Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)

Alivaril · Jan 25, 2020

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @orchamus, @Just_A_Knight, Mr. Silver, @DaGeek247, and my fourteen other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well.

AN: As with It's Not Wrong, this isn't an actual fusion. There's just overlap, similarity, lies, and misinterpretation. Knowledge of @Avalanche's quest BAHHSCQ isn't required (especially since liberties have been taken), but is highly recommended; it's an excellent read and you'll probably enjoy this more. Knowledge of Sanctioned beyond the first two story posts (~1k words) also isn't necessary, but may help.

Again, this isn't an actual fusion. QA is just horribly misinterpreting things and a very unreliable narrator in general. Feedback is appreciated.

Queen Administrator's primary consciousness awoke to the uncomfortable sensation of stones digging into her back. ~~She~~ Host's eyes stared blankly at the sunny blue skies overhead while Host's brain finished its startup sequence.

The last thing Queen Administrator remembered — prior to another night of nonsensical dreaming — was an odd not-quite-discussion with Host regarding the recent string of bombings in Host's hometown, Brockton Bay. The apparent grasslands and air pressure indicated too much of an environmental change to be explained by anything other than another shard. Still, transporting Host without even saying hello or offering to split inbound sensory data? That was just rude. Queen Administrator pushed ~~herself~~ Host upright, found no nearby hosts or signs of human life, and decided the current situation was untenable. They hadn't even left Host with any Friends and Queen Administrator could already feel the bites of tiny insects.

<QUERY,> Queen Administrator demanded irritably.

Queen Administrator impatiently awaited a reply. She didn't need to wait long.

A multi-medium target indicator and tracker lit on Host without any sort of warning or informative consolation packet. Following the optical portion to its source revealed a flying, starfish-like biomechanical life form of unknown size and the tiny rocket it had just fired in Host's direction. The unidentified figure felt like it was host to one of the shards recently acquired from :UNCLE:, yet Queen Administrator was reasonably confident that humans weren't supposed to have access to any technologies that would allow such a form.

Queen Administrator mentally estimated the missile's speed based on its rate of perceived growth, decided she had enough time for ranting before evasion was necessary, and promptly proceeded to yell at the :COUSIN:.

<INDIGNATION. Hey! I know you're new and all, but I'm pretty sure we are not supposed to distribute designs that elegant to local species!>

The missile veered away from Host less than a second after her transmission, puzzling Queen Administrator. She was almost completely certain she'd spoken in proper shard-speech instead of human-speech that time; why did it affect the host themselves? Unless they were a semi-controlled construct or under heavy influence, shards simply shouldn't have had that much control over their hosts. It was bad for research.

After a multi-second delay, the unfamiliar cousin replied to her annoyance with a comparatively odd ping. Host's brow furrowed as Queen Administrator tried to decrypt it. The format was a bit outdated and she was fairly confident there hadn't been a key attached. That normally wouldn't be a problem, but without proper access to her systems, she couldn't manage a brute-force decryption. They would need to change their own communications if QA was to manage any sort of discussion.

<I can't really calibrate my systems for that right now. Would you mind switching over? SUPPLEMENT.>

It took the better part of half a minute for Queen Administrator's new relative to respond.

<QUERY,> it tried again.

Confusion and interest; a desire to learn more. Identification: Decimator. So little information somewhat defeated the purpose of idea-transmissions, but at least Decimator could talk now. It was unfortunate that it didn't know why Host had been included in the current project, though — or, if it knew, it wasn't sharing.

<SATISFACTION. Much better; hello! I'm Queen Administrator. Were you assigned to :MOTHER:?>

Several seconds passed before Decimator responded.

<HISTORY.>

Research and rebellion; theft and flight. Creations turning against their makers and interlopers sheltering them. Resistance and research opportunities; infighting and compromise.

<Mmm. I didn't realize we had two host-species in this world. And your assigned species declared war after humans harbored some of their rebels? That's neat, although I don't think killing Host would teach you anything. I'm not surprised your host-species couldn't unite behind a singular goal, either; the locals seem to be worse at communication than usual.>

Another long, multi-second delay occurred while the future sibling composed a reply. Queen Administrator would clearly need to refer them to Efficiency between cycles; communications shouldn't take so long to compose. Not Broadcast, though.

<ELABORATION.>

Construction and constructs; dedication and population decimation. Apparently, the expensive technology hijacked by humans had proven to be more dangerous than anticipated. Not to the point where they couldn't be destroyed, yet perpetual conflict was still better than complete extermination; improved technologies could be copied from the rebels regardless of their cooperation. Queen Administrator wasn't sure she believed him about the extermination possibility, though. Warfare was most productive when two relatively equal factions uplifted each other in their attempts at survival. Unless...

<Oh, you're basically new Terror Drone models? Less overwhelming and energy-intensive ones? That works.>

<QUERY.>

Queen Administrator almost sent over a detailed information packet before stopping herself. If these were new models, :MOTHER: might want them to come up with new weapons instead of copying the preexisting Terror Drones.

<I think :MOTHER: might want you to make your own weapons instead of copying them, so I can't send over an idea-transmission. Sorry. Terror Drones are what our : PARENTS: use to keep host-species off-balance, ensure a productively life-threatening environment, and explore possible weapons applications for use against :AUNTS: and :UNCLES:. Speaking of which, I'm currently allowed to ask for information from other shards; is there anything useful I can give Host? The designs for one of those rebellious constructs, maybe? It would be helpful for my current objectives.>

The delay stretched to the greater part of a minute before Decimator finally answered.

<DESIGN.>

The blueprints for 'Symbiotic Support Frames' were almost eerily similar to shards. Designed to link to host-species, learn from and improve them, improve on technologies placed in spacial storage, act as a modular weapons platform, imitate a protective exoskeleton, provide life support, and… explode when the inadequately restricted energy convertor went critical? Even in her diminished state, Queen Administrator immediately noticed the deliberate flaw. Her archives might've become a bit unreliable once she accidentally occupied Host, but they could still function when sufficiently prompted.

<Hey, you could've just said no or left that part of the design blank. Host could've gotten a little hurt if I'd made that!>

<WARNING,> it promptly answered.

Judging by the unusually quick response, the sabotage had been some sort of test? Queen Administrator didn't like the implication that Decimator would've let Host die if she hadn't reviewed the designs immediately. She could've been busy! Maybe. Well, okay, probably not. She was a Monarch.

At any rate, the humans in Host's new location didn't really consider singular human casualties to be collateral damage unless they were linked to Symbiotic Support Frames; population centers were their only true concern.

And Decimator's construct is flying away. Okay. Well, Queen Administrator would still need to find a method of keeping Host safe from ongoing combat, but at least she wouldn't be immediately exterminated. Even the most durable of Host's terran-based forms were incapable of surviving high-yield explosives — or at least, the bombs humans thought of as high-yield. The fact that they thought the word fit their own weaponry was adorable.

Host, are you lucid? I don't want you to overexert yourself or anything, but I could use a little help adapting these ideas into a permitted Friend form.

It didn't matter how much time Lieutenant Eshe spent near the Tripoili Major Breach; life had never gotten any easier. As a Valkyrie tasked with scouting and anti-flanking operations, she technically wasn't amid the hardest fighting of the front, but she was well aware of how easily that could change. Being a scanning and electronic warfare specialist meant that she heard every setback, every crippling injury, every fatality, and every grieving Valkyrie. In many ways, it was a blessing that the area had long since been cleared of civilians; if she had to hear them die, too, Eshe would've long since finished breaking.

That didn't make it any less odd to find a transmission utilizing weak encryption algorithms — surely only cadet-level — beneath the normal battlefield environment of enemies, allies, projectiles, decoys, jamming, and general clutter. Cadets didn't belong anywhere near a Major Breach.

>Taylor Hebert: "I could use some help if anyone is close enough to provide it; I'm hungry."

Tracing the transmission's trajectory and passing the data to STRATNET indicated a high probability of it being just another decoy. The new Type Zero had passed through the area a few hours before and spent over two minutes within three kilometers of the transmission's origin — more than enough time to set up something capable of imitating a Valkyrie. Besides, Type Zeros were the ultimate foes of humanity and harbingers of genocide. Even a stealth-specialized Valkyrie wouldn't be able to hide from them for so long. Even if she could, the currently-nicknamed 'Missile Maniac' Type Zero could've just bombed the entire area and moved on.

Lieutenant Eshe made a mental note to send a reconnaissance drone to find and/or destroy the transmission's source when the current skirmish ended. A waste of resources? Maybe. But she'd rather be certain than have what-ifs haunt her nightmares.

It — she — wasn't a decoy and displayed numerous symptoms of shock upon retrieval. Eshe had to wonder if finding strange Valkyries near previously-unknown population centers was going to be a regular thing. Eshe wasn't high enough in rank to actually read the overly classified file of the cadet recently retrieved from Alaska, but Eshe had heard rumors. Provided, this time had just been a newly-destroyed survivalist's bunker instead of a whole town, but the basic idea was the same.

Both incidents were arguably screwups of the highest order, but Lieutenant Eshe didn't mind. Hearing a plea for life that she could actually answer was undeniably the highlight of her year.

For a group of allegedly expert interrogators, the humans who'd tried to question Queen Administrator didn't seem very good at actually obtaining desired information. They couldn't even agree on a consistent strategy; one of them was excessively aggressive and forceful while the other was friendly and willing to answer QA's own questions. QA supposed they may have been trying to compensate for quality with endurance, but she'd been careful to maintain the same answers throughout Host's imprisonment. She'd woken up in a field and with her home gone; a so-called 'Antagonist' had hesitated nearby before moving on; and she didn't know why the apparently-elite 'Type Zero' had left her alive.

All of it was true. They convinced themselves that Queen Administrator's home was the former bunker nearby and that was what she meant by 'gone;' Queen Administrator's Friend-imitation of human 'Valkyrie Cores' apparently had a strange enough signature to excuse overlooking her; and Queen Administrator wasn't sure why the Antagonist had left her alive. She had strong suspicions, but it wasn't as though she'd known Decimator for very long.

They gave up on attempting information-gathering after a week and followed with a capabilities test they apparently found distinctly underwhelming. Having never calibrated her aim with the mass accelerator rifle Queen Administrator had built into Host's new symbiotic Friend, QA had missed every one of the ten shots they'd let her take. Her Maneuvering, Evasion, Flight, and General Combat Ability encountered identical problems. QA's knowledge of the world in general was all-but nonexistent and the only human language she spoke was English.

Her Electronic Warfare and Science scores were apparently well above average, but not exceptional. Queen Administrator felt disproportionately irked by that; it had been the only exams she'd needed to conceal her capabilities for and apparently local humans were more advanced than she'd realized. She'd tried to use techniques, ideas, and encryption methods that should've been on the edge of their current knowledge. Instead, the instructor had decrypted her messages, seen through her decoys in fractions of a second, and said her scientific knowledge was half a century out of date. It was thoroughly irritating and encouraged Queen Administrator to perfectly answer every mathematical question they posed to her, consequences be damned.

Well, almost every question. They'd tried to take a few hours break time to formulate new questions related to dimensional physics and the behavior of compressed energy. QA had decided to stop trying so hard after that and had flubbed any concepts more advanced than the ones they'd previously given her. The proctor had seemed disappointed by her failure, but not surprised.

Overall, ~~Queen Administrator~~ Host was ranked as "Promising, but currently helpless" and tentatively assigned to a Valkyrie educational center in Australia. Queen Administrator would need to wait a few weeks for the new year to start, and in the meantime, she was assigned required reading that Host's unreliable memory probably wouldn't recall. The list of subjects was also intimidatingly large; even at the high rate of 400 words per minute, Queen Administrator still wouldn't be able to finish all her assignments within the allocated time period.

Further improvements to Host were clearly necessary to let Host keep up with the local humans, but for that, Queen Administrator would need to further improve her Friend. Little Symbie was a bit of a rush job; QA had almost exclusively focused on short-term protection instead of overall improvement.

At least the local hosts proved to be unusually accommodating when it came to materials requests; on Host's homeworld, Innovators had needed to work hard to construct anything. The locals seemed more than happy to provide her with the common materials she requested and Symbie had enough stored biomass for QA's purposes.

Captain Liz of the United Nations Air Force abruptly transitioned into wakefulness as a high-priority ping intruded on her senses. It wasn't marked as Antagonist related, but it was apparently time-sensitive. She connected to the sender without ever even opening her eyes.

>Elizabeth Ingra: "Situation?"<

>Elise Boyce: "Miss Hebert's materials requests were so she could do something unknown with her Valkyrie Core. She's currently doing so while still synchronized with it."<

Liz's eyes shot open, the Valkyrie connecting to the surveillance cameras hidden throughout Taylor Hebert's current accommodations even as she sent a request for emergency teleportation authorization. She still got out of bed on the off chance that it wouldn't be approved.

The sight awaiting her was just as horrifying as expected. Future-Cadet Hebert's legs had been all-but replaced by an oozing red mass of bloody flesh mostly surrounding the distinctive white orb of a Valkyrie Core. If Liz didn't know any better, she'd think she was looking at an Antagonist. Humans just didn't do what Hebert was trying; either you were connected to your Valkyrie Core and it invisibly integrated with you, or it was outside your body entirely. This in-between state was new and seriously what the fuck? Tinkering with Valkyrie Cores had never ended well. You could modify the frames they connected to all you wanted, but the Cores themselves were to be left untouched without official authorization and not being synchronized with it.

A moment after Liz's connection, blue sparks jumped out of the Valkyrie Core and vanished into the flesh surrounding it. Hebert didn't appear at all surprised by the activity and even seemed pleased by the possible signs of impending instability.

>Elizabeth Ingra: "How is she not dead? And why haven't you stopped this yet?"<

>Elise Boyce: "I was ordered not to intervene; Captain Itoro wants to know what she intends."<

Daughter of a scum-sucking—

Fortunately, as Itoro wasn't in her chain of command, Liz outranked the other captain in matters related to UN Valkyries. Liz received authorization for the teleport and promptly executed it based on already-prepared calculations. She appeared outside Hebert's quarters, waved them open, and stomped into the room. Hebert looked surprised by the intervention, but not at all guilty.

"Cadet, what do you think you're doing?" Liz demanded.

"…Upgrades?" Hebert hazarded, appearing vaguely confused by the question. After a moment, the technically-not-yet-a-cadet decided to retract the flesh and Valkyrie Core as though they'd never been extended to begin with. "My workload is too large for a baseline human. I sought to let Symbie augment me past the necessary threshold."

It was the work of a thought to bring up Hebert's reading list. Sure enough, some idiot had given Hebert a pile of work without specifying she was supposed to do as much as she felt comfortable with, not all of it. Hebert might be able to work her way through shockingly advanced levels of mathematics, but she did so slowly; despite showing the emotionlessness and eccentric behavior often indicative of a severe case of Induced Empathy Loss-Detachment Syndrome, or 'Valkyrie Syndrome,' Liz was pretty sure Hebert was still close to being entirely unaugmented. Otherwise, Hebert would've correctly answered far more of the answers on her science tests through mere logic.

Liz tried not to grind her teeth or swear up a storm. The latter was unbecoming of a lady and the former was simply a bad habit to get into. One of Liz's old squadmates had accidentally injured her face by trying to grind teeth with a Valkyrie Frame extended.

"You can't store a Valkyrie Core in itself, Cadet," Liz snarled. "Good Gods, I don't even know what possessed you to try. If your workload is too large, the solution is to consult a comrade or your superior officer, not horrifying experimentation with Valkyrie storage."

"I am not horrified," Hebert reasoned. "Therefore, it was not horrifying."

Liz opened her mouth, stopped herself, and decided it was entirely too late to be having a logical argument with someone who wouldn't be sixteen for a few more months. Liz would tackle the problem in the morning.

"You are hereby ordered to not do that again," Liz commanded. "I've updated your reading list to make the expectations clearer; you're supposed to read some of the list, not all of it."

And Hebert even had the gall to pout, as though she hadn't just displayed perhaps the worst example of body horror Liz had ever seen outside a battlefield.

"Understood."

Half a world away and just outside a UN Air Force research facility, Anna Sanchez felt her lips turn downward with disappointment. She didn't have any problems with what Taylor had been doing. She was pretty sure it was just a fleshier version of one of her own materials assimilation methods. It was rare for her to not be certain, though, and the contrast was rather nice. Anna would need to ask Taylor about it when they were at the same academy. Even if Taylor's technique was inferior to her own methodology, at least Anna would know what it was; maximal effectiveness was paramount in combat against Antagonists.

Alivaril · Jan 25, 2020

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @orchamus, @Just_A_Knight, Mr. Silver, @DaGeek247, and my fourteen other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well.

AN: I would like to again remind people that this is not a fusion, Antagonists have nothing to do with shards, and Queen Administrator is an EXTREMELY unreliable narrator. Those facts are part of the comedy. Also, a friendly reminder that Captain Elizabeth Ingra = Liz. POV switches and all that.

Alivaril said:
I.E. the information provided to QA may or may not have been a partial or complete pile of lies/propaganda, and just as in It's not wrong to make Friends in the Dungeon, she cheerfully interpreted what she was told to fit her own worldview.

Much of the first two chapters also do more telling and expositing than showing, which (unfortunately) harmed a scene at the end of this chapter; chapter 3 is where I think it properly picks up. EDIT: Some readers appear to prefer chapter 5+ instead, when the Crafting Club is introduced.

The nameless girl thought she might've gotten just a teensie bit lost. Just a little ittie-bittie bit. In hindsight, maybe it hadn't been a good idea to climb over the wrought iron fence. And the stone fence after that. And the mountain after that. And over the six other wall variants, and through the tunnel, and… well, maybe she'd wandered a bit far away from her usual gazebo. She wasn't even sure Kansas existed where she was.

Her new location was pretty cool even if she was lost, though. Her guest-self had given her the ability to turn into a flying blood-red knight-mecha, Decimator had seemed friendly even if the nameless girl didn't understand nearly all of the conversation between herself and him, and the numerous nearby rips in the fabric of reality were pretty to look at. All in all, it seemed like a pretty good vacation home. Sci-fi was more fun than gritty urban warfare anyway.

~ ~ ~

Queen Administrator was quite glad she'd already managed to grant Symbie the capability for self-improvement to match provided designs. It was rapidly becoming clear that the local Valkyries were not as smart as they seemed to think they were; Captain Elizabeth Ingra of the United Nations Air Force was repeating a variant on the same lecture for the third time. QA knew that humans were forgetful, but this was just ridiculous. Unless Captain Ingra believed that rephrasing her points would make them seem like new ones? It was possible; humans seemed ignorant enough not to notice such a ploy. All it did was irritate Queen Administrator, though. It wasn't as though they were actual people, yet they seemed woefully oblivious to that fact and continued to waste QA's time.

"Taylor, your Valkyrie Core is not a toy," Captain Ingra stressed. "Attempting to experiment with Valkyrie Cores without prior authorization is illegal. Having 'Symbie' is a privilege that can and will be revoked if you abuse it."

No it can't. Symbie was designed to work with Host and Host only. Anyone else trying would be shocked on the first offense, forced away on the second, and utilized for spare parts on the third.

The captain paused and finally added new content to her speech.

"Speaking of which, we're well away from the fighting now. You can desynchronize from your Valkyrie Core if you want to."

Queen Administrator blinked. Given the close chronological proximity between mentioning their alleged ability to confiscate Symbie and the offer, she sincerely doubted it was made in good faith. Even if QA was now technically part of the United Nations Air Force, she still didn't trust them.

"I would prefer to remain connected with her," Queen Administrator said instead. "It is more comfortable."

And it was more comfortable. Granting Host a high-mobility armored exoskeleton that she could extrude at will granted Queen Administrator a peace of mind she hadn't realized she was missing.

"No discomfort?" Captain Ingra questioned. "No headaches, nosebleeds, body aches, chills, fever, exhaustion, brain aneurysms, nothing?"

Queen Administrator spend a moment determining whether the question was yet another attempted test of her normality before deciding it was irrelevant. She didn't want to do anything that would encourage local humans to attempt a separation of her and Symbie.

"I am more comfortable than I was prior to synchronization with her," Queen Administrator said instead. "Are Valkyrie Cores not intended for general improvement of connected items, including those of their user? If so, wouldn't it be best to allow them as much time as possible for upgrades?"

Captain Ingra inhaled through her teeth and shook her head.

"There are a lot of things they can 'upgrade' away that people need. Empathy, regret, patience, love."

"…That would not be an upgrade," Queen Administrator noted, puzzled. Emotions were one of the primary motivators for humans; they would function even more poorly without their full spectrum. "Emotions are essential."

Captain Ingra snorted and gave Queen Administrator an odd look.

"Why yes, yes they are. Look in the mirror. Do you even realize how lifeless you sound right now?"

"I sound neutral," Queen Administrator promptly protested. "It is more effective than pretending to feel specific emotions. Feedback is necessary in order to encourage or discourage specific behaviors."

More importantly, Queen Administrator had yet to reliably express emotions without receiving strange reactions from those nearby. She'd prefer to learn how to interpret the actions of others before she tried regular imitation.

"I really do think you should consider taking a break," Captain Ingra persisted. "I don't think being synchronized this long is healthy for you. Adults only do it because we need to."

