Unfortunately, you can feed only a handful of dozens of donuts to Okita, the girl demanding to sit on your lap inside the bakery as you do so and make your way through every kind of donut available twice over, just to make sure, before something comes up again.
Specifically, Sarah, making it a point to keep the mansion coordinated and running smoothly, telepathically pinging you to tell you she saw none other than Glynda Goodwitch approach through her cameras.
She sent Nora (the Elder Nora) forwards to talk to her as the 'woman of the house', but expects that you will need to deal with this whole thing personally, so you just sigh and squeeze Okita's thighs twice- the signal for her to get up, as opposed to being cuddly.
The way back to the mansion doesn't take all that long, thankfully, in no small part thanks to both you and Okita just running along the rooftops, your enhanced physical abilities making it easy enough to just jump the distances required as you move at fairly high speeds (when compared to, say, a car.)
Eventually, simply following directions from both your slime maids' avatar inside your soul palace and Sarah, you find the two of them chatting awkwardly in one of the banquet halls that have recently been restored, drinking coffee as they're waited on by your slime maids.
Nora is actually calling for help over your telepathy network by the time you come in, lamenting how few times she can talk about the weather before doing so becomes more awful than just not saying anything.
"Ah, hello Gabriel," is what Glynda greets you with when she sees you coming to join them, "just the man I was wanting to talk to."
"What a coincidence, I came as soon as I heard you were coming by," you reply, giving Nora a kiss on the cheek as she leaves, relieved she doesn't have to keep on trying to do small talk. "What can I do for you today?"
"Honestly," Glynda sighs, shaking her head, "I am mostly here to cut down on amazingly roundaboutedly wasted time and energy. Let me just cut short on the doubletalk, too, while I am at it."
Sitting up straight and looking you in the eyes, she begins tapping a hand on the desk her coffee is sitting on. "First off, you have been observed through both subtle and... less subtle means, mostly to ensure the safety of Beacon and its students."
"In other words, Qrow and Taiyang both told you or in whoever's name you're here for what they saw," you nod, making Glynda sigh and cover her eyes. "What? Ruby and Yang literally called Qrow their uncle. It isn't much of a jump to consider him and Tai know each other, and the latter just received a load of information on me. Because I literally told him things."
"Yes, be that as it may," Glynda coughs, "I feel it bears repeating that the reason for the surveillance in question has been entirely benevolent, as far as things like this can be. It is also part of the reason I came to visit for the second time, after the White Fang's attack brought eyes to rest on you."
"Mhm," you make, gesturing for her to continue.
"Let me ask you a question before we continue. Are you working for Salem?"
You are genuinely confused and don't bother hiding as much. "Who the fuck is Salem?"
"A long story," she waves you off. "For the moment, suffice to say she is an enemy of humanity. Her agents have been active around Vale recently, and so certain factors have brought up the possibility of yourself being one of them, given the admittedly suspicious circumstances with which you appeared."
"True enough," you shrug, taking a seat yourself.
"In other news, interest in the technology you have been confirmed to possess has been voiced, mostly to confirm that it works as it does and how much of it is your semblance's effect. Do note this is very much not an attempt to steal your secrets; merely to confirm. Though any assistance you could render to humanity at large without exposing said technology to the enemy would be greatly appreciated."
"Well, I do have a vested interest in humanity's continued existence, so please, do continue." Can't let anyone destroy your favorite food source, after all.
"While I would love to simply tell you everything, secrecy has served our little conspiracy far too well over the centuries," Glynda states, very deliberately telling you more than she's probably allowed to by whoever runs that show of hers. "Suffice to say, if you wish to contribute, there are several avenues you could pursue... though you already have been helping a lot. Your efforts to keep Vale's immediate surroundings safe have not gone unnoticed, to the point they are the only reason certain others are not rioting about me telling you this much already."
"Alright then, I am going to assume the man in charge would be Ozpin? Being the headmaster of the local academy and all. I did notice how both you and Taiyang are teachers," you surmise.
"I will carefully not confirm that," Glynda says with a slight smile.
"Good enough. Oh, and yes, my technology is just that, technology. It can be independently reproduced if someone has the required infrastructure, which I doubt, at least for the moment. I do use my semblance to add a little power to things, more durable metal, mostly, so as to allow for dustless equipment, but otherwise, it's all completely unassisted. I was actually planning on setting up a production facility for a massive robot army or something in that direction at some point."
"I... see." You're sure she does.
"So, we have a powerful, unknown enemy and Ozpin wants to hire me or see if collaboration is possible. This is honestly way more straightforward than what I usually deal with," you smile at Glynda. "Any chance I could get some more information at this mysterious foe of ours?"
Because you are totally a part of this group already. It was about time something interesting happened, honestly; events usually just put themselves into motion or pull you into them by themselves.
"Not much, I am afraid; merely that they have a habit of exploiting the Grimm and sowing dissent among the people."
Mhm, again, telling you more things than she was probably told to.
"Very well then, where do we start?"
"To begin with, use the immense amount of capital you have acquired to do as you planned and create robots, if that is within your power. Atlas is doing much the same, but having an additional option in case it is needed cannot be anything but beneficial. The council will be instructed to ensure as few barriers as possible will impede you in this."
Phew, so they're pretty much ruling Vale. Not outside the scope of your expectations, but still.
"Aside from this, you do not need to do anything in particular outside of what you have done so far, though further assistance in removing Grimm from Vale's surroundings would be appreciated. To that end, you have been issued an official huntsman license, as your skills have been certified by one Taiyang Xiao-Long, along with blanket permission to request more to be made. Do make sure not to misuse this privilege."
Someone sure isn't fucking around. "That should make it easier to get at restricted dust, at least," you muse. "I think I also remember reading something about freely available missions over the CCT? I'll have to brush up on that."
"Quite," Glynda says with a quirk of her mouth.
"That's that then, I suppose," you smirk at Glynda, "though... I do have to wonder if you get that hands-on with every prospective suspect? I do remember the fun we had at the pool..."
"Hardly," Glynda says imperiously. "I had simply determined you were too busy chasing after skirts to plot against the kingdoms. Do count yourself lucky you are handsome enough for me to forgive your philandering ways aimed at students of Beacon- or students-to-be."
"Noted and appreciated," you smile at the blonde woman. "In other news, I am not necessarily asking about any details, but is there anything I should watch out for in terms of hostile agents? Any one thing to identify them?"
"Nothing as such, no. If it was that easy, we would be fighting them much more openly. As it is, simply watch out for anyone attempting to sabotage your efforts or causing unrest within the populace," Glynda explains before taking a sip of coffee. "Excellent brew, by the way."
"I'm glad. Well then, unless there is anything else to share information about?"
Shaking her head, Glynda gets up, only to show a surprised blush as you give her a kiss on the cheek, and a few exchanged pleasantries later Glynda leaves your mansion.
Looks like you have something big to do, after all.
Hammer Upgrades
Ion Weaponry: A straight upgrade on the pre-existing laser rifles they were using. Because everything needs to have it nowadays, just to make sure. 2 points
Tactical Camouflage: You have stealth boys, you have humanoid robots, do the math. Add stealth boys to them at construction and they can tuen themselves invisible for a brief time before the things need to be replaced. 2 points.
Recharging Camouflage: Honestly, stealth boys aren't really that good. Why not give them the ability to recharge themselves along with a few replacements for the parts that usually become unusable after they've been activated? 4 points, requires Tactical Camouflage.
Combat Modules: The Hammers are already capable of interfacing wirelessly and learn from each other, ensuring that anything learned by one part of the network can be adapted by another machine. You could give them a little leg up, though, so to say, by adding a few base approaches to new situations and enemies.
Comm Repeaters: An upgrade you already applied to other robots, adding repeaters allows your Hammers to perpetuate their signal and increase its range, along with any linked teleporters' range. 2 points.
Multi-Jointed Limbs: Hammers are based on a humanoid appearance, mostly because it actually does serve pretty well for most purposes they are meant for, but why not go a little further? Adding optionally unlockable joints lets the Hammers easily reposition themselves and avoid being knocked down in most cases. 2 points.
SP1D3R Models
Ion Weaponry: Same shit on a different day, but it never does hurt to add. 2 points.
Combat Modules: The SP1D3RSs are already capable of interfacing wirelessly and learn from each other, ensuring that anything learned by one part of the network can be adapted by any other machine. You could give them a little leg up, though, so to say, by adding a few base approaches to new situations and enemies. 4 points.
Adaptive Combat Modules: Lets the SP1D3Rs catalogue and counter enemy attacks and formations in real time based on previously encountered examples of such. 3 points, requires Combat Modules.
Backup Fusion Cores: Let's be honest here, driving a massive ion gatling laser requires enormous amounts of energy, to the point that adding more fusion cores may be a very practical choice, if nothing else. 2 points.
Rocket Legs: SP1D3Rs are extremely heavy, which is why you didn't really envision them darting through the air. That said, using post-modern materials, you could allow them to hop or jump for short distances, and combining this with rocket propulsion located on all four legs, the robots could maneuver through the air to some extend, safely dropping from most heights that are likely to come up and easily pushing themselves upright without stopping their constant fire when necessary. 3 points.
Sensor Suite: Add as many combat-hardened additional sensors as you can fit, from audio receptors along several points to let the SP1D3Rs precisely recognize the direction of any detectable sound to infrared cameras to ensure no enemies can escape. 4 points.
Seeing as how you are apparently going to be creating a robot army for a bunch of shadowy conspiracy people, you may as well do it right. That means going back over your old designs, updating and adjusting them with new and improved features.
Hence you and several of your more scientifically-inclined souls are standing before one of the many entrances to the palace inside your inner world, keeping an eye on the sky.
"Test 3-b, begin!"
You will continue doing this until you manage to find a way to get your spider sentry bots (SP1D3Rs) to stay in the air for a while. You don't demand flight, but enough rocket science should still let them at least maneuver in the air or slow their fall down.
In the meantime, watching the prototypes plunge into the earth is a perfectly amusing way to spend the time.
One Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, rifled through several reports addressing the new factor that recently inserted itself into the complex back and forth of humanity's fight against Salem with all the subtlety of a particularly gleeful sledgehammer.
Qrow had not delivered a report, having instead chosen to briefly observe and report to Ozpin in person before embarking on his mission to find out more about young Amber's attackers. Gabriel Livsey, it would seem, had been important enough to keep him from doing so straight away, a fact most likely grounded in Qrow's nieces' interactions with him more than anything else, initially.
Still, Ozpin was not going to complain about having more eyes on the Livsey situation, temporary as they may have been. The young man in question had been described as more a dangerous philanderer with a penchant for artistry and the collection of powerful young women around himself than anything else, though Qrow had obviously been somewhat biased on the occasion.
Understandable, of course.
By contrast, Taiyang Xiao-Long, having written to Ozpin after many years of retirement that put somewhat of a distance between them, had described him as an affable young man reminding him of himself- whether this was high praise or damningly faint in its implications was up to interpretation- with a recommendation to fast-track him into a licensed huntsman in the eyes of the law, based on first-hand experience.
Ozpin had doubted his eyes at first, but slowly considered the professional breakdown of Mister Livsey's capabilities in combat as he sipped on his hot cocoa, Taiyang being nothing if not a consummate professional about the whole affair, detailing both his observations in live testing against Grimm and personal spars with him. He had never shown to be the slightest bit untrustworthy, of course, and so Ozpin had done as he had been asked.
If this was some elaborate hoax, it would be entirely self-correcting, thanks to the dangers of the job.
Of somewhat more immediate concern, however, was the seperate report on technological marvels exhibited with little prompting. Advanced, dust-less smithing and metallurgy, unheard-of weaponry and the ability to design and create complicated devices on the spot. It had been more than enough reason to investigate further.
Even if, Ozpin recalled as he repressed a grimace, Glynda had been quite insistent on doing so far more straightforwardly.
