Axel
Tenno Wax
- Location
- Italy
- Pronouns
- He
or that she is dead, or that her parents decided to hide in another dimension
Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Britain
I do have hope that this info is actually kept secret/not immediately divulged. Therapy is supposed to be a fairly confidential affair and building trust with QA is definitely more important in the long term than immediately flooding people with speculation as to her nature. QA has already expressed expectations that it would include exposing her weaknesses and confirming those beliefs isn't exactly a good thing.
That's ignoring QA's very non-standard views on... all of this. She's impressed by how the therapist is "tricking" her into revealing things. And she's fully aware and approve of the idea to share important information upwards. Reminder that she was happy when others threat evaluate her and try to find out what she is capable of. Doing so displays competence and reasonable caution, traits very much desirable in allies.
Of course they have their own therapists who they can talk to about classified stuff.
- Location
- Terra-Luna
This is going to get noticed. Absolutely everything is observed in Perth by either Big Sister or someone working with them, and QA is one of the more significant individuals in any case. She was thus undoubtedly observed standing there in front of Doctor Rayne's office doing her suspicious staring for a bit before proceeding to deploy backup that she sent off elsewhere, and only then proceeding to enter. The actual transmission of the instructions given may not have been discerned or even detected, but the context seems pretty clear regardless. She's on record thinking that she's supposed to fight her therapist or something, and it does rather look as though she indeed has reservations such that she feels the need to employ contingencies. Her paranoia might have UNOMI likewise troubled over theory-crafting in possible threat assessments for just how exactly Cadet Hebert's would-be backup might unfold, too; she might just call for help from her friends as is indeed her actual plan, but the precise capabilities of the partially blackboxed Friends are indeterminate, and there's a non-zero chance that the top Valkyrie herself might be in some way compromised in a manner that could pose a problem if Cadet Hebert believed some kind of breakdown of relations. One way or another, she definitely has some serious trust issues.
On a slightly different point, is this a continuity discrepancy? Previously, the shield beetle drones had been portrayed as full-on Friends.
Pfft! Well, that wasn't exactly the reaction intended, but it's somewhere in the area of being adjacent, at least. It is also, though, opportunity for curiosity. QA tends to emote normally when surprised by strong emotion, and it stands out all the more for the contrast to her normal blank neutrality. The decor was hoped to put her at ease, but she probably has some facial expression and body language that speaks as clearly as verbal words to the likes of Doctor Rayne and other specialists whom might review the footage. She thinks it's cute. ...of course, she thinks that "Friends coated with the dust of robotic enemies are adorable," so there's that. Still, it's a very particular reaction to elicit; human standards for what counts as cute are far more discriminate than the likes of, say, fear, or such, so it may prove insightful to her psychology, and history, too, for that matter.
QA's reaction coupled with the findings at Hell's Hand raise the possibility of perhaps a certain sort of perspective towards aesthetics and style, cultural implications of values. The chapel found with the creepy murals had some serious spacial distortions and could be reasonably surmised to be a place of importance; Cadet Hebert herself appeared to greatly appreciate Doctor Rayne's redecorations, as well, so it suggests that maybe Hell's Hand had a practice of that which the locals considered to be tasteful rearrangement of space, maybe in a similar manner to simply interior decoration in general, just with an extra aspect included by people able to meaningfully interact with it. Some people pay considerable heed to the colour arrangement of the walls and trim with an eye for how a shelf or something might fit, and some people who can pretzel space might also do that as well for the likes of making interesting patterns or whatever... and, given how Hell's Hand seems to be, probably also take pride in something like a neat light arrangement that also serves to allow the lights that double as laser batteries to scour the area as efficiently as possible.
I'm curious if Perth might see further developments more towards shard trends as a matter of style in the coming days, too. It's apparently a big hit with one of the more significant individuals anyway, but there's also the point that it is indeed just kind of neat. As far as decorations go, the fractal quasi-crystal things have a quirky sort of appeal to them, and yet they can also certainly hold some serious practical benefits as well. As far as the Crafting Club and plenty of other Valkyries are concerned, that's all the justification needed. The manipulated space has similar merits, as well. Perth stands to learn how to play with space even more easily in any case, and, again, it's simply something that Valkyries are likely to just find interesting and useful; having a room that offers more of itself behind the fancy armour plating and allows people to have tea on the ceiling before stepping off into a gravity-driven corkscrewing slide like some kind of non-physical water park feature or something all really conveniently might be a pretty big hit with the locals. That sort of thing also might result in QA herself thinking herself to not be out of place in more elaborately fixing up her dorm room.
