- Location
- Madison, AL
[X] Bombard the familiars from a distance with shatterwords.
Subsumption (PMMM Faux-Quest) (Witch MC)
[X] Distract the familiars with an illusion of cheese.
[X] As you do so, calmly explain to Sayaka via your impeccable narration that the witch and her familiars absolutely love cheese.
[X] Scoop up loads of familiars into Novella to subsume them, reducing their numbers but leaving enough for Sayaka to handle.
This seems productive!
[X] As you do so, calmly explain to Sayaka via your impeccable narration that the witch and her familiars absolutely love cheese.
[X] Scoop up loads of familiars into Novella to subsume them, reducing their numbers but leaving enough for Sayaka to handle.
This seems productive!
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
I just realized something
every single witch quest (not Witch Quest™, though that one too) has the main witch inevitably befriending hitomi? I just noticed that odd parallel between all the ones I've seen
every single witch quest (not Witch Quest™, though that one too) has the main witch inevitably befriending hitomi? I just noticed that odd parallel between all the ones I've seen
Of course they do, she's the sanest member of the cast.
hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
I have no idea what you are referring to, but it suits your avatar perfectly.
EDIT: Oh. Never mind. I get it now- DAMN IT! I explained half of the joke!
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Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
Heh, thanks! Considering how long I spend fussing over little details in the wording, it's nice to know it at least comes out well. That said, I can't take full credit for this particular development. That instead goes to...
It most certainly does count, as I didn't actually consider the idea until you mentioned it.
It made perfect sense when I thought about if that would work, and even solved a problem I was having, so... yeah. A big, BIG thanks to you for your suggestion/theory! No no no, that's not how this goes! You're supposed to play with your food before you eat it! It's like none of you were taught basic manners!
[] Regurgitate Saar to shrink.
Unless you want to descend into the cake pits, which are now and likely always swarming with giant mice, where exactly is a multi-story windmill monster going to fit in here, hmm?
I'm not sure if this is an actual question or more just a theorizing/thinking aloud sort of thing, but the actual action was sort of like falling into water, hence the subsequent "pool" likening a paragraph later.
Wouldn't be so sure about Ashtaroth being able to close herself in completely. Tome might be a bit hard to escape from.
Taking over her body again without permission or any sort of warning.
Sayaka has no right to be so angry this time. Charging at the familiars alone was her idea, and it gave her nothing but trouble until Ashy saved the day. This is what happens when you make up your own script instead of listen to the narrator!
Well, she's not exactly angry so much as sort of mentally flailing as she tries to overcome the subsequent shocks of losing an eye, losing control of herself, and losing track of what's going on when Ashtaroth just sort of pops in from behind.
Think that may be a function more of her being one of the only cast members that ISN'T a magical girl, and thus has no outstanding problems packaged with interacting with her. I mean, who else can fill that roll? Kamijou? Nakazawa? That student who can't afford a laptop? Yeah, right.
The text key and two of the previous versions of Ashtaroth's character sheet are now up and newly threadmarked in the informational section. Hope they're helpful!
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hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
Into Charlotte's room. Then the two witches can defeat each other, so Ashy only has to finish them off.Unless you want to descend into the cake pits, which are now and likely always swarming with giant mice, where exactly is a multi-story windmill monster going to fit in here, hmm?
But are you suggesting that releasing witches can actually be done?
Yes, it is.
I get that, but that doesn't answer my question... Well, I'm probably overthinking things again. I conclude that this phenomenon works because it is magic.
So she's frustrated and surprised that nothing is going according to keikaku...
Saotome-sensei? Randomly
Yes! Useful info!
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Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
Oh. Uh, thanks. Glad my off hand joke based on Ash's tendency to upset Sayaka with every well meant action helped you out.It most certainly does count, as I didn't actually consider the idea until you mentioned it.
Ottriman
Quest Junkie
- Location
- Reykjavík, Iceland
[X] Distract the familiars with an illusion of cheese.
[X] As you do so, calmly explain to Sayaka via your impeccable narration that the witch and her familiars absolutely love cheese.
[X] Scoop up loads of familiars into Novella to subsume them, reducing their numbers but leaving enough for Sayaka to handle.
