All the effort, Tennie. I'm the one telling the tale, right? ^^
Look, CD! It's a bag... and it's mixed!
I have plans, and they probably aren't going to be what most of you (QUIET, readers-who-keep-visiting-my-head!) will suspect.
FAKE EDIT: Yes. Yes, she does conjure solid, iron-esque spheres... but does anybody else ever do it? Maybe anybody who isn't an ancient Belkan construct?
I'm of the opinion that conjuration is (unless a reader can show me the fault in my assumption) a Belkan magic trick (heh), making it a) difficult to learn, and b) incompatible with both Malleus and my own casting skills. The doctor might have the information on how to do it. There's a chance the Saint Church would. Hayate might well be able to look it up, but that would require me to meet up with her, convince her to give me the info, and then have a decent excuse to give the doctor afterward. My natural paranoia says no to that.
Asking Vita herself has all the same risks as asking Hayate, minus the 'why didn't you bring back the ancient Belkan relic of power' question, plus the natural risks of attempting to convince Vita to do something... which are considerable, and full of hammers.
**********
So there I was in the lab, standing next to with everybody else in the dark again. We were all waiting in our own fashions- Tre standing at attention, Cinque waiting patiently, and Sein bouncing up and down slightly, glancing at the door every so often.
As for me, I was dealing with the wait in my own particular way.This is it. The big one. The one we've all been WANTING NOT TO HAPPEN OHGODS I HAVE TO DEAL WITH QUATTRO NOW MAKE IT STOP
Yep. My own particular way.
After a bit of that, I managed to mentally slap myself upside the metaphorical head with an allegorical trout, and get to scheming.Okay, so I know Quattro. She's not complex.
Quattro is, at heart, what happens when you make a sadist too weak to harm others physically, and smart enough that she doesn't have to. She's smart, she's observant, and she'll use any and every weakness she can find to make everybody around her (with the exception of the doctor) suffer. In short, a clever bully- and I know the trick to dealing with bullies.
If anything, behavioral or emotional, that Quattro gets off of me WILL be used against me, either as a weakness to exploit or a strength to undermine, the trick to surviving her is to go full Beefeater. Give her nothing to work with. No opinions, no emotional responses, no behaviors outside of what's necessary to defeat the enemy- nothing. If I have to show her some aspect of personality, it should be faked. Hide the buttons I have, and let her push the ones that don't do anything.
It's not going to be fun, but I've been that being for over a decade before. I can do it again. At least my plans will get me out of her range often enough- I can relax a bit outside the base.
I would've gone on in that vein for some time, but that was when I heard the door to the next room open. I can hear two distinct strides. She's here, and Uno's with her.
When I looked up at the door, every thought I had going came to a screeching halt, all at once. It was all I could do to keep the surprise off my face. Right, that's Uno as expected, and there's...
BWAH?! THE HECK?
The cyborg next to Uno was clearly the same smug snake I'd watched Nanoha befriend so many times back at home. Same face, same hair color, same apparent age... but everything else was worryingly different.
This wasn't Fake Quattro. There were no silly glasses, no funky mutant side-pigtails... and best of all, not a trace of oversaccharine fake cutesiness. On the other hand, it wasn't True Quattro either. The Quattro in front of me had her hair in a bob cut, almost reaching her shoulders. She had no cape, either- just the standard Number bodysuit.
The physical alterations were one thing, but her behavior? That was what really shocked me. This Quattro wasn't the clownish act I was used to, nor was she the smug, self-assured psychopath who put on the act to begin with. If I had to describe the way she looked, how she moved... I'd have to call it hesitant. Maybe even scared.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Look, CD! It's a bag... and it's mixed!
I have plans, and they probably aren't going to be what most of you (QUIET, readers-who-keep-visiting-my-head!) will suspect.
FAKE EDIT: Yes. Yes, she does conjure solid, iron-esque spheres... but does anybody else ever do it? Maybe anybody who isn't an ancient Belkan construct?
I'm of the opinion that conjuration is (unless a reader can show me the fault in my assumption) a Belkan magic trick (heh), making it a) difficult to learn, and b) incompatible with both Malleus and my own casting skills. The doctor might have the information on how to do it. There's a chance the Saint Church would. Hayate might well be able to look it up, but that would require me to meet up with her, convince her to give me the info, and then have a decent excuse to give the doctor afterward. My natural paranoia says no to that.
Asking Vita herself has all the same risks as asking Hayate, minus the 'why didn't you bring back the ancient Belkan relic of power' question, plus the natural risks of attempting to convince Vita to do something... which are considerable, and full of hammers.
**********
So there I was in the lab, standing next to with everybody else in the dark again. We were all waiting in our own fashions- Tre standing at attention, Cinque waiting patiently, and Sein bouncing up and down slightly, glancing at the door every so often.
As for me, I was dealing with the wait in my own particular way.This is it. The big one. The one we've all been WANTING NOT TO HAPPEN OHGODS I HAVE TO DEAL WITH QUATTRO NOW MAKE IT STOP
Yep. My own particular way.
After a bit of that, I managed to mentally slap myself upside the metaphorical head with an allegorical trout, and get to scheming.Okay, so I know Quattro. She's not complex.
Quattro is, at heart, what happens when you make a sadist too weak to harm others physically, and smart enough that she doesn't have to. She's smart, she's observant, and she'll use any and every weakness she can find to make everybody around her (with the exception of the doctor) suffer. In short, a clever bully- and I know the trick to dealing with bullies.
If anything, behavioral or emotional, that Quattro gets off of me WILL be used against me, either as a weakness to exploit or a strength to undermine, the trick to surviving her is to go full Beefeater. Give her nothing to work with. No opinions, no emotional responses, no behaviors outside of what's necessary to defeat the enemy- nothing. If I have to show her some aspect of personality, it should be faked. Hide the buttons I have, and let her push the ones that don't do anything.
It's not going to be fun, but I've been that being for over a decade before. I can do it again. At least my plans will get me out of her range often enough- I can relax a bit outside the base.
I would've gone on in that vein for some time, but that was when I heard the door to the next room open. I can hear two distinct strides. She's here, and Uno's with her.
When I looked up at the door, every thought I had going came to a screeching halt, all at once. It was all I could do to keep the surprise off my face. Right, that's Uno as expected, and there's...
BWAH?! THE HECK?
The cyborg next to Uno was clearly the same smug snake I'd watched Nanoha befriend so many times back at home. Same face, same hair color, same apparent age... but everything else was worryingly different.
This wasn't Fake Quattro. There were no silly glasses, no funky mutant side-pigtails... and best of all, not a trace of oversaccharine fake cutesiness. On the other hand, it wasn't True Quattro either. The Quattro in front of me had her hair in a bob cut, almost reaching her shoulders. She had no cape, either- just the standard Number bodysuit.
The physical alterations were one thing, but her behavior? That was what really shocked me. This Quattro wasn't the clownish act I was used to, nor was she the smug, self-assured psychopath who put on the act to begin with. If I had to describe the way she looked, how she moved... I'd have to call it hesitant. Maybe even scared.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.