bluekun
I draw stuff (Commissions Slots Open)
- Location
- Home
Not yet friend-o. Taylor hasn't blasted Vicky with a full powered Divine Buster or Starlight Breaker....yet.
Magical Girl Lyrical Taylor (Worm/Nanoha)
- Thread starter Marsyas
- Start date
Not yet friend-o. Taylor hasn't blasted Vicky with a full powered Divine Buster or Starlight Breaker....yet.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Yes she did. It happened at the end of 1.2.
Unrelated: I have revised the chapter slightly, introducing a ramping up to Vicky's punching so she doesn't go instantly from 0 to potentially lethal.
bluekun
I draw stuff (Commissions Slots Open)
- Location
- Home
Heh heh, oops?
Trooper1023
Look, sir! Droids!
- Location
- NYC USA
Please don't quote ENTIRE story posts like this. Instead, use your mouse to highlight the section of text in the story post that you want to quote. SV has some code that will let you quote-and-reply with just the text you highlight.So now I have to wonder, will Amy go into a happiness endured coma from being in Vicky's new aura...
or will she be quietly plotting the death of this interloper who is obviously trying to move in on her Vicky!
zhuull
SB still lying to protect Racists what else is new
First of all, I only view this sight on my phone so no mouse here. While highlighting is possible it is a pain to do on a tiny screen.
Secondly and more importantly, why?
SV automatically puts large quotes in a tiny box you have to click on to expand, at least that's how such quotes always appear on my screen.
VorpalMedia
Inter-Dimensional Techie
- Location
- Wonderland Data Nexus 472b
Some times it doesn't compress the post.
Sakuya's Butler
A refined Butler to a knife wielding Mistress.
- Location
- ↓, ↘, → + Punch
I've never had that problem, and I view this on either my laptop, PS4 (I occasionally view from it if my laptop is in the shop), or cellphone. And I just changed from a Galaxy S3 to an S7, and still haven't seen that happen. In all cases, if its more than 5 sentences, it compresses it. I've never seen anything show the whole thing outside of the older version of XenoForo, which SV switched from months ago.
So, in generally, I don't see the point in anyone bitching about a full post being used in a quote.
bluekun
I draw stuff (Commissions Slots Open)
- Location
- Home
Hello time zone difference! It's already 2nd of June here and it's evening already.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Heh. I'm on Pacific Standard Time.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
Magical Girl Lyrical Taylor
(Worm/Nanoha)
by P.H. Wise
Interlude 2.X: Dragon
Disclaimer: The following is a fanfic. Worm belongs to Wildbow. The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise is owned by various corporate entities. Please support the official release.
Thanks to Cailin for beta-ing!
--------------
Christmas Eve, December 24, 2010
The skies above Quebec lit up as a massive burning object plowed its way across the province in a partially controlled descent. It hit the ground about six kilometers south of Waskaganish, near the southern end of James Bay, itself the southern arm of Hudson Bay. Waskaganish was a tiny little place, a Cree community of about twenty two hundred at the mouth of the Rupert River. It was an isolated community in the middle of nowhere, before the crash.
When the back half of the starship hit the ground, it broke half the windows in Waskaganish and turned the snowbound forest around the crash site into a fire storm. It was a strange contrast between the frozen bay, the snow-choked woods, and the slowly expanding ring of burning trees and vegetation around the crash site. Emergency services began to respond immediately, but it soon became apparent that this was no ordinary fire.
Dragon's rapid response suit arrived on the scene an hour and a half after the impact, and she had devoted a goodly amount of her attention for the next several days to helping the emergency responders with managing the fire, preventing its spread, and rescuing anyone who was caught in its path. It shouldn't have been as much of a problem as it was, but the flames seemed unusually hot and difficult to extinguish, and the wreck glowed like an ember in the glass crater it had made. Even for Dragon, it wasn't safe to approach until a full day after the crash.
Now, three days after the crash, she supervised the ongoing salvage and recovery operation. The media had arrived surprisingly quickly, and even with a full government and PRT cordon in place to keep people away from the site, everyone had questions about what had happened, and they weren't going away.
