trans_9 | In Which Zetta Talks A Lot [[Open]]

He'd called for them. (It was a pathetic turnout. Huh.)

His minions had come. (Well, three of them.)

Now, the Sacred Tome - slash - Badass Overlord looked down on them all from his throne, and spoke.

"Now, you guys are used to working in groups. That's good. So maybe what I'm saying will just be stuff you already know. That's fine too.

"I'm not saying this for you, then. I'm saying this for the people that didn't show up. I'm saying this so maybe you guys can go out, find your friends and your groups and whatnot, and say, 'hey, stop moping over what happened and go learn from the Overlord'. Maybe then we can round up enough people to go play a game of Prinny Baseball with the Ohm as the bases."

The book paused to let the incredible wisdom and insight of that metaphor sink in.

"What's the point of a group? Why do you work in a group? That's a rhetorical question," he said quickly, "not that I've ever needed a group. But still. What's the point? The answer is a little concept called 'force multiplier'. A team is stronger than an equal number of guys about the same power who all just showed up to the fight. Why? It's not 'practice' or 'teamwork' or any of that crap. Those are just parts of the whole. The whole is information.

"Why do you practice? What makes teamwork work? Simple: the information you have about the people you're with.

"Now a lot of people will say it's more important to know what your opponent can do than what your friends can do. I'm here to tell you that's crap. You'll find out what your opponent does when he does it. If he doesn't do it, it doesn't matter. The key is in reacting to it.

"So what was the point of all this? Working together with other random people on the ship. It's great to form teams and whatnot, but that bomb thing shows just how people can get mixed together. I ended up with a dragon and a blue... thing. I'm sure you all had weird experiences too.

"So. The first thing to do if you're with some other random people? Find out what they can do. As fast as possible, before you need to do anything. Because that fact will inform every single other thing you do after that."

[[Aimed at Starfire, Konoka, and Nanashi. Open to anyone who wandered in.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Starfire listened attentively. All of it was indeed logical. "If we know each other's strengths and weaknesses, we have the information needed to quickly create a strategy, right? As my people have said, if you do not know that a path exists, you cannot travel upon it."

The translation may have been slightly faulty, but she hoped it would make some semblance of sense.

"Strengths, weakness, and techniques," Zetta amended. "I'd go so far as to say that the strength of a team depends entirely on the knowledge of the techniques each person can use. That's why it's most important to establish that as soon as you find yourself working with someone new."

"Yes, of course!" She was taking mental notes, absorbing all this information as quickly as possible.

"Can we attempt to learn this in advance by knowing as many potential teammates as possible?"

She was going to socialize whether people liked it or not, but a legitimate reason to do so wouldn't hurt.

"Can't hurt," Zetta said. "Though you won't learn everything important, even socially, unless you ask. Probably not even then. If anything -- and this ship kind of makes it hard, with these weird suits everyone ends up wearing, but -- if anything, it helps to get really good at..." The word he wanted is 'heuristics', but he doesn't know that word. He struggled for a moment to come up with something. "Uh, guessing well."

"I see, I see!" Konoka nodded. She knew most of this--that a group needed to know everything about each other. However, this style of training was new, and might be worth running by Negi. She'd certainly keep her eyes out.

She looked at the others there, wondering just how to go about this training.

"I'll pick on you for an example," Zetta continued in his usual smug tones. "You can heal, right? What's the exact range of your longest-range spell? *Exact*."

Really, the only reason Maydril had peeked into the Sensoriums on her way to the Media Library was that she had heard voices. Perhaps one strident voice in particular.

Imagine her surprise when she saw a very large book being carried by a girl. And--was it talking? Apparently so.

She really hadn't anything to say, but watching with wide eyes was definitely on today's to-do list.

Zetta hadn't missed that. "Come on in. It's open to everyone."

"And what is...it?" the half-breed asked, giving the book a very curious look. "What are you, for that matter?"

Since in her experiences, so far, save for certain parts of the Media Library, books didn't talk. And books definitely did not have faces.

"This is Overlord Zetta's Awesome Speech on How to Work in Teams," Zetta said. After a moment he added, "It's also badass."

This book? Totally talking.

Well, yes. Maydril had noticed that the green-haired girl's lips weren't moving. And that her expression was rather blank. She had her questions about that, but figured with the topic at hand, this "Zetta" was not likely to answer them.

"I see. Considering I am not with my usual team..." If one could call Knights a 'team'. No one was there to contradict her, so she did. "I perhaps could use a refresher course?"

"Not like there's not plenty to go around on this ship, it seems," Zetta muttered. "Feel free to listen in. It's open."

"Then I shall," she said, nodding and dropping a slight curtsey. Not too difficult at the moment, considering she was not in her armor.

Seamlessly, Zetta resumed his speechification.

In Which Zetta Talks A Lot [[Open]]

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Speaking of wandering in...

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