but how many Magi there were had NOTHING to do with the actual magic, it had to do with the weird and wacky way the world had come into being.
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Ignition (MTG/Multicross, Planeswalker PC)
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
-
- Tags
- fairy tail magi: the labyrinth of magic magic the gathering magical girl lyrical nanoha (magical girl) puella magi madoka magica rwby alternate universe spoilers unreliable narrator earned your happy middle feedback appreciated life slowly gets better metaknowledge is overrated never too much fire setting knowledge not required this can only end well what could possibly go wrong?
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*points at thread tags*
metaknowledge is overrated
This isn't exactly something new, although I understand memories may have faded. I won't comment on information you don't yet know IC, so any maintained or altered relationships between the world and Magi numbers will have to wait.
The thought was that she was lifting off programmed objectives, and that the "don't be human" limitation would have prevented her from saying anything but the base programmed objective.
EDIT: As for the Nanoha point, I am just worrying about Jade because she is having a hard time being available (emotionally and otherwise) to Mitra, and the whole Jade secondary thing is making it quite akward and difficult. I don't think any of that requires the "can't care for more than one person" statement to be true.
The education worry probably wasn't justified.
Nanoha still eventually needs a long-term vision, and I think she could use something to work towards beyond 'Being there for my friends'.
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Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Locking the vote in 3-ish hours. Or possibly just starting on the update then. Either/or/both.
Jade doesn't think that was a problem and Agneyastra, when/if asked, claims the same.
I'd appreciate it if you avoided stuff like the bolded part in the future. I've often seen it used to attack perfectly good ones that were misunderstood or simply ones the speaker disagreed with.
I'm sleepy enough this was initially read as "Dread Empire," which seemed strangely appropriate.
"Sometimes you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, executing the hens who laid them on trumped up charges and setting the most rebellious henhouse on fire as an example to the others."
Jade doesn't think that was a problem and Agneyastra, when/if asked, claims the same.
I'd appreciate it if you avoided stuff like the bolded part in the future. I've often seen it used to attack perfectly good ones that were misunderstood or simply ones the speaker disagreed with.
I'm sleepy enough this was initially read as "Dread Empire," which seemed strangely appropriate.
"Sometimes you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, executing the hens who laid them on trumped up charges and setting the most rebellious henhouse on fire as an example to the others."
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
[x] Let Agneyastra handle the diplomacy.
-[x] But if she thinks that it'd be useful to have you field something, go ahead and try it with her advice.
[x] Ask if you can just, like, demand they don't kill each other while you're negotiating with them or something. Don't give them any notice and make it clear you won't tolerate people switching around on you?
-[x] Or maybe just ignore geopolitics altogether and Agneyastra or Sidhe can hire some guards "as private citizens"?
[x] Make sure to have enough time to go shopping.
-[x] And by "shopping" you might just mean "staring at their things closely enough to figure out how they work", depending on how things go. You absolutely would download an enchanted siege wall.
-[x] Really, a city of mages, with walls powerful enough that Agneyastra thinks she can't get through them? You've got it about fifty-fifty that Agneyastra went nuclear while you were messing around on Remnant. You want their stuff.
-[x] But if she thinks that it'd be useful to have you field something, go ahead and try it with her advice.
[x] Ask if you can just, like, demand they don't kill each other while you're negotiating with them or something. Don't give them any notice and make it clear you won't tolerate people switching around on you?
-[x] Or maybe just ignore geopolitics altogether and Agneyastra or Sidhe can hire some guards "as private citizens"?
[x] Make sure to have enough time to go shopping.
-[x] And by "shopping" you might just mean "staring at their things closely enough to figure out how they work", depending on how things go. You absolutely would download an enchanted siege wall.
-[x] Really, a city of mages, with walls powerful enough that Agneyastra thinks she can't get through them? You've got it about fifty-fifty that Agneyastra went nuclear while you were messing around on Remnant. You want their stuff.
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Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
It happens to the best of us.Because I forgot to check my notes on Magi before opening my mouth. Yes, it's supposed to be five known.
Varying degrees, but enough that a lot of metaknoweldge is flawed, and should only be used tentatively as a starting point for our understanding of the world and it's situation. Basically, you can carefully assume things from canon, being ready to adapt if you find out you're wrong, but don't stake too much on them.
And it clearly was different in this case, as the Magi are aligned with the five colors of mana. They're actually a fairly good fit to the personalities of the Magi we meet in-canon, in some ways. Judar's a bit more emotional than would be expected from a Blue mage, and Green is a slightly odd choice for Yunan, but other than that? The rest fit perfectly, and I can see reasons why both of them would be their colors, it's just not as solid.
[X] Vebyast
Lifting Agneyastra's restrictions only changed the way she goes fullfilling her objectives, but the objectives themselves don't change: from being to talk to Jade in device form and contract an helicopter to fly though Japan so Jade could use mana to cleanse her soul gem, to then be able to display an avatar (and allow Jade to have touchy-feely contact) to be able to create full immersive simulated worlds for the three girls and offering Nanoha and Sidhe titles in the Agni household, everything is done for Jade's sake.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Vebyast
'Twas more of an irrational worry than a legit concern, but yes, I do feel a bit silly.
- Location
- Actually pretty lost
It occurs to me that we've spent a lot of time learning magic and logistics but less on "fun" activities. Whilst I'd be delighted to have an experiment binge, there's an opportunity here with the Djinn challenges, since we're going to take their magic anyway. We could go as a group and try to pass them with restrictions like only using a certain school of magic, etc.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Jade finds learning magic fun. I suspect that I would find learning coding more fun if I had magic helping me do it.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Meanwhile...
