I really get the feeling you don't know what is actually meant when someone says "system". You're the only one I know of that uses it to describe "people in my head speaking up". Most people use "system" to describe a method of growth that is unnatural, usually with a different flavour to it, like a "lust system", or a "cooking and eating system" like "I Only Level Up From Eating". Or it can be a straight "Gamer" system, like what "The Gamer" and "Solo Leveling" have. Don't take that as criticism, though. It's a unique take. I just wish it didn't feel off somehow.
I really get the feeling you don't know what is actually meant when someone says "system". You're the only one I know of that uses it to describe "people in my head speaking up". Most people use "system" to describe a method of growth that is unnatural, usually with a different flavour to it, like a "lust system", or a "cooking and eating system" like "I Only Level Up From Eating". Or it can be a straight "Gamer" system, like what "The Gamer" and "Solo Leveling" have. Don't take that as criticism, though. It's a unique take. I just wish it didn't feel off somehow.
I'm actually surprised, that we're the only ones you know. Only ones on this forum, perhaps. But there are... a lot of Discord communities that use it like we do. It's where we picked the term up in the first place.
I really get the feeling you don't know what is actually meant when someone says "system". You're the only one I know of that uses it to describe "people in my head speaking up". Most people use "system" to describe a method of growth that is unnatural, usually with a different flavour to it, like a "lust system", or a "cooking and eating system" like "I Only Level Up From Eating". Or it can be a straight "Gamer" system, like what "The Gamer" and "Solo Leveling" have. Don't take that as criticism, though. It's a unique take. I just wish it didn't feel off somehow.
The use of the term "system" to describe a "multiple people, one body" situation is pretty well-accepted terminology in plural communities. It's certainly understandable that you haven't really had the opportunity to interact with those communities in order to learn this, but it is a valid use of the word.
In short, a system is a term for someone who has multiple people sharing the same body/brain. (If you've seen the new Moon Knight, he's a system and falls under the same general umbrella as Alex Prior does. If you're not familiar with Moon Knight, instead think more about how Hulk and Bruce Banner share the same body but have different personalities, problem-solving approaches, motivations, et cetera. Same kind of thing, except IRL systems don't get superpowers or experience that kind of drastic physical change when they switch.) So in this specific case, the self-insert is a system and is therefore more of a selves-insert, with all of the people who normally would be sharing a body/brain spread out across multiple shipgirl bodies.
For further information, you might find this website helpful as an introduction to the basic concepts you are likely to need to know to understand this fanfiction.
@Alex Prior, feel free to correct us if we have made a comparison that you dislike or if you feel we have explained this poorly.
Don't worry, the next chapter is coming. But to tide y'all over.... more Remnant Fleet.
II
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Whoosh.
Powerful leathery wings beat the air, blowing away soot and ash with each wingbeat. A faint clinking sound signalled bits of the Bullhead raining down on the ground below them.
Cinder, currently as New Jersey, hovered mid-air, the rhythmic motion of her dragon wings keeping her aloft. They stared down at their adversary.
A glance was spared at the gaping form of Torchwick, before he was disregarded as unimportant.
Cinder felt an itching on her skull.
That'll be the horns growing in, New Jersey said apologetically. Unlike our rigging, as permanent as the wings.
Rigging?
She looked down, or tried to. Her body wasn't moving, and she remembered that she'd let New Jersey take charge. Why had she agreed to that, again?
Because you would have died otherwise.
"That's no excuse," she thought back. "I'd rather die than-" She clammed up.
Than be a slave again, New Jersey finished grimly.
Cinder felt as if she was plunged into ice cold water.
Yes, New Jersey said. I know.
Before Cinder could formulate an answer, however, that crazy slip of a girl interrupted.
"I can still shoot you out of the sky, you know!"
New Jersey sighed. "You don't want to try that, little Soviet machine," she replied, equally loudly. "But if you feel like being obnoxious, I'm sure there's a broadside you can try to dodge."
Cinder felt something metallic moving behind her. Then the aforementioned something came into view.
Nine enormous cannons, or at least she could tell they were supposed to be enormous, protruded from three gigantic turrets, three cannons apiece. Dozens of smaller guns stuck out from the arms of the rigs that the turrets sat on. Out of sight, Cinder could feel missiles. Waiting.
The cannons tracked the slip. She felt rather than saw them lock on.
"So, how about we both stand down and talk like civilised beings?" New Jersey inquired idly.
"That would be advised."