Speaking of which, he reordered the written reports on his desk, sliding the older one relating to the 'pool party incident' to the side (the less he had to think about Qrow of all people accusing Glynda of improper conduct, the better) and focusing on the newer one. Ozpin's deputy had simply walked in and talked to Livsey.
Using her best judgement and keeping to the amount of information control they had implemented, she had requested Mister Livsey to establish a robotic army mirroring that of Atlas, for several reasons as outlined in what he was reading. Firstly, to keep the newly appointed richest desirable bachelor of Vale busy economically in a way that did not threaten the rest of Vale. Secondly, to produce an alternative source of expendable might that was under their at least nominal control, for reasons nobody needed to expound upon.
Thirdly and lastly, to ensure Mister Livsey would be positively inclined towards joining their little conspiracy in due time, recommending him for the purpose. She did seem to be quite taken with him.
Ah, young love. And that another robot army appearing out of nowhere was bound to miff James was merely a side benefit, surely. For now, Ozpin resolved to keep an eye on the situation, in case allegiances turned out to be false or shifting- he had learned to do as much over the long, long millenia- and ensure Mister Livsey would have plenty of opportunities to prove himself trustworthy.
Normally, he arranged for such while prospective huntsmen were still studying in the various academies, but this obviously was not viable in this case. In the meantime, he may well go over his dossiers on the other confirmed members of the Livsey household as well as frequent visitors. Young Miss Rose's continued wellbeing was, obviously enough, somewhat of a priority in either case. Just as soon as he got a cocoa refill, he was nearly running on empty here.
Work never ceased for a headmaster, it would seem.
Going over the progress your undead have made so far, several packs of beowolves hunted down and eliminated as they continually make their way across the continent of Sanus in a more-or-less straight line, specifically keeping away from more inhabited regions.
Thing is, they actually did find something of interest as they concentrated on decimating as many beowolves as they could, them being the most numerically abundant type of Grimm you have seen so far. Specifically, a creature of Grimm very similar to, but distinctly different from normal beowolves.
Commonly referred to as alpha beowolves as far as the literature you (that is, Sarah) could find on the topic.
Well, all the stuff about that alpha beowolf aside for the immediate time being, your undead can just ignore it for a bit after all, you will juuust be leaving finding more information about this fun and exciting conspiracy to protect mankind to Sarah for now, instead continuing to do your usual thing for most of the day- you did have plans, all things told, and nothing massively time-sensitive has come up.
Side note to self, it is amusing they're actually trying to protect humanity for once. Normally, you always have these ancient conspiracies be evil warmongers or religious cults trying to bring about their weird end-of-the-world scenario in media and stuff.
So, what did you have on your docket today... Yeah, you should probably look into Nora's semblance with her. As you understand it, she can absorb electricity to strengthen herself... and yet there's a distressing lack of at least the local lightning dust on her.
Something to fix.
"Hey Nora, you got a minute? Want to figure out a way to blitz yourself up in combat on demand?"
Little Nora, jumping down from where she was clinging to the ceiling in Ren's room, gives you a wide grin. "That. Sounds. Awesome!"
Luckily enough, you are, at this point, good enough at what you're doing to just smack a device together with fairly casual ease- especially so as you have access to magic, nowadays.
It took you a lot of time, a lot of trial and error, not to mention a massive amount of little prototypes completely fried, but you did, eventually, figure out how to create a stable shadow pocket in devices and machines you are creating. You do, unfortunately, need to do so personally, meaning disgusting amounts of mass production isn't in the cards for the moment.
You'll just have to make do with ion lasers and futuristically advanced robotics. The horror.
Anyways, as you keep on assembling everything by hand, half the armband's insides wreathed inside the darkness you're sinking them into, you keep on idly chatting with Nora, the excitable young woman happy to bury the room under the sound of her voice.
"And then Ren told him to go away while we fought the beowolves and we did, and by the time we came to the village everyone was suuuper surprised for some reason, and then they helped us make our weapons! Or the first versions, anyways, we obviously kept on improving on them and-"
"Come to think of it, Nora," you interrupt her once the last fusion core is in place, not entirely physical anymore as it lies hidden in the armband's shadow, "would you mind if I had a look at your hammer at some point? Figure I could give it a little extra 'oomph'."
"Yes, please, daddy! Ren told me he really liked his stuff." Nora really does seem to be taking to this whole family idea a little too well, doesn't she?
"Mhm, glad to know you're getting used to this situation. Ren's taking a bit longer, of course, but..." There, if Nora has anything to say about it, she can.
"Oh, that's probably because he actually knew his dad before all our parents died, and he kinda looked up to him, while I never really got to know mine and my mother abandoned me during the Grimm attack that killed her and so I never really got attached to some kind of paternal figure so I..."
Whew, she really can just keep on talking, can't she?
So, the second day of weapon adjustment and creation. Funnily enough, Nora just stayed in the workshop as she was when you began, pulling out her portable grenade launcher that is also a pretty large hammer.
That are, of course, pink. As in, the explosions. Say about dust whatever you want, and you had a lot to say, but it does allow for a lot of customization. Not that that's worth actually using the stuff, but it is a thing.
Adding an ion laser wouldn't really quite... work, for Nora, and so you instead add a few field emitters that should hopefully work as you expect them to and allow her to trigger a momentary ionization of matter in front of her hammer, which should suffice to get through just about anything she's likely to hit, with an added option to have her hammer be literally rocket-driven for short bursts of time.
Though the most amusing thing about this whole affair is and remains her reaction to being shocked by your electric hands.
"Uahahaha! Do it again! Do it again!" Running around in a circle, Nora holds a hand out as soon as her previous charge runs out. "This. Is. Awesome! Double awesome!"
She's having fun.
In related news, Weiss, who is behaving like a stereotypical spoiled princess today until she gets within touching range with you, cuddling into your chest without delay, is also getting her upgrade, the rapier named Myrtenaster being reworked a little.
Though you can't exactly recycle it and make a new weapon that doesn't smack of a specialization in dustcasting, you do make sure to apply a few little... tricks, letting it store much more dust in its powdered state through accessing shadow storage. Though one entire bit you just add wholesale, also allowing it the ability to fire ion lasers from the hilt in a display of complete disregard of physics.
Magic, baby. It's really nice to apply it like this.
Once you're done cuddling with Weiss, you immediately resume cuddling with Sarah, spoiling your little sister with intimacy and compliments as you work out what kind of weapon she might like to wield, phrasing having an individual weapon as a necessity among individuals capable fo fighting in this world.
Sarah agrees after demanding more 'cuddling' first, and once you're both dressed again you get right to work. Sarah's weapon, colored in her favorite color of purple, ends up as a bladed pistol vaguely reminiscent of really old and classic designs, paying homage to her love for mystery novels that this look could fit right into.
It has to be able to transform, of course, and so it does, its grip and main body adjustable to let it be used as a dagger or knife. That said, it's just... not quite enough, yeah?
So you just go on ahead and whip up a second weapon meant to be used in conjunction with the small one you just made, a solid rapier (your thoughts were still on Weiss) that can be turned into a segmented whip mode, making for an excellent way for Sarah to just phase through most obstacles and strike at enemies no matter what.
She is somewhat exasperated at getting more than she bargained with, of course, but still smiles happily at the thought you put into this, and so, after a quick kiss on the cheek and a twirl of her weapons as she makes a point to get used to their weight, you're done with your sister for the moment.
You still keep flirting with her telepathically, of course, but you always do, so... nothing really new.
To round things out, you go through everyone else that may need an upgrade, not really seeing the point of not actually using your technology to arm people when you're fairly sure none of them are in some way connected to some apocalyptic Grimm cult or whatever that big, bad enemy the conspiracy you have somewhat kind of joined ends up being.
Case in point, Pyrrha, you are fairly sure, is just way too nice, not to mention awkwardly shy when her confidence isn't given a boost through something you did recently, to really maliciously plot or anything. No, the problem you have with giving the nearly naked young woman sitting on your lap, wearing only her metal armor on her limbs along with underwear, is just how little you can realistically do to improve her weapons as you rebuild them with non-dust materials.
In the end, you decide to just do the obvious; using your little tricks, you add the capability for ion lasers instead of solid ammunition to her rifle mode, leaving the spear and sword versions of it completely unchanged, just as with her shield. Instead, you opt for another area to really improve upon... that being Pyrrha's semblance.
She made you promise to keep it a secret, but her semblance is actually control over 'polarity', as she understands it. She's mostly been using it to subtly reposition herself and her enemies, making it so that few if any actually managed to hit her in Mistral's arena circuits and earning herself the title of 'Invincible Girl' that just too skilled to be defeated in battle... An amusing little story, if nothing else.
Your response, of course, is to procure iron sand. Lots and lots of iron sand. Because while, as you tell Pyrrha, you aren't about to dictate how she is to fight or use her semblance, if there ever does come a time she needs to go above and beyond, having an easy way to blind an enemy on hand may be the difference between victory and defeat, aura or no aura.
Trading a last quick kiss, you pat Pyrrha's butt, getting her to get up off your lap. As it happens, in fact, the last person you were looking into doing this whole song and dance for just arrived, you having sent an invitation for Yang to get a few upgrades more as a matter of courtesy than anything else.
Her upgrades are fairly straightforward, of course, the yellow gauntlets she calls Ember Celica essentially just being custom-built shotguns she can fire while punching things (and use their recoil to move herself, of course, but that goes without saying by now), so you just build on that.
Adding a bit of material to the base design, you make it so that Yang can shoot both towards her front like before and from the newly lengthened backs now extending towards her elbows, the slightly more complex operation hopefully weighed up by the added utility.
Also, recoil punches. Those sound like fun.
Yang is being recalcritant as usual, but even so she can't help but drool over the small works of art you created. You don't want to flatter yourself, but-
Oh, that's a lie. You are perfectly fine with flattering yourself. And you did do some pretty damn great work.
Joining your lovely sister once more as she casually lies in your bed, tapping away at her scroll as her hands wander to the weapons sitting at her waist.
The belt on which they are sheathed being the only thing she is wearing, of course. It isn't quite like home, but everyone involved does make a point to spend as much time in your harem chamber naked.
Hence you being in the same state of undress, of course.
"Hey Sarah, how're things going?" You ask as you join her in bed, cuddling up to her back and letting a hand wander over her body while you nuzzle into her neck.
"Well, I can confirm that Ozpin is most likely behind that little conspiracy you told me about, as well as its most likely leader. The other headmasters in the other kingdoms should be loyal to him from what I got on the CCTS," your adorable Sarah comments as she returns your gesture, nudging herself backwards to maximize body contact. "Aside from that, OnlyFauns is doing... better than I expected, and I've started to buy as many local companies as possible while working on everything else."
You just stay like that for a long moment, enjoying each other's bodies, before you speak up again, idly playing with Sarah's nipples. "Anything I can do to help?"
Your foxy (literally) sister gives you a look over her shoulder. "Oh, we're back to that?"
"Alright, if you really want to help, we may as well get to that whole secret robot army your friends of secret conspirators have secretly asked you to create. Emphasis on 'secret'." Having turned around to face you by now, Sarah lazily pushes herself against you, behaving much like the adorable pile of cuteness you know her as.
"So I'm guessing we need a secret lair, too, to keep with the theme?" You say with a sardonic smile, continuing to explore the body you know as well as your own by now.
"You got it. The mansion is great, but we just don't really have the space to put hundreds of human-sized robots in the basement. We need a place to make all of that happen, even if we can easily afford the raw materials to get started," Sarah explains, her head lying on your arm. "How secret you want it to be exactly is all up to you, it's your show, but it's the first step towards having a huge army of robots to wave at people."
"Any particular place you have in mind for that, or am I going in blind? Not that I mind, of course, I'm sure I could find us a good enough place," you smile at Sarah.
"Oh, sure you could," she grumbles to herself, entirely unjustified, "but I don't mean some random apartment you disguise as the headquarters of OnlyFauns or whatever you are thinking of."
... Okay, yes, she got you there. "What's your plan, then?" You ask, lightly pinching a nipple.
