EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
On behalf of those unfamiliar with the many different kinds of paradoxes, I humbly ask:
A what?
Mirai Shoujo Brigitte (MGLN time travel)
- Thread starter Crusader Jerome
- Start date
A what?
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
It's the situation in which your ability to travel back in time depends explicitly on something you did when you traveled back in time.
Chapter 8: An Archaeologist and a Librarian
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
I realize that I have not given you, my readers, much to work with in the way of backstory or Checkov's guns. I'm working on that. Definitely some more next chapter. In the meantime, enjoy this one.
Beta read by @no.
Beta read by @no.
Chapter 8: An Archaeologist and a Librarian
Madeleine ushered Yuuno and Brigitte into the office on the house's upper floor. Henri Durand sat at a bulky wooden desk swamped with papers, with one corner cleared for several desk toys displaying mathematical forms and basic kinematics. The walls were mostly covered with bookshelves stuffed full, with the few remaining spaces holding enlarged pictures of what appeared to be the Lascaux excavation site. A small picture in a decorated frame leaned against the books on the shelf nearest to the desk, displaying Henri, a woman Yuuno didn't recognize, and a boy about two years old.
Brigitte was looking at the desk toys with a slight frown. When Yuuno raised an eyebrow at her, she quickly glanced in several other directions before settling on making eye contact with Dr. Durand, who smiled tiredly at them. "Please, have a seat," he said. "The deadline for these grants is in two days, so I don't have much time to spare. Regardless, it is a pleasure to meet you, Librarian Scrya."
Yuuno chuckled softly as he sat down. "Sorry, but it feels a little strange for a researcher twenty years my senior to address me by my official title. Could you call me Yuuno, or Mr. Scrya if you must?"
Dr. Durand smiled again. "Ah, that I can do. It would be rude of me not to reciprocate, so you may call me Henri. And your companion?"
"This is Brigitte," said Yuuno. "She's a relative of mine. I'm currently acting as her chaperone in preparation for her first solo expedition. She's quite excited to observe an ongoing excavation site in person, especially this one. It wasn't strictly necessary for me to accompany her, I suppose, but I also want to see Lascaux for myself. Also, I have to ensure that she returns my library materials on time."
Brigitte's sidelong glance seemed to say, You didn't have to tell him about that!
The weariness seemed to fall away from Henri's face. "Ah, an archaeologist in training! I would be honored to oblige you both. Lascaux is indeed a wondrous place. Had I known you were coming in advance, I could have already procured permits for you."
Yuuno nodded. "That would be another thing to note for the next time you schedule a trip on your own, Brigitte." To Durand, he said, "She arranged our travel plans herself without help. It's an important experience for her."
"Mm, entirely understandable." Henri shifted in his chair. "That said, do you have lodgings prepared?"
Yuuno looked at Brigitte. Brigitte looked off to the side, lips pursed. "In that case," continued Henri, "I can accommodate you both in the extra building that my brother uses when he's on leave from the planetary navy. His term of service has a few months left, and a more permanent solution can be found by then, if by chance you require one."
"That's...generous of you," said Brigitte, still looking mildly embarrassed. "If you don't mind, we'll accept that offer. Thank you very much."
Henri waved a hand. "Think nothing of it. An investment in a young mind is worth far more than a few weeks of lodging."
Brigitte seemed at a loss for words, so Yuuno said, "We're quite grateful for the assistance, Dr. Henri. Is there anything we could assist you with to lessen the burden, perhaps?"
"Oh, I can think of something," said Brigitte. "Why don't you help him with these documents for the grant proposals? This can't be a fast process. You can read up to three documents at a time without losing efficiency, right? And the faster he finishes, the sooner we an start and the less tired he'll be."
"Judging by the display from when we first met, you can do two yourself, at the least," Yuuno pointed out.
Brigitte crossed her arms. "Well, you're still better at it, and helping him out was your idea."
"Well, if you're that desperate for some time away from me, there's not much I can say in response." Yuuno turned to Henri. "Would you be able to use my help?"
Henri glanced over the swamp of papers, then back to Yuuno. "I suppose that your organizational skills are likely better than mine. Though I have to do all the writing myself, I'm sure that your help would be of some use."
Brigitte slid from her chair and stood up. "Then, if you don't mind..."
"Just don't go too far," said Yuuno, pulling his chair closer to the desk.
"Thanks," she said, and slipped out of the room.
--------------------
Brigitte tromped down the staircase and moved into the kitchen area. Madeleine looked up from the stack of papers on the table in front of her. "Finished already?"
"I am," said Brigitte. "Yuuno's helping Dr. Durand organize his papers. I'm sure they'll get sidetracked with some archeological thing or other, if not calculating a comparison between Imaginary Space and gravitational singularity, or something." She tilted her head. "Well, Yuuno can get sidetracked if the project isn't vitally important. I don't know about Dr. Durand, but I would assume he's the same based on his office."
Madeleine smiled and reshuffled her papers into a neat stack, tapping the side against the table. "You're not far off. Henri is fully capable of drifting into an hours-long lecture on the interpretation of an Al-Hazard cave painting during normal conversation. It's a shame he doesn't have a teaching position."
"He doesn't?"
"No, his research takes up most of his time. Right now, he's writing grant proposals, as I'm sure he told you, so his time to chat is limited. It's come to the point that I have to file the household taxes for him."
Brigitte peered at the stack of papers in Madeleine's hands. "Is that what those are? Is everything on paper here?"
Madeleine chuckled. "You would think we'd have moved to a computerized system by now, but the bureaucracy is hard to convince. I doubt switching over would make things faster for us, anyway."
"Huh." Brigitte leaned onto the back of one of the empty chairs. "So, this is unrelated, but doesn't Dr. Durand have a son?"
Madeleine brightened. "Oh, you want to meet Laurent? He should be up from his nap soon. That reminds me--it's almost time to start preparing dinner. Would you go up and ask Mr. Scrya if he'll stay for dinner? We would love to have you both."
Brigitte frowned, glancing at the ceiling. "I don't think he'll refuse. The good doctor offered to let us stay in the other house while we're here. Maybe going back up should wait until the food's ready. I doubt they're prepared for me to interrupt them just yet."
Madeleine laughed. "True, true." She pushed back her chair and walked over to the countertop, where she deposited the tax forms. "Well, I don't need to start immediately, so would you mind telling me a bit about yourself? Hobbies, experiences, favorite foods, and the like. It'll give us something to talk about over dinner."
Brigitte exhaled softly. Some of the tension in her frame bled away. "Yeah. I wouldn't mind that."
--------------------
"...and so I wanted to do a project examining the Lascaux ruins. I find the whole area fascinating. There's still so little we know about it."
"I see, so that's why you're here," said Madeleine, nodding. "In that case, I'll have to take you on a tour tomorrow."
Brigitte tilted her head. "A tour?"
"Sure," said Madeleine, beaming. "I may not look it, but I specialize in local history. I even had a job as official tour guide for the place before Cousin Henri took over excavations. It's not open to the public right now, but as his assistant, I can get you in whenever you want. Working as Henri's housekeeper and secretary has its perks."
"Huh," said Brigitte, idly brushing away a few stray strands of hair. "I didn't know about that. I guess I should have assumed that academics would run in the family."
"Is it like that for your family?" asked Madeleine.
