisting of multiple Seekers and Knights would go go a long way toward comforting Sidhe. Still, she wouldn't really look forward to it and she'd probably want to be knocked unconscious while you went and retrieved Nanoha.
Warning: The experiments with White mana may be effectively vetoed by the "vacation" part. Playing with magic spells is fun; learning how to control the colors themselves, not so much. Blue mana is also frustrating for her.
Jade is getting better at unarmed combat, but it's hard for her to tell. She's usually distracted by Agneyastra's Blood Knight mod and fighting Grimm in general.
@Alivaril, what's Nanoha's sustained flight speed like right now? I'm expecting something rather better than 200kph given her ability to win keepaway with Jade, but specifics are nice.
"Only" about 110 KPH. Jade can't currently alter her course after jumping, making it relatively easy to avoid her when one is capable of freely moving in three dimensions.
That'd be ideal, yes. Do we know if people in FT have super durability? Alternatively, @Alivaril, do the punches they're throwing look like they'd even inconvenience us?
Some of the combatants are doing much more damage to their environment than they look like they really should be, yes. In some cases, this involves shattering stone floors and wooden tables.
Yes and no. She understands that some people think it's a valid idea, but she's afraid of accidentally injuring other people if she joins in. She doesn't much like pain, either, and she has Grimm for when she just wants to punch things.
Being in a crowded area where she can't really dodge without someone else getting hurt doesn't appeal.
Agneyastra figured out how to make storage Lacrima out of certain Fairy Tail objects. Simple as that.
If given permission to figure out a way to upgrade the system used by the drills, Agneyastra should be able to determine a make 1-3 superior Dragon Slayer Lacrima of a element of your choice (assuming you make an SSS Linker Core out of the rest of the graveyard). The fewer it makes, the more powerful each one is, but the more likely it is to kill whoever it is implanted in.
Because Agneyastra is OP as hell.
EDIT: To elaborate further, Agneyastra would need to scan a third-generation* Dragon Slayer in order to make said Lacrima. Without that, it'd simply flat-out murder anyone you tried to put it in without them even having a chance of survival. No, this does not mean you can weaponize it, the implantation process is a bit too slow for that.
*Starting with the pupils dragons took when they first came out of hiding after Acnologia's rampage.
@Alivaril what would Agneyastra say - can we get enough materials so, over the course of several months, we could take trips to the graveyard and, using stuff we make in the fabricator, slowly construct an orbital habitat out of the graveyard?
"Agneyastra believes that project to be unnecessarily wasteful, Princess. In addition to requiring advanced fabrication facilities, orbital habitats require a large amount of hardware to create and sustain. Dragon bone, while strong, is not a material suited for such structures. Agneyastra recommends waiting until after you obtain the various Jewel Seeds falling on Nanoha Takamachi's earth before attempting to pursue such a project."
A world of Green, connected to a world of Red and White. Whenever you try to aim for the latter, you find your path blocked by the former. Annoying, but you're sure you can find a way around it if you decide to go there.
Exotic plants with strange properties dot the landscape, many of them magical in nature. Massive spirits prowl this world, but although they usually take the shape of animals, their intelligence is often equal to humans. Despite this, they seem perfectly happy to eat lesser spirits. You expect they'd be perfectly happy with eating you, too.
Many spirits use some sort of elemental magic against their foes. Most notably, fire. Humans, when they do travel to their world, appear to do so in some sort of ethereal form. You expect showing up there in a perfectly solid body would confuse the locals.
[] RWBY
A world of Black. There are large concentrations of all the other colors, but they seem so very tiny when compared to the massive Black enchantment looming over the entire plane. Black constructs spawn wherever there isn't enough positive emotion to stop them, leaving the inhabitants of the world with an unending horde of monsters to fight. Even when one is defeated, its body only dissolves, steals a small amount of power from the land, and reforms elsewhere. It's an eternal cycle and one you are helpless to stop. You might be able to keep the enchantment from affecting some areas, but it'll be a long, long time before you have the ability to destroy the entire thing.
The defenders don't use magic, instead preferring to change their souls in a manner eerily reminiscent of what Kyubey did to you. Unlike you, however, their souls don't produce grief and actually recover by themselves. More evidence toward the theory of Kyubey using magical girls as expendable cannon fodder.
Their level of technology is impressive. The humans of Remnant have managed to turn miniaturization into an art form. They use magical materials to fuel their creations, but there's nothing stopping you from using mundane materials instead.
[] Dragon Age
A world of Black and White. Trying to get a good look at this plane proves to be impossible; every time you try, you find a shimmering realm of dreams blocking your view. Within this realm, demons influence and corrupt the minds of mortals, eventually taking over their bodies entirely.
You're confident they'd have a much harder time if they tried to corrupt you. Still, many of them are incredibly strong and it's likely every last one of them would try to kill you. On the bright side, you'd gain quite a bit of combat experience if you managed to survive.
