O Take the stairs....she's a lady, and I can just see her sauntering down the stairs to taunt Fate .
LOL so true :3
Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
I hate QTEs. Ugh.
Western!Nanoha is a good enough idea to stand on its own as an original work, rather than a snarl-of-copyright-violations fanfic crossover thing. You'd just have to remove the bits of MGLN and Outlaw Star...
Never play Dante's Inferno. It is 80% QTEs (which is where this idea came from hehe). It could be an original, but then again, most all fics could be.I don't like westerns, honestly, but this seems kind of fun. And don't forget the Trigun snips in it too :3
I'm doing Western!Nanoha for Allquall and Alavon :3
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by Satashi
Spoiler for Western!Nanoha pt.1l:
The planet of midchilda, once a lush planet tinted with green and blue. However, the humans grew too strong, and a world war broke out. Millions died, and the scientist all but died by their own weapons. Technology lost, and the planet scarred, the humans struggled to rebuild their way of life. Now, a few hundred years later, the planet will house a new story. One of The Fate, the Nanoha, and the Hayate.
Dirt and sand kicked up behind a horse as it galloped alongside of a speeding train. The black haired animal breathed heavily as it's master urged it to go faster, mentally asking it to hold on for just a bit longer. Seconds passed and a ladder came within grasp of the rider and a gloved hand shot out to grab it. With an awkward, but practiced, leap of faith, a figure made it onto the moving train. A black cape whipped out to the side of the person, revealing a female body.
Blond hair was flying heavily in the wind, kept in a ponytail that was braced at the base of her neck. A black shirt was worn to cover her upper body, paired with a red and black vest that housed quick reloads for a gun that was flapping against her legs in a holster. Jeans that were worn and dirty clung to her legs, almost seeming to be a size too small for the woman. Matching boots were on her feet, but no spurs graced the heels. Finally, a red bandanna was around her neck, matching her eyes perfectly.
The woman shifted her body and slid around to in-between two of the cars. Now free of the rustling wind, she drew her pistol and opened the door leading into the conductor's room. Before the man could even turn around, he was pistol-whipped and fell unconscious to the ground. Reaching for the brake, she pulled it back just enough to slow the train down to a crawl. With that taken care of, the woman turned and walked back outside and then into the boxcar behind. Seeing nothing of interest, the woman continued her trip back, grinning as she saw a car housing several people. Kicking the door open, she stepped in and fired her gun at once, getting screams and then silence. "Greetings!" She called to them with a smile. "I'm sure you know what's going on now, so please by good passengers and place your valuables into this bag." Reaching back, she pulled a large sack that was behind her cape and flung out her wrist to make it flare out and open up. "If anyone tries something funny, I'll blast them, we clear?"
Walking down the isle slowly, the female robbed each one in turn, smiling and thanking them for their kindness at gunpoint. When she reached the end of the boxcar, she stopped at the sight of a woman wearing a pretty white dress. The woman seemed to be asleep, with a Sunday hat with ribbons and frill pulled down a little to keep the sun from her face. The girl's nails were painted a bright pink and a lace ribbon looped around her left hand for design. "Excuse me, miss," The robber spoke, making the woman stir. "This is a robbery here, I'd like your belongings."
A hand went up to the sitting girl's mouth. "Oh gracious me, a robbery you say? My, I don't know nothing about what I should do!" The thick southern accent only added to the woman's innocence, and the robber hesitated a moment before speaking again.
"Look, just take your pretty jewelery and place it in this bag."
"Like this?" The accented voice asked politely, moving her hand to place a golden watch into the bag.
"Hey, Outlaw!" A voice shouted from the front.
The robber turned at once, pointing her gun to where the sound came from, but saw no one offering any resistance. Instead, she found her wrist being grabbed and when she turned back, a boot connected with her chin, knocking her back.
"Fate Testarossa," The accented voice spoke, now paired with a bright white, pink, and blue gun pointing at the fallen robber's chest. "You're worth quite a pretty penny, you know?"
Fate blinked and looked up as the woman removed the silk white hat from her head, showing a pretty face and bright blue eyes. "Nanoha Takamachi... Bounty hunter, huh? Should have known you'd come after me sooner or later." Nanoha grinned at her, but found her legs tripped from a fast move from fate, making her stumble and fall over as well. Fate quickly got to her feet, grabbed the bag, and left the boxcar before Nanoha could pull her gun again. "Thank you!" Fate shouted out as she climbed to the top of the boxcars
Nanoha grunted and got up, running out the door and hopping to the ladder, only to duck her head back down when a bullet bounced off the metal in front of her. Letting out a sigh, she pulled her gun up and shot over the top of the car twice before jumping up and looking around. Fate was nowhere to be seen, making the woman run along the top. After a few seconds, she ran to the side and looked down, seeing the tail end of Fate's cape as she moved between cars again. With a running start, Nanoha leaped over the car gap and ran along it, dropping down between the next car and ducking. Seconds passed and Fate shot through the door and was tripped by Nanoha at once.
Fate shrieked but recovered before falling, twisting and grabbing Nanoha's dress roughly. With a turn, Fate attempted to throw the woman off the train but instead only managed to slam her against the wall.
A loud ripping sound came, and Nanoha looked at her dress, which was now sporting a long tear near her shoulder. "Hey! You tore my dress!"
"Sorry," Fate answered out of habit. A small silence passed between them before they attacked each other again. The women grunted and struggled, throwing a few punches while trying to aim their respective guns at each other to get a shot off. Finally, Fate glared and jumped back. With a grin, she waved goodbye and jumped once more, off the train.
"Hey, wait!" Nanoha shouted, running forward and looking to the side, seeing the woman struggling to right herself onto her horse. Following, Nanoha leaped as well, fumbling as she landed and running just fast enough to grab a hold of Fate. The blonde, however, managed to right herself and whipped her reins, making the horse gallop at once, leaving Nanoha on her face and in the dust.
"See you!" Fate called out triumphantly.
Nanoha coughed hard and pushed herself up. Her dress was smeared with sand and dirt, making her frown. "The rental fee on this is going to be horrible..."
"At least you didn't lose your head," a new voice came.
Nanoha looked to the side and saw a ferret on the ground, her Sunday hat in his mouth. "Thank you, Yuuno," Nanoha bent down and accepted the hat as well as allowed her partner to run up her arm and sit on her shoulder. "But it isn't all that bad,"
"Oh?" The animal cocked his head to the side. "You lost your pay and ruined that dress."
"She'll come back," Nanoha insisted, watching Fate continue to ride away.
"What makes you say that? She got away clean."
Nanoha grinned, holding up a gun. The sun's light reflected off the polished golden surface, making the black on the handle and red streaks on it stand out even more. The word Bardiche was engraved on the gun proudly. "It's a caster gun, she will want it back." Clicking the gun open, Nanoha removed a bright yellow bullet and slid it into her pocket. "I'll take this as payment for the dress."
Yuuno turned to look at the gun as the conductor of the train got out to see if Nanoha was all right. "A caster gun," he spoke softly. "Part of the lost technology of the past... How did she get one?"
"I don't know," Nanoha began walking to the man approaching her. "But I intend to find out."
~**~
A woman smiled to herself as she watched Nanoha board a train from afar. A black one-piece top/skirt combo covered her body, accented by a yellow zipper that zig-zagged over it. A white hat with black trim covered her short brown hair and short boots were on her feet, coming up just a little over her ankles. "Interesting," She spoke out. "The rumors are true, Nanoha-chan does have a spirit linked animal."
"So it seems," A male voice answered her. Walking up beside Hayate, a wolf with shockingly dark blue hair stood beside her. "Are you going to follow her?"
Hayate pulled her hat down a little to block the sun shining down on her eyes. Slowly, a smile came to her face and she turned to walk back to a group of people on horses waiting for her. "Why not? Signam, Shamal, Vita, we're going to have a fun few days ahead of us."
Spoiler for Western!Nanoha pt.2:
~**~
Nanoha let out a long sigh as she opened the door to her hotel room above the local pub. The noise from downstairs was annoying to her, but was disregarded as something she just had to deal with. "I can't believe that dress cost so much."
Nanoha's accented voice made her partner look over at her. "I told you it was a bad idea to go in disguise."
"But she would have recognized me otherwise." Nanoha sat looked around the room, taking in the surroundings. The area was small, housing only a bed, a night stand, and a small table. To the left was a small area for showering, consisting of a shower head, a drain in the floor, and a small section to stand in. "I think I paid too much for this room too."
Yuuno hopped off Nanoha's shoulder and landed on the table. The light brown ferret stood on his hind legs and watched as his friend undressed. "This is an advanced town, they can charge more and people will pay it."
"Running water is a plus." Nanoha finished taking off her clothes and stood in the shower area, turning on the water to wash over her. "The last place we were in was pretty filthy."
Yuuno nodded, reflecting back. "The world is still recovering, it will be a long time before technology is back to the way it was. With the people actively trying to stop it's progression in fear of another war... Take what we can get, I suppose."
"Still," Nanoha mused, her argument stopping there. "Tomorrow we will visit the gunsmith. If he has caster shells, we will need to buy as many as we can. Yuuno-kun, how much money do we have left?"
Yuuno leapt from the table to the bed and pulled out a small pouch from Nanoha's clothes. Picking it up in his mouth, he pulled it across the bed to spill the contents out. "Let's see... Two gold pieces, fifteen silver, and three copper."
