Because Al invites people who need help to comeback along and those that are happy where they are will be left to be happy?
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
This is actually a really good summary of ongoing events, good job.
Sorry about that, I tend to get too deep into some of the stories I read.
Ah. It seems that Alchemist is less of an SI than I originally thought, he seems to have your personality(maybe) and most of your experiences but has gone through some of the things that some people you know personally have gone through.
You said you worked in manufacturing, right?
Glad that's cleared up, although "Gaia Points" could work too, lol.
I'm going to assume that he didn't have the time for the magical bullshit, as you put it.
I looked up Bes and got that from Wikipedia, but then I looked up the Egyptian god of dreams like you said, and Bes did indeed come up. It's strange that Wikipedia didn't have that, but I guess they are only human.
So, fairly tall for their age, but not bigger than a Great Dane or something. As for the scene, perhaps they could do the cartoon run where they start running, but stay in one place until they finish "winding up" and launch off like a rocket.
The first line sounded suspiciously like Skyrim. And I can see why Alchemist would have a problem with it not being true dragon leather.
For the weapon thing, I was talking about the near silent gun that he got a while back, but I suppose he needs a better melee weapon. Why doesn't he use the spear he used as Flamel? Or the Moonlight Greatsword? Blind already seems really powerful, being able to penetrate both physical and magical defences alike, I wonder how much stronger he'll make it. As for the shapeshifting spell, I was wondering why he didn't use that, considering the name implies that it is much more versatile, plus he probably wouldn't have needed to add the sizing spell either.
True I suppose.
Uh oh.
Sometimes you need to lose something to gain something.
"I got isekai'd by Stroke-Kun and ended up here with a gamer system given to me by an insane anime goddess."
Honestly, I have a feeling that this will either lead to disappointment, a terrific new way to gain power, or be a "Huh, that's cool" moment and not have much use. There could be a 4th option that I haven't thought of.
Not to sound cringy, but that line was cold. And yes, the pun is intended.
- Location
- Earth, 3rd rock from the Sun
Rule 3: Be Civil
That's the great thing about forums like this! You can get off your ass and make the effort to do a search using handy tools like Reader Mode or Control+F, and then post the relevant part of the story where what you are talking about happened, instead of asking people to take you made up fever dreams on faith!
You clarification, you are about 80% talking out your ass here.
There was no inventory Toad breakout. Completely made up by you.
Lingering trauma making him not want to use Toad anymore, also made up by you.
What happened was he used Toad successfully on the Dragonborn after several attempts. And this allowed him to weaken her by removing all her gear from her. But she was able to shift away from out of Toad form by being a Werewolf, and going into wolf form. And this caught AL by surprise because he had not considered that possibility, and neglected to continue making her secure, taking his attention off her to collect her gear. Didn't actually petrify her, for example.
I can't remember if he had the spall at the time, or got it in response to the breakout.
The after action report is at Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC) and you can press the back threadmark to go to the actual combat.
I have no idea! It was in the canon story, but cannot remember how that played out here.
Why don't you go check and come back with a report for the rest of the class?
I would have expected either Atom to be exonerated and Eiling to be fully outed and made into a criminal, or for neither to have happened yet. On account of AL being a spiteful and through S.O.B. would wouldn't let something like that come across his place and just leave it be half done.
If he knew Eiling was fucking people he knew over, he'd make sure he was fucked over in turn.
It's sort of his hobby. Sexxy Lexxy!
- Location
- In the Depths, Lurking...
Staff Notice
Well Fuck me I guess. Please pardon my imperfection oh great Forum Crusader. I remain a mere mortal that read the relevant parts months ago and suffered from the deluge of media blurring my recollection. A problem you obviously do not suffer from... oh wait.
The decent thing to do next time might be to just make your counter argument with whatever source material you believe backs you up and not lash out at someone who admitted to not remembering the referenced scene perfectly.
And fine, to bring it back around to the Toad/Petrify combo not being considered for dealing with Big Z, if a simple lycanthrope transformation can override Toad then what chance would it have on a god famous for shapeshifting himself including into non-animal forms.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Alchemist and Jinx plan to rip his soul out of his body and imprison it forever in a way he can't escape from, similar to how Alchemist did with Jenova, although through a different method entirely.
I feel like if they met in better conditions, they'd get along quite well.
Lmao.
And it can get much much worse.
She'll never get an answer, will she?
Interesting, I'm not very familiar with Hades, but as far as I know this wasn't the reason why. Unless the Hades from DC told him about this
Sometimes it is that easy.
Heh
Grandmother as in Rhea?
Wonder why he chose to dispel it now.
Interesting that the Incorruptus looks like this.
Will we get an explanation for this?
All he needs is a long wispy grey beard.
Does he not know about her yet in this world, or is he simply just surprised?
Dang it, that was bittersweet.
Why'd he take the ring off, though?
So does he plan on killing the Crystelles when they grow big enough, collecting their crystallized essences and spreading them on a planet as a backup in case the Earth explodes? I'm assuming he'd use some left over Crystelles to start it all over again. Although he probably might not, considering there's only so many times the planet can blow up, lol. Also, I believe you mean "crystallize"?
Honestly I can relate to Alchemist here, I get really paranoid for no reason.
He will, some day
I believe he took the ring off so he could level up the spell to 100, which among other things involves reducing the casting cost for the spell down. Can't do that if the cost is zero.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
He can't fully stretch his magical muscles if he doesn't have to push himself. I imagine that not having to drain his MP total is actually crippling his growth somewhat. It's like trying to bench-press heavy weights but having someone take most of the required effort away by holding the weights for you.
As to Atom- The man has been exonerated, though that primarily happened off-screen as there wasn't too much that changed except for the inclusion of Player One. Alchemist at that time was busy on one of his days off (They're in his contract) making alcohol to use with the Extract of Twin Form, the materials of which include an alchemic base, soil and the blood of the user.
At this time, Eiling is above suspicion of his involvement in the illegal sale of weapons to foreign powers.
As to the magic- Alchemist does have a passive ability that can eventually grow to offer him an additional percentage of MP. He consumed a Materia to gain it. However, he actually has to use his MP for the ability to gain experience. He also recently consumed another Materia that he'd manufactured that combined all of the effects but it has a significantly slower rate of growth to the point that it's negligible.
In traditional RPG bullshit fashion, Al could literally level up all of the individual abilities that it contributes to, one after the other, faster than that skill would level up itself.
Alchemist's appearance for Zagreus- I know it's been a long, long time since the DS3 arc so my description of the Ringed Knights may have been forgotten but Al stole several suits of armor from them. A full suit of which he wore in front of Zagreus whilst wielding one of the still-sealed swords.
The Incorruptus uses an armor set that looks identical to Alchemist's Mage Knight set, which is just a heavily enchanted and ensorcelled suit of Ebony Armor that he picked up during the Solstheim run. It was selected for two reasons- One, while Ebony may be the blood of a chaos god, Lorkhan was also a creator god and the material is thus incredibly magically reactive. It's also reasonably 'blank', lacking in any distinct connection to any other gods will unlike Daedric or Dragonbone equipment.
Two- It's one of the few pieces of equipment that has a full face mask and it's been further improved by having a piece of transparisteel (Or did I use Transparent Aluminum?) placed into the visor and then enchanted with an illusion of matte black which he can see through via True Seeing. Alchemist's reasoning for doing so is that he has yellow, glowing shoot-me-here eyes.
Toad and Petrify- During the battle with Sindri, she managed to hit Alchemist with Soul Tear, a shout that actively drained his magic, as well as several poisons that prevented regeneration. The last spell Alchemist got off while he still had MP was a successful Toad spell that barely pierced through her considerable magic defense. Rather than using a Remedy, Antidote or other healing item, Alchemist prioritized storing Sindri's equipment as it consisted of weapons made of Dragonbones, Demi-God materials from the realm of Nirn, as well as an Elder Scroll, the Staff of Magnus and the corrupted version of Azura's Star.
Unfortunately, Sindri used the interruption to gather her mind enough to activate her Werewolf transformation and things did not go well for Alchemist at that point.
Yes, Alchemist had the Petrify spell. He'd had that since the night P1 first took him to the Zombie I.D. to bitch at him and pass on a message from Terra, who had him blocked at the time because he was sending her old gaming memes.
At this time, Eiling is above suspicion of his involvement in the illegal sale of weapons to foreign powers.
As to the magic- Alchemist does have a passive ability that can eventually grow to offer him an additional percentage of MP. He consumed a Materia to gain it. However, he actually has to use his MP for the ability to gain experience. He also recently consumed another Materia that he'd manufactured that combined all of the effects but it has a significantly slower rate of growth to the point that it's negligible.
In traditional RPG bullshit fashion, Al could literally level up all of the individual abilities that it contributes to, one after the other, faster than that skill would level up itself.
Alchemist's appearance for Zagreus- I know it's been a long, long time since the DS3 arc so my description of the Ringed Knights may have been forgotten but Al stole several suits of armor from them. A full suit of which he wore in front of Zagreus whilst wielding one of the still-sealed swords.
The Incorruptus uses an armor set that looks identical to Alchemist's Mage Knight set, which is just a heavily enchanted and ensorcelled suit of Ebony Armor that he picked up during the Solstheim run. It was selected for two reasons- One, while Ebony may be the blood of a chaos god, Lorkhan was also a creator god and the material is thus incredibly magically reactive. It's also reasonably 'blank', lacking in any distinct connection to any other gods will unlike Daedric or Dragonbone equipment.
Two- It's one of the few pieces of equipment that has a full face mask and it's been further improved by having a piece of transparisteel (Or did I use Transparent Aluminum?) placed into the visor and then enchanted with an illusion of matte black which he can see through via True Seeing. Alchemist's reasoning for doing so is that he has yellow, glowing shoot-me-here eyes.
Toad and Petrify- During the battle with Sindri, she managed to hit Alchemist with Soul Tear, a shout that actively drained his magic, as well as several poisons that prevented regeneration. The last spell Alchemist got off while he still had MP was a successful Toad spell that barely pierced through her considerable magic defense. Rather than using a Remedy, Antidote or other healing item, Alchemist prioritized storing Sindri's equipment as it consisted of weapons made of Dragonbones, Demi-God materials from the realm of Nirn, as well as an Elder Scroll, the Staff of Magnus and the corrupted version of Azura's Star.
Unfortunately, Sindri used the interruption to gather her mind enough to activate her Werewolf transformation and things did not go well for Alchemist at that point.
Yes, Alchemist had the Petrify spell. He'd had that since the night P1 first took him to the Zombie I.D. to bitch at him and pass on a message from Terra, who had him blocked at the time because he was sending her old gaming memes.
Frescko
King of Silver 🏳️⚧️
Hey I have a question: what would happen if Alchemist added cybernetics to his body when he changed to a human/dragon
I.E alchemist gets cybernetics laser eyes designed for his draconic then transforms back into a humanoid form.
Would the cybernetics shrink with him and he retains them albeit human sized instead of dragon sized or would they explore his skull into gore?
