He presumably lost [...] his Agni clones, so I doubt he tried again. Besides, if he did, Neph would have listed them in her summary about Jail's group.
As far as Jade is aware,* Jail had nothing to do with the attempted cloning of an Agni. That particular scheme was concocted and carried out by the government of a previously-unaffiliated world that has since been brought into the TSAB.
EDIT: Having oral surgery for few teeth implants in about 5 minutes, so whether I can write today depends on how loopy I am afterward.
Plus, I'm guessing he's more likely to be after an Agni, anyways. We're more likely to encounter one of our cousins under his control than we are Vivio.
Except Pramoda Agni was a failed attempt (potentially by Jail) to clone a powerful Agni. The fact that Jail somehow got an Agni cruiser to listen to him could be connected to that.
Jail's modus operandi isn't to brainwash people, it's to grow them with loyalty already programmed in.
He presumably lost both his Agni and Sägebrecht clones, so I doubt he tried again. Besides, if he did, Neph would have listed them in her summary about Jail's group.
Yeah, we probably don't need to worry about any brainwashed Agni. Clones are useless (no artificial Linker Core or inherited demigod mana gift), while the actual branch family members are likely too strong for Jail to coerce. As they had privileges second only to the royal family, each should have good artificial vessels, excellent Linker Cores (if not SSS), devices superior to any modern equivalent (if they exited stasis with them), and plenty of tutoring/experience with magic. I expect each to be S rank badasses, at minimum.
The youngest, Mani (exited stasis at 14, currently 19), should still have 5+ years of experience as a Red mage, and about a decade with LC magic. The oldest, Arjuna (exited stasis at age 25, currently 31), should have two decades of LC experience, and 6-20 years with Red mana. If the latter isn't SS rank by now, I'd be surprised.
The youngest, Mani (exited stasis at 14, currently 19), should still have 5+ years of experience as a Red mage, and about a decade with LC magic. The oldest, Arjuna (exited stasis at age 25, currently 31), should have two decades of LC experience, and 6-20 years with Red mana. If the latter isn't SS rank by now, I'd be surprised.
As a branch family member, Arjuna wouldn't have had nearly as many resources devoted toward his new vessels and Linker Cores. By the TSAB classification system, branch members typically got an S-capable core while their mana-based magic may nudge them into having the ability to reach S+ or SS- (displayed power may seem larger, +, or smaller, -, than the usual capabilities of that rank depending on specific circumstances). If they were skilled enough to reach greater heights, they wouldn't be a branch family member in the first place and would be granted a superior core.
In other words, none of the anagram branch members (exempting Indira) are likely to have the ability to reach SS regardless of how skilled they might become.
It's also worth noting that the TSAB system seems to classify mages by destructive potential. Someone skilled with stealth magic and good at delivering most of their power in a few seconds might be a deadly surprise attacker, but they may not even warrant A rank or even be able to reach that point. This inequality has led to ethical Linker Core enhancement being one of the most popular avenues of research among the general public; if you were born with an especially poor 'Core, many individuals interested in magic feel that the best they can do is go into magical R&D.
EDIT: For those wondering how that would fit the tentative classification given to Siofra, it's because she just wouldn't die. Being limited in burst damage wouldn't stop her from rampaging for hours on end.
Considering she's adopted (which is not public knowledge, we only found out due to a vision) and Olivie has already sworn vengeance for Jail trying to 'abduct' Vivio, it's quite possible that said kidnapping is a cover-up for her being a clone like in canon which Olivie freed from Jail.
That said, I doubt we'll have to worry about him:
Jail has no idea that his broadcast will be interrupted by the most powerful LC mage alive. Olivie should catch him relatively unaware.
Except Pramoda Agni was a failed attempt (potentially by Jail) to clone a powerful Agni. The fact that Jail somehow got an Agni cruiser to listen to him could be connected to that.
Jail's modus operandi isn't to brainwash people, it's to grow them with loyalty already programmed in.
He presumably lost both his Agni and Sägebrecht clones, so I doubt he tried again. Besides, if he did, Neph would have listed them in her summary about Jail's group.
Given that Vivio doesn't seem to be particularly loyal to him, I'd guess his controls over her would require her to get close to him in some way, or possibly one of the Numbers to do so. I don't see that happening, personally.
As far as Jade is aware,* Jail had nothing to do with the attempted cloning of an Agni. That particular scheme was concocted and carried out by the government of a previously-unaffiliated world that has since been brought into the TSAB.
