Blink

Sci-fi, university, slice of life

The astral ferry has made intragalactic travel trivial. Finality Weissritter can't help but feel like the methods can be improved, however...and the more she learns about it, the more she discovers that the galaxy she thought was running so smoothly is actually falling apart.

Terraforming Era
the Reconstruction

Story scenes:
Opening scene with Finality (literally) pitching her research proposal [intradimensional travel] - introduces Finality and Veit
Cafeteria scene - introduces Sheryl and Veit's proposal [service spirits]. First mention of service spirits being split Calamity-class elementals
Finality and Veit establish a link-journal pair
Kitchen scene 1 - introduces the Travel Sphere
Kitchen scene 2 - Veit wants a fishy sauce [establishes need for the post]
uncomfortable family realities [finny edition]
Memory lapse scene 1 - introduces the distinction between glyphs [service spirit instructions] and propulsion sigils
brain lickers
Veit tries to tell Finality some stuff about service spirit engineering, which she has trouble remembering. One of the things she can remember is a prayer that Veit says was used during the Terraforming Era when restraining Calamity-class elementals
Acclaimation writes to Finality about moving the Travel Sphere
Acclaimation's astral ferry doesn't come in
Seyclite's government (destination planet for Travel Sphere) gets peeved because the sphere didn't arrive; Finality goes "but wait isn't the sphere a liability? why are they MAD?"
(turns out there's mad money to be made housing the travel sphere)
The Astral ferry business can't talk about the lost ferry, especially because of what was on it, but they also don't know where it went. They shut down because of "routine upgrades to ferry builds" which Finality knows is complete horse
However, the intradimensional postal system, which uses the Travel Sphere but is separate from the ferry business, is still in operation
While they are waiting for cookies to land on Maclaod, Veit makes a discovery with Sheryl's help to remember the details: the Travel Sphere is actually a service spirit machine. Not just any machine for any spirit, though...it contains the one that ended the wars of the Terraforming Era and started the Reconstruction - an "Armageddon Class" mental spirit whose psychic powers are so strong they can push against solid objects. It was sealed inside of its eyeball.
Said mental spirit is growing stronger, licking the brains of people who are trying to pry too deeply into service spirit engineering or intradimensional travel to keep people from restraining it further, while also orchestrating its grand revenge on civilization.
Using the "Weissritters are jerks, especially about cookies" method, the Travel Sphere is pinpointed to be on an extremely dangerous world
Veit and Finality design a new containment sphere for the Armageddon Licker. To make it work, they have to use propulsion sigils (which are actually glyphs that are specifically written for the Armageddon Licker's powers) and glyphs. This is knowledge that both of them have but can't share because of the Armageddon Licker's meddling, but Sheryl can't be affected due to her mixed nature. She helps them construct the sphere
Because astral ferries are out of commission, Finality and Veit must use a makeshift postal container, held together by Sheryl, to launch themselves off of Seyclite.
Finality and Veit confront the Armageddon Licker and manage to seal it inside the new containment sphere. Unfortunately they're college students and it's made cheaply so it starts breaking
Finality asks "hey can anything serve as a containment object so long as it has the sealing spell on it?" Veit is like "I don't like where you're going with this but yes?" and then Finality puts the orb into her empty left eye socket
Armageddon Licker is fighting for space in Finality's brain but the sealing spell is holding. Armageddon Licker tries to convince her to run away but Veit starts reciting the prayer for restraining spirits. With the Armageddon Licker's powers, she can understand it and realizes it's an apology.

Elementals/service spirits power appliances and machines
Sapient races in the galaxy often have access to magic, which can be trained. These often manifest as lesser forms of magic that elementals can perform

Astral Ferry
Link-journals
Service Spirits

Currency
Galaxy-wide: Credits
Several planets have individual preferred currencies.