Vice-versa, would the human sized cybernetic eyes just roll around in his draconic eye socket?
I.E alchemist gets cybernetics laser eyes designed for his draconic then transforms back into a humanoid form.
Would the cybernetics shrink with him and he retains them albeit human sized instead of dragon sized or would they explore his skull into gore?
Vice-versa, would the human sized cybernetic eyes just roll around in his draconic eye socket?
If left unenchanted, explosions would be the most likely outcome. Earlier on in the story it was necessary for Al to strip if he wanted to changed into his dragon form.
He was later able to use Polymorph Any Object to add the shifting property to his gear so that it would always fit whatever body the wearer has in the same vein as most RPG equipment.
So, if Al did the smart thing and Fused that into his cybernetics, they should shift with him.
Whether or not that would be a viable idea, however, is another story entirely. Steel, ceramic and plastics would not scale up well as Alchemist's dragon shape grows older and larger. He could use True Skill to artificially get the skill to craft his own cybernetics but that kind of turns into an absolute bitch of a crafting tree to go from raw materials to finished product.
He was later able to use Polymorph Any Object to add the shifting property to his gear so that it would always fit whatever body the wearer has in the same vein as most RPG equipment.
So, if Al did the smart thing and Fused that into his cybernetics, they should shift with him.
Whether or not that would be a viable idea, however, is another story entirely. Steel, ceramic and plastics would not scale up well as Alchemist's dragon shape grows older and larger. He could use True Skill to artificially get the skill to craft his own cybernetics but that kind of turns into an absolute bitch of a crafting tree to go from raw materials to finished product.
Chapter 223
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 2.2.3
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
-October 29, 2010
If asked what he'd been thinking when he chose the Esthar High Speed Dragon Ship as his personal space ship, Alchemist would not be afraid to admit he picked it for its aesthetics. There were countless different options across countless different games that he could've gone for, from giant mecha that could shapeshift into space-jets to giant flying pyramids, he wasn't hurting for choice.
The Ragnarok and its two siblings had something going for them that a lot of others didn't, though.
They were cool.
Sure, the Saquasohuh wasn't a floating rock powered by prayers. It wasn't some vaguely steampunk-esque whirlygig contraption that could change from sky-boat to boat to submarine. And, yeah, it had a limited amount of fuel.
And... it was a rushed modification to a high-speed fighter jet, retrofitted with the equipment needed to help suspend the prison of a quasi-immortal monster in space. A confluence of facts that meant it couldn't break free from the Earth's gravity under its own propulsion, needing to be catapulted at a ludicrous speed to reach that goal.
Basically, the damned thing was a tricked out fighter jet that only had advanced enough on-board systems to deal with technology that was only just a bit more advanced than what existed on the actual Earth.
A lot of issues that Alchemist had decided he would try and tinker with on his day off after coming back from Hades and trying to handle the kids inside Mount Justice the day before.
He wasn't neglecting his other responsibilities. Far from it! A secondary Alchemist was still on his own small mountain with the refugees that had come from a myriad of other realities.
Artemis was still talking with Gwyndolin, a conversation that had gone through an entire night and well into today. Artur, taking a break from smashing rocks with his spear, had just been flying through the air on his dragon companion, Torrent. Rosaria seemed to have decided she would like to have a portrait made of her, so she and the little Painter Girl were working on that-
Alchemist had tried to find a name for the strange little godling but she genuinely did not seem to care for anything he suggested.
Aine, the Firekeeper, had actually been tentatively working with one of Andre's hammers to try and work a piece of metal when he'd checked on the two. The woman was so timid but the old smith had been nothing but encouraging to her.
Orbeck and Orlock had been locked in a debate over a spell scroll. Alchemist wasn't sure which but the two of them had been discussing it pretty energetically.
Filianore had found out about Hypnos, somehow, and she'd decided to take up residence in Alchemist's demi-plane, waiting for the titan to wake up.
The witch, Karla... She was starting to worry the wizard. The poor woman had still refused to leave the cabin she'd claimed as her own. The only answer Alchemist had gotten when he'd knocked on her door had been some choked, quiet sobbing.
...He needed to talk to Wonder Woman about doing something, there. She and Kary had been the ones to save Karla from the prison she'd been confined to. Hopefully they could help her again, somehow.
Much as he'd wanted to, Yuffie didn't think they really needed to 'Catch up'. For her, he'd never even been gone. Instead she just grabbed Yorshka and ran off towards the woods, Reis and Cinder happily trailing after them.
Finally, there'd been the old warrior, Gael the Slave Knight. Alchemist didn't know what to do for the ancient beast, freed from the curse that had tormented him throughout the countless ages. Indeed, it seemed Gael didn't know, either. The man just sat upon the steps of his own little cabin, his face angled towards the rising sun with Rosaria and the painter girl kept in his peripheral.
Kary?
Kary had been dead to the world. Passed out cold in her bed, she hadn't wanted to let him go but she also didn't want to get up, either.
His own bed should have been occupied by someone else. He'd been very conscious about not checking, however.
Lacking any other large projects? Alchemist finally settled on trying to get some work done on upgrading his ship. He didn't have the know-how to get it up to speed with the kinds of things the Green Lanterns could field but, with judicious use of True Skill, he could get a bit of work done!
Well... More like scavenging and taking a few pages out of Doctor Frankestein's books.
He'd disassembled the entirety of the command bridge already and was working on rewiring and reinstalling the control stations one floor down, in the passenger's area that was directly underneath and connected by an elevator when his work was interrupted by his phone ringing, however. Running one greasy, gloved finger over the screen to accept the call, Alchemist answered without checking who had actually called.
"Yo," the mage answered, his eyes locked on the mess of wires that were spread out along the floor in front of him. "What's up?"
"Alchemist," A voice growled, literally growled from the speaker.
"Yo, Batman! You finally get my message?" Alchemist had sent the man a text the day before, telling him he needed to talk about some time off.
Batman had left him on read.
"Where is Jennifer?" The caped crusader asked, rather than answering the mage.
"I could not tell you," Alchemist calmly answered. The wizard rolled his eyes as he finally found the wire he'd been searching for and fed it into the terminal that would control the flight of the ship.
"Alchemist!" Batman barked, shouting into the wizard's ear. "This is serious! Black Canary says she was drugged before being-"
"Let me cut you off right there," Alchemist interrupted, grabbing another wire that would feed into the display. "I haven't seen Jinx today, got it? So I literally -cannot- tell you where she is."
Alchemist had seen her -yesterday-. He'd even made sure she was well squared away in his own cabin and given her his own room, his own bed to sleep in.
"As for Dinah? The way I heard, she voluntarily took a sleep aid. And she volunteered to have magic used on her. How about you have her checked over before we start throwing around accusations, hmm?" Alchemist could hear Batman take a deep, calming breath through the phone. "Otherwise I'll start throwing around some of my own. And I'm willing to do so with Diana's lasso wrapped around my arm."
"...Alchemist. This animosity between the two of you has gotten out of hand. It needs to stop," Bruce sounded... Tired.
Very tired.
"I completely agree," Alchemist reached for another wire but jerked his hand back with a surprised hiss when he discovered it was live. It hadn't hurt him, no, but the surprise was just as shocking. "So, how about a compromise? We don't work with the team at the same time, I'd imagine that one will be pretty easy. Sound good?"
"...I want to talk. Face to face," Batman answered instead. "Where are you?"
"The dark side of the moon."
Batman absolutely hesitated at Alchemist's answer but, "...I'll see you in thirty minutes."
Much to the mage's delight, the man knew he was being serious.
And he also knew that Alchemist would take more than a little delight in charging him for every wasted second if he tried to call him in on one of his off-days.
Alchemist hummed happily as he got back to work once Bruce hung up on him without so much as saying goodbye.
Still, something was missing...
Extracting his boombox from the inventory, Alchemist swapped out the C.D. inside of it and hit play.
'...ARMOR-CLAD FAITH!!'
Much better.
-----
Hal Jordan had been having a pleasant day. A bit of a weird day but still pleasant.
Wonder Woman had updated her status as 'Busy', same with Captain Marvel. Hawkman and Hawkwoman were both busy doing some kind of regular maintenance on their ship. Stewart was working on something local but his status had him listed as 'Available'.
Something the ladies had to love.
Atom was likewise indisposed, between his new responsibilities with the U.S. government and his status as a free man, the 'Head' of the League wasn't able to spend as much time focusing on it as he used to. The man had been spending a lot of time getting to know the adults his children had become, awkward and difficult as it may have been.
Hal wished him all the luck in the world. He couldn't even begin to imagine how he would feel if he'd had a wife that mourned him, moved on, married someone else and raised his kids with their new dad.
Black Canary hadn't reported in yet for the day, so Hal wasn't sure what was going on with her.
Giovanni had likewise called in as busy, though. The man had said he needed to take his daughter out for some last-minute costume shopping.
Aquaman was also indisposed, dealing with some kind of political problems in his kingdom under the sea.
That pretty much left three people in the Watchtower. Himself, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter.
Except the big green Martian machine was actually pretty busy himself.
Watching anime.
A few days prior, Player One had been brought in by Red Tornado. The girl had been oddly docile about the whole thing and, if the order hadn't been confirmed by Batman, Hal would've had some choice words about locking the girl up in isolation. For whatever reason though, the caped crusader wanted her to get examined by J'onn because there was some kind of mention about a potential psychotic break?
Hal had no idea. He also really had no idea why the Martian Manhunter thought that dragging the girl into one of the recreation rooms and sitting with her while they watched anime counted as therapy.
"...Some days, I really do wonder if this was the best idea," Green Arrow moaned from his place in the main computer room, sitting several terminals away from Hal Jordan. The blond man had a screen up in front of him showing a website for some kind of chat forum called Relativistic Speed. "I'm not getting any younger, you know? I'm happy enough to make Speedy my heir but I kind of feel like I'm letting my parents down if I don't have a kid of my own."
"I kind of get it, yeah," Hal commiserated, a half-empty mug of coffee in hand as he, too, watched the monitor in front of him. "Between your company and this, that's basically two jobs. That can't be good for your personal life."
"What personal life? Running a company is two jobs by itself!" Green Arrow countered, scrolling down the page. "Sometimes I volunteer for console duty because it's a break from everything else."
They had gotten several calls throughout the day but they'd been requests to wait on standby if some of the local authorities on Earth hadn't been able to get a situation under control. A fire here, an attack by an unknown metahuman there. Each one had been followed up within about fifteen minutes with an 'All Clear' code from whichever agency had contacted them.
"I get ya, Green. I really-" Hal's commiserating was cut off when another call came through. Batman was calling through the League line. Hal wasted no time in clicking 'Accept'. "Batman? What's the situation?"
"Hal. I need an escort to the moon," Batman's said, his face taking up the newly opened window on the computer screen.
Hal waited for a second to see if there would be any further details... "Okay, why?"
"I will be meeting with Alchemist there to discuss some ongoing interpersonal issues. Batman out."
Hal stared at the black screen for a long moment before he finished his coffee in a series of large gulps and stood up.
