Chapter 12 : Skully's Doctrines
My mood was at an historical all-time high the morning after, especially once I remembered that I had put the day aside for self-care, i.e. lazing around like a slob with a book or something.
Eh, Big G is -well, was considering his current 'deader than doornail' state- a real thing that exists here, so taking a page in his book and resting on the seventh day is only proper!
…Except I had missed one particular blatant detail when making that plan.
"I don't have anything to read, school books excepted." I grumble aloud, slouched in one of my kitchen's chairs, clad in my nondescript gray fluffy PJs, a mug of tea in hand, the morning sunshine shining through the window, and bathing myself and the room in its warm rays.
Scowling at nothing in particular, I slowly come to the realization that there are some downsides to being a nearly broke orphan in another world.
Not like I was complaining or anything: hell, I had a whole house for myself, I would have to be a particularly conceited asshole to bitch about my financial circumstances when I have money landing on my plate for doing basic bitch school-stuff and a comfy roof over my head.
That, plus the fact that it would have been extremely awkward to find myself in the sudden possession of a new set of parents.
But, well, I was still kind of broke, with no distractions on hand during my slow day of the week, not even a stable connection to the internet to procrastinate a bit on it.
I mean, there is a library in town, but I don't really want to leave my little house today, having exceeded my quota of social interactions for the week somewhere around Thursday if I had to be perfectly honest, only sheer determination carrying me through the last school day of the week afterward.
…I could doodle for a bit, but I am also lacking the proper supplies to work on my drawing skills, since I still wanted to do something about my tatts and started from the principle that it was going to be a long endeavor, considering my lack of artsy bones.
After all, I had the most expensive part of the equation -the tattooing kit- laying right under my bed, all I needed was to get gud with it.
And while, yes, I could ask a professional to do something about it, I live in Japan, am underage, and I don't really want to.
Maybe it's a bit vain, but I want to be the one to ink myself this time around, make those bodymods mine in absolutely every aspect.
"Well, guess that only leaves one thing to do." I sigh aloud, draining the last bit of my tea before rising myself up.
After a short detour toward the sink to drop my mug, I make my way toward the Basement, a little annoyed at having nothing better to do than to actually work on my connection with the Immaterium to pass the time.
I open the door, bracing myself-
-before grunting a little, as Skully, puppy of a servo-skull that it is, instantly starts banging itself against my chest, trilling binary-cant in greeting.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm happy to see you too," I chuckle a bit, giving it a well deserved headpat for being helpful and my ally in this whole adventure I had found myself thrust into, "Now, get off me so we can get started."
Chuckling a little as the servo-skull hovers back and does a little, jerky nod of assent while trilling, I make my way toward my meditation-mat, lighting up the censer while I'm at it, and sit down cross legged.
I breathe in, breathe out, and open myself fully to tHe VoIcEs.
I work a kink out of my back, letting out a little moan of satisfaction as it pops back in place, my eyes fluttering as I come back into the material plane fully, banishing ThE wHiSpErS back where they belong.
I've spent a few hours letting the Warp wash over myself in order to bolster my connections.
I've done the same thing each day since I've landed here -though, not the very first one, considering I was a little too busy freaking the hell out-, as it was described in Skully's little 'Psyker for dummies' Doctrine as a way for baby psykers to get used to the crushing mental weights Warp manipulation puts on the user at the beginning and was documented to be 'perfectly safe as long as you didn't delve into a lower stratum'.
I really wanted to know how many psykers died each day across the Imperium while messing something up while training 'safely', my morbid curiosity getting poked something fierce by this last sentence.
Hundreds? Thousands, maybe?
Now, I obviously didn't really need to do that, since I was more or less templated from a character in a video game, and this was really baby stuff that I knew 'instinctively'.
But I also lived in a world running along shounen tropes, and while I had no concrete proof as of yet that those same tropes could be applied to my shapely rear, I nonetheless banked on the fact that honing this kind of baby stuff to a ridiculous degree would either gives me better control over, or maybe widen -for lack of a better word- my innate connection to the Immaterium.
Either of those would be good, though I'd personally prefer if it solidified my control even further and diminished the risks I would eventually take when I inevitably landed myself in hot water for some reasons.
…I mean, I could do whatever I wanted, but I wasn't seeing how I could manage to prevent Kokabiel from throwing a hissy fit smack dab in the middle of Kuoh in two years' time.
And I wasn't heartless to the point of not trying to at least diminish the damages as much as I could when it happened.
Luckily, by the simple virtue of what I am, and if my training bear fruits -which I was still optimistic about-, I'd have an absolutely absurd range by this point, I could probably act 'from the shadows' -read, not having to be blatantly obvious about my powers and acting from afar- so my eventual future intervention shouldn't necessary means the death of my anonymity.