Mitra: "Wait, what?"
Nanoha: "?"
Mitra: "Holdonemo- Sidhe! Quick do the sleepy thing! On Jade!"
Sidhe: "What?"
Mitra: "Notimetoexplain, Nanoha will pay you back in training sessions gogogo-"
Sidhe: "No, seriously, what?"
Nanoha: "...Mitra, I appreciate the thought, but I don't care about winning that much."
Sidhe: "Besides, I think I'd lose a duel with Jade even starting from a sneak attack. And she still hates getting hit with blue. It's going to take a lot more than some training sessions to balance the cost of regrowing my eyebrows."
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- Location
- Actually pretty lost
We definitely do, but I recall having promised Nanoha an adventure. As delightful as things have been, there hasn't been much derring-do and such that she might have hoped for, just going to new places and studying.
I wonder how Djinn would react to this, us using their dungeon for entertainment.
34.3: City of Magic
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] Let Agneyastra handle the diplomacy.
-[x] But if she thinks that it'd be useful to have you field something, go ahead and try it with her advice.
[x] Ask if you can just, like, demand they don't kill each other while you're negotiating with them or something. Don't give them any notice and make it clear you won't tolerate people switching around on you?
-[x] Or maybe just ignore geopolitics altogether and Agneyastra or Sidhe can hire some guards "as private citizens"?
[x] Make sure to have enough time to go shopping.
-[x] And by "shopping" you might just mean "staring at their things closely enough to figure out how they work", depending on how things go. You absolutely would download an enchanted siege wall.
-[x] Really, a city of mages, with walls powerful enough that Agneyastra thinks she can't get through them? You've got it about fifty-fifty that Agneyastra went nuclear while you were messing around on Remnant. You want their stuff.
"Go ahead, Mother," you sigh. The idea of important talks with strangers isn't nearly as frightening to you as it once was, but it's also not fun. You'd much rather do other stuff with your time. "If you want me to field something, though, I think I'd be OK with that? Also, a few things."
You hold up one hand and begin ticking points off on your fingers.
"I don't want them killing each other or doing similar political infighting when we're trying to negotiate with them, so no representative switching. That is, if we can get them to do that? Um. Right, two, I want enough time to go shopping, spell-slash-enchantment examination-slash-downloading, that sort of thing. Siege walls that can stop you from breaking in sound really, really impressive, especially when the Stalker's missiles are a thing. Three—"
Agneyastra Mother holds up one hand for stop.
"I actually didn't consider them," Mother admits sheepishly. "They are tagged as being for emergency use only, which invasion would not be. It is likely they could break through physical shields, yes. More subtle wards may still pose a problem. Continue."
You blink and mentally add that to the list of reasons having an AI as a mother was sometimes weird.
"...Riiiight... Um, okay, three! Or, uh, I guess this should be one-point-five. Sorry. Anyway, should we just ignore geopolitics entirely? It sounds like theirs are an awful lot like a sack of rabid badgers. Hiring mercenaries or bribing people might work better. Oh, and four—"
"Three sir," Sidhe interjects unhelpfully. You barely resist the urge to roll your eyes.
"Three," you begin, then stop. "Wait. Isn't that from the one British movie we saw earlier? The one Mother said was a big influence on their language?"
Sidhe's smile turns somewhat brittle. You don't see why; references always run into the danger of not being recognized. She needs to learn that sooner rather than later.
"Yes."
You shake your head.
"Whatever. Anyway, three, no leaving Nanoha behind no matter what the, um, magist bigots might want. She wants to go somewhere, she should be allowed to go somewhere."
You deliberately crush the warm fuzzies generated by Nanoha's beaming. You said you'd consider trying that again in a few years, not right now. There's nothing wrong with being close friends until and unless that happens.
The rest of your day passes without incident. You spend about two hours idly trying a sci-fi geopolitical simulation and the rest practicing your pyrokinesis. You first focus on simply making the flames hotter, butAgneyastra your mother claimed that heat is one of the environmental hazards Barrier Jackets are best at ignoring. Acting on instinct and what you know of Red mana conversion, you manage to twist your flames to identify the magic of Agneyastra and Nanoha's home plane as viable fuel. It probably still won't harm the wearer, not unless they let their Barrier Jacket burn for quite a while, but it would constantly damage whatever parts of their outfit were engulfed in flame. It might be possible to burn incoming attacks once you're more skilled, but for now, the process is simply too slow. Shields or simply dodging are more effective uses of negating those.
You think Agneyastra's initial plan was to visit Magnostadt at sunrise, but that plan was apparently discarded relatively early. It would really only work for an unannounced arrival; warning them a few hours ahead of time meant that you'd be waking up their rulers at an awful hour. Not a good start to a diplomatic relationship.
You spot Magnostadt around 10:30. Sidhe submits to being bridal-carried by Nanoha for the last leg of the journey, forcing you to approach at a much more sedate pace. You don't mind; it gives you enough time to evaluate the city-state before you. And the results? Honestly quite disturbing. The city somehow feels gross. Nothing nearly so bad as Devoid mana, but you can safely compare it to a yummy dish with the aftertaste of oily grease. The surface is good, but you're left with the aftertaste long after it fades.
You tattle immediately, of course. That color distribution is just plain messed up.