[X] As you do so, calmly explain to Sayaka via your impeccable narration that the witch and her familiars absolutely love cheese.
[X] Scoop up loads of familiars into Novella to subsume them, reducing their numbers but leaving enough for Sayaka to handle.
Oh, hey an Update.
Truly, eating solves everything.
Now, what Name to use?
Magical Girl because that's what she is? Apprentice because she learns about the Magical Girl Live from you and she would have turned into a Witch normally?
Hero because you want to be sarcastic? Or maybe just Blueberry?
Maybe subsuming one of Kyubey's Bodies could give you it's mental Voice?
Or if you could find a talking Witch...
Like she did during the Fight with Ashy. But Panic doesn't help with making good Plans.
The more Stuff she puts into Tome, the more of her get's out of it.
But if she can take Things she put into Tome out, then it makes sense that she can go back into the Book too.
Could be very useful with how durable the Cover of the Book is.
But now I'm curious what happens if all of Ashy gets out of Tome.
[X] Hover a safe distance away, use Tome as a shield if necessary
-[X] Wait until Sayaka is healed, or try absorbing her and spitting her back out if she can't figure it out
-[X] See if Sayaka can practice ranged attacks since magic drain is a non-issue
I kind of want to use Tearful Storm just to see what happens, and maybe eat a few of the Familiars left after the Fight.
Would explain the Invisitext at least.
And Wally is completely different. She only builds Stages and doesn't write Plays.
There is an easy Solution to that. Just subsume one of Kyubey's Bodies.
Truly, eating solves everything.
If Sayaka insists on calling you Witch instead of your Name, maybe you should do the same?
Now, what Name to use?
Magical Girl because that's what she is? Apprentice because she learns about the Magical Girl Live from you and she would have turned into a Witch normally?
Hero because you want to be sarcastic? Or maybe just Blueberry?
Hmm, this is a Problem because if Ashy subsumes more People and use their Voice, it will get confusing.
Maybe subsuming one of Kyubey's Bodies could give you it's mental Voice?
Or if you could find a talking Witch...
This would be a great Moment to shoot Waves of Swords at them.
Like she did during the Fight with Ashy. But Panic doesn't help with making good Plans.
Interesting, so Tome is less a Part of Ashys Body and more of a Portal.
The more Stuff she puts into Tome, the more of her get's out of it.
But if she can take Things she put into Tome out, then it makes sense that she can go back into the Book too.
Could be very useful with how durable the Cover of the Book is.
But now I'm curious what happens if all of Ashy gets out of Tome.
Bad Idea. Ashy won't get them all and they will just swarm her like Ants.
Could work. Maybe after we floated away from the Bridges?
Too costly. We tried some Illusions before we meet Saar, it's just too expensive outside of our Core Territory. Maybe we can make a small Cheesecake Illusion.
Tempting, to finally use one new Ability and see how it works. But we don't know how expensive to use it is.
[X] Hover a safe distance away, use Tome as a shield if necessary
-[X] Wait until Sayaka is healed, or try absorbing her and spitting her back out if she can't figure it out
-[X] See if Sayaka can practice ranged attacks since magic drain is a non-issue
I kind of want to use Tearful Storm just to see what happens, and maybe eat a few of the Familiars left after the Fight.
Ah, but Sayaka wasn't the first magical Girl to be subsumed! That's probably Ashy herself.So Ashy is the narrator of her narrative, and subsumed magical girls are protagonists?
This is the story of a girl named Sayaka.
Would explain the Invisitext at least.
And Wally is completely different. She only builds Stages and doesn't write Plays.
Ashy is going to meet Kamijou anyway once Sayaka tries to heal him. That's going to be fun with Ashy in the Background of Sayaka's Mind.
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
Madoka (homura would assassinate us)? satome? junkie? and I would kill to see one with that one student so many have theorised about
not that I'm complaining about hitomi, its always nice to see her getting more spotlight
Appletank
Acquire Cheese
Clearly, Ashy should take the Bumblebee route. Consume a radio, then use all the voices.
[X] Distract the familiars with an illusion of cheese.
[X] As you do so, calmly explain to Sayaka via your impeccable narration that the witch and her familiars absolutely love cheese.
