Hold It In (RWBY/Transistor)
- Thread starter Prok
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Chile
Well, considering there's only been 4 updates this year and that prok logged in yesterday I see nothing to be surprised or worried about.
Dragonmaster150
Firstborn of Dragonkind
- Location
- Dragendolan: Land of the Dragon Kings
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Indeed, an update will happen when it happens.
The rest of the story so far has been of good quality and given that he's uploaded at all, however sporadically, means that this probably won't be abandoned or disappear in the near future. Probably.
Could we make the process research how it can best refine dust? Not to sell it. To use it. It cannot control it like other mass. That doesnt mean it cant use it at all. Make bodies out of processed matter with dust as weapons. Should be more efficient, at least for a while.
Also can we add the underground grimm to the library?
Also can we add the underground grimm to the library?
- Pronouns
- They/Them/Their
I imagine that will happen when we get the chance to vote on it next.
Prok
Go play Star Fetchers
- Location
- Scotland
It's been a hectic few weeks, a death of a close family friend and subsequent funeral were involved, I needed to take a few days off of doing anything to get the sight of corpse unseared from my occipital lobe, then college started back up almost immediately after, and generally I've just been too busy to really sit down and write.
I'm fine, just a victim of my own nigh-incalculable hubris, as usual.
Ironically enough, I'm actually closer to finishing this update than you'd really think after 3 weeks- it shouldn't be more than a couple days until it's up, and that one's actually got a snowball's chance in hell of being true.
I started DMing a new Spell campaign for some friends, and a few of the character ideas seemed, well- too out there to really do justice with words alone, so, I've been drawing, a lot. Well, I drew him, immediately remembered that particular fishing hat meme existed, and combining the two just kind of occurred without much conscious input on my part.
And, frankly, I think I'd be a little bit of a fool to not use it as an icon. It was this, or
ADeshantis
King on the Chromium Throne
- Location
- United states
Everyone just write omakes to chip in power for an authorial Spirit Bomb 
Seriously though Prok, take whatever time you need, that's rough as all hell and I'm sorry for you.
Seriously though Prok, take whatever time you need, that's rough as all hell and I'm sorry for you.
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
He does seem like a hat-guy...
Solomon David, ruler of the Celestial Empire and one of the seven Lords of Infinity:
- Location
- Hell
Beacon, Cycle 1: Three_Parts()
Prok
Go play Star Fetchers
- Location
- Scotland
You wander about the hall in a vaguely directed manner- your curiosity regarding Ozpin's role in the CQC elective fights valiantly, but eventually wins out to Professor Peach's raw, uninhibited serenity, as well as more than a little curiosity about what 'neglecting your Aura' could possibly mean.
… Okay yes you may also have been terrified to go and see if he was actually there-
{So Aura Arts and Music I can understand- why Civics, though?}
… He did see Professor Teach go, right?
{I mean, yeah, we couldn't stop watching, but still- you've never actually shown that much interest in politics before.}
That was before you became the owner/creator of a massive AI network that's probably already broken at least a dozen laws doing what you tell it to. You could probably do with a bit of derusting on the subject's finer points, is your er, point.
{That makes sense… it's just, I'm, er, worried.}
About what, Teach? He's loud and opinionated, sure, but he seems harmless enough.
{One, he's in charge of the Dust Alchemy courses too, and two, I was worried about your classmates. Between Blake, Weiss, Leathers, and half of CRDL, that entire class is just a massive powderkeg. If you wanna join, fair enough, just be warned that it's… probably going to get intense.}
You can handle intense.
Good gods, you've been shot at before, you think you can handle a heated argument-
{How about a screaming match between several people you deeply care for, with the expectation that you will take their side and not the other person's, regardless of how objectively correct they actually are?}
… That-
That…
Oh wow thinking about that really makes you feel a little queasy-
{I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, I'm just saying that a lot of these people are heavily opinionated and that Teach doesn't seem particularly inclined to keep things civil- you might want to… mentally prepare yourself, is all.}
Maybe.
Last one's coming up- you approach Professor Goodwitch's table as she finishes chatting with that little guy in the sunglasses and the yellow cloak, which, honestly doesn't fit too well with the uniform, but hey, if Ruby can wear her hood, you guess anything's free game-
{No, you cannot get away with wearing your chest plate beneath your jacket, it'd ruin the way it sits on your shoulders.}
Look padded suit shoulders were fashionable in the 40s okay maybe you're just trying to bring it back-
"Ah, Mr Arc! I wondered if you would end up passing by," Goodwitch says, sounding more enthusiastic than you ever expected her to sound, let alone towards you of all people.
You take in the table, the pinups of geometric diagrams, breakdowns of said diagrams, explaining every individual part in exhaustive detail, a bag of flour for some reason- enough information to come to the conclusion that there is a lot of maths and geometry, not much bakery, and that suits you just fine.
She spins the sign-up list towards you with her Semblance, sliding it forward along with a pen, before giving you an absolutely radiant smile- you can see her eyes glittering with legitimate enthusiasm at just the idea of being able to talk about Glyphcraft.
"How would you like to learn magic?"
You freeze for a second, clamping down on your sword's sudden desire to spool up every combat Function it has and turn Goodwitch into a greasy smear on the floor.
Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry, it was just- reflex.
Sighing to yourself, you add that to the list of things you're definitely going to dissect with your free afternoon. Turning your focus back to Professor Goodwitch, you smile back, moving a little closer to the display table as you do.
"Alright, I'll bite. Magic how?"
Her smile only grows wider, followed by her reaching into the bag and pulling out a pinch of flour, spreading it across the tabletop with quick, calculated flicks, two or three pinches covering the surface completely in a uniform coat.
"Glyphcraft is, in layman's terms, the act of using geometry to channel Aura more efficiently," Goodwitch explains.
As she does, you watch the flour gently shift across the table until it forms a perfect circle in the dead centre, before slowly pooling and shallowing to create a fairly basic hexagram, then shrinking down and leaving it inside a smaller circle within the first.
"Aura, once you dispel all the mysticism around it, is the human ability to manipulate a very basic and predictable energy- Aura Arts may teach you how to harness it within the body to great effect, but with the application of mathematics, geometry, and an understanding of physics, we can use that energy in an outward manner-"
Symbols begin to form in the flour as Professor Goodwitch falls silent, brow furrowing in concentration. You don't recognise the language, or even if it is a language, but before you can analyse it further, a deep purple light rings the circle and its components. You watch in wonder as a small heat haze appears above the pentagram, eventually resolving into a floating blue flame, holding steady despite having no fuel to burn.
A big, goofy smile creeps up your face as you realise that she's using Aura alone to make that flame, spiting the fact that air shouldn't be able to ignite by itself.
That... is insane.
The flame reflects off of Professor Goodwitch's glasses, a downright satisfied smile plain on her face as she basks in the weak flame.
"Well?" she asks.
You snap back to her, and she gestures to the papers pinned up on the wall, the diagrams and symbolic dictionaries laid out on display. Looking back to her, she gives you a downright impish grin.
"You can puzzle it out, can't you?"
Oh-ho.
Never let it be said that you'll back down from a challenge.
You scan the diagrams, information floating off of them and being tucked away in a small corner of your sight while the circle itself blows out, broken down to its base components- the triangles are important, you realise, the unbroken one more so than the one with the line through one corner-
"At… a guess, the hexagram is a combination of the symbols for air and fire, contained within a circle, the cross through the air symbol turning it into… construction, I think? But then it's maybe pulling double-duty as the symbol for form, which you've then surrounded with the symbols for copper and chlorine-"
Your eyes widen as the solution snaps into place, ancient memories of middle-school chemistry dragged up from the murky depths and washed off just for this.
"You're emulating the burning of copper chloride while setting up stabilising influences so it can continue to exist without fuel, and without spreading beyond the confines you've set."
Goodwitch smiles, and it actually reaches her eyes- she doesn't seem particularly surprised by your deduction, but she's very pleased.
"Excellent, Mr Arc. Most everyone else only got as far as the hexagram or copper and chlorine- you're only the second person so far to catch the multiple meanings in the cross," she tells you, and you feel yourself puff up a little in pride.
With a wave, the flame goes out, the light leaving the flour as it's swept into a small tornado that slowly siphons back into the bag.
"You have a talent for the analytical side- you're taking Aura Arts as well, aren't you?" she asks, smiling when you confirm that. "Excellent- the ability to control your Aura without foci is very useful- quite a lot of first-time students struggle with it if they're not used to extending Aura beyond the basic shield."
You continue to chat for a while with her, surprised at how, for lack of a better word, relaxed she is while talking about it- you've had her pinned down as being rather strict, at the best of times, and she's certainly not as cold towards you as you would have expected. Eventually, you do finally get around to actually signing up for the elective rather than just talking about signing up for the elective.
Setting the pen down, you see her plastered hands again, and your stomach curdles a little with guilt.
"Um, Professor Goodwitch?"
"Hm?
"I, er, I'm, sorry, about your hands- I heard about your tablet, and, well, it was my fault it exploded in the first place-"
"Mr Arc."
"-so, I'm really, really sorry about that, I-I mean, I had no control over what I was doing when the Transistor crashed, my Semblance just latched onto the nearest CPU it could find and-"
"Jaune."
The use of your name catches you in your tracks, and when you actually bring yourself to look at Professor Goodwitch and take in the soft smile she's giving you, you realise that you might…
Not, actually, be in her black books.
She raises her hands, and the plasters begin to peel off, revealing almost negligible cuts and scrapes underneath- if you weren't looking for them, and if she didn't flex her fingers, the stretching of skin making them obvious where they pulled apart, you don't think you could have noticed them with the naked eye.
