Ever wondered how those strange little tablets, or 'scrolls' of the RWBY series worked? Here's my personal speculation. By no means am I any kind of expert in any degree of technology, but I've been around the block. Here's my two cents on how the little system works, assuming that the little rig is even practical and realistic.
For those who are unfamiliar with the trench spike (also known as the trench knife), [Edited and redacted, the system censors out the URLs of other sites]
Please note that the OC's personal weapon is nothing more than a trench knife/spike which has been lengthened enough to qualify as a (short) sword.
BEER Dorm - Tobias' Point of View
I'm glad there's a table in here. It may be nothing more than a large desk, but it made the perfect working surface. After getting the others to help me move a thing or two from my apartment, I got to work on Weiss's broken scroll. The repair of scrolls is a daunting task, most people throwing their scroll away the instant it takes any significant damage, not even bothering to recover the data on it. The system makes daily backups quietly without the user putting any real effort into the system anyways. Due to the small size of the device, an inexperienced repairman risks his life when opening a damaged scroll, without exaggeration. With dust powering every single scroll, simply the matter of repairing a scroll was more so a question of if you knew how open the device up without blowing yourself up. Sure not needed to ever charge your scroll was nice, and the dust would only be volatile when the scroll in question was powered on... Just blowing on any dust is really enough to activate the strange powder. The fact that the girl's scroll didn't explode on getting run over just proves how well these devices are made.
But I'm a super nerd.
King of the geeks.
Techie of all the techies.
High explosive everyday products are my personal favorite.
Gotta live life on the edge, with tablets that run the risk of detonation while in mid use.
Never know when you might need a convenient grenade.
When team BEER went to retrieve things from my apartment (with the reward of pizza, because otherwise there was no chance that anyone was going to lend a hand), a large suitcase of electrical repair tools and accessories was among the small caravan of clothes and tech gear. Setting the destroyed scroll down on the table beside the open suitcase, I removed a small prying tool from my suitcase, removing the thin but strong casing that protected the internal mechanisms of the tablet itself. The explosive nature isn't the only reason why people avoid repairing these, but the small form factor. The series of tiny parts make everything tedious, and easy to destroy on disassembly. Furthermore, removing and reattaching parts usually demanded experience in soldering and unsoldering various small parts, many of these sensitive to heat in certain spots.
It would take nerves of steel to remove the dust battery: the first part that had to be removed, and also the item in question that made the device explosive in its nature.
Also a steady hand, you don't want to go around dropping dust batteries.
Because the developers of the scroll couldn't make it easy.
But since when was fun ever easy?
After disconnecting the battery from the device's main electronic board (or motherboard), I pause, and take a deep breath. Its a good thing I didn't immediately try to pry the dust battery out, because as I took a moment for a deep breath, Baeburn decided to intrude, wrapping her arms around my neck, her chin on my right shoulder, making me jump in my cheat.
"Whats going on, baby brother? Trying to hide something?"
Slumping back in my chair, I proceeded to tell off the dirty blonde.
"You realize that I'm currently tearing apart a broken scroll? You know, the device notorious for exploding in the hands of those trying to fix it, particularly when they get jumped by annoying teammates?"
"Sheesh, me-ow. You know Tobias, if you really want me to leave you alone, you could just as- HOLY SHIT YOU REALLY ARE TRYING TO FIX A SCROLL!"
After noticing the uncased and destroyed device on the table, she instantly released my neck and proceeded to hide behind my chair.
"Took you long enough to notice... Rae-Rae."
Pulling a newspaper roll from seemingly nowhere, the paper lead by Raeburn's arm began to repeatedly and sharply descend upon my head with the analog paper of grief. Raising my left arm over to my head shield myself, my right dropped to one of my trench spikes. Finally deciding to tell me why I was being subjected to this abuse, the same Rae-Rae began to speak in between strikes.
thwack.
"I..."
thwack.
"...Didn't..."
thwack.
"...Say..."
thwack.
"...You..."
thwack.
"...Could..."
thwack x2
"...Call..."
thwack.
"...Me..."
thwack x9 critical strike! its super effective!
"RAE-RAE!"
Slumping over in my chair, I simply sat there, limp, while a very sensitive raw explosive sat just a two feet away from me on a simple wooden table. Addressing my assailant for the second time running, I asked the following, meekly:
"Rae-R..."
The menacing newspaper hung like a hangman's noose, threatening and heavy in every poetic way alike George Orwell's thought police. Correcting myself, I try again.
"Raeburn, you realize... That just by accidentally rocking the table too hard, you could have killed us both?"
