This thread has been too quiet lately. Time to fuel the conversation with questions and answers!
@Flairina Right now, Ashy can continue to live without ever eating people. If she keeps growing, will she eventually need to keep eating to keep her grief levels high?
Kyubey's energy manipulation could be magic, and the rest is probably just combining that with sufficiently advanced alien science.
Or it's all Clarketech. Because if the ability to turn emotions into energy isn't magic, we can't tell.
As for controlling multiple bodies at once... Ashy probably can't do that unless her multitasking improves. But she might be able to conjure new bodies on demand, at least.
Sort of? It's confirmed that the contracts are at least partly Clarktech, since whoever sets up the contract needs to know what she's doing.
I'm not saying Ashy wouldn't be able to make contracts, but she might not be able to use it as instinctively as she can use her other powers. If she can't draw from Kyubey's technical knowledge, her contracts may have some serious flaws.
This thread has been too quiet lately. Time to fuel the conversation with questions and answers!
@Flairina Right now, Ashy can continue to live without ever eating people. If she keeps growing, will she eventually need to keep eating to keep her grief levels high?
Kyubey's energy manipulation could be magic, and the rest is probably just combining that with sufficiently advanced alien science.
Or it's all Clarketech. Because if the ability to turn emotions into energy isn't magic, we can't tell.
As for controlling multiple bodies at once... Ashy probably can't do that unless her multitasking improves. But she might be able to conjure new bodies on demand, at least.
Sort of? It's confirmed that the contracts are at least partly Clarktech, since whoever sets up the contract needs to know what she's doing.
I'm not saying Ashy wouldn't be able to make contracts, but she might not be able to use it as instinctively as she can use her other powers. If she can't draw from Kyubey's technical knowledge, her contracts may have some serious flaws.
the thing is that we know that every single one of kyubey's abilities is clarktech, in fact the entire incubator collective is just held together with clarktech.
because the incubators Can't use magic their lack of emotions and dedication to being mentally composed and perfect locks them out of using any sort of magic.
all magic in this universe is fueled by emotions and individuality which is why the incubators had to come to us to use magic in their behalf.
but I'm not sure our witch powers will exactly care about any of that
magic has already been shown to be able to achieve things that are physically and even logically impossible in series, that's the entire reason why the incubators exploit it
but not even the incubators understand it, they have been completely blindsided by what magic is capable of doing many many times throughout the series, including the dewitchings of asunaro, the creation of the doppel system, and the ascension of both madoka and homura into living gods.
magic is an eldritch power even to the already eldritch entity of the collective.
because the incubators Can't use magic their lack of emotions and dedication to being mentally composed and perfect locks them out of using any sort of magic.
all magic in this universe is fueled by emotions and individuality which is why the incubators had to come to us to use magic in their behalf.
Yeah. Ashy could just get arbitrary contract powers right away, in which case all my pondering was for nothing, I guess. Stupid logic-defying magic, being all magical and whatnot!
magic has already been shown to be able to achieve things that are physically and even logically impossible in series, that's the entire reason why the incubators exploit it
but not even the incubators understand it, they have been completely blindsided by what magic is capable of doing many many times throughout the series, including the dewitchings of asunaro, the creation of the doppel system, and the ascension of both madoka and homura into living gods.
magic is an eldritch power even to the already eldritch entity of the collective.
From Kyubey's point of view, emotions are illogical. Therefore, magic derived from emotions is illogical.
Kyubey probably understands the magical girl system about as well as magical girls understand Kyubey's magic/Clarketech. He stumbled onto the magical girl system only because of some scientific or accidental breakthrough, and it's actually amazing how much he was able to develop it despite not quite understanding emotion.
One thing that's been bugging me, but I'm never really found a good place to pick out, is how Ash refers to Sayaka. I thought it was kinda odd during the whole exploration of Charlotte's barrier, but it only really stood out after the interlude with Mami. With Hitomi, Ashtaroth referred to her as Shizuki-san. The interlude has everyone call each other [Last Name]-(appropriate-honorific), like Tira-san or Madoka-chan. Ashtaroth, on the other hand, only calls Sayaka Sayaka. I'll grant that at no point are they ever in the right social space or appropriate mood for proper introductions, so Ash doesn't know her last name, but just dropping the honorific? No Sayaka-san? It's very strange.
