Eeeeh.

We've gotten overexertion warnings for going in heavily on Wave Force before. I'm pretty sure going all-in on it is likely to have consequences.


Anna's main method of training anything is overexerting herself. In comparison to what we did to ourselves when we were defending Town, what we've seen in the quest is literally nothing.

Any work on Blue Wave at all is going to be exerting ourselves, and we're pretty much guaranteed to be putting Blue Wave work in no matter what the plan. But a fair lot of it is going to be doing math in our Valkyrie in the background. I don't think this is the kind of problem you're saying it might be. We'll be in more danger of overwork during instructor training (reference what happened when the instructors achieved Static Wave) than anywhere else.
 
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Thoughts on going all-in on Blue Wave? 70 Instructor, 430 BW training? I know the other things are interesting but it would cut Blue Wave training to about ~2.5 50-day actions rather than about ~3.5 for ~260 points. We can probably expect a 100-day Semester Two, so we'd achieve Blue Wave right in time for the climax. The disadvantage of course is we don't get to do other things.
I'd be fine with this, as long as we try to maximize the holidays out on social with the flight, and maybe others.

Also, I can't believe no one else has commented on this:
Instructor Meyer sends you junk data? No, it's an… abstract virtual expression of worry? You suppose that this is the equivalent of an emoji in high density comms.
 
I feel like continuing this line could be really good for Anna, particularly with how interested Sandra is becoming in her and her past.
Yeah, a chance to feel like she's helping in some tangible fashion should go a ways towards working off any frustration about being stuck in school when she could be swatting antagonists.

(For some reason my phone suggested "so grossly incandescent" after I typed "could be" in that last sentence. No idea why it did, but the resulting mental image is amusing.)
 
IT'S BACK!!!!
"He's well, not really manly," you respond haltingly, "He's too… pretty, really. And short. And thin. Also he's not interested in me, I don't think."
Bwahahahahahaha!!!
You jump up and down a little, pumping your fist in silent celebration, before slamming yourself back down into your seat and politely folding your hands across your knees
Ann is cute, Cute!
Koujirou is being sensible. Koujirou is being sensible.
Woohoo!
With his thrusters bright with stolen energy, he essentially rides down Emily's attack in an absurdly showy spiral, cutting the attack into a helix behind him.
wut. uh, well. at least it looks cool?
To your side, Meyer slaps both hands over her face and groans loudly. Leonhart broadcasts a second of completely blank audio. You tilt your head in considerable confusion as you try to justify what that stunt gained Koujirou.
Yeah... it only looked cool, not actually cool.
Koujirou sheaths his sword and turns around.

The trail of plasma explodes.
Badasses don't look back huh, I can feel the fangirls already...

Koujirou wouldn't try something so inefficient in an actual battle against Antagonists would he?
Noo.... maybe.... Ok yes.
"Do you think Setsuna would be impressed with that?"

Emily hangs onto Koujirou's hand, sharp incredulity etched across her face. She raises her left hand up in front of Koujirou and smartly raps him on the forehead twice.

"Ow! Hey! What's that for?"

"Hm, strange, it doesn't sound hollow."
But it is!
As you explain to the audience exactly what had happened at the end there at Meyer's prodding, you see Yukari doing the same for Koujirou and Sandra, leaning over the two and animatedly gesturing at a replay.

You've already submitted your analysis of the match.



You feel a little… lonely.
Guh... She could've been with them, but no...
-Don't mingle with those types, Anna. They're miserable people who are only happy when other people are unhappy-
100% agreed
"I didn't answer; would be a terrible shame to destroy any illusions you have about the nature of this academy's instruction staff," Javeria lackadaisically replies.

You continue glaring, but your thoughts whirl. From her incident record, Javeria has a propensity to distort the truth and outright lie to incite disputes. She appears to be trying to sow discord between you and the Instructors right now. She is not a reliable source for her own motives.
...Wow, what a bitch...
Instructor Meyer's eyes shift down and away for a second. "We basically allow her to do what she does because it actually helps Valkyries get out of a rut or even progress faster in combat ability."

You open your mouth to refute the words, but the speed at which you can access and analyse data damns the retort and you swallow your words. Personality variability in the idol model. Personalities not predisposed to ambition and intense emotion often fail to form personal rivalries or goals. Presence of a personally relatable antagonistic figure motivates such Valkyries. Presence of both in close proximity or even one individual massively more effective. Multiple studies, multiple sources.
...
yeah...
-Why are you such a bully?-
Because… we had to… it's what we needed to do, but it didn't work…

"It's… done with the best of intentions. As long as the intent is good…" you recite.
Aw Fuck... No Anna no, it's not the same... It's not your fault, Fuck...

