Oh wow, really? Cool! I wish I was still into Homestuck as much as I used to be - it certainly had a lasting impact on me, as is partially proven by the very narrative style of this fic. ^_^; If the comic hadn't basically faceplanted at the ending, leaving about a thousand different dangling plot threads and unanswered questions behind (along with the forums closing forever for no apparent reason), I'd probably still be involved in the fandom even today. The comic remains incredibly interesting and well-plotted, at least for the first five acts, but nowadays I'd be less likely to outright recommend it to someone... though, I would recommend Problem Sleuth, which is also pretty fun, along with being way shorter and wrapping up in a significantly more satisfying manner.
Homestuck ended? It seemed like that would never happen, but I guess it was over a decade ago that I stopped reading it.
I remember how it happened so vividly, too. I was already reading in batches, because keeping up with all the nonsense was exhausting. And then, the narrator said that the clown would never die no matter how much everyone wanted it. And I just had this moment of clarity: it would all just be as much random crap as the author wanted to cram in there, and he didn't care if you enjoyed it. And, well, I wasn't. So bye.
Problem Sleuth is fantastic, though. I should reread it someday.
Oh wow, really? Cool! I wish I was still into Homestuck as much as I used to be - it certainly had a lasting impact on me, as is partially proven by the very narrative style of this fic. ^_^; If the comic hadn't basically faceplanted at the ending, leaving about a thousand different dangling plot threads and unanswered questions behind (along with the forums closing forever for no apparent reason), I'd probably still be involved in the fandom even today. The comic remains incredibly interesting and well-plotted, at least for the first five acts, but nowadays I'd be less likely to outright recommend it to someone... though, I would recommend Problem Sleuth, which is also pretty fun, along with being way shorter and wrapping up in a significantly more satisfying manner.
Homestuck ended? It seemed like that would never happen, but I guess it was over a decade ago that I stopped reading it.
I remember how it happened so vividly, too. I was already reading in batches, because keeping up with all the nonsense was exhausting. And then, the narrator said that the clown would never die no matter how much everyone wanted it. And I just had this moment of clarity: it would all just be as much random crap as the author wanted to cram in there, and he didn't care if you enjoyed it. And, well, I wasn't. So bye.
Problem Sleuth is fantastic, though. I should reread it someday.
One last post on this before we get too far off topic—my feelings about Homestuck largely reflect the both of yours, ngl. After what happened with the Epilogues and Homestuck^2 (the latter mostly based on snippets I've heard, not what I've personally read), I ended up mostly washing my hands of the comic. Which sucked, because it was my first really big fandom and I had a cool fanfic idea I wanted to write, but now never will since I no longer wish to be associated with that mess Hussite should have just never let the fans take control of the direction of the plot. Just a bad idea all around.
for something (probably?) more on-topic, I can definitely get how the narrative style derived from the comic—the whole Quest/Text-based RPG style is pretty fun to work with, both with the participation aspect and also the aesthetics. The aesthetic alone is pretty fun even without the participation, and I can really see Homestuck having popularized it for many people alongside stuff like RubyQuest. It's a shame that 2nd person in general isnt used more often, but conventional novels don't really lend themselves well to the style (unless it's a CYOA-like) and the sort of subculture that's formed around writing 2nd person narratives online is pretty focused on quests, reader-inserts, and actual text-based games, from what I've found at least. Not necessarily a complaint, 2nd person does lend itself very well to those things, but it would be nice to see more done with the style.
I just wanted to show you stupid humans that hope is not all that it's cracked up to be... only to see your point halfway through the experiment! That was so much better than total dispair!
I think that was Flairina's point. Candeloro is not Mami, but it is pretty much composed of the same things as Mami, while composed in a different way.
hillo315, not Flairina, but my point was that something made of the same components as me is not me, and I would not expect or want people who cared about me to care about it. Witches are actually a bit closer to their progenitors than that, but not necessarily enough to change the conclusion.
Contrariwise, despair is often superior—hope keeps one active and invested, when often it would be better to give up and try something else. Hope is, ultimately, uncertainty and possibility, while despair offers a resolution—an unhappy end, but still an end, which may be followed by a new beginning. Hope is an entanglement with what is not, an attachment to the unattained but perhaps attainable, where despair is an acceptance.
And, speaking as a mathematically-inclined individual, an undecidability result is just as interesting and valuable as an answer.
(I'm just being contrary—my points here are not without merit, but they're not especially strong, either.)
However, because of this, I suppose I was counting a little too hard on that trait just naturally bleeding through into my character writing without my having to make it more explicit — apparently I'm a little less egocentric than I'd thought. ^^;
It may just be a poor choice of trait for that approach—after all, you have to understand and consider the other characters in order to write them, so relying on your own natural tendencies to portray someone not understanding or considering them is perhaps a little misguided.
I have not read Stand on Zanzibar. Perhaps I'll give that a look when I get the chance.
