But wouldn't a "Super Antagonist", dormant Antagonist, captured Antagonist, or full horror-show test subjects becoming a Antagonist be a big deal?
Sorry still plowing through the original story.
Something like any of those, sure. Just be aware that Antagonists are big, and it's pretty normal to not be able to see much past an active Impeller. Endbringers were only about 15/30/45 feet tall, so their apparent size also wouldn't be intimidating; it would look like just another experiment similar to QA's Friends. It's their density and abilities that get problematic.
EDIT: I didn't mean to come across as a killjoy here. So, how 'bout dem undead?
EDIT 2: Fun fact: UNOMI-Fourteen enjoyed the pre-Impact video primarily because of the visible athleticism on display. (Translation: abs.) She knew that definitely wasn't the sort of thing to bring up right then, though.
Before I clicked the link, I thought the speaker was shouting like a drill instructor at her for stepping too loudly. I don't know which version I prefer honestly...
As a aside! Alivaril, we didnt get any updates to this fic for a long time, and now we are getting them quite regularly! I was wondering if this was going to continue? Or is your focus on this fic a temporary thing?
As a aside! Alivaril, we didnt get any updates to this fic for a long time, and now we are getting them quite regularly! I was wondering if this was going to continue? Or is your focus on this fic a temporary thing?
Something like any of those, sure. Just be aware that Antagonists are big, and it's pretty normal to not be able to see much past an active Impeller. Endbringers were only about 15/30/45 feet tall, so their apparent size also wouldn't be intimidating; it would look like just another experiment similar to QA's Friends. It's their density and abilities that get problematic.
Type Zeros get back down to human-sized give or take an approximately human-sized error bar, I thought. And the Endbringers are very much T0-tier opponents.
AGs don't get really big to begin with, either? Unless, uh, space.
Liz and Elise looked out at what was probably the largest room to date. Probably. It was hard to tell; the whole thing seemed to be endlessly folding and unfolding on itself in a complete mockery of the word theoretical. At least Antagonists had the common decency to stick to three dimensions. Mostly. Even when they didn't, such sidestepping generally involved constant energy input and liberal use of Higgs particles. Liz wasn't detecting any of that. Hells, the room might not even be sticking with just four dimensions.
>> "Thirteen, are you suggesting we have an Impeller-wrestling match with an Arcology?" << Elise incredulously demanded.
>> "ABRAHAM-Two, your sensory data has yet to acknowledge any significant Impeller clashes. We believe that Hell's Hand is likely attempting to avoid confrontation." <<
Well, that certainly has implications. The powers that be have every reason to believe Hell's Hand to be an actual Arcology, however unaffiliated of one, and they're acting in accordance with that belief. That makes sense, though, because it sure looks like Hell's Hand is exactly that. It is quite concerning, though. Hell's Hand blatantly has the semblance of Higgs usage, yet doesn't, all the same. This kind of severe spacial shenanigans should be going hand in hand with easily detected Higgs readings, but no one is detecting anything of the sort; this is also a freaky stealth bunker of an Arcology that somehow escaped the notice of the Antagonists and UN forces alike, though, so what if there are reasonable explanations indeed in play here that simply can't be confirmed? If Hell's Hand can employ Higgs bullshit without anyone being any the wiser... well that would indeed have some weighty meaning to it. Likewise, there is reason to believe that Hell's Hand is actively engaging in Impeller Field application, but can anyone actually detect that which they can indirectly observe?
Additionally, there's the matter of Hell's Hand in fact being active. The creepy Arcology very much appears to be aware of the people inside it and reacting to them. The spacial distortions reverting right before the approach of Liz's Impeller Field in addition to the lack of clashing is telling. Hell's Hand acknowledges the presence of the recon team and not only tolerates their presence—at least for now—but also actively accommodates them... and hopefully continues to do so, because Elise kinda had a point; if Hell's Hand turns hostile or proves treacherous, trying to fight it from inside said aggressive Arcology could be expected to be an entirely one-sided affair, so they're kind of at it's unknowable mercy, disconcertingly enough. On the other hand, though... well it isn't summarily squishing them or whatever, so... press on?
On a slightly different note, the severe spacial distortions might raise some questions regarding QA herself, too. This is her old home. Is she actually some kind of not-actually-theoretical mathematics witch? Her old test evaluations might themselves garner some evaluation. She abruptly failed everything posed to her when the testing reached that field; maybe she was genuine, but maybe she did in fact throw the test for some reason. In light of the findings here, that seems a reasonable enough possibility to bear consideration. Moreover, though, if she actually can make sense of this sort of thing that may perhaps not be terribly unusual by her standards, then she might be a boon to the project working on weaponising something related.