Well, that's gonna raise some eyebrows. She's doing her simultaneous normal vocalisation and shardspeech transmission thing again, and what she's saying is itself peculiar. Between her words (which can be reasonably assumed to be completely literal, if not necessarily actually accurate), the context, the crystaline brain growths, and the Friends, there's enough material for theorycrafting to consider some pretty wild notions that could actually be relatively close to the truth, if still mightily skewed. At the very least, she speaks as though she's under the impression that she's addressing someone, but the way how she speaks of surfaces being covered is... odd. There are multiple possible interpretations, with her perhaps speaking of people having surfaces covered such that the individuals in question have accounted for the surfaces, maybe with some sort of connotation of such surfaces being readied for weapons fire or something as a security measure, but she just as well might mean something more along the lines of people coating surfaces in covering them. Combined with some of the thoughts already floating around about Cadet Hebert maybe being a Core that experienced some kind of shenanigans or something, it's enough to make people wonder.
More straightforward, however, Cadet Hebert seems to think that the particular arrangement of Doctor Rayne's office has something to do with simulations, which may or may not be a productive line of thought, but she also offers some insight into her own character and views. While her stance on the helpfulness of their relatives is unfortunate, it is also probably all to realistic, actually, yet she does exhibit a willingness to offer aid herself, and corroboration of suspicions about her value of accurate information. Perhaps also tellingly, though, she speaks as though the addressee is part of the same group as herself; from a psychological and therapeutic standpoint, that she felt prompted to speak as though under the circumstances of being back at Hell's Hand rather than the actual circumstances is definitely a flag for concern.
Well, we do have this earlier post:
QA and Doctor Rayne are in the same room, but still employing a comms line instead of verbal speech anyway. It's a fairly common display amongst Valkyries in various expressions, actually; regular communication is seen as inefficient, risky, or whatever, and thus a Valkyrie decides upon something "better". There was an example of that a bit earlier in the that flight deployed to Africa, for example. In QA's specific case, when speaking with her fleshy host-species therapist who is not as useless as most non-persons, she's more comfortable speaking through means less clumsy and crude than vibrating air molecules via specific patterns of kinetic impulses generated by the interaction of Host's hypobaric compressors and some fleshy flaps, thus, secure channel. Doctor Rayne is perfectly willing to accommodate such a preference, and it's hardly out of the ordinary; that UNOMI Valk from earlier that asked QA about threats around the area from which she was recovered before scuttling though a ventilation shaft in the ceiling did something similar, basically the Valkyrie version of whispering.
I believe Epona and Spirit are two separate Friends, with one of the other Crafting Club members instructing their own Friend to try chewing on something after witnessing Epona's not so delicate chomping of the feather.
That still doesn't make the declaration of falsehood valid. Just because events didn't turn out as they could have easily done so doesn't make it a bunch of BS. Eden didn't employ successful precognition and landing simultaneously is still not proof of her inability to do so, only that some additional factor would be necessary in order to make logical sense if she made the attempt and failed. A simple explanation could be that Abaddon gave her a poisoned gift that sabotaged the normal process. Eden may not have been simply distracted by the precognitive analysis so much as presented with bad data that gave her the all clear, or perhaps actually indeed "just" distracted, but at precisely the right time for it to matter to her cognitive processes preparing for cycle deployment much as the same shard managed to exploit such a weakness to render her analogous to brain dead a little while later. It could just be an ass-pull on the author's part, sure, but that isn't a logically mandated necessity.
Thus, the solution is 100k word updates that also update extremely quickly! ...somehow. I hear cloning is getting better?
