Liz still felt ashamed for laughing when UNOMI-Fourteen claimed it might be similar to a teenager frantically cleaning up their room before their friends arrived. Knowing Liz's luck, she'd find another teenager controlling the Arcology.
>> "Any idea what they're likely to do with the mayor-parallel?" << Elise asked, unknowingly echoing Liz's thoughts.
>> "I think we shouldn't be discussing this on comms after the last inhabitant decrypted transmissions and files that she didn't have the codes for," << Liz dryly replied. >> "During a panic attack, even. Whatever Command does, though, I'm confident that it will be far better for the mayor than leaving her alone in this. You saw how the other inhabitant reacted to a warm bath." <<
It's kind of sad how they've gotten to the point for which meta-awareness isn't actually meta and is instead in fact based upon legitimate observation and pattern analysis suggesting the ridiculous to be accurate. Hell's Hand is acting oddly? Well, Hell's Hand probably has a
person hooked up to it, and said person may be acting like a person. Liz may be being pessimistic, but with reason, because this whole mess is conforming to certain unfortunate themes that appear to be internally consistent. Under the circumstances, Hell's Hand's mayor analogue being some teenager isn't at all an unreasonable consideration to hold, and there is some circumstantial support for the notion, with the place perhaps looking like someone is picking up after themselves because that is precisely the case.
Similarly, Liz also has good reason to think that she has a point regarding the UN's treatment of the yet unmet individual in question; there are indeed themes to be expected to remain consistent, and QA probably had some people feeling stabbed through the heart over her wondrous and innocently disturbing over-reaction to such a simple amenity. QA is not the most reliable of narrators, but even from her perspective, it sure sounded as though she
acted like gave the impression that she had never really experienced a warm bath that was indeed simply a warm bath. Cadet Hebert said that Symbie handled that sort of thing for her, and that it was more convenient than trying to struggle with chemical bottles liable to hurt her eyes... which within the context of Hell's Hand sounds all to likely to have
decidedly different connotations than normal; she then went on about how neat and pretty the bath was and how great the automatic soap and shampoo features were, which probably was caught by the Big Sister elements with their nigh omnipresent oversight.
That is the kind of scenario that the UN appears to be dealing with for the survivors of Hell's Hand; even if the person in the mayor type of role just got summarily executed, it'd probably still be a kinder fate than experienced, so it would be decidedly difficult to not make a substantial improvement. All the same, though, that same individual providing the example reference also—despite
being someone able to give that kind of example reference—made the network security employed by the premier Valkyries in a combat scenario look laughably irrelevant, so...
yeah, maybe be a tad careful. Who knows what kind of bullshit another survivor from this place might pull off, especially when said survivor might sort of be the place itself.
I am not aware of the psychological phenomenon you are referencing; could you direct me to any relevant reading?"
Queen Administrator's face twitched slightly before she suppressed her distress. She could not provide the requested references, nor could she identify whether or not the information was derived from Host's memories or archived information. She opened up Symbie's browser and began searching available human literature. She did not want to sabotage her credibility with Anna, especially over something so minor.
>> Instructor Liri Shapira: "May I interject?"
Curious. I have to wonder if Shapira might be actively trying to help QA here. Shapira has already been established to be able to observe QA's browsing activities, and she is herself a Valkyrie, one of exceptional aptitude and experience. This appears as though perhaps Shapira caught on to the fact that Cadet Hebert offered something that she could not support for some reason. Simply offering baseless definitive statements would be thoroughly out of character, so the girl probably believed her statement entirely valid, and yet could not say
why she thought it valid. She ended up looking up data to back up what she "knew" to be true. The girl in question has also given some quite unfortunate details that could explain that sort of failure, though, with her quite possibly just having the relevant details excised from her brain at some point. That could certainly garner some sympathy. Perhaps Shapira stepped into help, as as much distraction as corroboration to save the poor girl from embarrassment; it isn't exactly an astounding leap of logic to think Cadet Hebert to care about that sort of potential humiliation where Anna is concerned.
Anna turned to meet Queen Administrator's eyes. The shackled shard absentmindedly tried to keep Host's body from assigning a disproportionately high emotional weight to something as simple as where Anna's human optical sensors were focused. It wasn't as though Anna would be using the information for an attack; she had significantly better sensors for that.
For some reason, I find myself just a
tiny bit doubtful that QA is perfectly concealing all signs of reaction here. The first instance just here is sort of amusing at her expense. Anna herself may not be able to grasp the nuances of QA's behaviour, but the girl she likes is
staring at her, and most people (basically everyone up to and including QA herself) are more socially aware than Anna herself, so
someone is probably snickering over this somewhere, at least.
