What, not [BLACK BLOOD OF THE EARTH]? Possibly [BLESSED] and [IMPROVED EFFECT] and other miscellaneous modifiers and I just realized neither of you are actually on PLHM are you?
Your mind fills with a back and forth debate of whether you should try out something with your powers. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't...
Hm.
The fact that you seem to loose track of time when you make something with your Grief powers is kiiind of a concern, though. Especially if you might plummet out of the sky while doing it.
... Nah, it's not like you loose control of the huge bunch of Grief that you now have perpetually following you now, anyway. Crashing into something might be a concern, though.
Then again... when you fail to make something, you realise it immediately. You don't lose any time - rather, you gain a headache. Which... is probably an acceptable tradeoff?
Hrrrm. In the end... you'll give it a shot, you think. Just a small test. You'll try and make a book that contains something you don't know.
You flare your wings wide, pumping hard to gain height.
Best to warn Mami, too. "Hey, Mami?" you pulse to her.
"Ah, Sabrina? School's nearly over, I'll be there soon," she responds, sounding a little surprise.
"Yup, so will I!" you say. "I'm flying over right now, actually. But anyway - I'm trying out something right now, I might go unresponsive for a bit, OK? But I'll be fine."
"Ah..." Mami says, concern creeping into her voice. "Um... be careful, Sabrina."
"Yeah," you say, nodding to yourself. "I will."
"Alright," Mami says. "I- I'll see you after school?"
"Yeah," you say firmly. "You will."
"Alright," she says again.
High enough. You lock your wings into a glide that, worse comes to worst, will land you somewhere in the industrial district. You think.
You take a deep breath, summoning a blob of Grief to your hands, and you focus on it. This shouldn't be too hard... You want to know something you don't already. You push, pouring your will into the blob of Grief, and-
You have something.
There's a paperback book, thin and new and crisp, held in your hands and there's something right in front of you-
You snap into a roll. You barely miss- your wings nearly clip the side of the steel structure.
Climb, climb, climb! And left to avoid that tower, and tuck your wing in to avoid cleaving through a steel strut, and veer left again and then up and over that concrete batching plant-
A few frantic, panicky moments later, you're flying straight and true again, the book dangling from one hand. You exhale a sigh of relief as you coast through the clear skies, angling towards Mitakihara Middle School.
It's a plain looking thing, a cheerful pastel blue, with a plain, unmarked cover. You didn't have anything in particular in mind when you made it, so... You have no idea what to expect, really.
You open it.
... Numbers, tables, terse annotations for weight and consistency and proportions of sand and cement and aggregate and pozzolans and fly ash and water aaaaand you're pretty sure that these are concrete mixing specifications.
... Huh.
You weren't really expecting that to work.
Well then.
You shake your head, incidentally brushing the hair out of your eyes with your free hand. That's a thing. You page idly through the book, though hmm... you don't have much more flight time. You should probably check in with Kirika before you land.
"Hey, Kirika," you pulse out towards the black haired girl, leafing through page after page of concrete specifications and curing times and myriad details. "How's the anons biting?"
"Heya," you say, still speeding back towards Mitakihara Middle School. "How're you doing?"
"Eh," she says, and you get the distinct impression of a shrug.
You sigh, wincing. You wish you could do more for her, but there's just so many things demanding your attention. "Hey, Kirika. I'll be there soon, OK?"
"I know," she says."I know. Just... hurry, please?"
"I will, Kirika," you say, still paging through that book. Did you really get a book full of concrete specifications? "I'll come as soon as I can."
"OK," she says. "Today, right?"
"Yeah," you agree. "Today."
"OK," she sighs. "See you soon."
"Yeah," you say. "Soon."
You end the call, exhaling. Damn it. Too many things.
Tsk.
You fly onwards, thundering wingbeats driving you towards school. Absently, you dismiss the book.
More important... Or more immediate concerns, now. Or not even concerns, really - your friends. You smile to yourself as you coast to a landing atop a nearby building, wings folding and dissolving.
You drop neatly into a nearby alleyway and stroll out into the street, wandering over to the school. You lean against the gate, raising an eyebrow at the truant officer standing there. The severe looking woman frowns at you, but seems reluctant to accost you.
