Jaune was in a lot of trouble. Jaune, his sisters, and mom had moved over into the living room, and now Jaune was sitting on one of the recliners. He sat up straight, and he was nervous. The girls had very serious expressions on their faces, whether they leaned toward concern (his mom, Goldenia) or accusation (Jasmine, Canary). He was also a little distracted.
Apparently, his newfound power was quite an interesting one. Beyond totally blowing the secret out of the water before he'd had a chance to keep it, it also had the ability to turn anything he owned or created beautiful over time as well. Even those things that he ruled . . .? What? That was strange, but he would ignore it for now. In any case, he could prevent it from happening too, so he did just that so that all his stuff would stay as it was for now. His looks would be getting him enough attention as it was.
He'd managed to get a look at himself in a mirror, and he had to admit he was quite handsome now. Jaune still looked like
him, but more. As he'd noted before, his nose was straighter, but other than that his eyes were a brighter blue, his hair more golden (it seemed to
shine) . . . he seemed to be more defined. He was less round, more sharp. Even his musculature seemed to look more pronounced, stronger, but he didn't think he was actually any stronger. Which, uh, how would that work? In any case, there seemed to be subtle differences that created a package that was much closer to a 10/10 than before.
Well, he should probably get on with it. It was time to face the music.
"Soo, that happened, huh? Um, well I don't think I could really hide it anymore, but something happened this morning when I woke up," he said. Jaune was a bad liar. He couldn't come up with a story to hide his changes and his new powers, so he wouldn't. "There was a key on my drawer, and this part is harder to explain, but there were . . . ideas in my head?"
"Jaune, I don't think ideas and a key can explain your transformation into . . . Adonis," said Jasmine. She looked particularly offended, and even a little grossed out. Yeah, Jaune didn't really want to think about whether his siblings were attractive either, so he didn't blame her for that. The girls and his mom nodded along.
"It's complicated! Here, let me show you how the key works at least so you won't think I'm totally crazy," said Jaune. He led them over to a bathroom door in the hall, then opened it to show it was normal as it should be. They weren't impressed, so far. Then he closed it again, put the key in the door and opened it once more. The girls were much more surprised this time to see an empty room bigger than before, "okay, so this is something like an entryway, but the really cool part is through that door over there," then he opened the next door.
They were astonished. Goldenia gasped, and they all had wide eyes as they looked at his workshop. It was actually a little crowded in there, now that he thought about it. There was enough space to work and navigate the room, sure, but it definitely wasn't meant to store any of his completed projects for long. He hoped that there would be a solution to that . . . but he also had a feeling that it would work out.
Jaune saw Canary just about to dart into his workshop to explore, but he managed to stop her with a hand on her shoulder just in time. "Wait! A lot of the tools and machines in there can be dangerous, so I can't just let you run around, Canary," said Jaune. The girl was instantly pouting, and she turned her displeasure up to Jaune. He supposed he should have expected this sort of response, she was only 11 after all.
"He's right, sweetie," said Mom, "here, why don't you stick with me while we look around, if that's alright with you, Jaune?"
"Yeah, go for it," said Jaune. They all seemed to get over their initial shock, and his mom took a hold of Canary's hand while they looked over everything. Goldenia and Jasmine wandered in as well, each heading to different areas. Jaune decided to take a more thorough look at his workshop as well, since he'd been caught up in designing a cabinet when he first entered the room this morning. The room itself was really big, larger than his home even. But it had to be, to hold all the equipment here. Yet, to Jaune's amateur eyes, it appeared to only contain mostly basic facilities. A long while back he'd seen a video on his scroll showcasing the production of an old model airship; some of the machines they'd used were nothing like what he could see now in his own workshop. As he'd noticed before there were stations for woodworking, electronics, and blacksmithing. Along with that were supplies for each craft. It was an odd sort of arrangement, really. At this point he still had no real clue how to go about creating electronics (that has to do with those green things called . . . circuit boards, right?). He had a little better understanding of blacksmithing, but it was woodworking that his first star had provided the most knowledge for. How could you build a treehouse, without knowing how to cut a plank with a table saw, after all? Though, he figured it was likely the stars in his head had at least a couple methods that would skip out on planks and table saws. (He really needed a better name for that thing in his head). Ah, speaking of, it was very close to completing another charge. Jaune wondered what would be next? Giant robots, like from Atlas? A method to revolutionise the industry of cereal production? (He was still hungry).
