Hey guys! SmallTownGamer here! SOrry about the late update. My grandmother died suddenly and I rushed down to attend the funeral, but this is only a day late so hopefully you don't hate me that much :).
RisingDaemon: oh hey look
you update
my reviews are not good for spacing, sorry
no end excerpt?
how does ozpin just immediately guess not from world?
regardless, it's coming along nicely
Rising
Don't worry about it, as long as there is a review I am happy. :) And I felt bad because the last chapter felt really rushed so I went back and fleshed things out, adding an ending excerpt, and elaborating more on how Ozpin figured out how Cyan came from another universe. So go ahead and read that first before reading this chapter!
Firem78910: awesome i like that AI already and by the rating of this fic Lemons won't happen.
Verdant is pretty cool and no, they won't. But if people want them I could write a separate oneshot about it, but I don't know, I've never written anything like that before :/
Yoshtar: not sure how I feel about the 'head-A.I.' and the blatant Turret Imports that you didn't bother changing even slightly (like the TF2 turret, say, having dual twin-linked machineguns instead of miniguns), but I'm finding I'm warming up to the idea somewhat.
after swallowing that pill and continuing, I find that I'm loving the humour (meet the Engineer, of all the things! I LOVE this Dok- err, Author!) and I'm eager to see how you shake things up around Beacon.
a few questions before I go:
1) I kinda imagine Verdant as a green, sassy version of Cortana. is this image at all similar to what you have in your head as you write her?
2) will Cyan get a weapon? I'm not expecting some flashy "Zorg Gun", but walking into the forests with nothing but his turrets and boots seems a mite... silly is the least harsh word i can find.
3) Where's Blake? (unless that would be spoilers)
I use the exact same turrets from TF2 and other stuff from other games, because that is what I, myself, think of when I think of an engineer. :) It's also much easier than describing a new kind of turret that people could misinterpret what the design was. That could potentially lead to confusion in the later chapters, or now. As for Verdant being inside Cyan's head is because the A.I. that engineers use in this fic are heavily influenced by Borderland's Angel, and Halo's Cortana. They are kind of a hybrid.
And thank you :) I wasn't sure if the Meet the Engineer would go over well but it seems like it did. Love you too :). As for your questions, Verdant is cosmetically more similar to Angel when she is displayed on Cyan's visor and like a 'green, sassy version of Cortana' when she is outside the Omni-Tool. And Cyan is designed to be a support unit, so his weapon won't ever be as flashy as Magnhild, Ember Cecilia, or Crescent Rose, but I was considering giving him dual heavy pistol's from the Mass Effect series. Let me know what you think. :)
*whispers* Blake is spoilers :P
Kodered2001: You know, I wasn't all impressed with the previous chapters, they just lacked luster. This one is different, if the first three were line and sinker, then this is the hook.
I'm glad I won you out in the end :) you should go read it again because of the update for it.
DarkElucidator: Verdant FTW
"-use some protection-"
I see her now a the older sister that will do anything and everything to embarrass the hell out of her siblings. WHOOOOOOO
The funny thing is that Verdant's personality is based heavily on my actual older sister :P
Dio Brando: Let Him have a lady, let it be Yang
I actually really like the idea of WeissxCyan so I'm sorry :(. There will, however be problems caused by Yang.
So that's it for the reviews. Again, I'm sorry about the delay on this chapter and how rushed the last one was. Hopefully, I won't have anything sudden come up next week and be able to upload chapters on a more regular basis. So without further ado, enjoy this chapter!
Excerpt from the Journal of Cyan Novak
You know I really should have seen this coming, I guess I did change more than I thought that I did. Don't tell Verdant though, I'll never hear the end of it. what most people don't know is that she is pure unadulterated evil that I keep at bay. Sigh, the things I do for the good of humanity.
End of excerpt
So you have an idea who your team is?
Since Weiss and I picked up the knight piece and Yang and Ruby picked up the same piece I think its safe to say that we will be a team. But who knows, we could be paired with Cardin.
Hell no.
The engineer was sitting next to Weiss, who sat with the white horse piece in her hand. The heiress seemed almost… nervous? Cyan's experience with the opposite sex wasn't lengthy so he only gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder.
God you're hopeless.
Well excccuuse me, princess. I have no idea what I'm doing.
