[IC] Trespassers of the Multiverse: Director's Cut

[Hal Henderics]

"The work produced by Tinkers is made in such a way that it is not replicable or understandable by non-tinkers, and furthermore, it is unable to be maintained by a non-tinker as well, resulting in Tinkertech quickly becoming useless without it's creator available to maintain it, and only so much work can be done by one person."  Armsmaster recites again.

 

"Whenever you are ready, I will be willing to work alongside any tinkers present, and Linebacker Genius will be able to escort those of you willing to engage in power testing to the room prepared for that."

[Powder Miner]

Satomi listened to Armsmaster's explanation of Tinkers... and then proceeded to look away and puff her cheeks into a disappointed pout. "Ah... well, that is a shame. However... I do have another question. Is the entire process of your Tinker creation incomprehensible, or do you have a comprehension of engineering that I would be able to get something out of? I am still holding onto that possibility that I might be able to watch people work, perhaps set things up, in ways that I can learn from. Ah, the technology..." Satomi got a little dreamy for a moment, before suddenly: "Um... of course, any pieces of non-Tinker technology are likely already mundane to me." This was a blatant lie, with Satomi feeling the need not to seem all low-tech or outsider, "But I could still get something out of watching any engineering that is comprehensible, if there is some!" At least that's true.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Powder Miner

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor, for the longest time, remained utterly silent. The paperwork was... Not what he was accustomed to, specifically if it was Human paperwork, but he felt like he had at least finished his own well enough. He, personally, had no real opinions on Piggot, though she did seem like the person who had a lot of things to do, considering how she wanted what they were doing done with as soon as possible. That, or she was simply not wanting to deal with them at the moment.

 

Either way, it did not bother the Ethereal. Now it was simply time to wait for the testing, and listen to the others.

[Endlessblaze]

Lilly immediately perks up even further then she already was, and raises a hand.

”power testing here”

It might be good practice for her magic, and it was important to make sure everyone had a basic understanding of her skills.

[Chevaleresse]

"I'm ready to show off whenever you're ready to watch." He tried to force a smile despite his displeasure with how the day had gone thus far. "Seriously, though, what's that Piggot's problem? I've actually met friendlier mass-murdering criminals."

[kj1225]

Arminius shrugs and falls in with the power testing group.

[DragonRage]

"...You can't mass-produce your tech?" Mirri asks incredulously, "But if you built it, you'd have to understand how it works.  Even if you're getting supernatural inspiration, you logically ought to be able to reverse engineer it.  That doesn't make sense unless you're black boxing it with some kind of ongoing effect.  Some form of matter alteration technique maybe?  However you're doing it, I'd like to take a look under the hood, and am willing to trade similar access to some of my hardware.  Maybe we can piece together some hardware that will hold up without maintenance from your powers."

[Sutoratosu]

"Huh... all this tinker stuff reminds me of back home," Lucille idly commented after they were kicked out rather unceremoniously. Yeah, she could definitely see why the woman had done it, Mavens know what the hell some of the others had answered on the forms. "Except for the part about none of their stuff working if their not around... not being comprehensible or maintainable by normal people sounds about right though. Who knows, maybe it may have a few more similarities. And it's not like what I do is even all that impressive where I come from-"

 

That was, of course, at least partially a bull-faced fucking lie. Her skills as a Beastheart, sure, those were indeed well... they were not common by any stretch of the imagination, but they were not so scarce either that the revelation that a child had been born with the triggers was nothing to bow down in awe about either.

     If there was one thing the Mavens had warned her time and time again however, it was to be careful how, and to whom, she revealed such knowledge as what they fed to her. Chosen by this "Multiverse" or no, she wasn't about to simply go in and start demonstrating those skills for a bunch of strangers native to a world she'd only set foot on. After all, by their own admission, they didn't even understand their own supernatual feats, how could she expect them to do so for those of her homeworld, at least several centuries more advanced than this dump by the point of it's fall from grace? For Mavens sakes, the people here seemed to rely on chemical propellants as their main weaponry...

