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Puella Magi Adfligo Systema

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Ninja'd before I could answer the Java/Javascript thing, eheh, but yeah.

Onmur said:
Maybe she passed by Ishinomaki and hacked the connection between one of their group and us... if that makes sense with however telepathy works. Whatever her method, it seems unlikely for it to mean anything about her trustworthyness, so it's just a curiosity for now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At any rate, I don't think having Homumom on overwatch is paranoid, given the mysterious deaths Oriko foresaw, and how well Riona fits the killer's part into them. I guess it'd be up to Homu whether she wants to overwatch or just stay in line, anyway. Only difference if she's watching is that she can see everything as it happens, hopefully out of range of any influence Riona's powers may have.

We could probably ask Sayaka to blast us with a bit of antimagic after this, would that be acceptable paranoia?
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Antimagic after being careful about Mami's gift, mind you, fishing line or no fishing line.

Unrelatedly...

Upon yet more PMMM rewatching, I find the idea that "being in school in the middle of class" and "having Mami in a classroom across the school" would stop Homura from murderlyzing Kyubey to be hilarious. All she needs is to leave line of sight to like use the restroom or something for long enough to drop timestop, and... Heh, Kyubey really had no intel at that point, huh?

Aaaactually.... hm. Homura transfers into school on the 25th, Friday. Sabrina turns up on Monday the 28th. Early updates of PMAS say that Sayaka said:

Firnagzen said:
After a moment of walking in awkward silence, you clear your throat and ask, "So, how long have you known Tomoe Mami?"

Sayaka brightens a little, and responds, "Oh, we just met her yesterday, when she saved us fro... from a Witch."
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Firnagzen said:
You huff out a gentle laugh. Madoka looks like she's going to say something, but you continue, "So what about this Akemi Homura? Why don't you like her, Sayaka?"

Sayaka grimaces. "Eh... she's weird. She just transferred in, and then yesterday, before Mami saved us, Akemi was attacking Kyuubey."
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Meaning that here in PMAS Madoka's and Sayaka's first meeting with Mami happened on Sunday the 27th. But the start (and presumably continuing thereafter) of episode 2 of canon happens the day after that first meeting with Mami (as confirmed by various lines by Junko, Hitomi, and Sayaka), and it also seems like the day of their first meeting with Mami happened after a school day? (since Madoka and Sayaka and Hitomi are in school uniforms carrying their bags) But it also seems as though that would have to have been on the same day that Homura transferred in, since the first meeting with Mami happened at the mall after Madoka's and Sayaka's and Hitomi's meeting there during which Madoka tells Sayaka and Hitomi about the weirdness that was up with the hallway talk with Homura, which you'd assume she'd want to get to as soon as possible? Which would have made all that happening during Friday, and episode 2 start off during a Saturday with school happening? And, yeah, in canon Homura mentions to Madoka "do you remember what I said yesterday", meaning that episode 1 is on Friday the 25th, episode 2 starts on Saturday the 26th. And Mami confirms that the witch they're tracking down is from "yesterday", Friday the 25th, meaning that the canon hunt for Gertrud happened on Saturday the 26th. But in PMAS immediately before hunting Gerturd Mami mentions that she was planning on bringing everyone on a Witch hunt 'today' as in the 28th.

Basically I've just managed to become confused about the timeline, and why it appears that we (and the academic schedule, more pertinently) are off by about two days as compared to canon, and it's entirely possible it's been mentioned at some point in the morass of historical commentary, and it's almost certainly not presently relevant and tbh it can probably just be chalked up to timey-wimey weirdness if nothing else, but it's now bugging me. Help. Save my from myself.
 
mCooperative said:
Basically I've just managed to become confused about the timeline, and why it appears that we (and the academic schedule, more pertinently) are off by about two days as compared to canon, and it's entirely possible it's been mentioned at some point in the morass of historical commentary, and it's almost certainly not presently relevant and tbh it can probably just be chalked up to timey-wimey weirdness if nothing else, but it's now bugging me. Help. Save my from myself.
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This must be what it feels like to be Oriko. Though it's probably as simple as confirming with Homura on if the dates sometimes change between timeloops, if that even is the case.
 
'Hello, is this Sabrina? Where are you? I will come to you.'

'I have just learned four languages.'

'What?'

'Two of them programming languages.'

'... Just now?'

'Immediately after your call.'

'I have not seen your powers in action, yet I can already comprehend you are a dangerous woman.'

'Likewise.'

Mami does not understand the wary, respectful looks with which Sabrina and Riona regard each other once they meet.
 
[] Be polite. Respond in English. Confirm your identity.
-[] No, no, you're the host, you'll provide transportation.
-[] Besides, she had to fly all the way here, so you're probably way faster - it'll save time.
 
**squints in confusion at the language list** It says "Chinese"; did we mean Mandarin or Cantonese or something other? Also, adding to the list C, AMPL, MATLAB, and, eh, ARMv7-M Thumb ISA variety assembly code? Not sure if we'll ever need any of those, but, eh. List already covers anything else I'm moderately proficient in.

The language gacha has been rolled; despite the Gaelic rate-up, nothing particularly useful for the current event has been acquired.
 
