So, we know that Sayaka and Mami both exist as their own entities in this timeline. presumably that also means that this timeline's Tira is still somewhere out there. What does this mean for Saar and Charlotte? is this timeline's Tira fighting Saar as they have this conversation? Is Charlotte's grief seed still at the hospital? Will subsumed Sayaka ask to check on Kyousuke again?
Yes, it would, even if in retrospect that makes Homura even more ridiculous than you initially thought. Seriously, space magic alone was unbelievable enough, but space and time magic is just plain absurd – though, you've no idea why she'd have shotyouback in time if she had any choice in the matter. Maybe it wasn't on purpose? You were midway through subsuming her when it happened...
It's amusing that Ashy assumes there is a space component to Homura's power, despite her never re-appearing in a way that would require teleportation. Like falling out of the sky.
Which, going by the bloodstains still decorating the sound blocker, she had... though, come to think of it, you also only saw blood on it, bereft of its source. Where the hell did your body end up...?
Probably subsumed. Presumably, that's why Ashy is in charge, instead of the Witch of Subsumption. Being the author and the protagonist at the same time would be rather problematic, wouldn't it?
<In that case, I'm even more certain then.>you conclude, doing your best to push that line of thought away. <If we're not truly in the past, we're at least in an incredibly good reproduction of it. Not sure what else I can say or do to convince you two, if what I've already said and you've already seen hasn't.>
Granted, if it's not literally time travel, then you probably at least don't have to worry about paradoxes or the like, but based on what you've seen so far, you don't think that'll be an issue one way or the-
<Magic has never been entirely predictable,> Kyubey remarks, his high, childish psychic voice seeming to almost echo through your mind, <but it has been quite some time since I last encountered an Irregular.>
You know, us existing and proving that either parallel universes/time travel exists provides us with a massive bargaining chip to use here. Kyubey's whole deal is trying to keep the universe running and avert entropy, right? If so, being able to harvest energy from alternate versions of the universe would provide a nigh limitless source of energy.
It's amusing that Ashy assumes there is a space component to Homura's power, despite her never re-appearing in a way that would require teleportation. Like falling out of the sky.
I mean, there is a spacial component to Homura's skillset. The shield also functions as her own hammer space. So, not quite right but not quite wrong, very on-brand for Ashtaroth.
Alas, the only plausible way to correct this assumption is to finish subsuming Homura, which is almost as Bad an Idea as trying to eat Mami. Not likely to happen anytime soon, not unless Ash does something like eat Walpurgisnacht.
Rather than being common, it seems more likely to me that an Irregular (sapient and thinking) Witch is something that could easily spiral into an uncontrollable disaster, that would crash their whole Energy Scheme.
The last time a Witch had Puella Magi minions, was La Crepuscule de la Reine, aka Isabeau.
Which is very bad, because a Witch's fundamental curse-spreading nature (malice) + ability to think and strategize beyond their immediate obsessions + PM Muscle = Unlikely to be subdued or controlled. And as someone here once said, Isabeau problems require Tart Solutions. (Un)Fortunately, there is a prospective Puella Magi of staggering potential nearby: Madoka.
Ash isn't nearly on that level but I doubt Kyubey would want to take their chances, when even they held off on Tart's Witch.
(What I assume is the primary reason why they let Tart be executed, despite the immense energy that could be harvested from her Witch.
Upholding her request to die while still herself might be their side of 'kill Isabeau for us' bargain, but let's be real. That's a secondary reason compared to possibly triggering a Twilight Queen 2: Electric Boogaloo.)
Alas, the only plausible way to correct this assumption is to finish subsuming Homura, which is almost as Bad an Idea as trying to eat Mami. Not likely to happen anytime soon, not unless Ash does something like eat Walpurgisnacht.
We will speak to you like equals, Kyubey. Through your species in-built Skyp. I also want a way to talk to people without using our friends bodies, so having the Cabbit would help. Might need to give it a dye job though to better fit our aesthetic. . .
