fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
But shards bud. So one shard can become many.
It's not wrong to make Friends in the Dungeon (Danmachi / Sanctioned [Worm])
94000130FFF70000
Absolutely the Worst
- Location
- Midwest USA
This story just keeps on getting better and better. I love it.
1. Ace up the sleeve.
2. Ace in the pocket.
3. Ace in the pants.
4. "Dropping" her hand by accident and picking up the aces she hid under the table instead.
5. Dealing herself extra cards by holding two cards together as if they were one card until nobody's paying attention.
6. Using enchanted cards whose values can be changed on the fly using a very specific set of innocuous-seeming actions.
7. Bribing another player to sabotage everyone else.
8. Not shuffling the deck before the game, when she'd specifically rigged the deck in advance to hand her a near-guaranteed victory.
9. Counting cards when shuffling after tracking the discard piles for the entire game.
10. "Shuffling" the deck constantly to appease complaints about card-counting, except still counting cards the whole time.
11. "Holy shit look a dragon!" and swapping cards.
12. "Holy shit look a dragon!" and swapping the entire deck for a pre-rigged one.
13. "Holy shit look a dragon!" and peeking at everyone else's hands.
14. Strategically-positioned mirrors hidden in the ceiling corners that show her everyone else's hands.
15. Bribing a so-called telepath to reveal everyone else's hands.
16. Drugging everyone else's drinks so they're not thinking clearly.
17. Copying the rulebook with certain selective text changes and swapping it for the real one, ensuring certain rules disputes end in her favor.
18. "Accidentally" losing the rulebook and reciting relevant rules from "memory".
19. Bribing the inventor of the game to side with her in a rules dispute.
20. Starting a barfight the moment she realizes she's about to lose for real.
The long-term consequences of that single bit of advice are going to be very, very interesting.
I resemble that remark.
QTay's brand of strangeness is a particularly self-consistent sort, so it's actually really easy to get used to.
Loki has no chill.
Awwww, is da widdle Hestia feeling ornery?
That's kind of the whole point of being friends with someone. Y'know, to know them and not just their image.
Everyone knew this was coming.
Ways Loki has cheated include, but are not limited to:
1. Ace up the sleeve.
2. Ace in the pocket.
3. Ace in the pants.
4. "Dropping" her hand by accident and picking up the aces she hid under the table instead.
5. Dealing herself extra cards by holding two cards together as if they were one card until nobody's paying attention.
6. Using enchanted cards whose values can be changed on the fly using a very specific set of innocuous-seeming actions.
7. Bribing another player to sabotage everyone else.
8. Not shuffling the deck before the game, when she'd specifically rigged the deck in advance to hand her a near-guaranteed victory.
9. Counting cards when shuffling after tracking the discard piles for the entire game.
10. "Shuffling" the deck constantly to appease complaints about card-counting, except still counting cards the whole time.
11. "Holy shit look a dragon!" and swapping cards.
12. "Holy shit look a dragon!" and swapping the entire deck for a pre-rigged one.
13. "Holy shit look a dragon!" and peeking at everyone else's hands.
14. Strategically-positioned mirrors hidden in the ceiling corners that show her everyone else's hands.
15. Bribing a so-called telepath to reveal everyone else's hands.
16. Drugging everyone else's drinks so they're not thinking clearly.
17. Copying the rulebook with certain selective text changes and swapping it for the real one, ensuring certain rules disputes end in her favor.
18. "Accidentally" losing the rulebook and reciting relevant rules from "memory".
19. Bribing the inventor of the game to side with her in a rules dispute.
20. Starting a barfight the moment she realizes she's about to lose for real.
It's obvious to Taylor, who understands people a lot better than QA does (for now).
Whatever they're used to is a pretty low bar, I'm afraid.
This is simultaneously hilarious and adorable.
That she and Taylor are from another world, that she and Taylor can bend Falna to their will, that she and Taylor are both sort of parts of a pair of eldritch abominations previously planning to blow up the planet and all other versions of it, that Taylor stole all those monster cores, that she and Taylor can make high-tier Friends right off the bat with no trouble, that Taylor totally poked the dungeon the other day, that Taylor used to wear undergarments with her celebrity crush's face on them... the list goes on.
Awww, QA is kuudere.
hahahahah oh my sweet summer child you have no idea what you're about to do. (or what exactly your children are)
QueenAdministrator.exe is not responding...