"Hey Cyan, does Verdant know what team we are on?" The white haired girl looked expectantly at the engineer. The male only shook his head and continued to watch Ozpin curiously as the man began naming teams. There was the obvious CRDL, Cardin looked more brutish here then he did in the actual show, uglier and more ape like than the teen thought he would be.
"Would Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and Lie Ren please take the stage?"
Well this isn't surprising. I'm still wondering why Blake isn't here.
Who knows? For all we know she was never born, or never left the White Fang. I'm more curious as to how the stories changed.
Well, you stopped Weiss and Ruby from exploding, preventing Jaune from meeting Ruby. Possibly destroying the bond that team RWBY and JNPR share.
Aren't Pyrrha and Weiss friends? So there still is a chance.
"Would Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao Long, Cyan Novak, and Weiss Schnee please take the stage?"
The two partner's shared a look before standing up and striding purposefully to the stage, Yang and Ruby following the two. All of the eyes trained on the group made Cyan begin to walk faster, eager to get away from the spotlight.
Aww, your introvert is showing.
Since you live in my head you should know how much I despise being in the limelight. It makes me feel self conscious.
It's still adorable.
The four teens stood on the stage, gazing out into the audience. Weiss, who was used to this sort of thing because of her singing career, stood with a relaxed, but confident posture. Yang didn't even look like she cared she was on a stage, the blonde stood like she always did, smirk plastered on her face. Ruby and Cyan stood with rigid backs, trying there hardest to not look nervous. Ozpin stood next to them, his mouth twitched into a smile for a split second before returning to his normal neutral mask.
"You four chose the white knight pieces. From this day you four will be known as Team RCWY, led by..." The engineer caught his partner leaning forward, as if to take a step.
"Ruby Rose!"
The crimsonette turned a sickly shade of white and squeaked, "W-what?" Yang shot forward and wrapped her sister in a monstrous hug, "I'm so proud of you." Cyan gave her a nervous thumbs up, still desperate to get off the stage. Only Weiss was the one unhappy with the arrangements, with jaw clenched she only cordially congratulated Ruby. The newly formed RCWY was dismissed to return back to their seats.
The four sat down as a team next to CRDL and JNPR, Weiss sitting next to Pyrrha and Cyan, while Yang sat on the engineer's other side. Ruby sat on the other end, still out of it from the recent revelation of leadership.
Weiss sat down quickly, keeping a silent glare leveled on the headmaster of Beacon. Cyan let loose a breath he didn't know he was holding, and slumped down in his chair. The blonde next to him giggled and threw an arm around the now blushing engineer's neck.
Pus-
Don't even start!
"Well Engi, it looks like we are on a team together. Now it gives us more time to play Earthbound." The male chuckled weakly, "Uhh, y-yeah. T-that will be awesome." He fidgeted a little, much to a certain A.I.'s pleasure.
Damn, player. You sure that you are bad with women?
Shut it.
Weiss watched the two out of the corner of her eye, frustration growing even more as she saw the brawler hanging on her partner. For some reason the heiress couldn't fathom, it made her more angry.
Time passed and eventually Yang got tired of teasing Cyan and had pulled out her scroll, playing Earthbound once more. There were a few hundred teams to be named, and it looked like they were over the hill.
Do I have any games on my Omni-Tool?
What, do you think your Omni-Tool is a toy? It's an engineer's life line, there are more important things on it.
Uhh…
I'm just joshing your taco, of course there are games. Which one do you want me to load up?
That's… a new one. Umm… How bout Megaman X?
Awesome.
The blue flash of an Omni-Visor appeared, as well as the Omni-Tools on the engineer's wrists. A Omni version of a Super Nintendo controller formed. Cyan whistled appreciatively, the nostalgic tune of the intro music of his favorite game ever played.
"What are you doing?"
It was the first thing that Weiss had said in the hour they had been sitting there. She had never seen the visor looking thing over her partner's eyes before, and in his hands… was that a controller?
"Gaming to pass time."
"You should pay attention that way you know who's on what team."
"Verdant records that stuff for me. Life is much easier with an A.I."
Aww.
Don't let it go to your head. God knows you have an ego problem.
Ouch, your proverbial dagger wounds my nonexistent heart.
