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Puella Magi Imperatrix Mundi, or: Wherein Half Of Japan Tries To Kill You

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Echo said:
To be fair, they were well aware that Momoko was killed, and wouldn't have tried fleeing into Nagamioka otherwise.

Their mistake was not knowing that Kyubey was trying to set up a replacement for Momoko. If they'd just run into girls like Koharu and Tomo they'd have been fine...
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...I was thinking you were talking about the idiots Momoko offed when saving Water/gravity girl in the interlude.
 
Nervos Belli said:
Something I've been wondering. Kiyomi was the one who didn't seem to have been lichbombed, but she also stayed up for five days straight without eating or drinking. You'd think that might be a clue.
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She knows that magic can sustain the body beyond normal limits, but not the whole "actual literal soul" part or various other details. Rio and especially Fuuka are super protective of Kiyomi and have been shielding her from quite a few things.
 
Crimson Doom said:
Hey @Echo, is everything all right? Haven't heard from you in a while.
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No worries, I ain'tn't dead yet.

Just been kinda busy and having a hard time getting into the right mindset for writing. I actually just sat down to read and revise the slightly-more-than-half-an-update I already wrote and try to get moving again.
 
This probably will come as no surprise to anyone who saw my post in the PMAS thread, but I started on another model as well:



Unfortunately the texturing is only half done and I haven't even started on rigging it up for skeletal animation.
 
Echo said:
but I started on another model as well:
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My professor would have had a heart attack at the number of triangles :tongue:
Echo said:
I haven't even started on rigging it up for skeletal animation.
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Depending on the program your using, you can find scripts that take out a lot of the tediousness of rigging, especially for human characters.

Nice job, looking forward to seeing it when it's finished!
 
MobiusC said:
My professor would have had a heart attack at the number of triangles :tongue:
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Number of triangles as in it's hip to be square not using easier-to-work-with quads? Or number of triangles as in "how much data gets shoved to the video card"?

'cuz the former is a valid criticism, but by modern standards that's a pretty tame polycount; it'd be viable in e.g. a 3DS game or the like.

MobiusC said:
Depending on the program your using, you can find scripts that take out a lot of the tediousness of rigging, especially for human characters.
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Blender, and the Rigify extension does help a fair bit but there's still a lot of fiddling around with bone weights to get things to not look awful. If I was not a total amateur maybe I'd know how to avoid creating those problems in the first place buuuuut...
 
Echo said:
Number of triangles as in it's hip to be square not using easier-to-work-with quads? Or number of triangles as in "how much data gets shoved to the video card"?

'cuz the former is a valid criticism, but by modern standards that's a pretty tame polycount; it'd be viable in e.g. a 3DS game or the like.
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The computer triangulates everything backend anyway so working in triangles has no real effect on data usage; to a computer rendering it out, a quad is simply 2 triangles.

But in modeling software, we are generally told not to use triangles because yeah, they are easier to work with, it's far easier to see what you're doing and how it changes a model, and you have a much better idea of how your geometry will deform when you later animate it. For solid objects, triangles or quads don't matter much, but for organics or objects that will deform in some way, you are far less likely to end up in trouble down the line (jumping vertices, smoothing issues, strange or awkward deformations) if you try and stick to quads; they just make your life easier. (Link to an article)

Triangles aren't really the end of the world though (despite what my professor says :V), generally work in whatever you feel comfortable working in as long as you get a good final product. There are tools nowadays that can re-map mesh to quads or triangles, so it's not a huge deal.
Echo said:
Blender, and the Rigify extension does help a fair bit but there's still a lot of fiddling around with bone weights to get things to not look awful. If I was not a total amateur maybe I'd know how to avoid creating those problems in the first place buuuuut...
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Ah, I use Maya, it's a buggy piece of shit sometimes but that's what I was taught to use. And just keep working at it, man! I know you can make some really cool stuff in Blender, play around or follow tutorials (I've seen some really cool stuff done out there, some teach some really neat techniques), practice makes perfect and all that jazz.

Ask for help if you need it, I'm sure there are youtubers or websites you could email. You can shoot me a PM if you want to, too, I only just graduated and might know jackshit but I'd be happy to help!
 
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MobiusC said:
The computer triangulates everything backend anyway so working in triangles has no real effect on data usage; to a computer rendering it out, a quad is simply 2 triangles.
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Actually I'm pretty sure that native quad rendering was a thing at some point, but faded away because it wasn't appreciably faster than rendering two triangles and it made the video card/driver more complicated. Or something like that.

