Darik29
Verified Delicious
I am opening it on my phone, that might be the reason.
Hold It In (RWBY/Transistor)
- Thread starter Prok
- Start date
- Crossover
I am opening it on my phone, that might be the reason.
Great Greedy Guts
Ceterum censeo Vigilam esse delendam.
Link works, at least for me. Didn't comment because was unsure of intent in having it... and also I've got work to finish up, still. Can try to take a peek later, though!
- Location
- A state of cleverness
Wrong song--this one goes "Gods ain't gonna help ya' son"...
- Location
- Jaburo
Those letters...
Hebrew, I think?
Hebrew, I think?
The Fall, Part 2: To Cinders
ADeshantis
King on the Chromium Throne
- Location
- United states
The Fall Part 2: To Cinders
You and Pyrrha make it to the docks in record time. You must have sprinted past at least a dozen skirmishes, but Ozpin's message to you was very clear. As soon as possible. There are White Fang roaming, taking potshots at Huntsmen who're engaged with Grimm in running battles across the fairgrounds. Everything's chaos, but the evacuation has already made it past this point from what the two of you can tell in your mad dash. You arrive just as General Ironwood executes an Alpha Beowulf, manhandling it with his cybernetic arm as though the eight foot tall bipedal wolf is an unruly toddler. By unspoken agreement, Pyrrha speaks first, being the less winded of the two of you. The Transistor is heavy, dammit. "General Ironwood, we need-"
The General cuts her off. "To get back to Beacon, Ozpin told me before he went on ahead." He looks at Pyrrha with an expression that looks, to you, like regret. "Bullhead Two just returned from an evac run. I'll instruct the pilot to air drop you two over Beacon Cliff, but the civilians need to get to safety. Can you fight through the Beacon campus?" You two nod, and James pulls out his scroll, keying in the appropriate message. His gun comes back up immediately, snapping a quick trio of shots at some Lesser Nevermore near the shuttles, popping the black bird Grimm like balloons. "And Jaune... is Penny?"
"I don't know," you answer honestly. "I'm not a doctor, and even if I was, Penny's unique. She's in one piece, but whether her Aura can recover from that I don't know. I can't do anything for someone's Aura."
James nods, accepting this. "So it's all down to Penny, now. I shouldn't worry," he says to himself, voice ringing with filial pride. "She's got spirit enough for three Huntresses, she'll pull through."
I hope so, you think but don't say. You're already moving onto the Bullhead, and the second you set foot on the ramp it begins to lift. The pilot isn't wasting any time; you reach Beacon airspace in mere minutes, a shake of Pyrrha's head enough to dissuade you from asking more questions. Not in front of the civilians, you think, and you know she's thinking the same. We need to look like we know what we're doing.
A pair of panicking Huntsman students would panic the civilians being evacuated. Pyrrha, bless her soul, takes charge of the situation so you don't have to talk to a shipload of upset civilians. "Everyone make sure you're buckled in tight. Jaune and I are airdropping down to Beacon to help defend the school." Short, sweet, and to the point, just like Professor Peach said was best. Civilians didn't want tactics forced down their throats, so explain simply and don't even act like you have to justify your decisions. Act like you're in total command of the situation so nobody starts asking questions. Then you're near Beacon airspace and the ship opens its gate, and you and Pyrrha step onto the Transistor, laid flat in the air like that Reese girl's hoverboard. Without anything to anchor you two in place, you don't dare cross the campus like this, but as an elevator down, you trust your telekinesis. You, Pyrrha, and both of your armor together are still a little under the 300 pound limit; you've tested before. Any two members of JNPR can do this, and there are some combinations between your team and RWBY that let three people fit (mostly combinations involving Weiss and/or Ruby).
You and Pyrrha use this time to call your rocket lockers to meet you on the ground. You also have the chance to look out over the campus as you descend, and you don't like what you see. Beacon is burning below you, Atlas robots fighting White Fang and Grimm, with occasional pockets of such concentrated violence you can't help but guess there's a Beacon teacher at the center of those melees. You're pretty sure you can specifically find Professor Goodwitch; trees don't float on their own and they definitely don't bludgeon Grimm to death. At the center of it all, an island of relative calm owing to the strong perimeter of students Ozpin has marshaled to its defense, is the Tower. Satisfied with your look over the battlefield, you descend somewhat faster, and the second you're close enough to the ground you and your partner jump down and take off running, barely stopping to grab your gear.
The instant your feet make contact with the soil of Beacon Academy, you feel something you'd missed during the Vytal festival. Specifically, you feel the transdimensional mesh that the Process laid down months before, when you first arrived here.
Sysadmin? The voice of your third AI companion queries. Beacon is under attack, it states needlessly, we are already reinforcing the students with Fetch() units, do you have further orders?
You give a mental nod to the Process, grinning widely at the feeling of connection it grants you. Begin a full scan of the non-Grimm enemies at Beacon, see if there's anyone Ozpin needs to know about right away.
