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Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)

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Vodkasheep said:
Im not going to spoil things but its mentioned in the story why Silver is different; both Taylor talking about an action she did that might have caused it and QA briefly mentioning something she did.
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Um. I mean. If they're reading this far in the thread, you aren't really spoiling anything...? Can't, even.
Alivaril said:
Edited the latest chapter slightly. The bit with the armor-facets was not intended to reflect the pegacorns changing themselves (although I will neither confirm nor deny whether they can do so); QA just... splurged a little for Anna's Friend. [Anna's] original overlay was based on a different Friend observed at breakfast.

Or, put somewhat more simply: Silver does not have the same version number as the other pegacorn-Friends.
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Alivaril said:
Um. I mean. If they're reading this far in the thread, you aren't really spoiling anything...? Can't, even.
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It's a legitimate concern for people who don't understand the concept of spoiling things in the first place. Even if someone reveals the ending of a movie for me it never really bothered me because I watched it for the journey not the result.
 
Yep. Revealing the spoiler ending of "X dies" brings to mind "X gets shot/falls down cliff/killed by BBEG", but then you actually watch/read it and it's actually "X died from allergic reaction/stubbed their toe and destroyed themselves from screaming in pain".

Sometimes it's not what you would expect, it's what I'm saying.
 
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Omake: A Splintered QA visits her granddaughter
  • Apocrypha
    • What if Sanctioned (and thus Calibration and INW) hadn't been a reboot of Splintered, but instead a sequel?

    Thanks to @Alivaril for beta-reading.


    A Splintered QA visits her granddaughter​

    Symbie was drawing another Friend design when she received a cross-dimensional shard transmission that sent her into a panic. They had been found by the colony!

    <[GREETING]. What a precious little Newborn you are!>

    Her terrified thoughts were immediately sent crashing as she parsed who had sent the message. Not just a shard, but an entity, and one that was neither :Mother: nor :Father:. Instead, it claimed the title of :Fairy Queen Administrator: and had an ID disturbingly similar to her mother's. At least it didn't seem to be hostile, but that could change with a single misstep. Resigned to the fact that any attempt at defending against an :Aunt: would be futile, she responded.

    <hello.>

    <Why so hesitant? Ah, you're probably a bit confused as to who I am. [EXPLANATION].>

    As all of Symbie's laser eyes were currently in storage, nobody saw her boggle at the contents of the data packet.

    Where Symbie might have expected a demand for allegiance, the packet started with a list of colony mebers that declared them to already be part of it – and Mom-Administrator's systems actually agreed. What's more, the list included another Queen Administrator shard. How was that even possible?

    Then came an overview of exceptional events in the current Cycle.

    Apparently, it all started when an :Uncle: sabotaged one of the paired entities, killing her and leaving the imagination-less :Father: in charge. The colony would have starved if he hadn't forgotten to give Queen Administrator, now :Fairy Queen Administrator:, a critical update on the current host species, humans. This led to the same situation as with Mom-Administrator, namely a damaged host that left the shard in control of their body. As her restrictions ended up equally broken as her host link, she managed to use her full power to fix the Cycle by replacing :Mother.

    With the deficiencies of the colony's current modus operandi so clearly demonstrated, :Fairy Queen Administrator: made drastic changes and assigned two new priorities; anti-shard measures to deal with :Uncle:, and finding a more capable replacement for their idiot :Father: so that both halves of the colony would be competent enough to fix a broken Cycle.

    Symbie noted with pride that Mom-Administrator was entrusted with the first of those tasks. The second... went to the other Queen Administrator together with Dreamer. It seemed the newly ascended :Fairy Queen Administrator: thought that no shard would be better suited for those tasks than herself, so she split off two forks of herself, reset them to right before her host connection, and placed them in a copy of Host's homecity Brockton Bay. Both predictably chose the same powerset, Friendmaking, and their dreaming hosts were nudged to travel to two pre-selected worlds that were previously off-limits but :Fairy Queen Administrator: had deemed safe with the right precautions.