The long-term consequences of that single bit of advice are going to be very, very interesting.
I'm not familiar with what exactly happened in Sanctioned, but I was under the impression it was kind of an accident?
You wanna find where the risk/reward ratio got skewed, check 'the very fucking beginning'. Entities are dumb.
classic QA
Pertinent quote: "I know Darth Vader's really got you annoyed, but remember if you kill him then you'll be unemployed!" - YODA (Weird Al song)
Cruel, no. Utterly callous and without care for anything but her own plans, yes.
nominating QA for ice bucket challenge? that's a new one.
Glorious. Absolutely glorious.
so is this before bell pr does bell not exist in this fanfic either way am intrested in this, its pretty good
- Location
- USA
We haven't gotten a solid response on the existence of the rabbit.
But, as QA is the first member, it is certainly before timeline wise.
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It was. However, QA is convinced of the Thinker's (aka :MOTHER:) near-omniscience and, as a result, assumes it was deliberate and she+Host are simply part of a single-blind experiment.
QA did that though.
Successfully writing a character being fractally wrong in a plausible way is pretty damn impressive in-and-of itself.
People keep saying this; but the actual Worm story demonstrates that there are critical individual shards that without them the Entity goes literally comatose. Without Scion's brain shard; all Scion's shards fallback to previously established commands and are effectively without leadership. Because Scion didn't have several critical shards, he couldn't recall the deployed shards or remotely update shard's directives and had to restore to direct hacking of shards one by-one after finding the host they where bound to.
JadeKaiser
Uninspired Custom Title
- Location
- Under Your Bed
Not really. Shards are called that because they are exactly that: shards, pieces of an entity. Until they are cast off, they aren't shards. They're just parts. Like your liver, or one of your toes.
Indeed, though again, calling them shards before they are broken off from the greater whole is rather odd. You don't call a specific part of a wineglass a glass shard until the wineglass has fallen and shattered on the floor. And it seems fairly clear that the entities can break off only a piece of a larger organ in some cases, as Queen Administrator would most likely have been part of Scion's brain equivalent. Or maybe spinal cord equivalent, as a part that directs instructions from the brain equivalent to a large number of other parts that were most likely also seeded out as shards for this particular cycle.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Does anyone on this thread know enough about armor to know why this would be a problem?
- Location
- Usa
It is a design for facing monsters that rarely field weapons, are not trained to disarm or grapple.
If Ais needs to grab something sharp, hot, extremely cold or pointy with her hands it offers no protection. Also she can't use a mix of grappling moves that have her grasp part of her sword blade.
Then again a lot of their armor is petty useless unless it is very heavy due to how the endurance stat works.
JadeKaiser
Uninspired Custom Title
- Location
- Under Your Bed
I can think of two things off the top of my head:
One is the difficulty actually making armor that way while keeping it so that the fingers actually move when you move your own. You would need some kind of glove that the armor pieces stick to the back of, or an impractical number and position of straps to account for each and every knuckle of every finger. Getting the joints to stay together would also probably be an exercise in futility.
The closest thing I can imagine as actually possible without magic that sticks the metal to the backs of your fingers is to just sew metal plates onto the back of a glove. Which would work, and I am fairly sure that people did it, but it wasn't full coverage as it left gaps in between each of the plates. It also wouldn't have distributed the force of a hit nearly as much, because the plates aren't attached to each other in such a situation, but to the flexible glove.
The second problem is that the edges of the metal would chafe terribly. Even a full plate gauntlet was something that you would wear a glove underneath. In fact, you would wear something underneath every part of your armor, no matter what or where. If the inward-facing parts are left completely uncovered, then somebody was crazy enough to decide that metal armor on bare skin was a good idea. Pro tip: It's not. People never did that if they had any idea what they were doing, and if they didn't, then they learned their mistake as soon as they tried to put it on that way. The amount of chafing and pinching that would subject you to would probably have you literally bleeding to death in full plate.
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fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Seems to imply that it is very important that the front of her hands remain uncovered. Does she know hand blast spells?
Or the gloves are purely cosmetic.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Backless armor? That's nuts. Trying hard to think of a justification. Maybe she has a move that includes her growing wings?
- Location
- Somewhere
I've never seen this anime, though I think I have it on my list, but damn Aiz is really owning that deadpan/bored expression isn't she?I'd say that most of the armor is cosmetic.
