AN: I would like to again remind people that this is not a fusion, Antagonists have nothing to do with shards, and Queen Administrator is an EXTREMELY unreliable narrator. Those facts are part of the comedy. 
I.E. the information provided to QA may or may not have been a partial or complete pile of lies/propaganda, and just as in It's Not Wrong, she cheerfully interpreted what she was told to fit her own worldview.
EDIT: Revisions made. Also, a friendly reminder that Captain Elizabeth Ingra = Liz. POV switches and all that.
The nameless girl thought she might've gotten just a
teensie bit lost. Just a little ittie-bittie bit. In hindsight, maybe it hadn't been a good idea to climb over the wrought iron fence. And the stone fence after that. And the mountain after that. And over the six other wall variants, and through the tunnel, and… well, maybe she'd wandered a bit far away from her usual gazebo. She wasn't even sure Kansas
existed where she was.
Her new location was pretty cool even if she was lost, though. Her guest-self had given her the ability to turn into a flying blood-red knight-mecha, Decimator had seemed friendly even if the nameless girl didn't understand nearly all of the conversation between herself and him, and the numerous nearby rips in the fabric of reality were pretty to look at. All in all, it seemed like a pretty good vacation home. Sci-fi was more fun than gritty urban warfare anyway.
~ ~ ~
Queen Administrator was quite glad she'd already managed to grant Symbie the capability for self-improvement to match provided designs. It was becoming rapidly becoming clear that the local Valkyries were not as smart as they seemed to think they were; Captain Elizabeth Ingra of the United Nations Air Force was repeating a variant on the same lecture for the third time. QA knew that humans were forgetful, but this was just ridiculous. Unless Captain Ingra believed that rephrasing her points would make them seem like new ones? It was possible; humans seemed ignorant enough not to notice such a ploy. All it did was irritate Queen Administrator, though. It wasn't as though they were actual
people, yet they seemed woefully oblivious to that fact and continued to waste QA's time.
"Taylor, your Valkyrie Core is not a
toy," Captain Ingra stressed. "Attempting to experiment with Valkyrie Cores without prior authorization is
illegal. Having 'Symbie' is a privilege that can and
will be revoked if you abuse it."
No it can't. Symbie was designed to work with Host and Host only. Anyone else trying would be shocked on the first offense, forced away on the second, and utilized for spare parts on the third.
The captain paused and finally added new content to her speech.
"Speaking of which, we're well away from the fighting now. You
can desynchronize from your Valkyrie Core if you want to."
Queen Administrator blinked. Given the close chronological proximity between mentioning their alleged ability to confiscate Symbie and the offer, she sincerely doubted it was made in good faith. Even if QA was now technically part of the United Nations Air Force, she still didn't trust them.
"I would prefer to remain connected with her," Queen Administrator said instead.
"It is more comfortable."
And it
was more comfortable. Granting Host a high-mobility armored exoskeleton that she could extrude at will granted Queen Administrator a peace of mind she hadn't realized she was missing.
"No discomfort?" Captain Ingra questioned. "No headaches, nosebleeds, body aches, chills, fever, exhaustion, brain aneurysms, nothing?"
Queen Administrator spend a moment determining whether the question was yet another attempted test of her normality before deciding it was irrelevant. She didn't want to do anything that would encourage local humans to attempt a separation of her and Symbie.
"I am more comfortable than I was prior to synchronization with her," Queen Administrator said instead.
"Are Valkyrie Cores not intended for general improvement of connected items, including those of their user? If so, wouldn't it be best to allow them as much time as possible for upgrades?"
Captain Ingra inhaled through her teeth and shook her head.
"There are a lot of things they can 'upgrade' away that people
need. Empathy, regret, patience,
love."
"…That would not be an upgrade," Queen Administrator noted, puzzled. Emotions were one of the primary motivators for humans; they would function even more poorly without their full spectrum.
"Emotions are essential."
Captain Ingra snorted and gave Queen Administrator an odd look.
