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Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)

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[X] Talk back. Perfect Storm should be able to translate the aliens' language for you.
 
IMO, it would probably be better to just have the subvote for not mentioning specific things rather than guiding the topic to certain subjects cause upset government guy is going to do the questioning here, not us. Even better would be consolidate the vanilla talk back option so that the SB bandwagon doesn't screw this first encounter up.
 
It's weird how people write in how Taylor should mention the ship was already crashed when she found it, when Taylor has no idea what was said.
 
Firedon said:
It's weird how people write in how Taylor should mention the ship was already crashed when she found it, when Taylor has no idea what was said.
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A suspiciously suspicious denial, I guess? But because I'm too nice for my own good, I would probably wait to slip that in at an appropriate time.

That said, Scope makes a good point. You just entered a conversation where you have no idea what's going on and even less idea IC. Do you really want to put limits on yourself without knowing what info will help you by being revealed and what will hurt you?
 
[X] Talk back. Perfect Storm should be able to translate the aliens' language for you.
 
[X] Talk back. Perfect Storm should be able to translate the aliens' language for you.
- [X] Mention you found the ship crashed. Don't mention Perfect Storm.
 
Silently Watches said:
A suspiciously suspicious denial, I guess? But because I'm too nice for my own good, I would probably wait to slip that in at an appropriate time.

That said, Scope makes a good point. You just entered a conversation where you have no idea what's going on and even less idea IC. Do you really want to put limits on yourself without knowing what info will help you by being revealed and what will hurt you?
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That's why I'm going for vanilla.
 
I'm going to be busy later tonight, so I'm calling the vote now rather than waiting for 48 hours. It looks like everyone's spoken up, anyway.

[X] Talk back. Perfect Storm should be able to translate the aliens' language for you.
No. of Votes: 54
Leanansidhe
AceRaptor
Arc of the Conclave
cl20
Eric Heckathorn
Firedon
gourdcaptain
landcollector
Major Session
Quelau'un dans la nuit
ShadowCub
Shadowdrakon
Skjadir
Sneaky_Commenter
TenMoreMiles
Twei
zeromass
Citino
Always Late
B_Leandro
bluekun
Captain Hunt
Dark Mage
Doublepong
EternitynChaos
jboone
jwolfe_beta
saiman
Scope
Sinarblood
Sinsystems
somnolentSlumber
Sweece
tygerbright
veekie
VorpalMedia
W00KY
WarriorServent
Zedman7054
-[X]Assure them we're not some terrorist that stole a ship, but a local mage that found the crash site. These are the only guys who can get us info about PS or do any kind of maintenance.
No. of Votes: 11
Aabbcc
Counter_Guardian
drakind
kinigget
megrisvernin
Mellodi
sir rusty
--[X] Don't mention Perfect Storm.
No. of Votes: 4
kokuenDG
LordCirce
MrLZRS
The Stormbringer
-[X] But don't say anything particularly meaningful, just in case. You want to know who's talking before you actually tell them anything.
--[X] Do not say your name is Calamity Witch.
No. of Votes: 4
anwan7
santtu1976
SilverEagle21
--[X] Do not say your name at all.
No. of Votes: 1
darknessfalls

[X] Hang up. The last thing you want is this guy demanding Perfect Storm back.
No. of Votes: 2
puidwen
Knight-Radiant

Total No. of Voters: 56

Since only 28% of you voted for a subvote, we'll go just with talking back and I'll continue with the conversation I already had planned.
 
[X] Talk back. Perfect Storm should be able to translate the aliens' language for you.
- [X] Mention you found the ship crashed. Don't mention Perfect Storm

Damnit!
 
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Emigration 4.7
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    • [ ] Talk back. Perfect Storm should be able to translate the aliens' language for you.


    Emigration 4.7

    «Translation active.»

    You shoot Perfect Storm a grateful nod. You don't know what this guy said, but he sure doesn't sound happy. For a moment, you consider hanging up from fear that he might figure out you have Perfect Storm and demand it back, but then you shake away that flight of paranoia. What are the chances that he's going to ask about one specific Device?

    Not to mention, if you hang up now, the chances of ever finding out about its origins drop down to nothing. You owe Perfect Storm way too much to do something like that.

    Clearing your throat, you ask in as innocent a voice as you can manage, "I'm sorry, can you repeat that? I couldn't make it out."