"Don't care, baby bro. Scooch over."
Quickly shuffling aside in my seat, I made some room for the demanding girl. It's a good think that this chair is rather large, or else this would have been an awkward fit.
"Alright, you're going to tell me about how this thing works."
Turning my head to the girl that not only super critical struck the back of my head nine times back to back, not to mention the volley that came before it, I glared at her in moderate surprise and a healthy dose of hostility.
"You really think that after sexually harassing me, then nearly killing us both, I'd be in any hurry to spend quality time with you? Especially in reassembling a commercialized household bomb?"
Nodding energetically, the Rae-Rae in question had offered her soul crushing response before rapping me in the head with the role of newsworthy paper.
thwack.
"Raeburn... Just... Why?"
"You called me Rae-Rae, just now, in your mind."
Suddenly finding a complex thought in the deepest trove of my mind, I answered with a question that may have torn at Raeburn's being at it's core.
"Oh Raeburn..." I began, with a sing song tone. "Did you give yourself permission to call yourself... Uh... That alias?"
15 Minutes Later - Tobia's Point of View
Once that dearest Raeburn had exited the self induced trauma of an internal paradox, both of our attentions finally returned to the device on the desk.
"Hey Tobias, how does the scroll open and close without any parts holding it together? It seems as if the holographic screen keeps it together while being used."
Starting to unscrew the motherboard from the other half of the casing, I replied simply.
"Depends on the model. Some use an electromagnetic field: basically a set of directed magnets with increase in strength as you pull the two sides apart. Other models simply use thin flat lengths of Plexiglas stuck to gears. This one uses the magnets, which is a bit heavier on the battery, but its more durable for that reason. The user's ability to use this thing isn't limited to if he or she sat on it recently. However the magnets require careful calibration when the product is built, and far higher quality and therefore far more expensive parts. However, this is Weiss's scroll after all..."
I let Raeburn figure out what I meant by the last sentence on her own. Then she raised a question that somewhat surprised me: I hadn't expected her to think into a matter like pure and applied technology.
"But... Wouldn't that magnet... Electrofield... Thingy... Mess with the electronics?"
Nodding, I offer another explanation.
"Another reason why the magnet system is more expensive is that exactly. As a work around, under the casing is a thin layer of high purity copper. This acts as a shielding, which absorbs any damage the magnet would have on the electronics powered by the dust here. The copper has to be pure, or else the magnets would detonate the dust battery."
Seeing that same battery next to the magnets, the dirty blonde's eyes suddenly bulged in fear.
"Hey, hey, don't worry. These are electromagnets, which means they only work when electricity passes through the magnets in question. No power, no electromagnetic field, therefore no explosions."
Shoulders dropping and eyes shrinking back to normal, the Raeburn relaxed in her chair, remaking on the scrolls.
"Its amazing how small things things get... How do they do it?"
Smiling, I offered the third explanation and the last one I would need.
"Up until they started to use dust to power these things, the battery would be the biggest part. Also, these batteries needed to be charged so there had to be an extra circuit board to allow for that. With high quality dust, we suddenly can have devices which won't need a battery replacement in at least forty years. The system behind the scroll itself already existed, it just needed a better power source. The only question now, is how much money a person is willing to put into a device like a scroll. Isn't dust great?"
Shaking her head, Raeburn took me by surprise again.
"Its dangerous. Couldn't someone like you make these things explode in their owner's hands and faces with a good virus? Just turn up how powerful those magnets are and BOOM."
Chuckling, I admitted the flaw.
"You could do that with the old tablets which had non-dust batteries as well, you just had to short circuit the battery or the like. The only difference now is the size of the explosion. Of course with both systems there are fail safes to prevent that, however..."
Shaking her head, Raeburn began to walk over to her bed with scroll in hand, presumably in the name of social media.
"Think you can fix that thing?"
Looking at the torn down scroll, I shook my head.
"Nah, its too far gone. But, I can move the hard drive containing all the data to a new system. I happen to have enough parts of a total of three broken scrolls, including this one to build a brand new scroll of its own. Actually... I should be able to build a better model than the factory models."
In alarm, Raeburn turned to look at me with something similar to contempt.
"Trying to kill her already?"
With haste, I spoke quickly.
"Just a bigger hard drive, tweaked processor... I only play with the explosives I put in bombs and stuff."
Throwing her hands in the air, the girl offered the best of her sarcasm.
"Oh, because knowing that you build bombs is supposed to be comforting. What kind of a dark teenager are you!?"