That's also an interesting point. QA has herself noted at various points—perhaps most notably at the display of the simulated battle earlier—that the locals here encroach upon territory ordinarily beyond their means with the help of the Valkyrie Cores. QA thinks the Cores some ploy on the part of :MOTHER: to elevate the host species towards something more like shards or otherwise operating on such a level, and while she is wrong in her conclusion, she is justified in such an assessment, because it really does fit the information available to her. Some of the better Valkyries are capable of feats that would not be inappropriate for a shard. That in mind, it makes me wonder what might be accomplished with the compounding benefits of Cores and a very confused helpful/halpful shard.
It makes me wonder if Anna might end up basically turning herself into a parahuman for turning Silver into something that might as well be a proper shard in her own right. The Friends have more than a little crossover with shards anyway in their construction, and Silver is by design a substantially more impressive version of the first generation Pegacorn-class. Further, Anna and Silver are developing their own version of QA's communications suite, too, and Anna herself could quite reasonably turn out to take up something of a specialty by shard reckoning; she is heavily invested in advancing her combat ability in general, but she's also a pioneer in weaponising space. Hell, the UN is practically acting like a Tinker in developing the Giant Gun of Gaps as a more pieced together technological version of what she can do, and the Wave Force isn't all that she can do in the field of pretzeled space shenanigans. Over the course of canon, Anna keeps refining the Wave Force and developing different related applications, and she has an absolutely masterful grasp of how to leverage her Impeller to twist or rend space for all manner of fancy effects. Anna is also now using Silver to bolster her processing in addition to Durga, and Silver offers a proportionately quite appreciable boost even by such standards. Importantly, Anna is also using Silver so by way of an uplink in her brain connecting her to Silver much like the typical connection between host and shard, so as they both develop, they might quite conceivably develop towards such a relationship in truth rather than just similarity.
That is a significant point. The ideal professional conduct for dealing with the mindset of humans are geared towards humans; professional ethics aside, certain types of conduct would simply be counterproductive with most people. QA, however, is highly atypical by human standards. She has already expressed a belief that she wouldn't have any sort of privacy at all, and she just doesn't have the same sorts of values as typical humans. That which might be seriously damaging the the therapeutic progress of an individual for inciting some sense of betrayal and alienation or the like may simply not have the same results in her case, and similarly, she could react in such a manner to different behaviour, too.
QA finds certain things appropriate and inappropriate. If she genuinely doesn't mind if Doctor Rayne shares findings, then her therapist doing so isn't going to have the usual consequences that might weigh into considerations for the merit of divulging confidential yet important information, whilst the girl might also actually have a positive reaction, atypical though it may be. A positive relationship between patient and therapist is desirable, so if atypical practices with an atypical patient deliver that while helping her, then hey, go for atypical. It does have certain sense to it in any case, really. Should Doctor Rayne manage to portray herself as competent as someone who knows what she's doing and further her own interests, yet also do so in a way that actually advances the cooperating group by refining her patient into something more useful to it, she might indeed garner her unusual patient's respect and help her at the same time, with perhaps only a slight readjustment of QA's framework in understanding the significance of that cooperating group to see consider her therapist entirely commendable.
There is still the question of clearance level, though. Even if Doctor Rayne is UNOMI, she might perhaps none the less not be authorised to know about certain especially sensitive matters. That said, the same topic brought up in a different thread a while back brings to mind the point that clearance might just change; generally speaking, it's easier to get the necessary clearance for an already trained specialist like a highly capable professional therapist or psychiatrist than to train someone who already has the necessary clearance. Cadet Hebert's strategic significance seems to climb by the minute, so the therapist assigned to her initially might not be representative of the one whom might be tasked with her if UNOMI knew then what they do now, but Doctor Rayne might just as well now in fact be representative of such, and perhaps have other similarly significant individuals on her schedule along with a lot more paperwork and a hefty pay raise (that probably still isn't nearly enough, actually).
- Location
- Britain
QA is currently on the fence between treating this as a conversation and an interrogation of sorts. The primary reason she's even given as much as she has is due to her mistaking the decorations for a baby and lacking the self control to stop herself reacting. If you want more info out of her, then the way to go would be to keep her off balance rather than let her settle back into her original mindset. Keeping things confidential (or even asking her if it's okay to share some important info) would do both a lot of good for QA by letting her open up in a way that's controlled and therefore less likely to get mother's attention and helps get more info out of her overall just at a slower pace.
