- Location
- Kent, WA
Man, I know it's going to be a while (if at all), but I cannot wait until Taylor gets her friends in contact with their Valkyries
Shapira sighed. She didn't know what she expected from someone so blatantly in the grips of Valkyrie Syndrome. Still, she had to at least do a holding action until someone more qualified could take over.
This has tickled my brain juices and I've been inspired. The potential for QAylor and Dr. Angelica Rayne to talk past each other... "IS OVER 9000!"It still tickles me that Taylor is setting up the cult base to perfectly reflect the mechanics of the Cycle. It's the perfect cover for QA's trauma mostly because it is QA's trauma, dressed up in human corpses rather than shards and parahumans.
... I wasn't thinking in quite those terms before, but I'm now picturing the supposed cult bunker as the Doom Train summon as seen in various Final Fantasy games, just somehow bigger on the inside and snaking around to connect into a base form instead of a long chain of chambers while it isMobile FortressHell's HandHellTrain-chan finally made her debut.
Ouch. That didn't turn out well at all. How much of it is Taylor's body and how much of it is QA herself is unclear, but there's a whole lot of QA in the reason for such reaction regardless of the specifics; observers do not themselves know such specifics, but her reaction very much looks entirely as would be expected based on what they think they know about her. QA is taking it pretty hard, and the reaction is a prolonged, lasting result. As far as anyone else can tell, the cult survivor girl got scared and defeated after a panicked fight before huddling up alone not speaking to anyone and blatantly broadcasting that she doesn't feel safe. They're right, shard details aside, which has to punch right in the feels.Queen Administrator did not enjoy the emotional aftereffects of Leonhart's ambush. Even ten minutes after the fact, with soft Pegacorn-Friends pressed against her, and in a cozy, empty lounge, Host's body still felt as though it was being violently compressed. The sensation only partially abated once she fully expressed Symbie and released fifty beetle-Friends to form a protective sphere surrounding Host.
Hm. I get the feeling that the denial is going to be rather counterproductive. Trying to convince people that Cadet Hebert isn't some kind of high-level specialist involved in secretive dealings of some sort may very well encourage exactly that idea just all by itself, and QA herself in fact offers no small encouragement. She's "totally not under orders", an enthusiastic engineer who doesn't respect safety standards, very obviously an enthusiastic engineer if she can spam such drones out of nowhere, and invested in modifying Valkyrie Cores which is not to be done without authorisation. ...of course she's a perfectly normal student, why ask? No, no, the lack of details is definitely because there aren't any details to be had, not because they're secret."I meant to reference the fact that Hebert is apparently under orders," Cadet Barlow elaborated.
Leonhart looked out at a squadron of eager faces and knew she'd made a mistake. She wanted to get back to lessons as quickly as possible, but that wouldn't be fair to Taylor. A little extra personal information would be needed just to stop people from thinking Taylor was some sort of UNOMI spook.
"It's nothing so extreme as that," Leonhart dryly replied. "Cadet Hebert's enthusiasm for engineering often outweighs her respect for conventional safety standards. She has yet to actually hurt anyone, but there are several topics that she's not to pursue without prior authorization."
Well, that certainly presents an image. Like I was saying, good thing Shapira is indeed the kind of person that she is. I do wonder as to the consequences, though. The Crafting Club might get into some legitimate trouble over this—the whole incident is over a Valkyrie having an adverse reaction, after all—but they might not necessarily need to really be actively punished; given the relationship that they seem to have with QA, there's a distinct possibility that they're going to feel pretty bad about it anyway. They've kind of adopted her as their collective honourary little sister, and yet they set her up to possibly get attacked, maybe get subjected to similar reactions to here, cause incidents with other Valkyries, get in trouble, and generally suffer consequences for their actions. The Crafting Club is not, however, the only aspect of results to this little scene here.Instructor Shapira watched the ball of writhing, crackling chrome carapaces and fought the urge to open fire. No wonder the other Instructors had demanded she handle this. Unlike Hebert's cute little pegacorns, the shield-beetles were eerily similar to Antagonist non-combat models. Someone would need to have Words with the Crafting Elective Class. She could understand being distracted by shiny new technology, but someone should've realized what they'd look like as a cohesive swarm. At least their movement patterns merely followed overlapping, predesignated arcs. True Antagonist drones would move far more erratically.