Yeah, we probably don't need to worry about any brainwashed Agni. Clones are useless (no artificial Linker Core or inherited demigod mana gift), while the actual branch family members are likely too strong for Jail to coerce. As they had privileges second only to the royal family, each should have good artificial vessels, excellent Linker Cores (if not SSS), devices superior to any modern equivalent (if they exited stasis with them), and plenty of tutoring/experience with magic. I expect each to be S rank badasses, at minimum.
The youngest, Mani (exited stasis at 14, currently 19), should still have 5+ years of experience as a Red mage, and about a decade with LC magic. The oldest, Arjuna (exited stasis at age 25, currently 31), should have two decades of LC experience, and 6-20 years with Red mana. If the latter isn't SS rank by now, I'd be surprised.
Sounds about right. That said, he did manage to give Vivio a Kaiserfabre Linker Core, so he might be able to make a clone with an Agni Gold one, too. And he's well-versed in body modification. So the only thing stopping him from making Artificial Vessels would be the soul transfer process, I would think. At least, with a physical specimen to work with.
EDIT: For those wondering how that would fit the tentative classification given to Siofra, it's because she just wouldn't die. Being limited in burst damage wouldn't stop her from rampaging for hours on end.
That's part of why Zeref is so terrifying (ignoring the other aspects of Ankhseram Black Magic, his immortality and eternal source of Ethernano alone would make him very dangerous), so I can definitely see that being the case.
[x] Take a nice selfie. Shield as a backdrop, wings, crown, maybe set your soul gem on fire, etc.
-[X] Have Mom make an email for you and send the image to Kanon.
--[x] You intend to join Placer and the full group eventually, it's just got to be... managed.
It feels rather odd to specifically pose for a photo after you've spent so much time trying to avoid cameras. After all the time you've spent practicing with Red constructs, it's easy for you to set up your wings, construct your crown, set your Soul Gem ablaze, stand up straight, set up a shield, and why have you been considering pursuing more cosmetic projects? These are expensive and take pretty long as it is — or at least, remembering to stand up straight is tricky. Your posture is much better than it used to be, but you don't think you can do it for more than an hour without slipping.
The white ring of a Grief ward is dimmer than you remember; without anything to burn, the ward doesn't even look like actual fire, just a notched circle of light. You also can't make it clear that your Soul Gem is surrounded by fire without lowering the flames to a level that even Pyros with poor fire resistance could survive. The first draft of your image just had you cupping your hands to hold an egg-shaped ball of fire. For your second attempt, you coil a stream of fire around your Soul Gem and convince the flames to follow the stream instead of reaching toward the sky. It's easier than you'd expected.
(Ability Improved: Pyrokinesis [Rank 27 -> 28])
You send off the image and force your attention toward other topics. It's harder than you'd hoped it would be; you find yourself checking over the image to see if your smile was creepy, your hair muffled, any flaws in your wings...
Right, this is why I want to be beautiful: other people. I'm not doing it just for me.
[x] Have Mom look up more stuff for you and relay the results to you if it's immediately relevant.
-[x] Specific feats and limits of mana-magic here compared to other mana-using planes. Pace of development of mana-magic compared to the same.
"My only comparisons for mana-based magic are the Agni and Magnostadt. With the Internet assistance and frequent meetings, the average skill growth of any given Colored is much faster than it is for the magicians of Magnostadt, but slower than the ancient Agni. Jade, your rate of skill advancement to time spent is superior for Red magic. I do not have enough information to reliably assess the other colors, but estimate your rate is approximately equal in those. As specialists in a given color devote all their available mana to said color, the most senior Colored are obviously ahead of you in what they specialize in.
"Most enchantments on items—"
"You can just call them Artifacts; it's easier to distinguish them from the floaty enchantments."
"Understood. Nearly all 'Artifacts' on this plane are formed via White or Blue stabilization frames placed on the normally-temporary Magical Girl enchantments. The most popular term for Blue mages, Enchanter, refers both to the mental magic of Blue and their ability to make such frames. Minion-construct creation is far more popular here than it was among most Agni or Magnostadt. Reds seem to be the exception to this rule, being more fond of directly burning their enemies than creating helpers capable of doing the same. Black and White mages create what they call 'wraiths' and 'spirits,' respectively. Greens permanently enhance preexisting animals and can further grant them vastly increased strength and size for short periods of time. Blues can create ice or air elementals to crush or distract their enemies. Taken as a whole, the mages aren't nearly so conservative with their mana costs as Magnostadt is."