The schoolbell rings a few moments later, and chatter explodes from the halls. You can hear the scrape of chairs and the rumble of hundreds of feet in the corridors, and a bare minute later, Mami emerges from the front door, her warm golden eyes scanning around for you.
You wave, pushing off the gate and waving at her.
Mami smiles, and crosses the distance with a few swift steps.
"Hi, Mami!" you call.
"Hi, Sabrina," she says as she approaches, smiling. "How are you? Did the thing you were working on, um, work?"
"It worked, kind of," you say, returning the smile. "I tried to make a book from Grief."
"Oh?" she asks. Over her shoulder, you can see the rest of your friends emerging from the main doors.
"Yeah... I tried to make a book containing information I don't know," you say. "I uh. Well, I got a book full of concrete batching specifications."
Mami blinks. "... um."
"Yeaaaah," you say, rubbing at your nose. "It's a success, I guess."
"Hey, Sabrina!" Sayaka calls, waving energetically at you, two school bags slung over her shoulder. Hitomi walks at her side, looking exasperated, and Madoka just a step behind. Homura brings up the rear of the group.
"Hey," you call, waving back at your friends. They chorus greetings, and you smile around at everyone.
"So... how d'you guys want to do things today?" you ask, beaming at them and waving down the path. Walk and talk.
"I thought we were going to the hospital?" Sayaka asks, turning to follow.
"Hmm?" Hitomi glances at her. "I thought it was training first?" She smiles faintly. "I must admit, I'm quite curious to see what it's like."
"Eh?" Sayaka asks, blinking.
"In fairness, we haven't really decided," you offer. "But I was going to suggest that, actually. Train a bit first, and we can teach you how to heal, then you can heal Kyousuke?"
Sayaka blinks. "Oh! That sounds like a good idea," she says, brightening. "C'mon, then!" She starts down the street, ranging out ahead of you.
"Ah... where are we going?" Madoka asks.
Sayaka blinks, stopping in her tracks. "Well, uh..."
You shake your head, snickering at Sayaka. Mami, walking at your side, covers her giggles with a hand. You glance back at Madoka, smiling. "Madoka, are you coming?"
"Ah... yes?" she asks, tilting her head in confusion. Beside her, you can see a frown flicker across Homura's face.
[] Write-in
-[x]Ask them how they want to handle things. Suggest that we could do some training for a while, then Sayaka could keep healing Kyosuke for a bit after we show her how it works? We might need to skip dinner today, unfortunately...
--[x]If Madoka wants to come, ask Mami if it'd be okay for us to talk to Madoka for a while later, after we've gotten somewhere with Sayaka's training.
---[x]Ask Mami what she thinks would be best.
----[x]Telepathy Madoka. Ask her if we could talk for a while at some point during Sayaka's training.
[x]Blueberry training! Ask about clear spaces near the hospital, maybe?
-[x]Ask if Hitomi wants to come. Maybe we could meet up with her at the hospital afterwards?
=====
... Apparently I'm an idiot and didn't count the votes correctly. I blame sleepiness. But for once, I'll exert a little GM executive power.
Absolute nonsense. A result of "404 Griefhax not found divide by eggplant and reboot universe to continue", with a side order of LOOK OUT SKYSCRAPER.
Sabrina can now mix concrete. Break out the fireworks.
I mean...this really isn't a success by any stretch. It's babble. Filler. Something Sabrina by definition could have done without wasting the time on the vote if we felt so inclined. I mean it's Grief Meta Google. When Sabrina has metaknowledge. Why.
Can we please vete our science a little more carefully next time?
Anywayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
The vote.
1. Ping Homura. We want to talk to Madoka a bit in between training, and there's no excuse for us to leave her and Hitomi out now. Her being there'll be good for everyone
2. Encourage Blueberry.
3. Blueberry training.
4. Let Mami take over for a bit. Take Madoka aside. Ask her if she's really alright, if there's anything else she wanted to talk about, how she feels about Sayaka...
5. At some point, talk to just Sayaka. Lay our cards on the table about our goals for Magical girls and spreading cleanses, and Walpurgisnacht...and ask for her help in saving the world, one magical girl to another.
6. Drop people off, go with Mumi to oriko's
I did pretty much exactly what we asked it to, which means we can reasonably expect it to give us the knowledge we ask of it next time.
