AN:
I initially intended to post this a week after the chapter that preceded it, but I got caught up in school, which I recently cut myself out of because I was heavily dissatisfied with how it was turning out.
The good news?
The rest of the epilogue (the 'take it or leave it' I mentioned) is almost done. I have 4 written out and ready to go, and only one or two after that I need to put together.
Y'all ain't ready.
But like I said: This here is the end of what is what is definitively 'canon.' What came after it I will leave it up to you - take it or leave it. It was intentionally designed to work with this, and can be considered 'canon' if you wish, but if you wish not, you can leave it, and just call it the first 'What if.'
Nevertheless, once the Take It Or Leave It is finished and posted, this story will be marked as complete, it's done, finito, so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen goodbye.
The 'What Ifs' will be posted on this main story after that, but they have no set schedule, and have lower priority to the other stories I'm working on (Which include a Destiny, Avatar, and Overlord story, of which I can say for sure I feel a need to do the lattermost as, like I said, it's the last of the 'great experiments' before I work on something completely original.
To explain that: Everything I've published across FFN, from this profile to another much older one from a much younger, cringier me (whose content may or may not be on Library of the Damned they're so evidently written by a fourteen year old), has been to practice and improve my skill (such as it is) as a writer yes, but also to experiment with original concepts from a setting I've been crafting for a long time. I've thus far written a Mass Effect story that experimented with stripping the fantasy elements from this setting and left only the sci-fi ones (the less said about that the better), I've written a Naruto story here [that needs to be finished] that worked primarily to experiment with my ideas regarding adding science and scientific thought to superpowers (without the 'status quo is God' trope so many superhero settings and their powers are subjected to), and this RWBY story became a vehicle for playing with my magic system.
I've got one more idea, one more concept that I need to play with and get a lot of experience with, as it's essential to... Well, a very, very big event in my original setting, and as such I need to make sure I've ironed out all the kinks and have experience even writing it, choosing what words to use, what imagery to make, all of that, in the first place. That's going to be the Overlord story, tentatively titled 'The Third Law.'
The Destiny/Avatar ones I mentioned came from some thought experiments and spitballs I decided to just start playing with, and see where they went. Whether or not I actually do anything with them is up in the air, but I've written some 31K words for Destiny and some 13K words for Avatar, and I like what I see so far, so we'll see.
But, that's later.
Now, we finish the 'canon' epilogue, the 'Rorschach drops his journal in the mail and everything is left up to the imagination,' before moving to the 'Part 2,' 'Take it or Leave it,' 'Doomsday Clock/HBO' half.
Enjoy:
Epilogue
-For the Record-
The War of the White Witch was a lie.
Oh, it happened, of that we have endless accounts, but rather the context behind it is what has been altered from reality.
The story we have been told was that there existed a 'Queen' Grimm who functioned similar to the queens of various insect queens - in that she controlled the Grimm as an aggregate, and has unwittingly been building up power for all of Human history. She finally made her great play in what became the Fall of Beacon, and - whether you believe them to be aliens or simply Hidden Kingdoms aside - alongside the chaos incited by the multiple wars with the Terrans, unleashed a swath of chaos and destruction across the entire planet, very, very nearly resulting in the conditions necessary for Human extinction. But, thanks to the investigations of the now-Headmaster of Beacon Academy, one Professor Ozma, under the coordination of James Ironwood and alongside assistance from teams RWBY and JNPR, they were able to locate this queen - this 'Salem' - and kill her, resulting in a systemic decrease in Grimm reproduction and some esoteric magical effect whose explanation eludes even top researchers to this day, nearly a decade hence.
But that story isn't the truth.
It couldn't be further from it.
My name is Rosemary Ashmore - photojournalist, author of the 'Day of Remnant' website and its associated articles. Just a few months ago I was graciously allowed by the Vale Armed Forces to take part in documenting their recapture of Mountain Glenn, and while there I actually bore witness to the final battle between RWBY, JNPR, and Adam Taurus.
Once again: The story being told is that Weiss Schnee had intercepted communications from the White Fang, learning of their intention to launch a decapitation strike - led by Taurus himself - on Vale, through Mountain Glenn. She rallied her team and her old allies, JNPR, to head this off at the pass, and end the war if possible, by the capture of Adam Taurus. Through a titanic and climactic battle, they defeated the terrorist-turned-revolutionary, and after a concurrent massive counter-offensive by Haven Headmaster Geld Dorn, the White Fang had lost enough steam and enough morale that defeat and capitulation are now matters only of time - each day that has passed since those two simultaneous battles has seen Kingdom forces push the Fang ever closer to Animafauna and Menagerie. Ever closer to their defeat.
But this, too, is a lie - a lie I discovered when I noticed the inaccuracies to local bullhead and shuttlecraft flight plans and, after following RWBY and JNPR's shuttles and witnessing their battle against Taurus, I saw something that would change my life - and shed light on a conspiracy being enforced the world over by people we so hold up as heroes.
Because RWBY and JNPR soundly lost their battle against Adam Taurus. You will find the video evidence in linked articles on my website, but in brief: The man had used an individual with Silver Eyes - a rare mutation that allows a Huntsman or Huntress a second semblance, that gives them the ability to nullify auras and semblances, and smite Grimm. This was his Lieutenant, the eponymous Null. Null - as his painfully obvious name implies - nullified the powers of RWBY and JNPR, and together alongside Taurus, the two handily tore their way through both teams, leaving many nearly dead.
But how, then, did they turn things around and win in the end?
Simple:
They didn't.
During my witnessing of this battle - as the video and photo evidence I will attach here in these articles, as well as host directly on my website, will attest - I beheld the first of many great secrets that changed my very perception of the world.
I beheld that the man so many of us would know as Goud Etiolate was alive.
And it was he who defeated Adam Taurus - he who was responsible both for the very object that led to Hammerfall getting its name, and the events thereafter by attacking both the Kingdom and White Fang forces at Mistral.
Goud Etiolate was an instrumental - was the instrumental - player in almost every single historically significant event that led to the state of the world today, and beginning with the accounts of his adventures - in his own words - as well as testimonies from those who knew him personally during this time, I will shed light on the lies told to us by so many we've come to trust, and bring the truth to the front.
I give to you the greatest evidence to the truth of the phrase: The Pen Is Mightier Than The Sword.
I Am The End
-For the Record-
"Well... Hello there!" Drawled a deep, rumbly southern accented voice, with a light inflection on it so as to try and sound somewhat positive, or even friendly, as a large figure slowly backed away from the camera and revealed himself to be a lean male, of seventeen to nineteen years. The man sat down on a chair that looked like it had been ripped out of an airplane, and clapped his hands on his lap.
"So... Uh... I guess I'll call this... 'For the Record'... Aaaaaaas you can tell..." The man spoke, his eyes wide and shining with equal parts terror, hysteria, and disbelief. "I'm alive!" The cackling of a fire and the warm orange light bathed his features as the fire in front of him grew in size, though the man seemed unconcerned, likely because he had set the fire himself. "But, you're watching this. Probably not surprising, and all that... So, let me explain.
"I'm... Nebo Aldric. I know, I know." He cut himself off, waving his hand and nodding a few times. "Really odd name for some white kid from Connecticut, but my Ma was bible-belt, born and raised, and the fat man..." He paused, a pensive, almost remorseful look flashing across his face as he frowned, before he forced himself to continue. "My dad... Sorry, inside joke. My dad was a big softy with a bigger beer belly. She wanted a bible name, and, lucky me, I got Nebo. Short for Nebuchadnezzar... I think. My buddies just call me Aldric... Or Morpheus, if they're feeling particularly vindictive, but I digress." He shook his head again, cleared his throat, and sighed deeply.
"I am a survivor of International Flight, Six Three Six. Unfortunately, I have reason to believe, at the moment, that I may be the only survivor, as the plane's been smoldering since high noon and no one else has come stumbling over here." He said, indicating the dark night sky that surrounded him.
"Now... I woke up about... Eight or nine hours ago. Had to shinny down a friggin' tree to safety, and then this thing..." He patted the chair he sat upon. "This magical, evil fucking thing, tried to kill me right after it finished saving me. After I woke up, I came to the crash sight, but everyone I found was dead..." He paused, "yeah... Dead." He nodded to himself, preceding another long sigh. "I picked up the emergency supplies from the pilot's cabin... Got the radio, some flares, all that jazz. I tried the radio, and though it turns on, I just got snake city. Nothin' but hisssssss." He drawled out.
"So... Uh, I currently have no way to charge the radio's battery, so I'm only going to turn it on twice a day - once at high noon, once before I turn in for the night. But, the fuselage of the plane is... Mostly intact... Save for a few..." He waved to his front, indicating a plane that wasn't in view of the camera. "Obvious exceptions. Here."
Aldric leaned forward and picked up the camera, turning it around to face the plane, which was barely lit up by the man's campfire. There were multiple large gashes ripped out of it, both wings and the tail were gone, and it was tipped over at a light angle to the ground.
"See what I mean? So..." He placed the camera back on the ground and turned it to face him, before he leaned back, and wiped his dark brown hair back behind his ear. "Going to take inventory tomorrow..." He sighed, "I'll feel real bad about it - make no mistake about it - but it's life or death, right now... So I can't think of it as looting the dead, but merely taking what I need to survive. My first order of business is to get all of the luggage and put it in a central location. Hopefully I can sort through all of it and get some kind of system going before nightfall tomorrow.
"Any food, water, medicine, power sources, things of that nature, I'm going to separate from the clothes. I think I remember something about planes having emergency transponders, so hopefully I've got GPS satellites looking for me... But I have to prepare for the worst." He explained, "so, after I finish taking inventory, my next order of business will be getting rid of the bodies. I'm in the middle of what I think to be some kind of rainforest, so it's pretty hot and humid, here. I doubt I'd have more than a week before the bodies start smelling, and if I don't do something before then, I'd have to evacuate this area, and forgo the shelter the fuselage provides." He leaned back into the chair and groaned, before he lifted up his arms and inspected them.
"Going to have to check these injuries of mine, too. So far they haven't been bad, but if they go untreated, the little things will stack up quick." Aldric chuckled mirthlessly, his deep voice overwhelming the crackling of the fire. "Who knows? Might've been a surgeon onboard, I'll be able to raid his go-bag. Probably just have to settle for the next best thing... Air marshal. Get his gun, run out of food, start hunting. Thank you... Grandpa Charles - uh." The teen sighed again. "I'll leave it at that, for now. 'Till next time." He leaned forward and his hand covered the camera's lens, before the video cut out.
-For the Record-
"Alright... For the Record, Day... Three." The video picked up as the first one had, with Aldric backing away from the camera after making sure it was stabilized, and collapsing into his increasingly well-worn airline seat. "So..." He picked up a clipboard, and gave the camera a peek and a sly grin, before he tapped it twice with a marker. "That way I don't have to rely on tech." He looked back down and cleared his throat, "thirty two, thirty ounce water bottles... Which goes out to about twenty eight liters. Three dozen cans of various soft drinks and juices... Three dozen salvageable bottles of alcohol -" He peeked back up to the camera, "- uh, jesus, these people drink -" He looked back down, "sixty salvageable bags of various, small airline snacks, including pretzels, peanuts, and other assorted dry goods... Fifteen first class meals of varying types, including chicken, bargain-brand steak, etcetera...
"A cubic ass load of pants, shirts, and socks in my size, and an even bigger number of clothes not in my size -" He looked up again, "- there had to be some kind of pornstar on this plane, by the way. I found this monstrosity, and a few others like it... I figure, if I need a good amount of smoke for a signal fire, I'll light those up." Aldric picked a bra whose cup size was almost as big as his head, and displayed it for the camera. "And no, there weren't any lardballs in there, in case that's the explanation you're thinking up. And yes, actually, Aldric, the rugged survivor, is single. So when I get back home, ladies..." He couldn't keep a straight face, and broke down into laughter, before tossing the bra away.
"Damn it... I rehearsed that one three times. Anyways, four pairs of monstrous bras... A literal bag of condoms, that I actually think came from one of the stewardesses, given where I found it - IF airlines, might wanna start checking these things." He chuckled, "more fuel for a signal fire. Anyways, tech. Got about... Sixteen laptops, two macbooks, a few apple laptops, fifty two cell phones - of which, thirty are of the same brand as mine. Android all the way." He said, giving the camera another sly look, "damn thing survived a plane crash, I don't think I'll ever sell it... And yes... Uh... People who make androids, I am open to bribes, if you want to give me free phones for the rest of my life." He looked back down to his list, the orange light of the fire casting him in a warm glow, and catching the clipboard, drawing his chest into deep shadows.
"Got one and a half dozen tablets, all of which are of similar models to mine, though only half of them have removable storage. Chargers for all of these things, though I have no source of power at the moment, gonna have to work something out, there... One hand-cranked radio, for some reason... A bunch of DVD's I doubt I'll get use out of... A lot of books and flash drives, the latter of which I'm willing to bet has the Bra's casting footage on it." He looked up and pointed past the camera, as if there were people there listening to him. "Ten bucks a pop! Who's interested? Anyone? Ah..." He waved them all away, "anyways...
"Not all of these have removable batteries, but I think I've got enough supplies here to rig up some kind of charger... Kids! Stay in school, take all the science and engineering classes. Joe, fuck your Marching Band, shop class is helping me out. Anyways, got the radio, and maps from the captain's cabin. Our flight path took us out to sea, so I may be on some island, somewhere. Joy..." Aldric groaned, "got a few first aid kits, and various bottles of pills, ranging from actual, literal opiates - including one bottle of oxycodone! There's a goddamn druggy on this plane, guys! - to various allergy and pain meds... Oh! Damn, I almost forgot...
"Haven't found the sky martial, yet, but boy did I find someone just as good." He put down the clipboard and reached to the side of his chair. "So, I dunno what this crazy bastard was hoping to do... Maybe he wasn't going to do anything, but Jesus, this is a big knife." He pulled up a knife, wrapped tightly in a leather sheathe. "The sheathe says Gerber... So I guess it's expensive." He unsheathed the blade and inspected it in front of the camera. "Two serrated edges, a pretty damn sharp point... Fuck, this guy was ready to kill people." He shook his head, and sheathed the blade before setting it down.
"So, here's the deal. If I ration everything out, I can reasonably expect to survive... A month, out here on my own. Maybe a bit longer if I cut back to the bare essentials. But that's not taking into consideration possible medical emergencies, the appearance of other survivors, rain, and things of that nature. So, I should say about two weeks to be safe. Two weeks of supplies before I'm in dire trouble.
"So... After I figure out how I'm going to bury everyone, my first goal will be to get myself first a good place to hunt for food and replenish my water supply. I'm also thinking that the reason the radio isn't working is because of all of the trees around me... So here in a few days I'm going to gear up and try and hike out, find some higher ground and try it there. In a perfect world, it'll work, but just in case it doesn't, that's why I've got all these efforts as a fallback plan... Aaaand a pill-bottle full of oxycodone." He sighed, briefly breaking eye contact with the camera. "I... Really hope I don't have to use that oxycodone.
"But I digress, I'll also be bringing the flare gun with me, just in case I see any planes or helicopters fly by during my hike. So... 'Till then, I need to find, or improvise, a shovel. Because I really don't want to give up the fuselage. It's the biggest, most recognizable thing here, and burning it like a funeral pyre would just be accepting defeat. So... 'Till..." He paused, and looked past the camera a moment, as the sound of the fire filled the camera. "The fuck? Did you hear that?" He turned down to the camera, "sounded like... Twigs, or... No, it was louder than that. Sounded like branches breaking... God, I hope there aren't any bears around here. I don't want to test out my Dicaprio impression." He reached forward and cut off the camera.
-For the Record-
The video opened up in broad daylight, a severely injured Aldric sitting center-frame, as he tightly wrapped his chest in bandages, which were already growing red from blood. To his right was a bottle of orange juice, and his left, a partially scorched flare gun.
"Got attacked yesterday by... Some kind of big, enormous wolf-bear-thing." He said, groaning with pain as he pulled the bandages tighter, and continued wrapping his torso. "Heh... ManBearPig..." He muttered in an exaggerated tone and a shaky voice, before shaking his head. "I'm starting to wonder if... I mean, it sounds crazy, but there is literally no precedent on earth for an animal like that. God didn't play mix and match with his spare parts but once, and that was the platypus. So... Is it really crazy to think I might be... Somewhere else? But... That's crazy, right? We never went near the Bermuda Triangle, did we? We went south, had a layover somewhere in South America. Damn it, where's Bermuda?" He asked himself, turning his pained gaze from the camera, to off-frame.
"Anyways, it was clearly predatory... I think it evolved to take heavy ass hits - it had some kind of exoskeleton covering bits of its body, and its entire head. I think I'll call it a Cubone." He muttered, tying off the tightly wrapped bandages as he did so. "I dunno how many, but I know it broke a few ribs, and -" He twisted his torso and displayed the bandaged wounds on his side and arm. "- did a number on my outside... But, think of it this way - now my settlement will only get bigger. I've got this BS on tape, I'm not walking away with anything less than five million dollars... And probably an attractive woman on my arms. Ladies like scars, right? Fuck." He sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "This damn chair... Second time it saved my life, now. I think it's magic." He drawled, sarcastically. "Has to be. No other explanation, like, a string of convenient occurrences, or anything like that." The pale-skinned survivor chuckled.
The next five minutes of footage were nothing but him sitting in the chair to the backdrop of the deep, green forest and the plane wreckage. He simply breathed in and out, leaning his head against the headrest on his chair. Eventually, he cursed. "I'm going to have to burn the fuselage." He said, "I am in no way, shape, or form, fit to move all of those corpses anymore. I mean, maybe, I can, if I can repurpose the meal cart and the drink cart into some kind of corpse trolley, but that's a big if." He said, reaching down and grabbing his orange juice. "I have to dedicate to an idea now... Do I move the corpses and try to shore up the fuselage into some kind of... Hut? In so doing, risking opening my wounds back up or possibly disturbing my broken ribs... Or do I loot everything left of value, burn the thing to kingdom come, and take my chances roughing it in the woods, with only makeshift shelters to keep my safe from the Cubone?" He opened up the OJ and took a long, deep swig.
"God, I love orange juice." He muttered. "Okay... So, the fuselage is my best bet for a defensible, sturdy shelter... But there are tons of structural weaknesses in the form of the windows, the two massive holes where the wings used to be, and the whole freakin' tail section is gone. If I dedicate to moving the bodies, I would then too have to dedicate to sealing the place up, and that would take a lot of scrap metal, wood, and other such stuff, and I've only got a knife, not an..." He paused, and with a frown, turned his head back to the plane. "Okay, there may be a fire axe of some sort in there... But that still doesn't preclude the fact that I'm no lumberjack... So if I move the corpses, I'd need to find a place to sleep in there that was safe and moderately hidden from the Cubone...