@Flairina Right now, Ashy can continue to live without ever eating people. If she keeps growing, will she eventually need to keep eating to keep her grief levels high?
I'm not sure I should answer this, but I suppose you could say it would depend on what she subsumes and in what quantities. There's a surprising number of possibilities there, to the point that I actually made a list to keep myself from getting too confused.
One thing that's been bugging me, but I'm never really found a good place to pick out, is how Ash refers to Sayaka. I thought it was kinda odd during the whole exploration of Charlotte's barrier, but it only really stood out after the interlude with Mami. With Hitomi, Ashtaroth referred to her as Shizuki-san. The interlude has everyone call each other [Last Name]-(appropriate-honorific), like Tira-san or Madoka-chan. Ashtaroth, on the other hand, only calls Sayaka Sayaka. I'll grant that at no point are they ever in the right social space or appropriate mood for proper introductions, so Ash doesn't know her last name, but just dropping the honorific? No Sayaka-san? It's very strange.
That's not an error; there's a reason for it that'll be covered/mentioned later. Though, it's no big revelation really, and is honestly kind of just an excuse for me not to have to worry about honorifics too much when writing from Ashtaroth's point of view. Those things are a giant pain really; last update I spent quite a while just trying to figure out what Mami, Madoka, and Hitomi generally used in the show and would probably use around/for Tira, plus I had to go back and change all the posts where Sayaka referred to Mami as Mami-senpai because I found out she usually calls her Mami-san, although she blessedly eschews honorifics entirely for pretty much everyone else. Looking back, I do notice there's one place I need to fix Ashtaroth's reference from Sayaka to Sayaka-san actually; will edit that soon.
Sorry about the wait by the way. Lots of different little things- I got sort of disheartened for a while and stopped working on this, switched to working on No-Leaf Clover and mostly got over it, took a while reorganizing my notes, debated with myself over whether or not something should work a certain way in the next update, and now I'm trying to figure out how to portray that something in a way that doesn't seem too vague or weirdly worded. Hope to have it up by next week.
EDIT: Oh, forgot to mention- I also only just got Breath of the Wild recently. That's been taking up a lot of free time for perhaps obvious reasons, so... yeah. ^_^;
I'm not sure I should answer this, but I suppose you could say it would depend on what she subsumes and in what quantities. There's a surprising number of possibilities there, to the point that I actually made a list to keep myself from getting too confused.
Personally:
-Magical Girls - Net grief income, low grief capacity gain. Using their magic generates more grief for us to spend.
-Familiars - One time grief income.
-Witches(whole, like Charlotte) - Net grief loss as they consume grief to support their barrier, their magic and familiars. Potentially significant grief capacity gain.
-Witches(digested) - Grief capacity gain, minor net grief loss as we have a bigger barrier to sustain, minus the witch. Potential grief capacity gain.
-Grief Seeds - Net grief loss. Potentially lethal if we're too low on grief.
-Civilians - Well, presumably we could witch kiss and eat their grief. But I don't think we want to?
In this scenario, if we subsume too many magical girls or if they gain too much grief, we'd probably start 'leaking' familiars. If we substume too many witches we'd need to start actively hunting for grief to stay alive.
I think that at least until it becomes impossible we should live by the motto that we should be kind to others, hope that that will get us into good places
Nah, I figured it wasn't. I'd gone over it like a dozen times during my re-reads, and it was very consistent. No way it was a mistake. I thought it was significant, but I couldn't see how and again, I could never slip it into my posts.
Sorry about the wait by the way. I got a little disheartened for a while, switched to working on No-Leaf Clover and mostly got over it, took a while reorganizing my notes, debated with myself over whether or not something should work a certain way in the next update, and now I'm trying to figure out how to portray that something in a way that doesn't seem too vague or weirdly worded. Hope to have it done before the week is up.
My own questions to ask in regards to this situation
-Are we able to subsume other things such as animals? Or magical artifacts made by the other girls?
