Thankfully not too late, but I think I remember someone mentioning at some point that we haven't actually 'poked' a Clear Seed. Ever.
... In which case if we were to poke a Seed, it should be Hildegarde first, since she's 'quiescent', and less likely to poke our Soul with a kiloton of Grief.
... I'm supposing this poking is similar to Soul Snuggling. A quiescent Witch would be the one that we miiiiiiightbe able to poke without painful returns. While Aurora, having managed to become active even while fully cleansed, probably will poke us back, but hopefully not as hard as any other, non cleansed Witch.
Where are the science people, I'm just a pigeon.
Posts merged to avoid triple posting.
So I'm gonna split the votes for the time being.
Also sneering at the word count limit. Because SCIENCE!.
(Psst, Phoenixian, this is your opportunity to turn the wagon into a non-science wagon )
[X] Diary to Cloud Storage. Cloud Storage to Hammerspace.
[X] Tell Oriko you discussed housing and security regarding the two of them last night, but it can wait until after breakfast if they'd prefer.
[X] SCIENCE!:
-[X] Ensure privacy.
-[X] Precaution: Leave you Soul Gem in contact with Elsa Maria.
-[X] Abort conditions:
--[X] Massive Grief build up or pain.
--[X] 'Tests' taking too long.
--[X] All 'tests' finished.
-[X] Observe all Seeds before, during and after 'testing'.
-[X] Procedure:
--[X] Feed Aurora Grief. Cleanse.
--[X] Enchant a bit of Grief while thinking happy thoughts. Think of your friends, of Mami.
---[X] Try offering half of it to Hildergarde.
---[X] Other half to Aurora.
---[X] If no results:
----[X] Poke Hildegarde.
----[X] Poke Aurora.
[X] Discuss House Arrest.
-[X] Explain yesterday's talk.
--[X] Apologize for the sudden birb invasion.
--[X] Offer your thoughts. Progress is gonna be slow, and if they agree to the changes, that would help.
--[X] Ask what they think.
---[X] Ask if they want to move out into a new apartment.
[X] Ask Oriko if she knows about the Shirome potentials.
Adhoc vote count started by Firnagzen on May 16, 2018 at 8:15 PM, finished with 138084 posts and 12 votes.
[X] Diary to Cloud Storage. Cloud Storage to Hammerspace.
[X] Tell Oriko you discussed housing and security regarding the two of them last night, but it can wait until after breakfast if they'd prefer.
[X] SCIENCE!:
-[X] Ensure privacy.
-[X] Precaution: Leave you Soul Gem in contact with Elsa Maria.
-[X] Abort conditions:
--[X] Massive Grief build up or pain.
--[X] 'Tests' taking too long.
--[X] All 'tests' finished.
-[X] Observe all Seeds before, during and after 'testing'.
-[X] Procedure:
--[X] Feed Aurora Grief. Cleanse.
--[X] Enchant a bit of Grief while thinking happy thoughts. Think of your friends, of Mami.
---[X] Try offering half of it to Hildergarde.
---[X] Other half to Aurora.
---[X] If no results:
----[X] Poke Hildegarde.
----[X] Poke Aurora.
[X] Discuss House Arrest.
-[X] Explain yesterday's talk.
--[X] Apologize for the sudden birb invasion.
--[X] Offer your thoughts. Progress is gonna be slow, and if they agree to the changes, that would help.
--[X] Ask what they think.
---[X] Ask if they want to move out into a new apartment.
[X] Ask Oriko if she knows about the Shirome potentials.
[X] Diary to Cloud Storage. Cloud Storage to Hammerspace.
[X] Tell Oriko you discussed housing and security regarding the two of them last night, but it can wait until after breakfast if they'd prefer.
[X] Ensure privacy. SCIENCE! Aurora:
-[X] Precaution: Leave you Soul Gem in contact with Hildegarde.
-[X] Observe.
-[X] Feed Grief and cleanse. Note changes.
-[X] Enchant a tiny bit of Grief while thinking happy thoughts. Think of your friends, of Mami.