"Once upon a time, the kingdom of Vale attempted to expand into the mountain range keeping it protected from any of the larger Grimm around. It all failed spectacularly, of course, because nobody really expected the sheer ferocity the Grimm attacked with, so they tried to move everything underground... only to realize too late that subterranean Grimm are a thing, too," Sarah narrates, her deep green eyes shining with an amused twinkle. She always did enjoy watching other people act like idiots.
"The things really are everywhere, huh?" You ask rhetorically. "So they all died and loads of Grimm are the only thing left in the area?"
"And the old city, together with massive amounts of tunnels and caves under the mountain, all connected to Vale through an old railway they used to bring everything into Mount Glenn back then. It's sealed off now, of course, but you totally could look into reopening it to just have deliveries come right into the secret base you could build there... once secrecy isn't an issue anymore, anyways."
Mhm, all good points, but you need to think, and that means squeezing the Sarah booty. "Would be kind of a pain to set up there, but I do see your point," you admit. "As long as we find a way to reliably keep the Grimm away, which shouldn't be that hard given exactly what we're talking about producing, it isn't particularly likely anyone might just so stumble on the facilities, being both underground and in Grimm-infested areas... Guess I could do it, yeah."
"In that case, get to it while I stay in bed and watch lesbian faunus porn," Sarah grumbles at you playfully, grabbing her deluxe-size scroll again. "Did you know these people actually didn't have the CCTS stuffed full of porn before OnlyFauns became a thing?"
"I guess living in a deathworld has disappointing effects on people's priorities," you shrug. "Then again, that's what we're here for, right?"
Sarah just facepalms.
The Grimm, curiously enough, do not actually bother attacking you as you fly over the vast mountain range keeping the city of Vale safe from a vast amount of more dangerous Grimm, together with the relatively shallow water making up the coastline towards the opposite side.
Probably has something to do with you spoofing their supposed empathetic senses, or maybe just with you being impossible to differentiate from any other bird. Not a human, thus uninteresting to them.
Food for thought.
Either way, though, it took you just a bit of flying to catch a glimpse of the area you're going for today, grey concrete amongst the mountain's outcroppings. That is, on the other side of the mountain. Looks like they were planning on using the fact they would only have to defend into one direction to actually build up in this direction; everyone knows how that turned out, of course, but ah well.
So, this is Mount Glenn... the settlement not even named after anything in particular, either because it was supposed to be just another part of Vale or because nobody even wanted to bother before it stood the test of time. Gliding over destroyed buildings with nary any furniture to be seen, bare concrete tilted every which way as cracked foundations and smashed walls destabilize them.
The Grimm pretty much went through everything and didn't leave a single building standing. They didn't quite tear them all down... but it's a near thing either way.
That said, somewhat more pertinent to your purposes... What must have been something very, very heavy once upon a time trampled through these streets, leaving cracked footprints are tearing open an access point into what you can vaguely make out to be an underground space of some kind.
Investigating closer as a shadow once you have ensured no Grimm are looking right in your direction, you find it to be an actual subterranean cave, spacious and with just a few beowolves inside. Little surprise, the things are everywhere- these ruins are positively crawling with Grimm in general.
Still, you could probably use this place. Rebuild the ceiling, add an easy access to the outside and voila, you have a central space from which you can produce and control robots, expanding both above- and underground at your leisure.
Yeah, this will do. This will do just fine. Only challenge will be transporting stuff, but that's what you have teleporters for! You may need to look into building inside your mansion or a warehouse you own or something, along with one here, just to bring everything over for your construction projects, but on the plus side, that's all you will need, really. The rest can be done with a manufactory and a few Bobs at most.
Most of the Grimm near the place you're looking into clearing are just beowolves, meaning you can take care of all of that with a simple swipe of your claws each. Amusingly enough, you hardly even need to bother with your weapons, Last Embrace resting on your forearms and hands as you go about your spontaneous spot of pest control.
That said, as you go deeper into the surrounding tunnels, you soon encounter another type of Grimm, of little surprise given their proclivities. These ones in particular resemble nothing so much as a mix of lizards and birds with a bit of snake thrown in, essentially just long, stretched-out bodies resembling tadpoles with a pair of arms (Or legs?) their main method of locomotion along with the typical Grimm bone plates and spikes.
Most of these creatures, called Creep according to a spot of research as conducted by Sarah, are fairly small and of little concern, simply extinguished wherever you can find them so as to make sure they won't interfere with your operations in this place.
That said, some of them do seem to be able to grow to rather immense sizes, judging by the Grimm currently smashing its way through a doorway, the old and ruined underground facilities you are cleaning up simply too small for its bulk.
Its aggressive growling makes it pretty obvious what it's here for.
Doing as you usually do by this point, you set a foot onto the uneven ground, triggering the use of a power as you rush right at the Grimm about to see you.
Accelerating far faster than you should be able to, you impact its face with both clawed hands, digging them through its bony mask and angling your arms just right before triggering your piledrivers, hitting the thing with all your might as the implements of violence attached to your limbs wreak havoc on the inside of its neck.
The big creep, bucking as soon as it realizes what's going on, pushes itself forwards with its arms, smashing its head towards the ceiling in an attempt to either murder you or make you let go, the impact enough to flatten your chest... if, that is, you didn't have aura.
As it is, the forcefield, though surely somewhat depleted, holds, giving you more than enough time to do a little thing with your lower arm muscles, causing a certain part of Last Embrace to glow... before a pair of ion lasers blasts to life, letting you neatly take care of the rest as you decapitate the monstrous foe popping up out of nowhere.
If this is typical huntsman work, you can see how they die sometimes, honestly. At least nobody saw all of this- you'd have actually been embarrassed about not taking care of this before you got smashed.
Luckily, though you do end up facing a few somewhat bigger creeps, none of them are quite as large as the one that actually mildly inconvenienced you, and so it takes just an hours or so to clean up the rest of the tunnels adjacent to your new forward base, making it safe enough to begin working on actually establishing it.
The Grimm will return, undoubtedly, but you do suppose you may very well have bought enough time to fight back the endless tide, as you have begun to really appreciate them as. The things don't really care about being dusted; no matter how many of them fall, more are already waiting in the wings, and all of them are intent on ending any and every kind of intelligent life, as you understand it.
Poor humans that actually labour under the restraints of limited stamina. They can't even just keep on fighting forever, how are they supposed to realistically fight back against this kind of thing?
Then again, that's why they're all up for robot armies, you suppose. Now, only question is how you'll take care of the specific logistics necessary for stuffing this whole mountain full of deadly war machines...Luckily, though you do end up facing a few somewhat bigger creeps, none of them are quite as large as the one that actually mildly inconvenienced you, and so it takes just an hours or so to clean up the rest of the tunnels adjacent to your new forward base, making it safe enough to begin working on actually establishing it.
The Grimm will return, undoubtedly, but you do suppose you may very well have bought enough time to fight back the endless tide, as you have begun to really appreciate them as. The things don't really care about being dusted; no matter how many of them fall, more are already waiting in the wings, and all of them are intent on ending any and every kind of intelligent life, as you understand it.
Poor humans that actually labour under the restraints of limited stamina. They can't even just keep on fighting forever, how are they supposed to realistically fight back against this kind of thing?
Then again, that's why they're all up for robot armies, you suppose. Now, only question is how you'll take care of the specific logistics necessary for stuffing this whole mountain full of deadly war machines...
Luckily enough, while the Grimm apparently make it a point to completely destroy any kind of civilization, going so far as to smash up any devices or machines they can find, they are also not that thorough about it, just... destroying things without really removing the materials they are made of.
What this means is that, being inside an underground bunker with some decent amount of machinery to be found when you actually go out of your way to look and dismantling any lights, wires and pipes you can tear out of the walls, you can totally build a teleporter, one of the clunky devices taking up an entire wall in the old storeroom you suspect your current location to have been once upon a time, but doing its job perfectly well.
Now, the real issue is figuring out how to hook your radio signal into the CCTS, but while it isn't a radio signal as such, all it takes is half an hour of fiddling with the respective parts of your futuristic machine while you wave your scroll around nearby to get it to work.
A little. Not perfect, but it'll do.
Your next step, then, is to contact Okita, the girl with the big... sword... predictably free at the moment. Just reading something on her scroll, really, and more than ready to come over and fight stuff for you.
A few messages sent to her scroll so you can follow the CCTS' operating procedure and home in on Okita's scroll in particular, and you have her exact position locked down and accessible for targeting. Easy as pie!
Even if Yoshi just keeps on screaming inside your soul as he frantically runs around the laboratory and reads through your thought process in real time, babbling something about 'untested technology' and 'nonexistent safety standards'.
It's fiiine.
Pressing a button is all it takes at this point to bring Okita over, the japanese schoolgirl appearing in a muted flash of colors with her sword in hand.
"Fighting?"
Geez, she really doesn't like talking overmuch, does she? "Grimm pretty much all around. Try to keep this room safe, aside from that, just kill 'em."
"Yaaay."
With Okita out the door and busy for the foreseeable future, you turn towards your teleporter again... and immediately decide to delegate the work you're about to do. Really, why would you ever do this yourself?
Saraaah, could you do me a tiny little favour?
What is it, Gabe?
I need a warehouse full of... One moment, you think at her as you estimate what exactly you need to build a second teleporter, replace the likely faulty parts of the one you just built from random salvage thrown into your temporarily summoned manufactory, build a bunch of new manufactories in this place and get a few hundred robots built.
Actually, though, you had a few ideas for fusion cores, too, so you may as well adjust that list.
I should honestly wear a secretary costume at this point, your sister thinks at you by the time you're done giving her the complete rundown of everything you'll need to get started on this project.
You're the absolute best, Sarah, the kind of person nobody could live without.
Oh, so I'm just a person, huh? You know that tone, she's hankering for compliments.
Alright, you're less a person and more a shining anti-sun the world revolves around, the shroud of night rising to blot out the cancer ball. You're a goddess, Sarah, my goddess, and I couldn't possibly imagine having to live without you. You're the thing that drives me, my reason to-
Geet, alright, I got it! You'll get your industrial amounts of metals.
Thank you so much, sis!
Now then, time to sketch out a few ideas in your mind... You use fusion cores in almost everything you make, the're kind of like your own brand of dust... just way better and stuff. That said, you have seen how dust works, how the citizens of Rapture drove their primitive generators, and when you blew up Armsmaster's halberd you had a brief moment to see how many things were stuffed into it, how they seemed to interact and...
To keep it short, you have a few ideas. And if, by the time you are done trying out a few new ways to improve on your previous version of the things, they're at about half their previous size, now comfortably fitting into your palm and capable of genuinely mind-boggling feats of energy conveyance?
Well, your robots will likely break down around them long before they run out of juice to fire constant ion beams with. As will most of your devices- wear and tear are a much bigger issue from now on than any kind of battery longevity. And if anyone tries to open them up to analyze them, the boom will likely be even bigger.
Now to go adjust everything so the sockets fit the new generation of fusion cores...
By the time you've teleported yourself back to Vale using Sarah's scroll as a makeshift teleportation beacon, kissed her into happy sillyness, assembled a second teleporter in your basement and promptly filled your other 'base' with the raw materials you need to work your industrial base into existence, night has begun, the abominable sun sinking beyond the horizon and granting you a reprieve from its annoyingly strength-sapping rays.
You still have work to do, but it isn't like it's urgent, Okita running around and happily hacking into any Grimm she sees ensuring they aren't getting at your stuff anytime soon.
It has to be said that, despite what you would want yourself, you do not, in fact, attend every big family meal held in the mansion- you're simply far too busy to be around for each breakfast, lunch and dinner.
All the same, you do try to show up for at least a few minutes whenever you can arrange it and readily stay around longer, which is why nobody finds it particularly strange for you to actually eat dinner with everyone. Nora, being her usual self, did a good bit of the cooking, assisted by your smile maids, and though your lovely Sarah isn't there- she somewhat rarely is, being pretty busy in general- all the human members of your little household are happily eating her food.