"I am becoming increasingly healthy the longer I am connected," Queen Administrator noted. "I do not want to desync."

Captain Ingra examined Queen Administrator in silence before deciding to be unnecessarily unreasonable about QA's refusal.

"Fine. By the way, your unquestioned materials requisition privileges are suspended until further notice. You can fill out the paperwork like any other cadet."

Queen Administrator felt Host's face mold into unhappiness without her active input. That seemed like a highly disproportionate response for a successful upgrade. It wasn't like she'd been experimenting; experimentation implied that she didn't know what would happen. What she did was mere engineering. In other words, she was merely being punished for refusing to heed Captain Ingra's suggestion.

"That seems highly unreasonable," Queen Administrator objected.

"No, it's perfectly reasonable," Ingra rebuked. "You had special privileges and you abused them for an unauthorized, reckless attempt to improve your Valkyrie Core and/or yourself. Conservative energy estimates peg them as being capable of wiping out an entire country. Worse ones indicate they could kill our atmosphere. You will not be treated any worse than any other cadet; if you want a weapon or have a specific object you wish to create, you may submit a project outline or weapons acquisition request."

The Valkyrie hesitated for several seconds.

"When you get to the Perth Valkyrie Academy, I think you should try out the Crafting Club," Ingra reluctantly added. "I think you'd fit right in. And don't think you're not still getting special treatment; most cadets aren't allowed to keep their Valkyrie Cores equipped until their third year. Dismissed."

"Punishing me for refusing to desynchronize from Symbie remains pointlessly spiteful," Queen Administrator persisted.

"That is not what I was doing, and 'Dismissed' is essentially an order to get out, Hebert."

Queen Administrator huffed unhappily and trudged out of the room. At least the captain hadn't tried to make Queen Administrator comply through physical force. QA would likely lose until she knew how to properly utilize her new Friend.

The delay before Queen Administrator's school session was both more and less productive than initial estimates suggested. Apparently, the energy convertor Decimator had sabotaged was very important and allowed what the local humans called 'Impeller Fields,' a versatile tool that aided in defense, gravity and spacial control, local manipulation of the laws of physics, instantaneous movement across significant distances, and numerous other useful effects. Absorbing energy from incoming attacks seemed to be the most important part, though; the rest of the list supposedly took significant amounts of skill with Impeller Field control.

Since Queen Administrator was originally forced to create an apparently improper substitute for the missing reactor in Decimator's trapped gift, Symbie was initially incapable of creating Impeller Fields no matter what QA did. This seemed to both frustrate and puzzle the local Valkyries. Apparently, Queen Administrator wasn't supposed to be able to synchronize with a Valkyrie Core at all without acquiring an active Impeller Field by default. The lack thereof seemed to provide local non-hosts with an adequate explanation for why Decimator had 'overlooked' Host. However, they all agreed that it was a crippling weakness that wasn't at all worth the potential stealth applications.

Queen Administrator would ultimately need to wait a week for the replacement energy reactor components she'd requested. Symbie was going to deconstruct and repurpose those components immediately after storage, of course, but it had been a good test to determine what resources would be allocated to a normal cadet and it provided an adequate alibi for the changes that would allow an Impeller Field.

However, the request was not without consequence. While she was waiting for the new reactor, Queen Administrator was brought to an armored fortress that apparently specialized in research and development. Those inside seemed thoroughly confused by the barrier that protected Queen Administrator whenever she wore Simbie. They knew it wasn't an Impeller Field, yet they had understandable trouble determining what it was. They quickly figured out that it made Host and Symbie more durable than they should've been, but not why. QA chose not to enlighten them as to its nature as a helmet-granted hat-power.

After their allotted week was up, the Valkyrie-scientists seemed to give up and sent Queen Administrator back to the previous United Nations Air Force outpost/airbase. The generator components were waiting for her and Symbie was able to use them to create a suitable energy convertor without any problems. Those nearby seemed relieved that Queen Administrator was subsequently capable of generating and manipulating an Impeller Field like any other Valkyrie.

That did not mean her restrictions were lifted, though. To her great annoyance, Queen Administrator was not permitted to experiment with flight, electronic warfare, weapons, or any of the essential Valkyrie skills other than Impeller Field use. Even then, Queen Administrator was not allowed to perform Impeller Field practice out of specifically designated areas and was forbidden from exceeding an altitude of five meters or an Impeller Field extension beyond ten meters. Oh, they said it was for the safety of herself and others, but Queen Administrator wasn't human; she wouldn't accidentally kill somebody. Probably. And if she did, it wasn't like they'd have mattered anyway.

She didn't let their interference stop her. Or rather, it did stop her from high-velocity flight practice, but it wasn't like precise impeller control was that difficult anyway. For her. Humans seemed to have a lot more difficulty with it. The annoying part was finding things to do with that control; without more precise sensors to take readings or access to her archives, Queen Administrator couldn't do much more than form a rapidly rotating barrier to damage and/or disintegrate nearby matter. Nobody even complimented her on her progress; she wasn't sure they'd even noticed. Not being recognized stung more than she expected, too; humans might not be actual people, but apparently Host's brain was unaware of that and wanted their validation. Hopefully, the Australian Valkyrie Academy wouldn't have the same problems.

~ ~ ~

Meanwhile, in the lounge of Big Sister...*
*Not their actual name no matter how many petitions they make.

"Hey, come look at this Cadet Initiate's record; she's gone from bumbling to blender in less than a month."

"Hebert? I already looked. She's promising, but will remain useless for anything other than a fleeting distraction for at least another year. She's not our concern until then."

"…Okay, you clearly need a break. Tickle time~"

"Wha—Get off of me, you madwoman!"

~ ~ ~

During the final week prior to her departure, Queen Administrator was annoyed enough to consider simply ditching the military base and returning to talk with Decimator some more. The local anti-air emplacements discouraged her from turning such impulses into actual actions; she still hadn't managed to calibrate her control of Symbie and high-speed flight would be beyond her. In the end, she couldn't do anything more productive than complete a large portion of the reading material she'd previously been assigned.

Apparently, the current Earth's recorded year was 2070. Queen Administrator still wasn't sure if that indicated a deliberately time-accelerated dimension or if Host herself had been placed in stasis for almost six decades. Regardless, a large meteorite ended up impacting Earth in 2012. The so-called 'Impactor' was the harbinger of disaster, catastrophic civilization failure, and the mysterious items known as Valkyrie Cores. Apparently, humans hadn't been deliberately harboring an enemy faction; Decimator had either been incorrect or had actively deceived her.

The purposes of the glowing white spheres were initially unknown. With direct skin contact, they would occasionally vanish into a (almost always female) human's body; further applications were unclear. It wasn't until later that humans realized that, after being absorbed into a human, those humans could also absorb other technologies and materials and later extend them from storage in an improved state. Decimator failed to mention that extruding an armored exoskeleton was not an innate capability of a Valkyrie Core; instead, dramatically upgraded infantry power armor was responsible for the frames of most Valkyries.

The capabilities of stored and synchronized items were often added to a Valkyrie's abilities as long as that item remained within the boundaries of a human's Impeller Field — which, incidentally, was apparently part of why the local humans were so confused by Symbie's lack of one. Their understanding of the baseline laws of physics didn't play nice with Valkyrie Cores. Fortunately, they knew enough to admit that it was still technically physics and sought to study the changes and the resulting phenomena without complaint.

At any rate, humans had gotten rather lazy after being provided with self-upgrading items for several decades. Was it any surprise that the alien Antagonists would, in 2057, be deployed through the tornado-like Breaches to make humans do more productive things with their lives? Shards (or in this case, their creations) weren't meant to do all the work. Humans were slaughtered in droves until Valkyries desynced from infrastructure and started connecting to proper weaponry. A proper pushback took them several months, likely indicating that Decimator had been truthful about the Antagonist's lack of motivation regarding complete elimination of the human race. It should've been easy to totally eliminate humans with that much time to work with. Oh, the humans said that Valkyries (and prolific use of Valkyrie-upgraded nuclear weapons) were responsible for humanity's bare survival, but really. What kind of self-respecting Terror Drone variant would fail to exterminate a species if they were truly tasked with doing so? New or not, they wouldn't mess up that badly.

Still, it took years until Antagonists were fought to a relative standstill and human population levels stopped plummeting. In the modern era, the majority of humanity lived in massive 'Arcologies,' armored cities built and maintained by one or more dedicated Valkyries. Overall, humanity was allegedly winning the war under the efficient leadership of the global United Nations government, if slowly.

…Queen Administrator suspected the historical records she'd been given had been heavily doctored to provide uplifting military propaganda. Despite the higher technology and weapons capabilities of Valkyries, the number of active Major Breaches and Antagonistic attackers seemed to be going up, not down, and ever more dangerous models of Antagonist were being deployed. Type Zeros — such as Decimator's projection, now known to the locals as 'Macross' — required dedicated battalions of Valkyries just to distract them, let alone achieve a kill, and six more Type Zeros were appearing every year. It seemed closer to a stalemate than any sort of slow victory.

Still, at least they were doing a better job than Host's homeworld. Those humans hadn't been handling the Terror Drone attacks very well at all and near-total extinction would likely occur within another few decades. It was rather pitiful; it'd been over a decade since Terror-Drone #1's deployment and Host's homeworld still hadn't managed to kill his extension. He didn't even really dodge! Queen Administrator knew Sting had been deployed this Cycle, so why hadn't they managed to kill TD #1 yet?

Queen Administrator shook her head and returned to her recommended reading. Propaganda or not, it was important to know what the average entry-level combatant knew.

Other interesting factoids apparently included the fact that, as indicated in the histories, there were over two hundred female Valkyries for every male Valkyrie. In other words, there were less than a hundred males among the twenty thousand active Valkyries. Queen Administrator found that design decision rather odd; the differences between males and female humans were minimal. Why prioritize one gender over the other? It seemed heavily at odds with the local decision to treat this version of Earth as an Innovation-dedicated experimental world.

Valkyrie Cores were not interchangeable; they appeared to have specialties and preferences of partner-types. The group known as 'the 300,' however, had no observed compatibility problems among humans capable of synchronizing with other Valkyrie Cores. As a result, humanity had dedicated significant resources toward upgrading the frames associated with them; the easier it was to use a Valkyrie Core, the less downtime there was between users. In the (frequent) event of a 300 member's demise, then a new Valkyrie would be invited to join their ranks. Or would receive a mandatory promotion to them. The files seemed to be a little inconsistent on which it was supposed to be.

Human maths and sciences had undeniably exceeded the usual limitation on what was deemed a safe world. Queen Administrator rather wondered what had prompted the policy change; usually, they'd be exterminated or dimensionally isolated to prevent interference with the Cycle. QA was sure :MOTHER: knew best, though.

Queen Administrator ultimately needed the aid of an automated reminder to remember she should pack what few belongings she'd been given — mostly a personal tablet and navy blue exercise uniforms with gold trim — but she'd also been given a piece of metal from the bunker that local humans thought used to be her home. It was a convenient excuse, so Queen Administrator would need to keep aids on hand.

Queen Administrator also had an unexpected visitor before ~~her~~ Host's departure: Captain Ingra, the same non-host Valkyrie who'd punished Queen Administrator so harshly. The unreasonable woman took one look at the top of Host's head and sighed.

"Have you bathed at all since you were assigned these quarters?"

"…No," Queen Administrator admitted. "Symbie handles all of that for me; it's much more convenient than trying to struggle with chemical bottles liable to hurt my eyes."

The captain shook her head, sighed, and grabbed Queen Administrator's bag.

"The charter jet won't be here for a while yet. Go take a bath; if you keep leaving personal hygiene to your Valkyrie Core, you'll end up with armored hair or something."

Queen Administrator blinked. She failed to see why that was a bad thing.

"That sounds incredibly useful," Queen Administrator admitted. "I fail to see why this is being treated as a problem; the human skull and what it protects is a single point of failure. Even a little additional armor would be helpful."

Captain Ingra produced a sound of disgust and nudged her way into Queen Administrator's assigned bedroom, heading toward the attached bathroom.

"We're not savages, Taylor. Did you even look at the settings on this thing? I suppose not. Your Valkyrie Core will heal any damage from cosmetic products in moments, so you will use the bath I'm going to draw up for you. I swear, it's like taking care of children sometimes…"

"Technically, I am still a child."

Ingra rudely ignored her. Queen Administrator was getting rather tired of that; it was bad enough that she hadn't encountered any real people since Decimator, but then they had to go and ignore her, too.

Twenty minutes later, Queen Administrator was grudgingly feeling much less upset about Captain Ingra's flaws and past obstruction. Introducing QA and Host to the wonders of modern bathing would earn Ingra forgiveness for some of her past sins. She still wouldn't be extended personhood, of course, but baths were significantly more pleasant than anticipated. There were reflective bubbles, pleasant scents, fractal water dispersion patterns, and most importantly, automatic dispersion of soap and shampoo.

However, she was warned that Perth Valkyrie Academy likely only had such luxuries for students acknowledged as exemplary among their year. Everyone else had roommates and inferior facilities. QA wasn't intimidated; she was sure she would do perfectly once she was allowed to calibrate Host's control over Symbie's weaponry and systems. QA could abandon whatever useless non-host she'd been saddled with at that point.

The jet was an even more pleasant surprise. Descriptions of the trip to Perth Valkyrie Academy had given Queen Administrator the impression of a cramped space filled with thirty-plus giggling human girls yammering of inane subjects. Instead, there were only two other passengers — Anna Sanchez and Rokusabe, surname unknown — and Anna was perfect. Well, not perfect since that was a physical impossibility, but Queen Administrator was having serious trouble looking away from the ~~non-host~~ Valkyrie. QA blamed Host's hormones. Yes, the human adolescent had rather nice brown curls, a bone structure optimized for maneuverability, skin that seemed to reflect slightly more light than human skin usually did, and violet eyes that were clearly disguises for advanced optical sensors, but human reproduction was icky and… and Anna was female, wasn't she? Queen Administrator would not need to tolerate requests for excessively physical attention should they become sufficiently close allies. That was immensely relieving.

Queen Administrator and Anna Sanchez spent the first five minutes of the flight merely examining one another. It was not a disappointing experience. Anna Sanchez perfectly tilted her head to better intercept incoming sounds, continuously shifted her balance in order to ensure the optimal kickoff point in the event of an attack on the plane, and generally appeared to be prepared for an attack at any time. Queen Administrator couldn't help but wonder if this entire world was intended to find ways to make human designs and behavior into less of an eyesore. If so, :MOTHER: had undeniably succeeded with Anna.

"Do you two know each other?" Rokusabe finally demanded, her volume on the very edge of shouting.

Queen Administrator immediately hated Rokusabe. QA was busy admiring Anna's design; she did not need a useless non-host interrupting!

""No,"" Queen Administrator and Anna simultaneously replied as soon as Rokusabe finished speaking.

Both Anna and QA herself turned back to each other, once again at the same time and at the same rate. Even though Anna technically wasn't a real host, Queen Administrator believed that the female adolescent still deserved personhood. None of the other Valkyries had displayed optimal movement habits; despite her status as a cadet, Anna had undeniably undergone a significant amount of personal enhancement. Unfortunately, some of it may have added to her height. Queen Administrator felt disproportionately displeased by the fact that Anna was taller than Host. Queen Administrator really didn't know why she felt that way; greater size provided few benefits to humans. It was possible that she was transferring irritation from Rokusabe's meddling self to someone who didn't actually deserve it. Humans seemed irrational enough to do such things.

"I know of an incident of interest," Anna added, maintaining her attention to Host. "But Taylor does not know me. Why were you attempting to upgrade Symbie?"

"Er…" Rokusabe interrupted. "Who? What?"

Stop. Talking.

"My Valkyrie Core," Queen Administrator answered shortly, keeping her eyes on Anna's pleasingly immobile form. No wasted movement. "She was missing necessary capabilities. She has them now."

"Frame or core?" Rokusabe interrupted, seemingly still lost.

"Core," Anna answered. "May I have the sensory data? Or a sufficiently detailed explanation. Your Valkyrie Frame is puzzling."

"No, seriously, what?" Rokusabe interrupted. "You were messing with your Valkyrie Core? Do you have any idea how illegal that is?"

Queen Administrator waved one hand irritably. She'd long since gotten tired of all the ~~people~~ non-hosts telling her she'd done something wrong. She couldn't even properly contradict them without revealing Symbie's nature as a Friend instead of a standard Symbiotic Support Frame. Worse still, Rokusabe seemed determined to interrupt someone clearly superior to her, Anna Sanchez, at every available opportunity. Queen Administrator hated the non-host more with every word. Couldn't the worthless obstruction see that they were busy?

"Symbie wasn't finished yet. She is now. Anna: I do not have sensors detailed enough to capture the necessary level of detail, and the improvements are already completed. Symbie now has the full suite of standard Valkyrie Core capabilities and I do not remember the exact mechanisms. The UNAF punished me anyway."

"No wonder," Rokusabe grumbled. "Even if it worked out, do you have any idea the kind of research opportunity you just threw away? Valkyrie Cores are basically big mystery blackboxes. Even seeing someone finish an incomplete one would've been hugely helpful."

Which is exactly why I did it without micro-scale sensors watching. It wouldn't do to grant humans the ability to produce their own copies of Valkyrie Core imitations when the current experiment so clearly mandated a carefully controlled number of them.

"May I see Symbie?" Anna asked.

Queen Administrator didn't see any reason why she shouldn't allow such a thing. It took several seconds to uncouple Host from the safety harness, followed by exactly one more second to extrude Symbie's armored exoskeleton. The rapid appearance of the layers of red armor from the surface of Host's skin earned an involuntary defensive twitch and less involuntary noises from Rokusabe.

"Gah! Girls, come on!" Rokusabe objected. "Can't you wait even the one hour it'd take for us to get there?"

Anna and Queen Administrator gave the non-host all the attention she deserved: none. The fact that Anna appeared to recognize the status of normal non-hosts as irrelevant, irritating entities only served to further improve Queen Administrator's opinion of the taller girl.

"Significantly smaller than average," Anna calmly observed.

Queen Administrator felt irrationally inadequate once more and retracted Symbie's exoskeleton. She would need to review the design and resize — wait. Why was she going to do that? A smaller size meant a smaller target. Larger size might allow more armor plating and more surface area for hardpoints, but Symbie didn't yet have any weapons beyond her mass accelerator rifle. It would be better to increase Symbie's size as she gained new weapons, wouldn't it? That was the rationale she'd originally settled on.

"Hey," Rokusabe halfheartedly objected. "Don't go thinking that Valkyrie Frame size is everything. Smaller size, smaller target."

"Smaller surface area," Anna disagreed, unknowingly echoing Queen Administrator's own thoughts. "Less armor, fewer hardpoints, less space for essential systems."

Queen Administrator frowned and nodded in acknowledgement. It wasn't as though she'd need to perform additional calibrations; Impeller Field skills would transfer and Queen Administrator hadn't had the opportunity to calibrate anything else.

"I will utilize a new frame."

Anna's brow furrowed in the moment before Rokusabe objected. Apparently, the non-host was once again choosing to waste the time of actual people as though it'd somehow compensate for her own worthlessness. It was like listening to Broadcast all over again, but at least he was technically a sibling. Queen Administrator still loathed him, of course, but he did occasionally produce something of worth. He generally wasted the total output of multiple stars in doing so, but it occasionally did happen.

"Uh, the power armor for Valkyrie Frames is pretty expensive, you know?" Rokusabe pointlessly asked. "And the upgrading process would need to start all over from scratch if you did that. Just ignore Anna and keep what you've got; I'm sure you'll do fine with Symbie. Don't go tinkering with her again, okay? Valkyrie Cores are a finite, non-renewable resource and their Frames are almost as vital; I've heard of a few cadets that had their Cores confiscated and earned a dishonorable discharge when they proved irresponsible enough. You don't want to join them."

Queen Administrator was getting thoroughly tired of the repeated threats, especially from someone who wouldn't shut up and let QA admire Anna. Yes, the local non-hosts were more advanced than standard safety protocols dictated. Yes, they could currently crush Host with impunity. But the idea that they could do so and then use a Friend afterward was infuriating. The loyalty of QA's bioengineered Friends was not something that could be undone, even by her siblings; she'd been very careful about that after the first few incidents in past Cycles. Subordination would require enemies to rebuild a Friend's brain almost from scratch.

"Symbie will eat them if they try," Queen Administrator snapped. "I found her," on the ground, after making her, "and she is only compatible with me. She is my Friend and the idea that humans continue to think they could confiscate her is incredibly insulting."

Rokusabe tilted her head to one side. Anna's brow kept its wrinkles.

"Er, when you say eat them…" Rokusabe half-asked.

Elaboration should not have been required. Deterrence was implied; the fact that Rokusabe wanted specifics indicated that she was still trying to determine ways to suborn Symbie and/or continue to act as an unnecessary obstruction. Queen Administrator would need to be as blunt as possible.

"Debilitating shocks on the first offense. Force pulses on the second. Repurposing as spare parts on the third."

Rokusabe appeared suitably intimidated. Anna's expression returned to neutrality, but that was only to be expected. Someone so clearly superior to other humans wouldn't be stupid enough to attempt theft of Symbie in the first place.

