Questions and Answers: Setting, Magical

A collection of Question and Answer sessions with Deculture, collected from threads or from his Ask.fm. This page contains questions and answers about magic and how it works in the world of MGNQ, including how magic and Magical Girls' bodies work, and supernatural-related setting info.

Questions from Threads

Thread 12

• Do we have a magic scan ability, or does it only work against witches? [1]
  • Chiaki can sense Witches. But being a Vindicare, she can't track or sense Magical Girls too effectively. You need a Culexus for that. [2]

• Could we have scanned lori's fake friend and knew she was fake? [3]
  • Not to give everything away, but as a Callidus, Midori is pretty good at her job. Callidus focus on undetectable subterfuge and espionage. There was a way for you to detect if she was fake, but you would have scanned the wrong person. [4]

Questions from Ask.fm

• Can a Callidus create audio illusions as well as physical illusions? Like create a small bubble where noise cannot be heard outside of a bubble but the people inside can hear each other? And can they make it seem like two people are standing in silence when they're actually not? It's for...science‎
  • I would say she can! Midori creates the whole package of visual, auditory and tactile illusion. Same goes for Wendy, although hers is more offense/fear-based. Enishi just becomes invisible entirely. [5]

• Does Chiaki still have wings in her untransformed state?
  • Nope, they go away. [6]

• What all supernatural forces exist in MGNQ? Could a non-canon writeup mess around with them?
  • All kinds of supernatural forces exist. Ghosts and stuff. Vampires, werewolves...you can make the argument that they're actually magical girls, or that the Akashic Realm brought them to life. [7]

• How effective is training while transformed versus training while not transformed?
  • Some girls can train their non-transformed selves, but others really can't function in a combat-capable capacity without transformation. Those who can has the privilege of being able to 'stack' their normie training with the benefits of transformation, although it's generally recommended that you train in both states. The first to increase your natural strength and endurance, the second to be able to control your Magical Girl abilities better. [8]

• So some girls don't get any benefit from exercising when they're not transformed?
  • More like they can't exercise at all, or it would take too long for their normal bodies to get adapted to exercising (i.e. Chiaki). [9]

• So exercising in meguca form isn't as effective as exercising in civilian form?
  • It's mostly equal, but it really depends on what the Magical Girl wants to do, and what she wants to build on, and how her physical fitness is at the time. Sayaka trains as hard as she can in both states. [10]

• How often do the Venenum have to surgically remove soul gems that end up "going in too deep"
  • God dammit anon

Answer is: Not that often, but there's always an uptick in incidence when the recruitment period comes in. Newly-contracted magical girls get curious and try new things. It got so bad that the Venenum had to give out pamphlets for it. Magical Girls and hormones, man [11]

• How does a magical girl perceive the inside of her soulgem when confined to it (either by body destruction or otherwise)? Is it a surreal dreamscape, or does the MG consciousness go into a catatonic state?
  • I've always seen it as something of the Magical Girl just falling into a dark, dreamless sleep whenever they get their body destroyed (akin to being comatose, or when Space Marines trigger their sus-an membrane to preserve their minds and body when they get too damaged). But if they sleep for too long, they may have a chance of waking up in that sensory-deprived state - which could cause a Witch Out. To address that, Officios have trained their Magical Girls to either prolong the sleep as much as they can, or go into a 'lucid dreaming' state - where they force themselves to dream of things they like doing, in order to stave off Soul Gem corruption. That's what Kyoko is doing now, most likely. [12]

• Is fleshmetal and the results of horrible scientific experimentation inheritable because magic?
  • Sometimes, yes! [13]

• Do alpha witches usually retain their memories and personalities? Feel free to tell me on Skype if it's not a thing you want to answer in public.‎
  • Alpha will have some of that, yes. It's the Omega-class ones (and the Omega-class plus) like Pinky and Homucifer that have full consciousness. [14]

• Can meguca get sick to regular, non-magical illnesses? Cold, flu, STDs, cancer, etc? Or is it only the really strong, Thirteenth-Officio-is-out-to-get-you kind of stuff?
  • If a Magical Girl is too tired or too stressed for too long it starts to catch up, so you'll have them getting fevers and colds. Cancer should be right out, and STDs won't really stick. [15]

• What happens if a Magical Girl wishes to be a Kamen Rider?
  • She becomes a Hero of Justice! [16]

• Can a magical girl get physically exhausted to the point of passing out by using too much magic but without the risk of witching out? What about getting just purely exhausted?
  • Pretty sure they can! Or else Kharn would have made a lot of girls witch out in her bedroom! [17]

• Why would megucas wear corsets, hats, or capes? Aren't those a liability in battle?
  • They're also magical armor, if they're part of their costume! [18]

• Are there any diseases unique to megucas? What about Incubators and Maerorus?
  • I wouldn't say so, besides weaponized magical diseases and so on (in the case for Magical Girls). Incubators sometimes gets fleas. Maerorus get indigestion, dyspepsia and bouts of ardent, seething hubris/megalomania. [19]

