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

[Hal Henderics]

"20,000 Views in the first hour, Their "Hexen Let's Play" went over pretty well."  Tattletale says.

[Projeck]

"Ooo! What did they think of me?"

Calvera overhears Tattletale reporting the success of their first video.

[Sutoratosu]

"Ok then...uh, hang on" she checked around the pockets of her new vest, thinking of something she'd picked up recently that wouldn't become lethal but would still be useful and some would portable in a grown form. Before long she produced a kazoo... and for all the world, it looked like any other cheap kazoo one could find in a toy store. She handed to Soma

 

"Might as well start small. See if you can expand that to about the complexity of say... a standard flute. Yeh, a flute would be good. Baby Steps and all. Plus I can just make another one, if things go horribly wrong... maybe."

 

Lucille suggests Soma extrapolate the following gear to the complexity of a standard flute

Spoiler

Healing Kazoo: A Metal Kazoo painted a bright metallic color. The special root in it's paper vibrates with a healing tone.
~Current Effects~ [Bound. When used, restores (6d5)% of the target's Max HP.]
Level 1: [When used, restore (3d5)% of the target's Health.]
Level 2: [Upgraded to 6d5% of the target's Health. Becomes Bound to lucille] 

 

 

 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Once Calvera left Proditor, the Ethereal turned back towards the endless void, a hand moving up to his head as he sighed. This pain would pass, no doubt about that, but by god it would be something he never forgot.

[Strider]

"20,000 views in the first hour. Not sure how that stacks up in general, since I've not made a habit of studying old earth population figures in the early two thousands, nor how quickly youtube grew, but that's good to hear. Or bad, depending on how everyone reacts to popularity." Harry cogitated. "Yeah. . . almost certainly bad in that regard. Made a deal though, so at least it'll keep Uber and Leet ingratiated to us." Harry poured out a tiny quantity of liquid over a sample of the Galdur Salve. Using a combination of targeted chemicals, he would aim to identify, then isolate the fragment of DNA that gave the salve its powers. From there, it would react with a specialized reagent that could transfer it to the blank retrovirus. A few more steps, for targeting, safety, and detection, and then it would be ready.

 

"So. If you're still willing to do this, I have a plan worked out. First, I'll be isolating the genetic material that gives the Galdur tree stuff its healing properties, and building that into a retrovirus. Lots of safety precautions, so don't worry about that too much, and I've got ideas on multiple tests that could be used ahead of time." These could be testing it on an extracted bit of bone marrow, and then determining if the output could heal an injured creature--though he'd need to get his hands on something like that--, or he could determine whether the retrovirus itself exhibited the healing propoerties, or a few other options.

 

"From there, assuming it passes the necessary tests, and with your consent, I would put you under, make a few incisions, and inject the retrovirus into your bone marrow. It should basically spread from there, reprogramming the creation of red blood cells to include the healing factor. After the catalyst makes it through your system, the viruses will shut down--they'll do so anyway in three hours even if for some strange reason the catalyst remains--and you should be left with the healing factor in your blood. Should lessen or entirely prevent the Thinker headaches, and might give you a general edge in recovery if you get in any fights."

[Hal Henderics]

(2, 3) "Uhh, I never agreed to any surgical procedures."  she responds, confused slightly.

[Strider]

"Wrong words. You said that if I had a procedure that I was certain would work, you would be willing, correct? If, even if I do have something I'm certain would work, you would prefer not to have anything done, I need to know whether to refocus my efforts on something else for the time being."

[Hal Henderics]

"Unless you have a full understanding of Parahuman abilities and the organs associated with them, I'd rather not find out that they react poorly to procedures that exclude knowledge of them."  She says with finality.

[Strider]

"Yes, yes. You said something similar before. Question is, how I figure any of that out. Doubt your power is much use in that sense, and I'm guessing since you said they've eluded medical understanding that this probably isn't something you learned and could pass on. And even if you agreed and I was confident in certain knowledge, I wouldn't want to simply cut open your head for the sole purpose of taking a look at whatever thing lets you work with weird physics breaking shit." Harry sighed, resuming his work. He'd still try to finish what he was working on of course, but simply as a step on the road. It could be set aside for later if necessary.

 

"Hey, Calvera, mind helping me with something simple? I'm working on something here, and it should be well contained. In the event that something goes wrong, it will remain contained, but I'll need your help disposing of it. Basically, if I ask, could you take what I say outside the ship, and just incinerate it?"