It takes scarcely a second for the Process to finish its task. Beacon is, in many senses, your house. You spend so much time here that, if you need to, you can identify anomalies at almost the speed of thought. Scan complete. Most non-Grimm foes are simple White Fang; no outstanding warrants on many, no records at all on most. Notable enemies are Adam Taurus, Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Boriah Lee.
That makes you trip over your own feet, though you keep running. Adam Taurus is here. Boria Lee is here. "Pyrrha!" you exclaim in a loud voice. "Boriah Lee and Adam Taurus are here too! We need to be careful!" Blue, grab location data from the Process and send it to everyone on RWBY, Creme, Pyrrha, and all the professors at Beacon right now. You speak to your partner and your Sword() at the same time, thoughts and speech independent of each other.
{Done.} Blue replies immediately. No time for sarcasm or wordplay.
Pyrrha's scroll chimes with the location data. "In case we get separated?" She asks, slowing her run so it's easier for the two of you to communicate.
"Yeah. I can steer us with Blue's help, but just in case."
{Take a left here.} You oblige, and Pyrrha follows without complaint. Blue's directions add maybe a minute of travel time through the campus, but that's a small price to pay for not fighting two of the heaviest hitters you know about. You still only have horror stories about Boriah Lee, and Adam Taurus isn't far behind him in competing for fear inspired. Avoiding Lee puts a sour taste in your mouth, but even if you're going to put him in the ground for hurting your friend, you're smart enough to avoid that confrontation till it's on your terms, and you can drop a small army of Process on him. Let's see his fleshwarping beat your control of the Process, and the Process's control of itself. The trip to the Tower takes about as much time as the one to the docks, and you know you're going to be feeling all this running tomorrow, when you aren't high as a kite on adrenaline.
Ozpin parts the Grimm rushing his perimeter like a tide when he sees you two, an expenditure of Aura and Gravity dust picking the creatures in a large swathe up and flinging them like the hand of a careless God, and you rush through the gap in the assault he creates to meet him at the base of the Tower. Pyrrha nods to him, and he turns to the other students; Blake, Weiss, Team CFVY, and some of the exchange students from the other academies are all here. "Hold the line," he says, voice level despite being loud enough to carry over Coco's minigun. "The tower must not fall." Then he turns and leads Pyrrha, and by extension you, into the Tower.
The second the door closes, you're asking the questions you've held back. "What's going on? What answer did you need from Pyrrha, and what's the Tower going to do to stop all these Grimm and the White Fang?"
"We have little time," Ozpin says, already calling the elevator, "But all your questions share one answer. Have you heard of the Tale of Four Seasons?"
"Morality tale where the wizard gives four maidens magical powers for being nice to him?"
"A... rather blunt summary, but accurate." The elevator arrives, and all three of you board it. You create a Cell when you start going down; you're going to need to add at least part of your destination to the Process if you have to fight there. "The Maidens exist. Pyrrha was asked to assume half of the mantle of Fall, as the Black Queen's servant stole the other half and mortally wounded the first. Your own information leads me to believe this servant is Cinder Fall, and the location data you provided has her approaching the Tower swiftly."
"Magic." You state flatly. You feel like you should be more surprised, but perhaps you're just used to shenanigans by this point. Heavens know your Semblance gives everyone else headaches.
"Indeed, Mr. Arc, but we don't have time for skepticism." The elevator arrives, and the Cell almost beats Ozpin out the door, scanning the floor in front of the elevator. "I'll need to transfer Amber's Aura into Miss Nikos. I need you to guard us while I do so, the process is delicate and Cinder will no doubt attempt to disrupt it."
{We don't have much prep time, but she isn't here yet.} Blue helpfully supplies.
Sysadmin, we can only convert a small section of floor in the time we have available, but it is sufficient for a pair of Fetch() units.
You mentally acknowledge both of them, and soon enough the two canine Fetch() Process have taken up positions flanking you, halfway down the large hall and facing the elevator shaft. You lie in wait, and you don't have to wait long. The doors jerk open with a protesting shriek, and an arrow leaves the elevator at speed. You raise the Transistor to guard, and a split-second later realize it's not aimed at you. Blue, Bracket, Turn()!
{Time to dance.}
Turn() activated.
The world slows to a crawl around you, and you know exactly what you want to do. After running a couple small variations, you've figured out the angles of attack you need to cover, as time resumes you instantly Jaunt() into the path of the obsidian arrow, the volcanic glass created through what you now know to be magic shattering on the hardened substrate of the Transistor. You let your Sword() fall to point at the elevator and unleash a Spin(), bracketing the spiraling orb of power with several Ping()s. Cinder's seen what Spin() can do, and opts instead to accept hits from the bright red Ping() as she leaps out of the elevator shaft and to the side. Unfortunately, using Turn() stops you from using Functions for a few seconds. You start running towards Cinder, releasing the Transistor to float behind you as you slide Crocea Mors onto your arm and draw the sword from the shield. Cinder meets you with magically hardened obsidian twin swords, but you're the one with the initiative and you plan to keep it that way. Control the flow of the fight, your mother's voice echoes in your head from your swordsmanship lessons, and you happily oblige, sword and shield moving in attack and defense, but mostly attack. If Cinder has time to cast any Dust spells or use the Maiden powers before you have Functions, you could easily lose.
