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[callbacks]

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Please note the date and time of day for me!

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[crouching_sin]

Not formal teaching. More like mentoring, I guess? We met online and he seemed to have potential, so I started giving him more advanced lessons. His parents are often out in Silicon Valley, but he's picked up enough from them to be able to grow on his own.

He was smart enough to know how to break the encryption on the COMPs I gave him, my cousin, and their friend. I knew they'd survive well enough with that kind of skill at their disposal.

[callbacks]

oh right
with the demon apocalypse and stuff right
and your cousin who became the messiah
wouldnt they need more like combat training than computer application skills for something like that

[crouching_sin]

The COMPs they used were somewhat like the Pokegears we have here, though initially designed for gaming. Theirs were modified, of course.

And part of the Demon Summoning Program included something called a Harmonizer. It tunes to the wavelength of human beings, increasing their attack effectiveness while lowering the damage from demons. It doesn't reduce all damage, of course, but enough so that all but a complete idiot could use it.

[callbacks]

so
hm
they summoned demons and also went hand to hand?

[crouching_sin]

Yes. It also had a function to learn skills from demons they defeated - basically spells.

[callbacks]

thats kind of cool
so its actually sort of like how it works here except instead of catching and training the monsters you beat you just pick up tips from them to expand your own fraymotif repertoire
i mean thats a really intuitive application of the concept of exp i wonder why more universes dont do it that way

[crouching_sin]

Fraymotif?

And yes. There's also material that can be used to replace a demon's spell with one that you know, though it's much more difficult.

[callbacks]

oh maybe other worlds dont use that terminology
uhh a fraymotif is sort of like a special attack
kind of like a spell i guess
some of them can be combined with other kids motifs so they do crazy damage

[crouching_sin]

Combination spells... interesting. It sounds like it adds a whole extra dimension of things to think about in battle, though. Interesting, but maybe a bit complicated.

[callbacks]

its something you just kind of got to go with intuitively as it happens
or thats how i roll anyway
im not sure how much most of us explored it in the first place and hey it cant be that much more complicated than demon blending

[crouching_sin]

I suppose that's true. At least the summoners don't have to draw the circles by hand since the app does it for them, or that whole section of Tokyo would be covered in chalk and paint or whatever.

[callbacks]

that sounds handy
do the summoners need to have any kind of like preexisting magic aptitude to use it or is that not how it works

[crouching_sin]

Not in the least.

They do, however, have to survive whatever demon comes out of the COMP first. I tried to program it to have a low level demon be the initial summon, but it didn't always work. Only defeating it let someone use it, because otherwise the demon wouldn't recognize the strength of the person commanding them.

Again with the demonic hierarchy being 'who can beat up who'.

[callbacks]

is this before or after they get the soul resonance physical power up thing

[crouching_sin]

After. The Harmonizer boots up with the summoning program.

[callbacks]

phew ok
so its kind of like getting your starter here
and then you use that one to fight and get introduced to other ones you might like better
yeah?

[crouching_sin]

Basically, only you have to punch your starter into submission before you can use it.

And not everyone survives that part.

[callbacks]

r
right
i guess thats kind of a different experience

[crouching_sin]

It's not as if I didn't try to remove that part, but... well.

I was under a somewhat tight schedule without a firm deadline. 'Within the month' doesn't tell me if I have five days or four weeks.

[callbacks]

yeah time crunches are tough
and
well
i mean
i guess its fair
for the demon to have a fighting chance at deciding if it wants to listen to some punkass summoner dragging it out of its business stabbing pitchforks into peoples asses or whatever
but um
did
you tell the kids you gave the comps to about that before you gave them the things

[crouching_sin]

[And there's the million dollar question, Dave.]

I told the organization that I made them for that it would happen. They didn't spread the word as much as they probably should have. Then again, they were pushing for Belberith to win the War and remake the world into whatever sort of hellish setting he was imagining.

My cousin wasn't part of that so no. He didn't get the memo. I knew he'd get through that easily, though. It's not like I wasn't looking out for him.

[All of his plans hinged on Kazuya reacting as expected. ... And then things went off the rails.]

[callbacks]

[Dave doesn't answer for a little while.]

you said he was seventeen?

[crouching_sin]

[Oh no. Oh no no no. He does not like where this feels like it's going. He can't justify it. Not to anyone. How could they ever understand?]

Yes. And my brother.

A fragment of him, anyway.

[callbacks]

[Wherever Naoya thinks it's going, it takes Dave some time to get there. The words come haltingly, one by one.]

my brother
was a lot older than me
and it seems like maybe he knew what was going to happen
to our planet i mean
he trained me
and made sure i could handle myself
but

he never did tell me anything
and
he could have

thats all im saying i guess

[crouching_sin]

[At least it didn't jump immediately to 'I hate you'. This... he can handle. Maybe.]

I'm sure he had a reason. I don't know him, but...

... If he cared about you, which it sounds like he did, I'm sure he had a reason for what he did.