Luna, giving the best advice.
Usagi Quest (CK3/Princess Maker) (Sailor Moon)
Luna, giving the best advice.
- Location
- USA
Luna: "I advise stress relief through violence."
Usagi: "This is reality, not Dragon Ball Z."
Luna: "This is reality with magic."
Usagi: "......Still not Dragon Ball Z."
Riffing off the fact that SM and DBZ were both made by Toei Animation.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Eh. For me, Luna and Artemis being coded as adults (not least so they can play straight man to the adolescent main cast's shenanigans) just works.
1) Give you advice worth following, that meaningfully differs from your own perspective, AND
2) Give enough of this kind of advice that it more than compensates for any time or energy you waste arguing with them when you are, in fact, correct.
(1) sounds like an argument for the immortal god-queen to have teenage advisors... until you consider the "worth following" aspect and the problems implied by (2). If the immortal god-queen is a million years old, and assuming her subjects age and die like normal mortals, then she probably doesn't especially enjoy having to explain to a bunch of teenagers some fundamental principle of how politics works for the fifty thousandth time. Not unless she's indulging a sort of displaced maternal impulse, I suppose... but even in that case "advisors" isn't really a good term for the coterie of teenagers she surrounds herself with, because they're not advisors, they're pets.
So you say the following:
My reply:
Likewise the surprisingly complex cryovolcanic geology. Which is in turn related to the tummy heart.
[This may be disconfirmed by something said after this quote of yours- still catching up]
Speaking as someone who's spent a lot of time around adolescents, I'm... not sure about that, personally. One general rule of having advisors is that if your own judgment is essentially sound, you want your advisors to:
1) Give you advice worth following, that meaningfully differs from your own perspective, AND
2) Give enough of this kind of advice that it more than compensates for any time or energy you waste arguing with them when you are, in fact, correct.
(1) sounds like an argument for the immortal god-queen to have teenage advisors... until you consider the "worth following" aspect and the problems implied by (2). If the immortal god-queen is a million years old, and assuming her subjects age and die like normal mortals, then she probably doesn't especially enjoy having to explain to a bunch of teenagers some fundamental principle of how politics works for the fifty thousandth time. Not unless she's indulging a sort of displaced maternal impulse, I suppose... but even in that case "advisors" isn't really a good term for the coterie of teenagers she surrounds herself with, because they're not advisors, they're pets.
So you say the following:
I get it, and that's not what I meant.
I very much believe in the theory of evolution.
It's more like.. let me put it like this: Did at some point a SINGLE exemplar of human appear, out of evolution, or did multiples appear randomly from separate families of not-quite-humans (primate ancestors)?
Also, if we go even further back, to the very origin of life... did a single unicellular organism just randomly happen, and all organisms are descended from it.. or did MULTIPLE unicellular organism just "happen" at the same time?
Do all humans descend from the same proto-human, a random deviation from the previous primates? did multiple of them happen from different ancestors?
I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself properly, but while we know how species change, the further back you go the less clear some details are, aren't they?
In any case, this is going off topic. It's just.. I also think I saw an article, some time ago, mentioning that our estimates for numbers needed (specifically for humans) might actually be overestimating the needed numbers. I can't quote anything, cause I REALLY don't remember when/where I saw it.
I very much believe in the theory of evolution.
It's more like.. let me put it like this: Did at some point a SINGLE exemplar of human appear, out of evolution, or did multiples appear randomly from separate families of not-quite-humans (primate ancestors)?
Also, if we go even further back, to the very origin of life... did a single unicellular organism just randomly happen, and all organisms are descended from it.. or did MULTIPLE unicellular organism just "happen" at the same time?
Do all humans descend from the same proto-human, a random deviation from the previous primates? did multiple of them happen from different ancestors?
I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself properly, but while we know how species change, the further back you go the less clear some details are, aren't they?
In any case, this is going off topic. It's just.. I also think I saw an article, some time ago, mentioning that our estimates for numbers needed (specifically for humans) might actually be overestimating the needed numbers. I can't quote anything, cause I REALLY don't remember when/where I saw it.
My reply:
See, the way you talk about "exemplars" of the human species is itself making a hidden assumption. As @Gnarker said, it's not as if once upon a time a million years ago there were these tribes of semi-apelike protohumans knucklewalking around and trying without success to figure out the secrets of the pointy stick, only suddenly BAM a mutant baby is born to one of these groups of apes and they're an "exemplar" of the human species with all the marks of humanity.