[] Girl Genius
A world of Blue and Red. Mad scientists rule over all, twisted abominations of science- sorry, SCIENCE!- walk the land, and the laws of physics are subverted on a regular basis. For the average person, it isn't a very nice place to live in. For "Sparks", it's paradise. Or at least, it's paradise right up until an angry mob breaks down their door or they try to fight someone they can't win against. Sparks seem to have a tendency to overestimate themselves.
Despite this, a brilliant king has managed to bring a massive number of Sparks under his banner. The madness of those under his rule has been redirected from building machines of war toward constructing infrastructure. In his slice of the world, the average person can walk around without fear of abruptly being abducted by a flying mechanical spider.
Unfortunately, you're not sure it will last. One of the oldest Spark families has set their sights on the Storm King's domain. Their servants are fanatically loyal, the town where they're based out of has never been successfully invaded, and they manage to make the weaponry of lesser Sparks look like mere firecrackers. Their probing raids have all been completely annihilated, but you know it's only a matter of time until they get serious.
However, when you look at what the Storm King has in store for them... You seriously doubt either side is going to win. Any war between them would pit an unstoppable force against an immovable object.
[] Lyrical Nanoha
A plane of Red and White. There isn't a particular planet that the plane revolves around, although you can see an Earth rather similar to your own. Minus the evil bunnycat and witches, that is.
The mages of this plane use a power source different from your own, although you're pretty sure you could copy the power source of somebody else with a bit of effort. Or tear it away from them and implant it in yourself, should you be so inclined. They've managed to turn their particular brand of "magic" into a complex science.
Despite their magic being based upon complex calculations, emotion and morality rule this plane. Even the research being done is often for the sake of accomplishing a specific goal rather than knowledge for knowledge's sake.
Relics of ancient civilizations are scattered across the plane, but instead of choosing to study said artifacts, the inhabitants often just quarantine them. Certainly, they're incredibly dangerous, but that seems like a horrible waste.
[] Fairy Tail
A mana-rich world of Red and White, known to the locals as "Earthland". Looks like humans are the same everywhere. Wizards make up a full 10% of this world's population, and it shows; a massive amount of their technology runs off of magic. The locals don't quite use the same type of magic as you, but it's close enough. You'll still be able to learn it, you'll just power your spells differently than the locals do.
As for their magic, well... it's just as varied as your own. If you want to accomplish a given task, odds are you'll be able to learn something that would let you do it. Elemental magic, scanning, healing, buffs, enhancement... This plane has everything. The only things limiting what you can learn are the amount of time you decide to spend on a given topic and whether or not you can find somebody to learn it from.
There are several hundred dragons on the planet, but most of them are resting. Only a few dozen dart across the sky, searching for worthy pupils to teach. The reason why they'd need to teach humans soon becomes abundantly clear: the soul of one of the slumbering dragons is a supernova of Black. At some point in the distant past, he bathed in the blood of every dragon slain, becoming stronger with each enemy killed. He even turned on his own allies in his mad quest for power. Thankfully, he has been asleep for dozens of years. You doubt he'll wake up any time soon.
There is another world connected to Earthland, but it's rather... distorted. You can't really get a good look.
[] Velgarth (world containing Valdemar)
A mana-rich world of White. In terms of technological progress, the planet is still stuck in the middle ages. It doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon, either; this world has gods, and several of them are discreetly discouraging technological progress.
Guardian angels walk the land, constrained by ancient deals and only allowed to use a tiny fraction of their actual power. In many cases, the local gods opted for quantity over quality when making their minions, although the god of the sun did not do the same. He didn't even try to conceal the nature of the "Firecats" he dispatched to advise mortals.
Mages actively hunt for those with magical potential, eager to either teach them... or torture potentials to death in order to fuel their magic. Thankfully, the latter category seems to be much rarer and practically everybody else on the planet is determined to kill them.
You're not sure why, but lines of power are scattered across the planet, pulling mana from their surroundings and completely removing all color in the process. Mages of this world are able to pull mana from the previously mentioned lines to fuel their spells, often converting it to a different color without even realizing what they're doing.
Annoyingly enough, it doesn't look like you'll be able to connect to the lines of power themselves. You'd have to bond to the lands they cross, and doing so would greatly weaken them and likely be noticed by the locals. You're pretty sure they wouldn't be able to figure out that you were the cause, though.
Magi
A world devoid of color- The world you're viewing abruptly changes. Odd.
Starting over: A world of Red and White. Tiny spirits draw power from the land and make it usable by the locals. In the mana department, it is perhaps the single most mana-rich plane you've ever laid eyes on. Much of that is due to the tiny spirits, but if you can figure out a way to bond with them, you could probably double the amount of mana you could take from the lands of this world.
Massive towers pierce the sky, luring the unprepared to their doom. Those who successfully make their way through a dungeon will be rewarded with riches and the services of a powerful spirit, called a "djinn", along with the title of "King Vessel" or "King Candidate."
You, on the other hand, don't particularly want one of those spirits helping you. They're supposed to judge the suitability of potential rulers. Fortunately, you don't have to accept their aid or let them judge you. You can see a way to simply steal the power of a djinn and grant it to Agneyastra. It wouldn't even be that difficult, nor would it actually hurt the djinn. You'd need to get through a dungeon first, but with your abilities, you could probably clear one in a few hours. If they really don't like you, it might take a bit over a day.