"Enough to buy two shells, food, and some water for our trip... I hope that outlaw comes tonight, I could really go for that bounty."
Yuuno glanced over to the side, looking at the golden gun. "Are you not worried about her? Someone with the ability to sync to a caster gun is dangerous."
"I can handle her," Nanoha turned off the water and wrapped a towel around herself. "If it comes to it, I can use one of my shells. The bounty will cover it and allow me to buy more." Walking to the table, Nanoha picked up her gun, observing it. The main body was a bright white, accented by blue on the handle and along the top. Small sections were laced with pink for design, and the clip going into the bottom held the color as well. On the side of it, the word R. Heart was engraved in a blistering gold text. "Caster guns, lost technology that syncs to a specific person and uses their energy to fire special shells..."
Yuuno nodded. "Once synced, they can only be used by that person. The shells are sold at a high cost because they are so rare... which is good for you."
Nanoha felt her lips turn up slightly. "I know it is dangerous to fire them regularly, but I won't ever have to worry about it, because I never have more than a handful on me at a time." Clicking a safety hold off, Nanoha pulled her clip from her gun and checked the bullets. A row of six bullets were seen and she slid it back into her gun, clicking another safety and pulling the top of it back to see a single pink shell. Releasing her hold, she allowed the gun to snap back into place and put it back on the table. "If Fate is going to attack, I wish she'd hurry. I'd like to get some sleep so I can prepare to leave early. According to my information, there is a group of outlaws that are supposed to attack the nearby town soon. The bounty is large."
"If you need money so badly," Yuuno teased his partner. "You could go downstairs and dance along with the piano player's music."
Nanoha sniffed and turned up her nose at the idea. "A lady would never do such a thing!"
~**~
Fate opened a door and stepped inside of the pub, looking around with sharp red eyes. Her prey wasn't in her site so she walked to the bar and caught the keep's eyes. "I'm looking for a girl," she spoke to him. "A little shorter than me, brown hair, blue eyes, wearing a really nice looking dress."
"No one here by that description," The male told her.
Fate scoffed and frowned down at the bar. "Great..."
"Hey toots!" A man spoke up , draping an arm around Fate's shoulders, making her black cowboy hat shift uncomfortably on her head. "How about you and I-"
Fate's eyebrow twitched and she grabbed the front of the man's shirt. "Hands... OFF!" With that she threw him effortlessly over the bar, making a large keg of beer erupt and splash out all over the counter top.
Upstairs, Nanoha's eyes widened at the sound of a crash. Grabbing both her gun and Fate's, she shoved them into holsters on her jeans and ran out of the room. running to the safety rails along the edge of the upper floor's walkway, she saw Fate downstairs thoroughly beating up two people. With a grin, she picke dup her speed.
Quicktime Event!
Press X to jump over the rail and land on the bar below
Press O to take the stairs
X
A true hero understands the importance of a dramatic entrance in these situations.
Or she could be like me and fail to hit the button in time, trip over her own feet, and fall down the stairs.
Was in a mood, and wrote this while listening to "Kings and Queens" by 30 Seconds To Mars. It made sense in my head, at least.
Spoiler for The Kings and Queens of Promise:
*snip*
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
I haven't heard any of the Sound Stages, so I wouldn't know any of that, and mostly since I was in a mood that kind of dictated what the characters were doing; though the main idea was supposed to be that Fate wasn't even giving them a chance to try and talk to her. But yeah, I didn't really give it much build-up or background, so I can understand how it's jarring.
It's an interesting piece, with RB Trademark's Angst, wich is always a plus on my book.
Though, I have to agree with Raiser in some points. Their reaction was a little overdramatic. But given that I did listened to the Sound Stages, I'm biased to say even that.
I guess that using only the anime, it can lead to something like that though, so there's no need to change anything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Satashi
Spoiler for Western!Nanoha pt.1l:
*snip*
Spoiler for Western!Nanoha pt.2:
*snip*
X What western hero doens't do this at least once is his lifetime?
Was in a mood, and wrote this while listening to "Kings and Queens" by 30 Seconds To Mars. It made sense in my head, at least.
Spoiler for The Kings and Queens of Promise:
*snip*
Quote:
Originally Posted by 00-Raiser
Very well done and all, but I just don't see why Fate would suddenly shun them like that. On Caro and Erio's part, they don't want to rely on Fate and cause trouble for her (whereas Fate wants them to rely on her), so if she's locked away doing work or whatever, I'm sure they'd miss her but I don't think they'd react that dramatically. They'd probably make attempts to talk to her if it was really that bad.
Then again most of their relationship development was in the 2nd StrikerS Sound Stage, so perhaps you haven't listened to that yet?
Anyways, like I said it's still well done and you did a good job conveying the emotions, I personally just can't see the characters doing this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by deathcurse
Hm, I might be biased since I'm already in the mindset after writing "Forever My Mother", but I can see Fate genuinely worrying about the dark things inside her head that Precia left her. I highly doubt that one motivational speech will knock her out of that, but at the same time I can't see Fate emo-ing over it (which I don't feel that she is in here, just...tired and hurt and wanting to avoid the conflicted emotions that she has) so the short time frame in the short works for me.
Hm, you make a good point on Erio and Caro's personalities, but I think that a sudden change in behaviour from Fate would still make them somewhat anxious...
Then again, I haven't listened to the Sound Stage, so maybe I'm totally off in terms of the nature of their relationship .
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadiantBeam
I haven't heard any of the Sound Stages, so I wouldn't know any of that, and mostly since I was in a mood that kind of dictated what the characters were doing; though the main idea was supposed to be that Fate wasn't even giving them a chance to try and talk to her. But yeah, I didn't really give it much build-up or background, so I can understand how it's jarring.
Angst was good (though I found the choice to write in the present tense rather jarring--I'm a traditionalist, I'm afraid, when it comes to that), as was the happy ending.
I'd have to agree with both deathcurse and Raiser about the character personality comments. I can see Fate chewing over Jail's Hannibal Lecture in her mind after the battle (heck, she actually said while she was doing her power-up into Sonic Drive that she'd probably always have these moments of despair and self-doubt) and coming to the entirely wrong conclusions, but at the same time, Erio and Caro are pretty always trying to stand on their own two feet, not be a burden to the people who love and care for them, and generally pursue the same levels of overexaggerated maturity that every other member of the Nanohaverse cast possesses. It's largely Fate that wants them to have a normal, happy, fuzzy childhood life. So I can't see Erio and Caro getting worried and despondent unless they actually perceive that Fate is having trouble--and if they did get worried, they wouldn't be worried about their own life circumstances, but over Fate's emotional state. That's the one step that this story lacks, the scenes where Erio and Caro see Fate and think "What's wrong with Mom?"
As for the Sound Stages, since Nagumo has gotten them all translated and neatly collected in the Sound Stages Translation thread, it would be worth your while to step over and read through them. Not only are several of them entertaining, and others warm and fuzzy (though a few, particularly M1-3, are yawners...), they also provide considerable background information and story fodder that would be good for anyone to read through.
AtomicoX has also been posting the tracks of SSX subtitled, if you prefer to listen to what they're saying as well as the sound effects and so on while enjoying the story.
Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
I hate QTEs. Ugh.
Western!Nanoha is a good enough idea to stand on its own as an original work, rather than a snarl-of-copyright-violations fanfic crossover thing. You'd just have to remove the bits of MGLN and Outlaw Star...
Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
I'm already pissed that the "Wiimake" of SH1 replaces the dark, spooky monster killing goodness with QTEs. ><
Um...I followed that QTE stands for Quicktime Event, but, what is it? And...by SH1 do you mean the first Shadow Hearts game? As in, the best fusion of the horror and RPG genres ever created?
I'd have to agree with both deathcurse and Raiser about the character personality comments. I can see Fate chewing over Jail's Hannibal Lecture in her mind after the battle (heck, she actually said while she was doing her power-up into Sonic Drive that she'd probably always have these moments of despair and self-doubt) and coming to the entirely wrong conclusions, but at the same time, Erio and Caro are pretty always trying to stand on their own two feet, not be a burden to the people who love and care for them, and generally pursue the same levels of overexaggerated maturity that every other member of the Nanohaverse cast possesses. It's largely Fate that wants them to have a normal, happy, fuzzy childhood life. So I can't see Erio and Caro getting worried and despondent unless they actually perceive that Fate is having trouble--and if they did get worried, they wouldn't be worried about their own life circumstances, but over Fate's emotional state. That's the one step that this story lacks, the scenes where Erio and Caro see Fate and think "What's wrong with Mom?"
Yeah, unfortunately, I only realized this after I'd finished working through it and started to post, which is part of why I don't like writing very much at all when I need to vent. It turns out way too weird and OOC when I actually look back and compare it to how the characters would really react to the situation. One of those annoying habits I have to learn how to kick somehow.
Quote:
As for the Sound Stages, since Nagumo has gotten them all translated and neatly collected in the Sound Stages Translation thread, it would be worth your while to step over and read through them. Not only are several of them entertaining, and others warm and fuzzy (though a few, particularly M1-3, are yawners...), they also provide considerable background information and story fodder that would be good for anyone to read through.
AtomicoX has also been posting the tracks of SSX subtitled, if you prefer to listen to what they're saying as well as the sound effects and so on while enjoying the story.