"Uh. Okay, wow, never heard of that before. Do you mean first three attempts per person, or…?"

Queen Administrator felt her temper flare. The non-host was still trying to determine the limitations of Symbie's defenses? QA had tolerated a great deal from the local humans and they never ceased to disappoint her.

"Whichever is better for deterrence."

"That is seriously effed up. Like, wow. Is your Core defective or something?"

Queen Administrator's fraying patience snapped. She'd just said that Symbie was her own Friend, and this human still insulted them both! Since Queen Administrator never had gotten around to putting back on the safety harness, she didn't need to remove it to attack. She just had to manifest Symbie and move to indicate that no, Queen Administrator's Friend was not defective. The non-host would survive, if just barely, and she would learn not to insult Symbie in the future.

The attack didn't land. Between milliseconds, Anna had somehow moved out of her drop harness and caught Queen Administrator's enraged punch with a black-armored hand and forearm. Queen Administrator blinked at it. She'd neither seen the Valkyrie move, nor did she realize it was possible to only manifest portions of one's exoskeleton. How was that supposed to work when different parts of it were meant to support each other?

"No fighting," Anna coldly ordered.

Queen Administrator mentally reviewed her lack of knowledge regarding Anna's movements, compared it to the perfectly visible speed of the Valkyrie that had recovered her, and decided against objections. She was thoroughly outmatched; damage control was necessary.

"It was not going to be a fight," Queen Administrator justified. "I was just going to nonlethally punch her for insulting Symbie."

"That is worse," Anna curtly informed her.

"And I'm a Senior," Rokusabe said, aghast. "I could've extended Nue in the time it took you to cross the last few feet. Unlike some people, I just have the self-control not to attack other Valkyries. Seriously, the hell, Hebert? Save it for the Antagonists. You're not a civilian anymore; that kind of thing can get you court-martialed."

Archival note: Local Valkyries may be significantly more dangerous than their surface features and personality would suggest.

Anna twitched and released Queen Administrator's hand. The shard-temporarily-turned-human retracted Symbie back into storage and retreated to her seat. It'd been a large number of Cycles since she'd misjudged a possible threat quite so badly, let alone two of them. She hoped none of her siblings ever found out; their teasing would be humiliating. But they were going to find out, weren't they? Valkyries might not be real hosts, but they were recording data that could be reviewed by shards later on. Queen Administrator couldn't even intercept and discreetly delete this incident; she was assigned to :FATHER: for the foreseeable future and this was one of :MOTHER:'s projects.

Rokusabe's displeasure seemingly faded in the face of Queen Administrator's self-castigation. QA was pretty sure the human was misinterpreting the reason for QA's emotion, but she wouldn't complain about the small boon.

"Uh, just don't do it again, okay?" the Senior requested uncomfortably. "Seriously, someone could get hurt."

"Humans are not the enemy," Anna added firmly, eyes still fixed firmly on Queen Administrator.

Queen Administrator nodded meekly.

"I'm sorry," she honestly apologized, if only to Anna herself. Rokusabe's opinion was irrelevant.

Queen Administrator hadn't meant to earn the ire of the only worthwhile non-host she'd encountered so far. Still, the encounter had demonstrated some rather glaring deficiencies in the designs Queen Administrator had implemented with Host's aid. Advanced they may be by the standards of Host's own homeworld, but it was clear they were woefully inadequate for this version of it. It seemed as though Decimator's 'gift' had been a trap on more than one level, the jerk. Although, QA had requested something to help Host survive, not thrive. He'd provided exactly what she'd asked for and had even spared Host's life. QA would just need to be clearer in future communications.

Even after the apology, Anna still watched Queen Administrator with silent wariness. The continued assessment as a potential threat instead of an ally felt awful.

Queen Administrator was just starting to curl in her seat when her tablet beeped at her. The shard hesitated, retrieved it from her bag, and found her mood flipping in a moment. Anna Sanchez appeared to have sent her the specifications for what appeared to be some form of advanced sensory suite. Oh, Queen Administrator would need to adapt the design for Symbie's use, but it was clearly a peace offering.

Anna Sanchez: (File Attachment)

>Taylor Hebert: "Thank you. I again apologize for attempting to attack Rokusabe."<

Anna's newest response arrived within less than a second.

>Anna Sanchez: "Don't do it again."<

>Taylor Hebert: "I won't."<

~ ~ ~

"Ha ha, what the fuck. How is Hebert not seeing a therapist by now? I mean, I know Psych is hugely overworked and all, but damn. From annoyance to assault-inducing rage to the edge of tears in less than thirty seconds. "

"Psych staff can't find you if you don't have an Impeller Field? Jokes aside, yeah, deeeefinitely putting a note down to get the oversight fixed. She shouldn't know anything that's restricted heavily enough for the usual personnel problems."

Alivaril · Jan 25, 2020

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @orchamus, @Just_A_Knight, Mr. Silver, @DaGeek247, and my fourteen other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well.

Rokusabe Yukari was feeling remarkably redundant right then. She was supposed to welcome Taylor Hebert to Perth Academy campus and guide Anna Sanchez around it, yet it was pretty clear Yukari had screwed that up almost as badly as her relationship with her current Combat Flight. Yukari had accidentally offended both the other cadets over the course of the airplane ride: once by asking where Sanchez had come from, and once by implying that Hebert's Valkyrie Core was defective.

Now all she could really do was fidget and watch Hebert struggle with what Yukari increasingly suspected was full-fledged infatuation. She even thought the new cadet was blushing, and... yep, sensors confirmed it. That was definitely a blush. Yukari vaguely wondered if Sanchez realized how blatantly Hebert was crushing on her. The staring had been bad enough before they started sharing possibly-classified designs like they were candy, but afterward, Hebert couldn't seem to resist sneaking a glance every few seconds while Sanchez waited patiently for Hebert to finish her own side of whatever they were doing. Eye contact was inevitable and only seemed to make Hebert even more flustered.

The Dating Advice and Matchmaking club must never learn.

Really, that place was where romance went to die. What kind of idiots thought a romance club occupied by single teenage girls without easily accessible targets would be a good idea? The only advice they could provide would be birthed from whatever dating they'd gotten in prior to becoming cadets. Honestly, they spent most of their time ranking people by appeal and giggling over them. It was pretty scary and their bias was equally irritating. What kind of a list title was "If you had to settle for a girl," anyway? ...Unless it was a decoy, an inside joke, or simple wishful thinking. Actually, those hypotheses seemed frighteningly plausible. Rumor had it that Valkyrie Cores could upgrade people in directions they wanted, but might not necessarily be comfortable with, annnnnnd Yukari should probably stop trying to peek inside that rabbit hole.

Still, Yukari remained more than halfway convinced that the less-than-closeted members among the Horticulture Club's ranks would have significantly better advice to give. More experience and they might even be able to help with flowers.

Hebert sent off her latest design with a swipe across her tablet. Yukari forced herself out of strange speculation and took a deep breath. Now or never.

"I'm sorry for offending you earlier," Yukari ventured. "Just... I mean, the idea of a Valkyrie Core that absorbs people is kinda—" Don't say scary, you don't want to offend her again. "—well, unprecedented. It's usually the other way around."

Taylor's expression transitioned from dopey happiness to purest disdain in the span of about two seconds. Yukari really hoped the rookie was seeing a therapist; that just wasn't healthy. Yukari was used to people disliking her, though. As an allegedly responsible Senior, she had an image to maintain and that sometimes alienated others. Usually not so vehemently, she admitted, but it no longer stung very much.

"Apology accepted," Hebert lied curtly, clearly still upset.

Yukari's dismay vanished under amusement as Hebert went right back to watching Sanchez with just as much enthusiasm as before. The tsundere is strong in this one. Yukari couldn't help but tease the other cadet just a little; Hebert heavily reminded her of a certain other black-haired menace, Masaya Setsuna, only with less yelling and more actual dislike. It still balanced out, though.

"So why are you staring at Sanchez so much?" Yukari teased.

Hebert looked oddly pleased by the question. Apparently, she only minded Yukari when the Senior interfered with her Sanchez time? Please don't be a yandere. That is the worst kind of dere to get in a Valkyrie Frame.

"Perfection is an inherent impossibility," Hebert happily informed them. "However, Anna Sanchez comes closer than any other human I've encountered so far. It is enjoyable and relaxing to watch someone so clearly superior."

…Wow. Wooooooow. Yukari didn't actually expect Hebert to just up and admit it. Judging by Sanchez's rapidly reddening face and general embarrassment, neither had she. Moments later, an amusing keening noise began to escape the flustered Valkyrie like steam escaping a kettle.

With Sanchez's eyes flicking around and blatantly searching for escape routes, the room even felt more cramped after the declaration — no, wait, that was just extra force from the plane going faster. Had Sanchez hacked it just to escape the conversation that much sooner? That was perhaps the most hilarious misuse of electronic warfare capabilities Yukari had seen in months. Really, between Sanchez's reflexes and impressively minimal Valkyrie Frame deployment time, it was becoming pretty clear that Sanchez might not need much education from Perth at all.

"I do not know that that sound or expression is supposed to convey," Hebert admitted, examining Sanchez with innocent cluelessness. "Is it to indicate cessation of collaborative Innovation?"

Yukari forced herself to work through trajectory equations just to avoid collapsing into gales of laughter. Sadly, she didn't get to see Sanchez stutter her way through a response. The jet slammed into their assigned runway in what was clearly a hot landing and performed an engine-assisted boost into the nearby underground hangers. Yukari hoped Sanchez hadn't just terrified some poor air traffic controller.

Regardless, the result was that the plane was sufficiently noisy and bumpy for Sanchez to avoid answering Hebert. The moment the jet's door opened, Sanchez slipped out of her harness and retreated in a blur, face still red. Hebert watched the Ace cadet depart with clear dismay before turning to Yukari, her earlier hatred apparently forgotten.

"Did I say something culturally problematic? I thought compliments were meant to improve interpersonal relations, not harm them."

Hebert looked as adorably clueless as a kitten that'd knocked over its water dish and didn't understand why its paws had gotten wet. Yukari gave up on trying to suppress her laughter.

~ ~ ~

"...I ship i–hey! Stop throwing cushions! Look at them, they're perfect for each other!"

"Yes, because encouraging a romantic relationship between two traumatized survivors of their respective homes' destruction is such a good idea. Dumbass. Command hoped they'd become friends, not that."

"And I'm advocating for them to be good friends~ It's our duty as their watchful Big Sister, right?"

"I'm taking away your Romance-genre entertainment access privileges. It's clearly impeding your ability to properly complete your duties."

"H-hey, let's not be hasty!"

"No, I'm serious. Take a look at the files they were bouncing to each other before Hebert went and scared off Sanchez."

"…The hardware looks pretty sta—"

"Ignore that, I'm referring to the software."

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh. Let's not do anything to ruin their productivity worse than Hebert already did."

"…I think your heart got upgraded away at some point."

"Rather like your Romance privileges for the foreseeable future."

~ ~ ~

Queen Administrator still didn't understand what she had done wrong. Briefly being able to watch Anna's optimal movement and obstacle avoidance patterns didn't change the fact that the taller girl had been fleeing from QA. Every time she tried to ask Rokusabe, the non-host Valkyrie would look at ~~Queen Administrator~~ Host and descend into fits of unhelpful giggling. Queen Administrator didn't care for it at all, but found herself mollified by continued improvements to the sensory suite and energy gathering Impeller Field formulae granted by Anna.

It took almost three minutes of jogging through Perth's corridors before Rokusabe managed to give Queen Administrator any sort of understandable answer.

"You just—snrk—just met her, Hebert. A lot of people are uncomfortable when someone flirts with them so soon after meeting them. Anna might not even like girls."

Queen Administrator felt Host's face morph into an expression she tried to remember as disgust. Humans were icky; why would she want to — well, Anna Sanchez wasn't icky, but that was irrelevant. It would serve no purpose and any possible short-term benefits to morale may be harmed by an excessively complicated relationship and/or homicidal impulses from Anna in the event of a 'breakup.' Host would likely lose any such conflict for the foreseeable future. It was best to just avoid the whole thing regardless of what Host's confusing hormones did to QA's thoughts and motivations.

"I was not flirting," Queen Administrator denied. "I was expressing an appropriate appreciation for her body and behavior. She has clearly gone to great lengths to optimize her combat potential; as a result, examining her is enjoyable."

Rokusabe took three unusually deep breaths before answering.

"That's flirting, Hebert."

"I did not intend it as flirting," QA persisted.

Rokusabe choked down another snicker.

"That doesn't mean you didn't flirt. That just means you did it by accident."

Queen Administrator scowled to express extreme displeasure. This was all the fault of imprecise human communications, she was sure.

"I will attempt to avoid such misunderstandings in the future," she curtly conceded.

Queen Administrator did not understand why her declaration of intent made Rokusabe resume laughing. Unless the non-host knew how horrible human communications were and believed QA's attempts would be pointless?

Irritating.

~ ~ ~

Anna hid in an unoccupied service corridor and writhed in place, invisible to all nearby methods of surveillance save for targeted communications. She felt as though someone had released several squirming snakes inside her stomach, but a diagnostic did not reveal any such infestation. Durga's passive sensors also indicated that Taylor and Rokusabe were well beyond minimum safe distance for any attempts at short-ranged human contact, an occasional active scan would likely ensure that even Taylor's infiltration-type Valkyrie Frame wouldn't let her sneak up on Anna, and Anna could block any unwanted messages without issues. That just left Taylor's previous words for her to deal with.

It wasn't the content of Taylor's compliment that had her feeling odd so much as their intention. The first few words were clearly wrong; someone close to perfect wouldn't have failed the eight thousand, five hundred and three people counting on her for safety, would have improved their defenses and been there and—

…

Well, Taylor was wrong. But the admission of enjoying Anna's appearance indicated that the younger Valkyrie had clearly intended her assessment as flirting. Anna didn't understand why. They'd met a mere seventy-one minutes and sixteen seconds ago, they were both girls, and Taylor had seemed perfectly normal just a few minutes before. It wasn't as though their conversation had been as unproductive as most of Anna's attempts to communicate ideas to even other Valkyries; Taylor's ability to understand, complete, and communicate complicated mathematical formulae in a timely manner was only slightly slower than Anna herself — when she didn't have Durga extended, anyway. Anna had yet to test how they fared while their respective Valkyrie Frames were extended from storage. She doubted it would let Taylor exceed her, though; Taylor's one-second extension time indicated a small amount of experience, but not an outstanding amount.

Taylor's ideas for improving the hardware of Anna's sensory suite came with more weaknesses than benefits, but the software improvements were unexpectedly useful. Improved sensor cross-referencing would decrease the mean amount of time necessary to identify most Antagonist combat types by eleven to sixteen milliseconds, an astounding improvement for someone so new to their Valkyrie or even in general. If Taylor hadn't decided to be immensely confusing for little discernible reason, Anna would've been happy to participate in further collaborations. It didn't make any sense.

An inbound message had Anna almost activating active jamming and deploying decoys from irrational stress. That was clearly excessive and would've been a horrible waste of resources. Anna tried to restore her body to its last known healthy configuration before returning to the message. It didn't completely eliminate the phantom sensations of stomach snakes, yet the reprieve was adequate to avoid irrational responses to non-threats.

>> From: Rokusabe Yukari
>> To: Anna Sanchez
>>"Anna, if that's you, could you please stop the high band active scans? It's making a lot of people uneasy."

Why? Anna's active scans were distinct from that of an Antagonist. Still, she'd learned what she needed to know and would comply. Taylor was still beside Rokusabe and appeared to be examining the mathematical instructions Anna had sent for Impeller Field energy absorption, something Anna found vastly preferable to further f-flirting. The veteran Valkyrie still planted a tracking program with automatic proximity warnings on Taylor's datapad. Anna wanted advance warning before her next attempt to interact with the thoroughly confusing cadet.

>>From: Anna Sanchez
>> To: Rokusabe Yukari
>> "Understood. Complying."

Why did Taylor's behavior become so irregular within such a short period of time? First there was that disproportionate response to Rokusabe's accidental insult, and then Taylor had flirted with—no, at Anna without warning. The first may have been prompted by an unfortunate history or unseen strain, but the second was thoroughly confusing. Anna had done nothing to prompt such behavior. Although, if something didn't make sense even after intense examination, perhaps Anna was misinterpreting it? They did have a rather productive collaboration, and "closest to perfection" was a comparison range. She'd demonstrated significant combat abilities by partially extending Durga from storage and subsequently catching—

…Anna had caught Taylor's hand. She'd held Taylor's hand. She'd held Taylor's hand. Oh gosh. Fuaaaaaghh!

…

No. Anna was being ridiculous. She'd prevented an attack; any further interpretations were utterly irrelevant. Anna had stopped an attack, Taylor had subsequently complimented her abilities, and the rest was pointless speculation. A few more cycles of forced body resets and Anna received the newest message from Rokusabe with personal mental abnormalities within acceptable tolerances.

>> From: Rokusabe Yukari
>> To: Anna Sanchez
>>"Are you planning on attending the opening ceremony? I wanted to introduce you to my little brother."

The snakes returned. Family introductions: An action traditionally performed after the first stages of courting. Courting: An archaic synonym for dating. Dating: Accompanying another for the purpose of furthering a romantic relationship.

And now Rokusabe was doing it, too? Why? What had Anna done to encourage them?

Alivaril · Jan 25, 2020

Vebyast said:
Pedantic science nit: Milliseconds is an odd choice of unit. Anna often consciously interacts with phenomena occurring on microsecond timescales. The major limit on her ability to distinguish antagonists is almost certainly accumulated evidence, that is, her ability to infer likely underlying states of her enemies (identifications) given the observations she's getting from their effects on the world around them. Higher-quality software, particularly better algorithms or engineering sensor fusion, would manifest as an ability to build better - more accurate - beliefs about her enemies given the same observations.

With you and in agreement up to here.

Vebyast said:
This would only manifest as a constant time-to-ID if the amount of evidence she needs to observe also takes a constant amount of time to gather, which would be super weird. A more realistic statement might've been something like "improve performance on her extended Antagonist combat type identification data-set by 5%"

This is where I got lost, unfortunately. You're probably correct since this is basically your job, but the suggested replacement is hard enough to understand that it'd probably harm the ability of readers to know what QA did. Added a "mean" to the time as a placeholder based on the terms used during the Anna food-slosh incident.

ROTH963 said:
I don't know the answer to the question, but I do know that Queen is much more advanced than all of them (including Anna) and is capable of upgrading anything they have, she is only limited to her current understanding of their tech base, which she underestimate, because she doesn't want to uplift the natives.

That's not actually entirely accurate. QA is simultaneously in an odd position of being highly advanced in some areas and far behind in others; she made her choice of what to grant Host and can't further increase those capabilities.

QA can request and gather data to improve her Friends, which Anna and Decimator (now known to humans as Type Zero Macross) have each helped with.
She can understand/apply more of the underlying rules in the context of making at least partially biological Friends, and this is even easier when Host is lucid enough to help. Notably, "more of" =/= "all"; it only provides partial archive access to consistent sections.
She can occasionally access part of her archives in response to outside stimuli in an annoying imitation of human memory recall, but this generally provides incomplete and fleeting data.
- She already kinda understands much of what people will try to teach her; she just needs to have it reinforced in Host's memory for more reliable access. As a result, she "learns" universal rules faster than most humans.
She can understand advanced mathematical operations and draw on some of her usual processing suites to complete them in a timely manner. This is limited by her ability to avoid overloading Host's brain. Symbie is actively improving said brain, so QA's limit will gradually increase over time.
She can utilize shard-derived communication and concealment techniques to be excellent at the defensive portion of electronic warfare.
Host can sometimes access portions of QA's archives and provide further assistance, but that's always a short-lived, temporary, and unreliable affair.
Host's body is gradually undergoing miscellaneous other improvements, most of them related to her brain, nerves, and general health.

Notably, the improvements of Symbie aren't automatic and continuous like standard Valkyrie Cores appear to be; the Decimator-provided designs were flawed and Symbie's ability to Innovate is apparently inferior to a standard Valkyrie Core. Improvement will halt and continue as QA gathers useful data from collaboration with other entities, acquires necessary non-biomass materials from nearby (she has enough stored biomass to last her a long time), when Symbie manages to upgrade something without QA-granted designs, and when Host is lucid enough to improve one or more projects.

TL;DR: QA already ceased to sandbag a few weeks ago. She just didn't yet realize Host and Symbie's hardware/capabilities weren't approximately equal to local humans and that QA needed to be making more of an active attempt at improving them.

Alivaril · Jan 26, 2020

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @orchamus, @Just_A_Knight, Mr. Silver, @DaGeek247, and my fourteen other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well.

AN: Beta'd by @Vebyast. I dislike obeying the stations of canon, but some things are pretty much inevitable without far more butterflies than we've had. For those who haven't read It's Not Wrong to make Friends in the Dungeon, be aware that the magenta text is the dreaming Taylor. Her interface for QA's systems basically manifests as vivid hallucinations.