New Jersey glanced towards the source of the new voice, and Cinder felt her hackles rise. "That's..."
Oz, New Jersey agreed, almost idly, and unlike her, completely unconcerned.
"Professor Ozpin," she greeted. "How's the weather in Beacon this evening?"
"Seriously?" Cinder boggled. "You're asking Ozpin about the weather??"
"The weather is starting to cloud over," Ozpin said warily. "You remind me of my Aunt Amy."
"Is... is this code???"
"There's no Aunt Amy in our family," New Jersey replied, no longer over loudspeaker, as she flapped her wings and landed surprisingly softly on the pavement in front of Ozpin. "There is, however, an Uncle Oswald."
Ozpin looked flabbergasted. "I think," he said carefully, "we should continue this conversation elsewhere."
"Indeed," New Jersey replied. "A storm is rolling in. Wouldn't want to catch our deaths, after all."
Ozpin looked a couple of shades paler. "Indeed," he murmured.
"Hey! What about this guy?"
Jersey and Ozpin both turned towards the crazy girl... who was holding Roman Torchwick by the scruff of his neck.
"Oh you are kidding me," Cinder grumbled.
~~~
Far north and on a different continent entirely, a Huntress was waking up.
She stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling, suddenly furiously wondering where she was and why she was waking up under an unfamiliar ceiling.
A groan sounded from next to her, and she whipped around, pausing when she saw the insensate form of...
"Schnee? What are you doing here?"
"Shut up, Marigold," the other Huntress groaned. "I don't need your annoying grin right now... wait."
Winter Schnee blinked her eyes open. "Marigold, where the hell are we?"
"I asked first," May Marigold snapped, climbing to her feet and looking around. The two of them appeared to be in some sort of shed or closet, a windowless room full of tools and a single open door. "Have we been kidnapped? And is it your fault?"
"I'm not the only one with enemies," Winter grumbled back, trying to climb to her feet. "Now kindly stop, while I try to remember what I was doing last and why my back itches."
"Salut!"
Both Huntresses froze. "Who's there?" May called out, looking around- Someone was standing in the doorway. They, no, she looked...
Well, she looked a bit like a Huntress, but a lot more like someone who had stepped out of a history book. A military uniform that looked like it was straight out of the Great War, but enhanced with unorthodox armor. Odd wings extended from her back.
The, well, the girl, because she seemed to be so much younger than the two of them, tilted her head. "Ich bin froh zu sehen, dass Sie beide wach sind," she said in an almost innocent voice. "Geht es dir gut?"
May blinked. "Is. Is that Altmantel?"
"It is," Winter agreed, narrowing her eyes at the girl. "Wo bist du?"
"Du erinnerst dich nicht?" The girl replied, looking concerned. She nodded thoughtfully. "Sehr gut!" She smiled. "Gestatten Sie mir, mich vorzustellen! Ich bin Pfennig Furchtbar, eine versuchs U-Boot der Mantel Königliche-Marine! Erinnerst du dich jetzt?"
"...did she just say that she was a submarine?" May deadpanned.
"Oh, Gott," Winter groaned. "I remember. This is all your fault, Marigold."
"It is?" May deadpanned once again, before falling silent as her memories finally decided to assert themselves.
She remembered scouting out the old, dry dockyards at the edge of Mantle. She remembered running into Winter in the process, and the subsequent bickering at each other. She remembered stumbling into a cavernous room with a pool in the middle, and she remembered accidentally-
"Oh fuck, did I start a ritual of some kind?" she asked herself incredulously.
"Damn it, Marigold," Winter snarked.
~~~
Last night...
As the last bars of the anthem echoing through the room faded, Pfennig Furchtbar, the experimental war-ending superweapon, took her first breaths as a Kanmusu once again... And gazed across over the antics of the bickering pair of Huntresses in front of the Summoning Pool. Do not get her wrong, she was very grateful for the two for calling her into this world, but she would very much have preferred the ones she was already familiar with.
Then again, she supposed that there was nothing stopping her from just...
...reaching out...
She stepped off the pool, walking across the wooden floor and coming to a stop right next to the Huntresses. Somehow, they hadn't noticed her yet.
Pfennig considered the pros and cons of her actions, before shrugging. She struck a pose. "Erwache, meine Freunde!" she declared.
At last, they noticed her. A strangled "wha?" escaped from both pairs of lips, before a bright light flared, and the two collapsed like puppets with strings cut.