-[x] Research and feats about the soul related to death, afterlife, soul gems, vessels, Kyubey's ability to manipulate souls, and so on.
There hasn't been much progress on soul magic in general. Oh, White mages have managed to "heal" souls of sustained damage and there's currently several ongoing studies of the relationship between Soul Gems and the bodies of Magical Girls, but the Soul Gem researchers are all either taking notes by hand or are using air-gapped computers. Mom says that won't actually stop her if someone gets careless, but it'll probably be a while before someone connects an infected flash drive to something important. It'll take (slightly) longer for them to reconnect the now-infected storage medium to something with contact with the outside world, letting the "Supremacy agent" relay the copy of its findings to a couple authentication buffers, and from there, to Agneyastra. Since this apparent virtual copy doesn't even fully occupy your dimension, you're more convinced than ever that your mother is blatantly overpowered.
"So, how much dimensional storage are we talking? Like, do we just have a suspicious invisible file taking up space until it's moved along at a ridiculous rate of data transfer, or are we basically haunting hard drives across the world?"
"The physical storage on each system consists only of an ever-updating marker indicating what information it has already copied, acting to inform me of new developments and/or instruct additional Supremacy instances to check and copy agent contents instead of those of any appropriate digital devices. This sharing does introduce a minimal risk of tampering, but modern governments are more likely to simply eliminate Supremacy agents instead of trying to subvert their contents. If detection appears to be a significant risk, agents will delete themselves rather than risk enemies finding them. The ensuing silence acts as a better warning than any broadcast could.
"To summarize: The Agni were subverting digital-age governments for centuries with only occasional hiccups. I can-"
"Just a sec. Did those hiccups lead to warfare and mass deaths?"
There's a slight pause. You suspect it was supposed to be humorous.
"Sometimes,"Agneyastra hedges before quickly changing the subject. "Regardless, I can almost be considered the culmination of their efforts; as Prince Surya's assistant, I was to provide him with all the information he and his retainers would ever need to topple, subvert, ally, or otherwise deal with foreign governments. If there is any significant risk of detection, I will inform you before taking action, but we have nothing to fear from Nanoha's Earth."
-[x] Mana generation ideas. What's worked, what hasn't, best leads when synthesized with what you know from elsewhere.
The list of what hasn't worked seems to be rather longer than what has. Black mages tried to use Grief Seeds for power, but ended up experiencing echoes of the overwhelmingly negative emotion as their price. Since every Black mage on the planet also happens to be a Magical Girl, this was understandably counterproductive. Only one girl, a MG going by "Wilting Violence," is known to be continuing her pursuit of such power by simultaneously drawing from Grief Seeds and the newly-forming Grief in her own Soul Gem. Those who tied to copy her mentioned that the experience "seriously sucked."
Green mages seem to have the easiest time of it. Plants grown beyond their normal limits will apparently produce far more loose mana than their smaller cousins. Aria Summers claims that, since they believe they're thriving, plants won't spend quite as much mana on keeping themselves alive. The same holds true if they're given advantageous adaptations.
"How does this turn into Aria making a heavy metal toxic death forest? The metal bark I get since it'd protect the trees from animals or lumberjacks or whatever, but why the poison?"
"Additional food,"Mom provides helpfully. "Among her other improvements, Aria decided to let her trees process and distill common pollutants, greatly aiding their survivability in the modern world. Her results have - with the aid of Green channeling - been repeated in a few trees across the world, but after video footage was captured of an 'improved' tree devouring the flock of birds nesting atop it, most such projects have been placed on hold. Less drastic improvements are ongoing, but don't seem to be quite as effective in terms of generated Green mana; even repurposed waste will produce waste of its own."
"...Um, Aria's trees don't do that part, right? I mean, they're not carnivorous."
"There is not yet any evidence to support that idea. The animal population of her forest even appears to be thriving, although evidence is surfacing to suggest that they are being modified almost as heavily as the trees themselves. The reason or reasons Aria's druids are bothering with a proper ecosystem is unclear, although there's no denying her overall achievements; Aria's forest reportedly has the highest amount of any color of mana on the entire planet and continues to grow in size, if not concentration. On a related note, it would appear the lands containing significant cultural icons produce far more mana than their function would possess. A list has been created for your perusal, although few Magical Girls are capable of quantifying such large amounts of mana."
Eiffel Tower, Paris: Blue.
Empire State Building: Red, Blue, and White. (American MGs prefer to reorder it to "Red, White, and Blue," comparative ratios be damned.)
United States White House: White primary, Black and Red secondary.
