Usuaria:LadyLameness/Arturo

{/{character |titles=Callsign: Amphisbaena |parents=Valda Mendez |world=Detritus |books=Skyward }}{/{spoilers|book=Skyward}}

Arturo Mendez (callsign Amphisbaena) is a cadet in DDF Flight School and pilot number five in Skyward Flight. Both of his parents are pilots and he is the son of Valda Mendez.

His callsign, Amphisbaena, comes from the mythological two headed, ant-eating serpent that goes by the same name. His flightmates have difficulty pronouncing his callsign, leading to it being shortened to Amphi.^{[Falta cita]} Cobb appears to be the only person who can pronounce Arturo's callsign.

Appearance and Personality

Arturo is shorter than Jorgen and has a faint accent that is normally associated with those from the lower caverns. He has a more formal way of speaking that may be due to his higher societal status.

He is highly intelligent and knows it. This can lead him to be called out on occasion by Cobb for being pretentious. He is also highly inquisitive and can be skeptical of ideas that seem outside the realm of logic. Arturo has the tendency get distracted by opinions he disagrees with and can go on tangents in response. Although Arturo begins flight school believing, and repeating, DDF rhetoric, he becomes more critical and inquisitive of DDF culture as time progresses.

Arturo is a logical thinker who carefully weights risk and reward when considering his actions. He is more likely to make the conservative choice when faced with high risk. Despite this, he does have a competitive streak.

History

Did he sit the entrance exam. Once there, Arturo was placed in Skyward Flight under the tutorledge of Cobb. During his time at Flight School, he roomed with the other male members of his flight.

His first day of Flight School saw him arriving at the class room with his two friends, Jorgen and Nedd. When Jorgen chided the other members of Skyward Flight for not being organized and ordered them to attention, Arturo naturally obeyed the command. After Cobb named Jorgen flightleader, Jorgen named Arturo as one of his two assistant flightleaders.

Unlike many of the other members of Skyward Flight, it is likely that Arturo successfully launched his Poco during the first lesson run by Cobb. After the exercise, when Bim asked about the tradition of dismissing cadets who eject, Arturo repeated DDF rhetoric that aclivity rings should be saved at all cost as they were worth more than the lives of pilots Cobb chided him for his assertion, and tried to discourage the cadets from listening to similar rumors. When the first lesson was interrupted by a Krell attack, Arturo, along with the rest of Skyward Flight, were ordered to take to the sky and line up close to the battle to deceive the Krell into thinking there were more pilots ready to join the conflict. While they waited, Arturo and Spensa explained to the other cadets the attack strategy of the Krell, although they disagreed on whether the nuances of lifebuster involvement should be considered part of a basic explanation.

The next day, while practicing, Arturo had to remind Nedd where to find his eject lever, to which Nedd joked that in an emergency he would simply ask Arturo where to find it. When Cobb asked the class for feedback, Arturo replied in a pompous way that he was bored. Later, the cadets began testing out the weapons functions on their mockpits. Like his fellow classmates, barring Kimmalyn, Arturo performed poorly when first attempting to hit the targets, not managing to land a single shot.{{book ref sky1|14}} After most of the class died during the dogfight simulation, Cobb showed them the advantage of IMP's, using Arturo to demonstrate.

During the light-lancing ring game, Arturo was sabotaged by Nedd who intentionally crashed them both into the third ring of the second run, by joining their ships with his light-lance. After Spensa deliberately collided with Jorgen, Arturo, along with Nedd, attempted to calm his flightleader down, with Nedd joking that Jorgen had still beaten Arturo - a comment Arturo did not appreciate. As form of vicious retribution, Jorgen told Arturo and Nedd about Spensa's father and living situation while the rest of the room listened.

A few days later, Skyward Flight was once again sent into battle against the Krell, this time fighting alongside full pilots. Although Arturo was initially designated to be Jorgen's wingmate, at some point he was separated from his flightleader and Spensa took his place. Shortly after Morningtide was shot down, Arturo paired off with Nedd, to prevent the Krell from being able to focus on either of them. Arturo survived the battle, however, both Bim and Morningtide were killed.

During a routine debris tagging exercise, Skyward Flight got caught in a firefight between Krell and DDF forces as the shipyard fell from orbit. Arturo tried to assist a damaged DDF fighter as it crashed towards the planet surface, however, was unsuccessful in catching it with his lightlance. Arturo, FM, Hurl, and Jorgen, ended up cut off from the other members of the Flight after they were attacked by Krell. Eventually the members of the Flight were able to regroup and joined Riptide Flight as they headed back to base.

A week later, during training, Arturo asked Cobb about Krell tactics and their interactions with DDF pilots during battle. His questions led to Cobb giving the Flight information about the Krell and about the planet's defenses.

Attributes and Abilities

During Flight School Arturo trains to pilot a Poco, perform aerial maneuvers, and use its weaponry. He is highly intelligent and quite knowledgeable about piloting and starfighters. He also has a significant amount of practical experience in flying prior to flight school, having logged over two-hundred hours of flight time through acting as a copilot to his father. Despite his prior practice, Arturo is not completely knowledgeable about starfighters and the the intricacies of their weaponry systems, nor has he trained on them. He is familiar with military protocol, likely due to his parent's positions as pilots.