Except Okita, she's still running around on Mount Glenn swinging her sword through any Grimm she can find.
Weiss, usually sitting with her, is a bit sad the best friend she finally found for the first time in her life (which is just... it's Okita, sweetie, she isn't exactly the most personable girl around), but you can cheer her up easily enough by combing her luxurious white hair for a bit once you're done eating.
Meanwhile, you already asked Nora to distract Nora, the hyperactive girl kept in check by video games (with scrolls serving as controllers, of course), so it doesn't take long for you to be alone with Ren for a little while.
Completely coincidentally, of course.
"You know," your adopted son says as stoically as ever, "it really does help to have other people keep Nora busy every now and then."
"Happy to know you enjoy having a bit of quiet to yourself every now and then," you shrug jokingly. "Though on that topic, I was wondering; do you ever really do something else than watching over Nora, generally speaking? Any hobbies or other aspirations?"
Ren sighs. "Not... really, no. I meditate a lot when she's busy or distracted, but the only thing I know other than Nora is fighting Grimm."
"Is that why the two of you are looking into attending Beacon? It's just the thing you can do?"
"It is..." Ren's voice falters a little, the young man gathering his thoughts with another sigh. "I mentioned we were orphans, right?"
Not giving you time to answer, he pushes onwards. "It's... I don't want to talk about it, but it happened because of a Grimm attack. We first fought them to protect ourselves when we were out in the wilds back then after our village was destroyed, but... over time, it became about more. About making sure nothing like that would ever happen again." Ren shakes his head. "Or at least that's the idea. Hence, Beacon."
"Mhm, a good enough reason to become a huntsman, I suppose," you say, giving him a sympathetic nod. You suspect that's the most sympathy he feels ready to take about this.
"Honestly, it's good that you're so driven," you eventually tell him, having lapsed into mutual silence you suppose Ren might enjoy, "it gives you purpose and all that. Just... keep in mind that things can easily become too much to deal with, especially when you're dealing with high-tension situations."
At least when you're a human, squishy both in body and mind. Ren, though, just keeps quiet, obviously thinking about your words.
"Meditating is good, but I just think you'd do well if you took up a hobby beyond it. Something for yourself alone, you know? Maybe take up sketching or something, that's what I went for way back when. Being a huntsman and herding Nora are both stressful jobs, you need to have something tangible to relax, is all." Leaning back with a wry smile on your face, you give him another shrug. "Or that's what I think, at least. As always, feel free to disregard me if you feel that works best for you."
"I'll think about it," Ren promises. "But for now, we really should-"
"REEEN! YOU HAVE TO COME PLAY TOO, THIS IS AWESOME!"
"-that. Both Noras at once is too much concentrated Nora-ness."
Bullhead Upgrades
Fireproof: A few treatments for the bullhead's outside should leave it relatively heat resistant, with detachable heat sinks installed in case things get really hot and heavy. (2 points)
Armored Outside: Grimm are, apparently, kind of a big problem, which is why bullheads aren't rated for use in several areas flying types of the things frequent. As such, it only makes sense to add some tougher metal on the outside that shouldn't increase the weight too much, by your account. (3 points)
Underwater Functionality: Technically, a bullhead can function in a liquid medium just as well as in the air, especially with your own upgrades actually letting it move at a decent pace as well as making it waterproof. Just make sure not to go too deep, or the pressure might crush your tool. (4 points)
Teleportation: Rather than the secured, long-range teleporters you have on hand for general matters, you could add a short-range teleporter that lets your bullhead blink a few dozen meters in any direction mid-flight. Useful for combat maneuvers, less so for actual transportation (5 points)
Lightproof: A few good blinders, a bit of additional security and you can ensure that no light from outside the bullhead shines directly inside, or the other way around. (1 point)
Shaking the oil off your claws with a quick twist and a short transformation into shadow, you give your personal bullhead a quick look-over, making sure your emblem isn't scratched up or anything.
You haven't installed weapons (yet), instead choosing to keep your transport limited to just that, transporting things, so far anyways. With armor thick enough to let you mostly ignore common threats and keep the insides secure from the elements, not to mention the new generation of fusion cores driving the whole thing with a significantly increased amount of energy, this baby is many things, but what it is not is your average flying vehicle.
You also made sure to stock the minibar inside with all sorts of delicious extractions taken freshly from your bartender minion's swollen teats, while you were at it.
Bullhead Upgrades
Ion Cannon: Ion 'lasers' are extremely effective, and you have more than enough pre-existing frameworks to install a big one as a pop-out attachment under the bullhead. (4 points)
Ion Minigun Cannon: Who doesn't just love having enough firepower to essentially dissolve a small mountain through rapid fire of ionized matter? (4 points, requires Ion Cannon)
Grappling Hook: Sometimes, speedily snatching up someone or something before removing yourself from the situation is the best thing to do, something much easier thanks to the sizeable grappling hook you could install on your bullhead's underside, allowing just that. (2 points)
Auto-Doc: You could easily add one of these to the back, allowing for immediate automated medical care of any wounded you happen to pick up. (1 point)
Auto-docs, or your version of them at least, are designed to be easy to stuff into the back of vans which, ironically, is essentially fairly close to what bullheads are, in the end; high-end cars for rich people or to transport stuff around.
Then again, the real kicker is the immense about of firepower you install next. The grappling hook is more a fancy toy before you realize the thing can drag small buildings off the ground in combination with your engines, theoretically; in practice, a building is much more likely to just outright break apart than be lifted cleanly, but it's the principle of the matter.
As for the ion laser minigun, it's a minigun of ion laserism that simply melts through physical matter like a hot knife through warm butter. 'Nuff said.
Having an endless stream of robots march out of your soul manufactory in the warehouse you asked Sarah to have everything delivered is, as expected, very satisfying. Of course, you immediately teleport them over to Mount Glenn using the teleporter you left there, having given them orders on what they are to do- that is, essentially what Okita is doing, just making sure the Grimm presence around Mount Glenn is... curtailed.
Watching the pair of SP1D3Rs, re-invented sentry bots with four big legs and more than enough firepower to wipe out a small nation, you smile. Severely curtailed.
Of course, teleporting Okita back is the next part of your plan, given you aren't exactly planning to leave her at it for days on end. And, well, with that done, you send off a request for the council of Vale through the channels you were told to use via the packet of information that arrived on your scroll not long after you had that little talk with Glynda, asking them to avoid sending huntsmen in the area near Mount Glenn.
It's yours now, no way you're going to wait until someone stumbles onto the hundreds of robots you are using to essentially occupy the whole area. The one good thing about information being as tightly controlled by the authorities as it is on Remnant, or in Vale at least? You can just go and... do this.
It's actually pretty amazing.
BOB Upgrades
Modular Equipment: Many specialized tools need to be applied during construction work of just about all kinds, as you well know. So why not give the Bobs the ability to switch out their equipment on the fly with standardized access systems letting them change them out like gloves? (2 points)
Modular Equipment Construction: Preparing all the tools a Bob might need is, in the end, kind of a pain, especially when you're using a significant amount of them. Why not devise a clever little system of simple parts that let them create whatever tools they need on the spot, disassembling them afterwards to be turned into others? (4 points, requires Modular Equipment)
Sensor Array: More complicated construction projects of course require more precision, something that Bobs must be capable of to complete them if they need more than a few background processes running the equations. (3 points)
Precise Construction: More complicated machinery, and any derivates of it, naturally require more precise construction as a matter of course. Using your new enhancements, Bobs are able to construct even manufactories and teleporters, so long as they have the correct tools and materials. (4 points, requires Sensor Array)
Heavy Duty Engineering: Nailing planks together and using cement are one things, but building a modern city from scratch requires a little more than that. This upgrade provides just the tools necessary to do so, allowing Bobs to handle the construction of even complicated houses and concrete structures (3 points)
Solution Oriented Programming: A bit of an advanced modification, letting Bobs improvise solutions to practical issues they meet on the field, from using materials spontaneously gathered and processed on the spot to finding alternative ways to construct a given project. (5 points)
Improved Flight: Being heavier naturally means the old thrusters will be defunct, but that does not mean you cannot simply design a new one. Using things like your superior fusion cores, you can create an engine generating enough lift to let your new Bobs float either way. (2 points)
Network Access: You already have a network allowing most of your robots to share data and find solutions through, so adding the Bobs to it is fairly simple. In practice, this should allow them to compare and optimize their work, while also observing different solutions through other robots so as to find any long-term issues to be solved in future projects. (4 points, requires Solution Oriented Programming)
Complex Engineering: Taking a step further than what is possible through simply putting together parts churned out by a manufactory, this upgrade allows Bobs to act as mechanical craftsmen themselves, combining smaller parts into bigger machines and devices on the spot without needing to gather them at a manufactory first. Any applicable knowledge found in the recordings of other robots they have been connected to at some point can be applied to let them create anything one of them has analyzed before. (4 points, requires Network Access)
Waterproof: Simple and useful, being hardy against the elements is always important. (1 point)
Your new Bobs are almost completely redesigned, going from simple Mister Handies you added a few mild modifications to that exploited the base you had to work with to a decent extent, to a completely revamped building machine, chock full of advanced technology hidden inside its chassis.
These bad boys can fucking build. Construct almost anything from any resources they have available, even creating and recreating their own tools on the spot as they exchange information with each other and any of your other robots within reach of your signal, capable of doing anything from constructing massive complexes of concrete and steel to putting together delicate equipment requiring incredible precision.
Or at least that's what tests inside your soul palace indicate so far.
Your next project to be pursued in the privacy of your inner world is the central one of your current efforts in the real world, constructing a coherent robot factory. Naturally, you have a few ways to do so, given you may or may not have planned out how to create an endless robot army to conquer the world with before.
What? Everyone likes robots. So, disregarding Yoshi's screams as he catches a glimpse of the screen as you work the lab's holographic displays, you get right to work.
It's really quite simple, what you're planning to do. Your manufactories already do most of what you need, constructing robots in theoretically arbitrarily large amounts, the only two real obstacles being limited time and materials to be used for them.
You can't exactly create the materials out of nothing, but you don't need to when you can just pay a bunch of people to create them for you using earth dust. WIth Sarah on organizing that whole thing and supremely unlikely to run out of cash anytime soon, you can concentrate on the other issue; letting your manufactories work faster.
Now, while you could just create more and leave it at that, you already have a design to crib from for this, that being the manufactory rows you installed inside Sherrel's doomtruck back on Earth Bet. Simply chain simplified machines together that are far from as good as a full manufactory by themselves, but do everything you need them to do to get the robot army you're after while requiring far less resources to be set up in the first place and working at a much faster pace compared to what you would get for the effort put into one.
Kind of like a factory line, really. Now all you need to do is program these plans into a bunch of your new Bobs and cover the subterranean space under Mount Glenn with these.
You can't wait.
As you keep on working inside your soul palace anytime the time dilation allows you to get some done, you of course do not neglect your own hobbies, putting some miscellaneous sketches on paper, drawing the odd picture and even working on some minor sculptures you've been thinking about. Your art studio is beginning to resemble a proper cluttered workshop, with canvas, pieces if paper and random bits of supplies spread around everywhere.
That said, you also do have actually important things to work towards in this particular place. Indeed, Patty Berdioler, if that actually is 'her' real name, will not take care of herself- writing an actually good book full of smut requires serious dedication, and while you are fairly busy, you refuse to stop on your earlier designs just because you have to help save the world or whatever it is your particular conspiracy is doing by gaining the power to take over said world.
... You'd best get to outlining the entire plot, for now, and planning out things like character arcs and the actual smut. Now who wants hot vampire chicks with big tits and an unhealthy fixation on the geeky main character?
Of course, you can't spend all of your time on one-upping that cheap filth with your own, superior, filth, and so you return to other matters in due time no matter how how you accidentally keep on adding to your notes for a few hours flat halfway through.
At least you'll have an easy time actually writing- your perfect memory once more coming in handy- once you get to really putting together most of the text and connecting the various snippets and ideas you already have. For the time being, though, you had best get to the next point on your docket.