Narwhal descended from the sky and landed next to Dragon on the lip of the crater overlooking the now-cooled wreck. She was a giant of a woman, seven feet tall with a full and athletic build; she had a curtain of glossy white hair that flowed down almost to the backs of her knees, and even here in the middle of the Canadian wilderness in winter, she was naked but for the for the layers of scintillating crystal scales that covered her body and caught rainbow hues in the light; a horn of that same crystal stood out from the middle of her forehead, three feet long.
"Dragon," Narwhal said in greeting as she landed.
Dragon nodded in response. "Hello, Narwhal," she said.
"So what do we have, besides a mess?"
Dragon would have smiled if she'd been able to. "Did you read the report I sent you?" she asked.
"Of course," Narwhal said.
"Well," said Dragon, "We're pretty sure it doesn't belong to any of the other nations. Probably not the work of a villain or a rogue tinker, either."
"So," Narwhal said, shrugging her shoulders, "Aliens?"
"I don't know. Armsmaster has an interesting theory that seems to have at least some evidence to support it. My money's on advanced Tinkertech from an Alternate Earth."
"Clarktech," Narwhal said, as if she were tasting the word.
Dragon nodded. "Clarktech."
"I'm not sure I like the idea of an alternate Earth advanced enough to send tinkertech spaceships to other dimensions," Narwhal said.
"No," Dragon agreed. "Historically, the meeting of civilizations with significantly different levels of technology has rarely gone well for the less technologically advanced group."
Narwhal was about to say something, but she cut off when a shadow passed over the two of them. She looked up.
The Golden Man was here.
There was a sense of presence to him. Of weight. Time seemed to slow as Dragon and Narwhal both recognized their visitor: The first parahuman. The most powerful of all heroes.
Scion.
He glowed with gold light; his long hair and his cape billowed in the wind, and his skin-tight costume left little to the imagination, even stained as it was with blood and mud. He floated in the air above the wreck, watching silently, expressionless and utterly motionless except for the movement of the wind through his hair and his cape.
Dragon flew up to him, and Narwhal followed a moment later. "Scion?" Dragon asked.
The Golden Man did not answer. He turned his head to consider the pair, but silence was his only reply.
"Have you come to help with the wreck?" Narwhal asked.
Nothing. No answer. But after a moment, he turned his attention back to the crashed ship.
After waiting for ten minutes to see what he would do, Dragon and Narwhal busied themselves with the salvage efforts, their conversation continuing in hushed tones, ever conscious of the silent hero who floated overhead. He watched the salvage operations for a full hour, doing and saying nothing. At the end of that hour, at precisely 3,600 seconds after his arrival, he looked abruptly to the west and then shot off in that direction until he was just a speck on the horizon, then gone entirely.
Narwhal shot Dragon a mystified look. "What was that all about?" she asked.
Dragon had no answers.
Twenty minutes later, Dragon got a call from the PRT. "Miss Dragon?" asked a young woman's confident voice.
Dragon held up a hand to have Narwhal hold off on what she'd been about to say. "Yes?"
"The Chief Director would like to speak with you. Are you available for a conversation?"
"I suppose I am," Dragon said.
There was a brief click, and then Director Costa-Brown's voice came from the other end of the line: "Hello, Dragon," she said.
"Chief Director," Dragon replied, shutting off her suit's external speakers. "What can I do for you?"
"We've decided how we're going to handle the response to the crashed ship." The chief director let a beat pass before she continued. "You're going to claim it as one of yours."
"Excuse me?" Dragon asked.
Director Costa-Brown's tone allowed for no contradiction. "We're going to spin this as an unsuccessful attempt to get back into space, but one that DID get past the Simurgh. It was a prototype with an experimental drive, and even if it crashed due to an unforeseen malfunction in the cooling system, it at least shows that we have hope; it can work, and we can get past her."
"You're asking me to lie to the public?" Dragon asked.
"Yes. Telling the truth would only destabilize an already precarious situation. Alien or advanced tinkertech from a parallel Earth, it doesn't really matter. The effect it would have on international affairs would be a disaster. So we're going to lie, and you're going to help. Do I make myself clear?"
Some part of Dragon wanted to say no. Some part of her wanted to tell Director Costa-Brown to go to hell. But she didn't. She would go along with this. She would play her part. Because she literally had no choice. "Fine," she said. "But I'm doing this under protest."
"So noted," Costa-Brown said. "Good luck, Dragon."
Director Costa-Brown hung up.
"Bad news?" Narwhal asked.
Dragon told her.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding," Narwhal said.
