(Lounge)
"Hey, you had to go to school didn't you? I remember Gudao saying that you didn't really use the Einzbern's old reverse-crest system. Um, I myself didn't get that either... I think." Chloe asked Gudako after Elizabeth had been called away for material gathering duty. da Vinci was playing some game about fantastical civilizations battling one another for survival in a sort of planet-scale national deathmatch.
"Those crests were useful for creating tools, but as you can tell from the behavior of the human Einzbern, it doesn't work for bringing up new, independent, magi. Oh and they had some subtle control elements in it, probably. Our current state is probably several generations ahead thanks to some other factors making it impossible to even choose to implement the reverse-type method." Gudako nodded to herself, recalling the related histories. "Oh, we run our own education, obviously."
"Bit of a pity, I think you'd look good in a sailor uniform," Chloe commented for no reason in particular.
"Chloe with the real issues," Ruby added.
"Well, if you want that sort of eyecandy there's... uh." Gudako realized that both da Vinci and Sasaku were in the room. "Actually I -did- go to your school. Not for very long, though. But like I said, most of us wouldn't, and you can guess why; here in Germany for example we had a yearly cohort of a few =hundreds=, which given our current five-year learning period means over a thousand 'in school' as you might call it."
"I think it's a perfectly cute sort of dress. Ahem, anyway that many people that seems rather hard to handle, let alone secretly," da Vinci pointed out. She had been summoned before the Incineration, however in that brief timeframe did not interact much with those outside Chaldea. Or within it either, since she manifested with a long list of rather challenging to-dos, exactly her element.
"Well, you literally picked your own outfit. Somehow. Anyway, not many people will go wandering into privately-owned middle-of-nowhere wilderness looking for trouble. Besides the usual fencing, there's basically packs, er wait gangs since they're all one pack, of Realm-linked guardian dogs who will raise hell if someone not 'allowed' is around. And no one has gotten past the buffer zone yet."
"Sounds delightful."
Gudako thought back to some events from her childhood. "There used to be predators who would chase the cats without realizing they had friends. And then end up running into a gang of dogs who would literally kill them since, you know, from their perspective the group were already being attacked."
"That actually sounds terrifying," Ruby commented while watching da Vinci's forces attempt to hold the line against an armored spearhead of knights.
The Master shrugged, "They understand friend-or-foe, so ironically actual prey creatures like deer are fine, so much so they ended up using our space as an escape area since whoever might want to eat them them would presumably be identified as hostile unlike themselves. Now that sorta messed up the nearby ecosystem, but not too much."
"Because you hunted them in turn," Marie guessed, receiving a nod.
"Yep. Well you can't blame them for not learning that detail when people can instantly kill you from beyond visual range. But anyway it's only so to maintain balance. If it was all under till they wouldn't be able to live there at all, instead of being kept to the pre-intervention equilibrium population."
"Wait, the cats don't run up trees?" Chloe asked suddenly. "I mean there's plenty of those around by what you've said."
"They do, but at least some of them think it's safer to run towards the nearest dog group compared to navigating trees which they're not familiar with. Odd, but now that I think about it, perhaps they don't go exploring unless there's our dogs nearby?"
"It's odder that you say the dogs are linked to the Realm. Non-phantasmal animals, unlike the weakest of you, don't have magic circuits to interact with a magecraft," da Vinci said while selecting a Communications research for her growing nation.
"You'd normally be right to assume that, but there's a few purple dogs around so... you aren't," Gudako remarked in an off-hand manner.
"You did what?" Chloe interrupted.
"Experiments, you know. The usual. That sort of thing isn't genetic since even a pair produce mundane puppies."
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(Cafeteria)
"Look's like something's on your mind," a passing pirate commented to an eating Jeanne.
"Hmm, I'm not interested in indulging your curiosity though," the saint replied absentmindedly.
Looking about, Blackbeard took an empty seat without waiting for an invitation. Briefly checking his watch, he shrugged and then pulled a bottle out of his coat. "I thought we're working to the same goal nowadays," he offered.