Weiss really does like singing, doesn't she? It's her passion, aside from being a huntress. You aren't exactly a professional on this, but... let's see how she'd like a song you wrote just for her and you, to sing together. A duet.
M-hm, m-hm... You think you might actually have a talent for this, or at least enough people you ate at some point did it kind of rubbed off onto yourself. Either way, you keep on humming to yourself in the privacy of your own mind even days later, as you continue to work on the K33-PRs. The Grimm continue to bear down on your holdings under Mount Glenn, and having a few upgraded laser turrets ready to shoot them down would free up a lot of your growing robot army for... other uses.
K33-PR Upgrades
Greater Firepower: What's better than an ion laser gun? An ion laser gatling gun. Rapid disintegration for everyone! (3 points)
Teleportation Deployment: Improve the ability to be deployed through teleporters within range, letting the turrets request repositioning at will and be used as a targeting mechanism for other teleports (4 points)
Surveillance Drones: Using the K33-PRs as drone carriers does mean their flying little friends wouldn't be able to move far from where they are stationed, but they also would allow them to keep a much better eye on everything nearby them- a great boon, given that in order to shoot intruders, they have to be aware of intruders in the first place. (4 points)
Gas Nozzle: Pressurizing some gases to fit into little canisters you can strap into your K33-PRs and have them release on demand wouldn't even be that much work, honestly, and give the things an alternative way to defend themselves in close quarters... or fill closed areas with certain gases, for that matter. Allows everything from smokescreens and knockout gas to mustard gas and aerosolized acids. (3 points)
Creating more undead, you have decided, is an entirely useful thing to do. Sure, having them fight and defeat Grimm out in the wild doesn't actually get you any rewards in the typical sense, but that's not why you're sending out packs of extremely lethal minions in the first place.
No, you are getting a whole load of actually useful combat data- your Hunters, as powerful as they are, can be improved upon in many minor, but significant ways, such as an adjustment of their hind legs keeping their potential for wide leaps the same while ensuring their armor protects them better from attacks from behind. Many of these things you just wouldn't really have thought of without watching and analyzing their combat performance against as varied a foe as the Grimm can be, is all.
Oh, and you can have them scout, of course. Honestly, having an easy way to keep an eye on Grimm movements is pretty useful, and as you can instinctively tell where they are in relation to yourself when using their senses over your own, you're essentially getting a free tour of Remnant, or at least the continent of Sanus, as it were.
A literal bird's eye can get you a lot of coverage, too. And the Grimm haven't actually shown any interest in your Watcher yet, which you'll just take as a good sign, even as your Hunters keep on fighting anything and everything they can find, from beowolves, ursae and boarbatusks to giant scorpion Grimm that seem to be called death stalkers and nevermores filling the skies, the occasional griffon Grimm showing up as they make their way closer to and above the mountain range to Vale's southeast.
Funnily enough, none of them have any hope of resisting an ion laser to the face that you've seen.
Beowolves, to your understanding, usually aren't really that big a deal; though they are dangerous, most farmers living further away from a fortified city or town know to drive them off easily enough, that is, drive a long farming implement into them and grab something else to finish the job if it didn't dust after the first one, keeping out of reach of their claws all the way.
An unlucky, dimwitted or slow farmer doesn't make it in those areas Grimm can appear, of course.
That said, beowolves appear in packs more often than not. So in most places, the locals make sure to arrange for a search party when they see one, to wipe the pack out before it can overrun the farms and/or town through a concentrated attack. The Grimm aren't exactly the brightest, so it usually takes nothing but a thorough, brutal facedown assisted by any local huntsmen and some good dust ammunition to end things.
At leats, that is, in the relatively protected areas. Near Vale or other bigger cities or towns. The further into the wilderness you go, the more likely it is things get more... complicated, but in places that can be kept relatively Grimm-free thanks to expansive defenses, regular patrols and natural barriers that just keep the Grimm from approaching every which way, things can be somewhat taken care of.
Except when they can't. When people are idiots, when circumstances change, or maybe when the Grimm are actually smarter than they should be. As is the case here.
It is thus that you steer your bullhead to land, right nearby the village of Middleofnowhere, and get out, being greeted by the mayor, Mister Whoevencares. You already have a fairly decent idea of what is going on here, given you distinctly recall the sightings of the alpha beowolf your undead made not that far from this general area, but it wouldn't do not to show up- being public about what they're doing is a matter of life and death in this line of work.
Literally, huntsmen have to be visible and reassuring to keep the Grimm away, and now that you've already got the license...
"So, what can you tell me about the unusual beowolves?"
The 'mayor', a title that really amounts to 'the guy responsible for organizing shit' in places this far out, is a short man with a balding head dressed, wearing a little vest and sweating a lot. He honestly defines a certain stereotype you just can't quite put your finger on, but what counts is that he's the man you, as a huntsman, have to talk to for details as the mission involves 'his' town.
"They showed up over the past week, Mister Livsey, just to the south of town, on Betty's farm. She didn't want to call a huntsman at first, just shoot them like she would any other Grimm, but we talked some sense into her, we did, and so we called up Vale."
Well, you don't exactly have to, but it's the courteous thing to do, is all. Most missions aren't quite this involved with the local populace or anything, but when you do have to deal with the locals in a profesional capacity, gracing the person that has to deal with arranging everything with your presence is just the obvious thing to do.
According to what you've read in that little leaflet 'Huntsmanhood and You: What To Do', anyways. It came in the mail with a letter from Glynda yesterday, which was what prompted you to give this whole thing a try in the first place.
"So, what exactly is different about these ones in particular? Place like this, I'd think you get plenty of small fry, after all."
Wiping his bare scalp free of sweat with a handkerchief, the shining surface reflecting the light of the lamp as the two of you sit in the bar (to make sure the people talk about you being there, duh), the mayor gives you a couple of rapid nods. "Yes, yes, yes, we wouldn't have wanted to bother if it was just the usual, but these wolvers- ah, sorry, beowolves, they've been behaving strangely, not just running at the first building they saw. Two of them every night, Betty said, sniffing around. She shot them all down, of course, but normally we have just one or two of them in the area, they get taken care of quick enough, but this smacked of more, so Betty, I said, we need to get-"
"I see," you interrupt him, taking a sip of the swill they're selling as alcohol around here, the strong aftertaste staying with you for a while. Not that you begrudge it these people- living here must drive one to drink, and if you're too smashed in the evenings to think about your life and too hungover in the mornings for any thought at all to boot, being in Stinkiesville may not be as hard. "To clarify, that was all they did, yes? No particular eyecatching irregularities beyond behaviour?"
"No, Mister Livsey, none that Betty told anyone about, though she has been known to be a bit cranky about things, so it wouldn't surprise me, oh but we certainly wouldn't-"
Cutting him off before he can begin insisting a huntsman was necessary here- for the fifth time since you started talking to him- you put down the glass, having steadily drained it while he blabbered on. "From what you told me, it sounds like it's an alpha, leading the pack. Smart one, too, if it's actually bothering with scouting and establishing a pattern- making you think some beowolves come in every night. To unnerve people, and waste ammunition for the real attack."
More rapid nods, though you don't let Mayor Yesman begin another useless diatribe. "Sounds like I'll have to go have a talk with this Betty just in case, then, before I go and take care of the whole pack, alpha or no. Do tell people to be watchful for a night or two, just in case I miss any of them, but I don't expect you'll have any real trouble." And now, off to some farm... that probably stinks of animal feces even worse. Ugh, you really aren't cut out for farms.
On second thought, perhaps there is something to this kind of life, after all.
"Now wotcher wanker are yeh, huh? Comin' to get a bit o' Big Betty's sweet, hot love fer yerself?" Gesturing with her gun, the woman that is somehow less heavily armed than her herd of sheep grins at you.
She's just like an inbred hick version of Sarah, you'd say.
Well, time for an icebreaker. Now, how do you talk down an amount of power more reminiscent of an army base than a farm?
Right, talk to the soldiers, not the general. Breathing in, you formulate the perfect way to approach the situation at hand.
"Baaaaa!" Which roughly translates to 'is she always like that?'
The sheep give each other a few looks... before descending into complete disarray as each and every one of them starts bleating. 'She totally is, dawg!' 'No braaakes with Beeetty.' 'Shoulda seen her when the mayor caaame!' 'Poor fucker, nearly lost a testicle when she started blaaastin.'
Betty, from what you have cunningly concluded based on context clues, looks annoyed as she lowers her gun. "Hey, whot gives, ya wackers? Also, who ye callin' fat?!"
Nobody did, but that's not the point. "Baaaah?" 'Any ideas how to calm her down?'
'It's Betty.' 'It's Betty, dawg.' 'Actually, how about a treat?' 'She's not you, fataaass.'
As the sheep discuss, one of them, the smallest and youngest lamb (one carrying a minigun on its back and trailing two belts of ammunition behind itself) approaches you, looking up at you with big, soulful eyes. "Meeeh?" 'Smack her butt, it's what she aaalways does to us.'
You give it a smile, kneeling down for a moment to pat its head and scratch its neck, before getting up with a shrug. "Baaaah." 'You heard the kid.'
'He's reaaally gonna do it?' 'This'll be glorious.' 'His funeraaal.' 'Do it, kid, you know you waaant to.'
"Whot's going on now, eh? You turnin' mah sheep aganst me, that it? Ah'm gunna show yah whot we call ah 'farmer's market' 'round these parts." Muttering, Betty changes her ammunition type in a single, quick motion, slapping in dust rounds of some type. Or another type of dust rounds anyways, not like they use anything else to make ammunition.
"Don't worry, nothing of the sort. Just having a quick chat," you assure her, mentally taking aim. "Incidentally-"
And with that, you accelerate, blurring from where you stand towards and past Betty, turning around and braking at the last moment as your hand goes flying, having been primed for this the moment you decided to do it, impacting Betty's rear with a resounding SMACK that has her yelp and shoves her forwards, resulting in a young woman catching herself with both arms, her butt raised in the air and her dress flipped over, revealing her pantyhose for all to see.
"-you wouldn't happen to be the Betty that sighted a few unusual Grimm, would you?"
"Ahm gunna ram meh shepherd stick up yeh ass fer this!"
Smirking, you eye her shapely rear as it presses against the fabric. "Not into that, I'm afraid, though I could see us sticking things into places together..."
As it turns out, the sheep are all for letting Betty work off some steam, a bunch of them having helped you cut off her escape route early on. She, despairing at this foul betrayal, tried to shoot you after all, attempting to twist around from where she lay to land a few bullets in you anyways.
You, of course, just tore her pantyhose off her ass, much to her vocal disapproval, and things went from there.
Now, pumping a moaning and twitching young woman up and down on your cock right there out in the open, gripping her by her muscled thighs and nibbling on her neck from behind.
It drives her absolutely wild.
"So they showed up around the same time every night like clockwork, but you didn't see anything strange about them as such?"
"Yeees... No... What you saaaid..." Betty moans and groans, tightening up around you as you nuzzle at her face. "Oooh..."
"Alright, so it's really just an alpha, I guess," you shrug. You were pretty damn sure of that from the start, of course, but it's just good practice to openly come to the conclusion even if you already know the end result just because your sources are secret and all. "Just going to take care of that real quick and make sure the pack is dealt with. Pretty much a milk run, honestly."
"Nuoooh," Betty brings out, reaching backwards and pulling you towards herself by the shoulders. "Yeh have ta... ta stay a while... tah make sure any Grimm that see meh weak git killed... 'Key?"
Hah, from the look in her eyes, drunk with infatuation and desire, you can guess why she really wants you to stay with her.
"Sorry, sweetie, but I do have a job to do," you whisper into Betty's ears, shifting her weight a little so you can carry her easier, "not that I'm not tempted..."
With that, you bring her back to her farmhouse, never pulling out once, and stretch one arm a little so you can gently flick her clit on the way. Betty, much as she wants to, is incapable of formulating words, and by the time you're swinging open her front door (it wasn't locked or anything), she's a blubbering mess, sensitive as the poor thing is.