The closest window seemed to depict two humanoid figures—one silver and one gold—literally cracking the Earth with some manner of lance or spear. Or at least, the orb was probably supposed to be Earth; the general outline was right and the moon was present. Rather than the blue and green so often used for such art pieces, landmasses were a dreary grey and the oceans dull brown.
Just a wee tad disturbing... I have to wonder, though, if the nameless girl's depiction of the planet might be at once perfectly accurate and confusingly wrong. The colour scheme suggests that this might be Earth Bet as familiar to the designer, which if the case could have people wondering about some of the curiously alternate geography with some rather important bits of land missing. Since this is stylised, though, that remains unclear. All the same, anything to do with the moon is probably going to have all manner of analysts pouring over it over any possibility that anything might have anything to do with the UN's own secretive and important activities on the moon. Was Hell's Hand spying on the giant doom cannon? Who knows, but that's certainly something that needs answering, one way or another.
The layered window opposite it wasn't much better. If not for the humanoids of silver and gold, it could have been some manner of family tree with nine crown-wearing individuals branching off into four times their number. In turn, those thirty-six stood over a field of corpses, because of course they did. It wasn't like this place seemed to have a stigma against leaving bodies laying around.
Credit where it was due, only most of the living appeared happy about this state of affairs. Three lower-level members had black trails falling from their eyes, and one upper-tier individual with physical features similar to Cadet Hebert looked down at hands stained with blood. The art style made it hard to compare faces, but the eye and hair color both seemed right.
A possible twin with no 'offspring' sat against the maybe-Hebert, curled up and hugging her knees in a puddle of blood. Little drops of red dotted every part of maybe-Hebert's twin save her hands, which were left conspicuously clean.
...Goddammit, who was Liz fooling? One of the two was clearly going to be Hebert. The kid's therapist was going to have their hands full.
No, no, stay positive.
Creepily long silver fingers lead to the heads of each upper-level figure save probably-Hebert's possibly-dead twin. Most of those simply faded into an upper-tier's skull (or possibly crown), but the finger allotted to probably-Hebert split into two black tendrils that pinched her head between them. The layered circles on the tendrils were probably supposed to be eyes, too. In fact, there seemed to be a constant pattern of eyes inscribed on the entire back of the window.
No wonder Hebert hadn't seemed at all bothered by the surveillance team.
So, uh, that's a thing. There's a lot of metaphor going on here, so people won't come to the right conclusions, but they're most definitely going to be coming up with a lot of those not-quite-right possible conclusions. So, what can be drawn from this?
There's a thoroughly disconcerting leadership element of some sort, certainly, and with heavy implications of seeing all.
Liz is wise enough to spot the inevitable, which... yeah, it really doesn't look good. Probably-Hebert is someone importantin Hell's Hand, and also unique for multiple reasons.
In conjunction with the findings about the tests performed at this facility, Cadet Hebert seems fairly likely to have been one of the observer-artificers who made killy things and probably had to kill people for making them too killy.
It sure seems as though Cadet Hebert had a sister, with an emphasis on the past-tense.
There's also something weird and disturbing going on that probably has to do with the usual implications meant regarding hands being bloody and hands being clean, which in turn offers questions about the specific implications at play here for this depiction and how it might relate to the sister being presumably dead.
Relating to both previous two main points, there's a non-zero chance that Cadet Hebert's therapist may have to treat the girl for some sort of scenario in which she armed her own sister and Bad Things of one sort or another ensued... unless maybe Cadet Hebert was actually the active participant in the testing and different Bad Things ensued.
Doctor Rayne deserves a proactive pay raise. Oh, and vacation, too. She won't actually get the time off, but she definitely deserves it.
"I don't remember including a soundtrack anywhere. I guess that doesn't mean much, but it still doesn't fit the theme. Symbie?"
Apparently Symbie feels that she needs a theme. It seems somehow an apt one, very sneaky and subtle, yet just absolutely not. It's also further instance of Symbie displaying independence, too. Given the last update just prior to this display, though, I find myself curious if perhaps there's more than one act of independence going on here. Sure, it could just be a scene cut-off to switch back to Liz and Elise—the little asides from the nameless girl's side of things have happened before, after all—but Symbie thinking about booting the nameless girl out of her dreaming and her cutting off mid sentence is suspicious. Incidentally, the recon team has precedent to entertain the idea of Cadet Hebert having a twin sister now, so might they perhaps find her?
Also, on a separate point, we have a stylisation for Symbie here, too. It has a curious similarity to Decimator's, though that is somewhat apt, given the origin of Symbie's design. The red is a different colour, and Decimator notably uses BOLD ALL CAPS LIKE SOMETHING BIG, but the similarity seems more than mere happenstance.
