Questionable Questing

Because it's a force that sometimes eats the souls of those who deal with it too much.

Ah, I see. Yessssss. Also, making them wonder what the true purpose of this game is... perhaps cottoning on earlier, but more willing to tell others about it? Spreading word... or not, depending on how they deal with the fear. Especially since their element works in game just like in real life...

Put under undue stress by having to use a power that they hate and are so scared by to survive, but unwilling to discount it's utility in helping people, especially if Von Ilya turns her sight on them for their extra ++ rare element to be included in her guild.

One thing that might serve as an extra source of stress and such would be the idea that they're just some experiment now, their element and such probably having drawn the interest of a few immoral magi in the past.

Ilya, yes... and yet, there's Shiro too, and they'd wonder how he'd fit in. And yeah, as if things weren't bad enough. And here they thought they had gotten away from that in this game, when in truth... And to think, they had to join of their own free will too!

They may well be the only mage or magic user involved who doesn't give a shit about the fallout of the experiment, should they come to understand it, and who wouldn't mind explaining the fact that the magecraft system is a realistic depiction of the world, and seems to reflect the actual person. They already get bothered and harassed by the magic side of things often enough that they don't think it'll get worse.

Nobody's quite sure if they should believe them.

For Argo, it should have some pretty scary implications. And it would send her on a quest for the truth. One Ilya would give her, once she works up the courage to ask, yes?

Because Argo is like...the only person without any natural circuits, dormant or otherwise? And I don't understand what the quest for the truth would entail, exactly.

No, more like she's the information broker, you know? She has to know the truth, it's her thing. It's not about having circuits at all, it's about the job she gave herself in the game. The person to go to for information. So she has to take this with a grain of salt, but she can't just dismiss it out of hand. So she starts looking into it and it scares her. So she she wants to ask Ilya, but at the same time doesn't.

Might be interesting if Imaginary Demons Magus /wasn't/ a mage before entering SAO. Discovering what may well be the /weirdest/ rare element in yourself and such.

Define 'interesting.' But yeah, expect Ilya to come after them real fast as well. But would this also mean their thought process would be like Shirou's in that it isn't quite human?

Like...partway to Shirou's thought processes, since they aren't a full/real incarnation of imaginary demons, on account of their dual origin.

They're pulled between their strong sense of 'being their own person' and their sense of 'being a being that exists to assume the pain of others and grant their wishes', where Shirou is firmly stuck on the side of his impulses as a Sword Incarnation.

Hmm, yes, but at least they can understand Shirou better, and at the same time, while they can blend in better... there would be those moments where people wonder about them.

Oh, definitely. They'd have a lot to talk about with the Sixth Ranger. The impulse to protect people isn't too different from the impulse to free them from their suffering and grant their wishes, after all.

Though the latter is...distinctly more masochistic, because Imaginary Demons don't just free people from pain, but take it for themselves. A sense of fulfillment when you take the suffering of others for yourself, which makes you want to /repay them/ by granting their desires.

...If they have a spell that suppresses their sense of humanity temporarily to let them achieve the 'Alien Common Sense of Demons'/the reality marble of imaginary demons...would that effect simultaneously take place in the outside world? After all, their mental state and it's inherent logic are the same in both dataworld and meatworld.

Odd to think about.

Indeed... could be interesting if Shirou got the spell too. But yeah, the real world would have a fun time... but this could mean trouble for them as well, as the clock tower could possibly take notice... or something more sinister does.