It would seem djinns often establish their dungeons in an area they have an affinity to. A dungeon rising up out of the ocean, for example, might have a djinn with a water affinity. Desert might be sand, wind, or fire. Swamp could be rot or life. To complicate matters even further, djinns seem to have a trait they're associated with, such as wrath or pride. You don't think those particular traits would carry over if you transferred the power to Agneyastra, though. You briefly wonder what Agneyastra's trait would be if it were a djinn. Loyalty, perhaps?
In terms of technological progress, this world is close to entering the Renaissance era. Fortunately, unlike some of the other worlds you've looked at, there don't seem to be any entities discouraging technological advancement. Additionally, this world does have access to a system of magic that uses colored mana. You can't quite tell if it's the same system you use, a slightly different one, or both. Either way, you could learn it.
Thanks to discrimination and hatred, most magicians of this world have clustered into two areas. One area, Magnostadt, believes that normal humans are inferior to magicians and should be protected "for their own good." These magicians pull Black mana from their subjects, convert it into mana of other colors, and use the acquired power to accomplish miracles. Magnostadt is actively working to expand their influence and has acquired quite a large number of enemies in the process.
Magnostadt's main attraction, besides its impressive quality of life for even the unpowered citizens, is its academy. Magnostadt accepts students from all over the world and think of themselves as "a nation for magicians." The archchancellor of Magnostadt was recently assassinated by an unknown group, possibly in the hopes that it would weaken Magnostadt and let his ideals fade. Instead, it only served to make him into a martyr.
The other major group is significantly smaller, less powerful, and less knowledgeable, but they mind their own business and keep to themselves. As a result, they've remained mostly unnoticed by the major powers of the world. "Paranoia" seems to be included among their traits; they have a number of wards that prevent you from even finding out what they're called. You can see that they're based on a small island, but beyond that, you have absolutely no idea.
Some people classified as "ordinary humans" on this world... aren't, not really. A significant minority have superhuman strength, speed, and durability, even when they don't have access to magic. The materials of this world can also get pretty ridiculous; you note several weapons that, on any other world, would be the closest thing to indestructible. On this world, they can still be shattered by even stronger non-magical weapons. If you can get your hands on a large amount of the most powerful alloys, you suspect Agneyastra would have a field day.
Unfortunately, slavery seems to be legal on most of the planet and quite a few minor dictators have popped up. The bad news for you: If you planeswalked into a particularly bad area, as a young girl travelling alone, there's a pretty good chance you'd be attacked. The good news: You're a planeswalking goddess pyromancer / magical girl with an indestructible soul. In the event you go up against a foe you can't beat and/or are captured, you could just planeswalk away.
Thedas (Dragon Age)
A plane of Black and White. Multiple humanoid races live both on its surface and underground, frequently fighting one another and even among themselves. On the bright side, they seem willing to put their differences aside when it comes to fighting occasional invasions by corrupted creatures. Mostly. While they are helping one another, you note the various races rarely form integrated units in order to maximize their strengths and cover the weaknesses of one another. Sure, they seem to be doing OK with just sending different groups to do what they specialize in, but you feel like they could do so much better.
One such invasion is already in progress and seems to have spread across a significant part of the continent it started on. Even if the situation does look a bit bleak, you're pretty sure the defenders will drive the abominations back sooner or later. They always do. You're not even sure your interference would make as much of a difference as you'd hope; a lifetime of unknowingly ingesting trace quantities of titan blood has made nearly all inhabitants of Thedas significantly more powerful than they normally would be, both magically and physically.
Mom would probably be interested in finding out how that works.
Flight would be a nice tactical advantage, but it would also draw you to the attention of the corrupted (and maybe weakened?) god leading the invasion. You'd do more good if you stay away from the frightening legions of monsters and focus your efforts on other planes. You're still underage; you don't want to, and shouldn't be expected to, fight in a bloody war against terrifying monsters. Especially since you think you might end up being treated horribly by the Templars if you do help.
Don't think about them, don't think about those they're fighting, don't think—
Child, just look away already! No war or guilt for you. The last thing you need is more trauma or angst.
There's an old saying—at least, you think it's old—that no tool is inherently good or evil, it's just a tool. The various races of this plane seemed to have taken that concept to heart and are perfectly willing to do horrible things if it means keeping everyone alive.
Right off, you find a particularly disgusting example. The people of Thedas have a well-known organization made to fight abominations, the "Grey Wardens." Depending on the area, its members are hailed as heroes, respected public servants, a way for former criminals to redeem themselves, or some combination of the above. Neat, right? Except for the part where all recruits of the organization are required to drink the blood of abominations as part of a magical ritual, there's no backing out once they actually learn what the ritual involves, the ritual itself has about a 60% mortality rate, and such individuals will commit suicide-by-monster within a few decades. Surprise surprise, drinking what is basically liquid corruption tends to kill people.
