A whispered's conscious vs unconscious access to Black Tech

woman22980 · Post by **woman22980** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 3:20 am

Has it ever been explained why some whispered seem to have conscious access to their BT, while others don't? Or why some whispered manifest their ability at a young age and others don't? I've been thinking about the differences between Tessa and Kaname. Tessa and her brother were YOUNG when they started to become geniuses, manifesting their talents, and Tessa seems to have conscious access to her BT in order to design and maintain the Danaan. Kaname may be smart for her age but hasn't shown any signs of the precociousness Tessa and her brother demonstrated. She also seems to never have had any inkling about her own BT until the kidnapping awakened it in her, and even after that she doesn't seem to ever access her BT without significant trouble.

Why should their pasts be so different? If a whispered's nature needs to be awakened, why did Tessa and her brother's awaken so very early? Or conversely, why did Kaname's remain dormant until outside intervention? Since her whispered nature has been awakened, why isn't she mastering all tests and leaping ahead ability wise in school? (I can understand she wouldn't want to skip a grade and leave her friends, but she should at least be acing everything right?)

It's hard to discuss when there are just two main examples, it's easy to just write it off to differences in each person. But other whispered that have come and gone in the series seem to be more like Tessa, not Kaname, and have access to BT without the troubles Kaname suffers. I welcome any comments, and especially any cannon references someone might have talking about this subject. The best cannon would be from the novels.

(A related subject might be just how the heck did Mithril get wind of Kaname being whispered, if "her background is entirely normal" as Kurtz puts it, and Tessa didn't have a hand in finding her via resonance. If she never showed any precociousness like Tessa, how the heck would they know?)

Jae · Post by **Jae** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 3:36 am

Some of this seems to be part of the mystery- I think if we knew how they became Whispered in the first place some of these questions might have answers.

I personally had assumed that Tessa and her bro were natural geniuses, seperate from Wh. Now I have no reference to point to for this, but somewhere I had acquired the assumption that Tessa's father had a military background which may have somehow led her to Mithril. If those things are both true, then its possible Tessa and her bro were both awakened at some previous point. They both are deeply involved with groups researching Wh and developing the techs from it- probably not a coincidence.

As for how there was secret intelligence about who may or may not be Wh, no clue, but I was consider that if trying to figure out how the Wh came to be.

Eidolon · Post by **Eidolon** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 3:39 am

Also keep in mind that Kaname refuses to talk to the 'other her' inside her head (as seen in the manga). Possibly her refusal to give in to it is what has allowed her to live pretty much normally to now.

Sgt. Sagara Sousuke · Post by **Sgt. Sagara Sousuke** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:03 am

About acing every subject:

Every Whispered is special in a sense that they possess different BT knowledge as according to the novel. So, in Kaname's case, she must have good physics coz she knows a lot about the workings of ASes. So, she'll probably ace Physics, Maths, Chem and other science subjects. But kanji and languages and other stuff will belike the rest; she's got to study.

Teletha Testarosa · Post by **Teletha Testarosa** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:07 am

Hm, I think maybe Tessa found Kaname as a whispered though that resonance thing. not sure.

Jae · Post by **Jae** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:19 am

Teletha Testarosa wrote:Hm, I think maybe Tessa found Kaname as a whispered though that resonance thing. not sure.

Tessa couldn't tell about Takuma from a distance- she had to see him in person to get a clue.

HELLFIRE · Post by **HELLFIRE** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:43 am

I also subscribe to Jae's line of speculation that Tessa & her bro had
close ties via someone / where that allowed their Whispered powers to
be awakened earlier. Ref. Manga V5 where Tessa says she'd designed
the Danaan at an early age -- early to late teens, I'm guessing.

Also, given the secretive nature of Whispered, it's not surprising Kaname's
not known to be a Whispered until that little sidetrip to Khanka, and
how that psycho-lady doc notes it won't be for a few hours for them
to know whether Kaname is a Wh or not.