It's an interestingly structured book. Chapters are separated into four types. The least interesting one is the main plot, written in standard narrative prose. One is vignettes from the lives of various characters who generally don't show up elsewhere, illustrating the world and the plot's effect on people. The last two illustrate the world in various ways—one chapter is an excerpt from a spreadsheet, there are a couple of songs, some free verse, a script for a music video, a collection of public signage presented without context, etc. It's put together very well, and does an excellent job of conveying an impression of the world.
Fair warning, though: it uses a lot of made-up future slang, which you need to pick up as you go along.
Hmm... maybe you're right. As previously noted, I struggled writing this chapter, mostly in trying to keep everyone properly in character, and I think a problem I'm really starting to run into is that I've established Ashtaroth as being perhaps more naturally empathetic than originally intended. Thus, whenever her egocentrism chooses to rear its head, it comes off as a rather sudden odd shift in character. I really must do something about that...
It didn't seem out of character, just a bad decision for reasons which, if she had thought about it, she would have realized. But not thinking about it is entirely in keeping with her behavior thus far. The only part which might raise an eyebrow is the assertion that it would take too long to explain, but Ashtaroth is hardly a paragon of concision. (As if I have room to talk.)
Threadmarked — hope you don't mind I used a line from the text itself as the title; it just seemed to fit too well not to, especially given the ending line.
I'm just annoyed that I didn't think of that myself.
Also, I appreciate the amount of effort you went through to format all the telepathy text correctly; I know firsthand just how frustrating that can get.
I write all of my posts in markup, so I'm used to it. Quotes are actually more annoying, especially nested quotes—I have to find the post number and user ID and copy them over. (Getting the coloring right is also annoying, since I need to either use a tool to extract the color or log in, quote, and convert to BBCode, but that's a once-per-color operation.)
Thanks for the typo catch. Looking over it again, there are also a couple of minor punctuation issues: "so <Down, Sayaka.>" needs some punctuation before the dialogue—an em dash, comma, or colon—and the em dash in "She's looking around the barrier—her posture seems a little wary but mostly uncertain" would be better off as a semicolon.
hillo315, not Flairina, but my point was that something made of the same components as me is not me, and I would not expect or want people who cared about me to care about it. Witches are actually a bit closer to their progenitors than that, but not necessarily enough to change the conclusion.
You just assume that. They might be just balls of crazy instincts, but they might also be people, albeit alien ones, driven mad by being exposed to their own personal hell since birth.
Now I cannot get the image of an extremely over emotional horrible looking flesh monstrosity out of my brain, that tries to act cool and calculating, deprives people of that wich they wish for but in suprisingly kind and helpful ways, who somehow uses that to hasten the heat death of the universe.
You just assume that. They might be just balls of crazy instincts, but they might also be people, albeit alien ones, driven mad by being exposed to their own personal hell since birth.
"Oh little Jimmy's instincts told him to punch little John for stealing his poptart. Welp guess it's okay to beat him now." would sound horrifying to any sane person, but just because they aren't human that's suddenly different?
The real question is still if they are people. Wich one should figure out before opening fire if at all possible.
"Oh little Jimmy's instincts told him to punch little John for stealing his poptart. Welp guess it's okay to beat him now." would sound horrifying to any sane person, but just because they aren't human that's suddenly different?
The real question is still if they are people. Wich one should figure out before opening fire if at all possible.
I mean if little Jimmy constantly gave into his instincts to punch people and kill them because of it, we just lock him away at best, which is kind of hard to do with witches that effectively can go where every the hell they want.
I mean if little Jimmy constantly gave into his instincts to punch people and kill them because of it, we just lock him away at best, which is kind of hard to do with witches that effectively can go where every the hell they want.
.
Well yes. But the basic requirements for a 'functioning justice system' is likely to be higher then our single character in this quest can do, as you know I highly doubt sticking more witches in her barrier for containment is going to end well.
.
Well yes. But the basic requirements for a 'functioning justice system' is likely to be higher then our single character in this quest can do, as you know I highly doubt sticking more witches in her barrier for containment is going to end well.
The incubators gazed down upon the expanding sphere of lights, beams and vortexes.
They analysed the situation.
Upsides were that this new setup would produce more power at every passing moment with an exponential rate of increase. This was already much more than had been projected for a rather long time to come.
Downsides where that the energy was now in a rather voletile state, constantly unleashed in a perpetual explosion fueled by an infinite energy source with constantly increasing output.
It was decided that a portion would leave with the off-world backup humans they had trapped in stasis, to continue the previous method in case this new source would prove to voletile. It was determined that, since no matter how fast the new source would grow, it would not exceed c, escaping over the cosmic event horizon would be a sufficient safe distance.
A galaxy was selected and the group in question departed.
The remainder proceeded to build the infrastructure nessessary to ride, and harness, the infinite magical explosion.