As for the humans, they frequently shut their mages in heavily-guarded towers for whatever reason. The antimagic-specializing guardians of said towers tend to be pretty good at their jobs, but you glimpse some of their behavior and are not happy about it. They're not unusually corrupt when compared to other medieval religious organizations, sure, yet that's a rather low bar to reach. If you want to be blunt? You feel like a whole bunch of "Templars" are arrogant assholes, pardon your Chinese.
The religious organization the Templar belong to, The Chantry, seems to have been built under false pretenses. Sorta. They claim that when their prayers are sung all across the world, their version of heaven will stop being corrupted. Unlike the claims of most religions you know of, they don't seem to be peddling unprovable claims: the prayers are markers and guidance systems for one gargantuan ritual. When it would have access to enough potential power, said ritual would draw mana from the faithful and purify what is now known as "The Black City." Or at least, attempt to do so. You get the feeling that trying to directly look at it from Eternity would be a terrible idea, so you can't really say if it would work or not.
You think The Chantry's focus might also be a little..."skewed" might be the right word? Their entire planet glows with crystallized mana from the blood of sentient land masses and the auras of sleeping gods. Since corrupted creatures are actively going out of their way to subvert the latter, you think it might be wise for The Chantry to purify the ground underneath their feet before they focus on the dimension next door.
You wish it was safe to look directly at the city and find out why they're so obsessed with it.
The realm which you would've originally been forced into, "The Fade," is actually rather impressive. Given as the whole thing seems to be artificial and filled with demons, you think it might've been made to be some sort of a prison for them. Maybe. The sheer number of powerful artifacts and enchantments in the "prison" might poke a hole in that theory. Maybe ancient mages were fighting a losing war against the demons and were willing to sacrifice some real estate if it meant isolating them...? Either way, you feel like scanning the prison in detail might greatly improve your own enchantments.
Looking over the plane, you feel like that might apply to an awful lot of enchantment-like spells. Imbuing items is almost a lost art on Velgarth and items from the king-selection plane tend toward using a hammer for everything. Meanwhile, the people of Thedas seem to have gotten quite good at imbuing objects and you think Mom might be interested in their ability to grant elemental resistances. Possibly imbuing herself, too.
Once upon a time, you think you might've been able to learn how to leech the corruption from your own soul by studying the corrupted creatures of Thedas. That's a moot point now, but maybe similar projects would help you turn Grief Seeds back into humans? Of course, you're honestly not sure you're willing to devote a whole bunch of time to such a project when Siofra is already capable of purifying them.
It's a shame the world is an even worse place to live than Remnant. Thedas is the only plane you've come across with the classic fantasy duo: elves and dwarves.
On a related note, you really wish you knew why every single plane seems to have humans running around. Did someone else with your ability to survive Eternity just decide to seed each plane for kicks? Even that theory is a bit dubious, though; both your Earth and Nanoha's Earth have evidence of humans evolving from lesser critters.
...Except Nanoha's plane has humans occupying a whole ton of dimensions, and you're pretty sure they didn't all come from Earth...
This whole thing is officially weird.
Avatar
A plane of Green. The human population is perhaps the smallest you've seen on any plane.
You actually had to look twice to make sure you weren't simply looking at the spirit realm. Nope. There are perhaps as many spirits in the material realm as there are normal animals. Despite the fact that a lot of them seem to be intelligent, a good number of the stronger beings seem perfectly happy to devour their weaker counterparts. Upon closer inspection, you're no longer sure it's out of some innate savagery, but might very well be out of boredom. You spot several devoured spirits later reappear from trees, lakes, and even clouds. Weaker than they were previously, sure, but still up and moving.
When you notice several ethereal humans hiding in a cave and cheerfully chatting with one another, you find yourself wondering if this plane is an example of what happens when someone tries to make an afterlife without actually giving the inhabitants anything to do. Or possibly tries to integrate an afterlife with the same dimension the living occupy? You're not sure. Anyway, they were just the first theories which came to mind. You doubt either is correct.
Living humans are all-but confined to towns built atop the backs of implausibly large Torterras—sorry, lion turtles. The creatures in question aren't entirely idle; they seem to be able (and willing) to grant "their" humans temporary control over fire/lightning, air, water/ice, and nonliving earth. As an added bonus, mana isn't the main fuel for their new gifts; instead, they seem to somehow be directly pulling from their own bodies to achieve the desired effects. Sure, they have to broadcast all their attacks, but you think it might be worth looking into.
Anyway, the humans so affected generally head out of the city to scavenge food and meat their home cities are incapable of growing on their own. The cities themselves are seldom attacked, and when they are, it's only by flying spirits; the ground-bound ones are smart enough not to mess with the beings massive enough to injure them by sneezing. If lion turtles can sneeze, that is. You're not sure they can.
[X] Ask Kyubey some questions.
-[X] Somehow, you doubt magical girls are the warriors of love and justice everyone makes them out to be. It's too good to be true.
-[X] "What's the average life expectancy of magical girls? How limited is my karmic potential? What does the contract say? What's in it for you?"
-[X] "Where do witches come from?"