Lot of details here. We have several discrete points for consideration in QA's behaviour and the Friends. Earlier, QA very, very briefly got into a fight, and all of her Friends jumped to her aid. Anna contained the situation, and in so doing got a firsthand perspective of how capable they are in a fight, both QA's alicorn guardians in general and her personal Friend, which she now regards more positively for multiple reasons, conveniently enough. Here in the later exchange with Shapira, QA's behaviour is... very blunt and self-critical. Shapira is trying to comfort her, and it falls completely flat, with QA just dismissing the "unfairness" and laying out the shortcomings."You were in a room with multiple Aces. There's no shame in being subdued by that kind of force."
Of course, only Leonhart had actually gotten involved. Sanchez had been more focused on guarding Hebert's Friends and keeping them from treating it like a full-fledged combat situation. The coil-guns comprising their horns apparently packed an impressive punch for their size.
Sanchez's new Friend hadn't participated in the scuffle, which she'd reportedly been quite pleased by. It seemed Hebert truly had given the Friend as a gift.
"Symbie's tentacles were severed before even being fully extended. This proves that they are in need of upgrades."
This part's also significant. For one, QA is apparently keen to just rebuild her frame from scratch outright. She doesn't intend to simply swap out for a new frame the way most Valkyries normally would, but rather keep the same Core, and build a new frame around it rather than take up a new frame with its own Core. There are plenty of Valkyrie Cores abound. At least under normal circumstances, trading out frames should one be unsuitable would be the considerably more pragmatic choice, but Cadet Hebert apparently has an attachment to the Core itself... and that could actually be perfectly reasonable in this case, if her specific Core presently in use actually does have unique qualities to it rather than being a replaceable feature of no individual relevance. Perhaps also significantly, though, QA acts as though in fact going ahead and basically starting over completely isn't actually any big deal, and as far as anyone knows, she might be right, which is pretty noteworthy all by itself."Symbie is currently constructing the infrastructure necessary for a superior Frame, but that will take time. Until her new Frame is completed, the tentacles are intended to provide flexible surfaces for supplementary weapon deployment."
Shapira frowned and flagged the mention of infrastructure. That was definitely unusual; Valkyrie Frames usually upgraded equipment based on necessity and usage. The exceptions were the Three Hundred, which slowly improved all their armaments regardless of use at the cost of having a preset loadout.
The Instructor flagged Rokusabe Koujirou's current Frame while she was at it. Its location of origin and refusal to bond with most Valkyries disqualified it from being an overlooked member of the Three Hundred, but that didn't mean there wasn't something else weird going on. It was probably just a technician being too overzealous with the safeties, but everyone was on the lookout for more possible AVCs now that Symbie had shown up.
It's a good thing Shapira caught this when she did. QA is indeed motivated to be self-sufficient, and had in fact written off any idea of being able to simply ask for any sort of material assistance. If pressed, then, she might not ask at all. For a shard, the idea of stealing holds no taboo or anything at all; QA could very well have stayed stifled and the UN losing out on her potential, and her further engaging in what would be considered unacceptable behaviour with a complicating handicap and priority of ensuring that she didn't get caught. This also highlights some of the issues of the simple lack of relatable perspective, too; different sides just didn't think of the matter the way expected by one another. Now that the matter has been addressed, though, it could see dramatic developments, particularly considering this:Either way, it sounded likeTaylorCadet Hebert thought she was on her own for upgrades. That was a mentality the UN needed to nip in the bud.
...
"I suspect some people probably expected you to struggle and ask for help well before now, leading to a lesson on how paperwork is a necessary evil. However, you proved to be more self-sufficient than they expected, so..."
QA did a lot with a little; what happens, then, when she has a lot in the first place? If she can do that with virtually no assistance at all, what can she pull off with all the help that they can throw at her? That is, though, indeed quite the question. What can she do? Also, just what does that mean for her herself?If anything, Hebert sounded ever-so-slightly happy that the UN was trying to determine her exact limitations.