Funny thing is, I do actually have edible flowers. EDIT 2: Or at least, formerly edible. My cat has a habit of gnawing on them, so they're often unsafe to eat now, and, uh... hmm. I'll avoid the flowers.
The UNOMI analysts are off-site with access to both the Internet and the resources of their respective Arcologies. This includes a repository of pre-Impact material. (AKA some of our popular media)
EDIT: In other words, they were just watching the original version(s) from home.
My first thought on this didn't really go anywhere; my second thought branched off to Ray Stevens's Pirate Song mentioning the Pirates of Penzance, which would be truly fitting for such an environment.
Seriously: "I don't like it, and I don't want to do it."
So, uh, that's a thing. There's a lot of metaphor going on here, so people won't come to the right conclusions, but they're most definitely going to be coming up with a lot of those not-quite-right possible conclusions. So, what can be drawn from this?
Well, yes, there are the direct conclusions from the window - but what about the indirect ones? All of this was known about "Taylor", and not only known, but was made into a stained glass window. On top of all the information and implication from the window, there are more layers of implication because there's a window at all. She was important and possibly directly controlled or influenced (BRAIN FINGERS!) and watched and maybe had a sister and they put all of that information into a stained glass window. My brain is currently going in circles trying to figure out the implications, there. :/
The titans of silver and gold are Zion and Eden, obviously. The Nine below them are the Noble Shards. But what would the 36 below them be? The three with black tear tracks suggests they are the Endbringers, but there are only 20 endbringers, not 36.
The titans of silver and gold are Zion and Eden, obviously. The Nine below them are the Noble Shards. But what would the 36 below them be? The three with black tear tracks suggests they are the Endbringers, but there are only 20 endbringers, not 36.
My current assumption is that not all of the non 'noble' shards were happy with the standard Cycle, and The Nameless Girl is demonstrating that by having them cry. My brain jumped to the Endbringers, too, at first, but the 20 vs 36 thing seemed to count that out.
The titans of silver and gold are Zion and Eden, obviously. The Nine below them are the Noble Shards. But what would the 36 below them be? The three with black tear tracks suggests they are the Endbringers, but there are only 20 endbringers, not 36.
Well, yes, there are the direct conclusions from the window - but what about the indirect ones? All of this was known about "Taylor", and not only known, but was made into a stained glass window. On top of all the information and implication from the window, there are more layers of implication because there's a window at all. She was important and possibly directly controlled or influenced (BRAIN FINGERS!) and watched and maybe had a sister and they put all of that information into a stained glass window. My brain is currently going in circles trying to figure out the implications, there. :/
...right, forgot to put that in. Good catch. I need sleep. Again. Seems to happen a lot with this fic, but, well, needs must. Why bother with petty little things like sleep when there's an update to be read and postings to be made? Also forgot to make some quip about Hell's Hand caring very much about leaving corpses for too long, but, eh.
So, we have weird and highly questionable events seemingly happening, and also record of such. Whatever happened, it's commemorated into the architecture right now. Granted, with the fabrication capabilities at any of the UN Arcologies, putting up something of recent developments isn't at all out of the question, and this unaffiliated one seems similarly technologically advanced. All the same, though, there's the human factor of whoever put up the window needing to care in the first place; if it isn't recent, then Cadet Hebert's particular circumstances were a known factor for some time within Hell's Hand, and if it is recent, then either there's still someone alive here or at least something doing it. Perhaps Hell's Hand itself does renovation? Symbie appears quite demonstrably to be self-aware; maybe Hell's Hand is sort of a person too.
A related aspect to all of this, too, this isn't just a window art record, but one in this particular location. Probably-Hebert and the mysteries surrounding her warranted placement within the chapel. The depiction itself alludes that the girl was indeed someone important here, but the placement suggests quite the emphasis to that. Given the cult focus and her apparent status, that might have something to do with her compatibility as a Valkyrie.
There is a possible conclusion the explorers might end up with.
Arcology is possibly sentient and trying to tell them something, and also probably insane considering the incoherence of the message.
I'm starting to think the bunker is the therapy. Like Taylor is subconsciously projecting her issues into the real world and using the valkyries as a proxy for exploring them.
There is a possible conclusion the explorers might end up with.
Arcology is possibly sentient and trying to tell them something, and also probably insane considering the incoherence of the message.
I look at the clock and ask myself the same thing. Especially since tomorrow's a weekend. Sleep? Bah!