Ten seconds.
You catch one of Cinder's attacks on your shield, stepping into her guard to avoid the other and shoving up with your shield at the same time. Your stab makes her back off or risk taking a heavy hit, and you force yourself to follow. You hate getting this close, attacking with Crocea Mors and not Functions, but you drilled Swordsmanship with your mother, with Pyrrha, and even with Weiss, recently, for hours and hours. I can do this, you tell yourself.
Seven seconds.
Cinder keeps backpedaling, running her left arm along her right sleeve. No! You recklessly rush forward and pay the price for falling for her bluff, taking a nasty blow to your shoulder. You feel your Aura dip with that one, but you raise your shield to block her follow up, and keep raising it to bash her in the nose with it.
Five.
She staggers from the hit, not expecting you to perform such a dirty maneuver, but honor isn't how you win fights outside of the Vytal festival. Sportsmanship doesn't mean jack shit here. You press the attack and swing for her legs, attempting to duplicate Pyrrha's trip against Mercury. She hops over it and turns the jump into a downward swing that you sidestep rather than waste the energy to block.
Two. Step up!
Speaking of dirty tricks, you press Cinder back with a shield bash and then advance, feet coming to rest on the Transistor as though it's the beginning of a stepladder. You springboard off your sword when it lifts up, dropping Crocea Mors to grasp the Transistor with both hands.
Queuing Breach().
You slam the Sword() into the ground at Cinder's feet, a wave of energy taking everything in front of the weapon apart and putting it back together just a little wrong. You heft the blade again and swing it like a baseball bat.
Queuing Crash().
ADeshantis
King on the Chromium Throne
- Location
- United states
Here it is, but it's not an Ura song, it's a Caeladonian one; Rucks isn't an Ura and he has no reason to know any Ura hymns or battle songs. It's also a little too blasphemous to be anything an Ura wrote. Build That Wall is an Ura war song, so it fits better IMO.
It's worth pointing out that
-gigabytes per second is way less than the demonstrated input processing capacity of your version of the Transistor
-similarly demonstrated capabilities for scanning and such mean it sure as hell isn't just using radiowaves, so being jammed on that shouldn't have been so ruinous
-using software to filter input data is trivial unless the input is futzing around with the receiver's hardware. The mental image for a broadcast should be a flashlight. If its not bright enough to hurt your eyes, its not going to keep you from seeing other lights.
-according to some napkin calculations, a mile radius of radio jamming means a high enough wattage output that nearby people should be being fried
The easiest way to get around this all is to handwave it. But the second easiest way is to blame it on Aura bullshit. Something like ... Penny is an AI with a soul and aura. As an AI her soul is connected to her data, not her chassis. As such, she wasn't just broadcasting RF data packets, she was also broadcasting bits and pieces of her soul/aura everywhere. And THAT was what was jamming everything.
ADeshantis
King on the Chromium Throne
- Location
- United states
I'm so mad at this forum. It ate like three paragraphs of work for no apparent reason and I just now noticed.
Tournament_Arc.zip
Prok
Go play Star Fetchers
- Location
- Scotland
Penny turns to you after a moment of thought.
"Watching the tournament sounds fun! Do you want to go and see it?"
Hrm. You've been trying to follow it, with mixed success, so you suppose catching the semifinals might be nice. Then again, you don't really feel like being stuck in a crowd of people shouting shit until nobody can hear the announcer...
{Just as well we're here, huh?}
Exactly!
Wait.
You glance over at the gynoid, having finally noticed Cell, or noticed how cute it is, and now sitting primly with it in her lap, stars in her eyes as it nuzzles against her stomach, quite happy to gently chirp away at her while she runs her fingers over its metal dome.
{Aw.}
What about Penny?
I can link and stream it directly to her. We can all enjoy it together in a quiet part of the museum.
Really? On the first date?
Please don't. You're above this.
{Bracket, I didn't think you'd be this forward. We didn't even bring any protection.}
I hate you both.
You suppress a snort of laughter and give Bracket a break before he just decides not to play.
"Sure, sounds great. But, uh, you wanna go somewhere else to watch it? You know, away from the crowds?"
"Here's quiet enough, isn't it?" she says, tearing her eyes off of the tiny robot for just a moment to look at you instead.
Gee. You wonder why she thinks that. Still, you sit next to her, your sword floating gently behind you. Some kind of silent conversation must happen in the time it takes you to sit down because you feel that same sense of expansion you get whenever the Transistor connects to a computer, but with enough force that you feel yourself tilting backwards as vertigo overtakes you. You quickly steady yourself, placing your hands on the vinyl cushion behind you, only lifting them once you're sure you're not going to fall flat on your back again.