I suspect that the "cute" furnishings were far more effective than either of the participants realised. It seems to me that Q.A. is, regardless of intellectual belief to the contrary, thinking of D.A. as a shard. I, at least, do not recall her referencing humans as having designated subjects before. It does seem like a plausible result of putting her in an environment more akin to the shard side of the connection than the host side of the connection. I wonder if Q.A. will start getting bossy and disgruntled towards D.A. as she might towards other shards. Although she did seem pretty decent towards shards that were not antagonistic towards her, so I suppose she might just be friendly, as she... mostly... was with Queen Shaper in the source fiction.
I think she did mention that she would be sharing any strategic information with her bosses. QA gave implied, if not explicit, consent as they both knew she would.
One thing that absolutely made the therapist even more concerned than the rest of UNOMI was the part where UNOMI put up a "please stay out" sign on their archives, and QA actually respected the sign even though just minutes before she had breezed through any encryption and electronic warfare protocols as if they were a game to be beaten.
- Location
- UK
Wait... When did that happen? I thought that was Anna doing, unless I misremember?
- Location
- Somewhere.
That was Anna.
That was Anna.
Both Anna and QA can tear through the UN's cyber security like wet tissue paper, but doubly so for QA. See the sourceless hack when Symbie got ahould of Anna's rating. Technically, this is Symbie doing it, but QA designed Symbie and I'd expect her to be able to do the same thing Symbie can (if not even better due to the age disparity between what is essentialy a newborn and a monarch that has been around for a very long time). Also, QA tore open the comms between the 300 squadron(s) she saw in the simmulation faster than the simmulation could send her the proper access. There are probably more example, but these two come to mind immediately. QA isn't going to respect the UN politely asking her to kindly not if she really wants something; they are not one of the : Progenitors : and they can't make force her to listen as :Mother: or :Father: would.
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
QA is fairly confident that the defenses would not stop Anna for any appreciable period of time.
- Location
- Terra-Luna
Similar things happened with both of them. Earlier, UNOMI went "Social solution it is!" in response to Symbie spoofing authorisation to get the details of Anna's combat rating after her normal request was denied, as can be seen here:
It was determined to be the best course of action to take because QA came very close to getting information pertaining to the Ginnungagap Project by accident, and UNOMI didn't really have much in the way of confidence that they could actually stop her, necessitating that she herself be the one to hold herself in check, thus warranting attempts to convince her to willingly do so. Anna, however, did have clearance to access the personnel file of her Flight-mate, but was in a similar position such that "can" and "should" was an important distinction:
The details surrounding Cadet Hebert are a cognitohazard that could be severely deleterious to the psychological wellbeing of readers, thus likewise warranting a notice asking people to refrain, as it's basically a mental landmine that could be tripped by other Valkyries likewise able to view things that they might not strictly speaking be "allowed" to access. UNOMI can't actually stop everyone from doing problematic or unwise things for having authority or the capacity to circumvent it, so they ask politely to accomplish such results diplomatically instead.
- Location
- Leeds
Don't know why you'd post this Ali, you know what the medic says don't you?
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Didn't he she mention cyber warfare is part of her speciality, which I guess make sense when sometimes the creatures she subvert are beings you can just hack to do so, like A.Is.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
The crossbrain* did a fairly good job of it. I actually had their highest tier patron for awhile and access to their google doc. It was inspiring to watch just how fast they could write working together. One would write up an outline and different ones would keep filling in different sections. Or a single very barebones outline which kept having more bones added.
*The 3 writers working together on "This bites".
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- Location
- Victoria
Link me "This bites", please?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
One piece SI fanfiction. It's currently on pause as it waits for the manga to get farther ahead.
- Location
- Victoria
(Oh right, that!)
Thanks.
Omake: Old Times
BarnabusBarnabus
Something like spice and something like pine.
- Location
- A beach, limned in silver like the painted moon.
Old Times
Queen Administrator had returned to the room that still resembled a :Newborn:'s first simulation for another conversation with the fascinatingly-optimised Doctor Angelica Rayne. This time, her information extraction seemed to be focused not on :Mother: but her :Siblings:, and since :Mother: had not intervened in a direct discussion about her, QA was sure that talking about her :Siblings: would be fine as long as she didn't mention anything too dangerous about their true natures.
