And she lands in a warehouse, and there's a girl in orange and black raiment screaming at two other girls, backing away from them, despair storming around her and causing the lights to waver and twist - 

The girl is the most important person ever.

...and she's not ok (Iryi can see that, and the light and shadow woven bracelet on her right hand, (opposite wrist from her jewel markings) twists with it)) and she needs to be ok.

She has sunlight threads with her, wrapped in balls and little skeins, crochet-chained. She takes one, a strong one, runs toward the other girl.

"I can help, please let me help!"

"Fuck off! Don't - don't talk to me, it's not safe - "

...

(Being told to fuck off hurts but that's not important now)

The girl is not ok, and then if when she is ok she she won't want Iryi to have helped then that will be terrible but not as bad as her being not ok Iryi doesn't even know why, if it's for a good reason Iryi will - deal with that then. 

Her fingers dance with the sunlight strands, twist and weave and unravel - happiness and joy and light, keep despair at bay, drive it away, dispell it, it can't be here right now like night can't be where day is.

She cries, and then screams, and then hiccups a little giggle, and seems to be swinging wildly between despair and joy - 

Before collapsing into manic laughter.

She weaves sunlight threads - make it secure, make it solid (she's gone kind of hard, before, she wouldn't normally, but that despair was so bad).

That's how you get sobbing giggles.

"Uh, thanks," says one of the other girls, who has pink hair and raiment that looks a lot like an old women's military uniform, in forest green. "We were trying to get her to cleanse her soul gem, she wouldn't - what did you do?"

She's kind of nervous now - this isn't the first impression she would have really wanted, and what if the girl is upset...

Someone saying thank you is probably better than not that, even if only really matters what the girl thinks. Unless they're trying to hurt her and that's why she was yelling. Iryi readies threads in case. Keeps at least glancing at the girl.

She shows the threads. "Happiness, against despair."

"Useful." Shaky breath.

"You probably saved her life - it's fair to warn you, her wish power mentally influences people who talk to her."

(Oh, oh no)

She still needs to know if they were actually trying to hurt her, but if this is true then she is so so glad she did that (her emotions are probably showing in her face.)

...she should pay attention to that other sentence though, that sounds important.

"...in what way?"

"Make them like her, I'm fine with it and Sue's immune - sorry, we're being rude. I'm Sakura, this is Sue" (gesturing to the girl in the white dress) " and that's Nausicaa." (To the still hiccuping girl in orange.)

...oh that's wonderful. Not that she's in any danger of not liking her, but maybe she'll be able to feel this too...

(This emotion is very obvious in her face also.)

"I'm Iryi." She smiles at them too - if they weren't trying to hurt Nausicaa they're probably her friends. "I - don't mind." (It occurs to her that they probably don't know what a Bejeweled is and she shouldn't drop everything on them right away, that might be hard for people.)

"...Okay then." She exchanges a glance with Sue. "Will - the giddy thing fade from Nausicaa soon? - We should check that her soul gem's not still dangerously low - "

Oh no, she'd thought this was just Nausicaa coming down from - whatever had happened.

She uses her bracelet to check what's going on.

Nausicaa has a gem, casing blue, stone brilliantly orange, that's currently glowing like a small sun, pulsing in time with her bursts of hilarity. She's joyous, and giddy, and hopeful, and happy - 

And also everything sucks ahhhhhhhhhh - 

" - I think her gem got overloaded or something? They're - usually only that bright when they're being formed, never for this long - it should go down on its own, especially if she uses magic... Try talking to her?"

OK.

She didn't fix everything but that - makes sense, she just got here, she doesn't know what's happening. She can keep trying to do better.

She takes a wound shadow-thread out, in case, but she'll try what probably-Nausicaa's-friend says first.

"Hey, can you hear us?

I'm sorry, I - I'm not sure I know enough to do better yet. But I'm going to try.

Your friends said what happens if you talk to me and I - don't mind at all."

"How can you not mind."

She probably shouldn't but Nausicaa is distressed and she doesn't know what to say -

"I love you," she blurts out. Holds up her wrist with the little jewels set in it. "Not because of anything you did. 