...That was unexpected.
Pfennig put both of them into a nearby closet and settled down to wait for them to wake up.
She suspected it might take a while. But she was no stranger to the concept of waiting.
Ich bin froh zu sehen, dass Sie beide wach sind - I'm glad to see you both awake
Geht es dir gut? - Are you all right?
Wo bist du? - Who are you?
Du erinnerst dich nicht? - Do you not remember?
Sehr gut! - Very well!
Gestatten Sie mir, mich vorzustellen! Ich bin Pfennig Furchtbar, eine versuchs U-Boot der Mantel Königliche-Marine! Erinnerst du dich jetzt? - Allow me to introduce myself! I am Pfennig Furchtbar, an experimental submarine of the Royal Mantle Navy! Do you remember now?
Erwache, meine Freunde! - Awaken, my friends!
Yeah, Pfennig talks in Google Translate German. Yes, even in headspace. She does that.
If Salem has been keeping tabs on Cinder, this is the part where the Queen of the Grimm starts shitting bricks. There's not really much chance of keeping her puppet on the strings now, is there?
If Salem has been keeping tabs on Cinder, this is the part where the Queen of the Grimm starts shitting bricks. There's not really much chance of keeping her puppet on the strings now, is there?
When Cinder or Salam are involved in anything there are normally enough problems for everyone to go around. You get a problem, they get a problem, everyone gets problems.
When Cinder or Salam are involved in anything there are normally enough problems for everyone to go around. You get a problem, they get a problem, everyone gets problems.
I mean, to be fair, Cinder can probably at least do stuff like order a muffin and a cappuccino for breakfast without lighting something on fire. It's usually her grand plans that cause problems.
On another note, Alex Prior, we are aware that it's likely that the various introjects in you&'s headspace are fairly different from their sources. Correspondingly, is there any specific etiquette you& would like us as readers to abide by when discussing said introjects in comparison to their source?
On another note, Alex Prior, we are aware that it's likely that the various introjects in you&'s headspace are fairly different from their sources. Correspondingly, is there any specific etiquette you& would like us as readers to abide by when discussing said introjects in comparison to their source?
Well this is a first for me to see, definitely going to give this a watch if only because of the sheer shinanigans I see coming from all these genre savvy characters at once. (Also on a side note, during the time period of the rwby stuff are you all up to date on the setting?)
Aw fuck, it's been three months. But fear not! This isn't dead, I promise, we just had a burnout in the middle of Blake's chapter...
Right. So, without further ado, here it is!
With I-19
The school was tired, and panicked. Something had been picking them off one by one, and their small brains couldn't comprehend it.
Just, a dark shape. Not a shark. Not a bird. They couldn't understand, and their swimming grew even more panicked. One by one, they grew more and more tired...
And one by one, the slowest disappeared into the maws of their predator. One by one, the school diminished.
Until just one was left.
The fastest. The smartest. The one with the best stamina. It swam as fast as it could, it dodged every chomp as it dove towards the bottom of the ocean...
A hand shot out and grasped it by the tail. And the tuna's already weary heart simply gave out, its life winking out in an instant.
Pouting, the submarine surfaced. "I was really hoping I'd be able to have that one alive too," she murmured to herself. "I don't have enough salt to kill them all..."
Shrugging, she bit its head off, actually consuming the fish for food instead of storing it in the holds like the rest of the school.
"Target bearing is... due west-southwest," she muttered, checking her instruments. "Current bearing... more or less due south. Now, do I want to risk the open ocean, or should I hop from atoll to atoll?"
The submarine looked out towards a horizon. She could see an atoll as she squinted. "First way is faster... but I don't want to be in open ocean without support. I miss Bismarck."
I-19 huffed. "Atolls are slower, but safer. And I'm faster on the surface... Fine. Fine."
She began swimming south, towards the atoll in sight.
"Summer will just have to wait," she grumbled. "I don't fancy running out of stuff in the middle of the ocean and sinking. I hate sinking."
She fell silent as the atoll began to slowly grow bigger, getting closer. It wasn't an instant journey, after all. Travelling takes time.
In about an hour, a distant speck on the horizon had grown into a line of tropical trees atop a sandy strip of beach. The sub shook herself like a wet cat as she dragged herself to shore, looking around. "Empty," she deadpanned. She considered that. "Talking to yourself- no, we do that all the time.... Where was I?" She looked around again. "An atoll. Radio signals thataway, but nobody in my general vicinity... Oil reserves are holding, for now, so I gotta either find a tender or a local. I don't know any tenders. That are still around. Darn."
