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

[Powder Miner]

First, Satomi answered Proditor's question. "Um... not counting the incident with the portal, it's primarily just been conversation and some work on creating things. That... whatever it is did not appear until very soon before you came in." She glanced at the curled up thing, squinted, looked at it for a second, and then she slowly turned to Kusuke.

 

"Um... yyyyes," she began, initially a little distracted, but getting back into the flow of things soon enough, "These are samurai families, so they are all quite large, mind, but there are a total of six families within the Crab Clan's samurai. The Hida family are probably the primary of the Crab families, descended from the Kami Hida, they are the enduring warriors who fight on the wall or in the forts, up close with the oni, or who are at the front of our armies if any of the other clans war against us. The Hiruma family, whose original lands were lost to the Shadowlands, are our scouts, who move deep into the Shadowlands or on occasion enemy territory. The Kuni are our shugenja mages, known for proficiency the magic of the earth kami, and unparalleled-in-the-Empire knowledge of or shadowlands opponents. The Toritaka family, until recently the minor Falcon clan, are also scouts, but are masters of the art of fighting evil spirits from the realm of Gaki-do.

 

The Yasuki family, whose blood does also run through my veins, are the diplomats of the Crab Clan, long having left the Crane Clan for being a bunch of courtesy-obsessed fools. ...this is why I am, um, smaller than the average Crab samurai. They are very good at commerce, so that even the honor-obsessed clans besides the Crane work with them because the Yasuki give them the things they want, to get the things we need.

 

The Kaiu family, who I do belong to, yes, are the engineers of the Crab Clan, and the best engineers in all Rokugan, because we've done it for centuries while other clans saw it as beneath them. We're responsible for the repair and reconstruction of the Kaiu Wall when it is damaged, and were its original constructors. We also build siege engines and the like with which to strike the large oni, or during wars, the other clans' armies or fortresses, which they rarely know how to respond to -- not so beneath them after all, heh heh heh. We also know how to smith armor and weapons, and I do know how to do that even if my specialty lies in engineering."

[Sutoratosu]

Lucille eventually returned to her previous spot, her beasts lazing about on the seat and the various materials used in her rituals scattered about. She sat there, muttering something to herself as she worked tirelessly; already, she had incscribed the Sigil of Alchemical Marriage and systematically taken it apart, peice by peice, almost like one would dismantle a gun or an engine of some sort, except it was all in writing, rather than in physical peices. The circles, lines, traingales and other assorted geeometry that made the circuitry which bound the Sigil's components together, the Runes which powered the circuits and caused the ritual to function in the first place, the basic equations which served to direct the effects of the runes, all of it was laid out haphazardly around her, like the scribblings of a mad, blind woman, hands tainted dark with charcoal. 

       And even now, still she wrote yet more. Of the four runes responsible for the Alchemical Marriage, Shatter, Duplex, Mulligan and Manifest, she'd begun to mix and match them with other runes pulled her memory, comparing the Thaumic circuit designs she mapped out to the original and either scraping it for a new one when the simulations she ran did not pan out, or adding atop it and trying to refine them, when she found designs that didn't immediately fail the first test. 

 

If she could just find a structure the correct combination of both runes and their supporting circuitry, perhaps she could eventually find a way to fix it, for good and for all. Mavens knew that constantly relying on the Alchemical Marriage hadn't helped her in the least bit on that front, given well... how it had all ended up. Hence, it had been time to go back to the basics, to breakdown the sigil into its components, see just where and how things tended to wrong, test all their parts in their purest forms... if she knew precisely which component had been causing the random errors, and under what conditions it did so, perhaps she could refine the Sigil into something far greater than it had ever been before. What she occupied herself at the moment was simply a stepping down along that path, a project that was not directly related, but in it's pursuit she could still figure out quite a bit about the problem elements.

 

And eventually, she found a draft that she felt fairly certain could work...

"Come here, Do..." the cat obeyed, sauntering over and plopping down beside her. Lucille scribed the newly birthed Sigil on the floor, wrote the rune of Shatter beside it, and then pulled out the instrument. With a single utterance of the activation phrase, both spells flared to life, and she played a single note that nigh instantly fractured and split into its countless constituent traits, appearing like small, glittering shards that revolved in their own orbit like the rings of a planet... and then the sigil went to work, as she directed her focus on Do, preparing to work through the process of...

