V-Type Infection Has Arrived In Madagascar.
This is a detailed stats/permissions on Sheryl’s voice and disease.
TRANSCRIPTS.
Episode 18.
Sheryl: I won’t chicken out to a lame threat. I won’t lose. Even without you!
Grace: [laughing] You silly girl. Did you forget?
Sheryl: What?
Grace: Right after I took you in, you were checked into the hospital for a while, weren’t you?
Sheryl: So what?
Grace: You weren’t healed. It’s just that it hasn’t come up ‘til now.
Sheryl: What did you say?!
Grace: Not only as a singer… you are literally going to die, Sheryl. If you think it’s a lie, go confirm it yourself.
Sheryl: It’s a lie!
Mihael: [referring to Sheryl’s pills] Receptor blocker?
Klan: Yes. According to Theressa, it’s anticipated as a therapy drug to cope with a certain infectious disease. It cannot cure the illness, but it mitigates the symptoms. However, it appears to have side effects such as fever, vomiting, and the chills.
Mihael: Is that disease…
Klan: Do you remember the incident when a hydra went berserk and was disposed of?
Mihael: Don’t tell me…
Klan: It’s a V-type infection. This disease is transmitted via blood or bodily fluids. Unless something outrageous happens, there shouldn’t be any risk…
Mihael: How could Sheryl get infected with that…
Klan: Sheryl’s That drug was Sheryl’s?
Mihael: Uh… saying “never mind” would be useless, I guess.
Klan: I see. That’s it… and just when I thought you were extraordinarily desperate for this… Sheryl is indeed beautiful. She’s mature and has style. But if I transform into a Zentran, I too can… Here it is. “Cosmo Nature, 2047 November issue. Management and prevention of a V-type infection. The author of the thesis is the 117th Investigation Convoy… project leader, Doctor… Mao Nome?!”
Mihael: Mao Nome… you mean that Mao Nome? … Klan, this woman!
Klan: Collaborating researchers, Ranshe Mei and… Grace O’Connor?!
Mihael: Is there something else?
Klan: There is! This is from the year ’53. This is a thesis publicized on the Galaxy fleet. Status quo of the patient report… Could this child be…
Mihael: Sheryl?!
[SUDDENLY Sheryl walks in]
Klan: Sheryl…
Episode 22.
Luca: Ten years ago, you were infected with the Type-V disease, and since then, you’ve lived as a carrier. Correct?
Sheryl: Seems that way.
Luca: V-Type disease is caused by bacteria. We’ve recently discovered that it’s present in Vajra bodily fluids, but infections lead to development of symptons. It’s a blood and bodily fluid infection so the infection rate is low. If it’s caught early, it can be cured with a serum produced from the Vajra. However, if that period passes, the bacteria takes root in the brain and begins to produce a toxin. Once that happens, there is nothing that can be done.
Sheryl: Is it fun? Explaining “you’re going to die” with big, complicated words.
Luca: But once that point is passed, a new possibility opens up.
Leon: Your voice now produces faint fold waves. Yes, the same as that traitor, Ranka Lee.
Luca: It’s not as strong as Ranka’s but perhaps that earring… that earring made of fold quartz, may be amplifying it.
Sheryl: Then Ranka, too, was -- ?!
Luca: No. The source of her power is still unknown. But you can do the same thing. That’s unmistakable.
Leon: So, will you sing? For the sake of humanity.
Episode 23.
Leon: They transmit information using their intestines… or to be more precise, by using a network of intestinal bacteria which emit fold waves. And that network is expanded along the entire Vajra swarm and each of them take sthe role of a synapse. Yes, the Vajra don’t have a concept of a “persona” or “self.” With one swarm and one race, they act as a single being.
Bilrer: With this language, no, even communicating with each other is superfluous. A networked life-form living on fold waves. That’s the Vajra.
Alto: But Ranka… her song is supposed to be understood by them!
Leon: Did you ever wonder why that was possible? That bacterium will never infest our intestines. On the contrary, it will invade the brain and kill the host. If she is an exception, that means she was infected in the womb and chose to coexist with the Vajra. And the Vajra tried to use her. That’s the only conclusion I could arrive it. That’s why the Vajra target her. She will connect mankind to the Vajra, and then… she’ll be the vanguard who leads us to peril.
Luca: Even if it’s just mitigating the symptoms, it also has the effect of slowing the disease’s progress. Yet -
Sheryl: What are you saying now? My strength [strength of the fold waves?] has increased since I stopped taking the medicine. If you’re intending to use someone as a tool, then be heartless ‘til the very end.