... *whines*
Guess I have no choice with that. I've been putting it off for the longest time, but I suppose I'm at a point where I really need to read through them to understand things. I was hoping I could get away with not looking through them or listening to them, but it seems that bad habit caught up with me.
false light
A false light casts a darker Shadow...
Spoiler for false light - chapter 02:
Outer City Ruins
Cranagan, Midchilda
08.26 MC 088
Celica Iris-Lynnfield arched an eyebrow delicately at the information scrolling across her Interface Device's holographic displays. What she saw was worrisome, but what she didn't see was even more so.
The information she had purloined from NSIS's core computer centered around a report submitted by a Field Division agent who had been assigned on a highly-classified mission to Non-Administrated World 97—the planet known to its own people as Earth. Celica had never been to Earth herself, but from what she had learned, it was a world very similar to Midchilda in climate, gravity and habitability.
A different strain of humans lived there—whether Midchildan humans or Terran humans were the progenitors, nobody could say. Both races were very similar on a genetic level, but there were differences. Some were significant—Terran humans very rarely expressed active Linker Cores, for example. Some were minor, such as the much wider range of natural hair and eye colors seen among Midchildan stock.
It was merely groundwork for Celica, however. She had never really concerned herself with the planet much in her career—to her, as to many within the Bureau's command structure—it was just a world largely untouched by magic, watched over by the Bureau but not directly regulated by it. The TSAB typically waited for a populated world to develop widespread magical potential before they involved themselves in a world's affairs.
Thus it was exceedingly unusual that NSIS Command would authorize such a mission. Tizona had brought her up to speed on several facts she wasn't aware of; the world had been the site of two major incidents in the past thirty years. However, it had been mostly quiet over the past twenty years or so. For what reason would NSIS have authorized a mission to Earth five months ago?
"There's a lot of data here," Celica murmured tiredly, rubbing her dry eyes with dusty fingertips and cursing as they started to sting. The irritation was only momentary before her body reacted to the pain, her eyes watering slightly. She turned her attention back to digesting the report.
According to the debriefing, the agent had been assigned to investigate a certain facility within a large and technologically-advanced nation. NSIS Command had reason to believe that the native population had stumbled upon an ancient and as-of-yet undiscovered Lost Logia.
The mist began to clear. Celica now understood why NSIS had authorized such a mission. Lost Logia were typically rare and very unusual, but they were almost always dangerous. If the Terran humans had discovered an active Lost Logia on their own world, it was anyone's guess what sort of damage it could cause.
Celica scanned through the debriefing report, trying to hit the highlights. The report was incredibly detailed and spanned dozens of pages. It wasn't long until she found what she was looking for. The agent had managed to penetrate the security of the facility and gain access to the Lost Logia itself.
This is where things got strange. Celica frowned as she immediately noticed the sudden lack of detail concerning the Lost Logia itself. It was almost as if another author, one who wrote in concise, truncated prose, had taken up the pen. Information concerning the artifact itself was almost wholly absent. The report went on, noting that the agent successfully destroyed the Lost Logia and escaped to return home.
"Mistress." Tizona's mechanical voice cut through to Celica's awareness. She blinked her eyes and frowned.
"What is it, Tizona?"
"This file has been altered," Tizona stated flatly. "A significant portion of the latter half of the document has been edited or deleted."
"Yeah," murmured Celica softly, "this report has been edited, probably long before the admiral and NSIS Command even knew it existed. I have a feeling that the missing or altered data is the key..."
"Shall I attempt a recovery?"
"Please," Celica ordered primly. Tizona silently complied with her command, focusing his tremendous processing power on the task at hand. The person who had doctored this report may not have been a wonderful writer, but obviously they were or had the services of a gifted document forger. NSIS had many people with such skills.
Whomever had actually doctored it, the report passed muster to both the admiral and his superiors—Celica assumed, rightly, that both her boss and the command structure of the Bureau were safe in the knowledge that the unknown Lost Logia had been destroyed.
Celica didn't believe that for a minute. She dug around in her satchel, pulling a pair of paper-wrapped energy snacks from the bag. Tearing the wrapper off of one, she bit down on the compote of granola, nuts and dried fruit. The taste wasn't the best in the world, she mused, but it was healthy and would keep her mind going until she managed to get to the bottom of this.
It would be an embarrassing way to go if I were caught by an especially alert Enforcer patrol homing in on my stomach growling, thought Celica idly as she chewed on her food bar. Tizona didn't need her help with something simple like this; it was only a matter of time before he managed to reconstruct the deleted entries.
"Operation complete, Mistress. I have reconstructed the original document. It is dated 03.14 MC 088 and was filed by Field Agent Abraham Stele."
Celica lost all interest in the half-eaten food bar, her gray eyes fairly glued to Tizona's main display. Text scrolled across the screen, written in Agent Stele's painfully-detailed prose. Celica bypassed the parts she had read in the doctored version—those were left unchanged.
"I thought so," murmured Celica aloud as she began to read the missing sections. In the agent's exacting detail, he described the Lost Logia down to the last inscribed rune and sculpted feature. It was obviously very ancient, even to the unscholarly eyes of a field agent.
Unfamiliar script wound all about the small artifact, sinuous characters of an unknown language that seemed to writhe and twist as the agent looked upon them. Agent Stele noted that he felt sick to his stomach just by looking at the thing. A magical scan yielded inconclusive results—the artifact appeared utterly magic-dead, yet Stele could feel the power tingling in the air around it.
The unaltered report went on to describe a very different turn of events. Agent Stele's infiltration had not gone unnoticed; a general alarm was sounded and the man was beset by a large unit of heavily-armed military personnel. Following standard TSAB procedure, Stele attempted to erect a displacement barrier and make his escape, but the presence of the Lost Logia interfered with the spell, causing it to fail.
Celica continued reading, skimming over a description of the man's short but violent battle with the local security forces. Agent Stele was outnumbered eighteen to one—he somehow managed to survive, albeit with serious wounds. His Armed Device's auto-barrier could not stand up against a withering assault from a dozen and a half automatic rifles. Stele took two in the torso, one bullet puncturing a lung, the other nearly bisecting a major artery running from the heart.
At this point the agent's descriptions became more vague and indistinct; Celica could only speculate that the man was having trouble recalling events that took place after he was wounded. Eventually all narration ended and Stele noted that he awoke within the NSIS private infirmary. The contingency spell that he had cast upon himself activated, utilizing stored movement magic to send his dying body directly to the infirmary.
There the report ended. Celica turned away from the screen and retrieved her food bar, taking an enormous bite and chewing thoughtfully. The implications were clear—Stele failed his mission, resulting in his own terrible injuries and leaving the Lost Logia untouched. For five months the humans of Earth held the artifact, undoubtedly trying their hardest to unlock its secrets.
Celica had the first few pieces of the puzzle in hand. Tizona may have been forcibly disconnected from the core network, but Celica made a habit of having her Device store local copies of various records in the event of a problem, in addition to the memory card backups made every week and stored in a locked vault within NSIS Headquarters.
"Tizona, access local records, Field Division, active agent #C-7099."
"Accessing records," the Device replied evenly. Information began to scroll across Tizona's holographic displays. The center display showed a short profile and dossier on the man who had been sent to Non-Administrated World 97. Celica scanned Agent Stele's personnel file until she found what she was looking for—the man's commanding officer.
The second piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
Celica closed the personnel file and pulled up the strategic plan data she had found along with the mission debriefing. She frowned slightly when the screen cleared and brought up a small notification box.
"The file is encrypted and password-protected," Tizona informed her.
"That much is obvious," said Celica, rolling her eyes. Her Interface Device may be equipped with a bleeding-edge AI processor, but he still tended to belabor the obvious.
"The encryption is of a type not in use by Naval Special Intelligence Service. I can attempt to reconstruct the missing data or I can attempt to brute-force crack the password."
"Don't bother," Celica said wearily. "Either method will take far too long. I have enough to start with here already."
"What will your next move be, Mistress?"
"We're going to find the next piece of the puzzle," murmured Celica, almost inaudibly. "Has NSIS filed a warrant for my capture?"
"No active warrants for Senior Analyst Celica Iris-Lynnfield exist in the Enforcer database," said Tizona helpfully. Celica frowned at the answer. Under normal circumstances, an arrest warrant would have been penned within a few hours of her flight. Sure, the contents of the warrant and the alleged crimes would be obscured from the Enforcers, but the warrant would be active and legitimate. The fact that no warrant had been issued yet gave Celica some pause.
The admiral must be worried about potential political fallout, reasoned Celica inwardly. NSIS has never been a popular subject among the Administrative Council—any hint of weakness would be immediately exploited. NSIS Command themselves likely were not aware that Celica was the person who killed three Security Division officers and escaped with highly-sensitive data.
Knowing the admiral as she did, Harlaown had likely assigned Celica's capture to a single elite agent—someone he trusted completely, someone he knew would be able to get the job done. A list of such agents was not long, but Celica chose not to dwell on who might be on her tail.
It had been several days since the incident. She would have to keep moving if she wanted to get out of this alive. Her next move was exceedingly reckless, but it was the absolute fastest route to finding out more about this strange Lost Logia and clearing her name.
"Tizona, Suspend Form," Celica commanded. The Device complied, the array of holographic displays and keyboard inputs disappearing in a flash of argent light.