"Eh? Well, yeah. On both sides, actually. I didn't grow up in the clan proper, like my dad, but my mom is..." Brigitte fidgeted awkwardly. "Well, there's a reason she married him. They practically raised me on archaeology. Anyway, it took me a while, but I finally get to set my own goals for a project. I hadn't actually planned to bring Yuuno with me, but he's been useful enough that I'm torn between being glad he came anyway and being jealous of his superior experience."
Madeleine giggled. "A frank revelation of feelings? I haven't had to deal with that in a while. Henri tries, but he's too busy and too much older than me to be fun to talk to. Meanwhile, Laurent's too young for an equal conversation. This is really refreshing."
"You...don't have friends your age?" Brigitte asked.
"Well..." Madeleine paused. "I do, but we haven't spent much time together since we graduated from school three years ago. Henri's wife had died not long before, so I came to be his housekeeper and help raise Laurent as early as I could. I don't regret it, mind you, but...I think it forced me to grow up a little sooner than I wanted to."
Brigitte nodded. "My circumstances weren't--aren't--quite like that, but I can sympathize on the growing up too fast part. I like to think I hide it well."
"You act just as I would expect from an eleven-year-old girl," said Madeleine, smiling.
"...Thanks," replied Brigitte, and found that she meant it.
--------------------
Astrus Cobalt strode through the Contractor's halls toward the captain's quarters. The urge to whistle came upon him, but he ignored it on the grounds that he could not, in fact, whistle. Humming was out as well. Under his breath, it was unenjoyable; aloud, and his shipmates would complain. He settled for snapping his fingers the rest of the way.
The door slid open before him, and he entered. The captain sat in a throne-like chair, gazing through the viewport into the starry void. Several IV needles protruded from his left arm above the heavy gauntlet he wore. His head turned slowly at the sound of Astrus's footsteps.
"Captain Corolla. The girl has been safely delivered," said Astrus, standing with arms clasped behind his back. "She's made no effort to conceal her movements, so tracking her to set up surveillance checkpoints was easy. While it is possible that she expects to be observed, I don't see the need to be invasive. I've also adjusted our maintenance schedule so that we can remain in the area for the next week before taking on another job. After that, Doctor Scaglietti can continue the observation with his own assets."
Corolla inclined his head in a jerky nod but said nothing.
"The doctor's interest does not ensure that her actions can be profited from...but the compensation is sufficient for the child-minding. And if we see something interesting...well, how we deal with it is entirely up to our discretion." Astrus met the captain's sidelong gaze. "Have you anything to add, brave leader?"
Corolla spoke at last, his voice harsh from unuse. "Do as...you see fit." His right hand gripped the arm of his chair, white-knuckled and trembling slightly.
Astrus gave a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Your confidence in my judgement is greatly appreciated." He spun on his heel and strode out of the room.
As the door closed behind him, Astrus exhaled. Speaking to Corolla took more effort than he liked to admit. It was...tiresome, to give status reports to a man doped up on painkillers to suppress his infection. A pity, as well; before the accident, the captain had been strong in both body and mind, easily surpassing Astrus in the former and almost matching him in the latter.
"You gonna jus' stand there, or what?"
Astrus blinked. Ah, it was Paula. He'd spaced out in the middle of the hallway. "This is a public area," he said, slipping on a halfhearted mask of politeness. "I am free to stand here lost in thought whenever I choose." A perfectly calculated response. His brain did good work.
She scoffed. "Don't give me that business. It wasn't funny the first time." She looked down the hall at the door to Corolla's quarters. "How's he doing?"
"What do you want me to say?" Astrus shrugged. "No outbursts, no injuries or malfunctions...I have nothing to tell you but negatives. Anything else, you can guess for yourself."
She gave him a cold stare, and he returned it without blinking. Finally, she spun her head away. "I'm going back to the maintenance checks. You gonna help?"
"Would my presence improve your mood?"
She grunted and turned away. Astrus watched her stride off, her hands clenched into fists.
He knew that none of his crewmates liked his personality. His eccentricity and lack of restraint were off-putting, and if he were honest, somewhat intentional. Yet, at moments like this, he couldn't help but feel a smug sense of satisfaction.
The Contractor's crew needed his intellectual skills, and he had Corolla's condition to thank for it.
Okay, everyone! Tell me what you think. Are you still interested? Is the pace too slow? Do you want more action? I want to know both for my sake and yours.
Seriously, I may be writing this story for largely personal reasons, but I really want to make it good. Every bit of feedback/WMG helps, if only for my motivation. Give me enough, and I might get Chapter 9 done by next weekend.
Frozen Flame
Fragment of the Devourer
- Location
- The Darkness Beyond Time
Well, it certainly feels like you're setting up for the big reveal, or at least hints, of what Brigitte came back for, as well as some background information about her and the other OCs. Wonder when all these guns will go off.
Though, I am a little unsure if that bit about her father being an archeologist was genuine and means that Yuuno is her dad after all. Overall, good job prepping us, just please don't leave us on the cliff-edge for too long.
Though, I am a little unsure if that bit about her father being an archeologist was genuine and means that Yuuno is her dad after all. Overall, good job prepping us, just please don't leave us on the cliff-edge for too long.
Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
...and now I'm convinced that she's Yuuno's daughter, but I'm really, really curious as to who her mother is.
On the guns going off, I hope not, mass weapons are really dangerous you know. Hopefully they'll keep it contained to clearly much safer magical beam spam. 
Baughn
Healing-type writer
- Location
- Dublin
Well, we know it won't be Nanoha or Fate. Neither of them are interested, and they already have three children besides.
Her hair is slightly darker than Yuuno's. Of the canon characters, I'd say the most likely one is Hayate... but I think her reaction was telling, and it's quite likely to be Madeleine. Certainly she's going to stick around to meet Brigitte in the future, and that's the most likely way it might happen.
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
Thanks for being honest.
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
On the one hand, the update speed makes me kind of wish the pace would pick up a bit more.
But on the other hand, I wouldn't want the quality of writing to deteriorate, and IME that usually happens when people start hurrying.
I'm also curious if the Contractor Captain is infected with Eclipse, or something else.
But on the other hand, I wouldn't want the quality of writing to deteriorate, and IME that usually happens when people start hurrying.
I'm also curious if the Contractor Captain is infected with Eclipse, or something else.
This exchange. I love it.
Also, I like how you've made this parallel with StrikerS. It at once reduces the involvement of N&F, allowing Yuuno to take a rare primary character role, and explains Yuuno's own minimal involvement in StrikerS.
Sure that may change later, but with Yuuno as Brigitte's primary contact with the main crew I think he might not be easily relegated to the background.
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
It's not quite parallel; this is set about five years before StrikerS, five after A's. But yes, I did work in the background events from the second episode to provide continuity.
Yuuno's my favorite character in the series, so I would obviously want to focus on him.
Oh that's right. There's a timeskip. Completely forgot about that.
Chapter 9: Exploring the Ruins
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
Hello, my dudes. Due to my Lenten hiatus from SV, I decided to take reader advice and go for a longer chapter. In this chapter, we have our first flashback of the story, as promised, as well as some progress on the plot. I hope this is installment is worth the wait.
Beta'd by @no., who is a gentleman and a scholar.
Beta'd by @no., who is a gentleman and a scholar.
