Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
Dude, Witches are suppost to be insane, not Evil.
I'll have you know that that Useless McVestigial has been with me for many years and has only been a slight inconvenience.
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Subsumption (PMMM Faux-Quest) (Witch MC)
Tempestuous
Words are wind, so I write.
- Location
- CA
We can make air-burst projectiles!
mCooperative
meanderingCephalopod
- Location
- Back in Mitakihara after like 1000 years.
Having just caught up, and having not the inspiration to make a good shitpost vote or any particularly inspired commentary on the present state of affairs, I have only this to add:
Ashtaroth, the Witch of Void (?)
(Possible alternatives: Thief of Heart, ??? of ???)
"Those bound to the aspect of Void are the universe's secret-keepers. The unknown doesn't scare them-where others might see emptiness, they see potential. A blank page, an empty canvas, that's what the Void-bound live for. "
-The Extended Zodiac
"Void is associated with "the essence of lacking, or nothingness" and "the obfuscation of knowledge", or its "outright destruction"."
- MSPA Wiki: Aspect
"The most common definition of a Witch is "one who manipulates [aspect]," although that seems a little vague. (...) Another speculation is that Witch is related to "breaking the rules" of their aspect. (...) Witch could also be a pun. Witches might choose "which" portion of their aspect they want (...)"
- MSPA Wiki: Class
Ashtaroth's powers include the manipulation of her environment via illusions; the ability to shift her surroundings into appearing as almost anything she can imagine. This may be most pertinent for concealing her true location within her Barrier, given her lack of native strong defensive or offensive abilities.
Currently, her main offensive capability lies in creating black, runic-looking chains of symbols that rise from her upper book's pages and grow over time, becoming physical objects that float in orbit around her. They can be moved freely within a limited sphere around Ashtaroth, or flung away with a simple mental push, and will shatter into shrapnel on impact.
Her self-awareness is an anomaly, perhaps an unprecedented one.
Consorts (Familiars): Ummashtart
Their duty is to create a backdrop. They wander the outer edges of their witch's barrier, appearing as paper imitations of forms she can no longer use. They are not very durable, and can easily be wiped out en masse.
They do not appear to obey their witch's directions, although this may change as she grows more experienced with her powers. Nor do they show any special intelligence, or any special interest in their witch.
Denizen: (???)
Ashtaroth cannot remember either her face or her name, or her life before becoming a magical girl.
As a magical girl, perhaps her Denizen would have been the witch known as Ashtaroth, slumbering as a potentiality within her Soul Gem. The face of her mortality.
Instead, Ashtaroth's Denizen remains a mystery. Perhaps it is the embodiment of the lost remnants of the magical girl she was, waiting for discovery, waiting to be awakened. The results of this Denizen awakening are unknown.
Land of Pages and Asphalt (Barrier)
-Inner Layer: Appears to be a literal white void, with no obvious entrance, exit, or really anything at all. Is that really all there is to it...?
-Outer Layer: A landscape of towering grass and "glitched" pillars, set beneath a veined, aquamarine sky. Ummashtart stalk and hide within the grass, which grows taller and thicker near the center of the barrier. Twisting roads, originating from the doorway to the Inner Layer, stretch throughout the air, terminating in "portals" that seem to lead to starry voids.
...
A young lady stands in a white void. It just so happens that today, her former life as a magical girl and a living member of the human species has ended. Due to her rather violent death, it seems she's just lost all her memories, along with her human body. She is now a set of floating books, with a whirling vortex for a head, and a rather upsetting lack of useable arms.
Though it was seventeen years ago she was given life, the name she was given...
The name she was given...
Though it's on the tip of her tongue, she cannot seem to remember her name.
...
A young Witch awakens in her Barrier. Although she cannot remember the name she was given seventeen years ago, she seems to have gained an acceptable substitute, for now.
What was the name of this young lady again?
Ah yes.
...
You are now Ashtaroth, Witch of Subsumption.
What will you do?
> Pretend this is an actual Quest and keep voting until our keyboards wear out
> Shitpost
> Quickly retrieve arms from... ah.
> Witch out for superpowers- oh, wait.
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Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
I did not expect a Homestuck classpect analysis of Ashtaroth, but damn if it isn't nice. Very well thought out! That title was perhaps a bit obvious, but I can't say it doesn't fit.
Since that's using information from it anyways, I suppose I'll use this as an opportunity to alert everyone that Ashtaroth's character sheet has been updated a bit with info from the past few story posts, including the barrier and familiars sections. Course, I mostly copy pasted it from the old version, but it's still an update, so.
Emergence 13: Murky Waters
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
> Search for a witch near:
You think you'll start your search somewhere a bit more out of the way than you usually would. Maybe if you hadn't spent so much time in your barrier you'd take the risk of checking somewhere more populous, but it's getting late, and evening is when most magical girls tend to hunt — mostly because school generally takes up the entirety of the morning — so you'd hazard a guess that this is when ultra-girl is going to be out and about. You'd rather not run right towards the areas she's most likely to check, so instead you'll try... the river, perhaps? It's accessible from a lot of places in town, and easy enough to drown oneself in, so that probably makes it a decent prospect.
