Usuaria:LadyLameness/Arturo

{/{character |image=Amphi.PNG |titles=Callsign: Amphisbaena |parents=Valda Mendez |world=Detritus |books=Skyward }} {/{update|book=Starsight}} {/{spoilers|book=Starsight}}

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. He is flight assistant to Jorgen during flight school, however, it is unknown if he retains this position after gaining full pilot status. He is in a relationship with Bryn, a friend he went to school with prior to joining the DDF.

His callsign, Amphisbaena, comes from the mythological two headed, ant-eating serpent that goes by the same name. Both his flightmates and other cadets 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.

His family is rich and owns three private starfighters that are used as escorts during trading operations. his family has a private radio frequency, 1250, as well as a private radio that is able to unscramble the pilot frequencies. His family also owns three private fighters that are used as escorts during trading operations. These ships are not accessible to the DDF during times of need as they are primarily reserved to evacuate the Mendez family if they are in danger.

Appearance and Personality

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

He is highly intelligent and his pretentious attitude lands him in trouble with Cobb, several during flight school. Despite this, Arturo is initially surprised when his fellow classmates call on him for information, however as time passes, becomes more comfortable and less arrogant when sharing information. He is good at judging distances, a skill that his flightmates utilize and value.

Arturo is also an inquisitive person and can be skeptical of illogical suggestions. He is also 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, even if this may lead to sub-optimal results. Despite this, he does have a competitive streak. By the time Arturo is pulled from flight school, he has relaxed his way of thinking and is more willing to break rules and take risks.

Arturo has the tendency get distracted by opinions he disagrees with, which can cause him to go off on tangents. Although Arturo begins flight school believing, and repeating, DDF rhetoric, he becomes more critical and inquisitive of DDF culture as time progresses. By the end of his time at flight school, Arturo has come to accept that the DDF is losing the war against the Krell despite their unwillingness to accept that fact.

Arturo's confidence takes a hit after he is almost shot down during the battle in which Hurl died. He is aware of how close he came to death and worries about getting back into the cockpit. Despite his worries, shortly after his near accident, Arturo finds that he has an intense desire to provide support to the main battle occurring nearby, instead of being in the background with the scouts. After being forcibly retired from the DDF, Arturo decided against wearing his pilots pin in public, even though he had been promoted to full pilot.

Arturo is not religious, and has some level of interest in sports.

History

When Arturo joined flight school, he was placed in Skyward Flight under the tutorledge of Cobb. During his time as a cadet, 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. After most of the class died during the dogfight simulation, Cobb showed them the advantage of IMP's, using Arturo to demonstrate.

During the ight-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 their 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 light-lance. 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 the planet's defenses.

During a later training session, Arturo questioned Cobb about the simulation they were using, wanting to know if the instructor was recreating famous battles for practice. He correctly guessed that the cadets had just been practicing in the Battle of Trajerto, a clash that had taken place five years previous.

Not long after the class was dismissed, Skyward Flight was called to action to help defend against a Krell attack. The flight took up position near one of Alta's AA guns away from the main fight to wait as backup. Arturo was surprised when FM asked if he knew how far away the flight was from the main battle, not expecting her to ask him. Arturo instinctively left a pause before answering, waiting for Nedd to fill the silence with a joke, momentarily forgetting that the other pilot had been dismissed from the DDF. Instead of calculating the distance, as FM assumed he would, Arturo radioed Cobb to ask him directly.

When the group was given the green light to engage, Arturo fell in with Jorgen as his wingmate, engaging several Krell. At some point during the battle, Arturo was able to destroy at least one of the enemy fighters, however, after taking heavy fire, lost his shield and took a direct hit along the side of his ship. Luckily, the shot had not damaged his acclivity ring allowing his starfighter to stay airborne, however, the ship was severely damaged and the shielding mechanism completely destroyed. The attack rattled Arturo, who was well aware how lucky he was to have made it through the incident alive.

After the death of Hurl, Arturo, along with the other remaining members of Skyward Flight, were given a week of leave in order to recover. Despite this, all remaining members returned to their flight school classroom the next morning. Spensa, determined to find Hurl's ship asked Arturo how far out he thought the battle had taken place, using his answer to guide her in the right direction towards Hurl's crash site.