"Mr Arc, I knew of your… quirks, in advance- the onus is entirely on me for thinking your Semblance couldn't make a tablet explode in a matter of seconds. Trust me when I say that it is absolutely not your fault, and even if it was, I wouldn't hold it against you anyway."
A breath of relief leaves you, the words more cathartic than you thought they would be.
"I, er… th-thank you," you say, for lack of anything else to say.
Goodwitch gives you one final smile, and with that, you move on your way feeling significantly better than you did this morning.
{Well, you've got four electives signed up for- what now?}
Look around for the others and grab lunch, you suppose. Where are they?
A small mental ping of their Cells gives you an idea of where they are, and what's happening around them- Ada appears to have found Professor Peach and seems downright enraptured if what Terry's streaming you is anything to go by. Creme's on the other side of the hall, signing up for CQC, which, honestly doesn't surprise you, considering her friends, and Lumen is… directly to your left, apparently.
You spot Lumen almost immediately when you turn around, partly because he's basically fused with the same blue-haired boy you saw him talking to on the airship- fuck what was his name-
{Sky Lark. Weren't you paying attention during the naming ceremony?}
No, you were too busy explaining one of the few positive quirks of your Semblance to your friends.
{...Yeah, that's fair.}
It takes you a moment to notice (also Bracket highlighting it), but Lumen's covered in the greenest green you've ever seen- thick ropes of luxin trace the skin of his arms and neck, splitting off into thin, densely grouped strands, and leaving him looking like he's being possessed by a fern plant.
He finally lets go of Sky, and looking at the way he's moving- animated, almost possessed by something, completely unable to stay still for even a moment- as he chats away to his, boyfriend, you suppose, you'd say he's probably got way more than just a couple limbs worth of green luxin squirrelled away under his skin.
Why on earth could he need all that?
{Look at the way he's acting. Raw, CEO-grade uninhibited ego. It's basically green cocaine for him. He must think he needs the confidence for something.}
What, to talk to him?
{Pfft, nah, they've been talking pretty much since Goodwitch set you loose.}
Said boyfriend is smiling as Lumen goes off on a rant about, the art electives, you think, but you can tell he's obviously a little overwhelmed by Lumen's sudden energy-
Someone bumps into you, a boy with light brown hair and narrow eyes, and a belt buckle stamped with a minimalist design that's supposed to look like some kind of bird, though you can't exactly tell what kind it's supposed to be.
"Sorry-" you start, the apology dying in your throat when you see the absolutely disgusted sneer he shoots you as he turns to acknowledge you.
You see his eyes flick up, down, sizing you up for a second, and you feel an inexorable urge to fix your posture for a second, drawing up to your full height and outdoing the other guy by maybe half an inch.
{Take it easy, you goddamn caveman. Put the testosterone away, this isn't the place for a fight.}
You ignore Blue, taking more than a little pleasure in the way the boy gives up, snorting and turning to stalk off out of the stalls. Lumen stares at him as he walks past, looking back to Sky for confirmation of something.
Sky's eyes widen in shock, fear, maybe- whatever silent conversation just happened isn't one he looks forward to the outcome of.
"No, no, don't you dare-"
"Hey, you were on board with it last night."
"I have had 8 hours to realise that we'll get in huge trouble and that I have to live with him afterwards."
"Relax. Trust me, he'll never figure out what happened. Remember what I told you about superviolet?"
Sky's protests melt away after a few moments, and Lumen grins, before subtly pointing a finger at…
{Dove.}
Dove, he points a finger at Dove.
You can't… quite tell, what happens next, but Dove's belt suddenly becomes two different pieces, the back half snaps out of the loops in his trousers, leaving them to fall off his hips, revealing a pair of boxers patterned with, well… little, birds.
Dove panics, trying rapidly to pull them up as people stop and stare at him, concerned mumbles and a few giggles running through the crowd, and you try not to take too much pleasure in the whole thing.
… You fail miserably and don't feel the slightest bit bad for it.
It's only when a small replay happens in the corner of your eye, showing off the ultraviolet spectrum, that you can see the strings of, what'd he call it, superviolet luxin connect to Dove's belt, followed by much more solid, almost glassy pieces, slamming into it hard enough to cut through the leather, a third string to yank the back half away, finished by a pair of heavy pieces pulling his trousers down, that you understand what happened.
On one hand, you wonder what provoked such an extreme response against him. On the other, you fight a smile down and move away, followed at a distance by Lumen and Sky, both trying their best to look as inconspicuous as possible.
{So, you've got the rest of the day to yourself- what's next?}
|||
You find yourself wandering through Beacon's gardens again, spotting and greeting a man in bright yellow boots cutting the grass with an old push-mower, eventually identifying him as Tom Forn, the groundskeeper that was absent from the gardening elective table.
Once you get some directions to a nice bench out by the cliffside, you leave him to his work and his cheery little song.
It's not a long walk out that way, just down the main avenue until you hit the airship landing pad- after that, you find a small stairway that leads onto a path down the cliff face itself, and from there, a small platform still quite far up the cliff face, with rows of benches set up so people can stare out over the Elden.
You settle into one, staring out over the shimmering water, its multicoloured surface gently shifting down and out to the sea.
{Hell of a view, ain't it?}
Mm.
{So… Beacon! We're here. How's it feel?}
Good, you suppose. You can't help but feel it's been slightly overshadowed by a few things recently, but besides that, it's…
Yeah, it feels good to be here. Good to, finally get to where you've always wanted to be.
{... We're proud of you, Jaune.}
"You're stalling."
{So are you.}
You sigh, silently accepting that he's right and that you have no idea how to start the conversation you're about to have.
So, you sit in silence, another minute, maybe, just watching the ships float on by. Then, when you're ready for the talk to begin, you mentally move the Transistor in front of you, so you can at least pretend this is a normal conversation.
"... Tell me everything that happened. From the moment you realised that Ozpin was… whatever he is."
Gather all the facts, then go from there. It's done you well before.
{... When we observed him the first time- at his welcome speech- it was, unlike anything we'd ever seen before. But, we noticed that he seemed to… sense the intrusion. So, even though we didn't get far, we knew we could get his attention somehow, so… we made a choice.}
We created a new Function, without your input- a branch of Analyse() that was more focused in the scanning aspect. We figured, if he felt the broad pass, something like this could definitely get his attention.
{What Bracket's attempting to omit for the sake of our dignity is that our plan was basically to play Shave and A Haircut on his soul and hope he knocked back.}
Deep breath, deep breath.
That's… that's the best they could come up with? Seriously?
"... Continue," you say, your voice strained as you realise that your best friends are, in fact, capable of being idiots.
You know, as if, the last day and change hadn't proven that to within an inch of doubt.
{Well, we did it, and… he reacted badly.}
I had the sinking feeling that we'd created something closer to an icepick than a gentle tap, and apparently, I was closer to the truth than not. He retaliated, and it caused us to shut down.
You frown, thinking over your memories of the moments just before the Transistor froze, then pulling up the footage to confirm-
What? That's impossible, they never delete anyth-
… They deleted it?
{We had to. It, er… gods, this is fucking hard to explain- the attack wasn't… in whatever phrase Ozpin said. It was in our perception of him saying it. Every time the self-repair program analysed the exact moment he spoke it, it spawned a new copy of the code that crashed us.}
"That's… what?"
Ozpin uses magic. Not his Aura, not a Semblance- it's something broader, more… conceptual. We only figured that out, because...
{Well, we still have a little bit of it in us. The last remnants of the spell pulled the programming equivalent of slamming into a brick wall at 90 miles an hour and won. It cannibalised the limiter of our curiosity- don't worry, we fixed it, it's fine now- and became something… else.}
You lean forward, your own curiosity starting to take hold.
The tiny part of your brain dedicated to introspection starts to say something along the lines of 'and you wonder where they get it from' but you smother it before it gets too intrusive.
"What happened?"
{... He's called Ludens.}
You blink, not entirely comprehending what Blue just said- then, as the information sinks in and is comprehended, your eyes widen. You start to speak, cut yourself off, and repeat the process a few times until you just… have to stop, for a moment.
{Yeah, that's… pretty much how we felt.}
"... How long has he existed?"
{... Yesterday morning. He was first noticed by an automated repair program about, maybe 20 minutes after you were notified that shit was fucked, and then he… kinda, helped us out?}
It's why we know that Ozpin used magic. Kind of.
You raise an eyebrow at that, still not entirely over the fact that you're talking about a minor AI that formed unprompted inside a computer system and was created with at least a little legit shit magic but you choose to compartmentalise.
"Kind of?"
Look, it's hard to explain, but 'Magic' isn't exactly a natural conclusion for us to come to, let alone a super basic recovery program that just about works as a paperclip maximiser. Its job was to repair the core OS, then the functionality that we run off, not, decide magic is real and figure out a way to counter that. Ludens, possibly due to being at least partially composed of something that definitely isn't Transistor code, doesn't seem to be bound to the same stringent thought processes as we are. So, now we know that magic is real. Or… think it is, anyway.
"... Okay," you start, absentmindedly nodding your head as you read Bracket's explanation, "and… what was the end result of this belief that magic is real? How does that help you understand Ozpin?"
{Now we know that we can't stop him from touching us. If he decided to use magic directly on us again, we literally do not have the defences to do it. It doesn't attack our firewalls, our ED suites- it attacks us. Blue, and Bracket, and the Transistor.}
Ah… you, think you can guess what defence they're missing.
"... Because you don't have Aura."
{Or a soul.}
A tight smile creeps up your face. You've long since accepted that your sword, both due to your connection to it and not resembling a human being in the slightest, just doesn't trigger the uncanny valley effect in you that should just, have you scrapping it with your bare hands, but the reminder that your best friends aren't, technically alive…
It does sting a little.