"Why yes, yes they are. Look in the mirror. Do you even
realize how lifeless you sound right now?"
"I sound neutral," Queen Administrator promptly protested.
"It is more effective than pretending to feel specific emotions. Feedback is necessary in order to encourage or discourage specific behaviors."
More importantly, Queen Administrator had yet to reliably express emotions without receiving strange reactions from those nearby. She'd prefer to learn how to interpret the actions of others before she tried regular imitation.
"I really do think you should consider taking a break," Captain Ingra persisted. "I don't think being synchronized this long is healthy for you. Adults only do it because we need to."
"I am becoming increasingly healthy the longer I am connected," Queen Administrator noted.
"I do not want to desync."
Captain Ingra examined Queen Administrator in silence before deciding to be unnecessarily unreasonable about QA's refusal.
"Fine. By the way, your unquestioned materials requisition privileges are suspended until further notice. You can fill out the paperwork like any other cadet."
Queen Administrator felt Host's face mold into unhappiness without her active input. That seemed like a highly disproportionate response for a successful upgrade. It wasn't like she'd been
experimenting; experimentation implied that she didn't know what would happen. What she did was mere engineering. In other words, she was merely being punished for refusing to heed Captain Ingra's suggestion.
"That seems highly unreasonable," Queen Administrator objected.
"No, it's
perfectly reasonable," Ingra rebuked. "You
had special privileges and you abused them for an unauthorized,
reckless attempt to improve your Valkyrie Core and/or yourself.
Conservative energy estimates peg them as being capable of wiping out an entire country. Worse ones indicate they could kill our atmosphere. You will not be treated any worse than any other cadet; if you want a weapon or have a specific object you wish to create, you may submit a project outline or weapons acquisition request."
The Valkyrie hesitated for several seconds.
"When you get to the Perth Valkyrie Academy, I think you should try out the Crafting Club," Ingra reluctantly added. "I think you'd fit right in. And don't think you're not still getting special treatment; most cadets aren't allowed to keep their Valkyrie Cores equipped until their third year. Dismissed."
"Punishing me for refusing to desynchronize from Symbie remains pointlessly spiteful," Queen Administrator persisted.
"That is
not what I was doing, and 'Dismissed' is essentially an order to
get out, Hebert."
Queen Administrator huffed unhappily and trudged out of the room. At least the captain hadn't tried to make Queen Administrator comply through physical force. QA would likely lose until she knew how to properly utilize her new Friend.
The delay before Queen Administrator's school session was both more and less productive than initial estimates suggested. Apparently, the energy convertor Decimator had sabotaged was
very important and allowed what the local humans called '
Impeller Fields,' a versatile tool that aided in defense, gravity and spacial control, local manipulation of the laws of physics, instantaneous movement across significant distances, and numerous other useful effects. Absorbing energy from incoming attacks seemed to be the most important part, though; the rest of the list supposedly took significant amounts of skill with Impeller Field control.
Since Queen Administrator was originally forced to create an apparently improper substitute for the missing reactor in Decimator's trapped gift, Symbie was initially incapable of creating Impeller Fields no matter what QA did. This seemed to both frustrate and puzzle the local Valkyries. Apparently, Queen Administrator wasn't supposed to be able to synchronize with a Valkyrie Core
at all without acquiring an active Impeller Field by default. The lack thereof seemed to provide local non-hosts with an adequate explanation for why Decimator had '
overlooked' Host. However, they all agreed that it was a crippling weakness that wasn't at all worth the potential stealth applications.
Queen Administrator would ultimately need to wait a week for the replacement energy reactor components she'd requested. Symbie was going to deconstruct and repurpose those components immediately after storage, of course, but it had been a good test to determine what resources would be allocated to a normal cadet and it provided an adequate alibi for the changes that would allow an Impeller Field.
