Honestly, it should disturb you more that what's basically a Lost Logia in the form of a memetic contagion has more or less infected all of TSAB territory—but it's just too darn helpful to be too upset over.
-[ ] Hostile. Hit 'em with Voltaic Surge before he can get his jacket up, haul 'em out with Transporter, find a dark alleyway to interrogate him in. Yeah, you're not doing that—you're not in the business of extrajudicial beatings.
And this is the consequences of us being straight-laced officer who is not particularly happy with the sudden promotion.
Can you imagine, when we meet Shinji we won't be able to beat him down just because!
True.
The proper way for Nanoha mage to participate in the Holy Grail War is to use Wide Area Search to find the Masters' bases and then to use powerful bombardment magic to obliterate befriend them.
No fighting with Servants is needed!
[X] Confront
-[X] Neutral. You don't know the situation here; best to play it safe and keep your cards close to your chest while you squeeze him for info. Use Telepathy—you'd like this to be a private conversation.
Funnily enough, when I was brainstorming ideas for Optra based on the chosen background, I kind of imagined her as the type of person who 50/50 would have eventually gotten herself Befriended if she ever ran into Nanoha and crew
Funnily enough, when I was brainstorming ideas for Optra based on the chosen background, I kind of imagined her as the type of person who 50/50 would have eventually gotten herself Befriended if she ever ran into Nanoha and crew
And this is the consequences of us being straight-laced officer who is not particularly happy with the sudden promotion.
Can you imagine, when we meet Shinji we won't be able to beat him down just because!
[Appearance] E
[x] Confront
-[X] Friendly. No sudden movements, no outward signs of hostility. Try to make him understand that you just want to have a little chat. No Telepathy—apparently some people are jumpy about that.
Un-administered #234
2/5/2003, 1915 hours
As convenient as it would be to just assume you need to twist the guy's head off, you really have no clue what's going on here. Unfortunately, you suspect the situation is a tad bit too time sensitive to just phone the Valencia and ask for advice.
You hold the boy's gaze, even as he takes a step towards you. It's been a while since threat de-escalation classes—but that's okay. You'll just wing it. The number one thing to remember is to come off as calm and non-threatening. You just need to figure out how to make sure your body language communicates that.
'Hmm.'
Got it.
"Yo," you call out, slowly throwing up a hand gesture that Commander Yagami has been vainly attempting to popularize around TSAB HQ—the 'V sign', a symbol for peace, apparently. "I'm Optra. Nice to meet you…?"
He freezes, eyes tracking the motion.
"Uh," he says eloquently, furrowing his brows with a wary expression. "Hi. What are you doing here?"
"Just buying a book?" you venture.
"And you just happened to pick this particular bookstore to do your shopping at?" the boy snaps. "Don't try to bullshit me."
"No, seriously, I just came from the library from across the street," You nod your head towards the back of the bookstore. "I'm learning kanji, so I'm just grabbing that book over there."
An awkward moment of silence passes—well, it was awkward for you at least. For him it might've been terrifying or something, you don't know. Finally, after what must've been a good minute or so of wordless staring, he exhales.
"If you say so," he scoffs airily, slowly glancing you over. "Fine. You can call me Red."
"Is that because…?" you start, gesturing at the top of your head.
He huffs. Shit, was that offensive?
"Yeah, sure, let's go with that," the boy, apparently called Red, states dryly, crossing his arms. "You speak English pretty well—you're not from around here, are you?"
You were wondering why your voice sounded off. Whatever this 'English' is, though, it's surprisingly close to Midchildan.
"Nah, I'm from," you begin, trying to draw up your recollection of the cover story Enzo and Sequoia crafted for you. You spent your entire hike through that forest memorizing the details, how in the world are you drawing a blank now? Finally, after what you hope isn't too conspicuous of a pause, you finally answer, "the United States of America."
Is it normal to say the whole thing like that? Kind of a mouthful.
"Huh. Really?" Red says, some of the tension leaving his posture. "I'm a New Yorker, myself."
He looks as if he wants to say more, before he stops himself.
