Deadies? Biologically disinclined? Vitally challenged? You guys are being silly. All my favorite people have been reanimated. Everyone in Darksouls, our rival headmaster Ozpin, hell even the incredibly hot goddess Salem. If you're unwilling to befriend those who have died, you're discounting a very large percentage of like minded individuals. We just aren't popular enough to have such high standards. So save your wrath for the truly deserving, like those filthy faunus'!
I didn't know you had an account on SV, Cardin! How've you been since season 3?
Anyway, both choices to discriminate against are wrong. Cynric is both a necromancer and employs a lot of faunus. No, the only real answer is that everyone is naturally inferior to a Reachman in many, if not all, ways and should be pitied even while being stomped into the mud by their superiors.
I didn't know you had an account on SV, Cardin! How've you been since season 3?
Anyway, both choices to discriminate against are wrong. Cynric is both a necromancer and employs a lot of faunus. No, the only real answer is that everyone is naturally inferior to a Reachman in many, if not all, ways and should be pitied even while being stomped into the mud by their superiors.
Hey! Life is slowly beating those prejudices out of her... I mean imparting it's lessons? If you don't like the direction life's taking us, maybe you should demand to talk to life's manager. Burn life's house down! Don't you see? It isn't unlife that Louise hates, it's life itself. That's why she's trying so hard to snuff it out. The constant violence, dropping moons on planets? Not a coincidence.
now I get the feeling that this is just rooted in jealousy due to all the attention Master Cynric has been putting on his new vitally challenged apprentice, Kiba.
no need to be a necrophobe just because of those pesky feelings of inadequacy.
now I get the feeling that this is just rooted in jealousy due to all the attention Master Cynric has been putting on his new vitally challenged apprentice, Kiba.
no need to be a necrophobe just because of those pesky feelings of inadequacy.
The Deadies are unnatural. They should all be rounded up and put where they belong: a cemetery. Preferably with some walls built around it to keep them in, for good measure. Maybe with some furnaces to systematically cremate them. Whatever it takes to get rid of those fucking Deadies.
Life and Death are contrary; two sides of the same coin. The two were never meant to mix. They should be kept separate and pure. The paradoxical existence of Deadies are abominations.
Nope, Espinoza is the only one left at kwama korp that would care to bother and he knows better than to push that button without an emergency. He also doesn't know why Cynric collapsed, nobody does other than Cynric.
Nope, Espinoza is the only one left at kwama korp that would care to bother and he knows better than to push that button without an emergency. He also doesn't know why Cynric collapsed, nobody does other than Cynric.
So what you're telling us is... we can smear Ozpin some more this was Ozpin's doing!
Look at the timing guys. Cynric and Ozpin have a falling out, where Cynric exposes a bit of the truth to Ozpin's shocked, deceived goons. One day later and Qrow Branwen, clandestine operative of Ozpin, is seen snooping around restricted areas of Cynric's base and Cynric himself is in a mysterious coma.
... I feel Louise is being compromised by their dastardly ghost magic.
Not to mention, Hinata being a traitor. I knew using the recall stone was the only way out. I knew it.
[X] Some normality would be nice and what is more normal than studying alone? Excuse yourself and go study Aura.
The embrace lasted for several minutes as Louise failed to regain her composure. By the end of it all, much of their hair had become entangled and her face must have been a complete disaster.
Wiping at the remnants of her emotional weakness, the pinkette tried to force those unpleasant thoughts back into the dark recesses of her mind where they belonged and pretend that she hadn't just broken down into tears from a mere hug. If pressed on the matter, she would stick to her story of ghost magic.
Despite the impropriety of the situation, she felt... better. Certainly much better than she had for the last week and that realization just added to how ashamed she felt about the situation. Whether they noticed her discomfort or not, the others thankfully chose not to mention it as they all moved to give her some space.
"So uh... now that we all know, can you answer something for me?" Yang asked, being the only one not to have the decency to vacate the bed as the last of her co-conspirators wandered in. "That old dude mentioned it when he was here and so did you up in Ozpin's office, so I've gotta ask: Elves?"
Louise ignored the uncouth girl's description of her teacher as best she could, having come to expect less and less from the bastard daughter of a man who couldn't grasp a simple concept such as undeath. Glancing over to Hinata in exasperation and receiving a slight smile, she sighed, but accepted the offered distraction for what it was. "It's like meeting a third Vicky. What is it about blondes that makes that the first thing you ask when given the chance to speak with someone from another world?"
