#grrrrrr why does the universe hate me so much

[kazz-brekker]

failed to orchestrate my own social life ONCE AGAIN because the book club i was planning to go tomorrow was, in fact, yesterday

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Right, don’t have energy to spare after work so let’s do this before work as I’ve got closing shift today.  It’s time for more Nanoha.  No screenshots this time as I’m gonna be watching this on the TV as my couch is far more comfy than my chair.  But enough of needless details, it’s time for me to talk needlessly about details in Nanoha StrikerS episode 18, “Wings, Once Again”.

* Oh hey, new opening. Would be nice if they bothered to subtitle this, but Amazon is kinda lazy about things like that.

* The press is on the prowl! And the TSAB is being rather tight-lipped about the whole thing.  That might actually be for the best.  The last thing they want getting out is that a mad scientist kicked their collective butts and is willing to do work for hire.

* Oh gee, would you look at that, Regius was funding the Doc and there was a sudden yet inevitable betrayal. This is my shocked face.

* Regius’ assistant Auris is nowhere to be seen, because unlike Regius she has more work to do than just sit in an office and scream at people.

* Teana is relieved by Signum so she can visit the injured (mainly Subaru) in the hospital, and Nanoha-mama is trying to drown the pain and worry in work.  Oh sure, she won’t say that’s what she’s doing, but it’s what she’s doing.

* Ooh, Nanoha just found Vivio’s burned and torn bunny. Yeah, she ain’t reacting well to that.

* Over in the hospital Shari is tearfully apologizing to Fate for failing to stop the army of robots, fembots, and summoner girl with the big bugs.  I don’t think anybody expected her to personally stand up to that much.

* Looks like the worst injuries were sustained by Zafira, Rein (GRRRRRR!!!!), and Vice.  None of them are in critical condition at this point, but Vice and Zafira at least aren’t going to be getting up anytime soon.  And we still haven’t seen Subaru’s condition after having the flesh torn from her arm and all that.  Really, if she wasn’t a cyborg they might have had to give her a replacement anyway.

* Well Subaru’s acting like things aren’t a big deal and she’s moving her arm, but there’s a definite mechanical sound as she does so, and the nerve cables were injured so she can’t move it around particularly well.  I wonder where she’d get replacement parts for that kind of thing anyway?  It sort of brings back the speculation from last time of “regular replacements or nanomachines”.

* Apparently it must be Nanomachines, because Subaru is expected to recover in a few days.

* Caro and Erio decide to the other two must want soup, i.e. give the two a little alone time. Normally I’d be making winky faces over that but I’m pretty sure this is going to be a more serious conversation.

* Tea doesn’t try to spare Subaru’s feelings when she blames herself for bad decisions made during the fight.  It was a mistake to rush ahead and get into more than she could handle, even if she did make one heck of a showing for herself.  Nothing like tough love.  But she also reassures Subaru that they’re going to act as a team to get them back for this and rescue Ginga and Vivio while nailing Jail to the wall.  If he’s lucky, that will be metaphorical.  If he’s unlucky, Nanoha will want to discuss her feelings on the matter.

* While Hayate grills Auris about what Regius has been up to, Fate and Nanoha are asking Nakajima about his family, what with the whole “actually cyborgs” thing.

* Hmm… some interesting stuff here.  The cyborg project was actually several ones that dated back to before the founding of the TSAB, and multiple worlds were trying to figure it out.  There was only a real breakthrough about 25 years ago. Chrono also mentions that this isn’t the only thing mechanical and biotechnology has been used for, as apparently the TSAB makes use of artificial bones and organs.  Goodness knows we could use that kind of tech.  Heck, my dad is going in for spinal injections Monday because he’s missing a disc and they can’t actually replace it, just try and bring the swelling down.

* Oh, and apparently problems with rejecting the organs still pop up, so they haven’t solved that one yet. At least the sane scientists haven’t. The mad ones however figured out how to do so.  They actually change the cyborgs genes to accept the mechanical parts as a part of the body.  That seems ludicrously complicated and prone to failure, plus was something that had to do before the test subjects were even born.