...Honestly, this feels a little off to you. Despite what you may want, the world isn't fair; it seems rather odd that Kyubey came to you right when you were really rather upset. Additionally, he has no thumbs; you don't see how he could possibly sneak in to your room. Unless he's been hiding under your bed for the past few hours or something, which is really creepy and not cute at all.
"What's the average life expectancy of magical girls?"
"Telling you the average would be both discouraging and misleading, as there do exist those who die during their very first witch fight. They manage to drag the average down significantly all by themselves."
You blink and try to ignore the sinking feeling in your stomach. You didn't know about those girls. The magical girls everyone talks about are the ones who have lived for several years.
"How limited is my karmic potential?"
"I'm afraid I'm unsure of how to answer that question. You could likely wish for all the people on a single floor of a hospital to be healed and have that wish be granted."
"What does the contract say?"
There's a slight pause. Somehow, you don't think he gets that question very often.
"There is no written contract. We can use the term 'agreement' if you prefer. In summary, in exchange for your wish, you will be expected to kill witches wherever you encounter them."
Well, that's nothing you didn't know already. Still, something that open-ended makes you just a little bit nervous. At least there are no loopholes to exploit, right?
"What's in this for you? Why turn people into magical girls?"
"Part of my job involves keeping humanity alive. If there were no magical girls, witches would wipe out all life on this planet."
...That's the first you've heard of Kyubey having an actual 'job'. The forums would love to hear about this one.
"Where do witches come from?"
"They are entities born from accumulated despair and sadness. So long as humanity survives, witches will continue to be created." he pauses. "Unless you were to somehow lose all emotion, but I do not believe you would consider that an acceptable trade-off."
You try to imagine a race with no emotion and promptly shudder. Without any desire to do anything, they'd all just lie down and starve to death. No, witches are definitely the lesser of two evils.
[] "...I need more time to think." You know he won't leave you alone until you outright refuse. Kyubey has several bodies, after all; he can afford to spend some time following you.
[] Refuse, for now. You can't wish for the world to become perfectly fair and you don't have anything else you want to wish for right now. The orphanage where you live is doing rather well, your grades are average, you don't have any friends to use your wish for...
[] This is what you wanted, isn't it? A chance to make the world a little bit brighter.
-[] Write-in wish
[] This is what you wanted, isn't it? A way to get something in return for how much the world has hurt you. It's only fair.
-[] Write-in wish
[] This is what you wanted, isn't it? A chance to actually go out and do something. You hadn't really expected Kyubey to show up, but now that he's here, you have no reason to refuse. It'll be fun!
-[] Write-in wish
[x] Refuse, for now. You can't wish for the world to become perfectly fair and you don't have anything else you want to wish for right now. The orphanage where you live is doing rather well, your grades are average, you don't have any friends to use your wish for...
You try to think of something to wish for, but come up rather blank. A few possibilities flick through your mind, but nothing you can point to as worth your one and only wish. It might be best to save it in case something horrible happens. Still, you don't think it would be a very good idea to tell your intentions to Kyubey. He might encourage you to wish for something stupid just so you can become a magical girl.
"Thank you, Kyubey, but I'm not really interested right now. Maybe later?"
Kyubey's head droops in disappointment. "I am sorry to hear that. You may contact me via telepathy if you ever decide to become a defender of humanity. Be warned that the longer you go without becoming a magical girl, the more likely it is that you will be attacked by a witch. All too often, they can be found near the corpses of girls who could have become magical girls prior to their death."
Without another word, he vanishes under your bed. You wait expectantly for him to come out the other side, then start to wonder what on earth he's doing down there when he doesn't do so.
You peek under the bed and find... a severe absence of Kyubey's presence.
Okay, gone from 'creepy' to just 'weird'. I guess that explains how he looks after the entire planet... Is he Schrodinger's bunnycat? He can't vanish unless nobody is looking at him?
Well, no matter. Now that he's gone, you're free to think about Kyubey's visit. Alone. With nobody to talk to save yourself.
...A part of you wishes you hadn't sent him away.
[] Go to sleep. It's already 8:00 PM; that isn't too unreasonable of a bedtime.
-[] Contact Kyubey and ask him if you can hug him until you go to sleep. You're not allowed to have pets of your own and your room seems awfully empty right now...
[] Browse the Internet and try to find more information on magical girls.
-[] Concrete stuff, not the fluff about love and justice.
-[] Write-in specific topics
[] Browse the Internet to cheer yourself up.
-[] Look at the news.
-[] Look at cat pictures and videos. When in doubt, resort to the cute.
--[] Look at other adorable animals, too.
-[] Write-in
[] You know what? Screw loneliness! You're off to play video games.
-[] Strategy
-[] Shooters
-[] Puzzle
-[] Other? (write-in)
[] Read a book, or maybe some manga?
-[] (Write-in genre)
[] Write-in
You may write-in to contact Kyubey and make a wish at any time. It may take him a bit to arrive, though...
[X] Browse the Internet and try to find more information on magical girls.
-[X] Concrete stuff, not the fluff about love and justice.
-[X] Try to find common trends in abilities.
-[X] Also try to find life expectancy outside of your vague knowledge of multiple years and "one hunt" from QB.