Chapter 9: Exploring the Ruins
The night's dinner was relaxing after the alternating rush and confinement of the past few days. Madeleine's cooking was simple but judiciously seasoned. Henri and Yuuno discussed some of the former's potential projects, eventually moving on to the background of the Lascaux ruins: dated to the time of Al-Hazard, utterly dissimilar in architecture and design to known Al-Hazardian remains, various artifacts that indicated a high level of matter technology rather than the characteristic ancient magic. Nothing that Brigitte didn't already know.Rather than listen, she watched Laurent, who was focusing all the stubbornness of his five years on eating neatly and without spilling anything on the tablecloth. His struggles with the knife and fork were...I better not say anything. He would hate being called cute.
After dinner, everyone retired for the night. Yuuno and Brigitte walked out to the building behind the house, a small cabin. The night air was quiet, yet refreshing.
"After you left us together, Henri suggested that we have Madeleine take us to see the ruins if we want to go before he finishes with his current workload," Yuuno said. He unlocked the door and pushed it open. "What sort of timetable are you on?"
"I'm not in that much of a hurry," said Brigitte, following him in. "We can take our time here. That aside, Madeleine already offered to take us on her own, so there's no reason not to go tomorrow."
"Good. Then we'll work that out tomorrow."
The interior was mostly bare, with an unpolished wooden floor and single bunks set into the other walls. Brigitte ran to the one to the right of the door and hoisted herself up, flopping down on the cot. "You sure you don't want to talk now?"
Yuuno sat on the bunk on the opposite wall. "Are you in such a hurry that you can't wait until we're better-rested?"
Brigitte scrunched her face in concentration. "Hmm...not really." She glanced at him. "So, sleeping as far from me as possible? Is it for symmetry, or is it awkward for you to sleep in the same room as a girl?"
He coughed. "Now that kind of question is a sign that you're too tired to carry on a serious conversation. Good night."
She sighed and closed her eyes. Come to think of it, he had slept as far away from her as possible in their room on the ship, without even a pillow. Bet there's a story there. And nobody told me about it? Come on!
--------------------
Brigitte couldn't fall asleep.
...
"Brigitte."
She glanced up from her work. "Yeah?"
"Do you believe that he can do it?"
She scoffed. "Of course. He may not be you, but he's definitely a genius. He's been working on his complex time theory for years now."
"I wasn't referring to that."
"Huh?" She stopped and gave him her full attention.
"We are agreed that, if the experiment succeeds, the prototype must be destroyed, yes?"
She frowned. "What do you mean, doctor? We went over that from the start."
"I have doubts as to whether he can go through with it."
Brigitte's breath caught. "You...don't think he will?"
The man on the other side of the bars steepled his fingers. "Brigitte, you understand what sort of man your father is far better than I do. Tell me: do you honestly believe that, given the opportunity and knowing what we know now, he would eradicate the prototype before it could be studied?"
"Yes." Brigitte stared him down until he blinked and looked away.
He sighed. "I will grant that he has the resolve to do as he intends. However..."
"However what?" demanded Brigitte.
"What of the younger man, burdened neither by death nor cynicism? What would he do, if told what was to happen?"
"...he would insist that the knowledge was worth the risk, and that he wouldn't repeat the mistakes of the future?"
The doctor smiled. "Who can say? You've always been quick to grasp my meaning. Regardless, someone would insist that sealing and study are sufficient bulwarks against accident. That policy on Lost Logia has served the Bureau well for everything short of the Book of Darkness, and perhaps the Mariage."
He turned his gaze back to Brigitte. "Who can say? Would your father hold firm against his friends in the Bureau? Certainly, they would entertain his words. Yet against his younger self...might he not crack, even the slightest bit?"
"Why are you saying this?" Brigitte crossed her arms. "That's all conjecture. Are you saying we should send Chrono back instead, if we get it working?"
The doctor chuckled lightly. "No, no. Nothing of the sort. I'm sure he would attempt to shut our project down, if he could get here at all." He stood from his chair and began to pace sedately around his cell. "No, I was considering you."
"I'm sorry?"
"Oh, come now, girl. Adventure, heroism; don't they appeal to you? To sweep in under the Bureau's nose and remove the danger with no one the wiser? To see firsthand the fruits of our project and the discovery of travel through time?"
"You're just saying that," mumbled Brigitte. "I don't have Dad's experience. What makes me more capable than him? Besides, this just sounds like one of your schemes from years ago when you would stir up trouble with Lost Logia for your own amusement."
"Miss Scrya. I am entirely serious when I say that I consider you fully capable of fulfilling the task at hand. Your father has trained you himself, has he not? Do you think he held back?"
She sighed. "No. Not since I was a little kid."
The doctor smiled. "Your talent for mathematics is no less than his. With guidance, you have as good a chance as he to complete the project safely. Will you not consider it?"
She shook her head. "This is Dad's brainchild. I haven't done a quarter of the work for it, not compared to the two of you."
"Oh, but you have, and more." The doctor sat down again. "After all, it was you who convinced me to assist and your father to accept my help. My portion can be attributed to you, if indirectly." He smirked. "Consider it. You owe it to yourself, at least."
...
Well, if that memory didn't put a damper on her mood. Ugh.
She thought of the Dr. Scaglietti of this time and shivered. Had time in prison changed the one she knew that much? Or had he always been like that, and she too young to notice? The way he looked at her like she was an exotic specimen...
What had her Dr. Scaglietti's motive been in persuading her to go? He hadn't bothered to warn her about the isolation inherent to a world where nobody knew her. Talking to Yuuno and Madeleine helped the loneliness, but there was so much she couldn't tell them.
She wanted to go home soon.
--------------------
"All right! Are we all ready to go?" Madeleine was practically bouncing with excitement.
"Rea'y," yawned Laurent, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve.
Brigitte let herself smile. "I think so."
"Everybody into the SWERV!"
Yuuno blinked. "The what?"
"Super wacky extra rocks vehicle," Laurent recited in monotone.
Brigitte frowned. "Uhh, I thought it was the spider-washing excellent repertoire vagabond."
"Huh." Laurent frowned back. "That one's pretty good. Can I use it?"
"...Sure."
Madeleine made an exasperated face. "Please stop making fun of my acronyms. That's not even close to the real meaning! While I can excuse Brigitte, you should know better, young man!" She pointed a finger at Laurent.
"Not sorry," he stage-whispered.
Brigitte patted him on the head, but he pushed her hand away. "Never change, Laurent."
Yuuno cleared his throat. "Why don't we go outside and get started on our little trip? It's not exactly a short one."
"Well, it's not long, either," Madeleine said. "Not at our usual speed."
"Oh," said Yuuno. He looked to Laurent. "Should I be worried?"
The boy shook his head vigorously but failed to suppress his smirk.
--------------------
This was Yuuno's first time in a wheeled vehicle travelling over a surface that was not a road.
He prayed that today's return trip would be the last.
--------------------
"Well, that was fun!" Brigitte's face was plastered with a wide grin, as was the face of the now-fully-awake small child walking next to her.
Yuuno was slowly recovering from a state of shock. "Do you always drive so...so..."
Madeleine looked offended at his grimace. "The purpose of a vehicle is to provide efficient transportation. My driving is the pinnacle of efficiency, as it should be."
"The petulance isn't necessary, please," muttered Yuuno.
"See that arch up there?" Madeleine called from ahead, ignoring him. "The tour begins once we pass through! I hope you brought a light source, because we're going into the caves before long."
Brigitte sidled up to Yuuno but didn't look at him. [I want you to distract them while I look for the things.]
[What do you have in mind?] asked Yuuno.
[Okay, not really distract. More like, keep them company while I wander off on my own. Can you hold this for me?] She handed Yuuno a palm-sized disk with a blinking green light.