Getting in touch with the local Tira could be good for confirmation purposes. On the other hand, given how thrilled our Tira was to not need to hunt witches anymore, Ashy might end up with twins.
Ashtaroth, the Witch of Caution. Her nature is conflict avoidance. Repeated near-death experiences condensed into a short period of time have transformed this witch's nature, making her far more prone to flee than to fight. On the rare occasions she seeks out prey, she does so from on high, quickly dropping and drawing her target into her world before retreating back into the heavens. To defeat this witch, one must first find a way to get that damn high in the first place, like jeez she's halfway out the atmosphere already-
...not that I'm faulting her, it was the sensible choice.
But in the end this chapter worries me: Ashtaroth made the sensible choice of distancing herself from the Mitakihara girls, but I feel that the options were either trying to contact them and discover what's happening or just leaving everything and becoming a hermit witch.
Which leaves me with a big feeling of now what?: the situation is bad (as per course of PMMM), but it's a weird combination of lack of things that can be fixed (they are "trapped" in another timeline) yet things are stable* enough that they don't have any immediate needs.
In the end, it feels like everyone and everything Ashtaroth & co. ever cared about is either impossible or outside their reach.
*weird to say but nobody is going to become a witch, Ashtaroth already being one, and the barrier is self-sustaining
I think you mentioned at some point this is when things are finally going to happen, but at this point I don't feel there's anything left to look forward to. Why dread a conversation with Kyubey if nothing matters?
(I'm not dropping the story, but I hope to see new things for the characters to look forward)
I mean, there is a spacial component to Homura's skillset. The shield also functions as her own hammer space. So, not quite right but not quite wrong, very on-brand for Ashtaroth.
Alas, the only plausible way to correct this assumption is to finish subsuming Homura, which is almost as Bad an Idea as trying to eat Mami. Not likely to happen anytime soon, not unless Ash does something like eat Walpurgisnacht.
Rather than being common, it seems more likely to me that an Irregular (sapient and thinking) Witch is something that could easily spiral into an uncontrollable disaster, that would crash their whole Energy Scheme.
The last time a Witch had Puella Magi minions, was La Crepuscule de la Reine, aka Isabeau.
Which is very bad, because a Witch's fundamental curse-spreading nature (malice) + ability to think and strategize beyond their immediate obsessions + PM Muscle = Unlikely to be subdued or controlled. And as someone here once said, Isabeau problems require Tart Solutions. (Un)Fortunately, there is a prospective Puella Magi of staggering potential nearby: Madoka.
Ash isn't nearly on that level but I doubt Kyubey would want to take their chances, when even they held off on Tart's Witch.
(What I assume is the primary reason why they let Tart be executed, despite the immense energy that could be harvested from her Witch.
Upholding her request to die while still herself might be their side of 'kill Isabeau for us' bargain, but let's be real. That's a secondary reason compared to possibly triggering a Twilight Queen 2: Electric Boogaloo.)
The Incubators were apparently fine with letting Gretchen Kriemheld overrun the earth and wipe out humankind despite the fact that it would mean no more Puella magi to make contracts and collect energy from due to Madoka's contract and subsequent witchification fulfilling their energy quota. So the Incubators have no problems with witches running amok killing humans so long as they're still getting g their energy. As I took it, the issue with Isabeau was that the girls she contracted lost their souls and free will and thus were unsuitable for energy collection purposes. While this wasn't an issue for the Incubators while she was alive since she could still be killed, the problem came when she turned into a witch and her daughter Lapin's wished for her to be restored to her previous self granting Isabeau human intelligence. And to add to this, her other daughter Minou made a wish for Isabeau to never be defeated by a magical girl. End result is an immortal witch threatening to take away the Incubators' energy batteries (humans) requiring drastic measures
Of course, while Asharoth is trying to take over the world, Kyubey wouldn't know that. Thus I wouldn't put it past Kyubey to approach Madoka with the warning of a dangerous intelligent witch collecting an army of magical girl minions and telling her that she would have the power to stop it, bringing up the story of Tart facing off against Isabeau as a precedent
Getting in touch with the local Tira could be good for confirmation purposes. On the other hand, given how thrilled our Tira was to not need to hunt witches anymore, Ashy might end up with twins.