Stars spun, and stopped. This type of star was of . . . Mundane Facilities! Or something like that, it still wasn't clear. Anyway a particular star shone, and now, he knew that he was the proud owner of a horseshoe. Oh, uh, it just looks a little like one. He turned away from his workshop and quickly found the matter manipulator sitting on a pedestal off to the side in the entry room. It had a light brown coloration, with a black handle, yellow trigger, and black housing for the optic emitter. It came with a wrist mounted tablet that let you switch between modes, or select the material you wanted to construct. It had three different modes (or four? The star insisted on three, yet it had four distinct functions): deconstruction (plus construction), wiring, and painting mode. They were self explanatory, deconstruction would destroy and store matter in cubic meters, quite quickly at that, wiring would connect two fixed devices without actually . . . wiring anything. That seemed exploitable. Ah, wait, those devices needed particular inputs and outputs that Jaune didn't know how to build yet. Finally, painting mode would allow you to recolor any object either blue, red, yellow, green, orange, pink, black or white. Wait, pink? That's not a secondary color. Shouldn't it be purple? Ah well.
Jaune's family quickly noticed his absence and all came into the entryway, where they saw him putting on the tablet and looking at the matter manipulator.
"Jaune, what is that? That wasn't in here before, was it . . .?" asked his mom. He turned back to them, and saw they all looked curious, or surprised. They would probably get used to it, though.
"This is a matter manipulator. It'll let me destroy just about any solid matter and store it. Then I can place that matter once again, but only in cubic meter blocks. That part is kind of inconvenient, actually, but I think I should be able to modify it in the future," he said. The girls nodded, then Jasmine's eyes widened.
"Wait, any solid? Solid matter like, dust?" Jasmine asked. Jaune looked up at her and realized the implication. The mining speed of the matter manipulator was variable depending on the material, but it was likely to be much faster than current methods. The way it worked would also mean that it could only produce the crystal varieties which was convenient since it was more sought after than the powdered form. If they needed it powdered, then it could easily be transformed into such after building the block (could it? Jaune didn't know how that worked). Of course, a single device can't actually compete with an entire organization like the Schnee Dust Company, but it didn't need to. It was perfect for personal use, or even to supply a family. He would just need to actually find a vein of dust. Well, much more than that.
X
Jaune found himself once again facing his family in the living room. They seemed to be thoughtful about what they'd seen, except for Canary who clearly wanted to play with his matter manipulator after hearing his explanation. That of course had precisely zero chances of happening; can you imagine what a rambunctious child would try to do with technology like that? The house would be gone, the neighborhood up in flames . . . chaos. (Jaune ignored the fact that doing that sort of thing himself was tempting him).
"Alright, so clearly you weren't making up anything earlier. And this seems like it probably isn't your semblance; I don't believe I've ever seen anything like your workshop or everything else you have," said his mom. Mom had seemed to take all of this rather calmly, which didn't surprise Jaune too much. She was the level headed one, as compared to his father. Rose and Lionel Arc made a complimentary pair.
"Yeah, I guess I should explain what I meant by ideas earlier, too. So I woke up with this . . . thing in my head. I mean, my mind, not y'know, literally my head. It's like- I see it as a night sky, with a bunch of stars and constellations, and the constellations represent categories while the stars are either collections of knowledge on how to craft things in different ways, uh powers like the one that changed how I look, and actual items like the workshop itself. Except, the stars aren't lit up yet, and they charge over time. When the charge reaches a certain point, I sort of choose what I want? It's hard to explain. I didn't really want to change in front of you guys earlier, but in general I do like that star, or power rather. I guess it's a sort of subconscious thing?" said Jaune. His mother hummed to herself, not making any sort of comment.
