nuew.net

These are chapter notes for the excellent Clarisse Quest by tomoyo a.k.a. Madison Taylor, a recursive fanfic of the PMMM fanfic To The Stars (TTS), hosted on Sufficient Velocity. It is very good and I very much recommend it to anyone who enjoys TTS or likes stories about AI (especially ones mostly written before the LLM boon, as this one was).

It should be noted that this is primarily intended to jog memories and help with finding particular chapters, mostly for the purposes of planning for future votes. It should not be relied upon by itself, especially not for non-story content like e.g. Apocrypha. It will also, of course, not be nearly as fun as actually (re)reading the story.

It is also currently incomplete as I continue my reread of the quest.

Part I: Machine in the Ghost¶

2011: A Spacetime Odyssey¶

You’re Clarisse. You’re equipped with spoilers from Hieronym’s To The Stars up to Chapter 52. You’re hanging around with Shizuki Ryouko, magical girl in the 24th-and-a-half century, Hero of Orpheus, savior of humanity, favored of the goddess Madoka, and general purpose plot-bait.

• Ryouko is distracted (“something’s not quite right”), Asami upset
• Governance declares Emergency Mode 2, patches Clarisse in on her report of magic being weird
• Simona appears, having suddenly contracted
  • ”… Simona?” asks Ryouko, remembering the first time she saved the girl from suspicious demon spawns. “… Not again?”
  • ”… What do you mean, again? You’re not … You don’t remember the last time… do you?”
• Per Simona: Wormhole, Demons, War are distraction.
• Go to Cult HQ, Kyouko out fighting demons
• Simona ties ribbon to Ryouko, promises to take care of Asami after kissing her
• Homura shows up with corrupted wings
• Wake up in 2011
• Unnamed boy on a bicycle waves hello to “Shizuki-san”
  • bicycles don’t exist in the future, apparently

This chapter contains an apparent factual error in that GNSS satellites aren’t in geostationary orbit, they’re in semi-synchronous orbits. Also I don’t think you’d get 2011 from them, they usually use day/week numbers that wrap after a while.

Are you a clone.¶

• Decide to find out “as much as we can before committing to anything”
• Approached by Yuuka, Wakaba, and Nanami
  • “That’s not the real Hitomi-chan! Her hair is too long and her breasts are way too small!!”
• Ryouko introduces herself as Shizuki Ryouko
• Girls believe her to be some sort of prank by Sayaka

(the Sublime and Merciful)¶

• Decide to ask about Mami and Hitomi
• Wakaba calls Sayaka, we try to reverse-engineer 3G UTMS
• Realize that real honey might still exist
• Yuuka takes our hand while walking, may not be internally clear on Ryouko/Hitomi being different people
• Walk together to greater group with Sayaka, Madoka, and Hitomi
• Sayaka denies involvement in prank
• We give Kaname Madoka (who is not magica) nomenclator tag “Kaname Madoka (the sublime and merciful)”

We’re gonna work together from now on¶

• Group surprised by resemblance between Hitomi and Ryouko
• Hitomi so suprised she goes to touch Ryouko to make sure she’s real
  • Ryouko slightly shorter than Hitomi, too
• Yuuka declares Ryouko her friend now
• Ryouko claims they didn’t know of a Shizuki presence in town, which is taken as suspicious
• Claim not to be relatives
  • Yuuka innocently asks if Papa Shizuki was keeping her secret from family
• Group asks if Ryouko is mythical transfer student
• Hitomi gives Ryouko phone number
• Homura shows up, publicly claims to be magical girl, tackle-hugs Madoka

I really am from the future!¶

• Decide not to break masquerade as yet.
• Girls assume Homura is part of Sayaka’s prank
• Homura discloses she’s from a month in the future, that everyone died from Walpurgisnacht
• Homura tries to prove magic by transforming and stopping time
• Ryouko doesn’t get stopped despite not being touched by her, complains to her about revealing secret, unsure of potential repercussions
• Homura panics, reverts timestop in different location still transformed

I will keep your secret safe!¶

• Decide to take charge
• Ask Homura to calm down, as situation is somewhat out of control
• Hitomi loans Ryouko her phone. Much bigger deal socially to us than to her.
• Agree to meet on roof after lunch to let everyone get to class
• Hitomi insists on showing Homura to main office

you can be Hitomi’s phone¶

• Attempt to contact Mami telepathically; she doesn’t appear to be reachable
• We research the phone; manage to reverse-engineer UTMS and break the pitiful encryption so that we can impersonate her phone
• Ryouko decides to play with the ribbon, ribbon has accidentally been moved to hair
• Find dead bird killed by the cat (Amy)

You are not a monster¶

• Ryouko tries to pet Amy, accidentally kills it after it tries to attack her, whoops
• Try to visit library; it’s closed on Mondays
• Opening hours are surprising in general; the impacts of sleep remain mysterious
• Nanami sends a text message asking if they should get Ryouko lunch
• We decode Shift-JIS and reverse-engineer the SMS protocol
• Reply with message asking them to bring Ryouko lunch

I was about to complain a little about there being no reason for Governance to ever replace Unicode (or at least not the general character tables, I could see standardizing on UTF-32 with compression or something; and yes it has a decent number of warts, but most of those are because of human language or for necessary backwards compatibility, and the rest are way more effort to fix than replacing it is worth), but no, the hexdump is actually “ちょっと志筑2志筑仁美は、もしあなたが昼食を持っているのか、それともあなたのために貰うべきかを知りたい” encoded in Shift JIS. Ok, you got me, tomoyo (I’d never noticed that you’d done that on my previous reads, either, had just relied on your translation, haha).