-[] Work with the crafting elective class for revised HPP prototype.
Benefits: Completion returns fifth HPP. Uptick in UN Valkyries combat power. Crafting Class will continue working on HPP prototypes regardless of your participation.
Cost: 110 days - 1100 points. (Cannot be completed in timeskip, will be added to long term projects if selected.)
Wut. We can get it back?!?! I mean yes there's not enough time to complete it within this timeskip, but we have to start from somewhere! Arrrrggghhh!!!! Besides it's not just beneficial for her, helping means other people will also finally have access to this weapon, which would shift the balances of war massively. This is basically a strategic option, and should be taken ASAP.

Also, if they can finally mass produce it, Anna may actually get 5 more later to complete her 10/10 set if she asked them to make it for her! That or be able to make them herself without having to spend years and years of intense combat to upgrade existing weapon to that level again. Although, I'm not sure if she has any complexity limit left to use them even if she gets them since she's got more stuff intergrated in after she lost those 5 HPPS.
 
This time, there are no individual assessments in the form of written analysis, rather, assessments by entire flights. These reports are purely reflections after the match, rather than one prediction and one review. You send in a response of your own, only to find that Shuri had already covered all salient points.

Huffing in irritation, you retract your original report and work on expanding on points with your own analysis only to find Shuri doing the same. A brief edit war occurs as the two of you revise points to be more and more detailed, adding alternative points of view and arguments for and against those points.

Sandra however cuts you and Shuri off as she locks editing permissions with the note that the reply is meant to be only two thousand words with a five percent margin of error. It was not supposed to be two hundred thousand words and rapidly increasing.

Down below, Setsuna boggles at her datapad before tossing it back into storage with an exasperated huff. Sandra quickly accosts the other girl before she can fall into a sulk and the two begin to edit the report down to something manageable. Of course, neither Meyer nor Leonhart would have any issues reading and digesting the report in seconds, but it's a bad habit to form since it would confound normal humans and… probably most Valkyries cadets wouldn't have an easy time either.

You look on sheepishly as Setsuna sits hunched, her hands bunched in her twintails as she blankly watches her datapad auto-scroll through the pages upon pages of text and diagrams you and Shuri had created. You'd written around one hundred and thirty thousand words and Shuri ninety thousand in the fifteen or so seconds you two had had. You're not at all sure when the two of you would have stopped if all five minutes had been allowed.

I thought this was the funniest part of the update. Man, when Shuri and Anna finally work together on something it's going to be monstrous.
 
5. E26 is no longer extant, refer [Detected Bohr/Einstein Exotic Wave Force Actualisation event no.4; 'First direct observation of Static Wave Force Manipulation'].
Oh, is this the missing Superhuman Childhood Friend?
"Why is a boy in my damn class? I can't deal with this. I never had a boyfriend of my own anyway…"
*snort*
"What do you think Anna, how do we deal with that level of denseness from Koujirou?" Instructor Meyer asks, turning her head to look at you, still leaning against the console.

The two of you had already started casting, but there is a noticeable delay in your response as you scramble to come up with an answer to the rhetorical question, allocating more and more mental resources to it. Surely Instructor Meyer isn't expecting you of all people to have an answer ready for that??? You– you didn't play around with the boys, you weren't that kind of girl!

"I– I don't know what you are talking about, if a b-boy is interested in someone, he'll let them know," you state firmly.

Yes. Firmly, you needed to quash any uncertainty about your character right now–

"What if a girl is interested in a boy, how does she let them know?"

"I– I dunno? She'd– she would have to– um, tell him?"

Meyer is now looking at you with a small smile and you unconsciously scoot a little bit away from the older woman.

"So… why don't you tell Koujirou you like him?"

You blink at that, thrown off the rails by the suggestion.

"Koujirou? Um, I'm not. Interested in Koujirou, I mean."

Why would the Instructor have that idea? You two are friends and comrades, but you're pretty sure Koujirou isn't interested in you. He has Setsuna after all.

Meyer raises an eyebrow, but leans forward a little in interest, "Oh really? Well, why not?"

You hem and haw, it felt a little mean to talk about Koujirou like this, but well, you had to dismiss any mistaken impressions the Instructor had.