What could have caused this event would be studied at a later date. Getting the new setup running before the event gained to much speed was essential.
The psychic frequencies used for telepathic communication were changed. The constant loud white noise emmited by the source made communicating to difficult otherwise.
And Ashtaroth continued to scream into the uncaring and now unhearing void.
In any event, I do highly advise checking out the Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime. It's my favorite series, and I'd recommend it to just about anyone... even if you already know all the twists now.
Pink and Glad:
"- Late for school: check.
- Ridiculous hair-colour and cute ribbons: check.
- Reserved back-left chair: check.
- Toast in mouth: check.
- Running with eyes closed: check.
- Time to get me some protagonism!"
Kittythulhu: *yawns ominously*
Black Knight: *auras ominously*
Pink and Glad: "Fine! I'll just run into every dark alleyway that I can find!"
Blue and Sad: "That sounds dangerous. I'll go with you!"
Kittythulhu: *stalks ominously*
Black Knight: *murders ominously*
Dark Alleyway: "*om nom nom*"
White Knight: *rescues with heroism*
Kittythulhu: *offers ominously*
White Knight: *councils towards caution*
Dark Alleyway: "*disturbing mental imagery*"
Black Knight: *glares ominously*
Blue and Sad: "Yay peril! But how-to though..."
Pink and Glad: "Yay protagonism! But what genre though..."
White Knight: *conflicted by feels*
Pink and Blue: "Squires!"
White night: "Uh... okay..."
Black Knight: *disapproves ominously*
White Knight: *Explodes from joy*
Blue and Sad: "Eww, it got in my hair."
Pink and Glad: "With my master gone... that would make me the prota-
Black Knight: *disdains ominously*
Blue and Sad: "RAAARGH!"
Black knight: "rar"
Red and Mad: "RAAAAAAARGH!!!"
Pink and Glad: "But why is none of this about me?"
Kittythulhu: *prophesises ominously*
Pink and Glad: "At last! After all these long ages! Finally the time has come for me to become the prota-
Black Knight: *yoinks ominously*
Pink and Sad: "!!!RAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!"
Black Knight: *irritated ominously*
Pink and Glad: "By the dead and the mad. By the unholy and wrong. With my mind that is whole, with my body as strong. I lay claim to this fad. I lay claim with this song. I now sell my soul, to have been protagonist all along!"
Kittythulhu: *celebrates ominously*
Black Knight: *complains ominously*
Pink and Glad: *yoinks retroactively*
Kittythulhu: *ponders ominously*
P.M.M.M.: *Ends ominously*
And now you have seen P.M.M.M.!
Or, well, not. I mostly did this to murder some idle thoughts, and now it is probably just enough to spoil the show but not enough to educate in any way whatsoever, but it is free and wild now so I will let it to frolic as it will.
> Just shove yourself far enough into Tome that your arms don't stick out anymore.
As you glance over at Candeloro, it suddenly occurs to you that this probably wouldn't even be an issue if your ribbons were still stuck inside of Tome, or maybe even just weren't in sight, if the other witch's control relies on that. You can't be completely certain, but if that is the case, you might actually be able to do something about this — you know that you can at least partially drop yourself down into Tome, and while you haven't yet tried going far enough to slip your arms back inside of it, it would only make sense for it to be possible. You'd rather not be without limbs again, even if only temporarily, but if it stops you from being used like a witch-sized marionette, it's worth a try!
As the Tira-maid touches back down on Tome, you shove your stalk downwards, which thankfully is the direction your ribbons are already trying to go at the moment. Your branches slip beneath the surface of Tome's pages, seeming to actually recede slightly in order to do so, followed by what passes for your lower torso. Then, as your front ribbons attempt to pincer the nimble familiar between themselves, the base of the limbs where they attach to your stalk falls into your larger book as well. You're feeling rather short all of a sudden...
Before you can force yourself down any further, Candeloro seems to notice what you're doing — or at least, that's the impression you get when your rearward-facing ribbons suddenly lash out and grab hold of Tome's back corners. They immediately begin straining to pull you back out of the book, even as your other two ribbons continue to play cat-and-mouse with the Tira-maid.
You curse internally as your attempts to move further down begin to tear at your back limbs, Candeloro's control affixing the ends of them in place. Damn it, that didn't work. If she'd just not done anything for a few more seconds...
Though loath to give up so easily, in the interest of not tearing both arms in twain via an indirect tug-of-war, you start drawing yourself back out of Tome.
...or at least, you try to. Something is wrong, however — even without you actively shoving yourself downwards now, you can't bring yourself back up, Tome's pages seemingly refusing to release you. In fact, you think you can actually feel them tugging at you now; forcing you downwards against your will. What is this?! Does Tome have some sort of internal gravity to it?!
A wave of dread sweeps over you. You don't know what's going on or why, but you have a horrible, horrible feeling about what might happen if you let your entire stalk slip completely beneath Tome's surface. This was a BAD idea-!
