magical girl ellie gets a minion
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Naomi spends her childhood learning as much, as quickly, as she can. Her parents are ecstatic when her attention turns towards computing -- their field. She gets books, her own hardware from a very young age, excited conversations about so-and-so language, and hours and hours left alone, tinkering. 

She makes her first calculator when she is six and doesn't stop -- except in frustration when she encounters access restrictions.

A conversation from the dinner table. Naomi shows her mother an application, across which angry letters spell: "ACCESS DENIED."

This doesn't make sense to Naomi. If they were trying to prevent access to bad people, then the bad people would want to find out their secrets more. She wants to, too, so, so badly -- but her mother has been consumed by her work again. Naomi, ignored, goes back to her machine.

She finds the source. It's easier than she expected. Better. Thrilling. She picks up an interest in cryptography and computer security. She practices.

When she meets people who share her instincts she feels a breath of fresh air. In one corner of the internet they call themselves "Spiders".Their mission is to expose corporate secrets. There are now too many avenues for a firm to hide money -- the rich being so astronomically rich, and the poor being such a good excuse to hold a charity ball or two. Everyone agrees that the people at the top are corrupt, that income and class mobility is impossible, and that people will do the jobs their parents did until those jobs disappear and they die in the slums. Not everyone agrees on where the money goes. 

"I swear." One of the more influential members' pet topics is their Illuminati theory. "I've looked at some of the financials for this one. Billions of dollars go to departments with black-box budget items that haven't been properly audited in decades. No one knows where this money is going and every 'investigation' turns up clean. There have to be spies in the government or something. I'm even seeing stuff for massive large-scale fake IDs."

The evidence mounts. Others start to come around. Maybe it's not the Illuminati, but there is something tying many of the major corps together. Including the shipping company Naomi's parents work for. Mr. Illuminati Theory thinks that one in particular is running drugs, or sex trafficking, or both. She's never thought to steal their passwords before, or to try to get at their secure computers at work. But to think that even they could be part of something like this ...

The information she finds confirms some of the spiders' theories, but not all of them. And before the actual investigation starts, the one that would prove once and for all that they are involved in massive criminal activity, Naomi finds that she did her job too well -- the backdoor virus spread so thoroughly that the firm collapsed under the scandal and mounting costs of fixing it.

Six months later, another dinner conversation. Naomi's parents tell her they've found a new job. The firms they've picked are infected. She tells them not to take the jobs. They condescend at her until she storms off. Ignored, as usual. 

Naomi can't use the same strategy twice. Not for both of them, it would be so suspicious. She wants to, though. Not least because she knows what she'll find.

For days, she seethes.

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A small white creature appears in her window one night.

I can help you fix it, it says without speaking.

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She blinks. "Um. Fix what?"

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The problem that is making you upset! Make a contract with me and become a magical girl, and I can grant you a wish!

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Her gaze sharpens. "Any wish?"

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If it's within your potential.

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"What determines potential?"

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A variety of factors. I think you could get most things you might want.

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Most -- 

Her head spins with things she could fix. "Could I wish for an end to poverty?"

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I'm afraid you do not have enough potential for such a wish to succeed.

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"Can I wish for an infinite energy machine -- you'll probably say no. Damn it. Lower bounds. Can I wish for information -- all the words that have ever been spoken -- every secret or encrypted data, everywhere --"

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If you have strong feelings about your wish, that helps! All secrets is probably too much, still. The universe is a very big place, after all.

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"What else helps?"

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A variety of factors, as I said. But it's not a good idea to try to meddle with them too much. That can interfere with the purity of your wish!

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"Do you want anything in return for the wish? Or do you just care about -- about -- what do you mean by 'purity' --"

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It is the duty of all magical girls to fight and slay the demons that feed on the negative thoughts of ordinary people!

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That's ridiculous. This whole situation is ridiculous. But a wish ... "Current life expectancy? Time commitment? I don't -- I'm not good at fighting."

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The oldest magical girl I know of is almost two centuries old! There are other girls in the area who can help you.

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"Average current life expectancy?"

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It is climbing year by year. Current projections indicate that you can expect more than a century and a half.

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"That's ... for everyone? No matter the wish? Does no one die of old age?"

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Magical girls do not age like regular humans!

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"Do. They. Die. Of. Old. Age."

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Finally, a fucking straight answer. "How long could a magical girl, theoretically, live?"

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As long as the universe, in the most optimal conditions.

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