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Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)

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I wonder if anyone will make a theory that Rose and Taylor used to be the same person before their faction chopped their brain in half and put one in their own bodies with their brains repaired. I mean it's very much wrong but I could see it as a horrifying theory thrown out there.
 
Alivaril said:
"It often isn't healthy to make fights against AGs fun," Instructor Shapira added. "There's still a lot of leeway there, though. Tag, hide and seek, catch, baseball, and even video games are all incredibly different in a Valkyrie Frame. That being said, newer cadets will have limits to how long they can keep their Frame expressed. Keep your Frame expressed up to those limits whenever you can, and yes, you'll likely be able to afford spending some of your spare time goofing off."
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How is this supposed to work? Things are difficult to do in Frames, so if they stay in them longer they'll have more time to goof off?
If they're in the frame, and things are hard to do, wouldn't that cut into the doable things since that's more time that they can't do them?
Or are they supposed to get more efficient at either goofing off or actual work, so they can fit more into their day? If so, that's not the most clear.
Alivaril said:
...Um. Setsuna's brain stalled. What, does it only count as secure if there's nobody left to hear it?
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That makes a surprising amount of sense...
Alivaril said:
"Like I said earlier, though, she's not malicious. Leaving her over that would be a total dick move."

"I suppose you would know: you're one of the only Valkyries with one of those," Instructor Shapira dryly replied.
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That was hilarious and actually rather subtle. I had to double-take to notice it.

Also, I liked the comment about having a horse's head on your pillow being less horrifying when the rest of the Friend is attached. Although that's only with their present level of knowledge... :D
 
LostArchivist said:
How is this supposed to work? Things are difficult to do in Frames, so if they stay in them longer they'll have more time to goof off?
If they're in the frame, and things are hard to do, wouldn't that cut into the doable things since that's more time that they can't do them?
Or are they supposed to get more efficient at either goofing off or actual work, so they can fit more into their day? If so, that's not the most clear.
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Note the phrase is "different to do in frames" not "difficult to do in frames". I made the same mistake, or maybe it was edited to fix it? When the things are different in frames, you want to do them in frames so that you A, get used to your frame, B, get used to the differences in Valk enhanced and non-Valk enhanced mental and physical actions, and C, improve the amount of time you can remain synced with your frame.

Basically, even your relaxation should be training.
 
Alivaril said:
"The need for dedicated relaxation periods is a human limitation," Taylor agreed, ignoring his blatant attempt to change the subject. "Valkyrie Cores exist so that you might overcome those."

"...Uh," the moron stalled. "Hold on. What?"

Setsuna expected the instructor to take the reins at that point. It was,after all, her job. Instead, Instructor Shapira seemed more interested in watching Taylor out of the corners of her eyes.

"As I understand it, Valkyrie Cores do not automatically act to improve their partners. A need must be found and acknowledged in order for it to be addressed. Similarly, they will not do all the work on their own. They can help you achieve your goals, but you must also do what you can to solve your own problems. If personal improvement is not enjoyable, then you must act to make it so."
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I am now imagining the hypothetical hell hand organization putting Talyor in dangerous situations and forcing her to optimize herself in order to survive. Then afterwards they transfer her to a new body to start the process all over again against different dangers well they dissect and study her old body.
 
Alivaril said:
Honestly, Setsuna had the strange and unfamiliar feeling of needing to protect Taylor instead.
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Oh nooooo~

Alivaril said:
Setsuna was tempted to hit him on general principles. Too bad she wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
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Ah, shit, she was hitting him for a reason all those times. Can QAylor review her policy a little?

Alivaril said:
Taylor began walking backward, swerving around other people in the cafeteria without apparent issues.
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Ah, the Queen of the Moon, it all makes sense now.

Alivaril said:
Good grief, new teenage Valkyries were just so predictable!
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She said, five minutes after finishing a talk with an eldritch multidimensional crystalline worm in a girl suit.
 
LostArchivist said:
How is this supposed to work? Things are difficult to do in Frames, so if they stay in them longer they'll have more time to goof off?
If they're in the frame, and things are hard to do, wouldn't that cut into the doable things since that's more time that they can't do them?
Or are they supposed to get more efficient at either goofing off or actual work, so they can fit more into their day? If so, that's not the most clear.
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Someone else already pointed out it was different not difficult but to expand upon Shapira's point; for a new cadet the most important thing is synch time and flight time. Early on getting that up provides pretty clear, steady, and fast improvements to a Valkyrie's compatibility rating which in turn improves basically every aspect of a Valkyrie's capabilities.