[Chevaleresse]

"I'm just trying to explain why people are getting upset," Kusuke said, in some approximation of a placating tone. "I'm not trying to blame you for living in a place that isolated you from ever hearing different points of view on the matter. All I'm trying to do is get you to understand how important other people actually think this is, and why saying somebody has no soul isn't exactly a shining compliment. That whole thing about not having shared them? I'm trying to fix that right now. Hence this conversation."

[Sutoratosu]

The... first results of their experiments were interesting, in a way. Namely in that soma' extrapolation made the kazoo... bigger and expanded the effective range of it's healing resonance, but well... from the information Lucille sensed flooding in, chances are anyone who got healed with it prooooooobably wouldn't enjoy what would happen to them afterwards. Just a hunch. Luckily, it was only temporary, so.... they just needed to wait.

     The next thing they tried was a bit different, Lucille had taken a sheet of scrap metal from the back and molded it into the rough shape of a spear, forming the following from the rather shabby, weathered metal:

Spoiler

Crappy Scrap Spear: [Deals 1d6 + strength damage]

It wasn't pretty, nor was it impressive, but then again neither was the material she'd been working with... it was to be expected. Regardless, after getting it into shape, she had Soma use her powers again... this time the results were... well, they were interesting, and also a bit less hazardous to one's health compared to the heal kazoo's extrapolation:

Spoiler

Scrap Spear of Disarming: [Deals 2d8 + strength damage.  Whenever it deals damage, roll 1d10.  On a roll of 10, the target drops everything in their hands or equivalent appendages.  On a roll of 1, the wielder does instead.]

 

"Well, better than the first shot," Lucille had said "lets see how this goes...."

 

And that was precisely what they'd done. Drawing a transfiguration rune, She dropped the spear in, moved a few concepts around until she found the traits provided by Soma's Extrapolation. Once she had, she went deeper, and found the underlying, fleeting nature of the added qualities, all hooked together by their inpermanency like a spider web. Snipping the trait away and tossing it was relatively easy, though.... there may have been a slight hiccup, as she was cleaning things up and putting it all back together in the right order.

Spoiler

Quality:  9!
Random Bitz:  3!  DOOOOOOM

 

The Temporary is removed.  But a compulsion is added, when unequipping the spear for any reason, to hurl it at something.  What it is hurled at is left to the wielder's choice, but it must be thrown as hard as possible.

 

She frowned a little as the information from the ritual's results poured in. She didn't pick up the spear, or do anything else with it really, just glanced over at soma as she gently nudged it with her foot towards the girl.

 

"So, good news and bad news," She began "Good news is, it worked. I managed to make your alterations on the spear permanent with the Transfiguration Circle... bad news though- it uh... kinda got a bit messed during the process... you can pick it up and use it just fine, but uh.... putting it away, like, taking it off your person entirely, weeeell... I seem to have accidentally added a trait of...compulsive throwing to it. You'll be able to leave it behind or put it away somewhere for storage, but... not without first chucking the thing as hard as you can. The impulse to do it can't really be controlled either, so.... at least the principle is sound? I guess? It's a better take away from all this than nothing..."

 

Final Product added to the communal inventory:

Spoiler

Scrap Spear of Disarming: [Deals 2d8 + strength damage.  Whenever it deals damage, roll 1d10.  On a roll of 10, the target drops everything in their hands or equivalent appendages.  On a roll of 1, the wielder does instead. when unequipping the spear for any reason, the user must hurl it at something.  What it is hurled at is left to the wielder's choice, but it must be thrown as hard as possible.]

 

[Powder Miner]

Satomi let out a long breath to calm down a little. "Look, I... I know by now. It would be impossible for me not to understand how important it is after, um, everything that's happened. I just, I have been trying to... rethink about everything I knew about souls before. I've even stopped actually talking about foreigners in the same way, because I understand that things are different. It's... I understand why people were offended, now," Even if she was still somewhat angry about the way they had chosen to act, "...but it's not exactly something I have been freely talking about, because, um, it isn't easy to just replace my way of thought. I'm trying, though. I really am."

[Strider]

It took some time, yes. It took a few of the supplies, yes, and those would need replenishing. But, after a few final tests, Harry concluded that he had succeeded. He'd keyed in the retrovirus to insert the DNA fragment that unlocked the Galdur tree's healing abilities. "Hey, look." Harry held up to show Tattletale, and swished, a slightly green tinged translucent fluid in a vial. The retrovirus in matrix. "Nothing for now, obviously, but step one is done! This is coded to insert a DNA fragment into specific cells, and so far as I can tell, it performs that task admirably. We'll see how things go with learning about your powers and stuff, but it's a start. Hell, if it's safe to parahumans, and I can get it produced cheaply, we could market it too all of Earth Bet, not just the thinkers." His tone didn't seem terribly excited for all he was saying, but it might be obvious to the more perceptive that he was elated. He'd hoped this had worked, and told himself that it was safe, but having it actually work had been necessary to assuage all doubt.