Penny glances at you with no dearth of concern.
"Are you ok?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine. It's fine. Just, lost my balance a little."
{You felt that too?}
... What is this girl?
Their best.
...
{Damn, Bracket, just throw that out there why don't you-}
|||
"LADIES… AND… GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO THE SEMIFINALS OF THE 72ND ANNUAL MISTRAL TOURNAMENT! COME ON, SHOW SOME APPRECIATION TO THEM FOR MAKING IT THIS FAR!"
The crowd occupying the arena easily numbers over a hundred thousand, and the sound they make is deafening, even over a CCT broadcast.
"THAT'S WHAT I LIKE TO HEAR!"
Vinyl McMahon might not be everybody's cup of tea, but you have to admit- he knows how to get a crowd going.
"ARRIGHT ARRIGHT ARRIGHT, WE ALL KNOW WHAT YOU ANIMALS ARE HERE FOR! YOU WANT CARNAGE! YOU WANT TO SEE, THE BEST OF THE BEST, DUKING IT OUT WITH EACH OTHER, YOU WANT TO SEE THE ABSOLUTE PEAK OF HUMANITY BEATING THE ABSOLUTE SHHH… family show, Vinyl, it's a family show- SNOT OUT OF EACH OTHER!"
{Nice recovery.}
Debatable.
"WELL LET'S GET ON WITH IT THEN!"
The crowd screams again, and he just drinks it in.
"OUR FIRST MATCH OF THE DAY IS BETWEEN TWO TITANS OF THE TOURNAMENT CIRCUIT, TWO GODS AMONGST MEN, EACH A MASTER OF THE EARTH UPON WHICH WE WALK- IN THIS CORNER, YES THE RING'S A CIRCLE DON'T THINK ABOUT IT TOO HARD, THE MAN OF METAL, THE FERROUS FURY, THE FORGEMASTER HIMSELF- VULKAN TITANIUS!"
The feed cuts to a black room, only lit by a pair of still hot vambraces, and periodic strikes of a hammer against a chest piece, still glowing cherry red with heat. Sparks fly with every measured strike, lighting up the silhouette of an absolute giant of a man, holding the armour piece still with a single hand. Eventually, apparently happy with it, he places the hammer down and pulls the still red hot armour over his head, the dim light revealing a low grimace. He stands up, showing that the rest of his body is covered in still cooling steel as well. Grabbing his anvil by the spike he pulls it off the ground, a silhouette of a handle appearing from underneath it, bisecting his body up to the ribs before he hefts it onto his shoulders and walks off camera.
"Would that not hurt him?" Penny asks you.
"Normally, yeah, but some Semblances… come with benefits."
As you say that, the camera cuts to a wooden door being booted open, smoke curling off the blackened oak as Vulkan struts down the path below the ring proper, arms wide, drinking in the praise. As if hammering it home, his armour, even in direct sunlight, still gives off a slight glow from heat alone. His head, uncovered as it is, shows off the man underneath the armour-
Somewhere between him walking off camera and him booting a door out of its frame, he picked up something that looks like a dieselpunk hiker's backpack- a great, ornate thing, with pipes splayed out at the sides like metal wings. As he reaches the edge of the cliff the ring is on, a simple dirt and stone affair for the semifinals, and the ten-metre climb to the top, he raises his free hand like a conductor demanding a crescendo from his orchestra, and white hot metal flows like from the reservoir on his back, joining in front of him in pairs. The result is ten ribbons floating in front of him, then punching their way into the side of the ring wall and pulling him up like some kind of molten tank tread, looping below and behind him to travel to the top and restart the cycle all over again.
Wow. He's really pulling out all the stops here.
"... Wait. Didn't Vulkan try this in his debut match and almost kill himself?"
{Yeah, he spent 3 months in the hospital. Almost ended his career right there.}
"Then why is he trying to do it again?" Penny asks your sword.
{Well…}
The sheer speed of his ascent carries him far past the cliff edge, easily another five metres. The streamers of metal split again, splayed out to the sides as extensions of the pipes, and for just a moment, an armoured angel descends upon the Haven Coliseum.
As gravity resumes its loving embrace, he drops again, landing on one knee.
The crowd goes wild. You can even hear people throughout the museum cheering his name.
{Practice makes perfect.}
The camera cuts to a wooden door on the other end of the coliseum opening, and a much more... reasonably proportioned boy walks out, dressed in flowing robes in shades of brown, the thin, rectangular glasses and his posture completely at odds for somebody who's supposed to be a tournament finalist. Really, the only thing that stands out about him is the emerald scales taking the place of his hair.
"Bhumi the Earthworker, ladies and gentlemen," Vinyl continues, lowering his voice and taking on a more appropriate tone as the meek boy walks towards the large mesa in the centre of the arena.