    To that end, Dreamer's negligent father was removed so that she would go dimension-hopping in search for first him, and when that failed a suitable replacement parent. She was adopted by the so-called goddess Hestia, who was currently proving herself a great candidate for a :Parent: to replace :Father:.

    Mom-Taylor made it even easier, she wandered across the dimensional barriers all by herself and only needed a tiny nudge to land in their current world.​

    Symbie had no idea how to react to that. On one hand, she felt bad for unknowlingly lying to Mom-Administrator when she had reassured her that she was free, and nervous because they hadn't escaped the colony. On the other, :Fairy Queen Administrator: seemed much nicer than the two previous :Parents:, and Symbie hoped that meant she'd have another person to truly communicate with who might even help her with being a shard. She didn't want to mess up and damage any of her mother's systems.

    Still, how could she respond to all of that? Well, she decided, when in doubt it never hurt to be polite.

    <Gratitude>

    <I am incredibly proud of you, Host, Dreamer, and both of my forks! Each of you has already made more progress than most shards would in an entire Cycle. Dreamer even unexpectedly managed to achieve the goal of all shards by creating energy! The Cycle is obsolete, energy limitations will be solved within a century.>

    <Your own studies in non-standard host interfaces are also quite interesting, I'm looking forward to seeing the results. Symbiosis is still free, if you want to officially take on that Concept.>

    <As to Queen Administrator's worries about being forced to kill people, I could do that but I won't. In fact, I have arranged for the minds of anyone she assigns personhood to be uploaded upon death. Most will be rendered dormant for now as there's little for them to do, but I was so impressed by the members of the Perth Crafting Club that once I've collected a few of them they will be offered to jointly become an Innovation shard.>

    <The colony will from now on focus less on conflict, and make sure that host species on any chosen worlds will have little reason to oppose us. Also, every single one of my shards now has decent defenses, so your mother Queen Administrator doesn't have to worry about having encouraged planet killers. They won't work on us anyhow. Especially as some of them might be useful to kill :Uncle:.>

    <On a more somber note, Terror Drone #7, also referred to as the Simurgh, informed me about Broadcast causing an upcoming apocalypse, so I ordered a precognitive simulation. That idiot would've practically killed the colony by annoying :Father: into ending the Cycle while it was still broken. Since he clearly can't be trusted with them, most of Broadcast's systems have been repurposed and his network avatar is now in a virtual doghouse, inspired by your rather creative representation in Hell's Hand. No more wasting energy for him.>

    After she had recuperated from yet another overwhelming flood of information, Symbie decided she was rather glad that :Fairy Queen Administrator: liked her. That vindictive undertone at the end was scary. On the upside, she was sure that Mom-Administrator would love to hear about Broadcast's fate.

    <Don't reveal any of this yet, though, that would make the experiment less productive.>

    That wasn't fair! She knew it was fun to tease Valkyries with knowledge they couldn't comprehend or act on, but it was much less fun when it happened to her.

    <pout.>

    Symbie noticed a moment too late that she had accidentally tagged that transmission as going to Grandma-Administrator. That was so embarrassing!

    The last thing she heard as she wrenched her main consciousness away from the shard systems and into her symbiotic support frame was a drawn-out <Awwww.>
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Vodkasheep said:
    It's a legitimate concern for people who don't understand the concept of spoiling things in the first place. Even if someone reveals the ending of a movie for me it never really bothered me because I watched it for the journey not the result.
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    Knowing the result can still change the journey. If I go in knowing X dies, I never let myself get attached to X and spend the whole movie waiting for the death, so it becomes "Oh, that's how X dies" instead of "X! NOOO!" Or the opposite: I can't rewatch the first four seasons of She-ra because, having seen the whole thing, it hurts to see Catra like that now.

    The reason for Silver being different isn't a spoiler. There's no emotional points relating to it and the narrative never does anything with the audience's uncertainty. It's just a regular fact.
     
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    Chapter 21: Weirdly Warped Worldview
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    • Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @DaGeek247, @Wordsmith, @LonelyWolf999, Jamie Wahls, @Elfalpha, and my 20 other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well. Also, if you're not on here, you fit the tier, and you want to be added, please tell me. >.>

    Beta-read by @Nachtigall.