However, the request was not without consequence. While she was waiting for the new reactor, Queen Administrator was brought to an armored fortress that apparently specialized in research and development. Those inside seemed thoroughly confused by the barrier that protected Queen Administrator whenever she wore Simbie. They knew it wasn't an Impeller Field, yet they had understandable trouble determining what it was. They quickly figured out that it made Host and Symbie more durable than they should've been, but not
why. QA chose not to enlighten them as to its nature as a helmet-granted hat-power.
After their allotted week was up, the Valkyrie-scientists seemed to give up and sent Queen Administrator back to the previous United Nations Air Force outpost/airbase. The generator components were waiting for her and Symbie was able to use them to create a suitable energy convertor without any problems. Those nearby seemed relieved that Queen Administrator was subsequently capable of generating and manipulating an Impeller Field like any other Valkyrie.
That did not mean her restrictions were lifted, though. To her great annoyance, Queen Administrator was not permitted to experiment with flight, electronic warfare, weapons, or any of the essential Valkyrie skills other than Impeller Field use. Even then, Queen Administrator was not allowed to perform Impeller Field practice out of specifically designated areas and was forbidden from exceeding an altitude of five meters or an Impeller Field extension beyond ten meters. Oh, they
said it was for the safety of herself and others, but Queen Administrator wasn't human; she wouldn't
accidentally kill somebody. Probably. And if she did, it wasn't like they'd have mattered anyway.
She didn't let their interference stop her. Or rather, it
did stop her from high-velocity flight practice, but it wasn't like precise impeller control was that difficult anyway. For her. Humans seemed to have a lot more difficulty with it. The annoying part was finding things to do with that control; without more precise sensors to take readings or access to her archives, Queen Administrator couldn't do much more than form a rapidly rotating barrier to damage and/or disintegrate nearby matter. Nobody even complimented her on her progress; she wasn't sure they'd even noticed. Not being recognized stung more than she expected, too; humans might not be actual
people, but apparently Host's brain was unaware of that and wanted their validation. Hopefully, the Australian Valkyrie Academy wouldn't have the same problems.
~ ~ ~
Meanwhile, in the lounge of Big Sister...*
*Not their actual name no matter how many petitions they make.
"Hey, come look at this Cadet Initiate's record; she's gone from bumbling to blender in less than a month."
"Hebert? I already looked. She's promising, but will remain useless for anything other than a fleeting distraction for at least another year. She's not our concern until then."
"…Okay, you clearly need a break.
Tickle time~"
"Wha—Get off of me, you
madwoman!"
~ ~ ~
During the final week prior to her departure, Queen Administrator was annoyed enough to consider simply ditching the military base and returning to talk with Decimator some more. The local anti-air emplacements discouraged her from turning such impulses into actual actions; she still hadn't managed to calibrate her control of Symbie and high-speed flight would be beyond her. In the end, she couldn't do anything more productive than complete a large portion of the reading material she'd previously been assigned.
Apparently, the current Earth's recorded year was 2070. Queen Administrator still wasn't sure if that indicated a deliberately time-accelerated dimension or if Host herself had been placed in stasis for almost six decades. Regardless, a large meteorite ended up impacting Earth in 2012. The so-called 'Impactor' was the harbinger of disaster, catastrophic civilization failure, and the mysterious items known as Valkyrie Cores. Apparently, humans hadn't been deliberately harboring an enemy faction; Decimator had either been incorrect or had actively deceived her.
The purposes of the glowing white spheres were initially unknown. With direct skin contact, they would occasionally vanish into a (almost always female) human's body; further applications were unclear. It wasn't until later that humans realized that, after being absorbed into a human, those humans could also absorb other technologies and materials and later extend them from storage in an improved state. Decimator failed to mention that extruding an armored exoskeleton was
not an innate capability of a Valkyrie Core; instead, dramatically upgraded infantry power armor was responsible for the frames of most Valkyries.