-Can we subsume normal items such as phones and toys?
-can we enchant items still?
- what would we gain from subsuming the incubator?
- if we do subsume it is it possible to hack into the incubators mental network or hijack telepathy enough to communicate with others without shatter words?
- can we modify our familiars or those under our jurisdiction?
- can we create new familiar types?
- what happens if we subsume homura and she decides to reset the loop? (I have my own suspicion on what would happen but it would be messy to put it lightly and create a very gestalt if mentally crazy version of our selves and what we've subsumed and create the first ever corrupt puella magi if it doesn't affect the body too much)
- who should we go after next Kirsten, Elsa maria, someone else?
@Flairina Right now, Ashy can continue to live without ever eating people. If she keeps growing, will she eventually need to keep eating to keep her grief levels high?
If they generate energy from nothing, this makes me wonder how many times OP has been dissected by the incubators.
Think about it. If they can grant a wish that lets a magical girl time travel, they themselves are capable of time travel. Discover in X number of arbitrary years down the line that OP generates their own energy, travel back to the origin time point of OP, observe their creation, dissect them for info, time travel back before dissection and continue to observe. Dissect OP at every stage of their growth to determine the mechanics that allow this new method of entropy-excepted energy generation.
If they generate energy from nothing, this makes me wonder how many times OP has been dissected by the incubators.
Think about it. If they can grant a wish that lets a magical girl time travel, they themselves are capable of time travel. Discover in X number of arbitrary years down the line that OP generates their own energy, travel back to the origin time point of OP, observe their creation, dissect them for info, time travel back before dissection and continue to observe. Dissect OP at every stage of their growth to determine the mechanics that allow this new method of entropy-excepted energy generation.
if the collective knew how they likely would.
but consider the following
they already know how to generate energy from nothing, that's what witches do. its what they're for
they don't seem that concerned with learning more about the fundamental nature of magic, they know enoigh for their goals and aren't going to expend any more effort than neccesary
and finally they can't timetravel or preform miracles on themselves, they need humanity for that express purpose bevause they themselves are constrained by physics while humanity is not, in homuras revenge kyubey was only able to travel back in time by piggybacking off of Homura's timejump, and just being exposed to that drove him slightly insane
Honorifics are formalities, so they are typically dropped altogether when referring to someone close to the speaker. (That's why Homura started saying 'Madoka' instead of 'Kaname-san' after a lot of looping.)
However, Sayaka prefers not to use honorifics for most people. I believe Azzzzzz is simply trying to mimic Sayaka's speech.
Depends on the definition of a magical 'entity'. Not sure if some degree of personhood is required. Not sure if the presence of a soul is required. Needs testing.
Can we subsume normal items such as phones and toys?
Azanyzorb and Homura would return to the past, and they would separate during the process. However, Osterei may retain some witchiness no matter what time she goes back to. That's what I think would happen, anyway.
Sort of. Emotions fuel magical girl and witch magic, so the energy doesn't really come from nothing. There is still some manner of equivalent exchange happening.
But their magic does give the laws of physics a colossal middle finger, so the energy might as well come from nothing.
they don't seem that concerned with learning more about the fundamental nature of magic, they know enoigh for their goals and aren't going to expend any more effort than neccesary
True. Unless Kyubey believes he can boost his energy income, he has no good reason to research the magical girl system.
and finally they can't timetravel or preform miracles on themselves, they need humanity for that express purpose bevause they themselves are constrained by physics while humanity is not,
True. Even if Kyubey has time travel, it would require so much energy that it's not worth the effort. The magical girl system is the only truly ectoentropic source of time travel available to Kyubey, and he can't use magical girl powers himself.
If they are magical. Which definitely excludes the vast majority of Earthlings.
We still don't know if it works on normals with sufficient potential. Needs testing.
Depends on the definition of a magical 'entity'. Not sure if some degree of personhood is required. Not sure if the presence of a soul is required. Needs testing.
we don't actually know if our subsumption is restricted to only that which is magical in nature, we might be able to just eat anything, even if we don't get "nutrition" from it, we have subsumed a total of 2 (Two) things in this story, Saar and sayaka, we haven't tried to subsume anything else, and both of those two were accidents.