You decide that sleeping can wait. Kyubey came to your room and offered to let you become a magical girl. You. The outcast. The life of a magical girl may not all be sunshine and rainbows, but it could definitely be an improvement over your current lifestyle. You might actually be able to bond with other magical girls, for one thing. Plus, what about non-combat applications for your magic? Nobody says you have to spend all your time using your abilities to fight witches, right? Okay, some people do, but they're jerks anyway.
You shove yourself out of bed, crawl over to your desk, boot up your semi-ancient laptop, and get to work.
Barely five minutes in, you determine that your task is going to be significantly harder than expected. The news only seems to report the victories of magical girls, not their failures. You do learn one thing, however: magical girls are symbols of love, justice, and above all, hope. Close enough.
It takes you almost an hour to find a forum that isn't full of fakes and posers: MGN, or Magical Girl Network. Another two minutes, and you've found a thread that wasn't quite what you were looking for, but should be helpful anyway.
-----> Potential/New Magical Girls: READ ME FIRST! <-----
{Stickied, Locked}
Sigil of Light
Senior Magical Girl
(Original Poster)
Hello, everyone! Sigil of Light here. I've tried to compile some of the ideas and advice people have had on this forum into one easy-to-read thread. I hope it helps! (sorry, couldn't resist)
1: To start off, you should know that wishes are finicky little things. They seem to operate more off intent than wording, but that doesn't necessarily mean you'll get what you want. Be careful and think things over before you make your wish; there are no take-backs.
2: Whatever you do, don't waste your wish. If you honestly can't think of anything else, a lot of norms will pay a fortune to have you use it to cure them of some horrific disease or crippling injury. Not to mention the authorities freak out a lot less if you do something like that instead of just wishing for wealth. The latter rarely (see: never) ends well.
3: Your abilities are going to be influenced by your wish. People who wish to heal others are often healers, those who wish for friends might be able to magically make themselves more charismatic, people who wish to go someplace else could be teleporters, and so on. It's not a perfect science, but it works pretty well as a general rule. If you want a certain powerset, there's a sub-forum elsewhere on this very site devoted to trying to figure out what wishes will grant what abilities.
I myself wished for my house and home to always be safe from all invaders and got some pretty nifty defensive abilities as a result.
4: We're here to help! If you have a magical girl in your neighborhood and you're just starting out, don't be afraid to approach her for advice and assistance. We're all in this together.
5: Be sure to get some combat practice in before you try to fight your first witch. People don't really like to talk about this, but there are two kinds of magical girls: those who survive indefinitely, and those who die within a week or two. Most of us fall into the former, but some people rush in and end up dying. Please don't join the ranks of the latter category. Like I said earlier, you aren't alone in this.
Well. That was... a thing. You notice MGN has a live chat; maybe you could hop on and say hello?
[] That's enough research for one night. Go to sleep. (Currently 8:57 PM)
[] Hop on to their chat and say hello!
-[] Username? (Write-in; Guest if left blank)
-[] Ask them some questions. (Write-in)
--[] Explain your situation, but be careful not to give any hints that could possibly trace back to you, like being an orphan. Or having no friends.
--[] Explain your situation in semi-detail: friendless, orphan, etc. You won't say your real name, of course, but they can't help you very well if they don't know your circumstances, now can they?
---[] Don't mention your problems with loneliness. That's your business and is kinda embarrassing to admit...
[] Browse the forum for anything else useful.
-[] Do you have something specific in mind? (Write-in)
[X] Browse the forum for anything else useful.
-[X] Wish suggestion forum, and do brief searches on the following topics:
There's... an awful lot here, actually. If you want a specific skillset, there's a thread devoted to helping people find a wish that would give it to them.
--[X] Any wishes that resulted in powers for manipulating grief, or affecting emotions.
--[X] Any concrete examples of social powers, like mentioned in the Readme? Being charming would be nice.
Sadly, this appears to be one of the more heated topics on the forums. It looks like the "improved charisma" is actually a rather uncommon version of what a person could get by wishing for friends; usually, they end up with the ability to make other people like them using magic. Some people argue that it's mind control, some claim that it's a tool and isn't inherently good or bad.
Either way, thanks to these arguments, it's really rather difficult to find any wishes that might grant you abilities like this. Wishing to be able to make other people happier is one of the less morally-dubious wish suggestions related to emotional manipulation.
--[X] Any concrete examples of cognitive powers
Abilities that improve your thinking speed are really rather uncommon, but by no means unheard of. Improved memory, or learning speed, or information gathering abilities are much more common. Most of them come from wishes related to doing better in school.
Someone warns that wishing for a direct boost to your intelligence is actually surprisingly useless. The initial bonus granted by the wish was apparently pretty nice, but then they got powers related to boosting it even further. Those cost magic to use and weren't very useful in combat.
--[X] See if there's rough guidelines about potential. What happened to girls who were really ambitious with their wishes?
You're unable to find any specific examples of 'ambitious' girls, and it takes a while to find anything even remotely related to the topic. Eventually, you find one piece of information that you believe to be really rather important: the more power it takes to fulfill your wish, the smaller your maximum magical reserves as a magical girl will be. Given as magical girls die if their source of magic isn't recharged before it runs out completely...