[X] Scoop up loads of familiars into Novella to subsume them, reducing their numbers but leaving enough for Sayaka to handle.
[X] As you do so, calmly explain to Sayaka via your impeccable narration that the witch and her familiars absolutely love cheese.
[X] Scoop up loads of familiars into Novella to subsume them, reducing their numbers but leaving enough for Sayaka to handle.
hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
It shouldn't be a problem. If Ashy can subtitle to people she hasn't subsumed, she can use Sayaka's voice to lure in Mami and Madoka. And to avoid unnecessary confusion, Ashy can use her own narrator voice.
Kyubey is capable of telepathy, so subbing in his voice isn't even necessary.
Even better, subsuming Kyubey should hypothetically grant the ability to make contracts to produce magical girls. Kyubey uses this ability to defy conservation of energy, but it can also be used by witches to claim souls without eating them. So Ashy can build an army of magical girls just by masquerading as Kyubey and doing as Kyubey does.
More like Tome is a popup book, and the rest of her body is an extension of Tome.
Walpurgisnacht and Ashtaroth both have a similar theme, but they have very different approaches. Thus, intentionally or not, they foil each other. Consider the following attitudes, and guess which witch they belong to.
- "We all live short lives in this eternal play, then die. Every last meaningful sign of our existence will tragically disappear with us. Then the world will go on unchanged, proving that each life lost means nothing in the end. Rinse and repeat, ad infinitum. lol"
- "'SUP BITCHES. THIS IS MY STORY NOW."
Was busy when the last couple updates came. Wrote out responses before reading this one.
(Note: I'm somewhat misusing the terminology here; what I'm calling "unstable" is actually "not an equilibrium". Brief summary for those not familiar with stability theory: an equilibrium is a state (or cycle of states) of a system in which, if no outside forces act on it, the system will remain. For example, a pendulum (in a frictionless vacuum) swinging with a certain amplitude, or an object at rest. A non-equilibrium state might be a ball rolling down a hill, or a thermal imbalance. An equilibrium is classified as stable or unstable depending on whether a small change will snowball into a large divergence: a pendulum hanging straight down is stable, because if you poke it it will only swing slightly, while a coin balanced on its edge is unstable, because if you tilt it slightly it will fall over.)
Charlotte might be on board with stealing all the cheese in the world, but I don't think she has anything valuable enough to offer Ashtaroth in exchange for that kind of time commitment.
Granted, for weather events, earthquakes, and volcanic events we can't do much to fight the disasters themselves, only limit their impact through preparation. For now.
(One could also categorize epidemics as natural disasters, and we have done and continue to do quite a bit to fight those.)
…the point is, this was noticeably slower than usual, but at most slightly statistically anomalous.
I don't think Sayaka will be in much danger unless/until she reaches Charlotte. And if she's being imprudent—well, it's not the best time for it, but she does need to learn, and nothing teaches like experience. So, head for the witch. As a bonus, we can try to talk to her, or at least see how she reacts to a visit from another witch.
…Wait.
•We're trying to be nice to Sayaka, who knows Mami and goes to school with her.
•Hitomi knows about us and what's happening with Sayaka, and will talk to Madoka, who knows Mami.
•Tira has already managed to find us despite our being way up in the air. I don't know what having three-and-counting barriers fused together is doing to our magic signature, but I doubt it's making us harder to detect.
Unless we leave the city very soon, it's a question of why Mami finds us, and when, not if. (One more potential contact method: does untransformed Sayaka have her cellphone on her?)
*Sometimes. We also think in pictures, and sounds, and associations and intuitions and abstract sensations. But a distinct, discrete thought that we might package up and send to someone—that's usually words.
I don't expect them to be answered—this is such a common trope that noone bothers asking what happens if you destroy the doorframe while it's open—but I have them.
Not that I'm complaining, mind. The "why" (beyond being cute) is clear enough—same reason you included Shemesh on the Emergence 13 version even though he only appeared on it after Confrontation 2. Just making a note.
As has been discussed before, it doesn't seem likely that we'd be able to recreate Sayaka's body for free if she dies, but perhaps we could give her somebody else's body? Someone else we've subsumed. Maybe if we get a relatively intact witch…
The immediately-relevant opposing force is probably 60–70 familiars—the first room contained "about a dozen", to which was added "at least twenty", and the horde following Sayaka "swelled to at least twice the amount [of familiars] it possessed before", some of which she's cut down.