Now, all those 'worst case scenarios' running in my head relied on me not being able to dip out of Kuoh by the end of the year, but it was always the better idea not to put all your eggs in the same basket.
Ounce of prevention, pound of cure, yada, yada.
…Considering that, relatively recent outcomes aside, I never was what could be considered to be a lucky person before, it was also the logical thing to expect the other shoe to drop at some point.
Nonetheless, I was done for today, and I motioned to rise up after putting the lid back on the censer, its lifeless, grinning visage staring back at me, making me realize that I had grown relatively quickly completely inured to the aesthetic-
-until a trill in binary-cant prompts me to look back at Skully, the hovering servo-skull having already shut down its projected, sickly neon green hologram, bringing me to a halt.
"...I still have a whole ass afternoon to kill." I mumble to myself, "Say, Skully, what are your currently equipped Doctrines?"
I swear the gleaming, bunsen blue eye sockets of the thing positively light up as it realizes that I'm not leaving quite so soon.
Skully trills back something to me, which I very obviously don't understand, before projecting another listing of things it can do in all its nineties inspired computer screen glory.
I hum consideringly as I go through the items, a rather short list, all considered, chuckling a bit when my eyes land on the EMOTIONAL SUPPORT DOCTRINE: MODEL HOUSEPET Mk.I -which actually explains a lot of what's going on with Skully, but ROBie sure as hell is lucky I'm not really squeamish, because having a construct of bones, metal and what I knew for sure to be parts of a human brain clamoring for your attention had the potential to be nightmare inducing for sure-, before pausing on the last one.
"Uh," I utter, a bit dumbly, "So you can act like a diary of sorts, eh?"
The servo-skull trills an affirmation, prompting me to slowly nod to myself.
It did make sense, after all, considering the things are used by the Mechanicus in-setting like some sort of lab-assistant, figured they'd need something to record their experiments while keeping their hands free.
The RECORDKEEPING DOCTRINE: MODEL SCRIBE Mk.XXVII was apparently their answer to the conundrum 'my hands -and other appendages- are full but I need to write that down' they undoubtedly ended up facing at some point.
I tilt my head in thoughts, considering.
…I could make use of this, to record my progress with my training, keep a tally of what's working and what isn't.
Since it was recorded in Low-Gothic, after all, it wasn't like the cypher-that-isn't would be broken that easily.
That, plus the fact that Skully had something called a HOUSEKEEPING DOCTRINE: MODEL DAEMONIC WARDING Mk.I, which may or may not explain why I still hadn't got a very angry Satan with a siscon problem -see, it's funny because it actually works for two of those- knocking at my door, was what was telling me that it should probably be fine-ish.
And you won't trick me, ROB: the fact that two of the doctrines listed literally are in their first iteration tells me it's due to your meddling.
…Which I am actually grateful for, since it'll help me avoid a lot of potential headaches, particularly the warding one, so, please, if you read my thoughts or something, don't take Skully away?
Roughly thirty seconds of gingerly looking back at my cervoskull later, expecting it to vanish in some kind of light show back where it used to belong at any moments, I heave a sigh of relief.
Only then, I start talking aloud.
Rias was pouting, poking at her phone listlessly, not really paying attention to the rediffusion of Drag-so-ball on the nearby TV screen, Koneko laying bonelessly next to her on the couch while napping.
That is to this picture that Akeno walked into the living room, a tray in her hands, a steaming tea kettle and a couple of cups adorning it.
The half-fallen pauses as she crosses the threshold, humming consideringly.
"I take it she still hasn't answered yet?" the black-jade haired beauty asks mildly.
The Gremory heiress visibly slumps at her words, letting out a noise not so different from a deflating tire as she slumps deeper into the couch.
"Nooooo…" she trails, a bit lamely, "Prima-chan still hasn't answered my invitation for tea."
"Well," the half-fallen starts, walking the rest of the way inside the room, before setting the tray on the low table in front of the couch, "Maybe she simply is busy?"
"On a Sunday afternoon?" Rias answers, balking a little, "What could she possibly be doing the day nobody does anything even remotely productive?"
"Well," Akeno gestures toward the dozing yokai, "Taking a nap, for one."
The crimson headed devil's eyes narrow in thought for a beat.
"Point." she grumbles, petulantly crossing her arms over her chest, "But, like, what of the rest of the day?"
"I'm not sure." the half-fallen starts while filling the two cups, "That girl is a machine: almost never stopping, reviewing coursework when she has nothing else to do or isn't at the gym."
Silence falls between the two devils, Akeno realizing that she may have messed up somewhere.