"So, the overhead carriers, and the captain's cabin. I can stuff myself, and hide in, both of those. The overhead carriers would be less comfortable, but I'd be completely hidden from the wolf-bears. The captain's cabin would be better on a comfort level, but the windshield on the plane was shattered on impact, so a determined, or young, Cubone could get in there - and this is all assuming my injuries don't get infected, and I even find something to seal the fuselage with. I didn't necessarily look for it, but I doubt there's any rope, or bungee cords I could use to bind wood or scrap to the thing. Maybe some cables, and the emergency slide thing..." Aldric finished the orange juice, and tossed away the bottle. "Hm..." He leaned his head back on his magic chair. "I guess it's clear I pretty much have to clear that thing out and fortify it." He added, with a sidewards glance to the camera, and a conspiratorially raised eyebrow. "I mean, the alternative is pulling a Katniss Everdeen and tying myself to a tree every night, and I wouldn't put it past Cubone to climb trees." He sighed, burying his head in his hands and digging his fingers into his thick, unkempt hair.
"Going to have to take a few pain pills... No, not the oxycodone." He added, with a brief, assuring glance upward, before going right back to resting his head in his hand. "I can't help but think Cubone looked familiar, though. Which is odd, because I know I've never seen those things in history or wildlife books, before. Kind of looks like something out of a bad anime, but I digress, I'm not here to figure out the science behind it. I need to heal up, so I can kill it." Still resting on his hand, his head turned to the left of the camera, "I wonder how long all of my batteries will last..." He turned his resting head back to the camera. "Where do airplanes hold their fuel? I know this one's probably out by now, but given that it didn't explode... Who knows? Maybe I can get that freakin' thing to turn on, charge that way." He chuckled mirthlessly.
Another few minutes passed by in silence, the survivor staring off into space, his eyes glossed over in thought. Finally, Aldric lifted his head slowly. "Okay. Gotta move the corpses. As much as I'd rather bury them, it makes more sense to burn them. I apologize for anyone whose religion I'm mucking by doing this, but think of it this way: It wasn't their choice, it was mine. If their god wants to fight about it, I'll explain it to him myself. So... I'm going to try and find the sky marshal while I'm doing this... Pray he wasn't among the folks who flew out of the plane..." He paused. "My dad wasn't in the plane. It's been days." He frowned, but shook his head after a moment.
"'Till next time." He reached forward, and the video cut out.
-For the Record-
The video opened up with a shaky shot of Aldric's face, the camera bobbing up and down as the sound of feet stepping on metal. "Day... Er... Four, or five. Day five. So, this morning I decided to try and step up on the airplane to try and get a better signal, and..." He turned the camera around, revealing a sweeping shot of the treetops surrounding the crash sight, and as he raised it, way off in the distance, a stone structure came into view. Due to the extreme distance, it looked small, but it was clearly man-made and not some convenient natural occurrence. "You see that? That's got to be some kind of... I hesitate to say 'castle', but it's some kind of stone structure, and if I can see that thing from here, it's gotta be big. Like, castle big. And if that's there, that means that people lived here at some point, if they aren't still." He said, before he set down the camera, and walked onto frame, his dark clothing billowing in a light breeze, and the stone structure still barely visible to his left.
"And I say 'at some point', because if they were... Say, some kind of indigenous tribal culture, they would have seen this crash and they would have come to investigate days ago. But what I'm thinking, is that if I'm going to get a signal on this thing -" He pulled out the radio, "- it's going to be there." He indicated behind him with his thumb. "It's close enough that I can trek back and forth, it's tall enough that I might be able to get a signal without having to fight these mountains and plateaus. The problem, is Cubone. He took yesterday off, but I am not going to make the mistake of thinking that thing is dead, so if I make this trek, there's going to be some kind of confrontation between me and it. It'll hunt me, and I'm no hunter... So... If I want to get there, I first have to find a way to kill the Cubone, so I can move on in relative safety.
"Buuuut where there's one of those things, there's got to be more than one, and I don't know if they have a pack mentality and will come back with fifty of them, or if they're like bears and they just do their own thing on their own time. All I do know is that I pissed that thing off, it is still alive, and it's going to try and kill me." He sat down cross-legged, "but I'm kind of in a catch twenty-two at the moment. I'm nowhere near good enough to go full Schwarzenegger and start booby-trapping the forest to kingdom come. So if I want to get to the castle, I'll have to kill it. But if I want to kill it, I need to fight it on neutral grounds - ala, the fucking castle." He leaned back on his bandaged arms, wincing slightly before he put more pressure on his uninjured hand. "And I'm all kinds of hurt and dead, at the moment. So my best bet would be to trap that thing first, and then just stab the hell out of it from a safe position. Maybe drop on it with my axe." He looked over the edge of the plane.
"I've only got two flares left, and there wasn't a sky martial on the plane, so I don't have a gun... Okay, what I need is a weapon, and that means I've got to prepare. I've got a knife and an axe, and I can salvage some cables or some rope from the plane if I want to try and make a bow. Some spears might be good too, but probably just for defensive purposes. I digress." The dark-haired survivor turned on his rear, and pointed out to the stone structure. "That's my new goal. I'll leave a note here, next to the magic chair and the manifest, just in case a rescue team shows up.
"'Till next time."
-For the Record-
The video opened up with the sight of the survivor sitting in his chair, a pile of sticks on one side of him, and a clearly improvised bow leaned up against it. One half of him was cast in bright orange light by a fire off-screen, and the other half was set in deep shadow.
"So, day five, still. I've been thinking about this trip. I only popped one stitch today, and that was just doing some walking about. It's obviously not safe to try and do a multi-day thing, walk a few hours, sleep, repeat, due to Cubone's omnipresence... But I'm also not in any current state to do any intense, long-distance slash low-time hiking." He lifted up one of his legs and tapped on his calf, "legs aren't used to it. My calves are starting to swell up a bit. So the question is, how do I cross a long distance, in little time, without a major strain on my body and my injuries? If I had a mountain bike, this would be a non-issue, despite my inexperience." He drawled on, whittling away at the sticks with his large knife, making sharp, pointed ends.
"And as cool as it would be, there are a plethora of problems preventing my from trying to turn the plane on and just smash my way over there, not the least of which being my lack of a pilot's license." He pointed at the camera with his knife, "the settlement's final value is only going up, IF Airlines. In addition to my five million, I'll want a car, and some kind of golden ticket so I never have to pay for airline tickets ever again." He paused, before he tapped on the headrest of his chair. "And this chair. I love this chair. I want this specific chair." He added, with a large grin and a light chuckle.
"Anyways...So far as I can tell, unless something wants to drop the hell out of the sky, I think my only option is to just hoof it. So... Once I've got these arrows done, and I've gotten at least halfway decent with shooting and aiming this thing, I'll pack some water, food, and ammo, and start the hike early in the morning. Maybe, seven or eight hours after dark." He said, as he inspected his arrow. "And I'm not even sure these arrows will be effective against it... So assume a moment that my only effective weapons are the professionally made ones. My knife, and my axe. I think of the two, the axe may be the most effective." Said the survivor, tossing the newly made arrow to his right, and picking up a new one before he began carving it.
"See, I paid attention in history class. Swords may be more known, but the axes had an advantage in weight. You get that thing swinging, and all of the weight is on one end, meaning when it hits, all of that weight, all of that speed, all of it is focused on the hunk of metal at the end of the fulcrum - the haft. The result is a weapon that could pierce plate armor just as easily as it could pierce leather or anything else. Better yet? You break it? It doesn't just shatter into a million pieces - it still functions as an effective bludgeon." He explained, "now, I'll go ahead and admit, I was a part of the katana crowd until I was fifteen, before I did my homework and decided regular ol' longswords were better. And while I may be a bigger fan of swords, I know when and where to admit defeat, and this thing, it's when and where. Best part is that it's got the axe side, and the pick-head, so it serves a double function.
"So, point is, if this bow doesn't work, I've still got the axe. And if that doesn't work, I'll probably not be long for this world, but I'll still have the knife, too, and that has the advantage in speed." He pointed the half-finished arrow at the camera, "hear that, Cubone? You might bigger than me, but by god, I'm craftier. I will not lose this fight, I will get to that castle back there... And come hell or high water, Aldric's going home.
"'Till next time." He reached forward and switched off the camera.
-For the Record-
"Day seven." Came the voice of the survivor, as the video opened up with the familiar view of the magic chair seated in front of the thick woods. It was very early in the morning, to the point that the sky was still dark from the night previous, and Aldric's breath still fogged up the air. Aldric walked onto frame, a large backpack hanging from his back, a new pair of glasses resting on his nose, a bow strung over his shoulders, a knife strapped to his hip, and a pick-head fire axe secured in the hangar loop of the backpack. "Spent the last two days resting up and testing out my bow. It shoots pretty good, and I land an average of seven out of every ten shots I fire, from a distance of about thirty feet. The arrows are sturdy, and sharp enough that they sink far enough into the trees that I'm feeling more confident in their ability to shoot Cubone dead." He explained, as he reached up above his left shoulder and flicked at one of the arrows he had sticking out of the backpack.
"I've got food and water packed for five days, and some medical supplies should I need it... And the oxycodone should I need it." The dark-haired survivor said, as he pulled a rubber band off of his wrist, and used it to bind his hair into a loose pony-tail. "Oh yeah, and in case you're wondering, I looted some of the luggage and found a few pairs of glasses. They all aren't my prescription, but I was able to improvise a pair that doesn't suck that bad, so now I'm not functionally blind anymore." He explained, as he pushed up the new pair of glasses that rested on the ridge of his nose.
"Now, my plan is to get to the castle, find its highest point, and try out my radio. If, on the off chance that a rescue chopper lands here, I left a note next to the manifest, explaining who I am and where I went, and I've got the flare gun, so I'll likely see or hear them, and they'll see or hear it... Hopefully it doesn't rain." He explained, as he leaned over and tapped on his chair, the sound of a hand slapping paper filled the air for a moment. "Hopefully... If all goes to plan, Cubone will follow me to this castle, and we'll have a neutral grounds in which to fight. It's got the strength and speed advantage, but I'm hoping I can find a place to get a height advantage on it, so I can drop down and chop its neck off with the axe, or stab the crap out of it with the knife... Or, you know, shoot it with the bow, provided it stands up to combat." He took a few steps forward, picked up the camera, and began walking towards the woods.
"I'm taking a few phones and a tablet along with me so I've got spare recording devices... Though, uh, you know, in case I survive, or take some bad hits, not mine. So if they break, and all. But, they're all wrapped up in clothes in case of sudden or unexpected impact... And if the worst case happens and I kill it, but I'm too injured to fix myself up... Well, I've got something to record my last moments." He sighed.
"'Till next time." The gunmetal gray eyed teen spoke, before the camera shook as he manipulated it, and shut it off.
-For the Record-
The video opened up shakily, obviously held in the hand of the recorder. "Okay, so, not even an hour into this trip, and I've already found some weird shit." He steadied the camera, "found myself a small little stream, which is good, now I don't have to worry about water..." He said, pointing it at a lazily flowing stream that was about a foot deep, and reflecting the pale white light of the moon in its ripples. "But, uh... Then I found this." He pulled the camera up and pointed it to the sky. The camera auto-adjusted for a moment, before it finally focused on the moon.
The image of the pale white moon in the sky filled the camera, but instead of being a pale white disk shining high in the sky, it looked as if it had been partially shattered, almost as if someone had taken a hammer and smashed half of it off. The pieces were caught in the stellar object's orbit and gave it a look of a broken stone floating in the sky, though these 'stones' were so incomprehensibly large that they would qualify as meteors in their own right. The intact piece of the moon held a vague, if jagged, crescent shape, 'filled in' almost, by the fragments that orbited the main body. It was due to this oddity that the moon seemed to reflect more light from the sun, and cast the sky into a brighter pale glow.
"What the fuck?" Cursed the survivor, as the sound of crackling flames picked up. "Now, I know for a fact it wasn't like that last night - er, day six. But how in the hell does this happen in less than twenty four hours? What did I miss? It can't be the moon turning around, it's tidally locked, always showing the same side. And if something hit the damn thing hard enough to do that, then I should be dead right now, because the moon wouldn't have stopped it. Or, at the very least, I should have gotten a freakin' show, an impact that titanic should have lit up the sky like the Fourth of July." He explained, as he kept the camera on the shattered crescent moon.
"Buuuuuut... It could explain why I haven't gotten any radio signals... If something hit the moon like that, then it either knocked out our satellites, or slammed into the planet... But no, wait... No. If it's the former, that would just knock out wifi and satellite communications, not radio waves... And if it was the latter, I'd be dead seven times over by now." There was several moments of silence, broken only by the sound of the torch burning itself down. "Where the fuck am I?" Aldric asked, before he cut the video.
-For the Record-
The first thing seen when the video began playing was the enormous, fog-filled stone city. Dozens of towers, thousands of pillars, hundreds of massive bridges and dozens more buildings, all built into the face of the massive mountains surrounding the city, and jutting out from the natural quarry that was so far down the morning fog shrouded it from view. The camera bobbed up and down and shuffled about as the sound of grass crunching underfoot reached its microphone.
"So...Obviously, the Romans and the Aztecs had babies. That is literally the only explanation that makes sense." Came Aldric's southern drawl, as he slowly approached the stone city, the camera bobbing up and down in time with the sound of grass crunching underfoot. "The standards for my weird-shit-o'-meter just keep getting bigger, though I can't tell if this beats out the broken -" As he spoke, the sound of loud, throaty pants, a drum-like beat against the ground, and dirt being torn apart under the intense assault by a multiple legged creature picked up in volume, before finally reaching a crescendo and breaking Aldric mid-sentence. The camera whipped around in a blur of motion, and there was only a second of steady video, if slightly blurry as the camera attempted to refocus, in which a massive, bear-sized animal with heavily burned fur and skin charged towards the camera.
"OH!" Roared the survivor, who dived to the side as the animal came within range. The enormous beast charged straight past Aldric and attempted to skid to a halt, the sound of something made of meat colliding heavily with stone filled the air as Aldric hit the ground and scrambled back to his feet, cutting the camera in the process.
-For the Record-
"Ah Jesus Christ I'm gonna die!" Was shouted at an intense volume not a second after the camera flared into existence and revealed Aldric, his shirt removed and his chest pouring blood from multiple thick gashes. Barely a second after he finished speaking, the survivor took an entire bottle of antiseptic, and upended it on his chest, screaming so loud and so long that he briefly overloaded the camera's microphone, as it was forced to watch as his wounds were covered in the disinfectign substance, beginning to be covered in pure white bubbles as it cascaded down his chest, visibly steaming up as it did its job and burned at his chest. "AAAAAH FUCK!" He screamed out, "I fucking hope Cubone is dead, because I've got a much bigger problem on my hands now!
"Goddamn Mothra decided to show up! Gigantic enormous raven bird, I know it's not an insect but fuck you I'm deciding the names!" He shouted out, as his gaze back and forth between a bundle of bandages and his sewing materials. "God damn it I don't even know if I have time to at least partially un-fuck myself -" He turned his wide-eyed, mad gaze to the camera and pointed at it directly, "- and if you've got a problem with the cursing, you come fight these things!" He turned back to his medical supplies, and cursed again before he grabbed the sewing supplies. The gashes on his chest were as wide as two fingers, and though he didn't know if he was even helping himself in doing it, all he knew was that he couldn't leave them gaping open like this.
"I'm going to fucking die if I keep opening and ripping these wounds!" He cursed, as he squeezed the first gash on his chest as shut as he could, and hurriedly began sewing up, his hands shaking from the adrenaline rush and the pain. "And I'm really considering at least popping one Oxycodone, if at least to get the good shit in to deal with this GODDAMNPAINJESUSFUCK!" He screamed out.
"And how am I going to kill Mothra without opening up these chest wounds? Or Cubone if he's still alive! That freak jumped eighty feet in the freaking air, and I stabbed the crap out of it and hit it in the throat with an axe and it didn't budge! I would not be surprised if - AAH GOD! -" He jabbed his thumb with the bloody needle, but shook his head and kept going, stitching up the jagged hunks of flesh that had once been his chest. "- DAMN IT! I would not be surprised if..." He was breathing heavily, and shaking his head. "Don't fall asleep... Don't fall asleep. I've lost too much blood, fuck!" He cursed, as he finished sewing up the first gash.
"Why am I doing this? I am clearly in some kind of demonic hellhole, and I am not Doomguy! I don't even have a gun! How can I kill Cubone and Mothra with two flares?!" He demanded, the struggle to continue sewing himself up clearly shown on his face, which was scrunched up in rage and getting paler with each passing moment. "Mothra might be doable with the axe, birds have hollow bones, and I don't care how big its muscles are, those bones must be paper-freakin' thin for that thing to be able to take off like that. Or... Comparatively, given its size... I dunno, there's not a lot of blood to go to my brain at the moment and I'm barely holding on as it is..." As if to showcase the point, he was starting to slur his words and sway from side to side. "God... Damn it." He breathed, as he tied off the stitches and went for the final gash, his hands covered in his own blood.
"But that thing won't ever land if it doesn't have to... So I'd have to pull a Shadow of the Colossus and jump on the goddamn thing if I ever wanted to get at its spine... But that would be so outrageously impossible I don't even want to think about it. And that's all hoping that Cubone isn't still alive!" He shouted, turning his gaze beyond the camera.
"'Cause if that fucker's still alive we've got a lot of problems. I can't fight anymore - literally cannot. I'll die. But I don't have time to try and heal up, replace even a little bit of blood... FUCK!" He shouted, his hands shaking so much that he had to try three times before he successfully started sewing the last bit of his chest together. "Which means I literally have to stay away from them... But my arrows may work on Cubone, even though it clearly doesn't care about height advantages given it can jump eighty feet in the air... And I'm pretty certain Mothra's plumage is so thick that even if I hit its skin, they would have lost so much force and power that they wouldn't even penetrate!" Despair began showing in Aldric's blue-gray eyes as he took several breaths in quick succession, trying to forcefully shock his body to keep himself conscious, as his slurring gradually became worse as time and his rage and despair grew.
"So... Fuck, so that means all I have is my flare gun. But I only have two flares. And I'm pretty certain it will take two just to hurt Mothra, and one to kill Cubone, so I am... God damn it..." He shook his head, clenching his eyes tight as he paused in his attempts. "I'm gonna fucking die." He looked down at his chest, visibly struggling with the decision to keep sewing or not. He shook his head and kept going, "okay... Okay, this tower... I see a doorway over that way." He nodded to his right, "I hope it will take me down... Maybe to some kind of... I dunno, tunnel, or ground level, or something. This place was a city, so it had to have weapons. Given the level of advancement, or lack thereof, what I'm hoping I can do is find a sword, or some kind of armor... No, no, a ballista. That would fuck Cubone up, and could definitely hurt Mothra, but I'd need a clear shot on both... And god help me if they aren't on wheels." He finished up his chest, which, while still oozing some blood, was at least sealed shut once again.
"I can... Not... Get in another fight. I will die..." His voice shook and his eyes fluttered, but he shook his head again. "Can't fall asleep... Can't take the oxy..." He uncapped a water bottle and, while he smeared blood on the plastic, poured some of the water out to wash his hands, and then took up the antiseptic and washed himself with it one more time, groaning loudly in pain as his wounds began to bubble and hiss.
