Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

Always Late · May 16, 2017

Shaseyu said:
She started running after they moved to Philadelphia, partly to get acquainted with new neighborhood, and partly because she couldn't sleep well either way, thanks to nightmares about Ziz.

This is a nice omake Shaseyu, but there's several small errors, missing articles. Things that show you're still practicing your english. That, or whatever spellcheck program you're using is shit.

Shaseyu said:
With time the nightmares were gone, and the city became familiar, but running had become a habit, a good way to energize both body and mind.

1. Taylor had nightmares about the Simurgh attack. Rather normal reaction for PTSD, but in classic Taylor fashion she just powers through it.
2. Taylor still has her running hobby.

Shaseyu said:
"Okay, Storm, let's start easy today." Taylor said, entering the training simulation.

Starting to see what I mean by missing articles?

Shaseyu said:
But with time and effort, she found a way to somehow split her attention, to be both inside and outside simulation.

Queen Administrator would be proud. That said, it's not an unheard of ability for high-end mages.

Shaseyu said:
The girl nodded again, her anxiety had in no way diminished.
"Storm, scenario Cadejo-3." she asked, and as soon as bunch of ghostly wolves appeared she threw at them a salvo of Flare Shooters with disabled safeties. It was the best way to distract herself from the impending meeting.

Shaseyu said:
He wanted her to socialize with her peers, but Taylor never was an outgoing person, even before Emma's betrayal. Her kind-of-friendship with Kayleigh was more than enough for her.

Shaseyu said:
And her education? She could receive a GED without any troubles, more so, she felt that thanks to Perfect Storm she knew some school subjects better than teachers.

This little detail has always bugged me about how non-americans write our messed-up education system.

A GED is how one graduates early from high school, but in practical terms it is not an alternative or equivalent to a High School Diploma, despite what some call it. It's a step down. It doesn't get you into a college or a job like a proper diploma does. If Taylor wants to leave high school and go to college, then the admissions office will be looking at her transcript and standardized test scores, not just the state-issued piece of paper. If she just wants to lose herself in the mask and hero full-time, then people will always hear 'GED' and think Taylor Hebert's a dropout.

Shaseyu said:
"Yep!" Kayleigh smiled. "Wanna go with us? The more, the merrier!"
After a short hesitation, she agreed.

Shaseyu said:
Dad and Sam would be happy, and it's really didn't matter for her where exactly she continued her work on cartridges. She was having troubles with the spell code of their charging.

Shaseyu said:
Whether it because of its Belkan origin or because Taylor didn't have much experience with mana transfer that was causing the problems, she didn't know. But she did not tolerate inefficiency in her spells.

Shaseyu said:
On the other hand, they forced her to try on and then buy one criminally revealing dress.

Shaseyu said:
That was Taylor's own mistake, really. When she tried it on she let herself smile, because she finally managed to fine-tune the process of charging and maximize cartridges output. And of course they thought she smiled because she liked the dress.

You mis-italicized.

Shaseyu said:
"I knew you liked it, fit you so good!" Kayleigh gushed.
"All the boys will be yours," Joanne gave her thumbs-up.

Shaseyu said:
To fight against a team of Laserdream, Oni Lee, Bastion, and a dozen of Beasts was much harder, but she managed to win. She didn't ask why Perfect Storm sent against her such an eclectic mix of dead and alive heroes and villains. She already knew the answer.
"Mistress should be ready to any eventuality."

Interesting. I wonder if Perfect Storm sends her against the Slaughter House Nine, or Hero, Alexandria, Eidolon, and Legend?

Shaseyu said:
Before that, she reviewed list of her spells for the last time today, tweaked several variables here and there to increase spells efficiency by an additional fraction of a per cent.

Aaaaand done.
See how those articles make things much more readable?

edale · May 16, 2017

Shaseyu said:
Snip

And here we have ~~Armsmaster~~ Taylor in ~~his~~ her never ending search for efficiency.

Oh, and @Always Late, There are legitimate reasons to get a GED over a diploma that don't involve being a dropout. Also, having a GED instead of a diploma will not harm your chances of getting into most colleges (nothing ivy league though), as long as you've taken your SATs and got a decent score on them (there are actually rare cases where having a GED instead of a diploma can help you get into college, thanks to various education programs, and there are some grants only available to GED holders). Though yes, most people will see GED and assume "dropout."

Shaseyu · May 16, 2017

Always Late said:
This is a nice omake Shaseyu, but there's several small errors, missing articles. Things that show you're still practicing your english. That, or whatever spellcheck program you're using is shit.