"Say, it's been a while since I've been back to the States," Red comments with a toothy grin and an exaggerated shrug. Wow, he's worse at this than you are. "Did you catch the Super Bowl?"
Uh.
'Nova,' you hiss mentally, 'you got anything on that?'
'Super Bowl 37. Final score: 48 to 21, Tampa Bay Buccaneers victory over Oakland Raiders.'
It's a sporting event? Why is it named after a food container?
"Shame about the Raiders," you reply, shaking your head. This is some half-assed acting, but it'll have to do.
The boy snorts derisively, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Yeah, 'shame' is one way to put it—they got blown the fuck out," he comments, chuckling. While his smile does seem more genuine now, you really hope this doesn't turn into a sports conversation. "Anyway. What brings you to Japan? It's not as bad as Europe, but it's still Clock Tower turf despite what everyone else says."
Wow, those sure are words. Don't know what they mean when they're put together like that, though.
"Didn't exactly come here willingly," you answer truthfully. "Just rolling with whatever life throws at me next, like usual I guess."
"I can sympathize with that," Red agrees, nodding. Despite being all smiles now, you get the feeling that he knows you're being vague, though your read on him might not be perfect. "Japan's a nice place to stay for all of about a week, then it goes downhill pretty quickly after that. Food's weird as hell too—still haven't figured out how to fucking use chopsticks."
…or maybe he's just happy to have a fellow United States of American in a foreign land to complain to? Either way, it seems like you somehow managed to blunder your way into building something of a rapport with the boy in front of you. That's some top-notch community-oriented policing, right there.
"By the way?" you ask with a smile, angling your head at Mister Naruse. "What's up with him?"
Red scowls contemptuously, rolling his pale green eyes.
"Guy was giving me shit when I tried to buy a map off him, saying a foreigner's money's no good to him. Was a pain in my ass about it; a real wise guy, this one," he mutters darkly, before leaning back. "So I decided to calm him down a little, if you catch my drift."
You blink.
"I think I went a little overboard on him, though. Things might've escalated a little," he grumbles with an only mildly embarrassed wince, "I'm not too great at mind stuff."
So he was the one who did that to him—a mage, turning their gift of magic on a helpless civilian. And for what? Just because the victim was rude and maybe a xenophobe?
You feel something hot bubbling up, a fiery warmth radiating from your chest.
'Breathe, Optra,' you remind yourself. 'Resist the urge to obliterate his entire existence.'
"Happens to the best of us," you remark, trying your best to conceal the tremor in your voice with a laugh. You've got a good thing going, hopefully he's as gullible as he is awful. "Ah, I'm not getting in your way or anything, right?"
"Eh. No need to worry about that. I'm skipping town in a couple weeks once I'm done here, anyway," Red says with a shrug. "It's that Tohsaka girl you should be concerned with if you plan on sticking around."
You nod seriously, taking in this information, incomplete as it is, and decide not to push your luck.
"That reminds me of something," he suddenly exclaims, turning to reach into his bag. Red removes a small, gray, tile shaped object and tosses it toward you, underhand. "Recognize this?"
You snatch the projectile out of the air, and turn it over in your hand, examining it. It's a thin, square electronic device, partially disassembled and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, with what you assume to be half of its casing missing and exposing the interior.
'Silica glass lens, charge coupled device, lithium-ion battery, and solid-state storage,' you finish your analysis, glancing up—it's about in line with the tech you've seen so far in this world. You conclude the obvious, "This is a surveillance camera? Captures and stores digital video data for pick up later, though I'm wondering how much footage you're planning on keeping on such a small memory card."
"Definitely not Association," he chuckles to himself as you hand the device back over to him. "But yeah, it's a camera."
The boy winces, countenance growing sheepish.
"I gotta set up some of these around town—nothing nefarious, of course—but the Tohsaka head's more perceptive than I had thought at first," he says, dropping the camera back into his bag. "I've already had a couple close calls recently that I've only gotten away with because Tohsaka doesn't bother with concealing herself—you, on the other hand, I could barely sense at all standing outside."