"Ballista. I find one of those, if it still works... I might... Might... Might have a chance... I fucking hope these were Aztec Romans." He didn't even bother wrapping himself up in bandages, instead he threw his tattered, blood-soaked shirt back on and threw his sweat-slicked, clumped hair back behind his ears. Aldric groaned loudly as he got to his feet and stole his bag and weapons from the ground, and soon after, the camera.
"And I hope there's a next time." The camera was switched off.
For The Record
So, I've switched to writing this out.
Why?
Well, it's a long damn story, but suffice to say, I don't trust my rescuers at all, and I've discovered that, while the spoken language here in this new world I'm inhabiting is indeed English, the written language isn't that at all.
So they can't understand a goddamn word I write.
To make things concise: They somehow opened up a magic portal that sucked me and the entire flight into the world of Remnant. This is the very same setting of RWBY, an anime on the internet. I'm the only survivor and, lucky me, they want me to fight for them.
Let me back up.
I made it to the ruins, but Cubone - I now know it to be called a 'Beowolf' - found me before I could find anything good. He and I fought, and it chucked me eighty feet through the air. I think I came close to killing it, but then a bird about the size of three or four aircraft carriers swooped in and tried to finish me off. I escaped from them by hiding in a giant stone tower, found a bunch of explosives, and promptly blew myself up.
But, proving myself ever worthy of the title 'Nathan Drake', I survived that shit.
Barely.
Then Cubone decided to come by and kill me, so I blew myself up again to kill him.
Don't even know how I survived that one, but hey - Nathan Drake.
Now I've been rescued by Cinder Fall, Mercury Black, and Emerald Sustral. Three of the baddest bitches around, all of whom work for the baddest bitch around. They told me how I came to be here, and then explained that I am basically a Saiyan to their Humans. People from my world - maybe I'll stick with Saiyans, as a means of differentiation? I'll think on that - they do indeed gather the same aura that the humans over here do. However, unlike the humans in Remnant, we don't stop, and just keep gathering more and more until we die and it all gets released.
The result is, according to them, a being of such intense power that few here could resist it.
I did notice how they failed to mention Salem and the Maidens, but I digress.
They think I'm a goddamn Super Saiyan, and they want me to help them.
Lex Luthor just asked me to help him kill the Justice League.
Holy fuck.
...
No?
How about, Thanos just asked me to help him gather the Infinity Stones?
No?
I'm running out, here - Hitler just came to me for help invading Poland? I give up. Point is: In the whole spectrum of good versus evil, evil just came to me with a recruitment pitch. An admittedly attractive one - I cannot begin to imagine the kind of shenanigans I could get up to with superpowers.
Before you freak out, yes I'm thinking of joining them, but not to actually work for them, if that makes sense.
Let me put it to you like this:
The Green Hornet operated in such a way that the public and criminal underworld both saw him as a criminal. He used this as a means to more easily infiltrate the criminal underworld and fight it from within. His justification, 'We'll look like villains, but really we'll be the heroes!'. That way, in the inevitable 'Choice', the villain wouldn't have anything on him. He wouldn't bother hanging a truck full of kids off of one edge of the bridge, and Mary Jane off of the other - because he'd think the Green Hornet not a hero, but a villain, and thus would be worried he'd just go for him and ignore the hostages.
I'm thinking about using that to justify pulling from The Departed.
Simply put, there, DiCaprio got himself thrown in jail and joined an organized crime ring, under orders from his contacts in the Police, his contacts being Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen, such that they could have a deep-cover mole within the mob, working right alongside Jack Nicholson, the big boss. But he did so in a way that no cop beyond those two knew about his involvement - to preserve his cover.
In other words, I seek to work in the dark, to serve the light.
I do this, I get the badass superpowers, and a means to make things for the better.
Problem: I have no Mark Wahlberg, or Martin Sheen. I have no contact over in the good guy faction.
You know what? That's too long. I'll call them the Illuminati. Absolutely no negative connotations whatsoever.
And it's more syllables.
Fuck.
How about the Justice League?
They may have had shitty movies, but they've been rocking the comics recently. That'll do.
But getting a name doesn't get me a contact in the League. If and when we came to blows, they'd see me as an enemy.
But, I do have an idea: The main character here's uncle, Qrow Branwen.
I've been able to determine roughly when I am in the timeline. There comes a point when Cinder will take her group to fight the Fall Maiden - basically a demi-goddess - and steal her powers. She'll succeed partially, but then Qrow will swoop in and, before she can finish the job, grab the Maiden and escape.
That right there could be my only chance to get my Mark Wahlberg.
I wouldn't even have to get his attention, or talk to him. I would just need to set something up, slip him a note, somehow let him know that they've got a mole on the inside. Then he brings it to the others In The Know, and... I dunno, through him I can talk to Ozpin, and get my Martin Sheen. Then hopefully we'd be close enough to the Vytal Festival that, by warning them 'something's coming', and imminently at that, I wouldn't tip my whole foreknowledge hand, and could simultaneously help to cut the head off of the snake by depriving Cinder of the remaining half of the Fall Maiden's powers. Maybe find a way to stop her from cutting Remnant's version of the internet, too - let the various countries keep up their communications.
In a perfect world, then we'd be in a good enough position that I could stop thinking so hard for myself and let the League do the planning and the thinking for me. I'd keep training, maybe go Super Saiyan God, and we could take the fight to Salem.
Of course, this is far from a perfect world, and there's one more 'hero' I have to draw from in order to make sure this crazy-ass plan of mine works.
Ozzymandias.
In Watchmen, Adrian Veidt ended up turning out to be the whole big bad guy. He orchestrated the hero murderers, got Doctor Manhattan, who was basically God with a big 'G' and was the only one who could stop his plans, to leave the planet, and orchestrated the deaths of millions and the traumatization of millions more. However, he did so with arguably good intentions, as his attack couldn't be traced to him or anyone else, would be construed as an alien invasion, and would avert World War 3 and the extinction of mankind. And, he arguably did so in such a way that stopping or exposing him would then be the evil option, as it would bring everything right back to where it was, and would thus send the world down to nuclear war and kill everyone.
He was the very definition of an anti-villain.
If I'm going to go with my whole 'Departed' plan, I've basically got to model everything I do after him. I am going to have to work with killers and terrorists, assist in the attempted murder of a demi-goddess, and depending on how far things end up going before my changes can take root and have an effect, also assist in the downfall of an entire nation, the apocalyptic destruction of an entire information network, and the deaths of tens to hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of people.
I don't want things to go that far, but the alternative is me dying, or, arguably worse, Cinder and Salem winning, and killing everyone. They already have access to my world through their 'Ritual', after they win here it would not be hard for them to go to Earth and wreck everyone there. While I think that, due to a higher population and (very) arguably more advanced technology, we may be able to hold our own and maybe win, the biggest wild card and the biggest problem would be the superpowers they' all be going up against. With that kind of a wild card, my people would be Hell, and these, an entire army of Doomguys.
And if that doesn't work for you, just swap Hell and Doomguy for Covenant and Master Chief.
It occurs to me now that anyone reading this will either, A, be from this world and not understanding of half of the references I make, or B - be survivors/explorers from my world into here, and likely not even interested in these things, and still not understand the references.
Shit.
Anyways, the point I'm trying to make is that I've got to sell no small part of my soul in order to be properly positioned to be able to cut the head off of the serpent, and to put the entire world in a better spot to war against Salem, and save more lives than I will end. If I win... Well, Humanity - Fuck Yeah! Then I'll just have to find some way to get over the shit I'll have done. If I lose... Well, I'll die, so I won't have to worry about living with my actions, and there is fortunately one more backup option.
Ruby Rose.
Goddamn show's named after her. Should be a pretty good indicator of who the main character is. Yes, there is the rest of her team, but I would argue them being major supporting characters as opposed to main protagonists, but now I'm going into semantics. Regardless, that's my backup. If I fuck up, the laws of Being An Anime Main Character say she's got just as good a shot of not fucking up, and none of the moral ambiguity to boot.
The problem, however, is that since enough had changed here to lead to them summoning me, that means that enough could continue to change that my foreknowledge, and thus her all-but-guaranteed victory, could all be thrown out and useless as anything more than a reference guide. Maybe back home, to tell a good story, she would have been guaranteed victory, but now? Now things have changed, and the only thing she'd guaranteed to have is a shot. There is no more guarantee, and that's why I can't fuck up, because now things aren't an anime, they're real. I could lose, I could die - she could lose, she could die, and then everyone's fucked.
What I'm hoping is that I'll get a halfway decent set of powers when they 'wake up' my aura. If all goes well, I'll become Saitama and all my problems will be solved. If it doesn't... Well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Christ.
Well, fortune favors the bold, right? It's how Nathan Drake's ass survived this long.
'Till next time.
For The Record
Captain's Log. Stardate... I don't know. Believe it or not, I wasn't much of a Star Trek fan back home.
Anyways, spent the day today figuring out how to access my aura. According to Cinder and Co., I am the sensory equivalent to a giant gout of fire in a pitch black clearing. Anyone worth their salt, or anyone with a cheap-ass mechanical Aura sensor, would be able to locate me. It'd be like finding a person screaming into a megaphone in the middle of a dead silent library.
So I spent most of the day trying to figure out how to mask my energy. Unfortunately, Krillin, I am not (at least according to them), and a 'Stealth Mode', I don't have.
Problem: It's really goddamn hard to use a limb I never even knew existed before today. The best comparison I can draw is wiggling your ears. Some can do it, but unless you know how, all the teaching in the world won't magically grant you the stupid human trick. For some, it comes naturally - they've done it forever, so it's just natural to them. For others, it's a limb, or a group of muscles, they have not once ever used, and as such it's all but impossible for them to do so.
Fortunately I'm making progress. I made it halfway to their 'hide for an hour' rule, before I fucked up and got caught. I'm hoping I'll get better tomorrow, but the problem there will be we'll be on the move.
Now, since you're reading this, I doubt you can tell, but I'm one scrawny bastard, and I wasn't in too good shape back home. I wasn't necessarily weak, but pretty much all of my friends could outrun me, or outbench me. I don't even lift, bro. So crossing god-knows-how many miles to get back to civilization is going to be one hell of a Spartan initiation trial.
Hopefully my newfound superpowers will help me adapt quicker, but considering right now all I'm working on is actively not using them, I'm not too keen on my chances.
Also, good news for any Earth-Humans (still working on a better name) out there. In case you do go to war with Remnant under Salem, and win, and discover my little record:
If everyone from Remnant was utterly terrified of your guts, that was my doing. I made a few jokes and suddenly found myself having entirely too much fun making Cinder and Co. think we're all fucking insane. Told them about how we powered machines (burning gas... Controlled explosions), how we fly to space (burning oxygen... A much more powerful controlled explosion), how we study mars (shooting the shit out of it with lasers), how we fight wars (micro-explosions to propel projectiles at kill-velocities), and how we treat Cancer (we actively poison our sick so we can have a chance to cut that shit out of them.)
It's working.
As an aside, I'll be diligent in skipping any mentions of nuclear physics and WMD's. I've got something of a reason to suspect that the folks here in Remnant don't have nukes, or anything even approaching the like, so in the interests of preserving some kind of tangible advantage over them, I'll keep it to myself. It makes me wonder if they even have the concept of WMD's themselves, but I digress.
Also: I still don't know how to read Remnant English.
I hope to fix this soon.
Anyways, to wrap things up, our first stop seems to be heading to find Roman Torchwick's ass and recruit him for our little Totally-Not-A-Terrorist-Army. Hopefully that'll go well.
If I had to guess, we're rapidly drawing up on the whole Fall Maiden fight, and if that's the case, I understand why they're hounding my ass with this aura control stuff. I guarantee you they'll actively start trying to kill me once it's time to learn to use it to fight.
I still don't know what powers I've gotten, and without their instruction I can't try experimenting on my own to figure out. This also means I can't even start to think about what weapons or equipment I should consider, because I don't know what my abilities are and what kind of anything will compliment them. For all I know I can make stuff explode with my mind, so I should probably get a flak jacket. But I may very well also be able to freeze things solid, so I'd probably want... Well, funny as it may be:A chisel.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I've ruled out the Saitama option, as I got knocked out earlier today, and there ain't nothing that can knock that bastard out.
And I still have my hair, so, you know. There's that.
But I still may have the Super Saiyan thing going for me, and if that's the case, while not as easily solved as the One Punch Man route, things will still look good for my survival prospects. I'm all but certain Krillin could kick ass here in Remnant, let alone someone like Goku. Folks here just don't have that kind of destructive capability.
And it may be I'll get something completely out of left field, and I'll have to get creative with it.
But I swear to god, if I get Heart, I'll shoot myself.
What kind of lame power is Heart, anyway?
Actually, wait, couldn't Ma-Ti mind control people? He just... Didn't?
Shit.
I take it back: Give me heart, and I'll solve all of the world's problems in... Like... A day.
A week tops.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Going to be at Vale within the next day, according to Mercury.
And apparently, in regards to the money we'll be spending to get me all equipped, our budget is 'Don't Worry About It'.
I'm tempted to call his bluff, but I don't know if Don't Worry About It is daddy's blood money, his blood money, or - "You want that? Alright." And then they shoot the fucking shopkeep and give it to me.
I doubt that's what'll happen, but I also wouldn't put it past 'em, you know? We are actively planning to end the whole damn world, after all.
Anyways, I'm supposed to be learning what my powers are, tomorrow, and if I'm lucky, at least a little bit on how to use them.
Apparently that's as far as they want to go, however. They want to wait for the real combat training until I know what I've got, so then we can pick up the weapon that would fit me most, and then I can learn to fight with my powers and my weapon all at the same time. According to them, it'll save time.
But I saw Chronicle, I know that sitting on superpowers and not doing anything with them is a recipe for stupidity. If this universe is anything like that, then semblances are going to be like muscles, and the more I 'exercise' it, the stronger it will get.
Granted, I'm supposed to be a walking gigantic firebomb of aura, so my 'exercise' may unintentionally crack a continent in half... But that's what tomorrow's for. To see where I stand without any training.
I really hope I've got something along the lines of mass manipulation. That could verily solve all of my problems, and it all boils down to force and density.
Force is Mass multiplied by Acceleration, and density is the quantity of mass per unit volume.
F=MA and D=M/V
So I increase my mass, I hit harder, and get harder to hit. I can hurt people easier, and I become so dense that people can't damage me.
Basically, Superman.
Or Saitama, now that I think about it. Hm.
But then there's ice powers. I kind of hope I get something like that, failing mass manipulation. That way I can just 'kill the Batman', as it were, and freeze all my enemies to absolute zero (the point where all atomic movement ceases), and just walk up to 'em and smash 'em to pieces. Wouldn't even have to fight, then.
Fire may also be good, because that's just atoms moving around real fast. I could excite someone's atomic movement and disintegrate them, or even just boil the air around me to plasma and then shoot 'em with something hotter than the sun. Kamehameha!
Electricity would be fun too, if only because I was a pretty big inFamous fan, but I'd have to think a while as to some better applications to that.
And, yes, even Heart would have some uses.
Do you know how powerful Killgrave was, with just mind control?
I could literally just get my enemies to fight for me, or, better yet, make them knock themselves out.
Hell, I could get Salem's ass to send me home, and tell her to off herself once I leave. Problem solved.
But, thinking about what-ifs won't do me any good. I'll get the stuff tomorrow and see how things go.
'Till next time.
For the Record
So I'm Telekinetic, and now I've got - or at the very least have access to - a freakin' spaceship.
Jesus Christ.
We're on our way to Vale now, and Cinder showed me to my little room. It's quaint, and has enough storage space to drop my stuff. I'm hoping I can get to work on applying Earth tech to Remnant tech, but right now I have something more important to do: Learn how to read. I've got a couple days to do it before we get to the city of Vale, so I'm hoping I'll at least get... A little hammered in, at least.
I'm hoping that, since the structure of the spoken language is identical to English, there won't be any grammar hurdles, I just have to learn to put Remnant characters to their English counterparts, and then everything should fall into place.
But, just as important: My semblance.
I am a fucking Telekinetic.
I didn't even consider this one on my whole 'superpower lottery', and while I admit, maybe becoming Saitama would have made things easier, I still hit a jackpot at least.
Seriously. Telekinesis is defined as the ability to move objects with your mind. Objects, as any material item that can be seen or felt - matter, referring to anything that has mass and takes up space. Molecules have mass and take up space. Atoms have mass and take up space. Particles, like electrons, protons, neutrons, Photons - light particles - hell, the Higgs Boson is a particle that generates mass!
Problem is... Well, there isn't a human alive that can 'see' that small. We're not even remotely capable of differentiating different atoms from eachother.
Buuuuut, that's where things play in my favor: My powers increase the range of my tactile sensations. In other words, whenever I'm using them I can 'feel' everything around me - from the door in my room to the blankets on my bed to the hair on my head. Think of it like a radar pulse - only I can feel everything in its range. So like a bat sees things, I can feel them.
Put together, this means I should be able to basically manipulate the universe on a subatomic level.
To put it simply, I can turn water to wine.
I'm Jesus.
Okay, okay, blasphemy aside, you get my point. I can theoretically turn water to wine, air to gold, oxygen to hydrogen. I can accelerate atomic movement and create fire - I can accelerate it even further and create plasma! I can gather in a bunch of electrons and zap people, I can pull in a shitton of Higgs Bosons, use them to generate a Higgs Field, that alters my mass - and then I can just drop 'em like a bad habit and snap right back to my regular, unaltered mass.
Well... Theoretically.
I'm still a long way from there, but seeing as I can rip trees off of the ground and, in the space of a few minutes, managed to figure out my 'Radar Pulse' and even stop an arrow without moving my hands, I'm hoping that I can get somewhere close to this by the time we reach the Fall Maiden. I'm also not stupid enough to try screwing with atoms in the middle of a moving spaceship. I don't want to screw something up, incite nuclear fission, and kill us all.
And as cool as it sounds, I really don't want to go messing with the Higgs Field. Only reason I even know about that is because I did a little 'For Dummies' research on it when I watched a Red vs Blue PSA.
Note to self: If I get back home, go to college for a physics degree. Science is a lot more useful than just as a hobby, it seems.
Anyways. As cool as it may be to go hog-wild and start experimenting, I'm still well aware of the danger I'm facing with these powers. Even ignoring the more 'creative' aspects of them, I went from accidentally tearing a tree out of the ground to stopping an arrow midflight with my mind in just a few minutes. I'm starting to understand what they're saying about my 'bonfire' size aura. I'll have to stay on the small scale until we're in a safer, controlled environment, such that I can start experimenting more.
For now, I'll just stick with movie tricks, moving whole objects and not atoms.
Fortunately, the more I do it, the easier it becomes. The best way I can explain it, is by thinking of my semblance as another limb. Say I wanted to pick up my phone - I'd just visualize a hand, grab it, pick it up, and pull it towards me. Granted, I say that, and it's as much feeling it out and experimenting, as it is visualizing it - it's much easier to manipulate stuff if I use my hands than if I just think it.
Example: If I lift my hand and then visualize the whole phone thing, and then pull my hand back, the phone would come to me much easier. But if I didn't move a muscle and just thought it all, it would be much more difficult.
Yeah, I have no clue what I'm saying either. Point is: I either do it the movie way, thrusting and throwing my hands every which way, which is easier, or I do it the practical way, and just think it, which is harder.
