[X] Keep talking to Kanon.
-[X] Let her know you're writing a letter and will ping her when you've placed it.
-[x] Re: Pyro conference:
--[x] Have Mom send Kanon videos and other documentation from back when your soul gem still generated grief.
--[x] If that doesn't help, (check with Mom and then) offer to reimburse plane tickets and housing.
--[x] If those are still insufficient, you can demonstrate to another pyro, but you won't be available again until a week or two from now.
"Mom, could you please send Kanon a few short videos showing my pre-surgery Soul Gem cleansing stuff?"
"Of course; sent."
You turn back to the chat and open an extra window. Kanon is only human and staring at the screen while she replies isn't particularly productive, so you start writing your letter while you wait for responses.
(2:49 AM) Guest: 1: I'll write a letter and tell you when it's planted. 2: There should be a few vids from before in your mailbox.
(2:49 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: K.
(2:50 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: So, I didn't really doubt that you could do it? Sorry if I was unclear. Adaptation for people w/o fireproof souls is basically 90% of what you'd need to do, though, sooooo yeah.
(2:50 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: I don't really want to schedule something like that only to have you show off something only you can do. It'd be neat, but if we're going to go to all that trouble, I'd prefer not to jump the gun and schedule it too early. Learning magic isn't easy.
(2:50 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: It isn't just the cost, either. This thing is likely to be a media circus even if we try to keep it quiet AND it means taking a bunch of Magical Girls away from the cities they're guarding for a day or two.
(2:50 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: TL;DR: Magic doesn't follow a sensible schedule. We really shouldn't assume you can get it to cooperate within a week.
(2:50 AM) Guest: I AM magic.
You pause and stare at the words on the screen. You don't know what possessed you to write that; you'd been thinking in terms of
"I am magic itself," not
"I am magical." Which... isn't true? You're magical, but you're not exactly the goddess of magic or anything. You don't think you're the goddess of
anything. Maybe you should talk with Sigurd about that? You feel as though every other divine being has Domains they're associated with. You? Not so much.
(2:50 AM) Guest: Um, ignore that, please.
(2:50 AM) Guest: I've already made fire that selectively seeks out cancer. There was some collateral damage and lots of healing was needed afterward, but that's because it was reacting with life, tainted though it may have been. Works for guidance, not so much for selective targeting.
(2:50 AM) Guest: Grief isn't alive and despite its similarity to Black, it isn't Black mana. It's closer to thoroughly corrupted Red. Mana of the soul IS alive, so if I bind the fire to...
You stare at your unfinished sentence for a long moment before finishing it with an ellipsis and tapping
enter. Apparently, it's harder to ignore foreign knowledge when it's words on a screen instead of something spoken aloud.
(2:50 AM) Guest: Lost my train of thought, sorry. Still, worst case scenario, I call upon magical shenanigans given form (weird story, expensive and unique to me) and that'll give us the answer.
(2:51 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Wish?
(2:51 AM) Guest: In part, yes.
(2:51 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: K I guess. If you're sure your backup would work, I guess I can stick my neck out for you? *shrug* Still not sold on this plan, but I guess worst case scenario you can show people how to make fire wings.
(2:51 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Out of curiosity, did you literally wish to become a color mage?
(2:51 AM) Guest: No.
(2:51 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Okay. Talk to you later, then? I'll email you with conference plans later.
(2:51 AM) Guest: I am going to finish and plant a letter shortly; could you not go to sleep until I can send you the coordinates?
(2:51 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Oh, right. Sure.
[X] More topics for Agneyastra to research, though she might wait to give you the results until you aren't busy.
-[X] Research risks and benefits of Channeling each color. Has anyone succeeded at multi-color Channeling?
Channeling and Overchanneling seem to work best when you have a goal you
actually care about. Some mages have gotten into the habit of "
looking for trouble" when they want to practice either. You don't think that popular term is particularly accurate; that phrase implies searching for a fight, yet it's more accurate to say they're looking for
problems. Hunting Witches is a popular method of practicing Overchanneling, but the personality tweaks make it too dangerous to practice normal Channeling that way.
Dual-color Channeling seems to involve making a mixture of mana
before you run it through your soul. Because of the varying interactions between colors, Magical Girls have only managed to map some of the theoretical dual-color options.
It doesn't seem to be possible to dual-color Overchannel.
Green Channeling is a little odd.
Green mage will gain a supernatural awareness of how changes to plants and animals will impact their
natural environment or the current problem facing them. The responses of humanity tends to be almost completely ignored; the only emotion Green seems to reliably understand and account for is the flight variant of
fear.
Red/
Green Channeling seems to turn people into what's been described as either
"killer ragebeasts" or
"instinct given form" depending on who you're talking to. Either way, it doesn't seem to be something capable of solving very many modern problems. In addition, Agneyastra has outright banned trying it for some reason. You're not quite sure why.
White/
Green Channeling is known to be
possible, but the results have varied rather heavily. Solutions to problems have ranged from making a flock of killer doves to giant construction ants to punching out opponents.
White Channeling encourages its users to tackle problems with the aid of other people. If nobody else is available, making Construct(ed) assistants seems to be the first step.
White/
Blue Channeling has earned the nickname of "
Channel Lawyer." Those using it tend to search for preexisting solutions that can be applied to the current problem instead of inventing a magical solution. It's surprisingly effective to the point where there's currently widespread debate over whether
White/
Blue channeling should be allowed in
actual courtrooms. There isn't anyone
trying yet, but since at least one lawyer
is a practicing OMG, it's considered to only be a matter of time until someone tries.