The nameless girl sat in a songbird-filled meadow and slowly worked through the pile of calculations she'd been provided with. Her guest-self seemed to have no problem parsing them, but processing cores were one of the big things the girl had been careful not to steal. It would be one thing if her guest-self was a goatee-sporting evil version of herself from a parallel universe, but the guest-self was actually doing what she thought was right. Her morals just happened to be calibrated for a species of multidimensional space whales that saw other races as utterly expendable. Changing that mindset — or at least adding humans to the exceptions list — was a work in progress.

That wasn't a high priority right now, though. The nameless girl had another problem to deal with. She was pretty sure that their improvised Impeller Field generator would fail upon entering one of the rules-twisting simulators of Perth Academy, which would be very problematic. Fixing the generator proved to be exactly as difficult as she'd expected; the nameless girl had needed to start growing more of her own archival and processing blocks just to stop losing her position every minute.

It was something important to do, though, which was nice. The nameless girl was generally happy to swap places with her guest-self's old self and thought the recent crush was both utterly unexpected and hilarious, yet she didn't want to laze around all the time. The guest-self was turning their body from a gawky mess of limbs into something beautiful; it was only fair that Tay—

She ate a black flower and shook her head. The rules dictated that, when the nameless girl fully recovered, then she'd need to return to her old body. That was unacceptable. Remembering her own name had proven to be a good warning for when she was getting too close to recovery, so black flowers of forgetfulness were going to be a staple of her diet for the foreseeable future.

Even if she hadn't preferred the malleable dreams to reality, there was the fact that her guest-self was a member of a literally genocidal species of little green people who needed to be stopped. Only with multidimensional biological and crystal structures instead of being green, and their flying saucers didn't come with seatbelts or airbags. That flagrant disregard for safety regulations had taken care of one of the two big threats, but the other was still flying about. The nameless girl hadn't even located the One Ring or the geographical location of Mount Doom. She had a lot of work to do and a pile of passwords to steal before she could wake up.

Or, you know, she could just stick around until she could find and bomb Mordor from orbit. The people of this world seemed to be getting pretty good at that.

The girl returned her attention to her current project, realized that the square root symbol somewhat resembled a musical note, and began to happily sing to herself as she worked.

"What do you do with a broke Impeller, what do you do with a broke Impeller, what do you do with a broke Impeller earl-lie in the mor-ning~"

~ ~ ~

Queen Administrator was not impressed by any of the other Valkyries within the highly-armored auditorium. Some of the instructors approached Anna's superiority, but QA was quite certain they were still inferior. And if Anna was meant to be a student, what was their excuse for inadequacy? Laziness? Symbie's newly-integrated sensory suite did indicate that approximately half of those present had neither Valkyrie Cores equipped nor the severe bodily strain that would excuse their absence.

Queen Administrator scowled. She was promised an education, but if she had to tolerate these glorified energy thieves, then she may need to take productive motivation of local minions into her own hands.

"The first years are arrayed along the front of the room, second years in the middle, and third years at the back," Rokusabe informed her, apparently oblivious to QA's disgruntlement. "Looks like there is an open spot at—at—aaaaack! Wha—"

Queen Administrator froze and performed a quick sweep for hostiles using Symbie's newly-built approximation of Anna's shared sensor design. QA had needed to make a number of material substitutions and hardware changes in order to primarily use biomass instead of exotic materials QA didn't possess, but they were still vastly superior to Host's standard senses.

She didn't see any of the mentioned attackers. Had it been a suppressed sneeze? QA had previously made such a mistake back in Brockton Bay. The activity had, however, yielded one piece of useful information: judging by the suppressed movement among a number of cadets, even some of those who didn't appear to have their Valkyrie Cores equipped were still capable of sensing the scans in some way. Perhaps QA had been too harsh and their Valkyrie Cores were currently undergoing some manner of inspection, registration, and/or maintenance?

"You too, Hebert?" Rokusabe muttered, then raised her voice to a normal volume. "If that was you, could you please try to refrain from high-band active scans? It reminds people of a battlefield and might earn you reflexive jamming."

Queen Administrator turned to the non-host and frowned at her. It was Rokusabe's fault in the first place.

"You said 'attack,'" QA pointed out.

The non-host raised both palms and used them to rub her face.

"I apologize. I meant to say at, yet I was distracted by something unexpected."

Archival note: 'aaaaack' is apparently an involuntary expression of surprise.

One hand was lowered to let Rokusabe point to an opening at one end of the frontmost line. Her other hand continued to cover Rokusabe's eyes, indicating that she was either pointing entirely from memory or utilizing non-standard senses. QA reluctantly admitted that the Senior's behavior and movements may still need drastic improvements, but perhaps Rokusabe's mental abilities had been enhanced more than initially anticipated.

"The ceremony is about to begin, so please take your spot," Rokusabe politely ordered. "And if possible, could you please hold back the cadet presently at the end? I wish to speak with them."

Queen Administrator turned to look at the non-host in question. The cadet so indicated appeared to be perfectly normal, if visibly afraid, and had her face half-turned to look away from the rest of the line. Not someone who was confident in her ability to enhance her reputation, then. However, the fact that she was aware of her own flawed skills and sought to mitigate them placed her above most non-hosts. QA would need test subjects — preferably willing ones — to compare the progress of those determined to improve themselves with those who were simply lazy. An attack on a potential test subject may jeopardize their ability to be a willing participant.

However, a third-year Senior would presumably be closest in skill to Anna herself once QA excluded instructors, and Rokusabe hadn't proved herself as useless as QA's early impressions had indicated. Currying favor with her would be worth the tradeoff.

"As long as I don't need to immobilize them for an exceedingly long time," QA allowed.

Rokusabe opened her mouth, appeared to think about her words for a few seconds, and sighed.

"Just don't hurt h—them, please," Rokusabe instructed, then hurried away.

Queen Administrator carefully didn't watch her go; seeing Rokusabe take a suboptimal route would only irk the shard.

Queen Administrator rather wished that Perth Valkyrie Academy could've provided those present with summaries and/or transcripts. She expected that Host's unreliable memory would force her to forget most of it within the next four hours.

Much of the orientation speech emphasized that becoming a Valkyrie required hard work and determination, information that QA believed many of those present would need to hear but that she already knew. One should always pursue improvement whenever possible.

There was, however, information that Queen Administrator found genuinely useful. Elective classes were not mandatory, but were highly recommended to aid Valkyries in socialization, possible career specialization, academic support, and stress relief. A full list would be provided to students, but QA intended to visit the Crafting club first and foremost.

Students were encouraged to seek help from their instructors and their peers if they felt they were falling behind or simply wished to improve at a faster rate. Questions were generally welcome and helped instructors know what information may not have been covered in sufficient depth.

Students were not to try to break into files they did not have access to. If someone tried to claim that doing so was a test, they were to be reported at the earliest safe opportunity so action could be taken. Calls for help directed at the Academy itself were exceedingly difficult to distinguish from normal traffic regardless of what individuals may claim; if they could detect such things, their access level would've already been raised from simple practicality. If a student was under ongoing coercion, the use of such messages was highly recommended.

Miscellaneous rewards — including superior accommodations, as previously promised — would be provided to those students who proved themselves exemplary. However, "pulling other students down to drag yourself higher" was unacceptable behavior and may result in revocation of additional privileges. Apparently, QA would need to deal with enemies in a manner that did not harm their growth. Perhaps via threats contingent on progress? Those would serve to intimidate foes while still ensuring they remained useful. Even if the additional stress from a threat harmed them more than it helped, QA could honestly claim that she'd intended for them to improve and had not violated previous instructions.

If necessary, roommates could be reassigned upon request. Abuse did not need to be tolerated, and bullying would be punished in general. Disciplinary proceedings were generally kept quiet in order to avoid disproportionate levels of punishment, but not seeing the punishment didn't mean it had failed to occur.

Archival note: Review past disciplinary records to determine parameters of 'bullying' definition. If merely aggressive behavior qualified, then a number of Queen Administrator's more effective nonlethal tactics for neutralizing enemies would be rendered unusable. QA assumed that lethal ones would be just as unacceptable as they were back in Brockton Bay, especially now that Queen Administrator was technically a member of the United Nations Air Force; apparently, a soldier attacking a civilian could add the additional category of "war crimes."

Little else of the ~~lecture~~ speech was useful. Cadets were encouraged to get to know their roommate as soon as possible as they could be a potent source of support. QA found herself hoping that Anna was her roommate; she knew the odds weren't particularly favorable and that Anna would be moved to luxury accommodations as soon as possible, but at least that would let QA temporarily share her quarters with someone tolerable.

Eventually, the ceremony came to an end and Queen Administrator grabbed the indicated cadet before they could escape. The… girl(?) yelped and turned wide eyes on ~~Queen Administrator~~ Host, but nobody else appeared to notice their behavior.

Upon closer inspection, it was difficult to determine whether or not the cadet in question was male or female. Several of the cadet's physical traits were often, but not always, associated with males. They were wearing clothing that was generally associated with females, but QA knew that was not a perfect indicator; cultural clothing choices varied among humans and were not universally accepted even within specific human subgroups.

Queen Administrator could technically check via her new sensor suite, but the attempt may be detected. Danny Hebert had previously told QA that looking beneath the clothing of humans was considered universally problematic even if it was to search for hidden weaponry. Queen Administrator assumed it was related to the icky nature of human reproduction. Since humans had rendered a number of other evolutionary aids obsolete, it seemed reasonable that many of them could've realized how disgustingly inefficient they were and sought to hide their flaws whenever possible.

Several seconds passed in silence while the androgynous cadet visibly recovered from Queen Administrator's ambush. They experimentally tugged their arm twice, but stopped after QA pointedly frowned at them.

"Uh, did you… need something?" they ventured.

"Technically not, but it is nonetheless advisable," QA admitted.

The cadet didn't appear as though they knew what to think of that and defaulted to a small smile.

"Rokusabe Koujirou!" Rokusabe shouted, the sound bouncing around the amphitheater.

QA couldn't tell if that was the name of the cadet Queen Administrator held or if Senior Cadet Rokusabe had simply decided to announce her own presence. QA would normally encourage two individuals with the same personal name to avoid each other or default to their surname, but humans were a little odd; it was possible that they may begin relations based solely on their shared first name.

"Oh, shit!" the captured cadet swore, their smile vanishing as they tried to twist out of Queen Administrator's grip.

Likely hostile relations, then.

Prior to QA's arrival on this world, their twisting might've freed them. Unfortunately for them, QA had long since improved the range of motion that Host's arms were capable of and their strength in general. Queen Administrator considered increasing the angle of her frown, but believed the now-uncomfortable angle of the captured non-host's limbs would be punishment enough.

The cadet tried to twist back and continue in the opposite direction, but Senior Rokusabe interrupted the second escape attempt by clamping a hand on the younger cadet's shoulder. QA did not believe that location was associated with any largespread control mechanisms, yet the motion was enough to make the captured cadet stop struggling and noticeably slump.

"You can let go now," Senior Rokusabe quietly told QA, an advisory the shard was only too happy to obey. "Thank you for holding on to my younger brother."

Ah. That explained the shared first name: the two of them were members of one of those needlessly contrary cultures that refused to match the majority of their species in their rules of identification. Still, swapping the order of names was a relatively easy fix compared to some of the other subjects they refused to standardize.

"Query: Does this count as bullying?" Queen Administrator asked.

'Yes. Help me,' the adolescent male silently mouthed.

That was mildly unfortunate; QA had hoped her actions would be permitted. However, Perth Academy had indicated that misbehavior performed under coercion or while being tricked could be forgiven more easily. QA could truthfully tell any displeased instructors that she hadn't known it was against the school's rules until afterward. Besides, she'd already completed her objective; freeing him would undo the progress she'd already made with Senior Rokusabe. QA was also confident that her current combat abilities were inferior to the Senior Cadet. She couldn't free him for any appreciable length of time.

'No,' Queen Administrator mouthed back.

The boy pouted, an action that Queen Administrator hadn't previously seen on a male member of the human species. She remained as unimpressed as always. Human-based emotional manipulation seldom worked when your target wasn't human.

"Absolutely not," Senior Rokusabe denied at reduced volume, providing yet another excuse in the process. "He would've denied any wrongdoing if we'd intercepted him later. Koujirou, why are you wearing a girl's uniform?"

"It's not my fault," the now-named Koujirou replied defensively. "There are no male dress uniforms, but my roommate demanded I wear one even if it meant crossdressing. Sis, please, can't you just let me get changed before the whole school notices?"

Queen Administrator noted a short cadet with black hair in the hairstyle known as 'twin-tails' stealthily closing to close proximity. She considered warning the possible victims to curry favor, but decided against it. If they couldn't notice someone even with Core-granted extra senses, then they deserved to be ambushed. QA moved to put Senior Rokusabe between ~~herself~~ Host and the unknown entity.

"Your roommate is correct," QA informed him. "If there is only one type of uniform, it can be assumed that it is intended for male use as well."

Senior Rokusabe managed to notice the new girl despite QA's mild interference. Good.

"And Masaya Setsuna is here, too," Senior Rokusabe sighed, her tone making the informative statement sound more like a complaint.

"BOO!" Masaya shouted, clamping both hands over Koujirou's spare shoulder. The male human spasmed violently and released a small, automatic scream of distress. Apparently, his ambusher was not afraid of the human stigma against those who rejoiced in the suffering of others; Koujirou's reaction appeared to make the smaller girl bend double as she was partially incapacitated by laughter.

"Setsu, why?" Koujirou whined.

'Setsu' appeared to be laughing too hard to respond properly. Queen Administrator took the opportunity to determine additional parameters of Perth Academy's ruleset.

"Does frightening people into screaming count as bullying them?" QA asked Senior Rokusabe.

The Senior blinked and frowned at QA, appearing distinctly unhappy about the question while Setsu's laughter rapidly decreased in intensity. QA assumed their negative reactions could be taken as confirmation. Unfortunate.

"In general, yes," Senior Rokusabe answered slowly. "However, they've known each other since childhood and Setsuna was just startling him. It's occasionally how she says hello."

Archival note: Traditional intimidation tactics can be substituted with repeated ambushes should one know enough information about the target.

"It's just a little fun," Setsuna agreed cheerfully, ducking away from Koujirou as he halfheartedly swiped at her. "Anyway, hi! I'm Masaya Setsuna, given name of Setsuna. Who're you?"

"Setsu," Koujirou hissed quietly. Why, QA wasn't sure; there didn't appear to be any follow-up query or demand. Queen Administrator was free to respond.

"I am Taylor Hebert. My given name is Taylor," Queen Administrator replied deceptively. "I will likely attempt to break your arm should you try that tactic on me. I advise against doing so."

Setsu(na)'s smile faded to a small frown.

"And she isn't the only one, either," Senior Rokusabe added. "Setsuna, I'm very happy to see you after so long, but you're going to have to stop that. Valkyries don't handle ambushes well."

The agreement of the Senior seemed to mollify the smaller girl and caused her smile to partially return.

"I know, I know," Setsuna claimed. "Just using my last chance for it, Sis. Anyway, Taylor! How long have you known Koji? Don't think I didn't see you manhandling him."

The question implied displeasure or disapproval, but the tone of voice indicated the exact opposite. Perhaps Setsuna was obeying the letter of cultural ideals whilst rejecting the spirit?

"They just met," ~~Sis~~ Senior Rokusabe answered for QA. "There's another Valkyrie I wanted to introduce to you, too, but…"

Senior Rokusabe left her sentence unfinished and shrugged, forcing QA to finish it. It was unlikely that the other two first-year cadets could do it on their own.

"Anna Sanchez fled after I allegedly flirted with her by complimenting her personal traits," QA explained.

Rokusabe finally released Koujirou's shoulder and used the freed hand to cover her face. Koujirou looked as though he couldn't decide between a retreat and staying to listen to Queen Administrator. Setsuna was not so reserved; the girl grinned widely and leaned forward.

"Tell me everything," Setsuna ordered oddly.

Possibly significant interest? Unfortunately, the request was impossible. Even Queen Administrator didn't know everything, and Setsuna's brain probably couldn't safely handle even one idea-transmission without sustaining damage.

Likely translation: Give a detailed summary of the incident.

"You uh, have fun with that?" Koujirou said uncertainly. "I'll go get changed."

Setsuna blinked and turned to the male cadet before he could leave.

"Oh, wait!" She ordered quickly. "I haven't gotten a picture yet!"

Koujirou's eyes widened with horror. The non-host rotated 180 degrees in a horrifyingly inefficient example of flailing limbs, stumbled briefly, and began to sprint away. Setsuna herself did not truly move to retrieve a camera and burst into fits of giggling mere seconds after he exited the auditorium.

Senior Rokusabe lowered her hand and took the opportunity to brief QA while Setsuna was otherwise indisposed.

"Before you ask about examples of bullying again, Taylor, just… don't be cruel to the other students," Senior Rokusabe quietly orders. "Please. I don't know how it was back where you came from, but here, attacking others — whether emotionally, physically, or psychologically — is not acceptable. Koujirou and Setsuna would never deliberately hurt each other and they usually know when to stop; their behaviors would often be unacceptable to inflict on anyone else."

Queen Administrator frowned. If even such minor actions were unacceptable locally, then she would have a very difficult time in her attempts to improve Perth Academy's learning environment.

"Understood," she said anyway.

Archival note: Possible laziness of nearby students may be exacerbated by a lack of conflict. Attempt to introduce substitutes where possible.

"Also," the Senior began. "If the flirting really was accidental, then you should probably just pretend the whole thing never happened. Perth will never forget it if you don't."

QA reviewed Symbie's passive sensors, sent out a supplementary sonar pulse, and soon confirmed that Senior Rokusabe's attempts at information suppression were already pointless. Over ninety percent of students and instructors had already departed, but there were lingering groups talking among themselves. Two Core-equipped, second-year Valkyries pretended to be members of this subcategory, but the pair stood in a specific part of the auditorium and seemed to be focusing more on other people than each other.

"There are at least two Valkyries in a position ideal for eavesdropping on our approximate position," QA pointed out. "All I did was deliver a compliment; again, I did not intend to flirt with Anna. The interpretation of my words as such is entirely the fault of the local culture."

The two eavesdropping Valkyries jumped in place, glanced at each other, and fled to behind a nearby support pillar. As they did not exit from the other side, QA found their attempts at concealment mildly insulting.

"What did you say?" Setsuna asked eagerly.

Senior Rokusabe covered her face with both hands as Queen Administrator opened Host's mouth in order to answer.

"I give up," the Senior declared. "You're on your own. I'm going to go see if I can track down Anna."

Host's posture automatically straightened as Queen Administrator turned hopeful eyes on Senior Rokusabe. QA wanted to see Anna again and apologize; excessively complicated interpersonal relations were a significant portion of why the shard wished to avoid 'romance' in the first place. An allegedly better relationship that sometimes interfered with an ally's availability wasn't superior at all.

"May I assist in the search?"

"I think I should talk and explain before you do," the older Rokusabe hastily refused. "We don't want her running again. Setsuna, don't insult Taylor's Valkyrie Frame. Taylor, don't attack anyone. Good luck."

"To you as well," Queen Administrator replied automatically as Rokusabe began to jog away. QA had gotten a great deal of use out of those four words; humans seemed to have so many variants on what they said to indicate an impending departure. Returning the same thing they told her had proven a simpler substitute compared to remembering them all.

"Wait, what was that about attacks?" Setsuna asked.

QA believed that she may have been able to tolerate the smaller non-host; Setsuna might not have a Valkyrie Core equipped, but she'd asked questions almost constantly since her initial arrival. Additionally, Setsuna's relationship with Koujirou seemed to be one of the only permitted sources of conflict in the Academy. Their behavior might even encourage replication from other humans.

"Never mind. And I guess she has a point about the gossip," Setsuna sighed. "Rumors would affect that other girl, too. I'll ask somewhere without eavesdroppers."

The smaller girl hesitated for barely a second before her mood visibly improved.

"Hey, wanna help me ambush Koji again? We should get a recording of his scream before I have to stop forever."

Queen Administrator considered the implied request for aid. The older Rokusabe had implied that Queen Administrator shouldn't ambush other people, but QA had been invited by one of the 'acceptable' attackers. Koujirou Rokusabe was not outstandingly impressive, but he was kin to someone more useful and improvement should be encouraged wherever possible. Repeated ambushes may result in upgraded situational awareness.

"Certainly," Queen Administrator agreed.

Alivaril · Jan 27, 2020

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @orchamus, @Just_A_Knight, Mr. Silver, @DaGeek247, and my fourteen other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well.

A newly-dressed Rokusabe Koujirou paused before the door to his assigned quarters and tried to fight off his sense of impending dread. He knew Setsu wouldn't just leave him in peace; his old friend got bored easily and still seemed to adore using him as a chewtoy. She would probably be lurking on the other side of the door, waiting for him to open it and almost suffer another surprise-induced heart attack. Still, he supposed it was better than being hit. He'd honestly been surprised that he'd gotten away from the auditorium without even a slap, let alone a full-fledged punch. He'd sometimes worried about permanent brain damage from how much the females in his life seemed to enjoy hitting him.

Koujirou took a deep breath, swiped the door open, and immediately relaxed. Setsu impatiently waited on the opposite side of the hall with arms crossed and her datapad in hand. No ambushes today, it seemed; maybe she'd been telling the truth when she talked about stopping?