Anyways, to start, I'll just try to lift small things and juggle them around. Once that gets instinctual, then we'll be getting somewhere.
Moving on, right now pretty much my whole goal in life is to learn to read, get a handle on my semblance, and learn to fight.
And wouldn't you know it, they put the assassin's son on my combat training.
I mean, it makes sense, but I also get the feeling he enjoys beating the tar out of me too much.
Once we make port in the vale, I'm going to get my hands on Remnant clothes, and then we're going weapons shopping.
Maybe I'll go full Yondu and hit people with a magic arrow.
I maaaaaay be a little too excited about going out to find killing tools.
For the Record
Been about a week since my last entry, we're going to meet Torchwick tonight. Was told to 'expect anything', by Mercury.
I'm a little worried, yeah, but only insomuch that any sane man would be worried when they were intentionally going out to meet a much more enigmatic Al Capone.
Fortunately, I'm a lot less so now than I would have been had we gone to meet that guy the day we'd landed.
First of all, quickest things to get out of the way after we picked up my weapons, we got me some Remnant clothes. Just some standard stuff - pants, shirts, the works. It looks remarkably like my old wardrobe, but I understand why they wanted me to swap out, it's the subtle differences the keen-eyed would notice. The difference between Earth and Remnant denim, bands and pictures that have no frame of reference here, unrecognizable logos, the works.
Moving on to the good stuff: Weapons.
So, one thing Rooster Teeth either failed to mention or never got around to bringing up: Remnant has nanites. I wouldn't go so far as to say they're the Metal Gear Solid-esque deus ex machina kind, but they're pretty close. Mine self replicate, can form up to make simple objects, and can project hardlight. I call it the Power Glove. In addition to that, I picked up a pistol, though it doesn't fire hardlight - I figured some variation would do me good. It hits like a bitch, I'm pretty sure it would have give a Desert Eagle back home a run for its money. That it's got a knife attachment was just overkill.
But the pistol isn't nearly the most interesting part of my arsenal - it's what I added to shut everyone up. The cool stuff comes from the Power Glove. That thing can sync up with my brain, such that anything I visualize, it creates out of hardlight, Green Lantern style. I'm talking Captain America shields, Spartan Hoplons, Wolverine Claws, bullets, I even managed to get the thing to make arrows. It's basically the T-1000 of weapons, but deadlier, because harldlight isn't the only thing it can do.
They can self-replicate, so if I was feeling really vindictive (or perhaps crafty), I could drop small clusters everywhere and have them eat away at the ground, replicate, and then the entire battlefield is my Hardlight Hellhole. Or I could just make the command, smack a bitch with 'em, and watch as they get eaten alive.
And the Power Glove works wonders with me semblance. I can easily make arrows or bullets and blast people to death with 'em, or I can create the aforementioned Captain America shield, peg someone with it, and then watch it bounce like a pinball, before pulling it right back and beaning someone over the head with it.
And did I mention that Hardlight apparently absorbs... Functionally all physical force?
Seriously - Mercury never got to see me test it out at the firing range, so when we got back to the Aviator, we found a place to spar a bit more freely than in a pressurized cabin. He proceeded to use his legs to shoot me with compressed air which, in his words, 'hits like an hauler'. From his subsequent explanation. I assume it's comparably to getting smashed into by a dump truck. Point is, it's supposed to hurt like mad and hit like something you don't walk away from.
But when it hit my shield? I didn't feel a thing.
We proceeded to spend a few hours testing that. He kicked it, shot it with another compressed air bolt, Emerald came by and shot the hell out of it with her revolvers, Cinder even blasted it with a fireball, and I never moved a fucking INCH!
Call me Steve Rogers!
As an aside, it is occurring to me that I'm actively conspiring against these people, yet here I am also actively showing them everything I'm capable of. Yes, this is a bad idea, but I also think it's an unavoidable one. After all, I can't get stronger on my own - not in the time I need to, at least - so I need to train them, and I can't build up trust with them unless I make it seem like I trust them. So there have to be some gimmies, on this end - I have to keep demonstrating an Earth education, I have to keep training with them, I have to basically show them what I come up with.
But not everything I come up with. They still have no motherfucking clue about the potential scope of my semblance, the whole atomic manipulation thing, and all that. As well, I haven't told them a damn thing about the potential dangers of self-replicating nanites (Gray Goop, anyone?), and the hardlight implements I've used around them have mostly been restricted to Wolverine-style claws, my Captain America shield, and the hardlight bullets. I'd say for every three ideas I have, I let slip one.
For instance, I've demonstrated the ranged implements of the shield, but I haven't told them about my ideas to make a hardlight chainsaw. I'm a Doom fan. If I'm not getting a shotgun, I'm getting a chainsaw. Just make a circular hardlight disc with serrated edges, spin that sucker real fast, and boom. Gore showers. God help them if I can figure out how to make mono-atomic cutting edges. Nothing could stop me.
Anyways, going back, a lot of the doubt they initially showed in the Power Glove started to get wiped away after my little defensive demonstrations with the Cap Shield, but I still had to show it could be used for offense as well as defense. Mercury used this as an excuse to excise his wounded pride (apparently not many people can just walk away from those kicks), and proceeded to beat me black and blue. But, I gave just as good as I got! Landed more than a few good hits with the Cap Shield, hit him a couple times with Wolverine claws, and I even stumbled him with a TK bullet, or two.
I mean, he still beat me as easily as Bruce Lee would beat a three year old, but I digress. I got good hits in.
But this is where we started to notice something - when I would use my semblance to go on the offensive, my defenses would suffer because of it. Now, yes, that sounds like a no brainer - but I don't mean in a 'sacrifice your footing for a killing stroke' kind of a way, but more in a 'take a bullet to give two back' kind of way. When I would lob my shield at him or shoot him with Power Glove projectiles, I noticed that the retaliatory blows hurt more and hit harder. At one point, he even broke my shields - something that hasn't happened yet.
Testing, proved that this wasn't just me being tired from fighting, but rather a uniquity of my aura. In short, it's either overwhelming attack, or impenetrable defense. I was able to tank the strongest of their attacks and, according to the equipment they set up, I only lost half of my shields. But when I switched to the offensive and started tossing stuff around with my semblance, my shield strength plummeted, and were thus more easy to break - got a bullet in the back for that one. It's since healed, but it still smarts.
There is a middle ground I can work with, but it, as the name implies, is a middle ground. To put it to numbers, when I'm not attacking, everything goes to defense and it takes an inordinate amount of force to break my shields. When I put everything to my semblance and start attacking, my shield strength plummets and I can't take more than a few lethal hits before I fall - but I make up for it in being able to exceed Mercury blow for blow. Not in skill, but in power.
But, if I reach that happy medium, I can take hits, but can't hit as hard. To put it in other words, I can either be Goku with Batman durability, Krillin with Superman durability, or Naruto. Overwhelming force with no defense, impenetrable defense with a piss-poor offense, or a decent enough all-around who relies more on attrition. It's much more difficult for me to damage Mercury's shields in any meaningful way. But, considering Mercury's instructions were to train me as if he were trying to kill me, that isn't a damn good thing. He's taking this as some kind of sign that maybe my 'bonfire' of aura may be not all it's cracked up to be, but I beg to differ, and have spent the last few days in training putting a theory to test.
See, I theorized I might be able to make this weakness into a strength. Because, until my body gets acclimated to the massive amounts of aura it has - which I don't think it will before the Vytal Tournament - I have to overspecialize, or risk a generalized weakness. Yes, I could attempt to train as a jack of all trades and get stronger that way, but I don't have the time to be that patient, nor am I in a position to be so. I need to be able to fight on Cinder and Co.'s level, and imminently at that. Until the Fall Maiden I'll only be dealing with the Grimm, regular humans, and Mecrury's Spartan training, but once it's time to fight Her, things will escalate higher and higher until the freakin' Dragon wakes up and tries to kill everyone.
But I'm on a tangent.
To test this theory, yesterday I dropped pretty much all of my defenses for attack power. By my estimation, my aura could have taken maybe a hit or two before it broke - but that was where the Power Glove came in, the Cap Shield stepping in to bolster my defenses. I hold that in one hand, and use the other for a more varied arsenal; the rest? The rest went to over-fuel my semblance. My plan was, use my overwhelming power as both an offense and a defense.
Take Mercury's Dump Truck Kick (not letting that name die) for example. Under my strategy, instead of dodging it, tanking it, or using the Cap Shield, I'd use my semblance to catch it and either push it back or deflect it. Think of the end-result being the end of the Matrix - Neo was still as fleshy and immortal as ever, but he was able to block the bullets with his mind, using his offense as a defense.
The result was fucking beautiful: He fractured my arm, broke three ribs, and now I've got another gnarly scar on my back!
But I broke his shields! First time I've done that! Beat the holy tar our of them by using my semblance to pin him down and my Cap Shield to beat the hell out of him.
It wasn't an epic kung-fu fight, I'm not even close to that yet, I'm getting there, but regardless - I was able to prove my point well enough. I am either an unstoppable force, or an immovable object. As long as I get my reflexes up to par, I can use my semblance as an offense and a defense, and not have to worry about sacrificing power for survival.
Yes, that sounds absolutely moronic, but my argument would be if I turned into a Tank, that oh-so-precious sense of frailty and accompanying self preservation that I've survived on the last few weeks of my life, would wither away. I'd rather think and feel like anything could kill me, than get used to being able to walk into gunfire and thinking I'm a physical god. And the point is rendered somewhat moot by the Cap Shield - it's actually somewhat of an illustration of it, albeit in reverse. It's a damn good defensive tool, but can easily wallop Hitler if one wanted.
Anyways, if all goes well, I may be able to find a way to swap between the two - go from irresistible offense to absolute defense - but I get the strangest feeling that not only will things never be that easy, but that also would play hell with my aura.
But I digress - everyone's getting their stuff together, so we're probably going to be heading out here soon. The point is, I feel more confident in combat, even if I may have to model it after some unholy fusion of Captain America, Wolverine, Yondu, and Goku.
To wrap this little bit up, I do also have a theory as to why my aura and semblance act this way, but that will have to wait. Quickly now, while it has been slight, I have been noticing a gradual acclimation of my body to my aura. Beyond the regular physical exercise (read: Getting used to getting beaten half to death by Mercury and almost dying on a daily basis since the plane crash), I've noticed I'm becoming able to run faster for longer periods of time, jump higher without directly using my aura or my semblance, lift heavier things - the works.
It's a difference of a few minutes, feet, and dozen pounds respectively, but the difference is as noticeable as it is gradual. I'm starting to understand now why Huntsman and Huntresses are capable of doing such crazy stuff, even without using their semblances.
Maybe I really am becoming Captain America.
Finally, the Remnant English lessons are going good - I'm the equivalent to a first grader. Joy.
Haven't had much time to try and fiddle with Earth and Remnant tech, but I'm hoping I'll get that time after Torchwick.
'Till next time.
For the Record
I've got Kung Fu Fighting playing right now.
'Cause my ass survived!
I fought Neo - lady who basically one shot Yang - and... Well, I won, but only technically.
What I tried to do was get something of a beam struggle going, by forcing her to focus all of her defenses on keeping my shield at bay, so I could flank her and get her in another choke hold.
Instead I dropped the whole goddamn building on her.
Oops.
But the fact remains: I did win, just not... Conventionally? Yeah, I'll go with that.
Though, that is how Iron Man beat the Hulk, in Age of Ultron. So if it's good enough for Tony Stark, damn it, it's good enough for me.
Jesus I do communicate primarily in references, don't I?
I mean I won't stop - not a day went by that my parents didn't quote Kevin Smith - but still, I never really noticed until now.
Aaaaaanyways. Now Mercury's out looking for Adam Taurus of the White Fang. The good news is that I know things will go mostly nonviolent there, but the bad news? The Fall Maiden fight is drawing rapidly close. I think I might still have a month or two, maybe three if I'm lucky, but that still means I'm working on a really limited time table.
So, bar none, I need to get two skills mastered, preferably three.
First: I need to perfect my whole 'Best Defense is a good Offense' thing. I took a damn few good hits during my fight with Neo - got a whole slew of new scars to accompany them. I think I have an idea as to how to do this though, I just need a fork from the dining room.
Second: I need to ramp up my speed and reaction time. I'm thinking the only way I can contact Qrow Branwen is if I find a way to slip him a note when he swoops in and grabs the Maiden. The problem is, if I tried conventionally, I'd be made before I could blink.
So I'm thinking I have two options. One: Find a way to use my semblance to force my reaction time to amp up to Superman levels, such that I can then use it to move my body at far, far higher speeds than I could do on my own, and still be able to move and react at fast enough speeds. I think of it like shutting off all of the game's settings on a weak PC, so you can get a halfway decent framerate. If I can do this, I'll be able to speed up past everyone else's reaction times, slip a note or something in Qrow's pocket, and then be back in my first position before anyone else can blink. He would find it - I doubt a huntsman survives as long as him without becoming real sensitive to that kind of stuff.
Two: I pray I'll be fast enough to get one clean hit in on him, and somehow manage to reverse-pickpocket the note onto him, using the attack to mask it.
Finally, while this isn't a priority, it is something I'd really like to get done: I want to figure out how to create plasma.
I bought a heavy-duty pair of sunglasses that essentially function as welder's goggles, during our little shopping trip a while back, explicitly for this purpose. Mercury gave me some flak for it, hardly able to see a few feet in front of his face when he tried 'em on, but I managed to get out of it without revealing what I want to do.
I know the general how of doing it - heat is just atoms bouncing around real fast. I get them bouncing around fast enough, I can boil the oxygen and turn it into plasma. Then it's just a matter of shooting someone with it. I'm hoping that I'll be able to use this as a means of instantly cleaving through someone's aura shields - as I have yet to see anything in Canon remotely resembling getting shot with something of the heat and luminosity of the sun.
This will give me a veritable nuclear deterrent: If I can master this, and it works as I intend for it, I'd be able to one-shot anyone. May even be able to fight Fall Maiden Cinder, with it.
Fortunately, I do have an out: My Power Glove. I'm going to spend some time cracking into the nanites' programming (never been so glad to get an instruction manual), and see if there isn't a way to control the heat of the projected light. If there is, I may be able to skip a lot of the process, create a small 'orb' of hardlight that just grows and grows and grows in intensity until its heat is so much that just a little additive would incite plasma.
But I run a heavy risk either way: If I create plasma, I have to deal with that heat.
This'll take some thinking.
Oh, and a pipe dream: If I could figure out how to fly, it would serve little to no practical purpose... But it'd be cool as shit.
I'd probably be able to go back to the crash sight and get my magic chair back.
Yup, new priority: Learn to fly.
Fortunately, I've got time for that: While Mercury's gone, pretty much all of my training will be learning how to focus and control my powers. I'll spar nightly with Emerald - I'm noticing Cinder is staying out of the proceedings - and use the rest of the time to get control of my semblance, learn Remnant English, and set up some kind of bridge between Earth tech and Remnant tech.
So, now I've got a plan.
It's a shitty plan, but a plan nonetheless.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Spent the last few days recovering from Neo. Didn't sleep much, though - my nights were spent half learning Remnant English, half catching up on the show, re-upping my knowledge, so to speak. Yes, it's a risky gamble, but I keep the volume down, headphones hooked up... And I leave the ship whenever I do it.
Dumb as it sounds considering all of my stab wounds, that last part actually serves a double purpose - the rough idea I have for contact with Qrow revolves around us returning here to Vale, or some kind of populated area, to recover from the battle and plan our next move. Considering the Legion is fighting the League, hiding right under their nose will probably be the smartest choice - why would they look on the homefront, after all? So, I drop Qrow the note, something like:
'Hey asshole. Be at (wherethefuckever) in Vale at Eleven O' Clock in (howevermanydays). I'll bring alcohol. From another world, even! Love, Nathan Drake.'.
Oh wait, I left all the alcohol at the plane. Is it still there? Maybe I'll get shitty after the Fall Maiden. Still need to learn to fly. Shouldn't be hard, I think - I can move things easy enough. Moving me is just the next step up.
Anyways, and to validate to them me not being in the Aviator late at night, I've started taking walks, doing light exercises and such, at night, under the auspices that I can't/don't sleep much. And thanks to aura, I can function on a lot less sleep than usual... So long as I do get some eventually.
Though, 'light exercises' is a misnomer - I am not fucking kidding when I compare myself to Captain America. I can keep up with cars. I felt like I was in Cap 3 for a few minutes. It was awesome. So 'light' to me is approaching 'Olympian' to the folks back home.
Regardless, even if they're watching me these first few weeks, me doing exactly as I say will build a routine in their eyes, and eventually they'll stop questioning it. They don't have a reason to distrust me, after all, and that I hardly ever stop training also helps. Even laid up in med, I'm juggling stuff with my semblance - my record is the entire contents of the bag from my plane for two minutes.
So, by the time the Fall Maiden Fight rolls around, me slipping away for a few hours to meet Qrow won't raise suspicions.
Anyways, I'm back up to one hundred percent now, and alongside those exercises I've been trying to figure out this whole defense thing. Get it working right, so I don't get a repeat of Neo.
Making some progress, but not much... And I still fear I may have to swap out again the damn second I have to test it out.
On that note, I'm considering doubling down and getting some kind of armor. I'm thinking something Batman would wear - lightweight and flexible so I can keep my agility up, but also effective against blades and light gunfire.
If I could pull off the Knightmare look, I'd shit bricks. Sure, the movie wasn't all it should have been, but I did enjoy it, and Batman in a goddamn trenchcoat and military gear. 'Nuff said. Hell, buying a mask probably wouldn't be too dumb of a decision, considering I wouldn't want my face revealed to Qrow prematurely.
Things to think about.
'Till next time.
For the Record
And that is how you bluff your ass off.
I feel it important to continue to remind myself (and whoever ends up reading this) that I'm not writing these folks off as completely lost causes, that they're people and probably think what they're doing is right, the problem is I know better. I would honestly say if I didn't have RWBY as a base, I'd be approaching loyal to the Legion of Doom by now.
But I'm a little ahead of myself.
Cinder - continuing her steadily growing trend of attempting to win my loyalty through the mere exposure effect - found me this morning trying to work out my TK shields.
Admittedly, there may have been some genuine concern in there - I was stabbing the shit out of my hand with a fork - but I digress. She and I played a little Holmes and Moriarty game, swapping loaded questions back and forth for about an hour or so.
Building off of the Holmesian reputation I've been making for myself, I made the incredibly intelligent - dare I say genius - decision to call her on her BS, and basically ask her who it was we were really fighting against. Fortunately I didn't have to validate many of my claims, and after I asked her, she basically decided my Holmesian leap of logic was sufficient.
Damn, did I get some decent information.
The long and short of it is, assuming she's to be believed and that she's not hiding anything else, the Legion wants to fight the League over the Maidens. The way I understand them now, the Maidens are to Huntsmen what Doctor Strange is to the Avengers - something operating on a whole different level, within a completely different rule set. The Avengers fight fucking aliens, Doctor Strange fights eldritch abomination multidimensional universe eating gods.
Just a minor difference.
Really small.
Like, minuscule.
But it's there, if you know where to look.