Apparently not.
(Worm/Nanoha)
by P.H. Wise
Interlude 2.X: Dragon
Disclaimer: The following is a fanfic. Worm belongs to Wildbow. The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha franchise is owned by various corporate entities. Please support the official release.
Thanks to Cailin for beta-ing!
--------------
Christmas Eve, December 24, 2010
The skies above Quebec lit up as a massive burning object plowed its way across the province in a partially controlled descent. It hit the ground about six kilometers south of Waskaganish, near the southern end of James Bay, itself the southern arm of Hudson Bay. Waskaganish was a tiny little place, a Cree community of about twenty two hundred at the mouth of the Rupert River. It was an isolated community in the middle of nowhere, before the crash.
When the back half of the starship hit the ground, it broke half the windows in Waskaganish and turned the snowbound forest around the crash site into a fire storm. It was a strange contrast between the frozen bay, the snow-choked woods, and the slowly expanding ring of burning trees and vegetation around the crash site. Emergency services began to respond immediately, but it soon became apparent that this was no ordinary fire.
Dragon's rapid response suit arrived on the scene an hour and a half after the impact, and she had devoted a goodly amount of her attention for the next several days to helping the emergency responders with managing the fire, preventing its spread, and rescuing anyone who was caught in its path. It shouldn't have been as much of a problem as it was, but the flames seemed unusually hot and difficult to extinguish, and the wreck glowed like an ember in the glass crater it had made. Even for Dragon, it wasn't safe to approach until a full day after the crash.
Now, three days after the crash, she supervised the ongoing salvage and recovery operation. The media had arrived surprisingly quickly, and even with a full government and PRT cordon in place to keep people away from the site, everyone had questions about what had happened, and they weren't going away.
Narwhal descended from the sky and landed next to Dragon on the lip of the crater overlooking the now-cooled wreck. She was a giant of a woman, seven feet tall with a full and athletic build; she had a curtain of glossy white hair that flowed down almost to the backs of her knees, and even here in the middle of the Canadian wilderness in winter, she was naked but for the for the layers of scintillating crystal scales that covered her body and caught rainbow hues in the light; a horn of that same crystal stood out from the middle of her forehead, three feet long.
"Dragon," Narwhal said in greeting as she landed.
Dragon nodded in response. "Hello, Narwhal," she said.
"So what do we have, besides a mess?"
Dragon would have smiled if she'd been able to. "Did you read the report I sent you?" she asked.
"Of course," Narwhal said.
"Well," said Dragon, "We're pretty sure it doesn't belong to any of the other nations. Probably not the work of a villain or a rogue tinker, either."
"So," Narwhal said, shrugging her shoulders, "Aliens?"
"I don't know. Armsmaster has an interesting theory that seems to have at least some evidence to support it. My money's on advanced Tinkertech from an Alternate Earth."
"Clarktech," Narwhal said, as if she were tasting the word.
Dragon nodded. "Clarktech."
"I'm not sure I like the idea of an alternate Earth advanced enough to send tinkertech spaceships to other dimensions," Narwhal said.
"No," Dragon agreed. "Historically, the meeting of civilizations with significantly different levels of technology has rarely gone well for the less technologically advanced group."
Narwhal was about to say something, but she cut off when a shadow passed over the two of them. She looked up.
The Golden Man was here.
There was a sense of presence to him. Of weight. Time seemed to slow as Dragon and Narwhal both recognized their visitor: The first parahuman. The most powerful of all heroes.
Scion.
He glowed with gold light; his long hair and his cape billowed in the wind, and his skin-tight costume left little to the imagination, even stained as it was with blood and mud. He floated in the air above the wreck, watching silently, expressionless and utterly motionless except for the movement of the wind through his hair and his cape.
Dragon flew up to him, and Narwhal followed a moment later. "Scion?" Dragon asked.
The Golden Man did not answer. He turned his head to consider the pair, but silence was his only reply.
"Have you come to help with the wreck?" Narwhal asked.
Nothing. No answer. But after a moment, he turned his attention back to the crashed ship.
After waiting for ten minutes to see what he would do, Dragon and Narwhal busied themselves with the salvage efforts, their conversation continuing in hushed tones, ever conscious of the silent hero who floated overhead. He watched the salvage operations for a full hour, doing and saying nothing. At the end of that hour, at precisely 3,600 seconds after his arrival, he looked abruptly to the west and then shot off in that direction until he was just a speck on the horizon, then gone entirely.
