To-The-Stars/notes/settings.org

#+title: To The Stars

* Characters

*** Shizuki Ryouko 静樹　良子

Main protagonist

- Diminutive stature but does not want to be perceived as a child (I.1.27)
- Begins as 14 years old (I.1.33)
- Thinks "nothing is worth rushing for" (I.1.39)
- Lives on the 42nd story, in Mitakihara city (I.1.43)
- Has a automatic telescope from grandmother which receives instructions from
  cortical implants. (I.1.63)
- Could not find a hobby (I.1.73)
- Wants to be a space traveler (I.1.239)
- Wants to be a magic girls despite knowing the risks since the life has
  contrast with the "sterile, prosaic life" (I.1.399).

*** Simona

Friend of Ryouko and foreign exchange student (I.1.209)

- Wants to be a violinist (I.1.255)
- Exchange student but not very interested in learning languages. She embarked
  on an exchange to get away from family (I.1.835)
- Describes Earth as same people everywhere (I.1.871)
- May have romantic feelings towards Ryouko (I.1.895) (I.2)

*** Chiaki 智晶

Friend of Ryouko (I.1.209)
- Long-haired (I.1.209)

*** Ruiko 瑠衣子

Friend of Ryouko (I.1.209)
- Pig-tailed (I.1.209)
- Wanted to learn nanoengineering or theoretical physics (dropped) (I.1.223)

*** Ryouko's father

- Over 100 years old but looks around 30 (I.1.79)

*** Ryouko's mother

*** Ryouko's (paternal) grandfather

- Join the military on Monday next week [relative to reference] (I.1.161)

*** Ryouko's (paternal) grandmother

- Joined the military for 12 years (I.1.133)
- Stopped writing to her family but she is not dead. (I.1.133)

*** Tomoe Mami 巴　麻美

- Looked to be 19-20yo despite being hundreds of years old. (I.1.307)
- Can converse while holding a motionless face (I.1.351)
- Body is enhanced as for every magical girl (I.1.423)
- Field Marshall (I.1.689)

*** Sakura Kyouko 桜　香子

- Chooses to remain 14 (I.1.471)
- Looks to be 14 and lives in the Catholic-style church in Mitakihara (I.1.429)
- Calls Mami "Marshal" (I.1.477)
- Calls MSY the "Union" (I.1.589)

*** Akemi Homura 暁美　ほむら

- "Left" with no more news (I.1.517)
- Believs in "Goddess of Hope" (I.1.539)
- 20 years ago she leveraged the Goddess of Hope and her charisma to start a
  religion (I.1.573). This became the Cult of Hope which was the only living
  religion which gained members (I.1.577).
- Had presentations and statistics when she was spearheading MSY (I.1.611)
- Vanished after saving Epsilon Eridani (I.1.581)

*** Yuma

Involved in MSY (I.1.613)

- In government (I.1.623)

*** some french magical girl

Does not trust the government (I.1.625)

*** Kyubey

- Says Akemi Homura has disappeared due to the exhaustion of her soul gem (I.1.907)

*** Fleet Admiral Xing
Has some feud with General Blackwell [v2/p80]
*** General Blackwell
Has some feud with Fleet Admiral Xing [v2/p80]



* In-Book Items

** Books

*** /Universal Guidelines for Middle School Instructors (12th revision)/
- Mentioned in (I.1.11)
*** /Daughters of the Contract: A Documentary/
- Mentioned in [v2/p59]
*** /Mahou Shoujo: Their World, Their History (Julian Bradshaw)/
- Mentioned in [v2/p60]

** Laws/Edicts

*** /Special Conscription Act/ (I.1.381)
Due to a special conscription act enacted 20 years ago, all new magic girls owe
the military 30 years of service. The minimum age of combat was dropped to 13.
Magic girls enter the military not as privates but 2nd lieutenants.
*** /Information Restriction Act/ (I.1.391)

Restricts information about Magica from the populace.

Impossible to enforce.


** Tools

- Chronometer: Some type of clock (I.1.717)

* Settings

** Magica

- Discouragement from parents is illegal but practiced (I.1.377)
- Not bound by travel restrictions (I.1.379)
- Many magic girls died in their first combat assignments or before their first
  leaves or received psychological damage (I.1.395).
- Incubator selection is rare and depends on "potential" which is an innate
  quality irrespective of wishes (I.1.403)

  All chosen by incubators have a deep personal wish worthy of their soul, but
  this is not a sufficient condition.
- Magic girls compose a part of the military and their primary representative is
  Mami.
- Operating alone is a violation of regulations (I.1.955)
- Mentorship and team systems between magic girls existed before MSY (I.2)
- All magical girls upon enlistment becomes emancipated (I.2)

*** Mahou Shoujo Youkai (MSY) 魔法少女妖怪

An organisation spearheaded by Homura which collects data about battles, grief
cube collections, grief cube usage. Members resisted Homura on insisting
forcefully. (I.1.611)

This organisation caused the number of deaths in battle to drop and a grief cube
surplus. Kyouko and Mami are still executive heads of MSY but leaves
the day-to-day handling to their legates. (I.1.617)

This organisation was called Union implying that the incubators are the bosses
of magica (I.1.591).

Grief Cube Audit tallies the grief cubes in reserve (I.1.605).

*** Cult of Hope

Uses its infrastructure to handle all data collection for grief cube logistics
(I.1.633).