This is where we start pushing it for limitations. Is it really just grief google? What does it know, and what doesn't it? Does it know all things humans know? Does it just tap into the internet? Does it know what incubators know? Maybe this particular blob of grief contains the sadness of a concrete mixer.
Next time we make a book, we ask it to tell us all the things we don't know about our power. Or we can ask it to give us info about witches, or clear seeds, or advanced incubator science. Or something else.
The point is that we've established a baseline, and now we can expand on it into something useful.
I did pretty much exactly what we asked it to, which means we can reasonably expect it to give us the knowledge we ask of it next time.
This is where we start pushing it for limitations. Is it really just grief google? What does it know, and what doesn't it? Does it know all things humans know? Does it just tap into the internet? Does it know what incubators know? Maybe this particular blob of grief contains the sadness of a concrete mixer.
Next time we make a book, we ask it to tell us all the things we don't know about our power. Or we can ask it to give us info about witches, or clear seeds, or advanced incubator science. Or something else.
The point is that we've established a baseline, and now we can expand on it into something useful.
This is where we should drop a bad idea like a ton of bricks...or a concrete mixer and never try something this poorly thought out again.
Do you not see what the meaning of being given technically accurate nonsense is?
It doesn't work. It's a joke. A flop. A failure. Firn is basically going LOL YOU GET WHAT YOU ASKED FOR TECHNICALLY with this response. It is not the miracle cure it is not useful and it is not worth the time we've spent and probably will spend voting for it.
Read between the lines. This is a dead end that will eat update after update for no gain. It's useless now and it'll be useless every other time it gets voted for.
But hey if people actually thought or think this line of research will give the answer to life the universe and everything before they'll keep throwing metaphorical good money after bad short of anything less than Feathers showing up in person to tell us not to bother.
Nothing of relevance happened with your "test". We learned absolutely nothing from your magic bullet and you're insisting we need to spend more time and effort on a predictable dead end like a grandmother working a vegas slot machine trying to get a payout.
Seriously, your idea doesn't work. It flopped in all but the most technical sense. It was, in essence, a dangerous waste of time. Just as predicted.
This is where we drop a bad idea like a ton of bricks...or a concrete mixer.
Do you not see what the meaning of being given technically accurate nonsense is?
It doesn't work. It's a joke. A flop. A failure. Firn is basically going LOL YOU GET WHAT YOU ASKED FOR TECHNICALLY with this response. It is not the miracle cure it is not useful and it is not worth the time we've spent and probably will spend voting for it.
Read between the lines. This is a dead end that will eat update after update for no gain. It's useless now and it'll be useless every other time it gets voted for.
This is where we should drop a bad idea like a ton of bricks...or a concrete mixer and never try something this braindead again.
Do you not see what the meaning of being given technically accurate nonsense is?
It doesn't work. It's a joke. A flop. A failure. Firn is basically going LOL YOU GET WHAT YOU ASKED FOR TECHNICALLY with this response. It is not the miracle cure it is not useful and it is not worth the time we've spent and probably will spend voting for it.
Read between the lines. This is a dead end that will eat update after update for no gain. It's useless now and it'll be useless every other time it gets voted for.
But hey if people actually thought it'd give the answer to life the universe and everything before they'll keep throwing metaphorical good money after bad short of anything less than Feathers showing up in person to tell us not to bother.
Nothing of relevance happened with your "test". We learned absolutely nothing from your magic bullet and you're insisting we need to spend more time and effort on a predictable dead end like a grandmother working a vegas slot machine trying to get a payout.
Seriously, your idea doesn't work. It flopped in all but the most technical sense. It was, in essence, a dangerous waste of time. Just as predicted.
@Ugolino Don't bother fighting them now man, they smell blood in the water, and they aren't going to stop going for it no matter what you say. It's not worth your time, or your sanity to try and fight this now.
...Oooorr you could continue to press your crusade until it reaches it's natural conclusion, and we get Tetris. And no one wants Tetris.
This is where we should drop a bad idea like a ton of bricks...or a concrete mixer and never try something this braindead again.
Do you not see what the meaning of being given technically accurate nonsense is?