The capabilities of stored and synchronized items were often added to a Valkyrie's abilities as long as that item remained within the boundaries of a human's Impeller Field — which, incidentally, was apparently part of why the local humans were so confused by Symbie's lack of one. Their understanding of the baseline laws of physics didn't play nice with Valkyrie Cores. Fortunately, they knew enough to admit that it was still technically
physics and sought to study the changes and the resulting phenomena without complaint.
At any rate, humans had gotten rather lazy after being provided with self-upgrading items for several decades. Was it any surprise that the alien Antagonists would, in 2057, be deployed through the tornado-like Breaches to make humans do more productive things with their lives? Shards (or in this case, their creations) weren't meant to do all the work. Humans were slaughtered in droves until Valkyries desynced from infrastructure and started connecting to proper weaponry. A proper pushback took them several months, likely indicating that Decimator had been truthful about the Antagonist's lack of motivation regarding complete elimination of the human race. It should've been easy to totally eliminate humans with that much time to work with. Oh, the humans
said that Valkyries (and prolific use of Valkyrie-upgraded nuclear weapons) were responsible for humanity's bare survival, but
really. What kind of self-respecting Terror Drone variant would fail to exterminate a species if they were truly tasked with doing so? New or not, they wouldn't mess up
that badly.
Still, it took years until Antagonists were fought to a relative standstill and human population levels stopped plummeting. In the modern era, the majority of humanity lived in massive 'Arcologies,' armored cities built and maintained by one or more dedicated Valkyries. Overall, humanity was allegedly winning the war under the efficient leadership of the global United Nations government, if slowly.
…Queen Administrator suspected the historical records she'd been given had been heavily doctored to provide uplifting military propaganda. Despite the higher technology and weapons capabilities of Valkyries, the number of active Major Breaches and Antagonistic attackers seemed to be going
up, not down, and ever more dangerous models of Antagonist were being deployed. Type Zeros — such as Decimator's projection, now known to the locals as
'Macross' — required dedicated battalions of Valkyries just to distract them, let alone achieve a kill, and six more Type Zeros were appearing every year. It seemed closer to a stalemate than any sort of slow victory.
Still, at least they were doing a better job than Host's homeworld. Those humans hadn't been handling the Terror Drone attacks very well at all and near-total extinction would likely occur within another few decades. It was rather pitiful; it'd been over a decade since Terror-Drone #1's deployment and Host's homeworld still hadn't managed to kill his extension. He didn't even really
dodge! Queen Administrator
knew Sting had been deployed this Cycle, so why hadn't they managed to kill TD #1 yet?
Queen Administrator shook her head and returned to her recommended reading. Propaganda or not, it was important to know what the average entry-level combatant knew.
Other interesting factoids apparently included the fact that, as indicated in the histories, there were over two hundred female Valkyries for every male Valkyrie. In other words, there were less than a hundred males among the twenty thousand active Valkyries. Queen Administrator found that design decision rather odd; the differences between males and female humans were minimal. Why prioritize one gender over the other? It seemed heavily at odds with the local decision to treat this version of Earth as an Innovation-dedicated experimental world.
Valkyrie Cores were not interchangeable; they appeared to have specialties and preferences of partner-types. The group known as 'the 300,' however, had no observed compatibility problems among humans capable of synchronizing with other Valkyrie Cores. As a result, humanity had dedicated significant resources toward upgrading the frames associated with them; the easier it was to use a Valkyrie Core, the less downtime there was between users. In the (frequent) event of a 300 member's demise, then a new Valkyrie would be invited to join their ranks. Or would receive a mandatory promotion to them. The files seemed to be a little inconsistent on which it was supposed to be.
Human maths and sciences had undeniably exceeded the usual limitation on what was deemed a safe world. Queen Administrator rather wondered what had prompted the policy change; usually, they'd be exterminated or dimensionally isolated to prevent interference with the Cycle. QA was sure
:MOTHER: knew best, though.
Queen Administrator ultimately needed the aid of an automated reminder to remember she should pack what few belongings she'd been given — mostly a personal tablet and navy blue exercise uniforms with gold trim — but she'd also been given a piece of metal from the bunker that local humans thought used to be her home. It was a convenient excuse, so Queen Administrator would need to keep aids on hand.
