[Story][RFC --PLEASE!!!]The Gauntlet

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Ooo... Big comment with lots of stuff. Let's get stuck in.

I suspect Natsuko would try to bug-out at this point - she's a trained investigator and thus a trained observer, so if anybody inside the sim notices that there's something wrong, then so will she. Will she succeed, or is she stuck in the sim for the duration?

As noted in the Forge scene after 14, there was never foreseen a need to quit the Gauntlet early so she (along with everyone else) is stuck for the duration (plus there's dumpshock). The whole thing was designed to be ridiculously hard for Class 1 combatants, who are monsters in normal terms. Why do you think the Op-For gets all the advantages they do, and the contestant is limited as they are?

Well, I did mention in LoGG that the Girls think Noah can't use gate magic. That may mean his willpower is aspected toward things other than magic, or it may mean he doesn't have enough willpower at all (doubtful considering he's a self-made billionaire), or he might not have the capacity for magic.

Willpower, by definition, needs thought. People think in different ways, so some may not be able to wrap their minds around the idea of being able to cast. The reason (as I see it) is that Noah has a strong...well... I hesitate to call it this, but let's call it a Nesting Instinct. He's built His Home (note the capital letters), against what the uncaring Universe and the vagaries of Handwavium has thrown at him, and gained a family. Deep in his core, he doesn't want to give it up to traipse around the Omniverse.

At least, not yet.

Another factor is Belief. He doesn't believe he can cast (again, yet), so he can't. Given what A.C.'s made of, and the opinion of various and sundry, this does not bode well for A.C.'s future. Wild Magic anyone? At least she can normally deal with things without resorting to spontaneous manifestation.

I'll state for the record right now, A.C. does not currently have any magical talent. She has the open mind and willpower, I'll admit, but no knowledge. The knowledge bit may change, but not for the next Season or two. Most importantly, she doesn't believe she can cast as of yet.

And there aren't a lot of known high-mana locations in Fenspace. (I can only think of two, offhand - part of the area enclosed by the dome two kilometers north of Little Jakarta that used to belong to La Mariposa, and a spot on Stellvia's main concourse...)

Given that A.C. would only suspect the one on Stellvia, we're safe here.

You know, I can sorta see your point here, but I'm gonna have to rework this scene if I use it, and I'll have to use it later.

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