MobiusC said:
Triangles aren't really the end of the world though (despite what my professor says :V), generally work in whatever you feel comfortable working in as long as you get a good final product. There are tools nowadays that can re-map mesh to quads or triangles, so it's not a huge deal.
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Yeah, I know. Blender has a whole bunch of editing options that work on "edge loops" which basically require the model to be mostly quads.

In this case I was trying to keep the overall polycount lower and that means making some concessions on how nice the overall geometry is.

Also, I've looked at some models ripped from commercial Nintendo 3DS games and although they're stored as pure triangles it's pretty obvious that rather a lot of those were never quads in the first place. :V

MobiusC said:
Ah, I use Maya, it's a buggy piece of shit sometimes but that's what I was taught to use. And just keep working at it, man! I know you can make some really cool stuff in Blender, play around or follow tutorials (I've seen some really cool stuff done out there, some teach some really neat techniques), practice makes perfect and all that jazz.

Ask for help if you need it, I'm sure there are youtubers or websites you could email. You can shoot me a PM if you want to, too, I only just graduated and might know jackshit but I'd be happy to help!
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Yeah, I've already done a fair bit of that, to the point that I don't think I'm gonna learn much more from online tutorials. And since this is just a half-assed hobby and I don't have time to take classes or anything, I just fiddle around with it occasionally for fun. :V
 
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Ch. 3: Light the Path Whenever It's Dark (13)
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    • Early Afternoon - Saturday, January 15th, 2011​

    The silence begins to stretch awkwardly, so you huff in annoyance and put your hands on your hips. "Right, introductions!" you announce. "Try again, 'cuz that first attempt was terrible."

    "I was not aware an attempt had been made," Maiko says dryly.

    "Yes, exactly," you say. "Maiko, you can't just be spooky and mysterious all the time."

    Her mouth twitches and she raises an eyebrow at you. "Yes, I can."

    You pout very intensely at Maiko until she finally relents with a sigh.

    "If you insist," Maiko says, then turns to face Yumi. "My name is Maiko Sakue, a resident of Nagamioka and a magical girl for roughly seven years. I have been aiding and advising Yui since shortly after her first Witch battle." Maiko hesitates, glancing aside at the memorial wall. "I was... an early protege of Momoko Kisaragi, who I'm certain you know by reputation," she finishes, sounding awkward and a bit stiff.

    "Not the first?" Yumi asks.

    Maiko blinks. "First what?"

    "Kisaragi's first protege," Yumi clarifies. "And her favorite. That's how you were generally known until your rumored death."

    "Eh? Well, I... suppose? I don't recall anyone... uh," Maiko says, looking slightly flustered as she trails off. She clears her throat, then summons her grimoire. It snaps open to a specific page immediately, and you get a glimpse of rows of unreadable text and a stylized picture of Maiko's costume before she dismisses the book. "Yes, you are correct. Momoko's first protege," Maiko says, her voice getting quieter toward the end. "I... suppose I'd forgotten that detail." Something flickers across Maiko's face and for an instant she looks utterly miserable, but her usual confident demeanor returns so quickly you'd almost think you were imagining it.

    Yumi stares at Maiko for a few moments, then shrugs. "Anyway, though it seems you already know this: I'm Yumi Kaga. I've been a magical girl for over three years and currently have no home, no family, and no friends," she says, then pauses. "I learned the hard way to see what's real rather than what I want, and lost use of my magic in the process. But you already knew that as well, didn't you?"

    You blink in surprise.

    Maiko looks embarrassed, glancing at you. "I did," she says, "but felt it wasn't my place to share that information."

    Yumi seems briefly at a loss for words, then laughs quietly and shakes her head. "This is hardly what I expected," she says, gesturing to the room around you. "From Kisaragi and her group, I mean."

    "How so?"

    Yumi shrugs. "Everything is, ah... charmingly domestic, I suppose?"

    Maiko bristles. "Momoko was hardly--"

    "A cold-hearted tyrant? A bloodthirsty monster? Or anything people wanted to see her as. Yes, I realize that," Yumi says. "But I think I expected something more... severe? Formal?"

    Maiko looks like she wants to argue the point further, but instead just shrugs wordlessly.

