indistinguishable from science | Glowfic Constellation

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"...Urgh, not exactly," she grimaces, knowing that she's kind of started falling apart a bit, lately, even if she's hanging on by the skin of her teeth - "but that's not actually what prompted my email. Nobody's dead, in case that's the sort of surprise you're thinking about, but it's probably easier to just show you than tell you. If you wouldn't mind?"

She pulls up the video of her successfully de-penciling some paper. It was... Take seven?

"And I guess, the thing is, I don't really know what the - expletive," clearly self-censored, "I should do about that, academically, let alone personally."

She watches it three times, not seeming to get it.

"...I'm, uh, obviously not really able to talk about it, but you're not the first such case in this university, if this is what I think it is? It does seem like... Maybe a time to pause and take stock for a semester, if that's what you want."

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"...Well, what do you think it is? I don't want to be talking past you.

"...Though I do want to say that I hope that the reason you can't give any particular advice is because of, well, client confidentiality, rather than - other possible causes, I guess. I don't think anyone has half a clue if there are limits to what magic can do to those not able to defend themselves from it..." ...She shudders. "But I guess the question is, could I even pursue some related course of study here, and then furthermore should I want to. There's so little in the library that's worth the time I spent reading it, though I'm getting the feeling that that's maybe the whole entire field's problem."

"I think you've become a witch- Or, a magical person. We do not share personally identifying details of students. I'm not sure I can even describe when or how many. It's better not to touch it."

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"I think I'm not actually anything in particular yet, based on my limited understanding, but I do have some underlying capacity to do magic, which I would like to study further and perhaps even publish upon, if nothing else to remedy some of the positively dire lack of proper understanding thereof that afflicts even some researchers in the field. I mean, really, a paper that concludes that you know just as much nothing as you started knowing is a waste of grant money, and there's a couple of those that're not infrequently cited to. Admittedly, a lot of those were about attempting to reverse-engineer the work of Tinkers, which is kind of obviously not going to go very far unless you're doing something absurd in turn - but still, it gets me right in the pride. So, Ms. Green, I'm asking you for some academic advice: Is there a course of study here that points that way? And is there anything that you feel you should inform me of, otherwise?"

"Uh... My brain is saying physics? But no. You might have to give me a day to research that one. I wouldn't want to steer you wrong by guessing."

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"Mmm. Yeah, I figured you might. I was actually thinking of anthropology and-or psych as the sort of go-to, oddly enough. That or an outside chance of lit being effective; I'm already finding myself itching to deconstruct the various bits of symbolism in that random cleaning spell to see if I can figure out why it has you do those particular things, you know? ...Well, no, I can't really presume that you do know, but that's part of my thought process. There was a literary reference on the webpage and I ended up like three books deep in that rabbit hole before I realized there weren't too many people looking at 'why' instead of 'how'."

"Well, we don't have any courses on doing magic. We also don't have a degree focused on studying it. Some of the individual courses that study it, maybe? Why psychology and anthropology exactly? Those are both fairly different from your studies so far."

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"Because they feel like the right sort of lens to look at mages with. Because there's cultural influences upon effective practice of magic, as evidenced by the way different - clades? Castes? I'd say 'classes', but I'm already having to beat off my D&D-based assumptions with a stick - of casters exist, and I want to understand them, and hopefully synthesize some more unified theory. And I know I'm in a CS-department major, but I figure that if there is such a thing as a psychology hobbyist, I'd probably qualify; the mind has always fascinated me even if I couldn't really turn that into the typical career of a Psy-D or equivalent since I'd burn out in a heartbeat. Compassion fatigue and all that. And then there's that old canard about most psychologists falling into the field because they want to figure out what the heck is going on in their own brain, no matter how likely to backfire that plan is. The stigma against self-diagnosis, while harmfully overblown, does have some basis in evidence. ...I guess I have a bit of a head start on figuring myself out, at least... Anyway. I'm not awful at the little toy problems we get here, but I do have to say that there were, I guess, expectations that threw me down this path, that haven't really panned out - programming is practically the family business - but, well, now that table's well and truly flipped. Once I actually muster the courage to mention it, I guess. That might...take some time."

Her advisor rubs her temples in thought.

"It feels like the tendency to put things into neat little boxes might not be the best way to think about magic? Then again, studying it in any real way for academia like you want to do... Is essentially putting magic in boxes. Anthropology makes some amount of sense to me the more I think about it. The study of people- And what are all the magic-users but people? Even the pet-things are people, I'm pretty sure."

