Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
- Crossover
Oh fuck yes, I hate those little bastards.
Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
I was worried at first that Monica would react badly to QA, or believe that QA herself was trying to haze her, but I'm glad things worked out there. Truly, they are well-matched as roomies, and the Big Sisters have impeccable judgement. I really wonder what the Big Sisters themselves thought of QA's weapon emplacements though.
Yay to Jun-chan's horror guard as well. I look forward to her classmates reactions to them. I also look forward to QA's first round of classes, her meeting with her psychologist, and the UN's investigation of that bunker. It feels like there are lots of things I'm looking forward to which is the mark of an excellent fic, though it frustrates me we seem to be inching towards those events so very slowly.
Yay to Jun-chan's horror guard as well. I look forward to her classmates reactions to them. I also look forward to QA's first round of classes, her meeting with her psychologist, and the UN's investigation of that bunker. It feels like there are lots of things I'm looking forward to which is the mark of an excellent fic, though it frustrates me we seem to be inching towards those events so very slowly.
Can the cute little horsies turn off their bafflers to let people see them with colours, and features, and depth-perception...? Can someone with sufficient dakka E.C.C.M. see them with some measure of clarity?
LostArchivist
Sane, unfortunately.
- Location
- The State of Confusion
Wooo. Haaaa. I can't stop laughing at all. I started reading, and then it never stopped...
That has surpassed my wildest expectations. Apparently it was enough to start a cult, and interestingly enough this one might actually have some backing. Even if they're also rather right for the wrong reasons at the moment.
Also, her new Friends are beyond badass. I like the trail of immaterial shadow. It's a nice touch. Hopefully she's worked out the issues that the CC figured out before where the weaponry kinda sucked, though.
Then again, their maker is a Shard. I can't imagine they are lacking in all sorts of weaponry if it shouldn't actually work that way...
That has surpassed my wildest expectations. Apparently it was enough to start a cult, and interestingly enough this one might actually have some backing. Even if they're also rather right for the wrong reasons at the moment.
Also, her new Friends are beyond badass. I like the trail of immaterial shadow. It's a nice touch. Hopefully she's worked out the issues that the CC figured out before where the weaponry kinda sucked, though.
Then again, their maker is a Shard. I can't imagine they are lacking in all sorts of weaponry if it shouldn't actually work that way...
- Location
- Somewhere other than where I am.
Am I the only one who took one look and wanted to pet one?
Considering QAylor's idea of 'cute', they are probably best left hidden from direct view. Anyone, including Antagonists, who manages to see through it will probably want to turn their ECCM off really fast.
- Location
- Somewhere over the Rainbow
So... QAylor's efforts have woken up the Valkyrie Core's mind?
Might be less Awoken, and more driven to action.
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
QA really isn't doing that much to hide her inhumanity, is she? I mean there's the whole thing with her cult background which excuses a lot of her detachment and odd opinions, and the whole radical self-modification via suspiciously organic valk core-equivalent could just be a regular valk core that did the self-improvement thing with only lots of meat on hand, but the space-warping, incredibly alien room reinforcement reminds me far to much of the descriptions of antagonist base interiors and I would be surprised if the UN didn't already have a "how to deal with Taylor if she turns out to be an unusually unsubtle antagonist infiltrator" document by now. I mean, they probably also have one for Anna, but at least she doesn't go around creating eldritch monstrosities in her free time.
Huh... Anna as a proantagonist... I could see that.
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Next story chapter is an interlude giving the first glimpse of Taylor's House of Horrors, so I've sent it to betas first instead of just tossing it up. They have work/classes, though, so I can probably only give an ETA of "sometime today."
- Location
- Leeds
Wait we haven't already had our first glance?
The Flesh Weapons and Hole in Reality Unicorns were just her garden gnomes?
13th Bee
Worker
- Location
- Tennessee, USA.
He's referring to the facility that Taylor (not QA) made in a puff of
Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
Oh man, I'm super excited for this. Can't wait! It's night time over here, so I'm hoping that "sometime today" means I'll get to see it once I wake up tomorrow!
- Location
- Leeds
Oooooohhhhhh.
Thats a bit of a relief. Except where content warnings mentioned in relation to that bunker?