Good stuff to know; though annoying, it's probably to be expected that a local mage could pick you out once you get this close, even with all your precautions.
Still, now that you think about it, Red himself comes off as pretty odd to your senses. Despite clearly being magical, you still can't seem to find that Linker Core, and whatever that hypnosis spell is, it's self-sustaining, probably, but both your brain and Nova are still throwing up big error signs whenever you try to figure out how it works. Fortunately for the sake of your sanity, what you thought was mana turned out to definitely be, well, mana.
You'll have to bring up the topic with Boulevard and Captain Uplander later and hope they can make something informative out of all that.
"So, it's actually pretty convenient that you came along," Red continues, oblivious to your silent contemplation. "If you're looking to make a quick buck, I would appreciate it if you could help me out with this. All you'd need to do is install some of these in their designated locations; it'll take only a tiny bit of magical energy each. You just push it in, super basic stuff, capiche?"
"I'll think about it," you respond, carefully keeping your voice level.
Red shrugs.
"You do that; there's no rush. I'll be in town for at least a little while longer. Come find me here if you make up your mind," he says.
"Gotcha," you reiterate with a grin; he returns it. He's awfully talkative for some sort of wannabe spy or criminal—maybe he'll have a little more to blab about. "I do have to ask, though. What are you planning on recording?"
"You don't…? Yeah, I guess you wouldn't, huh," Red says, a pensive expression on his face. "Then consider that information strictly need-to-know."
He winks at you.
'Ugh.'
"Right. I'll be heading off, then," you reply and go to grab your book. Maybe you should have thrown in a laugh, but it's taking all of your willpower just to not throttle him.
As you pass by the counter and fork over the six thousand yen, you jerk your head towards Mister Naruse, who's been completely quiet throughout that entire exchange. "One last thing—are you just going to leave him like that?
"What? Of course not, I'm not some amateur. I can clean up after myself," he grumbles, a flicker of irritation crossing his face. "This'll be nothing more than a bad dream to him, if he even manages to remember anything at all after this. Worst comes to worst, he just has himself a little accident and forgets the last month or so—trust me, no one will care."
You remain silent, mind churning. You think you hear Red's final parting words, but you pay them no mind. Instead, you watch the scowling man in front of you closely as he scans your purchase, noticing for the first time the emptiness in his glassy eyes.
You turn back in time to see Red's face turning away from yours, his back exposed. Every step his retreating figure takes feels like a moment stretched out into an eternity. Your clenched fists tremble at your sides, your chest tightens with strained breaths. The world sharpens.
Nova begins to heat against your heart.
"Thank you for your patronage," Mister Naruse mutters, drawing your attention. Staring at you with mild irritation, he grouses as he hands you your textbook, "It's past closing time. I'd appreciate it if you got the hell out of my shop."
You glance back.
The mage is nowhere to be seen.
Snap.
You glance down at the shattered remains of your pencil. Sighing, you sweep aside the shards of wood and graphite into a steadily growing pile with the back of your hand and pick up a replacement. The characters on the notebook have already started to swirl together into an incoherent mess, a storm of tangled strokes.
Scritch, scratch.
Snap.
"Is something the matter, lieutenant?" Enzo asks, again on the night shift.
"Just frustrated," you murmur, looking at the broken pencil in your hand. These hands can break a whole lot more than just cheap writing utensils, but what good is that if all you can do is sit around? You chuck the piece of wood in your hand at the wall, impacting it with a thunk and leaving behind a sizable groove in the plaster. Hopefully you don't have any neighbors living next doors. "Yeah. Frustrated."
"Learning a new language is always challenging, isn't it?" the intelligence officer muses with, bizarrely, a hint of mirth in her voice. "Perhaps it's time to call it a night?"
"Mm."
Enzo sighs.
"I'm well aware that that's not the issue," she states evenly. "If the matter from this evening is bothering you, you should speak about it openly."
"Yeah, yeah," you grumble, shoving away from the table and leaning back with a groan. You hope she won't mind the impropriety; you're somewhat distracted right now to stand on ceremony.
