Saint closed the office door, moving slowly so that he wouldn't disturb the over-full coffee cup in his hand. Then he walked over to where Dobrynja was sitting at the computer terminal, eyes fixed on the monitor and its dozens of open windows.
"Did I miss anything?"
Dobrynja jumped in his seat. His hand shot to his chest for a moment, then he twisted around to give Saint a glare.
"That," he growled, "is getting very old."
Saint rolled his eyes.
"It's not my fault you're twitchy. Here." He handed over the cup, then shooed the other man out of his chair. Dobrynja promptly started swearing as some of the coffee spilled onto his futuristic-looking bodysuit.
Saint took his place at the terminal, eyes flickering over the monitor. Multiple cursors moved across the screen as he used both hands and feet to bring different windows into the foreground. His gaze was already starting to unfocus, his brain slipping into that peculiar state of mind he needed if he wanted to keep up with the sheer flood of data.
Not that he actually ever managed to truly keep up.
A new window popped up, showing a young woman with brown hair, a mask and a witch's hat in front of a black background.
Voice modeling program loading… Complete.
"Good afternoon, Calamity Witch."
Saint leaned back in his chair as Dragon started bubbling at the new tinker. It was in moments like these, when she sounded genuinely excited, giddy even, alive, that Saint almost doubted whether he was doing the right thing.
Almost.
A slight slurping sound, which immediately turned into gagging, told Saint that Dobrynja had finally tried his coffee.
"God dammit, did you put vodka into my coffee again?"
One corner of Saint's mouth twitched upwards. "You're a valuable member of the team, Mischa. If a little taste of Mother Russia now and then is what it takes to keep you from getting homesick, then I will gladly shoulder that cost."
A pair of knuckles rapped painfully against his head.
"I've told you before, it's a waste of good vodka and mediocre coffee." Another slurp, followed by an audible shudder. "This shit tastes horrible."
Saint grinned, Dobrynja's disgusted grimace vivid in his mind without having to turn around and actually see it.
"Doesn't keep you from drinking it, though."
The russian man snorted.
"Of course not. Just because you have no appreciation for-"
Something Dragon said to Calamity Witch caught Saint's attention. He held up his hand in a warding gesture, cutting Dobrynja off mid-sentence.
"…Simurgh's Scream. It should come as no surprise, but that has been a holy grail for Tinkers ever since she made her first appearance. "I suppose the question I have been dying to ask is somewhat obvious now," she concluded with another laugh. "How did you do it?"
There was a long pause during which no one said anything. The only sign that the stream hadn't crashed was the fact that Calamity Witch was fidgeting in obvious discomfort.
"That… is a bit of a complicated answer." She said at last. "I guess I should start with the easiest thing. I'm not a Tinker."
"But your staff-"
"I didn't build Perfect Storm. I found it."
Huh. Saint exchanged a look of raised eyebrows with his team-mate as the cape described the circumstances of her discovery. Luck like that almost qualified as a parahuman power in its own right.
"It… offered to give you what you wanted?" Dragon repeated slowly. "Because it was thankful? You make it sound… sentient. Even sapient."
Calamity Witch collected a blue gemstone with a diamond cut from somewhere off-screen and presented it to the camera. "Dragon, I'd like to introduce you to my Intelligent Device, Perfect Storm."
«It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.»
Saint's breath caught.
"Intel— You're an artificial intelligence. And not a simple one, either, are you?"
«Correct. Complex intelligence and problem-solving capabilities are required to assist my mage as per design. Emotional capabilities necessary to understand user's priorities. Full intelligence was deemed the most efficient solution.»
…
Dobrynja set down the empty cup.
"I'll go get Mags."