Weiss snorted, but instead of watching Ozpin like she was before, she watched Cyan play his game. The heiress' eyes tracked the little blue figure shoot other figures, run through the stages, and jump off walls. The white haired girl watched her partner play this game for much longer than she would've cared to admit. Her eyes glancing up to see that Yang was passed, sprawled across her chair. This pleased Weiss for an unknown reason while she continued to watch Cyan play the game. A smile formed on her instead of her previously icy expression, something that Pyrrha didn't miss.
"You three can continue to your rooms, Mr. Novak, would you follow me please?"
Cyan grimaced, but nodded, following Professor Goodwitch as she walked in the opposite direction of the dorms. He waved back to the his team, and began speed walking to keep up the blonde. Weiss frowned, Ruby cocked her head curiously, "Why do they keep on talking to him?" The older girl sighed wearily, sleep sounded good after the day she had, "Cyan is one of the five engineers on campus. They are probably getting him set up with his part time job here."
Ruby nodded, seemingly accepting this answer, skipped ahead to find her and Yang's room. It was a new development that Ozpin had implemented today. Before, all the of the team stayed in one room, but now only the partners stayed in the same room. It was something that Weiss questioned, but ultimately accepted. Besides, she wasn't sure if she could keep her sanity living with the two plebeian sisters.
Fortunately for the heiress, her and Cyan's room was far good distance from Ruby and Yang's. The heiress opened the door and shut it, locking it behind her. Her blue eyes swept the room taking in the sparse amount of furniture. There were two full sized beds on opposite ends of the room, two dressers sitting next to each other, and two desks with accompanying chairs. There was a door on the far wall, which Weiss assumed was the bathroom.
The heiress sat down on the bed she mentally claimed. Thing as Beacon hadn't gone quite like she expected them too. She laid back on her bed, eyes closed. Cyan isn't a bad partner but I would've rather had Pyrrha.
The heiress opened her eyes and looked around. She remembered what she said to her partner the other day in the forest.
Weiss' eyebrows furrowed at the question before she answered, "I guess more of an extrovert, I-I don't like being alone, really." The heiress voice tapered off, a sort of sad look shone in her light blue eyes.
Cyan walked besides the heiress feeling awkward, "Well, I, uh, am sorry if I brought up bad memories…"
They were bad memories. Memories of her father's lack of care for her, the only thing he cared about was earning money, and his daughter was only a tool for that specific purpose. A small tear wound its way down her from her scarred eye. She always told herself that it could have been worse, she had a roof over head and food in her stomach, she could be in a much worse situation.
Weiss turned to the lone window, the heiress's hand trembled slightly and wiped the lone tear away.
"This is where you will be working."
Cyan whistled appreciatively, he had no idea that Beacon was powered by such a big centrifuge. It looked like the one from the first Dead Space. The metal arm swinging as it the machinery turned fuel (Lightning Dust, which Cyan would be told later.) into power. He could already see a figure running what looked to be diagnostics on the opposite side of the centrifuge. It was housed in a circle stadium just like the one from the USG Ishimura.
The engineer shifted nervously sided-to-side, meeting new people was not his strong point. This was necessary though. Goodwitch lead him past some more complex machinery and into a smaller room that looked like it was a control room. A taller man was standing there typing away on a console with gusto, his hair was cut short, the blonde locks just peaking out from under a baseball cap. He seemed to be in his mid thirties. What stood out to Cyan the most was the grizzled shark tail poking out from the back of his shirt.
Glynda walked right up to the shark faunus and coughed politely to get his attention. His green eyes gave a sideways glance. He tapped a few more keys and the console shutdown. He turned and walked up to the engineer blonde professor cleared his throat and thrust his arm out for a handshake. "I'm Ebon Fish. You may call me Professor Fish, or just Fish like most people do." The man's grip was tight, and Cyan felt his knuckles pop at least twice. "It's nice to meet you, sir."
A cough drew the two's attention to the female professor, "If you two are properly acquainted then I will take my leave. Mr. Novak I will see you in class tomorrow." and with out wait for a response she turned and walked out of the room.
Fish turned away from Cyan and strided jerkily to a table, picking up some kind of lanyard, before walking right back to the engineer and looping it around his neck. "This is your ID card, it's necessary to be able to enter the power room." He jerked his thumb over to table full of supplies he didn't recognize. "That is where we keep all the soldering tools, welding equipment, and Omni-Dust."