Ashtaroth, prior to any growth, estimated her height as "two to three stories"; from her picture, Tome is about the same width and half the height, call it four meters by eight. I'm not sure exactly how big the familiars are, but unless they're jam-packed I'd allocate each one at least one square meter, probably closer to two, meaning that crushing them with Tome would get at best a third of the horde. Which isn't nothing, but we'd be opening ourselves to getting swarmed. To prevent that, we'd need to use shatterwords as a perimeter guard, but I'm not confident we could keep the whole horde off of ourselves long enough to get back in the air, so we'd probably end up with a couple of passengers. Actually, how wide is this bridge?
Shatterword bombardment should be effective against the horde, but the earlier run-in with Pyotr demonstrated that they are not well-suited to destroying individual, maneuverable targets. Since our job is to prevent familiars from reaching Sayaka while she figures out healing, this is less than ideal.
Tearful Storm should be pretty much completely effective at keeping the enemy away, and should blow a lot of them off of the bridge. Downsides are magic cost and not keeping around anything to subsume.
Subsumption is not likely to work on large numbers of hostile familiars. At least, not at our current power level—I would not be surprised if it were possible after we'd grown a bit more.
We could use an illusion… but as far we know our illusions are purely visual, and the Pyotr are blind. And they're not that good at actually identifying cheese, either. And illusions are costly.
Flying away with Sayaka in tow would require either taking control again or convincing her to go along with it, either of which would distract her from trying to figure out healing.
Of the above, it seems like Tearful Storm, followed by bombardment of any familiars remaining on the bridge, is the least risky option. However, it's also likely to injure Sayaka's pride—not only did she have to get saved by the witch, it got rid of the whole horde with one attack. The other minimal-risk option would also be problematic on the blueberry front. Therefore…
[x] Bombard the familiars from a distance with shatterwords.
-[x] Get above (and ahead of) the familiars, so you can fall on them if the bombardment proves insufficient.
I figure we can take a little bit of risk; Ashy might get some scratches, but she'll be fine.
The question was, were the previous waves of emotion a stable—or metastable, or at least equilibrium—state, which was then disturbed to provoke hatching, or was the oscillatory state unstable (most likely with oscillations of growing amplitude)?
(Note: I'm somewhat misusing the terminology here; what I'm calling "unstable" is actually "not an equilibrium". Brief summary for those not familiar with stability theory: an equilibrium is a state (or cycle of states) of a system in which, if no outside forces act on it, the system will remain. For example, a pendulum (in a frictionless vacuum) swinging with a certain amplitude, or an object at rest. A non-equilibrium state might be a ball rolling down a hill, or a thermal imbalance. An equilibrium is classified as stable or unstable depending on whether a small change will snowball into a large divergence: a pendulum hanging straight down is stable, because if you poke it it will only swing slightly, while a coin balanced on its edge is unstable, because if you tilt it slightly it will fall over.)
Global cheese production is something like 20 million tons per year. If cheese has, on average, the same density as water—which should be accurate to within a factor of three—this would make a cube ~280 meters on a side, which might be enough to fill Charlotte's labyrinth. Probably not. I dunno how big it is.We are trying to feed the Very Hungry Licorice Dire Worm. We can't guarantee Charlotte's satisfaction until we completely fill her labyrinth with cheese.
Charlotte might be on board with stealing all the cheese in the world, but I don't think she has anything valuable enough to offer Ashtaroth in exchange for that kind of time commitment.
…just because I'm a pedant, I'm going to note that we do fight natural disasters—actively, as in the case of wildfires, or by limiting their occurrence, as for floods and avalanches, or by mitigating the disaster as it progresses, as is also done for floods.
Granted, for weather events, earthquakes, and volcanic events we can't do much to fight the disasters themselves, only limit their impact through preparation. For now.
(One could also categorize epidemics as natural disasters, and we have done and continue to do quite a bit to fight those.)
"Eyeing" could work, but I think you mean "eyeballing". (Though Ashtaroth has neither.)