[And this is?]
[It's a teleport beacon. That way, I can get back quickly if they wonder where I've gone. I would use telepathy to triangulate, but the walls are pretty close in here, and I don't want to get stuck in one.]
Yuuno thought it over. On the one hand, she hadn't told him just what she would do when she found the device for which she was searching. On the other, she hadn't abused his trust since agreeing to work together. [That's acceptable,] he replied. [Come back once you find it, though. I don't want you to excavate anything today.]
Brigitte glowered at him. [Don't tell me what to do.]
[If it's as dangerous as you say, then you absolutely should not deal with it alone.] Yuuno returned her look impassively. [Both for your safety and my peace of mind.]
[Hmph, fine.] She didn't press it further.
--------------------
"And over here, we have the Narcolepsy Room, named for the pictorial depictions of comatose figures on the upper walls and ceiling. You may notice the cyclical nature of the pictures; they story they tell seems to loop back into itself." Madeleine waved at the painted engravings set in the stone of the chamber. "As a general rule, the art found in the caves here is of a cyclical nature. We still don't know what exactly it means about the people who made it, since we've found no written records in this area. The style is also different from the hieroglyphic writing system developed and used by the ancient rulers of Al-Hazard, some of which has survived in the magic systems based around mathematics."
Madeleine was in full tour-guide mode, spouting memorized descriptions of anything and everything in the cave system that comprised the bulk of the ruins. Laurent followed close, standing right behind her when she stopped to explain something in detail, which mostly amounted to 'we don't know anything about this.' Yuuno found himself interested nonetheless; Madeleine's ramblings were full of details that he would not have noticed on first glance. Brigitte seemed interested as well--if she was only feigning an interest while looking for an opening to escape on her own, she was a very good actor.
They came through a tunnel into another room. The lights that lined the walls of the other chambers were conspicuously absent here, leaving the room black except for what light spilled from the tunnel mouths.
"And this is the Chamber of Unbreakable Darkness, named for its natural anti-magilink field," Madeleine explained. "Magic-based light sources will not work here, so this room requires more primitive light sources, like electric filament bulbs." She produced an electric flashlight from a pocket and flipped it on to light the way.
A natural anti-magilink field? thought Yuuno. He whispered to Brigitte, "Does that mean the boundary here between imaginary space and realspace is weakened?"
Brigitte's reply came a second later. "We think it's a side effect from when the thing I'm looking for was landed here. I told you it rips up realspace when it's used."
"Who's 'we'?"
Brigitte's tone was sharp. "Don't pry."
Yuuno closed his eyes. "Right. Sorry."
"You made a good observation. My source tells me that it should be around this area, within a close radius. I'll want to break off here."
Madeleine droned on as they walked through the chamber, oblivious to their conversation, with Laurent holding her hand. Yuuno and Brigitte began to fall behind.
"How do you plan to give Madeleine the slip without making her panic?" Yuuno could have sworn Brigitte rolled her eyes at this, except that he didn't swear and it was too dark to tell.
"Don't worry, I've got this. I know exactly what I'm looking for. Start up a conversation with her so I can deploy an Area Search."
"How do you plan to do that within the radius of the natural AMF?"
Some light spilled in from the tunnel at the other end of the room. Brigitte scowled. "Of course I'm not doing it in here, dummy. I'm going to let it out on the perimeter and search from there. Once the search finishes, I'll know where to go."
They exited the room into the tunnel, and Yuuno switched to telepathy. [I thought you already knew the location.]
[Well, the tunnels are different on my map! The excavation changes some things, you know.]
Yuuno gave her a flat look. [No need to be petulant. Get started already.]
He increased his pace to catch up to Madeleine and Laurent. As he came next to them, Madeleine gave him a smile. "So, what do you think of the tour so far?"
"It's been quite illuminating," he replied. "I begin to understand the allure this place holds for Brigitte. I'm tempted to come and investigate myself, at some later time. I find the idea of a technological development separate from, but simultaneous to, that of Al-Hazard fascinating." The corridor branched, and Madeleine led them on the left path. "My own excavations, while exciting in their own way, didn't have nearly as much historical significance. Even if this is only a fragment that died here, without making it into the main stream of Al-Hazard's cultural evolution, its mere existence confirms the possibility that other sites like it may have survived."
Madeleine nodded."Yes, of course! That's one of my interests as well. In a few years, when Laurent is old enough to attend school on his own, I plan to pursue an advanced degree in archaeology with a focus on the interplay of ancient magic with Al-Hazard society. It's a small field, but that just means I have more work to do!"
Laurent made a disgruntled noise. "You guys are nerds. Only nerds are happy about more work." He swung Madeleine's hand back and forth impatiently.
Yuuno smiled. "You know, I don't really think that's true. One of my friends is an investigator for the Administration Bureau, and his favorite thing to do is paperwork. He says that as long as he's doing paperwork, it means that nothing's gone wrong that he has to fix."
"And...pardon the question, but how often do things go wrong?" Madeleine sounded genuinely curious.
Yuuno sighed. "Last I heard, he's out of his office two to three days of every six. And none of that is vacation. He doesn't take vacations."
"Your friend sounds boring," pronounced Laurent.
"If you exclude the times he blew up a dozen robots with a single attack and froze a city-sized monster, sure." Laurent spun to face Yuuno, his jaw slack and eyes comically wide. Yuuno smiled. "And those are just the ones I was there for."
Madeleine sighed, but she was smiling too. "Don't lead the boy on like that, Yuuno. There's no way he'll leave you alone if you have stories like that to tell."
Yuuno shrugged. "They're long stories, but I'm willing to tell them if you're willing to listen, Laurent. I can try to keep things cut down to the interesting parts."
"I...I would like to hear about your experiences, too," said Madeleine, almost timidly. Then she looked back. "Wait, where's Brigitte? Wasn't she with us?"
"No," said Laurent. "She took the other path back where the tunnel split up."
Yuuno gave him an appraising look. "You're quite observant, Laurent."
"I know! I have to be, since I want to be a ship captain like Uncle Gerard when I grow up," the boy said, nodding firmly.
Madeleine looked back up the tunnel. "Was she not paying attention and took the left path by mistake?"
"That depends," said Yuuno. "Where does that path lead?"
"Nowhere in particular," said Madeleine. "That's the area for the new excavation; there's nothing there yet."
"I see," said Yuuno. "Now tell me, Madeleine. Why did Brigitte come here in the first place?"
"She wanted to do archeological work of her own," Madeleine replied. "That's what she told me."
"That is indeed what she said. The question is, did she go off on her own out of innocent curiosity or out of malicious, rule-flouting curiosity."
"I'm...sorry?" Madeleine's mouth hung open in surprise, as if she couldn't reconcile the words with his nonchalant tone.
"Never mind that. Let's go look for her. That's what you would suggest, isn't it?" Yuuno met Madeleine's eyes. She flinched and looked away.
"Do you not like Brigitte?" asked Laurent.
Yuuno sighed and squatted down next to the boy. "That's a very complicated question. It's not that I don't like her; it's that I don't know her well enough to trust that she wouldn't leave the group on purpose." He glanced down the tunnel. "That, and she's not enough of an airhead to miss the path in a blank tunnel with nothing to distract her." He stood up, took a few steps in the direction they'd come, and turned around, shaking his head. "I'm sorry. It isn't like me to vent on acquaintances. I've spent the last three days with her, and the lack of proper communication has been...trying, to say the least."