"Mom, Magnostadt's mana can either act prismatic-with-colorless or entirely Black. I'm, um, worried they might have some kind of a passive life drain effect on their citizens or something else along those lines? Human sacrifice, maybe? I'm not sure how else you'd get that; slaughtering dumb animals wouldn't really do it."
"Understood, Daughter."
The eastern gate of Magnostadt is all-but abandoned. You can see the wooden security(?) booth next to the open gate, but it's currently unmanned. Only a single velvet-robed man awaits your arrival. Although his hair seems to be transitioning from silver to white, the man himself only appears to be in his mid-forties.
He waits until you've arrived to bow deeply, both hands on his knees. He maintains the pose for several seconds before straightening up and almost looking at Mother. You think he might be carefully looking at her chin or neck instead.
"Lady Agneyastra and Princess Jade, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Magnostadt. My name is Omri and I am one of Magnostadt's Senior Advisors. But before we proceed..."
Omri nods to something slightly behind you. You glance back and spot a pair of Seeker Droids flanking your group. You thought Agneyastra would send only one to act as a messenger, but apparently not?
"Would you be outstandingly opposed to leaving the Magebane Golems outside? I'm afraid a few of the faculty have had the displeasure of fighting lesser versions in the past. I would hate for them to associate you with such horrible memories."
Part of you tries to reinterpret his seemingly-sincere words as a threat. The rest of you decides that component has seen too many yakuza movies and ignores it.
"'Magebane?'"
"Standard Seekers, Daughter. I confess I did not expect that potential ramification of what appear to be golems invisible to magical senses,"Agneyastra Mother admits. "In hindsight, it was an obvious oversight."
You're still puzzling over how you'd even get mana to hide itself when Mother responds.
"That depends entirely on if you have a large-scale life drain effect targeting visitors as well as your own citizenry," Agneyastra says pleasantly. "Should that prove to be the case, I would prefer to have lifeless golems on hand to deal with any such threats."
Omri outright gapes, his composure shattered into itteh bitteh pieces. You don't know why you find the bluntness surprising.
"Since when is that something they do?" Nanoha asks, seemingly bewildered.
"Because I'm pretty sure we don't want to go anywhere with that sort of axe over our heads," Sidhe adds. "It seems like a stupidly dangerous weak spot for the city should it be subverted."
"It might not be. Jade simply guessed based on the color distribution of Magnostadt."
It takes Omri several seconds to close his mouth and even longer to muster up a response.
"We explicitly do not drain life from our citizenry," he says carefully. "However, the goi living underground do donate their unused mana in exchange for food, water, and entertainment. This mana is then used to maintain Magnostadt as a whole. Rest assured, there is no such Enchantment on the upper levels."
You frown. What you've seen of souls shows them to be made up of mana, but you don't think non-mages have any extra to give.
"Do non-mages even have unused mana?"
"No."
"I'm afraid you're mistaken," Agneyastra tells him bluntly. "Non-mages do not generate any mana that does not go toward maintaining their own bodies. You may not be directly damaging their 'life' unless you overdraw, but you are certainly harming their long-term health. If it has any sort of adjustable control system or component capable of being corrupted, it is also a single point of failure for every lower level; overcharging it may outright kill those within its range."
Omri winces and takes several more seconds to assemble a response.
"Lady Agneyastra, it is my belief that you are mistaken," Omri begins slowly. "That being said, Black magic was never my specialty. I highly recommend you bring that potential problem up with the rest of Magnostadt's Board of Advisors. For now, rest assured that the upper levels are not within its boundaries. We have many magicians who choose to donate their mana to the city, but as they can actually control their output, they do not need assistance with the process."
You hear the quiet clicking of shifting metal as both Seekers back away. You're not sure why the increased distance seems to make Omri even more uncomfortable. Maybe because Agneyastra didn't verbally order them away?
"Then yes, we are willing to leave them behind. They were not intended as Magekillers in the first place; I believe any lack of detectable mana is simply due to their animation process."
"Um, don't we have more in Agneyastra's storage?" Nanoha asks.
"Yes."
Omri nods jerkily, bows, and begins walking toward the open gate. It takes him about two seconds to realize he was supposed to say something.
"If you would be so kind as to follow me?"
Your group had already started walking forward when he asks. At Mother's nod, he turns back around and goes right back to what he was doing.
You finally let your attention wander and look up toward the city walls. You can only see the first three layers of defense before the Enchantments in front block your view of the ones further back, but what you see isn't particularly promising. The spells are, for want of a better term, simple. Your hurried glimpses shouldn't have been nearly enough to discern as much information as you drag out of them, not when this is supposed to be the defense for an entire city. None of the Enchantments is attached to any of the others even if interweaving them would save on mana costs and effectiveness. As for their purpose? DISRUPT/DRAG would ground fliers, DEFEND would outright block magical attacks with a massive shield, ANIMATE would control numerous plant-golems hidden just inside the wall, and most of all...
They're only using one color.
"I beg your pardon?"
You blink and replay your memory of several seconds ago. Apparently, you did say that aloud, albeit at a low volume. You probably could pass it off as just idle muttering, but...
"Can I ask him?"
"It will not harm anything, Jade. Yes."
You refocus your gaze on Omri and wave toward the city walls.
"Your defenses? Each effect only uses one color. Why aren't they more interwoven?"
Omri's face visibly brightens moments before it is hampered by hesitation. The advisor appears to consider his response for several more seconds before answering.
"Princess Jade, I fear I may lapse into what you might consider excessive familiarity if I answer; this is a subject I've explained to numerous classes and something I confess to being passionate about. May I speak freely?"