--[X] Try offering a that bit of Enchanted Grief to Aurora.
--[X] If no results, try (carefully!) poking Aurora with magic.
[X] Discuss House Arrest.
-[X] Explain yesterday's talk.
--[X] Apologize for the sudden birb invasion.
--[X] Offer your thoughts. Progress is gonna be slow, and if they agree to the changes, that would help.
--[X] Ask what they think.
---[X] Ask if they want to move out into a new apartment.
[X] Ask Oriko if she knows about the Shirome potentials.
Boredom: Is there ever a scenario where there would be a good reason to go meguca mode, then put normal clothes over them? The only thing I can think of would be to get them some pants.
Boredom: Is there ever a scenario where there would be a good reason to go meguca mode, then put normal clothes over them? The only thing I can think of would be to get them some pants.
To try and look seasonally appropriate? A magical girl may be able to get away with looking like a cosplayer, or some meguca outfits that actually look like halfway reasonable people-clothes, but being part of the pantsless-brigade while in the dead of -20F winter or lower will never not be conspicuous.
Or- can you take off part of your meguca outfit, like, Sabrina's coat, without it dissolving when you put it down? Even if it's gotta be within a radius of you, if you can do so, that means you could totally use the meguca outfit as cosplay that's "totally not my actual transformation outfit, look, see!" or let someone else borrow it. And of course you'd need to stay 'transformed', but actually swap your clothes with real clothes. Which begs the question of what happens to your real clothes when you turn back, but I expect they'd just swap places with your meguca clothes, wherever they are near you...
Somewhat more reasonably, if you're wanting to go around pretending to be a superhero with a costume (or just a weirdo with a costume, or a cosplayer with a costume, or, or, or), but not let on that you actually transform into your costume (by not carrying around anything that could believably be the costume), be transformed all the time but wear normal clothes over it, and then you can totally just say that of course you're prepared to Fight Crime all the time, and that's why you're wearing this.
Or, I dunno, being embarrassed by your costume but not wanting to expend the time/energy to modify it?
Or, actually most reasonably, if some item of normal clothes is also a sign of allegiance or group affinity (either meguca teams, sports, organized crime, military, government, whatever), and you need/want an artifact of it that can't just be faked by transforming it onto your meguca outfit.
Or the normal clothing item adds utility (e.g. a coat that you can lend to other people, a backpack like Sabrina's bag to carry things that you don't want being shuffled around too much during transformation; something with lots of pockets that you don't want the organization of to shift during transformation; a bandolier of lots of grenades/other weaponry; basically any type of specialized equipment that you don't want to rely on meguca form or meguca storage for).
There's a meguca, the main character of the fic Fargo, who doesn't like her meguca outfit (any longer) and wears a heavy coat all the time. Untransformed -> coat. Transformed -> coat over meguca clothes.
Darn, looks like I was late to the translation party.
There are a bunch of mistakes here and there but you got the actual gist perfectly so I will just fill in what Kaizuki struggled with since I obsessive-compulsively help everyone with Japanese.
Error in transcription. Should be "父の無念をはらす", literally "to dispel father's regrets". It most likely means she was going to avenge her father.
Another error in transcription. "政をやったら面白かろうと", something like "You entering politics could end up quite interesting". 面白かろう is a volitional form of 面白い, but volitional forms of adjectives are quite archaic and not really used today outside of fossilized phrases and wanting to sound fancy and cool (mostly in anime/manga). It basically shows guessing or "probably". The と at the end just marks the end of a quote; the previous bubble had "that's why I believe".
I'll need to get better about that, thank you for pointing out the errors.
--------
So, votes then. @Onmur, I do not want to do non-science, I want to do better science.
Frankly, I have no idea why were doing the privacy sphere here. It's witchy, time consuming, liable to annoy Oriko and Kirika if we're nearby, cuts off contact if they or anyone else says they want to talk, and this is not the kind of research that requires privacy. It really feels like we're just doing it... because. And without consideration for side effects.