Anyways, the Legion wants to gather them together, steal their power, and use them ostensibly to fix the planet.
The League, however, runs counter to them - fearing that bringing the Maidens together could lead to something either very good, or very bad, and deciding that sticking to the status quo is preferable to inciting a paradigm shift and it resulting in the very bad option. It's like having a chance that pressing a button could either cure all diseases forever, or could infect everyone with super cancer.
Actually, I guess this is a good Schrodinger's Cat scenario. The world is the box, the Maidens are the poison, and the entire Remnant population is the cat.
The League doesn't want to close the box, they don't want to take that risk on the grounds that when they open it up the humans and faunus may be dead, but the Legion does, on the grounds that when they open it up, it may be the Grimm that's dead. They're willing to be evil for goodness' sake, in other words.
It's not a strong metaphor, but it works.
Again I stress: If I didn't have the show to color my opinions, I think I may have sided with them, by now. But the problem is that I don't know if this is the full truth, or just what Cinder's telling me as damage control. And then perhaps the biggest problem - I got dragged away from Earth looooooong before this show wrapped up, so I can't even try to use it to influence my decision.
Knowing Oum's brass balls, he may very well have been setting up Salem and the Legion to be pulling an Ozzymandias - similar to how Itachi turned out to be a martyr as Naruto drew to a close. For all I know, Salem's faction may very well be the right one to root for, in the grand scheme of things.
But I don't know, and as such, I have to operate with what I do know, and that's that the Justice League is ostensibly the best option here. What happens when the Maidens get brought together - I have no clue. Maybe it's an Infinity Gauntlet situation and whoever unites those four becomes omnipotent. Maybe it's a test from Remnant's God - with a big 'G' - and everything will turn out fine once/if we pass. I don't know, and damn if this isn't eating at my brain. I have to side with Ozpin, have to play Green Hornet.
Fortunately, that game gets easier now that Cinder thinks I'm fully on her side.
Well, should think, at least.
Anyways, though I say all this 'they're human' somesuch, when I can literally use the show to validate earlier theories. For instance, being able to compare this 'Lady In Red', nice, talking to me, Cinder, to the 'Follow Orders and Don't Think' one we have in the show, I think it confirms my whole idea about her wanting to stay on my good side and build up some kind of loyalty. She may bitch slap Emerald for talking back to her, but I'm willing to bet that's because Emerald falls more on the 'utility' half of the 'utility versus versatility' argument. She can confuse folks with her illusions, and steal from them, but that seems to be about it.
Me, on the other hand, they think I'm a powerhouse (and considering I tore down a goddamn building, they may not be wrong.) with a brain. I talk back, she gets pissed, but doesn't want to turn around and piss me off for risk that I'll leave as - as I said earlier - aside from them, I've nothing tying me to any one specific faction.
Or - also likely - I'm being incredibly arrogant and am overstating my importance to her, and my constant attempts at getting under her skin will backfire one day and she'll disintegrate me.
That's probably something I should worry about more. Pretty much everything I do is operating under the arrogant assumption that Cinder won't kill me. If I'm wrong, or Cinder just decides one day I'm too much trouble, she's more than capable of working all of this without me - there's an entire show dedicated to proving that right.
But, there's not much I can do about that, though. I've made a role, I've got to play it. Hopefully this little conversation I've had will convince her there's more to me than meets the eye, that I should be kept around, even if it means dealing with my bullshit.
For now I've got to focus on my training. I've got to perfect my shields and figure out how to use my semblance to ape the Flash.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Holy shit it's working!
Thank god. Gotta be honest, I was giving up hope on this working out like I'd hoped - I fried two tablets already (thank god I pried out their hard drives). Was starting to think I wasn't nearly as good an engineer as I thought I was.
It took two weeks of hard work in between paaaaaaainful training and control sessions, but I was finally able to bridge Remnant and Earth technology. I'm nowhere near getting Earth programs working on Remnant computers, but I was at least able to build something of a 'universal charger', of sorts. The only real problem there was that I had to find a way to measure amperes and voltage and match it to...
Ah, you don't care about this and I could ramble on. Point is: My shit isn't dead anymore. Yeah I'm down two tablets, but that's why I brought so many spares, and made sure to pry out the hard drives, so I lost the devices, but not the data. I'm going to have to consolidate all of that data sometime soon, actually, get a good handle on everything I have. Also, it was during this two week marathon of various builds that I realized that, once I had a way to turn these things on again - I was literally carrying around information that could break the universe, and leaving it unprotected such that anyone determined enough could crack my password and see the entire (currently released) RWBY series.
So I've started carrying that SD card on my person at all times, now. It's in a small strong box about half the size of a cigarette box - the guy who sold it to me promised it could take a bullet and still be fine, or my money back. So I called his bluff and shot it, right there. It works, and I've since discovered Remnant people can also shit their pants in fear.
I'm kidding.
But at least now the knowledge of the future won't be falling into anyone else's hands, and now I can charge my Earth tech. I've now got time to write up a program that'll give me an Earth English keyboard on a Remnant computer, and time as well to find a way to make Remnant computers understand Earth programs.
And in case it needs to be said: They finally got around to giving me a few of my own. Now I've got a Remnant phone ('Scroll'), and a Remnant tablet (Also Scroll).
Onto the real news: Mercury swung by for a day or two about a week ago. Slept one day all the way through, next day said he was 'this close' to finding Adam Taurus, and should be getting back to us in a few days, and that was a few days ago. So it won't be long, now. The good news is that I know I won't have to be fighting this go around, but the bad news is I know the Fall Maiden is coming up real fast.
Problem: I'm still nowhere even close to figuring out how to go superspeed. (Until I have a better name for TK-based super speed, I'm just going to call it Speed Force.). I'm not at all willing to try and just go hog-wild and wing it, because I may very well flatten myself against a wall if I mess up.
I mean, half of it is already done: I know I can move myself with my semblance, and that the speed at which I move is really up to me. I just envision anything from Iron Man-esque rocket boosters pushing me in the desired direction, to a big freakin' wall making the same push, but on my entire body. So that's done, I can do that. But I can't find a way to increase my reflexes to that kind of a speed. Any idea I have is either stupid (praying I'll get used to it through practice), lethal (forcing my neurons to fire faster with my semblance), or stupidly lethal (trying to gather in electrons to electrically stimulate my brain to run faster).
It was a miracle I was able to get the Power Glove - training with it is going well, by the way - but I'm starting to think that Speed Force is too far out of my reach. I may just have to try the whole 'tackle Qrow and slip him the message' idea.
Wait.
Hoooooly shit - I think I've been thinking about this all wrong.
I don't have to physically give Qrow the message - I could very well slip it to the Maiden during our fight, and so long as he gives her first aid and checks her injuries, he'd inevitably find it.
Could it be that easy?
I wouldn't even need the Speed Force, then - I'd just have to focus on bulking up my defense and offense. Let my reflexes develop naturally.
This might be worth looking into.
Anyways, aside from that, there wasn't much that's happened. It's been two weeks, and while I won't say I've mastered, and I won't say it's perfect, I will say my TK shield idea is coming along wonderfully. I'm able to keep them up and repel most of the attacks that come my way, and respond in kind. Problem is that while it certainly stops physical objects, I've noticed that air still gets displaced and will go through - so if someone hit me with a pneumatic battering ram, for instance, I'd stop the ram, but the recoil, or the shockwave, would still hit me and play hell with my organs. Smaller impacts, like bullets, or punches, those are fine - the displaced air isn't enough to damage me - but the bigger stuff is what I need to worry about. So it's not perfect, but it's a lot better than I had earlier, and who around here can punch like a battering ram?
I'm also working on a way to make my strikes hit harder, and I'm using mantis shrimp as my influence. The long and short of it is that these shrimp are able to strike their pray so hard and so fast that they boil the water around them, creating cavitation bubbles that, when they collapse, basically wreck their prey, hitting them with several hundred pounds of force. For comparison's sake, trained black belts - people who literally punch for a living - are among the only people alive who can reach that kind of striking force.
From what I understand, they do this by coiling up their muscles and then lunging forward. Obviously, I can't do this - but what I can do is use my semblance to move my body. So, I'm hoping that, whenever I hit someone, I can 'pulse' my semblance and shove my fist forward like a rocket, giving me two strikes for the price of one, and making sure the second one hits a lot harder. So, using the black belt analogy, my first impact would be the black belt punch, and the second one would be the equivalent of that same black belt strapping a rocket to their elbow and using that to increase their impact force.
Problem: I risk dislocating my shoulder doing this.
Not everything's perfect, but I'm hoping that, given the incredibly small distance my fist will be going for the second impact, a lot of the potential danger will be mitigate; and so far, I haven't had many problems with something like this, it's worked fine. A few minor accidents here and there, but nothing my Old Man Logan healing factor hasn't dealt with.
And I once again draw attention to the fact that my body is clearly changing, with this aura. The more and more I train and practice, the faster I can feel the changes coming on. Things like picking up a couple marbles and juggling them around just a few weeks ago took all of my concentration to do, let alone doing well, but now I can do it with ease. Now I'm making progress on using my semblance as a methods of maneuvering around the battlefield, using it to attack, to defend, whathaveyou. And that's ignoring the effects my aura is having on my body - I ran a mile in four minutes, and that was a week ago. I don't have access to weights, but I'm all but willing to bet I can lift more than a couple times my weight, without my semblance.
All of this in a month.
This is Goku levels of exponential growth. I've gone from scrawny Steve Rogers to supersoldier Captain America in a month, and I'm showing no signs of slowing down. Now, I know this will sound stupid, but this is starting to worry me. Seriously. Aura, and all that, it's supposed to be powered by our soul - anything with a soul, has aura.
But Earth Humans - I'll call them Terrans - and Remnant Humans - they'll stay Humans - evolved in two completely different environments. Could it therefore be possible that the 'rules', and such, of aura are also different? For instance, from that I've been able to surmise, humans can't go in the hole - they can't ever draw more than they have, and they can survive at absolute zero - that's when their shields break and they become vulnerable to injury.
But what if that rule is different for terrans? What if my soul isn't powering my aura - it is my aura? That I'm so strong because I'm drawing from my actual life energy? Same stuff that keeps me alive is what gives me these powers, so what happens if I run out? Do I die? Am I a candle that's burning twice as bright? Is all of this stuff happening to my body, all of these changes, is that me having one last big flare before I burn out? Could this explain why my shields drop when I attack, and go back up when I'm idling around?
What if I'm becoming so strong, so quickly, because I'm actively dying? That my soul has its own equivalent to a fight-or-flight reflex, and right now it's firmly on 'Fight'? That these powers and these abilities I'm being given are my soul trying to give me the chance to get away from perceived threats so I can... Well, put a cap back on it? Seal it up again?
I'm going to have to keep an eye on this. It may very well be just me being paranoid and scared of what I'm capable of. It may literally just be exactly what Cinder said - that we just build and build and build up our aura throughout our entire lives, and this is what happens when all of that buildup finally gets released. I may very well just be overthinking things and this all is a non-issue. But if I'm right... Oh man, I may be in some kind of trouble. I really hope I'm not turning out to be a blood mage. That shit's scary.
But, I won't be ending this on all doom and gloom. After I updated the clocks and calendars on the dead devices, I realized something. Unless I've messed up, my birthday's today. I'm eighteen.
Alright, show of hands: How many folks can say they celebrated their eighteenth on another fucking planet? In another universe?!
Can you imagine the street-cred I'm generating right now? Superpowers, interdimensional travel, functionally becoming Captain America through my aura... A life model after Nathan Drake's heart, and now I'm going to baptize my adulthood prooooobably by preparing to fight God! I want you all to realize that if I survive to my nineteenth birthday, the only way up is to actually make good on those Jesus jokes I made earlier. Go to a bar and grill, turn the water to wine and watch the bartenders shit themselves while I get schnockered.
'Till next time.
For the Record
For Christ's sake, these three are going to be the death of me.
Six fractures, two breaks, all on my lungs. About as much of me is bruised as is not, and I'll have to count myself miraculously lucky this cut over my eye isn't scarring.
All courtesy of Yang Xiao Long. If I remember correctly (as I never downloaded them), I'm pretty sure I just ran into the Yellow trailer, and gate-crashed it like a dick.
The Legion was aware of her breaking nightclubs - apparently Torchwick is more Capone than I initially gave him credit for - and sooooooomehow was able to figure out exactly when she'd head for Junior's club.
I got my ass handed to me.
But, somehow, I gave as good as I got.
Been here less than six months, and I haven't conclusively won... Well, any of my fights, but I would agree with Cinder that surviving them is pretty awesome. Despite that, I return to my point about Goku-level exponential growth, and I'll leave it at really hoping I'm not some kind of blood mage.
Now, Mercury's back. We're gearing up the aviator, he had to beat up an entire bar to do it, but he got White Fang's location out of 'em. We'll be out of dock by tomorrow morning.
So, that means within the next one or two months, we'll be going up against the Fall Maiden.
Grimm nearly crippled me, Neo nearly killed me, and Yang whooped my ass.
Yeah, I guess I'm ready to box God.
'Till next time.
For the Record
My ass just got into a bar fight. Sweet Jesus, am I in a bad movie?
No, wait, I'm in an anime. All of a sudden the clicheness makes a little sense.
Shit, all of my wish fulfillment does, too, now that I think about it.
Anyways, pissed off Emerald (BOOOOOOOOOO!), learned to fly (YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!), found the inn we're looking for, and promptly got into a bar fight (BOOOOOOOO!).
Seriously - just showed up, sat down for a few minutes, and all of a sudden I'm caught up in some little crime ring and I'm beating the shit out of everyone. I didn't even need to use my shield, that's the scary part!
Maybe Cinder has a point, I am just underestimating myself.
Anyways, figured out where TFM's heading, some norse-sounding village north of here. Gurstheim. Emerald is going to be amazed when she wakes up, figures out I did her job for her.
...
Actually she's going to be pissed. God damn it.
But the police will be here in an hour or two, so I'm going to want to leave soon.
Just had an interesting conversation with the bartender lady. She was pretty adamant that I confide in her, and I came this close to doing it, too. But, Cinder's pulled off strange, miraculous ass-pulls before, so I wouldn't doubt it if this entire thing were some kind of set up. See what I do when I'm not directly under their watch. If I go spilling their secrets and mine, I'm screwed, this bartender's screwed, probably the inkeeper is screwed, too.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have someone beyond this journal here to get this shit off my chest to... And having it be a bartender would be pretty poetic, in its own way, but as much as I'm planning on being complicit in a lot of people dying, I don't want to be the cause of any unnecessary deaths if I don't have to be. If I can avoid killing people, or having them be killed, I will.
Shit, Neo seems to be into me, maybe I'll tell her.
Not like she'll talk, amirite?
I'm kidding, of course, but still. I'm in serious need of allies at the moment, and the Legion of Doom only kind of counts. I'm pretty sure if it weren't for this journal here, I'd have gone mad by now - and the journal in and of itself is one hell of a risk. Any of them figure out how to read Earth English and I'm fucked.
Regardless, right now I'm cleaning my gun, and once I'm done with that and this, I'm going to write Qrow's note. Or at least start it, I need to know what we'll be doing, where, and when, before I can set up a meeting with this guy.
And I still kind of want some armor. Gave it a little more thought, I know I'm not going to be able to find my ass an armor that will let me survive big hits, but it should at least be able to relieve the smaller ones. I'm talking regular punches, knives, bullets grazing me - things that, if I can't deflect with me semblance, and that hit my barrier, will then hit my armor and be fully blunted. Big hits - things like Yang punching me, or Ruby's fuck-awful sniper rounds (did I mention I'm pretty sure Ruby's one shot broke more bones than the last half of mine and Yang's fight?) - I'll still take damage from that, I can't avoid it. But small hits, if they get through all of my defenses an armor should be able to negate any of the remaining force.
I also would very much like something lightweight and flexible, so I can keep up my agility in combat. This also plugs into something else - if possible, I'd want it to be non-magnetic, probably something like carbon fiber, or kevlar. Some kind of non-metal plates, maybe a liquid layer too, some kind of non-newtonian liquid, to add onto it, that way if I ever go up against someone like Pyrrha, I can drop the Power Glove and my sidearm, and they won't be able to do jack shit against me.
In other words, I actually am looking for a Batsuit. I swear I was joking, earlier, but the more thought I put into it the more I realize that that is pretty much what I'm looking for.
In a perfect world, there will be time enough before the fight with the Fall Maiden that I can fly to Vale (or maybe Atlas, I'll have to ask for opinions now that the goddamn planet is my playground), get a suit, and get back in time for the fight. Considering what world I'm living in, though... I'm pretty sure it won't be until well after the fight that I get something for myself.
I think Mercury may be able to help me out a bit, though. While we were training together he said his shirt had some light body armor, so he may know where to point me.
And yes, since I'm basically looking for a batsuit, I may very well make the armorer, or blacksmith, or whatever they're called here, give me a fucking bat symbol on the chest. I also find it somewhat entertaining how monochromatic my clothes are turning out to be (black shirt and coat, beige/khaki pants), and yet my Cap Shield is red white and blue. That's like if Batman - you know, 'Does it Come in Black?' - pulled out a rainbow batarang.
Made me giggle, and now the bartender is staring at me like I'm nuts.
I should go.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Hey kids! Aldric the Terrorist, here, with a special public service announcement!
Don't text and fly!
Now that I've said that - flying long distance is fucking boring. It's cold, too - but zipping up my coat and using my Power Glove's heat settings keep me nice and toasty. It's also loud as shit, I have to crank the music to max in order to hear it. The good news is that it's not difficult to apply small amounts of pressure to my body, to keep my blood flowing properly. So I'm flying pretty wicked fucking fast, but Vale is still a long way away, so now I'm here writing this.
On my way to get the Batsuit, that way I'll be as ready as possible for the fight with the Maiden. That is literally days away, by the way - when I get back, it'll be right off to battle.
Also, holy shit, are we in trouble. Cinder's plan isn't to suck Amber's powers away, anymore - she thinks with me in the deck, she can kill Amber and take her powers the 'natural' way. Holy fucking Jesus, is that not good. But how do I sabotage a fight against a goddess? If I hold back, I die, if I don't, they get the power, Cinder gets pissed, she kills me, I die. If I don't hold back, she gets the Maiden powers, I lose any and all credibility with Qrow, have to fight for the Legion, and that's as good as dying.
I think I see an airship.
Maybe I can wound her, somehow? Do so in a way that ensures a slow death, and convinces Cinder that she'll be thinking about goddamn anyone but her? Then she'll have to use the bug, then Qrow can swoop in and I can pray for a little Canon time to make further plans.
I guess the question then would be how do I wound her? What fancy tricks do I have? I can... Slow, but not not stop, atomic movement, I can speed it up a bit, but barely enough to start a fire, and that was by striking a fork on dry wood. I can force choke people, but I doubt that would work considering she's this world's equivalent to Doctor Strange.
...
Maybe I could cut her arm off? Or a limb of some sort? Get her bleeding a lot, that would put her in self-preservation mode, and even if she wouldn't be thinking clearly, I'd at least trust this chick enough to have been taught about her powers. She'd be actively not thinking about Cinder or Emerald, then, and Cinder's a smart woman, she'd figure this out, and would try for plan B.