• Do magical girls get periods?
  • I think generally the 'bleeding' can be handled by a trip to the Venenum, but there are always periods in a month where Magical Girls can be very aggressive. [20]

• Are magical girls immune to STDs or something? I mean, the way Kharn slept around, you'd think she'd have caught something by now.
  • Eversor resistance! But yeah Magical Girls do get monthly checkups and stuff in their Officios, and if there's anything like that it usually gets resolved by the Venenums. [21]

• How hard would an Eversor have to push to get essentially a rundown of training in one week? Would it even be possible? I know there's sleep deprivation training, pain tolerance, weapons and PT. Am I missing anything else?‎
  • Altitude training, strength development, sense deprivation training! [22]

• But how hard would it be to do all that in one week, give or take?‎
  • Very hard, I'm pretty sure the Magical Girl would be in the hospital for a while because of overexertion! [23]

• If a meguca wishes for the perfect boyfriend/girlfriend, would the wish grab somebody from the world who is the best match, or would it create a new person whole-cloth?
  • It depends mainly on the wish, but I'd hazard that the Incubator would look for someone close to the meguca and then turn them into the contractee's ideal mate. Some Incubators (like Kyuubey) are pragmatic enough to tell the contractee that 'you know that such an arrangement will never play out well, right?' and ask them to consider another wish. [24]

• If a meguca's body dies when they're on the cusp of witching out will it prevent them from doing so or make it more likely to happen?
  • The latter! Only Soul Gem destruction prevents WitchOuts! [25]

• What happens to a magical girl's inventory when she dies?
  • The stuff she has in there usually ends around or underneath her corpse. Sometimes it's lost to the ether. [26]

• If Chiaki died, how far into the air would her body be flung by the sudden appearance of all that crap in her inventory?
  • Not a whole lot? The inventory in her shield is different! [27]

• So megucas are like enemies in RPGs that can sometimes have rare drops or no drops at all?‎
  • Sure! Hahaha! [28]

• If a meguca removes her costume during sex, does she lose her powers?
  • No, the costume is just clothes and/or armor. She's still a meguca unless she cancels her transformation. [29]

• So when a Callidus can't get any they get fat? If so, why is Midori so fat?
  • Because she eats a lot! [30]

• If two witches were in the same barrier, what generally happens? Do they fight and try to consume each other? Compete on hunting intruders? Work together against outside threats? Not even realize/acknowledge the others presence?‎
  • Honestly, all of those can happen. It really depends on the witches. [31]

• Are there witches out there that still have a shred of humanity left in them? Like, they're not totally gone, some part of them is still there. Would that part of them still want to help magical girls in their own twisted way?‎
  • Yes, but their perception is pretty skewed. Sometimes there are 'benevolent' witches, but only up to a point - their hunger for magical girl flesh would soon overtake them. [32]

• We know that people without soul gems can use Golden Weapons; can people without soul gems become attuned to a magical girl's soul gem?
  • Nope! [33]

• Regarding regenerating limbs and such; does using a Golden Weapon increase the chance of not being able to regenerate? Also, did Kyoko lose her eye to Kirika's claws or the katana?
  • Yes, Golden Weapons have that kind of ability where they can cause permanent wounds that just won't regenerate. Kyoko lost her eye to a magic-enhanced katana, but it wasn't the golden katana itself. [34]

• Can a shield be a valid Eversor Weapon? (No special tricks or attachments, ala Riesbyfe from Melty, More like Captain America)
  • Of course! [35]

• Why don't magical girls in MGNQ use telepathy like they do in PMMM?
  • Well, I wanted them to rely on Culexus for that! [36]

• You've said many times that magical girls only last 2-3 years. Yet, looking at the timeline, about 10 of them have lasted for 5 years or more (Xiaomei having lasted for 9 years if she's still alive).
  • Is that because these ones were really well taken care of or because of plot armor? :V Of course the stories will be about Magical Girls who are a bit more hardy than the rest! The 2-3 years is the average! [37]

• Is the average so low because of all the magical girls Chiaki kills?
  • Maybe. [38]

• Does a magical girls body die if it's dismembered? What if it's put back together?
  • It dies, yes. [39]

• So... when does Chiaki figure out how many spatial dimensions exist in the Akashic Realm? Judging by the bizarre descriptions, it's probably at least four, right? Did some deity accidentally mix up one of the spatial dimensions with the flow of time?
  • Probably when she really gets into exploring it by herself. She'll discover it relatively soon, she already has an inkling of it. But yeah, the Akashic Realm is all sorts of fucked up! [40]

• Can Culexuses witch out?
  • They can't! The moment they do is either they die in an anti-magic explosion that kills every Magical Girl around them in a 1-mile radius, or crumble into dust. [41]