"You and Symbie produced at least fifty conventional military-grade drones and approximately twenty exotic biomechanical organisms within sixteen hours of non-combat conditions. We would be irresponsible to not learn as much about you as possible."
"You would," Hebert agreed, smiling brightly.
Shapira just knew that would provoke another wave of 'Antagonists do not intentionally infiltrate' memes. Her colleagues simply couldn't help themselves.
This sounds... eventful. We have further instance of people caring about mental wellbeing again and having good points there, but that's rather a side note. QA is going to enter a simulation and do things. She may even Do Things. How crazy do things get if she tries to flex her e-war god muscles in a simulation? What happens if the simulation is actually somewhat accurate where that's concerned instead of just shutting down? How high do the eyebrows go upon witnessing QA try to deal with a scenario in which she is utterly outclassed as a complete rookie of a Valkyrie involved in a battle with a Type 0 yet not necessarily so poorly matched as something that merely has a lot of overlap with a Valkyrie? And what of the results of QA going in to take reference of the upper level of Valkyrie weaponry in a simulation all but certain to feature at least some of the 300 with gear that Shapira wouldn't expect anyone to even think about emulating, much less actually succeed at such? All the more, how does she behave over it all?"I require several minutes in an expendable environment, simulated or otherwise, in order to calibrate Symbie's Frame and my control of it. I would also appreciate any available reference footage for the most advanced weaponry currently available to Valkyries."
Sanchez arguably had that, but Shapira suspected such a demonstration wouldn't be good for the long-term mental health of either Valkyrie. The instructor briefly skimmed Hebert's file for probable reasoning and found herself suppressing all outward signs of rage. Hebert's old residence had killed experimental subjects for being too lethal? What was the point of military research if not to find weapons claiming exactly that? It was the height of irrationality to fear other humans when Antagonists were at the gates.
Curious. Appropriately enough for a Valkyrie of her calibre, Shapira has a sharp eye for details. Symbie is already known as a weird Core, and this just adds to that all the more. I wonder if people might come to realise something different about Symbie's hammerspace storage capacity. Regular Valkyries have a finite volume for storage; Symbie may technically have a theoretically finite storage capacity as well, but particularly with the dimensional shenanigans that might be possible, it could easily be of a size for which that limit just doesn't really matter. Canon has an instance of Valkyries doing an excellent job at simple cargo hauling duty thanks to their combined speed and storage capacity, but QA may find herself with a somewhat uninspiring job as the designated superfreighter pack mule; logistics aren't glorious, but they're vital none the less, especially when trying to build a logistically demanding superweapon.The beetles began flowing into Symbie's expressed frame. Shapira couldn't quite put her finger on it, but the process of storing them looked a bit off. The instructor added her suspicion to Hebert's folder.
"I will be fine," Hebert claimed, smiling slightly.
Not a normal response to the monsters that were Type Zeroes, but perhaps she was just looking forward to the overdue calibrations or a weapons' demonstration in general. It wasn't as though Hebert had seen Macross kill anyone.
Amusing. Some of the nicknames are entirely apt. Ironically enough, "273.15 Valkyrie Cores" may actually be the most accurate, given QA's nature as a shard that is itself the gestalt identity of numerous sub-shards. The last one has something going for it too; that she is a military-industrial complex is more right than anyone knows, but her very mentality also means that she kind of has a military-industrial complex complex, at that. I'm kind of hoping that she does set absolutely everything on fire, though.>> Aliases: Pure-chan, Jun-chan, Junko-chan, Eldritch-chan, Chaos-chan, Witch-chan, Witch of Chaos, 273.15 Valkyrie Cores in a Trenchcoat, Military-Industrial Complex
Expanding further upon what Risenlre said, it is a matter of the traumatised and closed-off girl receiving a message and dismissing it as something to be dealt with later.The bolded bit seems almost out of place? Nothing before or after it references it.
Ouch. The truth is actually worse, but even if their perspective isn't quite accurate, it still looks pretty bad, and that's an entirely reasonable suspicion about her mentality.I wonder how long until they figure out that she recategorizes people as non people when they die as a coping mechanism.