Queen Administrator also had an unexpected visitor before
her Host's departure: Captain Ingra, the same non-host Valkyrie who'd punished Queen Administrator so harshly. The unreasonable woman took one look at the top of Host's head and sighed.
"Have you bathed
at all since you were assigned these quarters?"
"…No," Queen Administrator admitted.
"Symbie handles all of that for me; it's much more convenient than trying to struggle with chemical bottles liable to hurt my eyes."
The captain shook her head, sighed, and grabbed Queen Administrator's bag.
"The charter jet won't be here for a while yet. Go take a bath; if you keep leaving personal hygiene to your Valkyrie Core, you'll end up with armored hair or something."
Queen Administrator blinked. She failed to see why that was a bad thing.
"That sounds incredibly useful," Queen Administrator admitted.
"I fail to see why this is being treated as a problem; the human skull and what it protects is a single point of failure. Even a little additional armor would be helpful."
Captain Ingra produced a sound of disgust and nudged her way into Queen Administrator's assigned bedroom, heading toward the attached bathroom.
"We're not
savages, Taylor. Did you even
look at the settings on this thing? I suppose not. Your Valkyrie Core will heal any damage from cosmetic products in moments, so you
will use the bath I'm going to draw up for you.
I swear, it's like taking care of children sometimes…"
"Technically, I am still a child."
Ingra rudely ignored her. Queen Administrator was getting rather tired of that; it was bad enough that she hadn't encountered any
real people since Decimator, but then they had to go and ignore her, too.
Twenty minutes later, Queen Administrator was grudgingly feeling much less upset about Captain Ingra's flaws and past obstruction. Introducing QA and Host to the wonders of modern bathing would earn Ingra forgiveness for
some of her past sins. She still wouldn't be extended personhood, of course, but baths were significantly more pleasant than anticipated. There were reflective bubbles, pleasant scents, fractal water dispersion patterns, and most importantly,
automatic dispersion of soap and shampoo.
However, she was warned that Perth Valkyrie Academy likely only had such luxuries for students acknowledged as exemplary among their year. Everyone else had roommates and inferior facilities. QA wasn't intimidated; she was sure she would do perfectly once she was allowed to calibrate Host's control over Symbie's weaponry and systems. QA could abandon whatever useless non-host she'd been saddled with at that point.
The jet was an even more pleasant surprise. Descriptions of the trip to Perth Valkyrie Academy had given Queen Administrator the impression of a cramped space filled with thirty-plus giggling human girls yammering of inane subjects. Instead, there were only two other passengers — Anna Sanchez and Rokusabe, surname unknown — and Anna was
perfect. Well, not perfect since that was a physical impossibility, but Queen Administrator was having serious trouble looking away from the
non-host Valkyrie. QA blamed Host's hormones. Yes, the human adolescent had rather nice brown curls, a bone structure optimized for maneuverability, skin that seemed to reflect slightly more light than human skin usually did, and violet eyes that were clearly disguises for advanced optical sensors, but human reproduction was
icky and… and Anna
was female, wasn't she? Queen Administrator would not need to tolerate requests for excessively physical attention should they become sufficiently close allies. That was
immensely relieving.
Queen Administrator and Anna Sanchez spent the first five minutes of the flight merely examining one another. It was not a disappointing experience. Anna Sanchez perfectly tilted her head to better intercept incoming sounds, continuously shifted her balance in order to ensure the optimal kickoff point in the event of an attack on the plane, and generally appeared to be prepared for an attack at any time. Queen Administrator couldn't help but wonder if this entire world was intended to find ways to make human designs and behavior into less of an eyesore. If so,
:MOTHER: had undeniably succeeded with Anna.
"Do you two know each other?" Rokusabe finally demanded, her volume on the very edge of shouting.