94000130FFF70000
Absolutely the Worst
- Location
- Midwest USA
iirc armor is mostly just cosmetic because 97% of your point-defense is from your falna stats, so most people just don't even bother since the only armor that will really be harder than their own body is heavy plate, which is rather significantly movement-hampering.
i feel like Taylor will have a 'wait, what?' moment when she realizes that.
i feel like Taylor will have a 'wait, what?' moment when she realizes that.
- Location
- Central Standard Time
I don't think it's wrong to compare them with various things (people in a country, a colony of single celled organisms, the cells or organs in your body, etc) it's just that you have to remember that they're all inevitably inaccurate.
To be fair, that was:
A, something they started how many millions of years ago? We're still doing plenty of dumb things our ancestors started a billion years ago.
B, only one strategy their species decided on. We don't exactly see what everyone else came up with but it could just be that the warrior/thinker lineage is dumb.
Pretty sure that you can get meaningful protection from armour, it's just expensive and/or time-consuming to get made to begin with, potentially bulky and -worst of all- becomes pretty much useless if you level up.
Add in that the whole thing is a game for the gods and thus appearances are important....
Anyway, as far as Ais goes, I'd say her armour is a visual indication of (and, in universe, explained by) her tendency to charge in head-first and murderise anything in her way (what's armour on her back going to do, protect her from dead things? Pass.) And the stuff on her hands is because while she's holding her sword she doesn't need any armour on her palms.
Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
Might also be a symbolic thing. Only when she has weapons in hand does she feel safe.
Hey, do you the site where I could get the full season of danmachi and the ebook? I would be grateful if you could help
Chapter 16: Abduction
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, and my ten other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic pair of "Thank you"s to @Torgamous and @fictionfan for their patronage as well.
The morning after meeting Aiz, Queen Administrator examined the pair of unidentified females standing in the doorway of Hestia's rented church. Both possessed black hair and shortswords. One of them had lightly tanned skin and the tantalizingly cute cat ears also possessed by Host's Guild advisor. The other had dark skin and seemed to be intent on wearing as little clothing on her upper body as possible while maintaining social acceptability. Possibly to make it easier to wash off the blood of her enemies? She did feel enough like Aiz to quality as a pseudo-pseudo-host. Plus, the multi-layered gold necklace around her neck would likely be similarly easy to wash.
Queen Administrator recognized neither of the two visitors, yet both were looking at her as though she should. Danny Hebert had warned her about this tactic: pretending a friend or relative had sent them in order to expedite a kidnapping. As Host's only 'relative' was cleaning up after breakfast, Queen Administrator wasn't at all impressed.
Or so she thought. Aiz silently shuffled into view, her sad expression similar in severity to the one she'd held during their initial introduction the day previous.
I'm so sorry, Aiz silently mouthed behind the shoulders of her Familia(?) members.
"Heyla, Taylor!" the apparent clothing-hater said both loudly and with apparent happiness. "Name's Tiona, younger of the Hiryute twins. This–"
Tiona raised one open hand as if to hit the back of the cat-eared girl next to her. The unnamed female hurriedly avoided it by stepping forward and bowing lightly.
"I'm Aki," she said hurriedly. "It's nice to meet you!"
Anakitty, Tiona silently mouthed behind her. Queen Administrator wondered if these sort of private communications were common among humans. Even a single confederate among observers would ruin their illusion of concealment.
"Anyway," Tiona drawled, draping one arm over the fidgeting female beside her. "Loki said your Familia's poor—well, almost nonexistent, really—"
Aiz pressed her rapidly reddening face against both hands and slowly shook her head. Queen Administrator really wasn't sure what that was supposed to signal or if it was meant for Host at all. Embarrassed contradiction of another words? That seemed unlikely; Tiona's claims were accurate.
"—And couldn't handle a proper outfitting. Since you're going to be Aiz's apprentice or whatever, it'll look bad for us if you went around in..."
Tiona glanced at the shrapnel-caused cut in the armor above Host's chest and wrinkled her nose.
"Let's go with 'damaged equipment' and leave it there. I've had damaged gear fail me in a fight and it sucked, so we're kidnapping you for a day of shopping. Our treat, so don't worry too much about cost and just have fun!"
Queen Administrator narrowed her eyes and took a step back. Inventing a false apprenticeship and outright admitting to their intended crime? Was this actually intended to convince Host at all, or was it merely for the benefit of any observers? She supposed that still didn't explain the confession, though.
