Hold It In (RWBY/Transistor)

Redshirt Army said:

Depends on if you tally by line or by block. I've seen quests do both.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Well, I haven't started being consistent with this story yet, and I'm not going to start now.

... Wait-

|||

The bodyguard blinks, taking in what he's been told with a certain composure.

"... Well then." Ashford offers after a moment, seemingly at a complete loss for words.

"Did you know?" Weiss asks him after a moment. There's no hint of betrayal, not even anger, just... a question.

It occurs to you that you've become way too comfortable calling an internationally acclaimed singer and heiress to a company with enough money to technically be counted as a Kingdom unto itself if you go by purely economical metrics by her first name, even if it's just in your thoughts.

Still, somehow it hurts more to hear her approaching the subject so calmly rather than if she'd sounded like somebody had just shot a dog in front of her. As if she was... used to this.

"I..." He starts, trailing off. "... had my suspicions, when I received a call from someone higher up the ladder telling me that I needed to get somebody to repair the computers and not to buy new ones. But I didn't... know."

She simply nods, not saying anything else.

{He's... not lying. I don't know what it is, but I can't get a read on this guy. It's like telling half-truths is so ingrained in him that he does it without even thinking anymore. It's like... compulsive lying by omission.}

"... I assume you're installing the stripped versions, then?"

"Yeah." You tell him simply. You're not particularly in the mood for glibness or opening yourself up to offers.

… hhhhhhhhh-

{Stay strong. You are a bastion of good morals that will not be broken.}

You are very much not that

{Ok, plan B- you're going to say no unless you want us to start looking up weird things about tailed Faunus and then send them to Creme.}

You very pointedly do not give your sword a wild-eyed stare that screams of the fear of embarrassment and imminent pain.

{'Oh, no, that was the AI in my sword trying to get me to not take a deal for 200,000 lien to install spyware on Weiss Schnee's laptop, but I couldn't stop myself so that's why it sent you a bunch of very questionable videos.' Sounds believable, doesn't it?}

... Your sword is a monster.

Your sword is a goddamn monster that knows you are a weak man who needs the incentive of not losing one of your few friends and possibly avoiding being turned into a smear on the wall in order to weather this temptation.

We're only cruel because we love you.

"... Ok." He says simply, walking past you and flopping into a chair, leaving you and Weiss both to just blink in confusion.

"... Ok? Just, ok?"

"Well, I'm hardly going to try and barter with you while the person they're trying to bug is in the room. I know when I'm beat, and it was never my fight in the first place. My job is to keep Ms Schnee safe and to take care of her while her eye heals. Nothing more, nothing less."

You stare at him, genuinely unsure what to make of him right now. Weiss makes a small noise of embarrassment at the mention of her injury but otherwise says nothing as well.

Of all the things that you expected to happen when he came in here, him basically admitting defeat was... not high on the list.

Either way, you get to work, deleting the junk data you replaced the virus with and installing the clean versions of each backup. After a few moments, her Scroll turns back on, the cheery bootup jingle chiming away, the SDC logo flashing on the diamond for a moment, both computers booting into safe mode at your mental command. You open it and her laptop and find password screens on each of them. Entering the generic sysadmin password for SDC products, you unlock them and start working.

First things first- hunt down whatever could be left of the virus and kill it with virtual fire. You set Bracket to scan the hard drives for any sectors marked as damaged, and find a fair few, actually- a deeper look reveals a couple of reinstallation packages the virus left as a goodbye present, which you quickly nuke, before dealing with the other bad sectors, overwriting the logical ones while Reboot() and Bridge() take care of physical ones.

Now, you've done a wipe and reinstall...

Anything else worth doing?

{They're both clean as the day they were bought. Cleaner, probably. No traces of the virus, just give her your phone number for personal consultation, and we can leave.}

Alright then. You open the contacts on her Scroll mentally, and add your number under 'Cute Computer Guy' before changing your mind at the last second and going with 'Jaune Arc.'