"Akeno," Rias slowly starts, eyes somehow managing to get even narrower as her position straightens, "Did you use your familiars to spy on my friend?"
The half-fallen sighs, finishing to fill the second cup, before sliding it toward her King, seating herself into a kneeling position on the fluffy rug of the living room, before taking the second cup for herself.
She calmly takes one slip, giving herself some time to think things through, before settling it back on the low table with the distinctive 'click' of two porcelains meeting.
"I did, my King." she answers demurely.
"Arg, Akeno," Rias starts, gesturing around emphatically, cheeks reddening a bit, before asking lamely, "Why…"
"I know that you like her, and that you consider her your friend, but it doesn't mean that doing some kind of background check isn't the wise thing to do." the half-fallen steadily elaborate, "I know that she said that she grew up in a militaristic environment, but that doesn't explain the little things that are a bit odd with her, and it is my duty as your Queen to be aware of the things that could be potentially dangerous in your life.
"Particularly when we are still settling in this territory, which, may I remind you, is also the sole territory affiliated to the Devil's faction in the entirety of Japan." she points out.
Well, there were a few companies which were more or less pasties for Noble Houses too, but those generally kept themselves to their buildings, not a full blown town right next to Tokyo.
"...So?" Rias asks, conceding Akeno's point and asking for her thoughts.
"As I said, Hanako-san is a machine." the half-fallen reports, "Even this Saturday she woke up bright and early, did some kind of meditation, reviewed her schoolwork in the morning, went to the gym around midday, reviewed her schoolwork again, for nearly the whole afternoon, and I stopped watching when she started playing with herself in her bedsheets."
"Akeno!" Rias cries, a little bit aghast.
The jade-black haired beauty only daintily raises an eyebrow in her King's direction, opening her mouth-
"No, not talking about this!" the crimson headed devil interjects forcefully, making her Queen's lips quirk up in amusement, "H-Her house! What about her house?"
"Normal, as far as I can tell." Akeno answers with a minute shrug, "And while, yes, it's a bit strange that, as an orphan, she has one of those all to herself, it is apparently an old house that got recently renovated, and the price was dirt-cheap.
"It's on loan to the state at the moment and that's the reason why she has it now that she lives in Kuoh." the half-fallen explains further, inwardly extremely pleased at herself and hypnosis in general to having ferreted that particular tidbit.
A couple of eyelashes batted to the right official, a little bit of magic, and that was in the bag.
"So, congratulations are in orders: you've made friends with a genuinely mundane Japanese girl." the Queen concludes, sarcastically golf-clapping to her King.
Rias' face somehow light up, the relief that Akeno's investigation hadn't uncovered something nefarious plain to the world to see, her mouth opening-
-only for her attention to instantly snap toward her phone as it vibrates on the armrest, prompting her to snatch it lightning-quick.
Akeno takes the time to drink another sip of her tea, before asking.
"So?"
"...She was napping, still too sore physically after getting back to the grind." the Gremory heiress half grumbles, half enthusiastically answers, "She thanks me for the invitation, but is admittedly too lazy to move today, and propose we do something instead next week."
"See, my King, you were worrying over nothing." the half-fallen insists.
"Yeah, yeah… I guess you're right." Rias admits, dropping her cell phone back next to her, one hand distinctively coming to land on the dozing yokai in the room's head, a low rumbling sound starting to get heard as lithe fingers smoothly run through white bangs.
"I often am." Akeno jests, albeit inwardly feeling extremely pleased.
After all, it felt good, to be right.
[AN: So, I more or less wrote myself into a corner when I decided to make the canon cast interact with Prima, because there was no way in hell that they wouldn't investigate a little, if only for safety's sake.
From that point, I could either go two ways:
A: Pretends that the devils take their sweet-ass time before investigating and making her rush to learn Warp-based warding by herself in record times, which would have suspended a lot of disbelief, as well as firmly landing us in the wankfic territory, which I don't particularly appreciate.
Or B: Make it so something in the house was already warding it by ROB-fiat.
Now, I preferred the second option because I don't have to find a contrived way to make her get gud at something she has no previous background in beyond 'making a shield' and no instructions either since she lacks learning materials from the Imperium/Eldarii.
Plus, in my own opinion, that isn't much of a cheat, it just means that she has a space where she can lay her hair down at the end of the day without having every devils on the block sniffing down her neck.
This way, I can have my cake -interacting with the canon cast- and eat it too -not getting instantly busted, mistaken for an exorcist or something, and deadened by angry Satan noises-.
We officially finished the 'prologue' arc, and we'll start the timeskip boogaloo next chapter.
Oh, and a Doctrine is the name of the programming Imperium-crafted machines run with, in case you were wondering.
Hope you enjoy, xoxo]