"He's well, not really manly," you respond haltingly, "He's too… pretty, really. And short. And thin. Also he's not interested in me, I don't think."

"So you like your men big, hairy and lusty? That's something we have in common," Instructor Meyer grins at you.

"No!?" you squeak, flapping your hands to bat the suggestion away, "I– I– I'm only here to cast the competitions! No more talking about boyfriends!"

"Aww alright."
No, do go on, this stuff is golden!
Huffing in irritation, you retract your original report and work on expanding on points with your own analysis only to find Shuri doing the same. A brief edit war occurs as the two of you revise points to be more and more detailed, adding alternative points of view and arguments for and against those points.
Sandra however cuts you and Shuri off as she locks editing permissions with the note that the reply is meant to be only two thousand words with a five percent margin of error. It was not supposed to be two hundred thousand words and rapidly increasing.

Down below, Setsuna boggles at her datapad before tossing it back into storage with an exasperated huff. Sandra quickly accosts the other girl before she can fall into a sulk and the two begin to edit the report down to something manageable. Of course, neither Meyer nor Leonhart would have any issues reading and digesting the report in seconds, but it's a bad habit to form since it would confound normal humans and… probably most Valkyries cadets wouldn't have an easy time either.

You look on sheepishly as Setsuna sits hunched, her hands bunched in her twintails as she blankly watches her datapad auto-scroll through the pages upon pages of text and diagrams you and Shuri had created. You'd written around one hundred and thirty thousand words and Shuri ninety thousand in the fifteen or so seconds you two had had. You're not at all sure when the two of you would have stopped if all five minutes had been allowed.

Despite their best efforts, Sandra and Setsuna are only able to cut the word count to ninety thousand before the deadline arrives. Shuri and you both wrote in a laconic style that's basically impossible to compress, so Sandra had resorted to outright deleting the speculative scenarios and much of the for and against arguments you and Shuri had written.
...I'm so jealous right now.
Koujirou doing something stupid is a state that achieves peak probability at either seven or thirteen seconds from now.
>There's a pretty high chance Cadet Rokusabe will do something silly around three seconds from now, right? We did a little pattern analysis and we think that's around when anything will probably happen.
I love it how they have calculations and predictive models for his actions. :lol
You jump up and down a little, pumping your fist in silent celebration, before slamming yourself back down into your seat and politely folding your hands across your knees as Meyer throws an inquisitive glance your way. Inside however, you are still brimming with excitement.
Aaawwwwwwww.
Koujirou slams into Emily. The explosion of plasma as their melee halberds clash destroys the hasty minefield Emily had been attempting to deploy, filling the air with even more explosions as Koujirou forces Emily back.

Koujirou does another one of his weird fancy arm movements and with a flourish, Emily is suddenly being dragged after her melee halberd as the Impeller over her helmet smacks into Koujirou's rising knee. You run the motion through your head a few times, considering the move, he'd manipulated their centers of mass and axis of thrust, then locked the two melee halberds in such a way that he could drag Emily around.
Oooh, nice.

Koujirou again displays that strange sudden burst of skill that sometimes comes over him and instantly rights himself from his wild tumble. He almost delicately shifts to the side and stabs his sword into the massive wave of plasma as it roars harmlessly by. With his thrusters bright with stolen energy, he essentially rides down Emily's attack in an absurdly showy spiral, cutting the attack into a helix behind him.

To your side, Meyer slaps both hands over her face and groans loudly. Leonhart broadcasts a second of completely blank audio. You tilt your head in considerable confusion as you try to justify what that stunt gained Koujirou.

Emily halts her plasma attack and ignites her melee halberd, swinging upwards to meet Koujirou. However, his sword is still in its unusual absorb energy mode and the blade simply cuts through Emily's own melee halberd, siphoning away its plasma as it does so. Gracefully, Koujirou swings his sword, depositing the collected plasma in front of Emily. For a brief moment, it remains stable in the air, a trail of plasma following along the path of Koujirou's cut.

Koujirou sheaths his sword and turns around.

The trail of plasma explodes.
...
...
...
HOLY SHOES, THAT WAS AWESOME!!!
For a silent moment, he watches the streaks of light flash across the chambers and shambolic collapse of much of the central chamber, before coming to an abrupt decision. He braces himself and fires a long stream of hyper velocity cannon rounds into the central reactor, then flees.