Because despite everything, you're just a bit too much of a coward to unironically try and pull that off.

"And, uh, that should be everything. I've taken the liberty of putting my contact details on your Scroll, if you ever have computer problems, please, go ahead and call me."

Weiss snaps to attention, and you realise she'd actually started to space out while you were working. Wait, how long did that take?

{About half an hour.}

... Shit, really?

{Time flies when you're having fun.}

"Oh, uh, thank you." She says somewhat absent-mindedly. "Um... how much do you, normally get paid for this kind of job?"

... Well, your normal rate's 500 lien, but...

{Jaune. No jacking your prices up for the 1%.}

Fiiiiine.

"500 lien. Granted, I've never worked with something quite as... toxic as this, but that's my normal rate."

You're somewhat surprised that the question even crossed her mind, probably because you'd completely resigned yourself to getting out of here with no money at all, so at least it's a pleasant one.

"Oh, is that all?" She asks, sounding almost surprised, before pulling a light blue purse out of her jacket pocket. "Cash or credit?"

You blink, before deciding to try your luck anyway.

"Do you have MoneyBuddy?"

|||

You step into the elevator a whole 500 lien richer than you were and find the operator's gone.

Huh. Weird. Must be on his break or something.

You press the button for the ground floor, the door closing and leaving you with a slight floating sensation courtesy of the sudden jolt of motion as you make your way downstairs.

"... Oh my God I just fixed Weiss Schnee's laptop." You breathe out after a moment, the reality of the situation not exactly crashing into you, more... settling into you.

{You put your number in her Scroll. You almost put it in as 'Cute Computer Boy.'}

Holy fuck you did too what were you thinking oh wait that's right you weren't.

A nervous, shuddering laugh pulls itself from your throat, the sound almost like somebody taking strands of anxiety and whisking them through the air like spun sugar- thin, thready, airy, and you find yourself leaning against the wall for support as it slowly turns into a wild cackle at the thought of actually going through with that.

sysadmin? areyouok?

{Jaune, calm down buddy. It's been a weird day for you, I know, but let's try and keep you out of the hospital again, ok?}

The concern in Blue's voice cuts through your small bout of mania, and you breathe deeply for just a moment.

Just in time to hold your breath as a small cloud of ash makes its way through the crack in the door.

As the ash flows through the door crack, you start looking for a maintenance shaft-

"For what it's worth-" The ash cloud starts, an echoey, wispy rendition of Ashford's voice cutting through your planning to get out and stab the man in the back for trying to suffocate you. "I'm glad you cleaned it. Integrity like yours is a rare thing, Mr Arc, and I do hope we meet again, under less... clandestine circumstances."

You stare at it for a moment, realising that Ashford is using his Semblance to send you one last message. You stay silent, unsure if he could hear any response you would want to give him.

Before you can decide whether or not you should, the ash whips away, flowing through the crack in the door just in time for it to open on the ground floor.

... Well.

{Huh. You know what, he's not a bad guy, honestly.}

... Yeah.

You step out into the lobby and make your way to the front door, only to see the rain trying its damnedest to pound its way through the concrete tiles outside.

"Agh... do you think anybody has a spare umbrella?"

{Maybe. Ask reception?}

You go over there and ask if they know where you could get a spare umbrella, and they tell you politely they only hand out spares to guests and workers. You suppose contractors don't exactly count, but still, ouch.

... Guess you're waiting it out then.

You decide that waiting outside under the awning is the best place to stay out of people's way, you walk outside and try to enjoy the sound of rain hitting the ground.

{Ugh. At least you're not using me as an umbrella.}

"Oh, you're waterproof, get over it."

{I am now, thank you very much.}

How were you supposed to know that your sword would short out?! It's not like you plug it in at night to charge!

We all learned an important lesson that day. Wait, is Cell waterproof?