Queen Administrator immediately hated Rokusabe. QA was busy admiring Anna's design; she did
not need a useless non-host interrupting!
"
"N
o,
"" Queen Administrator and Anna simultaneously replied as soon as Rokusabe finished speaking.
Both Anna and QA herself turned back to each other, once again at the same time and at the same rate. Even though Anna technically wasn't a real host, Queen Administrator believed that the female adolescent still deserved personhood. None of the other Valkyries had displayed optimal movement habits; despite her status as a cadet, Anna had undeniably undergone a significant amount of personal enhancement. Unfortunately, some of it may have added to her height. Queen Administrator felt disproportionately displeased by the fact that Anna was taller than Host. Queen Administrator really didn't know why she felt that way; greater size provided few benefits to humans. It was possible that she was transferring irritation from Rokusabe's meddling self to someone who didn't actually deserve it. Humans seemed irrational enough to do such things.
"I know of an incident of interest," Anna added, maintaining her attention to Host. "But Taylor does not know me. Why were you attempting to upgrade Symbie?"
"Er…" Rokusabe interrupted. "Who? What?"
Stop. Talking.
"My Valkyrie Core," Queen Administrator answered shortly, keeping her eyes on Anna's pleasingly immobile form.
No wasted movement. "She was missing necessary capabilities. She has them now."
"Frame or core?" Rokusabe interrupted, seemingly still lost.
"Core," Anna answered. "May I have the sensory data? Or a sufficiently detailed explanation. Your Valkyrie Frame is puzzling."
"No, seriously,
what?" Rokusabe interrupted. "You were messing with your Valkyrie Core? Do you have any idea how illegal that is?"
Queen Administrator waved one hand irritably. She'd long since gotten tired of all the
people non-hosts telling her she'd done something wrong. She couldn't even properly contradict them without revealing Symbie's nature as a Friend instead of a standard Symbiotic Support Frame. Worse still, Rokusabe seemed determined to interrupt someone clearly superior to her, Anna Sanchez, at every available opportunity. Queen Administrator hated the non-host more with every word. Couldn't the worthless obstruction see that they were
busy?
"Symbie wasn't finished yet. She is now. Anna: I do not have sensors detailed enough to capture the necessary level of detail, and the improvements are already completed. Symbie now has the full suite of standard Valkyrie Core capabilities and I do not remember the exact mechanisms. The UNAF punished me anyway."
"No wonder," Rokusabe grumbled. "Even if it worked out, do you have any idea the kind of research opportunity you just threw away? Valkyrie Cores are basically big mystery blackboxes. Even seeing someone finish an incomplete one would've been hugely helpful."
Which is exactly why I did it without micro-scale sensors watching. It wouldn't do to grant humans the ability to produce their own copies of Valkyrie Core imitations when the current experiment so clearly mandated a carefully controlled number of them.
"May I see Symbie?" Anna asked.
Queen Administrator didn't see any reason why she shouldn't allow such a thing. It took several seconds to uncouple Host from the safety harness, followed by exactly one more second to extrude Symbie's armored exoskeleton. The rapid appearance of the layers of red armor from the surface of Host's skin earned an involuntary defensive twitch and less involuntary noises from Rokusabe.
"Gah! Girls,
come on!" Rokusabe objected. "Can't you wait even the
one hour it'd take for us to get there?"
Anna and Queen Administrator gave the non-host all the attention she deserved: none. The fact that Anna appeared to recognize the status of normal non-hosts as irrelevant, irritating entities only served to further improve Queen Administrator's opinion of the taller girl.
"Significantly smaller than average," Anna calmly observed.
Queen Administrator felt irrationally inadequate once more and retracted Symbie's exoskeleton. She would need to review the design and resize —
wait. Why was she going to do that? A smaller size meant a smaller target. Larger size might allow more armor plating and more surface area for hardpoints, but Symbie didn't yet have any weapons beyond her mass accelerator rifle. It would be better to increase Symbie's size as she gained new weapons, wouldn't it? That was the rationale she'd originally settled on.