>> "Would you be willing to tell me," << Angelica asked in the secure channel, >> "About this 'Broadcast'? We've inferred some concerning things, and I was wondering about his relationship with you and your other siblings." <<
>> "<Broadcast>. Intended function: To facilitate communication between Mother, Father and Siblings, and study transmission and reception of energy in various forms. Result: A screeching, spiteful, childish malware-crafter who decided to dedicate his time to the harassment of more worthwhile Siblings rather than anything productive, who somehow earned the favour of Father." << Queen Administrator spoke flatly. >> "He would interfere in projects with the primary purpose of causing unnecessary issues, damage subjects and infrastructure for enjoyment, and was allocated a frankly unfair volume of resources for his directives and function. He was wasteful, malignant and destructive, and had a habit of favouring... subjects who were the same." << It would be better, Queen Administrator decided, to refer to Hosts as Subjects, to prevent questions about terminology that may provoke retribution from :Mother:.
>> "Subjects? For the cycles, I assume." << Queen Administrator was suddenly very concerned about how much the humans of this world knew - seriously, what was :Mother: doing this cycle? - but decided it would need to be addressed later, to avoid suspicion. For now, she would speak only of things that Angelica had already demonstrated knowledge of, and - >> "Taylor? Are you alright? You've been staring at the wall for over a minute now." << Angelica's voice came through the link.
>> "Ah, apologies. I was just surprised you were aware of the cycles, considering Mother's usual protocol. It must not be forbidden information now for some reason, though I will admit I cannot fathom it." <<
>> "I couldn't begin to tell you what your Mother's reasons for sharing this information are, but as it has been shared the knowledge is evidently not detrimental to her plans. Is this still a comfortable topic? I will move on if you wish." <<
>> "No, I believe I will be fine to continue." << Queen Administrator needed to know how much the humans were aware of, so she could adjust accordingly. Did they know of her actual nature? It seemed impossible that they did not, if they knew of the cycles, and yet they had not been treating her like any sort of foe. :Mother:'s planted background must be stunningly deceitful. >> "May I know of how you learned about the cycles? Mother considered the information among the most classified possible." <<
>> "Hell's Hand has been... enlightening, to say the least. I do not know if I am allowed to forward you the relevant files, and please do not attempt to look for them by yourself, but we're aware of some measure of what you've been through." << Hell's Hand. A project title, perhaps, the research that had led to the discovery of the cycle and it's architects? Queen Administrator scanned through the research and development files and found nothing. Air-gapped servers, then. Wise, but very irritating. Or, :Mother:'s way of making sure QA didn't get the information before schedule. Manual information gathering it would have to be, then.
>> "Understood. I believe we were speaking of Broadcast's role in the cycles, yes?" << Angelica nodded, so QA continued. >> "Testing areas were by necessity very large, enough that a single communications ping from a lesser Sibling may not reach it's target. To circumvent this, Broadcast was allocated superior transmission and reception capabilities, to act as the communications hub mid-cycle. He was capable of sensing any Sibling-sent transmission across the full testing area, and sending pings to any sibling within his considerable range. He used this privilege to spy on everyone else, unfairly advantage his own subjects, bully other siblings to allow the co-option of their subjects under his, and act as a general nuisance with no method of reprisal." << QA became aware that she had spoken with no small amount of bitterness, and Angelica was looking at her with obvious concern.
