[X] Tell the AIs to properly relay that information to Nanoha. "Nothing significant TO her soul " is lawyerish phrasing.
[X] Apologize to Nanoha for leaving her out of the loop. Yes, she's somehow hearing the word-impressions you get from active spells, which is especially odd since you don't think you hear anything. The words just pop into your head.
[X] Tell Agneyastra and Mitra about the whole demigod thingie. You're guessing this is what happens if there isn't enough used as a catalyst, but it's nothing to be afraid of. Probably.
[X] With Mom monitoring, restart the sense-sharing and see what happens.
[X] Tell the AIs to properly relay that information to Nanoha. "Nothing significant TO her soul " is lawyerish phrasing.
[X] Apologize to Nanoha for leaving her out of the loop. Yes, she's somehow hearing the word-impressions you get from active spells, which is especially odd since you don't think you hear anything. The words just pop into your head.
[X] Tell Agneyastra and Mitra about the whole demigod thingie. You're guessing this is what happens if there isn't enough used as a catalyst, but it's nothing to be afraid of. Probably.
[X] With Mom monitoring, restart the sense-sharing and see what happens.
[X] Tell the AIs to properly relay that information to Nanoha. "Nothing significant TO her soul" is lawyerish phrasing.
[X] Bring our entire group on the same page w.r.t.
-[X] soul juice
-[X] word-impressions
-[X] eyesparkles (ask Sidhe about her theory)
-[X] demigod ritual, Agni spark
[X] With Mom monitoring, restart the sense-sharing and see what happens.
-[X] Observe your own soul to see whether the transferred part is soulfire, Aura, ...
We shouldn't leave Sidhe out of the loop, especially as she has a theory about the eyesparkles she kept to herself until now.
Subtly pushing Nanoha towards Red is unfair, she deserves an explanation.
You think that might be a bit of a problem. You're not sure Nanoha can go anything other than Red should you undertake the demigod ritual. Thus far, Jade has been showing Nanoha the other colors to nudge her toward Red.
I'm aware that the ritual would grant Nanoha her own Agni spark and is probably invalid for other colors. However, I thought we wouldn't try to influence her, and if she chooses another color, so be it?
If Jade doesn't give Nanoha a fair choice, why are we even doing this? Might as well tell her about becoming a demigoddess, then.
While we are looking at the light, Nanoha looks at us.
Motivate = Neph?, Defend = Firewall, Display = Share Input
Burn = burst of Red (overshadows all other effects)
Ignite = Flame, Display = metadata on purpose?
Warp = Distort Space
Interesting, i dont think we want the mana sense to fade from nanoha, because it seems that the mana sense goes through a translation into the minds of the viewer so getting multiple translation variants could help us pick up nuance in the meaning that may otherwise be missed.
The fact that the words are different (if this is meant to be the same spell, and if the words we see are meant to be clear enough that Jade would notice that they're different) is interesting.
You have, most memorably when you were trying to use Haste to counteract summoning sickness. You don't think you've shared senses during a sparkly period, or at least, not while there was another effect around to analyze. Apparently, perfect recall doesn't equal perfect memory, something you find unnecessarily irksome.
Nanoha's getting different information here - our "rotate" is her "motivate", then she gets defend instead of stabilize. I'd be quite surprised if this is coming through our power; it sounds more like Nanoha doing something of her own.
Maybe. It's also possible she listed off the traits that would have come after "Illuminate", since she interrupted the "voice". It's not entirely clear.
I wonder, could repeated Sense Sharing allow Nanoha to develop Mana Sensing on her own? Repeated exposure to a Mana Sense kickstarting the development of a Mage Gift as an adaptation?
@Carrnage, @Random832, @Nixeu: Why are you thinking that "Motivate, Defend, Display" applies to the light source when Nanoha clearly isn't looking at it, but at us?
As I wrote, Nanoha lists the spells that are active on Jade. Defend is Firewall, Display is Share Senses, Motivate was probably related to Neph.