If a subsumed Kyubey keeps some of the abilities Incubators have, as Juubey did, then Ashy might not need to subsume Tira to clean her Soul Gem. Alternatively, two Tiras means twice as many ink constructs to throw at invaders.
Which leaves me with a big feeling of now what?: the situation is bad (as per course of PMMM), but it's a weird combination of lack of things that can be fixed (they are "trapped" in another timeline) yet things are stable* enough that they don't have any immediate needs.
*weird to say but nobody is going to become a witch, Ashtaroth already being one, and the barrier is self-sustaining
I think the next big goal, after the Kyubey talk, would be finding this world's Tira due to her likely death otherwise. After that, maybe the Skull Witch?
The Incubators were apparently fine with letting Gretchen Kriemheld overrun the earth and wipe out humankind despite the fact that it would mean no more Puella magi to make contracts and collect energy from due to Madoka's contract and subsequent witchification fulfilling their energy quota.
I think Kyubey doesn't care if a planet gets depopulated because the harvesting operation covers many different planets with many different species, as implied by the existence of Itzli, the Oblivion Witch.
The problem with Witches like Isabeau is that she could theoretically leave the planet and become an interstellar problem. Isabeau by manipulating Wishes she herself grants due to her nature as a Kyubey terminal, and Ashy by adding more Witches to her Barrier.
I think Kyubey doesn't care if a planet gets depopulated because the harvesting operation covers many different planets with many different species, as implied by the existence of Itzli, the Oblivion Witch.
The problem with Witches like Isabeau is that she could theoretically leave the planet and become an interstellar problem. Isabeau by manipulating Wishes she herself grants due to her nature as a Kyubey terminal, and Ashy by adding more Witches to her Barrier.
And a planet devouring witch like Gretchen isn't an issue? After assimilating humanity, what makes Kyubey think that a witch like Gretchen wouldn't then proceed to go after inhabited planets in the universe including the Incubators' own home planet?
What I am curious about, is if Gretchen has enough power to encompass the Earth within the span of days, would Gretchen ever move or would her barrier just expand?
Its possible that Gretchen would have stopped at earth, given her weird "salvation" theme, or otherwise would not have become a greater danger. Interstellar space is huge, after all, without some method of FTL AND some method for finding planets with life, she might not amount to much.
What im finding interesting from that angle is that Kyubey in that scene apparently can immediately determine what Gretchen will be/become, or at least thinks he can.
And a planet devouring witch like Gretchen isn't an issue? After assimilating humanity, what makes Kyubey think that a witch like Gretchen wouldn't then proceed to go after inhabited planets in the universe including the Incubators' own home planet?
As the Witch of Salvation, Gretchen is focused on "saving" sentient life. As long as she doesn't know there is life elsewhere, she won't try to move. And even if she did start to move, she lacks any way of acquiring FTL travel capabilities, unlike Isabeau who could manipulate someone's Wish or Ashy who could subsume a Witch like Itzli.
Sure, she could take the slow route but that assumes there is enough ambient Grief in space for a Witch to survive on it.
As the Witch of Salvation, Gretchen is focused on "saving" sentient life. As long as she doesn't know there is life elsewhere, she won't try to move. And even if she did start to move, she lacks any way of acquiring FTL travel capabilities, unlike Isabeau who could manipulate someone's Wish or Ashy who could subsume a Witch like Itzli.
Sure, she could take the slow route but that assumes there is enough ambient Grief in space for a Witch to survive on it.
Even if she did take the slow route that would barely matter. To a FTL species someone taking the slow route is like a snail chasing someone with a race car, it's practically a joke no matter how strong the snail is when it gets there.