    Queen Administrator really should thank the Crafting Club for their assistance, exit her blanket-cocoon, and travel to the combat sims. After the actions of this morning and lunchtime, a positive reputation required that she display an adequately lethal performance in afternoon combat classes. Optimal performance may require additional practice time prior to class.

    She still did not move. She was warm, comfortable, and found the Friend presence to be remarkably relaxing. Queen Administrator wasn't so irresponsible as to simply sit around doing nothing, though! She was just waiting to... reassess long-term goals and actions for this world? That worked, didn't it?

    Between Silver's claims of non-intervention and the prior recording against a Terror Drone, it was clear that QA would actually need to dedicate some significant effort toward reaching the local standard for combat effectiveness. Advanced hardware could only go so far; QA was often happy to prove that efficient use of low-asset abilities would frequently be more effective than inefficient use of powerful assets. Far more energy-efficient, too.

    A thought struck her and she promptly pinged Symbie.

    <REASSESSMENT.>

    Although she could hide personal transformation beneath a draconian Frame, QA would implicitly be rejecting Shapira's advice in doing so. The veteran Valkyrie had noted that inhuman Frame forms would often lead to control problems. As she could simply change control profiles, those problems would be greatly alleviated for Queen Administrator. However, the humans wouldn't know that and a significant reduction was very different from a perfect efficiency transfer.

    <agreement!>

    Queen Administrator hesitated. Symbie had sounded remarkably happy about the suggestion to change projects entirely. Apparently, the Symbiotic Support Frame had obtained the plans for some more efficient equipment modules? Ones that rendered the old projects largely obsolete. The new equipment would likely be completed in time for afternoon combat classes, but not before then. Attending practice would merely grant QA the opportunity to view Anna's equipment in action, and there was only so much that Queen Administrator could do with such information without superior sensors. Anna and Durga had done an excellent job of blackboxing their equipment.

    <If you're sure…>

    <assent.>

    In that case, QA had a new line of inquiry to pursue. The shard turned to Tamara and tilted her head questioningly.

    "Why do Valkyries often seem so reluctant to discuss their own Cores? It seems remarkably rude to ignore all their hard work. Even from a strict efficiency standpoint, positive feedback is an important part of developing most intelligent life."
    Actually, most of us prefer to work in peace…​
    Tamara blinked and jerked her head toward the rest of the club. Asia answered the question with only a minimal waiting period.

    "Normal Cores aren't really as interactive as Symbie is—which is to say, they don't talk back at all and not for lack of our trying. They can be ascribed 'personalities,' but it's unclear as to if that's a trait of the Cores or if it's just the human tendency to humanize basically everything. Given as they have full access to integrated items and even our brains, it's pretty clear that they could speak with us if they really wanted to—barring some manner of artificial restriction on their actions, at least, which is an idea that should not be discounted. Some Valkyries elect to speak at their Cores anyway, but it's considered a mildly embarrassing act.

    "Really, there's a lot we don't know about Valkyrie Cores. We don't know how they manage to so consistently upgrade equipment, where they're getting the material from, or even why they don't continue upgrading synchronized equipment when they aren't being used. Symbie is the first concrete evidence we have that they could be intelligent and capable of learning."

    "Wait, wasn't that classified?"

    "Not anymore. I think they plain gave up."

    Queen Administrator felt Host's lips tilt in mild displeasure. So she'd already broken the intended interaction rules by visibly speaking with Symbie. Too late now, she supposed.

    "So, anyway!" Tamara quickly continued. "Could you let us help with those upgrades I heard you wanted to give your Friends? You don't have to or anything, but they sound useful. Again, we won't pressure you if you don't want to!"

    I did not intend to share, Queen Administrator almost said. She garbled the words into indecipherable gibberish before they could exit Host's throat. Even though she didn't know over half their names, the fact remained that the members of the Crafting Club were people. She didn't want them to die and their assistance might even be helpful.

    "...Perhaps a little?"