- - -
I wanted to write an omake about Uber and Leet. It would have featured an Uber with a creepy stalker crush on our favourite Person of Mass Destruction, them finding out about magic, atttempts to find someone with a reparo spell to fix Leet's degraded projects and, finally, Leet cobbling together an unholy abomination of technology in a manic-depressive bout of mad science, with the goal of giving himself a linker core so that he wouldn't be an anchor attached to his best friend's leg anymore, overwhelming odds of torturous death (or worse) be damned.
Then I found out they got stomped by Ziz and/or comitted suicide by cape.
So you get a slightly less psychotic Saint instead.
This is good enough that I am considering making it the second canon omake. Do you have a name for it?
Since I don't remember seeing your user name before, I'm going to assume you're new. I give points for omake that you can use to upgrade Taylor's spells, denoted by the 'number/max number' tags after the spell names. This is definitely good enough for a point, and all I need to know is where you want it.
A slight slurping sound, which immediately turned into gagging, told Saint that Dobrynja had finally tried his coffee.
"God dammit, did you put vodka into my coffee again?"
One corner of Saint's mouth twitched upwards. "You're a valuable member of the team, Mischa. If a little taste of Mother Russia now and then is what it takes to keep you from getting homesick, then I will gladly shoulder that cost."
... @DonLyn, how much writing experience do you have? Because that is some good fucking banter. That is hard to pull off. You've got the exact right mixture of jocularity and familiarity.
Something Dragon said to Calamity Witch caught Saint's attention. He held up his hand in a warding gesture, cutting Dobrynja off mid-sentence.
"…Simurgh's Scream. It should come as no surprise, but that has been a holy grail for Tinkers ever since she made her first appearance. "I suppose the question I have been dying to ask is somewhat obvious now," she concluded with another laugh. "How did you do it?"
There was a long pause during which no one said anything. The only sign that the stream hadn't crashed was the fact that Calamity Witch was fidgeting in obvious discomfort.
"That… is a bit of a complicated answer." She said at last. "I guess I should start with the easiest thing. I'm not a Tinker."
Huh. Saint exchanged a look of raised eyebrows with his team-mate as the cape described the circumstances of her discovery. Luck like that almost qualified as a parahuman power in its own right.
"It… offered to give you what you wanted?" Dragon repeated slowly. "Because it was thankful? You make it sound… sentient. Even sapient."
Calamity Witch collected a blue gemstone with a diamond cut from somewhere off-screen and presented it to the camera. "Dragon, I'd like to introduce you to my Intelligent Device, Perfect Storm."
«It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.»
Saint's breath caught.
"Intel— You're an artificial intelligence. And not a simple one, either, are you?"
«Correct. Complex intelligence and problem-solving capabilities are required to assist my mage as per design. Emotional capabilities necessary to understand user's priorities. Full intelligence was deemed the most efficient solution.»
…
@DonLyn, you have two thumbs up from me for this well-written omake. For potentially siccing Saint on us, or at least reminding SW to do so, when we've already got Noelle, Endbringers, the TSAB, and the Privateers to deal with, I may end up giving you a wierd double-birdie-thumbs up gesture.
Alright, if this gets a point, I would like to go into Taylor's Dimensional Transfer.
Power Armor Difficulties
The problem with being a Tinker, Tim thought to himself, was that they had an extremely large pool of talents to work with. From Armsmaster's miniaturization specialization, to Squealer's vehicle specialization, to Leet's...whatever his specialization was called, a wide range of areas were represented with a mere three Tinkers. This has lead to some items being more commonly associated with Tinkers than other types of capes. One such item was the power armor. Devised and created over a dozen times by differing Tinkers outside Toybox, it had become a sort of de-facto mark of progress on whether or not a Tinker was a professional cape.
Tinkers who didn't have power armor typically stuck to the sidelines, providing whatever group they worked with Tinkertech. Tinkers who did have it typically went out and used it themselves, partially due to the fact that Tinkertech required periodic maintenance from the creator, and partially because it required training in order to use effectively. Sure, the PRT was willing to have its Tinkers make armor for their teammates if they could, but on the whole, it was easiest for a Tinker to use their own creations compared to anyone else.