Clarisse, I don’t like the twenty-first century¶

• Walk around residential neighborhoods; Ryouko surprised by the sprawl of suburbia, judgemental about pets
• Discuss economic situation of 21st century with Ryouko
• They meet woman with dementia, who invites them in, clearly incapable of maintaining ADLs
  • Try to decide what to do, Ryouko has trouble not blaming neighbors for not “doing something”
• We make joke about indignities of CDMA lmao
• Delete all messages we sent to Hitomi’s phone as part of previous update¹
• Meet group on roof; they set up a trap to detect teleportation, which catches us

You’re from Crystal Tokyo!¶

• We give Very overdramatic explanation of magical girlhood to group
  • Reveal lichbomb to group
• Incredibly extremely overdramatically swear everyone to secrecy, in a scene that is apparently stolen from a story
  • As this involves some physical separation from the soul gem, we note some discomfort from being separated from Ryouko by actual space, though don’t disclose that to her
• Ryouko admits she’s a clone, validating Nanami’s joke from a few chapters ago
• Wakaba jokes Ryouko is Chibiusa from Crystal Tokyo (apparently an “ancient, some of the oldest that there is” reference, but still recognizable) and that Hitomi is her mom
• Ryouko says it’s been over 400 years, probably everyone is an ancestor
• Clarisse introduces herself by phone, though doesn’t admit to being an AI
• Hitomi offers to let them stay at her place, initially reluctant
  • Nanami interjects, Hitomi is rich and gentle and it would make her sad to reject her
  • Hitomi says she understands if there are concerns about family, understands if we say no, but would trust her Papa with info
• Homura also offers to let us stay at her place

Our teacher is kinda insane¶

• Agree to stay with Hitomi
• Try to figure out internet connection
• Group talk about school and how it differs over time
  • Ryouko’s last class was on light railgun construction²
  • Some jokes about a hypothetical nap club and possibly going to cram school to learn about naps
  • Group complains about English teacher
• After Wakaba asks if aging/death are cured, Ryouko brings up old lady (Mrs. Akiyuki) w/ dementia
  • Was known to group, but has apparently gotten worse since the last time they saw her
  • Sayaka agrees to tell her father, in the hope that he’ll call social services
• Mami shows up, angry and ready to attack, complains about “little crew of psychopathic loser-freaks” which she assumes Ryouko is a member of

I’ve had enough gaslighting for one day!¶

• We decide to transform, evade, explain, and not fight Mami
  • Try to explain what Homura was doing, swear everyone to secrecy
  • Explain we aren’t with Oriko
• Mami’s gem is very corrupted, offer grief cubes
• Mami reacts badly³, summons ribbon muskets, and starts blasting
• Homura and Wakaba show up on roof

Wow there was a lot of discussion after this chapter.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!¶

• Memory is incoherent at start of chapter, some sort of vision with someone braiding our hair, which is also Ryouko’s hair
• Flashback
  • Go with Homura to help Wakaba flee rooftop in timestop
  • Homura also concerned by “grief cubes”, trusts Mami more, whacks Ryouko in the back of the head when we go to try to forcibly cleanse Mami
  • Ryouko grabs Mami’s soul gem, tries to teleport away with it, time freezes including us
  • Mami witches out
  • Ryouko gets tied up by ribbons, Homura tries to fight Mami
  • we fucking die
• Wake up on Wednesday in a bunk bed in Hitomi’s house
• There’s a second girl who looks exactly like Ryouko on the other bunk; it’s Clarisse
• Hitomi barges in, had thought we were dead, someone made a wish to make us back alive
  • Hitomi’s mom knows about us, isn’t suprised when she calls down to tell us to stop being so loud

She’s in my tea ceremony classes¶

• We do some deep breaths, hug Ryouko
• Ribbon is missing
  • Nanami gave it to Yuuka
• We have normal implants but no taccomp, are both connected to Ryouko’s wifi and have cellphones
• On Tuesday
  • Lots of noises on roof, Homura and Wakaba go up to check, Wakaba suddenly appears back down, says fight is going on, don’t go up
  • Homura comes back down, leaves, Sayaka follows
  • School evacuated
  • Yuuka and Nanami find Ryouko’s body in field
  • Police come, school cancelled
  • Sayaka is missing
• We explain context to Hitomi
  • Mami probably fought Oriko, probably thought we were invading on her behalf, attacked Ryouko
• Everyone talked to Kyuubey, Hitomi and Madoka couldn’t see him

do you have a crush on Hitomi?¶

• Soul gem covers are still there, but grief cubes are missing⁴
• Hitomi says room was previously used when friends came over, no idea why they’re there
• We call Wakaba, she answers from in her head, has implants
• We call Nanami, she admits to wishing with minimal pressure
  • Nanami has a crush on Hitomi, and making her happy because of that was a primary cause for her wish
    • Wish likely subconsciously involves us going to school with them
  • We tell her that she’s given her friends implants too
  • We agree to call Madoka/Sayaka, Nanami agrees to call Yuuka
• Sayaka is probably alive
• We tell Hitomi about implants + some basic capabilities, which weird her out some

Did he actually say that he sympathized?¶

• Hitomi calls Sayaka, she’s fine
• Call Madoka, she does have implants but answers with her physical phone, tell her Sayaka + Ryouko are alive
• Ryouko calls Yuuka, goes well
  • Asks for return of ribbon
• School was cancelled due to the roof being damaged
• Yuuka also had dream with hair, but was the one braiding our hair, and was sitting in the lap of a “nice lady”
• Call Nanami back
  • Thank her for bringing Ryouko back
  • She offers to hunt together with Ryouko
  • Ryouko joins call, Nanami specifically mentions witches, are unknown to Ryouko, who thinks it might be a terminology change
  • Ryouko observes that she and Clarisse might be sisters with Hitomi now
  • We ask exactly what Nanami wished
• Nanami sends memory recording
  • Nanami’s big brother upsets her by being irreverent and saying she should be grateful to have time off school; offers to buy beer and hang out
  • She wants to be left alone, for obvious reasons, and snaps at him
  • Kyuubey arrives, Nanami expresses distress, Kyuubey makes some extremely avaricious comments that Nanami won’t understand, offers to let Nanami wish and become a magical girl
    • “T - then… then you bring her back! You fix… you’re going to fix everything, you hear?? It’s going to be better than ever.”
• Nanami tells us to forget about apologies, gratitude, etc. Only accepts gratitude with instance.
• Go downstairs for breakfast, Hitomi’s mother confirms that not sisters but have indefinite permission to stay; Papa in America and flying back