You head down to where the river enters the city proper, waffling between traveling over the water versus traveling along the bank for a short while, before eventually settling on the former. There's barely any people around — kind of feels weird to be seeing them from in here, like you're unintentionally spying on them — but given how witches feed, you're inclined to believe they'll end up getting drawn inside your barrier if you get too close. You don't plan on eating anyone, but you'd still rather avoid accidentally trapping anyone in here with you, so you'll try to stay as out of the way as possible.
As you begin moving forward, a couple minor issues with your plan begin to make themselves apparent. Namely, you don't have a soul gem anymore, so finding a witch is going to be a lot more difficult than when you could just play a magical version of Hot and Cold, especially as no giant glowing portal is going to pop into existence when you get close to one either. In fact, without a soul gem, the only other method you know to identify a barrier is by looking for the slight rippling in the air that their presence causes — the same thing Harpoon Girl demonstrably failed at earlier. It isn't an insurmountable obstacle in and of itself, but it's going to be dark soon, at which point spotting something that's already basically invisible will become downright impossible. You could end up passing two feet in front of another witch barrier and ultimately not even notice.
That's not the only problem though, as even if you do manage to locate another barrier... well, how exactly are you supposed to get out of this one in order to enter it? So far as you can tell, there's no way for you to full-on leave your little pocket dimension. You didn't find anything resembling an exit whilst wandering around it earlier, nor have your witchstincts chimed in with anything helpful, even now that the subject is at the forefront of your thoughts. You know that familiars can wander out of barriers, so surely there must be some method, but you have no idea what that is, or if it's usable by witches themselves. Honestly, this is probably something you should have thought about earlier, rather than waiting until- OVER THERE
Something abruptly grabs at your attention, all but yanking it towards the left side of the riverbank. You're momentarily left confused, not seeing anything, but a moment later something breaks across your awareness like a frigid blast of air. You cease your barrier's forward movement, and turn the entirety of your attention to the seemingly empty area.
There is definitely a witch here. You're certain of this, because you can quite literally, palpably feel the waves of negative emotion emanating from the general area. Though perhaps that isn't the best way to put it as you wouldn't strictly qualify everything you're somehow feeling as "emotions", per se. The waves aren't just sad or despairing, they're... barren. Ruined. Isolated.
...lonely...
You set your gaze on the slightly muddy shore, scanning for the source of the not-emotions. Where is it, where is it, where- there.
The rippling in the air could easily be mistaken as a simple heat haze, or the reflection of the setting sun off the river's surface. However, given how obvious the... impressions it's exuding are, and how it seemingly all but forced you to pay attention to it because of them, perhaps you needn't have been worried about inadvertently "missing" another barrier after all.
...you still have no idea how to get inside though.
[-] Approach. Maybe a doorway will form where the barriers overlap?
[-] Break in. Kind of contrary to your goals here, but tearing down the metaphorical walls might be the only way into this metaphorical house.
[-] Call out. Perhaps you have to be invited inside?
[-] Write in.
[-] MERGE
> The river running through town.
You think you'll start your search somewhere a bit more out of the way than you usually would. Maybe if you hadn't spent so much time in your barrier you'd take the risk of checking somewhere more populous, but it's getting late, and evening is when most magical girls tend to hunt — mostly because school generally takes up the entirety of the morning — so you'd hazard a guess that this is when ultra-girl is going to be out and about. You'd rather not run right towards the areas she's most likely to check, so instead you'll try... the river, perhaps? It's accessible from a lot of places in town, and easy enough to drown oneself in, so that probably makes it a decent prospect.
You head down to where the river enters the city proper, waffling between traveling over the water versus traveling along the bank for a short while, before eventually settling on the former. There's barely any people around — kind of feels weird to be seeing them from in here, like you're unintentionally spying on them — but given how witches feed, you're inclined to believe they'll end up getting drawn inside your barrier if you get too close. You don't plan on eating anyone, but you'd still rather avoid accidentally trapping anyone in here with you, so you'll try to stay as out of the way as possible.
As you begin moving forward, a couple minor issues with your plan begin to make themselves apparent. Namely, you don't have a soul gem anymore, so finding a witch is going to be a lot more difficult than when you could just play a magical version of Hot and Cold, especially as no giant glowing portal is going to pop into existence when you get close to one either. In fact, without a soul gem, the only other method you know to identify a barrier is by looking for the slight rippling in the air that their presence causes — the same thing Harpoon Girl demonstrably failed at earlier. It isn't an insurmountable obstacle in and of itself, but it's going to be dark soon, at which point spotting something that's already basically invisible will become downright impossible. You could end up passing two feet in front of another witch barrier and ultimately not even notice.