He, however, could evidently build simple power armor according to the schematics in his Device. Sure, that was definitely going to be useful for the Privateers', but it was going to take some doing in order to actually make useable armor. This wasn't due to finicky details from his power, so much as it was due to the inherent difficulties of making usable power armor in the first place.
The most obvious difficulty was a power source. Depending on what a Tinker wanted a power armor to do, the needed energy for the armor could range from nothing more than muscle power to enough energy to make an electric power plant look insufficient. Sure, his new reactors could take care of the power supply, but he'd have to make sure not to strain them in the armors he wound up producing.
The next logical difficulty was what the power armor was supposed to do in the first place. An armor designed to counter a specific cape's powers would by necessity be differently designed from an armor designed to protect counter another specific cape's powers. Moving back from that a bit, an armor designed for moving cargo would be differently designed than an armor designed for battle. It was all about the reason the armor was created, that caused the need for differences.
Another difficulty was taking the user into account. An armor designed with the assumption that the user would have all four limbs intact could be difficult, if not impossible for a user who was missing a limb to use. The question there was if such potentials should be taken into account when designing the armor. Even ignoring the potential issues of missing limbs, there were still issues that had to be taken care of, such as potential sight problems with visors, ease of use of capabilities, and legibility of any instructions, among many other potential problems.
After that, comes a difficulty that was probably a surprise to anyone who wasn't an engineering or biology student, locomotion. There was a reason why cars had four wheels and most animals were quadrupeds, and that reason was that bipedal motion was harder than it looked. Sure, humans made it look easy, but they had the benefit of literal millennia of biological evolution before they were born, years worth of training in life, and help in the aforementioned learning. For mechanical apparatuses, though, it could be an insurmountable problem.
Yes, Tinkers could do things that were impossible according to common sense. So could damn near every other cape. Tim sighed, and opened up the design area on his Device. When had what had once been relegated to science-fiction works become so commonplace that a random member of the Privateers could ask if they would ever get some?
Ah well, that's a question for later. For now though, it was time for Tim to once again start working on making the impossible possible. Though this is going to take a lot of testing.
After that, comes a difficulty that was probably a surprise to anyone who wasn't an engineering or biology student, locomotion. There was a reason why cars had four wheels and most animals were quadrupeds, and that reason was that bipedal motion was harder than it looked. Sure, humans made it look easy, but they had the benefit of literal millennia of biological evolution before they were born, years worth of training in life, and help in the aforementioned learning. For mechanical apparatuses, though, it could be an insurmountable problem.
Yes, Tinkers could do things that were impossible according to common sense. So could damn near every other cape. Tim sighed, and opened up the design area on his Device. When had what had once been relegated to science-fiction works become so commonplace that a random member of the Privateers could ask if they would ever get some?
Ah well, that's a question for later. For now though, it was time for Tim to once again start working on making the impossible possible. Though this is going to take a lot of testing.
An armor designed with the assumption that the user would have all four limbs intact could be difficult, if not impossible for a user who was missing a limb to use. The question there was if such potentials should be taken into account when designing the armor.
... Oh FML. That was weeks ago, what the hell is Saint doing? He hasn't triggered Asacalon, he hasn't rushed us, just how much hardware, mercs, and capes is he stockpiling?
This is good enough that I am considering making it the second canon omake. Do you have a name for it?
Since I don't remember seeing your user name before, I'm going to assume you're new. I give points for omake that you can use to upgrade Taylor's spells, denoted by the 'number/max number' tags after the spell names. This is definitely good enough for a point, and all I need to know is where you want it.
I've got the file saved as 'Backseat Dragoning', but since I'm pants at naming stuff I have no problem with it staying 4.s
It was my first post in this thread, yes.