Sometimes, she eats cake with her bare hands¶

• Shizuki Tomoyo (hihi!) makes breakfast for Clarisse, Ryouko, and Hitomi
  • She apparently waves a knife around as a nervous habit
• Hitomi is a bit overwhelmed at the improvements to the sensation of taste
• Test of maximum safe distance between Clarisse and Ryouko
  • Headache at 500m
  • Feel torn at 750m, but can be sustained with focus on one
  • Pass out at 1km, with control being entirely reverted to the spinal-node tactical computer; on Hitomi slapping the passed-out Clarisse, control changes to the new body
    • This results in panic, which results in Ryouko teleporting back to Clarisse, reestablishing the connection
• Nanami and Kyuubey show up to plan the hunt; as Hitomi still can’t see him, she and Clarisse leave to talk privately. We can only half-see Kyuubey⁵.
  • We offer to share recording of their conversation with Hitomi; she’s reluctant due to frowning on gossip
  • Reveal Hero of Orpheus, Asami to Hitomi, who seems almost more surprised by the girlfriend
  • Hitomi reveals feeling somewhat scared, disturbed by events, implants
  • Hitomi agrees to, as most influential non-contractee in group, to take care of Madoka, Sayaka, Yuuka, and Wakaba; we agree to take care of Ryouko and Nanami
    • Hitomi wonders who will take care of Clarisse; we agree to generally discuss things with her, if not secret or dangerous
• Flip back to conversation with Nanami, Kyuubey, and Ryouko
  • Magical girl from the future is not unprecedented but also is uncommon
  • Ask Kyuubey to help plan hunt
  • Kyuubey doesn’t know what’s going on with our soul
• Go to industrial area for hunt
  • We boot up tactical network
  • Nanami appears to have v1.8 taccomp; “Honestly, it’s probably for the best. Version Twos are still pretty new, and, well, honestly, we weren’t strictly meant to be sentient. I mean, I’m glad for it, but they’re still sorting out the ethical implications, and it would be a very bad idea to have another one in the early twenty-first century without a lot of support. She’d be confused, and lonely.”⁶

A Certain Magical Railgun¶

• Ryouko is 100% ready; Nanami isn’t taking this very seriously
  • Complains about “big dramatic entrance” being made in a freight yard
• Nanami has two weapons; Clara, a 1.21 GW railgun with no recoil because magic, and Beatrice, a 50 kW 13-gun revolver.
  • Actually possibly three weapons (“This isn’t even the really big one!”), but if so biggest isn’t shown.
• No response to attempts to contact person who made aborted attempt to join tactical network.
• Kyouko and Kirika show up.

Long Live Meow Quest¶

• Decide to hide from Kyouko, Kirika; they leave
• Nanami apologies for being “a complete idiot”
• An autonomous stealth infiltration drone (Amy the cat) shows up; they are not the aborted tacnet joiner.
  • Kyouko (carrying Takoyaki) spots Amy, feeds them some Takoyaki
  • Kirika is unimpressed, doesn’t see the point of cats beyond as “target practice”, jokes about skinning and eating them
  • Gives some more Takoyaki in an attempt to not have Amy follow her as she leaves.
  • Homura shows up, is confused about events, pets Amy and invites her to her home
  • Kyouko and Kirika reappear, surrounding Homura
  • Give Homura a message that “Your friends are looking for you.” in way that suggests that they’re angry at her with intent to prevent her from having friends
  • Kyouko feels something; “Someone’s out there.”

the best can-opener in the world¶

• Hunting group goes to get food for Amy
  • Ryouko does not know how canned food works or how to feed a cat
• Clarisse is the best computer in the world, which is true (well, sans the other v2 taccomps) and also scary
• Return to hunt with Amy sent to Homura’s house
• Sayaka delayed leaving hospital, as she’s been talking to police all morning
• Find witch in wastewater treatment plant
• We start to get suspicions about having been attacked by a witch just after we teleported from the roof

Ugh. I hate creepy dolls.¶

• We share suspicions about the origin of witches w/ Ryouko
  • Ryouko guesses that possibly witches feed on Magical Girl despair?
• Everyone attacks the witch
  • Nanami loans Clarisse Beatrice
• Labyrinth is based on planes, boats, trains, Utena references, etc.
• Witch is a deformed/”creepy” doll, who dies basically instantly
• Ryouko surprised that the Grief seed is much bigger than a cube
• Nanami smokes a cigarette to cool down after the fight, which is in theory fine w/ her implants
• We discover a dead body floating in a settling tank

We should do something about the body¶

• We point out body to other two
• Ryouko wants to do something about his body, Nanami vetos due to risk of police attention
  • Also suggests shutting down phones before patrols to stop leaving location history
• Ryouko takes a drag of Nanami’s cigarette after we mention being tempted to
• Hunt ends
• Discuss Oriko with Nanami
  • “Kyouko shouldn’t be on her team”
  • Goal with Mami was probably to kill Ryouko
    • Maybe to result in Nanami’s wish⁷
• Nanami wonders why so many people from Mitakihara are remembered in the future
  • Some of it was the movie
  • Otherwise avoid elaborating
• Teleport to get ribbon from Yuuka
  • Goes successfully, with Yuuka being glad to see us
  • Yuma waiting ahead on path; Ryouko teleports to the Shizuki house w/ Yuuka
• Meet w/ Hitomi, Ryouko, Madoka, Sayaka, and Yuuka
  • Nanami asks why nomenclator has Madoka tagged as “Sublime and Merciful”; Hitomi realizes she’s the goddess and leaves the room
  • Yuuka wonders if Hitomi leaving is her fault for “saying something weird again”

