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Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)

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I was really not expecting giant hell hounds in a puppy punting field, though it's obvious in hindsight. Good job!

Though, there's something I don't quite understand.

Alivaril said:
"Maaaaaaybe, I guess, but it's always been people fighting each—wait. What has it been eating all this time? I didn't see any food dispensers and corpses wouldn't keep it fed for over a month."

There was a moment of silence as the two Valkyries considered the implications of a non-automatic feeding system.

"Ah, fuck," Liz swore. "We really do need to hurry."

~ ~ ~​
Ooooh, she did not mean to imply that.
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Does Taylor think she's implying there might be live people the doggy has been feeding on? Why would they come to that conclusion? Why couldn't the doggy be feeding on corpses? One of the first things noticed about the complex is that due to medical nanite bullshit, the corpses aren't decaying. There are probably quite a lot of corpses around.

Or why couldn't there be an automatic food dispenser for the puppy? Just because the Valkyries haven't seen other food dispensers... Why shouldn't there be automatic dispensers for animals while they force humans to go to the cafeteria equivalent every day for social bonding and continued cult brainwashing?
 
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Kai Merah said:
Does Taylor think she's implying there might be live people the doggy has been feeding on? Why would they come to that conclusion? Why couldn't the doggy be feeding on corpses? One of the first things noticed about the complex is that due to medical nanite bullshit, the corpses aren't decaying. There are probably quite a lot of corpses around.
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They didn't see any dispensers inside the room the puppy was in; short glimpse or not, they're still Valkyries with sensor suites and continuous recording capabilities. Corpses were mentioned because those could be left in the arena and may be preserved by nanotech, but they'd need an unreasonably huge pile to sustain something so large for so long — of which they saw no trace.
 
Alivaril said:
They didn't see any dispensers inside the room the puppy was in; short glimpse or not, they're still Valkyries with sensor suites and continuous recording capabilities. Corpses were mentioned because those could be left in the arena and may be preserved by nanotech, but they'd need an unreasonably huge pile to sustain something so large for so long — of which they saw no trace.
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I still don't really get what they were implying myself. What alternative food source did they imagine?

There might not be visible dispensers, but there could easily be stuff still running on automatic. Maybe something like the doors opening to a kennel on a timer.
 
Alivaril said:
They didn't see any dispensers inside the room the puppy was in; short glimpse or not, they're still Valkyries with sensor suites and continuous recording capabilities. Corpses were mentioned because those could be left in the arena and may be preserved by nanotech, but they'd need an unreasonably huge pile to sustain something so large for so long — of which they saw no trace.
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So now they're imagining there might be live humans hiding somewhere that the doggy has been hunting down and eating? Oops.

... Maybe there's an adjacent room automatically cloning empty bodies?
 
Squirrelly-Sama said:
I will admit, I thought it was going to be a weapons testing facility using puppies as a form of ballistic ammo.
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In a way it is. The puppy is just a bit bigger than they expected.

Zo-Kel said:
That facility needs a Glados or Cave Johnson talking to them over an intercom. It would feel just right and explain why the puppies are still alive. Plus explain why some things seem perfectly timed to scare them. Because someone is directing everything.
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No, no intercom voice to distract them, but when they get to the bottom they find a holotank with a little girl projected in it. Taylor Red Queen Dreamer then asks them if they liked it. She worked so hard to get it right for them.

Alivaril said:
They didn't see any dispensers inside the room the puppy was in; short glimpse or not, they're still Valkyries with sensor suites and continuous recording capabilities. Corpses were mentioned because those could be left in the arena and may be preserved by nanotech, but they'd need an unreasonably huge pile to sustain something so large for so long — of which they saw no trace.
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Meaning the puppy is getting hungry...
 
inverted_helix said:
What alternative food source did they imagine?
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Someone feeding them.


There are definitely plenty of ways Taylor could weasel her way out of this. She's just, ah...

"Have you ever looked at your palm? I mean, really looked at your palm? Because holy shit those things are gross and fingernails aren't any better."
 