While it could be used in a discrete sense, the sense of "consideration" used here is typically an uncountable noun—i.e., it should be "without any consideration" or "without the slightest consideration" or something along those lines.
Gotta agree with Ashtaroth here; that's not a reasonable expectation. I guess Sayaka just hasn't internalized the "ate my soul" thing yet.
Yes; the obvious guess is that you're controlling Sayaka's body the same way she does, and your control just happens to override hers.
I'm not sure if it's my understanding of the descriptors or their usage here which is off, but "tinny" and "reverberate like a bell" don't feel compatible.
Well, there are algorithms…
Since the end of Emergence, and discounting the pre-written parts of No-Leaf Clover, you have, as of this update, on average, posted 230 words of story per day (to your SV threads—if you've posted more elsewhere, or in other people's threads, I haven't counted it), with a standard deviation of 110. For the interval between Stand-In chapter 8 and this update, the average was 65 words per day, about 28% of your average and 1.4 standard deviations below average. Modeled as a Gaussian, this should occur about 7% of the time, and has occurred once in 17 posts; perfectly normal. Of course, a normal distribution isn't the best model for writing speed—that's probably, what, a Poisson process? Something more complicated?—but it's serviceable, and shouldn't overestimate the probability of a slowdown by too much.
…the point is, this was noticeably slower than usual, but at most slightly statistically anomalous.
First, she can probably still be shut down by destroying her brain—it won't kill her, but she won't be conscious and won't be applying magic to heal herself, and we don't know whether Ashtaroth could use Sayaka's magic to heal her. Second, she could be swallowed or otherwise have her movement restricted in such a way that we are unable to retrieve her. Third, she doesn't know how to turn off pain yet, so if she gets overwhelmed she'll be constantly getting hurt but unable to die—I'd like to avoid giving her any more traumatic experiences. Fourth, magic can do weird stuff—I don't know of any esoteric methods Charlotte has to as-good-as-kill her, but they may exist and other witches likely do.
Huh, I thought it would have happened here:
I didn't think magical girls were that enhanced when not transformed.
Well, not all of them. No Kafkaesque bureaucratic horror, no technological horror, missing most types of existential horror, etc.
I don't think Sayaka will be in much danger unless/until she reaches Charlotte. And if she's being imprudent—well, it's not the best time for it, but she does need to learn, and nothing teaches like experience. So, head for the witch. As a bonus, we can try to talk to her, or at least see how she reacts to a visit from another witch.
Because "creepy" and "unsettling" are anticipatory feelings: your mind is reacting to environmental cues with a nonspecific sense of possible imminent danger, a need to be able react quickly to an unidentified threat. A landscape of pulsing flesh is disgusting and unpleasant, but conveys no suspicion of imminent danger (except infection, which is what disgust is (theorized to be) a protection from).
(a) This is cute, and (b) pout how, Ms. Faceless?
FTFY. Also, Ashtaroth needs to get better taste in crumbs: cookie crumbs can be quite satisfying, regardless of provenance.
And, if we're still worried about Sayaka attracting attention, this might take some of it off of her and put it on us, who are equally lost, much less maneuverable (especially in these tunnels), and a larger and arguably more vulnerable target!
…Wait.
The fun part here is that Sayaka will be being contacted telepathically by someone she doesn't recognize… and will probably assume it to be a magical girl, because that's who uses telepathy, right? (Assuming, of course, that there's nothing obviously witchy about it, but that seems reasonable. Also, is there any canon indication of how easy it is to identify the sender of a telepathic message, either by comparison to previously-received telepathy (i.e. a recognizable mental "voice", very likely) or by reference to other characteristics (e.g. mental voice sounds like actual voice)? Are senders of telepathic messages regularly recognized other than by context cues, and does it ever happen without the receiver having previously had telepathic communication from the sender?)
It's remarkable how ominous this phrase seems with all context redacted. Imagine seeing this in an SCP.
•Tira is looking for us, and has called Mami.
•We're trying to be nice to Sayaka, who knows Mami and goes to school with her.
•Hitomi knows about us and what's happening with Sayaka, and will talk to Madoka, who knows Mami.
•Tira has already managed to find us despite our being way up in the air. I don't know what having three-and-counting barriers fused together is doing to our magic signature, but I doubt it's making us harder to detect.
