That reminds me that the magical healing from ES restores the body based on the soul. So how many magical healings would be possible before Adam Taurus was restored to his original form?
Which reminds me, @PieceThruWar , does this also mean that if we heal ourselves enough, we'll eventually revert back to Reachman Breton, or was there some step in the body-crafting process that allows our soul to recognize our bew body as ours?
"So, like, we've tried a few things on our own." Victoria says not long after your arrival.
Standing in a forested clearing somewhere between the town of Patch and your decoy kwama mine, you look at the gathered children. Victoria of course doesn't look much changed from the last time you'd seen her, but you did sense a sort of tenseness in the air when your eyes first met. Ruby appears tired even through the forced cheer and... you're not sure why the Arc boy is present, but he is oddly accepting of the way Victoria's spider half keeps mussing his hair with the small appendages near its mouth.
Yang though? Somehow the young woman has acquired a source of magicka far surpassing even Louise. It'd been immediately noticeable the moment you neared the island, not even needing you to be paying attention to feel it. Now that you are looking, you can't help but notice the nearly identical resonance moving through Vale alongside the single largest well of power you've ever personally sensed in a living being.
Just what is going on in Vale lately?
"I only know how to spit up lava, burst into flames, and I've been working on channeling fire through my weapon. Not that it helps Yang with her fire since I'm not really sure how to explain what I'm doing." The arachnoid woman admits, spreading her arms in a wide shrug. "I'd have sent them to Louise, but she... I heard Weiss took her to Atlas a few days ago and they haven't been back since."
Raising a brow, you're certain she was going to say something else about your apprentice. Still, the information on your apprentice's movements isn't relevant to the situation at hand. Louise can handle herself and you know the Schnee girl is an intelligent one from your interactions. "Where did this magicka come from? None of you had the sort of potential for this level of power."
"I dunno. Someone opened a evil looking portal into our house, but kind of exploded before managing to walk through." The disgustingly powerful blonde explains.
Looking to Summer's child, you ask, "And your eyes started glowing around the same time?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure what they're supposed to do though."
"Right. So if I understand the situation, you want my help to refine these abilities and in exchange your father is to unlock my Aura?" You summarize, not seeking to drag this out.
Nodding, Yang agrees, "Vicky was already trying to help when we heard you need someone for your Aura. I mean, he might be willing to help anyway since you brought Summer back to us, but I'd really like to get this constant static out of my hair, y'know?"
"Didn't they say she lit her bed on fire yesterday?" Arc asks Victoria in a poor attempt at whispering.
"The sheets are just a bit singed. I got a little hot and bothered is all." Yang says with a smirk at the boy's awkward blend of embarrassment and interest. "Besides, stuff is easy to replace. Do you have any idea how long it takes to maintain this golden perfection?"
A meaty smack has you looking at Ruby, who groans, "That was bad and you should feel bad."
Choose:
[] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[] The bare minimum, no need to make her more of a credible threat than her massive reserves and Huntress skills already do.
-[] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
[] Hold off on the final decision, leaving her with a basic exercise for learning to sense one's own magicka as a peace offering while you go search for the two other powerful mages in Vale.
[] Write in.
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A/N: Between the montage and this one, we're getting you guys more of the general picture and working to transition more than actually doing anything. Whatever you choose here, there should be actually actionable progress in the next vote. Remember, you can combine/mix and match votes with write ins if you want, so don't feel locked in to what is provided.
Which reminds me, @PieceThruWar , does this also mean that if we heal ourselves enough, we'll eventually revert back to Reachman Breton, or was there some step in the body-crafting process that allows our soul to recognize our new body as ours?
No, Cynric spent a while making sure that wouldn't happen. It was what he mentioned to Moira when she got injured by Louise and was put in the Meld pool to heal.
There's quite a bit of consideration depending on what people want more at this point.
[] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[] The bare minimum, no need to make her more of a credible threat than her massive reserves and Huntress skills already do.
-[] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
If choosing to agree to helping but not sure whether or not Yang would be a good addition, I'd say the bare minimum is plenty good. Arguments for it would be how Yang's morality is mostly good, thus trying to take her along would require her to accept doing things neutral and evil stuff at times. So giving her the bare minimum and summoning her when heroic deeds are needed can work just fine.
On the other hand having another Massively magically endowed apprentice has advantages of it's own, and Ruby would obviously come along as a set since there's no way Ruby would either leave her, or miss out on the chance to explore the multi-verse when she's already questioning the purpose of her life as a Hunter. Argument against it though would be convincing both her, Ruby, and her father to agree to this. But on the other hand so long as the group has access to portal to go back to Remnant, her home is just a step away if she wants to visit.
(Bonus points for having another Massive pool of Magicka to siphon and use too, along with getting a maiden FAR away from Salem.)