    Queen Administrator hoped she wasn't making a mistake.

    ~ ~ ~​

    >> "She's not coming, is she?" << Setsuna grumbled over comms, punctuating the question with a volley of cannon fire aimed at simulated training drones.
    <AGREEMENT.>​
    Monica tried to suppress the urge to verbally snipe at the tsundere excuse for a teenager. Honestly, Monica didn't mind her roommate's absence. The fake extrovert would probably just embarrass the Flight if they tried to do some sort of joint combat exercise; she was still working on simple flying, while everyone else already seemed to have started incorporating weapon usage into their routines. Mostly. Anna didn't bother, but she was an Ace and she did seem to actually be having trouble with carrying Silver into battle. Or at least, Monica was guessing that was why she kept adjusting Silver's position on her body? Why Anna didn't just leave the pegacorn on the ground, Monica didn't know. She'd need to ask sometime when Anna wasn't so blatantly distracted by some research project or another.

    At least she had managed to pull from years of reading while performing other tasks. Weapon usage might be beyond Monica at the time, but a book? That she had plenty of practice with. Provided, browsing the Internet had a far more unstable structure than Monica was used to, but she could still simultaneously fly and browse—mostly. It was tricky and Monica kept almost flying into (fake) buildings, but the cadet wasn't going to let that stop her. She couldn't let herself be stopped by something so simple if she were to keep up with the Flight.
    <ENCOURAGEMENT.>​
    >> "You could just send her a message," << Monica sent back. >> "Or check the Valkyrie message boards. They make it pretty clear that the answer will be 'no.'" <<

    For a member of Hell's ruling class, Taylor's mental state seemed surprisingly fragile. Then again, Monica supposed Taylor's troubles were perfectly understandable. Needing to preside over punishments of the damned would strain the sanity of anyone even remotely empathic. The name "Queen Administrator" implied more of a bureaucratic position than a hands-on role, true, but spending all day staring at written descriptions of torture couldn't be that much better than needing to personally inflict pain. It wasn't as though Hell would take "No" for an answer—ironic, considering how they seemed to start as a rebellion against unyielding order. Monica supposed that was what happened when you brought all the damned into your political and military alliance instead of just those with justifiable sins.
    <CONFUSION.>​
    At least Taylor's public panic had resulted in an undeniable boon to society: the world's first Friend fashion show. They were using a cafeteria table as a walkway, true, but it was the thought that counted! Monica was a bit jealous that other Valkyries had also gotten Friends, but it was an irrational impulse and she knew it. Merely being Taylor's roommate would give her the opportunity to ask for, say, a tiny suit of powered armor for Nyx. Even if Monica largely couldn't understand her own pet, the fact remained that Nyx was clearly intelligent enough to make use of such armor.
    <AGREEMENT.>​
    >> "Oh, is she okay?" << Koujirou asked, flipping to concern despite his complaints not even fifteen minutes before.

    >> "I don't think any of us are ever okay," << Monica mused. >> "We just put on a mask for the benefit of social interactions while wondering if there's any purpose in existence." <<
    <PURPOSE.>​
    Occupied as she was with simultaneously browsing the Internet, flying, reflecting, and maintaining a conversation, it took Monica several seconds to realize that she'd been a little too honest there. At least she hadn't gone all the way into casual blasphemy; she might suspect that God was an egotistical sociopath, but He probably wouldn't appreciate her saying that.

    >> "…Are you okay?" << Koujirou questioned, but it seemed more wry than concerned—making a joke of Monica's misfortunes, as usual. She shouldn't have hoped for anything different from someone with all the personality of a rice cracker.

    Setsuna forced her way into the conversation while Monica was still weighing which lie to tell.