This isn't the only point of probably less than entirely subdued behaviour, though. The powers that be like to meticulously observe
everything and over-analyse it in extreme detail. Right after an instance of outright drawing attention to reserved behaviour trying to prevent things from showing (and probably having a poor metric for "disproportionately high" emotional weight), Cadet Hebert goes on fight the urge to reflexively duck her head because reasons. And then she acts as though the concept of her vulnerabilities
not being publicly displayed is alien to her. That gets followed up by the girl who tries to opt for a neutral tone by choice most of the time attempting to sound "hopeful and earnest". People probably aren't going to know just what to think, but there's going to be a lot
of thinking, I imagine.
inadequately secured cameras monitored the vast majority of known areas
A review of recordings indicated that Shapira had pulled Monica away and handed the younger Valkyrie an electronic tablet.
This part may have some implications for later. The aforementioned Big Sister elements do indeed try to watch over basically everything at all times, with the concept of privacy being mitigated more by ethics pertaining to acting on information so gained than any sense of propriety. QA has also shown herself to be perfectly capable of dancing right past any kind of cybersecurity imaginable to the locals to the point that she may even overlook the fact that she's actually breaking into anything supposedly secure, and Big Sister uses tools to do its job. I think QA may end up sort of coopting their network without actually taking it over, and kind of inviting herself into the Big Sister group without deliberately meaning to do so.
In the short term, I could see this perhaps being perceived as having parallels with Hell's Hand. The UN has already come to the conclusion that she is used to constant and omnipresent oversight present in a UN-affiliated Archology because it was likewise a feature in Hell's Hand, just with different sorts of people involved. Cadet Hebert also seems to have
some kind of association with an authoritative role and may soon be found to have quite close connections to the one indeed doing the watching, perhaps outright herself being that overwatch party. Getting QA's proper designation could further the not entirely
misconception all the more, too. Perhaps the girl is falling into something of a familiar routine in making use of Perth's surveillance network.
Later on, it might also become a plot element of some degree. Should QA indeed set herself up as a Big Sister member, she might act like it, and further perhaps be invited and encouraged to do so. QA's perspective is certainly a bit quirky, but she might be a welcome addition to the club for her ability and dedication to watching over anything and everything that would trip particular metrics for flagging if given sufficient instruction. Much as with the handling of her earlier hacking attempts, others might attempt to get her to willingly work with them rather than try to somehow control her. If she's going to exploit the surveillance network whenever the whim suits her anyway, then they might as well try to take advantage of that in a productive manner since they can't really
make her stop in any case, and she might well be quite excellent at the job. Such a job would also, incidentally, have some actual work to do, too. Possible intrigue plotlines aside, there is a particular point in BAHHSCQ canon in which—from Anna's limited perspective—there is indeed a problem with someone acting to subvert Big Sister to cause trouble that at the time seems unsanctioned, though the sort-of troublesome individual in question there actually
not violating protocol in so sowing discord might make things interesting for QA. Too, there are some people out there who actually are genuinely up to no good as unfortunately discovered in some of the other UN sites, but they would probably have a much harder time of things if having to contend against QA deciding to be contrary.
"May I ask Durga for the designs, your own scans, or both?"
Anna inclined her head to one side, reflexively twitching one unknown cannon-weapon away in the process.
"You can try," Anna allowed, "but I don't think she'll answer."
Well, that ought to raise some eyebrows. For one thing, I don't think QA ever actually
got Durga's name, but she apparently knows it anyway, and surprising as that is, it's the sort of surprising that is less surprising than it really should be, all things considered. More than that, though, the girl who acts as though she thinks that she can manipulate Valkyrie Cores and seems to perhaps indeed corroborate that further acts as though striking up a conversation with
other people's Cores is nothing terribly unusual... and Anna also seems as though Cadet Hebert
might have a legitimate point; Anna is ambiguous as to whether or not her Core will respond, which makes a certain amount of logical sense if she doesn't actually
know that her Core
won't respond, but she herself treats her own Core as though it has anthropomorphic traits, and the UN doesn't actually know much about Durga.