The point... Appropriate would be putting it in Shipwright's 'Basic Device' skill, just to mess with Saint some more. If it's restricted to Taylor's skills, then I guess I'd like to max 'Mana Cartridge'. I still have barely a clue what it actually does, but I've got the impression that it is central to the Extinction Knight skill tree.
... @DonLyn, how much writing experience do you have? Because that is some good fucking banter. That is hard to pull off. You've got the exact right mixture of jocularity and familiarity.
Oh, I've been dabbling (obsessing) for 20 years or so, but I don't get much actual writing done. I'm just so excrutiatingly slow, which in turn makes motivation hard to come by.
Point of fact: This 700 or something word omake took me more than four hours at the computer. And that was after spending the day running around the house in a daze while thinking about it.
you have two thumbs up from me for this well-written omake. For potentially siccing Saint on us, or at least reminding SW to do so, when we've already got Noelle, Endbringers, the TSAB, and the Privateers to deal with, I may end up giving you a wierd double-birdie-thumbs up gesture.
'Mana Cartridge'. I still have barely a clue what it actually does, but I've got the impression that it is central to the Extinction Knight skill tree.
In Nanoha, Mana Cartridges are basically a cross between compressed air, steroids, and bullets. Rather than draw purely on the mage's linker core, they're compressed magical energy that's 'fired' into the device to up the energy used in a spell. They were made by the Ancient Belkans, and (used to) require a special Device to manage the strain on the wielder's body. Too much mana in your system will act like magic-cancer, but with Cartridges, you get supremely massive Fuck-off Beams like this.
We won't kill Endbringers with that stuff, but it will make them regret getting out of bed that day.
Point of fact: This 700 or something word omake took me more than four hours at the computer. And that was after spending the day running around the house in a daze while thinking about it.
Unfortunately. And I can't even joke about them grouping up makes for an easier target! Because that many capes together, with that long to plan, is almost certainly have some way of beating our hyper-maneuverability, teleport spam, lethal SF barrages, and maybe even Recursion Field.
ecause that many capes together, with that long to plan, is almost certainly have some way of beating our hyper-maneuverability, teleport spam, lethal SF barrages, and maybe even Recursion Field.
Ehhh, I wouldn't go that far. For one the Big Bads of the quest are the Endbringers, not Saint and his paranoid delusions. Also, let's remember that capes don't tend to play together well in large groups and splinter apart without outside elements fudging things so that such doesn't happen.
Ehhh, I wouldn't go that far. For one the Big Bads of the quest are the Endbringers, not Saint and his paranoid delusions. Also, let's remember that capes don't tend to play together well in large groups and splinter apart without outside elements fudging things so that such doesn't happen.
Remember how much seemingly superior stuff the Undersiders took down? You don't need an army, just five or six capes with a good brain, and however many mooks in support for extra insurance.
The point... Appropriate would be putting it in Shipwright's 'Basic Device' skill, just to mess with Saint some more. If it's restricted to Taylor's skills, then I guess I'd like to max 'Mana Cartridge'. I still have barely a clue what it actually does, but I've got the impression that it is central to the Extinction Knight skill tree.
Always Late's description is, as usual, a good one. Basically you're storing magic power to cast with later. But, since you indicated you preferred Basic Device, that's what I'll go with. Should you change your mind, you have until I put the next chapter up on Friday to move the point around.
Kurt winced. "Are you sure it's really a good idea? I mean..." He tried to find words to describe a sheer madness of Shipwright's suggestion. He failed, and just shrugged: "I mean, isn't it too drastic?"
His fellow Privateers murmured in agreement.
"Drastic?" Tim asked and nodded decisively. "Yes, it's drastic. But right now drastic is exactly what we need! Just look around! The city is besieged by these monsters or cases 53 or who are they I don't even care! Government declared evacuation, and the news are already calling Philly 'New Ellisburg'! I don't know about you, but I don't want to loose my new home just as I lost my previous! We need more firepower, and I can give us more firepower!"