It doesn't work. It's a joke. A flop. A failure. Firn is basically going LOL YOU GET WHAT YOU ASKED FOR TECHNICALLY with this response. It is not the miracle cure it is not useful and it is not worth the time we've spent and probably will spend voting for it.
Read between the lines. This is a dead end that will eat update after update for no gain. It's useless now and it'll be useless every other time it gets voted for.
But hey if people actually thought it'd give the answer to life the universe and everything before they'll keep throwing metaphorical good money after bad short of anything less than Feathers showing up in person to tell us not to bother.
Nothing of relevance happened with your "test". We learned absolutely nothing from your magic bullet and you're insisting we need to spend more time and effort on a predictable dead end like a grandmother working a vegas slot machine trying to get a payout.
Seriously, your idea doesn't work. It flopped in all but the most technical sense. It was, in essence, a dangerous waste of time. Just as predicted.
... We asked for random information, we got clear concise instructions for something we may subconsciously feel we need, such as reinforcing Warehouse-kun/etc.
Please don't act like a fool, disagreement and different idea is a good thing, but you might as well be going 'No, that didn't work, Firnagzen is wrong.' at this point.
Firn gave the bandwagon exactly what it asked for in such a way that it had no meaning whatsoever, and I can predict exactly how well attempts to game the quest by continuing this train of thought will go.
Have a vote that actually does something useful.
[x]Ping Homura
-[x]Is she okay with this? We just want to reassure Madoka, as well as talk to her some more, and it'd be a bad idea to make her feel excluded.
-[x]Ping Madoka. Is it okay if we talk to her later for a bit?
[x]Consult Mami. Plan the blueberry's training session. Mention that you'd like to talk to Madoka and Sayaka for a bit at different times and tell her what you plan to bring up, if she's okay with that...
-[x]During training, at some point excuse yourself from training and talk to Madoka. Ask her if there's anything from lunch or about everything she's still worried or wants to talk about. Sayaka'll be okay.
[x]At some point, take Sayaka aside. We need to ask her something important.
-[x]We...never told her the full details of what we were doing, did we? Beyond just fighting Witches.
-[x]Tell her about Walpurgisnacht. How you want to stop it, and how something else is coming too.
-[x]"A lot of magical girls...Their lives aren't very happy. They're fighting just to stay alive, not just against witches but against each other, over grief seeds. Because of Kyubey and what he does. Most of them aren't really bad people, they're just...in a bad situation, desperate, or misguided and don't know better. I want to try and change that. I want to help as many girls as I can, and break this messed-up system."
--[x]"And I want to ask for your help. Either way, I'm honored to fight alongside you, but it's up to you."
-[x]Go back to training if there's time.
[x]When we're done, show Sayaka how healing works, say goodbye to everyone, and head to Oriko's with Mami.
If it gives us neat trivia facts, then we know that grief knows things. We can then ask grief for more specific knowledge, at which point, it's a crapshoot on whether it has that specific knowledge. It may be a PtV, it may be limited in some ways, it might give us what we need but only after we learn witch-runes.
Or the author says 'no' and we move on, because whatever, we just thought it up mid-flight, no loss.
I find it interesting that we got information about mixing concrete and then came to about to plow right into a concrete mixing plant.
It's possible that the griefhax grabbed the nearest source of information that fit our requirements, and that trying to grab information that no-one knows will get nothing in return.
Before we exploit the book, because people have valid concerns about our awareness, I think that the next priority is constructing a pair of glasses that let us keep our awareness when constructing.
EDIT:^Possible. Still has its uses and worked much better than expected though.
I find it interesting that we got information about mixing concrete and then came to about to plow right into a concrete mixing plant.
It's possible that the griefhax grabbed the nearest source of information that fit our requirements, and that trying to grab information that no-one knows will get nothing in return.
Before we exploit the book, because people have valid concerns about our awareness, I think that the next priority is constructing a pair of glasses that let us keep our awareness when constructing.
EDIT:^Possible. Still has its uses and worked much better than expected though.
I wonder how many people are going to keep trying if it really gets another wagon and fails just as dismally? And how many will go for the next BRILLIANT PLAN THAT FIXES EVERYTHING?
Problem is that nobody who voted to do this considers this a failure. So when/if it does fail, since you're clearly not an objective judge of things, I'll let you know.