Unless we leave the city very soon, it's a question of why Mami finds us, and when, not if. (One more potential contact method: does untransformed Sayaka have her cellphone on her?)
I appreciate the choice of metaphor. Ashtaroth is familiar enough with network technology to use it as an analogy for telepathy without hesitation.
Or that, I suppose.
That would make sense for a magical girl who's always been mute (or deaf). But Ashtaroth wasn't, and she still thinks in words, probably spoken words since she hasn't noted a difference from her previous life (most people think in words*, not exactly imagining hearing them but closer to that than anything else). So if she were sharing her thoughts in the form she thought them, it should be about the same as when she was human. I think it more likely has to do with her nature as a book witch, and the enforced loss of identity (she can't remember her name or face, so of course she can't use her own voice either—I should have thought of that).
*Sometimes. We also think in pictures, and sounds, and associations and intuitions and abstract sensations. But a distinct, discrete thought that we might package up and send to someone—that's usually words.
Talking to people in their own voices is creepy, Ashtaroth. Don't be creepy.
Lying.
I have questions. Topological questions.
I don't expect them to be answered—this is such a common trope that noone bothers asking what happens if you destroy the doorframe while it's open—but I have them.
Well, that's useful. If this is inverse to the growth that happens when we subsume someone, could it free up power or mass that we could give elsewhere? It probably isn't, though.
Wait, if Sayaka is "behind" Ashtaroth, i.e. she's made it to the bridge Sayaka's on… why not just sit her down on Tome and fly away?
You mean carets. And a caret is specifically ^ (or a few related symbols). <These> are called less-than/greater-than signs or angle brackets. More bracket names.
You know, I don't think that's what the character sheet actually looked like at that time? Seeing as that gif wasn't made until a few weeks after Emergence 31 was posted.
Not that I'm complaining, mind. The "why" (beyond being cute) is clear enough—same reason you included Shemesh on the Emergence 13 version even though he only appeared on it after Confrontation 2. Just making a note.
You would seek to attract a witch with such stuff? Nay! Distract the familiars with an illusion of cheese. Or cheese. Or perhaps delicious cheese.
She was a magical girl. She's fought witches. Sometimes by turning into an elephant in mid-air and dropping on them, and if you don't think that broke most of her bones, I'd like a word with your pachyderm supplier. Ashtaroth knows how to deal with pain.
You're also supposed to leave some of them alive and bring them home as practice for the less experienced hunters. I'm sure Sayaka will appreciate that.
Tatsuya, duh.
"All of Ashy". Ha.
Not a very precise estimate, admittedly.
As has been discussed before, it doesn't seem likely that we'd be able to recreate Sayaka's body for free if she dies, but perhaps we could give her somebody else's body? Someone else we've subsumed. Maybe if we get a relatively intact witch…
The immediately-relevant opposing force is probably 60–70 familiars—the first room contained "about a dozen", to which was added "at least twenty", and the horde following Sayaka "swelled to at least twice the amount [of familiars] it possessed before", some of which she's cut down.
Ashtaroth, prior to any growth, estimated her height as "two to three stories"; from her picture, Tome is about the same width and half the height, call it four meters by eight. I'm not sure exactly how big the familiars are, but unless they're jam-packed I'd allocate each one at least one square meter, probably closer to two, meaning that crushing them with Tome would get at best a third of the horde. Which isn't nothing, but we'd be opening ourselves to getting swarmed. To prevent that, we'd need to use shatterwords as a perimeter guard, but I'm not confident we could keep the whole horde off of ourselves long enough to get back in the air, so we'd probably end up with a couple of passengers. Actually, how wide is this bridge?
Shatterword bombardment should be effective against the horde, but the earlier run-in with Pyotr demonstrated that they are not well-suited to destroying individual, maneuverable targets. Since our job is to prevent familiars from reaching Sayaka while she figures out healing, this is less than ideal.
Tearful Storm should be pretty much completely effective at keeping the enemy away, and should blow a lot of them off of the bridge. Downsides are magic cost and not keeping around anything to subsume.
Subsumption is not likely to work on large numbers of hostile familiars. At least, not at our current power level—I would not be surprised if it were possible after we'd grown a bit more.