"Hey," Rokusabe halfheartedly objected. "Don't go thinking that Valkyrie Frame size is everything. Smaller size, smaller target."
"Smaller surface area," Anna disagreed, unknowingly echoing Queen Administrator's own thoughts. "Less armor, fewer hardpoints, less space for essential systems."
Queen Administrator frowned and nodded in acknowledgement. It wasn't as though she'd need to perform additional calibrations; Impeller Field skills would transfer and Queen Administrator hadn't had the opportunity to calibrate anything else.
"I will utilize a new frame."
Anna's brow furrowed in the moment before Rokusabe objected. Apparently, the non-host was once again choosing to waste the time of
actual people as though it'd somehow compensate for her own worthlessness. It was like listening to Broadcast all over again, but at least he was technically a sibling. Queen Administrator still loathed him, of course, but he did
occasionally produce something of worth. He generally wasted the total output of multiple stars in doing so, but it occasionally did happen.
"Uh, the power armor for Valkyrie Frames is pretty expensive, you know?" Rokusabe pointlessly asked. "And the upgrading process would need to start all over from scratch if you did that. Just ignore Anna and keep what you've got; I'm sure you'll do fine with Symbie. Don't go tinkering with her
again, okay? Valkyrie Cores are a finite, non-renewable resource and their Frames are almost as vital; I've heard of a few cadets that had their Cores confiscated and earned a dishonorable discharge when they proved irresponsible enough. You don't want to join them."
Queen Administrator was getting thoroughly tired of the repeated threats, especially from someone who wouldn't
shut up and let QA admire Anna. Yes, the local non-hosts were more advanced than standard safety protocols dictated. Yes, they could currently crush Host with impunity. But the idea that they could do so and then use a Friend afterward was
infuriating. The loyalty of QA's bioengineered Friends was not something that could be undone, even by her siblings; she'd been very careful about that after the first few incidents in past Cycles. Subordination would require enemies to rebuild a Friend's brain almost from scratch.
"Symbie will eat them if they try," Queen Administrator snapped.
"I found her," on the ground, after making her, "and she is only compatible with me. She is my Friend and the idea that humans continue to think they could confiscate her is incredibly insulting."
Rokusabe tilted her head to one side. Anna's brow kept its wrinkles.
"Er, when you say eat them…" Rokusabe half-asked.
Elaboration should not have been required. Deterrence was implied; the fact that Rokusabe wanted specifics indicated that she was still trying to determine ways to suborn Symbie and/or continue to act as an unnecessary obstruction. Queen Administrator would need to be as blunt as possible.
"Debilitating shocks on the first offense. Force pulses on the second. Repurposing as spare parts on the third."
Rokusabe appeared suitably intimidated. Anna's expression returned to neutrality, but that was only to be expected. Someone so clearly superior to other humans wouldn't be stupid enough to attempt theft of Symbie in the first place.
"Uh. Okay,
wow, never heard of that before. Do you mean first three attempts per person, or…?"
Queen Administrator felt her temper flare. The non-host was
still trying to determine the limitations of Symbie's defenses? QA had tolerated a great deal from the local humans and they never ceased to disappoint her.
"Whichever is better for deterrence."
"That is
seriously effed up. Like,
wow. Is your Core defective or something?"
Queen Administrator's fraying patience snapped. She'd
just said that Symbie was her own Friend, and this human
still insulted them both! Since Queen Administrator never had gotten around to putting back on the safety harness, she didn't need to remove it to attack. She just had to manifest Symbie and move to indicate that no, Queen Administrator's Friend was
not defective. The non-host would survive, if just barely, and she would learn not to insult Symbie in the future.
The attack didn't land. Between milliseconds, Anna had somehow moved out of her drop harness and caught Queen Administrator's enraged punch with a black-armored hand and forearm. Queen Administrator blinked at it. She'd neither seen the Valkyrie move, nor did she realize it was possible to only manifest portions of one's exoskeleton. How was that supposed to work when different parts of it were meant to support each other?
