Honestly, yes. I want that recurring joke to happen. I want Jaune to be capable of making beautiful swords and use the equivalent of a rusted pipe. I want to have Meti show up, grab Ozpin, get so drunk Qrow looks on in a mix of shame and awe, and absolutely demolish a horde of Grimm with one Cut. I want to hear the Concordant Prayer and Holy Septagrammaton be spoken. I want to see the proliferation of VM ITTR A VSK PRET.
I heavily object to this idea for one reason and one reason only- you're suggesting that being so drunk she makes Qrow look on in awe isn't Meti's default state of being.
@Prok
What's stopping Jaune and Bracket/Blue from helping the Process design new combat forms as a "break glass in case of emergency" contingency? The Creeps are halfway decent distractions (or actual threats to non-Huntsmen combatants), but considering that the Process is already capable of creating a superlaser (albiet with time, a chance to set up freely, and a lack of worry for collateral damage), surely they can, say, design an Ursa-sized unit that has a 40mm autocannon mounted in/on it, as long as its use is restricted to fighting Grimm or destroying inanimate objects. Even if it wouldn't be able to use them very efficiently/effectively without the direct guidance of the Transistor, it's still
something that can actually fight a pack of Beowolves or a handful of Ursas under decent conditions, provided that there's either a lack of witnesses or a dire emergency where secrecy is far less important.
Hell, once the Process gets the chance to destructively scan/analyze a Paladin, it'll have access to a form meant for taking on even large Grimm.
...and come to think of it, I can't help but imagine what kind of crazy-awesome forms the Process could come up with way down the line. Jaegers ala Pacific Rim, aerial battleships that put Atlas's to shame, Starcraft 2's Colossi (a very tall, huge, four-legged walker with a pair of slashing beam weapons mounted on the sides of its head that vaporize targets--its legs are so long that the Colossus can just climb up/down cliffs with ease), something akin to Star Wars' AT-ATs, or Starcraft's Carriers (which use drone aircraft to attack, and can produce more such aircraft as needed), or a larger, much beefier version of the Atlesian Knights, but armed with semi-automatic railguns (perhaps powered by a backpack connected to the rifle).
...we need to offer Ironwood a Cell when we get the chance.
...wait, is it possible to design a vaguely Cell-sized Process unit that can mount or partially transform into a decently-sized (but short) cannon, eating small bits of the ground to make more ammunition as needed? As cool as the basic Cells are, for Huntsmen who expect to fight tough Grimm, having heftier fire support than a little zapper would be useful.
Mostly our limitations are time and motivation. The Process is learning things, and so far we're mostly hands off (to the point of detriment when it came to flash-Processing guidance: we didn't even realize the Process's assimilation protocol was routed through the Transistor). It's a living thing, kinda, or at least a learning thing, and we don't want to force it to conform to our preconceptions too much.
But if we had good ideas, and could design them, that's probably something that we could do during downtime. The problem is, there's only so much downtime, and we also need to code Functions, train, bond with the other students, and deal with whatever madness the school year throws at us.
That's all going to be covered in the Process's upgrades- it just hasn't come up in-story yet, because I've almost
pathologically put off actually taking it out of my head and placing it on some kind of mind map or something.
But, to actually answer your question- once he knows he can do that, there are almost no limitations besides time and the Process's ability to actually
do whatever it is he's trying to make it do.
Also, it occurs to me that we should have a pretty hefty source of wealth that we can tap into in the near-future, provided Ozpin and Ironwood are willing to help us out a little.
See, with the Process mining/replacing the bedrock and underground, it's also going to be/is fully capable of mining ores/minerals/etc that would be way too impractical or expensive for anyone else to reach--whether it's things like strategically important resources like titanium or lithium, or stuff that's not as critically important but still useful, like gold or silver--which we can then sell. With Ozpin's or Ironwood's help, we could create a company that has a contract with, say, Beacon or a business that Ozpin trusts, and sell them at a relatively cheap price. So long as we don't sell that much of it, it won't significantly impact the market or make waves that are noticeable by anyone we don't want the attention of.
Prok, can the Process destructively analyze any alloy and them make more of it out of any other raw material/matter? Like, could it destructively scan some top-of-the-line alloy used in formshift weapons, then process some dirt, and use that to make more of that alloy? Can it do the same with Dust? Because I could see a contract with Beacon for providing more of the more expensive alloys or Dust for the use of students at cheaper prices for Beacon (we wouldn't even have to risk drawing any attention by booting the SDC out of Beacon's supplies entirely; if Beacon bought just 30% less Dust from the SDC, then Jaune would be able to make a good chunk of money by covering that 30% reduction with his own supply at a low price. Same deal with the alloys).
And will we get the chance to ask Ozpin for permission to gradually (to the point of being unnoticeable) convert the buildings of Beacon itself--and the ground underneath it--into Process matter? Not only would it help the Process grow significantly (Beacon is pretty big), it'd make Beacon itself much more secure in several ways (now the buildings of Beacon itself can create defensive guns/positions as needed when under attack, or create/remove walls to help defenders as needed, and good luck sneaking in infiltrators or some of her dangerous subordinates like Tyrion without getting caught immediately).