"Etiquette varies by culture,"Agneyastra Mother answers immediately. "So long as you do not lapse into behavior your own would consider grossly impolite, you may consider yourself forgiven in advance."
You mentally add that to the list of ways Mother is much more reasonable than she used to be. The days of suggesting murder for even minor indiscretions appear to have passed.
"Thank you, Lady Agneyastra." Omri bows to her once before continuing back toward the city proper. "Now, the short answer is that large-scale Enchantments don't handle multiple colors very well. The longer answer is rather more complicated. Although Magnostadt is the city for mages, not everyone is very good at wielding magic. We have an academy open to mages of all ages, of course, but attendance isn't mandatory; there exist those who'd rather avoid using their gifts and would prefer to live life without them. There are also those in-between, mages who find more complex spell formulae too difficult and are content with mediocrity. Everyone working on and maintaining a large-scale Enchantment needs to possess the same knowledge. With the sheer amount of space Magnostadt's walls need to protect? Multicolored or otherwise complex Enchantments are right out."
You enter the unlit passage into Magnostadt proper. Your own enhanced sight lets you spot the countless runes coating the walls and ceiling. Whoever claimed gates were supposed to be the weakest part of a city wall clearly wasn't used to dealing with mages. IDENTIFY/TOGGLE appeared to search for some sort of a magical mark on anyone entering. If they didn't possess it? BLOCK/WARN would block the intruder from entering and give them a sense of impending danger. Should they choose to break through that, ALARM/ALERT would activate some sort of warning within some part of the city proper and several layers of BLOCK shields would activate. INCINERATE, CRUSH, and DRAIN would directly attack those who attempted to pass the relevant runes after breaking several layers of BLOCK, DISORIENT and RADIANCE would give them vertigo and produce an overwhelmingly bright light, GROWTH would make hidden plants rapidly grow and wrap around those above in their search for sunlight, ATTRACT/SIPHON would redirect and devour spells fired toward the runes, and a final three layers of BLOCK on the other end would keep attackers from simply rushing through the tunnel. You also notice that the defenses are asymmetrical, which makes sense; they want to keep intruders out, not trap them in.
At any rate, the Enchantments clearly aren't intended to be used by individual mages. You think your skills with various colors of construct should lend itself toward replicating such Enchantments. At least they're probably better at storing mana than your constructs usually are?
Omri twists his right wrist and appears to drag a needle of solid ice out of the air. A quick review of your memories shows that the mana comprising it was instead produced from his fingertips. You can see the glowing Blue mana within, the spell as a whole conveying CONTAIN.
"To demonstrate why we don't have better spells on the inner walls, we have what some of my earliest students insisted on naming the 'Lazy Counterspell.' It's a chunk of Blue mana compressed into a small space and held together with a relatively thin layer of ice. More expensive than it really needs to be, but simple and quick to make."
You try to avoid keeping any sort of surprise off your face. He considers that measly little thing to be expensive? You don't think it'd cost even a tenth of a full mote of Blue. Evidence that local mages can't call on lands, maybe? You hope that won't cause any problems with Agneyastra's plans for Nanoha.
Omri abruptly flicks his wrist and throws the needle toward one wall of the tunnel. A previously-undetected silver shield, PROTECT, shimmers into existence and prevents the needle from reaching any of the wards below. The Blue mana inside the needle splashes harmlessly against it and rapidly starts to fade into the surrounding area. However, Sidhe retrieves the unused mana and adds it to the Blue ward on her mind before it can fully fade. You're honestly not sure that was a good idea, but whatever works?
"Now, had I targeted a White spell of similar cost with that needle, that'd be the end of it," Omri continues obliviously. "The Blue mana would've started trying to improve upon the spell, demanding more resources than the shield possessed and forcing it into a rapid collapse. Similarly-shaped counterspells would slow Red mana and encourage a framework to violently burst and Black or Green spells to briefly cease functionality as the mana was devoured. Any spell incorporating Blue mana into its construction, however, would only use the extra mana as fuel."
Omri cups both hands together, a new spell rapidly forming in the space provided. While he's still working on finishing the spell, you exit the tunnel and enter Magnostadt proper. It isn't hard to ignore most of your surroundings in favor of the ongoing lesson. You vaguely note that the street you're traveling on seems to have been cleared in advance. Quite a few people maintain a respectable distance around your path, the vast majority of them wearing robes of blue, red, gold, grey, or dark green. You don't use the word "around" idly; more than half of the onlookers are seated atop flying staves several dozen feet in the air. There's a ragged cheer as you exit the tunnel, but it's soon replaced by the loud sounds of gossip.
About six seconds after he first started, Omri opens his hands and turns to show you the orb of ice within. PERMEATE/REMODEL.
"This is why we don't use multicolored spells for the inner walls," he lectures. "If this hit the fuel source of almost any active framework using Blue, it'd rapidly convince — or repurpose, if you prefer — native Blue mana to help it make a useless 'spell' within the original framework. Big, small, doesn't matter. At best, the spell is weakened. Most common scenario? The whole thing collapses. Few interwoven spells can survive having an entire color torn away."
You make a mental note to practice Blue counterspells in the future. Having a general-purpose method of no-selling magical effects seems like it could be useful.
"...So it's basically magical cancer?" you hazard.
Nanoha chokes up behind you. You suspect she found it funny but doesn't want to laugh. Sidhe, however, only sighs.
"I'm afraid I don't know what that is," Omri admits freely, shooting down the comparison through sheer ignorance. "Some sort of insect?"