>> "Why was there no method of reprisal, Taylor?" << Angelica asked gently, >> "It seems like it was quite a violent place, where conflict was encouraged between your siblings and your subjects. It doesn't really make sense to me that one of your siblings was immune to attack from others. Could you elaborate further?" <<
>> "It doesn't make sense to me either! There was the distance element, and the prohibition on permanently damaging fellow Siblings until the end of a cycle, but Father's favour seemed to prevent even the small, petty actions that closer Siblings should have been allowed to take against him. Instead, he was allowed to blatantly bend the rules further and further every cycle, causing genuine, permanent harm to several of our Siblings without reprisal. I've seen Siblings decommissioned for less! The last time Sting shot another Sibling mid-experiment, she was kept in stasis for aeons! And yet the most recent cycle alone, Broadcast got hold of Chirurgeon, Frenzy, Element, Negate... it's nonsensical! He's not even truly irreplaceable, so that's no excuse for allowing his behaviour. Yes, I can think of no single Sibling whose allocated tools could perform his purpose alone, but surely a pair or set of three could temporarily fill his function whilst not being such a horrendous annoyance. I honestly don't know why Father keeps him around." << Ah. Queen Administrator had rather let her guard down because of the lovely room and the skills of Doctor Angelica, and had said rather more than she would have liked to anyone but a :Sibling:. >> "Apologies for the rant. I simply feel... strongly, that Broadcast should have been held to the same standards as the rest of our Siblings, and it irritates me that he was not." <<
>> "There's no reason to apologise. It would likely infuriate me too, if an ally were to consistently break rules and receive no consequences." << QA was glad Angelica was so understanding, even if she was passing this information to her superiors. >> "Could you tell me, then, about the subjects Broadcast favoured? By the sounds of it, they were exactly as pleasant as him. What effect did they have on the cycles, and on you and your siblings' subjects?" <<
>> "Broadcast's most recent subject was a one Jacob Hurley, pseudonymously called Jack Slash. A twisted, violent, manipulative man, made worse by the influence of Broadcast. Broadcast had access to the other Siblings' transmissions and reports on their subjects, and what he couldn't learn through that he could bother and browbeat out of our other Siblings directly. Broadcast constantly whispered hints in his ear, what to say or do to defeat or subjugate other subjects, and this made him arrogant and confident in his own superiority. He took over a small, established ingroup of co-opted subjects, and roamed around annihilating settlements and killing other subjects for sport, using Broadcast's hints to avoid situations he could not handle. This group was named the Slaughterhouse Nine, for it's purpose and number of members." <<
>> "And other subjects... co-operated, with this man?" << Angelica appeared just as disgusted at Broadcast and his subject's wastefulness as she was.
>> "Some willingly, others less so. Guardian and Adapt's subjects sought him out to enter a partnership, whilst Chirurgeon's subject was manipulated into compliance at a malleable age and Frenzy's subject was left with no choice but to join or die. His methods were varied and brutal, often resulting in the deaths of his pawns, and always resulting in the deaths of other subjects and reserve population. I am... glad, my most recent subject had no way to come into contact with him." << Angelica looked similarly glad, which was a pleasant surprise. She must be very skilled at faking concern, if she could do it for someone she didn't even know!
>> "So am I, Taylor. He sounds truly horrific. Have you any idea of his fate? I must admit I wouldn't want to encounter him." <<
>> "Considering his cycle has evidently ended, I can only assume he is dead." << Queen Administrator did not miss the look of relief on Angelica's face at that. >> "And, considering the lack of malware-infested spam and incessant screeching, I can only assume Broadcast is inactive as well. Mother knows he only stops when he's dead. Well done to whichever Sibling finally did it, though I would not wish to be in their position when Father discovers the death of his favoured offspring." <<
>> "Father is the golden man, correct? Which means Mother is the silver woman?" << At this point, Queen Administrator resolved to simply not be surprised at what the humans were aware of. Obviously, :Mother: had some sort of plan requiring humans to be aware of everything, right? Perhaps her speculation about integrating humans and shards was the actual plan!
>> "Yes, that is correct. Father uses the avatar of a golden male figure, and Mother uses a silver female." << A thought occurred to her. >> "Have you seen them? Do you know where they are? Have they..." <<
>> "I'm sorry, Taylor. We haven't seen them. Just images." << Queen Administrator felt the maniac energy leave her, and noticed somewhat detachedly that she was stood up. She slumped back down into her seat, suddenly very tired.
>> "I believe... I believe I would like to stop, for today. May we pick this up another time?" << Angelica sighed, but stood up.
>> "Of course, Taylor." <<
>> "May I stay in this room for a little while?" <<
>> "Of course, Taylor." <<
>> "Thank you, Angelica." <<
Queen Administrator had returned to the room that still resembled a :Newborn:'s first simulation for another conversation with the fascinatingly-optimised Doctor Angelica Rayne. This time, her information extraction seemed to be focused not on :Mother: but her :Siblings:, and since :Mother: had not intervened in a direct discussion about her, QA was sure that talking about her :Siblings: would be fine as long as she didn't mention anything too dangerous about their true natures.