Its VERY clear the Incubators cannot do any of the magic. Their sole ability to unlocking your ability to consume your own karmic potential to grant your own wish in a burst of power.
Otherwise you have the ludicrous outcome of "the incubators have always been able to rewrite the universe, but didn't do so" when you factor in Madoka's wish.
Wishes are not technology, the sole control the Incubators have over the process is the choice of who and when to make an offer, and then leech the power output for profit.
In this scenario, if we subsume too many magical girls or if they gain too much grief, we'd probably start 'leaking' familiars. If we substume too many witches we'd need to start actively hunting for grief to stay alive.
Its VERY clear the Incubators cannot do any of the magic. Their sole ability to unlocking your ability to consume your own karmic potential to grant your own wish in a burst of power.
Otherwise you have the ludicrous outcome of "the incubators have always been able to rewrite the universe, but didn't do so" when you factor in Madoka's wish.
Wishes are not technology, the sole control the Incubators have over the process is the choice of who and when to make an offer, and then leech the power output for profit.
it is also heavily implied that once an incubator offers someone a wish they CAN'T back out of the deal
a girl may go over her potential with her wish and have it backfire like the magus, or make a wish that they won't get profit from, or even make a wish that breaks his system. but whatever wish the girl chooses, for some reason, the incubators HAVE to grant it
it might be related to the fact the can't directly tell lies
otherwise kyubey would simply refuse to grant madokas final wish, or the magus's wishes, just decide not to grant a wish it knows will screw it
[edit] orobuchi has also stated that the reason hitomi is never offered a contract is because kyubey knows how thoughtful and smart she is, and she would likely make a wish along the lines of "I wish you would leave this planet and never return"
[edit] orobuchi has also stated that the reason hitomi is never offered a contract is because kyubey knows how thoughtful and smart she is, and she would likely make a wish along the lines of "I wish you would leave this planet and never return"
It takes a while, but eventually Sayaka's tears do dry up. You've drifted off further into the city during that time, not wanting to linger in one place for too long, and have been idly trying to figure out a good way to gauge your current grief levels that amounts to more than the vague, unclear feelings you're currently relying on. You stopped being able to detect the replenishing trickle a short while ago, but when you compare your stores as they felt then to your stores as they feel right now, you're fairly sure the supply has still marginally increased, so presumably the inflow of grief is just too gradual to sense now that you're not all but empty of it. This bears further experimentation, and invites a great many intriguing questions… but now is probably not the time for that.
Now that she seems to have calmed a little, you dismiss Sayaka's magical girl outfit, leaving her in her school uniform again, and drift just a little closer.
<So… you did what you came to do, right?> you ask.
Sayaka sniffles a bit before replying. "…yeah, I did. Kyousuke will be able to play the violin again."
<Then can I ask why the tears? You left so quickly, even though he was asking you to stay, and I'm not really sure why.>
There's silence for a solid ten seconds, and you're about to conclude that you're not going to get an answer at all, until Sayaka finally speaks.
"...I was going to tell him. Tell him how much I like him. After all, what did I do this to myself for, if I didn't even try?"
…oh. So that's what this is about.
"But then... he got so angry." Sayaka continues. "And upset. And he was calling himself... I just couldn't do it, even after I fixed his arm. If he said he returned my feelings, it would just have been because he felt obligated, and that wouldn't..."
Sayaka trails off and lets out a choked-sounding laugh.
"Besides, it doesn't matter anymore. He'll never love me. Not like this."
<Look, I->
"I don't mean you." Sayaka interrupts, surprising you. "Even if you hadn't shown up, I would've made a wish eventually, and Kyubey… he still would have pulled my soul out of me. One way or another, I'd have ended up like this: an empty shell, hardly any better than a walking corpse…"
…alright, that's just plain dumb. If Sayaka was concerned about her life expectancy as a magical girl then you might understand, but the soul not being physically located in the body changes next to nothing about said body's basic functionality. Sayaka doesn't look any different; it's not like she's actively rotting or anything. You could have sworn you already went over this.