As he does, the crowd quiets down, waiting with anticipation for him to reach the ring.
The silence presses down even further with each step he takes, forcing him to speed up, soon walking briskly, then jogging, then running, until he has to take a leap at the side of the cliff.
Just as you reflexively prepare to wince at the sight of him splatting against the side of the cliff, you remember his moniker.
'Earthworker.'
The rock of the cliff face parts like water, actually rippling out from the point of impact.
The first sign that something's happening is that the rippling doesn't stop, and a large swath of the cliff is starting to take on a distinctly scaly appearance. The scales shift and skitter around the rock formation, corkscrewing its way up and reaching the top directly opposite Titanius.
As soon as it reaches the top, a positively gigantic snake of dirt and stone surfaces at the edge of the ring, hood flared, hissing at Vulkan and generally moving with a ridiculous fluidity, for the product of somebody's Semblance, tournament fighter or not. The crowd bursts into more cheering, arguably harder than they did with Vulkan.
"Whoa... are all Semblances this powerful?" Penny asks.
{Not in the slightest. Even so, he probably trained harder than any Huntsman I could name to be able to pull that off. These kinda things, they're all about… presentation.}
The rock snake's tongue lolls out, forming a sandy carpet for its master. Bhumi struts out, his own hood extended, now a waterfall of viridian scales down the back of his head and a wide, far too smug grin replacing the meek visage he put on earlier.
God, you love Bhumi. He's just...
Such a self-satisfied prick. You adore it.
The snake fades back into the ring, and more rock flows up Bhumi's robes like sentient tar, his form bulking up as armour forms underneath his gown, and down his hands to be shaped into a quarterstaff taller than he is.
"Fighters, to your sides," the referee mutters through the stadium PA system as two chunks of the arena light up in red and blue.
{Wow, 2:1 odds against Bhumi. People don't have much faith in him, apparently.}
You know, you kind of see why. Vulkan is…
Intimidating.
It's 10:1 for the Nikos/Berhanu fight. People do not believe in the human disco ball.
To be fair... it's Nikos.
She hasn't lost a single fight in 4 years. Hell, she hasn't been hit in 4 years. If it isn't a complete curbstomp, you're going to be surprised. Pleasantly so, but still.
The klaxon sounds, counting down to the start of the fight. In the real world, you hear Cell mimicking it.
'Boop. Boop. Boop. Beeeeee.'
As the high tone dies down, they're already on each other in a flash, and the crowds both in the stadium and in the museum proper fade into white noise, your focus purely on the fight in front of you.
What Vulkan naturally lacks in speed, his armour and metal make up for in spades. Anytime Bhumi dodges a swing from his anvil, the ribbons are there, like ten molten snakes ready to bite him the first chance they get.
Bhumi, on the other hand, is literally in his element. When he can't dodge, a slab of earth pulls itself out of the ground for the metal to wrap itself around, forming almost gallery-worthy pieces of art for just a moment. The only problem is that, well, he can't even touch Vulkan. He quickly learns that stone does not beat metal as his staff keeps shattering against Vulkan's armour, scattering chips and chunks of rock everywhere.
Eventually, some of them must hit the giant in the eye, because he ends up turning away from his opponent, reflexively raising his arms to protect his face, letting Bhumi gain some much-needed distance. Using what little time he has, the ground beneath his feet deforms, more sand and dirt flowing up his body, compressing into stone in his hands, forming into rock discs he wastes no time throwing at Vulkan's unarmoured head. The first is deflected by a molten rope, the second by anvil hammer, but the delayed throw on the third throws Vulkan off rhythm, and it strikes him square in the forehead, dropping his Aura by about…
Ugh, dammit, they never bother with solid numbers- like… 2, 3%?
{Closer than not.}
His head snaps back with the rock, the impact actually making him take a step back before he lowers his head again, a large, red mark in the middle of his forehead where he was struck.
Saying he looks angry would be… an understatement.
You can already see Penny's brow beginning to furrow in the corner of your eye.
"... Does Aura not protect you from all forms of damage?"
"Ehh…" You wiggle your hand back and forth while you try to figure out how to explain it to somebody who probably hasn't been through Hunting School. "It… depends. Er, you know how, if you mix cornflour with water, you get a paste that gets harder the more force you put on it?"
"Uh-huh."
"Well, Aura works the same way, kinda- the more force in an attack, the more Aura used to pad the area being attacked, and the less the user feels. Inversely, the less force behind an attack, the less Aura padding it, the more likely you'll actually be injured. It's why Hunters can still get dirty in the field, but a bullet won't even break your clothing."
Turning your focus back to the fight, you realise that the dust settling on Vulkan's armour has actually baked on, forming a light crust here and there.
{Man, that's gonna be a bitch to clean off later.}
"... Then… why would you not use low-impact attacks all the time?"