No they are thinking that there must be someone who brings food to the puppy. Valk sensors allow for a quick glimpse to identify everything in the room and there was only the one entrance, without any hidden doors or hatches that food could be delivered through. Therefore the food must come through the front entrance.

It could be an automated cart or robot that brings food but Taylor clearly hasn't thought of that option.
 
inverted_helix said:
So I just want to say that if there aren't rooms of bloodsucking, disease-carrying insects in the complex I will be very disappointed. I know QA meant mosquitos, but I'm thinking millions of bioengineered ticks, mosquitos the size of birds, etc., all carrying diseases that are clearly biowarfare agents. Especially if those insects are actually the most dangerous thing they find (possibly for the diseases they carry and potential to escape).

Then they'll look on what she said in retrospect as a good warning.
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The base is in Africa, so Tsetse flies hit most of those points.

Alivaril said:
Someone feeding them.


There are definitely plenty of ways Taylor could weasel her way out of this. She's just, ah...

"Have you ever looked at your palm? I mean, really looked at your palm? Because holy shit those things are gross and fingernails aren't any better."
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After encountering Dreamer at the center of the Labyrinth, and a quiet but heated discussion among themselves about the merits of nuclear bunker-busters, they finally ask QAylor why she didn't mention the Abomination in the Basement. "Oh, that's just Dreamer. She isn't a threat."
 
Alivaril said:
...And why was the other Valkyrie hanging from the ceiling, anyway? The halls were long enough for her to be perfectly visible to those significant distances away. In fact, standing above the crowd in full armor ensured she would be more visible. Was this another quirk of so-called 'tradition?'
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QA—and many nearby students, she noticed—watched with interest as the Valkyrie crawled across the ceiling, pulled open a ventilation shaft, and slipped inside. That seemed like an exploitable security flaw—but then again, the narrowness of such passages would render them a risky proposition. If two individuals arrived from opposite directions, then navigating past each other would prove awkward.
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You have to appreciate the sheer commitment to kayfabe on display here.

This is probably an UNOMI-affiliated Senior or Instructor, yet they stuck to reenacting Mission Impossible in front of a hallway of cadets and communicating via secure laser comm instead of, you know, just messaging QA's datapad. :V
 
Ahhh, looks like Taylor will be joining us in Reality. Don't worry, I'm sure both of your rescuers will treat you nicely.

inverted_helix said:
So I just want to say that if there aren't rooms of bloodsucking, disease-carrying insects in the complex I will be very disappointed. I know QA meant mosquitos, but I'm thinking millions of bioengineered ticks, mosquitos the size of birds, etc., all carrying diseases that are clearly biowarfare agents. Especially if those insects are actually the most dangerous thing they find (possibly for the diseases they carry and potential to escape).

Then they'll look on what she said in retrospect as a good warning.
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Fun Fact: Mosquitoes have 6 needles. Two to spread the flesh, one to look for a vein and suck blood, two to use as a saw, one to inject chemicals.

Edited with corrections.
 
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Presumably it would be possible for the doggo to have a hibernation state that could keep it functional for long periods of time, and they walked in while it was awake to eat a little before sleeping for another week. Or they somehow tripped some alert that woke it up. It is just has really really really good hearing, or it slept nextto the door and they disturbed it into doing the murder-doggo equivalent of rolling over in its sleep.

But yeah, Taylor may well not think of such things.
 
Kellcat said:
This is... an interesting bit of insight into QA's personality. This implies something similar to how humans get attached to non-humans (the family pet, etc), and that she deliberately refuses to get attached because she expects all the test subjects to die. Kinda meshes with her getting attached to all the pseudo-hosts in The Other Story...
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This has to be the thing I love most about Alivaril's work. The incredible fridge horror behind completely innocuous (to QA) statements, both from our persective and from the perspective of other characters.
 
Sapient_Ham said:
You have to appreciate the sheer commitment to kayfabe on display here.