** Demons and Miasmae

A miasma is a patch of localised thing which can be cleaned up (I.1.931). Signals
have a hard time moving through miasma (I.1.991). It also interferes with biology
enhancement systems (I.1.1049). It also blocks visible light (I.1.993).

Demons seem to co-exist with miasmae.
- "A white-robed figure loomed over them, tall as three men" (I.1.983)
- Demons can release intense beams of light to destroy things (I.1.1045)

Miasmae and demons occur in industrial districts where populations are sparse
(I.1.1113). Being able to see demons outside of miasma is the smoking gun of a
magical girl (I.1.1213).

** Timeframe

- The incubator system still exists. Instructors cannot divulge information
  about incubator system until the pupils are at age 20. (I.1.9)
- At Ryuoko's grandmother's time an automatic telescope and cortical implants
  were possible (I.1.63)
- Clothes are self-cleaning (I.1.29) and robots can do the dressing (I.1.29), both
  require money. Bedsheets are self folding (I.1.85)
- Sleep-suppressing regimen cause people to sleep 0-3h a day for adults.
  Considered unsafe for 14-year-olds (I.1.33).
- People can talk without moving lips (I.1.35)
- Hair can maintain at constant length (I.1.43)
- Species diversity preserve (*SDP*) (I.1.51) presumably some sort of park
- Space station can deflect major asteroids or wipe out continents (I.1.65) and
  constantly being upgraded, added to, or replaced. (I.1.65) Maybe redundant
  (I.1.67).
- Knowledge is directly injected into consciousness (I.1.23), but has
  speed limits (I.1.213).
- Can live eternally (I.1.141).
- Food synthesizer produces food (I.1.167)
- Images can be called up from optical implants which highlights interest
  regions and can take pictures (I.1.287).
- Aliens (I.1.529)

*** Emergency Packages

The packages operate by assisting with motion and thought. The civilian-issue
version is weaker than the military version. Emergency mode turns on when there
is a life-or-death situation (I.1.1063).

Exiting emergency mode causes /recoil/ which is traumatic. Some soldiers turn
emergency mode on for weeks at a time and exiting is very difficult (I.1.1133).

** Economics

The economy operates on a /eudaemonic/ model rather than capitalistic. (I.1.261)

- Resources are allocated in units of /Alloc/ which were cut by
 /Recommendations by the PAL/ (I.1.13)
- All productive works are voluntary. (I.1.69)
- No one wants to live outside a city because it is expensive and boring
  (I.1.89). Flats are government-allocated and citizens spend
  government-distributed incomes (I.1.89).
- Goods are more expensive away from centres of production, which are in cities
  (I.1.89)

*** Travel

- Solution to congestion was to go 3D via traffic tubes (I.1.189) (Just
  one more lane bro!!!)
- People can use personal auto-transports (I.1.185) which can be self-driven or
  magnetically driven (I.1.187).
- Public transport tunnels are guarded by sentries to protect falling but they
  ignore magic girls (I.1.449). Public transport channels are under surveillance
  (I.1.89).

Space flight is still a scarcity. Pleasure flights were priced to absurd levels
to restrict civilians. It had not always been like this but changed for
colonists and military (I.1.59).

Military veterans can have unlimited travel on earth or colonies and the right
to settle anywhere (I.1.383).


** Culture

- Governance stress having each generation of children experience a little of
  human conditions (I.1.33)
- Governance placed restrictions on direct mental communication and VR (I.1.35)
- Nothing worth rushing for for the general population (I.1.39).
- Story of human history was all about escape in the past and has reached the
  end for perfect society (I.1.45).
- Residents of Earth spend time on their hobbies (I.1.69).
- People with /ennui/ (unable to fit into society), divorced after 60 years of
  matrimony, who are more than 100 years old, can join the military and then be
  discharged in the colonies. (I.1.141)
- Human Standard (a internationalised and mutated form of English) is the Earth
  lingua franca (I.1.221).

*** Education

- School is about socialising with peers and figuring out what you wanted to
  learn (I.1.197).
- Primary School Civics (I.1.273).
- /Mandatory sessions/ are a civic duty (I.1.255).

  Such sessions are for preparing the citizenry in a scarcity situation when the
  economy has to be switched from eudaimonic to scarcity mode (family Allocs
  tied to productivity), or even capitalistic. (I.1.261)

** Places


*** Mitakihara City

Mitakihara has a major starport which is particularly important and busy
(I.1.55).

The city is crammed and most families in tight flats (I.1.89).

School is at the 30th floor (I.1.193).

Buildings
- Shizuki Consumer Goods (I.1.417)
- Hephaestus Nanotechnology (I.1.417)
- Chronos Biologics (I.1.417)
- Zeus and Prometheus Research Centres (unique to Mitakihara) (I.1.417)

  The two research centres face each other over a narrow causeway between them.
- Headquarter of Cult of Hope (Catholic-style church) (I.1.429).

  Church has a small bedroom for one (I.1.467).

*** Space Stations

- Earth has defense stations orbiting (I.1.61)
- Bucky Model space stations are shaped like football (I.1.65)

*** Epsilon Eridani
A human colony; Akemi Homura helped to save it (I.1.581).
*** Wolf 359
A human colony (I.1.675).


* Divergence

In /To The Stars/, there are some divergences of meanings of words from common usage. These could also reflect on the author's misunderstanding.

- (I.1.853) "A scramjet lifted into the air, using an antigrav assist":
  Scramjets cannot start from standstill or subsonic conditions.
- [v2/p63] A nomenclator describes the identity of an individual.