Luca: Sheryl-san…
Sheryl: Being kind is a sin. Even if I know it’s just sympathy, I would take advantage of it.
SYNTHESIS?
1) The Vajra are a hive-being whose individual parts send and receive information via instantaneous transmissions known as “fold waves.”
2) Vajra fluids in the human body cause a disease that produces… a toxin? Bacteria? ffs, Frontier fails at science for having a virus that’s actually a bacteria. It kills the human host.
3) The toxin/bacteria are in Sheryl’s bloodstream and attacking her brain. As the disease progresses, Sheryl emits more and more fold waves.
4) Sheryl is deliberately not taking medicine which will stall the disease, in order to amp the power of her fold waves - presumably because she wants to sing most effectively for Alto.
STATS/PERMISSIONS.
So about the fold-waves. I leave it 100% up to you to tell how instantaneous communication by a hive being would work in your canon, and whether or not your character could sense it… and, specifically, how your character would pick up on a human girl whose body has alien bacteria in the bloodstream that make hivealiens understand her music across time and space.
For all the pseudo-scientific terminology thrown around in Macross F and the fact that scientific instruments can pick up sound waves, Ranka and Sheryl’s effect on the Vajra is more mystical than scientific. Certainly, Sara’s singing (which levitated rocks and healed a forest) and Basara’s ANIMA SPIRITIA!!!!1! (which cured soul-sucking) and aliens from another dimension are fantasy elements rather than sciencey ones. For that reason, characters with mystic senses or scientific scanners can probably pick up on the fold waves in Sheryl’s singing if you want to play it out.
So about noticing those crazy bacteria in your bloodstream. Ditto the “mystical and scientific powers can pick this up” thing. Yes, feel free to have your character notice that Sheryl is sick and dying. At this point in camp, Alto doesn’t know about the disease, so Sheryl will tell your character emphatically that she doesn’t want Alto to learn, but otherwise, yeah, it’s cool. Go for it.
On that note, I want to say that I FUCKING NAILED IT in her journal’s hospital post to think that she’d stay sick to amp her fold waves.
Side-note: Sheryl's earring definitely picks up on Ranka and Sheryl singing (Alto hears Sheryl and Ranka via the lost earring in episode seven, Sheryl hears Ranka across the galaxy in episode 22). I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Sheryl can pick up on anyone who has magic/telepathic/communicative singing, and that she'll feel weird if, idk, there are any characters who are part of a hive.
TRANSCRIPTS.
Episode 18.
Sheryl: I won’t chicken out to a lame threat. I won’t lose. Even without you!
Grace: [laughing] You silly girl. Did you forget?
Sheryl: What?
Grace: Right after I took you in, you were checked into the hospital for a while, weren’t you?
Sheryl: So what?
Grace: You weren’t healed. It’s just that it hasn’t come up ‘til now.
Sheryl: What did you say?!
Grace: Not only as a singer… you are literally going to die, Sheryl. If you think it’s a lie, go confirm it yourself.
Sheryl: It’s a lie!
Mihael: [referring to Sheryl’s pills] Receptor blocker?
Klan: Yes. According to Theressa, it’s anticipated as a therapy drug to cope with a certain infectious disease. It cannot cure the illness, but it mitigates the symptoms. However, it appears to have side effects such as fever, vomiting, and the chills.
Mihael: Is that disease…
Klan: Do you remember the incident when a hydra went berserk and was disposed of?
Mihael: Don’t tell me…
Klan: It’s a V-type infection. This disease is transmitted via blood or bodily fluids. Unless something outrageous happens, there shouldn’t be any risk…
Mihael: How could Sheryl get infected with that…
Klan: Sheryl’s That drug was Sheryl’s?
Mihael: Uh… saying “never mind” would be useless, I guess.
Klan: I see. That’s it… and just when I thought you were extraordinarily desperate for this… Sheryl is indeed beautiful. She’s mature and has style. But if I transform into a Zentran, I too can… Here it is. “Cosmo Nature, 2047 November issue. Management and prevention of a V-type infection. The author of the thesis is the 117th Investigation Convoy… project leader, Doctor… Mao Nome?!”
Mihael: Mao Nome… you mean that Mao Nome? … Klan, this woman!
Klan: Collaborating researchers, Ranshe Mei and… Grace O’Connor?!
Mihael: Is there something else?
Klan: There is! This is from the year ’53. This is a thesis publicized on the Galaxy fleet. Status quo of the patient report… Could this child be…
Mihael: Sheryl?!
[SUDDENLY Sheryl walks in]
Klan: Sheryl…
Episode 22.
Luca: Ten years ago, you were infected with the Type-V disease, and since then, you’ve lived as a carrier. Correct?