No, the pattern is- will have to be- more subtle than that, unless one claims that the rules of how DNA works get erased by magic whenever a new "species" emerges.
If you could track the distribution of traits in the proto-human population and do a survey every few thousand years, and if you started several million years ago, you'd see a relatively smooth change. You'd see a population of apes, originally not obviously all that different from the chimpanzees we know today, slowly becoming more humanlike. Once in a while a key mutation would emerge and cause a more significant shift, but still a gradual one- and different mutations all pushing in the same direction would be happening in parallel, among different groups, and gradually mixing to produce a more humanlike result over time. The boundary between "human" and "not human" would be blurred almost all the way into nonexistence, because you would see every 'missing link' in the process of development.
The reason we don't have this level of detail in real life is that we are working from a fossil record that preserves relatively few skeletons and almost no DNA. Instead of being able to comprehensively sample populations and survey DNA every few thousand years, we have about six thousand fossil skeletons, not all of them complete, to cover millions of years of time. This means we cannot track the emergence of each 'level' of increasing proto-humanity in any semblance of detail... But we know enough about basic biology to be able to paint the picture I have described above. Humans emerged among an existing population of genetically compatible hominids, who provided the level of biodiversity required for the new species to survive, until such time as there were enough individuals with enough traits of that species to qualify as a species of their own.
No, the pattern is- will have to be- more subtle than that, unless one claims that the rules of how DNA works get erased by magic whenever a new "species" emerges.
If you could track the distribution of traits in the proto-human population and do a survey every few thousand years, and if you started several million years ago, you'd see a relatively smooth change. You'd see a population of apes, originally not obviously all that different from the chimpanzees we know today, slowly becoming more humanlike. Once in a while a key mutation would emerge and cause a more significant shift, but still a gradual one- and different mutations all pushing in the same direction would be happening in parallel, among different groups, and gradually mixing to produce a more humanlike result over time. The boundary between "human" and "not human" would be blurred almost all the way into nonexistence, because you would see every 'missing link' in the process of development.
The reason we don't have this level of detail in real life is that we are working from a fossil record that preserves relatively few skeletons and almost no DNA. Instead of being able to comprehensively sample populations and survey DNA every few thousand years, we have about six thousand fossil skeletons, not all of them complete, to cover millions of years of time. This means we cannot track the emergence of each 'level' of increasing proto-humanity in any semblance of detail... But we know enough about basic biology to be able to paint the picture I have described above. Humans emerged among an existing population of genetically compatible hominids, who provided the level of biodiversity required for the new species to survive, until such time as there were enough individuals with enough traits of that species to qualify as a species of their own.
...This theory doesn't explain the tummy heart and Pluto has to have a tummy heart.
Likewise the surprisingly complex cryovolcanic geology. Which is in turn related to the tummy heart.
...!!!
That is not guaranteed. From what I'm reading here, Ikuko didn't necessarily gain magic powers from experiencing some acute toxicity of mana poisoning.
[This may be disconfirmed by something said after this quote of yours- still catching up]
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- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
That wouldn't likely have worked. The shopkeeper gave us a specific recipe that should have been used in order to break curses.
It shouldn't have had any but:
She's been exclusively drinking strong tea for three days straight without resting.
If she didn't get Mana Doping she'd have overdosed on caffiene as it is.
Sailor_Skarro
The Lurker
I think it's still something worth SCIENCEing though.
That's only for the strong curses, weak curses are just "make tea in pot, drink tea."
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- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think you wrote the wrong name in that.
Sailor_Skarro
The Lurker
Whoops. Fixing it, sorry.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
...Fool girl you just LITERALLY did a whole study session without them even participating, did you not!?
[Okay in fairness that is what she's planning to do tomorrow if I understand...]
Fool girl!
Ami was about to get her face eaten by youma when she abruptly got a major life transformation. Naru's mother was tied up in a closet or something, and the youma impersonating her would probably have killed her to tie off loose ends sooner or later.
...Fair.
Awwgh.
Ahh, so that was the "go to sleep" crit.
I'm not even sure what this is rolling for... mana poisoning in and of itself? Oh.
...Did... did Mom just go telekinetic then pass out?
...I think she just did.
Never? In fourteen years?