With this option, at least I'd be capable - I'd just need a few hours to find the settings again on the Power Glove, and get some monomolecular/atomic action going. But doing this, I risk Amber being really goddamn weak and not being able to resist so much, but at least then Cinder wouldn't get everything.
Fuck. I'm in trouble, here. How do I get out of this? How do I convince Cinder that she needs Plan B? How can I get her to merge Plan B and plan A?
Yep, it was an airship. I think I freaked out this chick sitting next to a window, she saw me gliding right alongside her, but before she could look again I dropped below it and sped past.
Man I wish she could've heard me, though. I would have totally dropped the 'Wrong turn at Albuquerque' line.
And unfortunately, making a Bugs Bunny joke didn't give me any random ass epiphany.
So, what do I know? I know that the Maidens pass their powers based on the young woman last in their thoughts. Cinder's plan is to use this against her and be the last woman in her thoughts, so how do I convince her she might not be? And though it may seem obvious, I can't try and dress in drag like Bugs Bunny and convince Amber I'm a woman. I don't even want to begin on why I won't do that.
Emerald won't be any help on this either, she's loyal to Cinder like a dog to its master.
Wait, her eyes! Holy shit, her eyes!
I knock out her god damn eyes, she can't see Cinder, Cinder won't take that big of a risk, Cinder will go to plan B!
And I've got an in-built excuse!
"How the fuck was I supposed to know to not gouge out her eyes? There's no honor in a street fight, hot stuff, and I was fighting a goddess. I wasn't holding anything back. I admit I may have gotten carried away, but I return to my earlier point: A fucking goddess!"
And all of my 'victories' so far have been built on me sabotaging my opponents in some way. I put a gun to Torchwick's head, got rid of Neo's umbrella, and jammed up Yang's gauntlets. I've got precedence for this!
Okay... Okay, whew. Now I actually have something of a plan.
I just have to go for the eyes. They're the groin of the head, I'll be fine.
Okay, now I'll focus on flying again.
I think I can see Vale.
'Till next time.
For the Record
I remember reading once, this news story about a cartel assassin. It wasn't one of those two twin brothers from Breaking Bad, but this woman who did work for the Mexican drug cartels. She got caught one day, and didn't even hide the shit she'd done. She explained in gory detail how she would decapitate her targets and drain their bodies of fluids into bathtubs because she liked watching them grow pale, and the blood flow down the drain. Sometimes she said she even went so far as to physically wring out the corpses to the last drop, like a fucking sponge!
And that's not the worst thing, she said that most of the time she'd keep at least one of her targets alive, get them aroused and then kill them, and then have sex with the corpse. She said all of this with a straight face, like she were discussing the weather. "Oh, it's seventy six degrees, I fuck dead bodies, it's a little cloudy right now..."
I remember reading this news story and there was this kind of... Abject fear, that gripped me. Like, that kind of fear you feel when you know that you won't personally experience something even remotely close to that kind of terror, but you're still scared to death of it. People like that exist, and she admitted to doing this. That's a kind of sociopathy that terrified me, when I read about it.
All of that - I feel all of that kind of terror, mixed with perhaps the most confusing arousal I've ever experienced, when I consider that Neo-goddamn-politan doesn't 'seem' to be attracted to me, she is attracted to me.
This is a chick that was dining in a restaurant for assassins, openly admitting that she killed before she was even eighteen, and 'hasn't been bored' since. For Chrissakes, she did it all nonchalantly, too!
"Oh, after that I just had to kill." All casual-like. Like she were saying she had to fix a flat tire, or an EMT saying they had to stick someone with a needle.
"You're interesting." She says. "I like interesting." She says.
She's a few steps separated from a real life Joker, or Harley Quinn - No, wait, better - she's Yuno Gasai. Need I say more? Fuck me.
Back home, I was the single lonely asshole. Granted it probably had something to do with me wearing trench coats to an American highschool (not really a recipe for success, see.), but that doesn't change the point. I had... One? Ish? It's a strange story, but it didn't last long. Here? I've got a woman with a god-complex trying to come on to me, and a psycho assassin actively coming on to me. At least with Cinder I can make the excuse that she's trying to to foster some kind of loyalty, but with Neo? Jesus Christ.
I never expected to have this problem, and now that I do have it, I don't know what to do. Like, at all.
So, if it isn't obvious, I ran into Neo and Torchwick again. Mercury pointed me to 'The Garden', a Switzerland-like neutral hotel/meeting grounds for Vale's underworld. I picked up some armor (rocking the Knightmare Batman look, by the way), and got some food. Then I ran into them, Torchwick saved my ass from the suspicions of the local assassins, we shot the shit, and he played matchmaker by leaving me with the ice cream psycho.
Silver lining? I... Got a girl's phone number? I think? Kind of? I mean, she took mine down, I valued my life too much to ask for hers.
But (tie it full circle) she reminds me of that cartel assassin lady, so I don't know if that's a good thing.
Worse, is that I'm tempted to say a 'sane Yuno Gasai', but I don't know THAT either! I haven't spent nearly enough time with her to judge if she's a saner, tamer Yandere queen, or if she just seems that way because I haven't seen her in action!
Definitely someone to bring home to the folks, though:
"Hey Mom! This is my girlfriend, she has superpowers, almost killed me, and pretty much kills people as part of her day job. Within minutes of our first date she made a joke about literally bathing in people's blood, and I honestly don't know if she was fucking with me or if she was serious. I also think she wants babies, and I would definitely fear for my life too much to say no, if she asked. She's pretty, though! Squint a little and lean back far enough, she doesn't look nearly as homicidal!"
Though, funny part? All else being equal, I'm pretty sure my Dad would have pushed this envelope, if only to watch me squirm.
I miss that fat man.
Boy are these people going to be pissed they took him from me.
But that's all I have to say about that.
Anyways, I'm armored up, got myself a Winter Soldier-style mask and goggles for when I meet up with Qrow, I'm thoroughly trying not to think of the one good look I got down her shirt (I swear it was an accident. A thoroughly confusing, arousing accident. Jesus Christ.), and I'm flying back to the Legion.
After this, I do my best Kratos impression, and pray I can kill a goddess.
Oh, and I made a plan for Qrow. I made a brief pit stop to write down the message.
The plan after the Fall Maiden is to go back to Vale and hide out, while we figure out our next step. Cinder alluded to getting back in touch with Salem. So, I wrote down two notes, one I plan to slip to the Maiden, one I hope I can slip to Qrow himself.
"Qrow Branwen, you are not alone, you have a friend on the inside. A kindred spirit who knows what Salem is doing is wrong, and an agent willing to serve the light from the shadows. We need to meet, before we lose any more Maidens. I'll be in Vale for one week after our attack on Amber, and will wait behind Mogar's Grillin' Bar. Meet me there, I am not your enemy."
And I signed it Nathan Drake.
Hoooo boy. I hope this works.
If I don't make another entry, it's probably because I did a shitty Kratos.
'Till next time.
For the Record
I am an idiot.
I am a goddamn idiot.
In the show, the 'battle' lasted about five minutes, and then Qrow showed up. Here, Cinder switched tactics from ambush to attrition, and my incredibly intelligent ass didn't even consider what that would mean for Qrow's arrival. Us magically changing up the game plan wouldn't mean he'd show up later, why would it?
For my lapse in judgement, I got my fucking arm cut off... And now there are pits where my eyes should be.
I'm not kidding - I'm like... Big Boss, right now, just minus the shrapnel in my skull.
So, Bucky Barnes, I guess.
Anyways. Arm: Gone. Eyes: Gouged out. Irony: Noted.
Qrow cut the arm off on arrival, and Amber electrocuted the holy living shit out of my face; how I didn't scar is beyond me.
I got hit with that bad luck shit baaaaad.
And then literally everything I did to try and fix the situation made it worse. I had to put him on the defensive, so I used the Power Glove to eat his scythe and give Mercury and Emerald a tactical advantage... But forgot that he's a fucking badass Huntsman who was fighting two exhausted teenagers.
Emerald's dead now.
Then I initially intended to just poke Amber's eyes out, but Cinder freaked out and shot me, so now it looks like I went Freddy Krueger on her - half of her face is gone and her eyes looked like they got sawed in half. I think I had nightmares about it.
Then we hit more bad luck.
Well, depending on your point of view, at least: All of the damage from the battle meant the ground was unstable, and Qrow being there for so long meant it was only a matter of time before stuff went south. The ground collapsed underneath her, gave Qrow time enough to sever her connection with Amber, and get the eff out of dodge.
Bad luck for the Legion... Fortuitous turn of events for the League. Win some lose some.
But Cinder's pissed, and apparently considered leaving me there because of it, but decided against it. I guess I'm still worth something, but I'm pretty sure I'll bleed out the ears once she gets back.
Now we're back in the Garden, a doctor gave me some hardcore drugs for the pain, stitched my stump up, and cut my fucking eyes out 'so they wouldn't get infected'. Couldn't reattach the arm, though. When it got cut off, I torched the stump to cauterize it and stop the bleeding, and apparently the Legion of Doom didn't store the severed limb well. So I'll have to pull a Winter Soldier and swap it out with a cybernetic replacement.
And here I was trying to avoid too much magnetic shit in my arsenal.
Or, wait, graphene isn't magnetic. CNT's even less so.
I'll have to look into that. I think Remnant's advanced enough to have those... But I doubt it'll be cheap. Probably have to drop more than a few coins for it.
Oh, and apparently Mercury has even more coins than I thought. There's a whole hierarchy thing going on, platinum, gold, and glass. One glass is a million platinums (Jesus!), and Mercury implied he has a lot of glass (Christ!).
So, remember earlier, I mentioned I wanted to try and swipe some of Mercury's coins? I think that simultaneously became simpler, and harder. I'll have to look into that more.
As a side note: I can use my semblance as a replacement for the arm - it's wicked simple, harkening back to just visualizing it - but it takes a little concentration to do, and since I'm preparing my Edward Elric impression... Why bother? Maybe it'll be good for a party trick, but... I dunno what use potentially having more than one limbs could have, especially since it's infinitely easier to skip a TK limb and just go for direct manipulation.
Side note to the side note: How many more cyborgs do I know? I've name dropped three and I'm not sure who's the most appropriate for the situation.
Of a similar vein, my semblance can help me somewhat get around my lack of eyes, too.
Thank the radar pulse, for that. 360 degree, tactile, 3D view, of everything around me for an average of ten or so meters? I'm pretty much some kind of unholy mixture of Neji Hyuuga and Daredevil, at this point.
I had some trouble figuring out how to tune it so I could see things in color, though. Originally I saw everything in this... Sepia-like tone, it was all a uniform color. I didn't even see shadows or differences in light, and I couldn't try to read things or look at TV screens - I'd just see blank slates on both of them. But now that I don't have any fucking eyes, that won't fly anymore.
Fortunately, it only took a few hours to figure this one out. The long and short of it is that, while nowhere near mastered, I've been able to 'feel' atoms and such for a while now - it's how I was able to heat up the power glove and cauterize my arm, after all. Going on my whole theories about 'anything with mass', I know photons have mass. They're weird in that they both do and do not, but they do have mass, just a really... Really small amount of it. And since color is basically just photons radiating at different intensities... Strictly speaking, if I plug those two into all of the tactile stuff with my radar pulse, I should be able to see in color again.
The result?
I can definitely see in color, that much is true. I can read words on a book and make sense of images on a television/computer screen (wouldn't be writing this if I couldn't!)... But I can also see in more color than I used to be able to.
I can see infrared and ultraviolet light too.
That actually freaked me the fuck out, when I started seeing the laser shooting out of the TV remote, and all of the wacky technicolor stuff floating around in the air. I thought the doctor's pain meds had kicked in again. Looked like I was on acid, or in the Doctor Strange movie. I cannot explain how it looks any better, though. It's like trying to describe color without any reference points.
It took me the most time out of all to figure out how to focus my newfound sight to just the visible spectrum, in regards to human eyes, and such. Any lapse in focus, though - acid trip. Maybe this will prove useful, one day - I can see lasers and shit, now - but at the moment, it just fries my brain and freaks me out.
Point is: I have no eyes, but I can see - arguably better than I have ever seen before. Describing going from my eyes to solely relying on the radar pulse... I'd say it's like living your entire life looking through a little coffee stirrer straw, and then being able to take that straw away.
Side note: I'm going to have to put some serious thought and consideration in figuring out how to use the radar pulse as a listening device, of sorts. With the shit I've made it do so far, sensing the vibrations in the air and translating it into sound I can understand isn't too far off.
Side note to the side note: It still hasn't escaped me how I'm doing godlike shit with my powers, despite having had them less than half a year. I haven't forgotten my old ideas, and now with how much I'm going to have to rely upon them to function, I'm all the more scared and worried about my 'burn out' theory.
But, I'm off track.
Cinder wasn't hit nearly as bad as Mercury and I - Mercury got his legs fucking blown off! - and all of us weren't hit nearly as hard as Emerald.
'Cause she's dead.
I do not know what to think about this. It's been long enough a day as it is.
But Cinder's out setting up another meet with Torchwick. After that, and after we recover, we're going for Adam Taurus. After that? Fuck if I know, that's approaching canon time, and the Legion's activities up until the Vytal tournament were kind of vague. Will we be replenishing our numbers, maybe? Who would replace Emerald? I have no clue.
But, between then and now, I hope to meet Qrow.
Problem: What with my string of colossal fuck ups... I'm worried about my chances in such a meetup.
Seriously: I clawed Amber's eyes out and was instrumental in almost killing Qrow - the dude got a knife to the back because I disarmed him!
I basically kicked the Hulk in the groin, and am now expecting him to not be mad.
That's a recipe for success, definitely.
The good news, at least, is that even if I meet Qrow without the new arm, he'll still have a hard time recognizing me. Mercury assured me that Emerald disguised our appearances with her semblance, and with my semblance arm trick and my coat to disguise the empty air, he won't be able to peg me as the guy whose arm he cut off. Add on that ballistic mask I got from the Garden awhile back (was that really just a few days ago? Holy shit, it feels like a year.), and there won't be any way they could recognize me. I'll need to get creative to mask the bandages on my eyes, though...
Regardless - they will start looking for folks with cybernetic replacements, now... Hopefully getting a robo-arm here at the Garden won't put me on some kind of registry.
If it does, I'll call myself Adam Jensen.
I didn't ask for this, but I'm not going to say no.
Okay, okay, I'm done. Clearly I've disarmed you with the cyborg jokes.
That was the last one. I'm afraid making another will cost me an arm and a leg.
Coping mechanisms aside... What comes next?
I guess it's food. Not much to really do... I'll see if I can't find a way to sneak out tonight, but I doubt that'd be a good idea, still in recovery like I am. My stump is basically one big purple bruise - it hurts to look at it, let alone poke it through the bandages.
In other news: Now just watch. I'm back in the Garden, and very weak. I give it... An hour.
Neo will *sense* my weakness.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Just got back from the prosthetist. It was a delightfully normal encounter - I got to shoot the shit with an engineer, and the resultant three hours taught me more about Remnant's technological standing than weeks on their internet.
I also freaked him the fuck out when I started using my radar pulse to see things, even though - by rights - I am visibly blind.
I think I'll use the power glove and start walking around with a cane, blind man style. Start making the illusion that I am blind, put people less on guard when they're around me.
Anyways, I spent that three hours working out what all I wanted out of my new robo-arm, and I swear to god, if I hadn't already picked Nathan Drake as my code name for this meeting with Qrow, I would have chosen 'Venom Snake' instead. This arm is basically going to be his - visually, at least - and it's gorgeous.
The guy's just as excited about the arm as I am, he hasn't met anyone who could keep up with him like I did. Most folks just say 'gimme something shiny!', and he has to figure it out from there, but I had an idea of what I wanted and we hashed out the rest.
To skip over a very long, jargony conversation, it looks like Venom Snake's arm, but it may very well function as the Winter Soldier's, with some Adam Jensen hidden weaponized goodies to boot. I got it made out of carbon nanotubes (Remnant has those! But god help you if you want to know why they don't use them.), so not only will it be far less magnetic than anything else would have been, but it will be functionally indestructible to boot. I also managed to learn that my worries about enhanced strength were unfounded - I can get wickedly enhanced strength out of this thing, and at no detriment to my body. It has something to do with dust and aura (as does everything on this planet), and that was all the explanation I got out of him.
I can shoot the shit 'till the cows come home about Remnant's science, but the moment dust enters the picture, people turn into Todd Howard. 'It just works'.
So, greatly decreased magnetism, and enhanced strength. So what about weapons?
Well... That's where I struck out.
While it's not impossible to hook up ranged weapons to robo-arms, the long and short of it is that it's damn difficult, and then I'd have an eighty thousand pound weight swinging from my shoulder.
But, my consolation prize was... Well... Groovy.
I forget if I mentioned it here in the journal, but a long while ago, around the same time I started experimenting with the power glove's versatility, I wondered if it wouldn't be possible to make some kind of chainsaw-like implement for it. I ended up shelving the idea both because I felt I didn't have the time to figure out mono-molecular/atomic cutting edges, and also because I couldn't even begin to figure out how to make anything but a disc-shaped blade.
Well, guess what the prosthetist said he could totally wire into my arm?
We determined we could skip the teeth of the saw with small portions of the Power Glove, and that plus using the same materials the arm itself will be made out of, means that we can exponentially cut down on the weight. It'll be stored in the forearm, and while it won't replace my power glove at all, it'll definitely be a good backup in case I lose it and can't get at my backup canister.
Ashy Slashy.
I'm not totally giving up on some kind of ranged implement, though - during our little conversation I learned that Remnant has energy weapons, too, and that gave me an idea on how to expand my arsenal, but it'll be some time before I have the time or resources to even start on it.
Saying that, I feel like Neo near the end of the first Matrix - when he walked in strapped with, like, two dozen weapons hanging from his chest, arms, and even stuffed in his coat.
I mean, for chrissakes - the Power Glove has nigh limitless applications for simple weapons, ala the T-1000 from Terminator 2.
I've got the pistol/knife I hardly use.
I've got my semblance that basically turns me into some kind of Goku-lite, what with the melee combat, among god knows what else I can do with it.
And now I've got a Winter Soldier arm, with super strength and a motherfucking hardlight chainsaw that doubles as a paddle, if I'm not wanting to maim people.
I don't even have anything witty, to say about that.
Just... Damn.
Hardly six months ago I'd never held anything heavier than a BB gun, and now I've got (and am getting) weapons enough to outfit a small army.
That's all, for now. It's time for food, and after that, I'm going to try and slip out of the Garden tonight and meet up with Qrow.
Here's hoping.
'Till next time.
For the Record
I... I can't even. My life is starting to become more complicated than a comic book superhero's.
Apparently I'm little 'g' god.
Cinder seems to think that my little stunt with the lightning bolts the other day is indicative of me being the male equivalent to a Maiden, and that everyone from Earth has this kind of power.
There's a 'ten percent of your brain' Lucy-or-something joke in there, somewhere, but this has got me so fucking stressed out I can't even work up the energy to type it out. I'll go into it later.