You shudder and hope you're over-thinking things.
[X] Browse the forum for anything else useful.
-[X] Readme also said to look for girls nearby. Any names? Does it have sub forums for different regions?
It doesn't look like most of the girls in your region bother to use the forums, but there is a list of active magical girls by city. Most towns/cities have three to eight. You quickly scroll down to your own.
Jeanne is the only person in your city who bothered to actually give her contact information. Presumably, the other two people were added by other users.
[] Call Jeanne. It's already 9:44 PM, but magical girls often hunt at night, right? Hopefully, you won't wake her up...
-[] Ask her some questions? (write-in)
-[] Explain that Kyubey approached you.
--[] ...But don't go into specifics about your situation.
[] Go to sleep.
[] Hop on to MGN's chat and say hello!
-[] Username? (Write-in; Guest if left blank)
-[] Ask them some questions. (Write-in)
--[] Explain your situation, but be careful not to give any hints that could possibly trace back to you, like being an orphan. Or having no friends.
--[] Explain your situation in semi-detail: friendless, orphan, etc. You won't say your real name, of course, but they can't help you very well if they don't know your circumstances, now can they?
---[] Don't mention your problems with loneliness. That's your business and is kinda embarrassing to admit...
[] Browse the forum for anything else useful.
-[] Do you have something specific in mind? (Write-in)
[] Write-in
{HEIRLOOM VOTING IS LOCKED}
Prior to the dea- prior to your parents going someplace else, your parents gave you a pendant and told you to keep track of it. You're honestly not quite sure what it's supposed to be. The material is too sturdy to be glass; a bully once threw it straight at a concrete wall and it remained perfectly unharmed.
Regardless of its inexplicable durability, the pendant is one of the only things you inherited from your parents. It might just be your imagination, but you think it might actually do something besides just look pretty. Maybe. Even if it does do something, the effects are only temporary anyway.
Inside it is...
[] A tiny, tiny ecosystem. So long as you continue to supply it with sunlight, it will remain alive. Somehow.
Holding it helps remind you that, even if humans scorn you, animals never will. They don't care what you say, or what other people say about you. It's obvious when you've upset them or when they're happy, and it's a lot easier to learn how to make them happy.
[X] A ruby. Veins of some other material make the pendant look like lava is running through it.
Holding it encourages you to do something, no matter what that might be. There's a time for thought, and there's a time for action. The latter is much, much more common, so go out and have some fun already!
[] A black diamond. The area around it somehow seems darker than it should be.
Holding it helps you realize how utterly insignificant other people are. Their opinions are invalid and should only be heeded if doing so would somehow benefit you. The world is a dark and ugly place; other people don't help you, so why should you help them?
[] A tiny pool of water with what looks like flecks of crystal floating in it.
Holding it helps you calm down and think. Emotion is fine and all, but when people start saying awful things about you, the pendant really helps with putting things in perspective. What they say is nothing but words, and words intended to hurt. There is no reason to listen to them.
[] A beautiful crystal that scatters rainbow light everywhere.
Holding it reminds you that, no matter how bad things may seem, it won't always be that way. The world is full of good and kind people; it's only a matter of time until you finally find those who you can support and will support you.
The heirloom vote will last for at least 24 hours, or less if one thing has a massive lead. Picking an heirloom will also make a pretty hefty impact on the PC's personality, which is still in flux.
A late arrival for the appearance vote, which is still going:
[] Blossom
No, the background isn't part of her dress.
EDIT: Apparently, people want to do priority voting for the heirlooms. So please vote by priority for that; there's an example of it right below this post.
You yawn, blinking blearily at the clock displayed on your computer screen. 9:45; if you stay up much longer, you might not even remember anything else you look at. Time to go to sleep. It's not like you won't be able to do everything else in the morning.
You bookmark MGN, shut the computer down, stumble into to your bed, and promptly fall unconscious.
You find yourself in an endless black void, devoid of anything and everything. Taste, touch, sound, sight, smell... none of them give you any feedback, any information on how to navigate the void.
Despite the sheer emptiness all around you, you have the distinct feeling you aren't alone. Something else is in here. Something alien, uncaring, and very, very hungry. It hasn't noticed you yet, but you have the feeling that it's only a matter of time. If you can't get out of the void, it will devour you.
You try to run, to hide, but where can you hide in an endless sea of nothing? Where can you run when the threat is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere? You're stuck attempting a futile method of escape while it gets closer and closer...
You wake up screaming. It takes you several minutes to stop shaking, during which time you are very, very glad the walls of the orphanage are sound-proofed. The caretakers didn't want new arrivals keeping the other children awake with their crying. Although you aren't exactly new, it looks like you're going to be benefiting from their chosen building design anyway.
You continue lying in bed for several minutes, ignoring the sunshine streaming through your bedroom window. You consider trying to go back to sleep, but your stomach decides to submit a verbal complaint in response to that thought. Magical girl candidate or not, you do need food to continue functioning. Time doesn't stop just because your mind decided that you really needed a nightmare.