* Nakajima’s wife was a TSAB investigator who was handling the early crop of combat cyborgs that were rampaging all crazy, and Ginga and Subaru are two of them that they decided to adopt because they weren’t having much luck the natural way.  That and the two kinda looked like they could belong to them anyway.  They tried to raise them as normally as possible with the TSAB doing the occasional bit of maintenance on their bodies, until Mrs. Nakajima died on a secret mission and dad decided the girls were old enough to know the truth.

* After that Nakajima has been pursuing cases involving combat cyborgs on his own, and thinks Hayate is a bit sneaky for dropping a line about how her current project might end up involving them so he’d play ball.  Not that she was wrong, mind you.  They’ve got more of the things than they can handle right now.

* Hayate confronts Auris about the fact that Regius had approved of combat cyborgs and artificial mages being used by the TSAB in the past, only to get shut down because of costs and ethics.  As it’s apparent that Regius doesn’t care about ethics in the slightest Hayate wants confirmation that he was having the research continued in secret.

* Auris’ defense is Regius’ seniority and counterfactual whataboutism.  I swear this show was prescient.  Anyway, when that doesn’t work to deter Hayate Auris resorts to “get a warrant or piss off”.

* Ooh, turns out there’s to be an immediate inquiry into Regius and his other pet project is being shut down.  Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving man… in this particular fictional universe.

* Holy crap, the picture of Zest that the security cameras captured managed to scare Regius into an actual heart attack!  Somebody knows they’re in trouble.

* Speaking of Zest, he’s possibly not as much of a threat as Regius thinks as he’s out in the woods vomiting blood.  Agito is acting as his nurse and freaking out, though he says the attack has passed for the moment.

* Uno calls him up while Agito leaves to make medicine, and also comments on the fact that he looks like hell.  Zest isn’t concerned about that.  He states that he isn’t of much use nor is he going to get in their way.  Uno lets slip to the viewers that Zest is an artificial mage, which might be the reason for the guy having the hate he does for Regius and Jail.  Zest makes another interesting claim, that he’s already died before and this is just a temporary reprieve before going back into his grave.  Does this mean the Doc was experimenting on corpses as well?  ‘Cause if so that’s make Zest a lich, which is kinda awesome.  Though it could just be that he considers his old self dead after a near death followed by capture and experimentation.

* It seems that the beating Cinque and Ginga took were enough to require the both of them to require extensive repairs.  Nove wants to kill Subaru and Tea for that, but Quattro reminds her that they need Subaru alive.

* And now we’ve learned why Lutecia is working for the Doc.  Apparently he’s got her mom in a tube, and she can only be brought back with Relic XI. Supposedly.  Lutecia actually doesn’t recognize the woman in the tube, she’s just been told that’s her mom.

* Sweet!  Hayate decided that for the time being Riot Force 6 would benefit from having a more mobile base that’s big enough for the members live in, so they’re taking the Arthra out of storage and putting her to use one last time.

* That night Fate has to comfort Nanoha over the kidnapping of Vivio.  Nanoha might have put on a brave face in front of the kids and TSAB staff, but she is not taking this well at all.  Fate reassures her that Vivio is fine right now.  The Doc wouldn’t actually do anything to hurt her.

* So of course the episode ends with Vivio on an operating table screaming for her mama as Jail prepares to inject her with a Relic, saying she is going to be his masterpiece.

 Well that’s the end of that. This episode appears to have mostly been about recovering from the previous couple, as well as informing everybody on how things came to be like this.  Not the best episode if you don’t like exposition, but there was some interesting new info there.  And it does a very good job of showing just how scummy both Jail and Regius are.  After all, they’ve been working together. Gotta love the implication that Regius had Subaru’s mother killed for getting too close, and also showing that Jail is not only willing to experiment on terrified children, but that he’ll do so with a smile on his face.