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Powers for a Cute Witch Detective

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Thy-Robocop Since: May, 2010
#1: Apr 7th 2011 at 4:42:31 AM

So, I am planning to write a Magical Girl story where the Cute Witch protagonist uses her powers to solve other people's problems, unlocks their secrets, and solves over mysteries so that other people don't have to suffer or become victims. I was thinking of having her powers being emotion based, in that she absorbs emotions from others and uses said emotions to fuel her different spells, but I was wondering, what emotions could translate well into spells that could aid her in her investigations, and perhaps help her fight monsters, without the latter being spells that can directly harm an opponent (see below as to why)?

The other thing I wanted to work out was the spirit that would bond to my protagonist. In my setting, almost every mage has made a contract with a 'spirit', an entity usually formed by a dead person's spirit combining itself with the spirit of a 'concept' or 'aspect' (such as the spirit of Wolf, or Fire, or Love) which lends the mage it's powers, in exchange for the mage performing some duties for said spirit, which is usually related to the aspect of the spirit, and to some of the dead spirit's former beliefs and wants. These spirits tend to contract people with whom they can achieve some 'synchronization', that is when the mage's beliefs and objectives match the spirit's one. The higher the synchronization, the more easily the power flows from spirit to mage, which usually results in an upgrade of sorts. If the synchronization is low, however, bad things happen, such as the mage possessing multiple personalities disorder, or in the extreme case, the spirit taking over the mage's body to create a monster.

Now, what kind of spirit with emotion based powers could bond to my character? My character is a girl in high school who is quite intelligent and friendly, but usually quiet, preferring to listen to other people rather than participating in the conversation, and giving a lot of thought into what she says when talking directly to people. She is much more talkative, passionate and argumentative, and much more of a deadpan snarker, when on the internet, or in her magical girl form. She cares quite a lot for her family and friends, and she would always offer herself to help them out with some sound advice or by intervening herself. She also likes solving problems and science subjects, especially forensic related stuff. Finally, she believes that people who hide the truth, especially when it is counter-productive in a given situation, and people limiting one person's free will should be Falcon Punched in the face. Her ultimate goal in life is to help people solve their problems, as well as gathering knowledge for future generations, so that they don't make the same mistakes (throughout the series she will be writing a guide on how to be a mage.)

Finally, since I don't want my character to be too much of a Magical Girl Warrior, I had this idea that her bonded spirit will actively oppose any spell that directly harms an opponent, which results in said spells being weak and easy to block, if they can be casted at all. How can I include this trait to my character's bonded spirit?

RiotousRascal Since: Dec, 2010
#2: Apr 8th 2011 at 8:11:23 AM

Cool concept you have here. Although I can't help but think of Evangelion when you mention synchronization :).

So, it has to be a dead person's soul plus a 'concept', correct? Now, just a question here, but is the 'dead person' part time-independent? What I mean is, could you form a contract with a Spirit formed partially from the soul of a person who has not yet died, via some timehax afterlife thingy? It could make things interesting if the mage was to actually meet the person who would later become part of their Spirit...anyway, just a thought.

I really wouldn't know where to begin on the dead person bit, but for the Concept, how about Ataraxia? That's definitely the sort of thing that would countermand offensive magic.

Thy-Robocop Since: May, 2010
#3: Apr 9th 2011 at 9:54:11 AM

[up] I've read up the page on Ataraxia that you linked, but I fail to see how this would help. Could you perhaps explain it in more detail?

And as for the 'part-time spirit' idea, I'd say no, as the dead person's spirit has to be separated from it's body and remain in that state for a while before it can absorb the 'concept', and I don't think I will be introducing time travel anytime soon. (I do have ideas for later on in the series timeline to have a time-travelling mage going back in time to stop the protagonists from simply nuking their enemy's headquarters, but like I said, that's still just an idea.)

Still, that could be an interesting idea to implement in one of my stories. I would have to think about how it could be pulled off though, but still, thanks for the suggestion!

Ettina Since: Apr, 2009
#4: Apr 9th 2011 at 3:53:52 PM

"How can I include this trait to my character's bonded spirit?"

She's bonded to an Actual Pacifist? Maybe the spirit was a fan of Gandhi, or actually was Gandhi...

If I'm asking for advice on a story idea, don't tell me it can't be done.
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