"Not literally kidnapping," Aiz said hurriedly, raising her head and establishing eye contact. "It's a saying. And tell your goddess first. And, ah, I hadn't explained that to her yet. Taylor? I got a new skill. It heavily encourages teaching you. And, um, I'm okay with that, so..."
The allied pseudo-pseudo-host shrugged. Humans really do adore using that gesture.
Queen Administrator's brow furrowed as she considered this newest piece of information. The timing seemed suspicious, especially considering her own allegedly-unusual rate of skill acquisition. Was it intended to imitate the distribution of Newborns? If so, that could be potentially problematic. They'd only interacted for part of a single day; if that was all it took to trigger skill acquisition, the local populace would realize her unintentional involvement rather rapidly.
Regardless, Queen Administrator didn't believe she could afford to accept. Spurning Hephaestus's compensation after she went for what Hestia termed "excessive generosity" would likely embarrass the allied Familia and generally endanger their good relationship. Welf Crozzo and A...nzo? She thought he was named Anzo. Stupid unreliable human memories. Still, the Crozzo's gambling habit and Anzo's recklessness had already jeopardized that relationship. If anyone was to outright ruin their alliance, it shouldn't be the Hestia Familia; reputation losses from broken alliances could be hard to reverse.
"While I greatly appreciate the offer," Queen Administrator began. "It would be convenient if we could delay such an outing until Hephaestus's aid has concluded. Refusing their aid could have significant political–"
"Ah, Ad—Taylor!" Hestia called, hurrying to just behind Host.
"Static guard," Queen Administrator whispered before turning her back on her new acquaintances. "Yes?"
Host's Friends obediently moved into position on either side of Host. Hestia looked beyond her own family members and at the assembled trio of adventurers, then shook her head.
"I can go explain things to Hephaestus; she'll understand. Loki, though..."
The goddess trailed off and grimaced, her eyes fixed on Loki's Familia members. Queen Administrator assumed her half-completed conclusion was related to the alleged rudeness of insulting people in front of their allies. Shards didn't engage in such harmful behavior; they only avoided mentioning flaws in front of the individuals themselves. That way, their allies could help them discreetly fix any issues without offense.
"Isn't good at taking 'no' for an answer?" Tiona finished for Hestia. "Yup, don't worry. We all acknowledge her issues and love her anyway."
Hestia twitched in surprise, then engaged in an odd combination of smiling and half-closing her eyes.
"That. So don't worry about offending Hephaestus, okay? I'll handle it."
Queen Administrator examined Hestia for signs of coercion for all of two seconds. At that point, QA realized she wouldn't even know what humans would use to request help and gave up, turning back to their visitors and pointing at Tiona.
"Acknowledged. Designate potential ally Tiona of Loki plus Hiryute Sisters."
Tiona giggled as the two Friends fixed their gazes on her, apparently unbothered by the unblinking inspection.
"No, ah—" Aiz spoke up. "It's Tiona Hiryute of Loki."
"Yeah, what she said, but I only get a potential alliance?" Tiona asked, apparently amused.
Queen Administrator slowly blinked at them as Host's Friends finished their examination and returned to ready Status.
"We met less than five minutes ago," she pointed out. "You do not need the added liberties inherent in a different classification."
Nor would I trust you with them.
"Petting cats," Aiz contributed.
Queen Administrator considered that, realized the high likelihood of more apparent cat lovers, and tilted her head questioningly. They had good taste, but it was slightly inconvenient. She may need to edit the overall subtypes of ally.
"Is this going to be a recurring trend among your Familia?"
"Oh, totally," Tiona said happily. "There are two kinds of women in our family: those who admit they want to cuddle your cats and those who lie about it. Probably the only reason Aiz hasn't glomped them yet is that we have other stuff to do."
Queen Administrator silently stared at the little-clothed female and shook her head in disagreement. That was one of the most blatant examples of misleading data interpretation she'd ever heard, and she'd heard a lot. That sort of selection was highly unlikely unless Loki selected for female members who'd love cats, which Queen Administrator somehow doubted. Aiz also had far greater self-control than that; she'd only indulged in hugging the necks of her Friends after extensive Magic Stone feeding. Still, she'd hold off on confronting Tiona until she'd verified that the claim truly was false. Unlikely events happened frequently.