You rake your hand through your mussed hair, trying to gather your thoughts into words.
"I…someone needed my help," you say. "I signed up to protect people. And I stood by and did nothing—could do nothing."
For a moment, Enzo does not respond.
"Nothing? On the contrary, lieutenant," she remarks, "from what you've told me, you gathered some rather useful intelligence."
"Like what? That chopsticks are hard to use?" you snap, feeling something ugly rising within in your throat, "I should have just bashed his skull in and gotten him to—"
"Lieutenant," Enzo cuts in, voice hardening. You gulp, nervously swallowing your words. "That is far beyond your prerogative. Furthermore, if you seriously cannot think of anything productive to do with the knowledge you obtained, then Fourth Ground Forces Academy is in a sorry state indeed."
"'Productive'? I—!"
You catch yourself, trying to calm your thoughts. Calm down and think. Enzo's right in that, ultimately, the crux of the matter is that you currently have no jurisdiction in this world.
But does that mean no one does?
"…Tohsaka. He mentioned a Tohsaka person that he was hiding from," you say, eyes widening. Leaping to your feet, you pound your fist against your palm with an excited grin. "Even if I can't nail the fucker myself, the local authorities might. Heck, they'd also probably have the expertise to help out Mister Naruse! I'm an idiot!"
Enzo laughs softly, a sound devoid of any malice.
"Now, now. You simply lack experience—there's a difference," she chides. "But yes, that is likely your most promising lead."
"Enzo," you order with all the gravitas you can muster, "you're going to help me with this."
"Of course," she replies plainly. "I will inform Captain Uplander of recent developments before the morning meeting. I imagine you'll have much to discuss."
[Focus:
Select a task to focus on. While you will carry out other tasks expected of you and reserve some time for rest, you will prioritize this.
Choose 1]
[ ] Job hunt. A quick check-in with Sequoia informs you that, while you may legally be a minor in terms of labor laws, that doesn't preclude you from gainful employment. Indeed, there are apparently many lines of occupation in this nation within which a young woman such as yourself would not appear out of place, diligently contributing the value of her labor. It would also help take a bit of the load off of Enzo and her team's shoulders. You just need to somehow find one.
[ ] Magic practice. No sense in letting your skills get rusty, right? Might as well squeeze in some drills now that you have some free time, or maybe even see if you can get around to expanding your toolkit. Still, before you can get around to any of that, you'll need to find a secluded place to practice where any accidental light show won't immediately level the block and send a swarm of the local authorities after you.
[ ] Hit the books: Part II. While you've made a ton of progress already, largely thanks to Miss Naruse's surprisingly effective study tips, it's still only been a week of study to try and cover for years of material. You can't believe you're saying this, but you'd feel a lot more comfortable if you could fit in another week of study before the exam—you should be in good shape by then, though you might have to lean on Nova a little in some sections to scrape by.
[ ] Cultural Analysis. Looking back on your conversation with Red (which, in retrospect, was really more of an interrogation), you realize there were more than a few moments where you could have revealed your foreign origins if you'd hadn't been so lucky, or if Red hadn't been so oblivious. If you're to live here in Japan, or, for that matter, in Un-administered #234, for any extended period of time, you should probably get a better handle on the local customs and way of life. Sequoia suggests consuming native media, though you suspect that's just an excuse to get you to watch cartoons.
[Free Action: Select as many as you wish, within reason.]
[ ] Honor Among Thieves (Time Sensitive). After a fierce debate with Uplander on the matter of your encounter with the rogue mage, you've managed to at least get his approval to send an anonymous tip in the mail to this Tohsaka person. You'd like to do more, but, unfortunately, the Captain seems more concerned with keeping you out of trouble; without the threat of a Lost Logia justifying an intervention, you're already bending the rules as it is. On the bright side, finding her address should be as easy as just looking it up.
[ ] Write-in. There's lots of little things that don't take up an entire week that you could get around to doing.
Example vote:
[x] Bake cake for a week. This is the focus.
[x] Go take a picture of Fuyuki Bridge. This is a free action.
[x] Sneak some candy out of the library. This is another free action.