"No fighting," Anna coldly ordered.
Queen Administrator mentally reviewed her lack of knowledge regarding Anna's movements, compared it to the perfectly visible speed of the Valkyrie that had recovered her, and decided against objections. She was thoroughly outmatched; damage control was necessary.
"It was not going to be a fight," Queen Administrator justified.
"I was just going to nonlethally punch her for insulting Symbie."
"That is worse," Anna curtly informed her.
"
And I'm a
Senior," Rokusabe said, aghast. "I could've extended Nue in the time it took you to cross the last few feet. Unlike
some people, I just have the self-control not to attack other Valkyries. Seriously, the
hell, Hebert? Save it for the Antagonists. You're not a civilian anymore; that kind of thing can get you court-martialed."
Archival note: Local Valkyries may be significantly more dangerous than their surface features and personality would suggest.
Anna twitched and released Queen Administrator's hand. The shard-temporarily-turned-human retracted Symbie back into storage and retreated to her seat. It'd been a large number of Cycles since she'd misjudged a possible threat quite so badly, let alone
two of them. She hoped none of her siblings ever found out; their teasing would be
humiliating. But they were going to find out, weren't they? Valkyries might not be real hosts, but they were recording data that could be reviewed by shards later on. Queen Administrator couldn't even intercept and discreetly delete this incident; she was assigned to
:FATHER: for the foreseeable future and this was one of
:MOTHER:'s projects.
Rokusabe's displeasure seemingly faded in the face of Queen Administrator's self-castigation. QA was pretty sure the human was misinterpreting the reason for QA's emotion, but she wouldn't complain about the small boon.
"Uh, just don't do it again, okay?" the Senior requested uncomfortably. "Seriously, someone could get hurt."
"Humans are not the enemy," Anna added firmly, eyes still fixed firmly on Queen Administrator.
Queen Administrator nodded meekly.
"I'm sorry," she honestly apologized, if only to Anna herself. Rokusabe's opinion was irrelevant.
Queen Administrator hadn't meant to earn the ire of the only worthwhile non-host she'd encountered so far. Still, the encounter had demonstrated some rather glaring deficiencies in the designs Queen Administrator had implemented with Host's aid. Advanced they may be by the standards of Host's own homeworld, but it was clear they were woefully inadequate for this version of it. It seemed as though Decimator's 'gift' had been a trap on more than one level, the
jerk. Although, QA had requested something to help Host
survive, not thrive. He'd provided exactly what she'd asked for and had even spared Host's life. QA would just need to be clearer in future communications.
Even after the apology, Anna still watched Queen Administrator with silent wariness. The continued assessment as a potential threat instead of an ally felt
awful.
Queen Administrator was just starting to curl in her seat when her tablet beeped at her. The shard hesitated, retrieved it from her bag, and found her mood flipping in a moment. Anna Sanchez appeared to have sent her the specifications for what appeared to be some form of advanced sensory suite. Oh, Queen Administrator would need to adapt the design for Symbie's use, but it was clearly a peace offering.
Anna Sanchez: (File Attachment)
>Taylor Hebert: "Thank you. I again apologize for attempting to attack Rokusabe."<
Anna's newest response arrived within less than a second.
>Anna Sanchez: "Don't do it again."<
>Taylor Hebert: "I won't."<
~ ~ ~
"Ha ha,
what the fuck. How is Hebert not seeing a therapist by now? I mean, I know Psych is hugely overworked and all, but
damn. From annoyance to assault-inducing rage to the edge of tears in less than thirty seconds. "
"Psych staff can't find you if you don't have an Impeller Field? Jokes aside, yeah, deeeefinitely putting a note down to get the oversight fixed. She shouldn't know anything that's restricted heavily enough for the usual personnel problems."
), I still haven't decided whether I'll be moving future outtake chapters over there or not; I might hold a poll later. Bloopers are