Vebyast said:
[] Be polite. Respond in English. Confirm your identity.
-[] No, no, you're the host, you'll provide transportation.
-[] Besides, she had to fly all the way here, so you're probably way faster - it'll save time.
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Wield politeness as a sword with which to instill the fear in the soul of she who pretends to control them.

mCooperative said:
ARMv7-M Thumb ISA variety assembly code
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Is this... I'm confused. How is this language called?
 
Onmur said:
Is this... I'm confused. How is this language called?
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It's a particular variety of assembly language which is used with devices that have ARM processors, er, and as our professor wasn't necessarily as enlightening about how to refer to it as how to use it, I went for descriptive specificity. Though we could prooobably just call it 'ARM Assembly' for the sake of brevity.
 
Onmur said:
Is this... I'm confused. How is this language called?
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Assembly "languages" stretch the meaning of the word "language" even more than for most programming languages. It's a list of simple commands, and their use, often short enough to fit on a page or two. And they're basically specific to individual processor architectures. They generally do not have names beyond the name of the processor architecture, which might be branded or descriptive as suits the designer/manufacturer.

So, "ARMv7-M Thumb ISA variety assembly code":

"ARMv7-M" refers to a specific processor design produced by the company Arm Holdings, which uses a specific instruction set ("assembly language").

"Thumb" is a second instruction set used by ARM processors since , which is more limited that the main set but also more space-efficient for what it's capable of. ARM processors switch between using whatever main set is used by their particular architecture (in this case, ARMv7-M) and Thumb as necessary.

I'm not sure what "ISA variety" refers to here; ISA is an abbreviation for "instruction set architecture," which I have been calling "architecture"; it's not a specific kind of assembly unless it stands for something different here, in which case that's a very poorly named thing as far as I'm concerned.

"assembly code" is the same as "instruction set" here.

In short: mCooperative (and Sabrina, now) knows how to write low-level code for, specifically, the Cortex M-3 and SC300 cores. Some of this knowledge is probably transferable to other ARM architectures (possibly other assembly languages in general), but I haven't written assembly outside of one college class so I'm not sure how much things change around between languages.
 
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At what level do we need to know a language to be able to put it down? Like, if we're allowed to put down languages that we'd be able to translate to/from in writing with a dictionary, I'd feel sorta safe answering "most extant programming languages that weren't specifically designed to be hard to write code in".
Onmur said:
Wield politeness as a sword with which to instill the fear in the soul of she who pretends to control them.
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Indeed.
 
Qwertystop said:
Assembly "languages" stretch the meaning of the word "language" even more than for most programming languages. It's a list of simple commands, and their use, often short enough to fit on a page or two. And they're basically specific to individual processor architectures. They generally do not have names beyond the name of the processor architecture.

So, "ARMv7-M Thumb ISA variety assembly code":

"ARMv7-M" refers to a specific processor design produced by the company Arm Holdings, which uses a specific instruction set ("assembly language").

"Thumb" is a second instruction set used by ARM processors since , which is more limited that the main set but also more space-efficient for what it's capable of. ARM processors switch between using whatever main set is used by their particular architecture (in this case, ARMv7-M) and Thumb as necessary.

I'm not sure what "ISA variety" refers to here; ISA is an abbreviation for "instruction set architecture," which I have been calling "architecture"; it's not a specific kind of assembly unless it stands for something different here, in which case that's a very poorly named thing as far as I'm concerned.

"assembly code" is the same as "instruction set" here.

In short: mCooperative (and Sabrina, now) knows how to write low-level code for, specifically, the Cortex M-3 and SC300 cores. Some of this knowledge is probably transferable to other ARM architectures (possibly other assembly languages in general), but I haven't written assembly outside of one college class so I'm not sure how much things change around between languages.
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And there's the more informative description. Yeah, wasn't quite sure whether one just calls it the ISA or not in this context, since in classes we either just said we were writing something "in assembly" or were asked about the architecture and its properties specifically, so I split the difference, probably unwisely. And our professors opinions of the subject were the only people who programmed in assembly nowaday were those who enjoyed pain and suffering, eheheh. But I've worked with it recently enough, and managed it well enough, that I'm moderately confident in it, at least so long as you don't stick me in an empty room without references or prep time and tell me to use it to become god, or something. Discerning the mind of god, I might be able to take a go at, on the other hand, heh.

Edit: Oh dear, wait a sec, if we're on the subject, does anyone have memorized that Turing Machine someone made out of Magic: The Gathering? If anything counts as computer bullshit that Sabrina should definitely know, that should.
 
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Vebyast said:
At what level do we need to know a language to be able to put it down? Like, if we're allowed to put down languages that we'd be able to translate to/from in writing with a dictionary, I'd feel sorta safe answering "most extant programming languages that weren't specifically designed to be hard to write code in".
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Agreed. At the very least, just about everything currently used (other than legacy systems, assembly code, Lisps, and Erlang) is pretty similar at a broad level; it's not difficult to pick up a new (modern, not-Lisp-or-Erlang) programming language if you already have a bit of experience in one or two. Probably won't be working very fast before you've got some practice, but they're much faster than ordinary languages to learn.