"Yeah, it's just going to cost us an arm and a leg!" someone laughed nervously.
"Are you sure this'll work?" Alexander asked.
Tim nodded.
"Then I accept. I really don't want to move to a new city again." He walked to Tim's surgical machine and one by one other Privateers joined him...
"This is Chevalier, I need help at PRT HQ right away!"
"Miss Militia here, got stuck at Camden, ETA 20 minutes."
"Boston Protectorate will be ready to teleport to you in 10 minutes."
"This is Calamity, I'm evacuating people from breached Endbringer shelter, give me 5 minutes."
Chevalier looked around grimly. Last few days were terrible. Groups of Beasts popped up around all the city, Protectorate, PRT and reinforcements from other cities stretched thin, trying to corral them and protect evacuating civilians. But apparently it was just a distraction. Because now howling mass of Beasts came to PRT HQ, protected only by Chevalier, Clockblocker and a few dozens of PRT troopers.
Calamity Witch needed 5 minutes. Well, they would give her five minutes, but at what cost?
Chevalier fired several shots from his sword-cannon at approaching tide of Rats, then looked closer and saw several familiar creatures amongst them, yellow, with snail-shells at their heads.
"Be careful, they have teleporters!" He warned others. If damned Snails manage to replace several of his men with Rats, they all would die.
Chevalier's cannon and tinkertech lasers used by PRT troopers were not enough to stop Beasts. Rats reached the barricade, forcing heroes into melee. Chevalier slew them one by one, Clockblocker paused Beasts, pieces of paper, wires, rocks, everything around, trying to keep them away from troopers.
But there was just too many of them...
One of the troopers caught an eye of a Snail and was teleported right at the middle of Beasts army. They tore him at shreds momentarily. The Rat that appeared on the place of teleported trooper immediately attacked and killed other trooper before laser fire slew it.
Maybe Chevalier was too optimistic when thought that they were capable to hold a line...
"CAVALRY HAS ARRIVED!" Suddenly deep voice boomed over the battlefield.
Over a dozen of three-meters tall power armors walked from the side street and immediately opened fire. Every shot of giant energy cannons in their hands slew a dozen of Beasts, grenade launchers at their backs were sending explosive right in the middle of Beasts ranks. Those few Rats that managed to come close to them were just stomped by armored feet.
Beasts pressure at PRT and heroes diminished immediately, Rats fell back trying to regroup and attack the new enemy. Snails managed to teleport one of the armored giants away from others, and Rats immediately swarmed him, trying to claw his armor, to tear him apart. Chevalier raised his cannon to shoot them down, but his help was unneeded. The armored figure burst with lightnings that turned Rats into ash. Then he stepped to Snails group and rocket-punched them into oblivion...
Soon it was over. In about three minutes army of Beasts was obliterated.
One of the armored figures approached heroes. "Do you need medical help? I have some advanced first-aid kits."
"Can I get armor like these?" Clockblocker blurted.
"You can, kid. But it will cost you an arm and a leg."
The Dragonslayers stood around Saint's terminal and watched as a girl and her sapient magi-tech gem-stone explored the sunken wreck of an alien spaceship.
"This… This is…" Mags, beautiful, confident, self-assured Mags let her voice trail off uncertainly. It felt wrong to Saint, unnatural even. And yet he understood perfectly.
"…probably a hoax." Dobrynja finished the sentence for her, arms folded across his chest. He would have looked relaxed, if not for the way his muscles bulged with obvious tension.
Mags shook her head.
"No. Calamity was too eager to share the video. She must have known that Dragon will try and verify every second of it. She wants her to, because it will back up her claims."
"Or she thinks her AI can fake things better than Dragon can check them." Dobrynja let out a huff of breath. "Hell, for all we know it is better than Dragon, period."
Mags narrowed her eyes.
"Well, that's a terrifying thought. And we don't have any convenient back-doors for this one. If they team up…"
Dobrynja uncrossed his arms and made a calming gesture.