As an example of this lets look at a quote from Setsuna:
Avalanche said:
Setsuna puffs herself up at that, "I already have more than seventy hours synched with Kosenjoubi, forty of them flight hours and I'm already combat rated as a Junior Valkyrie Third Grade. That would take the average Valkyrie at least one hundred and thirty five flight hours. I'm one of only fifty first years already rated as a Junior Valk. I can protect and teach Koujirou everything I know, so there's no need for you to inconvenience yourself."
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Avalanche said:
"Wow, that was intense," he mutters, he glances up at you and Setsuna, then looks over the Cadets who're still standing, "You're saying we'll need to do this kind of stuff for hours everyday?"

You elect to stay silent on this.

"Of course," says Setsuna, puffing herself up, her weaponry coming to attention before settling back down to rest positions, "Real Valks do a lot more than this. It's part of the curriculum to prepare us for that, the more flight hours and longer consecutive synch hours you have, the better."
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Simply being synchronzied with a Valkyrie Core (synch hours) puts a strain on the user, most commonly shown via increasingly severe headaches, and having your Frame expressed (IE: flight hours) increases it further with heavy use of the Frame increasing it further still. Yet like with muscle strain from exercise once you recover you'll be able to handle it better thanks to a higher compatibility rating. This obviously hits diminishing returns as the number of hours you can remain synched, keep your Frame expressed, and push yourself grow.

For right now though it is literally the fastest way for Setsuna and Coke-Zero to grow. It is also a terrible experience for the user since it means nearly constant migraines. So being able to mix it with a fun activity (like gaming) that also pushes your Frame to the max (for Valkyrie gaming it would be processing power) gives people the boost to their willpower needed to struggle through.

Edit:
Obviously the best solution (at least with regards to growing combat capabilities) is to fight until you literally collapse from mental strain, sleep to recover, and repeat. That is basically what Shuri was doing to her first flight, with the exception of breaks for classes and (presumably) lunch. While they don't end up going quite that extreme we do see in canon Setsuna and Coke-Zero going for a fairly close schedule with them in the simulators every afternoon getting direct training from Shuri.

Still if you don't have the protagonist tier willpower needed to handle that using a fun activity to push yourself to the max gives about the same compatibility gains albeit at the cost of not simultaneous grinding out combat experience. Although if Anna is anything to go by a diverse mixture of stressors (building, repairing, fighting, data processing, ect) provides a more health and well rounded build.
 
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I like the instructor less so then if she had just been an ignorant cunt. Honestly there isn't a need to manipulate them into groups they are already friends and there isn't really anything that's gonna stop that. Intentionally bing a dick to manipulate them into being friends is both unneeded and also totally not cash money.
 
Alivaril said:
Hey uh, could we come along?" Koujirou interjected. "Clubs aren't supposed to meet this early in the day, so you're doing it in another cafeteria, right? We can still eat together."

Taylor began walking backward, swerving around other people in the cafeteria without apparent issues.

"Anna and Instructor Shapira are likely the only individuals present to meet their standards. You would just get in the way."
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Yeah, that 'blank stare while walking backwards, never breaking eye contact' is definitely getting turned into a nope.gif. QA is just the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to memeable reactions.

Queen Administrator? More like Meme Administrator, am I right?
 
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The Pillow said:
I like the instructor less so then if she had just been an ignorant cunt. Honestly there isn't a need to manipulate them into groups they are already friends and there isn't really anything that's gonna stop that. Intentionally bing a dick to manipulate them into being friends is both unneeded and also totally not cash money.
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I think the purpose of the manipulation is making them less inclined to change their mind later on and letting them know what they are getting into without expecting them to actually leave.
 
The Pillow said:
I like the instructor less so then if she had just been an ignorant cunt. Honestly there isn't a need to manipulate them into groups they are already friends and there isn't really anything that's gonna stop that. Intentionally bing a dick to manipulate them into being friends is both unneeded and also totally not cash money.
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You are of course entitled to your opinion, but considering that how much cadets grow over these 3 years is the difference between life and death for not just them, but the thousands depending on them I would hope that the teachers use every psychology trick in the book if it helps their charges.
 
Manipulation is the worst way to do that. You can actively positively promote relationships. The only shard we are dealing with here is Taylor everyone else is just a normal human with all those flaws and merits.
 