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think I managed to mostly get around that problem by telling instead of showing. I'm still putting up a warning, but I don't think it's that bad anymore. EDIT: Of course, my standards might be skewed since I'm the one writing it.
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- Location
- Somewhere other than where I am.
I think the majority of Cores are 'awake', just non-communicative for some reason. It could be that trying to talk to a mortal is damaging, or it could be that an insufficiently upgraded mortal mind just isn't able to keep up, just like high end Valks tend to get frustrated and give up trying to talk to normal humans. Or maybe there is just a cultural stigma about talking to primitive meatsacks. Who knows?
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
Maybe they don't want to get attached.
Master Basher
hYPER Demon
- Location
- UK
If by backing, you mean Valkyrie Cores starting to 'notice' the purity, of "Pure Chan" (or QA.) And start wanting to be friends/BFF with a sentient Core, that's more 'complete'? Bar that...
Honestly, all it takes is if we go by the lens of "frustrated Valkyrie Cores unhappy about inefficient bonding mechanics?"
QA: "~DATA~" (Conceptual package, on how to properly bond/parasite a host. For maximum data & communications..)
Valkyrie Core: "WTF? ... Wait, this efficient communication protocols, and compression measures are beyond data... Incorporating..."
And then you end up with Valkyrie Cores, starting to consider either data assimilating their 'hosts', or implanting feelings/ideas to make then faint, or do/feel something instead of being an utter "can only do so while in sync." And worse/better, can have a better 'sense' of them, in possible best case scenario...
Valkyrie Core: "So that's how we could communicate with them. Thanks, Dreamer!" (Cue suddenly, Valkyrie's having nightmares/dreams of being BFF/hazed, by their Valkyrie Cores over issues the cores have, over them.)
By that point, the mystery of the "Horror of Pure chan", will continue...
... And by the tone of the sort of WTF Comedy horror, QAylor is throwing. To the tune of "how far until she paints the entire building like a gorey room, out of Saya no Uta?" And suddenly make the loopholes over everyone staring in horror, over what sort of torture QAylor had, to be able to 'pick up' on horrific, "should not exist" rituals as a science.
Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
I think they are more weirded out, because she isn't one of them, but they probably can also recognise Taylor's stuff are not antagonist based, beyond the core herself.
Interlude: Taylor is HALPING
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @DaGeek247, @Wordsmith, @LonelyWolf999, Jamie Wahls, and my twenty 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 @Vebyast.
Beta-read by @Vebyast.
Warning: This interlude features Taylor's horribly over-the-top "alibi" and temporarily shifts into gore-assisted horror comedy / narm as a result.
~ ~ ~
~ ~ ~
Captain Elizabeth Ingra was feeling extremely out of her depth and more than a little horrified. The underground complex they'd found underneath what she'd thought was Taylor Hebert's home bunker had proven to be both far larger and freakier than scans had initially indicated; the outer armor plating had spoofed mid-range sensors and hidden lower floors in a manner that was sure to interest R&D. Or, well, interest R&D more than they already were.
Clearly, they were already quite interested; Liz's flight had been ordered to recover any and all Valkyrie Cores first, survivors second, records third, and samples of technology a distant fourth. That priority order only came about when R&D felt they'd be able to get knowledge from the source. Plus, Liz's flight were being ordered to explore with alacrity instead of in detail, which meant something had lit a fire under Command's asses. They didn't even have any other flights providing overwatch in case of Antagonist interference.
Liz might've been able to steel herself ahead of time, but it wasn't until they excavated the entrance and delved downward that things got freaky. She blamed all the corpses perfectly preserved by still-active medical nanotechnology. Who cared about the risk of grey goo, right? Just leave the bodies laying around.
~ ~ ~
Hey, they've been there for, like, one day and I've been keeping an eye on them! You don't—wait, the complex is supposed to be dumb. Never mind, go ahead and insult it.
~ ~ ~
The welcoming message carved into a wall—in English, Liz noted—didn't help any. The angles and width of the lettering didn't match the blades observed on Taylor Hebert's frame, Symbie, yet the message was still clearly addressed to people entering from the outermost layer.
We do not accept responsibility for any trauma that may result from exploration of this area.
