Geeze this thing grew into a monster. I've got a lot of catching up to do.
It would be considerably larger if I wasn't such a slow writer, so... yay for that? ^^; Either way, glad to have you back with us Maromar.
If Sayaka and Tira replaced themselves, then they would have, well, replaced themselves.
"Sayaka! Sayaka why won't you wake up!"
Homura: "I see, now. That witch must have followed me back, and exceeded the control distance of Sayaka's subsumed soul gem. But, she will want to retrieve her asset, and that will be my chance to set a trap for her."
Ashtaroth: "Aw, hell."
Heh, an amusing thought. Though, note that Ashtaroth wouldn't necessarily
know where Sayaka and Tira went in that case, or that they'd even stayed connected to her at all — ironically, had the girls not remained with her, she'd have had a considerably higher chance of figuring out what Homura
actually did, and may not have even gone looking for them. She could have potentially guessed that they'd been left behind either way, but even if she went back to Mitakihara, Sayaka and Tira's bodies would likely be in a rapidly advancing state of decay by the time she arrived... so let's just be glad that whatever it was that happened, it wasn't this.
There's been some debate about whether or not there are other Sayakas, Tiras, or possibly Mamis aside from Ashtaroth's ones due to how Homura's time travel seems to work. And I don't recall any definite evidence for either argument thus far.
Believe me, I wish I could just get to the part where the answer to this becomes clear. The "discovery" of the larger situation was not supposed to take this long to get to — has it seriously been a
year? I need to get this fic moving at a speed greater than the pace of a particularly sluggish glacier. (^_^; )
I especially look forward to the mob interaction system really stepping up, they've stated multiple times they all have different interactions with each other, all related to what their 'jobs' are, and how they'll change based on which dungeon you find them in. Much more complex then a simple predator/prey system. Really, my only disappointment is that with so many mobs, they usually don't have any material drops, so the crafting system is limited to what is found in the dungeon environment, and even then you can't make much besides furniture to improve the morale of the NPCs.
I know I've said this before, but I mean it this time — expect to see some progress on this VERY soon.
I wasn't, though I do quite like the art. I was referring to the way you described locations, very vivid and creative! It's why I voted for Sayaka and Tira to go off on their own, I want to read more about the barrier from their perspective, both in the scale sense and the way they interpret the world.
Hah, I only wish I could incorporate as many small details into my writing as the show does for its scenery, but thank you nonetheless!
Imprisoned test subject is the only way I saw this going. Magical Girls in groups for some reason seem to turn evil or so selfish they might as well be evil. For real, MGs have a real asshole problem.
I'm guessing it's more that the asshole/selfish ones
survive a lot more often. Which is almost depressing enough of a thought to make one witch out all on its own.
I wouldn't mind seeing our sewer witch as a witch that is eventually subsumed or at least part of the biome
Perhaps, though I imagine the inhabitants might not be thrilled about the prospect of living next to a living sewage plant. That smell spreads ya know...
(Good thing Ashtaroth doesn't normally have a nose.)
Sure. Call me Sewer Girl. I mean, call me Sanitation Girl. Yeah, I got nothing.
Hmm... Pipeline? Disposal? Culvert? I'm sure there's SOME Worm-esque hero name one that can extrapolate from that concept — hell, there's a strong chance there already exists a canon Worm character with that concept.
I was under the impression that it was sometime in the both imminent and yet distant future. You know, like Invader Zim, where the architecture and social structures and such are pretty modern, but also at some point people started giving out meat on valentines day and all of the cameras can fly for some reason.
From what I gather (I did a bit of research on this for my own quest) 2011 is apparently a very strong guess because a good few things in the show like the phases of moon would match up, and the date of Walpurgis night would align relatively neatly with the day Walpurgisnacht appears in the timeline presented by the show.
The differences in aesthetics and tech could plausibly be written off as some wishes having led to more advanced tech or made such tech cheaper. Or, you know, someone wished to make Mitakihara more interesting.
Failing that, a few decades down the line remains quite plausible and 2030s sounds like it could be right.