Regardless, I wrote this little bit here before I grabbed my shit. I'm going to go out for a run, I'm going to leave my scroll here in case Cinder decides to uses it to listen in on me. Gonna stay out 'till dark, pray I meet up with Qrow. I'll think/write more on this when I get back.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Funny, thing: There's still a smaaaaaall part of me that is scared shitless Cinder knows what I'm doing, and is just letting me do it to see how I act in the wild. To see if I'll slip up and give her something from Earth that she can use. Like, maybe she's waiting for me to give the Justice League the secret to nuclear weapons, and then she'll gobble that shit up and - oh! Vale got obliterated with the push of a fucking button!
I mean, I checked all of my bases. Dotted all of my 'I's, crossed my 'T's. I went over my jacket three times with a molecular-level radar pulse, no listening devices. Checked my aura, nothing weird. Left my scroll here in the Garden, no chance she could bug that. My earth tech is still on the aviator, so she can't have tampered with that. Constantly used the radar to check for pursuers, doubled back more than a few times just in case... I even followed the advice from that Spec Ops Survival Guide I mentioned I'd grabbed from the plane, a long time back. Remember that? Yeah, it still has some use. Glad I didn't burn it.
Hell, I'm also starting the arduous journey of learning how to write in code, such that even (god forbid) Cinder learns how to read Earth English, she won't be able to make sense of my journals. I'm turning into fucking Light Yagami, here, folks! (I'm not going to make a 'chip to eat' joke. That's too easy.) The point is, no matter how thoroughly I check everything to make sure there's no way Cinder's onto me... I'm still just the tiniest bit worried.
I mean, for chrissakes - she's a demigoddess, now. Half of the real deal, compared to my 'kindasortamaybewedunno'.
Is it paranoia if they're really out to get you?
Anyways, all that to say: I met up with the League today. It's me, Qrow, and Ozpin.
Much as I'd like to call us the Illuminati, earlier I decided on the Watchmen, and that sounds cooler, so I'm keeping that. The League is Ozpin's faction, the Watchmen is the three of us.
It was kind of funny, actually - I was walking up all swaggerific, thinking I owned the place. Qrow promptly beat my ass into the ground, so badly that I had to pull a Commander Shepard and shove a gun in his gut to get him to stop. Then we shot the shit for a while, and then he dropped the bomb: Ozpin had been there the whole time, somehow even fooling my radar pulse.
I'd been played from the start. I thought I had everything in control, but I'm not even a student compared to those two masters.
But, it worked out in the end. Watchmen: Formed. Ozpin and Qrow are on my side, and now I'm not alone. They promised not to divulge even my pseudonym out amongst the rest of the League, so for now, it's just them knowing about the whole Green Hornet deal. I honestly think Ozpin already knows what I look like, maybe he can even read my mind, but I'm keeping up the whole 'Batman Anonymity Method Acting' thing going until I can't anymore. For my own sanity, at least.
I mean, for chrissakes, the mask I got from my first visit to the Garden is pretty much one of those muzzles you see the psych patients wear, albeit less... Muzzling. Point is it masked the important half of my face, a pair of goggles hid my nonexistent eyes, and I wrapped my head up in a big ol' shemagh to hide my bandages. So as much as I'd like to assume Ozpin already knows (he fooled the radar, after all!), I'm going to operate as if he doesn't until I know otherwise.
My throat feels like it's on fire, by the way. I need to get to work on using my semblance to screw with sound. Go from Bale's Batman to Batfleck.
Anyways, point is: I've got allies now. Hooray!
Problem: I need an excuse that the Legion will buy for me spending a lot of Mercury's money on burner scrolls... And though I've already got an idea... I've got a horrible feeling in my groin that I may come to regret it.
Neo may have her use yet.
But the problem with that, is I already fucked that potential avenue up by not thinking and giving her my primary number.
(Oh my god I'm actually considering voluntarily dating Yuno Gasai. When did I lose control of my life?)
Maybe instead I can start siphoning small amounts of money off with every purchase I make? Squirrel it away into bank account, and use that for my burner phones?
That might work better.
Thinking on it, maybe I can merge the two. Convince Neo that, god forbid she gets caught and they go through her scroll, 'they' could find my number in there and use it to track me down. That puts Cinder's operations at risk, and that's bad juju. So instead, maybe we can start picking up burner phones, link them together with free messaging apps (like Kik from back home). That gives me a plausible reason for pissing away money on burner phones, and also a reason to squirrel away money to a personal bank account.
And to keep up good feelings between the two of us I can download the app on my primary scroll, shoot her a message if I ever think too much time has passed. I've learned that, while good, there is nothing on Remnant even approaching the levels of techno-sleuth the NSA reached back home. Tracking scroll numbers? Possible. Tracking IP Addresses? Less so. Figure that one out.
Problem: This means I have to date Yuno Gasai.
Uuugh... What Would Nathan - actually, he'd probably make a 'don't stick your dick in crazy' joke, let's be honest here.
Fuck me.
Who knows? Maaaaaaaaaybe she's actually nice when you get to know her? It's not an absolute impossibility that I'm blowing this all out of proportion... Right? Yeah? Maybe I'll come to enjoy it? In a... Sick... Twisted... Sadistic... Morbid curiosity kind of way, but still.
Or, you know, eventually she'll figure out what I'm up to and cut my genitals off.
But let's not think about to that.
(Ahem... note to self: Buy a cod piece.)
(Ten cod pieces)
(No, twenty.)
(And wear them at the same time, whenever I'm in the same general... Planet, as her.)
So that's that problem fixed.
We'll actually be meeting up with them soon, so I need to get to work on that pretty fast. (Gotta practice my Johnny Bravo.) And since the Legion seems to... Well, at least Cinder approves - I doubt Mercury gives two shits - I won't have to worry too much on that end. I did already kind of set this up, with that whole 'find a girl, settle down' comment I dropped on Cinder.
Makes me wonder how Emerald would have reacted.
After them, we fly back to Taurus... And after that? Fuck if I know, my knowledge is kind of useless until I hear about Torchwick fucking up a dust store robbery, and even then, I don't know very much about what the Legion does in the background of all the RWBY shenanigans. If I had to guess, maybe we'd be trying to find someone to replace Emerald, seeing as how we can't rely on her semblance to fuck shit up in the Vytal tournament anymore.
What I'm hoping to do is make the whole communications issue a non-issue. Once we're done with Taurus I hope to have nothing but time (or at least a lot more of it), and I'm going to use that to bridge Earth and Remnant tech. The keyboard stuff I mentioned awhile back is only part of the dream - what I really want to do is set up some kind of application that reprograms my phone, that way I can use it to connect to the CCT Network, and make calls to Remnant devices. Then, I won't have to piss away money on burner phones, as I'll have a reliable, uncrackable method of communicating with the Watchmen.
I figured out how to use Remnant Tech to charge Earth devices, I can do this.
But before that, I'm going to sleep.
Oh, uh, shit. I forgot to mention: I told them the whole 'Masters' theory Cinder and I have running... Thaaaat I told the Watchmen about, because I think, of anyone, they may need that kind of information as much as I do.
Simply put: Cinder thinks I'm a god.
No, that's not a joke! I didn't tell her about nuclear physics and now she worships me like a caveman would worship a fighter jet pilot, I mean she actually thinks I'm the male equivalent to Remnant's Maidens!
Side note: As a fan of the show, that phrase actually pisses me off, because I know there's no such thing. They were pretty adamant about that.
But as some random asshole trying to survive here? The prospect excites me.
Also: I really need a better way to phrase that. Ozpin was right, it sounds ridiculous.
Anyways, remember I said during our fight that I grabbed ahold of the lightning Amber made, and electrocuted the shit out of her with it? I already mentioned that Cinder is using that as her evidence. She thinks that, at the very least, I still have a lot of power I still haven't tapped into... A veritable aura 'fight or flight', if you will... But the operative word was 'very least'.
As in, she thinks there's a better option.
And apparently, that option is the Master theory, that the same 'magic' that fuels the Maidens, fuels me.
She coined the term 'Master' to describe it... As in, the male version of Maiden.
Christ that sounds so stupid, saying it. And I thought the same thing, too. It sounded just as ridiculous hearing it from her mouth. But as we got to talking, I got to thinking, and realized that my powers (and the peculiarities of them) are pretty similar to what we've seen of the maidens, thus far.
Now, to preface this... As time went on and I realized this theory held more weight, I did try to convince her that the fight or flight theory might be the better one, mostly by not saying shit and keeping most of my conclusions to myself... But Cinder's one crazy lady. She smells power, she doesn't listen to anything that says otherwise.
So, I noticed that our methods of defending ourselves are almost identical. We don't rely on our aura as much as we do our powers. Then too are our abilities similar - this may seem far-fetched, but think about it.
What is freezing leaves but slowing atomic movement? What is creating fire but exciting atomic movement? What is creating a huge layer of clouds but fusing a bunch of hydrogen molecules with a bunch of oxygen molecules? And the lightning storm could easily be created with the leftover electrons from the atomic recombinations, in addition to the ambient energy created by the friction of all of that mass rubbing against eachother? And finally, what is pulling an apple out of thin air but atomic reconstruction on an infinitely complex scale?
"Well, fine -" You say, "- it's just magic. That's their shtick. Magic."
But what is magic but science we don't understand?!
You show a smartphone to a British Empire-era guy, they'd think you're a fucking wizard!
And what have I theorized I can use aura to do, with science? I've theorized I can freeze things to absolute zero... Ignite the air to create plasma - I've basically, in some way or another, and at some point or another, listed out everything above as being possible through my semblance.
Not enough?
Okay, well get this:
After I thought about how a lot of their powers could basically be tied into telekinesis, I considered, 'well, how could they do things on such a small scale, with such picture-perfect accuracy?', and then I realized - thats where the 'magic' plugs in. Without using it, they would have to do everything themselves, but with their Maiden 'magic', all they have to do is think 'apple' and then their powers do the rest, rearranging the atoms in the environment around them until they get an apple. As long as they can visualize it, Green Lantern style, they can have it.
Does that sound familiar?
Because that's exactly how I've found my semblance to work. I want to pick up my phone? I have to visualize it getting picked up and floating over to me. I want to fly? I have to visualize how I want to do it - be it Iron Man style or Superman style, it has to be there in my mind. I want radar? I have to visualize the pulse, start feeling out, as if I could physically touch and feel every surface.
Oh, that's not enough either?
Cinder's had half of the Maiden's powers and has been growing in strength at an incredible rate. Now does that sound familiar? Like a certain 'exponential growth' I've been whining and agonizing about for weeks now?
And then there's that my powers seem to be largely distinct from my aura.
Now that may sound asinine considering all of the shit I've been talking about powering up my semblance sapping my shields... But even if I leave a little bit for the shields, when Mercury would break them, I wouldn't just go back to being human, or suddenly grow weaker, I'd still have obscene amounts of power I could draw on, when it's supposed to be aura that fuels semblance - and if one runs out, the other either ceases to function, or grows much weaker.
Cinder, as an aside, thinks that my telekinesis is a result of me sealing away all of these powers. It's what's leftover. That we just misinterpreted it as a semblance.
Now, the argument can be made, and I do acknowledge, that because I'm technically of another species than these people, my aura may just work differently.
But that doesn't eliminate the fact that there are a lot of startling similarities to my abilities and those of the maidens, and because I do it too much, of course it got me thinking.
Could this maybe explain why Cinder didn't just try to sap my power when she woke it up? Or why she's so borderline desperate to keep my loyalty? She clearly has suspicions, but I can't help but wonder if she knew from the very beginning? And if that's the case, does Salem know? Is that why she decided to pull people from my world? To potentially have an army of Masters and Maidens at her beck and call? Or did she not know, and get really lucky?
And as a side note, be it fight or flight or something more 'magical', could it be related to why my eyes hurt after I pulled Amber's lightning?
At first I'd thought I'd just burned my eyes, but I've seen lightning before, sometimes even up close, and that's never happened before.
Now like I said, this could very well be the result of me being from another planet, another universe, and technically another species. But if it isn't? Oh, man.
I'm basically Doctor Strange to these peoples' Avengers.
Fuck me, I need sleep.
'Till next time.
For the Record
And every single interaction I have with her just reinforces the idea that despite it all, Cinder fucking knows.
"How do you feel about being a spy?" - I ALMOST BLASTED HER OUT OF THE GODDAMN HOTEL!
Though, funny: Still not a scary as the prospect of dating Neo.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
To start, at least now I know how she figured out where Amber was, in-canon.
The simple part, first: Torchwick and Neo stopped by the hotel today. Neo ended up being the one who put up the idea of burner phones, so at least now I can pin the idea on her if the Legion gets pissed.
Also, I am now officially dating Yuno Gasai. Not only did I never think I would say that completely unironically, but - actually, I've said it so many times it's pretty much lost its meaning. The bitch is scary, I can't tell when she's joking or she's serious, I have to match wits with her and date an assassin, and I think the next time we see eachother she's going to take my virginity whether I want her to or not.
Moving on.
Torchwick was here to drop off a literal suitcase full of money, and another one full of dust crystals, and considering dust is worth its weight in gold... He basically dropped two briefcases full of money; we're on our way now to go beat the shit out of the White Fang and force Taurus to work with us. I'm wondering if this will be like my bar fight, or closer to fighting an army of Neos. I'm really hoping for the former.
But that's not the important part. I'm not worried about that - I survived Neo, Yang, and god damn god, in that order. Then I sparred with Qrow and now I'm dating Neo. White Fang thugs don't scare me.
No, what scares me is when Cinder comes in and insinuates that she knows I'm here spying on her... By dropping the word 'you' and 'spy' the very second she comes in.
I am not kidding when I say I nearly blasted that bitch out of the ship when she said that... But fortunately, I kept my cool.
Let's start from the top:
While we were talking, Neo implied Torchwick has contacts everywhere in Vale, and fingers in a lot of pies over in other countries, too. One of those pies is Atlas, and one of those contacts let him in on the fact that Ozpin ordered 'state of the art bla bla bla science jargon' - he ordered cryo stasis pods, is having them delivered to Beacon. Problem is, they don't say exactly where in Beacon.
Cinder hashed it out with Torchwick, Beacon's initiation exams and whatnot are here in a few months, and he's got enough favors to get birth certificates and grade reports forged... In my name.
Well, not my name. It's too foreign.
Goodbye Nebo Aldric... Hello Goud Etiolate. The former meaning gold, or star, I think, and the other - I had to look that up. It basically means ashen. Golden Ash.
I'll tell people to call me Ash.
Groovy.
If it isn't obvious yet... They're sending my ass to Beacon so I can find Amber.
Before I go on, let's get this cleared up:
I'm working with Cinder, spying on the League... Who I am working for... Spying on Cinder... Whom I plan to use to meet Salem, to spy on her for the League, so I can inevitably betray her and - why does everything smell like copper?
What the fuck, Chuck? This is Revolver Ocelot type shit. Does that make Ozpin Big Boss?
Cinder laid out the plan for me. She knows Amber is in Beacon, that's where Torchwick said the cryo pods are getting shipped. She wants a spy on the inside, writing reports on the up and coming Huntsman, Beacon's staff, Ozpin himself, and eventually, Amber's location.
So, while we're gone and his cronies are out robbing dust shops, Torchwick is going to forge some paperwork and get me into the Beacon entrance exams. I've been told that only sixty percent of the grade is the physical portions, so I'm going to have to figure out how the fuck not to bomb the written exam and still get in. From there, I entrench myself in the school, start spying on the locals, send reports, and figure out where Amber is.
Technically, I already have that last bit covered, so... Problem solved. Whoopee.
Meanwhile, they're telling me that after they pick up Taurus, their plans gear down until they can drain Vale of its dust shops. Cinder liked the burner phone chat app idea (why the fuck do we have 'main' scrolls if we're going to not use them at the first available chance?!), decided to adopt it.
I smell copper again: I need burner phones for Neo, so I can talk to her, the Watchmen, and the Legion, get updates from the Watchmen, probably sexts of some sort from Neo, I dunno, and updated orders from the Legion.
So basically, I'm Light Yagami pretending to be Revolver Ocelot working for L while betraying Brutus by telling him I'm driving a Trojan Horse... For Benedict Arnold.
Allthewhile using Watergate's telephones.
What the fuck even is my life?
Finally:
Cinder said that before she ships me off to beacon, we're going to spend some time trying to crack into my power - see if we can prove whether or not it's Master or just fight or flight - At least to such a point that I can access it on my own and experiment while I'm gone. Obviously, she'll want updates on what I find.
And that brings us back full circle, to Beacon.
It occurs to me that I may have to tell the Watchmen that I'm going there... But so too does it occur to me that telling them 'Nathan Drake is going to Beacon' might also be a piss-poor idea. I'm keeping my damn identity from them to ensure as remote a possibility as possible that they may hesitate against me if we ever meet on the battlefield, because - god forbid I survive, or win, that will inevitably lead to the Legion catching on to me.
So should I instead tell them that a spy is going to Beacon?
Because, if I don't, they may take that as a breach of trust... And, push comes to shove, they catch me on campus and try to detain me, the name Nathan Drake is a get out of jail free card.
I'll have to think more on this.
At least Taurus' camp is coming up, next. That'll be an hour or two of beating the snot out of people, won't have to think as hard.
Now, just watch: Somehow, some way, some shape, some form, it's going to happen. I'm going to have to fight Adam. I'm calling it, because that's my life now.
Travel to exotic planets, get superpowers, meet new and interesting people... And promptly beat the shit out of them.
But before all of that?
I need a new arm.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Oh, dear god I'm tired. This was a terrible fucking idea.
From the top: I was right, and wrong at the same time.
I had to fight Adam Taurus, I was right about that. But I was wrong about the why.
See, I'd thought it would be some kind of contrived BS about 'Oh, prove to me your power!', and then Cinder would be all, 'One armed attack dog! I choose you!', and I'd use Improvise, and it would not be very effective, but I'd win somehow, like I always do. Probably need to put my new arm back together, but still.
But, no. That's not what happened.
Instead, Taurus noticed I'd been mutilated and that Emerald was missing, concluded she was dead, and basically called Cinder's character into question, refusing to work for her if she'd 'throw [our] lives away'.
He's probably a lot closer to the mark than he realizes, but I digress. The result was predictable: Big fucking fight.
But, in that brief little calm before the storm, I realized something:
Things had changed.
In the show, Cinder had convinced Taurus to join her mutually. She beat the shit out of his guys to do it, but still: He chose to join her. Somehow, some way, she won his respect, be it immediately or gradually. In the show, he was loyal.
Here? Fuck no! He was ready to fight and die just to spite us! She forced his cooperation, there is no loyalty and likely will never be any. He's a proud man, and she all but insulted said pride. Add on that this dude is pretty much loyal to a fault when it comes to his men, he's not willing to waste a single life, and all that, and she basically flipped him the bird and said she'd throw bodies at the problems like the Soviets if she wanted to.
That pissed him off. He won't take that lying down.
So, he's not loyal. He's as far from loyal as you can be.
Change.
A startlingly major change... But not one I can't do something with.
After all, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
To summarize a surprisingly short (but painful) fight, I managed to convince Taurus to shut the fuck up and roll with the punches. I sold Blake Belladonna's location for some of his time.