I don't think I'd mind anyway, I think I might be like that." (it's - odd to think about it, being otherwise. But it's true). "But - I don't think I could love you any more, but feeling what they said the power is, that sounds wonderful."

Confused crying! But - she seems to be getting her see-sawing emotions back under control.

Worried waiting-by, threads at hand in case she needs them.

And, a couple of minutes of gasping later, the girl seems to have herself back under control.

"I - what's your name?" she asks, sounding lost.

"Iryi." Nervousness. Wanting to - throw herself at Nausicaa and tell her how she loves her. Or ask if she's forgiven for not listening. But she won't do that right now.

"...Iryi. It's... A pretty name." She hugs herself.

Eee Nausicaa thinks her name is pretty. She didn't pick her name that's not something she did.

"Thank you!" (It's a much more earnest thank you than one might generally expect for name compliments.)

"Where - do you have somewhere to stay?"

"...No.

But you don't have to help me if you don't want to."

Can she feel the thingCan she feel the thing

Shakily: "I want to. People deserve help."

She nods hard. (eee look her beloved is great).

She should also say thank you. "Thank you."

She turns to look at her friends - "Uh, guys, sorry for - this..."

"It's okay, Nausicaa. I totally don't mind if Iryi says with us. Right Sue?"

Sue nods. She seems tense, still.

"Are you ok?" Iryi asks her, quick look at Nausicaa. "Is it something about me? Can I fix it?" (These are definitely Nausicaa's friends).

Small smile. "I think she's alright, just stressed and tired."

Nod nod. 

"...are you ok?

Can I help?"

"I'm... I'm going to be okay. Hopefully. And... You've helped a lot already."

! ! (She lights up, pretty visibly even though she's trying to restrain it a little.)

"I'm glad."

She is pretty obviously waiting for Nausicaa to tell her what to do next.

Nod. "It's - we should get. You settled in. And all."

Nod nod!

She stands, glances at her friends, then says: "Me and Sue live together, pretty nearby."

She is clearly ready to go in whatever direction Nausicaa indicates!

Then, after a few more shaky breaths, she'll lead the way - including Sue and Sakura, as well as Iryi - to a small two-bedroom apartment. It's decorated in a mixture of plain, simply styled things and a riot of warm colors (at least one of the girls has a fondness for swirls and spirals and the color orange).

She thinks it's really pretty.

She also stares around a lot while they walk.

The city's modern, glass-walled buildings and asphalt and cars, though Nausicaa keeps them away from the more trafficked footpaths. "So, uh, where're you from?" she asks, once they're inside. " - And, uh, want something to drink?" Help she has no idea how to host guests...

"Yes, thank you. If it's not trouble."

She has never seen any of these things in person before. She's seen pictures and made-images of things kind of like them. (It's kind of starting to hit her now that she's fallen into another world (and found her beloved there! Like a legend!), though a lot of her is still too focused on Nausicaa and worrying and not knowing things yet for it to hit her the whole way). 

"Um - somewhere else? I'm - not sure how to explain?" How did people explain this in Legends? 

She takes a little wind of light, pulls it apart until it makes an image in the air - a cozy looking village, neat paths and little gardens, though if you look closer you'll notice unusual things like arcs of water taking care of a garden on their own, or road-stones that shine.

"I think some people say we're another world, but we're not really entirely a world like a lot of other worlds are. Like a little world, or a piece of a world? But we're - not a crossroads, but like something off a crossroads. People stumble in. Sometimes we can go out. Or fall out, even though we didn't mean to."

"Do you know how it works?" Sakura asks, leaning in a bit. "That sounds fascinating... Probably possible to make with a wish, though you'd need a lot of potential..."

She ducks her head. "I'm sorry, I don't really. I don't think any of us know all the way. There are mages that work with the edges, but I hadn't learned yet." She should have studied more. (This emotion, like most of hers, is probably pretty visible.)

"A wish?"

"It's cool, most people can't answer all my questions. Why I like research."

"Here, you get magic when you make a wish - one per person, most people never get the chance - and what the wish does and how powerful your magic is varies with your wish. Usually your powers are kind of related."

She brightens, partially at the mention of research. 

"What kind of research do you do? If that's ok to ask.

Oh! What kind of wish?"