[] Remain huddled in bed and try to ignore the lingering memory of the void staring back at you.
[] Go downstairs and eat breakfast. Some of the other kids should be waking up right about now, but you still need to eat.
-[] Head back to your room if some of them start acting cruel once again.
-[] Try to actually talk to some of the recent arrivals. Maybe you could actually make a friend...?
[] Grab some food and immediately retreat back to your room. You've tried making friends with some of the other children before; it always ends horribly. Even when it looks like you start to succeed, they just turn on you later.
[] Continue doing research on magical girls.
-[] What topics? (write-in)
[] Hop on to MGN's chat and say hello.
-[] Username? (Write-in; Wishmaker if left blank)
-[] Ask them some questions. (Write-in)
--[] Explain your situation, but be careful not to give any hints that could possibly trace back to you, like being an orphan. Or having no friends.
--[] Explain your situation in semi-detail: friendless, orphan, etc. You won't say your real name, of course, but they can't help you very well if they don't know your circumstances, now can they?
---[] Don't mention your problems with loneliness. That's your business and is kinda embarrassing to admit...
[] Call Jeanne.
-[] Ask her some questions? (write-in)
-[] Explain that Kyubey approached you.
--[] ...But don't go into specifics about your situation.
[] Send Jeanne a message on MGN.
-[] It won't be as quick, but at least you'll be able to avoid saying the wrong thing and messing everything up.
-[] Ask her some questions? (write-in)
-[] Explain that Kyubey approached you.
--[] ...But don't go into specifics about your situation.
[] Write-in
EDIT: It only just occurred to me that it may be best to hold off on further story posts until after character creation is done. It's rather hard to make decisions without a personality to operate from.
Whoopsie?
This chapter felt really rather "meh" to me. Sorry about that.
Emilia waited impatiently for the stupid witch to finally die. Its familiars had been systematically hunted down and exterminated. It was surrounded by her wards. Its attacks were useless. It could barely move. And yet, for some idiotic reason, it was just sitting and staring blankly ahead. Most witches would be trying to rush ahead and eat her.
Emilia's wards were defensive and she didn't really have enough practice with a quarterstaff to feel comfortable using it for anything but the elimination of familiars. If the stupid witch wouldn't attack, her wards couldn't damage it. If they couldn't damage it, Emilia was going to be stuck here pretty much indefinitely.
Emilia was supposed to have backup, but everyone else had left to deal with a serious witch infestation in Tokyo. Some idiot had neglected to kill the familiars of each witch they killed, thus letting the familiars multiply exponentially without any interference. The city had almost needed to be evacuated.
That was two weeks ago. The denizens of MGN had mostly managed to deal with the problem in the time since, but Emilia still didn't expect her team to return for another few days. It was always best to tend toward overkill when dealing with witches.
Emilia returned her attention to the outside world as the annoying lightbulb-witch decided to get on with it and lunge for her throat. By the time it had went across half her wards, it had been blasted with fire, shocked with electricity, drenched in acid, and frozen. Emilia was pretty sure it had been dead long before it reached the final set and had the force of its own charge reflected back at it. Still, better too much power than too little.
Tapping her foot impatiently, Emilia ignored reality unraveling around her in favor of catching the witch's grief seed. As soon as the real world reestablished itself, she bolted out of the factory where the witch's barrier had been located. That had taken far, far too long.
One of her normal friends, Haru, had been approached by Kyubey a few days ago. Haru wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she meant well and Emilia was always glad when new magical girls decided to join up. There were never enough to go around. Unfortunately, it really wouldn't surprise Emilia if Haru left the safety of her home in order to grab a snack or something else equally stupid. Until she contracted, Emilia really didn't like letting her out of sight. Unfortunately, patrols were necessary to prevent witches from slaughtering unsuspecting norms.
Several minutes later, Emilia unlocked the door of Haru's home and headed inside. Cars were vastly overrated; when you're a magical girl, all you need are stable rooftops.
"Haru?" she called. "I'm back. Did you decide on what to wish for yet?"
No response was forthcoming.
...She did it, didn't she? She went out for a snack. God damn it, Haru!
...No, that wasn't quite fair. For all Emilia knew, Haru could just be napping. It wasn't like she bothered to keep a normal day/night schedule. Just to be certain, Emilia headed over to Haru's room and opened the door. As (somewhat) expected, Haru was, in fact, lying in bed.
Her condition, on the other hand, was completely unanticipated. Haru was staring blankly ahead, her face a mask of despair stained with tears: the sign of a potential magical girl who had been targeted by a witch. She was already dead.
Emilia stood in a state of horrified disbelief for several seconds before sending out a magical ping to ensure that her wards were still intact. The unmistakable signature of a witch was reflected back at her from further inside Haru's apartment.
Not only that, but Emilia's wards were untouched, unharmed. The witch had ghosted right through them like they weren't even there. They weren't enough. They should have been enough. Her wards were absolute when used on somebody's home. Even teleporters couldn't get inside if they weren't welcome.Haru should have been safe. Why wasn't she safe?Why wasn't she safe?
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