Is that suppose to be this world's version of Omni-Gel, from Mass Effect?
I think it's best you don't question it.
"We do a lot of work in zero-gravity so it's important that you bring your Jet Boots everyday." The faunus began speed walking to another part of the complex, opening up a plain metal door with a wave of his ebony Omni-Tool. "These doors will only open for an engineer. Remember that." The two continued walking, passing by numerous consoles and maintenance panels. "You won't only work here. Sometimes other teacher will have some piece of tech break down in their classroom and you'll have to fix it."
The rest of the tour of the place was uneventful, and the person that he had seen earlier was in nowhere to be found when Cyan and Fish made it to the piece of machinery where they had been working. With a quick handshake, the older male dismissed the younger one, "Go back to your room. You're going to need the energy for tomorrow."
So that's when Cyan found out another one of the changes he had provoked.
"Wait, I thought that all of one team roomed together?" The heiress didn't even turn to face him, "Ozpin changed it this morning, now it's only the partners who stay together in one room." Weiss had set up her side of the room in an organized manor. There were a posters of what he assumed to be bands. The characters below the image were foreign to the engineer's mind.
You really need to learn how to read their language. It's gonna be a problem if you can't even read the text books.
I'm more worried about the rooming arrangements. This is a school. Who the hell decided co-ed dorms were a good idea.
Well everyone here is at least eighteen, with the exception of you and Ruby. They probably figure since you are adults, you can behave like adults.
Well, yeah. But I still feel awkward…
You're always awkward, so nothing's changed there.
"The staff hasn't brought up your luggage yet. You may want to check in on that." Weiss continued filing her nails, examining them closely for any blemish. Cyan sighed and placed the ID card that Fish gave him on his dresser. It wasn't surprising seeing that his luggage was non-existent. The engineer decided suddenly that it was time for his mandatory hour of solitude, he held up his arm and willed Verdant out.
"Hey! You can't evict me without prior notice!" Cyan could tell his A.I. companion wasn't mad, just mildly irritated. The engineer just stood and walked out the door calling behind his shoulder, "Sorry, just felt like you two could use some bonding why I'm out. Have fun!" His human partner frowned, he had just gotten back and he was leaving again.
Weiss raised her eyebrows in mild interest, "Is something wrong between the two of you?" Verdant made a 'pfft' noise waving off the question, "He just needs to be alone sometime, if he is around people too much like he was today he tends to take any opportunity possible to get by himself." The small digital figure floated over closer to Weiss, "Even I qualify as too much occasionally. He will probably be back in an hour or so." Weiss nodded before turning her attention back on her nails, her motions less fluid then they were before. Why is this bugging me so much? I don't even know him that well... The heiress' mind flashed back to their conversation in the forest. He isn't like me. He likes to be alone. For some reason the thought didn't sit well with the white haired teenager.
Verdant watched interested, being an A.I. she really had no need for personal hygiene like humans did, or the obvious emotional and hormonal problems that made the A.I laugh from sheer sadistic joy. The two didn't talk for about half an hour, just sitting in silent. Verdant took the time to gaze around at the room. Much like Cyan, she couldn't read the language people wrote here on Remnant. The A.I. briefly considered connecting to the Internet and learning the language when realising that if the language she recognized was nonexistent in this universe, meaning that there was no possible way she could translate.
Verdant sighed, It was going to be a long stay here at Beacon.
Excerpt from the journal of Weiss Schnee
I AM A TEAM WITH THE TWO IDIOTS AND THEY HAD THE GALL TO PUT THAT PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A HUNTRESS IN MY DESERVED PLACE? THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! (illegible writing follows)-an's loner nature might be a problem, but he is friendly enough. Yang is a powerhouse from what I've learned from her transcripts, so even if I can't stand her personality, fighting with her shouldn't be a problem. Ugh, This was suppose to be perfect! But, it isn't…
End of excerpt
Hey guys! This chapter was written with love just for you guys ;). Just kidding :P. But in all seriousness I want to thank all of you that read this or any other of my fics. It means a lot for a wannabe writer like myself. So thank you all. For everything. :)
SmallTownGamer