Everything changed a long time ago, didn’t it?¶

• Go to Hitomi’s room with Nanami; Hitomi has buried herself in a pile of blankets, upset
  • “Everything is out of control, and I’m just not equipped to handle this, okay?”
• Clarisse and Ryouko have birth certificates due to the wish
• Hitomi wants to be with Madoka; is upset that she seems destined to become a goddess. Is concerned about apparently having to get married and have children
  • “I guess I’m just terrible and selfish and I just want her all to myself forever…”
• We tell Hitomi and Nanami what we know about Madokami
  • Nanami thinks Homura might only still survive in 2400s due to time travel; confirm it is just due to living that long
• Hitomi insists we don’t tell Madoka because she would feel obligated to wish to become Madokami
• We insist that destiny is dead; Hitomi can do whatever/love whoever she wants
• Hitomi blames herself for being “selfish” with conversation, snaps back to being a good host
  • Nanami objects, but Hitomi refuses further help
• Wakaba arrives for party
• We tell group that Ryouko is inadvertently flirting with Yuuka
• Wakaba jokes that destiny has caused Ryouko to be everyone there’s descendant; the genetic engineering done to Ryouko is disclosed
• Ask group to try to minimize any serious medical scans to prevent suspicion
• We ask how people feel about what has happened to their bodies
• We express concern about being human now; emotional changes; how it will effect our relationship with Ryouko
• Madoka’s ribbons were missing this morning (possibly stolen⁸); is wearing yellow ones

people die when they are killed¶

• Consider it plausible that Ryouko is actually a descendant of all six girls as a “exercise in divine nostalgia”, albeit one probably unrelated to the genetic engineering
• We use Ryouko as a mirror to view the elaborate hairdo Yuuka gave Clarisse
• When contacting ribbon, Yuuka gives weird “Delphic” prophecy about symbolism of Ryouko’s hair, with her eyes flashing gold
  • “Her hair is like an ocean, or a river… turbulent and flowing, like the wild eddies of time and fate, chaotic, untamed, untamable, inevitable, an irresistible torrent. It overwhelms her.”
• Homura and Madoka shared strange dream right before we met her
  • Brief discussion of Walpurgisnacht and downtown being destroyed
• Update nomenclators and give a presentation about Oriko’s group (Hinata Aina, Miroko Mikuru, and Kirika plus the sporadics of Yuma and Kyouko)
• Agree next objective is to find Homura
• Talk to Sayaka about running into danger and getting herself killed
  • Hitomi possibly didn’t make that clear enough to her? No: “If anything, it’s our fault. Hitomi did nothing wrong.”
• Sayaka is agreed to be a “Pirate cyborg zombie”. Ryouko is a “time traveling magical girl cyborg zombie clone”
• Sayaka truthed her way out of the conversation with police by saying she ran off after Homura when she “panicked” at explosions, and “for all I knew about it, it could have been magical girls fighting monsters up there on the roof”
• Homura may blame herself for getting people killed; discuss Amy, decide to bring her food with Madoka
• We offer to be there for Hitomi
• Shizuki house is entirely indefensible against velociraptors

Desiderium¶

• Madoka takes us to get pet supplies to bring to Amy
  • Madoka feels like “just walking along with the two of [us]” and going to see Homura is something she’s wanted for a long time; feels like she’s known us “forever”
  • Briefly tell Madoka about Asami
  • Talk about Kamijo Kyosuke and Sayaka
  • Madoka told her dad about Mrs. Akiyuki
  • Inform Madoka in advance that Amy is hi-tech
• Talk to pet store clerk about licenses for Amy, not selling mated birds together
• Let Madoka hold ribbon, hint that they may have something to do with her
  • Madoka denies being anything special, says that while ribbon is just like hers it can’t be hers as that would imply that she’s special
  • Talks about helping because she doesn’t feel good at anything; “I even made a contract to save Amy, once; sold my soul for a kitty cat, because it looked sad.”
  • “[Even] when I was Hope for everyone, there was never any hope for me.”
  • Upon giving ribbon back, apologizes for it not doing anything special.
• Knock on Homura’s door, Homura peeks out and briefly hides before reemerging.
  • Invites us in.

Notably, The concept of dating Kyouko is first mentioned in the comments of this chapter.

you have been forsaken by the gods¶

• Enter Homura’s apartment
• Madoka and Homura are kind of awkward together
• Homura somewhat upset at/nervous with Ryouko for “stealing” Mami’s soul gem
  • Justify it as trying to help her
• Horoscope warned Homura to keep vigilant against betrayal; horoscope was fabricated by Oriko
• Ryouko’s birthday has been magically changed
• Homura doesn’t have implants
• Homura took grief cubes; discovers they’ve been stolen from her and replaced with empty seeds

I am a powerful enchantress, and I can read on a sixth grade level¶

• Contact Hitomi for Oriko’s number, which was actually already printed on the horoscope
• Try to emotionally help everyone, help Madoka and Homura become friends
• Call Oriko, Yuma answers, gives three messages, all for different times
  • First, for 11am Monday, is ransom message for Mami
  • Second, for 7pm Wednesday, is for Homura, apologizing for theft and soliciting help
  • Third, for unknown time, says that Ryouko’s “lover” was sent back to the future, we should follow her back⁹
• We get Oriko’s cell number, “for emergencies”

You could break someone’s heart that way, even if you don’t mean to¶

• We request a memory recording of Nanami finding Ryouko’s body
  • Soul gem vanished, not body
  • Provides evidence for witchbomb
• Share info with Homura/Madoka/Ryouko
  • Later inform Nanami and others of events by message
• Homura did exorcism to remove tech¹⁰
• Ryouko and Clarisse get somewhat confused about the third message from the previous chapter, suspect “lover” might be Governance!Simona
• Plan for Homura to maybe meet Oriko; discuss Homura’s powers
  • Homura’s time stop lasts indefinitely for free
  • Plan to get Homura guns and maybe bombs
• Agree to split grief seeds Oriko gave in return for cubes with Homura
• Briefly consider leaving body in Oriko’s bed to send a message
• Return to Shizuki house; Papa Shizuki arrives home early,
  • Briefly believes Hitomi has made a contract and panics before we correct him
  • Very briefly explain who we are to Papa Shizuki

if I were to forget what happened to those I cared about¶

• We have an extraordinarily expensive alcoholic drink w/ Papa Shizuki
• Get info on Papa Shizuki’s knowledge of Magical Girls
  • Mitakihara was attacked in a nuclear war on October 26th 1985¹¹. One of the survivors, another of Papa Shizuki’s classmates, wished for the war to have never happened, removing the relevant memories
    • Papa Shizuki only knew it was a disaster; specifics were revealed via ribbon
  • In the aftermath, the secret was shared with her friends, and at least 24 girls made contracts, which rapidly led to overpopulation and collapse
  • Yukari Hitomi (our Hitomi’s namesake) wished for all of her friends to have never become magical girls and to forget recent events, said goodbye, and disappeared
    • Papa Shizuki asked not to have his memories wiped, and is the only other person to remember
• Reveal being a taccomp v2 to Papa Shizuki
• Hitomi arrives home, is overwhelmed by emotional situation, asks to stop taking Tea Ceremony and Piano classes to make more time for dance