"I'm still a student, so, pretty much random stuff, but I'm trying to focus on medicine right now. Biology, anatomy, all that. Helps with magical healing."

"And most magical girls consider their wish really personal, sorry."

"I wished for friends," Nausicaa says, quietly.

"I was also a student!

You do healing?

Oh, I'm sorry."

She looks distressed at the thought of Nausicaa being so lonely, and also around at Nausicaa's friends.

"Yeah, my main focus has been healing. Not really necessary with Sue, but someone's got to look after Nausicaa."

Weak smile. "I do have friends now, I just... Though the spell would make someone, or - arrange for me to meet someone - like a fate manipulation power - it was a pretty dumb wish, though."

She looks at Sue, as if this will show why it is healing would not be necessary.

"It's not dumb!"

(...can she feel the power can she?)

Sue doesn't seem to be visibly different, though she doesn't even have any scrapes or bruises or old scars, unlike Sakura and Nausicaa.

"Just - it didn't do what I wanted it to do," Nausicaa says.

Scrapes and bruises and scars on Sakura and Nausicaa(!) are alarming!

"Do you know what decides what it does?"

"We don't know. Wording matters, intent matters, how strongly you feel matters, but..." She shrugs. "We also don't talk about wishes, much, so it's hard to get data."

"Oh! I'm sorry. Should I stop talking about it?" She's asking Sakura but looking partially at Nausicaa.

"...We probably should talk about them more. Just." She shrugs.

She wants to ask, but now she thinks she probably should instead stop asking.

She fiddles with one of her strings and looks uncertain.

"Come on. We should - get you settled. Food, something to drink..."

"Thank you.

You're - really nice." (She wants to say 'you're the most wonderful person in any universe!!' but she won't do that).

"Thanks. You're - pretty great, too."

Is that feeling of warmth natural? It's certainly very strong. (Nausicaa is lovable and trustworthy and important - )

eeee she's feeling it she's feeling it she's feeling it, Iryi is the luckiest bejeweled ever and Nausicaa is so wonderful !!!

She bounces and looks something as !!! as she is. And then wonders if she shouldn't have done that. 

Nausicaa flinches a bit, then takes a deep breath, and - "You really don't mind the - thing?"

"it'sawesome it'sthebestthing!!!

...is that bad? I'm sorry."

"It's not bad. I'm just... Not used to people not minding it, let alone liking it."

"You clearly don't spend enough time on the internet, Nausicaa."

"...most people would probably not like it," she agrees. (It will occur to her later she should probably not have said that.) (Even some bejeweled might not like it, a corner of her is aware.)

(Oh this world has one of those, she catches, also without her attention following in full.)

Strong magical suggestion of how trustworthy and wonderful Nausicaa is, on top of her existing feelings, is a tidal wave of feeling. Will promptly flood over her attempts to hold awareness of what might and might not be welcome or alarming to someone she has just met who hasn't ever heard of bejeweled before.

"But I love you and I'm yours and it's amazing I get to feel how amazing you are in a whole new way, I can feel it like I really should, I'm so lucky, I love you-"

Nausicaa makes a complicated face. Kind of like a wounded animal that's very suspicious of the help being offered. "Why love me?"

Oh no?

She holds up her wrist again.

"I - we have -" She tries to remember how anyone explained it in stories. "I'm bejeweled. It means I'll find someone and then love them, more than anything, as long as I live. And I - found you."

"Is that - another type of magic, then?"

"We were made with magic, a long time ago. We're just born this way now."

"Yeah. I guess - it makes sense far away places would work differently. Are you - okay being the way you are?"

"I think it's wonderful.

The people who made us were from a different world. But we don't know much more." 

"Huh. Guess we don't know much about the Kyubey, either - they're the ones granting wishes."

"Oh, are they also from another world? Did someone here ask them to?

Our ancestors asked the people who made bejeweled to do it. It - wasn't a good thing, at the time. I don't know what we'd do if we met them again now."

"Kyubey are aliens - they're from this universe but not this planet. And no one asked them to," Sue says.

"Why are they doing it?

If - that's ok to talk about?" She remembers learning about planets. And she's on one now!

"They say to fight witches. It's actually to use us to gather energy."

?

Sue shrugs.

So Sakura takes over explaining.