You're about to answer when Sidhe inserts herself into the conversation.
"A disease caused by errors in how your body maintains and repairs itself. The corrupted component spreads the error to more and more of your body until you die."
Omri stumbles, catches himself, and continues walking as though nothing happened. There's an almost uncomfortably long pause before he speaks again.
"...If you know, would you kindly pass on how to cure it? That sounds an awful lot like something our healers have been trying to kill. Normal White healing doesn't seem to do anything at all."
Burn it out.
The answer, you know, is an undeniable yes. If you can't do it with a specialized Red spell, you could definitely manage it with Magical Girl healing. However, you can't guarantee it would actually stick should you use fire and you doubt local mages can even sense the MG version of magic. Giving them a long-term solution could be rather difficult. With your instinctual control over Red mana and fire as a whole, the easiest way to teach observers might be by making them heal the inevitable collateral damage.
"Mom? I think I can, but can you do something instead?" you send privately.
"We do not currently possess any of the specialized medical equipment required for unskilled use. A similar device is, however, a common and easily-obtained technology in the TSAB. Ordering two custom, durable, and solar-powered models may cost as much as six thousand TSAB credits, approximately ten percent of your current funds. Constructing them ourselves would require many of the same materials we could use for high-grade Intelligent Devices, materials we do not currently possess. I could cure them myself, but I believe it is in our best interests to have you do so."
"We're doing something, right?" Nanoha asks, unaware of the ongoing conversation. "Agneyastra made us entirely new bodies; isn't this easier than that?"
Voting options may not be mutually exclusive. Yes, it's cancer.
[] Admit you can do so personally and agree to cure the patients.
-[] Kill it with fire.
-[] Heal it using your Magical Girl healing.
[] Promise to bring them an object to cure it within the next few weeks.
[] Write-in
Local Time: 10:46 AM
-[x] But if she thinks that it'd be useful to have you field something, go ahead and try it with her advice.
[x] Ask if you can just, like, demand they don't kill each other while you're negotiating with them or something. Don't give them any notice and make it clear you won't tolerate people switching around on you?
-[x] Or maybe just ignore geopolitics altogether and Agneyastra or Sidhe can hire some guards "as private citizens"?
[x] Make sure to have enough time to go shopping.
-[x] And by "shopping" you might just mean "staring at their things closely enough to figure out how they work", depending on how things go. You absolutely would download an enchanted siege wall.
-[x] Really, a city of mages, with walls powerful enough that Agneyastra thinks she can't get through them? You've got it about fifty-fifty that Agneyastra went nuclear while you were messing around on Remnant. You want their stuff.
"Go ahead, Mother," you sigh. The idea of important talks with strangers isn't nearly as frightening to you as it once was, but it's also not fun. You'd much rather do other stuff with your time. "If you want me to field something, though, I think I'd be OK with that? Also, a few things."
You hold up one hand and begin ticking points off on your fingers.
"I don't want them killing each other or doing similar political infighting when we're trying to negotiate with them, so no representative switching. That is, if we can get them to do that? Um. Right, two, I want enough time to go shopping, spell-slash-enchantment examination-slash-downloading, that sort of thing. Siege walls that can stop you from breaking in sound really, really impressive, especially when the Stalker's missiles are a thing. Three—"
"I actually didn't consider them," Mother admits sheepishly. "They are tagged as being for emergency use only, which invasion would not be. It is likely they could break through physical shields, yes. More subtle wards may still pose a problem. Continue."
You blink and mentally add that to the list of reasons having an AI as a mother was sometimes weird.
"...Riiiight... Um, okay, three! Or, uh, I guess this should be one-point-five. Sorry. Anyway, should we just ignore geopolitics entirely? It sounds like theirs are an awful lot like a sack of rabid badgers. Hiring mercenaries or bribing people might work better. Oh, and four—"
"Three sir," Sidhe interjects unhelpfully. You barely resist the urge to roll your eyes.
"Three," you begin, then stop. "Wait. Isn't that from the one British movie we saw earlier? The one Mother said was a big influence on their language?"
Sidhe's smile turns somewhat brittle. You don't see why; references always run into the danger of not being recognized. She needs to learn that sooner rather than later.
"Yes."
You shake your head.
"Whatever. Anyway, three, no leaving Nanoha behind no matter what the, um, magist bigots might want. She wants to go somewhere, she should be allowed to go somewhere."
You deliberately crush the warm fuzzies generated by Nanoha's beaming. You said you'd consider trying that again in a few years, not right now. There's nothing wrong with being close friends until and unless that happens.
The rest of your day passes without incident. You spend about two hours idly trying a sci-fi geopolitical simulation and the rest practicing your pyrokinesis. You first focus on simply making the flames hotter, but
(Ability Improved: Pyrokinesis [Rank 25 -> 27])
You think Agneyastra's initial plan was to visit Magnostadt at sunrise, but that plan was apparently discarded relatively early. It would really only work for an unannounced arrival; warning them a few hours ahead of time meant that you'd be waking up their rulers at an awful hour. Not a good start to a diplomatic relationship.
You spot Magnostadt around 10:30. Sidhe submits to being bridal-carried by Nanoha for the last leg of the journey, forcing you to approach at a much more sedate pace. You don't mind; it gives you enough time to evaluate the city-state before you. And the results? Honestly quite disturbing. The city somehow feels gross. Nothing nearly so bad as Devoid mana, but you can safely compare it to a yummy dish with the aftertaste of oily grease. The surface is good, but you're left with the aftertaste long after it fades.