You strain against the force, now actively working against it to pull yourself back out of your own lower body. Even with Candeloro still using your rear arms for the same purpose however, it's like trying to fight your way out of a quagmire. Every movement you make only seems to work to suck you in slightly further, until barely a fraction of your stalk is still sticking above the book's surface. You can't do this with only two limbs' worth of leverage!
You look helplessly at your front two ribbons, which Candeloro is still using alongside her own to give the Tira-maid the runaround. With most of your stalk now stuck in Tome, the familiar has a lot less room to maneuver, and will undoubtedly be caught quite shortly — but you can't wait that long. You need your arms back NOW!
With little other choice, you bring about a dozen of your reserved shatterwords around to your side, then launch them past the flailing mass of limbs taking up most of your vision towards a spot just behind where Candeloro is floating. The noise they make upon impacting the massive tea platter thankfully does its intended job of startling the smaller witch, causing her to quickly swivel around and withdraw her ribbons in order to shield herself from errant shrapnel — and as she does, her control over your ribbons vanishes.
Seizing the moment, you swing your front arms upwards and use them to grab hold of Novella's sides. The smaller book is still floating exactly where it was before, meaning it's actually now slightly over your head, and will hopefully serve as a decent anchor. Please work...!
Using Novella as a handhold, you use all four of your limbs in tandem to slowly start dragging yourself back out of Tome. The downward force thankfully seems to weaken the further out of its pages you get, causing your progress to accelerate the further along you already are. A few moments later, you're back to normal, branches and all.
<Remind me to never try THAT again...> you broadcast, slightly shaken.
"We don't even really know what you just did," Sayaka quickly replies, her and Tira having watched that entire process play out, "but it doesn't look like she's very happy about it!"
Sayaka isn't wrong — as soon as Candeloro swivels back around to see you back at your full height, her familiar once again perched atop your stalk like the topper on a Christmas tree, she screeches loudly and starts hopping up and down in the air again, looking even more enraged than before.
Great...
You suddenly lose control of your ribbons again, which you suppose you'd already assumed was pretty much inevitable. Rather than going back to chasing the Tira-maid however, they instead wind themselves around the top half of your stalk, binding themselves to your upper body as if attempting to either mummify you, or strangle a neck that doesn't exist. Honestly, while you're unsure if this can really be called an improvement over the previous state of things, it's certainly not any worse — at least now you aren't being jerked back and forth by your own limbs.
Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the end of it, as a pair of massive golden ribbons abruptly shimmer into existence, manifesting themselves on either side of Candeloro. Like entities of their own, they tie themselves around one of the rainbow bridges connected to the platter the tiny witch is still hovering over the edge of, then extend outwards at lightning speeds to lash their other ends around Tome.
Surprisingly, the ribbons don't start pulling you back towards land once they've got a grip on you as you'd expected. They do however seem to freeze and lock in place, just before hundreds of tinier ribbons begin to extend from their sides, interlocking with each other to form a tightly-woven netting between themselves. Oh for- didn't you already do this once today?!
The moment the netting completes itself, the door of Candeloro's cottage swings open, and a dozen or so of her less rebellious maid familiars come mincing out of it. They quickly start heading towards Candeloro, making their way towards both the witch and the intricate lattice the she just created.
"Alright, that's it, I can't just sit here any longer!" Sayaka yells, apparently reaching her breaking point as she jumps down from the roof to run after the familiars, a second sword forming in her left hand to join the one in her right.
You'd say something to her, but at this point, you can't really find it in yourself to protest. Despite your best efforts, this appears to have turned into a fight after all, and Candeloro not only has a huge inherent advantage over you, but now seems to be bringing a small army to bear as well. You need the help.
Moving considerably faster than the small platoon of familiars, Sayaka cuts across the lake on a pair of music platforms, jumping off the second one to land on top of Tome.
"Mami- Candle- argh, Mami-san! Cut it out already!" Sayaka yells across the ribbon bridge at the witch at its other end.
At the sight of the blue-haired girl, Candeloro visibly jolts in surprise, her hovering form seeming to almost judder in the air for a moment. This doesn't seem to make her any more inclined to actually listen to Sayaka's words however, as her ribbons stretch towards you again a moment later, one of them reaching out for Sayaka while the other goes for the Tira-maid.
Sayaka bats away the ribbon that comes for her with the back of her swords, keeping Candeloro's left arm at bay, but leaving it relatively unharmed. The familiar isn't quite so kind however, as the penbrush already in its hand begins to pour ink from its tip, which rapidly forms and hardens into a pitch black blade.
As Candeloro's ribbon surges towards it, the familiar immediately swings its new weapon upwards at the encroaching limb. Though the witch quickly pulls her arm away, she's not fast enough — the sword strikes true, and several feet of golden fabric goes drifting down into the lake below.