* * *
NSIS Headquarters
Cranagan, Midchilda
08.26 MC 088
Lutecia Alphine blinked her tired eyes as she reached out to shut the computer monitor off. It had only been a day, but she was already frustrated and had very little to go on. This wasn't exactly her area of expertise, either—Lutecia was not a criminal investigator, but a warrior—a summoner of prodigious power that was ill-suited to staring at computer screens for long periods of time.
The lilac-haired summoner stood up and stretched her petite frame, yawning cavernously. It was a lovely late-summer day, not too hot—definitely not the kind of day one should spend cooped up inside staring at a monitor.
She'd done all she could here. It was time to do some old-fashioned fieldwork. She sighed softly and sent a mental command to her Intelligent Device, Asclepius, waking the AI from its suspended state.
"Time to wake up, Asclepius."
The Device complied with a subtle flash of black-purple light, materializing on her hands as a pair of thin gloves bearing large deep violet emitter orbs on the back of her hands. The Device emitted a soft chime as it became active.
"Analyzing transfer port signature," Asclepius reported in a resonant masculine voice. Lutecia picked up her uniform jacket and slipped her arms into the garment, straightening her collar before she started down the hallway leading out of the complex. A car waited for her in the motor pool; Lutecia would head to the main monitoring station at Ground Forces HQ in the center of the city.
If Asclepius could analyze the transfer signature, using the data recorded at Ground Forces HQ, she may be able to track where the destination point was. Ordinarily Lutecia would consider this futile; any high-level mage worth their salt would know to make multiple short transfers to mask their destination point. The detection equipment couldn't track more than four or five transfers out.
But Lutecia had the benefit of knowing her target fairly well. Celica was—no, she is a friend, thought Lutecia angrily—and she knew the woman was hopelessly inept when it came to movement magic. Celica wasn't a warrior, and she wasn't a typical support mage that spent long hours honing their movement magic skills. She wouldn't have been able to teleport on her own without the assistance of a transfer port.
Instead, Celica attempted to cover her tracks by having her Device send garbage data back to the transfer port. The Security Division's attempt to recall the transfer only garbled the information further. Lutecia knew that her chances of actually tracking the woman were slim, but if she could do it, it would be at the Ground Forces HQ.
"Analysis complete," Asclepius informed her.
"Good boy," said Lutecia softly. "Save the data in memory. We're going to head to the sensor station at Ground HQ to check it out."
Lutecia smiled as her Device emitted a soft, low chime. She broke into an almost-run through the hallways, heading toward the motor pool. Asclepius was broadcasting her ID signature, so she didn't even have to stop to open the partition doors every twenty meters.
"Agent Alphine!"
Lutecia smiled at the technician as the young man opened the car door and stepped out, doffing a greasy chamois and scratching the back of his neck with an oil-stained hand.
"Everything's ready to go," said the tech, returning Lutecia's smile with one of his own.
"Will it be a problem if I leave the car at Ground Forces HQ?"
"Not at all," said the tech easily. "The car's AI core can drive it back here, no problem at all. These new models are great—they practically drive themselves!"
Suppressing a giggle at the young man's enthusiasm for his job, Lutecia nodded and swung her lithe frame down into the car's seat. The vehicles that NSIS utilized for local transport were similar to what local Enforcer units utilized. The car Lutecia pulled was unmarked, but like the Enforcer cruisers, it did have a siren and an ID key for utilizing the police lanes if she encountered heavy congestion.
"Thank you," said Lutecia warmly, sending a mental command to Asclepius to start the engine. Her Device established a link with the car's AI core and the reactor started up with a low hum. Lutecia disengaged the parking break and gripped the wheel, sending the car whirling around in a tight arc, streaking out of the open garage door.
* * *
Infinity Library
Time-Space Administration Main Office
08.26 MC 088
Celica nearly gasped as she walked through the entryway to the near-legendary library maintained by the Bureau. The Infinity Library contained the most extensive collection of texts, treatises and reports on anything magical within the IAFW's sphere of influence. Celica felt an overwhelming sense of awe as she stepped through the bulkhead door into the zero-gee environment that housed the massive collection of history.
The Library was an enormous hollow sphere that took up a significant portion of the dimensional space station. The walls were lined with shelves that held millions upon millions of flash memory cards, optical discs and old magnetic storage tapes—but more than any other form of storage media, the library was dominated by leather-bound books.
"Is anyone here?" Celica called loudly, expecting to hear her voice echo tremendously in the cavernous room, but a permanent dampening spell had been placed on the Library, preventing echoes from distracting the scholars who came here to study.
"Over here!"
Celica looked up, following the sound of the soft male voice until she saw him—a bespectacled man in his early thirties. Long blond hair was tied back in a neat ponytail and the man's green eyes fairly blazed with intelligence behind his wire-rimmed glasses.
Celica smiled as the man floated down toward her, carrying a stack of dusty tomes tucked under one arm. She had never met him before, but anyone who worked for the Bureau knew of the genius archaeologist and researcher Yuuno Scrya, the head librarian of the Infinity Library.
"My name is Yukari Nakamura," said Celica, introducing herself using one of the many false, but unimpeachable IDs she utilized in her line of work. "I represent the Nakamura Group, an archaeological research firm. I contacted you earlier today about looking through the archives."
"Oh, yes," said Yuuno enthusiastically. "I remember now. Something about an unusual Lost Logia your team recently discovered on one of the non-administrated worlds. I didn't expect you to be here so soon."
"That's all right," said Celica primly. "I just need to cross-check our observations in situ with existing records of ancient civilizations. The artifact in question doesn't match anything that we've ever found so far. I may be premature in saying this, but I think we may have the archaeological find of the century on our hands!"
Celica's performance proved convincing. Excitement shone brightly within Yuuno's eyes as he turned around to open up a portable terminal. Celica handed him a small memory card, containing select pieces of the information stored within Tizona's memory core. It would not do for Celica to activate her Device here. Civilian researchers rarely possessed military-grade Devices.
Yuuno took the memory card and loaded it into the system. The monitor came alive with information, data scrolling across the screen complete with pictures of the strange Lost Logia that Agent Stele had run across on Non-Administrated World 97.
"Where did you say you found this?" Yuuno asked suspiciously.
"Oh, come now," Celica said, offering up a kittenish smile. "You don't really expect me to give away the Nakamura Group's secrets, now do you?" She knew she was treading on thin ice here, but if any information existed on the strange artifact, it would be here within the Library.
"My grandfather is a secretive man, as I'm sure you know," said Celica, reasonably safe in the assumption that while Yuuno was familiar with the Nakamura Group, he was not familiar with the patriarch Nakamura's many, many children and grandchildren.
"I've seen artifacts like this in some of the ancient Belkan records," Yuuno began, pulling up a few extra windows and accessing additional information. Celica watched with interest as images of other unknown artifacts began to pop up on the screens. All were similar in physical design to the Lost Logia in the report.
"This script... it covers the artifact on almost all available empty space. I examined them for quite some time and it's not merely a pattern. Every character is different."
"The system couldn't find a match to any known language," said Yuuno apologetically. "I can run it through the computers, see if we can decipher this language. It may be a precursor language to existing modern languages."
"How long will that take?" Celica asked gingerly. "Currently we're most interested in the purpose of this strange artifact."
Celica had to be careful now. If she showed too much interest in the specific purpose of the device, cracks would begin to form in her facade as a researcher and archaeologist. The last thing she wanted him to think was that she was an artifact smuggler. It was very unlikely that Scrya knew about Celica's connection to NSIS.
"I don't know," said Yuuno grimly. "It could take days or weeks. I suspect you don't have that much time to waste, correct?"
"Time is short," replied Celica in an equally-grim tone, spinning a tall tale to secure the man's assistance. "The site is somewhat... unstable. Our crews don't know when the entire cavern will collapse. We need to complete excavation as soon as possible... but with Lost Logia... we don't know what it'll do..."
"I see your point," Yuuno replied, swallowing hard. He knew well enough what could happen if powerful Lost Logia were not handled with the utmost care. The research group absolutely needed to know how to go about the excavation process. "We'll probably need some help with this."
Celica could faintly perceive the use of thoughtspeech, but it was too indistinct for her to listen in, especially with Tizona in a suspended state. The point was rendered moot when a young and very attractive blond woman entered the Library from a separate entry port, shutting the bulkhead behind her as she kicked out into the weightless environment.
"Miss Nakamura, I'd like you to meet my assistant, Vivio Takamachi," Yuuno said with a slight smile.
Celica frowned slightly. The name was so familiar to her... but she couldn't quite place it—oh shit, I know who she is! She's Lutecia's girlfriend. For a long moment Celica stared into the girl's mismatched eyes—one was green, the other a deep ruby red—searching for some sign of recognition. This was the first time Celica had ever met the woman, but she had no idea if Lutecia had spoken about her to Vivio.
Fortunately for Celica, there was no recognition in Vivio's eyes. The young woman bowed as gracefully as a zero-gee environment would allow and smiled brightly. Celica introduced herself using her false name and occupation, still watching the newcomer with some degree of uncertainty.
"Pleased to meet you," said Vivio softly. Celica smiled back at the woman and waited patiently while Yuuno filled her in on the research project and what exactly Celica was looking for. She listened halfheartedly, her eyes drifting open and shut—she hadn't really gotten much sleep since the day of the incident.
Mistress, you have four hours until the limit, Tizona spoke into Celica's mind. Celica stiffened suddenly, her eyes snapping back open and her mind coming fully alert.