    "I said, this is Lieutenant Tiburon of the TSAB," he says. His voice has lost much of its anger, yet none of the steel lurking behind the emotion. "Identify yourself."

    "Cal—" On second thought, maybe introducing yourself by your cape name isn't a great idea. The PRT agents and Velocity both thought you were a villain based on your name and your Barrier Jacket, and while this Tiburon guy can't see what you look like, he can still react to your name. You'd rather not make a worse first impression than you may already have. "I'm Taylor." Nothing else appropriate to say comes to mind, and then you hear yourself continue, "Hi?"

    Really, brain? Really?

    A long pause follows that as Tiburon no doubt is just as dumbstruck by your unattended mouth as you are. "Hi," he finally answers. "You're… rather more friendly than I expected."

    More friendly than he expected? What? How would he even come up with any idea about what you're like? "Maybe that'll teach you not to judge a book by its cover, won't it?"

    "Strange idiom aside, you are in no position to take offense at someone judging you. Did you truly think we would stand aside and ignore someone illegally seizing the Agharti?"

    …Okay, so the chances of Tiburon asking about one specific Device are actually pretty high. And Agharti? You examine Perfect Storm before shaking your head. Nope, still not seeing it. Your Device just does not look like an Agharti. "I didn't steal the Agharti. I found it on the ground. And considering it accepted me as its user without a single complaint and said it wanted to help me, I don't think you have much say in the matter," you add with more than a touch of defiance. You aren't parting with Perfect Storm so easily, no matter how much he dislikes it.

    "What are you talking about?"

    "What do you think I'm talking about? The Device I found. Wait," you say as you see through the comedy of errors approaching at warp speed, "what are you talking about?"

    "The Agharti. The XIX-class dimensional frigate whose radio you've hijacked." You hear him sigh, the sound familiar from your father's own after a long day where nothing went right. "Something tells me I'm not going to like the answer to this, but you aren't a pirate, are you?"

    "Why the hell would you think I'm a pirate?!"

    "Because the last communication we received from the Agharti's Enforcer afloat was that multiple vessels were approaching at high speeds and were expected to be pirate craft." Oh. That does make more sense, except for, you know, the whole magic space pirate thing. The more you find out about Perfect Storm's old world, the more it sounds like a cheap sci-fi movie. "But if you aren't a pirate like we thought, then I need to know how you got ahold of this radio even more."

    "From what was left of the ship."

    "…What was left of the ship?"

    "It, uh, broke apart when it hit our atmosphere," you say slowly. "Sorry. This is the only piece I managed to salvage."

    "Wonderful. Which members of the crew are you in contact with? I need to debrief them immediately."

    "I guess you didn't hear me a second ago," you tell him. "The ship broke apart during entry and crashed. I don't think any of the crew could have survived that."

    "I heard you, Taylor. But the alternative is that you found part of our ship, repaired highly specialized and complex machinery without our engineers' aid, and yet you did not report its discovery to the TSAB. That doesn't reflect well on you. How are you even powering it?"

    Looking down at the deep purple script and the cords connecting Perfect Storm to the radio, the corner of your mouth quirks up. "Very carefully."

    Tiburon doesn't react to that and pushes on, "I've backtraced your carrier signal and have an approximate location for you." He what?! "You aren't too far from Delnarib. Contact the TSAB outpost there and tell them that you've found portions of the Agharti, and we can both forget the part about you toying around with it instead of telling anybody." Perhaps realizing how his demand could be taken, he continues in a kinder voice, "Not to mention, this could be to your benefit, too. If you're as good with this kind of machinery as you claim to be, I can think of a few people who'd be willing to talk to you about changing jobs. I can almost guarantee you'll get better paid than you are right now."

    "That's a great offer and all," you tell the lieutenant, "but there's just one small problem."

    "What is it now?"

    "What or where is Delnarib?"

    "Let me check something…. No, Delnarib is its local name, too. What world are you on right now, Taylor?"

    This had better not blow up in your face, even if it feels almost like giving some stranger on the Internet your home address. "Earth Bet."

    "What the…. Okay. Okay. What are your nearest dimensional neighbors?"

    "I guess Earth Aleph." Tiburon stays silent, clearly waiting for you to continue. "That's the only one I know."

    "Of course it is. I can't tell you exactly who to talk to," he adds before you can say anything about his tone, "but you need to find a large city with interdimensional communications or maybe even someone who has experience with dimensional transfers. Either way, you should be able to find someone who knows how to contact Delnarib or knows how to talk to another world that does have that information."