"Edit entity entry Tiona of Loki plus Hiryute Sisters; reestablish Tiona Hiryute of Loki as potential ally. Additional permissions: non-harmful contact, Friend feeding, non-harmful Taylor contact."
Host's Friends didn't need to re-examine Tiona after the reclassification. They already knew her physical attributes. After her reclassification, Tiona's cheeks puffed as she filled them with air.
"Good enough," she decided aloud.
Queen Administrator moved Host's arm to point at the female called both Aki and Anakitty. QA wasn't sure if that referred to first and last name, or actual name and nickname. The latter seemed rather derogatory; you might as well name someone 'Anahuman' or 'Anashard.'
"Full name, please."
The cat-eared woman jumped and looked back at Aiz. At the pseudo-pseudo-host's nod, Aki slumped slightly and turned back to Host.
"Anakitty Autumn," she sighed. "Please just call me Aki."
"Acknowledged. Designate potential ally Anakitty Autumn of Loki, preferred nickname of Aki. Additional permissions: non-harmful contact, Friend feeding, non-harmful Taylor contact."
While Host's Friends registered the unfortunately-named Anakitty, Tiona clasped both hands behind her head in an apparent gesture of surrender. QA really didn't understand why. Comparing it to similar poses for similarity was just as unhelpful: it was close to an exaggerated 'You're damaging my hearing' pose, but failed to actually cover her ears. Nobody was bright enough for the possible interpretation of 'You're damaging my sense of sight.'
"So, what kinds of stuff should we watch out for?" Tiona asked. "I don't wanna rub your head and get my arm bitten off. Your pets are scarily well trained."
"Friends," Aiz corrected. "Their title."
Tiona quickly exhaled through her nose and shook her head, appearing amused.
"I am not saying you trained your friends well. That just sounds wrong on all the levels."
"Familiars?"
Queen Administrator had opened her mouth to ask for the intended classification behind that name only to have Tiona begin quickly walking away.
"Wasting daylight here," she called over her shoulder. "C'mon. We can chat while we're shopping."
Queen Administrator nodded for agreement and turned to her Friends.
"Mount. Aiz?"
To Queen Administrator's surprise, her first local human friend shook her head in apparent refusal despite having a perfectly good Friend sitting in front of her and staring at her with adoration.
"We should walk," she claimed. "More fair. Less attention."
Queen Administrator expressed mild displeasure and nodded in acceptance.
"Understood. Friends, follow. Change faction 'Loki' to current uncategorized allies via shared ally Aiz Wallenstein."
QA hurried after Tiona and fell into place beside the still-unhappy Aiz. Queen Administrator didn't understand her reaction; having objects purchased for Host was hardly harmful even with the schedule disruption. Tiona maintained her lead, but Anakitty matched the pace set by Host and Aiz.
"I can see what Lefiya meant by odd orders," Aki/Anakitty mentioned anxiously, but with apparent interest. "Is that from magic? It seems useful."
Queen Administrator scanned their surroundings. Apart from their group and a few animal scavengers, the area was empty. Still, she'd already learned that high-level adventurers could eavesdrop from a significant distance; it would be unwise to share any important information while outdoors.
"In a manner of speaking," Queen Administrator hedged. "I'd prefer not to discuss it outside of a thoroughly soundproofed room. Related query: do all powerful adventurers gain enhancements to their senses or is that one of Aiz's apparent specialties?"
"Everyone," Tiona called back. "Ranking up is nice like that. Speaking of which, safety stuff? I forgot in the name kerfluffle."
"What we shouldn't do around your Friends," Aiz translated.
Queen Administrator spent the next several seconds silently reviewing the bodyguard routines Host had installed.
"Do not attack me or attempt to take me away from my Friends without having me first assign them to static guarding or a variant status. This includes sparring; we can engage in it without issues, but I need to tell them to ignore it first. Unknown thrown objects can count as an attack. Aiz is considered trusted and can generally engage in nonlethal variants of the above without issues. On a related topic, how inconvenient would it be for us to visit a medicine shop?"
"We have a deal with a supply Familia already," Tiona grunted. "What do you need? And for the record, your 'Friends' are awesome."
"If you possess any wide-use antitoxins, I would appreciate a few doses for safety's sake. The initially paralytic venom of my Friends turns lethal if not treated within a few hours. This may pose problems if it is necessary within the Dungeon."