My compliments to Mr. Tsukino's self-discipline.
Well, that or his luck.
Thats a neat trick. She could join the weird Nerima martial artists with it.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
...We're going to have to explain the whole "magical girl warrior" thing to our parents now, aren't we?
We need to give our mom some guidance for dealing with her new magic, and the magical world that comes with it.
Eh, we needed to tell them eventually, anyway, this just moves up the time table.
We need to give our mom some guidance for dealing with her new magic, and the magical world that comes with it.
Eh, we needed to tell them eventually, anyway, this just moves up the time table.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Actually, on further examination, the mana doping did give Ikuki a +15 on her "awaken magic" roll. Now, her roll would have succeeded regardless, so something would have happened anyway, but this does suggest that we can induce awakened magic under controlled circumstances with the right techniques.
The Silver Millennium probably knew how.
Nothing would have happened if Ikuki hadn't obsessively OD'd on more tea than any normal person would drink unless they were trying to stay awake for 72 hours.
Mom may (may not) write off what happened as a stress-induced hallucination and not have any more unexplained magical events for a while.
But that would not be very Murphy-compliant.
Nothing about what just happened requires Usagi to come out as a magical girl to her parents, but if Ikuko starts actively experimenting with her magic things could get weird and we might have to take steps.
Or she may passively develop a mana sense of her own in which case she'll figure Usagi out in short order.
That is only needed for stronger curses:
Sailor_Skarro
The Lurker
My opinion is that we should give a mostly-complete summary... minus the part where we're a vigilante.
Like, explain that we learned magic was real, we decided to learn it for self-defense reasons and because it was cool, we found a magic item shop and started teaching Naru and made a bunch of friends that could also use magic, you can use magic now because you OD'd on our magic curse breaking teapot for three days, etc. Possibly also explaining about Luna and the Dark Kingdom.
What I don't think we should mention is us actively going out and picking fights, and also about reincarnation. At least not yet. Although if the vote comes down to "keep your mouth shut" or "spill everything" I'm going with "spill everything."
Like, explain that we learned magic was real, we decided to learn it for self-defense reasons and because it was cool, we found a magic item shop and started teaching Naru and made a bunch of friends that could also use magic, you can use magic now because you OD'd on our magic curse breaking teapot for three days, etc. Possibly also explaining about Luna and the Dark Kingdom.
What I don't think we should mention is us actively going out and picking fights, and also about reincarnation. At least not yet. Although if the vote comes down to "keep your mouth shut" or "spill everything" I'm going with "spill everything."
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hmm, I wonder if this is part of the reason why she is so sure we are up to something already. an unexplainable feeling of something off due to her sensing our magic.
- Location
- Arcadia
One would not wish it, but if it becomes the same kind of situation as with Taylor and her father in Worm, if Ikuko tries to force Moon not to go out and fight, well, Moon cannot forsake the duties of the Sailor Senshi, not even for Ikuko.
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- Location
- Germany
People seem weirdly obsessed over the theory that Ikuko permanently gained magic... when it's just as likely that she simply cast with the mana she overdosed on for three days. She doesn't need to be a mage to have cast that wind spell.
The "Ikuko Magic" roll doesn't automatically mean she awakens magic, just that she used it. We simply can't say whether there's more to it yet.
And even in the hypothetical scenario where she did have magic which she unlocked from that incident, experimenting with deliberate mana doping is not on the table. A week of suffering including a hospital stay just for a +15 on a roll isn't worth it, and the DC would probably vary wildly depending on the person anyhow.
The "Ikuko Magic" roll doesn't automatically mean she awakens magic, just that she used it. We simply can't say whether there's more to it yet.
And even in the hypothetical scenario where she did have magic which she unlocked from that incident, experimenting with deliberate mana doping is not on the table. A week of suffering including a hospital stay just for a +15 on a roll isn't worth it, and the DC would probably vary wildly depending on the person anyhow.
frozenchicken
Does not have a custom title.
Queen Serenity created the protections around the Time Gate, and as everybody knows, the Serenity Lineage is known for having 'heart' shaped magical effects.
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
Counterpoint - she got a Critical Success. This is going to be more than just her going sick for a week, with a result like this.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
@Lunaryon
The next epic math battle for Usagi should probably be either memorizing the formulas for geometric shapes (made considerably more difficult if she hasn't got the hang of square roots) or word problems. In the unlikely event that you want grade-level appropriate word problems, I can draft them for you on a day or two's notice.
