Damn it. The hand puns were for Kyousuke.
Lighter for the user? Like with the hammer? Interesting...
It really does raise the question of how it was better, without the effects persisting. Presumably the staff made grief limbs, but this one might have generated actual biomass, which was held together by grief (which would mean her arm melted when we left in her vision. Ew.) If that's the case, then we could use it later to begin large healing projects (like arms) and then heal out the connecting grief.
 
What are the other four? If the Infinity Gauntlet gives one control of the universe, do we need to attain full control of our 'barrier' to get all the gems?
6 total (I misremembered)

Soul (green) - necessary for unwitching grief seeds?
Time (orange) - Homura?
Space (purple)
Mind (blue) - have
Reality (yellow)
Power (red)

And yeah, the blue would be mind.
 
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Hm. Not much to vote for in the immediate future unless we intend to give Mami a heart attack by running off. I take it we vote now for how to spend the evening? Someone probably remembers what we were supposed to do tonight, but it ain't me.
We could do more science - figure out if the gauntlet thingy has any effect on the results of the experiments we've already done; anything we were planning but didn't get to, etc.

Or we could sleep. Do we need sleep?
 
6 total (I misremembered)

Soul (green) - necessary for unwitching grief seeds?
Time (orange) - Homura?
Space (purple)
Mind (blue) - have
Reality (yellow)
Power (red)

And yeah, the blue would be mind.
...I get what you guys are driving at (the gems symbolizing the extent of our power), but we could just will them into existence at any time, no?
 
I'll square with you guys - the faux Infinity Gauntlet happened because you guys didn't specify an object and I thought it was funny.

The gems do vaguely correspond to abilities, yes, but you don't actually have to make the glove or get other gems.
 
...I get what you guys are driving at (the gems symbolizing the extent of our power), but we could just will them into existence at any time, no?
Depends on if the gem is something we created, or something inherent to Sabrina (possibly related to her wish). Time, at least, I would expect to reside with Homura. The rest would be pure speculation.
 
I'll square with you guys - the faux Infinity Gauntlet happened because you guys didn't specify an object and I thought it was funny.

The gems do vaguely correspond to abilities, yes, but you don't actually have to make the glove or get other gems.

Even if it could have been something other than a glove, having it "makes our magic work better" as specified when we asked for it, right? I mean, Oriko did predict an improvement (that just wasn't good enough for healing purposes)
 
We could do more science - figure out if the gauntlet thingy has any effect on the results of the experiments we've already done; anything we were planning but didn't get to, etc.

Or we could sleep. Do we need sleep?
I figured we would attempt more social tonight. So, I forget are we doing the party tonight or not? If not, then maybe find some excuse to leave Mami alone (not easy given that she gets nervous being away from us during school even when in constant telepathic contact with us) and go visit Kasamino?
 
You stand, moving over. "Um, could you move? I, uh, can't reach your arm," you say, mentally adding, there's a Kirika in the way.
you say, mentally adding, "there's a Kirika in the way."
?

"Golden," you reply. Kirika loops up at you, and her citrine eyes crinkle into a grin. She mouths a few words at you. 'Your oujo?'
Typo.

6 total (I misremembered)

Soul (green) - necessary for unwitching grief seeds?
Time (orange) - Homura?
Space (purple)
Mind (blue) - have
Reality (yellow)
Power (red)

And yeah, the blue would be mind.
Well, let's not put too much stock on this, it might just be a reference.

...I get what you guys are driving at (the gems symbolizing the extent of our power), but we could just will them into existence at any time, no?
Maybe? We don't know what they are, so I don't know.

Ninja'd
Kirika a cute. Oriko too I guess said:
You flex the gauntlet. It looks like it's made of metal, but it bends and warps without complaint, the crystal twinkling as it catches the light. Of course, it also glows Witch at your senses.

Kirika lifts her head off Oriko's side and gives the gauntlet a curious look. "Shiny," she observes in a solemn tone.

...

You stand, moving over. "Um, could you move? I, uh, can't reach your arm," you say, mentally adding, there's a Kirika in the way.

Oriko nods. "Kirika? Let Sabrina-" Kirika bounces off the sofa, circles around to the opposite side, and then sprawls across the couch to lay her head on Oriko's lap. The seer smiles, her good hand coming up to cup Kirika's cheek. The black haired girl closes her eyes, nuzzling against the hand with a blissful smile.

...

"Mmmmnm," Kirika says. "Orikoooooo can I try?"

Oriko nods. "Of course, dear."

Kirika bounces upright. "Yay!" she cheers. "OK! Teach me, Sabrina-senpai?"