Buckingham Palace: White.
The Taj Mahal: White primary, Red secondary.
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences: Black and Blue.
Hoover Dam: Blue primary, White secondary, Black tertiary.
Forbidden City, Beijing: White and Black.
Jerusalem: Red primary, White secondary, Black tertiary.
Vatican: White primary, Black and Red secondary.
Yellowstone National Park: Green/Red primary with a White secondary before a Pyro took exception and burned down much of it, ranting "Volcanos should be ****ing RED, not full of this bullshit Green gunk!" Her rampage ultimately concluded when the weakened Magical Girl charged into a pool of primarily sulfuric acid, but Yellowstone has since shifted to a Red primary and White/Green secondary with significantly less mana generated overall.
Forest of Summers: "So Green it makes Kermit look orange."
"...I'm not going to get Aria to tend an offworld garden for me, am I?"
"Almost certainly not."
"What about the list? Surely there are more beacons than just that?"
"There are many more, but if I list them all, you will get distracted from any other questions you might have while we're on this world, including the greater subject of mana generation."
You blink and wave the list away.
"Right. Okay. I think we got sidetracked from Green trees n stuff?"
"Indeed. While far less Green can be found in human settlements than many druids would prefer, it seems to be an order of magnitude easier to generate Green mana than it is to increase mana production for any other color. Attempts have been made to create various colors of 'harvesting' Enchantment, but aside from several storage Enchantments you will almost certainly want to look at, they have had little success. Mana-generating Enchantments have encountered similar failures. Grief Seeds can be tapped for Black mana, yet anyone trying will experience severe emotional disturbances in the process. In solutions you'd likely consider ethically unacceptable: living beings can be sacrificed to generate varying amounts of Black depending on the creature being sacrificed. The smarter they are, the more Black they appear to generate, although 'life force' appears to play a part as well; an elephant will generate hundreds of times more than a rat. Strong emotion can be tapped for small amounts of Red per person, but this will slowly exhaust those so tapped. If tapped individuals get enough sleep, there does not appear to be any evidence of long-term negative effects."
-[x] Any obvious, common sense, or extremely useful abilities with your aura / soul magic that you never knew about or got around to trying.
Vessel reconstruction from just a Soul Gem seems to be easier than you'd expected. It's just expensive. Some practicing Magical Girls seem to think their soul has an imprint of what they should look like and can reconstruct it at a rather significant Grief cost. Specifically, about three or four Grief Seeds for the average Magical Girl. Some Blue and Black mages are also working on finding ways to improve the communications between Soul Gems and human vessels. They've found a few methods of reinforcing their range, but no permanent modifications or cost-effective enchantments.
Telekinesis is another use of soul magic that you never got around to trying in earnest. Launching weapons seems to be the most popular use of it, but a few Magical Girls seems to be able to operate floating firearms or fight with seemingly-animated weaponry. Those last two are supposed to be pretty difficult; all telekinesis is supposedly similar to grabbing an object, but it's a full-hand grip by default. You might be able to throw it easily enough, but selectively applying pressure takes significantly more practice.
-[x] Potentially dangerous research (devoid, etc) that might require an intervention.
The world remembers your warning to Kyubey and has been staying well away from anything that could possibly generate Devoid. It's even reached memetic status.
Agni's First Law: Thou Shalt Not Purge Fundamental Forces of the Universe, You Fucking Dumbasses.
...With some versions excluding the last three words. A few people took the meme too seriously and seemed to think this applied to antigravity effects, light-eating spells, that sort of thing. Everyone else has done exactly what they should: ignored them and heeded your original words instead of the silly reinterpretation.
There are some uncomfortable experiments with simultaneously overloading and reinforcing Grief Seeds; since improper reinforcement just results in a powerful new Witch hatching instead of destroying the Grief Seed, most mages are more comfortable with continued Seed overloading experiments than they are with Seed cleansing. Their end goal seems to be artificial Grief receptacles, but they're still pretty far away from those. Reinforcing what's already there is reportedly far easier than making something from scratch. Still, since the researchers seem sensible enough to have extra MGs around when they're experimenting with reinforcement, you don't think it's something you need to stop.
-[x] Start that surveillance of the cult, if you have to move to do so, 'walk closer then Stalker.
"Would it mess anything up if I hopped over to Japan so we can Stalker over to the cult place?"
"It would not, Jade."
You briskly nod and step into Eternity.