Nobody seems to know more than you do about
Red Channeling, but there does seem to be a consensus to
not use it to help with romantic confessions. As one girl put it,
"It works pretty well if they like you back and are OK with spontaneous hugs, but if they don't, having almost zero impulse control is not helpful."
Black Channeling has mages look at problems from a different angle: how can they simultaneously solve a problem
and ensure it won't crop up again? In many cases, this means pursuing power.
Red/
Black Channeling encourages mages to pursue their desires
and to obtain what they need to ensure their path forward is clear of obstructions.
Black/
Blue Channeling focuses on self-improvement and eliminating problems at their source. Contrary to the memes displaying
Warlocks as bloodthirsty maniacs, the fear of consequences actually seems to be enough to keep most
Black Channel-egos in line; there are more stories of bullied teens compiling and releasing evidence on social media than there are of anyone actually getting hurt. When
Black-channelers kill others, it's usually only other Magical Girls.
-[x] Known color synergies, especially for the colors you have regular access to. (Red/Blue, Red/Black, Red/White, etc.)
Mom tries to research color synergies for you, but it's apparently still a budding field. Information on even identical color combinations is often contradictory and seems to vary by mage.
-[x] Recommended skills for each type of color mage to learn.
Cleansing is right at the top of the list for every color of mage except
Red. Harvest, or the ability to draw mana from nearby lands, is a close second; practicing mages apparently have a habit of taking public transportation when they're trying to practice magic, often more than tripling the mana available to any given mage. There's even a project among MG fans to make mana-laden daily routes for every city on Earth, if one that's doing rather poorly. Since mana concentration varies by area and skill varies by MG, the effective range to reach another land is similarly varied.
Blue mages are told to master cyrokinesis. Apparently, the same skills can be applied to many other kinds of
Blue spell, but the explanations for
how seem to devolve into an awful lot of artistic fluff. Something about how
Blue acts like an ice sculpture?
Red mages don't seem to have
any skills that they "need" to learn. Everyone seems to be pursuing whatever they feel like. Pyrokinesis does seem to be the most popular, but nobody is really telling
Red mages that they need to learn it.
Green mages are encouraged to master
Nurture, or what you used to think of as
Rapid Growth. Skilled users can vastly increase the mana of even public parks within a few weeks.
(Ability Renamed: Rapid Growth -> Nurture)
Black mages are told to practice their mana control extensively before they try to do anything with it. Apparently,
Black from certain sources has addictive properties if it isn't handled carefully. Even if it's "untainted," sufficient quantities can do awful things to living beings it contacts,
especially pets. Black mages might have resistance to the negative effects of
Black, but those around them do not.
White mages usually learn healing fairly quickly; it's cheaper than MG healing, doesn't require half as much knowledge of anatomy, and is fairly forgiving of mistakes. There's never any shortage of volunteers for them to practice on. Second? How to temporarily imbue their Soul Gems with
Indestructibility, which is apparently a thing they can do. From the description, it sounds like it's fundamentally different from mere reinforcement. You aren't making them sturdier so much as suppressing the concept of damage in an object. The larger the target, the more expensive Indestructibility will be. Thus far, nobody has managed to assemble enough mana to cast it on a person for more than five seconds or so.
Written lessons on Indestructibility are almost completely incomprehensible. Most mages advise meeting with another White mage for tutoring.
(Ability Discovered: Indestructibility [Rank 0])
[x] Prepare a dead-drop for Kyubey's controller:
-[x] Introduce yourself as the Magical Girl Colored Mage who gave the warning about completely depleting mana from an area.
-[x] You've been off-planet since you contracted. Far enough away that Kyubey couldn't reach you.
-[x] You want to help as much as you can but you understand that keeping control of Kyubey is critical, so you want to ask what things not to do when you reintroduce yourself to the world.
-[x] Some topics of concern include: wildly successful (albeit hard-to-reproduce) Soul Gem surgery, biological immortality, strong AI, your own name, artificial bodies strictly superior to magical girl bodies, exotic magic and technology.
-[x] You'll be leaving again in a couple hours and won't have time to manage more than quick check-ins for the next week or two.
-[X] Ask Mom to include various methods to contact you that'd let Kyubey's controller return a message to you before you leave. Better to save time if possible.
You end up leaving the letter taped atop a street lamp. You doubt anyone is going to be reaching it up there.
(3:00 AM) Guest: I placed the letter. There should be an email in your inbox with the coordinates? I taped it to the top of a street lamp.
(3:01 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Alright, I'll relay that for you. So is that everything or did you want something else? If you want to trade magic tricks with someone, I can probably set you up with someone discreet until you're cleared to be around Kyubey. (Kyubey lifeling will obviously be down while you're meeting w/them, so be sure to help keep an eye on their Soul Gem)
(3:01 AM) Kanon [Enchantress] [Moderator]: Kyubey Lifeline*
[] Decline. You have a bunch to do and not a lot of time to do it in.
-[] Say goodbye to Kanon and planeswalk back to your friends.
-[] Step in and out of Eternity, aiming for the Forest of Summers.
[] Accept Kanon's offer of aid.
-[] Does she have someone who can teach you about normal MG tricks? You've sorta been neglecting most of those in favor of your colored magic.
-[] Can she find you someone good at teaching Indestructibility?
[] Keep chatting with Kanon.
-[] So, any chance she can help you sell a small fortune in gemstones?
-[] Write-in
[] Write-in
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