 

He then spoke down the bus in Lucille's direction. "Lucille. I made something with the Galdur Salve, if you're interested. Retrovirus TGIWR-001, causes human blood cells themselves to exhibit the healing effect. I don't have a ton right now, but with more supplies, or a culture in which to grow it, I could make up a fair amount."

 

 

[kj1225]

Seeing as everyone was busy with weird shit Arminius turns around to talk to Frigus.

"So what's up with you getting upset about soul stuff? I mean, if it's as important as you make it sound you should be able to tell that what I do doesn't actually cause any harm."

He leaves out the fact that he does kind of want to figure out how to make it permanent. It's simply a matter of practically, can't resist as well without essence.

[StormLord]

Frigus glanced up at Arminius's question, he looked back and forth between Arminius and his minion then gestured to a nearby seat.

"Please, sit.  This may take a moment."

As Frigus said this he was already marking where he left off writing and closing his notepad.  He looked up again.

"I'm going to preface this with a fact that seem obvious to me.  Wherever you're from souls don't matter much, or at least they aren't as fragile or critical as in other places.  Next, I was not raised on a world like you or any of the others, from the time I could call my Keyblade I've lived in a world created as a training ground for Keyblade wielders, one that exists in almost perfect balance of light and dark. You see, there exists a realm of light, and a realm of darkness.  The realm of light is fractured and split into countless worlds, while the realm of darkness is made up of countless destroyed and collided worlds and souls.  They are one and the same.  Worlds have souls just like you and I, and each one exists closer or farther to the light or darkness.  Some worlds, like the one we just left, loom painfully close to the darkness.  What I believe, is that your world simply exists so close to the light that the souls of its inhabitants mend themselves with little issue or corruption.  Kusuke's world on the other hand(from his descriptions), must exist much closer to the darkness if minor soul damage would cause such irrevocable harm.  The state of a person's soul is not dictated by their world, the actions of an individual can easily sway it one way or the other."

He paused for just a moment to think.

"Now, on the subject of fragmenting or tearing a piece off of someone's soul.  It creates a hole, sometimes the hole fixes itself, sometimes it can't and you need the help of someone close to you to mend the void, and sometimes it's simply to broken to ever be repaired.  As I'm sure you can imagine lacking a part of your soul can cause a number of ailments, a complete lack of ability to feel emotion, loss of memory, and coma are all far from unheard of.  The far more common fate however is to simply become a Heartless, or something that resembles one.  I know you don't know what a Heartless is, perhaps next time I get the chance I'll show you one."

Frigus simply folded his hand together and waited for a response.

[Chevaleresse]

"Then it shouldn't be a problem going forward, right? Everyone involved overreacted, including myself, and now it's done with. This is one of those things that can safely be left in the past." Kusuke paused for a moment. There wasn't really much more to say on that particular topic. . . "Maybe it'd help if you told us a little more about where you were from?"

[kj1225]

Arminius nods, thinking as he lounges in his seat. He briefly considered keeping some details to himself but decided that there wasn't much harm in telling the truth.

"Yeah, that is pretty different from my world all things considered... Main difference being that Men and women, and by extension monsters, have different souls. Not in like, a way that means they're different in mentality of course. If that were the case Zinpangu would be completely different. The main difference is that a man's soul produces mana while a woman's soul is kind of like a sponge and just accepts it. That's kind of how kids are made, minus the fun part... Uh, you did get the whole "how babies are made" talk right? I know paladin types are all uptight about it... I'm getting off topic though."
Getting more into the conversation, Arminius sits up.
"Anyways, monsters, and this is a heads up for if we ever go to my world, have a Demonic version of mana that human souls accept. It's basically made through conversion of mana and I don't really understand it because it's magic. Anyways, if a human, or a monster from a family that isn't strictly "monstrous" like Elves or Angels, take in enough of the demonic stuff they undergo a process called monstorization. The name should tip you off but basically it brings you closer to being a demon, in men that manifests in becoming an incubus or alp and in most human women it manifests as becoming a lesser succubus... There are certain factors that can change what they become, mainly similarities with other monsters, but basically it doesn't change much beyond being more than human."
Arminius pauses, considering that he may have gotten off track in his explanation there. With a shrug he decides to summarize.