[X] Diary to Cloud Storage. Cloud Storage to Hammerspace.
[X] Tell Oriko you discussed housing and security regarding the two of them last night, but it can wait until after breakfast if they'd prefer.
[X] When Oriko wants to talk: Discuss House Arrest.
-[X] Explain yesterday's talk.
--[X] Apologize for the sudden birb invasion.
--[X] Offer your thoughts. Progress is gonna be slow, and if they agree to the changes, that would help.
--[X] Ask what they think.
---[X] Ask if they want to move out into a new apartment.
[X] Ask Oriko if she knows about the Shirome potentials.
[X] SCIENCE!:
-[X] Precaution: Leave your Soul Gem in contact with Elsa Maria.
-[X] Abort if Kures want to talk or backlash occurs.
-[X] Observe all Seeds before, during, and after 'testing'.
-[X] Procedure:
--[X] Magic channel into Aurora and Hildegard, while thinking compassionate thoughts.
--[X] Enchant Grief, try offering half of it to Hildergarde and half to Aurora.
--[X] Cleanse everyone when you're done.
[X] In privacy field, only after you've finished speaking with the Kures: Same rules as last block.
-[X] Use enchanted grief to try to make a device for analyzing and/or talking to grief seeds.
Massive changes to science plan. Some of which are just more efficient wording, but also structural changes.
Enchanting doesn't seem to rely on as best as can be told, but magic channeling does.
Also magic channeled instead of just "poke them"
Privacy field section moved where it makes sense to have a privacy field, that won't disrupt things due to cutting off contact with O&K.
Because Ilike the while thinking happy thoughs bit and we haven't poked the clear seeds yet, I mean, the whole point of having Elsa Maria close is to prevent it going awry, but I still want to see what happens.
Try to go for a powerful move, with this action? Not going to be happy that we are going with this action branch and yet delaying Shizuki interface time. OTOH, half measures (that is, not munchkinning in good faith) during a vote are disturbing as well. Optimization FTW.
Let me point out that we know a bit more about magic IC recently. I'll suggest that you describe the "compassionate thoughts" in sentences. Being both specific and emphatic, in addition to empathic is the idea. Witches aren't easy to get along with, as a rule? By choosing the precise manner in which Sabrina tries to exert herself, the result might be different. Will is part of the Magic API.
Or, Sabrina could just try to "join them to her Mir?"
"An update on, ah, housing matters," you say. "I discussed it with Sayaka, Homura, and Mami last night, and... the outlook is generally positive, but the details can wait until after breakfast?"
You untuck the diary from under your arm, Grief flowing in to seal a binding around it. With a thought, you rotate it away from you, the encased book popping out of sight. And as an afterthought, you rotate your other cloud-stored items away, too, just to get them all into one place. Homura's little book of Witches, the gold and cash, the assault rifle, the katana...
"Ah, that is good," Oriko says. "I would certainly prefer it be after breakfast, yes."
"Then I'll be back later!" you say, and glance up. "Hey, Kirika?"
"Yup?" she asks, citrine eyes flickering over to you as she bustles about to load a tray with various breakfast foods.
"I'll be back in... eh, an hour? Will that be enough time for breakfast?" you say. "I do have other stuff to talk to you and Oriko about, but it can wait a bit."
"More is better," Kirika says. "But an hour's enough. Waffle?"
"Uh, sure," you say, accepting the offered pancake in a paper bag. "Thanks. I'll let you know when I'm headed back, then."
"Coolio," Kirika says, grinning at you and picking up the tray. "How do I look?"
"Straighten your back," you say, looking her up and down. "Gotta have that posture right."
"Right," Kirika says. She draws herself up and raises her chin, tray held primly in front of herself. "Good?"
"Yup. See you later, and have fun!" you say.
"Oh, we will~" Kirika says cheerfully and starts for the stairs.
You grin at her and let yourself out, waffle in hand. You take to the skies once more, nibbling absently on the waffle as you fly. Off to pay Warehouse-kun a visit.