<Sayaka, you are in no way a corpse. That's an incredibly wrongheaded way of looking at it that makes it sound a lot worse than it actually is.>
"That's really easy to say when you aren't one."
You sigh internally.
<...look, being a magical girl isn't ALL bad.> you say, dropping your use of Sayaka's voice for the moment to speak seriously, causing her to flinch. <This doesn't have to be nothing but doom and gloom.>
"How would you know?"
<Perhaps you've forgotten, but until very recently, I too qualified as a 'walking corpse'.> you remind her. <So I'm actually speaking from experience here. For a while, I thought becoming a magical girl was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Yes, the system as it stands is pretty awful, but the fact that magic even exists is pretty incredible on its own, don't you think?>
"…stop talking as if you care." Sayaka says dully. "So maybe you're not completely evil like I thought at first. That doesn't make us friends."
<But I'd rather not be enemies.> you reply. <On that note, I don't think I ever actually properly apologized for subsuming you. So… sorry, about that.>
Sayaka makes a noise vaguely resembling a snort.
"I was already basically a zombie from the moment I made my wish." she says resignedly. "I guess there's not much difference between that and a human puppet anyways."
…gah. Why did you have to get attached — literally — to someone this darn stubborn?
Before you can say anything else, Sayaka's stomach suddenly gurgles. Come to think of it, she hasn't had anything to eat today, has she?
<Hungry?> you ask, deciding to drop the prior subject for the time being as you resume your use of Sayaka's mental voice.
"Not really."
<…that was a rhetorical question; I can literally feel your stomach growling Sayaka.>
Sayaka sighs. "…fine, yes, I'm hungry."
That's what you thought. Though, as for what you can actually do about it…
<I don't suppose you have any money?>
"I don't have anything." Sayaka grumbles. "I was kind of in a hurry when I left this morning, so I just threw on this," she gestures at her school uniform, "which doesn't have any pockets."
<Alright, well, we could probably steal some food pretty easily then->
"I don't want stolen food!"
<-but I kind of figured you'd object to that.>
A bit of movement in the side of your vision draws your attention, and you turn slightly to see a pair of Pyotr running up one of the twisting roads leading back to the white void. Oh great, they're leaving Charlotte's section. Your barrier has a mice infestation now.
<I guess if you want to risk some of the candy from Charlotte's barrier, that's technically an option.> you continue, the Pyotr bringing the thought to mind. <Or, if you really want… we could go back to your place.>
You'd have to figure out how to excuse it, seeing as how Hitomi should have already told Sayaka's parents that she's spending the night at her house, but while Sayaka is still depressed, she at least doesn't seem like she needs to be on constant suicide watch anymore. You wouldn't be particularly thrilled about it yourself, since you'd basically be leashed to wherever she lives all night, but you think you're willing to allow it for the moment.
Sayaka takes a while to respond. When she does however, the answer isn't the one you expected.
"...junk food actually sounds good right about now."
You don't have to go particularly far into Charlotte's tunnels to find a full variety of options. Just inside the entrance halls, there's cake, cookies, pudding, assorted lollipops, and some sort of sugar covered pastries stacked in a pyramid, all readily available for the taking. Sayaka's choices are somewhat limited however by the fact that she doesn't really have any utensils on hand. There are a couple of sets in the caves, but those that aren't too large to use are all embedded in rock, leaving them somewhat less than sanitary to eat with even if she managed to somehow pry them out. Of course, Sayaka's planning on eating food off the floor to begin with, so perhaps she shouldn't be so picky.
Sayaka settles on tearing off a relatively small piece of a manhole-sized chocolate chip cookie, which separates from the main body without too much resistance. You're not so sure about this dinner plan yourself — you think it's pretty likely that you're going to taste whatever Sayaka does, and even if this stuff doesn't turn out to be dangerous to eat, that doesn't mean it'll necessarily be any good. The barrier only formed a couple hours ago, but the food that came with it could still have started out stale, assuming it even tastes like anything at all given the way it came into existence. You guess you'll find out…
With just a hint of trepidation, Sayaka raises the food to her lips and takes a small bite of it. You do indeed taste it at the same time she does, and… huh.