It's from Khanka and the subsequent run-in with Takuma that we learn
or can speculate Whispered abilities can be brought out via chemical
means, and given Takuma's nasty reaction to the stuff, I don't think you
want wide-spread testing like they have with school-based immunization programs

Regards

Teletha Testarosa · Post by **Teletha Testarosa** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 7:11 pm

Jae wrote:
Teletha Testarosa wrote:Hm, I think maybe Tessa found Kaname as a whispered though that resonance thing. not sure.
Tessa couldn't tell about Takuma from a distance- she had to see him in person to get a clue.

That's true. Dont' forget, I thought Takuma had to take medicine to become like that?

PookaKitten · Post by **PookaKitten** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 11:30 pm

I thought the fact that Takuma took medicine to be able to use the Behemoth was because he was /not/ Whispered. He needed it to become an "artificial" Whispered. That assumes to use the lambda driver, you have to be Whispered. Perhaps the lambda driver in the Behemoth was more like in the de Danaan, requiring a Whispered? The "normal" lambda drivers in the AS's don't seem to need Whispered. Unless Sousuke and Gauron are Whispered, and that stretches credibility.

Samantha

Dannan · Post by **Dannan** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 12:47 am

in the novel, it said that in order to achieve LD using ability, all one needed was a certain type of brain wave to be strong; in scans of Sousuke fighting before and stuff he had that brain wave when he activated the LD, but during the fight with Clouzot, he couldn't because he didn't have it. that is y I don't think u HAVE to be a whispered to use LD, although it prolly helps

so it's not a prerequisite to have access to BT.

Andrei Burnside · Post by **Andrei Burnside** » Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:42 pm

tis an interesting side thing...that Kaname isn't completely dormant. Fansub never translated what she was muttering at the beginning of the first ep, but the official did...Those were very whispered-esque things.

I'd agree with Jae and HELLFIRE on why Tessa and Leonard got "discovered" first. They were part of a military family (Which one? US? Foreign?). What's really interesting is that the series make no mention of what whispered were in the past...or if they existed. Also of additional note is the fact thatTessa's mother appears to dead Kaname's (duh) is also deceased. Perhaps if whispered are very recent anomalies...They were the product of genetic engineering.

If this is the case, the the procedure used to make Kaname, Leonard, Tessa "whispered" could have had long term health affects (on the mothers), and eventually killed them.

It might explain why Kaname is somewhat bitter to her mother...

Random thoughts. Excuse me if I went OT.

Dannan · Post by **Dannan** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 1:12 am

u know that would be a crazy nice background plot twist (the part of them being genetically engineered special)

Post by **Taurec** » Sun Aug 01, 2004 8:56 am

Also keep in mind that Kaname refuses to talk to the 'other her' inside her head (as seen in the manga). Possibly her refusal to give in to it is what has allowed her to live pretty much normally to now.

Jup sometimes even a genious has to be "trained" to make use of his full potential,
Same could go for Kaname in being a whispered........ (ref. spiderman 2)

I wonder how far Mithril goes back in time ?

HELLFIRE · Post by **HELLFIRE** » Mon Aug 02, 2004 5:26 am

Whispered is from genetic engineering... now THAT is an interesting
speculation...

@AB
When was it revealed Tessa's mother is / was dead, and when was
it revealed Kaname was bitter to her mother?

Regards

KashimArbalestAS · Post by **KashimArbalestAS** » Sun Jul 17, 2005 7:33 pm

SPOILERS

August, 1998 - Kaname’s mother, Shizu, dies of cancer

If Whispered is by some genetic/experimentation trait, that would mean that it would cause Shizu Chidori cancer?