"Anyways yeah, everyone has some soul remnants they can lose without getting affected and I just take that to make minions so it's not as bad as people think."

[Sutoratosu]

3 hours ago, Strider said:

"Lucille. I made something with the Galdur Salve, if you're interested. Retrovirus TGIWR-001, causes human blood cells themselves to exhibit the healing effect. I don't have a ton right now, but with more supplies, or a culture in which to grow it, I could make up a fair amount."

 

"Hang on a minute, I'll be right back" Lucille said to Soma, before she walked back to the med bay. And when she got there, she didn't bother asking Harry what it was, but instead silently reached out with a few higher senses and collected the information directly...

      The look on her face was... difficult to ascertain, to say the least. She seemed neither impressed, nor excited, if anything, pensive perhaps the closest to describing her expression. As if she were thinking carefully about this situation...how to go about handling it. 

      "Oh...thats... this is great, Harry," She said, trying to smile, though it failed to reach her eyes. From his breathing and the subtle tone of his voice when he'd called her over, she figured he had probably worked quite hard on getting... a mutagen of even this strength together, from what materials he had "I'm sure it'll help out a lot of people. Um..."

 

Silence. That was all she could manage as she trailed off. So... this was what he'd meant earlier about his plan to try and... replicate the effects into some serum? She... couldn't help but have a great many mixed feelings about it, really. The "retrovirus" well.... the inbuilt spell of the Tree felt so utterly faint in it that Lucille could barely sense but a scant few traces now. As if only one very small part of all that made the species as significant as it was had been singled out for some reason, and made to try and replicate that significance on it's own, isolated from all the other parts, like a part of statement taken out of context. 

     She did not know why she felt the twinge of upset, somewhere deep inside. What else should she have expected, from someone who was not of her world, and knew nothing of the workings of the Thaum? Why had she been so expecting of him to make something rivaling the stories and visions of the days of old back home, when he was not from her home and would know nothing of such wonders? Why was she even this upset? it was her who had handed him Materials that were the indirect products of centuries of research and scholarly endeavor within the system of correspondences and sympathetic resonances her people had come to so heavily depend on, that their entire culture had run off of it once, and even now, their culture revolved around trying to reclaim what was lost. And it was her who hadn't really bothered to explain it's true significance, neither culturally, nor in the sheer potential of the processes that Chimeric organisms like a Galdur Tree, and hell, even her own self, functioned off of... 

 

So why was she feeling herself getting into a twist, when he had simply taken things to their logical conclusion, based on what little she had explained to him? How could Harry have possibly known that replicating the effects of the Tree's inbuilt spell would not be as simple as just taking a small section of its DNA, and putting it into other organisms? How could she have expected him to have known that the spell was in fact subtly encoded across the entirety of the genome, not just isolated to one part, when even with as little as she'd explained, she'd not even bothered to mention that much to him? 

 

How was she to bring up the fact that he had infact shot the overall potential of his derived creation in the foot here, by mistakenly believing there was one specific gene which caused the regen effect? Should she even do it? He seemed at least marginally proud of it, and it certainly like he'd been laboring for a while... and it's not like it was even his own fault, if anything it was hers and hers alone.

 

...

Her fault, and hers alone...

 

Suddenly the reason behind these mixed feelings suddenly became all too clear. She didn't know whether it was more selfish, or just plain pathetic, once she did. Or maybe it was a bit of both.

 

"Hmph... selfish and pathetic... yeah, that's probably pretty apt for me by now. Even when I tell you I'm sorry and promise I'll try and find another to accomplish what you wanted- I go and forget about it, then when I see someone else has gone and taken the things we tried to use and has applied his methods to help people, I go and get all upset just because it isn't perfect, or some stupid bullshit like that."

      The forced smile on her face finally faded, as the thoughts flooded in. Though she still said nothing to Harry, just kept up with the internal self-realization of how utterly, disgustingly petty her reason was

      "What right do I fucking have to stand here and look down on his work like this- harry's solution might be a far cry from the full potential the Galdur properties have, but at least his will actually work, and it won't fucking kill someone in the process... I couldn't  even say that much back then, and I still can't say that much now. So I almost immediately get miffed because he's actually succeeded where I screwed up horribly, and instead of taking responsibility for what happened to you, I go and try to make my own damn self feel better, latch onto the one flaw I notice with what he's made, and try to go discrediting all the work he's put into it.