[] Hold off on the final decision, leaving her with a basic exercise for learning to sense one's own magicka as a peace offering while you go search for the two other powerful mages in Vale.
But before all that, rather than staying here and hashing out details immediately, the more strategic option would be to go to Vale ASAP to search and secure the other magic user before someone else gives them ideas! I don't know about you guys, but I both fear and dread leaving Amy's Fall Maiden's powers unchecked around Salem, and at not knowing Salem is in the city. BUT, on the other hand Cynric is currently unarmored, aura unlocked, and not yet fully healed to fight Salem if conflict occurs, so perhaps this isn't the best time to go after all. Thus overall there's a lot to think about and what needs prioritizing depending what people want at this time.
As for me:
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
Since I can't predict what can happen if Cynric meets Salem, I'm voting for securing Yang at the moment and tempt her and Ruby with Cynric's charisma that has seemingly always worked on young impressionable children. Besides, we also have their mother, so that should help motivate Yang into learning magic, if only to reliably summon their mom to talk with.
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
Junior Apprentice! Junior Apprentice!
Suck it Ozpin. Suck it good.
But no really, this seems like a huge win. Yang is absurdly strong now, and with our influence and guidance, she might begin to attribute her newfound power to us, binding her closer to us. We also have cards such as Summer and the like to ensure her loyalty.
While there is a bit of an alignment issue with her being relatively good and Cynric being Cynric, we haven't really done anything blatantly, deal-breakeringly evil in a while, at least none we can't deny. Why, ever since Remnant, we provided poor to the needy, transportation throughout the Kingdoms, where Yang assisted us, assisted moderate faunus elements. Outside Remnant? We liberated alien slaves.
Also it means hot, single mom Salem might notice us. Also, don't forget additional Louise drama when she realizes she might now have a replacement!
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
Some worlds have low power scaling. Some worlds have high power scaling. Some worlds have a mix of the two. Remnant is low-ish power scaling except for a single-digit number of cases where it's high power scaling. Grabbing one of those cases for our own power stockpiles will be handy when we end up in a high power scaling world sooner or later.
And besides, I'm seeing a trend here. Cynric has the most magical knowledge and the least raw power. Senior Apprentice Louise has more raw power but less magical knowledge, and now Junior Apprentice Yang has even more raw power than Louise and even less magical knowledge. Think of what the Junior Junior Apprentice will be like!
[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
If we're considering making her an apprentice, we should not let other problems sour the deal.
"I only know how to spit up lava, burst into flames, and I've been working on channeling fire through my weapon. Not that it helps Vicky with her fire since I'm not really sure how to explain what I'm doing." The arachnoid woman admits, spreading her arms in a wide shrug. "I'd have sent them to Louise, but she... I heard Weiss took her to Atlas a few days ago and they haven't been back since."
And besides, I'm seeing a trend here. Cynric has the most magical knowledge and the least raw power. Senior Apprentice Louise has more raw power but less magical knowledge, and now Junior Apprentice Yang has even more raw power than Louise and even less magical knowledge. Think of what the Junior Junior Apprentice will be like!
Besides, just as we roped in Cattleya along with Louise, we'll rope in Ruby with Yang. Think of all the existential-crisis inducing vistas of hopelessness and despair we'll get to expose Ruby to!
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
If choosing to agree to helping but not sure whether or not Yang would be a good addition, I'd say the bare minimum is plenty good. Arguments for it would be how Yang's morality is mostly good, thus trying to take her along would require her to accept doing things neutral and evil stuff at times. So giving her the bare minimum and summoning her when heroic deeds are needed can work just fine.
Is she though? Yang has the personality of whats basically a Greek Hero, she does it because it feels important to HER, or the people important to her. She has no qualms with just punching shit because she's pissed, because it threatened Ruby, or its more expedient.
Moral alignment wise for RWBY:
-Yang - She does what she feels is right in the moment, doesn't tend to introspect, and is guided by passion.
-Ruby - She's as the catchphrase goes, a simple soul. If is bad she kills it, if its good she helps it, if she's not sure then she hesitates. Too pure.
-Blake - She's a fundamentally moral person. She joined the White Fang because it was the right thing to do. She left the White Fang because it was the right thing to do. She hid her faunus nature and stayed away from her family because she didn't want her friends and family embroiled in the shit she's in.
-Weiss - She's a fundamentally rational person. She's moral mainly out of opposition to her father's anti-example, and is quite good at understanding how an amoral monster like Cynric thinks(which also means that knowing Cynric's capabilities she'd try to play along precisely because he's an amoral monster who'd just as likely hurt you as help you if it suited him.).
Subverting Yang is easy, keeping her on task is hard.
Subverting Ruby would be similar to Louise - its a delicate job, but they'd be absolutely aligned with you as long as you manage to slow-boil them, and much like with Louise again, their strong sibling loyalties makes it easy to play one off against the other.