During his week of medical leave, Arturo met up with the members of Skyward Flight, past and present, at a restaurant at Alta Base, and introduced them to his girlfriend Bryn. The group reminiscing about Hurl, and Arturo admitted his regret for not going with Spensa and Jorgen to find Hurl's body. When Bryn went to the bathroom, the members of Skyward Flight talked briefly about the strangeness of Krell tactics and the DDF's hesitancy to talk about these things. Arturo played devil's advocate during the conversation, challenging the sentiments expressed with the possibility that the DDF didn't share information on enemy tactics with those who did not have full DDF credentials. Kimmalyn pointed out to him, however, the his own conversations about the Krell had previously been shut down by higher ranking officers. The conversation dropped when Bryn returned and the group moved on to lighter topics.

Some days after the gathering, Arturo accompanied FM to a game of sports after Nedd procured tickets for the two of them. The pair continued to talk about the game the next day when they arrived at class, only to find that their mockpits were no longer usable. Arturo questioned Cobb when he arrived, who told the cadets that they were moving on to practicing in real Poco's from that point forward. As the group moved towards the launchpad, Arturo fell into conversation with Spensa, admitting that he wanted to be more like her. Strengthened by Spensa's words of encouragement, Arturo borrowed Kimmalyn's now vacant Poco for the training, while his own was being repaired.

During scouting training, Arturo queried Blaze about the perception of cowardice created by staying away from the battle. Blaze did not appreciate the question, snapping back that scouts were not cowards, to which Arturo hastily clarified he had not meant to imply they were.

After the flight touched down at Alta, Arturo brought up Spensa's comments from the restaurant about the DDF's involvement with the war, agreeing with her that the human military was slowly losing. When Jorgen tried to argue, Arturo pointed out that statistical data of the war showed the Defiant's position weakening. As they returned to the training building, Arturo found his mother, Valda, speaking with Cobb. Going to speak with the pair, Arturo was informed that he was being promoted to full pilot and retired honorably from service in order to help his family's business. Angry, Arturo tried to toss the pilot's pin given to him by Cobb away, however, he was stopped by his mother. Eventually Arturo caved, saluting Cobb before leaving with is mother.

Following the Skyward graduation, Arturo and the former members of the flight met up at a restaurant in Alta Base to listen in to the battle at the shipyard on Arturo's family radio. Despite being a full pilot, Arturo did not wear his pilots pin to the gathering. Arturo set up the radio to broadcast the National Assembly channel so that the former pilots could listen to the same information being given to the government leaders. At the request of the others in the group, Arturo eventually turned the radio to the pilots bands so that they could listen in directly to the battle. Periodically, he would switch between the flightleader channel and the scouts channel, so that the group could follow the scout's attempts to stop the lifebuster. Hearing the desperation of the battle, Arturo, Nedd, and Kimmalyn went to steal the Mendez private jets from the lower caverns to aid the overwhelmed DDF pilots.

Having successfully stolen the Mendez family starships, Arturo, Nedd, and Kimmalyn went to join Spensa in defending Alta Base. The group arrived shortly after Spensa was shot down and ordered by Ironsides to attack and destroy the bomber.

After Spensa rejoined the fight in M-Bot, Arturo and Nedd went after the bomber on Spensa's orders, in an attempt to drive it away from Alta Base. Ironsides tried to overrule Spensa, however, was ignored by Arturo and Nedd. There attempts to attack the bomber, however, were constantly impeded by the black Krell guard ships which would attack if they got close but fall back if they pulled away. When Riptide Flight arrived, they joined Arturo and Nedd in engaging with these ships to keep them busy and distracted. It is unknown how the fight Arturo was involved in ended, but it can be assumed the black Krell fighters pulled back when the lifebuster was dropped.

Following the battle, Arturo rejoined the DDF as an active pilot.^{[Falta cita]} He accompanied Jorgen during his exploration of Detritus' cave system, however, after five days of travelling, began to suggested that the trio head back to base.[22] He was unaware of the true reason the friends were exploring the caves, believing the objective of their task had been relayed from Cobb to Jorgen.[22]

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. Arturo both knows about, and can recognize historical battles fought by the DDF.

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 automatically leaves gaps in conversation where he expects Nedd to add jokes. He is thrown off after Nedd is dismissed from the DDF, still expecting him to respond.

Arturo may find JOrgen to be a buzzkill. He also has a tendency to take jabs at Jorgen's attitude.

Arturo is aware of Spensa's dislike of Ironsides and thinks that it is justified. Arturo admires Spensa's straightforward attitude and bravery and looks to her for advice and comfort when he is concerned about flying following his near death experience. Spensa's words help to reassure and strengthen Arturo's resolve to get back into the pilot's seat and fly again. While Spensa is glad that Arturo is out of harms way when he is removed from flight school, she is also angry that her deceased flight mates could not have also been safe. Clarify this... Spensa is not as emotionally affected by Arturo being removed from flight school as she is by the loss of many of her other flightmates, presumably as he lived through his time as a cadet and is now in a safer position. Arturo thinks that M-Bot's personality is well suited to Spensa.