 

"IT....stopped? What?" she sat there, trying to comprehend the sudden cessation of the thaumic resonance, and to figure out what the hell it was that had just landed in her lap- it felt like... "Is this...a potted plant? What in the goddamn...how even...?" She had Do look at it. It was indeed a potted plant she held now, instead of the loose concepts of the healing resonance she'd deconstructed. Somehow, someway, instead of discarding the concepts she didn't want or need, the spell had gone and... jumped the gun entirely and done... something. Something she most definitely had not been intending- the healing resonance was supposed to be encoded into the Cat...not turn into... a common medicinal plant.

 

"oookay," she sighed, setting the pot to the side "Let's try this... again!" 

 

She scribed a few more runes this time, namely that of Duplex and Mulligan, and again, she spoke the activation rune, and the diagrams flared to life. She took out something from her pocket, a tooth, and tossed it into the range of the Shatter rune along with another resonance from the kazoo. This time, as she reached in to work with the concepts, the ritual kept going, and slowly but surely, she felt as though it was becoming clear where the exact problem lay. In due time, she'd taken everything she did not want, and discarded it, watching as it vanished into the ether. 

    It was then she activated Mulligan, shifting and mixing the remainder together into coherrant order, before at long last, she turned to the sigil she'd created from scratch, again focused and prepared to work through the process of encoding, all the while taking notes in her mind of the signals her scry was picking up. 

....

....

....

 

There was nothing at first. But as she tried to delve into the cats code, she found the whole thing flipped on itself; rather than altering Do's genes, it opened up editing on a template that up until that point, had not existed, spawned entirely in that moment. Lucille was tempted to stop at that point, searching with her senses for any outside interference, anything that could be forcing it to behave like this, but upon finding nothing, it what she was witnessing was directly related to the central root of the problem. Stopping would do nothing but impede her progress towards fixing it. And so she simply shrugged and pressed on- if she could not edit Do's genes, for whatever reason, then perhaps she could use this blank slate to draft a genome wholesale...

       Which, after taking a few moments to call Astra over and Examine her, was precisely what she did. It was relatively easy to use her as a reference, simply tweaking certain parts here and there- namely Lucille took out the potential for Sapient thought, as well as condensed the projected lifespan down from the literal lifetimes upon lifetimes Astra herself would live... there was no telling what would come out of this, and she wanted neither something that could potentially challenge and work against her, nor something that would live longer than it had any right too, encase it proved to be a threat that could not immediately be bound or destroyed. Once it was done... she took a deep breath

 

"Here goes something..." 

 

And pulled the metaphorical trigger.

 

The world around her vanished in bright light, there was the screech of a young predator, the flapping of leathery wings, and finally, the glow died back down to tolerable levels. Not that it had down a damn thing to lucille- there was no light conceivably so magnificently bright and commanding in it's utter majesty as to successively beckon those eyes, that they may develop pupils and actually work for once in the girl's life.

 

What sat in the sigil's place... was a young dragon. Emerlad, shimmering scales, bright red eyes that seemed to burn with vital essence, a red path shaped like a cross on it's back. It flitted out it's thin, forked tail as it tasted the air for the first time, and looked up at the girl who had just brought it into existence...edging closer. Astra was inbetween the younger Drake and her master in nigh an instant. Before lucille could even feel the impulsive reaction, the golden lizard was snarling at the new arrival, some amalgamation of black and vile temporal power welling up in her throat... the green drake backed up, caution in it's eyes as it examined the other creature. Then it took another stop towards Lucille, and Astra practically let her breath loose right then and there, before the girl established control over the situation

    "Oh, just stop it, would you? He's no more a threat to me than you or Do could be." The dragon ignored her, spewing twisted temporal winds upon the other drake...

 

And much to her surprise, the other beast took it like a champ, practically unphased by the attack. But surprise soon gave way to a deep scowl which cut across her face, as she came down hard on the link between her and astra, cutting off the gold drake's attack before it could go on any longer. She didn't even know why she'd tried talking to her, instead of just using the bond in the first place... was she really so used to having no one that she would let emotion triumph over what she knew to by empirically correct, and begin to impose the desire for at least some non-hostile human contact onto these mere animals?

    "Who am I kidding, I already fucking do it all the time... pathetic. They're just beasts, pets at this point... they can't talk back to me, they never talked back, and they never will... I really need to stop trying to have conversations with something thats just a bundle of raw emotions and hard-coded, instinctual reactions with no ability to transcend their natural programming"

Speaking of which, with a sigh, she reached out and probed the drakes mind, and upon finding that there was no potential for eventual sapient thought, just as she'd hoped, and that it had a mild enough disposition (unlike a certain... serpent she'd used earlier), she left a small peice of her own mind behind inside the creature, effectively binding it to her. 

 

Lucille Binds the newly Life Dragon! She expends 3 bonds!