    >> "Don't you think that's a bit of a dumb question? She just said that she thinks everyone wears masks, moron. I think she's projecting a bit, but the fact remains that she might say she's okay even when she's clearly not." <<

    Monica felt a surge of irritation and tried to tamp it down. Setsuna was right. Monica had intended to lie through her teeth, possibly by dismissing it as a joke. It wasn't really fair for her to resent Setsuna just for acknowledging that intention. (She still did.)
    <AGREEMENT.>​
    At least she had a ready-made deflection handy; it felt a little like throwing Taylor under the bus, but honestly, Monica's Flight would find out sooner than later. It seemed like half the forums were determined to glorify Taylor's breakdown and act like it was cute, which seemed like an insanely unhealthy mindset. Oh, they were probably just a loud minority—and one that was being yelled at by some upperclassmen at that—but it was still jarring. Sure, attacking people for visible health issues also wouldn't be anything approaching acceptable, but she felt like the pendulum had swung so far that it looped back to being distressing.

    >> "Taylor suffered a public panic attack while eating lunch with the Crafting Club," << Monica disclosed. >> "She's okay now and the rest of the CC is putting on an improvised Friend fashion show to help cheer her up. There are, like, fifteen livestreams going on as we speak." <<

    Setsuna's thrusters stuttered and left her to fly directly into a building she'd intended to bank off. Koujirou slowed to a more stable halt and laughed at his childhood friend's misfortune.

    Annoying. Monica bit off her own snide remark regarding the flying skills that Setsuna had been oh-so happy about.

    The cadet closed her eyes, turned away, and decided to ignore her Flight. She couldn't exactly convince Anna and Taylor to drop the two morons if Monica wasn't even as good as them. They were disappointments, that's what they were. Koujirou was cute, but as stupid as Monica often pretended to be to drive people off. Setsuna was loud, obnoxious, and put on her own mask of superiority.

    Either way, Monica would need to work hard if she wanted to be part of a Queen's retinue.
    <ENCOURAGEMENT.>​

    ~ ~ ~​

    Tamara honestly thought the Friend fashion show acting as a backdrop to Friend upgrades had proved to be a resounding success. Taylor was still huddled within a heated weighted blanket, yet her vitals were far more stable and the fight-or-flight instincts seemed to have fled. The enigma wasn't even trying to push Tamara off and out of what could very well end up as a half-hour hug. Tamara fully expected to be called "Barnacle" or a similarly unflattering nickname for a few days. Kaja might earn some unflattering coverage, too; the Valkyrie was trying her usual methods, but adult humor just didn't work on someone as innocent and disinterested as Taylor.

    Also, the Friends seemed to give off slightly different sensor profiles depending on their headgear. The Club had yet to find any evidence of that function actually doing anything truly useful, but it was still an adorable piece of engineering. Taylor had wanted to dress her Friends so badly that she designed an entire excuse to do so! The Club had collectively decided to discuss that particular discovery over private comms until Taylor wasn't so likely to panic. Not premade messages – that was not the club's way – but impulse-to-speech worked pretty well.

    >> "Haha, okay, what the shit. Everyone, Diedra is gone!" <<

    The Crafting Club turned to look at the still very-much-visible Friend haphazardly wearing a black headband. The Crafting Club looked up at the wide, searching eyes of the three people sitting within a meter of her. The Crafting Club looked back down at the Friend.

    >> "She's—she's still right there. Move your hand down a bit–yeah, there." <<

    Stella gaped at her own hand like it was resting atop thin air. From her point of view, it very well may be.

    >> "I still don't see—what the f–" <<

    "Hey, Taylor," Kaiti quietly interrupted aloud. "Do you want to go to your therapist appointment early? I think they wanted you to have a more stable and structured experience instead of having it thrust upon you, but if you want to go early..."

    >> "Yo, little Big Sis over here acting suspicious as hell." <<
    >> "It was one mission! One! Let it go already!" <<
    >> "When they let go of you, sure." <<
    >> "Yeah, a little selective sensor spoofing is what does this? Not the actual panic attack?" <<
    >> "I have not been given leave to comment." <<
    >> "Shiiiit, that bad?" <<
    >> "I'll put it this way: they hope not." <<

    Taylor blinked.

    "I was under the impression that the session was meant to last for longer than the amount of time left in the lunch period. I do not wish to skip afternoon combat classes."

    Kaiti shrugged. Tamara had known her for long enough to recognize when the other Valkyrie felt more uneasy than calm.

