She thinks it's fine, though the hope thing kind of is inherently confidence?

It's - when working with feelings, it's important where lines go? Some people are scared that something horrible will happen if they speak to their friends, and it's not really something more likely than it is for everyone else, and if they want it then someone who knows the work can help against the fear. But most people are afraid of jumping from a cliff without magic to help, and if she made someone not afraid of that and feel that it would be fine, that could kill them.

Confidence like - that things can get better and it's worth doing them, she was trying to do that. But confidence like, they can immediately face the terrible aliens and demand they be better and everything will go fine would mean she'd done something wrong and needed to fix it.

That's sensible! 

Maybe tone the confidence down a little then?

Alright. She will note this down for future thread-making.

Right now to fix it she can either unweave the work and start again, or see if she can fix it with a shadow thread. (Or weave a new one and then replace this one.)

Is Nausicaa also having this problem? 

Does Sakura feel like this is a general problem or a result of how it's interacting with how Sakura has feelings usually? (If she can tell at all.)

(She's trying not to feel horrible about the fact that she did something wrong. It's not really possible to do work and not have to fix and improve things, it just isn't, even craftsmages with much more experience than her might have to do that if they were trying something new and she's not them and she can't just send Nausicaa to them instead of to her.)

Sakura thinks she's usually prone to feeling overconfident when full on hope? It might be a system interaction? (Nausicaa feels the same take-on-the-world.)

System?

(Having endangered Nausicaa is horrible. But she doesn't know how she could have done better, not very, and if she lets this distract her from fixing it, that would be more horrible.)

"Our magic systems might just happen to interact like that, since whenever we clear our soul gems well we feel like that."

Oh. (That makes her feel better). Should she still try doing something about it?

"If you can make something long lasting, that won't be impacted by us using magic, it'd be good to have the set-point for our moods at lower than 'full' so we're not overconfident?"

She can make long-lasting things but it will take more work and time. She's not sure if she can do 'not impacted by' if the magic affects their emotions, but she should be able to do 'adjusting to the emotional changes'. 

If it is this sort of interaction, remaking probably won't help right, and she should try the shadow thread. She could try that now, so they could see how it works?

"That's alright by me. And I'm a bit more emotionally stable, so might be a better experimental target?"

OK.

She gets a shadow thread.

She can't weave this in with her hands, since the light-weaving is woven already, so she moves it the other way. It looks like it almost slithers into the light-bracelet, around threads and through knots and into its own shape. (Shadow - something solid like a rock you can feel the shape of even in the dark. You know what you can do. It is an anchor, like gravity on the rock. A weight to the knowledge, against anything that might leave you too in open air otherwise. You know reality, you know what you can (and can't, and can't without work, and can't without danger) do.) (It does not take away the light. Hope remains as bright and vivid - things can change. Light spills across you.

It is balance. Things can change but you can work them and think. You gaze toward the sunrise but don't lose sight of the ground under your feet.)

Her soul gem dims a little, to a normal glow instead of its previous blinding gleam.

"I feel more sensible now, though that did back me off from the height magically."

...Is it likely there's not a way of breaking the connection?

Probably not? Their wishes effectively work on believing you can change things so hard that reality changes for you. Magical power is tied directly to the strength of that belief.

She does not like these aliens. But she already didn't.

Is it useful to have this lower state as a possibility ever, or is it better not to and go back to the high version and only have that?

"The high version's risky, as you pointed out. This's a good - medium point. Even being able to return to this after using magic... It changes a lot."

Is it useful to have the high state as a possibility ever?

Also should she fix Nausicaa's bracelet right now?

For the first question: probably, it might be useful for turning people back from witches, if that works at all.

And to the second: "Yeah, go ahead."

She does that. She looks worried to see if it worked alright.

Seems to!

"Thanks."

Oh good that's really good. (She got something wrong and it could have endangered Nausicaa and that's terrible, but - she couldn't really have known (thought she should have done better anyway) and she's fixed it now.

She'll try harder and do better.)

...except, in fact -

"I should - maybe probably rest a bit? And - maybe eat some food, if you have it? 

If that's ok."

"Definitely! Resting's good, and food's great. Let's head back to the apartment, okay?"

Yes of course ok! She'll follow them back.