What, you think she’s some sort of serial bomber?¶

• Papa Shizuki had previously jokingly told Hitomi that they had previously had an interest in a magical girl before getting with her mother, not expecting her to take that seriously
• Inform Papa Shizuki of birth certificates; Hitomi’s birthday has been changed to make everything consistent
• Hitomi offers to let us call Papa Shizuki “Papa”, not expecting Ryouko to accept; Ryouko does.
• Some level of flashback to events of 1985 nuclear war
  • Yukari Hitomi looks very much like Asami
• Police have visited and interviewed Homura; are coming to interview us next

I was certain she’d refuse.¶

• Postpone interview to secure legal representation
• Discussion with Hitomi about Ryouko agreeing to call Papa Shizuki “Papa”
  • We feel some conflicted loyalties between the two of them
• We reconfigure some “filthy, filthy address translation”¹² so that we can set up an encrypted chat with everyone.
  • Won’t work if offline, Nanami will run a backup
  • Agree that everyone should get cellular data ASAP
• Provide everyone a cover story in case of police interview
• Agree on transfer student story for Clarisse and Ryouko with group
• Yuuka offers to talk with her Police Officer dad on our behalf

A Certain Scientific Index¶

• Ask Yuuka not to involve him
• Talk with Shizuki family, have chat conversations
  • Agree to backstory of being transfers from a private school in US,
  • “lol you should go tell JAXA how to do faster than light travel”
    • Nanami figures out how Mandatory Session works
    • Value of information probably outweighs “Europe”
    • Group agrees not to do anything with tech information until a clear strategy is agreed to
• Visit Mami’s apartment with Ryouko; name plate has been changed from “Tomoe” to “Mikuni”
  • Kyouko shows up

two for the price of one? Hot damn¶

• Explore Mami’s apartment with Kyouko
  • She thinks we were Mami’s new student
  • All pictures have been replaced with magically summoned photos depicting Oriko group members; Simona is depicted in one
    • Kyouko knows Simona; Simona is saying her name is “Shizuki Simona”
  • Kyouko thinks Yuma was the one who redecorated on the basis of her powers: “Oriko’s been having her practice, like … she’ll burn a rose, and have Yuma bring it back in a different color. It’s like a weird healing thing.” She pauses. “Now, I’ve got no idea why…”

It sounds useful, doesn’t it? But they aren’t safe.¶

• Agree to have a chat over food with Kyouko; she brings us to Fun City, an arcade and “quote, an ‘entertainment destination’.”
• Jokingly flirt with Kyouko a bit, she admits to having written the horoscope to trick Homura
• Clarify that we’re time travelers to Kyouko
• Inform Kyouko of how Mami died, and that she may be alive again due to Nanami’s wish and our limited knowledge about Simona
• Agree to cooperate on opposing Oriko; Kyuubey shows up, wants our help to stop proliferation of grief cubes, which he calls “weapons”.

He was asking for it!¶

• Ask for more detail on the cubes to reveal depth of deception; Kyuubey witchbombs us
• Kyouko kills Kyuubey body; another appears and cannibalizes the dead one

can we be the Gang of Nice instead?¶

• Comfort Kyouko post-witchbomb, inform her it doesn’t have to be this way
• Oriko is trying to fix the system via grief cubes, is doing so through murder because she sucks
• Offer Kyouko provisional membership in the group
  • also a place to stay, but she rejects that
• Explain to group that Kyuubey is untrustworthy via chat
  • Agree to be “a side”
  • Plan to find Mami and deal with Oriko, concerns about how futuretech is influencing Oriko

I am the batman¶

• Search for Mami with a stealth electronic search near police stations
• Reveal that Ryouko and Clarisse are in the military in the future to Kyouko
• Check details of software on implants, which appear to be running Governance firmware 2011.04a Nanami’s Wish, “a civilian package as far as the physical implants and nanites are concerned, but with a custom set of what appear to be unrestricted drivers”
• Homura and Nanami join us. Kyouko is rude to Homura and Nanami defends Homura; we defang it by telling Kyouko to stop flirting with them
• Discussion of witch hunting logistics and sustainability
• Kyouko and Clarisse talk about Clarisse’s military position, job
• Find Nanami’s half-brother doing a drug deal likely to go wrong near a familiar

Madoka ends up as a laboratory experiment¶

• Inform Nanami of her half-brother Souta’s mess
• Kyouko is reluctant to help, and when she agrees suddenly makes a distraction that is entirely not to plan
• The cop reacts badly, is angry, plans to arrest both. Dealer shoots at cop; Souta knocks cop down, getting grazed, and a firefight starts.
• Homura and Nanami arrived, having timestopped.
• Nanami proposes killing dealer to avoid further police attention. Homura stridently objects.

stand around while people are bleeding¶

• We talk Nanami out of killing the dealer
• Ryouko steals the gun from the dealer and gives it to Homura, who we promise to train in the use of guns later
• Cop gratuitously beats up the dealer
• This mess results in the familiar becoming a full witch

I have my books and my poetry to protect me¶

• We spoof a call to emergency services out of fear the cop is dirty
  • Cop seconds call on radio, despite not knowing who it was, and then calls someone in organized crime on the dealer’s phone, giving them a “courtesy call” as a result of being paid protection
• Group enters labyrinth, except Nanami, who stays outside to ensure her half-brother is OK
• Labyrinth is a fortress on a rocky island; inside is filled with books, with core sealed by giant door made of a book
• Ryouko uses ribbon to unseal door; Kyouko is skeptical of religion, guesses that it was a magical girl scamming people via wish
• Inner core is filled with miasma and demons, as well as the witch