 

"Guess I'll call you Brachus..." and after a few more minutes, she'd corrected the issue that had led to the Dragon's birth in the first place...

 

Well no.

 

It was a lie to say she "fixed" it. Even if it hadn't been what she was anticipating, this was still quite the potnetially valuable discovery, and it would be a crime to simply erase it. No, instead, all Lucille did was scribe in a new function to the Sigil, while keeping it isolated from the wonderful error that led to this. She didn't even need to test it this time- the calculations all checked out. The sigil and all the runes she'd written over the past hour of working on it or so, disintegrated as she dropped out of her higher state of conscious and turned back to Brachus. 

 

"Welp, from what I can tell, you don't seem to be suffering the effects of failure, everything feels fine... and you took that attack like it was nothing. Let me see you- wait... Damn it, I'm doing it again... actually, just fucking forget it, not like it even matters -show me your breath"

 

Brachus did just that, as she gave the order. A mint scented, vibrant plume of green energy bloomed forth from his mouth, spreading over her and making just about every bit of fatigue she'd begun to feel melt away. Just as she'd glimpsed during the final results of the ritual. She smirked, petting the little drake and scratching him under the chin, to which he cooed with content. Yes, this little one would be quite useful indeed.

    "Just as expected... you've honestly turned out a lot better than I was hoping, too. Hmph, who knows, maybe I should make even more like you two, I seem to have knack for making miniature replicas of ancient death organisms that killed for no reason other than they could, breathed pure suffering, and shat hot misery wherever they went. You lot should be alright though, I made sure to leave out those horrible qualities..."

 

[Armok]

While Lucile is working Nhevi gets up and clambers over onto the ceiling above her, observing what she's doing from above with obvious great interest and attention, to see if she might learn anything.

 

"You are SOOOOO COOOL! It'd be really great if you could teach me some of this stuff, although probably not today. Hmm, I wonder... Could you try playing that kazoo again? I want to see if I can mimic it."

[Projeck]

Calvera, with the help of Soma, attempted her try at making a heavier metal once again, to which the results were less than spectacular. The metal indeed expanded, but as soon as Calvera touched it with heat, it quickly left her hand like water. "Huh..." The now molten metal met the floor of the bus, and just sat there. Calvera attempted to get it straightened and neat, with slightly cooler hands. Once in order, it cooled, and stayed it's old metallic grey. She picked it up, then turned towards the group surrounding a... pink and black lizard? Calvera's eyes widened. "IT'S SO CUTE!"

[Armok]

"I know, right! Don't let it fool you thou; my age i ou; my age i ou; my age is in the same ballpark as yours."

[Projeck]

"Uh... How do you know my age? And why do you repeat like that?"

Calvera raises an eyebrow.

"I'm Calvera. You can call me Bandit if you prefer. And you?"

[Armok]

"Nhevi! A pleasure to finally meet you!"

[Sutoratosu]

"Um.... hi?" Lucille muttered as something called out to her from...the ceiling of all places. The cat looked up at it on her command, and she saw through his eyes only served to confuse her. How long had this thing been there? What even was it? Had she been so absorbed in her work she hadn't even noticed? Likely... its not like she hadn't gotten so engrossed in a project as to practically ignore anything not related to it, before. Before she could ask any of those questions though, yet another voice came over, this one more familiar, and it seemed the two of them had practically forgotten she was there.

     "Just... how much of what I was doing did you see just now, out of curiosity?" she asked the lizard... purple, she didn't know what the hell it was.

[Projeck]

Calvera smiled, although she still was a tad confused as to what this... lizard was, exactly.

"The pleasure's all mine, Nhevi. So how is it that you know my age?"

[Armok]

"It's a bit hard to explain, a lot of things just seem like I've always known them, because of my condition, Like, most things really although a lot of them are a really bad idea to know and it's not as simple as actually knowing them. Except that's not it at all. hmm, it's a lot like how you know lang w you know lang w you know language and emotions, except that actually works according to some logic?"

 

Then she turns to Lucille and her mouth moves but the only thing that comes out is a noise like radio static, which she doesn't seem to notice. 

[Projeck]

"Huh... I suppose that makes sense. So uh... what exactly are you?"

Calvera scratched her head, smiling nervously.

[Armok]

"I'm not really anything at this point as far as I can tell, I used to be a _____ but it looks like even the name of the species never existed any more as you can see.ou can see.ou can see."

[Sutoratosu]

The burst of sound directed at her- seemingly a bizarre mix of the crackle of electricity overtoned by the crashing of the coastal tide -only served to further perplex lucille.