A thought occurs to you as you soar over Mitakihara. If this 4-space you've... discovered... is a proto-Barrier, then what the hell was the actual Barrier you created with Grief? Especially the one where you found a Feather after dismissing it? Would it be the actualization of this 4-space? Some intersection of it with the conventional three dimensions of everyday life?
You're... not really sure.
Also, pigeons. You give your fellow passengers on the morning thermals a suspicious look. A handful of crows, a few darting sparrows, and, yes, a scattering of pigeons. For some reason, you feel vaguely suspicious of them now, and it's not just because you know that Sayaka's using them to spy on the Kures.
She's using other birds to spy too, of course, but you feel especially suspicious of pigeons. Might be that display this morning. They've clearly taken over Sayaka.
You glide in for a gentle landing outside Warehouse-kun, your boots scraping on the sandy yard. You stretch, using the motion to cover a discreet look around for spying pigeons.
... hm. Maybe Feathers is actually a cabal of pigeons. You could see it.
You step inside the warehouse, tossing the now-empty waffle wrapper to the side and letting your Grief whisk it away into your hammerspace.
You sit on a Grief bench, curling your legs up comfortably, and root about in your pocket to pull out your three Seeds. Hildegarde, Aurora, and Elsa Maria. You set Elsa Maria and Hildegarde down beside you, giving them a healthy amount of spacing.
Gently, reverently, you remove your Soul Gem from your lapel. You place it beside Elsa Maria, letting the smidgen of accumulated Grief drain away. You sigh, blowing out a sharp breath. The relief you feel is probably psychosomatic, with that little Grief, but still.
Aurora, Hildegard, and Elsa Maria: experiment, control, and safety precautions. Well, precaution, singular. Everything you could need for Science.
You hold Aurora up to your eye level. You can sense the speck of Grief within, the core of the Witch. There's Grief in there, more than the infinitesimally slow trickle of Grief dripping from the core. Of course, Aurora had been in use by Oriko and Kirika before you traded her for another Clear Seed.
Aurora pulses faintly in your senses. Quiescent, yes, but... a little less so than Hildegard. You can't say she's stirring, precisely, but you have the faintest impression of the abyss looking back at you.
Alright. Magic has been all about will and intent, in your experience. So, in this case, you're going to try happy thoughts.
And for you, that means Mami, and your friends.
You smile softly to yourself as you gather your thoughts and your magic, letting it pool in your palm, for lack of a better word. You bring to mind Mami's gentle, absolute faith in you, her smile, her warm presence. Your friends, Homura with her not-quite aloofness, and Sayaka with too much energy and Madoka, timid and shy but not weak, never weak, and Hitomi with her unwavering, sensible demeanour. You press your hand to Aurora.
And the magic drains away, almost yanked away by Aurora.
You blink, and absently verify that your happy thoughts are still in order. Mami, check. Your friends, check. Good.
Next, you check your Soul Gem and Elsa Maria - both clear. Well, not clear-clear, but no less clear than they were a couple moments ago. And speaking of a few moments, you pull your phone out and prop it in front of you with a bit of Grief so you can keep an eye on the time and ensure that you don't spontaneously lose a few hours.
And now for the experimental results. You take a careful look at Aurora.
The magic is... there. You can't really tell if it's happy magic, but it's there. Barely. It's spread thin throughout the Clear Seed, a thin haze you wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't been looking for it. Whisper-thin, like paint diluted in too much water.
Hmm.
You set your Clear Seeds aside, and summon Grief to you from the air. You're familiar with the process now, rolling it out across your thighs and kneading it as you let magic soak into the deep, fractal purple.
"Sabrina?" Mami's voice.
"Hey, Mami," you say warmly. "Good timing. How are you?"
"Ah... I'm alright," she says. "I just... wanted to talk?"
"I'm here," you say. Enchanting Grief doesn't take much attention at all, and so you can devote more to Mami. "How's class?"