"Of course," said Madeleine, breathily. "That's...quite understandable. I won't mention it to her."
Yuuno nodded. "Thank you."
Madeleine took Laurent's hand and the three began to retrace their steps down the tunnel.
--------------------
Brigitte climbed over a pile of debris. The tunnels in this area were only partially cleared; some of the ones on her map weren't visible at all. They were also dim, lit only by a conjured light spell that Brigitte carried with her. Apparently, the excavations had not yet reached this area.
That was fine. As long as she could get to her target location, or sufficiently close to it, Brigitte could excavate on her own.
With a mental nudge from her, Calliope projected the holographic map of the cave system. Another nudge overlaid it with the updated map of the tunnels' current condition, the first in green, the second in blue. Brigitte squinted at the display and examined her projected route, highlighted with a soft yellow. Based on the condition of the tunnels, she would have...at least two blockages, and maybe a wall to break through. Hopefully, no more than that.
She slid down a short slope of loose rocks and started to sing softly.
"Hopokk had a talk with neighbor Neviden.
'Come out, see the sun, and have a bite of grass.'
Neviden said, 'Again? Must you tempt me from my den?
All you have by day is horrid sand that turns to glass.'"
Coming to a cavern with many openings and hollows, she checked her map and crawled into the second opening from the right. She had to get on her hands and knees to fit through. Fortunately, her barrier jacket kept her skin from getting scraped.
"'How is that a way to behave,
Luring me from my lovely cave?
There's water here, but none to save
For a greedy lump like you.'"
It was harder to sing while crawling, but she managed.
"'Don't impeach my motives so.
I'm giving you a place to go,
to find things you might never know,
and the warmth of the sunlight, too.'"
She broke off as the tunnel widened, giving her room to stand and brush herself off. "I wonder if I'll see any nevidens down here today?" Brigitte twisted her torso to slip through a group of stalagmites. "Calliope, do you sense any?"
[Negative. Wide area search not deployed. Vital scans impaired in Navagation Device shell.]
"Oh well," sighed Brigitte. "Let me know if you see any."
[Affirmative.]
"This situation kind of makes me the hopokk, doesn't it?"
[...Answer unresolved. Query: intended as metaphor?]
Brigitte patted the Device on her wrist. "Good job, Calliope. I told Dad I could teach you."
--------------------
Chrono tapped at his desk irritably. "Is there nothing else? No more possible leads?"
Amy shook her head. "No, that's everything."
Chrono scowled. "At this rate, I might have to track Scrya down so I can question the girl as a witness. He might not even know about the fire yet."
Amy shrugged. "Maybe not. Do you have a way to contact him?"
"That's the other problem." Chrono got up from his desk and started to pace back and forth. "Six years, Amy. Six years as the Chief Infinity Librarian and the man still doesn't have a personal Device. If he had one, I could request a long-distance connection, but right now, I only know the planet. I can't cover a planet with telepathy, especially not a planet two days' travel away on an unregistered vessel. No, we're stuck waiting for him to contact us." He halted and laid his hands on the desk again.
Amy put a hand on his shoulder. "I think you could stand to be a little more calm about this situation, Chrono."
He groaned. "I would be a little more calm about this if I knew what the hell was going on over there."
"Vacation time is always rough," said Amy. She sat him down in his chair again and ruffled his hair in a comforting gesture. "I'm sure something will turn up. It usually does."
--------------------
Brigitte took a deep breath. She had almost reached her destination. The only barrier left was the solid rock slab blocking the entrance to the chamber, right where the excavation report said it had been when Dr. Durand had found it.
"Well, we're here," she said to Calliope. "Scan it for weak points, please."
[Scanning. Warning: field irregularities detected. Some scanning functions impaired.]
"That's expected, since we're so close." Brigitte ran her free hand across the slab's dark surface. It was polished smooth, with only a little dust.
[Scan complete. Density significant. Brute force inadvisable.]
Brigitte sighed. "No punching, got it."
[Durability of subject almost certainly exceeds maximum assisted impulse of gauntlet form.]
Brigitte cracked a smile. "Now you sound like Dad." She took a step back and swept her gaze around the giant doorstop's edges. "So, wedge it out with forcefields and binds, or try to cut through?"
[Unlikely to work.] Calliope flashed. [Cross-checking database for possible methods...]
Brigitte pondered. When faced with a problem, the proper response was to step back and reduce the problem to its most essential components. Goal: get into the chamber on the other side of this rock. Obstacle: the rock was blocking the way, and she couldn't phase through walls. Solution: remove the rock. Blowing it up was out; fists wouldn't do the trick, and shooting magic might blow up the whole chamber, if she had any spells strong enough for the job (she didn't). That left moving it. Direct approach with physical constructs--also out, which left...
[Suggestion: teleportation magic.]
Brigitte frowned. "I thought you would tell me that a teleport in an irregular mana field was highly inadvisable."
[Clarification: teleport rock, not self.]
Ah. Still inadvisable under normal circumstances, but much less dangerous than teleporting herself inside the room. Brigitte snapped her fingers. "That's a decent idea. Set it up, please."
[Request acknowledged. Setting up.]
Calliope expanded, components from its parallel-space storage unfolding to form a gauntlet over her hand. Brigitte's barrier jacket flared, adding an active protection layer, visible as a brown cape designed to mimic what her father wore in old pictures. Brigitte lifted both hands in front of her. "Calliope, find me the spot with the least interference. I'll cast unassisted from there."
[Two steps to your right, one step back.]
Brigitte followed the directions and focused. While teleporting herself was muscle memory at this point, she had less practice teleporting other things from a distance--that was more of her father's thing. She estimated the dimensions of the rock, factored in Calliope's estimate of the mass density, and chose a clear space about three meters from the rock's starting position. It seemed feasible, but you could never quite tell with unknown mana field distortions...well. She would just do it and hope for no explosions.
Adding and scaling the required vectors in her head, she focused on the flow of mana through her linker core and squeezed. A teal-green magic circle flared to life under the rock, which shimmered and vanished, reappearing with a similar shimmer approximately seventy centimeters from the desired spot. Brigitte frowned. "Distorted mana fields are no joke, huh? That's way more error than I expected." She gingerly started walking toward the now-open entryway. Suddenly, the rock tipped over and crashed to the ground, showering her with splinters. Brigitte beckoned her floating light closer to it and was able to make out hairline cracks across much of the stone's surface, as well as strange ripples where it had been completely smooth. Paling slightly, she turned away and passed through the doorway.
The ceiling rose above her, fading into blackness that her small light couldn't quite pierce. Scant reflections flickered from polished carvings on the near walls and geometric patterns in a floor mosaic. Brigitte waved her hand, summoning three more lights, which she sent ahead of her in different directions. With the extra illumination, she could make out the grays and reds of the stone, with some of the black material of the late door, Kaiser rest its soul, mixed in. The patterns on the floor were radial, all leading to the center of the circular chamber. Somehow, it made her think of a kind of shrine.
Of course, she'd seen this chamber before and thought the same then. The only different thing was the massive lump of purplish-black metal embedded in the rock where the floor patterns intersected. It seemed to pulse faintly, reflecting deep violet rays she could barely see while devouring all other visible light. Rising at an oblique angle, it towered almost to the chamber ceiling.
Well, here I am, thought Brigitte, and there it is. The Lost Logia that started this whole horrible mess. Now, it was time to destroy it and prevent the ensuing tragedy.