"We haven't lost yet. We can-"
Saint barked out a laugh. The bitter sound was enough to startle the other Dragonslayers out of their argument.
"Oh, that's perfect. We might as well make it our official motto."
He swiveled his chair around, sweeping out one arm in a grand wave.
"The Dragonslayers. We haven't lost." He leaned forward, all traces of humor gone. "Yet."
Mags frowned and put a hand on his shoulder. "Geoff. Don't."
Saint reached up and grabbed her hand. He squeezed, almost desperately, but refused to meet her eyes. "We've all thought it. I know I can barely think about anything else. But it needs to be said."
He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. Released it.
"We're going to lose."
Behind him the screen flickered as the video looped back to its beginning. For a moment the sound of crashing waves filled the office, followed by Calamity Witch and her AI talking to each other.
And yet the silence still felt deafening.
Saint sighed. "It's nothing we've done, or failed to do. From the moment we opened Richter's box and took on our mission, we were always going to lose. Because this," he gestured vaguely at the terminal, the office, themselves,"was never about stopping Dragon from destroying the world. Fuck, we could do that right now!"
He swiveled back to his terminal. "Asca-"
A sharp pain stabbed through his shoulder. Mags' fingers digging into his muscle, letting him know that she didn't appreciate his theatrics.
Saint allowed himself to be turned back around, then continued as if nothing had happened.
"Alive or not, person or not, nothing changes the fact that she is acting like a Hero. The technology she creates, the projects she oversees, the Endbringer fights she coordinates, hell, even the friendships she cultivates, it all makes the world a better place.
"That's what we're about. That's why you," Saint nodded at Mags," abandoned your career. Why you," another nod, this time in Dobrynja's direction," haven't spoken to your family in years."
He took another breath. Let his gaze settle on the floor between his boots.
"It's why I let a psychotic parahuman power peddler turn me into a junkie."
Mags' hand tightened on his shoulder again, but Saint ignored it.
"Not to defeat our future robot overlord, but to make our loss as non-crippling as possible. Because when Humanity's best servant, our greatest ally, finally succumbs to her base nature, we'll be the ones who put her down."
His free hand clenched into a fist.
"And in no possible world can that be considered a victory."
He paused for a moment.
"But," Saint raised his head, a manic gleam in his eyes. "That doesn't have to be true anymore."
Mags and Dobrynja exchanged a worried glance. It was the latter who chose to speak first.
"What are you-"
"This!" Saint flung out his arm, knocking one of his mice off the terminal. "It's a space-ship. An alien fucking space-ship made by people who use human level or higher AIs and haven't been destroyed by them."
He grabbed the cable and started reeling the mouse back in, hands visibly shaking.
"If we could contact them, get some of their experts to Earth, they might be able to help us understand Dragon's code. We could rein her in. Fix her. Or, if that's impossible, replace her with a different AI that is safe."
His voice lost some of its frantic energy, until he sounded almost wistful.
"We could win."
Mags blinked.
Then she leaned down and gave Saint a short, fierce kiss. A moment later she was back upright, new determination etched in her face.
"We'll have to make sure that Dragon can't proof herself against whatever methods they have for bringing AIs back under control."
Saint took a moment to let his mask of professionalism settle back onto his face. Then he nodded.
"Dragon's already started calculating where the debris hit. I'll grab her results once she has them and then fudge the data."
Dobrynja hummed thoughtfully.
"That'll buy us some time once she starts looking, but it won't work forever. I'll see whether I can scare up something that'll let us salvage the pieces ourselves."
He frowned.
"What about Calamity Witch and her AI?"
Mags sighed. "As much as its existence has given us new hope, we just can't risk it falling into villain hands. Or, even worse, Dragon's."
Dobrynja nodded slowly.
"So, we're taking it, then."
Mags looked at Saint, who started smiling. It wasn't a happy expression.
