@byteoflogic: I think she's good now!

Yay!

So, I narrowed down my original pool of character concepts from 9 to 2, but I'm having trouble deciding which one. Suggestions? Preferences?

Saki


Amane

Finally got some days off coming up. Hoping to get Hoshi in tomorrow or Wednesday. Going to be smart for once and not claim to try for tonight when I'm this out of it.

@BurningDaisies I like Saki's concept, personally! It's quite original, potentially balanced and there's a lot you can work with. Definitely highlight her flaws as well as strengths and work realistically with the implications of growing up [edit: deaf because I'm an idiot]. You...can't really speak well (your tone is off and tends to be quite high) if you're deaf, though you can certainly sign and the like, which threw me off and made me think you were mute. ...then I realized wait mute people can't speak, and was an idiot, again. There are also so many things you could do with her powers, and her apparent interest in tinkering! If you'd like to bounce ideas or workshop, feel free to PM me!

@HereComesTheSnow Rest well, friendo!

@BurningDaisies A mute character would be more trouble than it's worth. Playing it in a way that it's relevant but not ignored by default, both in the sense of being understood and contributing, is more or less impossible.

@BurningDaisies A mute character would be more trouble than it's worth. Playing it in a way that it's relevant but not ignored by default, both in the sense of being understood and contributing, is more or less impossible.

Granted, it is difficult at times to strike a realistic balance in trying to communicate effectively in-character. I don't believe portraying the deafness in a meaningful way and having the character contribute to the narrative is impossible. It's been done in literature before.

Or is your concern that it would be a persistent hurdle to verbal communications that could never be truly overcome? And because it has the potential to disrupt teamwork?

Well, it would definitely have a negative attempt on teamwork, but my concern is largely that it's going to run into the issue where the obvious difficulty of communication makes it hard to interact even in a roleplay.

... and becoming a magical girl seems to help with things like that. Not sure to what extent, that's Vita's thing.

Your concern, while valid, I believe can be mitigated. Not entirely, mind you, otherwise it wouldn't be much of a disability, but enough to help. As I mentioned, she can read lips and understand what's being said by that alone. So if she can see the speaker she can understand what is being communicated.
Moreover, it's not that she can't talk; she chooses not to, primarily resulting from a lack of confidence.

She could have a hearing aid, but from personal experience, it may not help that much. While she could be alert to sounds in general, distinguishing one sound from another may be difficult.

I wasn't really wanting her magical girl power to be hearing-related anyway. From I was reading, it's more an expression of the character's personality and mannerisms.

It's not an explicit power so much as... part of the contract? Noriko was chronically ill beforehand, for instance. I don't know where that sort of thing ENDS, though. And if not, why a fairy would recruit someone to do fighting with that disadvantage?

Asking 'why' anyone does anything is usually an exercise in opening a can of worms. Its a question that should be answered though; and, admittedly, I don't have an fully-detailed answer just yet. However, I would argue that not every decision is entirely rational. Sometimes circumstances coerce you to act on your instinct or emotions.

I had originally intended for their contract to be something that was done in the heat of the moment. With a swarm of negari outside, unprotected pedestrians in the street, and no magical girl in sight, what is a fairy supposed to do?

Playing defense is always hard because an attacker only has to get lucky once and find a spot the defender isn't paying attention to. While the defender themselves typically have to split their attention and are almost solely reactive.

So a flustered fairy, who was in the area by chance, hastily makes a contract without thinking to keenly about the consequences. If there's a clear and present danger to innocent people, and leaving the scene to get help would take too long, wouldn't it be better to just deputize someone (albeit with magical powers) to deal with the problem quickly?

Am I missing something about how fairies and magical girls normally respond to incidents like that? What's standard procedure? Is there one?

Did the fairy break any rules by forming a contract in those circumstances? If so, what kind of punishment would they receive? What kind of conflict would it create?

My real concern here beyond being worried about your participation(deaf characters are VERY hard to write well) is also that fairy contracts can do some... pretty drastic things to heal or alter the host, though those are fairly extreme circumstances.

In setting one permanently changed a teenaged boy into a teenaged girl at one point to get around the "magical girls can only be girls" thing.

@VitaVitaAR I'd argue the teenage boy-->girl thing could work if the character in question was a trans girl to begin with, but otherwise agree. In fact, I had a trans girl character I was going to use before Keiko came to mind.

@NightinGem: The very first magical girl I made for this setting was a case of a boy becoming a girl. ^^; Albeit for different reasons.

It's more an example, plus Noriko's former health, that suggests a deaf magical girl is a contradiction in terms.

Oh right!

@TheFake: Accepted.

Question. What if a magical girl loses some kind of major faculty after becoming one? Like, how far can Fairy Healing actually restore people? Does it just take care of minor things, or could it literally restore things like lost limbs/eyes or undo nerve damage?

Fairy healing can go pretty far, but it can't do everything and it's also variable from fairy to fairy and magical girl to magical girl.

As an example, one girl was accidentally injured by a fellow magical girl and it left her in a wheelchair.

However, another gets impaled and eventually is fully healed.

...Also, come to think of it, can Fairies heal magical girls who aren't their own partners, or is it just a contract thing?

Also, just a heads up, but I've got graduation ceremonies and stuff to do tomorrow so I'll probably not post until Thursday.

@Raineh Daze Congradulations!