Thank you, Tizona, she replied through thoughtspeech, her expression darkening visibly. Celica had instructed Tizona to keep her updated on how long she remained at the Bureau main office. The longer she was here, the more dangerous things became for her. Her cover was extremely flimsy and she knew it. The NSIS investigator that the admiral sent would be able to cross-check her known aliases against any arrival or departure records anywhere in Bureau-controlled space.
Celica was betting it all on a bingo within the next four hours. She sighed heavily and went back to work, listening intently as Yuuno and his assistant instructed her on how to find specific titles within the library.
Lutecia's jaw dropped in shock as she stared at the records listed for all Bureau-controlled locations. The records encompassed data for transfer port usage, departures and arrivals, as well as any use of spaceport facilities. There was an enormous amount of data recorded here; the Bureau controlled hundreds of installations, bases, starports and docks. It was pure, absolute chance that Lutecia had even found any useful information within the mass at all.
There was record of an unauthorized dimensional transfer from one of the Navy transfer ports maintained at the government spaceport in Cranagan. The computer system didn't flag an alert due to some type of overflow error in the system. Lutecia tapped a few keys on the console, focusing on the transfer port log.
The screen filled with lines of code, incomprehensible fragments of words and special characters that Lutecia didn't understand at all. It was likely that whoever had utilized this transfer port intentionally tampered with the system to prevent an alert from being reported to Traffic Control. The overflow error would also prevent anyone from recalling the transfer stream, but it would not prevent someone from back-tracing it...
"Asclepius," murmured Lutecia softly. The glove-shaped Device emitted a low chime in response. The dark purple emitter shimmered with an inner violet light. Lutecia brought the Device to bear, feeling Asclepius link with the computer terminal.
"Back-trace this transfer stream," Lutecia ordered in the same soft tone.
"I obey," said Asclepius, the emitter crystal glowing much more brightly. Data streamed through the Intelligent Device's processor. Lutecia could do little more while her Device worked on the problem. She placed her head in her hands and sighed deeply.
She was tired and hungry; ever since she'd been assigned to this case, she'd spent more time on a computer than she had done on the last five missions.
Lutecia was of dynamic character—a fighter, a warrior. She wasn't built to stare at a monitor and shuffle data around. This wasn't what she signed on for when she joined NSIS, and it wasn't successfully holding her attention.
Lutecia's eyes fluttered shut as she drifted off into a light sleep. Only a short moment passed before Lutecia was awakened by the sound of a low chime.
"Operation complete; I have back-traced the transport stream," Asclepius reported. Lutecia blinked her eyes open sleepily—they felt dry and gummy. Groggily she sat up straight in the chair and sighed as Asclepius sent the data to the terminal for her to examine. What she saw jolted her wide awake.
"What the hell?! She went to the Bureau main office?" Lutecia blurted aloud, unable to contain her bafflement.
Why? Why in the name of all that was holy would a fugitive—a triple-murderer, no less—not only stay within Bureau policed space, but to dive directly into the belly of the beast?
"What would possibly possess her to go to the main office—" Lutecia broke off as a thought suddenly occurred to her. It was insane, but it was the only thing that made sense. There was nothing else within that space station that Celica could possibly want.
Lutecia keyed in a string of commands and brought up additional information, sifting through the data. She pulled up the list of requests for access to the Infinity Library. This list was blessedly short—it wasn't long at all before Lutecia was able to find what she was looking for.
"Yukari Nakamura," mused Lutecia aloud. She knew the name; it was one of the several false identities that Celica had used during her duties with NSIS. Celica was a very smart woman, but time was not on her side. She had been forced to choose between her true identity, which was highly traceable by NSIS agents, or utilize one of her existing aliases. Both choices were poor, but Lutecia knew Celica had no time to forge a new set of identification documents.
Fortunately, Lutecia was more familiar with Celica than anyone else within NSIS, thanks to the dossier and info packets Admiral Harlaown had supplied. She knew all of the aliases that Celica had ever used in the line of duty. The woman was being as inconspicuous as possible; the Yukari Nakamura alias was rarely used and completely clean.
That may have protected her from the Enforcers, but not from the Shadows, thought Lutecia grimly. She powered off the console and fairly leapt from her chair, sending the object clattering to the polished marble floor.
There was little time to waste. Celica would not remain at the Library for more than a few hours; every minute she spent in the Bureau main office increased the chance that she would be recaptured.
A black-violet Belkan magical circle sprang into being beneath Lutecia's feet as she began the casting of a long-distance teleportation spell. Lutecia was a summoner—movement magic was a crucial required secondary ability in order to perform her feats of conjuration.
It would be one of her major advantages in this strange game of hide-and-seek, Lutecia knew—Celica was limited to using existing transfer ports, but locking them down would do little good. The woman would simply find a way to break through whatever electronic or magical barriers blocked her path.
Even at the main office, thought Lutecia to herself darkly. The magic circle beneath her feet suddenly flared with bright violet light. The energy Lutecia would need to cast the long-distance teleportation spell was ready.
"Asclepius, input destination string, Interdimensional Navigation Coordinates 0000-0000-0000-0000. Time-Space Administration Bureau Main Office."
"I obey. [Ultra Long Range Transfer]."
The teleportation spell began to take effect, collapsing the space and time around her and reforming it at the same moment, only in a different location. Lutecia closed her reddish-brown eyes as the violet light flared brighter, shielding them against the radiance.
And then she was gone.
* * *
Atrium
Time-Space Administration Main Office
08.26 MC 088
Celica walked as calmly as she could through the vast corridors of the main office station. It was one of the largest man-made objects in the entire multiverse; Celica herself had never seen something larger, though there were rumors that the precursors, the Al'hazred, had constructed even larger space colonies.
And it was precisely that. The Bureau's main office may not have originally been intended as a space colony, but over the years since its construction, it had become exactly that. Celica had never seen one in this configuration before.
It's very haphazard, as if it wasn't all constructed at once, she mused to herself as she moved in the direction of a nearby transfer port. It was very likely that it hadn't—after all, this colony was first constructed nearly a century ago when the Bureau was first founded as a closely-knit group of police and night watchmen. Even the larger government of the IAFW hadn't yet been formed at that point. It was the stability offered by the TSAB that enabled the larger political structure to flourish.
Celica brushed away her idle thoughts as she came up to the transfer port. The information she had uncovered in the Library slid another piece of the puzzle into place.
"Tizona, Interface Form."
"[Interface Form]," Tizona complied. Celica felt a slight shock as the blue-white crystal shard dangling from her right ear vanished and reappeared in a flash of argent light as the familiar multiple suspended displays and keypads.
"The previous codes used have been invalidated," said Tizona almost sadly. "NSIS has undoubtedly revoked access."
"Shit," cursed Celica aloud, but she had expected this to happen already. She was lucky enough that she managed to get more than one use out of the stolen codes. She would have to risk using her own or hack directly into the system. Without a wide-area arrest warrant, her codes were likely still valid, but she saw no reason to take chances. More likely the admiral had plied EAID into casting wide surveillance nets throughout the Bureau's computer systems.
"Begin attack, using derivatives of previously invalidated code," ordered Celica sharply. She didn't have all that much time. Her gray eyes focused on the data scrolling across the various screens. The lines flew by too rapidly for unaided human eyes to read, but Celica knew they were just attempted and rejected codes. Tizona brought to bear his awesome processing power, attemping over thirty thousand codes per second.
"Estimated time to completion: three minutes, fifty-seven seconds," Tizona reported. Celica pulled up a status window out of curiosity, smiling tightly as she noticed that Tizona was only utilizing a mere fraction of his total processing capabilities.
The Device was a one-of-a-kind, a prototype constructed by Celica herself with the assistance of one of the best Device Meisters in the Bureau, Shario Finieno. Only Unison Devices approached the level of computing power, but in Tizona, most of that power was left accessible by the wielder.
Celica watched the timer tick down and smiled broadly as the door leading to the transfer port slid open soundlessly.
"Operation complete. Total time: one minute, fifty-one seconds," reported Tizona in a tone that Celica could only call smug.
"Good job, Tizona," she complimented as the Device returned to his suspended mode. She walked into the transfer port and sealed the door behind her. This would be the most dangerous part of her mission yet, Celica knew. Her destination was well outside the Bureau's jurisdiction, but due to the major incidents that had occurred on or around the planet, the Bureau kept a close eye on the place.
Celica initiated the transfer sequence and fed into the computer a string of coordinates. The machine began to emit a low hum as energies were transferred and converted. An enormous blazing Midchildan magic circle sprang into being beneath her feet, flaring brightly with barely-contained power.
The analyst shielded her eyes with her hand as the flashes built to a crescendo and enveloped her in a shroud of argent light. Slowly the light faded, the magic circle disappearing. Celica was gone, transported instantly across half of the known universe.
To a planet known as Non-Administrated World 97—Earth.
* * *
Spoiler for author's notes:
Little longer than the other, and didn’t take me quite so long from point A to point B this time.
I’m sure most of you are curious about what exactly Celica found in the Library concerning the mysterious Lost Logia. You’ll have to wait for Chapter 3 to find out.
Celica doesn’t know Vivio, but she has heard Lutecia talk about her. Vivio has never met Celica, nor has Lutecia told Vivio about any of her coworkers in NSIS. Originally I wanted Vivio to recognize her, but this was too hard to do properly, so I situated it this way.