Also ouch. Anna and Monica are "real people" to her. Anna is Anna and can take care of herself, and Monica could easily be thought to be under such designation due to Cadet Hebert deciding to make sure that she stays alive, given that Monica is her friend and roommate given considerable protection in the dorm room defenses and dedicated Friend. The members of the Crafting Club are seemingly ardently keen to pursue improvement and develop killy things. Maybe—maybe—some of the other more capable Valkyries come to earn personhood should they interact with QA enough and properly. Everyone else, though? Eh.And from there the conclusion that her interest in Anna is because she's the only person QA is totally comfortable thinking of as a person.
"People" are only those not likely to die soon. Otherwise, it's best to just not get attached.There were no inherent benefits in systematically improving a host-species; the only reason to do so would be if those upgrades were intended as an investment. It would be stupid for :MOTHER: to empower future enemies. Therefore, :MOTHER: must intend to avoid killing them until further notice, and QA could be a bit less careful with bestowing personhood than she usually was.
QAylor is one hell of a sulker.Even ten minutes after the fact, with soft Pegacorn-Friends pressed against her, and in a cozy, empty lounge, Host's body still felt as though it was being violently compressed. The sensation only partially abated once she fully expressed Symbie and released fifty beetle-Friends to form a protective sphere surrounding Host.
Symbies not a normal Valkyrie Core, just an emulation QA built. You're assuming that something which breaks the rules in one respect (integration time) would definitely work by those same rules in other respects (impeller strength) with this line of thought. That seems to be a shaky foundation.Wait, if Symbie can integrate as many fusion reactors as QA wants in seconds (or at least very quickly), then wouldn't Symbie's Impeller strength (or at least the sheer amount of Impeller; her Impeller strength to start with would probably be godawful, but she'd learn fairly quickly with good instruction) be stupidly large for a Valkyrie?
After all, your amount of Impeller is a function of the amount of stuff and the complexity of that stuff that you have integrated into your Valk core. Fusion reactors are a huge chunk of that complexity, for obvious reasons. Integrating five of them would be quite significant, to say the least. Proceeding from there would give her enough energy to pull all sorts of crazy shenanigans.
Symbie was built based on the data on valkyrie cores Decimator gave to QAylor and the subsequent changes Taylor Administrator and QAylor made.Symbies not a normal Valkyrie Core, just an emulation QA built. You're assuming that something which breaks the rules in one respect (integration time) would definitely work by those same rules in other respects (impeller strength) with this line of thought. That seems to be a shaky foundation.
I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that the stuff in invisible storage doesn't count, and is difficult to remove and replace quickly, or something. So they wouldn't increase her impellers much unless she brought them out and dragged them along behind her, which would be a poor method of keeping her power generators from failing.Wait, if Symbie can integrate as many fusion reactors as QA wants in seconds (or at least very quickly), then wouldn't Symbie's Impeller strength (or at least the sheer amount of Impeller; her Impeller strength to start with would probably be godawful, but she'd learn fairly quickly with good instruction) be stupidly large for a Valkyrie?
Symbies not a normal Valkyrie Core, just an emulation QA built. You're assuming that something which breaks the rules in one respect (integration time) would definitely work by those same rules in other respects (impeller strength) with this line of thought. That seems to be a shaky foundation.
You're both right, although "Imitation" might be a better choice of words than "Emulation."Symbie was built based on the data on valkyrie cores Decimator gave to QAylor and the subsequent changes Taylor Administrator and QAylor made.
Integration of fission reactor components appeared to be completed within five minutes, granting the subject a permanent Impeller Field of inconsistent strength. Impeller Field appears to weaken as subject is tired or hungry and returns to noticeably beyond the previous power limitation after sleeping. (See Tides Project)
Eden didn't have PtV yet, just tons of precog and other analytical methods. Basically the same result, though.Another thing that might come up in in further interviews is the method with which QA was discouraged or encouraged by Eden during the cycle. That is PtV being used by an entity to nudge her towards or away from certain courses of action.
Her siblings happen to agree with you. Valkyries don't.
Still better than a giant extension cord, though!I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that the stuff in invisible storage doesn't count, and is difficult to remove and replace quickly, or something. So they wouldn't increase her impellers much unless she brought them out and dragged them along behind her, which would be a poor method of keeping her power generators from failing.