The exchange could also have further repercussions for QA, too. She's speaking with Durga because doing so is judged to be the best means of getting the designs for Anna's goodies. Earlier, QA was able to perceive through the Impeller Fields of the other Valkyries in the simulation to analyse their own kit, but trying to assess Anna's own equipment is simply less convenient without access to more sophisticated equipment of her own, and while she could conceivably get it, she could also just
ask for the information desired. Sure, Durga may not acquiesce, but it's a good judgement from a cost-benefit analysis, certainly; failure wouldn't be very costly at all, and hey, Durga might very well do it, so why not ask. If QA can get Durga's own designs for the Heavy Particle Projector array, then even as complicated as the weapon is, QA could probably turn it into very nice results. Other people would certainly appreciate any insight into the weapon system as well, and QA could provide that herself in turn, so this might end up being quite the breakthrough for the UN at large... which would actually be in
addition to other developments made by Cadet Hebert and Anna to be implemented more broadly, come to think of it. Between Durga simply taking an interest personally and the gains that could be made productive towards Durga's own goals, I wouldn't be surprised if QA does in fact get the designs.
Possibly not, but surely the Cores were supposed to yield their information eventually and having Broadcast contact them would be far too expensive. Queen Administrator was allowed to ask other shards for information relevant to Friend-making. Symbiotic Support Frames might not be shards, but they were fulfilling the same role. Her rights should still apply.
"For the love of God, Hebert, please don't try to hack Sanchez's Frame," Shapira sighed.
"Just call me Anna," Anna immediately replied.
"I'm not Br–" QA reflexively began, then stopped. Right. Even if she was about to talk to a shard, Valkyries weren't shards. They were doing a remarkably good job of making QA overlook that fact.
"That would be incredibly rude," the shard said instead, and stopped trying to speak exclusively with Host's organs.
"<SUPPLEMENT. Hello! You've done a really impressive job of improving your host; I don't think even Queen Shaper would find very much to complain about." Decimator forgot to tell me how I'm supposed to talk to you, though, so this might sound like nonsense. If you try talking back, I can probably match whatever methods you're using.>
Oh my...
Well, then, this just has all kinds of implications. Just for starters, we have the fact that QA's thing with her Friends is apparently supported from on high; her phrasing suggests more than simply tolerance for proclivities, but that she has a "right" to the information pursuant to the purpose.
Beyond that, we have a slipup that I
really don't see escaping the notice of all the interested parties pouring over every scrap of information provided by Cadet Hebert or otherwise just both curious and hooked up to a clarketech supercomputer. QA interrupts herself and blatantly changes from what she was going to say. I've no doubt at all that people will wonder why. She also offers something to work with, too, however. Liz and Elise are in contact with the outside, and their findings offer the idea that there is someone from Cadet Hebert's home to whom the girl might be referring. UNOMI can't know with definitive certainty, but there's certainly enough data for them to come up with Cadet Hebert starting to refer to Broadcast being a significant possibility; the cut off word is compatible, there's the correlation through Hell's Hand, and this "Broadcast" fellow apparently was wildly unpopular in a manner that may indeed likewise match up neatly with the notion that Cadet Hebert reworded the same idea differently regarding rudeness. Of course, that raises further questions, because Cadet Hebert perceived some sort of reason to pointedly
censor something.
Then we have the highlight of this piece. QA opened up communications with Durga, and did so, uh, well rather a
lot, one might say. The wording here has QA communicating vocally
and in simultaneous shardspeech broadcast. Anyone who simply has ears can tell that QA is directly addressing Anna's frame and hear something as much curious as disconcerting. From Cadet Hebert's perspective, Anna is a host, as though she thinks that Valkyries aren't simply picking up some tool or whatever, and there's more than a little reason to suggest that she's actually entirely right to use her terminology. The girl also thinks that Anna's "refinements" are just great and something commendable, despite the fact that basically
anyone else who took a look at a medical scan for Anna would probably be exasperated and/or horrified.
Cadet Hebert also drops a name, too, and this could become quite important in the immediate future, because whilst Elise thinks that they found out Cadet Hebert's epithet within Hell's Hand and has good reason for thinking so on account of the information at hand for judgement, the fact of the matter is that Queen Shaper is someone else. Unless Cadet Hebert was being odd about some oblique third-person self reference (which admittedly couldn't be entirely ruled out, really), it sure seems like she is indeed referring to someone other than herself as this "Queen Shaper" despite the commonalities. That could could be a strong lead for figuring out what her name actually is, for the implications thereof. Queen Administrator is Queen Administrator, not Queen Shaper. What exactly does that mean? Queen Shaper appears to fit her pretty well, but all the same, she is the administrator.
