Trespassers: Director's Cut: The Bus

[Endlessblaze]

"Harry said you might be able to translate this"
Leo holds up the papers
"Found them in that odd bookshelf that keeps changing books when you aren't looking at it. These caught my Eye but Im not familiar with the language. I would have Snow translate it, but well...No internet connection here."

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke looked up at Leo with clear displeasure. "I can. It's something about a guy named Gilgamesh." He unscrewed another part on the motor in his hands, causing the miscellaneous pieces to fall apart onto the floor. "So you're going to just walk up and expect me to translate texts for you after everything you pulled on that last world?" 

[Endlessblaze]

"Pretty much."

 

Well at least he is honest about it.
Snow internally sighs, rapidly loseing hope this would go well.

She strongly doubted these two would ever be able to properly get along. They had gotten of on like five wrong foots, and Leo was not the best at dealing with pepole. Not the worst....But not the best.

If this went south, she was probbly going to have to step in.

 

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke looked at Leo blankly. And he thought he was bad at being diplomatic. "So. . . You're not going to apologize, you're not even going to ask me to translate it, you're just going to barge in while I'm working on something and assume that I'll do it for you out of the kindness of my heart?" He snorted. "Given your track record you'll probably blow a hole in the side of the ship with whatever information is in here, regardless of how useful it actually is."

[Endlessblaze]

"All thats already been cleared up though. Besides, aren't you curious whats in here? The least you could do is have a Little faith."

His tone takes on some mesure of excitement
"It could be some old legend, or a study on ancient techniques, or a draft of a report on some magical experiment, or- "
And snow tries to lower his expectations
"Or something borring, like a manifest of some dude's ship" 

"I mean, yeah I guess, but we won't know until we read it"

[Chevaleresse]

Kusuke rolled his eyes. He was tempted to just say no, but after a moment of thought he figured that he would be rid of this particular nuisance faster if he just read the damn thing. "Fine, I'll skim it for you. Just do whatever you're going to do with it well away from me or anything important."

[kj1225]

Arminius mentally sighs. This would be easy enough to stretch the truth on but still, it's annoying as shit to deal with. "So basically, the idea was to see if there would be any practical application for reversing my abilities and adding essence to a person. I had previously worked on a prisoner who only reported feeling hotter but otherwise didn't seem to have any noticeable effects before I removed the chunk so I thought in the future it'd be a likewise mild reaction even with stronger essences.... Well, I don't know what factors could have lead to it but near instantly after applying the essence they turned into something similar to the monster I got the essence from and grabbed me by the face... That's how I got the burns up there. So, since that obviously wasn't good I removed the chunk but I get it had fused with part of their soul, creating something akin to one of my minions but based on the soul part. Also it hated me so it chased me around and burned my legs until the orc grabbed it and I could run off."

[Strider]

Law:

Spoiler

"Yes, well, I currently do not have complete biological immortality, nor perfectly replicable DNA. And frankly, I find it hard to believe that there could never occur an error, Murphy's law and all that."

 

"I am interested though, what causes that? Is there some sort of indicator to determine which portions actually express themselves, and a way to make sure that those never occur on a non precursor segment through chance mutation or even quantum fluctuations? It's probably very good but. . . nothing's foolproof."

 

Arminius:

Spoiler

"Oh, I see. Well, I assume you've realized the mistake of not restraining or containing your test subject prior to the test? Not great protocol, especially when working with apparently unwilling subjects." Harry might not be a fan of that, but he also wasn't really interested in a morality talk.

 

"There's probably a way to get it so you could apply essences to . . . something I guess, and get far enough away to be fairly safe. But, I think it's best to try to control experiments in the future. Do them on the same world, in the same manner, record all relevant and even irrelevant factors, then vary one thing at a time. Don't know if I can directly help with your problems, but if you want conclusive experiments I could always give advice."