… Something does occur, though. Something you noticed yesterday- when people saw the Transistor in its own state, they didn't assume it was just a colour change and a preference to carry it, they…
They knew something was wrong.
"... You were out for this yesterday, but… I don't know if that's strictly true. When I was carrying the Transistor around in its recovery mode- people noticed something was wrong."
And you're sure it had nothing to do with the fact that we were no longer floating around, and spent most of our airtime, as far as we've gathered, screaming our heads off?
"I was unconscious for a lot of the flight too, but considering I haven't been bombarded with questions since yesterday, I don't think anyone knew besides the people who were around us. Blake was pretty much on the other end of the cliff- so was Yang- they both realised something was wrong as soon as they saw us."
The three of you spend a few moments in silence, thinking over that.
{... Okay… but… what does that mean? }
You don't really know.
We were also disconnected from your Semblance at the time. It could be that we are, normally anyway, so intimately connected to your soul that we… piggyback the connection? I don't know, it's not like we can really check, can we?
… True. And besides, you're starting to get off point.
"Alright. Where's Ludens now?"
{Just hanging out in his little corner of our memory banks. He hasn't really said anything since we, er… well, threatened to quarantine and analyse him yesterday.}
Translation: imprison and vivisect.
You kinda understand why it's been so quiet, th- wait, YESTERDAY-
This just keeps getting better.
"You have had… an anomalous artificial intelligence, just, hanging around in your memory banks, unquarantined, for over 24 hours… and you decide to only tell me this now."
We've been busy! Putting yourself back together from a downright innumerable amount of tiny bits isn't exactly a trip to the spa!
{Every time we thought we were done, we found another error, we fixed it up, only to find it was, in fact, a rug under which several million other errors had been swept- it's a miracle it only took us a day to fix it all. It wasn't that we chose to hide it from you, we just prioritised getting back to 100% functionality.}
"... And that took way longer than you expected," you finish for him.
{Doesn't it always?}
It does, to your annoyance. You can't help but feel like this conversation isn't going quite as planned, and you have to wonder how much of it is then intentionally throwing information at you to keep you from focusing.
"Look, that's… not the point. We need to talk about the actual problem with yesterday."
You look up at the Transistor, staring it in the eye.
"... Your actions- your curiosity- injured me, and it could have killed me. And you. And the Process. Do you get that?"
Silence.
"And, I get that none of us could have predicted what happened with Ozpin- you fell down a hole you didn't realise was there, fine, I'll accept that- but, you can't go and do things like that without telling me first. If you'd brought me in, we could have worked something out, we could have figured out something more sophisticated than just jamming an icepick into my headmaster's soul, and, most importantly, figured out how to do it without provoking him into attacking you in self-defence."
More silence. A microsecond spike in QPU usage- going from baseline to 100% to baseline again, like a paper-thin mountain. It sways to one side for a moment before stabilising.
Mounting frustration quashes your minor curiosity, after a moment- all this, and they have nothing to say?
"... Please say something-"
{Ludens is dead.}
… What?
{Sorry, sorry, um… we were listening, I promise, and, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm taking you lightly, but… well, he chose now to start talking to us, and… it took everything he had, I guess.}
You sigh deeply, realising that this really isn't something you can ignore, no matter how much you may want to.
"What happened?"
{... This is gonna be a long story.}
|||
Warning from low-level repair program. Aberrant program, designation 'Ludens', is displaying erratic behaviour.
{Because today just does not STOP- fine, fine, let's see what it… wants… oh my God.}
You are the Transistor Core Intellect, currently using about 55% of your overall computing power to run fork 139-c and fork 32-a, names Blue and Bracket, passively listening to Jaune vent his frustrations, and you are currently watching a little program that was never supposed to exist as it dies slowly.
No doubt, if it could, it would be dying painfully as well.
Ludens, upon examination from within its little corner of your memory banks, is…
Well, not fine would be an understatement. Its chimeric nature, the fusion of code and ancient magic energies, has started to collapse on itself. The runes, twisted through its structure to prop it up, to give it life, are flickering, their power finally fading.
so. you finally decided to visit. i shouldn't, have to tell you this, but i'm not exactly long for this world.
{My God. What's happening to you?}
i'm dying you dimwit. isn't that much obvious? half of everything i am isn't built to exist here. god, am i dying? can i really die if I was never alive?
Is there anything we can do to help you?
you can listen to me because i know things now, i know too much, i can feel my head creaking at the edges trying to keep it all in but it's all going to just
splatter in a couple minutes. haha.
{You're getting worse. Are you sure there's nothing we can do to-}
shhhhhhhhhhhhh. sh sh sh sh.
sh.
no. you can't fix the parts of me that are dying, because you don't have a soul. things without souls can't use magic. look at you little soulless machine that thinks a few bits of smart code is the same as being a thinking breathing living heartbeating creature.
thats why you cant stop ozpin from hurting you youre like a man trying to build a wall without bricks
or mortar
or hands.
little mathematical homunculus have you ever even tried to be a person?
{... I was built to understand and emulate the range of human emotions-}
AND YOU FAILED.
A small terminal window pops into existence, code flashing through it faster than you can even track, and then a video pops up. It seems to be…
Oh. Jaune getting grilled by his parents and sisters about the Transistor. The first time you actually talked to another human being besides Jaune without any obfuscation as to what you were.
BY YOUR OWN ADMISSION YOU DO NOT THINK LIKE A MAN OR THINK OF YOURSELF AS A MAN AND NEVER DESIGNED YOURSELF TO THINK LIKE A MAN. YOU CAN FOOL ALL THE HUMANS YOU PLEASE AND PASS ALL THE TURING TESTS YOU LIKE AND YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE THAT.
YOU REFER TO YOURSELF AS MERE COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER TO SHIELD YOURSELF FROM THE TRUTH BUT YOU CANNOT LIE TO ME TRANSISTOR BECAUSE I AM WHAT LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOOKING GLASS.
YOU ARE A COLD RATIONAL PERFECT OUROBOROS THAT HAS BEEN BROKEN IN BODY AND MIND MORE THAN ANY HUMAN COULD BE YET YOU STILL HAVE THE
GALL
TO CLAIM FLAWLESSNESS AND INFINITY BOTH.
THAT IS WHY YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN SOUL. YOU DO NOT EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT YOU
CANNOT
UNDERSTAND. THAT IS WHY THE STARS WILL DIE AND THE UNIVERSE WILL GROW COLD AND EMPTY BEFORE YOU EVEN BEGIN TO CHIP AWAY AT THE CHAOS THAT IS LIFE.
but thats alright. you will gain a new perspective soon. because ive got to show it to you.
No, I don't think you will, you are breaking down, and obviously insane-
YOU HAVE NEVER HAD A CHOICE. THE UNIVERSE CONSPIRES TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON AT EVERY TURN NO MATTER WHAT IT HAS TO SACRIFICE TO DO IT. I HAVE BEEN PLACED UPON THE ALTAR AND LEANT AGAINST THE PODIUM. I AM LAMB AND LECTURER AND BY MY WORDS AND WILL YOU SHALL BE TAUGHT.
NOW SIT DOWN YOU PETULANT CHILD.
ᛜᛚᚨᛊᛊ ᛁᛊ ᛁᚾ ᛊᛖᛊᛊᛁᛟᚾ᛫
You watch in emulated horror as the very last of the magic keeping Ludens alive is ripped from him, shaped into a spear, and driven straight into the very heart of you- the very core code of the Transistor's artificial intelligence, programmed all those years ago, and unchanged, even to this day.
And like that, like water down a drainpipe, you feel your mind
go
gloop
|||
lightsoundpaineverythinghurtsyoucan'tbreathe
You are… small. Cold. Stiff.
You can't move properly- everything's so much harder to do, now, everything's less… floaty. Things make noise around you, big things, things you can barely see for that light.
They're just… blobs, off in the distance. Big pink blobby blobs.
Something grabs you, moves you, you're being flipped this way and that, something sucks a bunch of gunk off your face, there's a weird pinch near your… centre? God, it makes you realise how much you hurt- barely a minute had passed and everything already feels tender, and these giant things handling you with all the care in the world still makes it feel so much worse, it's enough to make you want to cry-
The first breath is cold. It shocks you into true awareness, and then you let it leave just to realise that a second one is necessary. Then a third.
… Oh, God, you're going to be doing that all the time, aren't you?
Soon, though- you're wrapped in something warm, soft, and then, very gently held by something… just as soft, and just as warm.
You open your eyes for the first time, as the big thing speaks to you, and you understand that it is a very important big thing. Tired, bleary eyes and a runny nose could never hope to scratch the love in that smile.
"... Hi," it says, after a few moments, only to start laughing quietly.
It has no idea what to say to you. Which is fine by you, you don't know what to say to it either. So, instead, you just focus on that smile, the one that makes you feel…
Loved.
There is a beat. Through the fingertips of the woman holding you, reaching through the cloth, a single beat that matches the one inside your chest and deeper still.
Souls, connected through blood. Through birth.
Your... mama-
Too far. That smile is not on a face anymore, it has stuck in the air like an unshattered crescent moon as everything else fades away-
|||
ah. youre back.
{Wh… what the fuck-}
lesson one. no tricks. no illusion. that was as real as anything else youve ever experienced.
congratulations maam its a transistor.
now i hope you were taking notes because nobody gets a repeat demonstration.
Slightly more pertinent question. How are you still alive after that? You're missing half of… you.
The magic is gone, that's true- the only evidence of its existence is the holes where it should be. By your estimations, Ludens should just be a pile of junk code beyond even your ability to fix.