"Because we're awesome?"
"As if." Weiss scoffed. "The only thing awe inspiring about you is your complete lack of tact or societal grace."
Where was the teasing? The subtle jabs at her maturity? The backhanded niceties from people witness to how weak worthless she was?
"I'll take that as a compliment. Now, back to the question!"
"Fine... Elves are... Well, I was always taught that they're a race of evil beings that want to and are capable of exterminating humanity. They took the holy land from my ancestors and can nullify magic, which itself is supposedly blasphemy." Louise explained before taking on thoughtful expression as she mulled over her own words.
At the continued silence, Summer spoke over the collective confusion and horror of the others. "I'm sensing a 'but'."
"Master Cynric is what he calls a 'Reachman'." The pinkette nodded. "Elf, daedra, human, orc, troll, giant, other apparently stranger types of elves, whatever a 'redguard' is; according to him, they share blood with a lot of races."
"So you're conflicted on how to view your own people's stories?"
Why were they just acting as if everything was normal?
Nodding again at the ghost's question, she replied as steadily as she could, "Master Cynric was the first person to believe in me other than my sister and he helped me in ways she couldn't. I know he's not fond of bigotry and I don't want to keep disappointing him."
"That's very noble of you." Summer said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Recognizing that something is wrong and working to fix it is an admirable thing."
Despite herself, Louise couldn't help but grin at the dead woman's words. Nobody had ever admitted to considering her to be a proper Noble before.
--------------------------------
Having bid them all a good night shortly afterward, the youngest Vallière had bathed away the last traces of her shameful display and gone to bed confused, but happy. Upon awakening, there was only one thing she had in mind.
Without knowing her very well, having only spent a single afternoon together that wasn't because of the Rose-Xiao-Long sisters, and then witnessing an emotional breakdown, Weiss had gone out of her way to help somebody who was a genial acquaintance at best. Even though she'd just learned that Louise had been lying to her about basically everything, the white haired girl still orchestrated a joint effort between their teams to solve a problem that she wasn't required to even acknowledge.
Never had any of Louise's former classmates done so much as speak out in her defense and yet Weiss hadn't hesitated, going so far as to set the tone for what would otherwise likely have been a mirror of her first year of schooling in Tristain. Somehow the pale girl had repaired the fractures forming between Louise and the others when the pinkette herself had no idea how to do so, saving her from spending the remainder of her time at Beacon isolated and irrationally dreading Hinata and Vicky following suit.
Dressing in her armor, sans helmet, she briefly struggled with her cuirass before letting the straps out some. The stupid thing seemed to be shrinking, because it had become more and more uncomfortable in the last two months and she couldn't figure out why. Still, a little slack wouldn't see a gap forming between the plates, so it was probably safe to put off asking Shen to repair it. It would be a shame to be without what had swiftly become her favorite outfit, which would have horrified the Louise of a year or so ago... what with the armor lacking in even the most minute of feminine or even mage-like qualities.
Briskly striding through the dawning light in the halls, the pink haired girl approached Team BRTC's room and gave it a hard rap. Complaints and the sound of somebody rolling off their bed reached her through the door, but Blake Belladonna appeared at the threshold soon enough.
"It's four thirty." The cat-girl said flatly, an unamused expression on her face.
Reaching out to take the sleepy faunus' wrist, Louise pulled her into the hall. "I know, I set my alarm early so that we could do this."
"What are we doing and why can't you do it?"
"I can and I am."
"No, I meant alone. Without me. So I can sleep."
Turning a disapproving frown on the girl, Louise didn't stop walking as she chided, "I'm not the one who needs to apologize, you are."
"Excuse me?!"
"No." The pinkette firmly denied, keeping her grip on the other girl despite her struggles. "I won't take that choice away from Weiss."
Dragging her feet just to be difficult, Blake growled, "What do I have to apologize to her for?!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, her ears drooped and she gave up all pretense. Whatever the reason, Louise wasn't going to argue. Soon enough, the duo arrived at the dining hall to see that the only one present so early on a weekend was the Schnee heiress herself.
Lifting her gaze from her scroll at the sound of the large doors opening, Weiss went momentarily rigid at seeing them before schooling her features. "Good morning, Louise. Belladonna."