    Now, sure, many of the Enclaves back home did as well, but everyone knew it was a serious downgrade from what once was, they only did so because there was no other option in most cases. Unless you were lucky enough to salvage a weapon from before the fall, you were stuck sending hundreds of lead rounds burrowing into something at high velocity.

 

By stark contrast, they seemed to be this world's best option for small arms and personal defense... not it's fallback.

 

So no... there was no way she was going to just parade about the sensitive knowledge that had brought her home to both prosperity, and the following ruin. But perhaps helping them to understand their own machines that their "Tinker" mages had conjured, if there truly were some common threads? Well, that was a slightly different story...

 

"So uh....lead the way, I guess? I dunno, sounds more interesting than people watching me just tell these three what to do and them following without a hitch..." the three cats in question were still following her, stopping to laze about as they awaited a command, as they had since they'd first entered the building. It was... ironic, almost, considering how many believed that herding cats was simply impossible.

 

[Hal Henderics]

With an Awkward look from Armsmaster, he simply nods, not feeling that anything productive will come from further discussion.

 

--

 

Tinker Team (<3)

 

  One group is led by Armsmaster, down winding halls and up an elevator, until finally, a bright blue door opens up, revealing a small room covered in drawers, a single table, and a series of monitors.  With the press of a button, Holograms appear next to all of his drawers, scrolling through tools and inventory he has, while the monitors begin to scroll through blueprint after blueprint.

 

"What do you all specialize in." Armsmaster says, turning on his heel to face the assorted rabble.

 

Armsie's inventory

Spoiler

1 Nanolathe

1 Nanoforge
1 Supercomputer
1 Experimental Chemical Synthesis Unit
1 A.I Waifu
Mundane and Advanced Tools

20 Ounces Rare Metal
2 Tons Purified Iron
1 Ton assorted Metals
3 Incomplete Micro Fusion Cores
2 Incomplete Micro Fission Cores
20 Backup Micro CPU
3 Motherboards
10 Micro GPU Units
10 Power Cells
Assorted Goods on Demand

 

--

 

Testing Team (Team Guinea Pigs)

 

  The other group is led to a large auditorium made of panels of metal, hexagonal in shape.  With a few Button Presses, Linebacker Genius sets up a Clear substance to rise up out of the floor, forming a barricade which he stands behind.  With another button press, a series of cloth dummies are placed on the ground, 20 in total.  With a final button press, a strange contraption rises up, it has a pole going horizontally between two mechanisms, and a simple screen which reads "0 Pounds, 0 Ounces, 0 Kilograms"  Another device appears to be a rather large treadmill, about the size of an office cubical, two handles on either side serve as safety rails.  Finally, a turret rises up, and more clear material surrounds it, with a clearly defined area to walk into the middle of the impromptu firing range.

 

The Dummies are made of some sort of black foam, wrapped around sheets of electronics and a steel cored stand, they seem to be roughly shaped like a human form, in that they have defined arms, legs, and a head.  One of them has a sheet of paper with a smiley face drawn on crudely, which seems to make Linebacker smile.

 

"Well, Let's go through one at a time, I suppose." Linebacker says.

 

"The dummies are for general damage testing, they have some expensive sensors to see just how good you all are at beating people up.  The bar over there is for brute testing, and the turret shoots different types of ammunition to test durability, or with lighter test rounds, other abilities, such as dodging."

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2017 by Hal Henderics

[kj1225]

Arminius steps up to testing area.

"Hope you don't mind me going first, my abilities only work in damage testing so I'm gonna be quick."

[DragonRage]

"Wha?  You have... and that's a..."  Mirri swiftly aborts several sentences in a spectacular butchery of common grammar as her visor pans across the room, "No fusion, that's all-  No anvil?  But-  Hydrospanner-  I-"  She straightens her shoulders and takes several deep breaths, enough so to be visible even under her armor and bows shallowly in his direction.  "I... appear to have made several unfounded assumptions that have just been proven wildly incorrect, and for this I apologize.  My conduct has been unbecoming of my clan and responsibilities, and I shall have to rectify that immediately if I am to represent them with honor in this and future collaborations.

