trans_9 | Tightrope

It had been a few days since the Outsider's gathering, where Hit Girl had finally been able to utilize her strength and talent to help others. All in all, it went pretty well: choices were made, friendships were had, blah blah and kumbaya. What SHE had wanted to show was that she was the type of girl who got the job done, and if anyone needed to be reminded, she would show that to them. Grabbing the flag had just been the start: now she wanted to make sure that whatever happened next, she would be ready, she would show people the type of person her daddy trained.

Which led to today's excursion in the Sensorium: she was doing tightrope walking, one of her weaker points, in order to maintain balance and poise. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop had demanded both, and while she had mastered that, she had not yet made her foray to really careful jumping in tight spots. To give her some energy, she had this playing in the background, and she jumped from rope to rope, her eyes concentrating, her tongue sticking out slightly in concentration.

Each step took courage, and the slightest imperfection would result in her falling, although of course it wouldn't be that big of a deal when you were in the Sensorium anyway. Despite this, Hit Girl demanded nothing less than imperfection: once she had this mastered, going to Negi and learning the delayed spells would be next, not to mention training Sasami.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Depends on what sort of prison ship this was designed to be, I guess...it may have just been a cost-savings measure, for all we know. Cheaper to give the AI schizophrenia that pull her out and put in a new one." Her upper lip thinned a bit at that thought. "So the mean-lady half has to watch us be coddled, and the nice-lady half has to cry when she's mean. Charming."

"I visited Earth, so I've heard about heroes. But I'm surprised that they could scare you." Hit Girl had jumped in bare-handed to fight a stranger, after all. "Do you think they won't hold the line? That they'll all go their own way and fight for themselves, not the group?"

"Pretty perverted," Hit Girl said, though t was still a possibility when it came down to it. There was still so much that they didn't know about Stacy, who would even be able to tell if Stacy was just as much a pawn in this whole thing as they were? When it came down to it, who was to say the Daligig wasn't manipulating all of this somehow? "I think it might have been easier hating Stacy."

She shrugged. "Maybe? There are a lot of different people on this ship, some that have been enemies of what we're trying to do. At a time when we need help, it might be looked at as the weakest time for us. That's the fear."

"Certainly, you can hate the people who did it to her. And you can hate what she does, while realizing that if she was a fully integrated person, she hopefully wouldn't do it. Either way, getting her fixed will either make her nicer, or teach us enough about her that we can isolate her if she is a sadist at the core."

She frowned. "Getting a crew this varied to put forward any sort of united front is definitely an issue. And if one group decided to do something different and fails, that will mean that their point of view will be permanently discredited. But a success could be just as damaging, if it was for the wrong reasons. Like say, someone does talk to the Ohm and they talk back, offer to negotiate - and then attack when people relax. Everything has to be questioned - successes as well as failures."

"I'd be curious to know that myself: we have enough enemies, I want to be aware that 'crazy mother complex ship' is there on the top. It's strange enough the ship is sentient, I'd want to know if she's actually messing with things on the ship on purpose to weak our resolve."

She nodded. "Well yeah, the bottom line is we have to be practical and prepare for any backlash. Number one rule of fighting is that you never turn your back on the enemy, even if you think they're at their weakest."

"An AI - a really advanced AI - doesn't think the same way we do. She may have a hundred simulations of future scenarios running in her head, and in the ones where she doesn't divide us, the crew unite and erase her. And then lose the war. Or it could just be a test imposed on us by her, or by the Daligig. But she's the only one who can tell us - not unless we can convince some Daligig, or some Daligig AI, to tell us what's really going on."

She nodded in return to the last. "A blow for a blow, that's what the mercenaries teach - and when the blow is the destruction of entire universes, well, either the Ohm are going to prove that those universes weren't really destroyed, or they are going to get pounded into subatomic flatness, to repay what they have done."

"Yeah, and good luck with that," Hit Girl said. "If anything, we're likely to have to get the answers from Stacy. Any action against the Daligig would probably be met with swift action from the council or something. They're very particular about getting the information and not pissing off the people they think are helping us."

She grinned. "I like the way you think. If I didn't have to go and rest up my body right now, I think I'd be talking to you all day. Gotta space out my training though, give my muscles time to heal. When can we train like this again?"

Yes, and wouldn't it be a shame if the crew figured out how to remove Daligig-loyalty from Stacy's morality-touchpoint sequence? Make her side with the crew against the people who had split her mind?

"Hopefully the Daligig never ask for something the Council isn't willing to give them, then."

She looked at Hit Girl, considering. "You'll have to answer that one; you know your body better than me. You're obviously in excellent shape, but zero-gee stresses muscles in weird places. Once you're ready, call me on the omnicomm. I usually do workouts in the Hub; no reason I can't do them here with company." She smiled.

"Yeah," Hit Girl said. "The moment that happens, we'll truly be alone."

"Sure, that'll be fine." Hit girl said, not aware how much more training she would actually be getting into, from fighting Kain to meeting Chase.

"I'll let you know. I look forward to it, and talking to you more," Hit Girl said.

"It might be better to be alone than to have a Council that caves to that sort of demand," she had to point out.

"Sure thing; whenever you're ready. Pleasure to meet you, and not beat you, Hit Girl," she smiled.

"The moment I hear that Council cave in, they'll stop being anything I give a shit about," Hit girl said, as if that was inevitable. "Let's hope they stay on their toes."

She laughed. "Oh I dunno: some people might argue you did. But yeah, I'll see you Anwei. I had fun doing this with you."

Tightrope

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Re: NP - it's a good kind of insanity though

Re: NP - it's a good kind of insanity though

Re: NP - it's a good kind of insanity though

Re: NP - it's a good kind of insanity though

Re: NP - it's a good kind of insanity though

Re: NP - it's a good kind of insanity though

Re: NP - it's a good kind of insanity though