      "Come again?" the girl asked, and not just as it realted to the static, but pretty much everything else the strange creature had just said "Um.... look whatever you are, are you sure you're okay? What's with all these weird pauses and stuttering and word fragments that keep popping in and out when you talk? And what was that weird noise you made just now? Did you... hit your head or something, before you got here?"

[Armok]

"Ah sor Ah sorry. What I said was basically I didn't see that much. And I guess you could say that, metaphorically? I think something SERIOUSLY broke about the thing that popped me here, and I spent a looong time in there... So no, I'm not okay I guess but hey there's probably nothing to do about it and it will come in REAL handy I'm pretty sure. Actually, since it is sort of conceptual in nature, you probably have the best chance figuring out the specifcs, just be careful okay there is some SCARY stuff in here."

[Projeck]

"Huh... I admit, this is a bit much for me to understand, I guess?"

Calvera chuckles nervously.

[Armok]

Nhevi spends the lul in conversation trying to meditate, and failing spectacularly, until she ragequits and runs in circles on the ceiling instead.

 

Spoiler

(3, 8) (15) Despite their best attempts, it's impossible to center oneself when every 3 seconds or so, you do the exact opposite. Their willpower simply isn't enough yet.

 

Then she glitches back, neither of those things having happened, does the thing again, and THIS time a pile of meat appears from nowhere. 

 

Spoiler

Instead of MEDITATE, Nvherekjh recieves a MEATTIDE (16, 15) (62) Meat Tide (trick): Nhevi spends the entire turn with her eyes closed centering herself, creating 64 raw pieces of unidentified meat. Limit 1 use per encounter.

 

"Oh FINALLY something works! Hey, who's hungry?"

Edited November 19, 2017 by Armok

[StormLord]

Frigus looked at the various different crystals he'd created, he grabbed two of the dull looking ones and the one he created with Calvera and Lucille's help and fused them into.....something.

 

He glanced around somewhat confused at first before shrugging and collecting up the other materials he made.  He thanked Calvera and Lucille for their help and made his way back to the other end of the bus just in time for random raw meat to start appearing in the crafting area.

He sat down in a fairly quiet place, pulled out something star shaped, and mumbled something under his breath that made the thing glow for several seconds.

 

Spoiler

Obtained trick "Rock & Roll" and crafting item "Whiff of D-Link energy".

 

[Strider]

Harry stood up. He'd fallen asleep for only a short time, but was really all he needed. With only a few blinks to banish any drowsiness, he soon found himself fully alert, and looking down the aisle at the strange glitchy thing that had shown up. It was running on the ceiling for some reason. He stared, perplexed, until it dropped to the floor, and suddenly, a pile of raw meat dropped to the floor. Harry idlely got up, not terribly, but thinking he should probably inquire.

 

He stopped, a few feet from the glitching thing, and asked, "What type of meat is that? I'd also suggest getting someone's help to cook it, unless it's something that's not gonna harbor any bacteria?" They could definitely just put it in the fridge, but that would take up a fair amount of space, and who knew whether this was some sort of alien meat, with alien bacteria that might be more dangerous than meat from his world.

[Sutoratosu]

"....I... how...what? Just WHAT!?" Lucille shook her head as some odd ruckus started and then the scent of raw meat filled her nostrils. All three of her pets looked at the pile of butchered cuts rather enticingly, but she kept all of them away from it- there was no telling what in the goddamn the meat this lizard had conjured was, where it had come from, nor if it was toxic like the Deathwyvern and the Serpent flesh had been... 

 

"Forget about the meat for a minute," The girl said as harry approached, standing up from her seat and opening up her senses like one might open a third eye, casting aside physical reality as she peered into the void between the material and ethereal, seeking to fish out any hint of whatever the lizard was from the infinite sea of knowledge of good and evil "what we should be getting to the bottom of is how the hell she can do this at all... without giving off any type of signature that suggests it's magic in nature."

 

Lucille uses 1 charge to Scry Nhevi, intending to figure out what the hell is going on with her!

Spoiler

(20) Among the members of the Party, Nhevi's Laws of Physics are broken beyond repair, but still enforced.  Like a an engine made to run with broken parts, it never stops making loud noises, breaking further, and malfunctioning. It's as though a foundation holding up even thaumaturgy is cracked.  Simple magic won't be a solution.