This is probably an UNOMI-affiliated Senior or Instructor, yet they stuck to reenacting Mission Impossible in front of a hallway of cadets and communicating via secure laser comm instead of, you know, just messaging QA's datapad. :V
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Expecting normal behaviour is asking a lot of a Valkyrie. Whatever is the matter? That was normal, wasn't it? Perfectly reasonable, surely. Cadet Hebert's datapad might not have been secure! What about lip-reading?! Scuttling over the ceiling and using tight-beam laser transmission was obviously necessary!

Aunty Shi Ping said:
Presumably it would be possible for the doggo to have a hibernation state that could keep it functional for long periods of time, and they walked in while it was awake to eat a little before sleeping for another week. Or they somehow tripped some alert that woke it up. It is just has really really really good hearing, or it slept nextto the door and they disturbed it into doing the murder-doggo equivalent of rolling over in its sleep.

But yeah, Taylor may well not think of such things.
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That does seem a reasonable enough explanation. Sure, dogs aren't supposed to hibernate, but nothing about this entire affair is anything remotely like "suppose to" anything. Alternatively, there might be a more disconcerting explanation on the uninformed side of things. Taylor The nameless girl stumbled into a plot hole and has to figure out some way to fix it without giving away the active editing. There are some options to explain things, though, all the same.

Perhaps the freaky biology involved means that this creature is some sort of autotroph, maybe, to be revealed by any dissection to not actually need more conventional feeding, any more than plants and some particular deep sea life. Otherwise, it might be extremely efficient and just indeed be able to cope with the lack of feeding despite assumptions, given that it is in fact an engineered creature produced by advanced mad science.

For a different option as already noted, there may be some aspect of the facility that is still online despite the abandonment, as per the medical nanotech preserving the corpses; maybe the nameless girl will just throw in some server robot or whatever that comes in from elsewhere, to perhaps be discovered in the course of carrying out its duties. Alternatively and perhaps tying into the notion of the horrifying abomination doggo being able to last a long time between meals but just not being as biologically efficient, maybe there was something that only "recently" stopped providing sustenance; given some of the themes already seemingly in play in this facility, it wouldn't be out of character if innocently unaware people tasked with caretaking duty got "recycled" by heading in to feed the creature without realising the implications involved, with maybe some cadre of people labeled defective or disobedient appearing to have only relatively recently run out.

Perhaps most worrying, though, there is another way to explain the conundrum of the creature seeming to have an issue of not having any means of eating inside the room: perhaps the mutant hellhound of doom able to tank rockets can somehow opening the door and getting out. Maybe its only seemingly trapped inside because the creature went into a berserk frenzy at the sight of food/test subjects, but is in fact an intelligent and learning gladiatorial monster with the wherewithal to manipulate the door when calmed down, to allow that thing to get loose and stalk after those within the facility. This started out as a haunted house as envisioned by someone with a different perspective, but now it might be about to combine themes of Jurassic Park and Alien.
 
Alivaril said:
And why was the other Valkyrie hanging from the ceiling, anyway? The halls were long enough for her to be perfectly visible to those significant distances away. In fact, standing above the crowd in full armor ensured she would be more visible. Was this another quirk of so-called 'tradition?'
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So... Pure-chan in glasses surrounded by little tiny Vantablack Alicorns. That is certainly an image.
 
Alivaril said:
Hah, no. Nyx is another word for night, and is the ancient Greek personification of night. Said personification is the daughter of chaos in some sources. Monica thought it was appropriate.
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The reason I asked is because of the MLP Alicorn Nyx (an OC, gets adopted by Twilight)
Which, a Pegicorn also is a similar description.

on aside note, we NEED someone to yell "FOR SCIENCE!" At some point...
 
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meyerkev248 said:
So... Pure-chan in glasses surrounded by little tiny Vantablack Alicorns. That is certainly an image.
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Funny you should use vantablack as a comparison, considering the material that inspired the pegacorn traits. (AKA another case of scientific discoveries being found in "Hey, that's weird.")
 
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Wonder when someone's gonna notice QA's mistaken naming of Type-zero Macross as 'Decimator'. And then wonder if that's just a name she came up with or if something else is going on.
 
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