Liz's four-woman Flight wasn't meant to be a coroner team, but unfortunately for them, it was still pretty obvious that the deaths hadn't been caused by Antagonists. The most consistent causes of death were burn and claw marks, and those only accounted for some sixty people; it was more common to find consistent marks across only three to seven bodies within a single room. Meanwhile, they'd found hundreds of corpses — some of them no older than ten years of age — and hadn't even explored a full third of the facility.
At least it was easy to track their progress. The facility was partitioned into cuboid rooms of varying size and environments; they'd passed through jungle, tundra, forests, plains, blasted wastelands, mountains, metal mazes, one stone altar, one underwater section, urban jungle, and all of them filled with bodies. The patterns of causes of death seemed to indicate that they'd been forced to fight each other in what might've been some sort of twisted weapons test. Stab wounds, hypothermia, laser and plasma burns, Impeller Field shearing, blunt force trauma, wasp stings, annnnnd Liz ordered her team to stop scanning at that point. They were there to search for threats, not complete a full investigation. It was selfish, but Liz was a selfish person.
~ ~ ~
The nameless girl pouted. She'd worked hard on combing through her guest-self's archives to find as many examples of past hosts and opponents as possible. The lack of detailed scans meant they didn't even notice the stuff like super-strength, which was supposed to be a reusable gift.
~ ~ ~
Between each arena were surgical chambers that Liz loathed the implications of. Scans of the bodies and brains of victims seemed to match the tools within each chamber and painted a rather grim picture: prior to entering each new environment, the victims would be deliberately crippled — almost always via brain injuries — and left for their medical nanotech to slowly patch up the injuries. Even if it eventually restored the structures to former functionality, Liz expected that the victims would still need to relearn lost knowledge or even how to use affected body parts. Increased aggression may sometimes have been a desired effect, too, but the surgery chambers were inconsistent on that front.
Victims might not even be sent to the arenas; Liz's team found an alternative path between hidden — but still filled with brain-damaged bodies, because of course they were — observation rooms attached to the arenas that would nonetheless pass through the surgical chambers along the way. In other words, victims either had to fight or they had to not only watch, but take notes. Liz could barely believe her sensors when they uncovered the first eerily detailed combat reports exploring both the effectiveness of weapon types and possible derivatives. She'd seen combat assessments by Ace Valkyries with less detail.
Combat didn't even begin immediately. Instead, observers had to provide weaponry to a combatant of their choice, write about the daily routine and preparations of those within the arena, possibly come to sympathize with them, and then watch all but one of them die— or, if a weapon crossed some arbitrary threshold for 'too dangerous,' the observers would need to kill the surviving participant themselves.
"It's like someone was crossing points off an atrocity checklist," Liz muttered.
~ ~ ~
The nameless girl guiltily glanced down at her wishlist of horror house attractions and initiated innocent whistling. The sound acquired a layered echo when Symbie noticed and decided to happily join in.
~ ~ ~
Liz's comment earned hysterical giggling from both Atieno and Molina, the two third-year Valkyrie cadets assigned to Liz's flight. Some field training this had turned out to be. The two cadets paused, looked at one another, and seemed to decide that it wasn't cowardice if the other one was also throughly spooked.
"Permission to retreat, Captain?" Atieno requested meekly.
Liz barely even had to think about it. Mental injuries were just as dangerous as physical ones, and this place was a foundry for trauma.
"Permission granted. That goes for all three of you; none of these weapons could come anywhere close to piercing an Impeller Field and we only need one person to gather data for UNOMI."
She chose to exclude the signs of Impeller Field usage from her assessment. That could pierce Liz's defenses, but she wasn't going to guilt-trip the cadets by telling them that.
The two newest members of the Flight gave nervous nods and darted backward, ignoring the indoor environment to fly out as quickly as possible. Liz raised an eyebrow at the last remaining Valkyrie apart from herself: her second-in-command, Elise Boyce.
"You're not going with them?" Liz asked curiously.
Elise snorted and shook her head.
"I'm not leaving you alone down here," Elise scoffed. "I've seen enough horror movies to know how that ends. But more seriously, none of us would forgive ourselves if you died alone. If you and I are downed, those girls are inexperienced enough to know there was little they could do. If just you died, we'd all have doubts."