Tiona whirled around and began walking backward while facing Host, her eyes wide and her face split into an teeth-baring expression of happiness.
"Your cats have venom?"
"Among other useful traits," Queen Administrator happily bragged. "Aiz already greatly helped with their general combat potential; the more Magic Stones they consume, the stronger my Friends will become. Having companions lacking the usual issues with Magic Stone consumption is exceptionally convenient."
"Coolest. Cats. Ever," Tiona praised them. "It true that only your family has them? Because I would love a kitten."
"Unfortunately, yes."
"Oh!" Aki jumped slightly. "Aaaaahh, we forgot! How do you want to fight? Your cats are wonderful, but they can't do all the fighting for you..."
I believe you are nearly mistaken.
Queen Administrator carefully looked around. There were beginning to be some people on the streets, if ones who were rather listless and acting like they'd prefer to still be asleep. The resulting lack of gossip was refreshing. Still, it did reinforce the idea that Queen Administrator would be unable to privately disclose her skill until significantly later.
"She's Aiz's student-apprentice-thing," Tiona said dismissively. "So swordplay, obviously."
"I don't believe that's how this works," Queen Administrator said.
"Not necessarily," was Aiz's simultaneous contribution.
Queen Administrator glanced at her friend and flicked one hand at her, hoping it was the right gesture for saying, 'You explain first.' Aiz looked at the expectant members of her three temporary party members, sighed, and took a deep breath.
"Lots of combat is the same regardless of weapon. Avoiding attacks, situational awareness, exploiting openings without greed, and other things. Given Taylor's knife proficiency, that might be all she needs?"
Aiz turned specifically to Host's body, her head tilted. Queen Administrator chose to interpret it as a request for other possible weapon preferences.
"After some calibration time, I will excel with most precision-based weaponry I am given," Queen Administrator provided. "I expected bows to be included, but the inconsistency proved rather irritating. I needed to track both the influence from differing arrow fletching, arrow weight, and the angle-affecting influence of the bow itself. I generally hit the target, but it wasn't where I'd intended; reliably hitting weak points on a moving target would be nearly impossible."
Tiona produced the sounds of something akin to choking. It sounded more like she was about to vomit.
"Let me guess, you tried a cheap bow and similar arrows?" she asked.
"Acquired by Welf Crozzo of Hephaestus, yes."
"Of course you did," Tiona agreed unhappily. "Yeah, the better bows and arrows don't have that sort of unreliability; I've seen them used to shoot leaves out of the air in nine outta ten shots. I'll see if you can borrow one of the earlier ones outgrown by one of our archers. You won't be strong enough to draw the truly good stuff yet, but arrows can dig a lot deeper than thrown weapons. I swear I'm going to donate some good bows to the Guild just so this shit doesn't keep happening."
""Language,"" Aiz and Queen Administrator chided in unison.
"I don't know why you even try anymore," Aki stated, still appearing anxious even as she spread discord. "They're never going to listen and it's pretty minor anyway..."
"Because most gods are vindictive assholes and these two are afraid my mouth'll get me in trouble one day," Tiona answered. "I know when to act respectful, aiight? When I'm relaxing with friends and family isn't that time."
You are extrapolating from your own experiences in order to interpret incoming data as you see fit. Again. At least this one was a more minor sin than the demographic claim of 'All of the Loki Familia's female members want to pet your Friends, even if they claim otherwise.'
Queen Administrator considered both Host's fragmented memories and Danny Hebert's instructions to avoid words considered 'Bad.' Neither of them ever mentioned why specific parts of their own communication system were worthy of censorship. Given the cultural trends she'd observed on Host's homeworld, QA was beginning to suspect it was a means through which the lower classes could be deprived of aid without offending cultural sensibilities. The resulting taboo did raise some questions about the nature of QA's ongoing translation, however. Were some topics considered taboo no matter the language, or was the now-permanent hat-power identifying offensive words and converting them into an approximate equivalent in Host's language? Queen Administrator didn't know and Host didn't feel lucid enough to ask.
"Acknowledged. I still refuse to assimilate the habit."
"Nobody's asking you to," Tiona reassured QA. "You've got the whole aura of nobility thing down anyway. It'd be a travesty to ruin it with a few fuckin' curse words. Anyway, we're here!"