 

"My specialty lies in aerospace engineering, with most of my experience in modifying existing airframes and equipment rather than building from scratch.  Though I could in theory build an aircraft or spacecraft from the frame up, I have never done so.  I am also quite good at crafting armor, though I am used to different tools than what you seem to have.  My teachers held that there were merits to the more traditional methods lost in mass production, and I have yet to see proof that they were wrong.  Most of the rest of my equipment is variations on those themes; my ship carries scaled up versions of some of my armor's systems, for example."

[Chevaleresse]

"Uh, let me think here. . ." Damage and durability weren't things that were quite covered by his power. He wasn't some freak of nature like the Black Knight, and his Drive didn't particularly cover actually hitting things or getting him to hit things. Mobility, sure, that was a thing it did. Though not directly or consistently until recently. "Guess I'll run mobility testing? I'm not any more durable or stronger than any other person. I just get more hits in."

[kj1225]

Arminius would spend some time inspecting the dummies for any imperfections. After making a mental list of the traits he'd be insulting he launches into his "routine", the runes seen when he collected Squealer glowing brightly.

"Oh, they send a bunch of dummies like you to test me on my damage capabilities!? I'm the leader of a fucking squad of saboteurs, I think I know a bit more about what damage is then whatever your "sensors" can tell any of the incompetent fuckwits in this base! I have blown so many holes in the best bases the paladins had to offer, I could take down even this sea base with a can of beans and a pound of blast powder. Why, you aren't even made of a sturdy material like wood, you're all soft and weak! Fingers could break you into lit bits, and she's barely tall enough to act as a table for my dick! I've fucked things that would make any other man piss his pants with fear! And some overmuscled fuck with a stupid code name, and this is a world filled with them if Soma is anything to go off of, thinks that I need my capabilities tested!? If you lot don't drop right now, I'm going to beat you all so hard that not even the best dwarven smith could get you working again!"

The dummies look fine physically until he finishes. Then they fall to the floor, sensors reading something along the lines of "Shit's fucked yo". Arminius looks to Genius and just kind of shrugs.

Edited October 8, 2017 by kj1225

[Strider]

Harry mostly ignored Armsmaster's question about their tinker skills, allowing the others who might actually be considered closer to Tinkers to speak up first. He quietly watched the passing blueprints on the screen, mentally noting their uses. A nanolathe and forge. Not something he'd seen before, definitely not on Libra. Might be a few on earth among the larger corporations under different names, if these machines did what Harry concluded they were meant to do. A supercomputer; well, that was a rather uninformative name, giving Harry no further information on how it compared to his world's computers. There were a great deal of other less interesting computer parts, which Harry ignored, before glancing over at another word that caught his eye. Micro fusion cores. Pretty damn advanced, something that his world still relied heavily on. Those things had to be a good three hundred years away without this "tinker tech" stuff. As

 

Harry was finishing his slow sweep of the room, he noticed one other design. A chemical synthesis unit. Harry's world had plenty of them, and they were some of the most important tools for any hospital.That could be useful. "Armsmaster, what are the limits or the Chemical Synthesizer? In terms of time to create molecules, and the maximum complexity of those molecules? Can you create complex organic molecules? Maybe proteins and enzymes?"

Edited October 8, 2017 by Strider

[Hal Henderics]

"Do you believe you could produce a sample of this armor compound with my nanoforge? I have most elemental substances available, but it cannot make sub-atomic constructs freely yet." Armsmaster says to Mirri, glossing over the other factors.  His own scanners have already failed to penetrate her armor beyond a very thin layer. A testament to it's durability in relation to energy based effects.

 

He then turns to Harry.  "It is still very rudimentary.  I am not a chemical tinker by trade, so the best I can do currently is make variable output tranquilizers. It has been a several month porocess developing one with this tool, but it is very robust, and can function well enough to overpower Lung's regenerative ability."

 

"Creating organic compounds should be possible, so long as they do not exceed a certain singular size and complexity."

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor himself joined up with the Testing group, silently following them as they made their way to the testing area. Once they arrived and the group began the tests, Proditor turned to Linebacker, "My abilities work best on things with actual minds. Do you happen to have anything of that sort that I can demonstrate on?"