Candeloro recoils and rapidly reels her ribbons back to herself, presumably to keep them from being injured any further. Despite her apparent caution, her damaged arm appears no shorter than before once she fully retracts it, and even shifts to reform its removed split tip a moment later. Evidently, having what amounts to her hand cut off is little more than a minor inconvenience for her.
The familiars reach the mouth of the ribbon bridge and begin marching up it in double file, moving at a slightly faster clip now. Sayaka attempts to stop them, summoning a wall of music platforms at the center of the bridge to blockade the way forward, but they don't last long, as the pair of familiars at the front of the pack toss their silver platters high into the air and pull out weapons to replace them. The blue-haired one draws forth a sword, while the redhead brings out a spear, which they thrust forward in sync to break through Sayaka's impromptu barrier... only to immediately stow them back away a moment later, freeing up their hands to effortlessly catch their falling serving trays as they return to Earth. Oh, that's just showing off.
Sayaka makes more platforms, but the familiars at the front just give a repeat performance to destroy them again, while the ones in the back apparently grow tired of waiting, and start just leaping over their sisters to reach you directly. Bound by Candeloro's bridge, you can't even try to maneuver out of the way, allowing the familiars to land on Tome's pages without issue. As soon as they do, they toss their platters up and pull out weapons like the ones before them, then lunge forward at the base of your stalk, apparently aiming to literally cut you down.
Taking a page out of Sayaka's book — or your own, really — you hurriedly summon a dozen or so music platforms to shield yourself with, forcing the maids to stab and slash through them first in order to reach you. You shouldn't actually be fast enough at that to stop them from getting through, but luckily, it turns out the platter catching probably wasn't showing off after all — aside from the Tira-maid, Candeloro's familiars seem outright incapable of keeping their weapons out, disappearing them just a few seconds after bringing them to bear in order to snag their plummeting trays from the air and toss them right back up again. It's very disconcerting having over half a dozen of pieces of metal dinnerware repeatedly flying and falling past your face, but the absurd limitation the familiars seem to be operating under more than makes up for it.
Still, even that probably wouldn't be enough, if not for the fact that not all of the familiars are focused on you. Sayaka is now actively fending off the ones still trying to force their away across the bridge, and the Tira-maid is also putting in its due, having descended your stalk to duel one of its blue-haired sisters while simultaneously performing a running escape from another. Seeing them both fighting, you decide that you really need to start contributing to this beyond just defending yourself, and remind yourself that your arms being bound by no means makes you helpless.
You don't need your ribbons free to throw shatterwords, after all.
Bringing all of your remaining runes around in front of you, you launch them down at the middle of the ribbon bridge tethering you in place. The resulting shrapnel explosion heavily lacerates the backs of several of the familiars, but more importantly rips a large chunk of the bridge apart, including one of the larger supporting ribbons. A couple seconds later, most of the structure gives out beneath the familiars still standing on it, dropping them down into the lake below.
With the enemies she was holding off now taking a swim, Sayaka spins around and leaps towards the ones attacking your stalk, managing to draw and divert the attention of three of the maids away from you. At the same time, Candeloro's restriction of your arms stutters for an instant as she glances down — in concern? — at the familiars you just dunked.
Taking advantage of the other witch's distraction, you quickly unwind your two front ribbons from around yourself and lean down, grabbing a pair of maids that just put their weapons back away. Lifting them both high into the air, you twist around and fling them towards the distant shoreline, using all your strength to send them as far away from you as possible. Your arms stop working under your direction again a fraction of a second later, even reaching out as if to try and catch the familiars you just tossed away like trash, but too late, as they arc away from you and splash down gracelessly into the lake.
As your ribbons constrict themselves around your stalk again, Candeloro's own ribbons finally rejoin the fray, ignoring Sayaka this time and returning to chasing after the Tira-maid alone. As a result, the rogue familiar (currently balanced on the end of one of your larger branches) is forced to abandon its previous offense, dropping down to avoid another familiar's lunge and fleeing instead of retaliating.
Unable to truly assist it at the moment, you switch back to defense yourself, renewing the wall of music platforms protecting the base of your stalk. However, it seems that some of the familiars are getting fed up with this line of attack, as several of the ones doing so suddenly switch targets — the next time their weapons come out, they quite deliberately ignore your stalk, and instead turn their blades over in their hands to thrust them down into Tome's unprotected surface.
The magical steel slices and tears through the book's pages like they aren't even there. You instinctively reel back in pain — or rather, you fail to reel back, still partially tethered in place by the remnants of the ribbon bridge. Unfortunately, with your shatterwords depleted, your arms tied, and the familiars literally standing on top of you, there's no real way for you to even stop them. Damn it-!
You'd ask Sayaka to help, but she's still busy fending off the trio of maids she peeled away from you earlier. You'd honestly expected her to have taken out at least one of them by now, especially given the self-imposed handicap they're all operating under, but the trio Sayaka is dealing with seem to be actively covering for each other — as soon as a platter comes back down and the one currently attacking stops to catch it, the next one tosses its own platter up and rotates in to take the previous one's place, effectively preventing Sayaka from getting the chance to decisively strike at any of them and keeping her constantly on the defensive.