She looked over where she was detecting the radio signals. "Good thing this isn't an actual Shipgirl Earth, or I'd be neck deep in enemy territory now," she groused. "And a lewdmarine. No thanks."
She set forth in search of the locals.
~~~
Three fishing villages, five atolls, and an abandoned pirate radio station later, I-19 was seriously reconsidering asking the locals for supplies. "These people are barely making ends meet themselves," she muttered. "Ugh. I'm reminded of when I was still with the White Fang. Except then I had company. And the civilians were worse off. And I was in an abusive relationship- bloody hell, this is still better."
She made an annoyed noise. "Keep on track, Blake. Am I still on course?" She checked with the little mental niggling that told her where the rendezvous point was, compared it with her heading, and huffed upon realising that she was heading too far south, apparently. "Ugh. I really don't want to go on open ocean without a support fleet... and I can't remember what island should I be turning east after... Crap. I need to go fishing."
Drawing her ballast tanks full of water, I-19 dove. Using her radar to scan for schools, she mercilessly hunted down fish after fish, school after school, just gorging to fill her holds, one after another, befor-
'desu!'
Huh?
She looked inside herself, to find her quartermaster scowling at the wall.
What is it? Blake asked, a touch annoyed. I was in the middle of tuna!
'desu! desu desu desudesu-'
I need aluminum? And steel?
'desu!'
And where do you think I'm going to get that?
'deesuuuu... desu, de-'
Blake reared back. Absolutely not! I'm not going to eat shipwrecks! Who the fuck do you think we are?
The fairy crossed her arms. 'desu, desu desu?'
The ship paused. No, but I still categorically refuse! And I don't know anyone who would!
Halfway across the world, an Abyssal battleship paused in the middle of a mouthful of Hood on the seafloor. "Why do I feel like I'm about to sneeze?"
Back in the Pacific, the submarine crossed her arms, scowling. Fine, I'll just find richer locals! There! Happy?
'desu,' the quartermaster agreed.
~~~
The submarine cruised silently over the waves, pouting. Stupid crew. Stupid tiny holds. Stupid fish. Stupid everything. Bismarck would never have this problem. On account of not having any crew. And being an Abyssal come to think of it.
She sighed mentally, diving. Fucking- Fine. Curse my internal logic.
Her crew very pointedly did not say anything.
I already said fine! Now where do you think I need to s-
A cold chill raced down her spine. See, even the ocean agrees with me- Another chill. It was as if the water was suddenly freezing around her, except it wasn't. I-19 paused. ...Empty the ballasts! Rise! Whatever is down here with me I want no part in it!
Her crew complied, pumping water out of her tanks as quickly as they could. The subgirl rose with high speed, heedless of any possible coherent thought, driven by nothing more than sheer unnatural panic.
Within no less than a minute, her head breached the surface... and she immediately realised that whatever was affecting the depths also affected the surface.
The ocean was still, impossibly so. Almost all around her, the waters held a mirror-like finish, completely undisturbed by neither the faint wind I-19 felt in her hair nor any movements she herself made.
Almost all around her.
A dozen or more yards away, the mirror finish ended, replaced by a more natural ocean surface. But even as Blake watched, the edge of the stillness moved away from her at speed. It was almost as if...
...
...as if whatever was causing that stillness was moving right towards her.
Slowly, very, very slowly, the submarine turned around... and almost wished that she hadn't. A battleship was heading her way. Or... something like a battleship. It was ever so slightly... wrong.
It glided through the unnatural stillness of the ocean in complete silence, faint mist spilling from its deck. There was no sign of any crew.
Frantically, Blake looked for any identifying features, anything at all that would help her get away from whatever this was intact...
...wait a minute.
"Is that... Nagato?"
Oh look, first meet-up. I hadn't planned it like that at all, but we were recently trying out CrAIyon, seeing what the various ships looked like under AI... this was just too perfect to pass up.
Had to read through in order to remeber what was going on but after that im now wondering if I-19/Blake is the Blake from RWBY or if its just a really weird coincidence.
Had to read through in order to remeber what was going on but after that im now wondering if I-19/Blake is the Blake from RWBY or if its just a really weird coincidence.
I'll admit we don't have a lot of context and aren't getting a ton out of this as a result, but we still think it's really cool that you& are doing this and we're enjoying it on at least that basis.