The Pillow said:
Manipulation is the worst way to do that. You can actively positively promote relationships. The only shard we are dealing with here is Taylor everyone else is just a normal human with all those flaws and merits.
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Anna is a human, yet she is arguably as socially incompetent as Taylor, due to her background. Taylor is Taylor. So, basically, the only normal humans here are Setsuna and The Moron, of whom the latter is, surprisingly, a moron, and the former is a violent tsundere who is constantly fantasizing about beating up The Moron, and looking for an excuse to do so.

The two normies were already thinking about leaving the Flight, which would have left Anna and Taylor to collapse into a singularity due to negative social skills, and would have made the normies look very poorly among the other students. Most of them would kill for a chance to be in a Flight with an Ace and an actual crafting magician. Tricking the Flight into staying together, at least for now, profits literally everyone. It provides more time for everyone to get closer. It gives the Instructor the time to actually do something about the relationships, instead of her doing some useless pep talk that most of the group will not understand or remember, and which will be a waste of time when the Flight splits in a few days. It also gives The Normies more time to learn from The Apparent Pros, while exposing The Apparent Pros to the social prowess of Being Sane.
 
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Let me clarify a little.

Personally I don't like the instructor as I'm certain we wouldn't mesh well and that is my opinion.

The manipulation she does is fairly extreme. This isnt normally done in every day life. "Tough love" is just abuse. Remember that. Normal every day "manipulation" usually doesnt do much except essentially be a request to empathise.

For example. My dog died. I don't want you to do something like become my new dog or replace it. But I want to feel like I'm not the only one who remembers that dog. I would reminince and through unspoken ques encourage you to empathise by also reminiscing. Are you being manipulated? Certainly. But you are also able to have a way out. Maybe you dont know the dog. By all socially acceptable responses being silent and just being there is just as acceptable if you can't reminince like I could because you don't have those feelings or memories. You also arnt required to actually stick around and there isn't real consequence if you don't.

That's the kind of everyday manipulation you would see and generally speaking it's much less then that in skill, expectation, socially acceptable requirments to respond.

The teacher, if she had any background in psychology, would have realized that her manipulation wasn't needed. Taylor had clung to those two even unconsciously and is drawn to them. If less so then to anne. She is clearly trying to keep them at arm's length in some cases but that isn't nearly enough to jeopardize any kind of friendship. And beyond that the two seem to have noticed that Taylor doesn't understand tact.

The only reason before this point I would expect a reason for them to stop being friends would be death, a real worry in thier profession, or simply being in less contact as a result of not being In the same classes, a situation not likely to happen as it seems they will stay in the same class? I should mention that in similar cases maybe something involving love interests would cause issues but the two didn't seem interested in anne the way Taylor was so there shouldn't be conflict there either. Except obviously for the misunderstanding trope inevitable to happen.

All my experience involving these subjects is personal in my never ending quest to understand people. I don't believe I am wrong and I know that certain aspects vary wildly from person to person. I will say that unless you could provide statistical evidence proving that I am wrong I will likely not believe any counter argument. I am clarifying this because while I'm not providing statistics I do hold a multitude of friendships with varying degrees of closeness.

Don't give up on humanity just yet. They are still children.
 
Akasha said:
Anna is a human, yet she is arguably as socially incompetent as Taylor, due to her background. Taylor is Taylor. So, basically, the only normal humans here are Setsuna and The Moron, of whom the latter is, surprisingly, a moron, and the former is a violent tsundere who is constantly fantasizing about beating up The Moron, and looking for an excuse to do so.

The two normies were already thinking about leaving the Flight, which would have left Anna and Taylor to collapse into a singularity due to negative social skills, and would have made the normies look very poorly among the other students. Most of them would kill for a chance to be in a Flight with an Ace and an actual crafting magician. Tricking the Flight into staying together, at least for now, profits literally everyone. It provides more time for everyone to get closer. It gives the Instructor the time to actually do something about the relationships, instead of her doing some useless pep talk that most of the group will not understand or remember, and which will be a waste of time when the Flight splits in a few days. It also gives The Normies more time to learn from The Apparent Pros, while exposing The Apparent Pros to the social prowess of Being Sane.
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I didn't get the feeling that those two where thinking about leaving? Maybe upset that they where behind but I was certain that they already knew they just needed to practice to get better and on par.
 
We have the advantage of seeing into setsuna and coke zero's head, and zero especially comes off as kind of flimsy if you can't see into their heads.
 