<Tira, I know you said you wanted to avoid fighting and all, but we could really use some help over here!> Sayaka telepathically yells as she takes and immediately heals a glancing blow to the shoulder.
<Agreed!>you hurriedly follow up. <This is kind of an emergency!>
Tira doesn't move. Her apparent fixation with her lookalike familiar actually seems to have abated, but now she's moved on to just staring at Candeloro instead, her expression twisting in what you might call agony if you didn't know for a fact that she's not at all in pain right now. Her fingers twitch back and forth repeatedly, as though she desperately wants to do something, but is too paralyzed by either indecision or guilt to do so. You don't know which, and to be honest you don't really care right now; she needs to snap out of it already!
Another pair of deep rents gets carved into Tome, and you shudder in renewed pain. Giving Tira up as a lost cause for the moment, you look down and begin to ready Tearful Storm, deciding to risk the chance of it blasting you down into the lake, so long as it also gets these familiars off of you.
Before your galaxy lines can even begin to shift, the Tira-maid suddenly steps in, stunning one of your attackers by literally landing on top of it, then hopping down and kicking it off the edge of Tome. This draws the attention of the other familiars attacking Tome as well, which turns out to be excellent timing, as you're suddenly forced to cut off your own attack in favor of making another music shield, which just manages to deflect a flying spear that suddenly comes whistling down at you from the sky. What the-
You glance over at Candeloro again, and realize that she's not the only one on the platter anymore — some of the fallen familiars are beginning to re-emerge from the lake, bloodstained arms surging up from the liquid below and dragging their owners back onto land. Somehow, not a single one of them seems to have lost its personal serving tray, and despite the gallons of crimson liquid now dripping off of their bodies, they're clearly not out of the fight, as evidenced by the fact that several of them are now throwing weapons at you like oversized arrows. The fact that the familiars seem to be arcing their weapons upwards rather than just pitching them forward like javelins does at least leave you some time to see them coming, but it's just one more factor you have to deal with that you can't dedicate your full focus to.
Knocking another sword and spear from the air, you notice that the wall of music shields surrounding your stalk is almost gone, and hurriedly make even more, hoping to buy yourself a little more time. Apparently getting as fed up with attacking an ever-replenishing defense as their fellows however, the two familiars still harassing your stalk spring off of Tome and land on top of Novella, presumably seeking to attack from higher ground.
Thankful that they picked such a bad place to land, you immediately start making and pelting the familiars with shatterwords from below — even without the time to grow to full size, the runes still break on impact just as well, stunning both of the maids and preventing them from pulling their weapons back out. Without the additional force however, you have no real way of finishing the maids off, except-
You look back to Sayaka just as she finally manages to get some space from her opponents by leaping off of Tome entirely, flipping around and sending the blade of her left-hand sword flying from its hilt towards the trio of familiars. One of the redhead maids actually manages to swat it out of the air before it impacts, but the blade still explodes a moment later, blasting two of them backwards and one of them off of Tome entirely. Sayaka lands back on Tome a moment later, summoning another sword even as she's forced to duck under one of Candeloro's ribbons as it sweeps after the Tira-maid.
<Sayaka, quick, skewer these two!> you order, turning Sayaka's gaze to the familiars you have pinned on Novella, while a spear you failed to notice falls from above and buries itself in a corner of Tome.
Thankfully choosing not to question you, Sayaka pitches both of her swords upwards at the pair of maids, quickly forming new ones even as the ones she just threw unerringly pierce through both of the familiars' heads. I'll take those...
You'd already started forming the subsumption vortex before the swords even impacted, and thus when the pair of maids collapse, they end up literally falling directly into Novella. Roughly half the damage sustained by Tome's pages abruptly reverses itself as their energy flows into you — considerably more than you'd expected, actually — and with that energy comes information. You know that you were right about Candeloro's name now, and that her familiars are called the "Du Polignac", which apparently have individual names as well depending on which variety they are, and which Candeloro sees each and every one of as a precious, irreplaceable friend-
Uh oh.
<Um, okay, that may have been a->
Candeloro abruptly screams, her movements instantly going from frantic to furious. Her ribbons turn away from the Tira Du Polignac and twine together with each other, then lash down at you like a single enormous whip.
Balking at the oncoming attack, Sayaka hurriedly jumps backwards and off of you again, landing on a music platform that manifests a few inches under her feet. You, however, are still tethered in place, and thus unable to even attempt to dodge. Brace for impact-!