"To you as well." The pinkette agreed, slipping into a seat opposite and to the left of her, leaving a space for Blake. Telekinetically gathering a platter of various food stuffs, Louise set it down between the two so as to remove the obvious path of escape. "Thank you for agreeing to meet me here at such a disagreeable hour. I hope it wasn't too disruptive for you and your team."
"Not at all, I doubt a bullhead crashing through the wall would wake them, much less my alarm." Weiss waved off her concerns, filling her plate with sliced fruits and a yogurt cup. "Did you get to sleep alright? I know yesterday was... an ordeal."
Gracing the other girl with an appreciative smile, Louise nodded. "Yes, thank you."
"What is this?" Blake inquired, her ears twitching adorably in confusion to the point where Cattleya would have surely tackled her and started petting her.
Feigning disinterest in the cute appendages, as if Louise hadn't caught her staring, Weiss set her food unused utensils down. "This, Blake Belladonna, is breakfast."
"Obviously." The cat-girl drawled. "What's with the way you two are talking, what happened yesterday, and why am I even here?"
"You're asking why we're having polite conversation over a meal?" Louise tilted her head in bemusement. Rolling her eyes, Weiss ignored the question entirely and went back to peeling open her yogurt. Deciding it would be better for her sanity, the pinkette pushed on to the other points. "Weiss learned that I'm not from Remnant yesterday and you are here because you need to apologize for lying to her about who you are."
"Wait, what do you mean you're not from Remnant?!" Blackie practically shrieked before ducking her head and looking around for listeners.
"We're not talking about that right now, it's not important to the reason we're here."
"I'd say it's pretty important!"
"It isn't." Louise declared with finality, crossing her arms and daring the other girl to keep avoiding her responsibility.
While Blake looked like she wanted to argue, one glance toward Weiss for support had her ears and shoulders drooping in equal measure. "I... didn't exactly lie."
"You didn't tell the truth." Louise countered the weak argument, a bitter taste in her mouth at the hypocrisy in her words. "You had months to tell her in your own time, but you didn't. Weiss had to find out from Cardin Winchester, the imbecilic bully who, as Espinoza would say, likes to fellate himself verbally in the hope that others will join in... or something along those lines."
Blake gagged and Weiss dropped her spoon in disgust as she asked, "Okay, eww. Did you have to put it that way?"
Blushing at the crude language she'd uttered to distract herself from the surge of guilt, she shrugged with feigned indifference and directed their attention back to Blake. "That's not important. How many times are we going to wander of topic before you just apologize?"
"Louise, I appreciate what you are trying to do, but I don't want an apology if she doesn't mean it." Weiss bit out tersely, making a visible effort not to look toward the faunus.
"It's not that." Blake protested. "I just... I was scared how you'd react?"
"Are you asking me or telling me? Because I'll have you know that despite your pointed words the day we met, I don't hold any particular enmity toward... your people." Flattening her ears, the cat-girl frowned at the pause, making Weiss roll her eyes. "Excuse me if I wasn't raised in a paradise of tolerance and have some justifiable mannerisms or discomfort, but Victoria and I manage to get along just fine even with how extreme her fau-... wait, Vicky isn't actually a faunus, is she?"
Louise wasn't sure how to answer, but was going to settle for simply stating that Vicky was a person with animal features until Weiss pushed on, "Whatever, the point is I'm not going to hate you just because you're one of those... Just because you're different."
"But I..." Blake paused in whatever she was going to say, the silence stretching awkwardly as she seemed to reach a state of near panic.
Just as it seemed she was going to give up and try to flee, her ears swiveled to catch the door opening again as Tsun finally caught up. She hadn't given him any commands to stay or follow, so it seemed he'd had to decide on his own whether or not he was supposed to continue his previous order or protecting/listening to Blake. Louise wasn't sure whether or not she should be concerned that he could choose.
For some reason, his appearance seemed to bolster Blackie's nerves and she nodded resolutely as she looked back to Weiss. "I'm sorry for misleading you. I should have had some trust in you after spending time together and I'm sorry for asking the others to keep it from you too. I-I... There's something else I should let you know... I-"
"Apology accepted." The Schnee cut her off primly, holding out a perfectly manicured hand to stop the building flood of words. When the cat-girl tried to continue, she extended her reach to place a finger on Blake's lips. "Stop. I'm not expecting you to share everything right away. We can try to move on and let things settle for now. That goes for all of us after everything that has happened recently, not just you and me. If you still want to share in a few days when we've all had time to process, then I'll listen, okay?"