Yes, I intentioanlly changed the spelling of “Al-Hazard” to “Al’hazred” because it sounds cooler. Rule of Cool > you, and plus it’ll be a significant plot point in the future. Stay tuned.
One problem I have is at the start of the part. Why was Agent Stele's case so important to her own situation that she risked walking into Main HQ for more information?
Location: Pennsylvania. It's sort of like a real state.
Age: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by DezoPenguin
Um...I followed that QTE stands for Quicktime Event, but, what is it? And...by SH1 do you mean the first Shadow Hearts game? As in, the best fusion of the horror and RPG genres ever created?
Nerd to the rescue!
A quicktime event is when the game requires you to give some controller input during what is, usually, otherwise an uncontrolled segment like a cutscene. Notable in that they usually occur with little-to-no warning, and it can be terribly jarring to be watching a cutscene and suddenly the game goes 'PRESS X RIGHT NOW!'. Worse in that you usually die if you screw it up. Or at least you did in Resident Evil 4, which is where I've seen most of mine.
And I'm pretty sure the 'SH' here is Silent Hill, not Shadow Hearts. Which is a crying shame, because a remake of Shadow Hearts 1 with better graphics and some decent voice acting would make my life...
A quicktime event is when the game requires you to give some controller input during what is, usually, otherwise an uncontrolled segment like a cutscene. Notable in that they usually occur with little-to-no warning, and it can be terribly jarring to be watching a cutscene and suddenly the game goes 'PRESS X RIGHT NOW!'. Worse in that you usually die if you screw it up. Or at least you did in Resident Evil 4, which is where I've seen most of mine.
And I'm pretty sure the 'SH' here is Silent Hill, not Shadow Hearts. Which is a crying shame, because a remake of Shadow Hearts 1 with better graphics and some decent voice acting would make my life...
FF8 had some of these too, if I remember correctly, like the time where Squall have to crawl his way out of the Desert Prison. If you go to the wrong side is Game Over.
Press X to jump over the rail and land on the bar below
Press O to take the stairs
[/SPOILER]
Why would they have to pay for water? Is the water in this world contaminated?
O
Spoiler for My reason why:
With her smirking lips clamping a billowing cigar in place, Nanoha calmly walked down the stairs. Her caster gun remained snug in her holster as her lips parted to release a grey cloud. Fate's eyes narrowed when she saw the yellow and black handle poking out from the woman's other holster. The blond's gaze returned to the ruffian who she was holding by the neck.
"How can you stand being so weak?" she whispered to the toothless, bleeding face and then dropped him into a heap onto the dirty floor. Her full attention turned to woman at the bottom of the stairs.
"I do declare, Fate," Nanoha said smoothly. "Your people skills seem to be improving."
"Who are you?" seethed the blond while unconsciously fumbling with her empty black holster. "Marshal? MP? Bounty hunter?"
Nanoha pulled the thin cigar out of her mouth with her left hand and drew her own caster gun with her right. "I'm your huckleberry."
Fate held her breath as she stared down the barrel of a synced caster gun.
Yes, I have seen Tombstone more times than I can count.
Why would they have to pay for water? Is the water in this world contaminated?
As the little exchange Nanoha and Yuuno had this last part lampshades, the recent war made everyone affraid of anything remotely technological, and running water in a hotel room would classify for it. At least, that's what I understood from the fic until now.
Of course, the war could have contaminated the water too.
One problem I have is at the start of the part. Why was Agent Stele's case so important to her own situation that she risked walking into Main HQ for more information?
Read the first chapter and you'll know!
Spoiler for tl;dr version, chapter 1 spoilers:
Because that debriefing report, among other things, is what she found in the NSIS computers in Chapter 1. It's what almost got her killed. Obviously it's important to clearing her name--try and find out why this information is worth killing her for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moczo
Nerd to the rescue!
A quicktime event is when the game requires you to give some controller input during what is, usually, otherwise an uncontrolled segment like a cutscene. Notable in that they usually occur with little-to-no warning, and it can be terribly jarring to be watching a cutscene and suddenly the game goes 'PRESS X RIGHT NOW!'. Worse in that you usually die if you screw it up. Or at least you did in Resident Evil 4, which is where I've seen most of mine.
And I'm pretty sure the 'SH' here is Silent Hill, not Shadow Hearts. Which is a crying shame, because a remake of Shadow Hearts 1 with better graphics and some decent voice acting would make my life...
It's more like "PRESS X TO NOT DIE!" but yeah. And yes, SH1 = Silent Hill. The Wii remake of SH1 is basically an uninteractive mess of cutscenes and QTEs.
As the little exchange Nanoha and Yuuno had this last part lampshades, the recent war made everyone afraid of anything remotely technological, and running water in a hotel room would classify for it. At least, that's what I understood from the fic until now.
Of course, the war could have contaminated the water too.
If people are afraid of technology, why are they buying water bottled from an unknown point of origin? If the world is presumably a wastleland, doesn't it make more sense to have a reliable filtration system then have to travel from town to town for water? Outlaws and those who chase them would be better off with their own methods of securing necessities.
If people are afraid of technology, why are they buying water bottled from an unknown point of origin? If the world is presumably a wastleland, doesn't it make more sense to have a reliable filtration system then have to travel from town to town for water? Outlaws and those who chase them would be better off with their own methods of securing necessities.
Water being a commodity in the wasteland, it's certain that people would stay around places where there's drinkable water. Said water doesn't need to be bottled techologically though, as anyone can sink a bottle in a river (or another font of fresh water) and fill it up, then sell, or keep, or drink.
I agree with you that would make more sense to have a reliable filtration system, but since it would be somewhat technological, they would be still shunned in some cities and not in others. It's the whole process of recivilize the people after the war. It's the common phobia that comes after an accident. You can develop hydrophobia after almost drown, or claustrophobia after being locked inside an elevator without air for too long.
To me it seems like people would still look weird at anything that looked like one of the machines used in the war. To me is possible that in some places, a few people didn't saw the machines with so much fear and showed that to the others. Teached them that there some things that they didn't have to be affraid.
The planet of midchilda, once a lush planet tinted with green and blue. However, the humans grew too strong, and a world war broke out. Millions died, and the scientist all but died by their own weapons. Technology lost, and the planet scarred, the humans struggled to rebuild their way of life. Now, a few hundred years later, the planet will house a new story. One of The Fate, the Nanoha, and the Hayate.
Dirt and sand kicked up behind a horse as it galloped alongside of a speeding train. The black haired animal breathed heavily as it's master urged it to go faster, mentally asking it to hold on for just a bit longer. Seconds passed and a ladder came within grasp of the rider and a gloved hand shot out to grab it. With an awkward, but practiced, leap of faith, a figure made it onto the moving train. A black cape whipped out to the side of the person, revealing a female body.
Blond hair was flying heavily in the wind, kept in a ponytail that was braced at the base of her neck. A black shirt was worn to cover her upper body, paired with a red and black vest that housed quick reloads for a gun that was flapping against her legs in a holster. Jeans that were worn and dirty clung to her legs, almost seeming to be a size too small for the woman. Matching boots were on her feet, but no spurs graced the heels. Finally, a red bandanna was around her neck, matching her eyes perfectly.
The woman shifted her body and slid around to in-between two of the cars. Now free of the rustling wind, she drew her pistol and opened the door leading into the conductor's room. Before the man could even turn around, he was pistol-whipped and fell unconscious to the ground. Reaching for the brake, she pulled it back just enough to slow the train down to a crawl. With that taken care of, the woman turned and walked back outside and then into the boxcar behind. Seeing nothing of interest, the woman continued her trip back, grinning as she saw a car housing several people. Kicking the door open, she stepped in and fired her gun at once, getting screams and then silence. "Greetings!" She called to them with a smile. "I'm sure you know what's going on now, so please by good passengers and place your valuables into this bag." Reaching back, she pulled a large sack that was behind her cape and flung out her wrist to make it flare out and open up. "If anyone tries something funny, I'll blast them, we clear?"
Walking down the isle slowly, the female robbed each one in turn, smiling and thanking them for their kindness at gunpoint. When she reached the end of the boxcar, she stopped at the sight of a woman wearing a pretty white dress. The woman seemed to be asleep, with a Sunday hat with ribbons and frill pulled down a little to keep the sun from her face. The girl's nails were painted a bright pink and a lace ribbon looped around her left hand for design. "Excuse me, miss," The robber spoke, making the woman stir. "This is a robbery here, I'd like your belongings."
A hand went up to the sitting girl's mouth. "Oh gracious me, a robbery you say? My, I don't know nothing about what I should do!" The thick southern accent only added to the woman's innocence, and the robber hesitated a moment before speaking again.
"Look, just take your pretty jewelery and place it in this bag."
"Like this?" The accented voice asked politely, moving her hand to place a golden watch into the bag.
"Hey, Outlaw!" A voice shouted from the front.
The robber turned at once, pointing her gun to where the sound came from, but saw no one offering any resistance. Instead, she found her wrist being grabbed and when she turned back, a boot connected with her chin, knocking her back.
"Fate Testarossa," The accented voice spoke, now paired with a bright white, pink, and blue gun pointing at the fallen robber's chest. "You're worth quite a pretty penny, you know?"