 

"Nothing else I've got for you right now." Harry felt that he'd rather not stretch this on too long. Talking to Arminius felt almost like walking on eggshells. Nothing really dangerous, just unless the steps were exceedingly careful, it'd turn into a nuisance.

 

 

 

 

[kj1225]

Arminius holds up a hand for Harry to stop. "Actually, this talk has given me an idea. I think the problem with my experiment in part is that essence inherently wants to collect together given the right stimulus.... But, what about a whole soul? They inherently would need some help to put them together but if both sides were willing I could safely combine the two, which would likely lead to physical changes that should prove incredibly useful... Think you could help me out with this experiment? Should be safe as can be since even if the soul gets rejected it'll go right back into my reserve this time."

[Hal Henderics]

Law

Spoiler

"Well, that's what Light Eco is for.  It's the failsafe Eco, and contains the master copies for exactly that reason."

 

"Our DNA doesn't typically mutate unless we make it do so, due to error checking nanomachinery, and biological alterations."

 

[Projeck]

Calvera walks out of the medbay, and plops down into a bus seat. She looks around to see who all is on the bus, then proceeds to lay down in her seat, curled up using her jacket as a pillow.

[Yours Truly]

Jun

 

Name: Jun
 
Species: Human

Age: 82

Sex: Female

Highest level of education: 
Master in Political Science
 
Do you smoke or drink:
I have a nicotine allergy so I can't really smoke in the first place if you discount the myriad of exotic mind altering substances in circulation that I don't take, but I still drink a little red wine from time to time if it's offered; kind of hard to get them in the vastness of space after all.

Any allergies which you are aware of:
Nicotine, I break out into coughing fits whenever I breathe some of it in, and I get a bit of a headache afterwards. The good news is that no one really smokes boring old tobacco anymore back in my world, the bad news is that I'm not in my world anymore am I?.
 
Previous medical history, including all hospitalizations and diagnoses that you are aware of, and known medical conditions in your family:
Jun writes down a long list of every time she remembers going to the hospital and the treatments she received there, which doesn't have much of note except for something marked as 'Life Extension procedure' penciled in a year or so after a very mild stroke around a decade or more ago.

List of known abilities and how you have seen them interact with others:
I was trained in classical fencing and standard infiltration tactics on the job as I was sent to accompany other more experienced diplomats on forays to warrior cultures for the early parts of my career.
I have learned how to repair and add some minor modifications to my own survival suit after recognizing the need for it while burying a colleague of mine who did not.
I have 50+ years of experience as a diplomat, and I have recently learned how to utilize some very minor psionics and a dance based method of necromancy in my multiversal travels.
 
Any nonstandard biology you are aware of:
Jun writes down a very short list of mechanical and genetic augmentations, mostly geared towards granting her a greater range of motion, allowing her to hold her breath for longer periods of time, making her more resistant to radiation, and increasing her heat and pain tolerance on top of some other minor additions.

List and describe the worlds you have been on to the best of your abilities:
The first world I actually visited was a city called Brockton Bay where I and and several other people were transported to after having a short conversation with one very concerned citizen by the name of Doctor Ebon. We spent most of our time there with getting a general lay of the land, dealing with a burning building, and informing the local authorities of our intentions before we cut a deal with unaligned superpowered beings to obtain a multiversal transport and cleared up the aftermath of a large scale battle that would have taken a long time and a lot of money for anyone else to deal with.

The second world I visited was one that was ravaged by giant rapidly mutating monsters I think? I mostly remember meeting with a nice artist and having to yell at someone to get them to not stay here and try to fight off the super monster that one of our group was mutated into. Although that might have been after we helped three heroes fight off a large group of demonic entities and a demonic dragon.

After that I was transported to Tarraria Village, where I spent a week or so with the rest of the party to prepare a perfectly nice and peaceful village to survive an oncoming siege led by goblins, it was....intense to say the least, and it's not an experience I'd want to repeat. Although I can happily state that there were no deaths on our side, and that our combined efforts were enough to rout the remainder of the goblin's forces and prevent them from assembling another warband of that size for the near future.
 