Yeah, articles are my weakness. Russian doesn't have them at all, so I don't have any idea why they are needed and where I should put them.
My translation and spell-check programms apparently don't know that too.

Always Late said:
This little detail has always bugged me about how non-americans write our messed-up education system.

Huh. Interesting tidbit.
Almost every fic has Taylor's musing about her getting GED, so I always assumed it's just another name for diploma...

UberJJK · May 16, 2017

Shaseyu said:
She started running after they moved to Philadelphia, partly to get acquainted with new neighborhood, and partly because she couldn't sleep well either way, thanks to nightmares about Ziz. With time the nightmares were gone, and the city became familiar, but running had become a habit, a good way to energize both body and mind.

This actually got me wondering about something. Now it may just be due to learning Strike Arts* but Vivio and her friends in Nanoha Vivid are full on superhuman even without transforming or using their devices.

*But that begs the question of how other mages, especially melee focused ones like Fate, keep up.

The most obvious example of this is in episode two at 18:34 where Vivio, in her ten year old body not her "adult mode", runs the 100m in 9.58 seconds. That is, for the record, the same time as Usain Bolt's world record run. Then there is the water cutting technique from episode four, starts around 16:10, where all of Vivio's friends can punch so hard as to split the water. Einheart is explicitly called out as creating a water column five meters height. Then there is Corona's training in Episode 10, starts at 4:25, which implies, but doesn't explicitly state, she can run the hundred meters in around the same time as Vivio despite. That last one is important because Corona is the "normal" one of the four girls with none of supergenetics, Rio has two mana conversion affinities no way that is natural, the others have.

I'm guessing that the superhuman abilities comes from some passive, or at least easily activated, augmentation spell. If that's the case then I'd bet we have the Belkin equivalent hidden behind Blitz Action. It makes sense since Flare Blade starts the melee tree, Blitz Action is the next step and provides a short term boost to speed, then [Insert Name] finishes the tree off by providing a lesser but long term/sustainable boost to general physical ability.

Oh and while I'm talking about Vivid:

Corona develops the spell for controlling golems into a spell that can control her body and uses it to great effect. While there are certainly limitations it does show that puppeting ones own body with magic is possible. In fact Einhart's flashback implies that Olivie puppeted her replacement arms with a similiar spell.

I bring this up because Calamity Witch's Telekinesis can affect living objects up to twice her mass. So it stands to reason she could use Telekinesis on herself should the situation arise. That might even be one the spells hidden under Telekinesis.

Silently Watches · May 16, 2017

Shaseyu said:
Taylor Hebert's Normal Day.

I like. Where do you want the point?

UberJJK said:
This actually got me wondering about something. Now it may just be due to learning Strike Arts* but Vivio and her friends in Nanoha Vivid are full on superhuman even without transforming or using their devices.

*But that begs the question of how other mages, especially melee focused ones like Fate, keep up.

The most obvious example of this is in episode two at 18:34 where Vivio, in her ten year old body not her "adult mode", runs the 100m in 9.58 seconds. That is, for the record, the same time as Usain Bolt's world record run. Then there is the water cutting technique from episode four, starts around 16:10, where all of Vivio's friends can punch so hard as to split the water. Einheart is explicitly called out as creating a water column five meters height. Then there is Corona's training in Episode 10, starts at 4:25, which implies, but doesn't explicitly state, she can run the hundred meters in around the same time as Vivio despite. That last one is important because Corona is the "normal" one of the four girls with none of supergenetics, Rio has two mana conversion affinities no way that is natural, the others have.

I'm guessing that the superhuman abilities comes from some passive, or at least easily activated, augmentation spell. If that's the case then I'd bet we have the Belkin equivalent hidden behind Blitz Action. It makes sense since Flare Blade starts the melee tree, Blitz Action is the next step and provides a short term boost to speed, then [Insert Name] finishes the tree off by providing a lesser but long term/sustainable boost to general physical ability.

Oh and while I'm talking about Vivid:

Corona develops the spell for controlling golems into a spell that can control her body and uses it to great effect. While there are certainly limitations it does show that puppeting ones own body with magic is possible. In fact Einhart's flashback implies that Olivie puppeted her replacement arms with a similiar spell.

I bring this up because Calamity Witch's Telekinesis can affect living objects up to twice her mass. So it stands to reason she could use Telekinesis on herself should the situation arise. That might even be one the spells hidden under Telekinesis.