There is also the important point that QA sent Durga the same communications protocol packet earlier delivered to Decimator to facilitate proper communication. Durga just got a key. Actually making full use of this data packet may take some serious work, but Durga has at least the
potential to understand shardspeech just like the shard that QA thinks Durga to in fact be. Durga's also not the
only one who got the update either, though. Granted, it's downright
silly in size, to the point that apparently Durga literally just
gave up trying to figure out how large it was, but it was broadcast to more than just Durga, so more people than just Durga are probably going to start trying to figure out how to make sense of it. The precise wording makes just
who heard the broadcast beyond Broadcast ambiguous, but that may not particularly matter much in any case. Maybe Shapira had the massive mountain of data thrown at her, or maybe it was just Anna, but regardless, any Valkyrie who has this treasure trove for communications technology is probably going to be inclined to see it put to use as well as possible in the effort against the Antagonists.
Incidentally, because QA did in fact bombard Decimator with the same ginormous data packet in the beginning of the story, the Antagonists have it too (or at least perhaps one possible sub-faction, anyway). Anyone who isn't another shard looking at it is probably going starry-eyed over the possibilities that such knowledge offers compared to their lowly standards, and dreaming of the drastic advantage that it would offer over the other side... except both sides have that advantage. Is it necessarily actually an advantage anymore? Is it a potential advantage requiring all the more work in some sort of race? Is it perhaps a resource sink that could be extremely useful if made viable and yet complicated to actually make so? More importantly, how much does QA panic over the big thing that
no one is supposed to have lest doom supposedly be inevitable in fact actually getting spread around all over the place? No one is supposed to have access to shard communications! Everyone has access to shard communications!
Anna paused at that, gathered the scattered parts of her mind, and repaired a few strained veins in her brain. She'd caught the problem before any neuron damage and loss of memory could occur, but it may be wise to schedule periodic self-repair reminders while she was deciphering Taylor's design. Anna didn't want to frighten Silver by having her body collapse; bad enough that the pegacorn was looking up at Anna with huge, soulful eyes and obvious concern–
A determined girl in a garden-that-wasn't, singing the songs of control
–Another connection manifested. Access to hardware that Anna somehow
knew belonged to
Silver, with a sub-nanosecond latency. A potential boost comparable to the difference in magnitude between having Durga's Frame extended and keeping it in storage. Security protocols stringent enough to satisfy even Durga, provided that
Silver didn't deliberately leak information.
The bombshells just keep dropping, it seems. Anna triggered. Sort of. Because
Silver is a shard. Sort of. QA made Anna's Friend a superior version according to Alivaril, and Taylor used some (in)conveniently sourced materials just lying around in Friend construction, so the precise reasoning is uncertain, but regardless, Anna's Friend is indeed quite the special thing. The Friends don't have the same degree of hardware possessed by proper shards, and so the capabilities are more limited, but even if
all Anna's new buddy can do for her is basically serve as an extra processing centre, even the most meagre shard or shard derivative is well beyond the means of any race encountered as a host by design. Decimator's problem was the lack of the exorbitant processing resources needed to make proper use of shard communications, but Anna has just the sort of help that she needs there.
This could also make Anna drastically more capable in all regards, too. As she noted, it was basically akin to extending Durga, except that can get stacked on top of the gains made by doing so. Anna is no slouch even without Durga turning her into a pint-sized mecha, but when the equipment comes out, she simply gets altogether bullshit... and now that same kind of improvement can get added to itself yet again. If nothing else, having
Silver lend her a simple yet potent Thinker power for just thinking more and faster could do wonders for Wave Force shenanigans. Everything about the Wave Force requires exhaustive mental effort, from learning how to use it, to analysing it, to actually pulling it off or experimenting with it, and now, Anna just has more thinking capacity to devote towards it.
On a related note, if Anna starts having
Silver help her use the Wave Force, there is a non-zero chance that we may at some point end up with a big scary Antagonist looming over the poor little adorable critter that stares up with those big blinky eyes before promptly blasting the thing with the death beam of doom. The top Valkyrie is scary. Her Emotional Support Companion is also, well,
hers.
Examples were available for comparison; both Taylor and Rose had the normal version.
Anna paused. Nope, that was definitely an ID swap, and she no longer had the feeling of wrongness to deal with.
<Rose?>
<SWITCH.>
That one sounded quieter, as though Silver didn't want to be overheard. Given the contents, Anna found the caution perfectly understandable. Taylor was actually named Rose, and the real Taylor was hidden and healing all the way back in Africa. Something about Taylor getting even more injured if they hadn't switched places? Similar to a body double, only with the higher-ranked person taking on all the risk?
...Anna should definitely report that. After removing the additions to her own brain, anyway. Silver had provided enough information for it to be disassembled, redesigned, and remade to everyone's satisfaction; the connection could be reestablished later. And she did intend to put it back if she could minimize possible risks. The potential improvement to her combat ability was staggering even if she couldn't safely rely upon it.