Sayaka swallows, looks at the remaining chunk of cookie in her hand for a moment, and proceeds to dig into the rest of it with a great deal more enthusiasm than before. You understand why, as quite contrary to your expectations, it actually tastes pretty good — really good, honestly. As in, you're fairly sure you've never tasted a cookie this good before, lost memory or not. Apparently the Witch of Sweets decorates her barrier with only the most exceptional examples of such. Now you wonder what that tart she was offering up earlier would have tasted like…
Sayaka eats ravenously, having quite obviously underestimated her own hunger. The cookie chunk proves to not be quite enough, leading her to move on to the unidentified pastry things. They turn out to be equally good, if not better. It makes you wish even more that you still had a mouth, as you somehow doubt trying to inhale any of this through Novella would work particularly well.
Once your hopefully-temporary companion has finished living every five-year-old's dream by eating entirely too much dessert and calling it a meal, you take a moment to check on the outside world. Seems as though it's gotten dark while you weren't watching. Sayaka's lucky you have so little idea where to start on most of your own issues, because otherwise having spent the entire day doing nothing but try to resolve hers would honestly rather annoy you. Granted, you're part of the reason she's even having those issues, but it's not as though she's completely blameless in that regard either.
You turn back to the magical girl in question, who looks marginally happier than before, and is currently wiping her hands off on a nearby blade of grass. Just as you're about to suggest that you both take a little while to discuss what might be necessary to separate you however, Sayaka suddenly whirls around, staring down and to the left at… the ground.
"Mami-san!"
Er, what?
Sayaka looks up at you. "My wish sense is going off! Mami-san is in trouble!"
Wish sense…? Oh, right, that "Knight in Shining Armor" thing her profile in Novella mentioned. You don't feel anything on your end — more confirmation you can't use Sayaka's magic through her, you suppose?
"Quick, head that way!" Sayaka says, pointing in the same direction she's looking. "We need to get to her before-"
<Er, quick question.> you interrupt. <You've mentioned her before, but, who exactly IS 'Mami-san'?>
"She's a magical girl who saved me and Madoka from some familiars a few days ago." Sayaka hastily explains. "She's strong and skilled and if she's in danger then she's probably really in danger, so we need to hurry!"
<...she wouldn't happen to use ribbons to fight, would she?> you ask, somewhat apprehensively. Kyubey's information hasn't served you all that well thus far, but there still can't be that many magical girls in this city, and given the way Sayaka just described this one…
"Huh?" Sayaka utters confusedly, turning to look at you. "What does that matter?"
<Just trust me, it's important.>
Sayaka stares at you as though she can't believe you're asking her this. "No, she doesn't use…!"
She stops mid-sentence for a moment, then shakes her head and resumes. "No, Mami-san doesn't use ribbons; can we go now?"
You cross your own ribbons, starting to get annoyed.
<You wouldn't have paused if you didn't have to think about it.> you say instead. <What's the real answer?>
Sayaka scowls. "…I guess, if I think about it, I did see Mami-san use a ribbon to tie up a witch yesterday. I don't see why you'd care though; that has nothing to do with this!"
<Ohhh yes it does.> you say, that confirmation telling you all you pretty much all you really need to know. <Sorry Sayaka, but we're not doing anything.>
"What?!" Sayaka cries. "Why not?!"
You're not sure why she sounds so shocked. Apparently she was just implicitly assuming you'd be on board with this for some reason?
<Because your friend fits the bill for someone I have been doing my level best to avoid encountering since arriving in Mitakihara.> you explain. <Thus I, and by extension you, are going nowhere even remotely near her if I can help it.>
"But I- you can't just ignore this!" Sayaka protests.
<I most certainly can, and so can you for that matter.> you reply. <In fact, under almost any other circumstances, neither of us would even know anything was happening right now. Just pretend you still don't; I'm sure your friend will manage to make it through whatever issue she's having without us.>
"I'm not going to just sit here PRETENDING nothing's wrong!" Sayaka yells. "I have to help! YOU have to help!"