"...Okay. I get that his wizard doesn't get along with everyone but I have to ask," Green Arrow leaned over the side of his chair, one blond eyebrow raised in curiosity as he looked to Green Lantern. "Why the heck is he on the moon?"
"You heard as much as I did," Hal responded, pushing his chair back under the desk. With a brief wave to the affluent archer, he left the room.
Entering the arrival area with the Zeta Terminal, Batman was already there and waiting for him. Hal made an aborted attempt at a greeting but the caped crusader had turned away, his cape flowing dramatically as he headed towards the airlocks.
With a put-upon sigh, Hal followed after him. Batman affixed the bare minimum of protective gear for space exposure, then waited within an airlock for Hal to follow after him. Activating his environmental shield, Hal pressed his hand against the biometric controls and waited as they were sealed into a tiny space and the air extracted.
"So, what's this about?" Hal asked, his ring transmitting his voice directly to Batman's in-cowl communications system.
"...Black Canary called me earlier, she was extremely emotional and seemed to feel as though her ward had done something to her before the girl disappeared," Batman began to explain as the external doors opened and Hal grabbed him with a tether of will, the two rocketing off towards the Earth's largest satellite. "Alchemist knows what happened, likely from communicating with Dinah's ward. The two of them have been friends since before he took on his current form."
"...Huh." The two of them touched down on the moon, next to the-
Hal froze, streaks of red filtering into the green around him as he looked at the plastic Chinese flag, proudly standing where the white, faded United States flag had been planted decades ago.
It may not have been the most well-planned of any actions he could have taken but Hal's will was always a bit stronger than his restraint. A tether of green wound its way around the flag pole and ripped it from the lunar surface, launching it high into the sky and towards the blue planet hovering overhead!
Panting, Hal wordlessly picked up the long-faded icon of American success and stabbed it back through the hard crust of the moon.
"...That may have been unwise," Batman told him, one hand resting on Hal's shoulder. "The argument over that flag has been on the news for weeks ever since it appeared. The Chinese initially claimed they didn't place it, then began backtracking and insisting that their space program was the best in the world."
"...There's more than enough space out here," Hal pointed out, one arm slowly panning around the barren wastes surrounding them. "We don't have to tear each other down to lift ourselves up!"
"Come on," Batman pulled his arm away from the Lantern and pointed forward. "We need to reach the dark side of the moon."
"...What is Alchemist even doing out here?" Hal asked, hovering above the ground and lifting Batman with him.
"He didn't say."
Hal groaned in frustration at Batman's lack of an answer, keeping silent through pure willpower instead. They flew over the countless mountains and craters, stark white shifting to frozen darkness as they passed beyond the portions of the moon that could be seen from the Earth.
Hal hadn't known what to expect and he was fairly sure that Batman hadn't known, either. So the both of them got to be surprised at seeing Alchemist's dragon ship sitting on the dark side of the moon with its boarding ramp opened wide, thick cables leading into it from what looked to be another ship, though its design was significantly different.
Smaller, sleeker and overall much more box-like than the much larger dragon vessel. It had the word 'Nile' written on the side in large, boxy letters.
Of course, the fact that there was also a massive blue dragon curled up in between the two was also something of a shock. From the reports Hal had gotten, Alchemist was black and Dinah had said Jennifer was some kind of iridescent purple.
The great beast lifted its head up on a long, thick neck and cracked open a pair of turquoise eyes. The large dragon stared at them for a long second before curling back up and apparently dozing off.
"...Did you know about that?" Hal asked quietly, watching the dragon as they landed and cautiously approached the open bay of the larger ship on foot.
"...I know he has a smaller white dragon named 'Reis' as a familiar," Batman kept one eye on the sleeping dragon as they walked, just as thoroughly unnerved as Hal felt. "I don't know anything about this one."
Stepping into the ship itself, Hal was struck by two things.
The first, a notice by his ring that he'd just entered a safe environment and that the personal bubble around him and Batman was unnecessary.
The second was a blast of noise, screeching straight into his ears.
'God
Do you see the radiant light?
Do you hear the beautiful chant?
Do you feel the tender warmth?
Nothing here...'
"Well, no idea how but there's air in here." A fact that Hal appreciated immensely as he dropped the protection provided by his ring. It wasn't a large drain on his reserves but, if the dragon outside decided to start a fight? He'd like to have every little bit that he could muster. "Where do you think Alchemist would be?"
Batman... Didn't answer. The man instead was walking right past the Green Lantern and up the stairs. Following the cables.
That, well, that really felt like it should've been obvious.
Walking up and through the halls, Hal noted there were signs plastered around automated doors written in a language he'd never seen before. Letting his ring attempt to parse the words to translate them came up with an unknown error, meaning they were probably from some place the Guardians had never seen before.
Stepping around an elevator, several floors up and into the vessel, they finally found where the cables had been leading them. It was a large room, near the top with great curved windows that went all the way around and offered a fantastic view in front of and to the sides of the ship. Four stations had been set up around the room, seats set in front of monitors...
And no Alchemist.
Hal and Batman both were about to turn around and leave when motion at one of the stations caught their eyes. A hand reaching out from inside of a monitor, one set near the front of the room.
Something Hal struggled to comprehend, even as the hand that was somehow reaching through the overlarge screen grabbed on to the frame and another hand quickly joined it on the opposite side.
"What?" Hal asked in confusion, bringing his ring up to bear at the strange sight. "What am I seeing here, Batman?"
"...I don't know," The caped crusader answered, drawing a bat-a-rang from his belt as something else began to bulge out of the screen.
A mass of brown hair pushed its way out-
And then flopped down, Alchemist dropping out of the screen and literally crawling the rest of the way out.
"...Alchemist?" Batman called, weapon still focused on the mage. "What is going on? What were you just doing?"
"One second, hang on, let me just-" Alchemist fell to the ground once his hips had pulled through the monitor. It took him a long second to get his hands and feet under him but he was soon enough standing in front of the station, facing the two heroes. "Sorry about that! I'm trying to get two different technologies to work together and it's a lot easier to do that from inside the system."
"...What?" Hal asked, his hand dropping down to rest. "What? How does that- How does that even work?!"
"It's a spell called 'Object Possession'," Alchemist brushed himself off and approached the two. "And it gets really weird when you use it on computers. I'm going to have to try it on some different games soon, see what happens."
Next to Hal, Batman reached up and slid aside his face mask to pinch at the bridge of his nose.
"...Are you telling me that you can physically invade a computer system and then interact with its code?" Batman sounded like he couldn't decide what to make of that.
Being fair, neither could Hal.
"Better question," Hal interrupted before the implications of techno-magical hacking could really start to settle in and distract him. "Why is there a giant dragon outside? And how is it breathing?"
"That's Bahamut. I called and asked if he'd like to take a break from his usual duties of turning up, blowing things up and then dissipating into the ether until someone calls him to do it again," Alchemist explained, though he did turn around as he did so to adjust the monitor he came out of. "And I don't think he really needs to breathe. Most gods don't really care for such little limitations."
"...I appreciate that you answered my questions, but, well..." Hal shrugged and looked to Batman for help.
He found none.
"I think you just gave me more questions!"
-----
Alchemist was tempted to ask Hal for some help in translating across the different computer languages. His ring could probably interface with the plucked-apart Danube cruiser Alchemist had bought off the game shop, extract the various programs and then translate those into something that could be used by Alchemist's dragon ship.
But he wasn't sure whether or not Hal was even allowed to do something like that. It wasn't exactly 'Uplifting' a race or anything to that effect but Alchemist was part of a society that, outside of schizo-tech, had only reached their closest satellite.
Regardless, most of that work was already done. Asking Hal to analyze everything with his ring would probably just throw out a massive list of errors that came from trying to intertwine two radically different technologies.
"What, exactly, are you doing?" Batman asked, his growl momentarily forgotten in the face of everything else.
"Well, I took a few pieces of tech out of the ship outside- I bought that, by the way- and I've been working on integrating them into my ship here," Alchemist patted the monitor he'd been working through earlier as though to emphasize it. "And it's going better than I thought it would. The Nile's systems are incredibly user-friendly so I've just been working on training my ship to understand what all I've put into it."
"And what have you put into your ship, exactly?" Hal asked, leaning down to look at the monitor for the gunner's station.
"Took the sensor suite out of the Nile, that's been the biggest hurdle so far," Alchemist admitted, leaning down to press a few buttons on the Pilot's station. The image on the screen in front of it shifted, showing a basic view of what was around the ship expressed as a series of glitching symbols with randomly cycling numbers next to them. "Better than it was before, but I'll need to keep working on it. Took out the replicator, too, so that'll deal with food and waste on my ship. The anti-matter reactor is proving to be a bit difficult, though. It should cover all of my ship's electrical needs but it's been hard trying to dial it back so I don't burn out the equipment here."
"...Did you just say 'Anti-matter'?!" The Green Lantern asked, choking back a shout. "Do you- Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!"
"...Yes?" Alchemist asked, slowly turning around to look at the glowing man. "Accidental annihilation if it gets breached? Penetrative gamma radiation in the immediate area as a side effect of matter annihilation? It's not- Okay, I guess it kind of is rocket science."
"...This- You're absolutely insane, aren't you?" The intergalactic officer brought a hand up to massage his temples and dropped into the captain's chair. "Do you have any idea how many civilizations have put a ban on anti-matter research?"
Alchemist simply shrugged and turned back to the computer he'd been working at before. He was going to have to refresh True Skill with a focus on Engineering. Every time he felt like he made progress, the spell would discharge and he'd need to re-cast it.
Mentioning that he'd picked up an arbitrary immunity to annihilation courtesy of killing Bael probably wouldn't go over well.
Mentioning that he'd 'Interfaced' with the anti-matter inside the reactor with Transmutation and could now Convert normal materials into Anti-Materials would definitely not go over well.
"So, didn't you come here for something specific, Batman?" Alchemist asked, obviously redirecting the conversation.
"...Yes," Batman cleared his throat and sidled up next to Alchemist, looking at the screen filled with foreign symbols. "I have part of Black Canary's story regarding what happened. I want to hear Jennifer's side of things."
"Well, I don't have all of the details but I have the highlights," Alchemist admitted, spinning his chair around and standing up. Batman stepped back to allow him out and the wizard started to walk down the aisle. With a wave, the two other men began to follow him. "From what I understand, the two had an argument and things got pretty heated. Jinx didn't tell me what all she said, she didn't tell me what Dinah said either, but she did say that Black Canary lost her temper and used her Canary Cry on Cinder. That prompted Jinx to grab her dog and teleport over to me, then we had a bit of time to get things cooled down while we were on a quest."
There was no mess hall on the ship and Alchemist hadn't felt like trying to convert the hangar or loading dock into one. Instead he led the other two men with him to the crew quarters, a cramped set of rooms with four beds set into the walls of each. Across the back wall of each room was a set of desks with chairs that were on arms connected to the walls that could swivel out. In one room, on the desk, a large object was bolted in place.
"Coffee?" The mage asked as he began to press buttons on the interface of the bulky box.