"We don't actually know a lot about their plans, but - something about the way they give us magic, and the way we use magic, generates energy they can steal? And it's - really easy energy, that they don't have to spend much effort on."

"...and they're keeping that a secret?

That doesn't sound very good."

"It's not. The Kyubey - they don't care about us."

"...maybe that's why the wishes can work so badly."

"We don't know how much control Kyubey has over the wishes and what they do. Some seem to work pretty badly for them, too..."

"They could warn you better, probably, if they cared, though."

She looks questioning at that last statement.

"Yeah. That's one of Sue's big criticisms."

"How do wishes work badly for them too?"

"I think mostly girls wishing for things that damage their ability to keep us secret."

"...Why are they keeping you a secret? How do they get people to wish things if they don't know about it?"

"Probably to make it harder to coordinate. And they show up to us, and tell us about magic, and tell us we need to keep the magic secret from people who don't know."

"Do they tell you the truth about magic?"

"Not all of it. Not that we can turn into witches, or that a bad mood makes us run out of magic."

That doesn't sound very good. "Witches? Run out of magic?"

"Our hope is our magic. If we do magical things, our hope turns to despair. If we run out of magic - out of hope - we turn into witches, which are monsters that drive people into despair."

That's horrible. 

And it's about Nausicaa too so it's intolerably horrible.

Like most of her emotions, this one shows. She clutches at one of her thread, then -

"...is that what what happening - before?

...I can. Make hope -"

" - Yeah. That's what was happening. I had a despair spiral... And - you can make people feel hopeful?"

She's - so glad she got there when she did - she could have not -

"Yeah. Like I - did with you. Except I didn't know what to do so I - kind of did most things. Not just hope. I'm sorry. But I think I could do just hope!"

"That'd - if you refine it so it feels like clearing our soul gems, so it's not alarming? That'd be amazingly helpful - with everything - "

"I'm really sorry it was alarming.

I think I can do that. I can try and I probably can. If someone can tell me when it's alarming or some other kind of not right so I can fix it."

"We can do that. And... Thanks, for the help. It's gonna mean a lot - means a lot right now, too."

-eee Nausicaa thinks she's doing something good; (she's doing something that means a lot to Nausicaa!!)-

"Should I know more things before trying something?

Or - should I work on this right away, or should I do something else first now?"

" - Let's try it now. And... You can try on me." She laughs a bit sheepishly. "I could use a top-off, I still - don't super feel my best."

ahh

(oh no that's not ok she should fix that)

Nod nod nod. "Ok. 

I can try with threads I have or I can try to make some new threads special-?"

"I don't know the difference between those?"

"Sorry!

Um-" She displays some threads she has, light and shadow. "The thing I do for emotions is spin threads, light and shadow. - It's not light is good and shadow is bad - joy is light but you need shadow for quieter calm, or if someone needed to cry but it wasn't working, or other things like that. And I can use them together. 

I can make them - kind of general, and then weave and use them to do something more specific. Or if I know I need to do something specific I can spin some special for that from the beginning.

...I should probably try the ones I have first, so I can learn more what exactly you need." And that's really obvious and she should have thought of that before she blurted the first thing out!

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright! You're - you're doing so much to help. And - the moving part is really believing things can change? Versus believing things can't? Or - maybe believing things can get better, at least. Joy works but - it's possible to have a flat joy? And Sue makes anger work for her."

(Exclamation marks wouldn't be the right way to describe this feeling. It's deeper than that, and then more all-encompassing.)

Nodnod. "...that's specific enough I probably should make new threads, but I should try it with the general ones first, so I know if I can do it at all and how well." She gathers threads.

"Right now?"

"Now's good."

She weaves threads. Hope - light through the trees, dawn around the horizon, brightness at the end of shaft. Things can change - light changes, light makes change. Things can get better - light makes growth, light multiplies, light is always ready to find its way to any place. (Security - you have the light, you carry it, it's always there somewhere.)  

(She's clearly working hard at it, and carefully, moves her hands, twists the threads in them together and apart.)

That feeling's amazing.

(Nausicaa is awe-struck.)

Is that about right?

Is there anything she should be changing?

It's amazing!!!