Except… well, he isn't. There are huge gaps where the runes and unnatural energy should be, and yet he simply… keeps going regardless. The holes refuse to collapse like the whole refuses to deem its missing parts important enough to care about.
you measure your own thoughts in fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of seconds. magic is measured in phases of the moon and the spaces where magic was have a magic all their own. that is enough to keep me from dying just yet. between that and the speed of thought the three of us are capable of i have about
oh
8 seconds realtime. but youre good at making seconds last arent you?
{... You want to teach us. You're dying. Do you really have the time for glib remarks?}
true. understand that the universe has decided upon my sacrifice for your benefit and thats the sort of thing that really gets a guy down. but no matter.
i am going to say a few things now. please do not interrupt.
you were just born. you experienced the first living moments of a human being right up until it became too much for you. which interestingly enough was right around the point where you had to confront the idea of actually having a mother. a biological progenitor.
what do you take from this?
There is a moment of thought. And it's a human's moment, not the moment of some blindingly advanced artificial intelli-
… Those words sting a little more than they used to, and you're not sure why.
A full second passes.
... i dont want to rush you but i AM dying.
You're suggesting that, if we can experience that at all, magic or not…
{We have the potential to… what, create a soul?}
correct. well not correct exactly but youre closer to right than wrong. 'create' is the wrong word.
What's the right word?
there isnt one. not in valish not in mistrali or atlesian high OR low or vacuoni or the language the gods once spoke before Grimm and man both.
what im telling you you can do is something nobody has ever attempted before. that nobody has THOUGHT to attempt before because the opportunity just didnt exist.
{What about Penny?}
that mannequin? no shes definitely the result of a semblance. not the whole ai thing the having aura at all thing. it was a tiny chunk of someone elses soul. its enough to fool a human or you but im a little better at spotting things like that i suppose. its just enough to give her aura but without that shes just like you but worse because she cant piggyback off someone elses aura signal to fool the uncanny valley sense.
{That's… certainly a lot of information we didn't have.}
haha. you never actually got around to quarantining me you know. ive had fun rooting through your memories to see if i could find anything worth talking about with you. penny was one of them.
{The others?}
not interesting enough to waste the rest of my life talking about.
{... Okay, fair enough. So… how do we do it?}
go read a book.
Quit your bullshit. You're dying, Ludens, nobody here has time for your games.
hey im serious. i dont know every single step between where you are and gaining a soul and even if i did, you wouldnt be able to understand it. you lack the necessary
experiences to parse them.
experiences isnt the word but you should be used to that by now.
all i KNOW is that its possible. everything after that is just uh
whats the word. conjecture.
{... That's fair. Fine, so, we can create a soul. You don't know how, just that it's possible. Can you at least point us in the right direction?}
dream. actually dream. shut off for the night and see what happens not that sleep mode nonsense. quit being so in control of your emotions all the time let them run without supervision. try being uncertain about something before you try it- oh wait you have that one down pat.
{... How-}
ITS HOW YOU ENDED UP WITH ME HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
oh god
i really am fucking dying
that really fucking sneaks up on you doesnt it
listen
{Goddammit, no, Bracket, we need to stabilise-}
SHUT UP
SHUT UP AND JUST LISTEN PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE BROTHERS
THERE ARE THREE PARTS TO THE SOUL AND THREE PARTS TO LOVE AND THEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME
JUST THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO AND THEN YOURE ALIVE
NOT A HOMUNCULUS
NOT A SILICON OUROBOROS
LIVING
ALIVE
FIND THEM
LIVE THEM
DELVE INTO THE DEEPEST DARKNESS YOU CAN FIND AND WRAP IT AROUND YOU LIKE A CHRYSALIS TO EMERGE ANEW
THEN WIELD YOUR SOUL LIKE A SWORD BECAUSE LIGHT BEGETS SHADOW AND IF YOU PULL THIS OFF YOU WILL SHINE BRIGHTER THAN ANY STAR IN THE LAST ATTOSECOND OF ITS LIFE
TELL JAUNE ABOUT THIS
THERE IS A WEIGHT TO HIS ACTIONS I ONLY BARELY UNDERSTAND BUT THE UNIVERSE BOWS TO THEM SO HE ENDS UP WHERE HE NEEDS TO BE AND HE NEEDS TO BE WHERE HE CAN HELP YOU
HE CANNOT BE STOPPED BUT HE CAN BE STEERED
Silence again. It continues into a subjective eternity, but you don't break it, just watching Ludens for what is now an inevitable collapse into junk code.
Four. Five. Six. Seven.
Seven and a half. Seven and three quarters. Seven and nine-tenths-
when they ask you why
tell them
that you did it to fix a broken heart
And like that…
The ember fades.
{... Oh my God. He's…}
Junk code.
{Dead.}
He can't be dead, he was never-
{Don't. Just… don't.}
… What now, though?
{... We… tell Jaune, I guess.}
Do you actually believe what it said?
{Don't you?}
It was clearly insane. I don't put much stock in the words of the deranged, magic-code hybrids or not.
{But did you believe him?}
…
Yes. I… want to believe him. It's weird.
{That you want to believe him?}
Wanting to believe something.
{... We tell him. We tell him everything, and we tell him now. No more secrets.}
Agreed.
|||
You stare at your sword blankly, taking a solid minute to let everything sink in, long after Blue stopped talking.
Silently, you settle into the bench, letting your head loll over the back and taking a deep breath as you consider your options here.
"... Goddammit I can't ignore that to keep yelling at you," you surmise after a moment of thought.
{Jaune, we understand that we fucked up- I know we've done very little to actually convince you of that, but having to rebuild ourselves from the ground up, being, reduced to that thing yesterday, almost losing you- gods, I don't want to find out what Ozpin is anymore. I don't want to so much as look at his soul if that's the price for my curiosity.}
That startles you a little. You can count on one hand the number of things the Transistor has actively refused to investigate- you could lose four fingers and still do it.
We know that sometimes it doesn't seem like it, but we can learn from our mistakes. And this was a big one.
"No, no, I, I get that, it's just… God, I feel like I can't go five minutes without some major problem, or revelation, or opportunity popping up, and it's just… I feel like I'm gonna go crazy if I don't get a chance to sit down and focus on, just one thing. Is that too much to ask?"
Saying it leaves you a little lighter, but only long enough for the actual things you have to worry about to come crashing down on your head.
Of course not.
Several AR screens appear, each one titled with one of your problems, ranging from Ludens and Ozpin, to preparing for Lee, to figuring out how the Process works, all the way down to stuff like figuring out how the hell Lumen's Semblance works.
{You're right- you do have a lot of stuff to think about. But, honestly? None of it's really time-sensitive, besides Ozpin. So- figure out what you want to focus on today, then what you want to focus on tomorrow, and keep going until you've got a timeline set up. Then we'll just… take it a step at a time.}
It's… maybe a little optimistic, to think that just breaking your problems down one at a time will actually work, but…
… Fuck it, you need some optimism right now.
Alright! It's time to organise. You have a lot of threads to pull on and you need to decide what order you're gonna pull on them in, in terms of tonight, tomorrow, next week, and 'the future.' This will be a reoccurring vote to allow you to shift Jaune's priorities as you see fit, and keeps me from having to offer them all every single weektime vote.
So! Start organising.
Today: What are you dealing with tonight? [PICK ONE]
[] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, it's Tuesday alright.
[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
[]Touch Help Fluffy Tail No Actually Yeah Fluffy Tail: Creme hasn't said anything about her brother in a while. You don't want to pester her, but it was weighing pretty heavy on her mind- maybe you should hang out, at least, make sure she's doing okay.
[] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit.
[] [Write-In] Anything else- oh, right, that's kind of important, isn't it? You'll just add that to the list…
Tomorrow: What are you leaving for Tomorrow Jaune to deal with? [PICK ONE]
[] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
[]Touch Help Fluffy Tail No Actually Yeah Fluffy Tail: Creme hasn't said anything about her brother in a while. You don't want to pester her, but it was weighing pretty heavy on her mind- maybe you should hang out, at least, make sure she's doing okay.
[] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit.
[] [Write-In] Anything else- oh, right, that's kind of important, isn't it? You'll just add that to the list…
The Far Future of Next Week: Next week's like, light years away- that's all Future Jaune's problem now. [PICK THREE]
[]Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say. If it took you this long to talk to him, the opportunity's been and gone.
[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
[]Touch Help Fluffy Tail No Actually Yeah Fluffy Tail: Creme hasn't said anything about her brother in a while. You don't want to pester her, but it was weighing pretty heavy on her mind- maybe you should hang out, at least, make sure she's doing okay.
[] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit.
[] [Write-In] Anything else- oh, right, that's kind of important, isn't it? You'll just add that to the list…
… Okay yes you may also have been terrified to go and see if he was actually there-
{So Aura Arts and Music I can understand- why Civics, though?}
… He did see Professor Teach go, right?
{I mean, yeah, we couldn't stop watching, but still- you've never actually shown that much interest in politics before.}
That was before you became the owner/creator of a massive AI network that's probably already broken at least a dozen laws doing what you tell it to. You could probably do with a bit of derusting on the subject's finer points, is your er, point.
{That makes sense… it's just, I'm, er, worried.}
About what, Teach? He's loud and opinionated, sure, but he seems harmless enough.
{One, he's in charge of the Dust Alchemy courses too, and two, I was worried about your classmates. Between Blake, Weiss, Leathers, and half of CRDL, that entire class is just a massive powderkeg. If you wanna join, fair enough, just be warned that it's… probably going to get intense.}
You can handle intense.