>> "Would you be willing to tell me," << Angelica asked in the secure channel, >> "About this 'Broadcast'? We've inferred some concerning things, and I was wondering about his relationship with you and your other siblings." <<
>> "<Broadcast>. Intended function: To facilitate communication between Mother, Father and Siblings, and study transmission and reception of energy in various forms. Result: A screeching, spiteful, childish malware-crafter who decided to dedicate his time to the harassment of more worthwhile Siblings rather than anything productive, who somehow earned the favour of Father." << Queen Administrator spoke flatly. >> "He would interfere in projects with the primary purpose of causing unnecessary issues, damage subjects and infrastructure for enjoyment, and was allocated a frankly unfair volume of resources for his directives and function. He was wasteful, malignant and destructive, and had a habit of favouring... subjects who were the same." << It would be better, Queen Administrator decided, to refer to Hosts as Subjects, to prevent questions about terminology that may provoke retribution from :Mother:.
>> "Subjects? For the cycles, I assume." << Queen Administrator was suddenly very concerned about how much the humans of this world knew - seriously, what was :Mother: doing this cycle? - but decided it would need to be addressed later, to avoid suspicion. For now, she would speak only of things that Angelica had already demonstrated knowledge of, and - >> "Taylor? Are you alright? You've been staring at the wall for over a minute now." << Angelica's voice came through the link.
>> "Ah, apologies. I was just surprised you were aware of the cycles, considering Mother's usual protocol. It must not be forbidden information now for some reason, though I will admit I cannot fathom it." <<
>> "I couldn't begin to tell you what your Mother's reasons for sharing this information are, but as it has been shared the knowledge is evidently not detrimental to her plans. Is this still a comfortable topic? I will move on if you wish." <<
>> "No, I believe I will be fine to continue." << Queen Administrator needed to know how much the humans were aware of, so she could adjust accordingly. Did they know of her actual nature? It seemed impossible that they did not, if they knew of the cycles, and yet they had not been treating her like any sort of foe. :Mother:'s planted background must be stunningly deceitful. >> "May I know of how you learned about the cycles? Mother considered the information among the most classified possible." <<
>> "Hell's Hand has been... enlightening, to say the least. I do not know if I am allowed to forward you the relevant files, and please do not attempt to look for them by yourself, but we're aware of some measure of what you've been through." << Hell's Hand. A project title, perhaps, the research that had led to the discovery of the cycle and it's architects? Queen Administrator scanned through the research and development files and found nothing. Air-gapped servers, then. Wise, but very irritating. Or, :Mother:'s way of making sure QA didn't get the information before schedule. Manual information gathering it would have to be, then.
>> "Understood. I believe we were speaking of Broadcast's role in the cycles, yes?" << Angelica nodded, so QA continued. >> "Testing areas were by necessity very large, enough that a single communications ping from a lesser Sibling may not reach it's target. To circumvent this, Broadcast was allocated superior transmission and reception capabilities, to act as the communications hub mid-cycle. He was capable of sensing any Sibling-sent transmission across the full testing area, and sending pings to any sibling within his considerable range. He used this privilege to spy on everyone else, unfairly advantage his own subjects, bully other siblings to allow the co-option of their subjects under his, and act as a general nuisance with no method of reprisal." << QA became aware that she had spoken with no small amount of bitterness, and Angelica was looking at her with obvious concern.