<...excuse me?>
"You're the only reason I can't just go on my own!" Sayaka elaborates. "Much as I hate it, I can't transform or even get out of this barrier without you, which makes helping me save Mami-san your... I don't know, your responsibility or something!"
<...um, no? No it doesn't?> you reply, somewhat puzzled by that logic. <I may feel bad about your situation Sayaka, but that doesn't entitle you to make demands of me. I'm honestly not sure why you would think otherwise.>
Sayaka seems almost stunned by your answer. "I'm not- all day you've been acting like…!"
She trails off, gritting her teeth, then closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and starts again in a much more restrained tone of voice.
"Fine. I'm sorry. Could we please go save Mami-san from whatever she's currently in danger from?"
...well, that's nice and all, but she's still completely missing the point.
<I appreciate the improved politeness of the request, but the answer is still no.>
"What, do I have to beg?!" Sayaka explodes, instantly discarding all attempt at remaining calm. "What do you want from me?!"
<Oh I don't know Sayaka, maybe I want to not DIE?!>
You internally grimace at your own mental shout. Using Sayaka's own voice to argue with her like this is becoming increasingly uncomfortable the longer you do it for. It's like hearing two distinct personalities of the exact same person fighting with each other, except that in this case you are one of them. You'd go back to shatterwords, but they'd be too slow for a conversation this fast paced, and you doubt you could convince Sayaka to put this on hold for several minutes to trek back to your inner barrier, so illusion words are out too. Ugh.
Growing increasingly frantic and angry, Sayaka continues to try convincing you to head directly towards the girl you ideally want to be as far away as possible from. You really don't get what's so hard to understand about your position here.
<Sayaka, nothing you are likely to say is going to change my mind about this.> you tell her, hoping she'll stop.
Sayaka glares. "What about the fact that I'm pretty sure Mami-san is fighting a witch right now?!"
<...how can you tell?> you ask, suddenly curious.
"I don't know!" Sayaka yells, throwing her hands up. "It just feels like it, alright?!"
That's a pretty vague metric to go by, but you're going to just assume she's right, because that would actually be the most convenient scenario here.
<In that case, I sincerely doubt you have anything to worry about anyways.>
"What is THAT supposed to mean?!" Sayaka cries.
You give Sayaka a particularly dry look, not that she could possibly tell. <Do you really think someone as powerful, and no doubt ruthless as your friend has all that much to worry about against the vast majority of witches?>
"Wha- 'ruthless'?" Sayaka repeats, seeming almost taken aback by the descriptor. "Mami-san is one of the nicest people I know! Why would you even think that?!"
<Because the entirety of Mitakihara is apparently known to be her territory, and hers alone.> you answer. <Do you realize how rare that sort of scenario is? The necessity of grief seeds means territory is a really valuable thing for most magical girls, and at least a fair few of them are perfectly willing to take it from others by force. For your friend to possess sole claim to this entire city, for as long as she's supposedly been around? I guarantee you she's had to fight for it, and if she's still here, then evidently she has yet to lose.>
Sayaka quiets somewhat upon hearing that. Apparently she hadn't considered until now that competition over a limited resource would inevitably drive a lot of magical girls into conflict with each other. You suppose you shouldn't have expected her to; she did only just contract this morning after all, and admittedly this Mami girl might not have a complete monopoly on the city, else you'd never have run into Top Hat. That still doesn't make you any more eager to fling yourself in the girl's direction just hoping for the best, however.
<Understand, I am only here instead of literally any other nearby city because I figured avoiding a single, powerful magical girl would still be easier than avoiding a group.> you continue. <Deliberately heading directly towards that girl is the exact antithesis of that. You realize she'd probably attempt to kill me on sight, right? Possibly you as well actually, depending on how she sees the situation. One could argue you count as a familiar of mine now.>
Sayaka flinches.
"You… you don't know Mami-san would do that." she says, somewhat shakily. "You don't know her at all!"
<True, I don't. But YOU certainly didn't hold back when you attacked me this morning, even after I made it clear I didn't want to fight, so what reason do I have to think she won't do the same?>
Sayaka sullenly looks down, apparently not having a response to that. She abruptly freezes a moment later, and looks off to the side again.