And immediately, the moment was ruined, as Brigitte realized that she had neglected to think of how, exactly, she would destroy the equivalent of a ship's drive in an enclosed cavern in the center of a magic distortion zone.
"Merde. I should have asked the Doctor for some explosives."
And then Yuuno shows up, and after a wacky series of events that explains the problems, says
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
I'm glad you like how I rendered it.
He's still thinking about it. There's no way to know what his final decision will be at this point.
But we know exactly what his decision wioll haven be (I'm certain this is the wrong phrase, but I can't make heads or tails of time travel tenses and figure it'll at least get the point across), because he met Brigitte before she was born, and thus requires that she fail to destroy the device.
Unless he does decide to destroy it, but that just means the time travel device doesn't time travel so much as it picks a point in the past and splits off a copy of the universe that now contains the prospective time traveller and optionally itself. We'll find out when Brigitte jumps forward in time and discovers that she is twins.
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Canis
Shoulder Puppy
- Location
- United States
Alternately this could be a method of time travel that doesn't create splits.
The timeline split is incredibly popular in science fiction right now, to the point that most people seem to have forgotten that you can have time-travel that actually changes time and not have it erase the time-traveler if they accidentally themselves from ever having existed because within those universes time travel is possible because time is not as linear as we experience it.
Plus we're dealing with magic which introduces all sorts of possibilities even in settings where magic is treated as a science. And the existence of prophecy in Nanoha-verse pretty much locks it down as being Magic and not just sufficiently advanced technology.
Chapter 10: Wherever You Are
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
A month and a day later, I return with a new chapter. It's a little shorter than I would like, but my beta and I felt that keeping just what's here was the right decision. I hope to have the next chapter out in two weeks, maybe, to compensate.
Oh, and I graduated from college last weekend. There's that.
Beta'd by @no., the very model of a modern major general.
Brigitte rushed through the tunnels, retracing her steps. Okay, status. Location of the Lost Logia, obtained. Demolition tools, unavailable at the moment. Allies, questionable. I really don't want to deal with Doctor Scaglietti again...Yuuno might help, but he still hasn't made up his mind...
She checked the position of Yuuno's beacon on her map. Now that she was outside the mana distortion zone, she could accurately track the rest of the party. The quickest route was...actually, taking a slight detour will be better, if only to decrease the probability of my path being traced later. At the rates that we're moving, I can meet up with them in the chamber with all the side paths. Maybe I can get through without crawling this time. Then just slip through here, and...aha! There they are. The cleared tunnels led directly to this chamber, so it was unsurprising to find the rest of the group here already. Now, nonchalance on three, two...
"Oh, there you guys are! I was looking for you." Brigitte scrambled down a short slope, skidding on loose stones. She came to a stop in front of them. "I didn't think it would take quite this--"
"What were you thinking?" Madeleine snapped.
Brigitte froze. Oh...I didn't plan what to tell her. A knot tightened in her stomach. She hadn't planned for this reaction from the older girl.
"I expected better from you." Madeleine's eyelids fluttered despite having nothing to wipe away, a sign that she was trying, and failing, to keep her temper. "I really don't understand it. Were you just impatient? I didn't think you were the type. You didn't strike me as thoughtless, either. What excuse do you have for disobeying the regulations and separating from the group?"
Brigitte glanced at Yuuno, but he shook his head minutely, keeping silent.
Madeleine stalked over to Brigitte and glared down at her. "Look at me." Brigitte turned her head away. "Look at me!" Madeleine shouted. Brigitte flinched and obeyed. Madeleine's expression softened, but only a little. "Brigitte, did you take the wrong path on purpose?" The girl hesitated, but finally gave a weak nod. "And why did you do that?"
"Because I wanted to see what the unexcavated parts looked like," Brigitte mumbled. "I didn't intend to get lost. Besides, Yuuno and I have a tracker just in case."
Madeleine frowned. "If you wanted to see the untouched area, you could have asked. This is going to make it difficult to trust you in the future. I hope you realize that."
Brigitte looked down. "Yeah."
"And you're not sorry."
Brigitte sighed. "No, I'm not."
Madeleine's breath hissed between her clenched teeth. She turned to Yuuno. "Don't you have anything to say to her?" With a thoughtful air, Yuuno looked at her, Brigitte, and Laurent in turn. The little boy was visibly uncomfortable, fidgeting in place. Brigitte felt much the same about the situation.
"Not here," Yuuno said at last. "I'll speak with her when we've returned." He turned away and began to walk back the way they had come. "It's about time to leave if we want to be in time for dinner. Henri shouldn't have to cook his own food." He paused. "Also, Madeleine, try to be a little less exuberant with your driving. I would prefer to keep my appetite, if possible."
In silence, they followed him, Madeleine going last, holding Laurent's hand. Brigitte glanced back at the older girl as they re-entered the polished tunnel. The signs of anger on Madeleine's face had faded away into disappointment.
Brigitte couldn't decide which expression made her feel worse.
--------------------
The study door opened quietly, and a teenage boy slipped in. "Hey, 'Gitta! Good to see you! How have you been?"
The little girl crossed her arms indignantly. "That is not my name, Laurent."
He laughed and ruffled her hair. She squeaked and tried to push his hand away, but it was too late. "Lighten up, cousin. Don't be so formal all the time."
"Well, maybe you could stop being such a tease."
He laughed again. "Nope. You should join me instead of complaining about it. I heard the Psychology Association is going to add teasing to their official list of love languages."
She glared at him. "You're making that up. Nobody shows affection by teasing except you."
He cleared a spot on her desk and sat down, letting his legs dangle. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. I've seen your mom and dad tease each other on multiple occasions. I mean, it's a good way to prove you have a sense of humor. People are always going to do silly things, right? If you can't laugh about it, what's the point? Besides, if you're serious all the time, people won't like taking your advice as much."
She leaned back in her cushioned chair. "So I should be funny if I want people to listen to me."
"Yes," he replied, completely serious.
"This is not actually just another joke?"
"Hey, I take my psychology studies very seriously, you know. Understanding how people tick is the first key to being a good leader."
She frowned. "I thought that was your decision-making skills."
He leaned closer to her. "Well, you can't make good decisions if you don't know how to predict what your sailors will do, right? Right?"
She pushed his head away. "For your information, I was working before you came in. Please stop distracting me."
He slipped off the desk and examined some of the papers she had out. "What's this? Your homework from school?"
She scowled. "No, this is the mathematics from Daddy and Uncle Henri's new project. I'm using it as practice for calculating quaternions in my head."
Snerk.
She whipped her head around. "What?" she demanded.
"Sorry, you just said mathematics and Daddy in the same sentence. It's like, you talk like a kid and not like a kid at the same time."
"Ugh!" She squirmed out of her chair and pushed her cousin toward the door. "Get out! You are not helping anything!"
"Well, I thought it was funny." Still smiling, he let himself be evicted from the room. Still fuming, she slammed the door after him.
--------------------
When they returned to the cabin, Brigitte and Yuuno sat on their bunks, both avoiding eye contact. Brigitte felt a lecture brewing, but she had no way to prepare--this situation was a completely new experience, and she had no idea what Yuuno might say.
After a while, he raised his head and looked intently at her. "What did you think would happen?"
Brigitte didn't have an answer to that.