    Another awkward silence begins to settle in and that means it is time for Magical Girl Yui-chan to take action! You clear your throat. "So, uh, not to spoil the mood," you say, "but we kinda still have two dead-ish bodies and a very sad dog outside and also we should probably talk about the stuff that happened today. Like a debriefing or whatever? Also also, we should get Minami over here since she's helpful and not too far away." You look around. "And maybe some tea or snacks or something?"

    "Making yourself at home, I see," Maiko says dryly.

    You freeze. "Uh. If that's okay...?" you say hesitantly.

    Maiko waves a hand. "Momoko wouldn't mind," she says. "She wouldn't want this place to sit abandoned. Kitchen's over there, I'll speak with Minami."

    "Okay!" you say. "Um, Yumi, mind giving me a hand?"

    Yumi gives you a dubious look. "Is this the lead-in to a joke about my costume?"

    "What? No!" you say. "Though, now that you mention it..."

    Yumi rolls her eyes. "I'll help."

    You drag Yumi behind you to the kitchen, and she stands around watching as you rummage enthusiastically through the cabinets looking for something suitably unhealthy. After liberating a fair amount of junk food you move on to the refrigerator, which to your delight is well-stocked. You politely skip over the half-eaten items, since someone--

    No, someone won't be coming back to finish any of this food, will they? Your enthusiasm falters, and you close the fridge with a sigh.

    Yumi seems to pick up on your changed mood and gives you a conspiratorial look. "So what's she really like?"

    "Eh?"

    "Sakue," she clarifies. "What's she like, outside magical girl stuff?"

    You wrinkle your nose. "I don't think she has any 'outside magical girl stuff' stuff," you grumble. "Not that I've done much else these past few days either."

    Yumi hums thoughtfully. "Anyway. Keeping her a secret? You made the right call there," she says. "Anyone else met her?"

    "Only the local newbies," you say, "and a couple of my friends who haven't made a wish yet. You're gonna keep the secret, right?"

    "Yes. Yes I am." Yumi grimaces and rubs her eyes. "There is nothing in the world worth making an enemy of you two."

    You shrug awkwardly, not sure how to respond to that.

    Yumi sighs. "And, fine. Count me in," she says. "I'll stick around."

    "Are you sure?" you ask. "You don't sound very happy about it."

    "Just... re-evaluating some cost/benefit analyses," she says, "and not liking what I see."

    "Ah," you say. "Sorry, I guess?"

    Yumi shakes her head. "I meant it earlier, when I said I liked you. I'm not happy about the situation, but I don't blame you. And I'd rather leave it at that," she says.

    You're not sure how to respond to that, either, but before you can think of anything to say you hear the front door open. "Ah, Minami's here!" you say, grabbing an armful of junk food. "C'mon, help me carry all this to the table."

    Yumi obligingly shoves the rest of the pile into her pocket--seriously, how does that even work?--and follows you back to the main room. Minami is stopped just past the entryway, looking around wide-eyed, as Maiko takes a seat at the conference table.

    You dump your cargo of junk food in front of Maiko. She gives you a flat look, then sighs quietly and leans back in her chair.

    "Minami!" you say, bounding over to her. "Thanks for coming."

    Minami has an odd look on her face. "Maiko filled me in," she says quietly. "How're you doing after all that?"

    "Totally not thinking about it," you say, nodding firmly. "Distractions now, freak-outs later."

    Minami mumbles something and pulls you into a hug.

    You return the hug, leaning into it and resting your head on her shoulder. You're pretty sure that you should be reacting in some humorously embarrassing way right now, but mostly you just feel a sort of hazy tension in the back of your mind that makes it hard to let yourself enjoy anything. You sigh lightly, and Minami squeezes tighter, then releases you.

    "Thanks," you say softly.

    She gives you a worried look, then nods.

    The four of you settle in at the conference table--Minami at your side, Yumi across from you, and Maiko off to side by herself being spooky and mysterious and looking suspiciously like she's brooding. Sigh. You decide to ignore Maiko's nonsense in favor of your own nonsense and immediately start grabbing junk food, which earns a weak smile from Minami.

    "So," you say between mouthfuls. "Yumi, this is Minami, who is smart and helpful and my friend. Minami, I already told you about Yumi, right?"

    Minami nods. "Nice to meet you."

    "Likewise," Yumi says. "You've known her for a while?"

    "Uh," Minami says. "Not really? See, we went to elementary school together, but..."