"Black," Batman said, accepting the mug that materialized inside of the box. The caped crusader stared at the small porcelain object in curiosity, taking an experimental sniff before trying a small sip.
"Two sugars, two creams," Hal ordered. Like Batman, he was cautious in testing the beverage but offered no complaints upon actually trying it.
Alchemist got himself a mug of hot chocolate instead and then sat down in one of the bunks.
"Now, I don't know how much of her private life Black Canary has told everyone and I'm not in the business of airing out people's dirty secrets," Unless it was funny, the mage did not say. "But Jinx offered to use her magic to fix something for Dinah. Specifically, she offered to cast Regeneration on the woman and suggested she take a sleep aid to avoid having to experience the pain the spell would put her through."
"...Dinah said that Jennifer seemed to be in an especially good mood before that," Batman tried to lead Alchemist further but the wizard only shrugged in response. "Fine. Dinah also claimed that Jennifer made off with a significant amount of property, though she did not seem able to specify what was missing."
"Well, if Jinx took anything that wasn't hers, let me know and I'll be happy to deal with it." Well, alright, Alchemist wouldn't actually be 'Happy' but he'd deal with it. He was also left wondering what Dinah had actually said. The mage hated playing 'Telephone'. "If that's all, I'm still in the process of debugging things in here."
"...Fine. I'll send Green Arrow over to calm her down and get the rest of the story," Batman said before he finished his scalding cup of coffee in one long gulp. "I just need to ask one thing, Alchemist."
"Yeah?"
"Is Jennifer safe?"
Alchemist could feel the minor tension in his neck and jaw relax at Batman's question. "Yeah."
"That might be what Batman needs to know, but I have questions I need to ask," Hal said before setting down his steaming mug and crossing his arms. "Specifically about how well contained the anti-matter reactor is and the threat it poses to everyone here!"
"Well..." Alchemist supposed he could let the man take a scan of it with his ring. Honestly, he was curious as well.
Opening the Game Shop, Alchemist typed in the model of ship he'd bought and then highlighted a more expensive, more complete package. Almost half a million GP later and he had another Danube cruiser, waiting in his inventory.
"How about I let you take a look at how I've got it hooked into my ship, then you take a look at its original housing?" Alchemist offered as he got up and set his empty mug inside of the replicator. The porcelain was dematerialized, returning to raw materials in storage. "Then you can tell me how I can make it safer."
"...You're being reasonable," Hal said, his eyes narrowing under his tiny little green domino mask. "Too reasonable."
"Shocking, isn't it?" Alchemist drolled out, rolling his eyes as he led the men deeper into the bowels of his ship. "I'm acting in my own self-interest by letting an expert tell me things I don't know. In fact, you'd almost think I'm willing to accept that I don't know everything!"
"...I might have deserved that," Hal admitted "but I don't appreciate the sarcasm."
"Wait until I get another cat," Alchemist threatened. "You'll like that even less."
-----
Alchemist knew he wasn't the best company unless he was surrounded by like-minded individuals when it came to any kind of mechanical work. Or welding. Or the very little he used to be willing to do with electronics.
He didn't like to talk while he worked, he didn't like dealing with people getting in his way and he liked having loud rock or metal playing as he worked. It was good music to help keep himself on task and it was just distracting enough that the work didn't feel daunting or mind-numbingly tedious.
Hal had suggested, very strongly, that Alchemist add a second backup battery to the anti-matter generator Alchemist had extracted from the runabout he'd purchased and scrapped. And the man was very insistent that Alchemist have a very loud, very distinct alarm should the second backup battery be activated to maintain containment on the very, very minute amount of antimatter inside the mini-fridge sized reactor.
The tertiary battery wasn't a problem, honestly. Alchemist had just spliced a car battery to the damned thing connected to a circuit that would only activate in the absence of another current.
Programming an alarm would be a lot more work.
"...I see why you wished for me to observe the mortals, Champion," Bahamut's voice echoed, impossibly, through the void of space to fill the narrow halls of Alchemist's ship.
"Fascinating, aren't they?" Alchemist asked, leaning back away from the terminal he was working at to update things throughout the ship.
Like the name.
'Saquasohuh' did not roll off the tongue. Ragnarok wasn't easy, either, but it had some cool factor going for it. The third dragon ship, the Megiddo, wasn't really any better or worse but it certainly fit the theme that Esthar had been going for.
The new name, at least for all internal inquiries in the system and its various displays, now read 'Harlock'. Named for a man who selfishly fought for his beliefs and the freedom to pursue one's own goals and desires.
Alchemist, rather than finish the programming for the new alarm, stepped on to the lift that would take him up to the former command deck.
"They are individuals, people with their own hopes and dreams," Alchemist continued through Bahamut's silence. "But they, like you, are also an expression of a much larger story. A small piece reflecting something far greater."
The command deck had been completely cleared out, everything that had been inside removed and sent downstairs to make way for something that previously wouldn't fit around the various stations.
A crystalline throne now took up the majority of the space, spars of silvery-white material extending around it to pierce into the floor.
The Spelljammer Helm, made from an ensorcelled crystal of Galena Quartz, cast with the full power of the spell itself at level two-hundred. The crystal itself had been the recipient of quite a few spells and items, further and further increasing its utility. One fully leveled 'Acceleration' shard from the world of Bloodstained. One of his enchantment tokens, holding the full power of the combined speed empowerments at a total of three-hundred and twenty-five percent. The spell 'Effortless Armor' had been worked into it, dramatically reducing the impact of the weight from the armored hull. 'Penumbral Disguise' had been cast upon it, allowing whoever piloted the ship to cloak it in shadows to further hide it among the darkness of space. The spell 'Life Bubble' had been cast upon it as well, magically refreshing the air within the envelope of the Spelljammer. And, finally, through Wish the spell 'Protection From Technology' had been included.
Unfortunately, as Alchemist had learned, using the metamagic effect 'Empower' did absolutely nothing but waste one of the three charges he had for the day. Still, just by spell level alone the speed that the ship could operate at in space was three times that of a normal Spelljammer.
Altogether, the Harlock was a blisteringly fast stealth ship that should, in theory, be immune to any form of automated targeting. How well it would actually work against artificially intelligent starships, or the War World, Alchemist could not say.
"They are broken," Bahamut rumbled, something scathing in his voice. "Tiny, insignificant fragments of something that used to be so much more."
"They fought against a force that was attempting to erase all of their realities," Alchemist tried to explain as he sat down on the throne. He shivered as he did so, feeling as his body grew numb but also became so much more. "Honestly, I'd say that it won. A handful of survivors, locked inside of a wall that extends across all of the remaining worlds? That doesn't sound like much of a victory to me."
He could feel the joints and servos that made up the Harlock. He could focus his attention and 'See' as though he were standing on any point of the ship. The articulated claws stretched and flexed, much as his own would, albeit with a very limited range of motion. The multi-barreled lasers spun dryly and the massive particle cannon slung underneath felt eager to charge, to be used.
Alchemist could also feel every door, every computer, could feel the 'uneven' parts of his ship where he'd been working and installing foreign technology.
And every toilet.
That was going to be incredibly awkward.
"...They are not bound to any powers I can affect," Bahamut grumbled. "Chaos, Order, they are not even touched upon by Hydaelyn. Without a class, I cannot offer them the gift of a class-up. Regardless of their worthiness."
"I didn't call you to ask for power," Alchemist explained as he tried to focus his mind all the way back into his body. It was an awkward, difficult affair and he found himself stumbling off of the chair on stiff, numb legs. "Okay, that's gonna take some getting used to- I called you because I thought you might enjoy being here."
"...I have missed this," Bahamut admitted after a while. Alchemist had stepped forward to place one hand upon the clear dome over the command center but he couldn't see down to look upon the great dragon. "I have played many roles, across myriad stories but... I think I most enjoyed my role as the 'God of Eidolons'. I was not cast in the role of a monster, then. Not a willing one."
"What role would you like to play, then?" Alchemist still had more work to do, still so many things that needed done but that did not mean he could not, or would not, satisfy his own curiosity.
"I would like to be the hero, some day," Bahamut sounded wistful and Alchemist could easily imagine the dragon to be looking out to the distance, beyond the black horizon that hid them both from the Earth. "To be more than a mere bit-player in someone else's story."
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
-October 29, 2010
If asked what he'd been thinking when he chose the Esthar High Speed Dragon Ship as his personal space ship, Alchemist would not be afraid to admit he picked it for its aesthetics. There were countless different options across countless different games that he could've gone for, from giant mecha that could shapeshift into space-jets to giant flying pyramids, he wasn't hurting for choice.
The Ragnarok and its two siblings had something going for them that a lot of others didn't, though.
They were cool.
Sure, the Saquasohuh wasn't a floating rock powered by prayers. It wasn't some vaguely steampunk-esque whirlygig contraption that could change from sky-boat to boat to submarine. And, yeah, it had a limited amount of fuel.
And... it was a rushed modification to a high-speed fighter jet, retrofitted with the equipment needed to help suspend the prison of a quasi-immortal monster in space. A confluence of facts that meant it couldn't break free from the Earth's gravity under its own propulsion, needing to be catapulted at a ludicrous speed to reach that goal.
Basically, the damned thing was a tricked out fighter jet that only had advanced enough on-board systems to deal with technology that was only just a bit more advanced than what existed on the actual Earth.
A lot of issues that Alchemist had decided he would try and tinker with on his day off after coming back from Hades and trying to handle the kids inside Mount Justice the day before.
He wasn't neglecting his other responsibilities. Far from it! A secondary Alchemist was still on his own small mountain with the refugees that had come from a myriad of other realities.
Artemis was still talking with Gwyndolin, a conversation that had gone through an entire night and well into today. Artur, taking a break from smashing rocks with his spear, had just been flying through the air on his dragon companion, Torrent. Rosaria seemed to have decided she would like to have a portrait made of her, so she and the little Painter Girl were working on that-
Alchemist had tried to find a name for the strange little godling but she genuinely did not seem to care for anything he suggested.
Aine, the Firekeeper, had actually been tentatively working with one of Andre's hammers to try and work a piece of metal when he'd checked on the two. The woman was so timid but the old smith had been nothing but encouraging to her.
Orbeck and Orlock had been locked in a debate over a spell scroll. Alchemist wasn't sure which but the two of them had been discussing it pretty energetically.
Filianore had found out about Hypnos, somehow, and she'd decided to take up residence in Alchemist's demi-plane, waiting for the titan to wake up.
The witch, Karla... She was starting to worry the wizard. The poor woman had still refused to leave the cabin she'd claimed as her own. The only answer Alchemist had gotten when he'd knocked on her door had been some choked, quiet sobbing.
...He needed to talk to Wonder Woman about doing something, there. She and Kary had been the ones to save Karla from the prison she'd been confined to. Hopefully they could help her again, somehow.
Much as he'd wanted to, Yuffie didn't think they really needed to 'Catch up'. For her, he'd never even been gone. Instead she just grabbed Yorshka and ran off towards the woods, Reis and Cinder happily trailing after them.