Arturo is highly intelligent and often called upon in class by Cobb for information about starfighters, flying, or the Krell.

Relationships

Jorgen and Arturo - Friends prior to flight school. Taller than Jorgen and Arturo (who is shorter than Jorgen) Arturo was annoyed by Spensa trying to one up him on information during their first time in the air. Arturo and Nedd have a joking relationship, where Nedd jokes and Arturo sighs. They bicker following the ring game. They appear to be close friends. Following the revelation that Spensa's father was Zeen Nightshade, Arturo began acting more cautious around Spensa, although it is unclear if this was because of her parentage or her temper. He has a tendency to go on tangents and can get distracted when does not agree with a statement. Jorgen seems familiar with this. Cobb refers to Arturo as 'know-it-all' to which Arturo will automatically respond.

Arturo may find JOrgen to be a buzzkill.

Nedd has a fun natured and bickering type of relationship with Arturo, and the two often throw friendly insults at each other. Arturo is used to Nedd's wisecracks and is thrown after Nedd drops out of flight school, still expecting his responses during certain beats of conversation. Nedd's relationship with Jorgen is more one sided in it's playfulness and Nedd often pokes fun at Jorgen, likely to allow the other boy to let off steam. Nedd and Arturo deliberately do not invite Jorgen to informal gatherings of Skyward Flight as they believe he would not want to join the group, thus making the invitation a waste of time. It is unclear if they are correct in this thought.

quotes

“ "Real pilots," said one of Jerkface's cronies, "the best of the best? They can steer a crashing ship into a salvageable landing, even if they’ve been shot. Acclivity rings are worth so much that pilots have to protect them, because the pilot isn’t worth as much as—" ”

— Skyward - Chapter 9

“ "Skyward Five," said Arturo, the shorter of the two cronies. "Callsign: Amphisbaena."

"Amphi-what?" Hurl asked.

"It's a two-headed dragon," Arturo said. "It’s an extremely fearsome animal from mythology. Confirmed."

”

— Skyward - Chapter 9

“ "When debris starts crashing down," he said, speaking quickly, "the Krell often use the fall to mask their radar signatures. They fly low, underneath our larger AA guns, and try to approach Alta. If they arrive, they can drop a lifebuster bomb."

I shivered. A lifebuster would not only vaporize everyone in Alta—shields or no shields—it would collapse the lower caverns, burying Igneous and destroying the apparatus.

"The Krell don't always use a lifebuster though," I said, jumping in. "Those take a special slow-moving bomber to carry them. They must be expensive or difficult to make or something—because the Krell often retreat the bomber if threatened. Most of the time the Krell and the DDF fight over the falling debris. It often contains salvageable acclivity stone, which we can use to make more starfighters."

"I suppose you might be right," Arturo said, sounding dissatisfied. "But he asked for their basic strategy. The basic strategy is to try to destroy Alta."

"Three out of four skirmishes never involve a lifebuster!" I said. "We think they’re trying to wear us down, destroy as many ships as possible, since it’s harder for us to replace them than it is for the Krell."

”

— Skyward - Chapter 10

“ "Um…how do I do that, again?" Nedd asked.

"Seriously, Nedd?" Arturo asked. "We went over this yesterday. Look at the lever between your legs. See the big E on it? What do you think that stands for?"

"I figured it meant emergency ."

"And what do you do when there's an emergency? In a fighter? You…"

"Call you," Nedd said. "And say, ‘Hey Arturo. Where’s the scudding eject lever?’ "

Arturo sighed

”

— Skyward - Chapter 13

“ "You wanna try this one, Arturo?" Nedd asked as the two of them flew toward the third ring.

"I think our chances of victory are higher if we skip that ring each pass."

"Too bad!" Nedd said, then hooked Arturo with his light-lance and pulled him after, diving for the ring.

Of course they both crashed. I hit the fourth ring easily, zipping between the two flying chunks of debris. But I missed the fifth one, spearing only air with my light-lance.

"Nedd, you idiot," Arturo said in my ear. "Why did you do that?"

"I wanted to see what would happen," Nedd answered.

"You wanted…Nedd, it was obvious what would happen. You just got us both killed!"

"Better here than the real world."

"Better neither. Now we won't win."

"I never eat my first dessert though," Nedd said. "Bad for the bod, my friend."

”

— Skyward - Chapter 15

“Hey, Arturo,” Nedd said as he stood and stretched, “these projectors are pretty good. You think they could simulate a world where you’re not a scudding terrible pilot?” “All we need for that,” Arturo said, “is an Off button for your radio. I’m certain we’d all improve by huge leaps if we didn’t have to listen to your incessant jabbering. Besides, as I recall, you were the one who ran into me earlier.” “You were in my way!” Chapter 21

“More crazy than the idea that they can read minds?” Arturo asked. “I’ve never heard anything like that.” Chapter 27

Notes

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