Even if a lot of the most obvious changes are arguably good things (becoming an early riser, getting passing grades in school, getting a cat, not blowing quite as much of her allowance on candy and video games), they're still quite noticeable. And Usagi is fourteen, which is an age range when parents are already on the lookout for rapid changes in mood and personality, with "my little girl is becoming a young woman" being a perfectly adequate explanation.
She doesn't need to be psychic or mana-sensitive to notice something's changed when Usagi no longer grudgingly lurches down the stairs like a zombie to bolt down breakfast before running out the door late for school every day. And she doesn't need to be sensing magic in Usagi's bedroom to want to know exactly what has changed.
(I mean, to give an example, a good mother would probably want to be at least not entirely surprised by the sudden awakening of her daughter's love life, something that given the quest level of Usagithirst can only be waiting in the wings for so much longer)
It's entirely possible that a medically common and normative Silver Millennium method for awakening people's magic, something equivalent to mass vaccination, did use a mechanism broadly like this. That is to say, deliberately infusing people with magical energy under circumstances that make it likely they will then "cast" the resulting magic instinctively, creating the necessary channels to permit a trainable use of magic in the future.
Pluto has a tummy heart because Queen Serenity wanted Pluto to have a tummy heart.
The next epic math battle for Usagi should probably be either memorizing the formulas for geometric shapes (made considerably more difficult if she hasn't got the hang of square roots) or word problems. In the unlikely event that you want grade-level appropriate word problems, I can draft them for you on a day or two's notice.
That would explain it, but the same phenomenon would also adequately be explained by reasonably competent normal parenting. She's noticed that Usagi is behaving markedly differently than she did a month and a half ago.
Even if a lot of the most obvious changes are arguably good things (becoming an early riser, getting passing grades in school, getting a cat, not blowing quite as much of her allowance on candy and video games), they're still quite noticeable. And Usagi is fourteen, which is an age range when parents are already on the lookout for rapid changes in mood and personality, with "my little girl is becoming a young woman" being a perfectly adequate explanation.
She doesn't need to be psychic or mana-sensitive to notice something's changed when Usagi no longer grudgingly lurches down the stairs like a zombie to bolt down breakfast before running out the door late for school every day. And she doesn't need to be sensing magic in Usagi's bedroom to want to know exactly what has changed.
(I mean, to give an example, a good mother would probably want to be at least not entirely surprised by the sudden awakening of her daughter's love life, something that given the quest level of Usagithirst can only be waiting in the wings for so much longer)
I'm not saying you're wrong, but we don't really have a firm grasp on the biology of magic in quest canon. Sudden expression of 'wild magic' is often a sign that a character's magical abilities are awakening in fiction, and rarely just a consequence of a character who will remain strictly 'muggle' reacting to ambient magic. It's reasonable for us to plan ahead for "Ikuko turns into a sorceress on us."
I'm not saying that reproducing this exact scenario is a good idea medically, but I'm the guy who just took a COVID vaccine where they warn you "you may feel sick for a few days, this is a normal consequence of something that's good for you."
It's entirely possible that a medically common and normative Silver Millennium method for awakening people's magic, something equivalent to mass vaccination, did use a mechanism broadly like this. That is to say, deliberately infusing people with magical energy under circumstances that make it likely they will then "cast" the resulting magic instinctively, creating the necessary channels to permit a trainable use of magic in the future.
...This is an acceptable explanation.
Pluto has a tummy heart because Queen Serenity wanted Pluto to have a tummy heart.
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Well going by how we woke up Makoto's magic, before we knew she was Jupiter, they pretty clearly had better methods:
Obviously the Mercury Supercomputer wouldn't be used for everyone given Ερμής but this suggests they had some magitech that could be used which the Mercury Supercomputer is just substituting for here.
Well, using nothing but tea to stay awake was not something anyone expected for a reason...
Sailor_Skarro
The Lurker
Huh. Looking at the maybe-Moon Rod, it says there are 'shapes' waiting to be filled with magic? I wonder if "experiment with the Moon Rod" is going to be an action next turn.
JmonsterNEO
Spouter of nonsense
- Location
- The quest forums
On the subject of whether or not Ikuko had her magic awakened, if it was, it will probably be at the same level that Naru started out at, nothing too crazy.