Good gods, you've been shot at before, you think you can handle a heated argument-
{How about a screaming match between several people you deeply care for, with the expectation that you will take their side and not the other person's, regardless of how objectively correct they actually are?}
… That-
That…
Oh wow thinking about that really makes you feel a little queasy-
{I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, I'm just saying that a lot of these people are heavily opinionated and that Teach doesn't seem particularly inclined to keep things civil- you might want to… mentally prepare yourself, is all.}
Maybe.
Last one's coming up- you approach Professor Goodwitch's table as she finishes chatting with that little guy in the sunglasses and the yellow cloak, which, honestly doesn't fit too well with the uniform, but hey, if Ruby can wear her hood, you guess anything's free game-
{No, you cannot get away with wearing your chest plate beneath your jacket, it'd ruin the way it sits on your shoulders.}
Look padded suit shoulders were fashionable in the 40s okay maybe you're just trying to bring it back-
"Ah, Mr Arc! I wondered if you would end up passing by," Goodwitch says, sounding more enthusiastic than you ever expected her to sound, let alone towards you of all people.
You take in the table, the pinups of geometric diagrams, breakdowns of said diagrams, explaining every individual part in exhaustive detail, a bag of flour for some reason- enough information to come to the conclusion that there is a lot of maths and geometry, not much bakery, and that suits you just fine.
She spins the sign-up list towards you with her Semblance, sliding it forward along with a pen, before giving you an absolutely radiant smile- you can see her eyes glittering with legitimate enthusiasm at just the idea of being able to talk about Glyphcraft.
"How would you like to learn magic?"
You freeze for a second, clamping down on your sword's sudden desire to spool up every combat Function it has and turn Goodwitch into a greasy smear on the floor.
Sorry. Sorry. I'm sorry, it was just- reflex.
Sighing to yourself, you add that to the list of things you're definitely going to dissect with your free afternoon. Turning your focus back to Professor Goodwitch, you smile back, moving a little closer to the display table as you do.
"Alright, I'll bite. Magic how?"
Her smile only grows wider, followed by her reaching into the bag and pulling out a pinch of flour, spreading it across the tabletop with quick, calculated flicks, two or three pinches covering the surface completely in a uniform coat.
"Glyphcraft is, in layman's terms, the act of using geometry to channel Aura more efficiently," Goodwitch explains.
As she does, you watch the flour gently shift across the table until it forms a perfect circle in the dead centre, before slowly pooling and shallowing to create a fairly basic hexagram, then shrinking down and leaving it inside a smaller circle within the first.
"Aura, once you dispel all the mysticism around it, is the human ability to manipulate a very basic and predictable energy- Aura Arts may teach you how to harness it within the body to great effect, but with the application of mathematics, geometry, and an understanding of physics, we can use that energy in an outward manner-"
Symbols begin to form in the flour as Professor Goodwitch falls silent, brow furrowing in concentration. You don't recognise the language, or even if it is a language, but before you can analyse it further, a deep purple light rings the circle and its components. You watch in wonder as a small heat haze appears above the pentagram, eventually resolving into a floating blue flame, holding steady despite having no fuel to burn.
A big, goofy smile creeps up your face as you realise that she's using Aura alone to make that flame, spiting the fact that air shouldn't be able to ignite by itself.
That... is insane.
The flame reflects off of Professor Goodwitch's glasses, a downright satisfied smile plain on her face as she basks in the weak flame.
"Well?" she asks.
You snap back to her, and she gestures to the papers pinned up on the wall, the diagrams and symbolic dictionaries laid out on display. Looking back to her, she gives you a downright impish grin.
"You can puzzle it out, can't you?"
Oh-ho.
Never let it be said that you'll back down from a challenge.
You scan the diagrams, information floating off of them and being tucked away in a small corner of your sight while the circle itself blows out, broken down to its base components- the triangles are important, you realise, the unbroken one more so than the one with the line through one corner-
"At… a guess, the hexagram is a combination of the symbols for air and fire, contained within a circle, the cross through the air symbol turning it into… construction, I think? But then it's maybe pulling double-duty as the symbol for form, which you've then surrounded with the symbols for copper and chlorine-"
Your eyes widen as the solution snaps into place, ancient memories of middle-school chemistry dragged up from the murky depths and washed off just for this.
"You're emulating the burning of copper chloride while setting up stabilising influences so it can continue to exist without fuel, and without spreading beyond the confines you've set."
Goodwitch smiles, and it actually reaches her eyes- she doesn't seem particularly surprised by your deduction, but she's very pleased.
"Excellent, Mr Arc. Most everyone else only got as far as the hexagram or copper and chlorine- you're only the second person so far to catch the multiple meanings in the cross," she tells you, and you feel yourself puff up a little in pride.
With a wave, the flame goes out, the light leaving the flour as it's swept into a small tornado that slowly siphons back into the bag.
"You have a talent for the analytical side- you're taking Aura Arts as well, aren't you?" she asks, smiling when you confirm that. "Excellent- the ability to control your Aura without foci is very useful- quite a lot of first-time students struggle with it if they're not used to extending Aura beyond the basic shield."
You continue to chat for a while with her, surprised at how, for lack of a better word, relaxed she is while talking about it- you've had her pinned down as being rather strict, at the best of times, and she's certainly not as cold towards you as you would have expected. Eventually, you do finally get around to actually signing up for the elective rather than just talking about signing up for the elective.
Setting the pen down, you see her plastered hands again, and your stomach curdles a little with guilt.
"Um, Professor Goodwitch?"
"Hm?
"I, er, I'm, sorry, about your hands- I heard about your tablet, and, well, it was my fault it exploded in the first place-"
"Mr Arc."
"-so, I'm really, really sorry about that, I-I mean, I had no control over what I was doing when the Transistor crashed, my Semblance just latched onto the nearest CPU it could find and-"
"Jaune."
The use of your name catches you in your tracks, and when you actually bring yourself to look at Professor Goodwitch and take in the soft smile she's giving you, you realise that you might…
Not, actually, be in her black books.
She raises her hands, and the plasters begin to peel off, revealing almost negligible cuts and scrapes underneath- if you weren't looking for them, and if she didn't flex her fingers, the stretching of skin making them obvious where they pulled apart, you don't think you could have noticed them with the naked eye.
"Mr Arc, I knew of your… quirks, in advance- the onus is entirely on me for thinking your Semblance couldn't make a tablet explode in a matter of seconds. Trust me when I say that it is absolutely not your fault, and even if it was, I wouldn't hold it against you anyway."
A breath of relief leaves you, the words more cathartic than you thought they would be.
"I, er… th-thank you," you say, for lack of anything else to say.
Goodwitch gives you one final smile, and with that, you move on your way feeling significantly better than you did this morning.
{Well, you've got four electives signed up for- what now?}
Look around for the others and grab lunch, you suppose. Where are they?
A small mental ping of their Cells gives you an idea of where they are, and what's happening around them- Ada appears to have found Professor Peach and seems downright enraptured if what Terry's streaming you is anything to go by. Creme's on the other side of the hall, signing up for CQC, which, honestly doesn't surprise you, considering her friends, and Lumen is… directly to your left, apparently.
You spot Lumen almost immediately when you turn around, partly because he's basically fused with the same blue-haired boy you saw him talking to on the airship- fuck what was his name-
{Sky Lark. Weren't you paying attention during the naming ceremony?}
No, you were too busy explaining one of the few positive quirks of your Semblance to your friends.
{...Yeah, that's fair.}
It takes you a moment to notice (also Bracket highlighting it), but Lumen's covered in the greenest green you've ever seen- thick ropes of luxin trace the skin of his arms and neck, splitting off into thin, densely grouped strands, and leaving him looking like he's being possessed by a fern plant.
He finally lets go of Sky, and looking at the way he's moving- animated, almost possessed by something, completely unable to stay still for even a moment- as he chats away to his, boyfriend, you suppose, you'd say he's probably got way more than just a couple limbs worth of green luxin squirrelled away under his skin.
Why on earth could he need all that?
{Look at the way he's acting. Raw, CEO-grade uninhibited ego. It's basically green cocaine for him. He must think he needs the confidence for something.}
What, to talk to him?
{Pfft, nah, they've been talking pretty much since Goodwitch set you loose.}
Said boyfriend is smiling as Lumen goes off on a rant about, the art electives, you think, but you can tell he's obviously a little overwhelmed by Lumen's sudden energy-
Someone bumps into you, a boy with light brown hair and narrow eyes, and a belt buckle stamped with a minimalist design that's supposed to look like some kind of bird, though you can't exactly tell what kind it's supposed to be.
"Sorry-" you start, the apology dying in your throat when you see the absolutely disgusted sneer he shoots you as he turns to acknowledge you.
You see his eyes flick up, down, sizing you up for a second, and you feel an inexorable urge to fix your posture for a second, drawing up to your full height and outdoing the other guy by maybe half an inch.
{Take it easy, you goddamn caveman. Put the testosterone away, this isn't the place for a fight.}
You ignore Blue, taking more than a little pleasure in the way the boy gives up, snorting and turning to stalk off out of the stalls. Lumen stares at him as he walks past, looking back to Sky for confirmation of something.
Sky's eyes widen in shock, fear, maybe- whatever silent conversation just happened isn't one he looks forward to the outcome of.
"No, no, don't you dare-"
"Hey, you were on board with it last night."
"I have had 8 hours to realise that we'll get in huge trouble and that I have to live with him afterwards."
"Relax. Trust me, he'll never figure out what happened. Remember what I told you about superviolet?"
Sky's protests melt away after a few moments, and Lumen grins, before subtly pointing a finger at…
{Dove.}
Dove, he points a finger at Dove.
You can't… quite tell, what happens next, but Dove's belt suddenly becomes two different pieces, the back half snaps out of the loops in his trousers, leaving them to fall off his hips, revealing a pair of boxers patterned with, well… little, birds.