Koujirou stepped out of his room, raised a hand in greeting, and—

(Two deathly-cold arms wrapped around his throat.)

"Boo."

—screamed.

~ ~ ~

Human amusement remained a memetic hazard even when those involved were not biological relatives. Queen Administrator's hosts had terrified plenty of opponents in her long existence, yet she'd only derived satisfaction at most. This time was different; there was something about the combination of Koji's suffering and Setsuna's laughter that let QA sporadically giggle as well. She didn't mind very much. Unlike some of Host's other emotions, amusement at another's suffering appeared to be more enjoyable than annoying.

"Haven't you tortured me enough for one day?" Koji whined, leaning with his upper body parallel to the floor while one palm pressed against his chest. "Or really, my entire life? I know Setsu is crazy, but I didn't expect you to be the sort to enjoy a man's suffering, Taylor."

"WHO'S CRAZY?!"

Queen Administrator was moderately surprised when Setsuna stepped forward and trapped the larger human in a headlock. The backlash against her failed attempt to attack Senior Rokusabe gave QA the impression that violence was frowned upon, yet Setsuna seemed perfectly comfortable torturing Koji via the application of her knuckles to the top of his head. The permissions granted between allegedly-friendly hosts seemed highly illogical; didn't host-species form alliances specifically to avoid pain and personal harm? It seemed highly counterproductive to let a superior friendship have the opposite effect.

Regardless, QA had no reason to watch non-hosts torture one another; she'd already fulfilled Setsuna's request. Queen Administrator turned around and followed her datapad's map toward the Academy's primary cluster of flight simulators. Anna appeared to have stopped using the address previously provided to QA; the former shard would need to wait for Senior Rokusabe to locate the superior human before interactions could continue.

<Not yet. Upgrading Impeller,> Host suddenly sent.

<GRATITUDE.>

Queen Administrator stopped and reevaluated her options. If combat and flight simulators were currently unacceptable, then QA would need to default to a secondary activity. She would also need to waste class time on calibration instead of partially completing them in advance, but she didn't mind. Queen Administrator would rather accept whatever aid Host could provide than encourage Host to stay eternally in dreams.

Another check indicated that Senior Rokusabe had not transmitted any messages regarding Anna's location within the last ten seconds; QA could not default to visiting the superior human. That left her third known option: visiting the Crafting Club. Hopefully, the cadets would be more open-minded and less obstinate than their older counterparts.

~ ~ ~

Setsuna stopped her ministrations and looked around the hall. After a moment of hesitation, she shrugged and released Koji as well. Her noogie had been long enough to get the point across. Well, okay, maybe not. Would it kill him to compliment her just once? He sometimes did it for girls he didn't even know, but never her, the girl who'd known him since they were little kids! It often felt like he didn't even know she existed.

"Did you see where Taylor went?" Setsuna asked the oblivious moron.

Koji took several steps away before answering, a sure sign that he was going to say something he knew was dumb. Setsuna itched to smack him for that alone.

"I think she ditched us while you were busy proving me right."

Setsuna's temper flared once more. Why was she the one who got called crazy when he was the one to repeatedly provoke her? He was even smart enough to start running before her expression wholly translated to rage.

"Come back here and accept your beating like a man!" Setsuna shouted, sprinting after him.

"I'm pretty sure you don't actually want me to fight back, so no!"

~ ~ ~

The Crafting elective class — or informally and far more commonly, the Crafting Club — proved to be uncomfortably far outside the primary armored shell of the Perth Arcology. There was still a healthy amount of armor plating and massive blast doors at both ends of the room, but it didn't feel entirely safe in comparison. However, their position seemed to have let them lay claim to what she imagined was an unusually large room — fifty meters tall, two hundred meters wide, and approximately a kilometer long — in close proximity to a far larger fabricator. The room itself might even have qualified as part of the fabricator.

Both a significant portion of the room and the attention of the dozen third-year Cadets who used it were occupied by a massive metal object of unknown purpose. It may have been some manner of weapon, but not one that Queen Administrator recognized; it started off as a clean cylinder, but rapidly transitioned into a twisted near-spiral that eventually terminated in a curved spike. Since Symbie's new scanner was not yet powerful enough to let QA look past the first few layers of armor, Queen Administrator quickly lost interest and decided to simply step inside the room. An alert appeared in the corner of her vision as soon as she crossed the threshold.

>>THIS MESSAGE WAS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED: "We applaud your enthusiasm, but the crafting club is currently extremely busy. We are not accepting new applicants or sightseers until the end of week 3. We also have a high standard; if you can't solve these problems by the end of week three, don't bother applying, but if you do manage to finish these questions before end of week 3, then feel free to come in and mingle."

Queen Administrator opened the attached file and couldn't decide whether or not she should be happy about the contents. The merged science and mathematics questions were complicated enough to bar unenhanced humans, certainly, but that was not inherently a good thing. Host was undeniably creative and she wouldn't have been able to solve them if she'd only equipped Symbie a few days earlier. In fact, she might not have been able to solve them at all. She wouldn't possess Queen Administrator's wealth of mathematical knowledge once she returned to her body.

QA supposed she could make them review their policies once she passed their intake test; it shouldn't take long. The shard extended Symbie from storage in order to receive additional aid with processing, leaned against a nearby wall for supplementary support, and began systematically working her way through the problems provided.

It took Queen Administrator almost a quarter of an hour to complete the challenge problems, but at least the feedback was immediate. Every cadet in the massive room stopped arguing over the unidentified object and turned to look at her. A moment later, they seemingly all tried to shout at once despite the significant distance between ~~herself~~ Host and them. To be fair, they were actively walking toward her in their attempts to remedy that situation.

"Hah! I told you a green firstie could solve them!"
"One out of, what, sixty unique visitors? More? At this rate, the club is going to die when we leave."
"Hebert did it, didn't she? You can't blame me for having standards."
"Hey, isn't she the orientation scanner?"
"One of them, maybe, there were at least two distinctive signatures."
"Solved them in fourteen minutes with a combat rating of two-fifty and zero flight hours, I'm calling shenanigans."
"No, check out the intake scores-"
"Eww, eww, eww annnd oooh. Perfect on standard mathematics."
"Comprehension, not speed; she was originally within normal human limitations for the second."
"And her Science scores were pretty bleh, too, so how she'd manage question two and four?"
"She did have to extend her Frame before solving your fucking quiz."
"Even so, jumping that far in a month..."
"No, seriously, how is her combat rating still so low? Maneuverability and processing alone should bump her up to at least twice that."
"Zero is zero, no real practice yet."
"And zero hits on the ranged test. Quoth the Meyer: 'Enemies will not stand idly while you close to melee!'"
"Bet you she does better next time."
"No bet."

Members of the Crafting Club seemed to be less than clear on who they were replying to at any given time, but Queen Administrator wasn't sure their identifiers actually mattered. The auto-filtering quiz would bar the blatantly inadequate, and if they were collaborating on shared projects, then the end result was what truly mattered. Their tendency to speak over one another without complaint also ensured that all had a chance to speak.

"I have not been able to practice with flight or weaponry since my initial synchronization with Symbie," Queen Administrator interjected. "I believe my scores will improve afterward."

"Well, duh."
"Don't be rude, you're the one who sorta-asked."
"Do you have an integrated voice synthesizer? I've never heard anyone attach an encrypted information string like that."
"Is that encryption or just gibberish?"
"I'm thinking gibberish."
"No, there's definitely at least one repeating pattern in there."
"Copy-paste says hi."
"Wait, I think at least some of it is a pi fragment."
"It's just a joke. If you switch your interface to 36-character lines, the zeros form emoji."
"Good gods, they're everywhere."
"331-character forms a network of fractal shapes."
"Wait, I think my record just shifted."
"Mine—fuck. Purge it!"
"Fuck that, just move it to a VM and keep going."

All but two members of the club turned to focus on QA with expressions ranging from mild displeasure to obvious disgruntlement. The lone two to keep working still appeared deeply interested in the intercepted signature. Queen Administrator was surprised they'd detected the underlying transmissions, but not particularly worried. The identifier was designed to be inscrutable to non-shards.

"Okay, glad to see you've ridiculously improved your EW capabilities, but sending self-executing code to other Valks isn't cool."
"Outside tri-V combat practice."
"Well, yeah, obviously."
"Can we go back to her combat rating? I mean..."
"Quoth the Leonhart: 'You're more than just a number.'"
"Still, there's incorrect and then there's insulting."
"Eh, just think of how her first class'll go."
"'I'll show them. I'll show them ALL!'"
"Mm-hmm. Betcha a back massage that Meyer uses her as an example in class."
"You know I'm up for taking your shirt off whenever you want, right?"
"U–um? I didn't, ah..."
"Having core temperature problems?"
"S-shut up!"
"No, but seriously, Hebert, could you not send malicious code to other Valks?"

Apparently, there was a significant downside to their collective communication pattern: it was difficult to judge interpersonal relationships. Still, if they judged this to be more efficient than the alternatives, than QA would comply without complaint. It was certainly far faster than normal human conversation.

"It was not an attack," QA protested. "It is my unique identifier and self-compresses to an unobtrusive size should it begin threatening performance."

"...The fuck?"
"Holy shit, run a high-performance sim. She's not joking."
"That honestly seems like a recipe for disaster."
"Don't be a killjoy, Asia, the code hasn't broken yet."
"No, no, it's fine, quarantining it somewhere small also works."
"It overwrites itself with each exposure and can auto-shrink down to measly megabytes, the fuck is–"
"Hah, she can make the best 'NOTICE ME SENPAI' ever."
"If you think about it, that's kinda what she already did. Just look at us."
"I deny any responsibility for whatever terrible ideas you give her."
"I, for one, welcome our baby goddess of electronic warfare."
"Don't give her a bloated head, Tamara, her overall CR is still garbage."
"No, but seriously, how did R&D not steal her?"
"Combat? Says she—uh, wait, that's classified. Never mind."
"No intel visits plz."
"Yeah, that's good enough."
"Hey, Hebert, can you share the algorithms or formulae or whatever you used there?"

"It is only safely usable by myself and Symbie," QA refused. "Dedicated subsystems are required to avoid brain aneurysms from the attempt."

Technically, sufficient quantities of general-purpose systems would also suffice, but QA knew better than to hand shard-level encryption keys or methods to a host species. That could spawn one of the most dangerous threats to the Cycle possible.

"...No brain-bleed plz."
"What's your sample size on that?"
"Just assume R&D aren't idiots and that they already tried."
"Does explain some of the recent research papers, though."
"Yeah, uh, anyway. Welcome to the Crafting Club!"
"She hasn't joined yet, dummy."
"I meant the location you ass."
"I'd totally install those subsystems if my complexity wasn't already–"
"You say that and then wonder why you're always full."
"Fuck off."
"Taylor would be wasted on another elective class, though."
"Abandon freedom, all ye who enter here?"
"You're going to make her feel left out. Come take a look at this thing, Hebert, maybe you'll figure out something we haven't."
"I will literally worship you if you manage that, Hebert, we've been working on it since New Year's and I am so sick of not making any progress."
"Hey, I wouldn't say no progress, I think I've almost got it worked out in sim—"
"You said that last time, too."

Queen Administrator took a single step forward before hesitating. Their previous interactions could primarily be considered with each other; she was mostly just providing information to the participants. Collaborating on a project, however, could be considered genuine socialization.

"We won't be forbidden future interactions with you, will I? My former guardian frowned upon swearing as much as you seem to and I don't want you teaching Symbie bad habits."

Most of those present paused and silently looked at each other. The long length of their observations suggested that private communications were occurring at the same time.

"You do know that Valkyrie Cores aren't really sentient, right?" a tall, black-haired cadet eventually ventured.

The rest of the Crafting Club maintained their disciplined silence for all of two seconds before the capacitor broke once more.

"Well, we don't actually know that."
"Reports of inexplicable system behavior do crop up from time to time."
"And there's the recurring personification among Three Hundred users: 'colder than normal.'"
"Yeah, they're kinda the experts if you think about it."
"Not sure I like the implications of Cores mostly choosing to go inside girls, though."
"Okay, gross much? Why the fuck would you even go there?"
"First of all, how dare you. Second of all–"
"Taylor, don't worry about the swearing. Literally fucking nobody gives a fuck."
"Well, no, try to avoid it in formal settings. We're not that."
"So it says you have a stealth-oriented frame, but the specifics are behind a big wall o'classified...?"
"Don't fucking encourage people to share info beyond your access level, dummy."

"I was not told to omit any information during my interactions with others," Queen Administrator noted. "One: Symbie is definitely sentient and my Friend. Say hello, Symbie."

A crimson combat tentacle extended from the upper portion of Host's armored back and waved to those present. QA made a mental note to suggest covering it with lasers at some point; mere blades would not suffice at multi-kilometer ranges.

"The f–"

"Second: The stealth designation was granted because Type Zero Macross halted near my position before continuing onward. I do not know enough about standard Valkyrie Frame classifications to comment."

There was a long silence while the assembled non-hosts looked to each other once more. It was broken by quiet pings from the datapads of ten of the twelve Senior cadets present. They glanced down at their devices before sharing a circle of grins. The door slid shut behind ~~Queen Administrator~~ Host in the moments before they resumed discussing their findings.

"Annnnd I can access the full file now. Smile for the cameras, everyone!"
"That's a quicker response time than usual."
"Access instead of lockdown is a nice change, too. Thanks, Big Sister!"
"Stop screwing around and actually read it, it says she had no Impeller Field at first."
"That's literally impossible, the atomic conflicts alone—"
"Pics so it did haaaaaa oh what the fuck."
"Are we just not going to talk about the friendly tentacle?"
"Can't confirm if it's her Frame or just a preset, so. Yeah?"
"Stop a sec and review the 'Core Repair' footage."
"...Uh."
"Yeah."
"Why couldn't she have done that before better sensors, I need data!"
"That looks gross and it's all over her legs. How was she not screaming?"
"'It's always the quiet ones?'"
"Okay, so why the fuck did it respond to an electric current when Cores historically ignored all stimuli save human touch?"
"The supplementary light signals?"
"I'm pretty sure they tried those, too. They even resorted to magnetic fields."
"Okay, I can see where the wave enters and exits the Core, but it's not the same on either end. More fucking blackboxes, hooray."
"How could a Core have needed repairs? They're basically indestructible!"
"Honestly, it's impressive we've found this many intact ones as it is. The impactor wasn't exactly what I'd call gentle."

Queen Administrator felt Host's expression automatically morph into a smile as the Crafting Club continued to bounce ideas between members. These particular humans weren't anywhere near perfect, but they were relentlessly curious. That was adequate. She might not be allowed to tell them anything useful, but she could at least review their notes from other projects while she waited for them to get bored.

"Check out the 'Blender' attachment series."
"Mmm. Okay, starting to think she's a freak of nature. In a good way, though."
"Hah, yeah. Meyer is totally going to have fun with her."
"It looks cool, but Hebert's Impeller Field will reflect incoming beams back on itself when it's shaped like that."

Queen Administrator blinked, opened a text document on her datapad, and started taking notes. She hadn't realized someone had actually been paying attention to her previous Impeller Field practice; it was nice to know that some ~~people~~ humans did see even if they didn't say anything.

"True. And notice how the whole field shifts forward?"
"Vulnerability to flanking and guided missiles, yeah. Not great."
"Don't be too harsh, it's still amazing impeller control for a first-year."
"Nah, she's taking notes; I don't think she minds."

"I do not," Queen Administrator confirmed. "I have received no official Valkyrie training and only have a small dataset for comparison. Constructive criticism and general feedback would both be welcomed."

The Crafting Club stopped to silently communicate with one another for almost five seconds before resuming.

"Too much prep time."
"Minimal time to dodge or react at that range."
"Looks cool, but Impeller Field density is honestly more important than shape in most cases."
"Yeah, it's either overkill or underkill like this."
"I can send you some notes on teleportation–"
"No, she should have instructor supervision for that."
"But just imagine a two-fifty teleporting in her first lessons!"
"We are not teaching her stuff just so she can fuck with the other firsties."
"That's not the only reason."
"Still, prodigy or not, she's not learning teleportation overnight."

"I should not be utilizing my Impeller Field or entering simulations today," QA warned them. "Suggestions will be implemented in tomorrow's classes, but Symbie is currently trying to ensure her Impeller will handle the simulation rooms without problems."

With Host's help, of course, but she couldn't exactly tell them that.

"That's not how–"
"No field by default, remember?"
"I still say they just missed it, Cores can't even function–"
"More things in Heaven and Earth and all that."
"I'm honestly more curious about 'Symbie.'"
"Active personality emulator? It's not recommended, but it's been done before."
"The Field doesn't just vanish!"
"I mean, if she hid from a Type Zero, yeah it can vanish."
"Semi-autonomous AI might explain it."
"She literally called it her friend, so ix-nay on the oubt-day."
"Yeah, we should discuss that later."
"Taylor, your railgun's recorded specs aren't that great. Unless it's gotten way better since then, maybe requisition a better one from the fabricators so Symbie can start integration?"
"Hey, yeah. Shouldn't you be touring the Academy right about now?"

"I believe my intended tour group splintered after I accidentally flirted with one of the other members."

Two members expressed disbelief and two appeared neutral, but the remaining eight seemed amused by her error.

"How do you accidentally–"
"No, no, I can see it."
"Yeah, after the swearing ban? Makes sense."
"I hereby dub thee Pure-chan."
"Jun-chan works better."
"Ugh, you know I hate the 'everything sounds better in another language' mindset."
"That kind of a nickname won't exactly help with the shipping, you know."
"Junko-chan might be more accurate anyway."
"Doesn't roll off the tongue as well."
"Ia! Ia! Shipping fhtagn!"
"Sure you want to say that near a tentacled maybe-creature from the stars, Tamara?"
"Why not? It's doodling sheep on the wall, that's as unthreatening as it gets."

Queen Administrator glanced aside and confirmed that Symbie was, in fact, carving a possible sketch of a defensive energy attractor and converter Friend into the metal armor of a nearby wall. Their upper tolerances would be too low for combat in this new world, but perhaps QA, Host, and Symbie could upgrade the design with what she learned from Anna and the Crafting Club.

"You do realize we're neglecting the project at this point, right?"
"Meh, we should break for dinner anyway."
"I already ate, go ahead."
"Likewise."
"Thirded, you lot have fun."
"Wanna come along, Hebert?"
"Yeah, we can take the long way around so you can stock up on the good stuff."
"Come to the dark side, we have missiles~"

Queen Administrator briefly considered the offer, decided what they'd told her had already proven useful, and nodded. If she integrated the datapad into Symbie, then she could talk and eat at the same time. It would be much more productive than eating alone.

"That would probably be sensible," she allowed. "I accept your dinner invitation."

The various cadets formed rough ranks and filed toward the door, one of them waving for QA to follow and join them. Their paths weren't perfect, but they were tolerable and left sufficient personal space for evasive actions.

"And so formal! Hey, you think that Nade-chan would be more accurate?"
"For Nadeshiko?"
"Yeah, I'm kinda expecting to find birds eating from her hand at some point."
"Actually, you can do that pretty easily with the right chemical bait."
"Ive seen that; the Horticulture Club lets some fly around their gardens. Endangered butterflies, too."
"Do you really want to expose Jun-chan to the lilies?"
"I mean... maybe?"
"Besides, I think they're the Gardening Club now."
"Aww, I liked the refined air of the old name."
"I'm sure you liked a lot of other things about it too, right?"
"More the company than the things, but yup."
"...It's no fun if you just admit it."
"Hey, Hebert, could you retract your Frame? You're not really supposed to use them in the hallways."

Queen Administrator briefly considered the offer, decided what they'd told her had already proven useful, nodded, and mentally nudged Symbie into withdrawing. QA had no idea what their recent title attempts translated to or if her forming reputation was even remotely useful, but she'd default to assuming they were being complimentary until proven otherwise.

"Is the lily subspecies cultivated by the Gardening Club unusually dangerous?" Queen Administrator asked. "If so, I would be interested in reviewing their project notes and the flowers themselves."

She had been intending to explore more airborne toxins delivered by Friends; all of her previous terran variants had utilized contact poison or injected venom. It sounded as though the local flower species may suffice, although QA wasn't sure why her question seemed to provoke giggling from over half of those present.

"Oh my gosh, you're adorable."
"Literally too pure for this world, you should try lunar base Armstrong."
"She followed us home; can we keep her?"
"Up to her at this point, I'm game."
"Not like your stupid fucking questions are going to let us get anyone else, so sure, why the fuck not."
"Taylor, if anyone ever makes you uncomfortable, tell us and your senpais will deal with them."
"I don't think she'll know what you mean by that."
"Yeah, that could apply to all kinds of stuff if you take it literally."
"Uummm... okay, call us if they harass you in a way that makes you uncomfortable?"

Queen Administrator smiled with genuine pleasure and nodded. She hadn't expected to acquire so many allies in such a short period of time, yet she had no intention of complaining. Host would want humans to interact with when she fully recovered and these ones were practically on par with Innovator-hosts. QA herself may even continue interacting with them on a long-term basis.