(Land Discovered: Magnostadt, City of Mages [B/W + B/R + B/U + B/G + B/C])
You tattle immediately, of course. That color distribution is just plain messed up.
"Mom, Magnostadt's mana can either act prismatic-with-colorless or entirely Black. I'm, um, worried they might have some kind of a passive life drain effect on their citizens or something else along those lines? Human sacrifice, maybe? I'm not sure how else you'd get that; slaughtering dumb animals wouldn't really do it."
"Understood, Daughter."
The eastern gate of Magnostadt is all-but abandoned. You can see the wooden security(?) booth next to the open gate, but it's currently unmanned. Only a single velvet-robed man awaits your arrival. Although his hair seems to be transitioning from silver to white, the man himself only appears to be in his mid-forties.
He waits until you've arrived to bow deeply, both hands on his knees. He maintains the pose for several seconds before straightening up and almost looking at Mother. You think he might be carefully looking at her chin or neck instead.
"Lady Agneyastra and Princess Jade, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Magnostadt. My name is Omri and I am one of Magnostadt's Senior Advisors. But before we proceed..."
Omri nods to something slightly behind you. You glance back and spot a pair of Seeker Droids flanking your group. You thought Agneyastra would send only one to act as a messenger, but apparently not?
"Would you be outstandingly opposed to leaving the Magebane Golems outside? I'm afraid a few of the faculty have had the displeasure of fighting lesser versions in the past. I would hate for them to associate you with such horrible memories."
Part of you tries to reinterpret his seemingly-sincere words as a threat. The rest of you decides that component has seen too many yakuza movies and ignores it.
"'Magebane?'"
"Standard Seekers, Daughter. I confess I did not expect that potential ramification of what appear to be golems invisible to magical senses,"
You're still puzzling over how you'd even get mana to hide itself when Mother responds.
"That depends entirely on if you have a large-scale life drain effect targeting visitors as well as your own citizenry," Agneyastra says pleasantly. "Should that prove to be the case, I would prefer to have lifeless golems on hand to deal with any such threats."
Omri outright gapes, his composure shattered into itteh bitteh pieces. You don't know why you find the bluntness surprising.
"Since when is that something they do?" Nanoha asks, seemingly bewildered.
"Because I'm pretty sure we don't want to go anywhere with that sort of axe over our heads," Sidhe adds. "It seems like a stupidly dangerous weak spot for the city should it be subverted."
"It might not be. Jade simply guessed based on the color distribution of Magnostadt."
It takes Omri several seconds to close his mouth and even longer to muster up a response.
"We explicitly do not drain life from our citizenry," he says carefully. "However, the goi living underground do donate their unused mana in exchange for food, water, and entertainment. This mana is then used to maintain Magnostadt as a whole. Rest assured, there is no such Enchantment on the upper levels."
You frown. What you've seen of souls shows them to be made up of mana, but you don't think non-mages have any extra to give.
"Do non-mages even have unused mana?"
"No."
"I'm afraid you're mistaken," Agneyastra tells him bluntly. "Non-mages do not generate any mana that does not go toward maintaining their own bodies. You may not be directly damaging their 'life' unless you overdraw, but you are certainly harming their long-term health. If it has any sort of adjustable control system or component capable of being corrupted, it is also a single point of failure for every lower level; overcharging it may outright kill those within its range."
Omri winces and takes several more seconds to assemble a response.
"Lady Agneyastra, it is my belief that you are mistaken," Omri begins slowly. "That being said, Black magic was never my specialty. I highly recommend you bring that potential problem up with the rest of Magnostadt's Board of Advisors. For now, rest assured that the upper levels are not within its boundaries. We have many magicians who choose to donate their mana to the city, but as they can actually control their output, they do not need assistance with the process."
You hear the quiet clicking of shifting metal as both Seekers back away. You're not sure why the increased distance seems to make Omri even more uncomfortable. Maybe because Agneyastra didn't verbally order them away?
"Then yes, we are willing to leave them behind. They were not intended as Magekillers in the first place; I believe any lack of detectable mana is simply due to their animation process."
"Um, don't we have more in Agneyastra's storage?" Nanoha asks.
"Yes."
Omri nods jerkily, bows, and begins walking toward the open gate. It takes him about two seconds to realize he was supposed to say something.
"If you would be so kind as to follow me?"
Your group had already started walking forward when he asks. At Mother's nod, he turns back around and goes right back to what he was doing.
You finally let your attention wander and look up toward the city walls. You can only see the first three layers of defense before the Enchantments in front block your view of the ones further back, but what you see isn't particularly promising. The spells are, for want of a better term, simple. Your hurried glimpses shouldn't have been nearly enough to discern as much information as you drag out of them, not when this is supposed to be the defense for an entire city. None of the Enchantments is attached to any of the others even if interweaving them would save on mana costs and effectiveness. As for their purpose? DISRUPT/DRAG would ground fliers, DEFEND would outright block magical attacks with a massive shield, ANIMATE would control numerous plant-golems hidden just inside the wall, and most of all...
They're only using one color.
"I beg your pardon?"
You blink and replay your memory of several seconds ago. Apparently, you did say that aloud, albeit at a low volume. You probably could pass it off as just idle muttering, but...
"Can I ask him?"
"It will not harm anything, Jade. Yes."
You refocus your gaze on Omri and wave toward the city walls.
"Your defenses? Each effect only uses one color. Why aren't they more interwoven?"
Omri's face visibly brightens moments before it is hampered by hesitation. The advisor appears to consider his response for several more seconds before answering.