That's not the only problem though, as even if you do manage to locate another barrier... well, how exactly are you supposed to get out of this one in order to enter it? So far as you can tell, there's no way for you to full-on leave your little pocket dimension. You didn't find anything resembling an exit whilst wandering around it earlier, nor have your witchstincts chimed in with anything helpful, even now that the subject is at the forefront of your thoughts. You know that familiars can wander out of barriers, so surely there must be some method, but you have no idea what that is, or if it's usable by witches themselves. Honestly, this is probably something you should have thought about earlier, rather than waiting until- OVER THERE
Something abruptly grabs at your attention, all but yanking it towards the left side of the riverbank. You're momentarily left confused, not seeing anything, but a moment later something breaks across your awareness like a frigid blast of air. You cease your barrier's forward movement, and turn the entirety of your attention to the seemingly empty area.
There is definitely a witch here. You're certain of this, because you can quite literally, palpably feel the waves of negative emotion emanating from the general area. Though perhaps that isn't the best way to put it as you wouldn't strictly qualify everything you're somehow feeling as "emotions", per se. The waves aren't just sad or despairing, they're... barren. Ruined. Isolated.
...lonely...
You set your gaze on the slightly muddy shore, scanning for the source of the not-emotions. Where is it, where is it, where- there.
The rippling in the air could easily be mistaken as a simple heat haze, or the reflection of the setting sun off the river's surface. However, given how obvious the... impressions it's exuding are, and how it seemingly all but forced you to pay attention to it because of them, perhaps you needn't have been worried about inadvertently "missing" another barrier after all.
...you still have no idea how to get inside though.
[-] Approach. Maybe a doorway will form where the barriers overlap?
[-] Break in. Kind of contrary to your goals here, but tearing down the metaphorical walls might be the only way into this metaphorical house.
[-] Call out. Perhaps you have to be invited inside?
[-] Write in.
[-] MERGE
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Shadowhisker
Asylum Escapee
- Location
- Dawn of Fold Refugee Camp
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ooh, I wonder what sort of Witch we'll get to see and consume
mCooperative
meanderingCephalopod
- Location
- Back in Mitakihara after like 1000 years.
That's vampires, sweetheart. }=o)
dragonhollow
Lurker and all time hider
- Location
- singapore
[-] Call out. Perhaps you have to be invited inside?
[-] Call out. Perhaps you have to be invited inside?
Just because we may end up devouring them is no reason to be rude.
Also we might be able to invite other witches overfor dinner for dinner
Just because we may end up devouring them is no reason to be rude.
Also we might be able to invite other witches over
Shadowhisker
Asylum Escapee
- Location
- Dawn of Fold Refugee Camp
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[-] Lonely?! Well we can't have that! BREAK DOWN THAT DOOR! TIME TO MAKE FRIENDS!
Here's Ashtaroth!
Here's Ashtaroth!
Mami enters a barrier. Sees six witches playing cards.[-] Lonely?! Well we can't have that! BREAK DOWN THAT DOOR! TIME TO MAKE FRIENDS!
Here's Ashtaroth!
Mami quietly leaves.
mCooperative
meanderingCephalopod
- Location
- Back in Mitakihara after like 1000 years.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
True, but given that your goal here is diplomacy, this sort of method:
[-] Lonely?! Well we can't have that! BREAK DOWN THAT DOOR! TIME TO MAKE FRIENDS!
Here's Ashtaroth!
...may not be the best approach.
Hehe, should always be on the lookout for invisitext when something seems a little off- it's likely to keep coming up throughout the story.
I am so tempted to say something in response to this, but it would most definitely be spoilers. Like, actual spoilers, rather than just pseudo-spoilers that aren't really because they already happened in the previous version. But I really want to...
Oh, and for everyone who was hoping for the hospital... sorry, no Nagisa/Charlotte for you. As much as I like her, that encounter just wasn't in the cards.
...not yet, at least. ;-)
mCooperative
meanderingCephalopod
- Location
- Back in Mitakihara after like 1000 years.
I believe the correct response is "hora".
To be honest invisitext annoys me. Mainly because it becomes disruptive to the process of reading: first and foremost it forces you stop reading and search for something that may not even be there; also selecting text to search for the invisitext makes the text look jarring to SV's web style and making it more difficult to read (if I wanted to read dark text in light background I'd go change SV's style/theme)
(I was going to put a joke vote here but after writing this I'd better go to sleep.)
Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
Maybe I'm a bit overly focused on the lonely descriptor, but might this witch be Candeloro?
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
Well, I think most of the time it'll be fairly easy to tell if it's there, but the invisitext isn't going to be that important in most cases, so feel free to not bother checking if you don't want to. Just know that it might be, for anyone that cares to do so.
Not saying, but I will say this- it's a witch that canon heavily implies as existing in Mitakihara at some point in at least one timeline, though we never actually see it.