Subverting Weiss would be complex, she'd probably have to be drawn in via her friendships and responsibilities.
Subverting Blake would be hard, and keeping her on task worse. Easy to fool though.
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
[X] Hold off on the final decision, leaving her with a basic exercise for learning to sense one's own magicka as a peace offering while you go search for the two other powerful mages in Vale.
While having another ridiculously powerful apprentice under our thumb would be awesome I think this merits a little more consideration. For one, having a second apprentice and one with Yang's personality could push Louise over the edge even more. Maybe give it a trial phase first where Louise assists in Yang's training as per the currently winning option and see if we can make it work?
And powerful mages sprouting up like mushrooms seems like something to be seriously concerned about.
[X] Agree to help the children with their problem so long as they can guarantee Taiyang's assistance.
-[X] Only if she agrees to a long term apprenticeship, meaning joining the Voyager's crew on journeys to other worlds. As senior apprentice, Louise will help train her.
[X] Hold off on the final decision, leaving her with a basic exercise for learning to sense one's own magicka as a peace offering while you go search for the two other powerful mages in Vale.
While having another ridiculously powerful apprentice under our thumb would be awesome I think this merits a little more consideration. For one, having a second apprentice and one with Yang's personality could push Louise over the edge even more. Maybe give it a trial phase first where Louise assists in Yang's training as per the currently winning option and see if we can make it work?
And powerful mages sprouting up like mushrooms seems like something to be seriously concerned about.
I started reading this recently but I am not caught up yet.
I wanted to ask something that has me wandering, why the mc doesn't have enchanted items with fortify magicka and cost reduction?
In fact he is supposed to be a master enchanter but for some reason he has barely any enchanted items.
I wanted to ask something that has me wandering, why the mc doesn't have enchanted items with fortify magicka and cost reduction?
In fact he is supposed to be a master enchanter but for some reason he has barely any enchanted items.
Can't answer the first point, but as to the second point, I'm fairly sure we lost most if not all of our enchanted items during our trip back to Halkegenia, due to our emergency there. Also, most of the enchanted items we had were unlisted, stuff like the levitation staff etc.
Recently it's mostly been because weve prioritised other things. And decent souls for enchanting require a bit of effort. But now we have a new body we should be able to make new bits.
@PieceThruWar If someone spends long enough in a new body does their soul accommodate that as their true form?
We could have replaced them if we had the time to rebuild our tech base except we, without any help from the GM, blow it up out of boredom whenever we start stabilizing.
"If you can guarantee your father's cooperation, I will do what I can." You agree, prompting a celebratory cheer from the blonde girls, echoed with more reserve by Ruby and the boy. Holding up a hand for silence, you add, "Keep in mind that learning magic is a long term commitment. If you truly wish to learn I will take you as an apprentice alongside Louise. As my first student, much of your basic training will fall to her and if I hear at any time that you are not taking your lessons seriously, I reserve the right to annul this agreement."
"Yeah, sure, alright." Yang nods excitedly.
"We'd thought about going to her anyway if you said no."
Eying Ruby, you decide to ignore the remark and warn, "There will be blood and pain; Louise has frozen, burned, and riddled herself with cancerous growths at various points in her training to get where she is now."
"Meh, I can take it." Yang shrugged, a daring move considering her choice of attire. "Wait, is that how she got those scars?"
".... Yes." You lie after a second's deliberation.
Informing them all of your apprentice's blunder and near unraveling would probably be a poor choice. It would undermine Louise's confidence and desire for control. At the same time, doing so would be more likely to push the blonde into backing down, which isn't actually your goal. You want her to take it as a challenge, not a threat so terrible that she would rather hide in the dark than be a useful asset to you.
"I'd rather not have half my face look like beef jerk- er... I mean... uh.. you know what I mean."
This is going to end with one of them dead, you can already tell. Perhaps you should invert a soul trap enchantment on a piece of jewelry for her just in case. It would be a shame to let such a powerful source of magicka go to waste when she inevitably dies.
With the right enchanted tools or Mysticism, you might even be able to dissect her soul to see what caused the change in potential.
Choose:
[] Perform some preliminary tests. Drain her continuously while healing the rest of your foot, have her cast repeated attacks, tell the others to try breaking her Aura; her limits need to be found before any teaching can begin.
[] Take the sisters to the moon base so they can be examined while you put Adam in his new body. Ruby's eyes in particular need to be checked.
[] Taiyang needs to be informed of his daughter's choice and made to uphold his end before you go any further.
Hmm... On the one hand, !Science!, on the other, Aura. I'd be all for more science normally, but the recent chain of events have left me too paranoid of further developments before we get in trouble again, so I'd vote for Aura first to make sure Cynric gets what he wanted out of this deal in the first place before getting even more quest-hints/prompts.
[X] Taiyang needs to be informed of his daughter's choice and made to uphold his end before you go any further.