This seems likely to turn out to be another point noted for psychological review. Cadet Hebert doesn't display emotions much, and claims it to be a result of a desire to provide clear communication which thus warrants neutrality to mitigate miscommunication. Whether or not it's automatic or deliberate, she shows happiness here. She acts as though she has a positive regard for being thought maybe a potential danger or curious, or it might alternatively be a matter of appreciating and approving of behaviour that she deems sensible. She's going to have a lot of people trying to puzzle out how she thinks, and this is a further reference for that end.
Regular Valkyries have a finite volume for storage; Symbie may technically have a theoretically finite storage capacity as well, but particularly with the dimensional shenanigans that might be possible, it could easily be of a size for which that limit just doesn't really matter.
At this rate, the UN is going to need to hire more therapists just for QA. Worse still, belief of just why exactly she thinks that way when it comes to personhood is close to the truth:
"People" are only those not likely to die soon. Otherwise, it's best to just not get attached.
"Call my therapist's therapist's therapists. Tell them that they're rich."They're going to need to hire therapists to talk to her therapists, and the therapists of everyone else involved in investigating Hell's Hand.
Going to be hard to find enough therapists with enough security clearance."Call my therapist's therapist's therapists. Tell them that they're rich."
QA can halp! Friends are good at completing all sorts of tasks!Going to be hard to find enough therapists with enough security clearance.
Therapy seem to become a very lucrative job this days."Call my therapist's therapist's therapists. Tell them that they're rich."
"They should also see about hiring a therapist""Call my therapist's therapist's therapists. Tell them that they're rich."
"But there is no rule that says an imitation cannot defeat the original. If you say you are the original, I will surpass every one of your weapons and destroy your existence." QA, probably.You're both right, although "Imitation" might be a better choice of words than "Emulation."
I don't know, that reads less as sulking more like how I feel when I am super-stressed or having a minor PTSD moment.
QA also already has an anomalous Impeller Field, too. As it stands, her Impeller Field "appears to weaken as subject is tired or hungry and returns to noticeably beyond the previous power limitation after sleeping", and Symbie didn't project an Impeller Field at all initially, or at least not one that could be detected. Given the likewise anomalous feature of Cadet Hebert seeming to enjoy the protection offered by an Impeller Field anyway though and perhaps having stealth characteristics that could conceivably incite false negatives, the topic of her Impeller Field has a lot of questions that are difficult to address without further information.Symbies not a normal Valkyrie Core, just an emulation QA built. You're assuming that something which breaks the rules in one respect (integration time) would definitely work by those same rules in other respects (impeller strength) with this line of thought. That seems to be a shaky foundation.
It would fit the apparent facts unfortunately neatly. Hyperalertness is a common trait in people who develop issues that go hand in hand with a need to be alert. Paranoia, too, is likewise not out of place at all in people given due cause to be suspicious and expect opposition. The big sisters know perfectly well how easy it can be to have an overwhelming totality of awareness and ability to process and act upon information, and they actually value ethics as something desirable. What could perhaps be accomplished if an Arcology's nigh absolute perception of everything within it in addition to control of nearly every aspect of it got coupled with the wealth of intelligence on the psychology of the people there?Another thing that might come up in in further interviews is the method with which QA was discouraged or encouraged by Eden during the cycle. That is PtV being used by an entity to nudge her towards or away from certain courses of action. I'm not sure if they would mark it down as paranoia or if it would be recognised as something more legitimate about how the cult operated. But learning that QA is on edge watching for anything that might even hint at something being a bad idea with little to no regard as to the actual source of the occurrence would not be a fun realisation for anyone trying to provide her a safe environment.
Yes. To be more specific the strength of the impeller field is determined by a combination of things, but only expressed components emit impeller. As the strength of the impeller increase the fidelity, control, over it goes down. A valkyrie battleship may have several orders of magnitude more impeller than a regular valkyrie, but cannot do near as much as the valkyrie can with said impeller.I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that the stuff in invisible storage doesn't count, and is difficult to remove and replace quickly, or something. So they wouldn't increase her impellers much unless she brought them out and dragged them along behind her, which would be a poor method of keeping her power generators from failing.
Impeller is dictated by a combination of Core compatibility, volume of component extended, and component complexity.
Like this one, right?