Fate blinked and looked up as the woman removed the silk white hat from her head, showing a pretty face and bright blue eyes. "Nanoha Takamachi... Bounty hunter, huh? Should have known you'd come after me sooner or later." Nanoha grinned at her, but found her legs tripped from a fast move from fate, making her stumble and fall over as well. Fate quickly got to her feet, grabbed the bag, and left the boxcar before Nanoha could pull her gun again. "Thank you!" Fate shouted out as she climbed to the top of the boxcars
Nanoha grunted and got up, running out the door and hopping to the ladder, only to duck her head back down when a bullet bounced off the metal in front of her. Letting out a sigh, she pulled her gun up and shot over the top of the car twice before jumping up and looking around. Fate was nowhere to be seen, making the woman run along the top. After a few seconds, she ran to the side and looked down, seeing the tail end of Fate's cape as she moved between cars again. With a running start, Nanoha leaped over the car gap and ran along it, dropping down between the next car and ducking. Seconds passed and Fate shot through the door and was tripped by Nanoha at once.
Fate shrieked but recovered before falling, twisting and grabbing Nanoha's dress roughly. With a turn, Fate attempted to throw the woman off the train but instead only managed to slam her against the wall.
A loud ripping sound came, and Nanoha looked at her dress, which was now sporting a long tear near her shoulder. "Hey! You tore my dress!"
"Sorry," Fate answered out of habit. A small silence passed between them before they attacked each other again. The women grunted and struggled, throwing a few punches while trying to aim their respective guns at each other to get a shot off. Finally, Fate glared and jumped back. With a grin, she waved goodbye and jumped once more, off the train.
"Hey, wait!" Nanoha shouted, running forward and looking to the side, seeing the woman struggling to right herself onto her horse. Following, Nanoha leaped as well, fumbling as she landed and running just fast enough to grab a hold of Fate. The blonde, however, managed to right herself and whipped her reins, making the horse gallop at once, leaving Nanoha on her face and in the dust.
"See you!" Fate called out triumphantly.
Nanoha coughed hard and pushed herself up. Her dress was smeared with sand and dirt, making her frown. "The rental fee on this is going to be horrible..."
"At least you didn't lose your head," a new voice came.
Nanoha looked to the side and saw a ferret on the ground, her Sunday hat in his mouth. "Thank you, Yuuno," Nanoha bent down and accepted the hat as well as allowed her partner to run up her arm and sit on her shoulder. "But it isn't all that bad,"
"Oh?" The animal cocked his head to the side. "You lost your pay and ruined that dress."
"She'll come back," Nanoha insisted, watching Fate continue to ride away.
"What makes you say that? She got away clean."
Nanoha grinned, holding up a gun. The sun's light reflected off the polished golden surface, making the black on the handle and red streaks on it stand out even more. The word Bardiche was engraved on the gun proudly. "It's a caster gun, she will want it back." Clicking the gun open, Nanoha removed a bright yellow bullet and slid it into her pocket. "I'll take this as payment for the dress."
Yuuno turned to look at the gun as the conductor of the train got out to see if Nanoha was all right. "A caster gun," he spoke softly. "Part of the lost technology of the past... How did she get one?"
"I don't know," Nanoha began walking to the man approaching her. "But I intend to find out."
~**~
A woman smiled to herself as she watched Nanoha board a train from afar. A black one-piece top/skirt combo covered her body, accented by a yellow zipper that zig-zagged over it. A white hat with black trim covered her short brown hair and short boots were on her feet, coming up just a little over her ankles. "Interesting," She spoke out. "The rumors are true, Nanoha-chan does have a spirit linked animal."
"So it seems," A male voice answered her. Walking up beside Hayate, a wolf with shockingly dark blue hair stood beside her. "Are you going to follow her?"
Hayate pulled her hat down a little to block the sun shining down on her eyes. Slowly, a smile came to her face and she turned to walk back to a group of people on horses waiting for her. "Why not? Signam, Shamal, Vita, we're going to have a fun few days ahead of us."
Spoiler for Western!Nanoha pt.2:
~**~
Nanoha let out a long sigh as she opened the door to her hotel room above the local pub. The noise from downstairs was annoying to her, but was disregarded as something she just had to deal with. "I can't believe that dress cost so much."
Nanoha's accented voice made her partner look over at her. "I told you it was a bad idea to go in disguise."
"But she would have recognized me otherwise." Nanoha sat looked around the room, taking in the surroundings. The area was small, housing only a bed, a night stand, and a small table. To the left was a small area for showering, consisting of a shower head, a drain in the floor, and a small section to stand in. "I think I paid too much for this room too."
Yuuno hopped off Nanoha's shoulder and landed on the table. The light brown ferret stood on his hind legs and watched as his friend undressed. "This is an advanced town, they can charge more and people will pay it."
"Running water is a plus." Nanoha finished taking off her clothes and stood in the shower area, turning on the water to wash over her. "The last place we were in was pretty filthy."
Yuuno nodded, reflecting back. "The world is still recovering, it will be a long time before technology is back to the way it was. With the people actively trying to stop it's progression in fear of another war... Take what we can get, I suppose."
"Still," Nanoha mused, her argument stopping there. "Tomorrow we will visit the gunsmith. If he has caster shells, we will need to buy as many as we can. Yuuno-kun, how much money do we have left?"
Yuuno leapt from the table to the bed and pulled out a small pouch from Nanoha's clothes. Picking it up in his mouth, he pulled it across the bed to spill the contents out. "Let's see... Two gold pieces, fifteen silver, and three copper."
"Enough to buy two shells, food, and some water for our trip... I hope that outlaw comes tonight, I could really go for that bounty."
Yuuno glanced over to the side, looking at the golden gun. "Are you not worried about her? Someone with the ability to sync to a caster gun is dangerous."
"I can handle her," Nanoha turned off the water and wrapped a towel around herself. "If it comes to it, I can use one of my shells. The bounty will cover it and allow me to buy more." Walking to the table, Nanoha picked up her gun, observing it. The main body was a bright white, accented by blue on the handle and along the top. Small sections were laced with pink for design, and the clip going into the bottom held the color as well. On the side of it, the word R. Heart was engraved in a blistering gold text. "Caster guns, lost technology that syncs to a specific person and uses their energy to fire special shells..."
Yuuno nodded. "Once synced, they can only be used by that person. The shells are sold at a high cost because they are so rare... which is good for you."
Nanoha felt her lips turn up slightly. "I know it is dangerous to fire them regularly, but I won't ever have to worry about it, because I never have more than a handful on me at a time." Clicking a safety hold off, Nanoha pulled her clip from her gun and checked the bullets. A row of six bullets were seen and she slid it back into her gun, clicking another safety and pulling the top of it back to see a single pink shell. Releasing her hold, she allowed the gun to snap back into place and put it back on the table. "If Fate is going to attack, I wish she'd hurry. I'd like to get some sleep so I can prepare to leave early. According to my information, there is a group of outlaws that are supposed to attack the nearby town soon. The bounty is large."
"If you need money so badly," Yuuno teased his partner. "You could go downstairs and dance along with the piano player's music."
Nanoha sniffed and turned up her nose at the idea. "A lady would never do such a thing!"
~**~
Fate opened a door and stepped inside of the pub, looking around with sharp red eyes. Her prey wasn't in her site so she walked to the bar and caught the keep's eyes. "I'm looking for a girl," she spoke to him. "A little shorter than me, brown hair, blue eyes, wearing a really nice looking dress."
"No one here by that description," The male told her.
Fate scoffed and frowned down at the bar. "Great..."
"Hey toots!" A man spoke up , draping an arm around Fate's shoulders, making her black cowboy hat shift uncomfortably on her head. "How about you and I-"
Fate's eyebrow twitched and she grabbed the front of the man's shirt. "Hands... OFF!" With that she threw him effortlessly over the bar, making a large keg of beer erupt and splash out all over the counter top.
Upstairs, Nanoha's eyes widened at the sound of a crash. Grabbing both her gun and Fate's, she shoved them into holsters on her jeans and ran out of the room. running to the safety rails along the edge of the upper floor's walkway, she saw Fate downstairs thoroughly beating up two people. With a grin, she picked up her speed.
Quicktime Event!
Press X to jump over the rail and land on the bar below
Press O to take the stairs
To answer the questions, Nanoha paid extra for a room that had running water, as some towns still don't have it. The water isn't polluted, but there aren't many water plants/ect to make it a "common day thing". Same with electricity and a few other things like transportation. Lost technology is still around, but for the most part will be things like magical artifacts, weaponry, and things that people would consider "bad" because of the war. Consider final Fantasy X for those of you who played it. It's THERE, but there are those who use it, those who condemn it, and the mass of people who "accept parts of it" like running water. I made it a world that contradicts itself because that's how humans are. People say technology is bad, but accept electricity and running water for their own needs. There are Hippocrates, extremist, and casuals... But that isn't the focus of this story :3
Looks like Nanoha pressed X.
Spoiler for Western!Nanoha pt.3:
The girl's left hand grabbed the railing and she used her momentum to sling herself over it and into the air. With a grin, she took in the area below her as she fell. She saw Fate turning to look over at her, and couldn't help but grin as light reflected off her guns. Her brown hair flew behind her as she descended, contrasting heavily to her bright white and blue trimmed clothes. Her boots landed on the bar with a sloshing sound as they came in contact with the mass of spilt beer on it. Blue eyes widened as her feet slipped out from under herself, making her fall quickly, crashing down on the floor by the bar and letting out a yelp as her ankle twisted.