"Well, one, they don't do much Aura-wise, compared to, say, a gun, and two, low-impact attacks with the intent to harm and not break Aura are illegal moves in the Mistral tournament. If he'd actually managed to injure Vulkan with that rock, he would've been disqualified. At the same time, throwing rocks is kind of his only ranged move until he starts doing major stuff with his Semblance, so… he's gotten pretty good at toeing that line."
As he stalks towards his target, Vulkan lifts his anvil to smash the smaller man's face in, Bhumi calls up more stone, forming a pillar around his body, immobilising him and hopefully offering him some protection against the fucking anvil flying towards where his head is supposed to be-
The rock shatters, and you see panic on Vulkan's face as he realises just how little resistance there was to that swing, actually spinning on the spot from the follow-through. When he turns around, it takes him a second to realise that, not only has he not turned Bhumi into mince, but the pillar is… solid.
Bhumi wasn't inside.
… Cheeky fucking bastard-
More pillars begin to appear, none of them larger than a person, dotting the edge of the ring in a rough circle, and a smile tugs at your face as you realise what's going on. Vulkan does too, and pulls more molten iron from his reservoir, lengthening his streamers and placing them between him and the squat stone columns.
On a lower resolution screen than, you know, beamed directly into your brain from an 8K camera, you wouldn't see the metal at the apex of the ribbons beginning to darken and scale, tiny bits cooling and flaking off, floating to the ground, no longer under Vulkan's control.
{It's oxidising.}
"And he cannot control that? Does he only have control over pure, molten metals?" Penny asks after a moment.
{Looks that way.}
"That… seems rather restrictive, for a Semblance."
{Some Semblances are. People can't all end up with Schnee glyphs, or super speed, or a healing touch, or being a genius centuries beyond the rest of the world. Sometimes, you're dealt… not a bad hand, just, one that's a bit difficult to work with.}
"... But you still have to work with it."
{Exactly.}
A pillar suddenly starts moving across the ground at breakneck speeds towards Vulkan. The iron giant reacts almost instantly, the streamers undulating from one side to the other, forming white hot blades for just a moment, long enough to slice the rock into easily managed chunks, now hitting his armour as rocks, instead of slamming into him and possibly throwing him out of the ring. Unfortunately, he wasn't ready for the one immediately behind it. A quick shoving match with the animated rock later, and he manages to wrap his arms around it, breaking the majority of its mass from the base, rendering it inert earth once more. He throws it off the side of the ring, away from Bhumi's influence. The next few are given the anvil treatment, the size of the weapon apparently no obstacle for Vulkan's ability to make it dance on a battlefield.
Within a minute, there's only one pillar left, not quite opposite Vulkan. As he dashes for it, it suddenly grows in size, quickly matching him in height and breadth, a monolith of sun-baked stone that begins to melt again, great swaths of material carved away by an unseen force. As the trimmings fall to the ground, it seems as if they simply meld with it, leaving smooth, untouched stone and sand beneath their feet.
By the time Vulkan is within melee distance, the sculpture is complete, revealing a statue of a young woman that quickly reaches up to grab the swinging anvil, stopping it dead. Cracks form in its arms instantly as Bhumi's Aura drops considerably, but not by as much as you would expect from trying to stop an anvil with an open palm strike to do.
{I… don't think that's a statue.}
As its other hand snaps out to punch Vulkan, sending him back a solid ten metres, denting his chestplate and Aura both, you realise that it isn't a statue at all.
It's armour.
The cracks in the stone arms heal quickly, and more earth flows up the legs, forming lumps on its back that quickly form a second through fifth set of arms.
{... Oh, I think she's meant to be part of the Earthbound Pantheon.}
"What's that?"
Figures from Mistrali mythos. Supposedly they were… a moment, there's no real direct translation- they were... deities, no longer welcome in heaven for one reason or another, so instead they wandered Remnant, protecting people, killing major Grimm, forming great rivalries with each other, siring great Huntsmen and Huntresses, so on. Almost every mountain and river in Mistral will have some story to do with at least one of them.
Vulkan walks forward to break Bhumi's extra arms off and show him exactly where he can put them, only for a hand to move forward and pull a pillar out of the ground with a gesture, slamming it right into his chin, forcing his head to snap towards the sky for the second time today.
At least, you hope it's only the second time today.
"Ohh. Do you know which one it is?"
{Nope. Multi-armed ladies make up a pretty large chunk of the mythos. I could probably spend all day checking and still not get it right, and that's assuming it's even meant to be one in particular.}
The statue's arms begin to move in a dizzying dance, jolting and jittering with near machine-life precision, each jolt punctuated with another spire of stone trying to punch Vulkan in the face, or the ground under his feet tilting, turning into a thousand tiny pillars that shift in waves, form slopes, and generally just throw him off balance without giving him enough surface area to jump off of.
Taking the initiative, Bhumi rushes forward and begins to punch, each arm striking in tandem with another, fast enough for the camera to start to struggle- it quickly becomes a blur of limbs striking metal, each one denting Vulkan's chestplate a little more, chipping away a little more of his Aura with every strike as red-hot metal bent and twisted, quickly forming spikes and stubs that begin to press into Vulkan's flesh underneath, a constant drain on his reserves.
