un:kana [video]

[cyclicalconcept]

[Kana is in her...rather bare room, aside from the items she found in the Fissure and some books. Oh, and her kitteh, who is purring as she rubs his back, flower nearby for him to use.

She looks thoughtful. Maybe a little worried.]

...I can't think of a name for him. At least nothing that would say he was...mine. Mine mine. You know?

[She sighs.]

I know this is silly to ask, but...does anyone have suggestions? I would absolutely appreciate it.

Comments

[cyclicalconcept]

Oh? Did the youkai speak human?

[bulletnews]

Pretty much all of them do, yes.

[cyclicalconcept]

That, actually...I knew a girl who could at least speak to animals. Knowing how do that is a useful power. But I guess that's neither here nor there now, huh?

[bulletnews]

I suppose not... though really wouldn't it be more about listening?

[Now she's wondering whether Miko could do that.]

[cyclicalconcept]

It is, in a way, but in the end, her wish allowed her to do it and to speak to them in their language.

[bulletnews]

So instead of animals understanding her native language she was just magically granted the animal language, voice and all?

I've got to admit, I'm having trouble imagining a human's mouth letting out a mousy squeak or a tiger's roar.

[cyclicalconcept]

Basically. It was an amazing power.

[bulletnews]

A lot of powers have hidden sides like that.

[Her own wind talents are actually extremely useful for information-gathering, for example.]

Still, how did a wish like that get granted...?

[cyclicalconcept]

Oh, that...

[She pauses, and considers. In the end, there's little harm in explaining. Or good. Or...anything, there are many different worlds.]

The wish was granted because of the magical girl system that existed in the universe that I come from. So in return for having her wish granted, that girl became a magical girl, and that's how she gained her power.

[bulletnews]

"Magical... girl?" I feel like I've heard the term before, but I'm not so sure what it's supposed to mean.

[For once she has heard of something; thanks, Sumireko, for being a hopeless nerd.]

Especially since there's no shortage of girls of all ages that can use some kind of magic back home, whether they've trained for it or because they're youkai.

[cyclicalconcept]

A magical girl, where I come from...the creatures that can grant these wishes only seek out a specific type of girl. Young and emotional, with the potential to alter events around them with their presence.

It's...very clinical, you could say. Scientific, even.

[And in a sense, that's probably being generous to the Incubators.]

If you're capable of hearing the creatures, then chances are, they'll be seeking you out to make a contract with you.

[bulletnews]

That sounds...

[She is absolutely pausing for effect.]

incredibly suspicious!

What do they get out of this arrangement, anyway?

[cyclicalconcept]

[


She blinks in surprise. It's almost like she's not used to people actually being suspicious of the Incubators on first impression and thus ask why they do what they do!

...Anyways.]

Sorry, that's....well. Nowadays they get energy harvested from grief. Specifically, its from the grief of humanity that coalesces into monsters called Wraiths.

[bulletnews]

[You know what they say about it taking one to know one?

...Actually that's only partway true, it's just that the last time something like wish-granting came up it was not only a problem for everyone but also the one really behind it was one of the very, very few people in Gensokyo, human or otherwise, that she would actually legitimately call truly bad.]

That... actually sounds healthy, but since you've let on that it wasn't always like that, if you wouldn't mind explaining...

[cyclicalconcept]

It's still very dangerous for magical girls. They can still be killed, and their souls can still be corrupted. Their powers and items and emotions can still be lost to their miasma...but...

[She trails off. It was dangerous. It's not anymore. Not while she is in charge.

She shakes her head.]

I'm getting off track, I'm sorry. But no, it wasn't always like that. Before, the Incubator race used a more...efficient means.

[bulletnews]

If they're having to fight while they're still learning... it's not going to be completely safe no matter what, but that's just how life is for a lot of people.

"Efficient"? So they're using the grief for something...

[cyclicalconcept]

No. It's never going to be safe.

[She sighs.]

They were. Do you know the concept of heat death, by any chance?

[She's not unaware of the irony that this question is how they responded to the concern, either.]

[bulletnews]

"Heat death"? No, I've never heard of it.

[cyclicalconcept]

It's...basically a result of the cessation of entropy in the physical universe. It's the laws of thermodynamics, entropy will always increase as more energy is exerted within it. And because the universe is always using more energy than it's creating, eventually, after entropy has increased to a certain point, there won't be enough energy left to sustain things like planets and stars or even basic life form.

The universe will cool off to absolute zero because energy is equal, and nothing will be left...that's heat death.

[bulletnews]

I don't think I understood that at all, aside from "everything's going to die".

...but when was that ever not the case, exactly?

[cyclicalconcept]

That's basically it. Even so, the creatures wanted to delay it for as long as possible, so...they found a way. Emotional energies, which are connected to the state of a person's soul, aren't confined to the laws of physics, and...well, younger girls tend to get very emotional.

[...yeah, this...she looks down at this.]

So they created a system where they could use the emotional energy inherent in a young girl's soul, when it reached its peak output.

[bulletnews]

So they were breaking little girls against the end of everything?

Either way, it sounds to me more like that the souls of the dead are being mismanaged. I know plenty of ghosts with emotions.

[or, well, at least one and a half.]

[cyclicalconcept]

I...um. I don't know it mismanaged is how I'd put how the system was before...but it's not that way anymore.

[bulletnews]

In the end, what matters is that it was changed, so I don't see any reason to inquire further for now.

[cyclicalconcept]

Right, of course...

[how did we get on this topic????]