The slow route also gives them enormous time to come up with an energy efficient solution, like just telling some girls on the target planet whats coming and getting a hundred wishes thrown her way.
Yoink, the Kyubey cant know what we can do or they wouldnt have gotten so close, thanks to time travel. This is a unique opportunity to get accionable intel.
It originates from Puella Magi Madoka Magica where it was used to refer to Homura, likely due to Kyubey having no record of granting her wish. It probably is a term for any weird anomaly that deviates too far from the normal system.
So, we know that Sayaka and Mami both exist as their own entities in this timeline. presumably that also means that this timeline's Tira is still somewhere out there. What does this mean for Saar and Charlotte? is this timeline's Tira fighting Saar as they have this conversation? Is Charlotte's grief seed still at the hospital? Will subsumed Sayaka ask to check on Kyousuke again?
Getting in touch with the local Tira could be good for confirmation purposes. On the other hand, given how thrilled our Tira was to not need to hunt witches anymore, Ashy might end up with twins.
Tira 2: So, you sold your soul, again.
Tira 1: I know how that sounds, but now I don't have to worry about becoming a witch, I have effectively infinite magic, I have at least three new friends–
Tira 2: Wow, wait, I was just confirming the price! Where do I sign?
Tira 1: Here, little sis.
Little Tira: ...Fuck. Still worth it.
Big Tira: Yay!
Sayaka: So... Twins, huh?
Ash: Don't be a hypocrite, Sayaka.
Hoo, lots of late replies here. Even ignoring the comments that are no longer immediately relevant, I had to cut a fair few of them just for sanity's sake. Hope no one minds. ^^;
I'm always happy when writers take advantage of their medium to do things which can't really be done otherwise. Even if it's just using one of the expressions which is only available in the written language. (Pet peeve: authors writing out slashes (as in "and-slash-or") outside of dialogue. It's just so obviously wrong.)
As always, I like these bits where Ashtaroth is just passively sharing the others' senses. (These aren't the only instances this chapter, but they're the most clear-cut.)
Which are, in turn, always nice things to hear. Honestly, I find it a bit odd when authors spell out written expressions in non-dialogue as well, given their choice of medium. Stylistic choice, I suppose.
…this calls for experiments! Would Ashtaroth experience differences in taste if she subsumed a supertaster and non-supertaster? If she subsumed a colorblind magical girl, would her sense-sharing include the colorblindness? If she subsumed a magical girl with appropriate protanomaly or deuteranomaly, could she synthesize that with more standard color perception from other sources to achieve limited tetrachromatic vision?* How does...
Heh, intriguing questions, even if it's unlikely that most of them will be answered across Subsumption's run. I'd make a joke about you subbing in for Kyubey today, what with the "experiments" comment, but I imagine any experiments Kyubey might run on Ashtaroth would be of a... slightly different bent, so nevermind.
So this entire illusion is under the floor? Not just on the floor, because that would require perspective tricks from both girls' perspectives, but actually underneath the solid, invisible plane? Huh. For some reason, despite this having happened before, I had imagined the floor as the actual edge of the Canvas, with no space beneath it.
No comment on how far the Canvas actually extends, but the image at least appeared to be under the floor, yes. Otherwise, any illusion taking place off the ground would likely be broken as soon as one looked down and noticed the flatness/lack of apparent depth.
All those grief seeds he collects. Sure, those souls used to belong to other people, but after they're inside his body it's hard to say that they aren't his.
(Or maybe you're already aware of all this and deliberately including the post IDs so that a savvy reader can find the referenced posts on the other site. I have noticed a distinct lack of people showing up asking why they got an alert…)
I am indeed aware of that already, yes. I've basically just taken to combining quote responses for both sites anymore, since otherwise I often end up answering the same sort of questions/comments twice with essentially identical information, and it lets people on both sites see more of what's being discussed. This in turn leads to a lot of broken links, as noted, but the basic subject of what I'm responding to is usually contained in the quote itself/the other quotes surrounding it, and I don't believe it ends up contacting random people (I've not received any DMs about the matter either), so I figure the system works well enough.