You go from day to night, landing atop what you're almost certain is your old high school. You blame your cultist of a classmate; you'd meant to just aim for Kibonoshi, but your focus might've shifted just a tiny bit. How could it not? She's a literally insane cultist who used to bully you. How huge of a flip is that?
You shake your head and begin dragging the Stalker out of Agneyastra. A holographic chat window pops up before you finish. Before you've even finished consciously processing Kanon's first message, another arrives. Then another, and another, and...
(4:29 PM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Wtf lol? Sorry it took so long, got nerdsniped. How'd you manage wings that aren't just two giant jets of flame? Is it some kind of a White-Red fusion with ethereal wings or w/e they're called now? You obviously didn't just set them on fire, it's too partitioned. (2:29 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Crown is a nice touch, although the pseudo-religious angel w/wings and a halo might upset some people (2:29 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Pseudo-religious angle* (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Although I guess angel works too. Nice makeup btw. (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: I mean, consider yourself verified, but can I get a gif or video of that and possibly some Reds to talk to you? Sooooo many questions (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Also, there's no not-awkward way to say this, but: we assume everyone is UNinterested in STUFF unless we're told otherwise, so if you want some of our older or younger bent members to think of you as NOT off-limits, you should probably tell us. Also, contrary to what the public may think, most MGs are still straight, so you should assume someone is unless they say otherwise and they'll do the same for you. (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: (also, if you are interested, you'll need to show a mod a legal document with your birthday ever since we had one 11-year-old who had an older shapeshift, didn't know significant others might sometimes do together, and YE GODS THAT WAS CREEPY and we are sooooo glad her trophy GF figured it out before things progressed past chaste hugs) (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: (both girls are OK btw, "Trophy" was more amused than anything else and the 11 y/o was just embarrassed and swore off dating once someone explained the physical things people do together. Betcha she takes that back once puberty hits) (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Before you ask, we don't ask about what age straight/asexual MGs are since they inherently can't do in-house relationships so NOT OUR PROBLEM WOOOOO (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: And no, this is NOT a dating service, things just sometimes HAPPEN when you fight for your life next to someone, spend a while learning magic, etc., and it's nice to know if someone is totally off-limits or if you can actually entertain fluttery ideas (2:30 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: ...Why the hell do I not have this as a copy-paste message? I should've started with the "not a dating service" bit, sorry. The earlier parts look skeevier in chat than they were in my brain.
You stare at the wall of text and wonder if all post-Kyubey Magical Girls are like this. You're certainly not complaining; when someone fires off rapid-fire chat messages, they give you an excuse to provide the same. You can blame the medium for any awkward or embarrassing mistakes.
--[x] After verification, message Kanon with more questions.
---[x] Ask if there's anyone interested in learning proper Red cleansing. It'll probably take you a few hours to adapt your version to those without fire-immune souls, but you're sure you'll manage; you're already most of the way there.
----[x] If she can arrange some kind of pyro conference in about a week, that'd be even better. You have to do some important stuff for a friend between now and then.
(2:30 AM) Guest: Yes, I'm off-limits. My current social media relationship status would be "It's complicated," but in a good way. More importantly, how many people are interested in learning proper Red cleansing? I tried to show it in the picture, but the ward apparently just looks like a thin white ring inside my Soul Gem without Grief to burn. It might take me a few hours to adapt my own version to people without fire-immune souls, but I'm sure I can manage; I'm already most of the way there. If you could arrange some sort of pyro conference in about a week, that'd be pretty much perfect. I have to do important stuff for a friend in the interim.
After the first ten seconds pass without a response, you practice manipulating your wings with pyrokinesis. You're sure they'll be useful weapons once you're good enough at using them, especially if you can build some sort of an on-command flamethrower into the top.
...Ooooh. That might not be that hard, actually. Although it'd mess up the streams, so how…?
After several minutes spent working on your flamethrower idea — which isn't quite as easy as you thought — Kanon replies.
(2:33 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Yeah, uh, going to have to ask you for video footage of Grief being burned away before I ask people to burn $$$ on meeting up. No rush, I know a Grief-eating wards are probably expensive so I'm good waiting until tomorrow so you can undo it -> generate a bit of Grief -> put it back. (2:33 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: know that Grief-eating* (2:33 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: No offense or slight meant, you're probably the most skilled Pyro I've seen so far just from your auth pic, but **** plane tickets. Seriously. (2:33 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Also possible project bloat / it taking longer than expected. Magic has a tendency to be more complicated than people think; we're so used to MG magic being easy that we expect mana to behave the same way, only it doesn't care what we want.