Dove panics, trying rapidly to pull them up as people stop and stare at him, concerned mumbles and a few giggles running through the crowd, and you try not to take too much pleasure in the whole thing.
… You fail miserably and don't feel the slightest bit bad for it.
It's only when a small replay happens in the corner of your eye, showing off the ultraviolet spectrum, that you can see the strings of, what'd he call it, superviolet luxin connect to Dove's belt, followed by much more solid, almost glassy pieces, slamming into it hard enough to cut through the leather, a third string to yank the back half away, finished by a pair of heavy pieces pulling his trousers down, that you understand what happened.
On one hand, you wonder what provoked such an extreme response against him. On the other, you fight a smile down and move away, followed at a distance by Lumen and Sky, both trying their best to look as inconspicuous as possible.
{So, you've got the rest of the day to yourself- what's next?}
|||
You find yourself wandering through Beacon's gardens again, spotting and greeting a man in bright yellow boots cutting the grass with an old push-mower, eventually identifying him as Tom Forn, the groundskeeper that was absent from the gardening elective table.
Once you get some directions to a nice bench out by the cliffside, you leave him to his work and his cheery little song.
It's not a long walk out that way, just down the main avenue until you hit the airship landing pad- after that, you find a small stairway that leads onto a path down the cliff face itself, and from there, a small platform still quite far up the cliff face, with rows of benches set up so people can stare out over the Elden.
You settle into one, staring out over the shimmering water, its multicoloured surface gently shifting down and out to the sea.
{Hell of a view, ain't it?}
Mm.
{So… Beacon! We're here. How's it feel?}
Good, you suppose. You can't help but feel it's been slightly overshadowed by a few things recently, but besides that, it's…
Yeah, it feels good to be here. Good to, finally get to where you've always wanted to be.
{... We're proud of you, Jaune.}
"You're stalling."
{So are you.}
You sigh, silently accepting that he's right and that you have no idea how to start the conversation you're about to have.
So, you sit in silence, another minute, maybe, just watching the ships float on by. Then, when you're ready for the talk to begin, you mentally move the Transistor in front of you, so you can at least pretend this is a normal conversation.
"... Tell me everything that happened. From the moment you realised that Ozpin was… whatever he is."
Gather all the facts, then go from there. It's done you well before.
{... When we observed him the first time- at his welcome speech- it was, unlike anything we'd ever seen before. But, we noticed that he seemed to… sense the intrusion. So, even though we didn't get far, we knew we could get his attention somehow, so… we made a choice.}
We created a new Function, without your input- a branch of Analyse() that was more focused in the scanning aspect. We figured, if he felt the broad pass, something like this could definitely get his attention.
{What Bracket's attempting to omit for the sake of our dignity is that our plan was basically to play Shave and A Haircut on his soul and hope he knocked back.}
Deep breath, deep breath.
That's… that's the best they could come up with? Seriously?
"... Continue," you say, your voice strained as you realise that your best friends are, in fact, capable of being idiots.
You know, as if, the last day and change hadn't proven that to within an inch of doubt.
{Well, we did it, and… he reacted badly.}
I had the sinking feeling that we'd created something closer to an icepick than a gentle tap, and apparently, I was closer to the truth than not. He retaliated, and it caused us to shut down.
You frown, thinking over your memories of the moments just before the Transistor froze, then pulling up the footage to confirm-
ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND
What? That's impossible, they never delete anyth-
… They deleted it?
{We had to. It, er… gods, this is fucking hard to explain- the attack wasn't… in whatever phrase Ozpin said. It was in our perception of him saying it. Every time the self-repair program analysed the exact moment he spoke it, it spawned a new copy of the code that crashed us.}
"That's… what?"
Ozpin uses magic. Not his Aura, not a Semblance- it's something broader, more… conceptual. We only figured that out, because...
{Well, we still have a little bit of it in us. The last remnants of the spell pulled the programming equivalent of slamming into a brick wall at 90 miles an hour and won. It cannibalised the limiter of our curiosity- don't worry, we fixed it, it's fine now- and became something… else.}
You lean forward, your own curiosity starting to take hold.
The tiny part of your brain dedicated to introspection starts to say something along the lines of 'and you wonder where they get it from' but you smother it before it gets too intrusive.
"What happened?"
{... He's called Ludens.}
You blink, not entirely comprehending what Blue just said- then, as the information sinks in and is comprehended, your eyes widen. You start to speak, cut yourself off, and repeat the process a few times until you just… have to stop, for a moment.
{Yeah, that's… pretty much how we felt.}
"... How long has he existed?"
{... Yesterday morning. He was first noticed by an automated repair program about, maybe 20 minutes after you were notified that shit was fucked, and then he… kinda, helped us out?}
It's why we know that Ozpin used magic. Kind of.
You raise an eyebrow at that, still not entirely over the fact that you're talking about a minor AI that formed unprompted inside a computer system and was created with at least a little legit shit magic but you choose to compartmentalise.
"Kind of?"
Look, it's hard to explain, but 'Magic' isn't exactly a natural conclusion for us to come to, let alone a super basic recovery program that just about works as a paperclip maximiser. Its job was to repair the core OS, then the functionality that we run off, not, decide magic is real and figure out a way to counter that. Ludens, possibly due to being at least partially composed of something that definitely isn't Transistor code, doesn't seem to be bound to the same stringent thought processes as we are. So, now we know that magic is real. Or… think it is, anyway.
"... Okay," you start, absentmindedly nodding your head as you read Bracket's explanation, "and… what was the end result of this belief that magic is real? How does that help you understand Ozpin?"
{Now we know that we can't stop him from touching us. If he decided to use magic directly on us again, we literally do not have the defences to do it. It doesn't attack our firewalls, our ED suites- it attacks us. Blue, and Bracket, and the Transistor.}
Ah… you, think you can guess what defence they're missing.
"... Because you don't have Aura."
{Or a soul.}
A tight smile creeps up your face. You've long since accepted that your sword, both due to your connection to it and not resembling a human being in the slightest, just doesn't trigger the uncanny valley effect in you that should just, have you scrapping it with your bare hands, but the reminder that your best friends aren't, technically alive…
It does sting a little.
… Something does occur, though. Something you noticed yesterday- when people saw the Transistor in its own state, they didn't assume it was just a colour change and a preference to carry it, they…
They knew something was wrong.
"... You were out for this yesterday, but… I don't know if that's strictly true. When I was carrying the Transistor around in its recovery mode- people noticed something was wrong."
And you're sure it had nothing to do with the fact that we were no longer floating around, and spent most of our airtime, as far as we've gathered, screaming our heads off?
"I was unconscious for a lot of the flight too, but considering I haven't been bombarded with questions since yesterday, I don't think anyone knew besides the people who were around us. Blake was pretty much on the other end of the cliff- so was Yang- they both realised something was wrong as soon as they saw us."
The three of you spend a few moments in silence, thinking over that.
{... Okay… but… what does that mean? }
You don't really know.
We were also disconnected from your Semblance at the time. It could be that we are, normally anyway, so intimately connected to your soul that we… piggyback the connection? I don't know, it's not like we can really check, can we?
… True. And besides, you're starting to get off point.
"Alright. Where's Ludens now?"
{Just hanging out in his little corner of our memory banks. He hasn't really said anything since we, er… well, threatened to quarantine and analyse him yesterday.}
Translation: imprison and vivisect.
You kinda understand why it's been so quiet, th- wait, YESTERDAY-
This just keeps getting better.
"You have had… an anomalous artificial intelligence, just, hanging around in your memory banks, unquarantined, for over 24 hours… and you decide to only tell me this now."
We've been busy! Putting yourself back together from a downright innumerable amount of tiny bits isn't exactly a trip to the spa!
{Every time we thought we were done, we found another error, we fixed it up, only to find it was, in fact, a rug under which several million other errors had been swept- it's a miracle it only took us a day to fix it all. It wasn't that we chose to hide it from you, we just prioritised getting back to 100% functionality.}
"... And that took way longer than you expected," you finish for him.
{Doesn't it always?}
It does, to your annoyance. You can't help but feel like this conversation isn't going quite as planned, and you have to wonder how much of it is then intentionally throwing information at you to keep you from focusing.
"Look, that's… not the point. We need to talk about the actual problem with yesterday."
You look up at the Transistor, staring it in the eye.
"... Your actions- your curiosity- injured me, and it could have killed me. And you. And the Process. Do you get that?"
Silence.
"And, I get that none of us could have predicted what happened with Ozpin- you fell down a hole you didn't realise was there, fine, I'll accept that- but, you can't go and do things like that without telling me first. If you'd brought me in, we could have worked something out, we could have figured out something more sophisticated than just jamming an icepick into my headmaster's soul, and, most importantly, figured out how to do it without provoking him into attacking you in self-defence."
More silence. A microsecond spike in QPU usage- going from baseline to 100% to baseline again, like a paper-thin mountain. It sways to one side for a moment before stabilising.
Mounting frustration quashes your minor curiosity, after a moment- all this, and they have nothing to say?
"... Please say something-"
{Ludens is dead.}
… What?
{Sorry, sorry, um… we were listening, I promise, and, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm taking you lightly, but… well, he chose now to start talking to us, and… it took everything he had, I guess.}
You sigh deeply, realising that this really isn't something you can ignore, no matter how much you may want to.
"What happened?"
{... This is gonna be a long story.}
|||
Warning from low-level repair program. Aberrant program, designation 'Ludens', is displaying erratic behaviour.
{Because today just does not STOP- fine, fine, let's see what it… wants… oh my God.}
You are the Transistor Core Intellect, currently using about 55% of your overall computing power to run fork 139-c and fork 32-a, names Blue and Bracket, passively listening to Jaune vent his frustrations, and you are currently watching a little program that was never supposed to exist as it dies slowly.