Finally, there'd been the old warrior, Gael the Slave Knight. Alchemist didn't know what to do for the ancient beast, freed from the curse that had tormented him throughout the countless ages. Indeed, it seemed Gael didn't know, either. The man just sat upon the steps of his own little cabin, his face angled towards the rising sun with Rosaria and the painter girl kept in his peripheral.
Kary?
Kary had been dead to the world. Passed out cold in her bed, she hadn't wanted to let him go but she also didn't want to get up, either.
His own bed should have been occupied by someone else. He'd been very conscious about not checking, however.
Lacking any other large projects? Alchemist finally settled on trying to get some work done on upgrading his ship. He didn't have the know-how to get it up to speed with the kinds of things the Green Lanterns could field but, with judicious use of True Skill, he could get a bit of work done!
Well... More like scavenging and taking a few pages out of Doctor Frankestein's books.
He'd disassembled the entirety of the command bridge already and was working on rewiring and reinstalling the control stations one floor down, in the passenger's area that was directly underneath and connected by an elevator when his work was interrupted by his phone ringing, however. Running one greasy, gloved finger over the screen to accept the call, Alchemist answered without checking who had actually called.
"Yo," the mage answered, his eyes locked on the mess of wires that were spread out along the floor in front of him. "What's up?"
"Alchemist," A voice growled, literally growled from the speaker.
"Yo, Batman! You finally get my message?" Alchemist had sent the man a text the day before, telling him he needed to talk about some time off.
Batman had left him on read.
"Where is Jennifer?" The caped crusader asked, rather than answering the mage.
"I could not tell you," Alchemist calmly answered. The wizard rolled his eyes as he finally found the wire he'd been searching for and fed it into the terminal that would control the flight of the ship.
"Alchemist!" Batman barked, shouting into the wizard's ear. "This is serious! Black Canary says she was drugged before being-"
"Let me cut you off right there," Alchemist interrupted, grabbing another wire that would feed into the display. "I haven't seen Jinx today, got it? So I literally -cannot- tell you where she is."
Alchemist had seen her -yesterday-. He'd even made sure she was well squared away in his own cabin and given her his own room, his own bed to sleep in.
"As for Dinah? The way I heard, she voluntarily took a sleep aid. And she volunteered to have magic used on her. How about you have her checked over before we start throwing around accusations, hmm?" Alchemist could hear Batman take a deep, calming breath through the phone. "Otherwise I'll start throwing around some of my own. And I'm willing to do so with Diana's lasso wrapped around my arm."
"...Alchemist. This animosity between the two of you has gotten out of hand. It needs to stop," Bruce sounded... Tired.
Very tired.
"I completely agree," Alchemist reached for another wire but jerked his hand back with a surprised hiss when he discovered it was live. It hadn't hurt him, no, but the surprise was just as shocking. "So, how about a compromise? We don't work with the team at the same time, I'd imagine that one will be pretty easy. Sound good?"
"...I want to talk. Face to face," Batman answered instead. "Where are you?"
"The dark side of the moon."
Batman absolutely hesitated at Alchemist's answer but, "...I'll see you in thirty minutes."
Much to the mage's delight, the man knew he was being serious.
And he also knew that Alchemist would take more than a little delight in charging him for every wasted second if he tried to call him in on one of his off-days.
Alchemist hummed happily as he got back to work once Bruce hung up on him without so much as saying goodbye.
Still, something was missing...
Extracting his boombox from the inventory, Alchemist swapped out the C.D. inside of it and hit play.
'...ARMOR-CLAD FAITH!!'
Much better.
-----
Hal Jordan had been having a pleasant day. A bit of a weird day but still pleasant.
Wonder Woman had updated her status as 'Busy', same with Captain Marvel. Hawkman and Hawkwoman were both busy doing some kind of regular maintenance on their ship. Stewart was working on something local but his status had him listed as 'Available'.
Something the ladies had to love.
Atom was likewise indisposed, between his new responsibilities with the U.S. government and his status as a free man, the 'Head' of the League wasn't able to spend as much time focusing on it as he used to. The man had been spending a lot of time getting to know the adults his children had become, awkward and difficult as it may have been.
Hal wished him all the luck in the world. He couldn't even begin to imagine how he would feel if he'd had a wife that mourned him, moved on, married someone else and raised his kids with their new dad.
Black Canary hadn't reported in yet for the day, so Hal wasn't sure what was going on with her.
Giovanni had likewise called in as busy, though. The man had said he needed to take his daughter out for some last-minute costume shopping.
Aquaman was also indisposed, dealing with some kind of political problems in his kingdom under the sea.
That pretty much left three people in the Watchtower. Himself, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter.
Except the big green Martian machine was actually pretty busy himself.
Watching anime.
A few days prior, Player One had been brought in by Red Tornado. The girl had been oddly docile about the whole thing and, if the order hadn't been confirmed by Batman, Hal would've had some choice words about locking the girl up in isolation. For whatever reason though, the caped crusader wanted her to get examined by J'onn because there was some kind of mention about a potential psychotic break?
Hal had no idea. He also really had no idea why the Martian Manhunter thought that dragging the girl into one of the recreation rooms and sitting with her while they watched anime counted as therapy.
"...Some days, I really do wonder if this was the best idea," Green Arrow moaned from his place in the main computer room, sitting several terminals away from Hal Jordan. The blond man had a screen up in front of him showing a website for some kind of chat forum called Relativistic Speed. "I'm not getting any younger, you know? I'm happy enough to make Speedy my heir but I kind of feel like I'm letting my parents down if I don't have a kid of my own."
"I kind of get it, yeah," Hal commiserated, a half-empty mug of coffee in hand as he, too, watched the monitor in front of him. "Between your company and this, that's basically two jobs. That can't be good for your personal life."
"What personal life? Running a company is two jobs by itself!" Green Arrow countered, scrolling down the page. "Sometimes I volunteer for console duty because it's a break from everything else."
They had gotten several calls throughout the day but they'd been requests to wait on standby if some of the local authorities on Earth hadn't been able to get a situation under control. A fire here, an attack by an unknown metahuman there. Each one had been followed up within about fifteen minutes with an 'All Clear' code from whichever agency had contacted them.
"I get ya, Green. I really-" Hal's commiserating was cut off when another call came through. Batman was calling through the League line. Hal wasted no time in clicking 'Accept'. "Batman? What's the situation?"
"Hal. I need an escort to the moon," Batman's said, his face taking up the newly opened window on the computer screen.
Hal waited for a second to see if there would be any further details... "Okay, why?"
"I will be meeting with Alchemist there to discuss some ongoing interpersonal issues. Batman out."
Hal stared at the black screen for a long moment before he finished his coffee in a series of large gulps and stood up.
"...Okay. I get that his wizard doesn't get along with everyone but I have to ask," Green Arrow leaned over the side of his chair, one blond eyebrow raised in curiosity as he looked to Green Lantern. "Why the heck is he on the moon?"
"You heard as much as I did," Hal responded, pushing his chair back under the desk. With a brief wave to the affluent archer, he left the room.
Entering the arrival area with the Zeta Terminal, Batman was already there and waiting for him. Hal made an aborted attempt at a greeting but the caped crusader had turned away, his cape flowing dramatically as he headed towards the airlocks.
With a put-upon sigh, Hal followed after him. Batman affixed the bare minimum of protective gear for space exposure, then waited within an airlock for Hal to follow after him. Activating his environmental shield, Hal pressed his hand against the biometric controls and waited as they were sealed into a tiny space and the air extracted.
"So, what's this about?" Hal asked, his ring transmitting his voice directly to Batman's in-cowl communications system.
"...Black Canary called me earlier, she was extremely emotional and seemed to feel as though her ward had done something to her before the girl disappeared," Batman began to explain as the external doors opened and Hal grabbed him with a tether of will, the two rocketing off towards the Earth's largest satellite. "Alchemist knows what happened, likely from communicating with Dinah's ward. The two of them have been friends since before he took on his current form."
"...Huh." The two of them touched down on the moon, next to the-
Hal froze, streaks of red filtering into the green around him as he looked at the plastic Chinese flag, proudly standing where the white, faded United States flag had been planted decades ago.
It may not have been the most well-planned of any actions he could have taken but Hal's will was always a bit stronger than his restraint. A tether of green wound its way around the flag pole and ripped it from the lunar surface, launching it high into the sky and towards the blue planet hovering overhead!
Panting, Hal wordlessly picked up the long-faded icon of American success and stabbed it back through the hard crust of the moon.
"...That may have been unwise," Batman told him, one hand resting on Hal's shoulder. "The argument over that flag has been on the news for weeks ever since it appeared. The Chinese initially claimed they didn't place it, then began backtracking and insisting that their space program was the best in the world."
"...There's more than enough space out here," Hal pointed out, one arm slowly panning around the barren wastes surrounding them. "We don't have to tear each other down to lift ourselves up!"
"Come on," Batman pulled his arm away from the Lantern and pointed forward. "We need to reach the dark side of the moon."
"...What is Alchemist even doing out here?" Hal asked, hovering above the ground and lifting Batman with him.
"He didn't say."
Hal groaned in frustration at Batman's lack of an answer, keeping silent through pure willpower instead. They flew over the countless mountains and craters, stark white shifting to frozen darkness as they passed beyond the portions of the moon that could be seen from the Earth.
Hal hadn't known what to expect and he was fairly sure that Batman hadn't known, either. So the both of them got to be surprised at seeing Alchemist's dragon ship sitting on the dark side of the moon with its boarding ramp opened wide, thick cables leading into it from what looked to be another ship, though its design was significantly different.
Smaller, sleeker and overall much more box-like than the much larger dragon vessel. It had the word 'Nile' written on the side in large, boxy letters.
Of course, the fact that there was also a massive blue dragon curled up in between the two was also something of a shock. From the reports Hal had gotten, Alchemist was black and Dinah had said Jennifer was some kind of iridescent purple.
The great beast lifted its head up on a long, thick neck and cracked open a pair of turquoise eyes. The large dragon stared at them for a long second before curling back up and apparently dozing off.
"...Did you know about that?" Hal asked quietly, watching the dragon as they landed and cautiously approached the open bay of the larger ship on foot.
"...I know he has a smaller white dragon named 'Reis' as a familiar," Batman kept one eye on the sleeping dragon as they walked, just as thoroughly unnerved as Hal felt. "I don't know anything about this one."
Stepping into the ship itself, Hal was struck by two things.
The first, a notice by his ring that he'd just entered a safe environment and that the personal bubble around him and Batman was unnecessary.
The second was a blast of noise, screeching straight into his ears.
'God
Do you see the radiant light?
Do you hear the beautiful chant?
Do you feel the tender warmth?
Nothing here...'
"Well, no idea how but there's air in here." A fact that Hal appreciated immensely as he dropped the protection provided by his ring. It wasn't a large drain on his reserves but, if the dragon outside decided to start a fight? He'd like to have every little bit that he could muster. "Where do you think Alchemist would be?"