A quick tour of her living space, every room serving as another new and exciting place to pin her down and rut her into brief unconsciousness later, you finally find the shepherd's bedroom, the insensate woman now carried facing you so you can kiss her easier, an act that has her blushing and stammering like a virgin. Carefully lowering her into bed, you finally pull out, your seed leaking from Betty in short order, and pull the covers up to make sure she doesn't catch a cold or anything, the half-naked woman's body covered in sweat.
Her eyes are unfocused and rolled back a good bit, so you just manually close them, putting your own bits away and making sure you didn't get too dirty while you had your fun, getting out of the surprisingly feminine room and out to the flock of sheep once more, asking them to keep guard for a bit.
Now then, time to go ahead and actually do the job you came for, you suppose.
Now then, technically, you could just go take your bullhead, make a few flyovers and completely vaporize any Grimm you find... but not only would that potentially draw in more Grimm, which is the reason huntsmen are the usual solution to issues like this as opposed to lots of bombs, you would also miss out on the satisfaction of personally murdering the Grimm involved.
And hey, you're the first to admit your personal feelings aren't the most important when all you're trying to do is utterly destroy something... but really, it's just an alpha beowolf. What's the worst it could do?
So, using your compass guy as an overlay, you turn into your owl form, flying over the treetops of the nearby woodlands and keeping a literal eye out for your quarry.
It doesn't take long to find it, either, your supernaturally guided search bringing you closer towards the mountains and deep into the lush forest lying in that direction. When you come upon the pack, it is gathering in a clearing, their black bodies and white bone protrusions covering the forest floor.
One of them, the alpha beowolf you saw through your undead, is right in the middle, growling and doing Grimm things, you suppose, towering over the rest of the things at at least twice their height.
Now how to murderize it...
Alright, you just have to time this correctly. Flying past the clearing, you use your powers to just turn on a dime, not really needing to keep yourself afloat allowing you to just push against the air as you drift along and change directions like that, before returning right the way you came.
And growing, of course. To several times your previous size, not that your owl form was small to begin with.
Rising a little higher in preparation for what you're about to do, you dive once you have the right angle, picking up speed, and concentrate on the ground right under the alpha beowolf, pushing the idea of a wintery hailstorm scouring the land at the use of your plasmid.
"Awoooooh...?" The beowolf, regardless of its size, is blown upwards amidst chunky ice drops, the pack underneath it watching and stunned into perplexed silence, when your path meets its own, your hooked talons catching onto the bone spikes along its back and pushing into its back as you carry it off.
That's when you use your claws, turning your talons into razor-sharp, near indestructible implements of destruction, and squeeze.
The beowolf, to its credit, immediately snarls and tries to reach up at you, but your claws in its back kind of block the angle of its arms, sticking inside it as they do.
Still, what it does instead is howl, the sound carrying far and wide over the land and answered by the yelping and snarling of its lesser brethren, scattered beowolves following as you carry off your prey.
Fighting as an owl isn't all that hard, really.
Well, you don't think you can get this thing to die like this befire it manages to leverage itself into biting into your legs, the violent struggle at your talons not ceasing, so you decide to cut ahead and let go.
By negating gravity for a moment and flaring out your wings, you rapidly redirect your momentum, throwing yourself around and lifting your prey upwards, rolling in the air and reversing positions with the beowolf for a moment... before you finish your backwards salto, violently throwing the creature to the ground, demolishing a tree as it lands on it and crashes straight to the ground.
It's a bit hard to accelerate yourself from where you are, but you do what you can, shooting after your quarry and once more shifting, transforming into another form.
Except this time, instead of a very sizeable owl, you're a very sizeable wolf, cold gathering in your throat as you inhale deeply on your way down.
The next moment, you crash onto the beowolf, keeping the humanoid creature down with both front paws as you fire a concentrated beam of cold at every bit of black you can see, freezing the monster over from the inside, until its clawed paws get a grip on your chest, heaving you off of it in a rapid exertion of strength.
Honestly, it's kind of a surprise this thing's still standing after everything you did to it.
This fight, you'd say, is pretty much over. The oversized beowolf you're fighting is bleeding black smoke from all over, half its body frozen and cracking, this does not look like something capable of effectively fighting, or doing much of anything, by this point.
Still, it comes charging at you, swinging a clawed arm with the same hateful enthusiasm you expect it would show when fresh. You, of course, simply duck for a moment, its attack swishing through the air ineffectually the moment you detransform back to your vampiric form and suddenly take up much less space than you did before.
The alpha beowolf snarls. You give it a look that says everything there is to be said on your opinion about its skill. Then your balled fist, now that you have hands again, meets its temple with a quiet bonk.
Next, you trigger the piledriver, enjoying the feel of black smoke washing out over your hand.
The Grimm finally dies, collapsing into more of that grimmstuff, dissolving into thin air the best you can tell, just like what you read. Slowly turning around, you take a look at the forest around yourself.
It's filled with malevolently shining eyes.
You sigh.
"Well, guess I am kind of responsible for cleanup, too."
To be honest, that whole forest was just kind of a pain. The Grimm weren't the biggest issue once you got to fighting them, you just kept on killing them faster than they came at you easily enough, but a few of them managed to get their dust into your lungs when you actually went on to inhale, practicing your mid-battle speeches.
It was really unpleasant. It dispersed just fine of course, leaving no trace when you tried to spit it out, but still.
Anyways, the alpha beowolf's roar earlier seemed to have been enough to gather all the beowolves in the area towards itself, so you didn't even have to waste a bunch of time picking the things off all over the mountain, and a quick detour towards Stinkassnowheresville saw you declare your success to the mayor, along with an exact tally of the Grimm you defeated just so these people have an idea of why calling a huntsman in cases like this is, indeed, a good idea.
Afterwards? Well, you came to visit Becky again, of course, after you purchased a few apples, carrots and some lettuce all in a big basket from the town, handing them out to the flock of sheep still standing guard- they seem to be rotating who carries their mounted weaponry and who is resting- on your way to the farmhouse.
They're doing some good sheepwork. You also have to remember to praise Sarah for suggesting you bring a few lien chips along.
Opening the door (that you actually did lock on your way out, by the way), you waste little time in coming straight up the stairs, once more entering Betty's bedroom. She is mostly as you left her, sweaty, drooling a little, asleep. Only difference is she actually managed to shrug off the bedcovers while turning in her sleep, so you're treated to a half-naked young woman scratching her stomach, her sundress barely covering her breasts and upper stomach.
A fact you immediately remedy, of course, by tugging it off of her, leaving only her torn pantyhose.
You, of course, are on her within moments, having disrobed yourself.
"M'ne gunneh deh... thingies..." Betty does keep talking in her sleep, but even so responds eagerly to your touch, so when you push yourself home right where you left off earlier, all that changes is that she clings to you with both legs and arms.
Heh, guess you'll be snugglefucking, then.
By the time Betty wakes up, she's come exactly twenty-eight times, having subconsciously learned to milk your cock even harder than she did before. Of course, that's not necessarily everything she's thinking at the moment...
"If'n ye were gonna wake me up'n like this, ye shoulda just told me," she grins as she comes into awareness, the hands around your back tightening. "Ye're mine now."
Chuckling, you give her a kiss on the nose in response. "Sorry, but I'm kind of taken. By a few girls."
"Aww." Pushing to be let on top, Betty starts riding you at an easy pace, clearly showing she's no stranger to bedsheet sports. "C'n I know where ye's usually hangin' 'bout, then? Jus' in case sumthin' comes up."
"Sure, I don't mind." She really does have a very nicely muscled stomach- her midsection is really nice to look at. And touch, as your hands confirm in short order. "I'm usually in or around Vale, name's Gabriel Livsey. Shouldn't be that hard to find me if you ask around."
"Mn." Biting her lip, Betty nods, more to herself than at you. "Ah wanted ta ask sumthin', if'n ya don't mind."
"Asking's free," you shrug, taking a proper hold of her and thrusting upwards, Betty gasping and holding onto your shoulders as she starts bucking in place a little.
"How is- how izzit out there?" She asks, moaning a little. "Out in tha world?"
"Well, that's... kind of a long story, really. How about we start with Vale?"
Suffice to say, Betty is very much satisfied with every part of your visit. All the way through, until she falls unconscious again.
You'll have to go feed the sheep before you leave, you can already see it.
Betty, or Bo Beep as she used to be called before beating the crap out of the mayor for calling her that, slowly woke up, an errant hand tracing the bedside where she expected to find warmth she was now missing.
Right, he'd left...
Grunting with effort, they'd have to have done it harder than the mayor and his landwhale, and more often than the bar's backroom saw in a month, Betty got up, leaving the sheets in disarray as they were and doing her damn job. Keepin' a farm running was hard work, after all, and the sheep did need to be cared for.
Patting the bleating buggers as they crowded around her, she saw they still had feed in the troughs, confusing her for a moment. She always fed them in tha mornings, why-?
Oh. Oh, he musta fed them before he left.
Sighing, Betty leaned against the barn's wall, closing her eyes for a moment, when lil' Bassy came for her, bleating her cutest bleat. "Yer think'n he was tah good ta let 'im leave too, huh?"
"Baaaah."
"Right. C'mon ya bleatin' buggers, go get yeh toys."
Grabbing Big Betty from where she'd strapped her to her thigh, Betty gave her flock a grin, couldn't let them know she was scared or anythin'. Not that she was.
"We gotta go an' talk ta the mayor real quick, then we gotta make a lil' trip." Good thing she'd thought ta ask, too. "Any of yeh know tha way ta Vale?"
None of then 'baah'd' at her, so she shrugged. "Guss we'n be gonna treadin' new roads, den. Can't be that'n hard ta find." The first time she'd leave the little frontier town she'd grown up in, too. But with her flock at her side, she had nothing to fear!
Blake... wasn't really too sure about this. Signing up for this kind of thing wasn't what she'd signed up for at any point.
However, it seemed things in Vale were all coming to a head for the faunus living in the kingdom, and they all revolved around one man. Gabriel Livsey was dangerous, having killed Adam (and Blake still could not believe he was really... gone), but his influence reached further than appearing as the subject of gossip rags and socializing with rich snobs.
Investigating things was hard just by herself, and most of what she'd trawled through were just random rumour- why would the council sweep anything under the carpet and not do anything about it when it was out in Grimm-infested lands- but the odd tidbit did shine through.
Livsey seemed to be planning something... and his plans involved the faunus as a whole in some way. His name was on the OnlyFauns Project, and seeing through the obvious lies and obfuscations, it involved creating pornographic material of as many faunus as possible. Whether this was part of some grand objective or merely obfuscating his true goal in this effort, Blake had no idea, but she knew she had to find out more if she wanted to investigate deeper.
Whatever it was, it was obvious Livsey would influence the way faunus would be seen, and Blake refused to do nothing about it.
Hence she was there, in a room with two dozen other faunus girls, being called out one by one. She had come with her ribbon on to the 'audition', as it had been called on the CCTS chatroom proclaiming news regarding the OnlyFauns Project, only taking it off once she was inside the building and talking to the receptionist. It was a little weird, to be walking around with her kittens out again after getting used to hiding them in public, but she was at least somewhat sure none of Adam's followers had found her so far.
The others were talking a bit, but Blake was just keeping to herself, reading her book- she couldn't wait for the next part of Ninjas Of Love to come out- and keeping track of the waiting room's other occupants, memorizing their names every time the intercom blared as a just-in-case, when it finally happened.
"Blake Belladonna?"
Getting up, Blake came out the same door everyone else had, just like they'd been told to when their names were called, and immediately saw some kind of secretary standing by, the blonde waving her over. "Right there through the third door to the right, please."
Nodding at her, Blake went on, keeping the floorplan she could make out in mind. If this was a trap, she could-
Getting a look at what seemed to be an office of some sort, Blake was momentarily stunned by witnessing none other than Livsey, the man she'd met that time when she had an... unauthorized? Look at his activities.