With no answer forthcoming, Yuuno continued, "I'll give you my analysis; you can tell me if I'm wrong. You rushed off at the first opportunity without thinking your actions through. This seems to be habitual with you, jumping into things and dealing with consequences only when you can't avoid them any longer." He sighed deeply, then fixed her with a harder look than she had seen on him before. "Both of us have been holding back from the other. We tried a limited partnership, and since it isn't working, I'm going to stop holding back what I really think. I hope you can do the same."
Brigitte's throat felt suddenly dry. "I can't promise anything."
Yuuno sat up straighter and crossed his arms. "Unfortunate, but we passed the stage for bargains and promises long ago. Just listen for now. It's clear that you only intended to work with me as long as it was convenient; I suspect you allowed me to come with you so I wouldn't involve the Administration Bureau, for reasons you never explained." He sighed. "I must admit, I'm at a loss there, given that the containment of dangerous Lost Logia is the explicit reason for the Bureau's existence."
Brigitte scoffed. "And how has containment worked as a strategy, pray tell?"
Yuuno raised an eyebrow. "Much better than you seem to think. The number of known extant Lost Logia too powerful to be safely sealed can be counted on one hand."
"That's not my point," Brigitte growled. "It's what people do with it after it's sealed that counts. Nobody outright destroys a Lost Logia unless it's a hive of self-replicating murder robots or something. It's always, 'oh, we sealed this dangerous thing, now let's study it so we can replicate the dangerous bits in a controlled fashion.' That kind of thinking is stupid and gets people killed."
"That is a gross oversimplification--"
Brigitte cut him off. "No, listen. I agree with you, you can count the Lost Logia on the level of the Book of Darkness on one hand. I know I'm making a straw man argument. But can you blame me? Do you know what all this research into Lost Logia produces? Weapons! What do weapons do? Kill people!" she shouted, punctuating each sentence with an angrier gesture. "The TSAB is military, and every time it picks up a new toy, that just invites escalation from all the petty crime rings mooching off their tech. I don't want anything to do with the organization that let Project Fate and the Combat Cyborg fiasco go on right under their noses--" and suddenly Yuuno was right in her face.
"How do you know about Project Fate?" Brigitte flinched back, opened her mouth, and belatedly realized what she had just said. "Or should I say, what do you know about Project Fate?" demanded Yuuno, tension building in his formerly expressionless features. Brigitte slid to the side, scrambling to her feet, and backed away. Slowly, evenly, Yuuno followed her, his eyes locked with hers.
She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. "Don't...don't look at me like that."
His hand slammed into the wall near her head. "Start talking."
"I..." Words wouldn't come. Her tightened throat felt about to choke her. She wanted to scream, to run, anything to get him to stop looking at me like I'm a criminal!
Her body glowed teal. A teleportation circle flashed under Yuuno's feet, and he had only time to look surprised before vanishing.
That won't hold, she thought, her analytical side struggling with her emotions. He'll be back here in a few seconds. Almost on autopilot, Brigitte tapped Calliope's bracelet form and let herself fall into a very familiar routine--teleport tag.
Part of her wanted to fall down and cry. The other part said no, focus on the calculations. One mistake could cost her the game, and the stakes had never been quite this high.
--------------------
Yuuno materialized in the desert outside the city. He looked around in the low light, frowning. Brigitte's--the girl's--teleport chain had led here, but her magic signature was missing. A decoy! The last link in the chain was fake, unless her concealment skills were higher than he thought...worrying about that would waste time. He concentrated on his previous location.
...
He opened his eyes. He could still sense the spent mana from her teleport, but not her directly. He rose into the air to get a better look at the surroundings. This area held scattered rocks and brush, what might have been an oasis in the past being slowly overtaken by sand.
"I know you're here," he called. "Don't bother hiding. Even if I can't find you now, I know what you're after, and I've already called in backup from the Administration Bureau." He paused, but no answer came.
A vital scan revealed the presence of several small animals, but nothing of the girl. Had her head start allowed her to escape completely? Yuuno grimaced, then turned and flew at top speed back toward the city. He had to contact Chrono while enough time remained for communication to matter.
--------------------
From under a rock, a ferret dragging a bracelet wiggled out of an abandoned hopokk den, shuddering. In a shower of teal sparks, it transformed into a human girl, who promptly collapsed and burst into tears.
Oh, and I graduated from college last weekend. There's that.
Beta'd by @no., the very model of a modern major general.
Chapter 10: Wherever You Are
Brigitte rushed through the tunnels, retracing her steps. Okay, status. Location of the Lost Logia, obtained. Demolition tools, unavailable at the moment. Allies, questionable. I really don't want to deal with Doctor Scaglietti again...Yuuno might help, but he still hasn't made up his mind...
She checked the position of Yuuno's beacon on her map. Now that she was outside the mana distortion zone, she could accurately track the rest of the party. The quickest route was...actually, taking a slight detour will be better, if only to decrease the probability of my path being traced later. At the rates that we're moving, I can meet up with them in the chamber with all the side paths. Maybe I can get through without crawling this time. Then just slip through here, and...aha! There they are. The cleared tunnels led directly to this chamber, so it was unsurprising to find the rest of the group here already. Now, nonchalance on three, two...
"Oh, there you guys are! I was looking for you." Brigitte scrambled down a short slope, skidding on loose stones. She came to a stop in front of them. "I didn't think it would take quite this--"
"What were you thinking?" Madeleine snapped.
Brigitte froze. Oh...I didn't plan what to tell her. A knot tightened in her stomach. She hadn't planned for this reaction from the older girl.
"I expected better from you." Madeleine's eyelids fluttered despite having nothing to wipe away, a sign that she was trying, and failing, to keep her temper. "I really don't understand it. Were you just impatient? I didn't think you were the type. You didn't strike me as thoughtless, either. What excuse do you have for disobeying the regulations and separating from the group?"
Brigitte glanced at Yuuno, but he shook his head minutely, keeping silent.
Madeleine stalked over to Brigitte and glared down at her. "Look at me." Brigitte turned her head away. "Look at me!" Madeleine shouted. Brigitte flinched and obeyed. Madeleine's expression softened, but only a little. "Brigitte, did you take the wrong path on purpose?" The girl hesitated, but finally gave a weak nod. "And why did you do that?"
"Because I wanted to see what the unexcavated parts looked like," Brigitte mumbled. "I didn't intend to get lost. Besides, Yuuno and I have a tracker just in case."
Madeleine frowned. "If you wanted to see the untouched area, you could have asked. This is going to make it difficult to trust you in the future. I hope you realize that."
Brigitte looked down. "Yeah."
"And you're not sorry."
Brigitte sighed. "No, I'm not."
Madeleine's breath hissed between her clenched teeth. She turned to Yuuno. "Don't you have anything to say to her?" With a thoughtful air, Yuuno looked at her, Brigitte, and Laurent in turn. The little boy was visibly uncomfortable, fidgeting in place. Brigitte felt much the same about the situation.
"Not here," Yuuno said at last. "I'll speak with her when we've returned." He turned away and began to walk back the way they had come. "It's about time to leave if we want to be in time for dinner. Henri shouldn't have to cook his own food." He paused. "Also, Madeleine, try to be a little less exuberant with your driving. I would prefer to keep my appetite, if possible."
In silence, they followed him, Madeleine going last, holding Laurent's hand. Brigitte glanced back at the older girl as they re-entered the polished tunnel. The signs of anger on Madeleine's face had faded away into disappointment.
Brigitte couldn't decide which expression made her feel worse.
--------------------
The study door opened quietly, and a teenage boy slipped in. "Hey, 'Gitta! Good to see you! How have you been?"