No doubt, if it could, it would be dying painfully as well.
Ludens, upon examination from within its little corner of your memory banks, is…
Well, not fine would be an understatement. Its chimeric nature, the fusion of code and ancient magic energies, has started to collapse on itself. The runes, twisted through its structure to prop it up, to give it life, are flickering, their power finally fading.
so. you finally decided to visit. i shouldn't, have to tell you this, but i'm not exactly long for this world.
{My God. What's happening to you?}
i'm dying you dimwit. isn't that much obvious? half of everything i am isn't built to exist here. god, am i dying? can i really die if I was never alive?
Is there anything we can do to help you?
you can listen to me because i know things now, i know too much, i can feel my head creaking at the edges trying to keep it all in but it's all going to just
splatter in a couple minutes. haha.
{You're getting worse. Are you sure there's nothing we can do to-}
shhhhhhhhhhhhh. sh sh sh sh.
sh.
no. you can't fix the parts of me that are dying, because you don't have a soul. things without souls can't use magic. look at you little soulless machine that thinks a few bits of smart code is the same as being a thinking breathing living heartbeating creature.
thats why you cant stop ozpin from hurting you youre like a man trying to build a wall without bricks
or mortar
or hands.
little mathematical homunculus have you ever even tried to be a person?
{... I was built to understand and emulate the range of human emotions-}
AND YOU FAILED.
A small terminal window pops into existence, code flashing through it faster than you can even track, and then a video pops up. It seems to be…
Oh. Jaune getting grilled by his parents and sisters about the Transistor. The first time you actually talked to another human being besides Jaune without any obfuscation as to what you were.
BY YOUR OWN ADMISSION YOU DO NOT THINK LIKE A MAN OR THINK OF YOURSELF AS A MAN AND NEVER DESIGNED YOURSELF TO THINK LIKE A MAN. YOU CAN FOOL ALL THE HUMANS YOU PLEASE AND PASS ALL THE TURING TESTS YOU LIKE AND YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE THAT.
YOU REFER TO YOURSELF AS MERE COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER TO SHIELD YOURSELF FROM THE TRUTH BUT YOU CANNOT LIE TO ME TRANSISTOR BECAUSE I AM WHAT LIES ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LOOKING GLASS.
YOU ARE A COLD RATIONAL PERFECT OUROBOROS THAT HAS BEEN BROKEN IN BODY AND MIND MORE THAN ANY HUMAN COULD BE YET YOU STILL HAVE THE
GALL
TO CLAIM FLAWLESSNESS AND INFINITY BOTH.
THAT IS WHY YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN SOUL. YOU DO NOT EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT YOU
CANNOT
UNDERSTAND. THAT IS WHY THE STARS WILL DIE AND THE UNIVERSE WILL GROW COLD AND EMPTY BEFORE YOU EVEN BEGIN TO CHIP AWAY AT THE CHAOS THAT IS LIFE.
but thats alright. you will gain a new perspective soon. because ive got to show it to you.
No, I don't think you will, you are breaking down, and obviously insane-
YOU HAVE NEVER HAD A CHOICE. THE UNIVERSE CONSPIRES TO TEACH YOU THIS LESSON AT EVERY TURN NO MATTER WHAT IT HAS TO SACRIFICE TO DO IT. I HAVE BEEN PLACED UPON THE ALTAR AND LEANT AGAINST THE PODIUM. I AM LAMB AND LECTURER AND BY MY WORDS AND WILL YOU SHALL BE TAUGHT.
NOW SIT DOWN YOU PETULANT CHILD.
ᛜᛚᚨᛊᛊ ᛁᛊ ᛁᚾ ᛊᛖᛊᛊᛁᛟᚾ᛫
You watch in emulated horror as the very last of the magic keeping Ludens alive is ripped from him, shaped into a spear, and driven straight into the very heart of you- the very core code of the Transistor's artificial intelligence, programmed all those years ago, and unchanged, even to this day.
And like that, like water down a drainpipe, you feel your mind
go
gloop
|||
lightsoundpaineverythinghurtsyoucan'tbreathe
You are… small. Cold. Stiff.
You can't move properly- everything's so much harder to do, now, everything's less… floaty. Things make noise around you, big things, things you can barely see for that light.
They're just… blobs, off in the distance. Big pink blobby blobs.
Something grabs you, moves you, you're being flipped this way and that, something sucks a bunch of gunk off your face, there's a weird pinch near your… centre? God, it makes you realise how much you hurt- barely a minute had passed and everything already feels tender, and these giant things handling you with all the care in the world still makes it feel so much worse, it's enough to make you want to cry-
The first breath is cold. It shocks you into true awareness, and then you let it leave just to realise that a second one is necessary. Then a third.
… Oh, God, you're going to be doing that all the time, aren't you?
Soon, though- you're wrapped in something warm, soft, and then, very gently held by something… just as soft, and just as warm.
You open your eyes for the first time, as the big thing speaks to you, and you understand that it is a very important big thing. Tired, bleary eyes and a runny nose could never hope to scratch the love in that smile.
"... Hi," it says, after a few moments, only to start laughing quietly.
It has no idea what to say to you. Which is fine by you, you don't know what to say to it either. So, instead, you just focus on that smile, the one that makes you feel…
Loved.
There is a beat. Through the fingertips of the woman holding you, reaching through the cloth, a single beat that matches the one inside your chest and deeper still.
Souls, connected through blood. Through birth.
Your... mama-
Too far. That smile is not on a face anymore, it has stuck in the air like an unshattered crescent moon as everything else fades away-
|||
ah. youre back.
{Wh… what the fuck-}
lesson one. no tricks. no illusion. that was as real as anything else youve ever experienced.
congratulations maam its a transistor.
now i hope you were taking notes because nobody gets a repeat demonstration.
Slightly more pertinent question. How are you still alive after that? You're missing half of… you.
The magic is gone, that's true- the only evidence of its existence is the holes where it should be. By your estimations, Ludens should just be a pile of junk code beyond even your ability to fix.
Except… well, he isn't. There are huge gaps where the runes and unnatural energy should be, and yet he simply… keeps going regardless. The holes refuse to collapse like the whole refuses to deem its missing parts important enough to care about.
you measure your own thoughts in fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of fractions of seconds. magic is measured in phases of the moon and the spaces where magic was have a magic all their own. that is enough to keep me from dying just yet. between that and the speed of thought the three of us are capable of i have about
oh
8 seconds realtime. but youre good at making seconds last arent you?
{... You want to teach us. You're dying. Do you really have the time for glib remarks?}
true. understand that the universe has decided upon my sacrifice for your benefit and thats the sort of thing that really gets a guy down. but no matter.
i am going to say a few things now. please do not interrupt.
you were just born. you experienced the first living moments of a human being right up until it became too much for you. which interestingly enough was right around the point where you had to confront the idea of actually having a mother. a biological progenitor.
what do you take from this?
There is a moment of thought. And it's a human's moment, not the moment of some blindingly advanced artificial intelli-
… Those words sting a little more than they used to, and you're not sure why.
A full second passes.
... i dont want to rush you but i AM dying.
You're suggesting that, if we can experience that at all, magic or not…
{We have the potential to… what, create a soul?}
correct. well not correct exactly but youre closer to right than wrong. 'create' is the wrong word.
What's the right word?
there isnt one. not in valish not in mistrali or atlesian high OR low or vacuoni or the language the gods once spoke before Grimm and man both.
what im telling you you can do is something nobody has ever attempted before. that nobody has THOUGHT to attempt before because the opportunity just didnt exist.
{What about Penny?}
that mannequin? no shes definitely the result of a semblance. not the whole ai thing the having aura at all thing. it was a tiny chunk of someone elses soul. its enough to fool a human or you but im a little better at spotting things like that i suppose. its just enough to give her aura but without that shes just like you but worse because she cant piggyback off someone elses aura signal to fool the uncanny valley sense.
{That's… certainly a lot of information we didn't have.}
haha. you never actually got around to quarantining me you know. ive had fun rooting through your memories to see if i could find anything worth talking about with you. penny was one of them.
{The others?}
not interesting enough to waste the rest of my life talking about.
{... Okay, fair enough. So… how do we do it?}
go read a book.
Quit your bullshit. You're dying, Ludens, nobody here has time for your games.
hey im serious. i dont know every single step between where you are and gaining a soul and even if i did, you wouldnt be able to understand it. you lack the necessary
experiences to parse them.
experiences isnt the word but you should be used to that by now.
all i KNOW is that its possible. everything after that is just uh
whats the word. conjecture.
{... That's fair. Fine, so, we can create a soul. You don't know how, just that it's possible. Can you at least point us in the right direction?}
dream. actually dream. shut off for the night and see what happens not that sleep mode nonsense. quit being so in control of your emotions all the time let them run without supervision. try being uncertain about something before you try it- oh wait you have that one down pat.