You can't help but grin at her enthusiasm. "OK, but there isn't much to teach. As far as I can tell, it's really about just trying to do it. Like, you know how you knew how to roofhop without having learned how to?"

"Yeah, but I read lots of magical girl manga," Kirika chirps.

"You... of course you did," you say.

...

"Yes?" The seer gives you a regal, questioning look. How she manages to look regal while down an arm and having her girlfriend half sprawled across her lap is beyond you, but she manages it with aplomb and unparalleled poise.


...

"Right, so, Asunaro... Do you know of the group called the Pleaides Saints?" You flex your will, shaping the Grief into little models of the girls in question, each in their transformed outfits.

Kirika peers at the models curiously. "They need pants," she observes sagely.

...

"Golden," you reply. Kirika loops up at you, and her citrine eyes crinkle into a grin. She mouths a few words at you. 'Your oujo?'

...

"No," Oriko says, lowering her hand from her face. "Sabrina, it's time for you to go, right? My arm can wait a day or two."

"Awwww Orikooooooo I want to hear the joke," Kirika whines, looking pleadingly at the seer.
Pleiades stuff aside, hanging out with O&K payed off pretty well.

Firnagzen said:
"No," Oriko says, frowning. "Give me a moment, please." Her frown deepens as she concentrates, sea green eyes sliding shut. Her Gem bubbles slowly with corruption. Finally, she opens her eyes again, looking faintly surprised. "This works better, but it isn't... perfect? The effects still don't persist fully." She sets the glove down on the table.
So, I'm baffled. I was thinking a reason this could fail would be because we don't know much about magic in general, but for it to work 'better' and the effects to persist partially? Yeah, I don't know.

Firnagzen said:
"Even Kazusa?" you ask, the model of the girl drifting forward. Kazusa Michiru, nicknamed Kazumi.

Oriko grimaces, thinking it over. "Yes, I think."
I'm not sure, but would it be possible to confuse this one with the other one? Is there a clone or something?

Firnagzen said:
Oriko studies the model, looking uneasy. "It..." she frowns. "Are you sure you should be revealing this? Here?"
So, it's not just people inside here that's worried.

Firnagzen said:
The frown remains, but she nods slowly, and she closes her eyes, searching with her powers. "It's a drifting Witch," she murmurs. "It arrives... three days hence, in West Mitakihara."
No salvation to be done.

Firnagzen said:
"It doesn't... it's not a problem," Oriko says.
It matters. It's not a problem.

Firnagzen said:
"O-oh," Mami says. You can imagine her biting her lip and looking down. "I-I'll see you after school?"
What would I give to be a classmate of Mami right now. I can't imagine the weird looks she must've gotten today. Moodswings?
 
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Eventually, she shakes her head, eyes opening. They're slightly glazed over. "Too far, too many events."
We have an outer boundary for backtracking, anyway. Two weeks is too much. Probably figure one week as an upper limit.
The frown remains, but she nods slowly, and she closes her eyes, searching with her powers. "It's a drifting Witch," she murmurs. "It arrives... three days hence, in West Mitakihara."
And drifting, which means she didn't witch out here. Still didn't check for any local witch spawns, though. Oh well.


10 minutes before school ends. And we still have a roomful of grief following us around. Mmm. Tired. Deal with planning later.


Back on the Kyuubey topic, some questions that I would eventually like to ask him:
  • How many of the grief marbles, like the ones I gave you before, are equivalent to the energy you'd gain from 1 grief seed? Is there variance between grief seeds?
  • When you get a grief seed, how much of it is useful to you? Are you using the grief contained in it? And how much of that grief can you extract? All of it? Or only enough to drop it to what would be considered an unused state?
  • Is the process of extracting the grief destructive to the grief seed? If not, do you still have all the grief seeds you've ever collected? Or do you not extract it at all, and use some other method of energy collection?
  • How many grief seeds do you collect per day, worldwide?
  • How many of my marbles are equivalent to the energy you'd gain from one magical girl turning into a witch (not counting the grief seed it would drop later, when killed)? You can give a range that covers typical karmic potentials (95th percentile).
  • On an abstract power scale, and purely from the standpoint of energy extraction (not time efficiency), which (if either) is better: 10 girls with karmic potential 1, or 1 girl with karmic potential 10? How much of a difference is there?
 
Face palms were expected. The jokes were supposed to be bad. Suppose we could try to come up with something intended to make Oriko laugh, but fuck if I know how to do that.
The jokes were so bad we got kicked out. Or Oriko knew we needed to get going to meet up with Mami. I'd prefer to think it was the former, rather than the latter.
 
Oh well, Best Buddy thought they were (mostly) funny. That's a win in my book.

I'm so glad we didn't kill them. Kirika's flipping adorable.
 
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