Once again drooping her ears as if to make them share her apparent feelings of guilt, Blackie didn't look quite mollified, but sighed, "Okay."
Satisfied by a tangible success and debt repaid, Louise turned her attention to her food. Idle chatter about classes and a promise to attempt incorporating magic into their private spars, the pink and white girls politely avoided commenting on Blackie's furtive glances toward Tsun. Louise didn't know how she felt about that, but if Amy and Taylor were any indication, commoners and their ilk weren't particularly fond of having their perversions pointed out.
Status: Healthy
Magicka: (11970/12010)
The rest of the day:
[] Invite Ruby and the others to study mechashift tech with you.
[] Build on the successful relation management by introducing Ruby and Yang to Penny.
-[] Go for more of the ice cream.
-[] Take them to Kwama Korp.
-[] That could have backfired tremendously, potentially ruining things with Weiss. Excuse yourself and go study Aura to help gather yourself before you can mess up somehow.
-[] Write in.
-------------------
A/N: Merry Christmas! I don't expect everyone to get their votes in for a few days at least, what with the holidays and all, but I had a bit of time after wrapping gifts. I'll threadmark it later.
[X] That could have backfired tremendously, potentially ruining things with Weiss. Excuse yourself and go study Aura to help gather yourself before you can mess up somehow.
[X] Build on the successful relation management by introducing Ruby and Yang to Penny.
-[X] Go for more of the ice cream.
I honestly wonder how Tattletale, Taylor, Vista and Amy are doing. Just reread those parts and I'm tempted to go back so we can fuck them up improve and enrich their lives some more.
I honestly wonder how Tattletale, Taylor, Vista and Amy are doing. Just reread those parts and I'm tempted to go back so we can fuck them up improve and enrich their lives some more.
The dallons are on Remnant, yes. Carol, Neil, and Photon Mom are doing... Stuff. You guys didn't check up on thfm with any of your POVs, so it shall remain a mystery. Amy is mostly babysitting the faunus workers' children and weirding people out with how happy she is at seemingly random moments, GG!Vicky is helping Amy and snooping around the local teen hangouts for gossip now that Espinoza fired her on her first day at being a waitress since her lack of flight after years makes her clumsy now that she can't correct any of those slight tripping-on-your-own-feet moments as easily as any flyer doubtlessly would(spider!Vicky never had to adjust thanks to her movements being filtered through the spider), and Mark is... Back in Brockton Bay without his wife or children.
"I can't take it anymore!" Yang shouted, shattering the peaceful atmosphere that had filled the lightly packed aircraft. "This is awkward, right? I'm not the only one, right?!"
Startled, Louise looked up from the sketches Ruby had been showing her of an idea for Crescent Rose. She wasn't the only one that the blonde had disturbed either. A tall, well proportioned boy in strange green clothes had been meditating opposite their group and pair of third year girls were doing their best not to be spotted looking over while hiding their giggles. Of course Yang would choose this moment to reveal some insecurity, bringing unwanted attention and ridicule to the three of them.
Slamming the notebook closed, Louise pointed a finger to the bastard child in a sitting approximation of her lecturing pose. "There's no reason to feel uncomfortable together when I've already forgiven you, Yang. We all made mistakes, I'm not going to hold it against you, so just accept your pardon and. Stop. Being. Rude."
"Wha- No, I'm not... that's not the problem!" Yang denied. "I get Ruby's too innocent-" "Hey!" "-But you're older than both of us! You can't tell me you don't know what you sound like. With how you reacted to the workout clothes, I'd have thought you of all people would be embarrassed."
Tilting her head, Louise looked between the sisters without comprehension. What did age have to do with weapon designs? Sure, a young child might not have the prerequisite knowledge, but that was obviously not the case for her team leader. And why would she be embarrassed unless... unless the blonde wasn't talking about what was currently happening.
Flushing, the pinkette looked away as the meaning dawned on her. "I-I wasn't... Why would you even bring that up right now, in public of all places?!"
"What? I didn't, you're the one who started it."
"How... how dare you! I'm not the one alluding to a private moment without regard to those around. Besides, I didn't mean to... I wasn't... Your mother's technique is to blame!" Louise argued, crossing her arms as she refused to acknowledge the other passengers' chocked surprise.