The Pillow said:
The manipulation she does is fairly extreme. This isnt normally done in every day life. "Tough love" is just abuse. Remember that. Normal every day "manipulation" usually doesnt do much except essentially be a request to empathise.
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Thing is though "tough love" is a scientifically demonstrated advantage for Valkyries. To the point that they actually make use of bullys, because the instructors just aren't willing to push Cadets hard enough, to crank the pressure up:
Avalanche said:
"She has been harassing members of my flight, and when I asked her why, she replied that it would, uh…" You take a moment to search for words, "damage your reputations."

Meyer breathed in deeply and held it for a moment, squeezing her eyes shut with a grimace.

With a guilty and surreptitious glance to each side, she started to reply, "That's probably true, Anna. We don't direct Malik to do anything, but we could take more action against her."

Instructor Meyer's eyes shift down and away for a second. "We basically allow her to do what she does because it actually helps Valkyries get out of a rut or even progress faster in combat ability."

You open your mouth to refute the words, but the speed at which you can access and analyse data damns the retort and you swallow your words. Personality variability in the idol model. Personalities not predisposed to ambition and intense emotion often fail to form personal rivalries or goals. Presence of a personally relatable antagonistic figure motivates such Valkyries. Presence of both in close proximity or even one individual massively more effective. Multiple studies, multiple sources.

A highlight of the data that you analysed, Yukari's own growth spiking back into a meteoric rise from relative stagnancy after Javeria… 'met' Koujirou and Setsuna. You shake your head silently; this… is a bridge too far.

"How can you keep her away– contain the damage she does?" you demand as you try to think of other ways to help.

"Malik does it herself," Meyer answers with a sigh, "She says that she had the same role as a cadet within the Pakistani Valkyrie Corps: sniff out the ones who need her brand of 'counselling' and poke them for a while until they get better, or– or… we have their studies to corroborate– Of course you've already read the breadth of them… and well– it works. None of us like it, but she went over us to Jingwei and De Vries, and they both stamped an okay on it."

"There has to be a better way."

Meyer slowly shakes her head.

"If we found another way, I'd be first in line to demand it be implemented instead of this demented game of torture. We might… we're not military, really."

Meyer pauses. You shift uneasily at the sudden change in subject.

"I think… we, the Instructors, might be… happy about people like 'cadet' Malik. Doing what they do to help the people our normal regime can't. We try for the carrot and stick, but we… limp wrist the stick. None of us, here at least, really have the heart. Cereza has a hard enough time just trying to be mean already, Jane, Deepika… me. From what conventional military instruction looks like, we're already too soft and forgiving, but none of us–"

Meyer abruptly shakes her head.

"Sorry about that, Anna. What Malik said… I– we're not perfect or all knowing, and we can't even really bring ourselves to do what we objectively know is best for some of our cadets, so we let her do it instead."

Your mind grinds to a halt at that admission.

"This sucks."
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Shapira is acting as the villain for Setsuna and Coke-Zero because when it comes to Valkyries having someone to push against, to strive to defeat, does actually make a quantifiable difference. Those two need every advantage they can get if they want to keep up with the flight they've found themselves in.
 
UberJJK said:
Thing is though "tough love" is a scientifically demonstrated advantage for Valkyries. To the point that they actually make use of bullys, because the instructors just aren't willing to push Cadets hard enough, to crank the pressure up:

Shapira is acting as the villain for Setsuna and Coke-Zero because when it comes to Valkyries having someone to push against, to strive to defeat, does actually make a quantifiable difference. Those two need every advantage they can get if they want to keep up with the flight they've found themselves in.
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Is that specific to this world? Cause I can say that in general all it does is cause more mental issues then anything else. Not the blantent easy to find ones but subtle shit.
 
Instructor Shapira's actions definitely fall under "don't try this at home," yes. Another important thing to remember is that—even before Symbie's sensors shenanigans in Africa—QA and Anna were each more valuable to the UN than most other Valkyries and any other Valkyrie, respectively. Ensuring the effective operation of that duo takes priority over the well-being of a couple no-name cadets. The high likelihood of genuinely helping those cadets due to Valkyrie Core quirks? That's a side bonus.

Raiseth said:
She said, five minutes after finishing a talk with an eldritch multidimensional crystalline worm in a girl suit.
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She specified new Valkyries for a reason. Anna and QA alone are sufficient counterexamples to avoid generalizing all teenage Valkyries. :p
 
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Alivaril said:
Another important thing to remember is that—even before Symbie's sensors shenanigans in Africa—QA and Anna were each more valuable to the UN than most other Valkyries and any other Valkyrie, respectively.
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Anna's Super-Saiyan team up with Silver is going to be fun to watch for the first time. If not for the reactions, than the arguments that try and boost her to number 0 instead of 1 because seriously?
 
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