The Process can almost perfectly emulate any material it assimilates, with some very minor differences that mark it out as Processed material. Whether or not using Processed material for
everything is a good idea, is yet to be seen.
As far as the Dust mining thing goes, it is an
incre-HEDIBLY heavily regulated industry- partially because it's an incredibly rare and volatile substance that requires literally
billions of Lien's worth of equipment to mine, process, and transport safely, but also enough licenses and legal permissions to, printed out, put a copy of the Silmarillion to shame. By the time you could do it legally, which is the only way you
should be selling Dust, you would be large enough to just
buy your own Dust mine and sell it out of that, though god forbid any inspectors come knocking unless you're going to impregnate the walls with more Dust. And, yes, some of that is the SDC trying to ensure its business stays in its hands, but it's by no means impossible to acquire these licenses.
The Dust, despite all the jokes about it, isn't seed money waiting to be used, it's a force multiplier to go from "mildly successful company" to "genuine threat to the SDC," once you start undercutting them massively- asking about it will get you on the path to getting
I... Don't know if powered armor for Aura users is a thing. Like, look at the Paladin. It's state of the art military technology, it's able to turn single soldiers into one man armies against most common types of Grimm.
To quote a relevant passage from my last recommendation:
"What were you expecting? You have somewhat of an internal core. Do you know what they do to people who can breathe?"
"I uh. Actually don't."
A sharp breath. "The standard is to scoop out the front of your brain. The capitalists would replace it with an artificial one. You wouldn't even be able to think without their permission. Hey, presto, they have something that could kill a billion yuan cyborg, for the cost of a couple thousand. Everyone in the Jianghu knows it. You really do have brain problems."
People with Aura have and will always beat any kind of mechanised cavalry in combat purely through dint of casually ignoring the laws of physics as and when it suits their need to kill Grimm harder. It's only
very recently that they've started to catch up even a little.
However, outright mech suits
do exist for regular Joes, and not just the Paladin- a walker that can pick up a 17-ton crate or use massive tools is easier to manoeuvre in cramped spaces like a mine compared to trucks or big rigs, so there is actually a healthy "big fuckoff robot" market out there, usually for short-term transport of heavy goods, or if you're sure you're not going to run into any prepared Huntsmen, yeah, security details or crowd control. Beyond that, there's of course stuff like the Colossus, which are designed to just Pacific Rim the first big Grimm to peek out of the ocean, but most uses of the technology are, surprisingly enough, civilian in nature.
Rough translation appears to be
"Crippled garment(?): Grant me eyes"
"Crippled Garmuth, grant me eyes..."
I'm honestly tempted to start just asterisking all the Old Norse around here, just because a 1:1 transliteration doesn't seem to be working. I mean, I'm definitely not going out of my way to try and learn Old Norse for the purpose of a fanfic quest, definitely not, ignore the two books in my Amazon basket-
Errr... @Prok I think you goofed. It's been at least two days since Initiation. Nothing major, but you might want to fix that. I'll fix my vote when you do.
Intentional slip of the tongue, definitely, couldn't have been anything else. Definitely not just because I uploaded at almost 4am after an incredibly tiring day.
How are you getting these translations? Teach me!
So there's a website called virtualkeyboard.biz that allows you to type non-standard characters in, various alphabets that only exist in Unicode because Unicode's sole purpose is to facilitate communication in any language on the web- hence me being able to use Elder Futhark runes, or Ogham stone inscriptions, or Inuktitut, should the fancy strike me. Anyway, you get on there, you pick a language- you see a keyboard setup for that language, you type, what you type is transliterated to that alphabet- not the
language, the
alphabet.
Now, obviously, being able to
type in a language's alphabet is not the same as knowing that language, but it doesn't matter too much since I've said before that all Futhark is a 1:1 translation from actual English, though obviously there will still be some problems with it because, apparently even that's not a foolproof plan. Up shit creek I go anyway!
Wait, did you mean to post this to SV? This seems like a QQ exclusive bit...
you jackass I spent 5 minutes of utter panic trying to figure out where the hell that was before I realised what you were talking about
fucken
you got me good job
Speaking of that old vote! So, just to be clear; we lost the chance to show Oz a living magical artificial intelligence (which may have allowed us to stabilize Ludens as fork #3) but because of that he asks the right questions to prod us into logic bombing ourself with Salem, since I assume if Ludens was alive that segment of our discussion time would have been filled with discussion about Ludens?
Mm, no- the question about why the world needs someone like Ozpin would have occurred anyway, I think- what changed is the knowledge of the Transistor's ability to form a soul- the first thing that's blindsided him since the invention of the Dust train.
Anyway, quite a bit longer than I usually leave it, but voting is closed, and Ada, the Subterranean Grimm, and asking about Cerynia win!
... I'm also having to come to terms with the fact that this vote casually dragged in over 80 people, which is, uh- 70 more than I'm mentally prepared for. My god.