@Carrnage, @Random832, @Nixeu: Why are you thinking that "Motivate, Defend, Display" applies to the light source when Nanoha clearly isn't looking at it, but at us?
As I wrote, Nanoha lists the spells that are active on Jade. Defend is Firewall, Display is Share Senses, Motivate was probably related to Neph.
Because the timing is bizarre if she's reading Jade herself. It's been over 15 seconds since she opened her eyes and stared at Jade. Yet she only got the words once we started reading something else? That doesn't follow, especially since she instantly got words to describe other spells, after we cut our end of the feed. We weren't observing ourselves at the time. Plus, she missed the spell to purge the Sense Share. If she was looking at us and seeing our active spells, she should have seen that.
Remember - we and Nanoha speak different languages. Nanoha speaks and thinks in Japanese. Jade is an eldrich abominations that likely thinks in concepts. The only thing even a bit hard to map is motivate=rotate, but even here I could kinda maybe see something.
Because the timing is bizarre if she's reading Jade herself. It's been over 15 seconds since she opened her eyes and stared at Jade. Yet she only got the words once we started reading something else? That doesn't follow, especially since she instantly got words to describe other spells, after we cut our end of the feed. We weren't observing ourselves at the time. Plus, she missed the spell to purge the Sense Share. If she was looking at us and seeing our active spells, she should have seen that.
Aye, agreed. Mapping Motivate to Neph is also quite the stretch, whereas Rotate/Motivate, Stabilize/Defend, and Illuminate/Display all loosely correspond, at least.
Jade had a normal human childhood an order of magnitude longer than the rest of her life so far, and therefore also thinks in Japanese. Any eldritch "thinks in concepts" stuff going on with the magic sight is likely going through the same layers of translation (to Japanese for her, then to English for us) as it is for Nanoha.
We weren't observing ourselves at the time. Plus, she missed the spell to purge the Sense Share. If she was looking at us and seeing our active spells, she should have seen that.
If this were a regular Share Senses, Nanoha would see what we look at. However, the fact that it continues after we broke the spell shows that she was temporarily granted the ability to sense mana by herself. Ergo she gets impressions on what she sees (Jade), not what we view (light source).
We didn't purge the Share Senses spell, we dismantled it. Since that isn't an actual spell or effect, it's understandable she doesn't get a whisper for it.
On the other hand, the Red purge on our mind was registered as Burn, since it was an actual effect.
Aye, agreed. Mapping Motivate to Neph is also quite the stretch, whereas Rotate/Motivate, Stabilize/Defend, and Illuminate/Display all loosely correspond, at least.
Defend & Display are perfect matches for Firewall & Share Senses.
Motivate indicates either a motive force, which is a bad match for Rotate, or a mental influence, which Neph clearly represents. Especially since Jade herself guessed that Neph still had a lingering effect on her emotional state:
You vaguely wonder if you're allowed to blame Neph for your current emotional state. Your precognitive dreams do tend to temporarily affect your emotions, so maybe channeling Neph does as well?
Remember - we and Nanoha speak different languages. Nanoha speaks and thinks in Japanese. Jade is an eldrich abominations that likely thinks in concepts. The only thing even a bit hard to map is motivate=rotate, but even here I could kinda maybe see something.
We haven't actually seen what Share Senses looks like from the outside. So there's no knowing if it "flared", and I don't actually recall ever seeing that beyond activation or actively pouring more power into it. As for it making the remaining spells "flare", we have even less evidence.
If this were a regular Share Senses, Nanoha would see what we look at. However, the fact that it continues after we broke the spell shows that she was temporarily granted the ability to sense mana by herself. Ergo she gets impressions on what she sees (Jade), not what we view (light source).
We didn't purge the Share Senses spell, we dismantled it. Since that isn't an actual spell or effect, it's understandable she doesn't get a whisper for it.
On the other hand, the Red purge on our mind was registered as Burn, since it was an actual effect.
Except we still had regular Share Senses active. Meaning she should have been getting impressions from us, and from looking at us, at a minimum. That's assuming she had independent Mana Sense before we disconnected at all, too, which is unknown as well.