Please indicate recent contact with magic and/or psyker abilities as this may affect treatment:
I received psionic abilities from an alien being by the name of Proditor pretty early on, which I've mostly used to talk to people over long distances, read surface thoughts, and lift objects. After that I practically bathed my survival suit in a demonic wyvern's blood while reducing it to it's base components, which I later discovered had done some rather strange things to my survival suit.

In Tarraria itself I worked with a very odd man by the name of Leo and a fish swordsmith by the name of Toshiro who pooled their collective efforts to forge me a rapier out of what was essentially pure agony distilled into extremely durable and heat resistant metal that let off bolts of agony when struck and also caused the swordsmith to receive a prophectic vision of a future sword that will be fashioned out of this one and three others upon completion. 

I also found an odd book in the ship Leo brought with him that taught me how to perform the basics of a dance based form of necromancy, which also cursed me to periodically dance uncontrollably until I performed a certain ritual that caused me to have first and second degree burns. At least I learned how to dance better from it anyway.
 
Further comments/concerns. Please do not hesitate to mention even things which seem trivial:
Would you mind telling me what you learned from Proditor while you were away with him Harry? I've been practicing on my own, but I still have some issues with precision.

 

Alan's response

"What do you mean by 'a bit of extra radiation damage' exactly? I'm not sure how worried I should be right now, but that doesn't sound encouraging."

[Strider]

Arminius:

Spoiler

"I--what? I guess I could help. I don't really know exactly what you mean so. . . Write me up a proposal or something, and I'll see what I can d.o to help once all the checkups are over."

 

Law:

Spoiler

"I see. Could you remind me one more time what the other types of Eco do?" There'd be no progress arguing over whether it was at all possible for something to do wrong.

 

Jun:

Spoiler

"Good to see you. This is easily one of the most complete medical histories I've recieved, that makes things a hell of a lot easier."

 

"The life extension procedure, how many years does that add, on average?" There were comparable procedures, though not specifically marketted as such, and Harry was curious what the extent of medical technology was in the "diplomat"s world.

 

"Dancing based necromancy, what a world. I'd be a bit more careful if I were you, getting weird effects from the blood of stuff you killed, picking up strange blood, visions of the future. . ."

 

"By the way, could you tell me a bit more about the time in this Terraria place? I've heard some opinions on Leo and met him myself, but not really sure what to think yet. Want to know a bit more, since Kusuke seems to dislike him especially."

 

"What did Proddy teach me, eh? Well I don't quite remember the particulars of when I got what. . .Well I had the ability to to burst a blood vessel in my brain psionically--rather fitting don't you think--and I worked a bit on making that safer and more controllable. Worked a bit on lifting and messaging. Went to Proditor's homeworld actually, sadly we didn't get any of their psionics boosting gear. In short supply."

 

Alan:

Spoiler

"Well, you've got some DNA damage and minor mutations. Given the amount, I'd normally wonder about it as a significant cancer risk. But the fact that you only had the one as a kid. . . well, that's reassuring. There's likely something preventing you from developing a cancer, and I'll just work on figuring out what it is."

 

Unless there are further concerns, you are free to be decontaminated and leave.

 

 

Being essentially done with the checkups save for some ongoing conversations immediately after some of them, Harry contacts Proditor, to make sure that they got everyone.

 

[kj1225]

Arminius looks confused but nods. It would probably occur to Harry that the sneak wasn't from a world where people actually wrote down proposals for what they'd be doing as an experiment, rather than just asking permission and going at best.

[Hal Henderics]

Law

Spoiler

"Green Eco is used on non-precursor biological entities.  For curing disease and mending wounds."

"Blue Eco is used to generate refined power and accelerate objects."

"Red Eco is used for generating unrefined power and combat augmentation."