Dies irae, dies illa. Solvet saeclum in favilla. Teste David cum sybilla.¶

• In Labyrinth
  • Ryouko is sad that the witch is a person; time stop makes fight trivial
  • Some discussion on how breathing and seeing work with time stopped: “We could probably just treat it as being in a magical simulation that just happens to affect the universe outside.”
  • 14 grief cubes drop, 2 full; group uses them, agrees not to tell Kyuubey anything
  • Group kills witch
• Discuss religion and Homura’s Catholicism with Kyouko; she, Clarisse, and Ryouko agree to visit her old church together
  • Ryouko waits outside. Kyouko prays and cries; Clarisse comforts her
  • Kyouko uses illusions to light up church; calls events of today a date w/ Clarisse
• Electronic search yields Mami and Machina in a holding cell

Wowowowowowowowowowowow¶

• Machina has spiked Mami’s neurotransmitters to keep her calm
• We inform Machina about 2011, Nanami’s wish, and basic events
  • Machina knew Mami died in the first chapter’s alien invasion
  • Also inform her of our date with Kyouko, which she mercilessly teases us about

Hero of Orpheus upbraids local teen with scathing verbal smackdown¶

• We provide Machina protocols/drivers/etc.
• Mami woke up in the morgue.
  • Police possibly talking about missing another body
• Machina discusses visit with the Goddess; advice therefrom (stop hiding from Mami)
  • Machina already knew about witches, albeit as a hypothetical told to her by Governance!Homura
  • We decide not to tell Machina about who the goddess is
• Inform Machina about Simona, her obsession with Ryouko, Asami being missing
• Inform Nanami about Machina
• Ryouko and Clarisse teleport outside of police station, telepathically tell Mami about what we’re doing in Mitakihara, Homura, Governance, Machina, Nanami’s wish, etc.
  • Mami initially calls Governance “incredibly dystopian”
  • Quite rude when telling Mami about Nanami’s wish, especially given the circumstances. Ryouko apologizes, but Mami feels very guilty and ends the conversation, with emotional support from Machina.
• Clarisse talks to Ryouko about niceness, PR coaching
• Ryouko apologizes again, agree to talk after Mami is released; try to get stories straight
• Non-magical-girls have started a #fanclub groupchat exclusive to them. Clarisse appoints Wakaba fanclub liason.

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼¶

• Moderately flirtatiously inform Kyouko we’ve found Mami
• Discuss Nanami’s powers with her
  • “futuristic-technology powers”
  • “So, enchanting things into pieces of technology is a thing I can do. Diagnosis and tuning of future-tech pieces is another one; I can, like, get a vague sense of its health and wellness. The catch is, the less I know about the tech, the harder it is, and the more magic it would take. Fortunately, I seem to have extensive documentation, which is going to help a lot.”
  • For substantial (but less than alternatives) magic can enchant up nanobots to build nanobots to build TacComps for Homura/Kyouko.
  • Nanami has gone on a wikiwalk¹³, concerned about other people doing so. Is impressed by Ryouko’s accomplishments in the Governance timeline.
  • Discuss v2 TacComps, Governance!Sayaka’s death, Grief Cubes, wish magic
    • Agree to discourage Sayaka from wishing
  • Nanami experiences some self-doubt about the effects of her wish.
• Ryouko and Clarisse return home, are awkward about each other
  • Clarisse considers loyalties, esp. to Ryouko, in the context of having a girlfriend
  • Clarisse considers her position in abstract, with emotional connections suppressed; is concerned about the structure of her relationship with Ryouko, as it is “borderline slavery”. This conclusion is extremely distressing once she restores her emotional connections.
  • Potential goes through the roof and Kyuubey shows up, intending to ask about grief cubes. Things very quickly move to asking about making a contract.

Two percent? / I want to talk about love¶

• Clarisse asks Ryouko to hide the grief cubes and then help us
• Suprised Kyuubey is willing to put off a contract for the cubes; Kyuubey reveals that efficiency loss of a cube-based system over a witch-based system is approx 2%. Clarisse is pissed at this pitiful quantity, and attacks Kyuubey in a rage.
• Clarisse nicks her hand, seriously concerns Ryouko, and is rather upset at killing something.
  • Ryouko covers for Clarisse to Hitomi.
  • Clarisse briefly considers killing her human body to be a better TacComp¹⁴.
• Clarisse and Ryouko talk about feelings and independence and identity and fluff and losing each other and maybe a little bit about twincest
  • Ryouko keeps rewriting herself and maybe forgot her original parents, like, a little (not all the way!)
• Hitomi comes and does a tea ceremony for Ryouko and Clarisse to help everyone calm down
• We claim not to have any grief cubes to Kyuubey
• Hitomi wants advice about her crush on Madoka

she’s basically a marshmallow already¶

• Tell Hitomi that she can do what she wants, don’t worry about destiny
• Point out that Homura also likes Madoka, and about the risks of despair
• Clarisse and Ryouko have agreed to be sisters
• Clarisse sends Hitomi a copy of an old version of Kyouko’s book
• Madoka sleeping a full night tonight so that she can dream (cute!)
• Talk to the lawyer about the interview; apparently he thinks we talked to him before (thanks, Nanami)
• Papa Shizuki talks to us about how the wish is modifying memories, particularly with regard to creating love within the newly expanded Shizuki family

a dispute about the difficulty of a mathematical problem¶

• Grab paperwork from emotionally important cabinet
• Go to interview at police station
  • They had gone to the Salem Academy for the Sciences, which is not the school they planned to be transferring from, but is similar enough
  • Apparently “half of the student body” was interested in Ryouko romantically
  • Police ask about allegations of witchcraft “[f]rom the science faculty”; apparently past Clarisse was involved in “a dispute about the difficulty of a mathematical problem” which resulted in the school being evacuated due to a misunderstanding of arms control laws on the part of an instructor
  • Police present us with a box of Ryouko’s stuff from when she died, including some soul-gem decoys

This does imply that all of our Governance timeline people know a proof that $\mathrm{P}=\mathrm{NP}$, which, uh. I hope that’s nonconstructive (or at least it has some crazy exponents? OTOH that would presumably mean we live in pessiland, which would suck, actually). Or I suppose they could have proof that $\mathrm{P}\ne \mathrm{NP}$, and their teacher really didn’t know what he was talking about. Or I suppose it could just be some substantial progress on it? The chapter isn’t clear enough. Nope, Sitrep [quest date: 2018 - May - 29] confirms that it was a proof, dang. What was fake past Clarisse thinking?