Fate couldn't help but hesitate at the sight. A fraction of a second went by where she wondered if that woman was the same one she had fought against earlier or not. When Nanoha righted herself and stood gently on her feet, Fate had to admit that it was, in fact, the same one. Pushing her advantage, the blonde ran forward and jumped over the bar, her cape flying out behind her as she did so. Black boots connected solidly with Nanoha's chest and the two fell down on the ground roughly.
Nanoha rolled at once, pulling her gun and aiming as she nimbly reclaimed her footing. Fate's eyes met hers and a glint of gold showed that she had reclaimed her gun during the fall. The first bullet rang out when Fate pulled her trigger, blasting past Nanoha's cheek and leaving a red trail as it grazed the skin. The brown haired woman countered by moving forward and bringing her own gun up. Fate shifted at once, slinging her left hand to hit Nanoha's and make the blast go astray.
The third shot hit the ground, aim shattered by Nanoha's shifting arm that hit her opponet's. A fourth shot came as Fate tried to shoot the woman's foot and a fifth glanced Fate's side when Nanoha fired yet again. The guns both swapped hands and two blows came out to counter the blasts that missed yet again. Using hger palm, Nanoha slapped Fate's wrist to block another shot and then brought her elbow up to connect with Fate's chin. Bringing her gun around, she aimed only to have her gun move away from a bullet shot from Fate's barrel against hers.
The blond moved her weight and spun around, kicking Nanoha's side and aiming once again, only to miss when the woman stumbled awkwardly away on her sprained ankle. Trying again, Fate brought her gun up and found it smacked away by a beer bottle that shattered on her hand. Nanoha aimed again, but only managed to shoot through Fate's flared cloak. Another shot fired, missing as Fate turned her body and grabbed Nanoha's hand. The brunette did the same and they each forced the guns away from each other as Nanoha fell onto her back.
Landing hard, the two looked at each other hard but hand to roll away as gunfire hailed over the bar they were behind. Nanoha moved to the left while Fate scampered to the right. Bullets rained down between them and the two each took the chance to reload their guns before looking at each other and frowning.
"We don't take kind to people using guns in our town, ladies." A man spoke up from the other side of the bar. "As sheriff of this here town, I think it best to give yerselves up. That is, unless you want to be shot by everyone in this here bar."
Nanoha grunted and looked at Fate, who seemed to be smarter than taking a shot that would probably get herself killed. "I'm a bounty hunter," Nanoha called back to him. "I have a right to use my arms!"
"Not in my town," the voice shot back. "Here you are under MY law."
Scoffing, Nanoha tried her best to ignore the smug look on Fate's face. Both of them slowly rose at the same time, hands up and guns in their holsters once more. "Fine. I mean no harm to others." Fate didn't say anything. Instead, she simply moved to where she was motioned to go by the guns and stood there. "I suppose you won't let me have my bounty?" Nanoha asked curiously, her thickly accented voice trying to sound pretty.
The Sheriff grunted at her, and before long, Nanoha found her right hand cuffed to Fate's left. The two were escorted outside of the bar and into the back of a covered wagon drawn by two horses. "I don't want the headache of dealing with a hunter. I'm going to let you two go, as long as you don't come near my town again." He took their guns each in turn and emptied their full load into his pockets. "You can keep yer guns, but I won't let you kill each other or hurt anyone in my town." Turning to a man who was getting behind the reins, he spoke to him in an authoritative voice. "Take them out of town and drop them off."
Nanoha gasped. "You can't be serious!" Instead of an answer she got a stern look and the carriage began to move. Turning around, she saw another man sitting with his back to the driver so he could face them. A six shooter was pointed at them and cold eyes let them both know that he didn't mind using it. Taking the hint, each girl sat down and stayed quiet.
The sounds of hooves galloping along the beaten road was the only sound that came for a long time. Each person sat in silence glaring at one another in hopes that they would become distracted. As the ride wore on, the two realized the stalemate and retreated their threatening gazes in favor of looking around to try and collect a trail to make it back.
The wagon slowed to a stop after an amount of time that neither of them could place. A look told them all the man needed to and they each got out of the wagon, standing there with hard eyes glaring. "I'm not one to leave two girls defenseless," the man spoke to them finally. Holding up two bullets, he tossed them to the side. "Enjoy yourselves."
Nanoha and Fate both darted to the shells at the same time, jumping and reaching for the bullets. Sand flew around them as they struggles with each other, fists closed over their ammunition. As they struggled, the horse drawn wagon rode away from them, leaving the two girls in the sand to battle it out under the pale moon.
The girls continued to fight as they struggled with each other, pulling on their joined wrists roughly to try and gain the upper hand. It wasn't until a coyote howled in the distance did they attempt to load their guns. Two chambers opened and the bullets slid in quickly. Each girl moved their guns up and pressed them against each others foreheads.
Fate panted, gasping for air through her sand coated mouth. Nanoha was doing the same, trying to shift her weight onto her good foot to stay up. "You know," Fate stated, not wavering her position. "If one of us shoots, the other will die dragging the body through the desert."
Nanoha licked her lips, the dull, dry taste of sand making it gritty. "Good point... We should use a bullet to break the chain holding us."
"You do it," The blond offered.
The bounty hunter knew better than to waste her single bullet and glared at the girl in front of her fiercely. "If I use mine, you'll shoot me."
"I will not."
"Then you break the chain."
"And have you shoot me? Think not." Fate could feel the spot on her head itch from the barrel of the girl's Caster.
The stalemate lasted until another howl came, reminding them that they weren't the only living things in the desert. "I loaded my shell into my caster loading bay. You can't open it if I die."
"I did the same. You can't work my gun from that point either."
"I took it out earlier."
"I leave one in that chamber for emergencies."
A third howl came and Nanoha knew she didn't have much of a choice. "There is a pack of coyotes nearby, they are howling together. We don't want to be nearby when they go on the hunt."
Fate swallowed, but knew the woman's words to be true. "Fine. I'll move my gun if you move yours." Their eyes locked and guns parted from their faces.
Nanoha took a deep breath and looked around at the deserted area around them. "We can't go back to the town, we'll be shot on sight."
"We will have to go to the next town over, and get unchained from there."
The two looked at each other and took in their situation fully. "It's going to be a long two day's walk..."
Somehow, about half way through, I remembered my dad's old Louis Lamour books on tapes. I rode with him a lot while he made deliveries and I probably heard over... at least 30 of them (more than once). So half way I started writing it like I was listening to the book on tape... I wonder if my tone of writing changed to reflect that?
Somehow, about half way through, I remembered my dad's old Louis Lamour books on tapes. I rode with him a lot while he made deliveries and I probably heard over... at least 30 of them (more than once). So half way I started writing it like I was listening to the book on tape... I wonder if my tone of writing changed to reflect that?
Loved those! Kids these days don't know about entertainment on long trips before gameboys and dvds...and cars...and electric lights.
Okay, little fluff idea I had going ever since I finished reading a certain fic.
Spoiler for Strongest:
"I want to eat egg of helmeted guineafowl." The little girl shouted, getting a shriek from her mother who let the tomatoes she was washing fall back into the basket.
The older woman turned around to see her adopted daughter by the door of the kitchen, panting. "Why?"
"I-" The blonde girl huffed, catching her breath. "I want egg of-"
"I understood that part." The brunette cleaned her hands and walked to her daughter, crouching in front of her, who was supporting her upper weight with both hands on her knees. "Why do you want to eat that?"
"I read in a magazine," More panting, "that I can grow faster if I eat helmeted guineafowl's eggs everyday." The elementary schoolgirl was still wearing her backpack, and it seemed to get even heavier on her small frame.
"And why do you want to grow faster again?"
The girl sprung her body upward again. "Because I want to be the strongest one in the family."
"Why's that, dear?" The woman said softly. Even in the short time that they had been togheter, she had already noticed how independant the little girl liked to present herself. She was a little proud, even if it worried her at times.
"I want to be the one who protect my Mamas and everyone else." She beamed proudly. "I want to be strong. I want to be the Magical Girl of Justice."
"I see." The brunette took a nearby chair and sat, to be on eyelevel with the little one. "But growing bigger doesn't mean you'll be stronger, you know?"
"Really?" The statement instantly turned the little blonde's mood. She was downcasting her head when her adoptive mother continued.
"Though, it does help if you eat plenty of healthy food and exercise. If you clean your plate every meal, then I'm sure you'll grow to be the stronger one."
"Really?!" The girl perked up, receiving a nodded response. "Really, really?"
"Really, really." The older woman stood up and smiled. "Now go wash yourself and change from the school uniform. Lunch will be ready in a few minutes."
"Okay!" The girl shot out of the room.
Suddenly the woman felt her body being embraced from behind, and a soft voice talking of her ear. "You really turning out to be a better mother than I ever was."
The brunette turned to her green haired wife and planted a chaste kiss on her lips. "I already raised two. Another three will be even easier, now that I have you, Lindy."
Spoiler for Author Notes:
For the ones who didn't understood zilch of it, the ones who're talking are Momoko and Fate, in Allquall's [M]Other Love's world.
After reading that fic, I HAD to write something about it to shout out to it.
2010-04-02, 12:50
Author
I've been putting it off for the longest time, but I suppose I'm at a point where I really need to read through them to understand things. I was hoping I could get away with not looking through them or listening to them, but it seems that bad habit caught up with me.
.
You'd just have to remove the bits of MGLN and Outlaw Star...