I'm likely not going to explicitly define what year this story takes place in, but I will remind everyone that I've been operating off the timeline/calendar where Walpurgisnacht (the Witch) arrives on Walpurgisnacht (the day). Whatever the case, bear in mind that Mitakihara is
weird, and therefore not likely to be wholly representative of the look or tech-level of the rest of the world, no matter what time period this is taking place in.
(Also, Hitomi is seen using a
flip phone in the first episode, and she's rich enough to undoubtedly have the latest model, so there's very likely some tech weirdness going on one way or the other.)
Does going back into the book reset Sayaka/Tira to a base state? If so, this could avoid the need for plumbing.
Given the implications, Ashtaroth does not want to know the answer to that question.
Sigh. I'm going to have to address this in-story at some point now, aren't I? :[
(...I say, having already considered the scenario thoroughly enough to have a rough idea of how I'd handle the topic prior to this conversation.)
The nearest armoury likely has a flamethrower, definitely knows how to use one, and wants to know what we did to her otherwise gloriously perfect hair, but would much rather just fix the issue quickly, and thinks that a flamethrower would be the best way of doing so. I think that, should we need an armoury, it would be best to find a different one...
"Napalm-chan", as some call her, should indeed best be avoided for fear of her living up to her nickname. An armory that doesn't walk, teleport, or have the capacity to issue leaden death upon all in front of it would probably make a better prospect for robbing.
That just sounds utterly wrong. I can't find anything grammatically wrong with creating that word, but I doubt anyone ever would.
Oh? Well, I suppose I could go with something like "Zaubermädel" instead... I admit, my grasp on German isn't advanced enough to say which would be more appropriate.
I can't blame Sayaka for feeling bad when Ashtaroth said how bad as a witch she is. Yeah, she fought bad and without care to her magic expenditure but she doesn't need to hear that.
Meanwhile, Ashtaroth herself remains entirely oblivious to this. She is not terribly socially apt, if it wasn't staggeringly obvious at this point.
As for the fake vote, I'd say let them go and try to give them a little privacy. Does Tira know Ashtaroth's barrier now includes parts originally from other withches' barriers?
It was never explicitly stated, but as Candeloro's section obviously wasn't present when Tira first entered the barrier, she easily may have inferred as much by this point.
Best!orb just wanted to help.
That's all he ever wants to do... and gosh if Ashtaroth doesn't get inexplicably annoyed by it.
Much back and forth about the possibility of a sewer witch, sewer gator familiars, whether or not it's cruel/self-serving to use a sewer as a sewer if someone is living in it, and the logistics of whether or not renovating it would be remotely possible
There's too much here to succinctly reply to, but I would just like to say that I love that this largely sprung from 1) the concept of Ashtaroth's barrier essentially becoming a video game level hub, and 2) a character concept I more or less came up with off the top of my head. These are the kind of discussions you just don't get on other sites.
Madoka: "Sooo... grief is just another one of those psychological conditions that we've been healing every few minutes, right?"
Sarah stumbled down the street. Blood dripped from her perfect lips onto her perfect palms.
Threadmarked x2 COMBO!!! I'll address these separately:
1. A simple solution to a complex problem. Were it only so easy... though even if it were, I imagine Kyubey would immediately work to change things somehow to make that impossible, or actively work to prevent such information from spreading. I mean, on the one hand perpetual magic replenishing means perpetual free energy, and magical girls suddenly gain a much longer "shelf life"... but on the other hand, humanity has proved to be a perfectly sustainable resource for millennia even without that, and it means the witch system could be overturned, which is apparently a much better energy source than anything else a magical girl can provide. He'd be as close to righteously pissed as an incubator can get — which is, of course, why it's funny. :3
2. Very nice! Took me a second to get what this was referencing (yes, despite the current primary thread discussion), but it's a pretty nice "origin story" snippet. I actually like that you gave her a non-Japanese name — if she was living in Japan, it's entirely possible that the reason she was originally being tormented and called things like "Trash" or "Cockroach" was because of her nonstandard nationality/appearance, adding an extra layer of potential subtext to the situation. I take it that in this case her wish was to always look or have a perfect appearance, and I'm surprised how much pathos you managed to add to that in so short a snippet. Should the sewer/sewage witch ever become an actual character, I may go ahead and canonize this.