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She shrugs. "Absolute heck if I know. But other animals are generally more intelligent than the median human gives them credit for, as far as I understand, so I suppose -

"...Wait, are you talking about the puchuu? The ones that recruit Magical Girls? Yeah those are definitely a kind of people. I mean, they use language, yeah? And not just in the way that some have tried to debunk Koko the gorilla over. Or even that African Grey parrot who coined a word. They have abstract relationships and philosophies and everything. ...You alright? I feel like I've inadvertently given you my - strictly metaphorical - headache, which really wasn't my intent...

"Anyway, I'm not sure that what I want is to study magic for academia's sake - I'm no tenure-track professor - but what I do know I want to do is to study it. To do science. To - perform the fundamental inquiry of looking at something and asking why it happens that way; to form hypotheses and then try my damnedest to disprove them. It feels like a lot of existing research is busy getting sidetracked with how, though I'll admit I'm also curious about the hows as much as the whys. And if that path goes through academia proper, to obtain the necessary support, then - well, so be it?"

"...Anyway. Next meeting, we get down to the brass tacks of it? I figure you might need some time to gather a potential course list. But it's been - " she checks the time - "Long enough that I'm worried my next tangent will overrun, and I think I've gotten what I needed to say to you all out there already?"

"Advising you is literally my job, and I always seem to have a headache. Don't worry too much. I'll take Advil or something. And I'll talk to the department head and some advisors from social sciences, figure something out. Actually, wait. How secretive do you want to be about this?"

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"I don't have the faintest clue how to begin to determine whether I should be keeping this quiet. I don't see why I'd need to do that, but clearly everyone else who has magical capabilities does keep a lot of secrets, so - why do they? I don't know, and I'd really rather like to, but that same opacity is why I have no idea whatsoever of what might be reason to keep this secret. That said, I don't think I'm doing all that good a job of it to begin with. So, I guess, don't tell all and sundry, but it's not like I haven't been telling my friends or anything."

"Okay. I'm really not qualified to talk about anything but classes... But talk to me if you need to. We'll keep our other meeting on the schedule and, uh, I'll hopefully have answers for you then."

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"Here's hoping. Good luck - and thank you; I know this is kind of a big ask." With nothing else left to say, she makes her way out.

Has anyone turned up in her DMs in the last thirty minutes, perchance?

There's at least one, and possibly more.

From OcularStone:

magic?

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And in reply:

Yeah. Like, for-real reality-bending-to-my-will magic magic, not 'got handed artifacts by an inscrutable bunnycat' magic. Admittedly I've only used that to, like, 'clean' a sheet of paper, so far, but it's definitely a thing. And I have no idea what to do with this information, because I never expected it'd happen to me.

OcularStone is typing...

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...My thoughts exactly. But yeah I've just kind of - run out of available information on what to - do, or expect, or whatever. And, lacking local contacts, I'm hoping the Internet has answers. That aren't obviously woo-peddlers. You might have a magic spell on your website, random article with a bunch of cantrips, but that doesn't mean that those 'energy crystals' you're trying to tell me are any less scammy.

OcularStone said:

I mean

Clearly MGs are real

I'm looking at a wiki now and there's at least one that is crystal themed

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I mean I guess. But if someone had cracked mass production on that sort of thing surely even us plebeians would have heard of it? You know how it is with tinkers.

Do share the wiki BTW? My search-fu has proven insufficient.

OcularStone said:

https://fakewiki.magicwatcher.com

MG watchers

Internet says magic is v rare

You're right hard to find anything that looks legit

U ok?

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I'm...

Rattled, but otherwise fine? Kind of vaguely worried that there's gonna be some sort of reason there's no legit info out there, but other than that... I dunno, it's just. Sure, this might as well be happening? I'm looking forward to getting to do some hands-on work developing and experimenting, if I can swing it.

What's the wiki like? What does it focus on? Are there any magical girls near her?

So the thing is

It's been bothering me a lot actually

I am pretty sure it is in fact true that some magic people get to be ageless

And

fuck

The wiki focuses on the 'careers' of known Magical Girls! Where they appear, what their powers are, Where Are They Now? (most Magical Girls seem to non-euphemistically retire when no longer teenagers?), what their hobbies are, obsessive ranking and speculation on puchuus and the seemingly always renewing menagerie of things they fight, Versus Debates. Lots of Versus Debates.

There's a fanmade power scale that goes from F to A to S, SS, and tops out at SSR (with nobody currently living granted that rank, the example of Madoka from PMMM is given) (They seem to think PMMM is obvious shameless edgelording/metaphor for puchuu exploitation, and not based in reality at all- MGs never stick THAT closely to their theme, and don't get wishes, anyway!).

There appears to be Discourse about how public their civvie identities ought to be. And how people who try to dox Magical Girls tend to mysteriously fail to find anything and/or forget they tried that and/or disappear.

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