Now she's just swearing on purpose. The inclusion in Tiona's second-to-latest sentence was beyond unnecessary. Still, Queen Administrator chose not to pursue an unnecessary vendetta against Tiona's deliberately provocative word choice. Host's current companions didn't even seem to think she would; all three of them entered the store without complaint. Oddly enough, Queen Administrator couldn't see any signs advertising the name. Was it some sort of a statement? 'If you don't know about us, you can't afford our wares?'
"Static guard," Queen Administrator ordered her Friends before going inside. The light wooden doors and large glass windows at the front store wouldn't even slow her Friends if she approached the edge of their extensive sensory range. She wasn't worried by the small amount of separation.
Unlike the second-hand clothing shop she'd previously visited with Welf, the new store seemed dedicated to exclusively female garb, much of it colorful. Brown wasn't even a color she saw much of unless it was used to complement one or more compatible colors. Orange and yellow were similarly rare, but not yet approaching endangered status.
"How much do your cats shed?" Aki asked. "Do you think their hairs will stick to your clothes?"
...Oops. She knew their design had been missing something important. They didn't shed at all. At least zero counted as 'very little.'
"Very little, and no. I could ride them in full white and not have any hairs show. However, won't bloodstains easily ruin most of these?" Queen Administrator asked.
The locals seemingly didn't possess the chemical cleaning products of Host's homeworld, nor the supplementary enhancer and groomer Friends QA had created. It would be rather easy to ruin her clothing. Despite the clear logic of Queen Administrator's question, Aiz hid her own face behind both hands while Tiona laughed.
"And there's another thing for you to learn: dodging arterial blood spatter!" Tiona claimed, oddly happy to be discussing death. Humans usually avoided such an irreverent attitude. "If you do it right, you'll only get tagged with a few drops and those just add to the 'I am deadly; respect and fear me' thing Aiz already has mastered."
Tiona's description seemed to make Aiz flinch behind her Familia's backs. Archival note: Ask Aiz which portion or portions of her description she would prefer to be omitted.
"But that's not why we're here," Aki contributed.
"True enough," Tiona agreed. "You won't get that part down for a while and you'll still slip up. No, this is for casual garb. Anakitty explains it better than I do; I don't like thinking as much as she does—here, Taylor, try this on."
Anakitty/Aki winced, but chose to overlook the slight and elaborate regardless.
"It's important to separate out your adventuring mindset and your relaxing mindset," Aki explained. "The Dungeon is deadly enough that you need to be on guard practically every waking hour of your life; despite the Falna's aid, that's taxing. Even the safe zone has its fair share of pickpockets and other criminals. The impact on our minds is why most Familia let weeks pass between Expeditions into the Dungeon — ah, those are nicknamed 'raids' and involve most of a Familia, sometimes their friends, and a few trusted Supporters. The harsh conditions force us to grow faster, which is a lot of why you'll see people take much of a decade to reach level two or three and a fraction of that time later on."
"You grow, you break, you flee, or you die," Tiona summarized.
"Yes, that, but I wasn't done yet," Aki said, her voice infused with a small amount of anger. "After you come home, you need to use little mental tricks to convince your heart you're safe. That can mean taking off the armor or having a suit of it you only wear while in Orario proper. It could mean eating somewhere with distinctive food — we're partial to the Hostess of Fertility — and laughing with friends. Preferably, it means both these things and more besides."
"What do I wear if I primarily use magic? I was under the impression that magicians typically utilize garments similar or identical to standard clothing. This may make such a subconscious separation difficult, especially if I want to remain at least lightly armed while in Orario."
"You want to be a mage?" Aki asked oddly. "Do you even have any spells yet?"
Queen Administrator wished she could see her expression for further clues. Unfortunately, she was busy wriggling into the first gown provided by Tiona. Despite being made by a significantly less advanced civilization than those found on Host's homeworld, it was far more comfortable than the fabrics Host had been allowed to wear previously. Considering how unpleasant the lower-class clothing of this world had been, Queen Administrator could only assume that comfort rose exponentially as cost increased.
...She wanted Hestia to have nice clothes, too. It wasn't fair that Queen Administrator was the only one provided with them.
"Taylor?" Aki prompted.
Queen Administrator reviewed Host's recent memories and remembered the twin questions directed at her: "Do you want to be a mage," and "Do you have any spells yet?"
"Magic is my highest Basic Ability, but I do have yet to acquire a spell," Queen Administrator admitted. "I do not expect it to take long."