"It... stopped?"
<What?>
"It stopped." Sayaka repeats in a bewildered tone. "I don't... feel anything anymore."
<Oh?> you say, rather relieved to hear that. <That's good. So your friend got through her problems on her own, and your intervention turned out not to be necessary.>
"Something could have still happened to her!" Sayaka snaps. "I don't know how this ability works! What if the only reason it turned off is because she's... she's-!"
<Dead?> you finish for her. <Sayaka, if this girl has been at this, alone, long enough that she's basically a considered semi-permanent fixture of the city, it's pretty unlikely she just up and died to some run-of the-mill witch.>
You won't say impossible, but likely? You don't think so.
Sayaka slumps and falls silent, seeming about as drained by this whole debacle as you, while you take a brief moment to quietly lament her friend's terrible timing. This argument was probably inevitable, but it certainly didn't have to come right on the heels of Sayaka managing to semi-successfully drown her sorrows in sugar. One step forward, two steps back...
You sigh internally. Well, regardless of Sayaka's re-dampened mood, you still have the rest of the night ahead of you. You should probably decide how to spend it now, if just to make sure you don't end up wandering around aimlessly for hours on end, wondering what to do.
[-] Try anew to "unsubsume" Sayaka's soul gem. You have a few ideas that you think at least have a chance at working, and if you don't try, you'll never know.
[-] Go find Charlotte. You're not sure you should have let her go wandering off unsupervised like you did, especially since your familiars may take offense to a witch other than you randomly traipsing about the barrier.
[-] Head to Hitomi's house and see if she'll let Sayaka actually have that sleepover with her. At this point, it might be best to hand off the task of managing Sayaka's emotional health to someone better equipped to improve it.
[-] Write in.
So, now that it's been released in English, I'm currently in the process of falling down the Magia Record hole. My player ID is M3mjrtyY, if you want to follow/friend me!
[X] Try anew to "unsubsume" Sayaka's soul gem. You have a few ideas that you think at least have a chance at working, and if you don't try, you'll never know.
Let's put in the effort, at least. Sayaka deserves as much. And maybe, in failure, we can find a way to make her autonomous from us- allowing her to go out and negotiate on our behalf.
[X] Go find Charlotte. You're not sure you should have let her go wandering about unsupervised like you did, especially since your familiars may take offense to a witch other than you randomly wandering around the barrier.
Sayaka swallows, looks at the remaining chunk of cookie in her hand for a moment, and proceeds digging into the rest of it with a great deal more enthusiasm than before. You understand why, as quite contrary to your expectations, it actually tastes pretty good — really good, honestly. As in, you're fairly sure you've never tasted a cookie this good before, lost memory or not. Apparently the Witch of Sweets decorates her barrier with only the most exceptional examples of such. Now you wonder what that tart she was offering up earlier would have tasted like…
Well, Charlotte is paying for her keep through her barrier, because we have an infinite, or nearly so supply of food. Now we just need some method of housing our longer term guests. Secure bedding arrangements should be a priority, because I doubt that Sayaka would enjoy sleeping in the void or on a pastry.
Is it a good idea to eat the possibly dangerous dessert and candy about? Are we even certain that Charlotte doesn't have any dangerous sweets in their like three course meal gum or cakes that have an extreme calorie content because I quite frankly don't want sayaka to experience side effects that would put her or us at a disadvantage, may haps we should get Charlotte to make sure she doesn't cause a catastrophe
[X] Go find Charlotte. You're not sure you should have let her go wandering about unsupervised like you did, especially since your familiars may take offense to a witch other than you randomly wandering around the barrier.
[X] Try anew to "unsubsume" Sayaka's soul gem. You have a few ideas that you think at least have a chance at working, and if you don't try, you'll never know.
I want to give Sayaka a bit more freedom. Even if we can't completely unsubsume her soul gem, if we can at least grant her enough range to move freely throughout the city, she can go see her friends again and even talk with Mimi without us having to risk a direct meeting.
