...well, I feel silly. I was in such a rush to get this chapter up at least vaguely on time that I completely forgot to add Candeloro's picture to her introduction. ^_^; That has now been fixed. Sadly, I'm stuck using the ripped official art of her for now, which looks a little odd contrasted with the runes, but at least there's now
some visual for her --- I may make a better version later if I can get a cleaner image.
So canon Candeloro then, Unfortunate.
Well... close, but not completely. More on that shortly.
You're the only adult by technically here Ash, get used to it.
Well, as a witch, yes, she is technically a magical "adult". As a person however, she's not terribly keen on the idea.
I know it's confirmed later down, but this here made me sad because it confirmed this wasn't really Mami anymore. Mami thought Tira was dead, so you'd think she'd have more of a reaction to seeing her alive and well.
There's something I wanted to say about this, but I just realized I can't yet, because it will very likely end up being spoilers. So, same answer I gave Farseer above.
You can kinda talk to Shemesh, I think most of the others just don't care about what you have to say.
(As is natural for familiars that aren't really meant to be interacted with --- shhh, don't tell Ashtaroth.
)
Really should avoid pissing off or killing Candeloro. She's got food on demand, and while it might be the familiars making it we don't know if they'll make more if anyone else askes.
Charlotte won't leave if Candeloro can give her cheese.
They certainly offer more variety than Charlotte's barrier does, at least in terms of flavor. Though, the familiars only make a very specific category of food (which you can probably figure out without too much difficulty), so whether or not they can make cheese is up for debate.
Also, how small can Ashy's shatterwords get? Can she fit them in the door, and give her a message that way?
She could possibly slide them through the door one or two at a time, but even so that probably wouldn't work terribly well. Also, shatterwords only remain in Ashtaroth's control while still within her general "orbit", which would make this somewhat difficult to even attempt without having her pressed up flat against the outside of the cottage.
Cutting it off and cutting it up definitely seems significant, and the tag may have had different text here.
This seems like a good time to mention that the runes on Candeloro's house sign are actually just supposed to be her name again, but since that seemed repetitive, and the only image we have of it was from a screenshot of the PSP game when it was still in development, I decided to put something more fitting on it instead.
...oh, and also, I have
no idea what the runes on the familiars say. Trust me, I tried, but between the minuscule size of every image of them, the blurriness thereof, and fact that I can't even tell which of the pair has their runes facing the right way, I eventually just gave up. There might be a B, there might be a U, there might even be a TO, but what there
isn't is enough value in the idea to keep bothering.
Also, this is such a fun story. Witches are one of the most interesting parts of the PMMM setting and it's always fun to see interesting takes on the idea of "what is being a witch like (besides suffering)". I've spent a distressing amount of time coming up with headcanons and interpretations for how witch-related stuff might work and it's neat to see other people's takes on the same topic.
Thanks! And I know, right? I really want to see more witch-focused fanworks in this fandom --- they're the most unique part of the entire setting, and based on the descriptions we have of them, it doesn't exactly seem like they spend all their time in a mindless, murderous haze like I've seen some other fanfics treat them. I'm doing my best to fill that gap, but I could really use some help in that respect.
<Don't start fires in paper-based barriers> The witch conceded, still staring blankly into the roaring blaze that used to be her paper-grasslands, and was most likely soon to be paper ash-lands, despite the best efforts of the late Saar's familiars.
I imagine Mami and Homura have already managed to hammer in this lesson in fairly well, but I suppose the "ashlands" pun was too good to pass up.
A little too short for an omake I think, but funny nonetheless.
So the familiars stayed with Ashy? I expected them to guide Sayaka and Tira into the cottage.
They already did all they needed to. Besides, it's not like they were all that keen on hanging around --- you might even say that they were quite eager to leave upon realizing that there was somewhere else to actually go.
So a standard Witch Labyrinth.
Pretty much, yeah! Still worth noting though.
@Flairina How many candles are there? I'm curious if the number matches Mamis' age, her time as a magical girl or if there is some other metaphorical meaning.
There are exactly four of them.