"That's really cool, Jaune," said Goldenia. She gave him an encouraging smile, "do you have any idea of what else you might unlock?"
"Oh, yeah! I couldn't really give you a full grasp of what this thing will allow me to do, though. There are . . ." Jaune took a moment to attempt a count. He wouldn't have been able to actually count them if he was relying on his eyes and attention span, but luckily the answer sprung forth, as if answered by the construct itself, "1,791 stars. Um."
This, as it turned out, was the biggest shock of the day for the Arc family. Already he had four things from this strange phenomenon, and they each changed his life drastically, and still there were more than a thousand different stars?! It was overwhelming, incalculable; the human mind wasn't really meant to fully grasp all of that, with as much detail and intricacy there seemed to be for every star. As far as Jaune could tell, the power and impact of these stars only escalated the further along the path of each constellation you went. After this, he wasn't sure that he could bear the weight of the stars.
And yet, the stars spun, constellations turning in his mind as he was greeted once again by Resource's Quality. Somehow, as he took another star, another burden of knowledge, he had the tenacity to face his future. His determination may have not been enough for his parents as he trained to be a huntsman, but even as the stars pressed down on him they lifted him up. He could stretch that willpower beyond his original capacity, now.
Back in the moment of the real world, Jaune focused once again on his family.
"Just now, I unlocked a star that taught me how to use the bare minimum of resources to meet my goals, how to connect old technology with newer tech, and repeatedly repair items more than they usually could be. There are stars that have very narrow effects, such as the one that gave me the matter manipulator, and stars that are broad. I learned architecture and engineering from the first unlocked star, along with some material science, but there are others that teach me things like magic, technologies like airships
without using dust, so much that you couldn't even imagine.
I'm having trouble really understanding it," said Jaune. "Some of them, they'll change me like the one that made me look better . . . I'm not sure what to think about those ones. They won't all be about appearance either.
"In spite of that, I'm excited. Worried, but I'm eager to see what's next, y'know? I don't mind so much that it'll change me; it won't make a difference to who I am deep down as a person, only as if I had gone through new experiences. I hope that you don't think it's bad or something like that, there's a lot I could do for us, for the world, with these stars!" Jaune finished up with his rambling on a positive, maybe naïve note. But, when considering the grandiosity of his . . . celestial forge (now
that was a name that rolled off of the tongue), there really seemed to be nothing he couldn't do.
It was a lot to digest. As he'd expected, Rose was the first to respond, "I'm worried too, but I'll trust you, son," said his mom. "Your father and I may not have fully trained you, but your heart and character was never in doubt. You didn't seem like you were meant for the huntsman life, though I suppose that just means you were supposed to be some kind of inventor or mad scientist instead," she had a wry smile on her face. "You know that we'll always be here for you, right? If it ever seems like it's too much for you, just come and talk to us, Jaune."
This was a rather hard moment for Jaune; he'd felt for a long time that his failure to follow through on his training meant that he'd disappointed his parents. They'd put in the effort to turn him and his other siblings who'd wanted it into strong huntsman, and yet for Jaune it was a waste. His aura was never unlocked, he never faced off against any grimm so much as a beowolf, and the less said about his swordsmanship the better. He . . .
wasn't ready for Beacon, and he knew it. But what else could he do? He wasn't going to be a burden for his parents, and just like huntsman training he'd never found the drive for anything else.
Now though, now he was meant for something much greater. He wouldn't be a disappointment; he could be the huntsman he'd always wanted to be, or maybe something completely different; instead of arriving unprepared, perhaps it would instead be
Beacon that couldn't handle him. Jaune Arc's destiny was in the stars, and he would be the light that would shine down on the world of darkness and grimm.