Narwhal shot Dragon a mystified look. "What was that all about?" she asked.
Dragon had no answers.
Twenty minutes later, Dragon got a call from the PRT. "Miss Dragon?" asked a young woman's confident voice.
Dragon held up a hand to have Narwhal hold off on what she'd been about to say. "Yes?"
"The Chief Director would like to speak with you. Are you available for a conversation?"
"I suppose I am," Dragon said.
There was a brief click, and then Director Costa-Brown's voice came from the other end of the line: "Hello, Dragon," she said.
"Chief Director," Dragon replied, shutting off her suit's external speakers. "What can I do for you?"
"We've decided how we're going to handle the response to the crashed ship." The chief director let a beat pass before she continued. "You're going to claim it as one of yours."
"Excuse me?" Dragon asked.
Director Costa-Brown's tone allowed for no contradiction. "We're going to spin this as an unsuccessful attempt to get back into space, but one that DID get past the Simurgh. It was a prototype with an experimental drive, and even if it crashed due to an unforeseen malfunction in the cooling system, it at least shows that we have hope; it can work, and we can get past her."
"You're asking me to lie to the public?" Dragon asked.
"Yes. Telling the truth would only destabilize an already precarious situation. Alien or advanced tinkertech from a parallel Earth, it doesn't really matter. The effect it would have on international affairs would be a disaster. So we're going to lie, and you're going to help. Do I make myself clear?"
Some part of Dragon wanted to say no. Some part of her wanted to tell Director Costa-Brown to go to hell. But she didn't. She would go along with this. She would play her part. Because she literally had no choice. "Fine," she said. "But I'm doing this under protest."
"So noted," Costa-Brown said. "Good luck, Dragon."
Director Costa-Brown hung up.
"Bad news?" Narwhal asked.
Dragon told her.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding," Narwhal said.
Apparently not.
- Location
- United States
Lying to the public has always worked. Why stop now?
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
I would have said porn and junk food, but I'll rate a hero falling from grace as a close third.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
First contact from a position of weakness is probably one of the worst things to happen to a civilization short of global war. They were given a gift; to be able to prepare for it, to be able to say that the aliens exist but aren't yet knocking on our door, we have time, we can be ready. Even if it's all bullshit, they can still sell it to the public and nobody has to know they're not getting ready. (Plus, you know, recruitment boost and cooperative work with people who might otherwise never cooperate, because Outside Context Problem.) The gift was squandered.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
It probably doesn't help, but both Dragon and Narwhal agree with you, even if they might not necessarily believe that it's aliens and not humans from an extremely advanced alternate Earth.
True, but since we aren't an QQ and not even Halbeard could one up Fugly Bob's, it's what we have.
Marsyas
Surprisingly Jellicle
- Location
- Undimensioned and Unseen
What's QQ?
Questionable Questing, the adult version of SV and SB.
Got to ask, but is there an in-character reason for RCB doing this? Or is it setting things up to show how incompetent authority figures are in Worm or some such?
There is. Preserve public morale while giving the Protectorate the most time to investigate the unknown craft without foreign interest. Dragon has an insane amount of information control available.
"This hero has accomplished everything they set out to do and has proven to be the perfectly moral idealist, how dare they! How dare not they not conform to our cynical world, let's ruin their reputation with bad PR as punishment."
zhuull
SB still lying to protect Racists what else is new
As I think a few others have mentioned, this seems to intentionally be the worst possible stance the PRT could take with this situation even if only taking into account their limited knowledge of what's going on.
Seeing as I've really enjoyed the story up to this point and previous chapters have certainly seemed intelligently written with characters that aren't weighed down with mind numbing idiot balls, what exactly are you going for with this chapter?
Perhaps it's the episodic nature of not immediately being able to see the follow up to this chapter, but as written it just doesn't work for any thing other than looking like you're handing Alexandria and Friends an idiot ball of Endbringer-core proportions purely for the sake of Drama.
Considering how good the rest of the story has been I hope that's not what's going on here.
Because honestly, a 5 year old with no special meta knowledge should be able to work out why lying about a crashed alien ship to boost moral when you have no reason to think it will be an isolated event, may be a tad counter-productive to their stated goals.