    Maiko clears her throat. "We've all been forcibly inducted into Yui's social circle in the past few days, yes," she says dryly. "A common occurrence, I'm afraid."

    "Yep!" you say, beaming happily and putting an arm around Minami's shoulders. Your response earns another smile from Minami, and Minami's smile earns a raised eyebrow and knowing look from Yumi. ...well, at least Yumi seems to be fitting right in. Hmph.

    Unfortunately, the opportunity to comment on your hypothetical love life is ignored, and the mood stays uncomfortable. The other three sit watching you eat for a few awkward minutes, until you run out of both patience and junk food.

    "Well then," you say, nodding firmly. You hop up from your chair. "Maiko, you needed my help in the basement, right?"

    She nods, standing up. "Correct. It shouldn't take long."

    "You two chat or something while we're busy, okay?" you say. "Like, seriously. I will totally frown extra hard at you if I come back to find nothing but awkward sitting in silence here. Super extra deluxe frowning, even!"

    "Okay," Minami says. "Asami told me some great stories about you, I'll start with those."

    You sigh dramatically, then follow Maiko down the stairway into the basement.

    You find yourself in a large storage room, filled mostly with stacked boxes and piles of folded fabric, but one corner has a few items of the style you've come to recognize as being Maiko's creations. Most of them are small trinkets and quite a few appear to be broken, but the most interesting are three... dolls, you suppose? You lean closer to get a better look.

    Each stands around a meter high. The two in the back are styled in a knight's armor and a priest's robes, while the one in the front resembles some sort of beast. Writing is engraved into the doll's form, mostly in the curling runes associated with Maiko's magic, but in a few places you see the word 'RAKSHA' written in English. Well, written in the Roman alphabet, anyway. Not like you have any idea whether that's an English word or not. "Did you make these?"

    "Yes," Maiko says. "Please don't touch them."

    You step back. "Why not? Does it bite?"

    "Maybe," Maiko grumbles. "Those were intended to be surveillance drones that would run off of absorbed ambient magical energy, scanning a territory to detect Witches and invading magical girls."

    "So... they didn't work well enough?"

    "Oh, no," Maiko says. "They worked too well. I started seeing unexplained spikes in energy and occasional malfunctions, but only when I wasn't monitoring them directly. Eventually I found out they'd been trying to drain power from stray familiars and had acquired unexplained modifications to the embedded enchantments."

    "Uh."

    "The changes in their magical structure bore some resemblance to familiars, as well," Maiko says, then shoves her glasses up her nose. "I considered scaling up the base design to see if I could produce an artificial Witch of sorts. The others convinced me that would be unwise, though, since they wouldn't produce Grief Seeds."

    "...is this the old project you were talking about the other day? To help monitor our territory?"

    "I... had some ideas based on these, yes. Strengthen the control bindings a bit, scale the whole system down," Maiko says, then coughs awkwardly. "It would probably work. I think."

    You stare at Maiko for a moment. She has the decency to look at least slightly embarrassed.

    "Right. Moving on," Maiko mutters.

    You follow her through a door opposite the stairway, into a small, nearly empty room. A low table sits at the far side of the room, with shelves lining the other two walls.

    "There should be a key of some sort around here," Maiko says. "See if you can find it, please." She opens her bag and pulls out several more of her... strange gadgets. She quickly assembles them into a single gadget, which she places on the table, then fiddles with it a bit more while you look around.

    In the corner of a shelf you find a black metal 'key' like the one for the front gate. "Found it!" you announce.

    Maiko steps aside. "It goes in the slot on the front of the device," she says.

    You insert the key. There's a moment of resistance, then a cold prickling feeling slides over you as it clicks into place. At the same time, a dry chill settles across the room and the dust on the table shifts abruptly. You smudge the dust lightly with your finger and it twitches around, forming sharp lines along the mark you left.

    "Interesting," Maiko says. Her voice sounds oddly distant, and sharp yet muted.

    "What did that do?" you ask.

    "Suffice it to say, we can store Kaede and Naoko's bodies in here for at least three days without risk of decay," Maiko says, then waves a hand dismissively. "I'll explain in detail later, if you like."

    "I'm surprised," you say, grinning at her. "You, passing up a chance to explain something complicated?"

    Maiko rolls her eyes. "We've kept our allies waiting long enough, don't you think?"