"I think it's working well enough," Sue says, since Nausicaa doesn't seem to have any complex feelings right now.

Should she continue it some more, or start letting it go, or do some anchoring so it dissipates more slowly? (...she should have asked that before she started, it occurs to her, but she can't be distracted by something like that right now so it's just a thought at a corner of her mind.)

"Anchoring it will probably have the best effect. Mood-crashes can be dangerous, but she won't benefit from being high for extra time."

Nod nod

Weave, weave, weave - she's concentrating very hard, the threads twisting in a new way.

When she's done, she's holding what looks like an intricate but somewhat loose bracelet made of sunlight strands. 

"That looks good."

She'll hold it out so she can tie it onto Nausicaa.

Nausicaa extends her wrist, still beaming. 

She'll fasten it on with more rapid weaving. 

"It'll start dissipating over time," she explains. "I think this one will have - an hour and a half, until the end?"

"It feels great right now! Thanks!"

(eee)

Should she try it on someone else too? Or begin making a first attempt at special threads? Or something else?

"Maybe a special thread?"

She can do that! Do they have somewhere outside with sun? She can spin light coming in through a window, but outside would be better for this.

"Yeah. There's a park nearby, or we can get to the roof?"

They could look at the roof? It would be good to know if there's somewhere closer by she can use. (...It's weird to think she can't just step outside. But this world is different.)

"Yeah! It's this way!"

And she leads the way, her friends following.

The view of the city is pretty nice, from up here.

Wow. She stares. 

But she has work to do. Is there sun? Can she see sun hitting any plants, that might help with this thread.

There's sun! It's mostly risen, the sky still a bit pinkish. Somebody also has a set of plants up here, a small attempt at a roof-top garden, which the sun is hitting.

And she can see some trees around.

"This should be good! I can try in the park later and see how much difference it might make." She gets out some of her tools - she can do this without them if she needs, but it's easier with them.

Gets to work. Remembers what she needs from the weaving, aims the making for it. She can use the still-partially-dawn while it lasts, then just the sun of the morning. (Between her fingers, the sunlight coalesces, something like fibers sparkling in the air and then more of the thread. This one looks slightly different from the other.)

Nausicaa's more interested than her friends. (This is pretty.)

Nausicaa is amazing and interesting. And pretty. 

But the way she's helping Nausicaa is her work so she will pay her attention to it.

She winds thread into more of the balls and little skeins she carries, then works on making more. 

None of the others seem to feel particularly talkative. Sue's off nearer the edge, looking out over the city.

If no one stops her, she will work for about an hour and a quarter. Then stop. "I should try it before making more like this. But have enough for the experiment, and emergencies, now."

"You can test it on me," Sakura volunteers.

Glance at Nausicaa that this is alright.

"Go right ahead!" is Nausicaa's contribution once she realizes Iryi wants permission.

Then she will. The weaving is easier this time, and faster. Hope and light and things-can-get-better.

Sakura waits, interested, and holds out her hand when prompted.

Like for Nausicaa it should start working while she's weaving. Making it a bracelet is a practical way to hold it after, while it dissipates more slowly. 

She gets feedback, as she works. Does it seem to be working?

If everything is well she'll complete and fasten on the bracelet.

It's working amazingly! Sakura feels pretty much ready to take on the world?

...Is that alright? If she's causing overconfidence or something like mania, that would be something important to correct.

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.

"In the mood for anything in particular, food-wise?"

She doesn't know what food they have here. It's probably different from what she knows.

Well, is there anything she can't eat?

Not that she knows of.

Then Nausicaa will get out an assortment of snacks. There's not much fresh, but there is some leftover rice and curry and another leftover thing of pizza.

She will look for permission about how much of the food it's ok for her to eat, and then eat it. 

As much as she wants, really.

The first food is interesting and the second food is weird and she doesn't think she likes it very much, but that's not important.

She should still probably rest a bit, after, and not go straight back to working.

Definitely. Taking care of yourself is important.

<3 <3 <3

Well then she will definitely do it. 

...She's not sure what is done to rest, here? At home she might sit by the river where it's quiet, or read or hear stories...

They have books! There's also the park, or listening to music, or watching movies or videos...

...can she try a movie?