The entire complex seems to lurch– and the central reactor explodes, with Emily nearly directly above it.
Well. That was fast.
You don't really recall moving, but all of a sudden you're standing just to the side of Koujirou, a few tiny flecks of marble bouncing off your Impeller.
Aaawwwww.
Emily hangs onto Koujirou's hand, sharp incredulity etched across her face. She raises her left hand up in front of Koujirou and smartly raps him on the forehead twice.

"Ow! Hey! What's that for?"

"Hm, strange, it doesn't sound hollow."
Well, of course. It is full density solid.
As you explain to the audience exactly what had happened at the end there at Meyer's prodding, you see Yukari doing the same for Koujirou and Sandra, leaning over the two and animatedly gesturing at a replay.

You've already submitted your analysis of the match.



You feel a little… lonely.
Dammit, Anna, stop plucking my heartstrings.
Rather than dodging, Syifa immediately replies with her own full power plasma caster strike. The two opposing beams collide with a huge fireball, blowing the dust clear from the air and shattering what glass had remained intact across the city.
BEAM STRUGGLE!!! Well, sort of.
"Yes!"

You cheer out loud, jumping in your seat slightly as Setsuna manages to completely absorb the attack with her Impeller.
Anna, you so cute.
"Why?" Setsuna demands blunty.

"You actually want… this, don't you?" asks Syifa, with a broad sweep across the stands, "I don't. Not really."

There's a moment of silence between the two cadets. Syifa's hand still hovers in midair, waiting.

"I mean, what are we doing Setsuna? Really. We know who's the best Vanguard in our Squadron, hell the entire year. You better than most, " Syifa says, shaking her head.

Setsuna stays silent, fuming.

Syifa withdraws her hand and turns away, walking for the stands.

"Well, congratulations on winning the Vanguard tournament, unless you throw matches in the finals I guess."
Whoa. Bitch.
You continue glaring, but your thoughts whirl. From her incident record, Javeria has a propensity to distort the truth and outright lie to incite disputes. She appears to be trying to sow discord between you and the Instructors right now. She is not a reliable source for her own motives.

You turn away and commlink to Instructor Meyer, there's some strange noise at first, but you brush past the weak interference in moments.
Naughty girl, trying to keep this conversation hidden.
"Sorry Setsu, but long live the King."
Hail to the King, baby.
 
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What an update, though maybe Anna speaks more honestly for some of us with:
You're glad it's all over.

It wasn't… terrible
Away with you, tournament arc! And with the awful people that you provided screentime to!

I actually do understand Syifa's perspective a little bit but what a bitch, right? Way to doubly taint anything Setsuna does after that little display.

And the less said about Malik the better.

I thought this was the funniest part of the update. Man, when Shuri and Anna finally work together on something it's going to be monstrous.
(But what if what they work on is Sandra?)

*flees*

Anyway, activities.

These are the only ones I feel pretty strongly about:
-[] Volunteer again for Sandra's UNHCR reconstruction activities.
-[] Attend Instructor training sessions.
-[] Spend time with:
--[] Sandra: Greetings Anna, while we have become closer as a Flight in the past month, but I don't feel as if we've gotten to truly know each other as people, or maybe even this country. What do you say to a short trip around Australia?

That's 30 days total. I'm flexible enough about the other 20 days (Holiday?) Attend training and rank up Target Rich Environment, which is very close to Level 2? Rank up something interesting like Closed Space Precision?
 
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Also. Fuck Javaria. Fuck her. Bitch.
She's... interesting. I understand the knee jerk reaction to her but this is a dark setting in many ways and if mental trauma is the cost of them not dying or getting their flight killed. That is a trade that can be... justified or atleast seen as more palatable.

My point of focus here would probably be in her honest intent rather than the methodology she uses. If she's doing it cause she doesn't want these people to fuck up I'm more willing to give her some measure of slack. If she's doing it cause she wants to be a bitch then no matter the methodology everything she's written is justification.

Her targeting Anna is interesting judging by her M.O Anna looks like her most pressing "case" but that's primarily cause she hasn't actually been told the truth about Anna. Frankly the fact she was trying to go after Anna despite the Academy very clearly declaring her off limits lends weight to the theory she just a bitch.

*Ugh* all this in general makes me wonder what Anna's un redacted psyche profile looks like again and who'd actually have access.
 
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The timeskip will be for a duration of 7 weeks for a total of 50 actionable days, ending at the start of week 14, the start of the second semester. The next section of decompressed story arc will be the "The Enemy of All Mankind" arc. Each day in a timeskip allocates 10 points to spend. 50 days allows for 500 points to allocate to skills and actions.