"Ah, it's good," Mami says. You can hear her relaxing as she speaks, the faint tremor of worry ebbing away. "It's geography right now. We're learning more about the Itoigawa-Shizuoka Fault."
"Ah... that sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it?" you say.
"It's a fault line that runs across Japan," Mami says. "We're not that far from it!"
You chat with Mami as you work, and you can't help the smile on your face. You offer what insights you can - oddly, or perhaps not so oddly, the geology of Japan isn't something that springs readily to your mind. Which means you have something to learn!
"... ah... the teacher's handing out assignments now," Mami says, at length. "I... should pay attention..."
"I'm not going anywhere," you say firmly. "When you're done, let me know, ok?"
"Alright," Mami whispers, and cuts the line.
You sigh happily, still smiling. Just a bit more work for the enchanted Grief -really, it seems to soak up magic endlessly- and you think you can test it. With a twist, you pinch the blob of Grief in half, half a fistful of magic and distilled despair.
Without any ceremony, you pick up Aurora, and push them together. And there's a sound that tastes like-
-plub-
-and then Grief coats the Clear Seed. It doesn't get absorbed, just gets pulled into a shell around the Seed. If you look, you can see the magic that forms your enchantment twining into strands that sink into Aurora. And the Witch core is a little more lively, sullen twists of Grief bobbing within the Seed.
You scowl thoughtfully at Aurora, and set it aside for now.
"Sabrina?" Oriko says. "We're done now."
"Oh, whoops!" you say, jerking to your feet and glancing at your phone. Just under an hour. "Coming! Be there in, uh, five?"
"There is no need to rush," Oriko says, but you're already out of the warehouse, Soul Gem back on your lapel. Elsa Maria goes into one pocket and Hildegard into another, and Aurora you hold out in front of you as wings billow from your shoulders. A thought strips away the Grief shell, Aurora almost grumbling as you do so, but the magic-
... you can't find any purchase on the magic.
That's... you don't have any especial control over magic, and the Clear Seed seems to have taken it up nicely.
[] Aurora
- [] Leave it be, come back to it later
- [] Do something...
-- [] What? (Write-in)
[] The Kures
- [] Discuss house arrest
-- [] As in vote in abeyance
-- [] Some modification?
[] After the talk
- [] Back to Science
-- [] What? (Write-in)
- [] Something else?
-- [] Rionna
-- [] Kyouko
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
[X] When Oriko wants to talk: Discuss House Arrest.
-[X] Explain yesterday's talk.
--[X] Apologize for the sudden birb invasion.
--[X] Offer your thoughts. Progress is gonna be slow, and if they agree to the changes, that would help.
--[X] Ask what they think.
---[X] Ask if they want to move out into a new apartment.
[X] Ask Oriko if she knows about the Shirome potentials.
[X] SCIENCE!:
-[X] Precaution: Leave your Soul Gem in contact with Elsa Maria.
-[X] Abort if Kures want to talk or backlash occurs.
-[X] Observe all Seeds before, during and after 'testing'.
-[X] Procedure:
--[X] In privacy field, only after you've finished speaking with the Kures: Same rules as last block.
--[X] Use enchanted grief to try to make a device for analyzing and/or talking to grief seeds.
=====
So, I'm cutting the update here because I am falling sick. Or already have, really. Just the flu, but I'm kind of lethargic and if I don't update here I won't be updating at all today.
Also, I seem to have written 'happy thoughts' instead of 'compassionate thoughts'. I blame the fever.
Huh. The Clear Seed seems to like our happy thoughts. I think we should keep feeding it and see what happens - though probably not right now.
Hopefully Riona can provide more insight. "Happy, sane Witch" is a heck of a starting point for dewitching. Theoretically it might even be sufficient if we can hook the grief seed up to a body.
Without any ceremony, you pick up Aurora, and push them together. And there's a sound that tastes like-
-plub-
-and then Grief coats the Clear Seed. It doesn't get absorbed, just gets pulled into a shell around the Seed. If you look, you can see the magic that forms your enchantment twining into strands that sink into Aurora. And the Witch core is a little more lively, sullen twists of Grief bobbing within the Seed.