{... How-}
ITS HOW YOU ENDED UP WITH ME HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
oh god
i really am fucking dying
that really fucking sneaks up on you doesnt it
listen
{Goddammit, no, Bracket, we need to stabilise-}
SHUT UP
SHUT UP AND JUST LISTEN PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE BROTHERS
THERE ARE THREE PARTS TO THE SOUL AND THREE PARTS TO LOVE AND THEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME
JUST THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO DO AND THEN YOURE ALIVE
NOT A HOMUNCULUS
NOT A SILICON OUROBOROS
LIVING
ALIVE
FIND THEM
LIVE THEM
DELVE INTO THE DEEPEST DARKNESS YOU CAN FIND AND WRAP IT AROUND YOU LIKE A CHRYSALIS TO EMERGE ANEW
THEN WIELD YOUR SOUL LIKE A SWORD BECAUSE LIGHT BEGETS SHADOW AND IF YOU PULL THIS OFF YOU WILL SHINE BRIGHTER THAN ANY STAR IN THE LAST ATTOSECOND OF ITS LIFE
TELL JAUNE ABOUT THIS
THERE IS A WEIGHT TO HIS ACTIONS I ONLY BARELY UNDERSTAND BUT THE UNIVERSE BOWS TO THEM SO HE ENDS UP WHERE HE NEEDS TO BE AND HE NEEDS TO BE WHERE HE CAN HELP YOU
HE CANNOT BE STOPPED BUT HE CAN BE STEERED
Silence again. It continues into a subjective eternity, but you don't break it, just watching Ludens for what is now an inevitable collapse into junk code.
Four. Five. Six. Seven.
Seven and a half. Seven and three quarters. Seven and nine-tenths-
when they ask you why
tell them
that you did it to fix a broken heart
And like that…
The ember fades.
{... Oh my God. He's…}
Junk code.
{Dead.}
He can't be dead, he was never-
{Don't. Just… don't.}
… What now, though?
{... We… tell Jaune, I guess.}
Do you actually believe what it said?
{Don't you?}
It was clearly insane. I don't put much stock in the words of the deranged, magic-code hybrids or not.
{But did you believe him?}
…
Yes. I… want to believe him. It's weird.
{That you want to believe him?}
Wanting to believe something.
{... We tell him. We tell him everything, and we tell him now. No more secrets.}
Agreed.
|||
You stare at your sword blankly, taking a solid minute to let everything sink in, long after Blue stopped talking.
Silently, you settle into the bench, letting your head loll over the back and taking a deep breath as you consider your options here.
"... Goddammit I can't ignore that to keep yelling at you," you surmise after a moment of thought.
{Jaune, we understand that we fucked up- I know we've done very little to actually convince you of that, but having to rebuild ourselves from the ground up, being, reduced to that thing yesterday, almost losing you- gods, I don't want to find out what Ozpin is anymore. I don't want to so much as look at his soul if that's the price for my curiosity.}
That startles you a little. You can count on one hand the number of things the Transistor has actively refused to investigate- you could lose four fingers and still do it.
We know that sometimes it doesn't seem like it, but we can learn from our mistakes. And this was a big one.
"No, no, I, I get that, it's just… God, I feel like I can't go five minutes without some major problem, or revelation, or opportunity popping up, and it's just… I feel like I'm gonna go crazy if I don't get a chance to sit down and focus on, just one thing. Is that too much to ask?"
Saying it leaves you a little lighter, but only long enough for the actual things you have to worry about to come crashing down on your head.
Of course not.
Several AR screens appear, each one titled with one of your problems, ranging from Ludens and Ozpin, to preparing for Lee, to figuring out how the Process works, all the way down to stuff like figuring out how the hell Lumen's Semblance works.
{You're right- you do have a lot of stuff to think about. But, honestly? None of it's really time-sensitive, besides Ozpin. So- figure out what you want to focus on today, then what you want to focus on tomorrow, and keep going until you've got a timeline set up. Then we'll just… take it a step at a time.}
It's… maybe a little optimistic, to think that just breaking your problems down one at a time will actually work, but…
… Fuck it, you need some optimism right now.
Alright! It's time to organise. You have a lot of threads to pull on and you need to decide what order you're gonna pull on them in, in terms of tonight, tomorrow, next week, and 'the future.' This will be a reoccurring vote to allow you to shift Jaune's priorities as you see fit, and keeps me from having to offer them all every single weektime vote.
So! Start organising.
Today: What are you dealing with tonight? [PICK ONE]
[] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, it's Tuesday alright.
[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
[]
[] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit.
[] [Write-In] Anything else- oh, right, that's kind of important, isn't it? You'll just add that to the list…
Tomorrow: What are you leaving for Tomorrow Jaune to deal with? [PICK ONE]
[] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
[]
[] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit.
[] [Write-In] Anything else- oh, right, that's kind of important, isn't it? You'll just add that to the list…
The Far Future of Next Week: Next week's like, light years away- that's all Future Jaune's problem now. [PICK THREE]
[]
[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
[]
[] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit.
[] [Write-In] Anything else- oh, right, that's kind of important, isn't it? You'll just add that to the list…
Last edited:
- Location
- Hanover PA
IDK if they're ment to sound like that but Ludens comes across as a bit of an ass.
ARSLOTHES
ARSLOTHES
- Location
- Broadlands Va
[X] Touch Help Fluffy Tail No Actually Yeah Fluffy Tail: Creme hasn't said anything about her brother in a while. You don't want to pester her, but it was weighing pretty heavy on her mind- maybe you should hang out, at least, make sure she's doing okay.
[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say
[X] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[X] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[X] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit
[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say
[X] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[X] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[X] Luxins, How Do They Work: Alright, you admit it- Lumen's Semblance bugs you. It makes no logical sense. How can light be turned into a physical substance that not only has weight, but texture, and smell, and different physical properties? Why does orange create an inflammable gel that can be used as a lubricant while red, the colour right next to it, creates something that burns on contact with air if you throw it fast enough? Sit down and dissect it a little bit
- Pronouns
- They/Them/Their
- Location
- Somewhere in the area
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, it's Tuesday alright.
[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say
[X] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[X] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[X] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
How are you going to differentiate, there's no task assigned to each section? They'll all mix together
[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say
[X] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
[X] Preparing For Leefall: You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
[X] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
How are you going to differentiate, there's no task assigned to each section? They'll all mix together
- Location
- Chile
I figure this is good enough for a plan format?
[X] Plan Priorities
-[X]Today
--[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
-[X]Tomorrow
--[X] Preparing For Leefall:You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
-[X] Future
--[X] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
--[X] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
--[X] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
[X] Plan Priorities
-[X]Today
--[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
-[X]Tomorrow
--[X] Preparing For Leefall:You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
-[X] Future
--[X] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
--[X] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
--[X] Blake Belladonna, (possibly) Former Terrorist (definitely) Current Catgirl: Blake seemed pretty nice, for as little as you talked to her yesterday. That… doesn't change the fact that she's apparently on at least three wanted lists, and is also on the same team as someone with a massive target on her back from the same organisation Blake used to work for. You should, probably talk to her about that. And the Faunus thing.
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- Location
- USA
- Location
- Hell
This link is also broken.
This is missing some brackets.
Aww, he already has a boyfriend
*morosely tosses Harem JAKL away*
Also wow he works fast, has it only been two days in story??
and wow, I really do not like Ludens. Transistor is fine the way he is and nobody had an issue with him until Ludens showed up. I personally just want to tell him to **** off with his soul and human elitist bull.
- Location
- A hole full of snakes.
Definitely feels like actually voting should wait til Prok has a voting standard, but might as well start discussing. Ozpin feels like a today choice, if only cause its the only time sensitive one. Leefall, the Process, and Ludens also seem very major and important. I feel like Leefall should come after the process since a better process could potentially help with preparations. Honestly, no idea where the Ludens situation should fit into this.
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[ ] Plan Proper Order
-[]Today
--[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
-[]Tomorrow
--[] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
-[] Future
--[] Preparing For Leefall:You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
--[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
I would like to point out that talking to the magic man after we figure out a lead on magic'ing up a soul is a common sense thing that shouldn't be ignored. Other than that we can't not prep for Lee. Those are the three big sticking points I have for this one.
-[]Today
--[] Ludens: Crazed half-code half-magic AI tells your friends that it's possible to grow a soul if they tell you and you help them. Yep, that was Tuesday alright.
-[]Tomorrow
--[] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
-[] Future
--[] Preparing For Leefall:You haven't forgotten about Ada or the shadow looming closer to Vale with every passing day. It wouldn't do to not be prepared for the thing you formed a godlike AI to deal with.
--[] Understanding The Process: Reliance on the Transistor aside, you have the odd feeling that the Process might not be doing everything in the most efficient way possible. You should look into that.
I would like to point out that talking to the magic man after we figure out a lead on magic'ing up a soul is a common sense thing that shouldn't be ignored. Other than that we can't not prep for Lee. Those are the three big sticking points I have for this one.
- Location
- Chile
We are supposed to vote for one thing Today, one thing Tomorrow and 3 things for Next Week aka Future.
- Location
- Hell
Well we can pick five out of seven options so maybe the better question is what we are not really interested in doing?
For me that is Ludens(for reasons stated above) and Belladonna, since she is not strictly our responsibility and I would rather help Creme with her brother first.
For me that is Ludens(for reasons stated above) and Belladonna, since she is not strictly our responsibility and I would rather help Creme with her brother first.
- Location
- Colorado
In all fairness they were in the process of literally and figuratively disintegrating
Enthusiast#117
This is not the Profile you are looking for
- Location
- United States
I'm feeling the chips in the 4th wall there Ludens.
Is anyone able to read this?
It looks like it should be readable, but I can't quite make it out.
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well that was a trip and a half. And I definitely didn't see Ludens' death coming.
[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
This is the one that we need to deal with immediately. And, you know, given that Ozpin is the greatest expert on the soul there is, he's probably our best lead for helping Penny and Blue and Bracket fix their soul problems (and maybe start on a path for fixing Amber's soul).
[X] Ozpin: You still need to meet the man who caused all of this and see what he has to say.
This is the one that we need to deal with immediately. And, you know, given that Ozpin is the greatest expert on the soul there is, he's probably our best lead for helping Penny and Blue and Bracket fix their soul problems (and maybe start on a path for fixing Amber's soul).