You blink, looking around for your little friend, and find it floating about in the rain, gazing at everything with somehow even more wonderment than usual.

... itfeelsnice! littledropsofcoldonmychassis!

Heh.

{But are you gonna be ok?}

naturallyhydrophobic. willbeok.

Well, that's that answered.

You watch it splash about in a puddle for a bit, your reverie only interrupted by the sound of an umbrella opening. You turn to see Ashford holding an umbrella open for the Schnee heiress herself. When she notices you looking at you, whatever momentary softness graced her features is replaced with a mild scowl you can't quite place the emotion of.

"... I told you I only came back for my umbrella."

"And your bodyguard, apparently."

"I couldn't leave you two to your own devices in good conscience." Ashford pipes up, the slightest hint of a shit-eating smirk on his face. Weiss begins to say something, before apparently deciding it's not worth the effort, instead turning back to you.

... Wait what's he-

Oh.

{Yes, oh.}

Oh.

You feel a slight flush to your cheeks despite the cold, and quickly try your best to force it down.

"Anyway," Weiss says with slightly more force than necessary, "I... figured, since you seemed kind of surprised by the rain, that you didn't have an umbrella, and I was leaving anyway, so... I suppose I can let you share mine for a while."

Oh. That's.

Well.

Um.

{Just say ok, ask if she's going by Caredhina, and start walking.}

You do so, and find out that your destinations are the same, which makes things much easier.

You walk along, you two huddled along underneath the umbrella while Ashford takes his soaking like a man. You consider offering him some shelter with the Transistor, before realising he'd probably object to 300 kilos of solidified maths hovering above his head.

The Cell is still happy to roam around, hydroplaning all over the place like a little speedboat. You can't help but smile watching it, and Weiss cracks after a few seconds, giggling as it bobs past her, camera down, flower petals up, doing a surprisingly accurate rendition of a loose buoy.

"What is that thing, anyway?" She asks.

Of all the questions she could have asked.

|||

He takes a moment to finish his cigarette before he pulls out his Scroll and sends off a single message. His job fulfilled, he puts it away again and goes back to enjoying the rain once more.

|||

Once you reach the station, Reboot()ing Ashford's clothing so the poor man won't end up with pneumonia, you take the train home and decide as you walk in the door that, even if it is only 3 pm, you've earned yourself a good, long, na-

"Jaune, come through here for a moment please. We want to talk to you."

-aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh dammit you should've seen this coming.

Walking through to the living room, you see, thankfully, it's just your parents, Jools, and Jaana that are there.

"Uh, what's wrong?"

"Well, let's start with the fact that you managed to turn your brain to mush again and go from there." Your father says.

"Really? I thought we were starting with the fact that he apparently created artificial intelligence, at least twice, and didn't think to tell us." Your mother interjects.

"How about the fact that his sword broke a door in half trying to follow him?" Jools continues.

You look at Jaana, expecting her to round out the quartet of accusation.

"... No, I think they've covered everything."

Fair enough.

"Uh... I'm sorry, I'm still not sure what you're focusing on first here."

"Let's start with this morning. What happened, what is that thing, and why did making it almost kill you?" Your mother asks.

"Ah..."

What? Cat got your tongue?

[] Everything, A Very Much Not Brief History Of- doesn't matter if they don't believe you, you need to get some stuff off your chest. The Process. The Transistor.
-[] Ada. Boriah.
-[] Weiss. Ashford.

[] Not Everything, A Much Briefer History Of- don't talk about everything it can do- fess up to making AI, yes, but maybe keep the whole... you know, 'almost shot an heiress's bodyguard in the face' thing a secret. Among other things.

[] Almost Nothing, It's Basically A Pamphlet At This Point- Admit that you didn't think they'd believe you, go into soppy bull about how scared it was, trapped in your head, but don't actually... explain anything. Bit manipulative, but you have your secrets to keep.

[] Fuck It, Write Your Own Book (write-in)