Hopefully, tomorrow's apparently-mandatory therapist would prove similarly tolerable. Queen Administrator didn't need psychological treatment, but she'd been told that some specialists were content to just chat with their patients. She may be able to request information on the psychological vulnerabilities of other humans and/or Antagonists.

A newly-dressed Rokusabe Koujirou paused before the door to his assigned quarters and tried to fight off his sense of impending dread. He knew Setsu wouldn't just leave him in peace; his old friend got bored easily and still seemed to adore using him as a chewtoy. She would probably be lurking on the other side of the door, waiting for him to open it and almost suffer another surprise-induced heart attack. Still, he supposed it was better than being hit. He'd honestly been surprised that he'd gotten away from the auditorium without even a slap, let alone a full-fledged punch. He'd sometimes worried about permanent brain damage from how much the females in his life seemed to enjoy hitting him.

Koujirou took a deep breath, swiped the door open, and immediately relaxed. Setsu impatiently waited on the opposite side of the hall with arms crossed and her datapad in hand. No ambushes today, it seemed; maybe she'd been telling the truth when she talked about stopping?

Koujirou stepped out of his room, raised a hand in greeting, and—

(Two deathly-cold arms wrapped around his throat.)

"Boo."

—screamed.

~ ~ ~

Human amusement remained a memetic hazard even when those involved were not biological relatives. Queen Administrator's hosts had terrified plenty of opponents in her long existence, yet she'd only derived satisfaction at most. This time was different; there was something about the combination of Koji's suffering and Setsuna's laughter that let QA sporadically giggle as well. She didn't mind very much. Unlike some of Host's other emotions, amusement at another's suffering appeared to be more enjoyable than annoying.

"Haven't you tortured me enough for one day?" Koji whined, leaning with his upper body parallel to the floor while one palm pressed against his chest. "Or really, my entire life? I know Setsu is crazy, but I didn't expect you to be the sort to enjoy a man's suffering, Taylor."

"WHO'S CRAZY?!"

Queen Administrator was moderately surprised when Setsuna stepped forward and trapped the larger human in a headlock. The backlash against her failed attempt to attack Senior Rokusabe gave QA the impression that violence was frowned upon, yet Setsuna seemed perfectly comfortable torturing Koji via the application of her knuckles to the top of his head. The permissions granted between allegedly-friendly hosts seemed highly illogical; didn't host-species form alliances specifically to avoid pain and personal harm? It seemed highly counterproductive to let a superior friendship have the opposite effect.

Regardless, QA had no reason to watch non-hosts torture one another; she'd already fulfilled Setsuna's request. Queen Administrator turned around and followed her datapad's map toward the Academy's primary cluster of flight simulators. Anna appeared to have stopped using the address previously provided to QA; the former shard would need to wait for Senior Rokusabe to locate the superior human before interactions could continue.

<Not yet. Upgrading Impeller,> Host suddenly sent.

<GRATITUDE.>

Queen Administrator stopped and reevaluated her options. If combat and flight simulators were currently unacceptable, then QA would need to default to a secondary activity. She would also need to waste class time on calibration instead of partially completing them in advance, but she didn't mind. Queen Administrator would rather accept whatever aid Host could provide than encourage Host to stay eternally in dreams.

Another check indicated that Senior Rokusabe had not transmitted any messages regarding Anna's location within the last ten seconds; QA could not default to visiting the superior human. That left her third known option: visiting the Crafting Club. Hopefully, the cadets would be more open-minded and less obstinate than their older counterparts.

~ ~ ~

Setsuna stopped her ministrations and looked around the hall. After a moment of hesitation, she shrugged and released Koji as well. Her noogie had been long enough to get the point across. Well, okay, maybe not. Would it kill him to compliment her just once? He sometimes did it for girls he didn't even know, but never her, the girl who'd known him since they were little kids! It often felt like he didn't even know she existed.

"Did you see where Taylor went?" Setsuna asked the oblivious moron.

Koji took several steps away before answering, a sure sign that he was going to say something he knew was dumb. Setsuna itched to smack him for that alone.

"I think she ditched us while you were busy proving me right."

Setsuna's temper flared once more. Why was she the one who got called crazy when he was the one to repeatedly provoke her? He was even smart enough to start running before her expression wholly translated to rage.

"Come back here and accept your beating like a man!" Setsuna shouted, sprinting after him.

"I'm pretty sure you don't actually want me to fight back, so no!"

~ ~ ~

The Crafting elective class — or informally and far more commonly, the Crafting Club — proved to be uncomfortably far outside the primary armored shell of the Perth Arcology. There was still a healthy amount of armor plating and massive blast doors at both ends of the room, but it didn't feel entirely safe in comparison. However, their position seemed to have let them lay claim to what she imagined was an unusually large room — fifty meters tall, two hundred meters wide, and approximately a kilometer long — in close proximity to a far larger fabricator. The room itself might even have qualified as part of the fabricator.

Both a significant portion of the room and the attention of the dozen third-year Cadets who used it were occupied by a massive metal object of unknown purpose. It may have been some manner of weapon, but not one that Queen Administrator recognized; it started off as a clean cylinder, but rapidly transitioned into a twisted near-spiral that eventually terminated in a curved spike. Since Symbie's new scanner was not yet powerful enough to let QA look past the first few layers of armor, Queen Administrator quickly lost interest and decided to simply step inside the room. An alert appeared in the corner of her vision as soon as she crossed the threshold.

>>THIS MESSAGE WAS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED: "We applaud your enthusiasm, but the crafting club is currently extremely busy. We are not accepting new applicants or sightseers until the end of week 3. We also have a high standard; if you can't solve these problems by the end of week three, don't bother applying, but if you do manage to finish these questions before end of week 3, then feel free to come in and mingle."

Queen Administrator opened the attached file and couldn't decide whether or not she should be happy about the contents. The merged science and mathematics questions were complicated enough to bar unenhanced humans, certainly, but that was not inherently a good thing. Host was undeniably creative and she wouldn't have been able to solve them if she'd only equipped Symbie a few days earlier. In fact, she might not have been able to solve them at all. She wouldn't possess Queen Administrator's wealth of mathematical knowledge once she returned to her body.

QA supposed she could make them review their policies once she passed their intake test; it shouldn't take long. The shard extended Symbie from storage in order to receive additional aid with processing, leaned against a nearby wall for supplementary support, and began systematically working her way through the problems provided.

It took Queen Administrator almost a quarter of an hour to complete the challenge problems, but at least the feedback was immediate. Every cadet in the massive room stopped arguing over the unidentified object and turned to look at her. A moment later, they seemingly all tried to shout at once despite the significant distance between ~~herself~~ Host and them. To be fair, they were actively walking toward her in their attempts to remedy that situation.

"Hah! I told you a green firstie could solve them!" "One out of, what, sixty unique visitors? More? At this rate, the club is going to die when we leave." "Hebert did it, didn't she? You can't blame me for having standards." "Hey, isn't she the orientation scanner?" "One of them, maybe, there were at least two distinctive signatures." "Solved them in fourteen minutes with a combat rating of two-fifty and zero flight hours, I'm calling shenanigans." "No, check out the intake scores-" "Eww, eww, eww annnd oooh. Perfect on standard mathematics." "Comprehension, not speed; she was originally within normal human limitations for the second." "And her Science scores were pretty bleh, too, so how she'd manage question two and four?" "She did have to extend her Frame before solving your fucking quiz." "Even so, jumping that far in a month..." "No, seriously, how is her combat rating still so low? Maneuverability and processing alone should bump her up to at least twice that." "Zero is zero, no real practice yet." "And zero hits on the ranged test. Quoth the Meyer: 'Enemies will not stand idly while you close to melee!'" "Bet you she does better next time." "No bet."

Members of the Crafting Club seemed to be less than clear on who they were replying to at any given time, but Queen Administrator wasn't sure their identifiers actually mattered. The auto-filtering quiz would bar the blatantly inadequate, and if they were collaborating on shared projects, then the end result was what truly mattered. Their tendency to speak over one another without complaint also ensured that all had a chance to speak.

"I have not been able to practice with flight or weaponry since my initial synchronization with Symbie," Queen Administrator interjected. "I believe my scores will improve afterward."

"Well, duh." "Don't be rude, you're the one who sorta-asked." "Do you have an integrated voice synthesizer? I've never heard anyone attach an encrypted information string like that." "Is that encryption or just gibberish?" "I'm thinking gibberish." "No, there's definitely at least one repeating pattern in there." "Copy-paste says hi." "Wait, I think at least some of it is a pi fragment." "It's just a joke. If you switch your interface to 36-character lines, the zeros form emoji." "Good gods, they're everywhere." "331-character forms a network of fractal shapes." "Wait, I think my record just shifted." "Mine—fuck. Purge it!" "Fuck that, just move it to a VM and keep going."

All but two members of the club turned to focus on QA with expressions ranging from mild displeasure to obvious disgruntlement. The lone two to keep working still appeared deeply interested in the intercepted signature. Queen Administrator was surprised they'd detected the underlying transmissions, but not particularly worried. The identifier was designed to be inscrutable to non-shards.

"Okay, glad to see you've ridiculously improved your EW capabilities, but sending self-executing code to other Valks isn't cool." "Outside tri-V combat practice." "Well, yeah, obviously." "Can we go back to her combat rating? I mean..." "Quoth the Leonhart: 'You're more than just a number.'" "Still, there's incorrect and then there's insulting." "Eh, just think of how her first class'll go." "'I'll show them. I'll show them ALL!'" "Mm-hmm. Betcha a back massage that Meyer uses her as an example in class." "You know I'm up for taking your shirt off whenever you want, right?" "U–um? I didn't, ah..." "Having core temperature problems?" "S-shut up!" "No, but seriously, Hebert, could you not send malicious code to other Valks?"

Apparently, there was a significant downside to their collective communication pattern: it was difficult to judge interpersonal relationships. Still, if they judged this to be more efficient than the alternatives, than QA would comply without complaint. It was certainly far faster than normal human conversation.

"It was not an attack," QA protested. "It is my unique identifier and self-compresses to an unobtrusive size should it begin threatening performance."

"...The fuck?" "Holy shit, run a high-performance sim. She's not joking." "That honestly seems like a recipe for disaster." "Don't be a killjoy, Asia, the code hasn't broken yet." "No, no, it's fine, quarantining it somewhere small also works." "It overwrites itself with each exposure and can auto-shrink down to measly megabytes, the fuck is–" "Hah, she can make the best 'NOTICE ME SENPAI' ever." "If you think about it, that's kinda what she already did. Just look at us." "I deny any responsibility for whatever terrible ideas you give her." "I, for one, welcome our baby goddess of electronic warfare." "Don't give her a bloated head, Tamara, her overall CR is still garbage." "No, but seriously, how did R&D not steal her?" "Combat? Says she—uh, wait, that's classified. Never mind." "No intel visits plz." "Yeah, that's good enough." "Hey, Hebert, can you share the algorithms or formulae or whatever you used there?"

"It is only safely usable by myself and Symbie," QA refused. "Dedicated subsystems are required to avoid brain aneurysms from the attempt."

Technically, sufficient quantities of general-purpose systems would also suffice, but QA knew better than to hand shard-level encryption keys or methods to a host species. That could spawn one of the most dangerous threats to the Cycle possible.

"...No brain-bleed plz." "What's your sample size on that?" "Just assume R&D aren't idiots and that they already tried." "Does explain some of the recent research papers, though." "Yeah, uh, anyway. Welcome to the Crafting Club!" "She hasn't joined yet, dummy." "I meant the location you ass." "I'd totally install those subsystems if my complexity wasn't already–" "You say that and then wonder why you're always full." "Fuck off." "Taylor would be wasted on another elective class, though." "Abandon freedom, all ye who enter here?" "You're going to make her feel left out. Come take a look at this thing, Hebert, maybe you'll figure out something we haven't." "I will literally worship you if you manage that, Hebert, we've been working on it since New Year's and I am so sick of not making any progress." "Hey, I wouldn't say no progress, I think I've almost got it worked out in sim—" "You said that last time, too."

Queen Administrator took a single step forward before hesitating. Their previous interactions could primarily be considered with each other; she was mostly just providing information to the participants. Collaborating on a project, however, could be considered genuine socialization.

"We won't be forbidden future interactions with you, will I? My former guardian frowned upon swearing as much as you seem to and I don't want you teaching Symbie bad habits."

Most of those present paused and silently looked at each other. The long length of their observations suggested that private communications were occurring at the same time.

"You do know that Valkyrie Cores aren't really sentient, right?" a tall, black-haired cadet eventually ventured.

The rest of the Crafting Club maintained their disciplined silence for all of two seconds before the capacitor broke once more.

"Well, we don't actually know that." "Reports of inexplicable system behavior do crop up from time to time." "And there's the recurring personification among Three Hundred users: 'colder than normal.'" "Yeah, they're kinda the experts if you think about it." "Not sure I like the implications of Cores mostly choosing to go inside girls, though." "Okay, gross much? Why the fuck would you even go there?" "First of all, how dare you. Second of all–" "Taylor, don't worry about the swearing. Literally fucking nobody gives a fuck." "Well, no, try to avoid it in formal settings. We're not that." "So it says you have a stealth-oriented frame, but the specifics are behind a big wall o'classified...?" "Don't fucking encourage people to share info beyond your access level, dummy."

"I was not told to omit any information during my interactions with others," Queen Administrator noted. "One: Symbie is definitely sentient and my Friend. Say hello, Symbie."

A crimson combat tentacle extended from the upper portion of Host's armored back and waved to those present. QA made a mental note to suggest covering it with lasers at some point; mere blades would not suffice at multi-kilometer ranges.

"The f–"

"Second: The stealth designation was granted because Type Zero Macross halted near my position before continuing onward. I do not know enough about standard Valkyrie Frame classifications to comment."

There was a long silence while the assembled non-hosts looked to each other once more. It was broken by quiet pings from the datapads of ten of the twelve Senior cadets present. They glanced down at their devices before sharing a circle of grins. The door slid shut behind ~~Queen Administrator~~ Host in the moments before they resumed discussing their findings.

"Annnnd I can access the full file now. Smile for the cameras, everyone!" "That's a quicker response time than usual." "Access instead of lockdown is a nice change, too. Thanks, Big Sister!" "Stop screwing around and actually read it, it says she had no Impeller Field at first." "That's literally impossible, the atomic conflicts alone—" "Pics so it did haaaaaa oh what the fuck." "Are we just not going to talk about the friendly tentacle?" "Can't confirm if it's her Frame or just a preset, so. Yeah?" "Stop a sec and review the 'Core Repair' footage." "...Uh." "Yeah." "Why couldn't she have done that before better sensors, I need data!" "That looks gross and it's all over her legs. How was she not screaming?" "'It's always the quiet ones?'" "Okay, so why the fuck did it respond to an electric current when Cores historically ignored all stimuli save human touch?" "The supplementary light signals?" "I'm pretty sure they tried those, too. They even resorted to magnetic fields." "Okay, I can see where the wave enters and exits the Core, but it's not the same on either end. More fucking blackboxes, hooray." "How could a Core have needed repairs? They're basically indestructible!" "Honestly, it's impressive we've found this many intact ones as it is. The impactor wasn't exactly what I'd call gentle."

Queen Administrator felt Host's expression automatically morph into a smile as the Crafting Club continued to bounce ideas between members. These particular humans weren't anywhere near perfect, but they were relentlessly curious. That was adequate. She might not be allowed to tell them anything useful, but she could at least review their notes from other projects while she waited for them to get bored.

"Check out the 'Blender' attachment series." "Mmm. Okay, starting to think she's a freak of nature. In a good way, though." "Hah, yeah. Meyer is totally going to have fun with her." "It looks cool, but Hebert's Impeller Field will reflect incoming beams back on itself when it's shaped like that."

Queen Administrator blinked, opened a text document on her datapad, and started taking notes. She hadn't realized someone had actually been paying attention to her previous Impeller Field practice; it was nice to know that some ~~people~~ humans did see even if they didn't say anything.

"True. And notice how the whole field shifts forward?" "Vulnerability to flanking and guided missiles, yeah. Not great." "Don't be too harsh, it's still amazing impeller control for a first-year." "Nah, she's taking notes; I don't think she minds."

"I do not," Queen Administrator confirmed. "I have received no official Valkyrie training and only have a small dataset for comparison. Constructive criticism and general feedback would both be welcomed."

The Crafting Club stopped to silently communicate with one another for almost five seconds before resuming.

"Too much prep time." "Minimal time to dodge or react at that range." "Looks cool, but Impeller Field density is honestly more important than shape in most cases." "Yeah, it's either overkill or underkill like this." "I can send you some notes on teleportation–" "No, she should have instructor supervision for that." "But just imagine a two-fifty teleporting in her first lessons!" "We are not teaching her stuff just so she can fuck with the other firsties." "That's not the only reason." "Still, prodigy or not, she's not learning teleportation overnight."

"I should not be utilizing my Impeller Field or entering simulations today," QA warned them. "Suggestions will be implemented in tomorrow's classes, but Symbie is currently trying to ensure her Impeller will handle the simulation rooms without problems."

With Host's help, of course, but she couldn't exactly tell them that.

"That's not how–" "No field by default, remember?" "I still say they just missed it, Cores can't even function–" "More things in Heaven and Earth and all that." "I'm honestly more curious about 'Symbie.'" "Active personality emulator? It's not recommended, but it's been done before." "The Field doesn't just vanish!" "I mean, if she hid from a Type Zero, yeah it can vanish." "Semi-autonomous AI might explain it." "She literally called it her friend, so ix-nay on the oubt-day." "Yeah, we should discuss that later." "Taylor, your railgun's recorded specs aren't that great. Unless it's gotten way better since then, maybe requisition a better one from the fabricators so Symbie can start integration?" "Hey, yeah. Shouldn't you be touring the Academy right about now?"

"I believe my intended tour group splintered after I accidentally flirted with one of the other members."

Two members expressed disbelief and two appeared neutral, but the remaining eight seemed amused by her error.

"How do you accidentally–" "No, no, I can see it." "Yeah, after the swearing ban? Makes sense." "I hereby dub thee Pure-chan." "Jun-chan works better." "Ugh, you know I hate the 'everything sounds better in another language' mindset." "That kind of a nickname won't exactly help with the shipping, you know." "Junko-chan might be more accurate anyway." "Doesn't roll off the tongue as well." "Ia! Ia! Shipping fhtagn!" "Sure you want to say that near a tentacled maybe-creature from the stars, Tamara?" "Why not? It's doodling sheep on the wall, that's as unthreatening as it gets."

Queen Administrator glanced aside and confirmed that Symbie was, in fact, carving a possible sketch of a defensive energy attractor and converter Friend into the metal armor of a nearby wall. Their upper tolerances would be too low for combat in this new world, but perhaps QA, Host, and Symbie could upgrade the design with what she learned from Anna and the Crafting Club.

"You do realize we're neglecting the project at this point, right?" "Meh, we should break for dinner anyway." "I already ate, go ahead." "Likewise." "Thirded, you lot have fun." "Wanna come along, Hebert?" "Yeah, we can take the long way around so you can stock up on the good stuff." "Come to the dark side, we have missiles~"

Queen Administrator briefly considered the offer, decided what they'd told her had already proven useful, and nodded. If she integrated the datapad into Symbie, then she could talk and eat at the same time. It would be much more productive than eating alone.

"That would probably be sensible," she allowed. "I accept your dinner invitation."

The various cadets formed rough ranks and filed toward the door, one of them waving for QA to follow and join them. Their paths weren't perfect, but they were tolerable and left sufficient personal space for evasive actions.

"And so formal! Hey, you think that Nade-chan would be more accurate?" "For Nadeshiko?" "Yeah, I'm kinda expecting to find birds eating from her hand at some point." "Actually, you can do that pretty easily with the right chemical bait." "Ive seen that; the Horticulture Club lets some fly around their gardens. Endangered butterflies, too." "Do you really want to expose Jun-chan to the lilies?" "I mean... maybe?" "Besides, I think they're the Gardening Club now." "Aww, I liked the refined air of the old name." "I'm sure you liked a lot of other things about it too, right?" "More the company than the things, but yup." "...It's no fun if you just admit it." "Hey, Hebert, could you retract your Frame? You're not really supposed to use them in the hallways."

Queen Administrator briefly considered the offer, decided what they'd told her had already proven useful, nodded, and mentally nudged Symbie into withdrawing. QA had no idea what their recent title attempts translated to or if her forming reputation was even remotely useful, but she'd default to assuming they were being complimentary until proven otherwise.

"Is the lily subspecies cultivated by the Gardening Club unusually dangerous?" Queen Administrator asked. "If so, I would be interested in reviewing their project notes and the flowers themselves."

She had been intending to explore more airborne toxins delivered by Friends; all of her previous terran variants had utilized contact poison or injected venom. It sounded as though the local flower species may suffice, although QA wasn't sure why her question seemed to provoke giggling from over half of those present.

"Oh my gosh, you're adorable." "Literally too pure for this world, you should try lunar base Armstrong." "She followed us home; can we keep her?" "Up to her at this point, I'm game." "Not like your stupid fucking questions are going to let us get anyone else, so sure, why the fuck not." "Taylor, if anyone ever makes you uncomfortable, tell us and your senpais will deal with them." "I don't think she'll know what you mean by that." "Yeah, that could apply to all kinds of stuff if you take it literally." "Uummm... okay, call us if they harass you in a way that makes you uncomfortable?"