Cool that it was solved, though. Wonder if they got Riemann¹⁵.

Clarisse okay quick listen I’m down at the hospital¶

• Download and wipe all data on decoy soul-gems; reveals some details about what happened to Ryouko and her corpse
• Admit items are Ryouko’s style but otherwise disavow ownership
• Police Chief reams out Officer Shiina (Yuuka’s dad) for nonsense with Clarisse and Ryouko; will not accept “reanimation” nonsense
• Grief seed begins hatching at hospital near Sayaka

Inflection point¶

• Tactical command mode begins
• Sayaka goes into Emergency Mode and runs away at 45 km/h.
• Taclink communications drop, and we’re visited by StarEmpire!Simona and future!Clarisse (with glowing golden eyes) via a time window in the ceiling.
  • There was an attempt to resolve things with Ryouko’s earlier death; this failed, hence amnesia, which is apparently a “chronology protection thing”, and Ryouko’s death (at least once) was inevitable, and that was the best time.
  • Warn us that this is a trap and the witch will play dead; also clear that this Simona does not know about Witches
  • “If you want to save the timeline, changing places with ribbon magic won’t be enough,” the alternate Clarisse continues. “Ryouko left physically, so she needs to make a physical return. You need some way to cross universes, a strong emotional beacon to guide you, ungodly amounts of magic for when you get there, and a four-hundred light year equivalent wormhole just to arrive at the right time.”
  • We mention Asami; Simona freaks out and closes the connection
• Everyone else perceived this as a momentary (5ms) blip in our connection

I don’t want to be enemies¶

• Forward info from StarEmpire!Simona about witch to Nanami
• Contact Kyouko and warn her about events
• Police Chief continues to tear into Shiina; Chief tells police officers to drop case about the three “zombie schoolgirls” for PR reasons
  • Chief suspects Officer Shiina of being dirty
  • Clarisse notes that there being three is strange, unless they knew about and were hiding Sayaka’s death
• Brief conversation about events with group chat
• Inform Kyouko of cyborgs; some flirting between her and Clarisse
• Madoka had some sort of vaguely magical dream, probably; Clarisse informs her she can record her dreams
• Machina agress to have Mami meet with group
• Clarisse informs Ryouko of time window events; Ryouko suggests Simona needs to visit MHD before realizing it doesn’t yet exist

you’re a pretty nebula¶

• Talk to/comfort Ryouko about Simona’s obsession
  • Further discussion about her self-image and desirability
• Discuss telling Mami about witches with Machina
• Do some sanitization of the nomenclator from future knowledge
• Inform Nanami that her wish was meddled with by the future
• We receive a letter from Governance!Simona at Salem

I am and ever shall remain sincerely yours¶

• Screen letter from Governance!Simona for Ryouko
  • Governance!Simona remembers both her life in the Governance timeline and her life at Salem, with the Salem life as more prominent
  • Governance!Simona wished for us to survive after shuttle incident
  • Governance!Homura saved us at Orpheus by rewinding time, which lost Governance!Simona her magic and memories
  • Governance!Homura is manipulating everything, rewinding time repeatedly; Governance!Simona is working with her, and can use a barrier to prevent being stopped in time.
  • Upon rewinding, the outcome of incidents is often worse than it was in the prior loop
  • Governance!Simona cursed out Madokami to her face, is worried she might have genuinely emotionally hurt her; at end of vision, came to at Salem around the same time we arrived in Mitakihara, though she has no knowledge of those details
  • Governance!Simona reaffirms love for Ryouko; would like her to get together with her, but is willing to accept if Ryouko prefers Asami

she’s ever so worried that she’s not good enough for you¶

• Inform Ryouko that this was sent by an alternate Simona
• StarEmpire!Simona is working with Oriko
  • Oriko might have killed Governance!Simona and Nanami’s wish brought her back?
• Give letter to Ryouko to read; Ryouko immediately wants to go help Simona, calling her “her very best friend”. Clarisse reminds her of Asami, tells her she can’t keep doing this

jumping off balconies is not the shortcut¶

• Express extreme concern about Ryouko’s emotions, actions, belief that Simona is “her very best friend”
• Ask if emotions possibly coming from other timelines
• Tell Ryouko to write back to Simona and send her phone number; doesn’t need to be girlfriend to help her
  • Advise she takes ribbon out of hair while doing so as it may be influencing her
• Hitomi somewhat entranced by ribbon, we give it to her, results in Yukari Hitomi showing up in her body
  • Grabs jade box from Papa Shizuki’s emotionally important cabinet, grabbing a hairpin therefrom

It’s a present. It’s for Nadeshiko.¶

• We ask Yukari Hitomi questions
  • Learn who she is
  • Hairpin is supposedly a present for Nadeshiko
  • “What is this? It’s 2011, everyone is a cyborg?”
  • Ribbon magic switched her with our Hitomi
  • Last thing she was doing before leaving was helping Tomoyo with a dress

You didn’t say I’d be her human test subject¶

• Take ribbon from Yukari and return it to the box
• Yukari doesn’t recognize us except via nomenclator
• She does recognize Simona as “[t]he sneaky girl”
• We try to send her back to her time, which rather upsets her given she’s only been here like three minutes, and she runs
• We grab some pictures of Yukari and friends from the jade box, one of which shows her being kissed by Simona
• Shizuki Tomoyo asks for help from Hitomi, which tricks Yukari Hitomi into getting caught dressfitting for her, whoops
• Mami is released by the police
• Our Hitomi comes back, having also been subject to Shizuki Tomoyo’s dreadful attentions
  • Met Simona, who told Hitomi to tell Ryouko that she’d take care of Yukari
• Ryouko is not nearly as interested in writing the letter
• Looking for Hitomi and not finding her, Clarisse is damned to face Tomoyo
  • “Does this say twenty-fifth century haute couture ceremonial to you?” (clearly Star Empire dress); dress is almost what we were wearing in the time-window

“No, you’re not a princess,” you say. “Believe it or not, Japan in 2011 is still a democracy…”

To be fair, 2011 Japan being a democracy didn’t mean it didn’t have princesses.