"That we are, but what that we will actually end up with isn't necessarily any good," she replied while eying his wine doubtfully.
"One of Marie's favorites," he answered in advance while pouring. "I sure get much better stuff, after dying, than could ever be gotten in a single lifetime's span. So I take it that your (Revelation) is what's troubling you?"
"A pretty good guess," she confirmed.
"We seamen tend to be superstitious, as they say... but before one might have called us religious: sea gods and water spirits need appeasing like any other supernatural forces. Has that really changed?"
"We were born into a world the gods largely stepped away from, whatever their reasons might be," Jeanne shook her head. "Though it seems like said World prefers it that way."
"Ah, you're thinking about Euryale and Stheno."
"No actually. Unlike Georgios and me, Martha came from the Roman era so despite being a Saint, she - or rather this version of her - doesn't exactly follow the modern, or medieval for that matter, Church doctrines and thinking."
"So you're saying she's familiar with a worldview with... even more gods?" Blackbeard didn't quite follow.
"Honestly I don't know. It might explain why she's rather antagonistic with the two Greek ones we have on board, though that pair hardly did anything, really. But she had a good point that it doesn't really matter that much how many saviors fall by the wayside, throw a thousand at it over time and you eventually get someone that succeeds. Which is a great wager for a god being hands-off throughout. Or a Counter Force, you get the gist of it."
Edward Teach took a moment to himself to process this. "Chaldea, or the group of us anyway, is basically a rising power growing into a vacuum left by the Incineration. For us, Servant-us specifically, we can do something that gods or Throne-bound-us (Heroic Spirits) cannot."
"Mhm?" she just looked as him quizzically, waiting for him to get to the point while finishing her drink.
"We can make something of our own. People might romanticize pirates as being free, but like I said, it's necessary to appease someone or something arbitrarily stronger than yourself. Even humanists are wrong to think that humans can accomplish true freedom because they could be overrun by, well, a group of Servants. As a Ruler you might have realized that at least part of the format of the usual Holy Grail War is to prevent having a bunch of Servant-level entities hang around."
"There are limits to what they could do though," she demurred.
"Yep." He left the rebuttal unstated; they both knew without having to acknowledge it.
"I'd wager we'd be one of the foremost holdouts of Mystery in the world if the rest of it, you know, existed," Jeanne said finally.
"You'd have to ask da Vinci or the Masters, but I think that's not the truest way to put it," Blackbeard disagreed after pondering the statement. "The System, as I vaguely understand it anyway, is based on certain common understandings. It works only because the people with said understanding aren't human. Either that or something else about Marbles that I really don't get."
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(Training Grounds)
"My tenure as a king, huh?" While Agesipolis had not expected to simply resume their pre-Cat conversation, the change in topic surprised him. "It can hardly be described as ruling; to be honest, most of the time that I took to the field, I wasn't commanding the army from my own head."
"Most of my 'land' and its inhabitants are best kept locked away behind the Gate guarded for eons," Scathach shrugged, it was a way of life for one who had gone past a finite life long ago. "I see some others are coming to train, perhaps we should carry this elsewhere to not disrupt them."
"Sure, if you have a spot in mind." The Shielder followed the Caster out without argument. "This summoning thing is so strange, like a dream. Or waking up from one. Or dying."
"Life basically is a dream though," Kojirou remarked as he and Shirou passed the exiting pair.
"Well I suppose that's one way to look at it," the younger man replied to his ex-Servant. "Hmm, wait. Okita?"
"Don't mind me, just wanted to watch," answered the Shinsengumi casually.
"Hmm." Shirou eyed Kojirou's signature long weapon and, after a bit of thought, produced a copy into his hand. "Wonder how well I can actually handle this now."
(Outside Farming Hall Number 7)
"Oh there's Cat," one of the homunculi who was doing his rounds noted after seeing the Berserker about in the lower section of Chaldea for whatever purpose. "Cat, have time to look at our new crop of herbs?" As far as vegetation went, herb- and spice-bearing ones were on top of the list because they added the most value per plant.