Batman... Didn't answer. The man instead was walking right past the Green Lantern and up the stairs. Following the cables.
That, well, that really felt like it should've been obvious.
Walking up and through the halls, Hal noted there were signs plastered around automated doors written in a language he'd never seen before. Letting his ring attempt to parse the words to translate them came up with an unknown error, meaning they were probably from some place the Guardians had never seen before.
Stepping around an elevator, several floors up and into the vessel, they finally found where the cables had been leading them. It was a large room, near the top with great curved windows that went all the way around and offered a fantastic view in front of and to the sides of the ship. Four stations had been set up around the room, seats set in front of monitors...
And no Alchemist.
Hal and Batman both were about to turn around and leave when motion at one of the stations caught their eyes. A hand reaching out from inside of a monitor, one set near the front of the room.
Something Hal struggled to comprehend, even as the hand that was somehow reaching through the overlarge screen grabbed on to the frame and another hand quickly joined it on the opposite side.
"What?" Hal asked in confusion, bringing his ring up to bear at the strange sight. "What am I seeing here, Batman?"
"...I don't know," The caped crusader answered, drawing a bat-a-rang from his belt as something else began to bulge out of the screen.
A mass of brown hair pushed its way out-
And then flopped down, Alchemist dropping out of the screen and literally crawling the rest of the way out.
"...Alchemist?" Batman called, weapon still focused on the mage. "What is going on? What were you just doing?"
"One second, hang on, let me just-" Alchemist fell to the ground once his hips had pulled through the monitor. It took him a long second to get his hands and feet under him but he was soon enough standing in front of the station, facing the two heroes. "Sorry about that! I'm trying to get two different technologies to work together and it's a lot easier to do that from inside the system."
"...What?" Hal asked, his hand dropping down to rest. "What? How does that- How does that even work?!"
"It's a spell called 'Object Possession'," Alchemist brushed himself off and approached the two. "And it gets really weird when you use it on computers. I'm going to have to try it on some different games soon, see what happens."
Next to Hal, Batman reached up and slid aside his face mask to pinch at the bridge of his nose.
"...Are you telling me that you can physically invade a computer system and then interact with its code?" Batman sounded like he couldn't decide what to make of that.
Being fair, neither could Hal.
"Better question," Hal interrupted before the implications of techno-magical hacking could really start to settle in and distract him. "Why is there a giant dragon outside? And how is it breathing?"
"That's Bahamut. I called and asked if he'd like to take a break from his usual duties of turning up, blowing things up and then dissipating into the ether until someone calls him to do it again," Alchemist explained, though he did turn around as he did so to adjust the monitor he came out of. "And I don't think he really needs to breathe. Most gods don't really care for such little limitations."
"...I appreciate that you answered my questions, but, well..." Hal shrugged and looked to Batman for help.
He found none.
"I think you just gave me more questions!"
-----
Alchemist was tempted to ask Hal for some help in translating across the different computer languages. His ring could probably interface with the plucked-apart Danube cruiser Alchemist had bought off the game shop, extract the various programs and then translate those into something that could be used by Alchemist's dragon ship.
But he wasn't sure whether or not Hal was even allowed to do something like that. It wasn't exactly 'Uplifting' a race or anything to that effect but Alchemist was part of a society that, outside of schizo-tech, had only reached their closest satellite.
Regardless, most of that work was already done. Asking Hal to analyze everything with his ring would probably just throw out a massive list of errors that came from trying to intertwine two radically different technologies.
"What, exactly, are you doing?" Batman asked, his growl momentarily forgotten in the face of everything else.
"Well, I took a few pieces of tech out of the ship outside- I bought that, by the way- and I've been working on integrating them into my ship here," Alchemist patted the monitor he'd been working through earlier as though to emphasize it. "And it's going better than I thought it would. The Nile's systems are incredibly user-friendly so I've just been working on training my ship to understand what all I've put into it."
"And what have you put into your ship, exactly?" Hal asked, leaning down to look at the monitor for the gunner's station.
"Took the sensor suite out of the Nile, that's been the biggest hurdle so far," Alchemist admitted, leaning down to press a few buttons on the Pilot's station. The image on the screen in front of it shifted, showing a basic view of what was around the ship expressed as a series of glitching symbols with randomly cycling numbers next to them. "Better than it was before, but I'll need to keep working on it. Took out the replicator, too, so that'll deal with food and waste on my ship. The anti-matter reactor is proving to be a bit difficult, though. It should cover all of my ship's electrical needs but it's been hard trying to dial it back so I don't burn out the equipment here."
"...Did you just say 'Anti-matter'?!" The Green Lantern asked, choking back a shout. "Do you- Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?!"
"...Yes?" Alchemist asked, slowly turning around to look at the glowing man. "Accidental annihilation if it gets breached? Penetrative gamma radiation in the immediate area as a side effect of matter annihilation? It's not- Okay, I guess it kind of is rocket science."
"...This- You're absolutely insane, aren't you?" The intergalactic officer brought a hand up to massage his temples and dropped into the captain's chair. "Do you have any idea how many civilizations have put a ban on anti-matter research?"
Alchemist simply shrugged and turned back to the computer he'd been working at before. He was going to have to refresh True Skill with a focus on Engineering. Every time he felt like he made progress, the spell would discharge and he'd need to re-cast it.
Mentioning that he'd picked up an arbitrary immunity to annihilation courtesy of killing Bael probably wouldn't go over well.
Mentioning that he'd 'Interfaced' with the anti-matter inside the reactor with Transmutation and could now Convert normal materials into Anti-Materials would definitely not go over well.
"So, didn't you come here for something specific, Batman?" Alchemist asked, obviously redirecting the conversation.
"...Yes," Batman cleared his throat and sidled up next to Alchemist, looking at the screen filled with foreign symbols. "I have part of Black Canary's story regarding what happened. I want to hear Jennifer's side of things."
"Well, I don't have all of the details but I have the highlights," Alchemist admitted, spinning his chair around and standing up. Batman stepped back to allow him out and the wizard started to walk down the aisle. With a wave, the two other men began to follow him. "From what I understand, the two had an argument and things got pretty heated. Jinx didn't tell me what all she said, she didn't tell me what Dinah said either, but she did say that Black Canary lost her temper and used her Canary Cry on Cinder. That prompted Jinx to grab her dog and teleport over to me, then we had a bit of time to get things cooled down while we were on a quest."
There was no mess hall on the ship and Alchemist hadn't felt like trying to convert the hangar or loading dock into one. Instead he led the other two men with him to the crew quarters, a cramped set of rooms with four beds set into the walls of each. Across the back wall of each room was a set of desks with chairs that were on arms connected to the walls that could swivel out. In one room, on the desk, a large object was bolted in place.
"Coffee?" The mage asked as he began to press buttons on the interface of the bulky box.
"Black," Batman said, accepting the mug that materialized inside of the box. The caped crusader stared at the small porcelain object in curiosity, taking an experimental sniff before trying a small sip.
"Two sugars, two creams," Hal ordered. Like Batman, he was cautious in testing the beverage but offered no complaints upon actually trying it.
Alchemist got himself a mug of hot chocolate instead and then sat down in one of the bunks.
"Now, I don't know how much of her private life Black Canary has told everyone and I'm not in the business of airing out people's dirty secrets," Unless it was funny, the mage did not say. "But Jinx offered to use her magic to fix something for Dinah. Specifically, she offered to cast Regeneration on the woman and suggested she take a sleep aid to avoid having to experience the pain the spell would put her through."
"...Dinah said that Jennifer seemed to be in an especially good mood before that," Batman tried to lead Alchemist further but the wizard only shrugged in response. "Fine. Dinah also claimed that Jennifer made off with a significant amount of property, though she did not seem able to specify what was missing."
"Well, if Jinx took anything that wasn't hers, let me know and I'll be happy to deal with it." Well, alright, Alchemist wouldn't actually be 'Happy' but he'd deal with it. He was also left wondering what Dinah had actually said. The mage hated playing 'Telephone'. "If that's all, I'm still in the process of debugging things in here."
"...Fine. I'll send Green Arrow over to calm her down and get the rest of the story," Batman said before he finished his scalding cup of coffee in one long gulp. "I just need to ask one thing, Alchemist."
"Yeah?"
"Is Jennifer safe?"
Alchemist could feel the minor tension in his neck and jaw relax at Batman's question. "Yeah."
"That might be what Batman needs to know, but I have questions I need to ask," Hal said before setting down his steaming mug and crossing his arms. "Specifically about how well contained the anti-matter reactor is and the threat it poses to everyone here!"
"Well..." Alchemist supposed he could let the man take a scan of it with his ring. Honestly, he was curious as well.
Opening the Game Shop, Alchemist typed in the model of ship he'd bought and then highlighted a more expensive, more complete package. Almost half a million GP later and he had another Danube cruiser, waiting in his inventory.
"How about I let you take a look at how I've got it hooked into my ship, then you take a look at its original housing?" Alchemist offered as he got up and set his empty mug inside of the replicator. The porcelain was dematerialized, returning to raw materials in storage. "Then you can tell me how I can make it safer."
"...You're being reasonable," Hal said, his eyes narrowing under his tiny little green domino mask. "Too reasonable."
"Shocking, isn't it?" Alchemist drolled out, rolling his eyes as he led the men deeper into the bowels of his ship. "I'm acting in my own self-interest by letting an expert tell me things I don't know. In fact, you'd almost think I'm willing to accept that I don't know everything!"
"...I might have deserved that," Hal admitted "but I don't appreciate the sarcasm."
"Wait until I get another cat," Alchemist threatened. "You'll like that even less."
-----
Alchemist knew he wasn't the best company unless he was surrounded by like-minded individuals when it came to any kind of mechanical work. Or welding. Or the very little he used to be willing to do with electronics.
He didn't like to talk while he worked, he didn't like dealing with people getting in his way and he liked having loud rock or metal playing as he worked. It was good music to help keep himself on task and it was just distracting enough that the work didn't feel daunting or mind-numbingly tedious.
Hal had suggested, very strongly, that Alchemist add a second backup battery to the anti-matter generator Alchemist had extracted from the runabout he'd purchased and scrapped. And the man was very insistent that Alchemist have a very loud, very distinct alarm should the second backup battery be activated to maintain containment on the very, very minute amount of antimatter inside the mini-fridge sized reactor.
The tertiary battery wasn't a problem, honestly. Alchemist had just spliced a car battery to the damned thing connected to a circuit that would only activate in the absence of another current.
Programming an alarm would be a lot more work.
"...I see why you wished for me to observe the mortals, Champion," Bahamut's voice echoed, impossibly, through the void of space to fill the narrow halls of Alchemist's ship.
"Fascinating, aren't they?" Alchemist asked, leaning back away from the terminal he was working at to update things throughout the ship.
Like the name.
'Saquasohuh' did not roll off the tongue. Ragnarok wasn't easy, either, but it had some cool factor going for it. The third dragon ship, the Megiddo, wasn't really any better or worse but it certainly fit the theme that Esthar had been going for.