The little girl crossed her arms indignantly. "That is not my name, Laurent."
He laughed and ruffled her hair. She squeaked and tried to push his hand away, but it was too late. "Lighten up, cousin. Don't be so formal all the time."
"Well, maybe you could stop being such a tease."
He laughed again. "Nope. You should join me instead of complaining about it. I heard the Psychology Association is going to add teasing to their official list of love languages."
She glared at him. "You're making that up. Nobody shows affection by teasing except you."
He cleared a spot on her desk and sat down, letting his legs dangle. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. I've seen your mom and dad tease each other on multiple occasions. I mean, it's a good way to prove you have a sense of humor. People are always going to do silly things, right? If you can't laugh about it, what's the point? Besides, if you're serious all the time, people won't like taking your advice as much."
She leaned back in her cushioned chair. "So I should be funny if I want people to listen to me."
"Yes," he replied, completely serious.
"This is not actually just another joke?"
"Hey, I take my psychology studies very seriously, you know. Understanding how people tick is the first key to being a good leader."
She frowned. "I thought that was your decision-making skills."
He leaned closer to her. "Well, you can't make good decisions if you don't know how to predict what your sailors will do, right? Right?"
She pushed his head away. "For your information, I was working before you came in. Please stop distracting me."
He slipped off the desk and examined some of the papers she had out. "What's this? Your homework from school?"
She scowled. "No, this is the mathematics from Daddy and Uncle Henri's new project. I'm using it as practice for calculating quaternions in my head."
Snerk.
She whipped her head around. "What?" she demanded.
"Sorry, you just said mathematics and Daddy in the same sentence. It's like, you talk like a kid and not like a kid at the same time."
"Ugh!" She squirmed out of her chair and pushed her cousin toward the door. "Get out! You are not helping anything!"
"Well, I thought it was funny." Still smiling, he let himself be evicted from the room. Still fuming, she slammed the door after him.
--------------------
When they returned to the cabin, Brigitte and Yuuno sat on their bunks, both avoiding eye contact. Brigitte felt a lecture brewing, but she had no way to prepare--this situation was a completely new experience, and she had no idea what Yuuno might say.
After a while, he raised his head and looked intently at her. "What did you think would happen?"
Brigitte didn't have an answer to that.
With no answer forthcoming, Yuuno continued, "I'll give you my analysis; you can tell me if I'm wrong. You rushed off at the first opportunity without thinking your actions through. This seems to be habitual with you, jumping into things and dealing with consequences only when you can't avoid them any longer." He sighed deeply, then fixed her with a harder look than she had seen on him before. "Both of us have been holding back from the other. We tried a limited partnership, and since it isn't working, I'm going to stop holding back what I really think. I hope you can do the same."
Brigitte's throat felt suddenly dry. "I can't promise anything."
Yuuno sat up straighter and crossed his arms. "Unfortunate, but we passed the stage for bargains and promises long ago. Just listen for now. It's clear that you only intended to work with me as long as it was convenient; I suspect you allowed me to come with you so I wouldn't involve the Administration Bureau, for reasons you never explained." He sighed. "I must admit, I'm at a loss there, given that the containment of dangerous Lost Logia is the explicit reason for the Bureau's existence."
Brigitte scoffed. "And how has containment worked as a strategy, pray tell?"
Yuuno raised an eyebrow. "Much better than you seem to think. The number of known extant Lost Logia too powerful to be safely sealed can be counted on one hand."
"That's not my point," Brigitte growled. "It's what people do with it after it's sealed that counts. Nobody outright destroys a Lost Logia unless it's a hive of self-replicating murder robots or something. It's always, 'oh, we sealed this dangerous thing, now let's study it so we can replicate the dangerous bits in a controlled fashion.' That kind of thinking is stupid and gets people killed."
"That is a gross oversimplification--"
Brigitte cut him off. "No, listen. I agree with you, you can count the Lost Logia on the level of the Book of Darkness on one hand. I know I'm making a straw man argument. But can you blame me? Do you know what all this research into Lost Logia produces? Weapons! What do weapons do? Kill people!" she shouted, punctuating each sentence with an angrier gesture. "The TSAB is military, and every time it picks up a new toy, that just invites escalation from all the petty crime rings mooching off their tech. I don't want anything to do with the organization that let Project Fate and the Combat Cyborg fiasco go on right under their noses--" and suddenly Yuuno was right in her face.
"How do you know about Project Fate?" Brigitte flinched back, opened her mouth, and belatedly realized what she had just said. "Or should I say, what do you know about Project Fate?" demanded Yuuno, tension building in his formerly expressionless features. Brigitte slid to the side, scrambling to her feet, and backed away. Slowly, evenly, Yuuno followed her, his eyes locked with hers.
She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. "Don't...don't look at me like that."
His hand slammed into the wall near her head. "Start talking."
"I..." Words wouldn't come. Her tightened throat felt about to choke her. She wanted to scream, to run, anything to get him to stop looking at me like I'm a criminal!
Her body glowed teal. A teleportation circle flashed under Yuuno's feet, and he had only time to look surprised before vanishing.
That won't hold, she thought, her analytical side struggling with her emotions. He'll be back here in a few seconds. Almost on autopilot, Brigitte tapped Calliope's bracelet form and let herself fall into a very familiar routine--teleport tag.
Part of her wanted to fall down and cry. The other part said no, focus on the calculations. One mistake could cost her the game, and the stakes had never been quite this high.
--------------------
Yuuno materialized in the desert outside the city. He looked around in the low light, frowning. Brigitte's--the girl's--teleport chain had led here, but her magic signature was missing. A decoy! The last link in the chain was fake, unless her concealment skills were higher than he thought...worrying about that would waste time. He concentrated on his previous location.
...
He opened his eyes. He could still sense the spent mana from her teleport, but not her directly. He rose into the air to get a better look at the surroundings. This area held scattered rocks and brush, what might have been an oasis in the past being slowly overtaken by sand.
"I know you're here," he called. "Don't bother hiding. Even if I can't find you now, I know what you're after, and I've already called in backup from the Administration Bureau." He paused, but no answer came.
A vital scan revealed the presence of several small animals, but nothing of the girl. Had her head start allowed her to escape completely? Yuuno grimaced, then turned and flew at top speed back toward the city. He had to contact Chrono while enough time remained for communication to matter.
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From under a rock, a ferret dragging a bracelet wiggled out of an abandoned hopokk den, shuddering. In a shower of teal sparks, it transformed into a human girl, who promptly collapsed and burst into tears.
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I guess it wouldn't be a Trunks arc if there wasn't parental disappointment.
Wait! Yuuno come back! Your (probably) future daughter needs hugs!
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
Truth.
It's a little too soon for that. Things have to get worse before they can get better. You can't get your hugs until the middle of the final battle at the earliest, and that won't happen until somebody's Lost Logia goes out of control, half the cast is shooting up the other half, and Chrono gets one-shotted out of left field! (Wait, that last one was just Reflection.)
You know, I'm actually curious about Brigitte's relationship with the Aces. After all, they're some of Yuuno's closest's friends, but she doesn't seem to think about them ever. Maybe it's just because she hasn't met the younger versions of them yet, but even then, there's no stray thoughts of "what would aunt Nanoha do" which makes me think the Aces weren't part of her childhood. Which implies that the Lost Logia will, in some ways, prevent Yuuno from contacting them.
That or we just never see Brigitte when she thinks about the Aces.
That or we just never see Brigitte when she thinks about the Aces.