That's no reason not to vote though! As previously stated (on numerous occasions), voting is still fully encouraged for this story, whether or not most of it has any impact on the proceeding events.
(I'm not sure that's a best-case scenario, but that's hella cute. Probably another sort of puppet, though. I wonder if that's more or less unnerving than the way Ash puppets?)
...*goes back to look at the image some more* eeeeeeeeee
And this is how they get you. Didn't Mami warn you about trusting witches and witch-related entities just because they look cute and/or harmless? For shame... ￣へ￣
Is it possible to make an oc witch just like that joke entry?
It would be very amusing for mami to accidentally enter the wrong barrier because another was nearby while astaroth is panicking then trying to figure out what happened
Even in her own barrier, Ashtaroth fails to grasp the nuances of every witch and magical girl she experiences firsthand; a failure of a cosmopolitan. The best she can hope for is to wander about, sampling their senses and culture. She is... the tourist witch!
Canvas is blank enough she can see the fourth wall and thus knows with absolute certainty that all existence is framed around her?
Astaroth: I assure you, this act of looking down on you short-lived, ant-like creatures from far above like some sort of aloof sky god with power over life and death should not have too much read into it - I'm just hiding where it's safe.
You've got me thinking... A doppel is often conjoined to its host. Should Mami and Candeloro team up, how closely would they bind together? Would they merge at the soulular level, like a doppel? A true fusion of same yet different beings would be fascinating, because PMMM has had only the smallest taste of this trope.
Honestly, I assumed the time travel just runs on narrative logic, so it never seemed too strange to me that both Homura and Ashtaroth returned to the beginning of the story subjectively instead of a single specific moment.
To be fair, Kyubey usually isn't very upfront about where he comes from or why he does anything. He needs to collect grief seeds and have magical girls fight witches, ostensibly to keep despair from getting out of hand, but he never claims to be motivated by altruism and nobody really questions it at first. And he is not very picky about who becomes a magical girl; he has no special reason for offering contracts to anyone in particular, beyond "you have the potential".
Whereas other cute mascots may simply reveal "I come from W planet for X reasons, which is why I need someone to carry Y responsibility, and that person must be someone like you because Z!" as soon as it's exposition time.
Pretty much, yeah. The way I see it, Kyubey's not exactly cagey about his nature, but he basically only ever tells any given magical girl what he considers immediately relevant, or important to him. Thus, it's on the girls themselves to ask about his personal background or other subjects if they're curious, as he's hardly going to volunteer the information otherwise. Those who don't are left to make their own assumptions, whatever those might be.
You know, Mami would totally be into being Susbsumed, after the fact.
Mami's wish was to be connected to life, and her deepest dream is to have a permanent companion to share her own life with, to such a degree that she would never feel the crushing despair of loneliness ever again.
Being subsumed, Mami would quickly realize that her deepest wish of being connected to life is fulfilled, on a level she never thought possible.
Yes, she's now de-facto a witch's familiar and thus become the very thing she sought to destroy, and is now forever(until we get relays) separated from her fellow countrymen, but her every waking and sleeping moment is redefined with the ability to -ping!- Ashtaroth's existence in her head and soul whenever her loneliness psychosis kicks in. And that's not even mentioning Ashtaroth's own nosiness and tendency to butt-in with random opinions.
I predict it will get to the point that Mami will end up being even creepiest-er-ly than Ashtaroth is about their linked soul data stream.
Honestly, that makes sense with everything I know about her. Of course, that requires subsuming her, which sounds... dangerous and her acting like a cultist probably would set off everyone's creepiness alarms.
Considering the route they went with Mami in Magia Record, this isn't at all an unviable route for things to progress down, should she somehow end up with Ashtaroth after all — though, the former circumstance required additional brainwashing to truly be effective, and even then the cracks were kind of showing from the start, so I imagine Ashtaroth would really have to sell the benefits of being subsumed to reach such a point.
