Undine Wells, Alchemical Water
Welcome back to the blog! Here's one I've been looking forward to. Sleepless Domain is one of my favorite webcomics I read this year, and I'm excited to take y'all through this incredible series! Be warned, this one is very spoiler heavy. If this series remotely looks like you're kind of thing, I highly recommend reading through it first. If you're still here, let's get this started!
Background
"We're not kids, we're magical girls."
In a city terrorized by monsters, its greatest defense against these attacks are not police or soldiers, but magical girls. Here, being a magical girl is a viable profession. Upon becoming one, you awaken amazing powers. Registered magical girls earn money by participating in nightly monster purges when a magic barrier is cast over the city. As powerful as they are, magical girls' powers unfortunately fade once they come of age.
All magical girls are marked with a unique symbol, and matching symbols lead girls to form teams with others with similar abilities. One of the most renowned teams of the era was a certain element-themed quintet:
Fashionable and fame-loving Alchemical Air Sylvia
Rowdy hothead Alchemical Fire Sally
Coolheaded and quirky Alchemical Earth Gwen
Cautious and gentle Alchemical Water Undine
And confident team leader Alchemical Aether Tessa
Together, they made up Team Alchemical. All five were friends prior to discovering their powers, and they all stuck together once they collectively attended Future's Promise School for Magical Girls. They were a massively popular group, big enough to appear in the news, magazines, and even have their faces on products like shampoo bottles. Much of their fame can be attributed to Tessa, whose mighty aether abilities were a once in a blue moon type of powerful. While the other four members were talented, they often relied on Tessa to deal with the especially strong monsters. It was a grind that the team was used to; it was honest work, but none of them felt like they were in any real danger. Still, the future looked bright for Team Alchemical. It seemed like nothing could tear these best friends apart…
One day, Tessa had an argument with her team. It seemed like they weren't following her orders. It reached a boiling point that Tessa decided to let the group prove that they didn't need her to defeat the more powerful monsters, abstaining for one night. At first it seemed like the four were capable without Tessa leading them, but then this bizarre gravity-warping monster the size of a house appeared without warning. By the time Tessa second-guessed herself and decided to check on them, she was met with a mortifying sight: Sylvia, Sally, and Gwen were all dead, and Undine was clinging to life by a thread.
Horrified, Tessa defeated the monster in one attack and quickly rushed to Undine. In an act of desperation, Tessa attempted a healing spell, which drained her so much that she was left permanently powerless.
In one night, Team Alchemical dropped from five to one.
Although she experienced a devastating loss, Undine was determined to remain a magical girl to help others. As for Tessa, she chose to return to a normal school after losing her powers. Undine felt guilty for Tessa losing her powers, even her irises had turned permanently pink during transformations after Tessa healed her. However, the entire massacre was far from her fault, as Undine later had a run-in with a mysterious goopy purple girl with an intense hatred for her. Her real name hasn't been revealed yet, so for now let's call her Goops. She'd later figure out that this girl was the one summoning all those powerful monsters in the first place.
At night, Undine returned to the area her team was ambushed, only to be attacked by a monster and Goops once more. It was much harder to handle fights on her own, but thankfully a spunky solo magical girl from her school intervened and helped her defeat the monster. Kokoro, better known as Heartful Punch was another famous and popular magical girl, who would go on to be an immensely cherished figure in her life. After learning about what happened to Undine's team, the two started to bond a lot. HP didn't mind Undine venting to her and Undine enjoyed her supportive company. They balanced each other out with Undine's pessimism and HP's optimism.
While life was brighter with HP around, Undine struggled to find a new team to join and Goops continued to harass and taunt her. To figure out what was going on and fight her own battles, Undine decided to become stronger. That's when HP invited her to join her training group. Undine did not want to impose on her, but training with her wound up being just what the timid magical girl needed. Being part of this new group helped her make new friends, and HP assisted in training her water powers and boosting her confidence.
However, HP started to notice Undine was always putting herself down and seriously pushing herself to become stronger, and was worried she might do something self-destructive. HP confronted her about this, leading to Undine divulging all the baggage she's had since her teammates' deaths. The mysterious Goops and her utter hatred of her, how she felt like the deaths of her friends were her fault, none of these she'd told anyone after the tragedy. She feared that if she told people about her assailant, they would blame it on traumatic hallucinations, or worse, they do believe her and tell her to stop going out in case she’s being targeted. She refused to stay put when people were still in danger. Undine didn't expect HP to be convinced, but she believed Undine wholeheartedly and didn't blame her at all, comforting her as she broke down.