The new name, at least for all internal inquiries in the system and its various displays, now read 'Harlock'. Named for a man who selfishly fought for his beliefs and the freedom to pursue one's own goals and desires.
Alchemist, rather than finish the programming for the new alarm, stepped on to the lift that would take him up to the former command deck.
"They are individuals, people with their own hopes and dreams," Alchemist continued through Bahamut's silence. "But they, like you, are also an expression of a much larger story. A small piece reflecting something far greater."
The command deck had been completely cleared out, everything that had been inside removed and sent downstairs to make way for something that previously wouldn't fit around the various stations.
A crystalline throne now took up the majority of the space, spars of silvery-white material extending around it to pierce into the floor.
The Spelljammer Helm, made from an ensorcelled crystal of Galena Quartz, cast with the full power of the spell itself at level two-hundred. The crystal itself had been the recipient of quite a few spells and items, further and further increasing its utility. One fully leveled 'Acceleration' shard from the world of Bloodstained. One of his enchantment tokens, holding the full power of the combined speed empowerments at a total of three-hundred and twenty-five percent. The spell 'Effortless Armor' had been worked into it, dramatically reducing the impact of the weight from the armored hull. 'Penumbral Disguise' had been cast upon it, allowing whoever piloted the ship to cloak it in shadows to further hide it among the darkness of space. The spell 'Life Bubble' had been cast upon it as well, magically refreshing the air within the envelope of the Spelljammer. And, finally, through Wish the spell 'Protection From Technology' had been included.
Unfortunately, as Alchemist had learned, using the metamagic effect 'Empower' did absolutely nothing but waste one of the three charges he had for the day. Still, just by spell level alone the speed that the ship could operate at in space was three times that of a normal Spelljammer.
Altogether, the Harlock was a blisteringly fast stealth ship that should, in theory, be immune to any form of automated targeting. How well it would actually work against artificially intelligent starships, or the War World, Alchemist could not say.
"They are broken," Bahamut rumbled, something scathing in his voice. "Tiny, insignificant fragments of something that used to be so much more."
"They fought against a force that was attempting to erase all of their realities," Alchemist tried to explain as he sat down on the throne. He shivered as he did so, feeling as his body grew numb but also became so much more. "Honestly, I'd say that it won. A handful of survivors, locked inside of a wall that extends across all of the remaining worlds? That doesn't sound like much of a victory to me."
He could feel the joints and servos that made up the Harlock. He could focus his attention and 'See' as though he were standing on any point of the ship. The articulated claws stretched and flexed, much as his own would, albeit with a very limited range of motion. The multi-barreled lasers spun dryly and the massive particle cannon slung underneath felt eager to charge, to be used.
Alchemist could also feel every door, every computer, could feel the 'uneven' parts of his ship where he'd been working and installing foreign technology.
And every toilet.
That was going to be incredibly awkward.
"...They are not bound to any powers I can affect," Bahamut grumbled. "Chaos, Order, they are not even touched upon by Hydaelyn. Without a class, I cannot offer them the gift of a class-up. Regardless of their worthiness."
"I didn't call you to ask for power," Alchemist explained as he tried to focus his mind all the way back into his body. It was an awkward, difficult affair and he found himself stumbling off of the chair on stiff, numb legs. "Okay, that's gonna take some getting used to- I called you because I thought you might enjoy being here."
"...I have missed this," Bahamut admitted after a while. Alchemist had stepped forward to place one hand upon the clear dome over the command center but he couldn't see down to look upon the great dragon. "I have played many roles, across myriad stories but... I think I most enjoyed my role as the 'God of Eidolons'. I was not cast in the role of a monster, then. Not a willing one."
"What role would you like to play, then?" Alchemist still had more work to do, still so many things that needed done but that did not mean he could not, or would not, satisfy his own curiosity.
"I would like to be the hero, some day," Bahamut sounded wistful and Alchemist could easily imagine the dragon to be looking out to the distance, beyond the black horizon that hid them both from the Earth. "To be more than a mere bit-player in someone else's story."
LordofTentacles
Surprisingly Sturdy
- Location
- Louisiana
I don't know if anybody else feels this way but I'm really starting to dislike Alchemist. When this fic first started it was quirky and fun too read but as the story has progressed he's become kind of a dick. Maybe he always was but if so why am I sick of his attitude now?
Something I really love about this fic is how other characters are written. They feel real like even if I guess I'm supposed to hate Dinah I still feel bad for her and want her whole storyline to end nice. Whatever, great job on the chapter.
Something I really love about this fic is how other characters are written. They feel real like even if I guess I'm supposed to hate Dinah I still feel bad for her and want her whole storyline to end nice. Whatever, great job on the chapter.
Wow!
Brilliant magical enchantments for the starship! I never would've have thought of Effortless Armor, Penumbral Disguise, Life Bubble, or Protection from Technology.
OTHER ENCHANTMENT POSSIBILITIES:
=(1) As an anti-boarding feature, have engraved Magic Circle against Evil (see D&D "Stronghold Builder's Guide") in strategic locations as rally points the crew can fall back to. The cargo hold and the cockpit are good spots to regroup and mount a defense.
=(2) A thin layer of Holy Silver on the doors and doorframes to deter demons, undead, and evil spirits.
=(3) Have "in case of emergency break glass" flasks of holy water; I don't think Alchemist would bother installing a ship-wide holy water sprinkler system like in the Keanu Reeves "Constantine" movie.
=(4) Encase the computer core in a thin layer of Holy Silver, you never know when an evil spirit will try to possess your computer system.
Well. Does that scream 'Bahamut's Bizarre Adventure' spin-off series to anyone else? It certainly sounds like omake fodder.
Well, being fair, he reads as just on the edge of being a misanthrope a lot of the time to me too. It certainly doesn't help that barring pretty much Kary and Jinx? All his character development has been in terms of his System, magic, and equipment. Not really his relationships with other characters.
Having a couple nasty set-backs (like the bacon incident) really didn't help, and compounding the issue is the stream of extended trips into Instant Quests interrupting things. The bacon incident was ages ago, Al got over it, then he realized it wasn't actually the participants fault but rather the realm they were staying in, and pretty much all parties decided to apologize...but that hasn't actually happened yet, and they're all still acting more tense.
I'd say the most disappointing part for me is probably how Al is still so passive-aggressive with some of the heroes he's worked with for a while. With that said... narratively, Al still has a lot of reasons to be obsessively gathering power worrying rather then taking a chill pill and actually talking with his allies. Hopefully after Zeus is dealt with that behavior can go on the back-burner for a while, and we'll see some more character growth rather then power-leveling.
Well, that, and hopefully Al can also reapproach his growth for the next crunch time. I get that he likes tinkering, but it seems like he spends a LOT of time on grinding out gear (basically everything but the primary armor/gun/sword/spear) that doesn't actually help him all that much, or is quickly obsoleted. And it's not even because he LIKES doing that, not with how often we've gotten his frustrations with things voiced to us, either in farming materials or repeatedly enchanting/transmuting/merging items. He just seems to have a compulsive need to be 'productive'. It's honestly almost as exhausting as Alchemist seems to feel to keep reading that. He's already maxed all his crafting skills/spells, he's got a set of gear that covers nearly everything, good weapons, and spells to cover what his weapons don't. Besides the obvious hobby projects (house and space-ship), and making gear for his friends...he doesn't really need to be grinding his life away for mediocre bits and bobs from here and there. That's what leveling up, IQ's, and going to the System Shop with (nearly) unlimited money are for. And besides, for all the masochistic Gamer needs, the nastiest grind (item world) will remain anyway.
Edit: That's like the third time today I've had to delete a double post when I meant to just edit-in another response.
Edit 2: I suppose it's already been mentioned, but for Ficser's sake, I'll second that one of the best parts of the story is the other characters. Nevermind that they all stay true to their source or established development...they actually read like they are different people in speech and thought. Too often, even for otherwise good authors, I'll see bleed-through of mannerisms from their main-character into others. Especially if they have a primary PoV, but make alternates frequently enough to not necessarily dedicate a lot of attention to crafting each one.
Last edited:
- Location
- Here
Okay, real talk: I would play the ever-loving shit out of any final fantasy game where the summons are the main characters.
Probably as Shiva. And no, I'm not going to explain why.
... Bahamut the Hero? i pitty the fool that will make him take things seriously, His Flare is no joke in any of the Games.
- Pronouns
- She
Overexposure? Honestly, he feels a lot like a few folks I used to know. Great in small doses, but a little rough to deal with in the long term due to their personalities. Admittedly, part of it seems to be more from him simply not meshing with the people he's exposed to combined with the stresses in his life.
I imagine that once Zeus has been knocked down a few pegs (or thrown off the mountain entirely) and after the Dinah situation gets sorted out, Alchemist will probably simmer down. With that all said, however, YJ itself seems like a setting not well suited for Alchemist on a personal level. Beyond the usual comic book-isms applied to peoples' personalities, YJ has a... Lesser interpretation of the League and Alchemist seems predisposed to vastly prefer dealing with
Last edited:
You can Item World literally anything (that isn't being protected by a power beyond Terra-tan's power or authority to affect with the System at least). Either on the large scale like a gun, or the small, like all the components that MAKE the gun. I think it was established earlier though, that while perfecting each individual piece is better then doing the whole item, it's not by much, and certainly not enough to justify slogging through the item world more then a few more times (and there are truly, exceptionally few items that have few enough components for that). And also that if the item is otherwise changed through other crafting abilities, the efficiency drops even more (as all components were 'perfected' for a form the object no longer is). Until you go through the IW for every part of it again.
As Al is continuously getting more spells and gear from different settings to incorporate into his stuff, it's only worth using the IW for his best stuff, only on a macro-scale, and only just before he actually really needs it (or it otherwise seems like he's reach the end of a wave of crafting improvements and he'll only be making minor adjustments going forward).
As for the Ship? It reads like for the most part he's only keeping the basic structure. There's better materials and tech to use for it just in DC, much less with his System shop. If he does IW it, it'll be a long time from now after he's mostly satisfied with his improvements.
Last edited:
Ethan Eldritch
Multi-Dimensional Eldritch Tree
- Location
- The Void between
- Pronouns
- Tree
How you wrote Bahamut made me genuinely misty-eyed. You made a great emotional appeal for what it would be like to be him across every single Final Fantasy experiencing everything he did, usually as a tool for the powerful, broke my heart a little.
- Location
- Land of Confusion
I would play that game. Why the fuck hasn't Square made it? Why did the summons wind up as the bad guys in FF 13 and 15? Bah.
AirBreather
Exploding Universes Everywhere!
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Random super-special spell/magic/item selection!!! *cough* !!!
CthulhuTech
Ward of Solitude (CthulhuTech Corebook p193): protects the bearer from any kind of surveillance or scrying; only visible and audible to the naked senses.
Ward of Seclusion (CthulhuTech Corebook p194): Guards a place the same way a Ward of Solitude guards a person.
D&D
Superior Invisibility (D&D; 9th level spell)
D&D - Spelljammer
Pathfinder
Evangelion
S2 Engines @ https://evangelion.fandom.com/wiki/S²_Engine
Thanks for writing!