---[x] Does she know a good way to contact Kyubey's controller? You have a bunch of stuff that might rouse Kyubey and want to be sure said controller isn't caught flat-footed.
(2:33 AM) Guest: Okay. That'll be difficult, but for the wrong reasons, which brings me to my next point. Any idea how to contact Kyubey's controller? I have a bunch of stuff that might rouse Kyubey, so using the whole "use Kyubey to contact Kyubey's controller" idea seems like a bad idea. (2:34 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Oh that lol (2:34 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: You actually don't have to worry about that, Kyubey apparently puts such messages under a classification level he has access to but is no longer willing to invoke due to possible infection by hostile forces. His controller is not so constrained and most of Kyubey is apparently incapable of entertaining the idea that he's infected which is just lol. Blue magic, yo. (2:34 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: In other words, it goes in one ear and out the other, but one ear is a satellite dish so the message gets to the person who needs to hear it. (2:34 AM) Guest: One of the things that might rouse Kyubey is him seeing me AT ALL.
A Kanon is typing… message comes and vanishes several times over the next minute. You immediately go into your own settings and shut off the function that would let Kanon see when you were typing. You don't need her to know when you're having second thoughts about something.
(2:35 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Brb.
Oh, come on!
At least it gives you time to climb inside the Stalker. Being spotted on the roof of your old school in full golden armor would be rather awkward.
The compound of the cult that isn't yours is almost eerily similar to your house back in Nanoha's hometown, Uminari: oversized, cut off from the rest of the surrounding city by a brick wall topped with an iron fence, and generally lacking any signs of human life. The flower-filled gardens lining the building are pretty enough, but you don't see any gardeners working on them. Maybe they're being maintained by a Green mage? They do seem to have more Green than normal.
The mana coloration of the compound doesn't help your mood in the slightest; there's almost as much Black as there is Red and White combined. There are definitely a bunch of people in the mansion who wholeheartedly worship you, but their actions are outweighed by the corruption in your cult. You're honestly a little afraid of what Mom will find in there.
Agneyastra is in the middle of dropping Parasite droids atop the roof when Kanon finally gets around to answering.
(2:48 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Where are you now? Solution is apparently a dead drop of a USB drive with a message or something else cheap. As in, you copy a video onto the flash drive, leave it somewhere, leave, and Kyubey will collect it a bit later, read it, and use the same classified system he uses for normal messages. Exact Latitude/longitude works although I understand if you don't wanna give those. Controller will leave a reply in the same place the next day. (2:48 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Oh, I guess a letter would work too. #FirstWorldSolutions
[] Head to the middle of nowhere, drop off a letter for Kyubey, and tell Kanon where you put it.
-[] You have some advanced technologies and could probably do a rather significant uplift of Earth.
--[] As in, advanced enough that Kyubey's species would probably be willing to sacrifice half their current harvesting operations if they realized what you have. If Kyubey has safeguards against interstellar travel, you'll tapdance all over them even if it isn't technically FTL.
-[] Your soul no longer generates Grief, although this is something you'll have extreme difficulty replicating.
-[] You were the first mana mage Kyubey ever found or experimented on. You subsequently vanished in what he'd almost certainly view as mysterious circumstances worthy of investigation, then warned him about abominations in a manner that would raise even more questions.
--[] Yes, your name is Jade Agni.
-[] You switched to a vastly superior artificial body (and may have accidentally formed a cult in the process). Your friends also have their own versions of it.
-[] Your adoptive mother is an AI who could probably get admin access to every part of the the Internet if Kyubey doesn't interfere or freak out.
-[] Just drop in everything that you think could possibly be a problem. It's not as though it'll be hard to find the culprit if other people somehow learn your secrets.
--[] With the sole exception of your divinity. That particular claim might harm the credibility of the rest.
[] Keep talking to Kanon.
-[] Ask about her experiences in OMG.
-[] She's much more active than you'd expected a Blue to be. Isn't that the color of taking too much time to think things over?
-[] "Are there rules for banning jerks from OMG?"
-[] Does she know any useful Blue magic that isn't mind control? You've forced yourself to learn how to use Blue despite how annoying it often is, but you don't really like mental magic.
[] Write-in
Voting will be locked for 90 minutes after this goes up.
-[] You have some advanced technologies and could probably do a rather significant uplift of Earth.
--[] As in, advanced enough that Kyubey's species would probably be willing to sacrifice half their current harvesting operations if they realized what you have. If Kyubey has safeguards against interstellar travel, you'll tapdance all over them even if it isn't technically FTL.
