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
That's... not quite how an overflow works, by definition, but you're right that a grief overflow wouldn't necessarily be *unhealthy* for most witches.
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.
Possibly Sayaka as well, since she's the one that actually killed them - though, she'd also have a much better shot of gaining forgiveness for that than Ashtaroth ever would.
[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 get the feeling 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...
Good thoughts, but remember not to rely
too heavily on in-story assumptions - Ashtaroth is guessing at a lot of this too. Though you're not wrong that shoving the excess grief towards Sayaka or Tira sounds patently insane given a moment's thought, hence the "
you maniac" appended to the final option.
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 s 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.
Also, hocking up loogies is just kind of gross, whether they're composed of grief or not.
Best Planetoid deserves another chance. Besides, making Familiars is what grief overflow is for, right?
I advocate for the return of best irrationally annoying planetoid. Shemesh is best irrationally annoying planetoid.
You and several others apparently. I'm sure Shemesh would be quite flattered! 🥰
We must all work together to save the planet!
Sayaka, from the sidelines: That's not what that means!
I really must draw Shemesh at some point; didn't realize he had so many fans. Though, how to draw a planetoid that's constantly shifting in both size and shape... might have to make an animation for that.
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.
Whether or not that would actually work is in question, since you've yet to attempt extracting a familiar/witch before, but you could certainly try.
(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)
Thanks! This fic has been... slow, this year, as I've been mainly focused on ABG and other things, but as noted before, this is the one story you should always expect me to eventually come back to.
If you shove it towards Sayaka or Tira you'll probably witch them out, which while making for a pleasingly depressing chapter would be a terrible idea.
I mean, there
is another possibility - maybe even more than one, actually - but those could end up presenting difficulties all their own.
[X] Conjure a non threatening illusion around you, like turning the blood to water with fish in it, or the sky into a night sceen filled with shooting stars.
Ash's illusions are the biggest drain on magic she has. If anything could get rid of the excess Grief, it's going to be this.
Ooh, that reminds me, forgot to add a Write in option. Chapter has now been edited to add that in.
Moving on, wow was Tira nursing a guilty conscience. She's not wrong to either, she was very aware of what she was doing and how it would hurt Mami. It was a very shitty thing to do. Yet I'm still inclined to cut her some slack, because yes, I can see how trying to keep up with Mami would be a painful experience when you don't have her level of skill or her dedication. She couldn't exactly talk about it either, because dwelling on thoughts of your own weakness, inadequacy and disappointment are things that lead to darkening Soul Gems. Still, while I feel she made a bad choice in part because the good choice was dangerous, she still mostly did it because it was easier. Now it's too late to really make up for it, no matter what she says to this thing that used to be Mami. Tragic, very tragic.
Right on pretty much every account. You've rather neatly summarized Tira's motivations here, both past and present.
Anyway, that was rather gutwrenching at the end. Tira needs lots of hugs.
Oh good - that was the effect I was hoping to pull off.
I was kind of concerned about its effectiveness given the long gap of time between chapters, as well as because the fight scene ran considerably longer than I thought it would, so if the emotional aspect still managed to come through for you, then I'm quite happy.
Uh oh. Either that second blank spot is either "will taste amazing" or it's something sinister. The first blank spot just has me confused.
I'll note that a lot of the information in this profile was actually added within the last week, when I finally got my hands on the extra information given about Candeloro and her familiars from the Madogatari event (which was apparently actually the live event,
not the Magia Record event). This includes the information about the food she serves in her cottage, so if you search hard enough, you may be able to figure out that blank space on your own.
Also I'll probably just add it to the wiki I use at some point, since no one else apparently has.
And the blank ability is rather concerning as well--anyone know if Candeloro has another special ability from the PSP game?
She does, and it would be very bad for you in particular were it used on you, for reasons already covered earlier in this story. Candeloro pretty much hard counters Ashtaroth in multiple ways to be perfectly honest - if she hadn't been distracted with another target here, you would most certainly already be dead at this point.
I wonder if Candeloro can possess the familiars of other witches. Will she transform into The Party Planet?
Shemesh shifts into a planet with tea for oceans, miniature sandwiches for continents, and rings of blueberry jam orbiting around his exterior. Ironically, given the nationality behind Candeloro's own theming, he's never looked so British.
Or we can sacrifice Shemesh in being a friend of Candeloro.
...
Okay, I admit that I mainly suggested this because the image of Shemesh being reborn just to be immediately sacrificed (again) amuses me, like, a lot. And I maintain my stand that there is nothing wrong with this.
That would be, what we call, cruel. But, I suppose there are worse fates than babysitting an extremely clingy doll-sized witch.
[JK] Try to mentally shove the grief away...
-[JK] ...towards
Homura Akemi
I figured someone had to post the worst idea ever and then tag @Flairina in on it.
Congratulations, you have come up with what is perhaps the
most potentially disastrous idea possible, given these particular circumstances! XD Be proud; that was not something that occurred to me in the slightest - now I almost want to write that out just to see how horribly it could go wrong.
So that's how Consumption happened! I was wondering about that.
And thus the mystery that no one thought was a mystery and didn't even really need solving comes to a close, having been solved regardless. Nice work!
"directly into"
The second "you" shouldn't be here.
Fixed; thanks for the heads up!
Is that Candeloro's doing? Most Witchs seems to me very goal-focused, I would even say most of them suffer tunnel vision.
Candeloro definitely showcases that witch tunnel vision to a very large degree; I'll say that much.
Apparently not. Strange that Ashy didn't feel that back in Charlotte's Labyrinth.
Didn't go deep enough in. This has actually always been something I've been planning on introducing/mentioning at some point, as it's heavily tied into Ashtaroth's themes and symbolism, and it occurred to me when people voted for dipping into Tome last update that this would be a good place to do that... but man if it didn't make a chapter that was already proving hard to write even more so.
Uhh, "mincing"? Did someone cut them up while no one looked? Is Shemesh getting rid of competition on the servant market?!
As funny as a twist like that might be (at least given the likely result), I really just meant the other definition of the word here. ^_^;
I wonder if Ashy could subsume that to complete more of Candeloro's Novella entry.
If you managed to somehow finish it out of the lake, I suppose you could at least give it a try.
What would happen if someone stole one of those trays mid-flight? Would the familiar be forced to follow the thief?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So that's what was happening with Tira after all, it gives a new twist to her line on how she claimed she's free to actually feel things again.
And to think having a subsumed magical girl having a breakdown is now a safe and good thing.
Well, a good thing in at least one way, yes. Whether or not this sudden influx of grief turns out to be a positive remains to be seen.
I've been looking forward to the moment she'd give the 'loro that well-needed hug for like, this whole time, and it's happened and it's perfect and I love it. Thank you for the treat!
You're quite welcome! I've been looking forward to it too... but you'll have to wait until next update to see how that hug actually pans out.