Eh, I'm going to ignore much of Vivid. The power levels in that show just don't jive with the rest of the franchise. Some of the history that was revealed, sure, I'll use that, but that's about it.

edale · May 16, 2017

Shaseyu said:
Yeah, articles are my weakness. Russian doesn't have them at all, so I don't have any idea why they are needed and where I should put them.
My translation and spell-check programms apparently don't know that too.

Try running stuff you write through this: Hemingway Editor

Honestly, it's something I should remember to do more often myself, but hemingway editor is a GREAT tool for making sure your grammar's good. It's a web-based text editor, there's some short directions on the screen when you go there, just select it all, and start typing/paste your text into it and it'll mark out grammar and spelling mistakes for you (note: when it lists you as using a "passive voice" it's not necessarily a grammar mistake; passive voice something to be more worried about in research papers than creative writing).

As with any computerized check of this nature, it's not going to catch 100% of the problems, but it will catch 90% of them.

Always Late · May 16, 2017

Shaseyu said:
Huh. Interesting tidbit.
Almost every fic has Taylor's musing about her getting GED, so I always assumed it's just another name for diploma...

It is, yet it isn't. If there's one thing you or anyone else can mock about the US that's never going to go out of style, it's the US educational system.
Also, Taylor's musing about it since it's the quickest way for her to GTFO of her school.

Scope · May 16, 2017

Silently Watches said:
I like. Where do you want the point?

Shaseyu said:
This was born from my musings about in-universe explanation for all training points we threw at Taylor and Unlimited desire to master Charge Cartridges.

Silently Watches said:
Charge Cartridge (2/3 Adept)

I'm guessing that it is Charge Cartridges.

edale · May 17, 2017

Always Late said:
It is, yet it isn't. If there's one thing you or anyone else can mock about the US that's never going to go out of style, it's the US educational system.

Wait... We still have one of those? I thought Common Core killed it already?

Seriously, the Russians try an educational experiment that's supposed to run for a decade, but is shut down within 3 months because of how universally BAD it was. Then Bill Gates of all fucking people takes it and pushes it as a new education system for the US to use, all while making sure his kids and relatives go to non-public schools that won't use it, while getting a bunch of people backing it; not one of which had a single iota of educational experience or knowledge, and gets this used in EVERY public school for YEARS now?

God, I've had to re-teach my nieces almost everything they've learned in school, you don't want to know the nightmare that is math for common core students... (seriously, over 100 steps to solve something that [almost

] any of us could solve in 1-2 steps in some cases! AND you're supposed to show your work for ALL 100 steps of it [which involves drawing a lot of stupid line graphs that none of us had to deal with past kindergarten], and oh yes, let's not forget that you can get a passing grade without a single correct answer [because effort counts!], and a failing grade with 100% correct answers [because fuck actually teaching the kids anything]!)

I should probably stop here, I can really start going off on the idiocy that is Common Core for hours, and I'm sure none of you want to deal with that...

Always Late · May 17, 2017

edale said:
I can really start going off on the idiocy that is Common Core for hours, and I'm sure none of you want to deal with that...

No kidding...

Orm Embar · May 17, 2017

gentle reminder The thread topic is back that way, guys.

ReaperofInterest · May 17, 2017

In an effort to bring things back towards the topic of the quest, does anyone want to hazard a guess as to how acquiring the Knight Jacket will affect our Strong Shield and Shell Barrier? I mean, they're currently about...what, three times stronger than our Barrier Jacket? So would acquiring the Knight Jacket cause the Strong Shield to use the Knight Jacket's base toughness for their calculations, do you think?

Shaseyu · May 17, 2017

Silently Watches said:
I like. Where do you want the point?

Thanks!

Charge Cartridge, please.

Also:

Silently Watches said:
and part 3 by Shayesu

Silently Watches said:
Taylor Hebert's Normal Day by Shaseya

Silently Watches · May 17, 2017

Shaseyu said:
Thanks!
Charge Cartridge, please.

Also:

Fuck it, I'm done with this whole spelling thing. Way too hard for me.

Out of curiosity, does "Shaseyu" mean something in Russian?

UberJJK · May 17, 2017

Silently Watches said:
Charge Cartridge (3/3 Master) – Store mana in bullet casings for later use. Cartridges are fed into the Device from dimensional storage. The more powerful the spell, the more cartridges it consumes. 10 cartridges maximum can be created per day, and you are left greatly weakened until you get a full night's sleep. You will gain progressive mana poisoning the more cartridges you use at one time.