In the Continuing On My Own, [ecs]Tessa and Leonard visit their parent's graves in the U.S. north eastern coast, where they used to live. It does say that both their parent's graves were there, so Tessa and Leonard visited both at the same time. Disclosed in the Boku-Tachi scanlations, Tessa's father was a captain of a submarine in the United States Navy, who was saved by Mardukas, everyone known him as the "Duke", from I think a Soviet fleet I think in the Mediterranean. Mardukas never told Tessa of that, and it is from Tessa's father that he gets his hat. Strange, Tessa's strong point as a Whispered and Black Technology is submarines...As Gauron insinuates when he explains that Whispers have predetermined "selected" groups of knowledge to Sousuke, then likely end of Gauron. Tessa, a daughter of a submarine captain...[/ecs].

To explain about Tessa in Mithril, [ecs]In the Boku-Tachi novel scanlations, it was said that Tessa, who showed knowledge, insight, and learning capacity far more superlative compared to normal children her age, a support that she and her brother are natural geniuses because Whispers begin to receive their "Whispers" in their minds when they mature, so that would be when they find out they are Whispered, in their teens, and Tessa was much younger. Well, Mithril took her in, and I think her uncle was the one responsible for that because it is revealed that he is the Commander of the Operations department. Mithril has 3 departments, Operations, Intelligence, and Research, Tessa's uncle incidentally the Commander of one of them. That would explain largely why Tessa is in the Operations department. Her uncle also mentions her father at one point. I don't know what happened with Leonard, I think there has been things going around that he was part of Mithril, but then defected, probably why Tessa feels some guilt about Leonard, which was mentioned somewhere.[/ecs].

In the Boku-Tachi scanlations, there was some point where Kaname says she can't trust and believe in anyone, like how her mother betrayed her because she died. She probably feels like that because she really loved her mother, and her dying, as known, put her in a terrible state. So, she was in fact not really bitter to her mother, just sometimes channels her depression through like that. She said this when Sousuke left, saying that she trusted him, but he to like her mother, left her. This happened when she was getting the feeling someone that whole day was trailing her...And she felt that she had no one to rely on, which is why she said the mentioned things. Remember, in the anime, she says "Wish me luck" to her picture of her mother before leaving school, Full Metal Panic! episode 8. Also, she wears her mother's watch, a source of rememberance of her mother.

For Kaname's Whispered ability. It is known that being a Whispered and truly awakening the power makes one a genius. A genius actually in every subject, as seen in Boku-Tachi's scanlations when they take their exams. For some reason, much to a surprise and confusion to Tokiwa Kyouko, Kaname has been aceing all, every single one, of her exams. Though of course she knows why because she is a Whispered. There are moments in that part of the novel, where she says to herself that ever since she has awakened her Whispered abilities, she has been doing fantasically better in school. Even saying she understands things that she didn't understand before, like parts of the ASes propulsion system. So, in conclusion to that, she understands all aspects of all subjects, I think pertaining to subjects in school as in math, chemistry, physics, engineering, etc.

As for Kaname accessing her Whispered abilities, it is mostly through near comatose states induced by fear and need to protect oneself that she truly displays Whispered abilities. I guess Tessa and Leonard have more experience to do it almost at will. And I'm guessing Leonard's abilities has to do with ASes, like designing the Codarl, Venom, and I'm guessing the Astoral units... If we put the thing about Kaname accessing her Whispered abilities when she is in the state mentioned above, induced by fear and the need to protect oneself, the Lamba Driver, a by-product of Black Technology, is used likewise. If you have the reaction to protect yourself, the Lamba Driver will protect you, though we already know that it is run by emotions.

About how Mithril found Kaname, I have no idea.

I'd like to add I believe Whispered is a complete human based anomaly that needs no tampering by technology or any other means, though it leaves why they have just appeared, as evidence of that, but they could have for some unknown reason just appeared because of no apparent reason. That would be the most helpful to Gatoh's Full Metal Panic! story line.

Also, it should be noted that in the Dancing Very Merry Christmas, that Melissa Mao wondered if it was pure coincedance that 2 Whispered, Kaname Chidori and Teletha Testarossa, were born on the same day, same year, December 24th.