CthulhuTech
Ward of Solitude (CthulhuTech Corebook p193): protects the bearer from any kind of surveillance or scrying; only visible and audible to the naked senses.
Ward of Solitude (aka: Personal Privacy Ward)
First Order
Type: Protection
Learning Time: 1 Month
Insanity Test: None
Occult Rating Required: Novice
Intellect Required: 7
Tenacity Required: 7
Prep Time: 6 Hours
Casting Time: 6 Hours
Difficulty: Average
Extended Tests Required: 2
Ruach Cost: 15
Components & Requirements: at least a 100 square foot reasonably undisturbed working space, a bell or wind chimes, candles, various incense. Also, henna for tattoos (or something similar) to mark the recipient of the ward or a small personal item of some kind on which to anchor the ward. Primary caster must have the Artist skill at a Student level of expertise.
Effects: This ward protects the bearer from any kind of surveillance or scrying – he is essentially only visible and audible to the naked senses. Nothing mechanical, electronic, or supernatural can detect him. This includes the superhuman senses of monsters, Dhohanoids, or shifted Tagers. However, an Eldritch Faculties spell or the Powder of Ibn Ghazi will still reveal the ward. The Ward of Solitude lasts for one week.
First Order
Type: Protection
Learning Time: 1 Month
Insanity Test: None
Occult Rating Required: Novice
Intellect Required: 7
Tenacity Required: 7
Prep Time: 6 Hours
Casting Time: 6 Hours
Difficulty: Average
Extended Tests Required: 2
Ruach Cost: 15
Components & Requirements: at least a 100 square foot reasonably undisturbed working space, a bell or wind chimes, candles, various incense. Also, henna for tattoos (or something similar) to mark the recipient of the ward or a small personal item of some kind on which to anchor the ward. Primary caster must have the Artist skill at a Student level of expertise.
Effects: This ward protects the bearer from any kind of surveillance or scrying – he is essentially only visible and audible to the naked senses. Nothing mechanical, electronic, or supernatural can detect him. This includes the superhuman senses of monsters, Dhohanoids, or shifted Tagers. However, an Eldritch Faculties spell or the Powder of Ibn Ghazi will still reveal the ward. The Ward of Solitude lasts for one week.
Ward of Seclusion (CthulhuTech Corebook p194): Guards a place the same way a Ward of Solitude guards a person.
Ward of Seclusion (aka: Privacy Ward)
Second Order
Type: Protection
Legality: Legal (Permit Required)
Learning Time: 4 Months
Insanity Test: Average/1 Insanity Point
Occult Rating Required: Adept
Intellect Required: 8
Tenacity Required: 7
Prep Time: 1 Day
Casting Time: 1 Day
Difficulty: Challenging
Extended Tests Required: 3
Ruach Cost: 25
Components & Requirements: at least a 100 square foot reasonably undisturbed working space, a bell or wind chimes, candles, various incense. Also, paints and brush (or something similar) to mark the space or an object of some kind on which to anchor the ward. Primary caster must have the Artist skill at a Novice level of expertise.
Effects: This ward guards a place the same way a Ward of Solitude guards a person. The place is protected from any kind of surveillance or scrying – it and anything within it is essentially only visible and audible to the naked senses. Nothing mechanical, electronic, or supernatural can see in, including the superhuman senses of shifted Tagers. However, an Eldritch Faculties spell or the Powder of Ibn Ghazi will still reveal the ward. The Ward of Seclusion lasts for one month and protects an 800 square foot area.
Second Order
Type: Protection
Legality: Legal (Permit Required)
Learning Time: 4 Months
Insanity Test: Average/1 Insanity Point
Occult Rating Required: Adept
Intellect Required: 8
Tenacity Required: 7
Prep Time: 1 Day
Casting Time: 1 Day
Difficulty: Challenging
Extended Tests Required: 3
Ruach Cost: 25
Components & Requirements: at least a 100 square foot reasonably undisturbed working space, a bell or wind chimes, candles, various incense. Also, paints and brush (or something similar) to mark the space or an object of some kind on which to anchor the ward. Primary caster must have the Artist skill at a Novice level of expertise.
Effects: This ward guards a place the same way a Ward of Solitude guards a person. The place is protected from any kind of surveillance or scrying – it and anything within it is essentially only visible and audible to the naked senses. Nothing mechanical, electronic, or supernatural can see in, including the superhuman senses of shifted Tagers. However, an Eldritch Faculties spell or the Powder of Ibn Ghazi will still reveal the ward. The Ward of Seclusion lasts for one month and protects an 800 square foot area.
D&D
Superior Invisibility (D&D; 9th level spell)
@ Superior Invisibility – Spell – D&D Tools
@ (Complete Arcane, p. 125) (Spell Compendium, p. 125)
Illusion (Glamer)
Level: Sorcerer 9, Wizard 9,
Components: V, S,
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal or touch
Target: You or a creature or object weighing no more than 100 lb./level
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No
This powerful glamer functions like invisibility, except that it masks image, scent, and sound alike, concealing the subject from all senses except touch and taste. As with greater invisibility, this spell doesn't end if the subject attacks. While invisible, the subject exudes no scent and radiates a silence that absorbs all sound and vibration in a 5-foot radius, preventing detection by tremorsense and similar abilities, as well as preventing speech and the casting of spells with somatic components (though the subject remains able to detect scents and can hear as normal).
Superior invisibility renders the recipient immune to detection by see invisibility, faerie fire, glitterdust, invisibility purge, dust of appearance, and the blindsense ability, though creatures under the effect of the spell can be detected by true seeing or the blindsight ability. Certain mundane conditions (such as leaving footprints) can also render a subject detectable.
@ (Complete Arcane, p. 125) (Spell Compendium, p. 125)
Illusion (Glamer)
Level: Sorcerer 9, Wizard 9,
Components: V, S,
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: Personal or touch
Target: You or a creature or object weighing no more than 100 lb./level
Duration: 1 hour/level (D)
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: No
This powerful glamer functions like invisibility, except that it masks image, scent, and sound alike, concealing the subject from all senses except touch and taste. As with greater invisibility, this spell doesn't end if the subject attacks. While invisible, the subject exudes no scent and radiates a silence that absorbs all sound and vibration in a 5-foot radius, preventing detection by tremorsense and similar abilities, as well as preventing speech and the casting of spells with somatic components (though the subject remains able to detect scents and can hear as normal).
Superior invisibility renders the recipient immune to detection by see invisibility, faerie fire, glitterdust, invisibility purge, dust of appearance, and the blindsense ability, though creatures under the effect of the spell can be detected by true seeing or the blindsight ability. Certain mundane conditions (such as leaving footprints) can also render a subject detectable.
D&D - Spelljammer
Antennae of Triangulation
XP Value: — GP Value: 55,000, Realmspace
"These antennae are usually over 8 feet in width and can be 20 feet or more in length. They appear to be antennae removed from some gargantuan insect. There is a helmet of liaison that accompanies the antennae when it is first purchased — assuming one is for sale — that links the antennae and the wearer of the helmet. The helmet relays the information found by the antennae in exact detail to the wearer. When the helmet is put on, the wearer immediately gets a complete picture of the space around him. The operator sees everything in a 360-degree, 10,000 yard sphere. Every little detail can be viewed mentally. The positioning of these items changes whenever the ship's heading changes, or if the objects in sight change. These antennae make it impossible for anyone to surprise the ship, as long as someone is wearing the helmet. The antennae can be used to tell the wearer where an approaching spelljamming ship or an asteroid is in relation to the vessel's current location. The items, having no charges, can be used an unlimited number of times."
Helmet of Liaison
XP Value: 1,000 GP Value: 10,000, War Captain's Companion
"These helmets can be purchased for both the antennae of triangulation and the spelljammer detector magical items. For more information on the helmet's purpose, please see those descriptions. Without either of the companion pieces, the helmet of liaison is useless."
XP Value: — GP Value: 55,000, Realmspace
"These antennae are usually over 8 feet in width and can be 20 feet or more in length. They appear to be antennae removed from some gargantuan insect. There is a helmet of liaison that accompanies the antennae when it is first purchased — assuming one is for sale — that links the antennae and the wearer of the helmet. The helmet relays the information found by the antennae in exact detail to the wearer. When the helmet is put on, the wearer immediately gets a complete picture of the space around him. The operator sees everything in a 360-degree, 10,000 yard sphere. Every little detail can be viewed mentally. The positioning of these items changes whenever the ship's heading changes, or if the objects in sight change. These antennae make it impossible for anyone to surprise the ship, as long as someone is wearing the helmet. The antennae can be used to tell the wearer where an approaching spelljamming ship or an asteroid is in relation to the vessel's current location. The items, having no charges, can be used an unlimited number of times."
Helmet of Liaison
XP Value: 1,000 GP Value: 10,000, War Captain's Companion
"These helmets can be purchased for both the antennae of triangulation and the spelljammer detector magical items. For more information on the helmet's purpose, please see those descriptions. Without either of the companion pieces, the helmet of liaison is useless."
Pathfinder
@ https://aonprd.com/MonsterDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Reclamation Robot
Item Creation (Ex): "Reclamation robots are known for their startling creativity in repairing damaged technology. A reclamation robot ignores all of the item creation feat requirements for creating a technological item, but must have access to a sufficient amount of scrap metal and spare parts in order to create or repair an item (the robot must still expend materials equal to the item's cost). A reclamation robot can attempt a Knowledge (engineering) check to restore a timeworn technological item to full functionality—the DC of this check is equal to the item's Craft DC + 5, and requires an expenditure of technological components worth a total amount of money equal to the timeworn item's cost (half the cost of the object in its pristine condition). Failure results in the destruction of the item. When a reclamation robot restores a technological item to full functionality in this manner, if the robot exceeds its DC by a result of 10 or more, it improves the item in some way—choose one of the following improvements or determine one randomly."
Item Creation (Ex): "Reclamation robots are known for their startling creativity in repairing damaged technology. A reclamation robot ignores all of the item creation feat requirements for creating a technological item, but must have access to a sufficient amount of scrap metal and spare parts in order to create or repair an item (the robot must still expend materials equal to the item's cost). A reclamation robot can attempt a Knowledge (engineering) check to restore a timeworn technological item to full functionality—the DC of this check is equal to the item's Craft DC + 5, and requires an expenditure of technological components worth a total amount of money equal to the timeworn item's cost (half the cost of the object in its pristine condition). Failure results in the destruction of the item. When a reclamation robot restores a technological item to full functionality in this manner, if the robot exceeds its DC by a result of 10 or more, it improves the item in some way—choose one of the following improvements or determine one randomly."
- The item's capacity permanently increases by 50%.
- If the item is a weapon or armor, it becomes masterwork.
- The item becomes hardened (increase its hardness by 2).
- The item becomes fortified (increase its hit points by 50%).
- The item becomes lightweight (weight is divided in half).
Evangelion
S2 Engines @ https://evangelion.fandom.com/wiki/S²_Engine
Thanks for writing!