Also, my competency in toki pona is probably about there – I can haltingly and roughly translate with occasional reference to the wordlist. Which, given the small size of the wordlist, doesn't mean much.
 
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Redshirt Army said:
The point that she doesn't actually know for certain that she's contacted us is an interesting one, especially since she never actually got introduced to us.

Hm. Maybe she's used her magic to suborn a QB node as a pet?
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The way I see it, if anyone has a giant soul stretching across the city, or at least which can be seen across it, it's us. (And also possibly Madoka, but she hasn't contracted yet, and might still be recognized as a potential, if an humongously huge one.)

She might be using her own router, but if that's the case all that's really required is the "You know who your're going for: you can contact them" rule since she can sense us.
 
"What languages do you speak?"

"English, German, Estonian, Russian, Finnish, Japanese, Swedish, Spanish, French, Chinese, Greek (rusty Homeric and Attic), Lebonese, Korean, Latin, Italian, Esperanto, Portuguese, Singlish, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Thai, Afrikaans, Turkish, Polish, Drow, Klingon, Sindarin, Quenya, Czech, Tagalog, Bahasa Melayu, Norwegian, Vietnamese, probably some others that I'd have to think a bit about to remember, and Computer."

"... Computer?"

"Look, do you know how many modern programming languages are highly similar on a broad level? I know enough of them that between one and another, I can probably manage. I don't want to list them all if I don't have to, it would take ages, and it's already been today for weeks."

"???"
 
We're also fluent in Homura.

Homura: -___-
Sabrina: See even Homura is happy!
Sayaka: ... *looks at Homura*
Homura: -___-
Sayaka: yeah... sure
 
DB_Explorer said:
We're also fluent in Homura.

Homura: -___-
Sabrina: See even Homura is happy!
Sayaka: ... *looks at Homura*
Homura: -___-
Sayaka: yeah... sure
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I totally forgot to add that to the list!

I knew I planned to, at some point, but it slipped my mind.

Good job, DB.

Gonna have to edit it in tomorrow into the files. Internet's fucked right now. :/
 
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Onmur said:
I totally forgot to add that to the list!

I knew I planned to, at some point, but it slipped my mind.

Good job, DB.

Gonna have to edit it in tomorrow into the files. Internet's fucked right now. :/
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I also have a passing knowledge of clockwork so we can speak Sparky!Renascence!Homura too :p

actually I'm pretty sure you could drop Sabrina with a Spark (ala Girl Genius) and she would deal with it just fine....
 
First, gotta flip out over the new character.

For a minute there, I was going to start posting "see you again, cowboy" messages to all and sundry, because it sure seems like Rionna has her own telepathy mojo. In technical terms, this is a successful attack.

We are already inside her radius, breached, and located. Wizard-Class infiltrator 1, Sabrina 0. Next step? She is now our best buddy ever, move over Kirika. We go way back. Etc.

In any other setting, we would probably be in for a rude beatdown. Game over screen to follow. Either she has very clever hacking instincts - using the Incubator system in ways beyond our competence - or she has nearly comic book esper range and authority.
By the middle of next week, I'll be at Firn's little altar out behind my house thanking him, or instead signing up for a new quest when this one wraps. lol!

Her anomalous telepathy may be reaching us because we are the Witch girl, festooned with Grief. If you consider how a girl with Soul powers could fight, and that she holds a city where she isolates herself, what does the result tell you?

I'm making up everything in this post as a fictional exercise to create excitement. No resemblance to actual fanfiction is intended or implied.

Rionna has extended her basic power. She can influence, or outright summon and control Witches. The ones that resist successfully get taken down by the pets under her sway. Think Pokemon ghost-type specialist? Other Magical Girls don't tolerate the environment that results from keeping witches on the property, even if they are restrained. Thus, she lives frugally in a city all her own. Her friends are few, mundane and unspeakably mall-Gothic. With the Grief miasma at her place, choices of companionship are kinda thin.

Sabrina has more than one fascinating quirk! Rionna wants to spirit us away.
First, super rich - infinite magic is a rare prize.
Second, not at all discomforted by Grief - perhaps Rionna has waited forever to try making a new friend.
Third, de-witching - if Rionna is a soul otaku, until she can join this debate, nothing else matters! Fresh Meat!! Fresh Meat!!!
Fourth, Kyuubey told her about our unfamiliar soul. She wants to get a look before we die.
Fifth, Rionna has her own Big Plan unrelated to saving the world, and we could be her key to doing that.
Sixth, we are together with Mami - the idle fantasy Rionna has been nurturing from afar compels her!
Seventh, Sabrina is famous for hugs! - This makes Sabrina a pilgrimage site for certain people.
 
[Q] Be polite, be efficient, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
[Q] Rionna
-[Q] Apologize in perfect English that you don't speak Gaelic aside from that one chap, who took one long look at the dictionary filled to the brim with thirty-syllables words on average, and called it a day. ( edit: shit, it was Welsh, sooorry. )
-–[Q] Tell her to stay where she is. You will find her and you will hug her.
 
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