#+title: To The Stars Up to [v1/p37] * History ** Volume I Allocs were cut (/Recommendation by the Production and Allocation Machine (PAL)/) [v1/p4]. At some point in the past the "current war" started, which caused extra allocs from voluntary work to increase and the basic allocs to decrease. [v1/p16]. Due to a special conscription act enacted 20 years ago, all new magic girls owe the military 30 years of service [v1/p20]. The minimum age of combat was dropped to 13. Magic girls enter the military not as privates but 2nd lieutenants. A defect in the Cult of Hope's computers caused random drops with grief cubes for squads on the front line [v1/p33]. The occurrence seems random. This was counterintuitive since computers are not supposed to make such mistakes. Secret examination squads sent by Kyouko could not spot problems [v1/p33]. Similar defects caused girls to be sent behind the lines or home and never came back. When Kyouko was visiting Wolf 359, a platoon of infantry dragged Saya-chan's body and soul gem back to safety, but lost her. They broke down in front of Kyouko demanding that she finds the missing Saya-chan. * Characters *** Shizuki Ryouko 静樹　良子 Main protagonist Mentor: Sakura Kyouko - Diminutive stature [v1/p5] but does not want to be perceived as a child. - Begins as 14 years old - Thinks "nothing is worth rushing for" [v1/p6] - Lives on the 42nd story [v1/p6], in Mitakihara city [v1/p6] - Has a automatic telescope from grandmother which receives instructions from cortical implants. [v1/p7] - Could not find a hobby [v1/p8] - Wants to be a space traveler [v1/p15] - Wants to be a magic girls despite knowing the risks since the life has contrast with the "sterile, prosaic life" [v1/p22]. It was granted after an encounter with demons and miasmae [v2/p57]. - Her weapon as a magical girl is a arbalest (crossbow) and can teleport [v2/p67,68] - Can teleport up to 200km, but cannot telekinesis or teleport objects without teleporting self [v1/p70]. 200km is much greater than the standing record of 63km. *** Simona Friend of Ryouko and foreign exchange student [v1/p13] - Wants to be a violinist [v1/p15] - Exchange student but not very interested in learning languages. She embarked on an exchange to get away from family [v1/p40] - Describes Earth as same people everywhere [v1/p41] - May have romantic feelings towards Ryouko [v2/p77] *** Chiaki 智晶 Friend of Ryouko [p1/v14] - Long-haired [p1/v14] *** Ruiko 瑠衣子 Friend of Ryouko [v1/p14] - Pig-tailed - Wanted to learn nanoengineering or theoretical physics (dropped) [v1/p14] *** Ryouko's father - Over 100 years old but looks around 30 [v1/p8] *** Ryouko's mother *** Ryouko's (paternal) grandfather - Join the military on Monday next week (rel. [v1/p12]) *** Ryouko's (paternal) grandmother - Joined the military for 12 years [v1/p10] - Stopped writing to her family but she is not dead. [v1/p10] - Want to see something other than Earth by her own accounts [v1/p41] *** Tomoe Mami 巴　麻美 - Looked to be 19-20yo despite being hundreds of years old. [v1/p18] - Can converse while holding a motionless face - Body is enhanced - Field Marshall [v1/p35] *** Sakura Kyouko 桜　香子 - Looks to be 14 and lives in the Catholic-style church in Mitakihara [v1/p25] - Calls Mami "Marshal" [v1/p26] - Calls MSY the "Union" [v1/p30] *** Akemi Homura 暁美　ほむら - "Left" with no more news [v1/p27] - Believs in "Goddess of Hope" [v1/p28] - 20 years ago she leveraged the Goddess of Hope and her charisma to start a religion [v1/p29]. This became the Cult of Hope which was the only living religion which gained members. - Had presentations and statistics when she was spearheading MSY - Vanished after saving Epsilon Eridani [v1/p30] *** Yuma Involved in MSY - In government [v1/p36] *** some french magical girl Does not trust the government [v1/p32] *** Kyubey - Says Akemi Homura has disappeared due to the exhaustion of her soul gem [v1/p43] *** 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 [v1/p4] *** /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/ [v1/p20] Due to a special conscription act enacted 20 years ago, all new magic girls owe the military 30 years of service [v1/p20]. The minimum age of combat was dropped to 13. Magic girls enter the military not as privates but 2nd lieutenants. *** /Information Restriction Act/ [v1/p21] Restricts information about Magica from the populace. Impossible to enforce. ** Tools - Chronometer: Some type of clock [v1/p5] * Settings ** Magica - Magic girls are integrated into society [v1/p19] - Discouragement from parents is illegal but practiced [v1/p20] - Not bound by travel restrictions [v1/p20] - Many magic girls died in their first combat assignments or before their first leaves [v1/p21] or received psychological damage [v1/p22]. - Incubator selection is rare and depends on "potential" which is an innate quality irrespective of wishes [v1/p22] All chosen by incubators have a deep personal wish worthy of their soul, but this is not a sufficient condition. - Grief Cube Audit [v1/p31] - Magic girls compose a part of the military and their primary representative is Mami. - Operating alone is a violation of regulations [v1/p44] - Mentorship and team systems between magic girls existed before MSY [v2/p59] - All magical