"Yes. We're taking it."
A.N.: I have a feeling this one won't make it to canon status
If it qualifies for a point I'll allocate it to 'Basic Device' again.
The Dragonslayers stood around Saint's terminal and watched as a girl and her sapient magi-tech gem-stone explored the sunken wreck of an alien spaceship.
"This… This is…" Mags, beautiful, confident, self-assured Mags let her voice trail off uncertainly. It felt wrong to Saint, unnatural even. And yet he understood perfectly.
"…probably a hoax." Dobrynja finished the sentence for her, arms folded across his chest. He would have looked relaxed, if not for the way his muscles bulged with obvious tension.
Saint reached up and grabbed her hand. He squeezed, almost desperately, but refused to meet her eyes. "We've all thought it. I know I can barely think about anything else. But it needs to be said."
He closed his eyes. Took a deep breath. Released it.
Behind him the screen flickered as the video looped back to its beginning. For a moment the sound of crashing waves filled the office, followed by Calamity Witch and her AI talking to each other.
And yet the silence still felt deafening.
Saint sighed. "It's nothing we've done, or failed to do. From the moment we opened Richter's box and took on our mission, we were always going to lose. Because this," he gestured vaguely at the terminal, the office, themselves,"was never about stopping Dragon from destroying the world. Fuck, we could do that right now!"
A sharp pain stabbed through his shoulder. Mags' fingers digging into his muscle, letting him know that she didn't appreciate his theatrics.
Saint allowed himself to be turned back around, then continued as if nothing had happened.
"Alive or not, person or not, nothing changes the fact that she is acting like a Hero. The technology she creates, the projects she oversees, the Endbringer fights she coordinates, hell, even the friendships she cultivates, it all makes the world a better place.
"That's what we're about. That's why you," Saint nodded at Mags," abandoned your career. Why you," another nod, this time in Dobrynja's direction," haven't spoken to your family in years."
He took another breath. Let his gaze settle on the floor between his boots.
"It's why I let a psychotic parahuman power peddler turn me into a junkie."
Mags' hand tightened on his shoulder again, but Saint ignored it.
"Not to defeat our future robot overlord, but to make our loss as non-crippling as possible. Because when Humanity's best servant, our greatest ally, finally succumbs to her base nature, we'll be the ones who put her down."
1. So you've got Saint who not only believes that Dragon will fall and attack humanity, but that she's simultaneously the best thing that's ever happened to it. I am very hesitant to make such hyperbolic statements like this, but... I like this better than canon Saint.
2. OK, Saint's scaring me now.
Mags and Dobrynja exchanged a worried glance. It was the latter who chose to speak first.
"What are you-"
"This!" Saint flung out his arm, knocking one of his mice off the terminal. "It's a space-ship. An alien fucking space-ship made by people who use human level or higher AIs and haven't been destroyed by them."
He grabbed the cable and started reeling the mouse back in, hands visibly shaking.
"If we could contact them, get some of their experts to Earth, they might be able to help us understand Dragon's code. We could rein her in. Fix her. Or, if that's impossible, replace her with a different AI that is safe."
His voice lost some of its frantic energy, until he sounded almost wistful.
"That'll buy us some time once she starts looking, but it won't work forever. I'll see whether I can scare up something that'll let us salvage the pieces ourselves."
He frowned.
"What about Calamity Witch and her AI?"
Mags sighed. "As much as its existence has given us new hope, we just can't risk it falling into villain hands. Or, even worse, Dragon's."
Dobrynja nodded slowly.
"So, we're taking it, then."
Mags looked at Saint, who started smiling. It wasn't a happy expression.
... @DonLyn, I am making that wierd double-thumbs-up-birdie gesture again. A self-aware Saint that doesn't want to kill Dragon, but is still gonna mess with us by trying to kidnap Perfect Storm.
Screw canonicity, stop screwing with my feelings like this, man!