    "Okay, okay. Though, first, uh," you begin hesitantly. "How are you feeling after all this, Maiko. You okay?"

    Maiko hesitates, then looks away. "I'm fine," she says. "Let's go."

    You're... pretty sure that "fine" is code for "not fine, don't want to talk about it" but you're not sure if you should press the issue. You want to help Maiko and something is clearly bothering her, but... well, she's been doing this a lot longer than you, she can probably take care of herself. And if she does talk to you about it, it'd be better if she came to you rather than you pushing her to talk. Sigh! Being a protagonist is complicated.


    [x] Push a bit harder to get Maiko to talk to you.
    [x] Let it go for now, finish dealing with this stuff and go talk to Minami and Yumi.
    - [x] Talk to Yumi about stuff, now that she's officially joined.
    -- [x] Grill her for up-to-date intel on the local area, since Maiko's been a hermit for the last couple years
    -- [x] Talk about her role in your rapidly-growing super cool magical girl team.
    -- [x] (write-in?)
    - [x] Talk to Maiko about stuff.
    -- [x] Momoko's house and anything else Momoko left. Does Maiko need help taking care of it?
    -- [x] See if she wants to talk about her old team.
    -- [x] (write-in?)
    - [x] Talk to Minami about stuff, since she seemed worried about you. (write-in topic)
    [x] (write-in?)




    'sup.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Homulilly has returned! :D

    [x] Let it go for now, finish dealing with this stuff and go talk to Minami and Yumi.
    - [x] Talk to Yumi about stuff, now that she's officially joined.
    -- [x] Grill her for up-to-date intel on the local area, since Maiko's been a hermit for the last couple years
    -- [x] Talk about her role in your rapidly-growing super cool magical girl team.
    - [x] Talk to Maiko about stuff.
    -- [x] Momoko's house and anything else Momoko left. Does Maiko need help taking care of it?
    -- [x] See if she wants to talk about her old team.
    - [x] Talk to Minami about stuff, since she seemed worried about you. (write-in topic)
    -- [x] Why is she worried?
     
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    It returned!

    And Yumi continues to be best Kyoko girl.
     
    I considered scaling up the base design to see if I could produce an artificial Witch of sorts. The others convinced me that would be unwise, though, since they wouldn't produce Grief Seeds
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    See, not making grief seeds is the least of my worries. But hey when her creations threatened to rise up against her she turned them off, that's way way better then lots of mad scientists.

    - [ ] Talk to Minami about stuff, since she seemed worried about you. (write-in topic)
    -- [ ] Why is she worried?

    Don't we know why she is worried? I mean it seems like we do?
     
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    [x] Let it go for now, finish dealing with this stuff and go talk to Minami and Yumi.
    - [x] Talk to Yumi about stuff, now that she's officially joined.
    -- [x] Grill her for up-to-date intel on the local area, since Maiko's been a hermit for the last couple years
    -- [x] Talk about her role in your rapidly-growing super cool magical girl team.
    - [x] Talk to Maiko about stuff.
    -- [x] Momoko's house and anything else Momoko left. Does Maiko need help taking care of it?
    -- [x] See if she wants to talk about her old team.
    - [x] Talk to Minami about stuff, since she seemed worried about you. (write-in topic)
    -- [x] Why is she worried?
     
    :o:D:cry::D

    Am happy. Gonna have to reread the last couple updates to get back into the flow though before I feel confident in voting. Currently my favourite is

    [] Let it go for now, finish dealing with this stuff and go talk to Minami and Yumi.
    - [] Talk to Yumi about stuff, now that she's officially joined.
    -- [] Talk about her role in your rapidly-growing super cool magical girl team harem.
     
    [x] Let it go for now, finish dealing with this stuff and go talk to Minami and Yumi.
    - [x] Talk to Yumi about stuff, now that she's officially joined.
    -- [x] Grill her for up-to-date intel on the local area, since Maiko's been a hermit for the last couple years
    -- [x] Talk about her role in your rapidly-growing super cool magical girl team.
    - [x] Talk to Maiko about stuff.
    -- [x] Momoko's house and anything else Momoko left. Does Maiko need help taking care of it?
    -- [x] See if she wants to talk about her old team.
    - [x] Talk to Minami about stuff, since she seemed worried about you. (write-in topic)
    -- [x] Why is she worried?

    My man Echo! Your back! I've been waiting for so long to see you make another update!
     
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