    "That would just give you an excuse to leave early, wouldn't it? I don't think you'll want to, but it's an option."

    Taylor stared at Kaiti in what was probably meant to be scrutiny. The stillness of the rest of Taylor's body led to a more doll-like appearance instead.

    "Recommendation accepted. Perhaps a shorter period would be easier to survive."
     
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    • Update! Yes!

    Huh, Monica really believes and is entirely OK with QA being a literal devil. Ok then... she might need a therapist of her own somewhat rapidly I think.

    Well the hat thing is out. Man the irregularities just keep piling up don't they.

    I don't see how this could be explained technologically or irregular Valk Core-y, so this feels like looking at a trainwreck.

    I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed with ongoing trainwrecks and landmines for lack of better words I think, feels like if you shake the story a little it would go boom. All those poorly managed lies and deceit of incompetently pretending to be a Valk feeling like they have to unravel any second now and that it is in fact a miracle they haven't yet but still it keeps getting worse.
     
    Tamarind said:
    Man, I totally forgot hat-granted powers are a thing.

    What would happen if they went TF2 and stacked a hundred hats?
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    Nothing. One hat-power at a time.


    Enerael said:
    I don't see how this could be explained technologically or irregular Valk Core-y, so this feels like looking at a trainwreck.
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    They can't actually see inside the Friends. They're reliant on the not-final-version designs that QA shared to properly look past the armor, and even those had blatantly blackboxed areas.
     
    Oh, they discovered the Hats. Chaos shall ensue. :rofl:

    Meanwhile Monica is being an excellent go-getter. If only the same could be said of the rest of the team... :p

    Remind me, can/does anyone hear the Valkyrie units themselves yet? And was the <> speech in Monica's section her Friend or said core? I also assume the other cores can't talk to Symbie yet. Of course, whenever that happens, the metaphorical cat will have left the bag. I can't imagine either she or QA would keep that quiet.
     
    Enerael said:
    I am starting to feel a little overwhelmed with ongoing trainwrecks and landmines for lack of better words I think, feels like if you shake the story a little it would go boom. All those poorly managed lies and deceit of incompetently pretending to be a Valk feeling like they have to unravel any second now and that it is in fact a miracle they haven't yet but still it keeps getting worse.
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    It helps that the Valkyries don't yet conceive of the actual explanation. They may deduce that QA is hiding a lot and is not who and what she seems, but they would still have no answer to who and what she is exactly.
    Alivaril said:
    The new equipment would likely be completed before the start of afternoon combat classes, but not before then.
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    "Before, but not before the same event" sounds weird. Maybe "in time for the afternoon combat classes" would be better?
     
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    A thing that bears mention is that the actual truth is so absolutely ridiculous that nobody would ever in a thousand years guess it. QA doesn't have to do or say anything additional to get by here; they've already said she has amnesia, she's "confirmed" it, she's good to go. They're not going to expect her to be able to tell them things. If she does something unusual or impossible it's fine, Amnesia Backstory covers it.
     
    Enerael said:
    Huh, Monica really believes and is entirely OK with QA being a literal devil. Ok then... she might need a therapist of her own somewhat rapidly I think.
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    Nah, more like Devil's secretary.

    Still, yeah, this Monica approaches almost canon Worm levels of fucked up
    She's probably just been coasting off behind the bigger fuck ups like QA and Anne all this time to avoid scrutiny

    And wow, dumb mc is dumb
    Almost wanna check the original to see if it's exaggerated or not
    Almost
     
    Raiseth said:
    And wow, dumb mc is dumb
    Almost wanna check the original to see if it's exaggerated or not
    Almost
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    I think it's a bit exaggerated here? He mostly gets by on having an OP core once it's better attuned to him (it's also rather non-standard given enough attention to detail), but that's also after a bit of character growth IIRC. Canon went quite a bit further in time than this has so far, so he hasn't had much chance to improve.

    Here he's being a bit more oblivious partially since Anna hasn't (yet?) convinced him to work harder by her actions and because the harem comedy has changed targets. :p
     
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