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.

Parents =

Following Arturo's near death experience, his mother and father begin to worry for his safety in flight school and begin working towards having him removed. Under the guise that Arturo is needed to help administer the family's buisness, Valda and her husband use their connections to have Ironsides retire Arturo honorably from the DDF, allowing him to obtain the rank of pilot without having to continue to be put in the line of fire. Valda and her husband never planned to let their son fly permanently for the DDF and had always planned to remove him from duty. Jorgen notes that he is surprised Arturo had been allowed to stay in the flight for as long as he did before he was removed. As Arturo would be continuing the family buisness instead of going into politics he does not need any legitimate flight experience as a ranked pilot to be successful. Arturo is initially furious when he is first confronted by his mother at Alta Base, though quickly accepts that circumstances are outside of his control and he is unable to change the decision.

Byrn

Bryn is an old friend of Arturo's from before flight school, whom he is now dating. It is obvious from their interactions that they are a couple and are not against light PDA. Bryn is aware of how much Hurl's death has affected Arturo and does what she can to support him through his grief.

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

“Oh,” Arturo said. “Sorry. I was just…well, waiting for Nedd to make a wisecrack. I guess that’s still my instinct. 32

“I consider it a mark of true intelligence to realize when someone else has already done your work for you,” he said. 32

Arturo’s ship was blackened all along its left wing and side, its canopy cracked. His acclivity ring was still on, so he could stay in the air, but…scud. He’d survived a destructor hit after his shield had been knocked out. When he called in, his voice was subdued, rattled. He seemed to know how lucky he was to have survived. 32

. Order something to eat. Arturo’s paying.” “I am?” “You’re rich.” “So are you.” “I’m the other kind of rich. The poor kind.” “Oh, for the Saint’s sake,” Arturo said. “Don’t use the Saint’s name in vain,” Kimmalyn said. “You do all the time!” “I’m religious. You’re not. So it’s okay for me.” 38

“I honestly don’t know how you all suffer him,” she said. “He pretended to know everything before he became a pilot. He must be impossible now.” 38

“I should have gone with you,” Arturo said. “You think Cobb would let me hold her pin for a moment, if I asked? Before he gives it back to the family?” 38

“I wish I could be more like you, Spin,” he said as we walked. “Like me?” “Always so straightforward and bold,” he said. “I really do want to fly again. I do. It will be fine.” 40

“You are bold,” I said. “You’re getting back in the cockpit—that’s the important part. You didn’t let it frighten you away.” 40

“Yeah,” Arturo said. “Every instinct I have says I should be flying toward that battle. This feels…cowardly.” 41

with foam. “Spin, you were right the other day,” Arturo said. “When you said the DDF was losing this war.” “We’re not losing,” Jorgen said. “Don’t talk like that.” “They vastly outnumber us,” Arturo said. “And it’s getting worse. I can show you the stats. The Krell keep replenishing, and we can’t keep up.” “We’ve survived for years,” Jorgen said. “It’s always felt like we’re on the edge of doom. Nothing’s changed.” 41

Arturo gazed down at the pin, then went to slam it into the ground, but his mother caught his arm. Gradually, Arturo relaxed, then reluctantly saluted Cobb. Arturo looked back at us, then saluted us as well. 41

“No,” Jorgen said. “His parents pulled him out of the DDF. This has been building for a few weeks—ever since he almost got shot down. They’ve been panicking. Off the record, of course. Nobody would admit to being afraid for their son.” “Strings were pulled,” Cobb said. “The admiral compromised. Arturo gets a pilot’s pin but doesn’t graduate.” “He’s been retired honorably from service,” Cobb said. “Officially, it’s because he was needed for supervising cargo flights for his family—if we’re ever going to get enough igniter parts, we’ll need those shipments from other caverns. Come on, you three. Let’s get to your debriefing.” 41

I stalked up to him. “Arturo’s parents were never going to let him fly permanently,” he said. “I’m honestly surprised that it took them this long to get spooked.” 41

Arturo looked at the others. Nedd shrugged, but Kimmalyn nodded. So Arturo turned the volume down further. “We’re not supposed to listen to these,” he said softly. “But what will they do? Kick us out of the DDF?” 48

41

Notes

{/{stub}} {/{Skyward}}