"Princess Jade, I fear I may lapse into what you might consider excessive familiarity if I answer; this is a subject I've explained to numerous classes and something I confess to being passionate about. May I speak freely?"
"Etiquette varies by culture,"
You mentally add that to the list of ways Mother is much more reasonable than she used to be. The days of suggesting murder for even minor indiscretions appear to have passed.
"Thank you, Lady Agneyastra." Omri bows to her once before continuing back toward the city proper. "Now, the short answer is that large-scale Enchantments don't handle multiple colors very well. The longer answer is rather more complicated. Although Magnostadt is the city for mages, not everyone is very good at wielding magic. We have an academy open to mages of all ages, of course, but attendance isn't mandatory; there exist those who'd rather avoid using their gifts and would prefer to live life without them. There are also those in-between, mages who find more complex spell formulae too difficult and are content with mediocrity. Everyone working on and maintaining a large-scale Enchantment needs to possess the same knowledge. With the sheer amount of space Magnostadt's walls need to protect? Multicolored or otherwise complex Enchantments are right out."
You enter the unlit passage into Magnostadt proper. Your own enhanced sight lets you spot the countless runes coating the walls and ceiling. Whoever claimed gates were supposed to be the weakest part of a city wall clearly wasn't used to dealing with mages. IDENTIFY/TOGGLE appeared to search for some sort of a magical mark on anyone entering. If they didn't possess it? BLOCK/WARN would block the intruder from entering and give them a sense of impending danger. Should they choose to break through that, ALARM/ALERT would activate some sort of warning within some part of the city proper and several layers of BLOCK shields would activate. INCINERATE, CRUSH, and DRAIN would directly attack those who attempted to pass the relevant runes after breaking several layers of BLOCK, DISORIENT and RADIANCE would give them vertigo and produce an overwhelmingly bright light, GROWTH would make hidden plants rapidly grow and wrap around those above in their search for sunlight, ATTRACT/SIPHON would redirect and devour spells fired toward the runes, and a final three layers of BLOCK on the other end would keep attackers from simply rushing through the tunnel. You also notice that the defenses are asymmetrical, which makes sense; they want to keep intruders out, not trap them in.
At any rate, the Enchantments clearly aren't intended to be used by individual mages. You think your skills with various colors of construct should lend itself toward replicating such Enchantments. At least they're probably better at storing mana than your constructs usually are?
Omri twists his right wrist and appears to drag a needle of solid ice out of the air. A quick review of your memories shows that the mana comprising it was instead produced from his fingertips. You can see the glowing Blue mana within, the spell as a whole conveying CONTAIN.
"To demonstrate why we don't have better spells on the inner walls, we have what some of my earliest students insisted on naming the 'Lazy Counterspell.' It's a chunk of Blue mana compressed into a small space and held together with a relatively thin layer of ice. More expensive than it really needs to be, but simple and quick to make."
(Ability Discovered: Counterspell [Rank 0])
You try to avoid keeping any sort of surprise off your face. He considers that measly little thing to be expensive? You don't think it'd cost even a tenth of a full mote of Blue. Evidence that local mages can't call on lands, maybe? You hope that won't cause any problems with Agneyastra's plans for Nanoha.
Omri abruptly flicks his wrist and throws the needle toward one wall of the tunnel. A previously-undetected silver shield, PROTECT, shimmers into existence and prevents the needle from reaching any of the wards below. The Blue mana inside the needle splashes harmlessly against it and rapidly starts to fade into the surrounding area. However, Sidhe retrieves the unused mana and adds it to the Blue ward on her mind before it can fully fade. You're honestly not sure that was a good idea, but whatever works?
"Now, had I targeted a White spell of similar cost with that needle, that'd be the end of it," Omri continues obliviously. "The Blue mana would've started trying to improve upon the spell, demanding more resources than the shield possessed and forcing it into a rapid collapse. Similarly-shaped counterspells would slow Red mana and encourage a framework to violently burst and Black or Green spells to briefly cease functionality as the mana was devoured. Any spell incorporating Blue mana into its construction, however, would only use the extra mana as fuel."
Omri cups both hands together, a new spell rapidly forming in the space provided. While he's still working on finishing the spell, you exit the tunnel and enter Magnostadt proper. It isn't hard to ignore most of your surroundings in favor of the ongoing lesson. You vaguely note that the street you're traveling on seems to have been cleared in advance. Quite a few people maintain a respectable distance around your path, the vast majority of them wearing robes of blue, red, gold, grey, or dark green. You don't use the word "around" idly; more than half of the onlookers are seated atop flying staves several dozen feet in the air. There's a ragged cheer as you exit the tunnel, but it's soon replaced by the loud sounds of gossip.
About six seconds after he first started, Omri opens his hands and turns to show you the orb of ice within. PERMEATE/REMODEL.
"This is why we don't use multicolored spells for the inner walls," he lectures. "If this hit the fuel source of almost any active framework using Blue, it'd rapidly convince — or repurpose, if you prefer — native Blue mana to help it make a useless 'spell' within the original framework. Big, small, doesn't matter. At best, the spell is weakened. Most common scenario? The whole thing collapses. Few interwoven spells can survive having an entire color torn away."
You make a mental note to practice Blue counterspells in the future. Having a general-purpose method of no-selling magical effects seems like it could be useful.
"...So it's basically magical cancer?" you hazard.
Nanoha chokes up behind you. You suspect she found it funny but doesn't want to laugh. Sidhe, however, only sighs.