Unlike Sayaka, Mami has no family and friends that she'd miss and other than going towards school she's never seen doing anything that doesn't pertain to her magical girl duties (no hobbies or career aspirations) so she wouldn't see herself as losing anything by being subsumed. The main catch is being attached to a witch, however that shouldn't be an issue once Ashtaroth establishes her sentience and non-maliciousness making Ash an ideal companion as Mami will never have to worry about Ash abandoning her
I do find it ironic that Mami, the character who freaked out the most about turning into a witch would have one of the more easier Doppels to maintain compared to other characters: being able to summon Candeloro for extended periods of time without getting exhausted and not having to go through the body horror of being a mashed up abomination of human and witch, instead getting a fancy hat to wear plus Candeloro being a relatively mild mannered Doppel as opposed to other Doppels which tend to be destructive towards friend and foe alike
Indeed — all these convenient qualities going for her, and yet she fights against it tooth and nail. Not that Ashtaroth was planning on subsuming her, of course...
A lovely idea, but I'm afraid the logistics make it impossible — after all, Ashtaroth can hardly take on new tenants when Kyubey is the only one who knows how to make contracts.
I think it might be worth harvesting from the apple orchards and Charlotte's labyrinth for something they can use as a peace offering, not that they'll have time to do so before Mami makes her way in.
Hm, interesting. For some reason I feel like Charlotte's sweets would be edible, but the apples wouldn't. I think because the sweets are core to Charlotte's nature as the Sweets Witch, but the apples are more like part of the landscape.
Ironically, it's possible Kyubey may be the one to step in and tell Homura the situation is fucked, if only after realizing that Homura is somehow involved and deciding that even contracting Madoka or Sayaka is somehow not viable right now. On the other hand, if he stays to offer a contract, that means Ashtaroth can make first contact with Kyubey, which should be interesting because Kyubey has no idea just how well Ashtaroth remembers him.
It's implied that living things necessarily have souls, considering that magical girls spontaneously and completely die without one. And like any living thing, Kyubey suffers, albeit less than anyone else. Do you suppose he has a really thin, colorless soul?
Honestly a pretty good idea. Even if all Ashy gets is an empty Kyuubey puppet, that's a pretty good tactical advantage. Many magical girls are more inclined to trust Kyuubey than a witch.
Hm, dunno. He was aware of Juubey's existence, but that might be from simple observation. He didn't seem to think letting one of his bodies be captured and experimented on was a threat.
I'm not exactly sure, but I'm pretty sure Kyuubey might just be a hivemind or something. Having to physically go and collect memories seems extremely inefficient when he has Puella Magi taking him into Barriers with them.
I am nearly positive he does not need to eat his other selves to get their memories — he only does that because it's a "waste of resources" otherwise, so far as I recall. As for Juubey, Kyubey was aware of the terminal (which might have been dead by that point?) being taken and experimented on, and was presumably aware of the result from early on as well, but whether because their mental connection was severed when Juubey was reconstructed, or due to being unable to actually speak to/contact it due to the magic "Kyubeys-Don't-Interact" field the Saints laid over Asunaro either shortly before or after, that mental connection functionally didn't exist until the magic field came crashing down. Thus, it's fairly safe to say that Juubey was at least not part of Kyubey's larger awareness while the Saints were still in play.
Kyubey was perfectly aware that something like Ashteroth could exist; he was just running spin control (and doing a pretty decent job, rat that he is).
Multiple millennia of human history leaves an awful lot of time for Kyubey to have encountered a great many "oddities" in the system he set up, no matter how rare. Whether or not he's encountered anything specifically like Ashtaroth before though, we shall see... perhaps.
You know, us existing and proving that either parallel universes/time travel exists provides us with a massive bargaining chip to use here. Kyubey's whole deal is trying to keep the universe running and avert entropy, right? If so, being able to harvest energy from alternate versions of the universe would provide a nigh limitless source of energy.