Interesting to see that now that we can make up to 10 cartridges per day Taylor is left "greatly weakened" instead of the just "weakened" of 8 cartridges:

Silently Watches said:
Charge Cartridge (2/3 Adept) – Store mana in bullet casings for later use. Cartridges are fed into the Device from dimensional storage. The more powerful the spell, the more cartridges it consumes. 8 cartridges can be created per day, and you are left weakened until you get a full night's sleep. You will gain progressive mana poisoning the more cartridges you use at one time.

landcollector · May 17, 2017

UberJJK said:
Interesting to see that now that we can make up to 10 cartridges per day Taylor is left "greatly weakened" instead of the just "weakened" of 8 cartridges:

I'm guessing that means we go to stage 3 or 4 of Mana Poisoning after making 10 cartridges rather than the Stage 2 or 3 from the Adept level?

UberJJK · May 17, 2017

landcollector said:
I'm guessing that means we go to stage 3 or 4 of Mana Poisoning after making 10 cartridges rather than the Stage 2 or 3 from the Adept level?

We only get mana poisoning from using cartridges not making them. This is how Silently Watches described what "weakened" meant when asked way back:

Silently Watches said:
Sitxar said:

@Silently Watches, could you tell us if by "weakened" you meant "after a good workout weakened" or "please let me die weakened"?

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I meant it as "You REALLY don't want to get in a fight because you'll have basically no mana left" weakened. Subjectively, you won't feel great, but it is little more than the malaise you would get from a minor cold.

So I'm guessing "greatly weakened" would mean going from having basically no mana left to actually having no mana left. That would probably bump up the general feeling of unwellness a bit but no where near mana poisoning level.s

Shaseyu · May 17, 2017

Silently Watches said:
Out of curiosity, does "Shaseyu" mean something in Russian?

Nope, it's just my initials and first letters of family name.
Thank you for correction!

landcollector said:
I'm guessing that means we go to stage 3 or 4 of Mana Poisoning after making 10 cartridges rather than the Stage 2 or 3 from the Adept level?

Cartridges creation shouldn't give us Poisoning at all.
I presume, mastering of the spell let Taylor pour all her mana into Cartridges, without any leftovers.

Always Late · May 17, 2017

Silently Watches said:
Fuck it, I'm done with this whole spelling thing. Way too hard for me.

And editor's work is never done...

landcollector · May 17, 2017

UberJJK said:
We only get mana poisoning from using cartridges not making them. This is how Silently Watches described what "weakened" meant when asked way back:

Shaseyu said:
Cartridges creation shouldn't give us Poisoning at all.
I presume, mastering of the spell let Taylor pour all her mana into Cartridges, without any leftovers.

I'll admit to not remembering that clearly, and possibly being off-the-mark in my guessing. *shrugs*

Silently Watches · May 17, 2017

UberJJK said:
Interesting to see that now that we can make up to 10 cartridges per day Taylor is left "greatly weakened" instead of the just "weakened" of 8 cartridges:

Part of it is making the description more accurate. Part of it is that 10 cartridges is equivalent to emptying your Linker Core completely, and even with taking a break to let it refill a little, you'd still be running on fumes. This is why I recommended you not make cartridges in the time slots you intend for combat.

Always Late said:
And editor's work is never done...

I see your filthy troll bait!

In other news, I have next chapter about 1/3 written. Figuring out what to do with your die roll was challenging, but I have an idea that should work.

DonLyn · May 17, 2017

@Silently Watches

Is making cartridges an all or nothing kind of deal?

As in we have to make all ten at once, we can't make one or two a day just before bed?

edale · May 17, 2017

Silently Watches said:
I see your filthy troll bait!

In other news, I have next chapter about 1/3 written. Figuring out what to do with your die roll was challenging, but I have an idea that should work.

You should just make him the thread's official beta (not the story's beta, the threads, because god knows he doesn't just grammar check the story posts, lol).

Silently Watches · May 17, 2017

DonLyn said:
@Silently Watches

Is making cartridges an all or nothing kind of deal?

As in we have to make all ten at once, we can't make one or two a day just before bed?

In reality, no, it wouldn't be. For this quest? Yes. It goes along with the "time is your primary resource" theme that this quest has been running on since the beginning.

ReaperofInterest · May 19, 2017

@Silently Watches, I have a question regarding NPC mage and Dual Guardian Beast interaction. In the past, you have said that having two Guardian Beasts before a mage's core reaches S-Rank size will slow their spell acquisition rate and training rate. But you have also said that for non-Taylor mages, their spells will automatically start at Adept, and won't progress any further except in special circumstances.

So, my question is if a NPC mage like Lacey after she gets a Template acquires two Guardian Beasts before her Linker Core reaches its full size, how will she be affected?

Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

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