"I'm afraid I don't know what that is," Omri admits freely, shooting down the comparison through sheer ignorance. "Some sort of insect?"
You're about to answer when Sidhe inserts herself into the conversation.
"A disease caused by errors in how your body maintains and repairs itself. The corrupted component spreads the error to more and more of your body until you die."
Omri stumbles, catches himself, and continues walking as though nothing happened. There's an almost uncomfortably long pause before he speaks again.
"...If you know, would you kindly pass on how to cure it? That sounds an awful lot like something our healers have been trying to kill. Normal White healing doesn't seem to do anything at all."
Burn it out.
The answer, you know, is an undeniable yes. If you can't do it with a specialized Red spell, you could definitely manage it with Magical Girl healing. However, you can't guarantee it would actually stick should you use fire and you doubt local mages can even sense the MG version of magic. Giving them a long-term solution could be rather difficult. With your instinctual control over Red mana and fire as a whole, the easiest way to teach observers might be by making them heal the inevitable collateral damage.
"Mom? I think I can, but can you do something instead?" you send privately.
"We do not currently possess any of the specialized medical equipment required for unskilled use. A similar device is, however, a common and easily-obtained technology in the TSAB. Ordering two custom, durable, and solar-powered models may cost as much as six thousand TSAB credits, approximately ten percent of your current funds. Constructing them ourselves would require many of the same materials we could use for high-grade Intelligent Devices, materials we do not currently possess. I could cure them myself, but I believe it is in our best interests to have you do so."
"We're doing something, right?" Nanoha asks, unaware of the ongoing conversation. "Agneyastra made us entirely new bodies; isn't this easier than that?"
Voting options may not be mutually exclusive. Yes, it's cancer.
[] Admit you can do so personally and agree to cure the patients.
-[] Kill it with fire.
-[] Heal it using your Magical Girl healing.
[] Promise to bring them an object to cure it within the next few weeks.
[] Write-in
Local Time: 10:46 AM
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globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
we Agni, so
[x] Admit you can do so personally and agree to cure the patients.
-[x] Kill it with fire.
[x] Admit you can do so personally and agree to cure the patients.
-[x] Kill it with fire.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Why am I not surprised that Sidhe favors the Monty Python?
Also, good to hear that people are having time to watch movies together.
Ooh, nice.
Yeaaaaah, that black is a wee bit concerning. Fits with Nixeu's info about the city, though.
Life-drain effect in action, premature aging?
As expected, we're kinda casually scaring the crap out of people. The seekers coming across as assassination tools because they're invisible to magic is a hilarious near-fuckup and probably makes us seem way the heck more threatening than we meant to be.
SHOTS FIRED
Also, note that, from Omri's perspective, this may well have come across as a thinly veiled and very credible threat. The magebane golems being used as simple messengers, combined with our party being full of mages, is enough make us an obvious magical power. Going around saying things like this is, yeah, a little bit like saying "Very nice centralized water treatment facilities you have here, centuries ahead of anyone else on the planet, it'd be a shame if someone poured in a bottle of some persistent nerve agent".
The back-and-forth between Nanoha's sense of innate fairness and openness contrasts hilariously with the way Agneyastra lives and breathes calculated omissions and careful technicalities.
YES HELLO WE WOULD LIKE TO HELP YOU WITH THIS PROBLEM PLEASE SIGN HERE
Huh. Omri's doesn't react to Sidhe grabbing the bit of free blue here, but he's also unsurprised that Jade can see the colors of the enchantments and expects her to be able to see what he's doing with his spell demonstrations. So there's something odd going on there. Think we should check with Sidhe about whether grabbing that bit of Blue was a good idea?
Of course!
...Huh. Now that I think about it, I'm surprised we don't get any reactions from Sidhe or Agneyastra on the city's defenses. Or on Omri's casual sharing of some really fundamental principals of colored magic that we've barely been able to figure out ourselves. In particular, I'd have expected Sidhe to be all over Counterspell the same way Jade's instincts go "kill it with fire". Maybe she's keeping it to herself the same way Jade is introspecting more than talking about it?
And, yep, Nanoha wants to do good things. I think that indulging her sounds like a good idea this time, though! Going through and hitting a hospital is a great way to start a relationship with another country. edit: going through and hitting a hospital with healing magic, you know what I mean, okay Agneyastra you can stop laughing now
I feel like we can get along with Omri, so far. The giant Black enchantment is at least something he knows about and it's apparently common knowledge, which is better than the alternatives.
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Honestly, even if it does reduce lifespan the benefits of it could easily be worth it if it allows for sufficient quality of life improvements.
Using Red for burning cancer away sounds nice, but is Jade skilled snough for that? It isn't like other patients have Jade's immunity to fire if she makes a mistake.
But then again, this isn't a thing of power but of skilll. This is exactly the part Agneyastra excels in.
Ok, ok Agneyastra. But I wasn't thinking on you healing them, I was thinking on you teaching Jade a healing spell. I'm sure you could develop the specialized spell very quickly and then it's a thing of Jade practicing. Since she can also feel red mana that means she could get Jade feedback on when she's confident Jade won't harm patients.
But then again, this isn't a thing of power but of skilll. This is exactly the part Agneyastra excels in.
Ok, ok Agneyastra. But I wasn't thinking on you healing them, I was thinking on you teaching Jade a healing spell. I'm sure you could develop the specialized spell very quickly and then it's a thing of Jade practicing. Since she can also feel red mana that means she could get Jade feedback on when she's confident Jade won't harm patients.
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