       Just like a petty, selfish bitch who can't swallow the pride she has no right to to begin with. Who knows, Avada? If I'm really this bad, Maybe it was better we were only together for a day... something even worse might've happened to you, if you stuck around someone like me..."

 

"Well um..." she said, after a very long, and very awkard stretch of silence of her simply staring blankly in his general direction. "...just let me know if you need help with anything. I'm sure what you've made here will work just fine, if you find the tools to make more of it." With a short nod, she turned and started to walk back towards Soma.

 

And the seething storm of repulsion for how she'd initially reacted here only grew with every step she took.

[Projeck]

Calvera had agreed to what Harry had asked of her, but once he gave the all clear, she made her way towards the back of the bus with a smile. Casually, she melted off a piece of the a steel plate from the shipyard, and put it into her hands, now ready to change the metal into something a bit stronger and lighter as a science experiment. Well, this didn't go well, as Calvera now held molten sodium in her hand. She panicked, and quickly threw it out of the bus into the void as she heard crackling. After the sodium was thrown safely out, a loud pop could be heard from below. "Uhhh... don't mind that!"

[Strider]

It was obvious to Harry that the girl wasn't terribly impressed. The initial phrasing was condescending, the awkward silence was telling, and the final words bore a striking similarity to the way a parent might flatter a child's ideas. It should have been almost infuriating, but Harry didn't really care that much. It wasn't unexpected, given her personality. A perfectionist, proud of herself and her world--proud might not be the best word, but certainly a bit dismissive of other worlds--, and in the words of the PRT, possibly a megalomaniac. Hopefully not, of course, but that was one way in which Harry excused her response. And of course, it was likely that she was selling it short too. It was something that could help almost anyone, it would be constantly active, and it had been made in about an hour. Of course, perhaps Lucille could do better with her magic, he had no way of knowing, but she hadn't. So, Harry found it quite easy to set aside the girl's apathy as unimportant.

 

Harry stood up, stretched, and looked out the window, in idle curiosity, and noticed the Ethereal floating aimlessly in the void. He made his way down the length to the door, at around the same time that Calvera tossed a glob of molten metal out of the bus. "What the hell--Ah, nevermind. Proditor? Mind if I ask what you're doing?" He spoke at a normal tone out the open door of the bus.

Edited November 15, 2017 by Strider

[GodofGamingRWBY]

For a good while, Proditor had remained silent to himself, enjoying the comfortable silence that came with the void outside of the bus. It certainly helped his headache. Of course, a sharp pain went through his head again when a loud pop came from whatever Calvera threw outside of the bus, and Harry's voice, causing Proditor's form to twitch before he put his hand down, turning to Harry from where he was in the void, "Nursing a headache still. Not much I can do besides that" Proditor replied, though Harry would finally hear the familiar, surrounding voice that Proditor spoke in, just without his echoey feel to it. It wasn't something he had even thought of doing, but it was a good sign to the Ethereal, as it meant that his brain was starting to fix itself from the split that Tattletale's power had caused.

[StormLord]

Frigus listened to Arminius's first statment before replying with, "We aren't savages you know, and we aren't sheltered little children either."

 

Afterwards Frigus listened to what Arminius had to say.

"Monstorization" Frigus shook his head slowly, and then looked back up at Arminius, "That sounds disturbingly similar to how Heartless are created, though with slightly less homicidal intent."

Firgus nodded as Arminius added the last comment.

"Well, as long as you aren't hurting people I don't think there's anything I can hold against you other than semantics, which would be petty and a waste of time."

[kj1225]

Arminius looks amused.

"Frigus, my past three days has been hurting people in the name of helping other people."

[StormLord]

Frigus sighed and then with a far more irritable tone than before he replied.

"Look, you know exactly what I mean.  And yes I'm aware people have and will die in this conflict, but that doesn't mean they should be condemned to agony in the darkness.  We don't need another tyrant running around ripping out people's souls and turning them into monsters."

[Strider]

"Still got a headache? Where'd you get that from? Eh, doesn't matter. I'll leave you in peace, unless you need anything?" There were a few reasons why Harry was hesitant to offer any medical assistance. The first was that the noise in the bus would probably exacerbate the headache, secondly, the combination of Tattletale's hesitance, and some realizations he had stumbled upon while dissecting the chaos serpent had made him a bit wary about attempting to practice medicine on unknown physiologies without good reason. Tattletale didn't quite fit that, both because she was mostly human, and because the thinker headaches could certainly constitute a long term problem.