Edit: Your argument boils down to you considering the words used to be closer to the spells currently on us, when they're perfectly acceptable, albeit somewhat distant, synonyms to what we saw. And, even if accurate, your scenario should have resulted in two simultaneous impressions, because of Share Senses still feeding her inputs. It doesn't seem to have done so, and combined with other issues, your hypothesis doesn't fit quite as well. It's still within the realm of possibility, but it's not the best one.
[X] Apologize to Nanoha for leaving her out of the loop. Yes, she's somehow hearing the word-impressions you get from active spells, which is especially odd since you don't think you hear anything. The words just pop into your head.
[X] Tell Agneyastra and Mitra about the whole demigod thingie. You're guessing this is what happens if there isn't enough used as a catalyst, but it's nothing to be afraid of. Probably.
[X] With Mom monitoring, restart the sense-sharing and see what happens.
[X] Tell the AIs to properly relay that information to Nanoha. "Nothing significant TO her soul" is lawyerish phrasing.
Edit: Your argument boils down to you considering the words used to be closer to the spells currently on us, when they're perfectly acceptable, albeit somewhat distant, synonyms to what we saw. And, even if accurate, your scenario should have resulted in two simultaneous impressions, because of Share Senses still feeding her inputs. It doesn't seem to have done so, and combined with other issues, your hypothesis doesn't fit quite as well. It's still within the realm of possibility, but it's not the best one.
[X] Apologize to Nanoha for leaving her out of the loop. Yes, she's somehow hearing the word-impressions you get from active spells, which is especially odd since you don't think you hear anything. The words just pop into your head.
[X] Tell Agneyastra and Mitra about the whole demigod thingie. You're guessing this is what happens if there isn't enough used as a catalyst, but it's nothing to be afraid of. Probably.
[X] With Mom monitoring, restart the sense-sharing and see what happens.
[X] Tell the AIs to properly relay that information to Nanoha. "Nothing significant TO her soul" is lawyerish phrasing.
[X] Apologize to Nanoha for leaving her out of the loop. Yes, she's somehow hearing the word-impressions you get from active spells, which is especially odd since you don't think you hear anything. The words just pop into your head.
[X] Tell Agneyastra and Mitra about the whole demigod thingie. You're guessing this is what happens if there isn't enough used as a catalyst, but it's nothing to be afraid of. Probably.
[X] With Mom monitoring, restart the sense-sharing and see what happens.
[X] Tell the AIs to properly relay that information to Nanoha. "Nothing significant TO her soul" is lawyerish phrasing.
[X] Tell the AIs to properly relay that information to Nanoha. "Nothing significant TO her soul" is lawyerish phrasing.
"Okay, seriously, you need to relay that to Nanoha. I know you're shackled Agni AI and half of what you do is skittering around silly restrictions, but you really shouldn't treat trust as another one of those. Like, telling her 'nothing significant happened to her soul?' You're implying nothing significant happened with it and you know it. I get you didn't want to worry her, but if that's super-duper important, you shouldn't have told her anything instead of going with what was basically a lie. I mean, I'm not saying not telling her anything would be OK either, but..."
You trail off and frown thoughtfully.
"Oops?"
"Understood, Daughter."
[X] Apologize to Nanoha for leaving her out of the loop. Yes, she's somehow hearing the word-impressions you get from active spells, which is especially odd since you don't think you hear anything. The words just pop into your head.
The last part of your lecture also holds true for you. You'd been ignoring Nanoha in favor of focusing on the shiny mystery. You were stuck thinking of her in terms of a bystander instead of a participant, and even if you might be able to justify it in the name of preventing rampant speculation, that doesn't mean you should. Leaving friends out of the loop isn't really a good way to keep them.
You give Mitra and Agneyastra about ten seconds to do their apologies, carefully watching Nanoha while you wait. You're not entirely sure she smiles because of the attention or because of whatever they said.
"Sorry about that. So, um, did Mitra and Agneyastra apologize yet?"