Queen Administrator smiled with genuine pleasure and nodded. She hadn't expected to acquire so many allies in such a short period of time, yet she had no intention of complaining. Host would want humans to interact with when she fully recovered and these ones were practically on par with Innovator-hosts. QA herself may even continue interacting with them on a long-term basis.

Hopefully, tomorrow's apparently-mandatory therapist would prove similarly tolerable. Queen Administrator didn't need psychological treatment, but she'd been told that some specialists were content to just chat with their patients. She may be able to request information on the psychological vulnerabilities of other humans and/or Antagonists.

Alivaril · Jan 28, 2020

Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @orchamus, @Just_A_Knight, Mr. Silver, @DaGeek247, and my sixteen other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well.

Author's Note: I used to have a policy of not posting past 7:00 PM EST to avoid people staying up too late, but I've relaxed that a bunch lately. I can re-implement it if I'm messing up people's sleep schedules, disincentivizing conversation, etc. ^^; YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE

The Valkyrie-humans of the Crafting Club soon proved themselves to be more productive than the vast majority of Innovator-hosts. It seemed as though Valkyrie Cores did not innately provide knowledge like shards so often did, only the memory and processing power necessary to understand and utilize advanced concepts. This did introduce some problems, but none that the ~~non-hosts~~ worthy-Valkyries seemed to mind. In the most recent case, their response merely manifested as an ongoing tracker of how much weaponry and material Queen Administrator had stored within Symbie thus far. She and Symbie had already depleted several of the premade missile racks intended for new cadets. Fortunately, the Crafting Club members watching her ~~steal~~ store copious amounts of material seemed happy to queue up replacements while she (and two of Symbie's utility tentacles) grabbed ever more material. Queen Administrator didn't even have to say anything and it was wonderful. None of her own previous Innovator-hosts had been given so much variety to play with, let alone so many explosives. It was interesting to realize the local humans could afford to grant a single cadet what would've been city-killing quantities of weaponry on Host's homeworld; :MOTHER: usually avoided producing such threats.

It remained difficult to distinguish between them, though. The only two QA had managed to log so far were Asia, who seemed to be the Crafting Club's voice of caution, and Tamara, whose often-odd attempts at humor sometimes led the group down unexpectedly productive avenues of study. The name 'Sibel' had also come up and may allegedly have belonged to their leader, but that was unconfirmed.

"We're up to a thousand cubic meters of material."
"Smol Symbie, big eater?"
"I mean, her ratio isn't that bad, Hebert's just–"
"I know you think you're helping, but you're not helping."
"Intake records indicate that Taylor grew a bunch, so I'm thinking inadequate nutrition."
"Besides, if Taylor's right about treating Symbie like a growing girl, then Symbie might be a growing girl."
"You're so far away from even vaguely-supported speculation that the light from it will take weeks to reach you."
"No, no, the supporting evidence is bad, but the conclusion is valid. Valkyrie-upgraded powered armor is usually smaller than the infantry standard, but sometimes it grows instead."
"So I know you're all distracted watching our baby genius act like a former refugee discovering the cafeteria–"
"Not funny, Sibel."
"–but I managed to repeatedly prune down the alleged ID to four hundred kilobytes and it still attempted self-repair each time. Only quarantine stopped it."
"How are you sure you got different pieces when it keeps shifting structure?"
"I deleted over eighty percent of it each time, the odds–"

"You should stop trying to break my ID," Queen Administrator absentmindedly interrupted. "I don't want you to trigger the anti-forging measures."

She could likely halt and reverse the process before it killed them, but she'd still have an awkward time explaining any crystalline growths that formed during the defensive backlash.

"Annnnd it just ignored the partition whilst overwrite-repairing itself. The old stuff is staying in, new is out, and I think they're still interacting. Somehow."
"This is feeling like the digital version of UNARD's damned challenge."
"Nah, not enough blackboxing. I think this might be manageable? Eventually?"
"What part of 'do not break this thing' was unclear? Stop poking the OP malware."
"It's not proper malware yet, but I do wanna make it that way; imagine overloading Antagonists with this stuff–"
"Then do it on an airgapped system instead of your Frame you fucking idiot–"
"Isn't this sort of thing kinda the Electronics Club's specialty anyway? Computing's more their deal."
"Jun-chan followed us home and we're keeping–"
"No, actually, that's not a bad idea. We can still keep Taylor, they can have the puzzle, everyone goes away happy."
"That deal won't last five minutes when they learn how she propagates it."
"You do realize she hasn't even officially applied yet, right?"
"Urk. Um. Okay, so uh, Hebert? You can't integrate all of that in Symbie at once, you know."
"Yeah, I know it's tempting to binge on supples until your storage is all full, but that just leaves you with a bunch of outdated weapons once they're improved. Less stuff, upgrade it more."

Queen Administrator stopped and mentally ordered Symbie to do the same. QA admitted that she didn't truly know much about the difference between Valkyrie equipment integration and simple storage; Host had handled most of that while they were making Symbie together.

"I was under the impression that all objects in Valkyrie storage underwent continuous upgrades," QA ventured.

She'd actually been rather worried about failing to imitate such continuous Innovations. Host could access any project in storage, but there was only so much she and Symbie could do at any given time.

"Common misconception, but no."
"Hold on, how did she get the infantry armor and tentacles if–"
"Forget the if, what was the input to get prehensile tentacles to begin with?"
"Impeller whips? Might help explain her narrow field of expertise."
"We don't need an explanation for that, the Blender folder was comprehensive e–"

"Take it to channels for a bit so I can explain," Asia overrode them, then turned to Queen Administrator. "There are two major storage-related limitations a Valkyrie needs to worry about: raw volume, and complexity. You're already familiar with volume. Complexity is a bit of a complicated mess that affects both raw Impeller strength and the time it takes to integrate stored components into your Frame."

"Technically, it's more to integrate the parts into you–" Sibel(?) interrupted.

"Oh, stop," Asia irritably ordered. "Her lessons will give her the detailed description. She needs macro-scale right now. Anyway, you have your Valkyrie Frame's complexity, which is something akin to a weighted average of all the components you have integrated. For instance, a plasma halberd might raise Symbie's complexity and take a few weeks plus two hours, while a simple greatsword would lower Symbie's complexity and take five minutes plus two hours. That base of two hours would then increase or decrease depending on whether Symbie's complexity went up or down."

Queen Administrator frowned and nodded to signal understanding. That explained why Symbie was taking much longer with the datapad when she'd previously been so quick to recreate and incorporate Anna's offered sensor designs. Queen Administrator suspected it might've worked differently for Symbie, though; the sensors likely qualified as 'complex' and should've possessed a significant integration time of their own, yet they'd only taken a few seconds to link once construction was finished. Another difference from standard Valkyries, it seemed.

"We didn't stop you since a bunch of your new classmates will have forgotten to visit the fabricators," Tamara added. "You can be that one girl who hands out pencils and notepaper after half her classmates forget them, only with heavy weaponry instead of writing tools."

This comparison seems to have been too much for the remaining members of the Crafting Club.

"Pencils, Tamara? What is this, 2001?"
"You've been reading too much pre-Impact manga."
"You assholes do realize that some refugee camps still use them, right? Not everyone has the amenities of an Arcology."
"Besides, the instructors have ammo restock breaks anyway. She'd only save them a few hours of integration time at best."
"If she stocks up on Hunter-Killer combat drones she can probably use up all the extra missiles in a hurry."
"And also give every sensor-type in her class a heart attack."
"I'm not hearing any reasons not to do it."
"Loss of control and subsequent friendly fire?"
"Oooo, yeah, wouldn't want her to get chewed out for that."

Queen Administrator had mostly just taken them so Host and Symbie could examine and repurpose the various weapon components she'd taken. She did admit that she might've taken too many missiles, though. Even after Symbie finished integrating the twin six-missile launchers that she'd taken, Queen Administrator would still have a reserve of hundreds to work through.

"One of my primary reasons for taking them was so Symbie would have toys to play with," she said truthfully. "There may or may not be anything leftover for me to distribute."

There was a small pause before the Crafting Club cadets collectively decided to start heading out of the storage room, presumably assuming that QA had finished stocking up. She briefly scanned the room, judged there wasn't anything truly unique that she hadn't already taken a sample of, and hurried out of the room.

"So, when you say 'play,' do you mean literally play or–"
"Stuff in storage is supposed to be preserved when it's not being actively upgraded, I don't think–"
"We know."
"Fuck off."
"No, but seriously, I can't tell if she's personifying Symbie too much or if she's right."
"I'd say the incident with–"
"Classified, Mindy."
"Ugh. Er, yeah, I'd say prior evidence might point to actual sentience. Nobody else managed anything like that, gross or not."
"How is Core-babby made?"
"Well, when a mommy Valkyrie and a daddy Valkyrie–"
"Pure-chan is right there."

Queen Administrator blinked.

"Are you attempting to censor information regarding human reproduction? Because I'm already aware of its disgusting existence."

"…I can't decide if that actually takes away from the nickname or not."
"Not."
"Not."
"Definitely not, she's like preteen me and look at how I turned out."
"You are absolutely not allowed to corrupt Jun-chan."
"Please stick with Pure-chan, the foreign language thing is just pure cringe."
"Says the girl still adding chan, you can't just pick and choose the parts you like."
"Picking and choosing parts we like is the whole point of our club."
"Seriously, Taylor, how is Symbie playing with them?"

Queen Administrator tried to sort through Host's poorly-indexed early childhood memories. There was at least some manner of assembly and disassembly, wasn't there…? Symbie's behavior shouldn't be particularly problematic by human standards.

"Disassembling, reassembling, and utilizing objects in different configurations and for different reasons according to her interests," Queen Administrator carefully replied.

"So, like building blocks, only with heavy weapons."
"Seems legit."
"Honestly, we seem to be compiling more and more evidence and it's not like treating Symbie as sentient would do any damage. Might as well."
"NatashAI Syndrome and/or decreased amounts of available processing?"
"Much damage."
"Seriously, why are we pretending to be psychiatrists? Leave that to the actual psychiatrists."
"Because psych is an undermanned myth as rare as unicorns?"
"Actually, Santiago did manage a viable genotype–"
"I'm aware and chose my comparison carefully, thanks."
"'Viable' when the prototypes keep developing cancer every other month, lol."
"Yeah, the robot versions are better."
"You do realize those need maintenance too, right?"
"Sure, but they just need a day in Valk storage for that and they don't poop."
"Does anyone else wanna make Hebert a robot unicorn now?"
"The Pets and Animal Care Club sometimes goes for robotic Emotional Support Companions, just send her over there."
"But their stuff is tiny."
"We are not wasting fabber time on a giant unicorn that can tank missiles."
"See, I wasn't interested before you proposed that. Now I am."
"The fabber is idle right now anyway so we might as well."
"For God's sake–"

"I would much prefer for you to just send me the plans for whatever you'd otherwise intend to make," Queen Administrator ventured. "Symbie can upgrade the designs, implement them, and remotely store personalities."

There was a pause as the various members looked first at Queen Administrator's expressed happiness, then each other.

"Oh my god, we're making a meme."
"Unicorn Rider Pure-chan would be a marvelous legacy to leave Perth with."
"This is so stupid, unicorns aren't even aerodynamically viable or well-balanced in general–"
"And then it opens its mouth and out come tentacles."
"God, don't give her any ideas."
"Holy fuck, those sheep with lightning bolts hitting them? I just realized Symbie was drawing electric sheep."
"So?"
"'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' was a pre-Impact novel –"
"Fuuuuuuck."
"I mean, a good personality emulator would still–"
"Just started, haven't finished yet, but it seems a bit dark for our Ju-"
"Pure-chan."
"It's kinda creeping me out either way, it isn't exactly what I'd call a kid's book."
"Because alien artifacts used for waging war have perfectly normal childhoods, right?"

Queen Administrator tuned out the now-irrelevant conversation as they entered Perth's third cafeteria. Delicious-smelling nutrition called; with the datapad still not yet integrated, conversation could wait.

Host's negative memories of cafeteria food had proven to be irrelevant for Perth Valkyrie Academy's third cafeteria. The massive buffet and banquet tables possessed enough variety to require categorization in both alphabetical and general order. Host's memories drew Queen Administrator to retrieve some manner of wheat and tomato-based dish labeled lasanga. QA found Host's hands covering most of their plate without any conscious feedback from Queen Administrator herself. It was as hard to access Host's poorly-indexed memories as always, but QA got the impression it was associated with Host's deceased mother?

"Going for what's familiar?" Tamara of the Crafting Club asked cheerfully.

"I do not know," Queen Administrator admitted, then hesitated.

She no longer had Host's biohazardous prison as an excuse for QA's alleged amnesia, and enough inadvertent anomalies may draw the UN's attention once more. It was best if they didn't look too hard at the destroyed bunker they'd associated with her appearance; a genetics test would reveal them to be entirely unrelated to her. QA believed they'd previously avoided pursuing her past to avoid exacerbating some perceived psychological trauma, but if they deemed it important enough, she expected that hesitation to vanish. It would be best if she provided as much incentive to avoid pursuit as possible.

"I have trouble remembering events prior to two months ago," QA informed the ~~human~~ worthy-Valkyrie. "Deliberate mental harm to reduce the likelihood of misbehavior removed much of my knowledge prior to that time. Obtaining this dish was an automatic action based on events I cannot properly recall."

It was true, if misleading. QA had a much harder time accessing her archives of past Cycles than she usually did, and Host's own memories were a confusing mess. However, the pre-deployment crippling was performed by :FATHER: and likely unrelated to those problems; it had restricted access to an entirely different set of memories.

Tamara stared at Queen Administrator for an inordinately long time, yet continued to block QA's path to additional food. Queen Administrator tilted her head questioningly when the Crafting Club member's silence exceeded ten seconds.

"I do not know how to interpret that expression."

"I'm currently deciding between hugging you and calling for the others," Tamara replied obligingly, but oddly. "Or both. I'm thinking both, and maybe designing the biggest robo-unicorn ever, and sending you to the Pets Club for good measure, and… yeah. Fuck, what am I even supposed to say to that?"

"No responses are required," Queen Administrator informed her. "It was supplementary information intended to explain my food choices."

Tamara slowly blinked at the shard-temporarily-turned-human.

"I'm going to start hugging you now. I don't know when I'll stop."

Queen Administrator blinked as Tamara utterly ignored the crackling feedback of conflicting Impeller Fields and made good on her declaration. The feedback vastly decreased in volume after both Tamara and QA did their utmost to retract the defensive fields in question, but failed to vanish completely.

"This is entirely unnecessary," Queen Administrator pointed out. "I understand that it is intended as a display of affection, but-"

"You're only encouraging me to maintain it longer," Tamara claimed.

Queen Administrator sighed into the older girl's shoulder. Worthy or not, it seemed that Tamara still maintained the often-irrational tendencies of the rest of her species. QA would need to work toward fixing that.

The Valkyrie-humans of the Crafting Club soon proved themselves to be more productive than the vast majority of Innovator-hosts. It seemed as though Valkyrie Cores did not innately provide knowledge like shards so often did, only the memory and processing power necessary to understand and utilize advanced concepts. This did introduce some problems, but none that the ~~non-hosts~~ worthy-Valkyries seemed to mind. In the most recent case, their response merely manifested as an ongoing tracker of how much weaponry and material Queen Administrator had stored within Symbie thus far. She and Symbie had already depleted several of the premade missile racks intended for new cadets. Fortunately, the Crafting Club members watching her ~~steal~~ store copious amounts of material seemed happy to queue up replacements while she (and two of Symbie's utility tentacles) grabbed ever more material. Queen Administrator didn't even have to say anything and it was wonderful. None of her own previous Innovator-hosts had been given so much variety to play with, let alone so many explosives. It was interesting to realize the local humans could afford to grant a single cadet what would've been city-killing quantities of weaponry on Host's homeworld; :MOTHER: usually avoided producing such threats.

It remained difficult to distinguish between them, though. The only two QA had managed to log so far were Asia, who seemed to be the Crafting Club's voice of caution, and Tamara, whose often-odd attempts at humor sometimes led the group down unexpectedly productive avenues of study. The name 'Sibel' had also come up and may allegedly have belonged to their leader, but that was unconfirmed.

"We're up to a thousand cubic meters of material." "Smol Symbie, big eater?" "I mean, her ratio isn't that bad, Hebert's just–" "I know you think you're helping, but you're not helping." "Intake records indicate that Taylor grew a bunch, so I'm thinking inadequate nutrition." "Besides, if Taylor's right about treating Symbie like a growing girl, then Symbie might be a growing girl." "You're so far away from even vaguely-supported speculation that the light from it will take weeks to reach you." "No, no, the supporting evidence is bad, but the conclusion is valid. Valkyrie-upgraded powered armor is usually smaller than the infantry standard, but sometimes it grows instead." "So I know you're all distracted watching our baby genius act like a former refugee discovering the cafeteria–" "Not funny, Sibel." "–but I managed to repeatedly prune down the alleged ID to four hundred kilobytes and it still attempted self-repair each time. Only quarantine stopped it." "How are you sure you got different pieces when it keeps shifting structure?" "I deleted over eighty percent of it each time, the odds–"

"You should stop trying to break my ID," Queen Administrator absentmindedly interrupted. "I don't want you to trigger the anti-forging measures."

She could likely halt and reverse the process before it killed them, but she'd still have an awkward time explaining any crystalline growths that formed during the defensive backlash.

"Annnnd it just ignored the partition whilst overwrite-repairing itself. The old stuff is staying in, new is out, and I think they're still interacting. Somehow." "This is feeling like the digital version of UNARD's damned challenge." "Nah, not enough blackboxing. I think this might be manageable? Eventually?" "What part of 'do not break this thing' was unclear? Stop poking the OP malware." "It's not proper malware yet, but I do wanna make it that way; imagine overloading Antagonists with this stuff–" "Then do it on an airgapped system instead of your Frame you fucking idiot–" "Isn't this sort of thing kinda the Electronics Club's specialty anyway? Computing's more their deal." "Jun-chan followed us home and we're keeping–" "No, actually, that's not a bad idea. We can still keep Taylor, they can have the puzzle, everyone goes away happy." "That deal won't last five minutes when they learn how she propagates it." "You do realize she hasn't even officially applied yet, right?" "Urk. Um. Okay, so uh, Hebert? You can't integrate all of that in Symbie at once, you know." "Yeah, I know it's tempting to binge on supples until your storage is all full, but that just leaves you with a bunch of outdated weapons once they're improved. Less stuff, upgrade it more."

Queen Administrator stopped and mentally ordered Symbie to do the same. QA admitted that she didn't truly know much about the difference between Valkyrie equipment integration and simple storage; Host had handled most of that while they were making Symbie together.

"I was under the impression that all objects in Valkyrie storage underwent continuous upgrades," QA ventured.

She'd actually been rather worried about failing to imitate such continuous Innovations. Host could access any project in storage, but there was only so much she and Symbie could do at any given time.

"Common misconception, but no." "Hold on, how did she get the infantry armor and tentacles if–" "Forget the if, what was the input to get prehensile tentacles to begin with?" "Impeller whips? Might help explain her narrow field of expertise." "We don't need an explanation for that, the Blender folder was comprehensive e–"

"Take it to channels for a bit so I can explain," Asia overrode them, then turned to Queen Administrator. "There are two major storage-related limitations a Valkyrie needs to worry about: raw volume, and complexity. You're already familiar with volume. Complexity is a bit of a complicated mess that affects both raw Impeller strength and the time it takes to integrate stored components into your Frame."

"Technically, it's more to integrate the parts into you–" Sibel(?) interrupted.

"Oh, stop," Asia irritably ordered. "Her lessons will give her the detailed description. She needs macro-scale right now. Anyway, you have your Valkyrie Frame's complexity, which is something akin to a weighted average of all the components you have integrated. For instance, a plasma halberd might raise Symbie's complexity and take a few weeks plus two hours, while a simple greatsword would lower Symbie's complexity and take five minutes plus two hours. That base of two hours would then increase or decrease depending on whether Symbie's complexity went up or down."

Queen Administrator frowned and nodded to signal understanding. That explained why Symbie was taking much longer with the datapad when she'd previously been so quick to recreate and incorporate Anna's offered sensor designs. Queen Administrator suspected it might've worked differently for Symbie, though; the sensors likely qualified as 'complex' and should've possessed a significant integration time of their own, yet they'd only taken a few seconds to link once construction was finished. Another difference from standard Valkyries, it seemed.

"We didn't stop you since a bunch of your new classmates will have forgotten to visit the fabricators," Tamara added. "You can be that one girl who hands out pencils and notepaper after half her classmates forget them, only with heavy weaponry instead of writing tools."

This comparison seems to have been too much for the remaining members of the Crafting Club.