 

"Yellow Eco is used for projectiles and ranged functionality"

"Dark Eco is for high quality augmentation of the body and mind."

 

"Light Eco is for directly counteracting the effects of Dark Eco and other forms of corruption."

 

[Powder Miner]

Nader:

Spoiler

"I've had checkups before. Probably not quite the same way you do them, though, Dr. Spaceman.

 

I'd expect you to be smart enough to get that my "you'd like to know, wouldn't you?" was rhetorical, though. Obviously I know that you want to know my medical history, but there's only so much I'm going to tell you people. My trust doesn't extend far enough to expose my intimate details where anyone could hear them -- and act on them. You're getting as good as you're going to get, on that sheet, both medical and educational history.

 

And, Rachel, if I die, it'll be Allah I'll be seeing, but I won't let that happen anytime soon.

 

[GodofGamingRWBY]

Proditor

"Hm... Currently, I believe only Satomi and Tattletail have not arrived for their checkups. Shall I gather them myself?" Proditor replied after a bit of thought.

 

[Strider]

Law

Spoiler

"Good to know. I'm just gonna come beg to you when I need something, alright?"

 

"Otherwise we're good here." Harry knew he'd need to take a deeper look at the precursor's genome, both because of his suspicions and because of the lessons to be learned, but he felt no need to mention that.

 

You are free to be decontaminated and leave.

 

Nader:

Spoiler

"Probably not the same as my checkups, no. Look man, I get it. You don't trust people, and you think that giving your medical history away will make you weaker. That or you're doing it to spite me. Whatever, it doesn't really matter."

 

"But much more importantly, you gonna take your armor off for an actual examination? I expect the answer to be no, but I'm hoping to be surprised here."

 

Proditor:

"Sure, much appreciated. I can come along if you'd like though."

 

 

[Endlessblaze]

Leo
 

Spoiler

At harry's request Leo ends up going on and on about various mana types he has that might be useful, Ranging from raw healing magic, to ones which encourage good bacteria, to even things which bring cells and lifeforms into symbioses. As he goes on he starts to theorize about more possible combinations, and drift into less directly medical ones, but harry gets the idea.

Somehow this leads to Leo helping him assemble a terrarium to test evolutionary adaptations. 
 

Spoiler

"(Craft Level 1): A terrarium made with Leo's help, capable of subjecting samples to various stimuli in order to prompt adaptations, which may be harvested after some time (up to GM fiat). In addition to basics such as weather, atmospheric composition and gravity, stimuli include samples of the various corruption types Leo no doubt snagged in Terraria, with the mana supply needed to fuel them. The first test performed with it will have a second Random Bisque Roll added to it."

After showing a surprising amount of care to make sure the radiation source Harry thought to include was set up properly and not going to hit things outside the chambers, naturally, Leo feels compelled to immediately test it.

He puts soil into one of the chambers, and spills some of his blood on it, before closing up the chamber and doubling the sunlight and gravity. After closing up the chamber he provides a dose of radiation.

What happens next is completely unsurprising to Leo, but no doubt more then a little odd to anyone else. As soon as the dose takes the blood twist, warps and changes into some kind of monster. Taking the form of a vaguely plant like bulb of flesh, eating the dirt

 

Spoiler

(16, 13) (64) (26) !(9)! The end result is a bulb with 5 large white eyes, red skin, and a mouth which blasts dirt into the air and inhales the mixture of dust and air rapidly, hyperventilating at all times. Seven asymmetrical tentacle-like limbs root it to the ground when it is doing this, while some others fling more dirt into the air. It's easy to tell this method of survival is not sustainable.

 

Leo estimates that without healing magic, its genetic decay will kill it withen 12 hours, and with healing magic, it will die withen four days, running out of nutrients in the soil.

 

[Strider]

Following the creation of this device, Harry had no real desire to use it immediately. It would work later, and he'd have better ideas if he gave himself some time to turn things over in his head. It was without really thinking about it that he said "sure" to Leo's request to test it. In seeing the result, Harry felt some disgust. 