Yeah, we may only have one instance to go off of, but giving Kyubey information about ways to improve his total energy output classically hasn't gone very well for the person who told him. Combine that with how he doesn't exactly ask when he wants to start experimenting with "unique cases", and this is perhaps less of a bargaining chip than you might believe.
Heh, funnily enough, Kyubey actually might be perfectly on board with this exact sort of reasoning, assuming it was presented properly, and that certain factors weren't in play. As noted above, he did seem fairly nonchalant about letting the Pleiades Saints experiment on one of his bodies to create Juubey... though, perhaps that was simply due to a lack of ability to directly stop them.
So, we know that Sayaka and Mami both exist as their own entities in this timeline. presumably that also means that this timeline's Tira is still somewhere out there. What does this mean for Saar and Charlotte? is this timeline's Tira fighting Saar as they have this conversation? Is Charlotte's grief seed still at the hospital? Will subsumed Sayaka ask to check on Kyousuke again?
It's amusing that Ashy assumes there is a space component to Homura's power, despite her never re-appearing in a way that would require teleportation. Like falling out of the sky.
I mean, there is a spacial component to Homura's skillset. The shield also functions as her own hammer space. So, not quite right but not quite wrong, very on-brand for Ashtaroth.
Time stop is also not intrinsically associated with time travel, which makes the necessary leap of logic more difficult than it might be otherwise. Additionally, Homura has seemingly fallen (or rather, fired) from the sky at least once (see Confrontation 25), and as her primary ability continues to both appear and essentially function as a close-range "spammable" teleportation of herself and other objects, Ashtaroth currently has no reason to question this.
Probably subsumed. Presumably, that's why Ashy is in charge, instead of the Witch of Subsumption. Being the author and the protagonist at the same time would be rather problematic, wouldn't it?
But in the end this chapter worries me: Ashtaroth made the sensible choice of distancing herself from the Mitakihara girls, but I feel that the options were either trying to contact them and discover what's happening or just leaving everything and becoming a hermit witch.
Which leaves me with a big feeling of now what?: the situation is bad (as per course of PMMM), but it's a weird combination of lack of things that can be fixed (they are "trapped" in another timeline) yet things are stable* enough that they don't have any immediate needs.
*weird to say but nobody is going to become a witch, Ashtaroth already being one, and the barrier is self-sustaining
I think you mentioned at some point this is when things are finally going to happen, but at this point I don't feel there's anything left to look forward to. Why dread a conversation with Kyubey if nothing matters?
(I'm not dropping the story, but I hope to see new things for the characters to look forward)
...well, that doesn't make me feel great. While a degree of hopelessness was definitely intended for the tone of the end of the chapter, it certainly wasn't meant to make the whole story feel pointless to continue in the process. Still, I wouldn't say this situation is by any means "resolved" just because Ashtaroth chose not to rush headlong into danger again, and just because she's currently pronounced "fixing" this to be fairly unlikely, that hardly means it's the last we'll hear of it. Hopefully I can convince you in subsequent chapters that this story still has plenty of places left to go, because I certainly didn't write out 160000 words just to stop here.
Tbh while we've been waiting for a payoff they arrived at this conclusion relatively fast in universe. But what are the alternatives at this point, anyway, "it was all a dream"?
Ashtaroth also considered a few other possibilities (as mentioned in passing in both this and last chapter), but between the wide array of evidence available, she ultimately narrowed it down to the (presumably) correct one. Though you'll note she left room in her conclusion for this to still be some sort of illusion merely mimicking time travel, but as the other theory fits better with what she knows of Homura, that's what she went with.
If this ain't poking at 4th wall, that's....eeeaaiigh. Horribly bad, but good in this case. Will that happen to Sayaka & Tira too? Or will they just get to observe as the holder of their souls slowly loses their mind? Tira will be surely wondering in latter case how common temporary witch intelligence is...