"...." The girl was... silent, sitting back down as she processed the readout. Her animals begin to siddle closer to the mystery meat, but before they could take a bite some part of lucille pulled on the bonds connecting them and pulled them back once more- the last thing she needed was to be treating all of them for potential food poisoning. After about a half a minute or two, she finally seemed to find a way to articulate her findings

 

"Shes... she breaks all the physical laws, just by her mere existence... but something about her still forces them act even in their broken states. It's like... some decimated machine, that keeps running even despite vital parts being damaged beyond repair, so it limps along, chugging miserably, pouring out smoke and making horribly noises, and even more parts of it breaking over time.... but it never ends, it never shuts down no matter how broken it becomes, it just keeps going, and going, in this... terrifying cycle... I don't even know how she can exist like this, but somehow she does. And I don't know if I, or anyone here can help her... the faults and cracks around her run so deep, I don't think anything even I have could do anything more than putting a bandage on a bullet wound..." a shake of her head, as if she were going to say more, before

      "Where... where did you come from?" she asked, turning to Nhevi "What is your world like, are there.... more like you? How did you end up this way and survive? Is it.... painful?" she visibly shivered, as she asked the questions. It wasn't quite the same as with avada, but it most definitely reminded her of the same basic principle, being made broken and subjected to an endless cycle of further breaking, one that would not ever end on its own...

[GodofGamingRWBY]

"I see. Thank you Satomi" Proditor stated, looking away from the small samurai, noting that Nhevi had moved on to more interesting sights. Specifically, that seemed to to be Lucille. For a second, Proditor remained where he was, observing the entire bus, before beginning to move forward... Right towards Harry.

 

"Harry, I recall that you needed me?" Proditor asked as he approached, straightening as best as he could as he talked... Which wasn't much, due to the bus. They needed to get something bigger. He did notice the strange meat on the floor... But chose not to acknowledge it.

Edited November 19, 2017 by GodofGamingRWBY

[Strider]

"Well, I don't know anything about that. Mind if I take a sample though?" Harry asked disinterestedly. "I mean, if you figure out what's going on here, I'd like to know, but you're probably better suited to it." He then turned to Proditor as the Ethereal approached.

 

"Right, come with me?" Once Harry had made his way back to the medbay, he turned. "So, I'd like your help with. . . pretty much everything you know about parahuman powers. Biological things, psychological, whatever you've figured out? If you're willing to share. Since, you somehow managed to use Tattletale's power?" His voice was slightly tinged with disbelief.

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Once Harry had asked Proditor to follow him, the Ethereal did just that, following closely behind the doctor. When Harry also asked his question, after they got to the medbay, Proditor noted the slight disbelief in Harry's voice... Which was understandable. Proditor himself was not a 'parahuman', so him being able to access another's power would be unlikely.

 

But, entirely possible, as it turned out.

 

"From what I've learned, a parahuman's power comes from a 'shard', that resides in their own head. I am unsure if these shards do cause changes in one's psyche, but I do know that they serve as a form of extreme psionic signal to their source. Tattletale, for example, has her shard connecting to a sort of planet-sized being, who's only purpose is to collect and piece together information, which she can tap into to use her power. As it was a psionic signal, I was able to replicate it and gain access to that same source" Proditor explained, voice now returning to it's normal, echoey form.

[Strider]

"Oh, that's new. And are all parahumans connected to different of these planet size things?" This was new. And very interesting. A psionic connection, unconscious presumably. Something that would be worth future investigation. Perhaps an autopsy on a dead parahuman? Parahuman organizations would have done that presumably, but perhaps Harry could find something better. Who knew, they were at least 400 years behind his world. . .

 

"That fits with what I've seen thus far. It would require a lot of information through her senses, and would probably give out a lot of info if overused. Fits so far with what I've got on Thinker headaches. Any idea of how regular humans can get a psionic connection with this thing? And the reasons for it?"

[GodofGamingRWBY]

"Yes, they are all connected to these beings, though it differentiates between each parahuman. From my knowledge though, the only real way to connect to these sources is to use a psionic signal similar to the ones unique to each Shard. This either requires one to have their own shard, or have enough psionic control in order to make a signal like one" Proditor explained. He had no doubt that others would be able to achieve the same feats as he did... They just needed the control over their own gifts (if they had it in the first place) before that was possible.

[Armok]

"Thanks, that pretty much confirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrms my suspicions. As for your questions... I don't remember what my world was like, and there are so many contradictory things I DO "remember", but I'm pretty sure I was not like this and it's a result of the forces that brought me here. And don't worry, it's not painful at all most of the time just, well, imagine deafening noise that never ceases for billions and billions of years on end... But to be honest, I wouldn't change it if I could, just like you wouldnt fix your blindness and because I can sense it will aloy me to help a lot of people in ways nobody else could. Oh and regarding the survival, I'm my guess is this all operates on a level where life is an atomic concept rather than a fragile machine, and it has become 'stuck'. I'm not sure if I CAN die."