X
After their talk, wherein he'd gone on to explain more of the details about his celestial forge, Jaune and his sisters went outside to experiment (read as: play) with his matter manipulator. Their property ran up against the treeline of their neighborhood, and so they went into the woods to test out the device. As the information provided by the mote of light indicated, his matter manipulator had extraordinary capabilities. They'd dug into the ground with a series of steps, to see if they could find dust underground. Jaune and his sisters were lucky that his first star had given him some knowledge to know how he should dig to keep the ground stable. They found . . . soil and dirt, mostly.
As it turned out, it was quite dark underground. The quartet had flashlights to light the way, but it still had them uncomfortable to be in such a confined space. Though Canary didn't seem to mind it so much, funnily enough. Eventually, they decided to leave.
"We should
not leave this hole in the ground like this! Grimm could get in, and if you decide to come down here again they could ambush and kill you!" yelled Jasmine. They were going to leave, but Jaune and Canary wanted to leave their little mine as it was. Jaune, so he could dig further down in the future, and Canary so she had somewhere to explore (they'd made a few wandering paths and tunnels in search of dust).
"It'll be fine, Jasmine! Don't be a wuss," said Canary. She thought it was quite silly to be arguing about this; what would any stupid grimm want with a hole in the ground, anyway?
"Uh, well, maybe she's right, Canary," said Jaune. Then he noticed the energy building up once again, "oh, it's about to happen again!" he grinned.
"Wait, Jaune! You mentioned earlier that some of the stars take more power, right? Could you stop and store what you have? So you'd have more for next time?" asked Goldenia. She wanted to know if there was a way to get the stronger powers sooner; the better to keep her brother safe, right?
"Huh. Yeah, I'll try that," said Jaune. He closed his eyes, and focused. The stars had started to spin, but he didn't want that this time. And so . . . they stopped. "It worked! I don't really know how I did it, I guess that's just one of the things that the star forge can do," he said. (He'd taken to trying out different names for the thing. Star forge was quicker to say, so that was nice).
"Ah good to hear it! You can get a better star next time now," said Goldenia with a smile.
"Great, Jaune, now back to the mine thing. Let's fill it up, you don't know for sure that it'll stay stable, grimm might show up, and besides it won't take too long to get this far down again," said Jasmine.
"Yeah, okay," Jaune said. He sighed. It did make sense, he just didn't like undoing all of his work. And so, Jaune placed down soil and dirt in its proper place, and then they left the woods and returned home.
O
3rd Matter Manipulator - 100
The Matter Manipulator is probably the most versatile tool you'll find in this universe. A symbol of the Terrene Protectorate, the Matter Manipulator allows you to do exactly what the name says: Manipulate matter. You can move it, reshape it, store it away, among other functions. You start out with a basic Matter Manipulator, for free, with the Deconstruction, Wire, and Paint modes all unlocked.
Your basic manipulator can store vast amounts of non-living material (and living material if kept in special containment units), and can deconstruct 1 cubic meter of material at a time, with generic dirt taking around 2 seconds to deconstruct, and more dense / complex materials taking longer. It can only deconstruct solid materials. The range is limited to 5 meters away. It can store 200 distinct items / materials, in batches of up to 250 cubic meters per item / material. Wire mode allows you to link together specially designed devices, to allow for the transfer of power and signals between them, and paint mode allows you to recolor objects that you use it on. [Starbound - Spacebattles Ver.]
4th Resource Management (100 CP): What can I say? You're an expert at logistics. You know how to extract the maximum possible use out of even the absolute least resources. Much as a ragtag group of countermutineers managed to not only survive, but actually attack and make inroads into damaging an almost unimaginably better armed, equipped and numerous group, you too can make virtually endless repairs, adapt low leveltech to interface with higher level tech, and in general stretch the usage of those resources far beyond what even the shrewdest economist could ever manage.
Mind you, this is for people and tech most of all. While it will work on other resources, even magical, esoteric ones like mana and whatnot, don't expect remotely the same efficiency for them. [Empire From the Ashes - Dahak Chronicles, 4chan ver.]
5th Reserved (+100 CP next roll)