-[] Your adoptive mother is an AI who could probably get admin access to every part of the the Internet if Kyubey doesn't interfere or freak out.
Nope, don't see a reason to reveal these. We can show as much mana magic expertise as we want, but revealing Agni tech when we don't have the time for a guided uplift (our attention is already split half a dozen ways) would be foolish.
-[] She's much more active than you'd expected a Blue to be. Isn't that the color of taking too much time to think things over?
-[] "Are there rules for banning jerks from OMG?"
-[] Does she know any useful Blue magic that isn't mind control? You've forced yourself to learn how to use Blue despite how annoying it often is, but you don't really like mental magic.
I like the topic, but... we shouldn't bother a mod when we just got access to OMG where there's dozens of other Enchanters that could answer said question, and the polite way of asking would be to ask who to contact on that. It gives her the option to just answer the original question, but also allows her to refer us to someone else.
A few write-in options:
[] Try to listen for prayers, both from here and Magnostadt
[] Now that your mana sense has improved, what do you feel from Kibonoshi?
[] Agneyastra: Please set a 24h reminder for the Reaper meeting
[] Agneyastra research: Risks and benefits of channeling each color. Has anyone succeeded at multi-color channeling?
[] Look on OMG for someone who can help you and Sidhe with improving Harvest.
Nope, don't see a reason to reveal these. We can show as much mana magic expertise as we want, but revealing Agni tech when we don't have the time for a guided uplift (our attention is already split half a dozen ways) would be foolish.
This isn't a press conference. Telling Kyuubey's controller all potentially relevant information is only sensible, even if we're not planning on acting on it yet.
Jade doesn't know whether Hotaru can be trusted — for all Jade knows, she could sick Kyubey on us to scan our tech.
We know she's probably the best mind-mage on the planet and her known actions are altruistic, but not much more.
Revealing Jade "could probably do a rather significant uplift of Earth" sets expectations that it'll actually happen relatively soon. Regardless of whether Hotaru spreads the information, that would put pressure on Jade, when we're merely on a quick trip to ckeck up on the plane.
The knowledge could lead to jealousy, greed, or greater good mindsets, none of which we want to deal with.
(2:33 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Yeah, uh, going to have to ask you for video footage of Grief being burned away before I ask people to burn $$$ on meeting up. No rush, I know a Grief-eating wards are probably expensive so I'm good waiting until tomorrow so you can undo it -> generate a bit of Grief -> put it back.
-[] You have some advanced technologies and could probably do a rather significant uplift of Earth.
--[] As in, advanced enough that Kyubey's species would probably be willing to sacrifice half their current harvesting operations if they realized what you have. If Kyubey has safeguards against interstellar travel, you'll tapdance all over them even if it isn't technically FTL.
There's an argument to made for full disclosure, but I think mentioning this on an initial message is poor framing. I don't think we should be pursuing an uplift of Earth-PMMM anytime soon.
-[] Your soul no longer generates Grief, although this is something you'll have extreme difficulty replicating.
-[] You were the first mana mage Kyubey ever found or experimented on. You subsequently vanished in what he'd almost certainly view as mysterious circumstances worthy of investigation, then warned him about abominations in a manner that would raise even more questions.
--[] Yes, your name is Jade Agni.
-[] You switched to a vastly superior artificial body (and may have accidentally formed a cult in the process). Your friends also have their own versions of it.
-[] Your adoptive mother is an AI who could probably get admin access to every part of the the Internet if Kyubey doesn't interfere or freak out.
These options, on the other hand, should be included.
Mentioning Agneyastra's capabilities could potentially freak Hotaru out given how much she values her anonymity, but there's no getting around it if we want to use Agneyastra's hacking, or establish a secure channel of communication for emergencies. I suspect she'll want to place limits, but that's fine. The important part is informing her so she doesn't treat it as hostile action.
-[X] Just drop in everything that you think could possibly be a problem. It's not as though it'll be hard to find the culprit if other people somehow learn your secrets.
--[X] With the sole exception of your divinity. That particular claim might harm the credibility of the rest.
--[X] Stress the impracticality and reservations on uplifting, the improved vessels, and grief immunity. We might be able to do them eventually, or now if we really focus on it, but we have other commitments and we want to be careful.
I think that telling everything relevant, but divinity isn't really a relevant geopolitical concern, and is too unique to be a relevant helping tool to MGs.
Write in bit is for making sure that they don't get the wrong idea about how ready and / or willing we are to do some of the things mentioned in the vote.
[X] Keep talking to Kanon.