Sheryl: Seems that way.
Luca: V-Type disease is caused by bacteria. We’ve recently discovered that it’s present in Vajra bodily fluids, but infections lead to development of symptons. It’s a blood and bodily fluid infection so the infection rate is low. If it’s caught early, it can be cured with a serum produced from the Vajra. However, if that period passes, the bacteria takes root in the brain and begins to produce a toxin. Once that happens, there is nothing that can be done.
Sheryl: Is it fun? Explaining “you’re going to die” with big, complicated words.
Luca: But once that point is passed, a new possibility opens up.
Leon: Your voice now produces faint fold waves. Yes, the same as that traitor, Ranka Lee.
Luca: It’s not as strong as Ranka’s but perhaps that earring… that earring made of fold quartz, may be amplifying it.
Sheryl: Then Ranka, too, was -- ?!
Luca: No. The source of her power is still unknown. But you can do the same thing. That’s unmistakable.
Leon: So, will you sing? For the sake of humanity.
Episode 23.
Leon: They transmit information using their intestines… or to be more precise, by using a network of intestinal bacteria which emit fold waves. And that network is expanded along the entire Vajra swarm and each of them take sthe role of a synapse. Yes, the Vajra don’t have a concept of a “persona” or “self.” With one swarm and one race, they act as a single being.
Bilrer: With this language, no, even communicating with each other is superfluous. A networked life-form living on fold waves. That’s the Vajra.
Alto: But Ranka… her song is supposed to be understood by them!
Leon: Did you ever wonder why that was possible? That bacterium will never infest our intestines. On the contrary, it will invade the brain and kill the host. If she is an exception, that means she was infected in the womb and chose to coexist with the Vajra. And the Vajra tried to use her. That’s the only conclusion I could arrive it. That’s why the Vajra target her. She will connect mankind to the Vajra, and then… she’ll be the vanguard who leads us to peril.
Luca: Even if it’s just mitigating the symptoms, it also has the effect of slowing the disease’s progress. Yet -
Sheryl: What are you saying now? My strength [strength of the fold waves?] has increased since I stopped taking the medicine. If you’re intending to use someone as a tool, then be heartless ‘til the very end.
Luca: Sheryl-san…
Sheryl: Being kind is a sin. Even if I know it’s just sympathy, I would take advantage of it.
SYNTHESIS?
1) The Vajra are a hive-being whose individual parts send and receive information via instantaneous transmissions known as “fold waves.”
2) Vajra fluids in the human body cause a disease that produces… a toxin? Bacteria? ffs, Frontier fails at science for having a virus that’s actually a bacteria. It kills the human host.
3) The toxin/bacteria are in Sheryl’s bloodstream and attacking her brain. As the disease progresses, Sheryl emits more and more fold waves.
4) Sheryl is deliberately not taking medicine which will stall the disease, in order to amp the power of her fold waves - presumably because she wants to sing most effectively for Alto.
STATS/PERMISSIONS.
So about the fold-waves. I leave it 100% up to you to tell how instantaneous communication by a hive being would work in your canon, and whether or not your character could sense it… and, specifically, how your character would pick up on a human girl whose body has alien bacteria in the bloodstream that make hivealiens understand her music across time and space.
For all the pseudo-scientific terminology thrown around in Macross F and the fact that scientific instruments can pick up sound waves, Ranka and Sheryl’s effect on the Vajra is more mystical than scientific. Certainly, Sara’s singing (which levitated rocks and healed a forest) and Basara’s ANIMA SPIRITIA!!!!1! (which cured soul-sucking) and aliens from another dimension are fantasy elements rather than sciencey ones. For that reason, characters with mystic senses or scientific scanners can probably pick up on the fold waves in Sheryl’s singing if you want to play it out.
So about noticing those crazy bacteria in your bloodstream. Ditto the “mystical and scientific powers can pick this up” thing. Yes, feel free to have your character notice that Sheryl is sick and dying. At this point in camp, Alto doesn’t know about the disease, so Sheryl will tell your character emphatically that she doesn’t want Alto to learn, but otherwise, yeah, it’s cool. Go for it.
On that note, I want to say that I FUCKING NAILED IT in her journal’s hospital post to think that she’d stay sick to amp her fold waves.
Side-note: Sheryl's earring definitely picks up on Ranka and Sheryl singing (Alto hears Sheryl and Ranka via the lost earring in episode seven, Sheryl hears Ranka across the galaxy in episode 22). I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Sheryl can pick up on anyone who has magic/telepathic/communicative singing, and that she'll feel weird if, idk, there are any characters who are part of a hive.