Sorry about the delay, I was pretty swamped with work this week.
[X] Cultural Analysis. Looking back on your conversation with Red (which, in retrospect, was really more of an interrogation), you realize there were more than a few moments where you could have revealed your foreign origins if you'd hadn't been so lucky, or if Red hadn't been so oblivious. If you're to live here in Japan, or, for that matter, in Un-administered #234, for any extended period of time, you should probably get a better handle on the local customs and way of life. Sequoia suggests consuming native media, though you suspect that's just an excuse to get you to watch cartoons.
Well might want to be able to actually kinda pretend to be from another country that exists.
[X] Honor Among Thieves (Time Sensitive). After a fierce debate with Uplander on the matter of your encounter with the rogue mage, you've managed to at least get his approval to send an anonymous tip in the mail to this Tohsaka person. You'd like to do more, but, unfortunately, the Captain seems more concerned with keeping you out of trouble; without the threat of a Lost Logia justifying an intervention, you're already bending the rules as it is. On the bright side, finding her address should be as easy as just looking it up.
Cue a long chase with a random animal to get the letter back.
[X] Cultural Analysis. Looking back on your conversation with Red (which, in retrospect, was really more of an interrogation), you realize there were more than a few moments where you could have revealed your foreign origins if you'd hadn't been so lucky, or if Red hadn't been so oblivious. If you're to live here in Japan, or, for that matter, in Un-administered #234, for any extended period of time, you should probably get a better handle on the local customs and way of life. Sequoia suggests consuming native media, though you suspect that's just an excuse to get you to watch cartoons.
[X] Honor Among Thieves (Time Sensitive). After a fierce debate with Uplander on the matter of your encounter with the rogue mage, you've managed to at least get his approval to send an anonymous tip in the mail to this Tohsaka person. You'd like to do more, but, unfortunately, the Captain seems more concerned with keeping you out of trouble; without the threat of a Lost Logia justifying an intervention, you're already bending the rules as it is. On the bright side, finding her address should be as easy as just looking it up.
Should we try writing in some free actions? Maybe something that can tip us off to some of the darker shit, so we can work on clearing those faster.
Edit: Stealing some few actions.
[X] Bake some cookies to share with Miss Naruse as thanks for her study tips.
[X] Sample the local bakeries and cafés to find out which one sells the best cake.
[X] Cultural Analysis. Looking back on your conversation with Red (which, in retrospect, was really more of an interrogation), you realize there were more than a few moments where you could have revealed your foreign origins if you'd hadn't been so lucky, or if Red hadn't been so oblivious. If you're to live here in Japan, or, for that matter, in Un-administered #234, for any extended period of time, you should probably get a better handle on the local customs and way of life. Sequoia suggests consuming native media, though you suspect that's just an excuse to get you to watch cartoons.
[X] Honor Among Thieves (Time Sensitive). After a fierce debate with Uplander on the matter of your encounter with the rogue mage, you've managed to at least get his approval to send an anonymous tip in the mail to this Tohsaka person. You'd like to do more, but, unfortunately, the Captain seems more concerned with keeping you out of trouble; without the threat of a Lost Logia justifying an intervention, you're already bending the rules as it is. On the bright side, finding her address should be as easy as just looking it up.
[X] Bake some cookies to share with Miss Naruse as thanks for her study tips.
[X] Sample the local bakeries and cafés to find out which one sells the best cake.
Practical reasonings aside, this kind of set up always makes it hard to resist the MC finding out about magical girl fiction.
I also threw in some free actions while I'm at it, though they're both on the fluffier side of things. I suppose depending on what the QM plans are, finding a place that sells good cake might serve as some groundwork for future job hunts, but that's a concern for another week.
That being said, Optra sure was seeing red this chapter, so that guy's nickname was more appropriate than he might have figured. Maybe what he really needs in his life is some friendship.