Skills:
[] Timeskip Activities.
-[] Train skills
--[] Write in.
Well, as seen below, I've gone and used up 49 days worth of skill points. Unless the vacation is separate. Then I've only used 35.
So I have either 10 points or 150 points to spend.
Ok. Looking at Anna's skills. Here's what I suggest.
We can use 10 points to bring nothing up to "Mastered", so I suggest either dumping it in our highest un-mastered stat, Energy Equivalency: Speed: 170, or in our lowest stat, Closed Space: Range: 9.

The following skills have gaps less than 150.
Energy Equivalency:
Speed: 170 (-30, 120 remains)
Efficiency: 60 (-140, 10 remains)
Closed Space:
Speed: 112 (-88, 62 remains)
Efficiency: 148 (-52, 98 remains)
Teleport:
Range: 55 (-145, 5 remains)
Precision: 162 (-38, 112 remains)
Efficiency: 168 (-32, 118 remains)
Interdiction:
Precision: 100 (-100, 50 remains)

So, our possible combos, assuming we take all the non-long term activity options, are:
EE Speed + CC Speed + T Efficiency = 150 points, 0 remaining
EE Speed + CC Efficiency + T Precision = 120 points, 30 remaining
EE Speed + T Precision + T Efficiency = 100 points, 50 remianing
EE Speed + I Precision = 130 points, 20 remaining
EE Efficiency = 140 points, 10 remaining
CC Speed + CC Efficiency = 140 points, 10 remaining
CC Speed + T Precision = 126 points, 24 remaining
CC Efficiency + T Precision + T Efficiency = 122, 28 points remaining
T Range = 145 points, 5 points remaining
T Precision + I Precision = 138 points, 12 remaining
T Efficiency + I Precision = 132 points, 18 remaining

*Edit* Forgot to say that first combo is my favorite cause its an even use of points.


Activities
-[] Volunteer again for Sandra's UNHCR reconstruction activities.
Benefits: General uptick in UN economic power. Long term benefits to human population.
Cost: 21 days - 210 points
-[] Work with the crafting elective class for revised HPP prototype.
Benefits: Completion returns fifth HPP. Uptick in UN Valkyries combat power. Crafting Class will continue working on HPP prototypes regardless of your participation.
Cost: 110 days - 1100 points. (Cannot be completed in timeskip, will be added to long term projects if selected.)

This seems like it would take up the entire time-skip. I think it would be a great long-term project, but I want the other options too much.
-[] Attend Instructor training sessions.
Benefits: Unlocks and trains certain group skills. May train Wave Force.
Cost: 7 days - 70 points.
-[] Attend general Flight training sessions.
Benefits: Unlocks and trains certain group skills. May train Target Rich Environment. May train Wave Force.
Cost: 7 days - 70 points.
So, I want them all.

How do you spend your time during the holidays?
14 days total.
These 14 days are in addition to the other fifty, yes?
Actually, if it doesn't then it combines with our time skip options to be a total of 49 days.
Sorry. Realized that there aren't point costs so these won't count.

[] Holiday Activity
-[] Flight world tour: Visit the homelands of everyone as a flight. An around the world tour of India, Siberia, South Africa, Japan and Canada- maybe not Canada. No? Not India either?
-12 days.
Seems fun. But if we do it we can only spend time with one person/pair.
-[] Spend time with:
On the other hand, "spend time with"'s sub-votes only add up to 6 days out of fourteen.
--[] Koujirou: I guess it all came down to me not being able to stop those missiles in the earlier rounds, clearly I need help with long range things. Gimme a hand?
-2 days.
--[] Yukari and Setsuna: Say Anna, what do you do in your time off? What do you say about dressing up a little, how about your room? Do you have enough furniture?
-2 days.

--[] Sandra: Greetings Anna, while we have become closer as a Flight in the past month, but I don't feel as if we've gotten to truly know each other as people, or maybe even this country. What do you say to a short trip around Australia?
-2 days.
So barring some impressive write-ins, this is my favorite of the vacation options.
-[] Write in activities? (Subject to veto if time allocated doesn't match activity specified)

Each time skip week allows for 1 visit to an elective class. Select five or continue down the list.
[] Continue down the list for next 5 elective classes
[] Write in specific elective classes to visit.
I see no reason to change our plan here.
 
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