[Strider]

"And that size and complexity is? Could viruses be created, given a template, or at least prions?" Harry supposed it would be a question of whether Armsmaster was willing to let Harry try some things out with the machine. Since he wasn't a tinker, he'd probably need some justification. He briefly contemplated showing the cape the data on his Compad, but then thought better of it.

Instead he asked, "Do you think you could figure out a way to interface a certain piece of tech I have to a regular computer? I don't have any way of connecting the two right now, but I should be able to pull up specs, and show you what the plug should look like." Harry held up the surprisingly thick tablet that he had pulled from his backpack, pointing to a space on the side that was meant for charging and physical interface. He was glad at that moment, to have chose to pay extra to get that option installed, back when he was paranoid about remote signal jamming.

[Hal Henderics]

Armsmaster gives Harry a look.

 

"No, not wholesale.  I believe given time and effort, a viral agent could be engineered, by producing DNA and the protein shell separately, and assembling them using other chemical agents, but that would be a project at the bleeding edge of my Tinker Specialization.  That besides, I have no knowledge of biology sufficient to make a virus of any import."

 

"A prion however would be trivial, provided I had the information needed."

 

"I am required to log people who are capable of that though.  Are you implying you have the ability to create viral agents?"  Armsmaster says, with no real tension in his voice, and a certain creeping curiosity.

 

At the same time, he pulls a drawer open, and pulls out a frayed cable, one end of which he places in his nanolathe.  After some typing and manual adjustment, a cable compatible with Harry's pad is made.

 

--

 

"Uhh, Yeah, Hold on bud."  Another button brings up a thick rectangle of machinery.

 

"This should record a wide range of Master Effects used on it.  It's about as close as we can get to a fake brain."

[kj1225]

Arminius slumps as he realizes he needs to put on a repeat performance. With a sigh he shakes himself out to get himself hyped up. Finally he begins to lay into the block with a rant similar to the one he gave the dummies, though this time it has more insults towards the protectorate personnel in the room.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Upon seeing the machine, Proditor nods. And then, without moving, Proditor begins his demonstration, his helmet opening as he focused his psionic abilities on that "brain". It was very much machine, that was for sure, but close enough to a living brain that there were effects were notable.

 

Specifically, the machine would suddenly find itself picking up vastly different data (or visual images), much different than what it was getting before, almost unnaturally. After a few seconds of this, the machine would suddenly find itself unable to do anything, as some unknown force suddenly took control of it, changing some data here and there before it suddenly left. As this happened, several small objects from around the room, maybe a few cups, and a pencil, maybe, as a bright blue aura appeared around each object.

 

And then, without warning, everything stopped, the items that were picked up suddenly falling back to where they were as all effects that were influencing the machine went away as Proditor's helmet snapped shut. With a short turn to Linebacker, the Ethereal spoke again, "Do you require a repeat test?"

[Powder Miner]

Satomi stared wide-eyed at the devices in the room, but frankly that gaze was more than a little blank, and she tapped her pen on her notebook again and again, never actually seeming to find a word to write as she looked over the lab and its various devices. She started to get closer to some of them (including the power cells), peering in to get better looks at the details with her terribly nearsighted eyes, but even after she got in her closer looks, her notebook received no new words, and her gaze didn't get any less confused. Eventually, she let out a sigh, and spoke in a voice that was defeated and more than a little disappointed. "Okay... this... is all far too advanced for my comprehension, I admit."

 

"Still, though it's not due to anything of... um, power origin, I did create this last night." Here she takes off and presents the crossbow on her back. It looks like junk, frankly, with the terribly segmented nature of the body, and the string looking like twisted strips of plastic. "I am, um, aware that this does not particularly look like a weapon of quality, but I made this last night just by exiting the PRT building, looking around, and finding a single plank of wood, plastic bags, and then, this strange metal club that had a thin and long handle," A wince grew on her face as she started to describe it, as she suspected her inability to recognize it would be suspicious, but she had already committed to the description, "Um, and then, um, a thicker round bit at the end extending in one direction from the handle, um, and then I worked through the night and put this together with just those materials."