Sci-fi? Whatever could you mean? Tira is far too upper-class for that sort of thing! Perish the thought that a refined lady such as herself could be interested in shows comprised primarily of impenetrable technobabble, laughably hammish dialogue, and admittedly epic tales of exploration that still manage to retain a core grounding in-
The original version I wrote of this scene was actually rather more so, but it came off as a little too callous for the tone I was looking for, and didn't read as well as I wanted, so it ended up getting edited. Maybe a tad too much in the other direction? Might need to change it a bit more.
At least someone who doesn't hate irregulars! And that's what it took for Kyubey to connect his telepathy network to Ashtaroth, rather than going "claims of witch sapience are overstated"? They sure like to keep some cards close to their chest.
Even better: What if you get all your friends' powers, but none of knowledge that you can do so or any the memories attached to them until it's too late for them to be useful!╰(*°▽°*)╯
Mami: "Don't tell your parents about magic, 'k?"
Madoka: "k"
Tomohisa: "That's a nice new ring on your finger Madoka, where did you get it?"
Madoka: ...*'I need an excuse quick!'*
Madoka: "I got married!"
Junko: "...I should have known that."
Junko: "Have I been working too much?"
Junko: "Sayaka's a lucky girl."
Madoka, panicking: "N-no, wait, I didn't mean to Sayaka!"
Junko, frowning: "Hmm? Why not? I was so looking forward to having her as a daughter-in-law."
Madoka, panicking harder: "Because she's already married to Hitomi!"
Tomohisa: "...oh? Well, it's nice that you have such supportive friends."
Getting in touch with the local Tira could be good for confirmation purposes. On the other hand, given how thrilled our Tira was to not need to hunt witches anymore, Ashy might end up with twins.
Tira 2: So, you sold your soul, again.
Tira 1: I know how that sounds, but now I don't have to worry about becoming a witch, I have effectively infinite magic, I have at least three new friends–
Tira 2: Wow, wait, I was just confirming the price! Where do I sign?
Tira 1: Here, little sis.
Little Tira: ...Fuck. Still worth it.
Big Tira: Yay!
Sayaka: So... Twins, huh?
Ash: Don't be a hypocrite, Sayaka.
Okay, so, it's almost guaranteed that "search for the Tira from this timeline" will go into their to-do list (when they remember that if there's another Sayaka and another Mami there, there must be another Tira). But the important question is, if they keep going back in time, at what point will Ash have a whole society of Tiras, and how will it look?
There's also the sad possibility that the second Tira would go into same page as first, being the same, and have no more effect than eating two instead of one familiar. (Do your books have duplicate pages?)
alternatively subsuming tira 2 might just combine the two Tiras into one instead of having no effect at all. which admittedly would probably still be considered a bad thing by Tira 2 and most other meguca, but it'd still be slightly better than nothing
Spoilers: what actually happens is that each of the Tiras ends up getting stacked on top of the previous one, thus eventually allowing them to collectively evolve into Tier-a.
Not sure if it was asked but... is Ashtaroth that we know actually actually the witch, or is she in the same book boat as the other two?
I'm just asking because it seems canon compliant and just makes sense with a few things.
-There are two books.
-in rebelion Sayaka was adjacent to her own witch (also dopples exist... in one timelien)
-she had a very bad feeling about sinking into the book
-"instincts" seem to be all over the place and mostly detached, but answer then desired.
No, hold on, let's have Sayaka wear smol Ash as a necklace, thus Sayaka/Ash and Tira/Candeloro will match. Yes, I'm opening up the possibility that it's Candeloro who is wearing Tira as an accessory, rather than the other way around.
The following possible future has had segments translated from [Witchspeak] for ease of reading.
Candeloro: [Do you all like my new hat?]
Tira: "Do you ever wonder what Candeloro is saying, Sayaka?"
Sayaka: "I actually wonder what Oktavia says sometimes too."
Smol Oktavia: [These new boots are so wonderful!] *she's on Sayaka's head, and no, it wasn't her idea. Well, technically it was her idea, but you know what I'm alluding to anyhow.*