So, the secret is
kind of out. Cadet Hebert is not who everyone thinks she is, because that's someone else, and she's actually in her place. The
actual Taylor is hidden away back in Africa, with straightforward implications about that meaning that the real Taylor could reasonably be where this double came from. Anna thinks that she should report that. If she doesn't, and the recon team comes back with a surprise only for Anna herself to in fact
not be surprised, things may get a little award. On the other hand, though, if Anna does in fact report her findings, that too could certainly stand to jump headlong into awkward territory. Anna doesn't have all of the information and accompanying misinformation, but she has a significant piece that would make all kinds of sense to UNOMI. The discovery fits assumptions of possible scenarios surmised in light of that window from earlier in the chapel at Hell's Hand, though given the particular medium, I have a suspicion that Anna will end up passing along the information at just the right time for the presumable identity of Hell's Hand's mayor analogue to reach Liz and Elise right as they themselves encounter the girl.
On a somewhat separate point, Anna also apparently can toggle the her connection with her Friend as desired. If she can remake the particular bits analogous to more conventional parahuman brain structures, then she kind of has a super mode, in a way. She also
might be able to sort of manually trigger others, too, though there may be some severe complications with that, and it would probably connect them to
Silver as well if it did actually work unless they had a Friend of their own and the particular details got edited to match such. If Anna did end up establishing the same connection in others, though, that might add on all the more weirdness for touching on cluster trigger elements or the like. I don't think Anna likely to pursue that, but that's probably for the best, really.
Amusingly, I think Taylor would get along extremely well with Kojirou, because Kojirou is very easy to trust (he's a very earnest and simple person, while also being kind and outgoing. He works hard for self-improvement. He's also a loyal and forgiving person) and get along with. And Taylor would be the kind of person to dive headlong into Shuri's relentless training regimen and like it, because she loves self-improvement and is dedicated as hell.
Naturally, naturally. He is the protagonist. How could he possibly fail to be just the person to help the poor girl with the dark and troubled past open up and recover despite her troubles that are so dark and trouble-y. Why, he's so protagonist-y that she might even
smile as she grows to finally trust him!
The Antagonist are going to be confused as FUCK when Anna finishes her adjustments based on the new information, and then the rest of the UN succeeds in deciphering it from HER because they still can't from QA, and makes their own adjustments.
Oh, I dunno. I think they might still need another intermediary in there. Even if Anna can make sense of QA, trying to make sense of
Anna can itself be quite the conundrum.
"Hey Anna, what does Cadet Hebert mean?"
"Mm? Oh, uh... It's sorta... *wiggles hand* y'know? And that you should keep kinda nudging it if it bunches up 'till it's done, and then it happens."
"...hey Cadet Augustine, what does Anna mean?"
"I think they're talking about either some kind of Impeller Field technique that we haven't covered in class yet... or maybe discussing the finer points of dough?"
This is definitely peculiar though. Why does a Friend, a created weapon system, know this much about their creator's background? Silver was made after Rose left Hell's Hand. Why does Silver still know so much about what is definitely a secret then? Was Silver created by copying in parts of Rose's own brain? This still seems like an incredible security/privacy breach from someone who is normally paranoid about showing weakness.
I'm really loving how Silver is potentially another vector for learning about Rose's past, I'm just confused how her knowledge will be explained. Friends are apparently something that Rose is excellent at, they can't all tattle the secrets of their Creator like Silver. What makes Silver different?
I can't help but wonder if, at least as far as people think once they have the right/wrong information, it might have some rather grim implications. Why would someone make something that is supposed to be a secret from themselves? Okay, well, why
would they do that? If some kind of reason is assumed to exist, then what kind of reason fits to cause such a result? What would make keeping it a secret from the person who supposedly made it make sense? Perhaps, then, she has a reason to keep certain things secret from herself because she thinks that she needs to and is in a situation in which that is actually possible in the first place. That sounds like the sort of contingency that would be put into place if she could not trust
herself. Hell's Hand is "known" to be a place for which noncompliance may well be a physical impossibility and nonconsensual editing may occur. Cadet Hebert would have a hard time giving away secrets that she didn't actually have or losing things kept elsewhere. Perhaps she trusted her Friends because she did not trust in the sanctity of her own mind. Perhaps she feared that she would commit genocide against humanity and that she would literally have no choice in the matter. It sounds as though perhaps Cadet Hebert designed her Friends to kill her as painlessly as possible if the need arose and then just "forgot" about it. (and that her therapists are going to become alcoholics, Valkyrie Cores be damned)
If it's not explained, that just means the Valkyries have to come up with their own ideas, right? =D