We could use an illusion… but as far we know our illusions are purely visual, and the Pyotr are blind. And they're not that good at actually identifying cheese, either. And illusions are costly.
Flying away with Sayaka in tow would require either taking control again or convincing her to go along with it, either of which would distract her from trying to figure out healing.
Of the above, it seems like Tearful Storm, followed by bombardment of any familiars remaining on the bridge, is the least risky option. However, it's also likely to injure Sayaka's pride—not only did she have to get saved by the witch, it got rid of the whole horde with one attack. The other minimal-risk option would also be problematic on the blueberry front. Therefore…
[x] Bombard the familiars from a distance with shatterwords.
-[x] Get above (and ahead of) the familiars, so you can fall on them if the bombardment proves insufficient.
I figure we can take a little bit of risk; Ashy might get some scratches, but she'll be fine.
Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
I keep asking to ask about that, and things like keys and other bits of random pocket detritus, but it's never come up. Did the hundred yen store pen and receipt make it, Sayaka? Did they make it?
You know, my first thought was that we can't use Telepathy on People we haven't subsumed but we never tried with Hitomi and the Telepathy Option wasn't tried after the Saar Fight. We tried writing to communicate with Tira but not Telepathy.
So maybe we can? Or even if we can't right now, maybe after subsuming Kyubey?
I thought the Problem was that Ashy doesn't have her own Voice and instead uses Subtitles?
Isabeau 2: Witches strikes back!
That... doesn't feel right?
Like, every time Ashy subsumed someone more of her got out of Tome but that didn't change Tome.
Only Ashy changes and not the Book, except for Content, maybe.
I think I already speculated about how Ashy and the Witch of Subsumption don't have to be the same Being.
That the Witch of Subsumption subsumed her old magical Girl self and turned that into Ashy. It would explain the Invisitext and the Witchstincts.
If that's right then Tome would be the Witch of Subsumption and Ashy something like Sayaka only more important. The Protagonist so to say.
It would explain why Ashy changes but not Tome. Ashy, as the Protagonist, grows as a Character.
Basically, the demented Witch-Version of Character Development.
Huh, thanks. Forgot about that.
Flairina
Least Omnipotent Goddess
- Location
- The next infinity over
Somehow I doubt this would do exactly what you're thinking. Not that it's necessarily not still worth trying if the opportunity arises; just saying.
I really love this sort of speculation; it's one of my favorite things to see you guys talking about.
If this ever does somehow turn into Cheese Quest, I guarantee you it will not be on quite that scale. There are some things beyond even the power of miracles to accomplish, and obtaining every piece of cheese in the world is one of them.
Mami quite easily does a front flip off the top of a light post when not transformed, and we see other magic done by the girls even when they aren't in uniform, so I'm going with the assumption that they have access to most of their magic regardless of their current state of dress, and the uniform is just a sort of "battle ready" indication. Makes sense; the magic originates from their soul, and they always have that with them whether they're transformed or not. Well, most of the time.
Will fix.
...I cannot believe you took the time to work all of that out.
I should still be writing faster regardless of all that but thank you for the reassurance!Pouting is not merely an expression, it is a way of being. You can summon the essence of pout regardless of your possession of a face!
Not really. Telepathy was never one of those things that was highly elaborated on in any form of canon, it was just sort of there for convenience.
...er, if you say so. You're gonna have to chalk it up to an oddity with the author in that case, because the way I think is... well, in words, but not really in any sort of voice? I mean, I can if I make the effort to, but when I'm just thinking or reading or what not I don't just intrinsically think of the words being said aloud or with sound. Might come from a childhood spent almost entirely reading books in favor of most types of social interaction. I'm sure if you try you can think without exactly "hearing" yourself, so just think of it like that.
So are many other things about witches. Sayaka is just going to have to deal.
Ask the show creators. I plucked that directly from episode 3.
Ah. My family just refers to them as carets, so I actually thought that was what they were called. Looking it up on wikipedia they're also called "Chevrons", so I'll just go with that.