Good catch on the two different implications for 'new' versus 'old'. I was mostly thinking in terms of IRL standard construction, essentially requiring the window to be old. In which case the circumstances were known for quite a while. That's the part that really gets my brain going in circles - because for that to be the case, you have to have a mindset not just to have put the window there, but a mindset that recognizes that you have resistance in your midst that does not like what's going on, acknowledge it, and then continue to channel it - ostensibly for your benefit. That's not standard human behavior. Standard human behavior is to notice that sort of resistance and remove it. IRL, regarding someone with significant objections to the organization's operations, more legal organizations will tend to either ignore the pariah or outright fire people for that, and less legal organizations would likely outright kill them. These crazies? Kept her around, controlled her (perhaps literally) and kept using her. That's going to lead to some very interesting speculation regarding the mindset of those in control of the bunker, if they decide the windows are old.
If they're new, that implies even more strongly that "Taylor" is important, in some ways - important enough for the Dungeon (core and all, seems more apropos than 'bunker') to tell the newcomers about her. And if that's the case, then where are the rest of the people on the window? Are they all corpses, or did they somehow survive, too? Or are they important only because they help tell a story about "Taylor"? Differing levels of detail on the different characters, for instance?
If, and I don't know enough about the main crossover to say this for certain... but if Arcologies need a controlling Valkyrie to keep them working and upgrading, then a possible interpretation is that the 'twins' are split between classical Valkyrie and Arcology. (Ironically completely true.) It would be an alternate explanation for the twin covered in blood besides death. Even more it could actually create a significant question of which is which... Are they dealing with the controlled child, ennobled but forced to bloody her hands... or the twin who has been forced to endure seemingly endless bloodshed but is ultimately blamess? And is the bloody child the Arcology, literally being covered in blood, or the Valkyrie, being forced to walk through the bloodshed?
"So take a Type Zero and stretch it out to a few dozen floors in height, with appropriate sizing up for everything else."
*Raises eyebrow* "Alright."
"Now they only attack once every three months and only one at a time."
"I'm just waiting for the catch at this point, I mean its bad, but-"
"You only have access to one weapon system from your frame and only that weapon. No impeller or anything else."
"... How the flying fuck were you supposed to survive those scenarios?"
"Oh, we weren't, but they usually had something they were after aside from just killing all of us, so..."
I think the real horror of the analogy comes when you drop the bombshell: "And no one's weapons actually do any real damage to it. If it ever seems like you're getting the better of it, that's purely because it's acting."
Because the UN Valks have faced mass casualties before. Indra was basically the equivalent of an Endbringer, except that Indra was killable. Actually...
"Imagine it's everyone against Indra all over again, except there are only three 300 frames, everyone else gets exactly one thing--a single weapon, flight, armor, or Impeller. And literally none of it can actually do any damage to Indra, not even the 300 frames. And it's attacking an Arcology, so if you run, you lose anyway. Now imagine that this happens once every three months, and the only times you didn't end up with a lot of dead Valks and a destroyed arcology was when it decided that it was satisfied by just slaughtering a lot of Valks that day."
Indra was a big deal for the UN. The first Type-Zero, which killed a shitload of Valkyries, only defeated by dogpiling it with massive numbers of Valks (at a heavy cost). The UN thought they'd killed a one-off super AG that was leading the AGs, or something. When Abraxas appeared by slicing Noah in half from Earth, they probably didn't realize they were looking at something like Indra (or perhaps Abraxas was simply the extreme-range, strategic weapon that served as a companion to Indra, and wouldn't be as tough as Indra to bring down in direct combat). But then a shitload of Type Zeroes showed up at the start of the Great Battle, and that's when everyone knew that this was going to be a long, bloody war.
You know, now I'm wondering if for whatever reason Symbie managed to at some point sneak in something along those flowers Dreamer eats as a means of revealing their existence. Granted that would also likely bring a thought that more people actually ended up consuming them...
I wonder if any of the other windows showes Edens death and Zion's reaction? Could probably lead to a thought of it referencing the bunker's beginning downfall or something?
What we need, and what the Valkyries certainly DO NOT NEED, is for Decimator to grow some curiosity and come back to the point where it communicated with Queen Administrator. Then finding out that there is a bunker there, and what's in here? Human stuff that is... Disturbing to an Antagonist... Queue survival horror from the viewpoint of what is usually the slasher in that situation turned scared meat-putty!
On a slightly more logical note: It has been mentioned that Cadet Hebert's math and science scores were considered half-a-century out of date. Hell's Hand has infrastructure and stained glass that would not be out of place if it were a rather old Arcology. Possible conclusion? Cadet Hebert is NOT fifteen years old, that or she is part of a series of doomed clones. Whichever makes for the sadder/desperate/crying therapist need hugs and hot cocoa.
... What song is Symbie's theme?
Also, I love that she felt the need to lighten up the room a bit.
I caught most of the imagery, but... definitely not all of it. Some of that might have to do with not having read the parent fic.
So, how 'bout dem undead?