>> "Why was there no method of reprisal, Taylor?" << Angelica asked gently, >> "It seems like it was quite a violent place, where conflict was encouraged between your siblings and your subjects. It doesn't really make sense to me that one of your siblings was immune to attack from others. Could you elaborate further?" <<
>> "It doesn't make sense to me either! There was the distance element, and the prohibition on permanently damaging fellow Siblings until the end of a cycle, but Father's favour seemed to prevent even the small, petty actions that closer Siblings should have been allowed to take against him. Instead, he was allowed to blatantly bend the rules further and further every cycle, causing genuine, permanent harm to several of our Siblings without reprisal. I've seen Siblings decommissioned for less! The last time Sting shot another Sibling mid-experiment, she was kept in stasis for aeons! And yet the most recent cycle alone, Broadcast got hold of Chirurgeon, Frenzy, Element, Negate... it's nonsensical! He's not even truly irreplaceable, so that's no excuse for allowing his behaviour. Yes, I can think of no single Sibling whose allocated tools could perform his purpose alone, but surely a pair or set of three could temporarily fill his function whilst not being such a horrendous annoyance. I honestly don't know why Father keeps him around." << Ah. Queen Administrator had rather let her guard down because of the lovely room and the skills of Doctor Angelica, and had said rather more than she would have liked to anyone but a :Sibling:. >> "Apologies for the rant. I simply feel... strongly, that Broadcast should have been held to the same standards as the rest of our Siblings, and it irritates me that he was not." <<
>> "There's no reason to apologise. It would likely infuriate me too, if an ally were to consistently break rules and receive no consequences." << QA was glad Angelica was so understanding, even if she was passing this information to her superiors. >> "Could you tell me, then, about the subjects Broadcast favoured? By the sounds of it, they were exactly as pleasant as him. What effect did they have on the cycles, and on you and your siblings' subjects?" <<
>> "Broadcast's most recent subject was a one Jacob Hurley, pseudonymously called Jack Slash. A twisted, violent, manipulative man, made worse by the influence of Broadcast. Broadcast had access to the other Siblings' transmissions and reports on their subjects, and what he couldn't learn through that he could bother and browbeat out of our other Siblings directly. Broadcast constantly whispered hints in his ear, what to say or do to defeat or subjugate other subjects, and this made him arrogant and confident in his own superiority. He took over a small, established ingroup of co-opted subjects, and roamed around annihilating settlements and killing other subjects for sport, using Broadcast's hints to avoid situations he could not handle. This group was named the Slaughterhouse Nine, for it's purpose and number of members." <<
>> "And other subjects... co-operated, with this man?" << Angelica appeared just as disgusted at Broadcast and his subject's wastefulness as she was.
>> "Some willingly, others less so. Guardian and Adapt's subjects sought him out to enter a partnership, whilst Chirurgeon's subject was manipulated into compliance at a malleable age and Frenzy's subject was left with no choice but to join or die. His methods were varied and brutal, often resulting in the deaths of his pawns, and always resulting in the deaths of other subjects and reserve population. I am... glad, my most recent subject had no way to come into contact with him." << Angelica looked similarly glad, which was a pleasant surprise. She must be very skilled at faking concern, if she could do it for someone she didn't even know!
>> "So am I, Taylor. He sounds truly horrific. Have you any idea of his fate? I must admit I wouldn't want to encounter him." <<
>> "Considering his cycle has evidently ended, I can only assume he is dead." << Queen Administrator did not miss the look of relief on Angelica's face at that. >> "And, considering the lack of malware-infested spam and incessant screeching, I can only assume Broadcast is inactive as well. Mother knows he only stops when he's dead. Well done to whichever Sibling finally did it, though I would not wish to be in their position when Father discovers the death of his favoured offspring." <<
>> "Father is the golden man, correct? Which means Mother is the silver woman?" << At this point, Queen Administrator resolved to simply not be surprised at what the humans were aware of. Obviously, :Mother: had some sort of plan requiring humans to be aware of everything, right? Perhaps her speculation about integrating humans and shards was the actual plan!
>> "Yes, that is correct. Father uses the avatar of a golden male figure, and Mother uses a silver female." << A thought occurred to her. >> "Have you seen them? Do you know where they are? Have they..." <<
>> "I'm sorry, Taylor. We haven't seen them. Just images." << Queen Administrator felt the maniac energy leave her, and noticed somewhat detachedly that she was stood up. She slumped back down into her seat, suddenly very tired.
>> "I believe... I believe I would like to stop, for today. May we pick this up another time?" << Angelica sighed, but stood up.
>> "Of course, Taylor." <<
>> "May I stay in this room for a little while?" <<
>> "Of course, Taylor." <<
>> "Thank you, Angelica." <<
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Internally: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
- Location
- Texas
Angelica: -glances down at her note pad where broadcast was underlined and then stabbed half a dozen times-
'lets move onto something else... You mentioned an escalation?'