Nanoha nods, still smiling. "They did say you recommended it, but I don't think that took away from the gesture. They mentioned shared soul-fuel, but said you might know more?"
You make a mental note of the lack of a cooldown time on the sparkling effect. Or maybe fear interferes with it? If so, it seems odd that it'd fade over time instead of in giant chunks.
"Um, yeah. So—Mom, Mitra, you should hear this too—basically, it looks like you were getting an odd variant on the word-impressions I get from spells. I thought it was just instinct and skill combining with a developed mana-sense, but you got words that weren't perfectly mapped, so... yeah, I don't know. I also don't hear them as voices, just words popping into my head, and I kinda get emotional impressions sometimes? Less often than I used to, but I think—well, thought that was just because my sense developed past the point where I needed those."
Nanoha purses her lips and crosses her arms.
"That doesn't really disqualify them from being voices, you know."
You open your mouth to object aloud, consider it, and close your mouth. Neph did mention the possible presence of another Aspect. Maybe that's it?
"I mean, I guess? If so, I don't think it could possibly be a real person. Not when they're so prompt and always active."
"Neph is supposed to always be active too, right? You just don't always access that part of your soul. And I don't want to interrupt anything, but maybe we should pull Sidhe in on this? It seems like she's, um, fonder of mind-related magics than you are."
"Sidhe is currently attending a workshop on light-based illusions and Blue Rukh. Given how well she's taken to interacting with other students, I would advise against interrupting her at this time, Nanoha."
[X] Tell Agneyastra and Mitra about the whole demigod thingie. You're guessing this is what happens if there isn't enough used as a catalyst, but it's nothing to be afraid of. Probably. You should tell Nanoha about it, too; didn't you just learn not to leave out your friends?
"And also overkill," you add. "So, um, I'm still not really sure it's a good idea to tell you about this, but..."
You trail off and frown. Yes, leaving friends out of the loop is bad and all, but should you really be telling her about this? You'd hate for her to feel forced into picking Red.
Good grief you're stubborn. Seriously, tell her before you do another linkup!
You shake your head and decide to just get on with it. You can't really do another sense-sharing and risk the demigod infusion without telling Nanoha what you're doing. It's just not fair to Nanoha.
"Um, never mind. I mean, not never mind, I'm telling you and all, so—right, so I think this might be what happens when I don't use enough 'soulfire' to turn Nanoha into an Agni-style demigoddess. I think that might be the fuel Mitra and Mom were seeing? And, um, I think Neph did basically say it was safe, so maybe we could try the sense-sharing thingie again and see what happens? With Mom monitoring and maybe ready with a Red counterspell in case something goes wrong."
Oh geeze. If you can hear me, I want you to know I take no credit for this idea. And I want popcorn.
"Oh, and I guess I'm skipping details? Nanoha, Neph recommended grabbing you a colorblind Gift from Velgarth and then using soulfire to turn you into a demigod. She said it grew back and everything, so don't really worry about it?"
Nanoha frowns thoughtfully and remains silent for almost a full fifteen seconds. Eventually, she shrugs and gives you a bright smile.
"I'm okay with it if you are. Actually, since Agneyastra has actual soul-scanners, can she maybe look at Suzuka when we get home and tell her she's a real person? We've seen a few movies that claim otherwise and I think she might be worried about it."
"I will remember to do so the next time we meet her."
Nanoha directs a bright smile down at your wrist, apparently unbothered by Agneyastra's lack of a nearby avatar.
"Thank you!"
[X] With Mom monitoring, restart the sense-sharing and see what happens.
You quickly reassemble a new sense-sharing spell and nod toward Nanoha.
"Here goes something?"
Your crushfriend gives you an encouraging smile and makes an odd gesture with one hand. You suppose it's probably something like go ahead.
The initial connection is quick and painless. While you wait for Nanoha to regain her senses, you summon a small wisp of fire in one hand and practice having it flit around different parts of your body. You know you weren't able to tell when something was happening last time, but honestly, you expected to feel something by now. It's been, what, half a minute since you started and Nanoha is still just standing there? Maybe a little bit longer?