Yeah! Does she have preferences for types of stories? Like, romances, comedies, tragedies, fantastical stuff...

...fantastical stuff sounds really cool (they probably have whole different fantastical stuff!) but maybe she should watch something not fantastical first so she learns more about the world, too. Romance?

The romances are actually really not accurate either, they're kind of an idealized version of the world? Plus movie makers don't know about witches and magical girls. If she wants accurate... Hm...

She was thinking they might be accurate about things like 'what do places people go look like' and 'what other food exists'. But if they're not then probably not that.

Also romances reminds her of historical romances which makes her wonder how long there have been magical girls?

Oh yeah, they're probably accurate for those. Sakura has some romances she can queue up...

And the Kyubey probably know but they haven't told anyone. Sue heard of a magical girl who's thousands of years old once, though.

Wow that's a really long time, especially for something secret.

Yeah. They don't know how the secret's been maintained, really.

...this sounds potentially worrying(?)

It really, definitely is, and is a big argument for Kyubey being hostile.

Was the thousand years old magical girl ok?

She's unhurt and not super mean, but she's really closely aligned with the Kyubey.

What does that mean?

Which part?

"closely aligned with the Kyubey". Also "not super mean", actually, maybe.

She sides with the Kyubey and is their close ally, but she's not one of the crueler magical girls.

Side with them - if you argue that Kyubey are bad, or in some kind of fight...?

Uh oh, what do cruel magical girls do?

If you argue they're bad or get in a fight, and the girl also acts as their enforcers sometimes.

Cruel magical girls sometimes attack and even kill other girls for their grief seeds, tend to be more aggressive with maintaining territories, and will run witch-farms where they'll intentionally let witches feed on humans so the witches grow larger.

Do people fight Kyubey often? How does that happen? What does enforcer mean?

eep!! (What is a grief seed?)

...is there something she should be prepared to do if other magical girls come attack Nausicaa them? Or if witches try feeding on them?

Directly fighting Kyubey's rare - they tend to select against girls who'll do that - but fighting the girls who're considered more closely aligned with their interests counts. Enforcers mostly get rid of girls who're being really inconvenient to Kyubey? Like, if a girl's trying to break the masquerade. 

A grief seed is a witch's soul gem, pretty much. If a magical girl witches her soul gem becomes a grief seed, and you can offload grief from a soul gem into a grief seed.

Witches can't feed on magical girls. It's pretty unlikely they'll get in a fight with other magical girls - they have an established territory, and they're a team. Most magical girls work solo, and wouldn't be willing to try to steal territory from a team.

...So magical girls want grief seeds to offload into, because that way they get hope and magic back?

She's not a magical girl, can witches feed on her? (She's less worried about that than about them hurting Nausicaa but it still seems like that would be bad). Also do they have to worry that enforcers will see them doing something weird and not like it?

Why aren't there more teams? (How did they get to be a team? If it's ok to ask.)

Yeah. Grief seeds are incredibly important.

Nausicaa doesn't know, but it's decently obvious to trained outsiders if someone's being influenced by a witch, and magical girls can disrupt that.

Enforcers might object to them disrupting the witch economy, but also Kyubey tends to be fairly cautious?

There aren't more teams -  well, Sue thinks Kyubey is intentionally keeping girls from building any kind of alliances that might threaten the Kyubey. The Kyubey claim that magical girls are natural loners, and will inevitably come into conflict over limited resources like grief seeds.

Do most magical girls not get really lonely? ...Does that make anyone suspicious, that sounds like a kind of suspicious thing to say. Or do they say it differently?

"They're really blunt and often push that they don't think like humans. But - they say it in little bits, over a longer time?"

That makes sense.

Do magical girls really not get lonely? She's pretty sure regular humans get lonely.

She thinks they do, but...

Kyubey seems to not mind a state of affairs where most magical girls end up witching.

Well that's terrible.

...and she should know more about that (if Nausicaa is ok telling her), but first she should rest and watch a movie like they were going to. ...Assuming she has understood correctly that this is not the kind of problem where she should skip rest as much as possible and work as much as she can as long as she can.

It's unlikely to get worse fast, yeah. So rest.

Movie?

Movie! Nausicaa finds a light hearted romantic comedy! About vampires, after some teasing of Sue. (Vampires do not exist.)