you look existentially horrified¶

• Clarisse talks to Tomoyo about fashion design, says fancy clothes seem like they’d be from a bad future
• We ask Ryouko to ask future!Clarisse how to save the future if we’re replaced
• Play is a reprise of Rite of Spring that is very much a thinly-veiled allegory for Madokami and the Star Empire, and the whole plan¹⁶. This is VERY IMPORTANT.
  • Vizier is on the side of the space alien squid
  • Choreographer is Ramon del Mago
  • If sacrifice doesn’t happen, universe will be destroyed
• Ryouko writes very flowery letter in reply to Governance!Simona; discloses emotional disturbance, basics of timelines, concern about Asami, wishes to get in touch

At least the vegetables are … orderly.¶

• Simona del Mago is probably Ramon’s daughter
• Consider sacrificing universe for Ryouko
• We ask Ryouko to rewrite letter without ribbon influence
  • She writes a very simple letter asking to get in contact, may be dangerous to go into details by letter
  • Clarisse adds postscript asking for Simona not to contract, and for info about play
• Ryouko wants to find Asami
• Talk to Tomoyo about picnic plans, Kyouko
  • She is aghast that we’ve never had a lunch box/bento before, insists on having us help make one, both for ourselves and Kyouko
• We’re slightly late to picnic; Kyouko and Mami have been talking
  • Kyouko jokes Clarisse is her “baby-mama”, which we almost believe for a second due to the sheer absurdity going on right now
  • Machina informs us Mami might have a small crush on us

You used tongue, girl.¶

• Talk to Kyouko about flirting, being an AI, etc.
  • Kyouko is concerned about how her Christianity will interact with homosexuality, and the events in her family
  • Clarisse informs Kyouko that Ryouko will have to come first; Machina had told her about being an AI
• Mami starts talking like a child, on the recommendation of Machina, to help her emotionally recover from things and rebuild her psyche in a way that doesn’t result in treatment resistant trauma
  • Talk to Machina about this + Mami’s crush; Machina may also have a crush on us.
• Madoka inadvertently mortifies Hitomi with marshmallows
• Talk to Kyouko and Mami about the bentos we made them
• Yuuka jokes about getting married to everyone so that they don’t separate for College; Wakaba “marries” them. As part of the kiss afterwards, Yuuka uses tongue. Madoka is mortified, panics, and runs away.

Technically, you’ve just been complimented on your skeleton.

Teeth aren’t part of the skeleton. Unless they’ve changed that taxonomy by the 25th century, but that seems unlikely, given they evolved from scales and literally aren’t bone (even if they are often stronger).

wandering into traffic and falling off bridges¶

• Send Nanami and Homura after Madoka to keep her safe and comfort her
• Hitomi calms the rest of the group down at our request; we ask Wakaba to look into Yuuka given the risk that she has a history of abuse
• Homura, Nanami, and Madoka come back. Homura very much still looks up to Mami, which would be something of a problem for Machina’s plan, except Homura is “innocent and adorable” enough it should work anyways
• Clarisse talks to Machina about more complications with her plan for Mami; letting Oriko just do her grief cube plan
• Wakaba and Yuuka come back. Yuuka apologizes to Madoka. Abuse explanation seems very likely; Wakaba will follow up with Nanami.
• Clarisse talks to group about limits on magic supply, advises not to contract
• Madoka is witch kissed, Nanami, Homura, Ryouko, Kyouko and Clarisse go to kill it to free her

Sidestory¶

Somebody left the anime bullshit generator turned on¶

A deliberately poorly written high-school AU with lots of romantic nonsense. Did some foreshadowing for the note from Governance!Simona. It probably has (or had) some hidden secrets, but I cannot possibly say what.

Apocrypha¶

Puella Magi Homura Tamura¶

After We’re gonna work together from now on, Homura claims to be magical girl from the future Akemi Tamura, a reference to the official gag spin-off manga. No apparent plot relevance or hidden meanings.

Johnnie Walker Blue Label¶

Silly joke post about drinking alcohol, and explaining worship of Madoka to Hitomi. No apparent plot relevance or hidden meanings.

Elsewhere in Mitakihara?¶

Madoka arrives home after talking to Sayaka. Official story is that Sayaka doesn’t remember what happened, to which Madoka’s dad suggests that she should go to the hospital. Madoka cries from stress over recent events and from how good the food is. Written in the form of a screenplay. Canon-consistent, but unclear if actually canon, or if it has any utility in story planning.

Operation: Clarisse is a Weirdo¶

Brief snippet in the form of a screenplay with Nanami, Sayaka, and Madoka calling Clarisse a weirdo tactical computer implanted on someone’s spine. Based on some other Nanami, but the linked Youtube video that would tell me which is deleted. Probably Utena? Presumably no plot relevance or hidden meanings, beyond Utena being important.

Information Posts¶

Character Reference¶

Character Reference out of date to Mar 2018.

I wonder what happiness is¶

Related to egg sunny-side up/down vote. Otherwise no apparent relevance.

a minor News Update¶

News article noting Sayaka being found, and investigation into the events at school Monday were not being treated as terrorism.

Sitrep [quest date: 2018 - April - 27]¶

A description of the situation in-quest as of Wowowowowowowowowowowow. Notes that Kyosuke is the father of Shizuki Sayaka, which, while not mentioned elsewhere in Clarisse Quest, is canon to TTS per Chapter 45, but it’s at least a useful note. Also hints that there’s some secret with Wakaba, but that could just be memeing on tomoyo’s part.

Salem Academy¶

Some pictures of the school we supposedly attended in the United States. The pictures are now dead links, but both are available via the Wayback Machine.

Sitrep [quest date: 2018 - May - 29]¶

A description of the situation in-quest as of Clarisse okay quick listen I’m down at the hospital. Confirms that Clarisse did in fact prove $\mathrm{P}=\mathrm{NP}$.

Happy 6 month birthday!¶

A celebration of the quest’s 6-month birthday. It has taken me three days of 8+ hours of work to get to this point writing notes.

Unthreadmarked Posts of Note¶

• Objectives as of “do you have a crush on Hitomi?”
• Secrets Matrix as of “He was asking for it!”
• Fashion of the 25th Century