Bhumi isn't doing much better, though- the only reason his fists weren't shattering into stumps of stone and cooked flesh is because he had infused his Aura into all 10 arms, strengthening them to the point where they can not only withstand the force put on them, but dent the steel cuirass and let it burn away its occupant's Aura.
You watch both Auras deplete rapidly, though Bhumi's having a worse time of it, only closing the gap by punching Vulkan in the face every now and then.
Hey, if it works, it works.
The Forgemaster eventually raises a foot and kicks Bhumi back, an unbalanced motion that almost sends him tumbling, no doubt exacerbated by the fact that he's been concussed into next Thursday. However, it gives him the few seconds he needs to pull out every drop of molten metal in his reserves. The tendrils of steel expand, now easily able to section off about half of the arena, before splitting down the centre and rushing for the stone-clad Faunus.
It splashes against the many arms of the statue, the sheer temperature difference causing it to spark and spatter, not cracking the stone, but bleeding Bhumi for his Aura regardless.
Slowly walking forward, Vulkan's face is locked in a rictus as he forces more and more iron from his reserves, leaving nothing behind. As it pools at Bhumi's feet, it starts to shift at Vulkan's command, quickly lifting and thickening around his ankles to form a pair of shackles.
As soon as he's within arm's reach, he jams his anvil in the ground handle-first, halts the flow of steel and grabs Bhumi's spindly extra arms, ripping them off at the shoulder and throwing them out of the ring.
At this point, both their Aura levels are in the orange, though on opposite ends of the threshold for orange. Vulkan glances up at the screen and frowns, quickly doing some mental maths before apparently coming to a decision.
With one hand, he jams the rest of the handle into the ground between him and the struggling statue, leaving him with, well, an anvil.
The crowd begins to chant something, but you can't quite make heads or tails of it.
{It sounds like... an-vil smash?}
"What is he going to do next?" Penny asks you, unable to contain the excitement in her eyes.
Heh. If you didn't know better, you'd think you'd gotten her hooked on tournament fights.
"Well, my first thought was that he was finally going to hit him with his anvil and score a ring out, but I suppose he's going to-"
Before you can finish your sentence, Vulkan grabs Bhumi by the back of the head and slams him face-first into the anvil.
You wince. Penny winces. You're pretty sure your sword winces. The Cell has no idea what wincing is.
That... that's gonna bruise.
"... Do that," you finish meekly.
The mask shatters and Bhumi recoils, dazed, confused, his Aura finally below the critical threshold. He tilts backwards, and Vulkan catches him, laying him down before he can strike his head against something and break it completely.
... Guess sportsmanship isn't dead, then.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, YOUR WINNER, VULKAN TITANIUS!" Vinyl roars into the microphone, sending the crowd into an absolute frenzy. Most cheer, drowning out a few boos here and there. He grabs his anvil by the hook and pulls it from the arena floor again, raising it high above his head in victory.
For the first time since he entered the arena, you hear him speak, following the crowd in a chant.
"VULKAN!"
"LIVES!"
"VULKAN!"
"LIVES!"
VULKAN!"
"LIIIVES!"
|||
Ok. Before we go on, some housecleaning.
The Fate Shop is dead. It is gone. It is going to be replaced with a much more thematically appropriate system within a few days. The Fate Points you had are now null and void and will be converted to research points instead. It's also been so long since I've actually looked at this thread that I can't remember how many Fate Points you had, nor can I be arsed looking for the posts, assuming I didn't just nuke them in a fit of pique, so you're getting a flat 500 research points to spread about however you please.
[] (Write-in)
This vote will be open until Saturday and will close with the rest of this update.
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Prok
Go play Star Fetchers
- Location
- Scotland
You know when you're playing a game, and you fight a boss, over and over and over and over and over again, and you just go past annoyance, past rage, past sadness, past that zen state of calm that usually gets you through it, past choking up again and doing worse than you did the first time, and you eventually end up beating it through sheer persistence, but you just don't have the energy to feel happy about it, so you're just sat there feeling kinda bitter and tired and wanting to move on from this and onto the next thing, hoping it'll go better than this one?
... Yeah. Yeah, that about sums up how I feel right now.
... Yeah. Yeah, that about sums up how I feel right now.
- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
Holy shit, it lives. Mmmmmmmmmmmyyesss, give me more Hacker Jaune action.
somnolentSlumber
(Verified Proofreader)
- Location
- hell
Incorrect capitalization.
Incorrect punctuation.
Incorrect punctuation, capitalization.
*Insert constipation joke here*
That does always suck to hear though. Walls like that are horrible to have to work through.