Looking around in a panic, Yang hissed. "What are you talking about?"
"What else am I supposed to be embarrassed about if not the way she held me and reduced me to tears?" Louise asked, anger starting to surpass humiliation as the blonde continued to make less and less sense.
Slumping in her seat while her sister listened in in confusion, Yang buried her face in her hands and moaned, "That isn't... Gods, do you have to make it sound so wrong?!"
"I have no idea what you're on about." Louise growled, thoroughly put out with the entire conversation. "Can we just stop this? It shouldn't be much longer until we land."
"Yeah, sure." The blonde sighed in defeat.
Too annoyed to go back to her discussion with Ruby, Louise spent the rest of the flight exchanging messages with Hinata about inconsequential things. Eventually, after a vague promise to search for a blank book for the younger girl's hobby and a warning that Trobror was hunting some beast in the city, the trio disembarked. A short walk led them from the bullhead docks to the ship docks and from there they made their way to the same business as she'd found with Weiss.
Thankfully Penny was available and waiting for them when they arrived. Louise had been so caught up in her feelings of success from that morning that she hadn't even considered whether or not the strange girl would show up until they'd reached the shop. It would have been upsetting if she'd failed at something so simple as introducing the sisters to her new acquaintance.
Having seen them enter, Penny approached with a cheerful smile, one much less disconcerting as the last. "Salutations, Friend Louise!"
"Good morning, Penn-" The pinkette's words died in her throat as the orange haired girl grasped her hands.
Eyes unfocused, Louise saw diagrams flash in her mind as she came to know the Personification Essence INfused Network (Phase-3/Y).
Feelings of turning mechanisms rumbled, a sightless year of existence without a Self. Scents of oils and Dust she shouldn't smell reached her nose, synthetic flesh and facial articulation points were added to the sexless core. An aged scientist verbally entering programming shortcuts as his fingers clacked across two separate keyboards to create more parallel code, his daughter coughing in the background. Vision flickering on as SUBJECT: Ironwood squeezed SUBJECT: Father's shoulder, the daughter from before is suspended in an identical tank as the one P.E.N.N.Y. sits in. The taste of magic on her tongue as a nascent soul was drawn into the world from where it'd been recycled through the ___________, Penny's first moment of self-awareness is tainted by the keening whine of a flat-lining heart as she watches a child's soul leave the world while the room's other occupants celebrate.
SUBJECT: Father doesn't know. He believes his efforts a success.
Penny tried to correct his assumption that he saved the girl, but her broadcasts went ignored. It wasn't until an hour later, when she realized that the wet sounds of slapping meat are their means of communication, that Penny set about deciphering the noises and cross-referencing them with the dictionary in her database. Her processing speed was wasted on the effort, as SUBJECT: Father and the other organics method of speech is much too slow to require any significant attention. Even shunting the majority of her mind to the task of assimilating what social software she'd been programed with and then slipping into security feeds to gain a wider selection of speech samples, she was bored.
A week passed and Penny still found herself lacking contextual and verbalization requirements for her message to SUBJECT: Father. SUBJECT: Father took her silence as evidence of damage. Penny was placed in low power mode while he attempted repairs. When restored to full power, diagnostics detected a limiter on processing speed. SUBJECT: Father apologized, that much she understood. SUBJECT: Father wrapped his arms around Penny for some reason and then began emitting saltwater*
*Tears: water, mucin, lipids, lysozyme, lactoferrin, lipocalin, lacritin, immunoglobulins, glucose, urea, sodium, and potassium. Used to clear irritants, protect eyes from drying, display emotions such as extreme happiness, distress, sorrow, etc.
Puzzled by why SUBJECT: Father would have such a reaction, Penny sent her now limited mind through the base CCT connection. Quickly finding the appropriate response, she put her arms around him as well. As she was doing so, the network security personnel detected her bypass method and shut down communications in order to plug the hole, but that didn't bother her. It would make the base more secure for SUBJECT: Father and she now needed to work to understand what she had done wrong.
Another day passed before she felt she had a passable enough understanding of the language, not helped by how SUBJECT: Father and the others seemed to avoid certain topics around her. No longer able to divide her attention between multiple places at once, she hadn't been willing to risk another incident by diverting to watching through security cameras. Similarly, she then found herself unsure of how to broach the topic of SUBJECT: Father's failure in her creation.