Well, yeah, but they're for reference, and I don't have a picture of Ashtaroth with her arms freed from that point in time, so... yeah. Also Shemesh actually WAS on the character sheet at that point in time, I think? Or... wait, that may have been the previous version of this. Okay maybe I need to fix that after all. ^_^;
Well I mean, theoretically one could just turn off one's sense of pain for that since it's sort of a magical girl standard. Or shapeshift stronger bones for that sort of thing so it doesn't cause tons of broken bones. Or maybe other magic was involved. Just saying.
Isabeau 2: Witches strikes back!
Argh, still need to get around to reading Tart Magica. And Magia Record is apparently coming out in the US only a few months from now, even ignoring the upcoming anime. And I got the PSP game to play recently too... AND there's this fic to write! Suddenly I have so many PMMM things to do!
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hillo315
Intact but Tactless
- Location
- Somewhere. Somewhere else.
I'm not sure how fast the grief seed would have hatched in isolation, but grief seeds in cities (especially near hospitals and the like) fill with the grief permeating the atmosphere. So the whole time that grief seed was at the hospital, it was never in equilibrium. If I understand what you mean by equilibrium.
This was heavily implied, but not confirmed. Tira considered calling Mami, and then she picked up the phone. Who did Tira actually call? We don't know, and we may have been deliberately lead to a wrong conclusion.
Hold up. Shemesh existed at least as early as Emergence 13? Before Ashy ate Saar?
Nah. Charlotte deserves only the best cheese! Mami head cheese. Her favorite.
But why not? Why should it be any harder than subsuming Saar?
What about the familiars that aren't blind? They want to nurse the cheese, so they want whatever the Pyotr find. They can simply tell the Pyotr to go in whatever direction to collect the cheese.
Tome is apparently the only unchanging feature. Ashy's ability to extend out of Tome depends on her spare body mass. The rest of her body is trapped in Tome until she noms more souls.
That said, Ashy's growth is also seemingly plantlike. Tome is probably the seed and/or roots...
I thought Witchstincts is Ashy's curse? Curses are the hearts of witches. Curses are what make witches so witchy. Similarly, Witchstincts is the only thing preventing Ashy from being one of the good guys.
Tome doesn't change on the outside... but what about its contents?
*glances at sidestory threadmark*
What's this? A memorable quote worth sigging?
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I give it 50/50 Odds of her ordering a Pizza.
What? It was a stressful Week!
Could be, we don't really know how Witches in general work.
Maybe subsuming others allows more of Ashy to get out of Tome. Maybe others get subsumed into Ashy instead of Tome and that's why she grows.
Maybe Tome is the Witch of Subsumption and Ashy is actually an unfinished Character that gets choice Parts of what gets subsumed added to it.
That would explain why Sayaka can be so easily controlled by Ashy but doesn't show any Signs of Witchstincts and why Ashy gets only Part of what she subsumed, like Saar's Storm Ability but not the Water control or growing Power.
I'm not sure?
I think magical Girls turn into Witches if they gather so much Negativity that their weakened Soul collapse into a Grief Singularity driving them insane.
Having your Soul torn out of your Body and stuffed into a Gem can't be good for it.
That's why their Barriers and their own Appearance are so twisted and insane. There are still bits of the Human Mind left but so twisted and drenched in Grief that everything looks like a surrealistic Painting.
For the good Guys bit, we still don't know if Ashy needs to eat People or if other Witches and subsumed magical Girls are enough.
We do know Ashy can run out of Power from the first Illusion Attempt.
Also, she can't really control her Familiars.
Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
Given that Saar had to be as close to killed as she could be without being able to collapse into a Grief Seed and how long that fight took, I'm very much wondering why you think Ash can slurp down live familiars like mousy, cheese loving clams.But why not? Why should it be any harder than subsuming Saar?
But why not? Why should it be any harder than subsuming Saar?
Now that you mention it, Sayaka was in a similar Situation.
Sure she tried to attack Ashy but she was also very close to becoming a Witch.
- Location
- Somewhere up the tree
I've always seen the uniform as something akin to a barrier jacket, something that is an extra layer of magical defense so you don't just get splattered
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
I saw this fic a while back, but dropped it from lack of interest. I'm very glad I picked it up again; it's quite interesting now. As in, the moment Sayaka showed up, I thought, "Yes! This story now has a reason to exist."