"Later, woof !" the Cat replied over her shoulder while zipping along at just under the Chaldean speed limit. "Gotta wrestle Asterios for some flowers tonight."
"Um.. ok, good luck with that !" Though the Servant had disappeared down another corridor before the exchange had ended, she would obviously be able to hear his words clearly, even if the reverse was not possible.
...
He blinked as another Servant-level signature started moving downward via one of the nearby transport ramps at speed. That's not Euryale, is it? The Archer came down every now and then, but he didn't think it was her signature.
Since it seems to be pretty weak, it most likely would be Stheno. Less that she was weaker per se, but rather had Presence Concealment. A Skill like that would normally hinder even basic detection short of focused Caster-level scrying or prepared Bounded Fields - but Chaldea was essentially in one of the latter, provided one could connect to the System at least.
(Composting Hall)
*whoosh* *whaash*
Taking a crouching posture to minimize Cat's ability to exploit her shorter stature, Asterios tried a grab from the right and then quickly another attempt from the left as Cat hurriedly moved away. At the last moment, Cat grabbed onto the larger Berserker's wrist as it was pulled back and tried to hop up on it as a springboard.
Turning his hand over, Asterios sent the back of it into the ground, forcing Cat to quickly dismount before being smashed into the grassy floor, using the momentum to fly away safely out of reach.
Because they were of course sparring unarmed, Asterios could not easily reach a Cat-sized target trying to stay low if he was standing to his full height simply due to the length of his limbs.
"..." Straightening to his full height, the minotaur quickly covered the space between the two of them, clearly going for a kick on the grounded Cat. However, with her characteristic agility, Cat scampered away on all fours without having to get to her feet, doubling back in an effort to catch Asterios flat-footed on the recovery, but to no avail as she could not transition to a grab before the other's foot was drawn back to his massive body.
"Raw-woof !" With a surprisingly fast kick-off, Cat sent herself into the air straight as Asterios, who responded with a swift swipe at the airborne feline. For a moment, an observer might have thought the blow would surely connect solidly, but Cat twisted herself about, cat-like, looking as though she had backflipped and bounced off the top of Asterios' arm on her way to his head.
Asterios ducked, and the best Cat could do in response was try to kick the top of his head as she sailed over him. Unfortunately, while it looked like she had scored a hit, Cat's paw only caught a few strands of hair, which didn't register at all.
Landing deftly on her feet without skidding, Tamamo Cat and Asterios turned around to face one another in the same tempo.
"This Cat has played catch enough," she said after noticing Stheno on the edge of her vision.
"... okay." Asterios pointed out a small patch of flowers that seemed to be growing undisturbed in a corner. It was not that an unusual spot for a mini-garden given that breaking up the ground in said corners was frequently more troublesome than it was worth.
"Out of energy already?" the Assassin couldn't help but poke at the flower-gathering Berserker Cat.
"Busy cooking special dinner, bye now !" Cat cheerfully said goodbye to Asterios while apparently ignoring Stheno, in itself a more than sufficient return barb.
"Hmm," the oldest Gorgon sister said mostly to herself as Asterios stepped over to greet her. "You really can't underestimate that one."
"Did Euryale get called?" Asterios asked earnestly.
"Yes, though she apparently forgot to update her calendar as it were."
"Hmm, ok." Sensing that Stheno was not particularly interested in further conversation, he left her at the entrance and returned to his favorite spot which not coincidentally was near the flower patch Cat had been harvesting dinner decorations from earlier.
"What do you do most of the time?" Stheno asked after a moment. Being Servants, neither of them had to raise their voice or strain their ears to carry out conversation even across the large area of the hall.
"Just being," was the honest reply.
"Hmm... ok."
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Notes:
Since the homunculi (Illya was special) don't grow up in the conventional way, Gudako went to Homurahara at the level that Shirou and co did. You'd be right to recall that it doesn't use a sailor uniform (Gudako was ignoring that).