HP had such good a time fighting alongside her that she offered Undine to join her on her nightly patrols. It surprised her given how HP was always solo. This led to Undine learning more about HP's own ideologies, internal struggles, and troubled past. On top of that, HP experienced visits from Goops too, who tried to scare her from aiding her best friend. Undine would be the one to flip the tables and comfort HP. Learning about how she'd been dealing with so much baggage despite her chipper disposition made her seem even stronger in Undine's eyes.
Things were really looking up for Undine. She'd started seeing therapy, her determination to keep fighting inspired her many fans, and her relationship with HP was strong as ever. At that point, their bond finally hit the news as networks speculated if HP was finally forming a team. However, things took a dark turn when Undine was confronted and interrogated by fellow training group member. She badgered her on why she had been so cheery even after her friends died, what was up with the pink in her eyes, and she even accused her that the event was her fault and feared HP may end up like Team Alchemical. Undine had grown enough of a backbone to stand up for herself, thinking she didn't owe an explanation to someone she hardly knew. Her training pals intervened and told her to back off, fleeing the scene…… She would later be murdered by Goops.
Despite experiencing another meltdown and having a small argument with HP, both not only agreed to become a full fledged team, they sealed it with a kiss.
Come morning, the training group learned Cassidy didn’t make it home last night. Thus, the girlfriends finally divulged everything that had been going on to their friends. Without many leads about her harasser, Undine chooses to meet with Tessa to tell her about Goops. She hadn't seen the girl herself, so she couldn't say. Unknown to Undine, Tessa was actually the mysterious girl's true target, who had been spying on her and goading her to meet with her when she was "ready." As she put up a mask to hide her deteriorating mental health, she eventually gave in to the girl, who took over her body.
"Contessa" started making more bold moves such as attempting to isolate HP and trying to kill the magical girl responsible for keeping up the barrier. She wasn't recognized as Tessa, but the training group concluded that this was the work of a magical girl. Ultimately, Undine and HP chose to reveal their investigations on live TV during a joint interview.
With the barrier weakened, the monsters are becoming a greater threat to the city. On top of that, countless other unsolved mysteries loom over Undine's head. Why are the monsters attacking them? How did magical girls come to be in the first place? What is that golden shapeshifter that has been secretly aiding the magical girls? In spite of the ramping dangers, Undine shows no sign of backing down. She'll uncover the truth no matter what. Not only for the sake of her friends, but herself.
Experience and Intelligence
Undine has made quite the name for herself in the two years she has had her powers. She was part of one of the most successful magical girl teams of her time. A lot of their fame was admittedly attributed to Tessa's objectively busted aether powers, but Undine was still a valued member. Alchemical Water primarily played a support role in her team, happy to let others perform major attacks. Her water wasn't strong enough to deal serious damage to monsters, but she was able to plan battles well with their team and combine her power with her friends' for some strong combo moves. However, she hadn't faced any serious threats prior to the deaths of her teammates.
Undine really started to come into her own when she spent months training with HP. She helped Undine become a more independent fighter, while also strengthening her synergy with HP on the battlefield.
While Undine has mostly spent her time as a magical girl facing against revolting monsters, she has held her own against other magical girls. Of course a lot of it is lighthearted training, but there was the time she defended herself in a serious encounter against the jealous scissor-wielding Cassidy.
Aside from her magical girl experience, she's about as learned as any fourteen year-old. A lot of her education is geared specifically for magical girls given she attended FPSM. She's considered a respected student there.
Equipment
N/A
Abilities
Magical Girl Transformation
As a staple in these kinds of series, Undine is able to use her powers by transforming into a magical girl. Her magical girl costume takes the form of a blue dress with bows. While the general designs of the outfits may stay the same, they have the capacity to evolve over time based on key moments in their lives. This is especially apparent in Undine's back bow, which now has the flowy fading effect HP's scarf has.