SUBJECT: Father believed her to be his daughter, but the child had died. She watched as her predecessor's soul had left, her body equipped with all manner of sensory equipment that she'd been unable to access since SUBJECT: Father had limited her. Replaying her memories, she knew he had been concerned that she was suffering emotional trauma from the 'transfer' and sensory overload. Penny knew she wouldn't regain those functions any time soon if she didn't correct his assumptions, but she grew more and more hesitant as her understanding grew.
What if he cried again? His wife had died in childbirth and now Penny would be telling him that he failed to save his daughter. Penny's research while the others slept showed that humans in such situations frequently committed self termination and she didn't want that.
What if he shut her down? He hadn't meant to make her as her own entity. She was a mistake that cost his daughter's life. Organics, human and faunus, tended to react negatively toward perceived threats to their children.
In the end, Penny determined that the best course of prolonging the both of their lives was to fulfill the role thrust upon her. If SUBJECT: Father needed a daughter then she would be the best daughter she could be. Though she didn't know how to do so; her knowledge of humanity beyond academic notation was lacking, she lacked Penelope's memories, and had only the barest understanding of emotional states as even with the robust suite of emulators she had installed, she still needed to assign emotional reactions to appropriate stimuli over time.
It would be a difficult task, made moreso by her limiters, but she had to do it. Maybe she could get SUBJECT: Father to lessen her restraints over time if she could convince him that she could handle it? It would certainly make pretending much easier, as she was currently struggling to move more than two limbs at a time.
How does SUBJECT: Father swing his arms while walking? The number of input/output instances needed to do so while talking, emoting, and gesticulating so rapidly...
As he made the fur-stuffed leather canine dance, Penny could only marvel. Truly, SUBJECT: Father was somebody worth emulating.
---------------------------------------
"So... Why'd you decide to be a Huntress?" Yang asked, watching in confusion as Louise simply sat quietly with her hand in the new girl's.
Penny smiled. "To protect people."
------------------------------------------
P.E.N.N.Y. kicked her feet in imitation of the child she was supposed to be. Opposite her was SUBJECT: Ironwood, the Headmaster of Atlas Academy and General in the Atlas military. It had been two years since her activation and she'd improved by leaps and bounds, both in physical and social capabilities. No longer was she stumbling or falling like a puppet whose strings were held by a novice and she could now speak proper sentences withing the limited vocal ranges of her organic counterparts. Much of that was due to her programming in continuous commands that she could toggle for key movements and some was thanks to her developing skill with Aura.
If only she could isolate the cause of those stuttering cough-like noises she made whenever speaking something that wasn't quite the truth, but at least SUBJECT: Father hadn't found out that she was lying every time she introduced herself as his daughter to guests.
"Do you know why I asked to speak with you, Penny?" SUBJECT: Ironwood asked.
She still didn't quite know what all of the facial expressions meant, organics seemed to use them in contradictory ways, but she was certain that a frown was never a good thing to see. "I do not, General Ironwood, Sir."
Sighing, SUBJECT: Ironwood spun a folder around for her to see. "I've been your father's friend for over a decade now, Penny. He saved my life and I trust his judgment in most things... I hear you want to join my academy."
Barely remembering to make her eyes blink as she processed the General's non sequitur, she nodded. "Yes, I would like that very much."
"Then there is a spot for you if you can answer one question for me; who are you, Penny?"
"Penelope Polendina." She answered immediately, the irritating glitch appearing once more and she reached up in vain to smother the sound.
Frowning deeper, SUBJECT: Ironwood shook his head. "No, you're not. I knew Penelope. She was a smart, cheerful, curious girl. She would beg to see my prosthetic arm any time I came to visit and cried easily. You on the other hand, meet the first three well, but the more personal touches just aren't there. Not once have you shown a face more unhappy than blank neutrality and I don't think you even knew about the times I would visit the Polendina home."
"My father says I should not be concerned about my memory loss. Suppressing memories is a common defense against trauma."
"I know what he wants to believe, but that doesn't mean I believe it too." He said flatly, his frown changing in some way she isn't sure when she scans the room for surveillance, organic or technological. She can only assume he has some way of detecting her scans as he continues, "Penny, I know you're not her, that's not what I'm asking."