girls upon enlistment becomes emancipated [v2/p73] *** 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 [v1/p31]. Members resisted Homura on insisting forcefully. This organisation caused the number of deaths in battle to drop and a grief cube surplus [v1/p32]. Kyouko and Mami are still executive heads of MSY but leaves the day-to-day handling to their legates. This organisation was called Union implying that the incubators are the bosses of magica [v1/p30]. *** Cult of Hope Uses its infrastructure to handle all data collection for grief cube logistics [v1/p32] ** Demons and Miasmae A miasma is a patch of localised thing which can be cleaned up [v1/p44]. Signals have a hard time moving through miasma [v1/p45]. It also interferes with biology enhancement systems [v1/p47]. It also blocks visible light [v1/p48]. Demons seem to co-exist with miasmae. - "A white-robed figure loomed over them, tall as three men" [v1/p45] - Demons can release intense beams of light to destroy things [v1/p48] Miasmae and demons occur in industrial districts where populations are sparse [v1/p51]. Being able to see demons outside of miasma is the smoking gun of a magical girl [v1/p55]. ** Timeframe - The incubator system still exists. Instructors cannot divulge information about incubator system until the pupils are at age 20. [v1/p4] - At Ryuoko's grandmother's time an automatic telescope and cortical implants were possible [v1/p7]. - Clothes are self-cleaning [v1/p5] and robots can do the dressing [v1/p5], both require money. Bedsheets are self folding [v1/p8] - Sleep-suppressing regimen cause people to sleep 0-3h a day for adults. Considered unsafe for 14-year-olds - People can talk without moving lips [v1/p6] - Hair can maintain at constant length [v1/p6] - Species diversity preserve (SDP) [v1/p6] - Space station can deflect major asteroids or wipe out continents [v1/p7] and constantly being upgraded, added to, or replaced. Maybe redundant [v1/p7] - Knowledge is directly injected into consciousness [v1/p5] and [v1/p9], but has speed limits [v1/p14]. - Can live eternally [v1/p11]. - Food synthesizer produces food [v1/p12] [v1/p13]. - Images can be called up from optical implants which highlights interest regions [v1/p17] and can take pictures [v1/p19]. - Aliens [v1/p27] *** 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. [v1/p53] Exiting emergency mode causes /recoil/ which is traumatic. Some soldiers turn emergency mode on for weeks at a time and exiting is very difficult [v2/p53]. ** Economics The economy operates on a /eudaemonic/ model rather than capitalistic. [v1/p9] - Resources are allocated in units of /Alloc/ [v1/p4] which were cut by /Recommendations by the PAL/. - All productive works are voluntary. [v1/p8] - No one wants to live outside a city because it is expensive and boring [v1/p9]. Flats are government-allocated [v1/p9] and citizens spend government-distributed incomes. - Goods are more expensive away from centres of production, which are in cities [v1/p9] *** Travel - Solution to congestion was to go 3D via traffic tubes [v1/p6] [v1/p13] (Just one more lane bro!!!) - People can use personal auto-transports [v1/p12] which can be self-driven or magnetically driven. - Public transport tunnels are guarded by sentries to protect falling but they ignore magic girls [v1/p24]. Public transport channels are surveilled [v1/p24] 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 [v1/p7] Military veterans can have unlimited travel on earth or colonies and the right to settle anywhere. ** Culture - Governance stress having each generation of children experience a little of human conditions [v1/p5] - Governance placed restrictions on direct mental communication and VR [v1/p6] - Nothing worth rushing for [v1/p6] - Story of human history was all about escape in the past and has reached the end for perfect society [v1/p6] - Residents of Earth spend time on their hobbies. [v1/p8] - 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. [v1/p11] - Human Standard (a internationalised and mutated form of English) is the Earth lingua franca. *** Education - School is about socialising with peers and figuring out what you wanted to learn. [v1/p13] - Primary School Civics [v1/p16] - /Mandatory sessions/ are a civic duty [v1/p15] 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. [v1/] - Spaceflight Engineering [v1/] ** Places Earth has defense stations orbiting [v1/p7] *** Mitakihara City Mitakihara has a major starport which is particularly important and busy [v1/p7] The city is crammed and most families in tight flats. [v1/p8] School is at the 30th floor [v1/p13] Buildings - Shizuki Consumer Goods [v1/p23] - Hephaestus Nanotechnology [v1/p23] - Chronos Biologics [v1/p23] - Zeus and Prometheus Research Centres (unique to Mitakihara) [v1/p23] The two research centres face each other over a narrow causeway between them. - Headquarter of Cult of Hope (Catholic-style church) [v1/p23] Church has a small bedroom for one *** Space Stations Bucky Model space stations are shaped like football [v1/] *** Epsilon Eridani A human colony; Akemi Homura helped to save it [v1/p30]. * 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. - [v1/p41] "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.