    "Yeah, that's going to be a little difficult. No one on our world knows much about dimensional communications or whatever. I guess the people who work with Professor Haywire's portals would," you correct yourself, "but that's just between us and Aleph. And dimensional transfers? Nope."

    "What kind of piss-poor mages do you have on your world?"

    Narrowing your eyes at the radio tube, you cross your arms. Piss-poor mage? Who does he think he is? "You want to talk to a mage on Bet? I'm all you got, so you'll just have to make do."

    "…You're the only mage on your world?"

    "That's right. And you wouldn't even have me if I hadn't found Perfect Storm and started learning about magic from it."

    A strange sound comes across the radio line, almost someone trying to mimic a wet finger running along a balloon. Is this the sound of a grown man holding back from screaming in frustration like a little girl? Tiburon starts talking again, and you have to strain to hear him. "Are you kidding me? I don't get paid enough to deal with this shit. Taylor," he asks in a louder voice, "could you hold on for just a moment? I need to make a quick call to someone who will want to talk to you a little—"

    The connection fizzles out, and all the cords pull back into Perfect Storm's rapidly vanishing casting arrays. "What are you doing?" you demand.

    «Mistress's mana levels dangerously low. Risks of continued communication too high.»

    "No, they're not. I'm perfectly fine." You push yourself to your feet – when did you sit down on the floor? – and then Samantha has to catch you when the room whips around at a hundred miles an hour. "Okay, or maybe you're right. Ugh."

    Your Device floats into your hands and vibrates. «Linker Core strain detected. Time required to heal. Further use of Mistress's mana to power communication system inadvisable.»

    "How are we going to talk to them, then?"

    «Mana collector or generator necessary. Can be constructed by mage with Transcendent Gadgeteer template installed. Guardian Beast of the Gear also a possibility.»

    "Neither of whom we have," Samantha cuts in, "so how about a solution that we can actually put into practice?"

    «Unknown, but commands by Mistress to power communications with Mistress's mana will be rejected. Override protocols activated to prevent intentional user self-harm.»
    «Sole exception to sovereign-level authorization.»
    That puts an end to that, doesn't it? It isn't like you can power the radio without Perfect Storm's help, and if it flat-out refuses to do it, there's not much you can do but try to change its mind. Later, though; not now. Forcing the issue now will just make your Device dig in its heels.

    «Mistress needs rests to recover her mana,» Perfect Storm continues. «No magic usage today or tomorrow. Minimal for at least three days after that.»

    "Okay, okay, I get it. Never would have pegged you for such a worrywart." The Device says nothing to that, but as Samantha helps you to the living room so you don't fall flat on your face, you have to admit to yourself that it maybe has a point.

    Just a little one.


    No vote for this update. I originally planned to roll the second subquest into this chapter, but yeah, that's not happening. This just got too long.
     
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    • Silently Watches said:
    "Yeah, that's going to be a little difficult. No one on our world knows much about dimensional communications or whatever. I guess the people who work with Professor Haywire's portals would," you correct yourself, "but that's just between us and Aleph. And dimensional transfers? Nope."
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    Well then. Overall, this conversation didn't exactly go smoothly, but it also didn't go up in flames either. So there's a plus, right?

    Silently Watches said:
    «Unknown, but commands by Mistress to power communications with Mistress's mana will be rejected. Override protocols activated to prevent intentional user self-harm.»
    «Sole exception to sovereign-level authorization.»
    That puts an end to that, doesn't it? It isn't like you can power the radio without Perfect Storm's help, and if it flat-out refuses to do it, there's not much you can do but try to change its mind. Later, though; not now. Forcing the issue now will just make your Device dig in its heels.
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    That's some interesting invisi-text isn't it?

    Hmm. That three days of minimal magic usage is troubling, but we'll have to make do.
     
    Well. That could have gone worse.

    Hopefully they aren't too offended by us apparently hanging up. I hope?​
     
    Twei said:
    Well. That could have gone worse.

    Hopefully they aren't too offended by us apparently hanging up. I hope?​
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    Well, we did say this was all we were able to salvage and we were powering it very carefully. That rather implies the possibility of damage and that we were using an ad-hoc setup. With that on top of us having stated that we've only learned magic from the device we found...it's frankly a miracle any kind of communication was managed at all. Even TSAB should realize that, though they'd likely still be annoyed by the situation.
     
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