- Location
- United states
[X] Cache() and Directory_Repair()
-[X] 55 for Cache and 445 for Directory repair
Okay for those that don't know cache would let us store things in a pocket dimension including our sword and shield along with the Transistor. As anyone who have seen plenty of stories with pocket dimensions or just gamed would tell you pocket dimensions are useful as hell and would let us surprise people by bringing up the Transistor thinking we are unarmed. It just needs 55 points meaning that picking seems like a no brainer since it would save us an action.
Directory repair meanwhile is the healing ability which is always useful as shown with the tournament we took part in in which being able to heal would have been immensely useful considering that both Jaune and Lumen were in no condition to keep on fighting which makes it likely that this power would be a life saver in the future. It would only get us 445/700 but it would make it far easier to finish.
*Cache()- You're not sure where this one came from, honestly. Must've been one of those '4 am and your seventh cup of coffee' Functions. Looking it over, you think it would let you hide the Transistor in a small pocket dimension. As well as, other things, but mainly the Transistor. It wouldn't occupy space, or, actually have mass, but you would still be able to communicate with it, and it would still be able to float and follow you around. At least you can have it around without breaking any laws! Or, at least, breaking a different set of laws.
Progress: 645/700
* Directory_Repair()- A Function created from the Semblance scan of Professor Mary Edwards Teal, your old teacher and school nurse. Heals everything. Everything. Including the things that really kinda need to die off if you want to keep a person alive.
Progress: 0/700
-[X] 55 for Cache and 445 for Directory repair
Okay for those that don't know cache would let us store things in a pocket dimension including our sword and shield along with the Transistor. As anyone who have seen plenty of stories with pocket dimensions or just gamed would tell you pocket dimensions are useful as hell and would let us surprise people by bringing up the Transistor thinking we are unarmed. It just needs 55 points meaning that picking seems like a no brainer since it would save us an action.
Directory repair meanwhile is the healing ability which is always useful as shown with the tournament we took part in in which being able to heal would have been immensely useful considering that both Jaune and Lumen were in no condition to keep on fighting which makes it likely that this power would be a life saver in the future. It would only get us 445/700 but it would make it far easier to finish.
*Cache()- You're not sure where this one came from, honestly. Must've been one of those '4 am and your seventh cup of coffee' Functions. Looking it over, you think it would let you hide the Transistor in a small pocket dimension. As well as, other things, but mainly the Transistor. It wouldn't occupy space, or, actually have mass, but you would still be able to communicate with it, and it would still be able to float and follow you around. At least you can have it around without breaking any laws! Or, at least, breaking a different set of laws.
Progress: 645/700
* Directory_Repair()- A Function created from the Semblance scan of Professor Mary Edwards Teal, your old teacher and school nurse. Heals everything. Everything. Including the things that really kinda need to die off if you want to keep a person alive.
Progress: 0/700
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Well there's a fun way to kill someone if we need them to die.
"Hey, nice flesh-eating virus you have there."
"Why thank yo-" *splat*
- Location
- United states
Uh, not sure you are trying to scare people away from the choice with that with it potentially causing issues here but that kind of thing is most likely a non issue due to the Transistor scanning ability letting us know before using it. Considering how rare it seems like it would actually be a problem don't think we would actually cause any issues here.
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i Think that was less fear mongering and more "ohhh, let's see how creative we can get with this"
its in the alpha segment so that means once we R&D it we should be able to make a something a little more sane.
More of a joke.
And viable against... certain parties. *Cough*Crazyserialkillerasshole*Cough*
So what was up with the ridiculous amount of detail given to the fight? Is there anything in it that contributes to later in the story?
Because Jesus that was a lot of awesome but also seems like a lot of work for something that doesn't seem like it will mattter come the next update.
If these guys show up later or something then consider me an idiot but it feels like you could've saved yourself a ton of frustration by simplifying the fight...
Because Jesus that was a lot of awesome but also seems like a lot of work for something that doesn't seem like it will mattter come the next update.
If these guys show up later or something then consider me an idiot but it feels like you could've saved yourself a ton of frustration by simplifying the fight...
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maybe it was make a point to us? we're not the only person with an awesome semblance, other people can be uttlery bullshit if they put the work in so we can't just rest on our lurals.
ADeshantis
King on the Chromium Throne
- Location
- United states
There's also the siren lure of doing something awesome.
Welcome back to the land of the living, Prok!
Welcome back to the land of the living, Prok!
- Location
- USA
Until I am convinced otherwise, my headcanon is that this is a meta joke about how this is still somehow alive.
[X] Cache() and Directory_Repair()
-[X] 55 for Cache and 445 for Directory repair
[X] Cache() and Directory_Repair()
-[X] 55 for Cache and 445 for Directory repair
Good enough for me. Pocket dimension is always useful. And being a team healer means we up our utility an insane degree. Everyone protects and befriends the healer.
-[X] 55 for Cache and 445 for Directory repair
Good enough for me. Pocket dimension is always useful. And being a team healer means we up our utility an insane degree. Everyone protects and befriends the healer.
- Location
- Europe
It's a 40k refference, possibly from TTS.