The titanic ribbons slam down on the front edge of Tome, the force of their impact sending you pitching forward into a near front flip. Surprisingly, this winds up being a good thing, as while the sudden, extremely sharp motion does cause you to shatter the remaining music shields around the base of your stalk, it also snaps the remaining large ribbon tying you to land, and dumps the remaining Du Polignac still standing on your lower body off of you. You do dip dangerously low in the air for a moment, Tome very nearly plunging into the lake beneath, but you manage to recover fast enough to rise back up and avoid falling in. You can move again!
Freed from at least that portion of your shackles, if not the invisible force still restraining your arms, you start floating backwards, trying to get enough space that at least the Du Polignac's thrown weapons will no longer be a concern. Before you make it more than a couple of meters however, Candeloro lashes out with her still-huge right ribbon, which this time winds around the middle of your stalk and begins forcibly dragging you back towards the much smaller witch. At the same time, she lifts up her other ribbon as well, which seems to almost spasm for a moment before furling in on itself and transforming into an enormous rifle barrel. Oh come the HELL on-
The rifle begins firing at you, shots ringing out from it considerably faster than a real one would likely be able to. You're forced to swing Tome upwards to block the shots as best you can, but its weight makes it extremely difficult to hold it in place, especially while still trying to resist the smaller witch's pull at the same time. You are so beyond sick of guns!
Sayaka pitches several swords at Candeloro's arm, presumably trying to free you from her grasp, but they're all knocked off course by other swords that come flying at them from the side, courtesy of some of the Sayaka Du Polignacs (or rather, the Aoiro-sans) that made it back to land. In contrast, the Tira Du Polignac doesn't seem to be helping anymore for some reason, you suppose because its enemies are all back on shore now-
Looking down at yourself, you suddenly realize that it's not just that the rogue familiar isn't helping anymore — she doesn't seem to be perched on you at all. Wait, where'd she go? Did she fall off with the rest of them when Candeloro slapped you silly? You didn't see her fall...
Evidently also only just now noticing her initial target's disappearance, Candeloro suddenly freezes, her arm slackening and her fire ceasing. Her remaining familiars stop attacking you as well, the rain of thrown weapons abating as their throwers' heads begin turning on a swivel.
Caught off guard by the unexpected halt in hostilities, you imitate Candeloro by freezing in place, reasoning that moving when you probably shouldn't have is what got you into this position to begin with. You also freeze Sayaka's limbs for much the same reason, which you probably should have given her a warning for, given the loud mental squawk that follows.
<Ash?!> Sayaka protests. <What are you doing?!>
<Stopping you from getting Candeloro's attention again — I think she may have just lost interest in us.>
As if to prove this, Candeloro's ribbons both suddenly withdraw from you, her transformed one shifting back to normal as she thrusts her arms down into the lake. Several Du Polignac, presumably the ones that just fell off of you, are extracted and placed back on the platter behind the witch in short order, but none of them turn out to be the one the witch is looking for. Most of the remaining familiars begin marching away, spreading out and migrating to adjoining tea platters as their heads begin robotically rotating from side to side like living security cameras.
<...okay, now what are they doing?>
<Searching for someone who doesn't particularly want to be found, I think.>
The blood churns like a whirlpool as Candeloro's limbs continue to whip around below the surface, but nothing more emerges from below. Her movements becoming increasingly distressed, Candeloro rises another meter or so into the air and frantically swivels in a circle, searching desperately for the vanished familiar. Upon still failing to locate it, however...
"IyAaAaAaAhHhHhHhHh..."
As if so heartbroken as to no longer be able to hover, Candeloro begins to fall, slowly drifting down to the platter beneath her. Her mournful, startlingly human wail seems to almost reverberate throughout the area, lingering in the air for several seconds before finally dying away.
...only to nigh-immediately be followed by another, entirely different-sounding wail.
"I'm SORRY!!!"
Your thought process screeches to a halt as Tira abruptly jumps down from the cottage roof she's been frozen on for ages and starts running towards Candeloro like a woman possessed — a theory that only gains more credence when she reaches the tiny witch and immediately envelops her in a massive hug. What the hell is she doing?!
"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have left you like I did!" Tira cries. "I should have just told you I couldn't deal with hunting witches and familiars like you did every day, told you that I couldn't handle it! I wasn't strong like you; I'm still not strong like you, and you were always so confident, but I was always so terrified, and- no, I know it was still wrong of me; I knew how lonely you were, I didn't mean to abandon you! I just couldn't face you knowing I couldn't live up to your expectations! Please, forgive me!"
The words spill out of Tira in a single long stream, twin rivers of tears running down her face all the while. Meanwhile, while you're still trying to process what the hell is even going on, your remaining wounds rapidly start mending themselves, and you suddenly begin feeling extremely... full. Almost as though you ate too much or something — and maybe you did. Even with all the magic you've been using, subsuming that pair of Du Polignac replenished a shockingly large amount, and with Tira's presumably rapidly accumulating grief on top of that- ulp!
The uncomfortable feeling begins rising up within you, roiling and bubbling like a cauldron about to boil over. You need to do something with this-!
[-] Try to expel the grief from yourself.