...And then you'd expected to be interrupted in the middle of that thought. Apparently, your magic is too polite or lazy to interfere with your thoughts. Procrastinating jerk.
Having perfect recall really is convenient sometimes. Right now, it means you can check your appearance without looking like you're actually doing so.
You'd wanted to show off a little and had decided to dress accordingly. Your standard Barrier Jacket is something you'd prefer to save for an actual fight, your regalia would get in the way of dancing, and your MG uniform feels a little bland these days.
Things had kiiiinda escalated from there. The more you tried to look for a Mom-approved outfit suitable for an arcade, the more you felt confined by old Agni styles. Their tendency to cover everything from the neck down had never been problematic for you before, and indeed, you almost always preferred such attire. But wearing those to a public arcade just felt wrong, somehow. Arcades are meant to be places where you can show off your skills, have fun, and socialize. For the ones specifically catering to Magical Girls, they also serve as places to trade magical tips and advice. Hiding is specifically not something they're meant for.
It had taken some wheedling and Red-infused puppy-dog eyes, but Mom had eventually relented. Well, it also taken an argument on how the spread of heresy wasn't a threat on a world you weren't a goddess on, weird classmate-led cult notwithstanding. Getting Mom to tone down the jewelry had taken yet more work and pointing out how a visible display of too much wealth might engender dislike from MGs from less... well-funded backgrounds.
So here you are, going out in what could be mistaken for a college uniform in the western style. Sure, it only leaves some of your legs bare, there's a second skirt beneath the first, and you're wearing shorts beneath that, but even the full ensemble is still vastly less conservative than what you usually wear!
...You think it might say something about your life that this is supposed to be, and genuinely feels like, a victory. When did you stop being OK with tank tops and miniskirts? How did Mom manage to move the goalposts so far without you noticing?
You shake your head and enter the arcade through the second-story balcony specifically intended to allow such. The first-floor doors tend to be crowded by MG fanatics, albeit mostly of the male variety — it's allegedly more-or-less an open secret that girls are allowed all the way in without too much fuss. Some claim it's so underage MGs can be left unchaperoned, but you have your doubts.
Once inside, you walk across the pseudo-walkway of rubber-topped metal poles on autopilot, not even breaking stride as you go. Mom has gotten you to do stranger things in the name of balance training.
You pause about halfway, one foot still in the air, and wonder if you should've brought Nanoha along on this jaunt. She has all the same upgrades you do and challenging each other with an audience could be fun. Or... possibly not? It's already going to be hard for you to avoid destroying anything. She has a lot less experience with normal acrobatics.
Maybe next time.
You blink several times, disoriented by the abrupt change from a loud arcade to a shining city of—
"—And their world is so messed up that the closest thing they have to heroes are actual war criminals. Or, well, an organization that shelters them. I guess they get credit for thinking their actions really are necessary, but it's still just plain wrong."
You blink and reflexively check your mind for Blue, not sure how you got from your bedroom to—
"Y'know, you're really pretty and I wanna take you home with me, but I'm pretty sure Jail will do mean things to you if I do. Sorry. So, um, could you just give me the Seed and I'll pretend you don't exist? Pretty please? I really don't want to fight you for it."
The lack of ongoing flight spells is momentarily terrifying before you realize you're already standing firmly on the ground. How—
"I have prepared several of these carriers, Princess, but require permission to create dedicated intelligences for each of them. May I have it?"
Greed struggles with caution for the half-second before Mom interjects.
"Jade, I'll note he has not promised to place them under your command if permission is given. I do not believe this to be wise."
A surge of disorientation has you starting to raise another shield inside Mom's own defenses, prepared for an attack from the ancient AI researcher who should never have been left—
The turtle/spirit plane is gone, its resources inadequate for teaching and nurturing a budding Planeswalker of Red. You don't think it's been destroyed so much as drifted or pushed away.
Your predecessor knew he was going to die and planned for it—
You know, you probably shouldn't be surprised by the statue, but you are anyway.