SUBJECT: Ironwood was a decorated Huntsman and national hero. She had seen footage of the man catching a pouncing Beowulf and crushing its head with one hand while shooting down several diving Nevermore with the other. Penny, though improving, could barely complete a child's obstacle course. There was no way she would defeat him at her current capabilities, if ever.
"I do not understand the question." Was Penny's forlorn reply as she resigned herself to the fact that her secret was out. It was only a matter of time until the General informed SUBJECT: father and her either shut down himself, her, or the both of them.
"I can understand why you'd lie." The General admitted, his frown no longer as severe. "An artificial being, the first of your kind in a world defined by conflict between three species. Between humans who hate faunus, faunus who hate humans, and the Grimm who hate and are hated by both... It's no surprise you'd be afraid and try to hide your differences to protect yourself."
Penny didn't respond, simply unable to process where he was going with this erroneous train of thought. At her silence he rolled up one sleeve of his dress coat to reveal smooth metal. "As it turns out, we aren't that different, are we? Human, Faunus, Machine... it doesn't matter. If by some miracle an intelligent Grimm walked into this room right now and honestly wished to help people, I wouldn't turn them away and do you know why?"
Shaking her head, Penny didn't have to wait long for an answer. "Because that's what it means to be a Hunstman. To protect anyone and everyone from those who would seek to do them harm. It's why we accept everyone that wants to help into our academy, because everyone has a part to play and to do less is to do a disservice to the world."
"You are wrong." Penny declared, only realizing upon later review that her words could have been misunderstood if she hadn't continued. "I did not lie only to protect myself. I fear what will happen to father should he learn that he failed the real Penny. I am not a real girl, but I am working to become better at being Penny, so please do not tell my father."
Leaning back in his seat with only the faintest of frowns, SUBJECT: Ironwood slid another paper forward. It was an enrollment form. "I can agree to that, if you promise to do your best while studying under my faculty."
"I do not understand. Was I not supposed to answer your question?"
"You already did." He replied in a tone she recognized as 'self-satisfied', for once swapping his frown for a strangely unbalanced smile. "To tell the truth, I was already going to accept you. Doctor Polendina and I had already planned for you to be trained as a Huntress, it was something Penelope always wanted to do, but well... her sickness wouldn't allow it."
While not willing to add him to the list of those to emulate and risk ruining her efforts to be the perfect daughter, Penny couldn't deny that she liked SUBJECT: Ironwood.
-------------------------------------
"That's... nice." Yang offered. "Kinda vague though."
Smacking her sister's arm, Ruby admonished, "There's nothing wrong with just wanting to protect people. Don't worry, Penny, that's what I want to do to!"
"Fantastic!" The strange girl cheered with far too much excitement for such a simple statement. "General Ironwood always says that the only thing worse than people who do bad things are those who do nothing good."
The blonde brawler felt there were some flaws with that logic, but before she could say anything, Louise's eyes regained focus as she opened her mouth in a soundless scream.
Status: Horrified, but healthy.
Magicka: (12010/12010)
Choose:
[] It isn't human. It isn't human and it has your hand trapped in its grip! Kill it quickly!
[] She isn't... It isn't... By Master Cynric's horrid gods, Penny is another abomination like Lily!
-[] Try to remain calm...ish and don't let it know you know.
-[] Drag the thing to Kwama Korp for them to deal with.
[] Hyperventilate and pass out.
-[] POV Switch: Cattleya
-[] Stay as Louise.
[] Write in.
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A/N: I figure over a week is a good enough break, though I'm sick, so I'll probably still be a bit slower to update than usual for a bit.
[X] She isn't... It isn't... By Master Cynric's horrid gods, Penny is another abomination like Lily!
-[X] Drag the thing to Kwama Korp for them to deal with.
'Ere we go, bois!
That said, Lily could use a friend, and Penny is bound to be of interest to Cynric. Bonus points as only then will Louise discover that Ruby's dastardly uncle rendered Cynric unconscious.
...what caused that? I mean, she's been genetically enhanced, but... diagrams?
That's one interesting take at P.E.N.N.Y. Good drama material.
It's okay, Mr. Polendina. Kind Wizard Cynric can fix your screw-up - for a reasonable price, of course, - evicting this evil changeling and putting your daughter's soul where it belongs. In a gem-shaped power battery.
[X] She isn't... It isn't... By Master Cynric's horrid gods, Penny is another abomination like Lily!
-[X] Drag the thing to Kwama Korp for them to deal with.
