[X] Higure
"The network is malfunctioning. My brethren and I are usually in constant contact..." Mami's eyes widen for a moment. "Bretheren? Like..." She seems a little disconcerted but you push forwards. "Think of it like your internet. We share what we learn and what's happening around us, so we can coordinate. My connection just failed. It is problematic, but...I am unharmed."
Mami takes a moment, appearing to digest your explanation.
"This doesn't... This isn't a regular occurrence right?" You shake your head though you suppose you wouldn't know. After all you're an outsider in this universe.
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
For a moment you feel a frisson of panic. Mami couldn't contact another incubator could she? What would happen to you if the network found out? What would happen if they tried to reconnect you? What would they do if they couldn't?
"It is an internal issue..." For once you're glad for the default tone that keeps your panic from entering your voice, even though it sounds far too cutesy for what you're actually saying.
"I am sure it will resolve itself in due time."
Mami gives you a doubtful look, then turns away, her expression falling once she thinks you can no longer see her. Feeling bad for her, you trot alongside as she makes her way back into her sitting room and gathers the last few teacups. Determined to make yourself of use if possible, you seize a plate in your mouth and follow along, awkwardly tilting your face to try and keep from spilling any crumbs onto the floor.
You stick close to her for the remainder of the evening as she reads a book, then gets ready for bed, curling up on or around her in your best impression of an actual cat while you attempt to access more of your internal stores of knowledge.
You start with Mami herself.
Mami Tomoe
Status: Contracted
Current Affiliates: None
Original Wish: "I wish... I wish someone would save me! Please! I want to live, I want to be tied to life... I can't... I don't want to die..."
Weapons: Multiple muskets, can be independently directed using Ribbon Manipulation (See 'Powers')
Powers: Ribbon manipulation, magical ribbons can be used for defensive and indirect offensive purposes. Enchantment aptitude.
Much of this is stuff you saw earlier, though the little recording of her wish makes your heart (
Do you even really have one any more) twist painfully in your chest. However, appended to the end appears to be some additional information.
Direct Notes:
-Very powerful, highly skilled magic use, unlikely to be taken out in direct combat without additional factors.
-'Romantic' attitude, loneliness, and pride create simple and consistent handles to trigger a final spiral if needed.
-Friendly demeanor makes her trusted by potential contract candidates.
-Hostility towards contractee Homura Akemi (Relation to Anomaly possible, investigate)
You feel sick again, and the twisting feeling in your chest becomes even more painful. Mami glances at you over the top of her book as you shift, but after a moment returns to reading as you resettling yourself where you've curled up by her legs.
You push that document away and try to move on. You won't do those things to her, you won't allow it. You need to focus on other things.
Though the effectiveness of magic's use in pushing back entropy cannot be understated, corrupted SOULs (Designate: 'Witches') have been demonstrated to produce energy as well. Due to their higher dimensional nature this energy is often contained within folds in space-time (Designate: 'Witch Barriers' or simply 'Barriers') preventing it from assisting in pushback efforts. While exceptionally powerful Witches have been demonstrated to be capable of moving outside of their Barriers, these Witches often represent extinction level threats and while their energy release would be great, the potential loss of an entire civilization's energy production is better avoided.
Should a supermassive witch come into existence regardless, policy states that we must attempt to obtain as much energy as possible and evacuate all Incubator units in the area.
Consumption of a defeated Witch via it's former SOUL gem (Designate: Grief Seed) can generate a significant amount of energy regardless of the power or lifespan of it's generator. While it is technically possible to restore a SOUL gem from a Grief Seed, the amount of energy required to reverse the conversion process is such that few -if any- Magical Girls will ever generate enough energy for such an action to be worth the cost. Additionally, the effects of having acted in a corrupted state are liable to cause psychological damage, causing a rapid reversion into a Witch unless treated with extreme care.
By now Mami is brushing her teeth while you discover that the tiles of her bathroom floor are rather comfortable once warmed, and you attempt to digest this information. You could perhaps use this, but given you don't have access to the larger incubator network, it would be difficult at best, and the massive energy loss could warn them that something was up.
Still... Something to keep in mind perhaps?
You idly wonder what grief seeds taste like as you trot back into Mami's room while she slips under the covers, moving to curl up in the crook of her waist.
It really is quite pleasant... You can see why cats do this.
Finally, you turn to your last subject of curiosity, Soul Gems themselves. You find several designs listed, yet details are sparse, from what you can gather, each design is intended for a different species with a different dimensional signature.
Unfortunately, either the incubators haven't performed any experimentation using Soul Gems belonging to one species on the souls of another species, or the one you've replaced didn't bother to download any of that data. You suppose that makes sense since it probably wasn't relevant to it's job here on earth with humans. You wonder what Soul Gem documentation would look like anyways.
Patch 1.47: Fixed 'Witch-Out' bug afflicting all current gems. Going over 100% grief capacity will no longer be possible and reaching capacity will simply cause a failure of all spellcasting until grief is reduced.
If only it would be that easy... But you know it won't be...
What you really need is some way to encourage magic use without witches to fight and some way to remove the waste Grief caused by magic use without resorting to corrupted soul gems.
Which means you're going to need to start experimenting...
By the time you finish working through your myriad thoughts and impressions from the data, dawn is almost upon you...
March 26th, 2015
Dawn of a New Day
[] Stay with Mami, prepare for this afternoon's witch hunt with Sayaka and Madoka. (Skips to after school)
[] Head out, go to school with Madoka and Sayaka
-[] Stick around just long enough to greet Mami when she wakes up before heading out.
[] Something else (Write in...)
] Ensure that 'Girls can't love girls!' happened.