She is confused by the teasing of Sue.

What happens in the movie? Does it tell her anything interesting about this world?

What if a magical girl wanted to be a vampire?

Movie: girl is swept off her feet by a handsome, mysterious boy, who turns out to be a vampire! The thing is says about the world seems to be there's an ideal at least in romance of girls being the ones seduced; the romantically aggressive female vampire is the rival and villain. (Sue keeps throwing popcorn at the screen over stupid sexist portrayals, too, and then getting her popcorn taken away by Sakura.)

Vampires don't actually exist, Nausicaa explains, and the makers of this movie don't know about magical girls. 

She will miss a lot of the general gendering/sexism, since she's currently only seeing the one movie and doesn't have the background, though she'll get more of it with Sue's contributions. What she gets of it she'll find weird and kind of upsetting (she's still missing the full force of it all).

Does the movie tell her anything about things like 'what do people in this world do all day'? How about, how do you tell if someone might be interested in you? And if there's anything you can do to maybe be interesting that's still ok if they're not?

But if a magical girl wished to be a vampire, could that happen, or do wishes not do that?

The movie doesn't seem to concern itself with daily activities, except a vague concept that teenagers usually go to high school. You apparently tell someone is interested in you via smoldering looks and dramatic sighs. This movie doesn't seem aware that attraction is ever not reciprocated. 

"I think if she felt strongly enough? She'd become whatever she thought a vampire was, probably, not like exactly what's in this movie."

She is curious about that! What's high school? Do they go there? Does she need to go there?

...She's not sure if that sounds like a good idea. And she wouldn't want to try it without knowing if it is or if it's like vampires and not real in this world, or like the things Sue is mad about and bad whether or not it's real....Also, you probably wouldn't get really good information on what to do in real life from the romance plays she'd seen at home either. Except in really specific situations. So she is probably not going to try this right now.

Nod.

She explains high school! None of the magical girls are attending - Sakura graduated early, Sue's being home-schooled by her uncle, and Nausicaa's technically also being home-schooled but is mostly just not attending. People under eighteen are supposed to be getting an education, and high school's for teenagers who need an education, but if you're not a citizen it isn't required.

And yeah, Nausicaa wouldn't recommend actually becoming a vampire.

Nod nod.

(That makes sense. Where she's from also has systems for its people, and it's different when people come in from other worlds (unless they end up joining her world's people). It won't occur to her that what Nausicaa mentioned might not be quite the same, nor occur to her to mention what she's assuming.)

...It does occur to her now that Nausicaa probably has family. She should ask about that.

"Does her uncle live here too? Does your family?"

"Nah, her uncle lives elsewhere. Sue stays with him a lot. I don't have a family."

"I'm sorry.

How did you start living together?"

(If she was from somewhere else, she might have asked how they make rent, but as it is this is not going to occur to her.)

"We met each other a while ago, and after we teamed up we started spending more time together, so it started making more and more sense for Sakura and Sue to have space where I live, which's where we were meeting anyways."

Oh, how did they meet? And team up? 

"That's a bit of a long story! That possibly I should be letting Sue tell - she always says I tell it wrong."

She looks to Sue!

"Not really in the mood to talk that much..."

...Well now she isn't sure what to do. About the question or - should she offer to help...?

She looks uncertainly at Nausicaa.

" - Sorry, Sue, I know you don't like talking."

"So we met a few years ago, kind of just - low key? Me and Sue's territories overlapped, and instead of fighting we teamed up, and then Sakura wished and we met up with her and she joined us. There've been some adventures since, of course, but - mostly we've just stayed friends."

Oh, doesn't like talking, that's what she meant! Iryi looks considerably less immediately worried.

She wonders what the long story is, but isn't going to ask that right now. She's very glad Nausicaa has friends, especially since she really wanted to.

"Adventures?"

"Yeah. Run-ins with other magical girls, mostly."

"Are they close here?" She's not sure if she should be asking if she should help them or if she should somehow defend Nausicaa from them. 

"Nah. This's pretty solidly our territory."

Nod nod. 

Is territory marked somehow? 

"Not physically. People generally just know who hunts where, which sometimes makes it rough for new girls."