Water Manipulation
Undine's magical girl power is that she can summon and control large amounts of water and manipulate any nearby water. Since she's a magical girl, these water powers are magical in origin. The amount of water she can summon varies, usually dependent on the weather. As one may assume, her power is more potent when it's raining and she has higher range in foggy weather.
If the area is humid enough, Undine can sense opponents through high levels of water vapor in the atmosphere.
Limited Ice and Steam Manipulation
Undine can't summon ice or steam, but she can manipulate them if they're nearby. However, she isn't as skilled at manipulating them as she is with water.
- Poison immunity: An especially useful perk is that magical girls aren’t affected by the poisonous contact wounds caused by monsters, which trap them in nightmares
Techniques
Bloops
Blorbles
Concentrated water projectiles she can control the direction of. Don't mind the silly names, they're HP's ideas
Bang
Tessa typically used this powerful fingergun blast to finish off opponents. Undine's version is
comparable to a water jet cutter, which uses a powerful thin stream of water to cut through objects as dense as stone
Fertile Soil
A combo move between her and Gwen when Gwen was still alive…… As Alchemical Earth, Gwen could manipulate plants through Undine fertilizing soil.
- One of the survivors of the massacre of her team
- Rescued numerous people from monsters, including an entire family
- Has become strong and capable enough to save an experienced solo magical girl like HP from threatening monsters like Mouthburger
Strength
Speed
Durability
Weaknesses
- Undine is very self deprecating, very quick to put herself down. Thankfully, HP helps boost her confidence
- Undine has a sacrificial mentality. Someone has to be the one to keep others safe. It’s either her or burden is forced onto someone else, and she’d rather it be her than anyone else
- She’s constantly trying to push herself to become stronger, usually needing to be reminded to help her own well being
- Magical girls’ powers run on, of course, magic! Overusing her powers can tire her out
- Like Tessa, all magical girls are at risk of magical burnout. Under extreme circumstances, a magical girl may force herself beyond her limits and lose her powers altogether. It’s uncommon, but not unheard of
Matchup Potential
Undine vs Whisper (Sleepless Domain vs IDW Sonic the Hedgehog)
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Undine & Heartful Punch vs Whisper & Tangle (Sleepless Domain vs IDW Sonic the Hedgehog)
(thumbnail by Vibe Check)
(thumbnail by Vibe Check)
Vibe Check
To explain both matchups in one go: it's duos of girls consisting of one who was part of an old team that mostly perished in battle (Whisper and Undine), and a girl with an overly optimistic and enthusiastic personality despite their own insecurities (Tangle and Kokoro). After the loss of their old team, Whisper/Undine would become depressed and distant from everyone else following the passing of their team. However, Tangle/Kokoro would quickly befriend Whisper/Undine and help cheer them up and come to terms with their teams passing, ultimately forming powerful duos of their own. They also have similar fighting styles, with Whisper and Undine serving as more versatile, long ranged fighters while Tangle and Kokoro are speedy, physical attackers.
I lack knowledge on IDW to properly comment on it, but from what I've heard about it both ideas sound really cool to me. Both Undine & Whisper's stories seem to reflect well and I can see it being a unique ranged fight.
For the purposes of the blog, I chose to not include HP since she doesn't really have any notable feats that don't involve scaling her to other characters. However, I think she can fit well in a duo MU with Undine since that adds another layer of banter to the matchup and a cooler dynamic with how both work together in combat.
It's quite apparent that Whisper & Tangle win at the moment, but I don't think the stomp detracts from the matchup's fight potential.
RedHeadedElf
Hey all, Red here. Let's talk about lesbians beating the shit out of each other. Undine vs Whisper is really cool, with a great core theme that goes into both characters arcs and the themes of their stories really well, with a fun and natural dynamic focusing on versatile, long ranged combat.
Undine vs Whisper is great on its own, but you can also pretty easily easily throw in Tangle and Heartful Punch their respective girlfriends. Adding them into the matchup makes it even more thematically compelling, and they slot into the fight dynamic really nicely via focusing more on physical combat, balancing out Whisper and Undine's longer ranged fighting styles. Tangle and Kokoro also put a lot of personality into the matchup, both bouncing off each other and their partners. Also turning it into a duo matchup allows for you reference this.
NEXT TIME ON WCAB… whenever I feel like it
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