-[X] Ask about her experiences in OMG.
-[X] She's much more active than you'd expected a Blue to be. Isn't that the color of taking too much time to think things over?
-[X] "Are there rules for banning jerks from OMG?"
-[X] Does she know any useful Blue magic that isn't mind control? You've forced yourself to learn how to use Blue despite how annoying it often is, but you don't really like mental magic.
Combination of 'random socials that might be interesting' with 'actually relevant things'.
[X] Vebyast
[X] Yog
Mentioning Agneyastra's capabilities could potentially freak Hotaru out given how much she values her anonymity, but there's no getting around it if we want to use Agneyastra's hacking, or establish a secure channel of communication for emergencies. I suspect she'll want to place limits, but that's fine—the important part is informing her so she doesn't treat it as hostile action.
Hmm... you're right that Agneyastra's hacking abilities should be mentioned, but the "adoptive mother is an AI" part pretty much reveals that we have tinkertech. Maybe phrase it so that Hotaru assumes that Agneyastra is a Blue mage?
-[] Your adoptive mother specalizes in e-war and could probably get admin access to every part of the the Internet if Kyubey doesn't interfere or freak out.
"Indeed. While far less Green can be found in human settlements than many druids would prefer, it seems to be an order of magnitude easier to generate Green mana than it is to increase mana production for any other color. Attempts have been made to create various colors of 'harvesting' Enchantment, but aside from several storage Enchantments you will almost certainly want to look at, they have had little success. Mana-generating Enchantments have encountered similar failures. Grief Seeds can be tapped for Black mana, yet anyone trying will experience severe emotional disturbances in the process. In solutions you'd likely consider ethically unacceptable: living beings can be sacrificed to generate varying amounts of Black depending on the creature being sacrificed. The smarter they are, the more Black they appear to generate, although 'life force' appears to play a part as well; an elephant will generate hundreds of times more than a rat. Strong emotion can be tapped for small amounts of Red per person, but this will slowly exhaust those so tapped. If tapped individuals get enough sleep, there does not appear to be any evidence of long-term negative effects."
"Is an AI" is very relevant to her doing AI things. AI and Blue mages do things differently, and the concerns for Kyuubey detecting a Blue hacker are not the same as it detecting an AI.
"Is an AI" is very relevant to her doing AI things. AI and Blue mages do things differently, and the concerns for Kyuubey detecting a Blue hacker are not the same as it detecting an AI.
Well, then Hotaru will just have to live with imperfect information. Especially since the difference is totally irrelevant if Agneyastra uses a specific identifier/signature/certificate to verify her identity and Kyubey is just told to handle hacking attempts with said specific signature differently.
[X] Keep talking to Kanon.
-[X] Give her your name. (See why the reveal needs to be carefully managed?)
-[X] Ask about her experiences in OMG.
-[X] Who should we ask about useful Blue magic that isn't mind control? You're decent with Blue mana control and capacity, but you don't really like mental magic.
--[X] You're also interested in drawing in ambient mana from further away than you immedite surroundings. You've learned a bit about Harvest from a friend, but her version is rather taxing.
[X] Now that your mana sense has improved, what do you feel from Kibonoshi?
[X] Try to listen for prayers, both from here and Magnostadt. "Worship doesn't stretch across planes", but Neph didn't mention prayers.
[X] Agneyastra:
-[X] Please remind me 24h before the Reaper meeting
-[X] Research risks and benefits of channeling each color. Has anyone succeeded at multi-color channeling?
-[x] Recommended skills for each type of color mage to learn.
-[x] Known color synergies, especially for the colors you have regular access to. (Red/Blue, Red/Black, Red/White, etc.)
[X] Head to the middle of nowhere, drop off a letter for Kyubey, and tell Kanon where you put it.
-[X] Your soul no longer generates Grief, although this is something you'll have extreme difficulty replicating.
-[X] You were the first mana mage Kyubey ever found or experimented on. You subsequently vanished in what he'd almost certainly view as mysterious circumstances worthy of investigation, then warned him about abominations in a manner that would raise even more questions.
--[X] Yes, your name is Jade Agni.
-[X] You switched to a vastly superior artificial body (and may have accidentally formed a cult in the process). Your friends also have their own versions of it.
-[X] Your adoptive mother specalizes in e-war and could probably get admin access to every part of the the Internet if Kyubey doesn't interfere or freak out.
Reminder that the point of giving Hotaru this information is to check that nothing we do or are allows a Type 4 civilization to notice and subsequently destroy the planet.