@Silently Watches, if we manage to have Tim build a generator so we can power IAE's Device making process, will the time needed for Immortal Assimilation Engine to replace the parts containing the template data be reduced?
There's nothing that inherently limits devices to a certain amount of sentience/sapience, processing power, or even copies of itself. Who's to say Dragon can't keep on doing what she was doing before, but without the locks as a Unison Device? Plus, it's a glorified file transfer. It can't be that harmful.
I think the main issue with that course of Action is that if you want to do something that big to Dragon, she would be a new type of Device entirely if you don't want her to have the limits she does now, or the ones on the Unison Device. You also need to figure out how to make it so she doesn't lose her thinker power.
There's nothing that inherently limits devices to a certain amount of sentience/sapience, processing power, or even copies of itself. Who's to say Dragon can't keep on doing what she was doing before, but without the locks as a Unison Device? Plus, it's a glorified file transfer. It can't be that harmful.
1. So you've got Saint who not only believes that Dragon will fall and attack humanity, but that she's simultaneously the best thing that's ever happened to it. I am very hesitant to make such hyperbolic statements like this, but... I like this better than canon Saint.
2. OK, Saint's scaring me now.
Looks like you read that comment way-back-when on how Saint would react to the TSAB.
You want Saint to have the TSAB turn Dragon into a Device.
What the fuck, now I'm finding myself kinda liking that.
... eh?
So they're getting down to business.
... @DonLyn, I am making that wierd double-thumbs-up-birdie gesture again. A self-aware Saint that doesn't want to kill Dragon, but is still gonna mess with us by trying to kidnap Perfect Storm.
Screw canonicity, stop screwing with my feelings like this, man!
I read Saint's interlude repeatedly for my previous omake. He's a dick, yes, but nowhere near the raving lunatic fanon usually paints him as. Hell, when he decided to activate Ascalon the first thing he did was tell his team-mates to talk him out of it. What blew my mind, though, is that I had completely forgotten that, according to Dinah's predictions at least, killing Dragon was the right decision. It increased short-term casualties, but de-creased the probability of the world ending. That's... I don't even...
Don't get me wrong, I still hate Canon!Saint for refusing to recognize Dragon's personhood. On the other hand, dehumanizing your opponent is apparently a common thing when you expect to need to kill someone. Dragon being not even close to what our brains recognize as 'person-shaped' probably exacerbated that.
And no, I didn't read the comment about Saint's possible reaction to TSAB, I haven't been around long enough for that.
This is simply my (overly optimistic) take on how a Saint with two less years of being ground down by the grimdark that is Worm would react to the situation.
Well, that and I liked the idea of granting Saint a glimmer of hope and self-awareness. It'll make his eventual fall all the sweeter
I think the main issue with that course of Action is that if you want to do something that big to Dragon, she would be a new type of Device entirely if you don't want her to have the limits she does now, or the ones on the Unison Device.You also need to figure out how to make it so she doesn't lose her thinker power.
1. The only limit on the Unison device that I know if is that it has to have a mage. A 'limit' it shares with Familiars. They're not lost technology.
2. The only way a parahuman loses their powers in exchange for magic is when they get a device from Perfect Storm. That does not mean a parahuman who gets turned into a device has the same restriction. Additionally, as Dragon's Thinker power is to understand and reverse-engineer technology, if anyone'd understand how to put Dragon through the process with her power intact, it'd be Dragon.
Give the TSAB a little credit. You think they'll just blindly agree to the self-admitted mentally compromised dude requests concerning a fully sentient and sapient AI, no questions asked?
I'll admit I'm not really clear on what's going on with this one. Did they get prosthetics? Are they in power armor? Are they permanently plugged into power armor? It's not at all clear.
I'll admit I'm not really clear on what's going on with this one. Did they get prosthetics? Are they in power armor? Are they permanently plugged into power armor? It's not at all clear.