"Unusual growth," Aiz noted. "Physical ones are usually first."
"Can mean she plans ahead a lot, I think? As for your confidence, did you cast a bunch of cantrips pre-Falna?" Aki asked.
Queen Administrator consulted Host's memories for the meaning of the word 'cantrip.' The only response she could glean was useless; 'zeroth-level spells' meant nothing to her.
"This isn't my first language; I do not know what that word means," QA said instead.
"The most basic forms of spell," Aki defined. "Since you're human, it'd be hard to do anything more without the Falna's influence."
Tiona laughed.
"Anakitty here lives up to one of the big the stereotypes of her species: curiosity," Tiona said cheerfully. "She doesn't have a single spell of her own, but she knows a lot of the trivia surrounding magic in general."
"Can I really not have a personality trait without it being stereotypical?" Aki asked, apparently somewhat angry. "It'd be like me saying you slept around a lot just because you're an amazoness!"
There was an unpleasant pause as the other conversational participants apparently grappled with her words. Queen Administrator didn't see why they needed such a long processing time. Tiona appeared to be past the legal limitations and near or just beyond the biological conclusion of physical development. Beyond that, choices of whom to breed with would be disgusting either way. Queen Administrator was glad shards didn't need to worry about such things; the way humans reproduced was gross.
"No, wait, I know you're not like that, I didn't mean—" Aki began unhappily.
"Hah!" Tiona laughed, seemingly unbothered by the mistake. Archival note: Make sure Tiona is actually alright after Aki's accidental insult. "Joke's on you, people assume that anyway! Even Bete once propositioned me when he was drunk!"
Another moment of shocked silence came and went.
"Bete?" Aiz asked, sounding terrified.
"You're lying," Aki whispered, her voice trending more toward unhappiness than fear. Both were still present. The allegedly different responses to the same input made Queen Administrator question whether she was interpreting them correctly at all. It might've been the same emotion, but filtered through the quirks of different people.
Why can't humans establish consistent rules of communication and be satisfied with them?
"To be fair, he was really drunk," Tiona reassured them. "Like, 'how is this man even still alive' drunk. Two seconds later, he mistook me for a man — here, catch and try on the stuff I'm passing over, Taylor — and challenged me to a fight. Twenty seconds after that, I was apparently a bar stool to be thrown at other people. It was really funny even if the owner kicked us out a minute later."
"How have I not heard of this before now?" Aki asked. "At the very least, Loki would love the stool bit and repeat it regularly."
"Probably because Bete doesn't remember a word of it and is convinced he wouldn't be that rude to a Familia member," Tiona claimed. "Last time I tried to retell the story, he broke the table we were sitting at and stomped off."
"We forgot Taylor's question," Aiz pointed out.
Archival note: Get Aiz something nice as a gift when possible. She is unexpectedly helpful.
"What was... oh, clothing," Tiona realized. "We were kinda waiting on Taylor for that. We asked about cantrips, remember?"
Queen Administrator expressed mild displeasure and considered her past actions. She didn't believe she'd utilized anything using the clearly shard-caused system of 'magic,' but she had extensive experience with the better, unrestricted versions of energy utilization and conversion. Admitting defeat when she was clearly superior would be unacceptable.
That just left a specialty. Escalation's hosts tended to acquire a reputation for pyromania and recklessness, so it was possible that similar types of magic would acquire similar reputations. It would be best to pick something with a good or neutral reputation. Variants on the spatial effects Warp so loved seemed like good candidates; the inhabitants of Host's hometown seemed to adore Warp's space-bending host, Vista. Although biological manipulation may provide a positive reputation and more closely fit her current powerset, such an outcome was unreliable and far from guaranteed; Queen Shaper's host was beloved, but Host had been viewed with deep suspicion by many. She was adored by others, admittedly, but that just reinforced its unreliability.
"I have the knowledge of how to link two locations together via careful rips in reality — both for the purposes of tactical travel and attack redirection — even if I am currently lacking the ability to execute the effect," Queen Administrator claimed. "I have seen the effect, know its mechanics, and believe I can replicate it in the future. Does that count?"
Silence was her only answer. QA waited for it to dissipate and found herself growing uneasy when it didn't. Had she accidentally picked a specialization of magic with a poor reputation?
"That counts, doesn't it?" Queen Administrator asked defensively.
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