 

"Well that's rather disturbing. That what happens if you get irradiated?"

 

"What now though? Dunno if I should do any tests or if it'll just make all my tools melt."

[Endlessblaze]

"Yep, A good dose of radiation and I would mutate, In this case, giving my blood a strong enough dose I was able to transform it into a monster. Like I said before, I would rather like to avoid growing eyes on my back. There is a reason divine substances and mutagenic reactors are controlled"

As he says this, he begins to move two fingers around like a conductor and the beast responds in kind, as much as its useless little body could. Tentacles moveing and waveing as Leo directed it.

"Don't worry about your tools, unless its developed somehting like acid, as long as you don't use plastic it SHOULD be fine. We should do some test with it and see how it reacts to things. Maybe use Symbiosis mana to try and integrate it with a plant or some other spare samples. Or maybe I could add Cores into it to keep it alive and give it some uses. If those tentacles could be freed up, and used in some way, that would be great"

"Its also possible you could derive some phonems from it, and use those in Spellwork. Ethier way you won't be able to do much testing if you only have one. You should ask Tim to imprint it"

Leo nods, clearly considering various options. His mind running off with various test and ideas to try and imploy

[Strider]

"Alright. We can do some tests, and then you can keep it, do what you like with it. Given it's your blood obviously it's yours, but still, I definitely don't need it."

 

"What I hope to get out of this is. . . more along the lines of what's understandable to me, stuff that I trust." After mentioning this, Harry began. prep for taking a DNA sample, and identifying some of the molecular structure if DNA sampling proved useless.

 

After a few tedious chemical tests and sequencing the genome, he murmured, "Stuff that's understandable, like that." He put down the tablet, and turned to Leo.

 

"Here's the thing. This little guy, he isn't exactly stable, I don't think. Something in you allows your body to replenish, or not need the proteins coded for by someone like mine's genome. But this guy, well, it looks like he doesn't have whatever coping mechanism you've got. No real way of repairing or replacing damaged cells, or replenishing much of anything. I'd give it ten to fourteen hours."

 

"Other info I've got: No real nervous system, it's movements are entirely built in--poorly--and in response to stimuli. But there's some promise, I think, this." Harry pointed out the specific set of genetic markers that he'd noticed something in. "It's, well, it doesn't work exactly, but it's got the building blocks for some specific tissue, which would absorb nutrients pretty well. It hasn't quite got the hang of using it. Imprinting it seems fine, I don't think there's a limit to how many things Tim can imprint, right?"

 

"After that, well, let's pick a path, focus on something specific you want to do with it."

[StormLord]

Tim wanders in, having heard that he was needed to imprint something.  As soon as he steps in the room he makes his way over to look at the thing trapped in the case, before deadpanning.

"What kind of unholy eldritch abomination are you working on today?"

He looks at it a little closer, before turning around with a slight flash of disgust.

"I hope this isn't what you brought me here to copy."

[Endlessblaze]

"Yeah I know it won't last. Things without a soul, but lacking a self stable body just can't stay togther. Not on its own. But with healing magic It could be made to keep. Do you have any diamonds or elemental carbon?"

"Oh, hey Tim. Nothing unholy, Just a tiny monster. Totaly harmless, but it won't live for long without some other experiments to back it up, and experiments require things to test. If you could make a copy or two that would be great."

[StormLord]

Tim digs into his bag and hands Leo a piece of soft brown coal, then he sort of shifts around in place thinking for a moment.

"I could imprint it, but it would take a very long time and may not work right at all.  You see the more complex something is the longer it takes to process without skipping steps.  Pure iron is easier to create than iron ore or steel for example.  Life...life is complex, if you want it to stay alive it takes even longer.  You have to record the state and position of each and every cell uniquely, lest it break down from decay in only a few minutes.  It's why my magic doesn't play nice with Thaumaturgy."