[Strider]

"I have. . .the information on certain possible viruses. All are short lived, generally beneficial, and have a collection of built in failsafes. Part of the reason prions would be a bit less useful, since they just don't have the information capacity to keep them as foolproof. Need a fair amount in order to have virus build nucleases, reproduce without totally destroying a cell, and not mutate into something  . . .less fun." Harry accepted the cable from the Cape, and tested it on his device. Well, it fit, so that was good. He'd have to see if he could download information at any later point. "Thanks, Armsmaster."

 

"Most of what I know involves the use of a collection of a few viral agents used to edit certain genetic snips early in life. There are a few designs more applicable in surgery and field medicine, and while I don't have the knowledge myself, there are some which can be used to selectively target and eliminate tumors. Anyway, rest assured. I'm incapable of manufacturing these myself, and if I did have the ability, I don't have the requisite knowledge to instigate an Armageddon."

 

"Now that I think about it, there are a few prions which might be useful, if you could create them." Harry flicked on his compad, and quickly navigated to a section focusing on field toxicology, and found what he was looking for: "S-Igeron. Basically temporarily hijacks basophils and mast cells. Prevents most IgE from binding to them, prevents the majority of acute inflammatory response. Isn't able to work or recreate itself without the presence of 3-polytykerosine in the blood stream, similar to a lot of utility viruses that I know of. You can use it beforehand for generally annoying allergies, and anaphylaxis inducing toxins, or as a rapid response mixed with a small dose of epinephrine. Much higher chance of success than a straight epinephrine injection. So, it's a pretty simple and specific creation, all things considered, but it's useful for delaying certain troublesome immune responses." In similar fashion, Harry pointed out two other mildly useful prions, one to reduce swelling of brain tissue following concussive injuries, and the other to facilitate and speed bone regrowth. He didn't quite feel comfortable with immediately handing out every advancement that had occurred in the past six hundred years to someone who seemed not to specialize in this field, so he satisfied himself with showing of these three minor items for the time being.

Edited October 8, 2017 by Strider

[DragonRage]

"Bes'kar from industrial processes?  I've never heard of that being done, but that doesn't mean it can't be done," Mirri muses, "Your nanites are actually superior to anything I've seen.  But I am unsure that simply assembling it would replicate its properties entirely.  The forging process is crucial, and one missed step compromises the material.  But if you could make Bes'kar ore...  That would be quite useful."  Mirri keys the chemical composition and molecular structure of Bes'kar ore into Armsmaster's computer, a complex, metallic molecule with a heavy iron concentration.

 

"However, I think we might receive more immediate results from working on your fusion reactor design.  I do have several working fusion generators; my X-Wing starfighter runs on one.  I could almost certainly complete your design, or failing that provide the one I have."

[Chevaleresse]

Once Kusuke stepped into the ring and played with the system a bit in order to figure out how to get it set up to not blow giant holes in his squishy non-Brute body (he could probably recover from those but didn't particularly feel like having to do so), he hit the button to start the routine he'd set up. It largely consisted of having it fire ammunition that wouldn't actually hurt him if it hit, and then Kusuke dodging the shots by either moving out of the way before they were fired (it was set to randomize the timing so he couldn't plan based on that) or by blinking to the opposite side of the thing firing it. He eventually had it step up to having it try to hit him with a laser pointer, which he continued to dodge in much the same manner. Once he'd run through the whole program, he turned to face Linebacker again. "Uh, there's a bit more to it than that, but I'm not sure how to actually show that I'm sending things back or forward in time without messing with anything important."

[StormLord]

After they walked in Frigus took several steps around and glanced at everything.

"I'll admit, this is all pretty impressive.  I couldn't really pin down what exactly I specialize in for you other than that I tend toward cryogenics on personal preference."
Then Frigus made his way over to the piles of assorted and rare metals obviously looking for something specific.

He paused, seemingly stumped before approaching Armsmaster with a question.

"I'm looking for something specific.  I call it 'Mythril', I'm not sure of the exact makeup but it just feels different when I pick it up."  He reached into his pocket and pulled out a fragment of a silvery metal no larger than his fingernail and passed it to Armsmaster.  "Here's a sample."