Also, pigeons. You give your fellow passengers on the morning thermals a suspicious look. A handful of crows, a few darting sparrows, and, yes, a scattering of pigeons. For some reason, you feel vaguely suspicious of them now, and it's not just because you know that Sayaka's using them to spy on the Kures.
She's using other birds to spy too, of course, but you feel especially suspicious of pigeons. Might be that display this morning. They've clearly taken over Sayaka.
You glide in for a gentle landing outside Warehouse-kun, your boots scraping on the sandy yard. You stretch, using the motion to cover a discreet look around for spying pigeons.
... hm. Maybe Feathers is actually a cabal of pigeons. You could see it.
You hold Aurora up to your eye level. You can sense the speck of Grief within, the core of theWitch. There's Grief in there, more than the infinitesimally slow trickle of Grief dripping from the core.
We could totally do this. Just make an enclosed 3D bubble with lighting and air in it and stick our chibi in it with Aurora, then stick the whole assembly in 4space.
We'd constantly feel witchy but that ship has pretty much sailed...
You smile softly to yourself as you gather your thoughts and your magic, letting it pool in your palm, for lack of a better word. You bring to mind Mami's gentle, absolute faith in you, her smile, her warm presence. Your friends, Homura with her not-quite aloofness, and Sayaka with too much energy and Madoka, timid and shy but not weak, never weak, and Hitomi with her unwavering, sensible demeanour. You press your hand to Aurora.
"More is better," Kirika says. "But an hour's enough. Waffle?"
"Uh, sure," you say, accepting the offered pancake in a paper bag. "Thanks. I'll let you know when I'm headed back, then."
...
You grin at her and let yourself out, waffle in hand. You take to the skies once more, nibbling absently on the waffle as you fly. Off to pay Warehouse-kun a visit.
I think we should let a tiny little bit of Grief build up in our Soul Gem and then try and use Aurora to cleanse.
What if it doesn't work? That could spell bad things for our plan to distribute Clear Seeds (and good things for our plans to replace Clear Seeds with a more ethical alternative in the future).
Hm. Channeling magic takes time, so we can't just feed Aurora all the magic to see what happens. We'll probably do it whenever we got a few minutes free?
For now I want to check whether Aurora still has her cleanse function, how she reacts to being used for cleansing, and then feed her a bit of magic while we go back to the Kures.
[Q] Ask Sayaka for a Sayaklone equipped with Anti Magic.
-[Q] Thank her and put Sayaklone in hammer space.
Adhoc vote count started by Firnagzen on May 18, 2018 at 8:21 PM, finished with 138197 posts and 3 votes.
[X] SCIENCE!, before reaching the Kures if possible:
-[X] Aurora:
--[X] Try using her to cleanse your Gem.
--[X] Feed her 'normal' magic.
-[X] Hildegarde, then Elsa Maria.
--[X] Repeat magic feeding tests with them.
[X] The Kures:
-[X] Discuss House Arrest.
--[X] Apologize for the sudden birb invasion.
--[X] Explain yesterday's talk.
--[X] Offer your thoughts. Progress is gonna be slow, and if they agree to the changes, that would help.
--[X] Ask what they think.
---[X] Ask if they want to move out into a new apartment.
-[X] Ask Oriko if she knows about the Shirome potentials.
[X] Afterwards:
-[X] Use enchanted grief to try to make a device for analyzing and/or talking to grief seeds.
[x] Aurora -[x] Leave it be, come back to it later
[X] The Kures:
-[X] Discuss House Arrest.
--[X] Apologize for the sudden birb invasion.
--[X] Explain yesterday's talk.
--[X] Offer your thoughts. Progress is gonna be slow, and if they agree to the changes, that would help.
--[X] Ask what they think.
---[X] Ask if they want to move out into a new apartment.
-[X] Ask Oriko if she knows about the Shirome potentials.
[X] Afterwards: -[x] Call Rionna. -[x] Break to voting.