"There you are, you must be... Miss Belladonna. A pleasure to meet you, and properly this time to boot." Giving her a smile that did not detract from the calculating look in his eyes as he watched her carefully, he gestured for the seat in front of the desk he was sitting at. "Please, have a seat."
Slowy, Blake did as he said. This just went from information finding to interrogation, and she was on the wrong side of-
"To make this clear from the beginning, I am not going to ask about any possible 'connections' you might have had in the past. They simply do not matter. Instead, and let me make this clear, nobody will care within the context of this little operation, so long as you also do not let it matter."
Blake had no idea what was going on.
"Simply put," the man on the other side of the desk said, "don't bring it up, don't allude to it, don't bring it in. The moment you leave this interview, it is as though the White Fang never played a role in your life. Or else you can leave, and we all forget you were ever here. It's your decision, and yours alone. Otherwise, would you like to ask anything about how things will proceed from here? That's how these little talks usually go, you see."
Ooo-kay... so he was basically telling Blake if she wanted to bring anything up, now was the time. If he was asking for it... "What is your plan with OnlyFauns? Why did you put it into motion?"
"Improving relations between human and faunus, by and large," he said without missing a beat. "When people realize something is hot, they typically spend more time getting grabby than ostracizing, after all."
Blake, simply put, was floored.
"Yes, I know, my single largest act as far as the public was concerned was giving the White Fang an enormous black eye... or costing it an arm, rather... but it was honestly the best thing to happen to faunus in the kingdom of Vale at large. With the more extreme influences of the Fang curtailed, the common human citizen doesn't associate any faunus they see with brutal attacks in the night, they think of them as the ones that didn't scurry off into any holes the moment Adam Taurus got himself killed. It let a divide between the 'good' faunus and the 'bad' faunus be created, even if it's all complete nonsense in the practical sense." Livsey shrugged, leaning back. "The people think like that, and that's all it really takes to let the White Fang actually improve relations."
Blake refused to flinch at the reminder of what the White Fang had been doing before... what it had become, and what she had become by association before leaving. "So what, am I supposed to think you are genuinely trying to reach out? Why now? Why not-"
"Miss Belladonna, I am doing what I have always done, and what I will always do," the man's voice said with the kind of conviction she remembered hearing from Adam and his ilk. "Simply do rest assured that as it stands, I am doing what I can to improve things for people, faunus included."
"So you're really telling me," and she couldn't believe she was saying this, "that producing porn is supposed to be the solution?"
"Well, nobody tried it before, to my knowledge. Who can say it wouldn't work?"
Blake closed her eyes.
The rest of their conversation had much more to do with the topic at hand, pertaining to any issues and reservations Blake might have about this... this. What she could imagine Livsey to be talking through with any of the other 'applicants', too- what she was okay with doing, in general and on camera, things she absolutely wanted to avoid, what she little to no experience in, those kinds of things.
... She might have been a little too open about her interests in the end.
"So yes, unless you have very particular tastes, do make sure to follow the instructions and do the practice. Neither accidentally shitting in the middle of doing it nor ripping your anus are particularly fun for any one sane individual, and I can tell you about..."
"TMI! TMI!!!"
Ultimately, though, despite knowing this was stupid, and despite knowing better, knowing this was the worst idea she had to have had ever since staying in the White Fang when it started radicalizing itself...
"Do be sure you want to go through with this. No shame in it if you don't, or if you do."
"Look, I've made my decision and I'm not stopping now. What do I need to do?"
"For now?" Livsey asked, giving her a shrug. "For now you need a handle divorced from your real identity and to read through these leaflets on safe and responsible pornography. I would like to make a standard course of some sort on this down the line, but this is all fairly new and unestablished, so it was decided we needed to keep things more spontaneous and open until OnlyFauns has solidified in the minds of the people a bit."
Taking the leaflets titled 'Pornography And You' and 'How To Be A Porn Actress', Blake swallowed, realizing things were getting real. Her eyes briefly drawn to her sidebag, where she was keeping her books on her.
"Does NinjaKitten work?" She blurted out, the first idea coming to mind being faster than her reconsideration on if she really should go along with this. He had said this was going to help faunus, and-
"It's good enough. If you'd like to prepare, I'm sending everyone that makes it through this interview two rooms to the right on the opposite side of the hallway when you exit," the man behind the desk said. "Take a little time, talk to the others that want to do this. You can back out all the way until we actually get to the set, though we do distribute complementary buttplugs-"
Blake was out the door before he could end the sentence.
"Alright everyone, let's clear up how we're going to do this," Livsey said an hour later, the gaggle of various faunus girls gathered at a film set of some kind. "Simply put, this will be a compilation of sorts, just a series of simple shots doubling as both introductionary videos and your introductions to this line of work. Everyone take a look around and pick one of the 'rooms'."
Blake hadn't exactly expected the manager to be here in person, but it made sense if OnlyFauns was-
"Can we share, too?" A giggling pair of wolf faunus twins said, already stripping each other down. Why were all the girls her age so... like that?
"Sure, nothing against that." And with that, Livsey followed suit, taking off his suit jacket and revealing absolutely jacked abs.
Blake could grill fish on those babies.
"Why are you stripping?" Is what she said instead of following up on that.
"Somebody has to be the male actor, and my sister insisted I do the job instead of just doing a parallel audition," he explained, revealing far too much information Blake was not sure how to take. "Now do go ahead and pick a room, they're themed and all."
Well, here she was. About to get fucked for the faunus. Then again, not like she hadn't done much worse by association before...
Oh, they had a dojo room. Of course they had.
Plopping herself down, Blake got out her book and pretended nothing was out of the ordinary.
"!!!!!"
"Oh, the kitty's silent, huh?" Pumping into her from behind where she was staying on all fours like an animal, Livsey was proving he had earned the right to be a porn actor- he was good at this.
Blake was mostly undressed, having posed for the camera according to what the fox faunus assisting Livsey had asked her to, and things had just... developed from there.
"!!!!!"
"Cat got your tongue, hm?" Digging her fingernails into the ground the best she could, Blake gave him a glare from her half-turned head, despite how he was, in turn, digging into her pussy. That pun was both bad and insensitiv-
"I am very sorry, master," the fox faunus apologized, bowing in her traditional Mistralian outfit, "this girl has obviously been insufficiently trained. Would you like another girl to be prepared while she is... disciplined?"
Blake could hear his smug grin in his voice. "No need, I can discipline this unruly cat myself. Though if you would like to test where her tongue really went...?"
Oh shit, she had said she was curious about girls. But not like this, not with the cameras-
"Gladly, master." Opening up the hem of her robe, the blonde faunus woman reavealed she was very well shaved. "Come, open up, girl!"
Grabbing onto Blake's head, her hands veered dangerously close to her ears. "Not the kittens!!!!"
Livsey hit her womb again, Blake's carelessly opened mouth led to her tongue flopping out on her next moan, the woman now scratching the base of her kittens just so pressing herself against it and letting Blake taste her lower lips.
"Such a cute little kitty... See how she likes it?" Her butt was getting groped and Blake knew, being pushed forwards with every insistent thrust that long since opened her up and got her unable to stand up even if she wanted, that this would be a long day, after all.
At least she wouldn't be the only one unable to walk, however, as all the faunus present that day got to find out why Gabriel Livsey was to be feared.
Also, OnlyFauns literally doubled CCTS traffic overnight.
"A great pleasure to meet you, young man!" Peter Port, as the name may or may not indicate, is a rather... portly man, resembling nothing so much as a walrus faunus as he stands before you. "It is not only a perilous mission you are undertaking, you see, but one that requires utmost dedication and attention to detail. Capturing Grimm is hard work, and keeping them in captivity for any length of time impossible, as they tend to kill either their captors or themselves with utter abandon. I, of course, could do it in the span of a slow afternoon, but am unfortunately busy with highly confidential papers here in Beacon."
The bombastic man keeps on talking and gesturing, causing you to grin as you immediately realize what his actual issue is. "So you mean to say you procrastinated on some paperwork and now you're in a time crunch, so you needed someone else to take care of this?"
Professor Port pauses.
"Hahaha!" He laughs after a moment, acting as though nothing happened. "Quite the imagination on you!"
"Oh, so you're grading papers or something?" You can't help it, this is just too funny.
"Anyways," Port coughs into his mustache as he pulls out a plastic card, "here is a list of the Grimm the Grimm Studies course will require for live demonstrations this coming semester. Would you mind holding your Huntsman License against it?"
Agreeing easily enough, you do as he asks, pulling your license out of the pocket you're carrying it within anywhere you might need to actually pull it out.
"Hohoh!" Beeping his list against the license, Port gives you a look. "Interesting. You see, young man, I have taught generations of huntsmen and huntresses in these very halls, but I do not recall seeing you once, despite my acute memory."
Well, he isn't showing any signs of aggression, so... "You will have to ask Vice-Headmistress Glynda about that, I'm afraid. There was some... confusion... regarding my license, see, and she helped sort it out."
Pulling out your scroll, you confirm that you have a new document accessible to yourself, detailing what you need. It's nothing particularly big- two boarbatusks, two nevermores, two beowolves for what's listed as 'research purposes'. Oh, and you have a dozen messages from the girls you met at the OnlyFauns thing you organized, though you don't open them.
There are less awkward places to look at more naked pics.
"Hahaha! In that case, I shall let you be on your way, and hope for your victorious return! Perhaps you shall bring a few new stories to tell home with you, too, I know I certainly would."
Cinder watched on as that man proceeded to physically beat Grimm into obedience- no big surprise, given what his goal here was. Watts' access codes for the entirety of the CCT- which included the official mission board of Beacon Academy- was once again proving quite useful.
Flicking the feed on her scroll away, she switched to communications instead. "Are you ready, Mercury? Now's the time."
"Geez, you don't ask for little, do you? Any reason I don't just attack him from behind?"
Gritting her teeth at her insubordinate subordinate's irreverent answer, Cinder shifted her weight around a little, adjusting her arm. "The reason you don't is because you would die, or at least that's what my money would be on. Now be a good boy and get to it."
A shame she could not just send a few of the White Fang into the meatgrinder, but they would almost assuredly get themselves killed before fulfilling their mission. Not to mention Torchwick- the crook was useful, but not as useful as he could be if he wanted.
As it was, she would have to rely on her more... dependable... underlings.
You do, as so often, sense it through your bloodsense before you see it, a blood signature racing through the woods right towards yourself. Curiously enough, though its legs pump against the earth as it goes, it does not actually seem to have any blood below the thighs, making for a rather... unique look?
Hey, you're not discriminating or anything, whatever's wrong with those legs isn't any of your business.
That said, somewhat more importantly, the sound of grass and shrubbery being bent and torn echoes as they run, along with a rasping rustling as though from scales rubbing against wood and a low hiss filling the air, hard to make out without your superior senses.
When the guy (and it is a guy, the somewhat skinny form and movement pattern do make it clear enough) bursts out of the nearby forest, chosen by you as the target of your little expedition for its convenient location and high likelihood of having everything you need, his visage masked by a grey featureless cloth, it takes little time for the Grimm following him to approach.
A king taijitu, if Sarah is correct, one of the rarer types of Grimm common to this part of Vale. Big fucker, too, those mouths look big enough to swallow you in a single bite.
The dude that lured it to you (and that's totally what he did) doesn't waste a moment, running onwards, and unfortunately you aren't exactly in a position to go and hand his ass to him- he is too fast and the taijitu too close to where you parked your bullhead, and you refuse to let it be demolished and all the work you put into it be rendered to naught.
Readying Last Embrace, you get ready for a fight, the twin heads moving to encircle you with a malevolent hiss!
The heads of the giant, snake-like Grimm attempt to strike you, coming in from two directions at once, but you are faster, jumping backwards as the fang-filled mouths open up in an attempt to swallow you whole. Moments before they hit you, you move towards them, slamming both clawed hands down on them from above and triggering Last Embrace's piledrivers for good measure, slamming both of their mouths shut.