[X] Cultural Analysis. Looking back on your conversation with Red (which, in retrospect, was really more of an interrogation), you realize there were more than a few moments where you could have revealed your foreign origins if you'd hadn't been so lucky, or if Red hadn't been so oblivious. If you're to live here in Japan, or, for that matter, in Un-administered #234, for any extended period of time, you should probably get a better handle on the local customs and way of life. Sequoia suggests consuming native media, though you suspect that's just an excuse to get you to watch cartoons.
[X] Honor Among Thieves (Time Sensitive). After a fierce debate with Uplander on the matter of your encounter with the rogue mage, you've managed to at least get his approval to send an anonymous tip in the mail to this Tohsaka person. You'd like to do more, but, unfortunately, the Captain seems more concerned with keeping you out of trouble; without the threat of a Lost Logia justifying an intervention, you're already bending the rules as it is. On the bright side, finding her address should be as easy as just looking it up.
[X] Bake some cookies to share with Miss Naruse as thanks for her study tips.
[X] Sample the local bakeries and cafés to find out which one sells the best cake.
"Yo," you call out, slowly throwing up a hand gesture that Commander Yagami has been vainly attempting to popularize around TSAB HQ—the 'V sign', a symbol for peace, apparently.
[X] Cultural Analysis. Looking back on your conversation with Red (which, in retrospect, was really more of an interrogation), you realize there were more than a few moments where you could have revealed your foreign origins if you'd hadn't been so lucky, or if Red hadn't been so oblivious. If you're to live here in Japan, or, for that matter, in Un-administered #234, for any extended period of time, you should probably get a better handle on the local customs and way of life. Sequoia suggests consuming native media, though you suspect that's just an excuse to get you to watch cartoons.
[X] Honor Among Thieves (Time Sensitive). After a fierce debate with Uplander on the matter of your encounter with the rogue mage, you've managed to at least get his approval to send an anonymous tip in the mail to this Tohsaka person. You'd like to do more, but, unfortunately, the Captain seems more concerned with keeping you out of trouble; without the threat of a Lost Logia justifying an intervention, you're already bending the rules as it is. On the bright side, finding her address should be as easy as just looking it up.
[X] Sample the local bakeries and cafés to find out which one sells the best cake.
[X] Cultural Analysis.
[X] Honor Among Thieves (Time Sensitive).
[X] Bake some cookies to share with Miss Naruse as thanks for her study tips.
[X] Sample the local bakeries and cafés to find out which one sells the best cake.
Assuming no AU elements getting Rin as a contact would be a massive boon. Her reluctance to embrace the sociopathy embraced by the Clock tower would make working with the TSAB very attractive for her.
Assuming no AU elements getting Rin as a contact would be a massive boon. Her reluctance to embrace the sociopathy embraced by the Clock tower would make working with the TSAB very attractive for her.
The thing is, Rin has no source of information about us other than ourselves.
We are total strangers to Rin. Anything we say to her could have her interpret any interactions we have as a completely unknown authority that controls all information regarding them which allows them to paint any image that they do choose.
I mean, Zeltrech probably knows who we are, but Rin isn't going to ask him this early in the timeline.
The thing is, Rin has no source of information about us other than ourselves.
We are total strangers to Rin. Anything we say to her could have her interpret any interactions we have as a completely unknown authority that controls all information regarding them which allows them to paint any image that they do choose.
I mean, Zeltrech probably knows who we are, but Rin isn't going to ask him this early in the timeline.
I should probably mention that the TSAB has something of Prime Directive thing going on and generally don't involve themselves except in the case of 1) containing a Lost Logia or 2) intercepting something threatening societal collapse, such as full-blown nuclear exchange. Still, you do technically have an Enforcer badge (not literally a badge) to throw around if necessary.
The quest has me so hyped. I'm picturing Optra fighting Servants in my mind and it is an absolute treat to imagine.
(Cut to obligatory Heracles vs Optra where Optra gets her shit kicked in by God Hand)
I should probably mention that the TSAB has something of Prime Directive thing going on and generally don't involve themselves except in the case of 1) containing a Lost Logia or 2) intercepting something threatening societal collapse, such as full-blown nuclear exchange. Still, you do technically have an Enforcer badge (not literally a badge) to throw around if necessary.