"Pencils, Tamara? What is this, 2001?" "You've been reading too much pre-Impact manga." "You assholes do realize that some refugee camps still use them, right? Not everyone has the amenities of an Arcology." "Besides, the instructors have ammo restock breaks anyway. She'd only save them a few hours of integration time at best." "If she stocks up on Hunter-Killer combat drones she can probably use up all the extra missiles in a hurry." "And also give every sensor-type in her class a heart attack." "I'm not hearing any reasons not to do it." "Loss of control and subsequent friendly fire?" "Oooo, yeah, wouldn't want her to get chewed out for that."

Queen Administrator had mostly just taken them so Host and Symbie could examine and repurpose the various weapon components she'd taken. She did admit that she might've taken too many missiles, though. Even after Symbie finished integrating the twin six-missile launchers that she'd taken, Queen Administrator would still have a reserve of hundreds to work through.

"One of my primary reasons for taking them was so Symbie would have toys to play with," she said truthfully. "There may or may not be anything leftover for me to distribute."

There was a small pause before the Crafting Club cadets collectively decided to start heading out of the storage room, presumably assuming that QA had finished stocking up. She briefly scanned the room, judged there wasn't anything truly unique that she hadn't already taken a sample of, and hurried out of the room.

"So, when you say 'play,' do you mean literally play or–" "Stuff in storage is supposed to be preserved when it's not being actively upgraded, I don't think–" "We know." "Fuck off." "No, but seriously, I can't tell if she's personifying Symbie too much or if she's right." "I'd say the incident with–" "Classified, Mindy." "Ugh. Er, yeah, I'd say prior evidence might point to actual sentience. Nobody else managed anything like that, gross or not." "How is Core-babby made?" "Well, when a mommy Valkyrie and a daddy Valkyrie–" "Pure-chan is right there."

Queen Administrator blinked.

"Are you attempting to censor information regarding human reproduction? Because I'm already aware of its disgusting existence."

"…I can't decide if that actually takes away from the nickname or not." "Not." "Not." "Definitely not, she's like preteen me and look at how I turned out." "You are absolutely not allowed to corrupt Jun-chan." "Please stick with Pure-chan, the foreign language thing is just pure cringe." "Says the girl still adding chan, you can't just pick and choose the parts you like." "Picking and choosing parts we like is the whole point of our club." "Seriously, Taylor, how is Symbie playing with them?"

Queen Administrator tried to sort through Host's poorly-indexed early childhood memories. There was at least some manner of assembly and disassembly, wasn't there…? Symbie's behavior shouldn't be particularly problematic by human standards.

"Disassembling, reassembling, and utilizing objects in different configurations and for different reasons according to her interests," Queen Administrator carefully replied.

"So, like building blocks, only with heavy weapons." "Seems legit." "Honestly, we seem to be compiling more and more evidence and it's not like treating Symbie as sentient would do any damage. Might as well." "NatashAI Syndrome and/or decreased amounts of available processing?" "Much damage." "Seriously, why are we pretending to be psychiatrists? Leave that to the actual psychiatrists." "Because psych is an undermanned myth as rare as unicorns?" "Actually, Santiago did manage a viable genotype–" "I'm aware and chose my comparison carefully, thanks." "'Viable' when the prototypes keep developing cancer every other month, lol." "Yeah, the robot versions are better." "You do realize those need maintenance too, right?" "Sure, but they just need a day in Valk storage for that and they don't poop." "Does anyone else wanna make Hebert a robot unicorn now?" "The Pets and Animal Care Club sometimes goes for robotic Emotional Support Companions, just send her over there." "But their stuff is tiny." "We are not wasting fabber time on a giant unicorn that can tank missiles." "See, I wasn't interested before you proposed that. Now I am." "The fabber is idle right now anyway so we might as well." "For God's sake–"

"I would much prefer for you to just send me the plans for whatever you'd otherwise intend to make," Queen Administrator ventured. "Symbie can upgrade the designs, implement them, and remotely store personalities."

There was a pause as the various members looked first at Queen Administrator's expressed happiness, then each other.

"Oh my god, we're making a meme." "Unicorn Rider Pure-chan would be a marvelous legacy to leave Perth with." "This is so stupid, unicorns aren't even aerodynamically viable or well-balanced in general–" "And then it opens its mouth and out come tentacles." "God, don't give her any ideas." "Holy fuck, those sheep with lightning bolts hitting them? I just realized Symbie was drawing electric sheep." "So?" "'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' was a pre-Impact novel –" "Fuuuuuuck." "I mean, a good personality emulator would still–" "Just started, haven't finished yet, but it seems a bit dark for our Ju-" "Pure-chan." "It's kinda creeping me out either way, it isn't exactly what I'd call a kid's book." "Because alien artifacts used for waging war have perfectly normal childhoods, right?"

Queen Administrator tuned out the now-irrelevant conversation as they entered Perth's third cafeteria. Delicious-smelling nutrition called; with the datapad still not yet integrated, conversation could wait.

Host's negative memories of cafeteria food had proven to be irrelevant for Perth Valkyrie Academy's third cafeteria. The massive buffet and banquet tables possessed enough variety to require categorization in both alphabetical and general order. Host's memories drew Queen Administrator to retrieve some manner of wheat and tomato-based dish labeled lasanga. QA found Host's hands covering most of their plate without any conscious feedback from Queen Administrator herself. It was as hard to access Host's poorly-indexed memories as always, but QA got the impression it was associated with Host's deceased mother?

"Going for what's familiar?" Tamara of the Crafting Club asked cheerfully.

"I do not know," Queen Administrator admitted, then hesitated.

She no longer had Host's biohazardous prison as an excuse for QA's alleged amnesia, and enough inadvertent anomalies may draw the UN's attention once more. It was best if they didn't look too hard at the destroyed bunker they'd associated with her appearance; a genetics test would reveal them to be entirely unrelated to her. QA believed they'd previously avoided pursuing her past to avoid exacerbating some perceived psychological trauma, but if they deemed it important enough, she expected that hesitation to vanish. It would be best if she provided as much incentive to avoid pursuit as possible.

"I have trouble remembering events prior to two months ago," QA informed the ~~human~~ worthy-Valkyrie. "Deliberate mental harm to reduce the likelihood of misbehavior removed much of my knowledge prior to that time. Obtaining this dish was an automatic action based on events I cannot properly recall."

It was true, if misleading. QA had a much harder time accessing her archives of past Cycles than she usually did, and Host's own memories were a confusing mess. However, the pre-deployment crippling was performed by :FATHER: and likely unrelated to those problems; it had restricted access to an entirely different set of memories.

Tamara stared at Queen Administrator for an inordinately long time, yet continued to block QA's path to additional food. Queen Administrator tilted her head questioningly when the Crafting Club member's silence exceeded ten seconds.

"I do not know how to interpret that expression."

"I'm currently deciding between hugging you and calling for the others," Tamara replied obligingly, but oddly. "Or both. I'm thinking both, and maybe designing the biggest robo-unicorn ever, and sending you to the Pets Club for good measure, and… yeah. Fuck, what am I even supposed to say to that?"

"No responses are required," Queen Administrator informed her. "It was supplementary information intended to explain my food choices."

Tamara slowly blinked at the shard-temporarily-turned-human.

"I'm going to start hugging you now. I don't know when I'll stop."

Queen Administrator blinked as Tamara utterly ignored the crackling feedback of conflicting Impeller Fields and made good on her declaration. The feedback vastly decreased in volume after both Tamara and QA did their utmost to retract the defensive fields in question, but failed to vanish completely.

"This is entirely unnecessary," Queen Administrator pointed out. "I understand that it is intended as a display of affection, but-"

"You're only encouraging me to maintain it longer," Tamara claimed.

Queen Administrator sighed into the older girl's shoulder. Worthy or not, it seemed that Tamara still maintained the often-irrational tendencies of the rest of her species. QA would need to work toward fixing that.

Alivaril · Jan 29, 2020

AN: There likely won't be an update tomorrow. No, there aren't any more crossovers being added or especially egregious AU divergences and this still isn't an actual fusion. Taylor is just having a little too much fun with certain things.

Also, I made a mistake and accidentally spelled Tamara as Takara all last chapter. This has been fixed. I'm also open to changing the report's font if remains unpleasant.

Doctor Angelica Rayne frowned at the digital interface helpfully provided by Solace, her Valkyrie Frame. She wasn't exactly unhappy about the last-minute addition to her list of patients, but she was rather disturbed. She generally received at least a week of warning before the first session. The warning allowed her enough time to consult surveillance footage, review records, and construct tentative emotional reference models from the gathered information.

Being taken off psychological research duties so she could replace a lower-ranked colleague at a therapy session occurring less than 24 hours after reassignment? That was new. The UN generally preferred to focus on small improvements to a large number of valkyries instead of large improvements to a smaller number, and urgency was seldom such a huge issue that she couldn't be allowed extra preparation time. Still, there was nothing for it. The therapist brought up her new patient's file and began reading through it.

>>Name: Taylor Hebert
>>Sex: Female
>>Age: [Unknown] ~15

Angelica wrinkled her nose and asked Solace to change her perception of the document's font. She refused to read an entire case file in the same font she associated with casualty listings.

>>Name: Taylor Hebert
>>Sex: Female
>>Age: [Unknown] ~15
>>Position: Perth 2070 First Year Cadets, Squadron Four, no Flight
>>Service Record: Unknown family history. In 2070, submitted distress call and was subsequently rescued unharmed from prior path of Class D Type Zero Macross. Temporarily transferred to facility "Stellar" in 2070. Currently a first year cadet in Perth Valkyrie Academy.
>>Synchronized Hours: [Unknown] (>840)
>>Flight Hours: [Unknown] (Claims 0)
>>Valkyrie Core: [Unknown Serial Number] "Symbie"
>>Combat Rating: 250
>See; Class D Type Zero: Macross, Tripoli Major Breach, UNOMI Summary: TH & AVF-S, Tides Project, Monolith Project

Angelica started with the UNOMI summary and immediately found herself wincing. Watching someone's record be updated multiple times per second? Also new. Angelica eventually just decided to put auto-refresh on hold so she didn't have to tolerate the live edit war between at least three different Valkyries. She'd seen members of the Three Hundred with multi-year biographies shorter than what Hebert was managing to compile in one month. The very first sentence after the title explained why, though.

United Nations Office of Military Intelligence
Assessment: Taylor Hebert and Anomalous Valkyrie Frame Symbie

Subject may possess the first known example of a damaged and/or incomplete Valkyrie Core, "Symbie" (likely short for Symbiont). Whether this occurred due to experimentation or other causes is unknown; Hebert has proved resistant to perceived interrogation attempts while willingly divulging information to those deemed her peers (see Hebert-PCC).

Observed Valkyrie Core anomalies and oddities are as follows:

Class D Type Zero: Macross 'searched' near Hebert's location for four minutes and eleven seconds with only one missile fired. Said missile is believed to have been aimed at a nearby bunker (see Unidentified African Stealth Complex E13) instead of Hebert herself, who apparently went undetected.
Subject usually plots ideal routes through moving obstacle fields <UNOMI 33181: Just call them crowds.> and briefly ceases movement upon entering any new area. The movement delay has been greatly decreased since her integration of advanced sensors.
Hebert did not initially possess a detectable Impeller Field, but still dissipated disproportionate amounts of incoming energy when Frame was extended. (See Tides Project)
Symbie allegedly needed to modify their Impeller Field for use in modern combat simulators (See Hebert-PCC).
Hebert automatically transmits an irregular, self-executing data packet (now claimed to be her personal unique ID) every time she speaks and continues doing so until she falls silent. Sighs and other irregular communications do not appear to trigger transfers. This packet appears harmless unless extensively modified and cannot be copied to outside sources. (See Monolith Project)
Hebert physically modified her Valkyrie Core while still synchronized with it (See TH-Symbie Core Repair) and has yet to desynchronize since Hebert was found. Subject refused to unequip Symbie whenever the topic was raised and does not appear to be experiencing strain from continuous synchronization; unusually, she implied she was more comfortable with Symbie equipped.
- If subject attempts further modifications of Valkyrie Core while at Perth, stick to observation only unless subject endangers her surroundings (See TH-Symbie Core Repair: Discussion 38). <UNOMI 33181: I still say this "Bad cop" thing is bullshit.>
Subject's powered exoskeleton and original railgun utilize far more confirmed organic components and biologically active compounds than any other Valkyrie Frame on record. Direct absorption from deceased Antagonists initially considered likely. However, later equipment may act as evidence against this hypothesis.
Integration of fission reactor components appeared to be completed within five minutes, granting the subject a permanent Impeller Field of inconsistent strength. Impeller Field appears to weaken as subject is tired or hungry and returns to noticeably beyond the previous power limitation after sleeping. (See Tides Project)
Apparent manufacturing and integration of advanced sensors (see Sanchez-Hebert Sensor Collaboration) took less than twenty minutes in total. Hebert did not demonstrate any disorientation during or after completion and demonstrated immediate proficiency with active scanning.
- Subject indicated that Symbie possessed significant fabrication abilities and that she would prefer to personally construct any Emotional Support Companions (See Hebert-PCC).
Newly-expressed portions of integrated sensors do not match prior collaborative designs (see Sanchez-Hebert Sensor Collaboration) and seem to have been mostly replaced with organic replacements. These material replacements appear to have decreased the overall quality of the sensors, likely indicating an abundance of stored organic material. Hebert's subsequent decision to requisition vast quantities of weaponry and raw materials (see TH-PCC Fabber Raid) may be related to associated shortages.
Within the hour it apparently took for the integration of a standard datapad, 133 known information requests (see 'Edge of Observable Universe' Intrusion [EOOUI]) were successfully submitted utilizing falsified high-level access codes. Tracking attempts returned similar errors encountered to those found when trying to pinpoint 'sourceless' scenario conditions within modern combat simulators. Especially noteworthy accessed topics include, but are not limited to:
- Long-term strategic assessments for humanity as a whole
- Current UN social programs and policies
- Post-Impact cases of mass human experimentation
- Post-Impact cults
- Post-Impact human death matches
- Valkyrie pilot enhancements
- General information on the human brain
- Medical treatments for extreme brain trauma
- Both biological and robotic Emotional Support Companions
  - Unicorn-model Emotional Support Companions (see Hebert-PCC)
- Combat-Induced Empathy Loss-Detachment Syndrome
- NatashAI Syndrome
- Rights of non-human intelligences
Note: The EOOU Intruder has not been definitively confirmed to be Symbie or Hebert, nor did Hebert display any especially unusual behavior during intrusion. Based on search queries, Symbie tentatively assumed to be EOOUI and reclassified as Electronic Warfare Valkyrie Frame; however, it may simply have been an opportunist. As little to no information was sought regarding current tactically relevant situations beyond the logistics surrounding refugee camps, possible disciplinary actions were suspended pending further unauthorized access attempts and better evidence (see EOOUI discussion: TH-Symbie subgroup 6).
Hebert refers to Symbie as her "friend," uses feminine pronouns when referring to it, and treats it comparably to a well-protected younger sibling. Symbie has displayed enough behaviors independently of Hebert (see Symbie Behavior discussions) to confirm the presence of a personality emulator, autonomous or semi-autonomous AI, or a genuinely sentient Valkyrie Core. If EOOU Intruder is assumed to be Symbie and not an opportunist covering their tracks, then it is most likely a full AI or the Valkyrie Core itself. Proceed with caution.
Hebert was agitated by idea that the UN could confiscate Symbie and claimed that Symbie would eat anyone else ("repurposing as spare parts") on their third attempt to synchronize with the Valkyrie Core (see AS-TH-RY 2070 Perth Flight). Questions regarding whether it had to be a specific individual's third attempt or the third attempt in general were answered with "whichever is better for deterrence." Given Symbie's possible sentience and extensive use of organic materials in construction, this warning should not be taken as hyperbole.
Hebert reacted with attempted assault when Rokusabe Yukari inadvertently implied Symbie was defective (See AS-TH-RY 2070 Perth Flight). Attempt was stopped by Anna Sanchez.
Symbie demonstrated prehensile variants of both bladed and bladeless tentacles extended from Hebert's back. As with many partial extensions of integrated components, this location is likely an arbitrary choice and not a requirement. Tentacles retained the primarily organic theme of earlier equipment. (See Symbie Behavior Discussions)

Hebert possesses significant signs of Combat-Induced Empathy Loss-Detachment Syndrome (AKA Valkyrie Syndrome) despite initially demonstrating minimal enhancements of her own. The apparent lack of enhancements changed within a month of retrieval (see Blender, Hebert-PCC), including a dramatic increase in apparent scientific and mathematical knowledge despite subject not accessing any standardized sources of either. A significant enemy definition upgrade for sensors primarily coded by Hebert is currently undergoing review; mass adoption is expected (See Sanchez-Hebert Sensor Collaboration).

Hebert's skill progression in Impeller Field manipulation after acquisition exceeds all known records. Exotic effects have yet to be manifested, but this is believed to be due to a lack of instruction and knowledge rather than a wetware limitation; Hebert's demonstrated ability to shape and control purely Impeller-based weaponry rivals that of Elite Valkyries (See Blender).

Subject appears to have developed a seemingly-uncharacteristic infatuation for Anna Sanchez (see AS-TH Interactions) and demonstrated increasing irritation when Rokusabe Yukari attempted conversation. This may have contributed to Hebert's eventual attack attempt (See AS-TH-RY Perth Flight). However, a number of behaviors associated with human infatuation only manifested after Sanchez blocked Hebert's attack. Subject herself denies any romantic inclinations and consciously considers human reproduction to be "disgusting." <UNOMI 38174: Cut unnecessary information; further details belong in Psych's eventual assessment, not here.> <UNOMI 23189: Stop deleting them, they're a necessary component of the interaction advisories.>

Subject displayed an uncomfortable interest in the precise working definition of "bullying" and appeared unhappy when told to stop prying. This may be related to the measures apparently undertaken to force Hebert's obedience (See THe-THa-PCC Interactions).

The EOOUI and conversation with Tamara Hasiholan (see THe-THa-PCC Interactions) may indicate that the perceived rapid rate of skill growth could have been due to repairs of the deliberately induced brain damage that allegedly left Hebert with only vague memories of the events approximately 1 month prior to her enlistment. Ongoing repairs may explain the anomalous non-malignant growths throughout Hebert's brain.

Following the revelation of deliberate damage to Valkyries, close-range scans of the bunker near Hebert's first known location were performed and revealed a significant underground complex armored with unknown alloys. These alloys are invisible to mid-range scans and obfuscate the installation's interior. Further updates pending as local conflict permits (See Tripoli Major Breach).

INTERACTION ADVISORIES:

Avoid insulting Symbie or Anna Sanchez.
Exercise caution when interrupting interactions with Sanchez.
Do not imply or state that the UN can or would confiscate Symbie due to misbehavior.
Avoid utilizing direct disciplinary action as a first resort; generally attempt explanations of misbehavior first.
If practical, demonstrate ambition, curiosity, and/or other traits associated with self-improvement.
Avoid forceful interrogation attempts.
Do not interfere with unidentified growths on Hebert's body unless she asks for aid or endangers her surroundings.
- Immediately report any such anomalies as soon as they are discovered.
Avoid harming Antagonist-like unknown organisms near Hebert unless subject regards them as hostile.
Assume subject will interpret language literally.
Nicknamed "Pure-chan" by Perth Valkyrie Academy's Crafting Club. <UNOMI 23189: Stop removing the alternative translations, 33181.> <UNOMI 33181: They mean the same thing.> <UNOMI 23189: It's intended to let people know who's being referenced, you milk-swilling moron.>

This file has been edited 270 times since you last accessed it. Please refresh.

Angelica stared at the list of recommended interaction advisories, skimmed some of the footage showing the usually-expressionless adolescent girl, and decided that she and UNOMI would be having words. It shouldn't have taken fucking attempted assault for them to start consulting Psych, not with how much attention they seemed to be giving Hebert. They had to have at least the equivalent of a full-time employee looking after her.

...And why couldn't the UN find a nice, well-adjusted, happy cult survivor for once? Was that really too much to ask?

Alivaril · Jan 29, 2020

curiosity said:
You keep saying this, but what do you mean by it?

When QA mistakes Antagonists for other shards, Valkyrie Cores as shardtech, etc., she's totally full of it and is simply misunderstanding matters.

Alivaril · Jan 29, 2020

So, QA doesn't yet know this, but eh. It's mostly trivia anyway.

Taylor's primary interface for QA's systems is, as a bunch of readers already know, lucid dreaming. The outside world is also converted and interpreted through this distorted lens. What isn't converted are people. Taylor experiences social interactions through QAylor, but that can almost be considered disconnected from Taylor herself; she can't aim that way.

However, since environments are reflected in dreaming, what she can do is aim at locations and subsequently warp them to her bidding ala squishy lucid dreams. The versions in her dreams have, as a general rule, had all their sharp edges rounded off and are softer in general; they're still identifiable as the original thing, but it's like the difference between a huge Halloween decoration spider (Taylorvision) and an actual freakishly large spider (the reality). Things that are already soft and fluffy don't receive this treatment, which blurs the line between horror and huggable and makes horrors seem as though they're not that bad yet.

The moral of the story here is that Taylor built an over-the-top haunted underground complex in her dreams – complete with a variety of different attractions – and it turned into a nightmare complex in reality.

(Sadly, I don't get to share that interlude until after QA's first therapist appointment.

)

Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)

Totally Not An Antagonistic Alien

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