Nailed 'em right in the twin crests on the top of their heads, and as they hiss discordantly and wildly thrash about, pulling their heads away from your grasping hands, the damage is already done, perfectly identical holes torn into the black and white heads.
The taijitu tries to get creative after the literal hole you bored into its heads, one head attempting to distract you while the other goes to encircle you with its half of the two-colored body, but a quick combination of repositioning and a few punishing blows along the snake bodies as well as a quick punch bursting open one of the four eyes, you have the whole creature fucked up pretty nicely, one of the two halves entirely incapable of moving in one direction after you tore out a good chunk of it, the missing pieces quickly dissolving into the usual black mist.
That said, you don't actually finish this thing off. No, what you do is summon your bondage demons, the vaguely sexualized female minions spreading the chains they come with and summoning more length to them, wrapping up the taijitu as thoroughly as they need to.
Now all you require is a very big and very particularly formed cage to make sure it can't kill itself... unless...
Luckily enough, your minions consume much less aura through physical activity than through actively using the powers you give them, and so all you need to do to keep the taijitu in place is top up your already deployed bondage demons as you feel them up before you get back to your bullhead.
At your speeds, getting back to Vale takes, what, a few minutes at most, and so perfectly within your self-imposed time limit.
"Hey Weiss, want to see something cool?"
The girl, currently talking with Okita and dressed in her usual white outfit, has to have seen something in your eyes, seeing as she immediately puts on her guard. "What... exactly, would you mean by that?"
"Oh, just make sure to bring Myrtenaster."
"..."
"GABRIEL, I HATE YOU AND I WANT YOU TO KNOW IT!"
A fun fact, Grimm actually (very slowly) regenerate, so Weiss actually has the pleasure of fighting off a Taijitu with something approaching a full range of motion by the time your second (more leisurely) flight brings you and her back to the area.
"You can do it, Weiss! I believe in you!"
You are, of course, standing by to keep her from making any more permanent mistakes- should she even come close to aura break, you are instantly nuking this thing as hard as you can. Not that you think you'll need to- Weiss is actually doing pretty well for herself.
Summoning a wall of ice the white head crashes into with full force, she spins her dust vial thingy, a few strategically placed ion laser shots as she does so- Myrtenaster can, in fact, automatically fire momentarily when it hits the right position, a fact Weiss is making full use of- she follows up with a line of flames blazing along the forest floor and cooking the black half of the Grimm, the tip of her rapier leaving the ground as she turns in a pirouette, creating a glyph she steps on to jump backwards, vacating the position the white head bits at as it stretches over her ice barrier.
"I WILL NEVER GO ALONG WITH ANYTHING YOU SAY EVER AGAIN!"
Aww, she's learning.
Incidentally, you later load up the Grimm you caught, finishing up Professor Port's order once you console a pouty Weiss and bring her back, telling her all about how you're being the heroic huntsman procuring live Grimm for Port to murder in front of his students.
Said professor is being his usual self, too, laughing heartily when you bring the cages full of heavily restrained Grimm, the story of the king taijitu getting a few respect points out of him while you're at it.
All in a good day's work. Yuck, as if; a good night's work, thank you very much.
Taiyang, or just Tai as he insists now, usually doesn't even bother coming to Vale, being perfectly happy with staying in Patch, the town situated on a little island some ways off the coast from the capital, but even so, it isn't like it's impossible to get him to visit when something sufficiently important comes up.
Something important such as you threatening to show Ruby porn if he doesn't come hang out with you, though you make a point to keep it all light-hearted enough he knows it's just a joke.
You think.
Anyways, here you are, making your way through Vale's shopping district and idly chatting with Tai. "I've just been trying to give them all the space they need, but I am kinda new to the whole dad thing, you get what I mean. Any tips?"
"You've honestly been doing everything right, I'd imagine," the blonde man says, both of you blithely ignoring the wide range of women and girls (and men) ogling you as you window shop a little. "I'm not exactly an expert on adopted kids, mind you, and I don't think either of them will ever see you as a dad they would have if you found them when they were half their age, but I think you could become family for them. Just give them opportunities to get to know you and go from there, really."
"Thanks for the advice either way," you nod at him. "Now I just have to hope I won't spoil my own kids rotten when they're born... or at least that my wives are ready to take over everything that doesn't involve being an overly doting dad. Oh, do you think Yang would like that keychain?"
Formed like a motorcycle, you're convinced Tai's eldest would love it. He, on the other hand, just sighs and pats your shoulder, almost visibly increasing the amount of gay fanfics being written over the next few days as the onlookers go crazy. "I'm sure she would, we can paint it yellow to fit her tastes, too. But we are going to talk a bit about how to raise your kids, 'kay?"
"Okay, so you never, ever 'just' spoil your kids. Let them know you're doing it because you love them, they're special and they deserve it, but you also have to teach them they aren't the only ones. You wouldn't believe just how many little 'karen' kids I have to deal with at Signal." Tai, for all that he is pulling this gentle dad routine, prefers coffee over tea, hence you're sitting at a table in one of the many little cafes of Vale as he dispenses some fatherly wisdom.
"Gotcha, remind them others will think they deserve to be treated like people, too. I never would've thought of that one myself," you toast towards him with your own cup of coffee. You don't actually like the stuff, but hey, you'll just play along.
"A lot of this stuff is just common sense, I know. It's really more a matter of actually paying attention to and engaging your kids once they're born. Many bad parents I've seen over the years aren't really bad people or anything- they just failed to connect to their kids on a level they could understand. Or their kids were just in puberty." Chuckling, Tai unpacks the complementary cookie you get with the drinks in this place. "I could tell you stories, about both Yang and Ruby..."
You just lean forwards, an eager smirk on your face. "Oh, I'm all ears."
Truth be told, you're fairly certain Ruby could have just done this by herself in a fraction of the time this is taking, or even just had all the school supplies you're getting delivered... but on the other hand, she really wanted to do this together with you, to the point she actually compiled a list of 'arguments' she tried to read to you to convince you that this was the best option.
Ruby probably didn't expect you to agree without a second thought as soon as she asked, honestly.
Of course, Weiss just had to overhear that whole conversation, and so it took just two minutes for a whirlwind of white hair to force a hand-written list of school supplies onto Ruby, along with a series of recommended stores in Vale taken fresh out of the CCT.
You'd just chuckled and given her a kiss on the forehead to stop her at that point.
Back on topic, Ruby is clinging to your arm as you go along, seeking bodily contact for some reason. Not that you mind, you just return her affectionate cuddling.
Ruby is pretty cute more often than not.
"This is really nice," is what she sighs as the two of you get to the bookstore containing everything she needs to get her very own set of Beacon learning material. "We should go out like this more often."
"Oh? Are you my cute little girlfriend, then?" You can't help but tease her, Ruby going red immediately.
"So what if I am?"
Grinning at the shorter girl pouting at you with a nice shade of red on more than just the tip of her hair, you give her a playful shrug. "If you are, you shall just have to join the dreaded cuddlepile that is my relationships," you tell her almost casually.
"Well, good! Then I will!" Throwing her little tantrum, Ruby looks away from you with crossed arms.
"Your fluff shall become part of our fluff, and all your cute sweetness shall enrich our collective flavour. All shall be assimilated into The Pile."
"Okay, now I'm scared." Laughing, you just physically pick Ruby up, bringing her face into kissing range.
"Aww, guess I'll just have to make you feel better, huh? I know something that'll cheer you right up..." And with that, you pepper the top of her head with kisses, a keening whine coming from her.
"Not in public! Gabriel, no!" Her heart isn't really in it, though, so you just smile at her and slide a hand over just a tad, unabashedly groping her butt.
"My bad, is this better?" And thus, you turn right around and carry Ruby out of the bookstore, to find a good patisserie. Can't be that hard to find a place actually selling strawberry treats in Vale; while you could just summon up a sweets fairy, you want to do something different for Ruby.
Those school supplies will just have to wait for another time.
"Actually, come to think of it, how's that fairy I gave you doing?" You could just find out by thinking really hard for a moment, but you want to tease Ruby, dammit.
"Creamy is doing great! I made her a little bed next to Zwei's."
Adorable. "Did you know, actually, that those fairies can make a lot of very interesting stuff so long as it's sweet?" At Ruby's expectant look, you pull her towards you so you can whisper into her ear. "Stuff like strawberry-flavored lube..."
Ruby's blush reaches her throat. You have won.
"I am just... worried, about not living up to her expectations, or that she might put distance between us-"
Pyrrha is... being the same as usual, really. When she isn't busy being driven by the flow and cuddling up to you, she is way too concerned about how people may see or react to her, getting it into her head her reputation makes it impossible to form 'real' relationships with others.
Not that she's necessarily wrong; it's just that things work a little differently in your mansion.
"Weiss is the heiress of the SDC, I'm sure she's got either the same or a similar issue," you interrupt Pyrrha before she can talk herself out of actually talking to your white-haired lover. "Remember how she reacted to seeing you naked?"
Pyrrha doesn't even blush in response. "Yes, but she was still thinking of me more as the Invincible Girl than just... Pyrrha. Do you think there is anything I could do?"
"Hello, Weiss."
"Oh, hello Pyrrha."
As it happens, you actually do have a tea room, as in, a room specifically meant to sit down and enjoy drinking tea in, with a very nice view of the garden. Even if there are a few holes in the otherwise fairly dense forestry you have growing in your literal backyard.
Weiss still immediately homed in on it as soon as she found out it exists. Apparently, she's all for things like this- according to her, all the mansion lacks now is a cake butler to be complete. A butler whose job's sole purpose is bringing her cake.
Also her favourite butler back in the Schnee family home, funnily enough.
"I... wanted to talk to you about something, but I didn't want to disturb you. Is now a good time?" Pyrrha, being surprisingly shy when it comes to people, is hesitant when she asks, but the little coaching you gave her obviously worked out.
"Of course, I absolutely would not mind. What is it?"
"I just..." Pyrrha sighs. "Let me be blunt, I am worried about the way people see me."
Sitting down next to Weiss and being poured a cup of tea herself by the diamond maid dutifully maintained by her, Pyrrha brings the tea to her nose, taking in its scent before taking a sip. "People, when they see me, just see the 'Invincible Girl'. I do not mind being famous as such, but I just... I have very few genuine friends, anyone to look beyond my fame and see me for who I am. I have noticed the way you look at me, and... I wanted to ask if... If you would like to be my friend."
A bit of stunned silence follows, Weiss working through what she's being told, as both girls drink a bit of tea to buy time. "I had no idea it bothered you this much," Weiss eventually says, looking out the window, "but now that you said it, I can see how it would affect you. Truth be told, I have... had, much the same issue. The Schnee name does carry some weight with itself."
Giving off a wistful smile, she turns towards Pyrrha. "I used to just close myself off from everyone that might try to manipulate me, as everyone tried to do so. In fact, the reason I always used to look up at y- at the Invincible Girl was that I wanted to be strong, personally strong enough nobody could hurt me with those petty schemes and plots that were so, so common in Atlas 'high' society. But having seen you how you are, if even just a bit? Yes, I would very much like to be your friend, Pyrrha."
"Thank you." You can't see it perfectly from this angle, but you think there might be a few tears in Pyrrha's eyes. "Now, um... What shall we talk about? I've never had a friend before, so..."
"I have only one person I would really call a friend, and she is not exactly a big talker."
"... How about Gabriel? What would he count as? Not exactly a friend, more..."
"... More a lover, yes. We did talk about how you slept with him. In fact, I distinctly recall the way we first met, Pyrrha."
With a blush on her face and yet smiling delicately, Pyrrha takes another sip of tea. "How about yourself? Would he be a lover to you, too, or would he..."
"We... may or may not have had... extended bodily contact, yes. You understand, as a young lady I cannot be caught dead admitting to anything, but-"
"Oh please, you have to tell me everything!"
Well, that went well. And thus, a literal shadow on the wall oozes out of the room. Good thing, everything worked out nicely.