[-] Try to swallow the grief back down.
[-] Try to mentally shove the grief away...
[-] ...towards Sayaka.
[-] ...towards Tira.
[-] ...towards literally anywhere else you maniac.
[-] Write in.
You don't want to know how many times I had to rewrite this. Seriously, you don't. And, even after all that, I still don't like the battle choreography of this chapter. It doesn't feel right, but I can't make it feel any better despite countless hours of editing, and I just... ugh, I did NOT think the initial section of this arc would be as hard to write as it has proven to be thus far. I don't even know why that is; I was excited to get around to Candeloro! Part of it is probably just my fruitless attempts to multitask, but considering I had like, half this chapter done already when I uploaded the last one... jeez.
Granted, part of the delay was also just from being utterly unable to find a suitable musical accompaniment for this fight. I really wanted to use something with bells in it so as to play into the whole Candlemas connection, and/or something that related to Candeloro's more obvious themes (Flowering Night was a serious consideration, as was 11 Stars 5 Flowers). Ultimately however, I just couldn't find anything that felt right or fitting to the fight itself — which may play into why I'm still so dissatisfied with it. If anyone has any suggestions, please, PLEASE do comment with them, and if I think one fits well enough I will likely edit it into this post. Seriously, I realize this is a stupid thing to be concerned about, but considering how long I spent trying and failing to find the perfect theme, this may actually haunt me in the future.
Anyways, a huge thanks to @Pheonix14, @Warclam, Henry Branscombe, and my four other patrons not named here, as well as an extra special thanks to a certain generous patron who wishes to remain unnamed. Each of them receives a magical silver platter of exquisite make and craft, capable of producing a variety of festive food items. Don't worry, we cleaned the blood off beforehand. ✨🍽✨
Description: A __________ witch ____________________. She cannot stand being lonely, and so hosts a never-ending party, seeking to prevent any visitors to her labyrinth from ever wanting to leave. ________________, she has combined all variety of celebrations into one, __________________________________. ________________________ the food she has her familiars serve will _________________. Being so small, she mainly transports herself by hanging onto her familiars' necks like a pendant.
Familiars:
-Du Polignac, whose duty is to guide visitors. They invite humans who enter the witch's barrier to her tea party, but frequently attempt to run away from her themselves. When they do, this simply prompts the witch to tie their hands and feet together, as she considers them to be not just servants, but also precious friends. They come in different forms, such as Akairo-san and Aoiro-san, but they all have the same task, save one.
Labyrinth:
-Outer Layer: A landscape of ornate teacups and tea platters, floating on a lake of blood beneath an inverted sky. Cartoonish apple trees line the lake's outskirts, and solid rainbows bridge the gaps between platters. At the end of the path lies a small, fairytale cottage, _______________________.
-Inner Layer: A large, heavily-decorated chamber, tailor-made for the purposes of celebration and festivity. Piles of wrapped presents lie scattered about the velvet carpet floor, and a collection of festive decorations bedeck the walls. At the center of the room is a large dining table, prepared for a picturesque tea party that the witch greatly desires to host.
Magic:
-Nastri Regale: Can freely manipulate, harden, enlarge, and extend all manner of ribbons.
-Minié: Transforms one of her arms into a rifle, then fires it.
-Possesso Fantasmatico: Enters and controls the body of a familiar, _________________________________.
-_______________________________________________________________________________________________________.
Swallow grief
We are the witch of subsumption a mere overflow can be easily used to build us further and we will suffer not our friends becoming just like us
We should refuse to let what happen to us happen to them
Well that could have gone better, and unless Cande' has a short memory I suspect that Ashy isn't on the invite list for the next tea party. Also, she's probably going to hold a grudge about those familiars that just got nomm'd. Still, upside; she's looking for the familiar, so slipping away without filling a new page in the Witch-E'dex might still be on the table.
[X] Try to swallow the grief back down.
I get the feeling it'll suck a bit, but more power right? Plus Ashy is already a witch, and the other-two's soul gems are somewhere inside her, and I suspect that if that grief gets directed towards the others, Ashy's going to get chest-burster'd by a newborn witch. Which doesn't sound all that healthy...
As for spitting it out, I don't think we really want to 'eject' a massive glob of witch-food this close to a witch that might decide to take out her anger at that familiar escaping and a few of her other familiars getting subsumed on the obvious target. I'd rather not see if that Grief-glob would buff her when a fight seems probable.
Considering how recently the familiars were subsumed would it be possible to vomit them out using the excess greif?
that would (hopefully) solve the problem of Candeloro being upset over the death of what she considered irreplaceable friends or at least reduce it to her just being mad over some of her friends being partially digested.
(also as I don't think I've said this before so I'm just going to mention here too that I think this story is wonderful and that I'm always delighted whenever I see that it's been updated)
Hussite should have just never let the fans take control of the direction of the plot. Just a bad idea all around.