A flicker of a smile crossed Liz's face despite their gruesome surroundings. As always, Elise had a logical explanation for her decisions; and as always, she probably didn't actually give a fig about them. She was just being a good friend.
"Thank you," Liz sincerely told her.
Elise squirmed under her gaze, floated to the double doors leading to the next area, and shoved them open without a second thought. What laid beyond had both veterans freezing with wide-eyed horror.
A black, rune-covered spike impaled both a deceased Valkyrie no older than sixteen and the now off-white Valkyrie Core that had somehow been forced out of her and broken. Rivers of dried blood from both targets appeared to have been collected at the bottom of the spike and mixed into what looked like either cradles or artificial wombs. Empty ones, mind, but it was the thought that counted and what in God's name were they thinking?
There were five spikes in the room with excess dried blood from the spikes following engraved paths to form most of a pentagram. Four of them were occupied, complete with destroyed Valkyrie Cores, and all of the human sacrifices looked to be just shy of sixteen.
What is this I don't even – we aren't even supposed to HAVE blood!
"What was that about nothing capable of piercing an Impeller Field?" Elise asked distantly.
"Fuck this," Liz croaked. "We're recalling; we can explore this hell with drones and repeaters if we really have to."
~ ~ ~
Symbie let out a low whine of disappointment. She'd had a lot of fun with the fourth-dimensional lettering on the walls, the teenager knew, yet their visitors hadn't even gotten close enough to see that. In hindsight, something that could allegedly destroy the indestructible would be pretty frightening despite the fact that it was as fake as everything else.
~ ~ ~
Despite their words, the two Valkyries couldn't help but continue staring at the macabre horror before them. It might've be her imagination, but Liz thought that even her Valkyrie Frame, Nalini, might've been freaked out. That impression was probably just her own shock, she decided eventually.
Oh. Duh.
A tiny alert drew Liz's attention to the composition of the Cores: crystal quartz. The Valkyrie let out an explosive breath of relief.
"The Cores are fake," she said aloud.
"Oh, good," Elise quipped weakly. "So we need to explore more instead of just nuking the place. Wonderful."
"The signal won't penetrate the doors unless we start destroying them–" Liz began.
"Don't tempt me," Elise muttered.
"–But we can stand in the doorways and send drones into each room instead of exploring ourselves," Liz finished.
"That. Definitely that."
~ ~ ~
The nameless girl should definitely plant some extra tech as an apology, she decided. Maybe a Symbiotic Support Frame, too. They hadn't even managed to make it all the way to the puppy-punting field, let alone the eldritch church exalting her guest-self's parents.
...Maybe it'd help if she cleaned up some of the bodies and bloodstains? And possibly emptied out a few of the worse rooms they hadn't visited yet, like the spiders room and the cocoon room and... mmm, maybe she should just see what she needed for her guest-self's story and get rid of all the rest. No, no, that wouldn't do; they'd already gotten a rough image of the size. She'd convert the worst (non-essential) rooms into luxurious rest areas so visitors could take a break.
~ ~ ~
Liz stared at the drone footage with rapidly-rising rage. The block right beyond the sacrificial chamber contained a luxurious, pristine set of primarily pink quarters that wouldn't have been out of place in an Arcology. Unlike the rest of the facility, it had even managed to maintain power and presented a brightly-lit and cheerful contrast to the wretched horrors on the other side of the wall. The freezer was even still packed with preserved desserts, and the walls were decorated with pictures of kittens. How dare they pamper unsuspecting young girls only to murder them in the next block over? The hidden doors from the sacrificial room even led directly into the most opulent bedroom of all!
~ ~ ~
Nooooo, the doors weren't supposed to be hidden; I just didn't want to remind you! Ugh, is this how some authors feel when critics get it wrong? 'No, the old lady crushed by a falling pillar was not supposed to represent the loss of wisdom after the Roman Republic fell; she was collateral damage because rebel scum were gleefully destroying the Evil Empire's infrastructure.'
...At least try the ice cream before you move on...
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Damn when Taylor wants to HALP then she HALPING big time.
- Location
- Ontario, Canada, Earth
Not only that; I'm sure there will not be any unintended consequences as a result...