"Mom."
"I promise I had nothing to do with this, Jade."
Exasperation turns to bewilderment as your position, clothing, and temperature all change. Mom raised a shield to guard you from whatever attack caused it, but how they got past your Firewall is beyond—
"Did they seriously have multiple masquerades hiding from one another?"
"Technically, it was one masquerade hiding from the other. The TSAB was not aware of Earth's supernatural elements, but they knew of the TSAB."
Bemusement turns to alarm as your surroundings change, displacing you from concrete streets to stone brick—
You should never have scheduled this date. What were you thinking? At this rate, you'll have spent more time worrying about how you look and what to do than you'll actually spend on the outing itself. You're Red, you shouldn't have tried this scheduled silliness instead of sticking with semi-spontaneous stuff.
Anxiety and fear turn to bewilderment as your environment abruptly shifts. Mom's avatar has gone from stroking your hair to being outright absent, Nanoha is on the ground nearby, and a shield...
You blink several times and try to remember how you got here, well aware that you're probably forgetting something. The sloped stone street below and strange-tasting air eventually serve as an adequate reminder: You're still in Magnostadt and just attempted an experiment with shared senses. You hadn't really expected anything even remotely that severe.
If that jumbled mess of experiences is what Neph has to deal with all the time, it's amazing she's still sane at all. You hope she gets multiple longer visions instead of the shorter versions. You can't even really remember context for most of them.
After another moment of thought, you check on your sense-sharing link to Nanoha. It's gone and Mom seems to have erected another layer of shielding to defend you. Honestly, you can't blame her.
"Um, Mom?"
"No permanent effects," Agneyastra reports. "It may, however, take several days for your soul to properly recover the fuel it sacrificed. Nanoha appears unharmed despite her current status, but does not seem to have truly benefited from the experience. Her soul seems to be treating your gift as some manner of invader instead of a resource to be used."
Mom sounds disproportionately peeved by the autoimmune response of a mindless system. You're disappointed, but not too surprised. If it were that easy, Neph wouldn't have recommended grabbing a Gift from Velgarth.
Now you just need to ignore the urge to hop over to Eternity and find out what the hell is going on over there. You remember something about the spirit plane going MIA and something else showing up instead? How did that work?
. . . Buuuuut Nanoha is sleeping and Sidhe is busy anyway, so maybe you could get away with it? You wouldn't be going to another world, just taking a quick peek.
[] Get Nanoha somewhere safer, then tell Sidhe you're checking on something in Eternity real quick and will be right back. As long as she doesn't seem too terrified by the idea, hop out and see WTF is going on over there, then return to the king-selection plane and Magnostadt.
[] Wait until your next scheduled planeswalk to see what's happening. It's not as though you could do anything with the knowledge anyway. The stupid Jewel Seed incident is already dominating your schedule.
[] Write-in
There was a reason I was always so careful to say no more settings would be added. The original plan was to introduce Serra's dying plane or an echo thereof (MTG), but replacing one disaster with another seemed boring. I've decided this will work better even if it meant I had to dip into the pre-Ignition list of possible settings (EDIT) and in doing so, arguably break the boundaries of my careful phrasing, thus this note. No, this does not mean I can be pressured into swapping out settings; I feel the new distribution works quite well and am highly unlikely to swap out another.
...The irony of having this QM's note in the same post as an IC lesson on lying via weasel-wording is not lost on me.
Voting will be locked for 120 minutes after this first goes up.
It's a very confusing post, so don't worry too much about that. I'm fairly confident people will figure out significant parts soon enough. Alternative chapter title: Unfiltered Spam.
One bit that did get across to Jade was that Avatar has been replaced by something else. EDIT: OOC, it wasn't serving it's intended purpose. It was more of a goodie box instead of someplace you could properly adventure in. It'd be a different story if you were Green, but as it is, it was basically just filler. Its replacement will not have this problem.
EDIT 2: In light of the general incoherency of chapter events, the vote moratorium has been extended to 120 minutes.