A couple days later, I made contact with him, and then I abused the shit out of all of this butterfly effect nonsense to convince him there's no goddamn way Cinder would ever respect the lives of his men, blah blah blah. The end result being some tentative 'Enemy of my enemy'-style loyalty.
Now the Watchmen have four people: Myself, Qrow, Ozpin, and a surprise special guest star: Adam motherfucking Taurus.
That's the good news. That itself. Only that. I have a kinda-sorta-pseudo ally in the Legion, if things turn south.
The bad news is that the moment we don't have our common enemy, we'll be at eachother's throats again, and the only goddamn reason I didn't die during our fight was because I had something he wanted. So if we ever come to blows again? I'll probably lose the other arm, and a leg and a leg, maybe make good on that impression of Darth Vader I did a while back.
And I'm pretty sure I can't trust this man at all. Like I said: His loyalties lie with his men. If their lives are in danger, there isn't a damn thing he wouldn't do to safeguard them, but if they're good and well kept? As much as killing Cinder is important to him, if the chips were down and I had to rely on him to save my ass? I don't think he'd do it.
I mean, for chrissakes, I'm basically doing the same thing the United States did to the Soviet Union, back in the eighties (or was it the seventies?) When the USSR invaded Afghanistan, the US funded and equipped a local guerrilla fighting force to take the war to the Soviets, such that they couldn't take over Afghanistan. I'm pretty sure it was for oil, everything was for oil.
Well, the Soviets lost, Afghanistan didn't turn into a communist country, and those rebels? Twenty or thirty-odd years later they hijacked a couple of airplanes and killed three thousand people, and we're still dealing with it. In other words, to beat one enemy, the US made another, and I'm worried I may be doing the same thing.
All else being equal - and I mean everything else - if the the Watchmen - and through them, the White Fang and the Justice League - manage to kill Salem and stop all that, Taurus could be in one hell of an actionable position.
Like, maybe he'll just do a coup de grace and kill the other Watchmen, and use the chaos and discord that would result in the League to steamroll over the rest of the world, virtually unopposed.
Or, because this guy's an evil super genius, maybe he'll use his 'I helped save the world' card, and build political power instead of military power.
Maybe then he'd be able to use his reputation along us humans to bring the faunus out of whatever pit they're in, in regards to all these social issues.
He does that, he'll basically be Furry Jesus, and then they'll follow him through anything.
Then he could slowly radicalize the faunus, who would follow him like zealots because he's one of the men who helped save not just the goddamn world, but also improved the lives of every faunus on Remnant.
Does any of that sound familiar?
Because that's kiiiiiinda how Adolf Hitler did it, and his ass didn't have modern technology or an army of supersoldiers.
And for those of you (read: Pretty much anyone who will ever get their hands on this journal) not from my planet, the long and short of that story is that he's generally considered the most evil motherfucker in the universe, and he's also probably the first person since Rome under Caesar to come this close to conquering the entire planet.
Seriously, if he hadn't have tried invading Russia (during the winter no less!), he would've won. Hands down.
Now, one could argue that that all sounds too ridiculous or impossible to be true.
But then they'd be speaking to a blind multidimensional superhero with literal god powers, a robot arm, and spies and contacts in the Legion of Doom and the Justice League... And is already ominously repeating some kind of history, just from a different era.
And that's ignoring all of this super-sleuth spy stuff I'm pulling off... With no prior experience save a religious dedication to Magnificent Bastards like Ozzymandias, Revolver Ocelot, and Light Yagami. That only makes the entire situation more ridiculous, and my fears all the more plausible.
Taurus was well established as a good and charismatic leader in the show, and during our fight it didn't take him five minutes to figure out how I fought and how he could land a killing blow. So not only is he a charismatic, skilled leader, but he's also a fucking genius. I honestly would not put any of this past him, because I'm pretty sure he's already, on some level, come up with this idea.
Aaaaaand I also kind of pushed him towards it, so he would have more reason to think that working with me, against the Legion, was a good idea.
I think I'm going to have to put some real consideration into being ready, willing, and able to kill Taurus at a moment's notice.
Christ alive, now I'm not trusting the god damn Watchmen, and am actively making preparations to spy on and kill them.
I really freakin' am Revolver Ocelot.
Call me Shalashaska!
Ho... Boy.
I'm going to have to tell the other Watchmen about this, no way around it.
"Hey, Ozbourne! Mister Crowley! So, we recruited Adam Taurus (Henceforth: Red Bull), but Lady In Red pissed him off like nobody's business! Sooooo... Guess what I turned right the hell around and did? That's right! Now Red Bull is on our side! I mean, not really... Only kind of... And only until she's not actively threatening the Fang... Yeah I've pretty much got a delayed fuckup on the way. But until then, now you've got two ins in the Legion! Booyah!"
Okay, okay, I'm done. I'm going to get some -
Oh, would you look at that, Cinder's on her way, and she... Actually, she doesn't look pissed, and that's the more worrying.
So much for sleep, but thankfully I had a plan or two in case what might be happening, happens. Need a little refuge in audacity to make it work, but let's see how this plays out.
'Till next time.
For the Record
I am fucked.
Things did not go according to plan.
Well, actually, I guess you could say they went exactly according to plan: The plan was, if Cinder somehow knew I'd left Vale yesterday, to tell her Neo came a knockin' and I'm (truthfully) too scared to ever say no. Cinder called the bluff, called Neo, aaaaaand... Neo said yes.
As in, Cinder fucking asked Neo if I'd been with her yesterday - which I wasn't! - and that crazy ice cream lady SAID YES!
WHAT THE FUCK?!
Oh God, I'm going to get cornered by a pissed off assassin when I go for my run here in... Oh... Five minutes.
And I can't skip it because I have to keep up appearances.
And to make it worse: I honestly am not sure if Cinder bought it. It looked like she did, but this could be a situation where L totally knew Light was Kira, but just lacked the hard evidence.
And even if I don't get cornered tonight... There's always tomorrow. And the next day.
If she doesn't come after me tonight, I swear, it's because Neo's the type to to get off on this. Keeping me all anxious and paranoid about the when and the where.
I basically swapped Cinder's potential suspicion for Neo's actual suspicion, and as I've constantly demonstrated: I do NOT know which is worse!
Exactly what I wanted to happen is exactly what I did not want to happen!
God damn it!
'Till next time.
For the Record
Well, the good news is I'm alive.
The bad news is that I was right (and I'm starting to hate how me being right is becoming increasingly bad!), in that Neo would probably get off on letting me agonize about this whole mess I've made. I went out yesterday night, but no Neo.
Oh, god damn it.
In other news, Ozpin thinks I'm a badass, and Qrow thinks I'm an alien.
Technically, they're both right.
I think both theories have weight, but one thing to consider is that, all else being equal, it was Salem that brought me here to begin with. I can't make any final judgements until I meet up with her - and can we just pause for a moment and note that I basically just said I intend to have coffee with Satan? What the fuck is my life?
Now, I like Qrow's idea about me being an alien, because, strictly speaking, that means it's easier to get home... In a crazy... Cosmic sort of way. My first thought process is to see if I can't use my semblance to build a tesseract and then FO back home, live like a superhero for the rest of my life... But something tells me that it won't nearly be so simple for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which being I'm a third-dimensional being and I may not be able to mentally process 4D space with my sanity intact... It'd be like trying to comprehend Cthulhu. Or trying to imagine a square with no straight lines or right angles.
And... You know: I don't even know how to build one in the first place. If I knew that, that would pretty much solve all of my problems instantaneously.
But I digress.
We're taking off, now. Cinder has grand plans for our new number four.
She heard rumors of some chick in Vacuo whose semblance - drumroll please! - is goddamn telepathy.
Hear that? That's the sound of the entire universe coming down around me, shattering like glass. I'm screwed.
All else being equal, at the very least that means she can read and control minds. So she can just crack open my skull and have me sing my Green Hornet song, and there's nothing I can do. I've been doing some thinking as to the science of how she could do it, and if there are any counters, but there's not really much I can do in the way of pursuing these counters until we land again.
At least I can take a little solace in that I doubt Cinder would let such a potentially existential security risk in on it, if she felt she posed... Well, an existential risk. So I'm praying that it's one of those 'if you know the trick' scenarios, where, if you know the person is invading your mind, you can - provided enough willpower - resist and fight off the effects.
Or maybe it's because Cinder is magic that she thinks she won't be affected, in which case I may not be either.
Or she's so desperate for someone with skills comparable to Emerald's that she's willing to let in a motherfucking telepath that could convince us all we're three year old girls.
'Till next time.
For the Record
Who the fuck am I even talking to, right now?
Seriously. It can't be for other terrans, because I'm the only one on Remnant that's even alive. It can't be for other English-speakers, because I've been writing this thing in some back-asswards code that any layman won't get at first glance. It's certainly not for the Legion of Doom, that's self explanatory. It can't be for the Justice League or the Watchmen either, because I'm ostensibly fighting the former, and the latter don't (and probably won't ever) fully trust me. It's not for the people of Remnant, because if I'm being completely honest - I've lost an arm and both my eyes and I haven't even gone to war yet. I don't expect to survive this. And even ignoring that, if I survived this and published it as some sort of memoir, I'd be ruining the reputations of so many genuinely good people that the message would be lost in the method.
So that's everyone. I've knocked out everyone.
So who the fuck am I talking to? Why the hell am I writing this? To what end and for what purpose does this even exist? Is it because I think I'm less cripplingly alone if my words exist somewhere else? Is it because if this journal exists, that's proof that I existed after I got torn from Earth? Is it because I think writing this will somehow keep me sane, in an insane world? Is it because I think that, if somewhere my unfettered thoughts exist, that maybe I'm not as evil as I'll need to be, for all of this crazy bullshit to work? Is it all of those things? None of them?
And here's another thing to think of: All of this shit going on right now, with Rayne and Neo, with Cinder claiming to trust me but probably having some small bit of doubt in there, could my rapidly losing control of this situation be proof of something else entirely? Did I even survive that plane crash? Was there even a crash in the first place? Am I sitting in a hospital somewhere, hooked up to so many needles that I'm a better pincushion than a human being? Is this world so similar to one I'd seen back home, because I'd crafted it in my coma-induced fugue? And if that's the case, when I feel like I'm losing control of things, is that me getting ready to wake up, in this bed? And when I do everything I can to get control back, is that me electing to stay down and under?
The only answer I can come up with is: To keep up appearances. I have to look like it's business as usual, or else Cinder will realize something's wrong, and when she starts asking questions, she'll get answers.
A year ago, if you would have told me that I'd have voluntarily murdered someone I'd never met, because it was more convenient than letting her live, I wouldn't have believed you.
For chrissakes, I'd never even spoken to the chick, and now she's dead. I choked the living daylights out of her, bruised her throat and scuffed up the floors to make it look like someone had snuck into her house at night and done it. And that's not even the end of it! Oh no! My incredible ass, as always, thought of all the ins and outs except one tiny little detail:
The Punisher, despite ample opportunity, never killed the Kingpin. Why? Simple: The sheer chaos that would result from the power vacuum, and the struggle that would follow, following Fisk's death would cause far more problems than it would solve. More people would die, more crime would be committed, and as such more criminals would be created, than would if he just begrudgingly let Fisk do his thing. The goddamn Punisher didn't kill the Kingpin!
But me? I didn't really think that bit through, and once Dira figured out that its boss was dead, all hell broke loose. Everyone suddenly had a claim to the throne, and everyone worth their salt was fighting for it. The body wasn't even cold! Within an hour of us showing up at Rayne's compound, the entire goddamn place had descended into anarchy and was on fire. So not only did I directly, straight-up murder someone, but by proxy I probably killed a few dozen other people, too.
Go big or go home, for fuck's sake.
And that's to say nothing of Cinder. Holy fuck, I wasn't prepared for what she did.
As it turns out, now, like always, she had an ulterior motive, though unlike previous occasions, she didn't want to test me so much as she wanted to train me. As it turns out, when she said she 'had a plan' for cracking into my Master powers (god that just sounds worse the more I say it), she meant she was going to have me pick a fight with the mind reader, and before I got into things, she'd kickstart them, like having to push a car a few feet in order to start the engine. Her idea was that I'd remember the experience, and the power would 'imprint' on me, allowing me to continue fiddling with it while I was at Beacon. I'd get my heart pumping, then she'd give me a kick in the ass, and I'd trial-by-fire my way to godhood.
I'd comment on the ridiculousness of that, but that's my track record at this point. I learn more, and faster, when there's a gun to my head - and expanding on that, it's probably a good reason I'm dating Yuno Gasai. I doubt I'd get it up if I didn't have a knife to my throat.
But I digress: That plan kind of fell through when... You know... Rayne fell down with a sudden case of death. But if Cinder has learned anything from our time together, it's how to improvise and unfuck a plan. What happened next I can only describe as she shoved her powers into me, and used that like a match to light a pool of gasoline. They're both fire, but one started a bigger one. The result was basically Chuck Norris fighting an army of Yamchas.
But, I wasn't the only one who let loose. Mercury pretty much got to walk out of the village, we were tearing through people so fast. I've never seen Cinder that angry before. She personally incinerated five people on our way out of the village, and was responsible for a few of the fires that sprouted up on our way out. I think she specifically took the long way out of the village, just so when anyone ran afoul of her, she could blow them up. Even Mercury - a goddamn assassin - steered clear while she vented. It's the closest I've ever been to a Maiden letting lose, since the Maiden let loose on my goddamn eyes. And that did inevitably turn right back to me, once we got back to the ship. How didn't I know she was dead? How could I have missed the signs? All that shit. I thought I was going to spontaneously combust, the air around her was so hot. Thankfully I prepared for that, and dodged those bullets like Neo - as in, the One, not 'politan - but she's furious.
If you really wanted to dig, though, you could probably find a silver lining to all of this. See: Goud is leaving for Beacon imminently, so once we landed back in Vale (after some of the most intense training I've ever had, directly under Cinder, I feel I should add), I pretty much had to leave so I could get into character. I'm sitting in a cheap hotel just a few blocks away from the testing hall, right now. This is a silver lining both because I get to avoid Cinder's wrath, and because Mercury - ever proving to be better at thinking things through than I am - basically gave me a supply drop, and a place where I could get more if I needed it, for my days in Beacon.
What were these supplies?
More cold, hard cash than I've ever had at any point in my life (albeit loaded onto a card), and a stack of those glass coins he was harping on about. So that problem went and fixed itself, didn't it? I just had to murder a chick and send her entire village into chaos.
Jesus Christ.
Oh, yeah, and then there's Neo. 'Politan, this time.
Still not a goddamn word from her, and that test is this afternoon. So not only do I have to worry about an angry, somewhat irrational (okay, completely irrational. I mean, what reason would she have to not trust me? It's not like I've been actively betraying her since the moment we met!) Cinder making a leap of logic that ends with my ass in the fire (though I did make sure to remove the harddrives and SD cards from all of my electronics before I left. I may be stupid, but I'm not dumb.), but I've still got Neo to worry about and deal with, and at this point I doubt I even need to describe why that's a problem, again. If that lady doesn't show up before I have to get into character, that's another ticking time bomb.
And now I have a goddamn precedent for dealing with those, don't I?
Fuck... This entrance exam has some kind of tournament/fight kind of a thing, going for it, and thank god for that. I could really use a punching bag.
For the Record
I'm going to be up late tonight, so this one will be fast.
To summarize:
I passed the entrance exam (whodathunkit),
I actually had a match with Pyrrha in so doing (she kicked the ever-living shit out of me),
I've added Torchwick to the Watchmen (Holy Fucking Shit),
I think Neo may be so confident in me that she's double dealing everyone in the event that I win (Jesus Fucking Christ),
The dust store robbery that'll get Ruby Rose into Beacon is happening tonight (And so it begins).
Aaand... I'm about to do something really fucking stupid.
Welp, let's hope I don't fuck this one up.
I think something this monumentally stupid calls for a song.
So sing it with me:
We're off to see the Wizard...
For the Record.
You know, it's probably not important, doesn't really mean much, but uh - I gave the Justice League a copy of RWBY, and entered a philosophical pseudo-debate as to the benefits and drawbacks of the Manhattan project.
Yeah.
Here's the rub: Torchwick is a lot more of a dangerously genre savvy magnificent bastard than the show ever got to give him credit for.
How so?
Oh, well, it's simple, really: He's some kind of unholy trinity between Wilson Fisk (contacts everywhere, in both the criminal and government worlds), Whitey Bulger (dropping a lot of information to the feds in exchange for breathing room and functional impunity in regards to his enterprises), and Hans Landa (a clear willingness to jump ship and bat for the other team if he feels the need).
In other words, my worst fucking nightmare. Like me, he's batting for the League and the Legion, but unlike me, he isn't doing so with the intention of subverting one group for the betterment of the other, but rather with the intention of seeming loyal to both, such that he can very well stick with whoever wins.
I know I've made jokes about that inadvertently being what may happen to me, but for chrissakes they were jokes!
It reminds of Catch 22. The old man (I forget if he was named) claimed he was a fascist when Mussolini led his country, but once he was deposed, he was anti-fascist. But then when the Nazis conquered the place, he was full-on pro-German. Heil Hitler. But then, the US came in, wrecking shit, and he subsequently became the most 'America, Fuck Yeah!' guy in Europe.
Whoever won, or was winning, he voted for, and gave his loyalty to. Whoever lost, or was losing, he hated. There wasn't a bandwagon he wouldn't jump.
Torchwick feels much the same, but instead of simply being there on the sidelines, he's an active participant in the goings-on, and is playing the game in a way that makes his loyalties to each side seem as if he's working for them, when in reality he's only loyal to himself.
And apparently he thinks that because I managed to (and, in a way, still am) keep all of my clandestine goings-on a secret from Cinder and him for so long, that I may very well be a player on his, or Cinder's level. To that end, he proposed an alliance of sorts: We'll keep eachother's secrets, and provide help and resources if we need it.
In other words: The Watchmen now include me, Qrow, Ozpin, Adam Taurus, and Roman fucking Torchwick - and through all of them I have an army that could probably succeed where all others have failed: Invade Russia in the winter.
Jokes aside, I'm in one hell of a pickle, Rick, because not only am I pretty sure whatever 'help' he asks for is of the 'further stain my soul' variety, but the very instant I show any kind of weakness, Torchwick could decide to sell me out.
Wonderful.
Though it does occur to me that I can turn that right the fuck around on him, once Ruby Rose starts kicking his ass, only instead of tearing him a new one, I can show loyalty and support (to a certain limit), and that may win some from him, instead.
Food for thought.
And then there's Neo, which can be summarized as: She thinks even more than Torchwick that I may be a major player - on Salem or Ozpin's level, and she's double-dealing on everyone by all but throwing herself at me under the belief that I may champion over everyone, and keep her taken care of when I do.
I've discussed her and I to death though, and beyond that, not much has changed; you (whoever you are) will be the first (well, second) to know when it does. Moving on.
Considering the thin ice I've been walking on and all of the stuff I've done and clear and present risks to my life in the last few days alone, I decided I needed to lay all my cards out on the table, so I gave Ozpin a copy of my RWBY card, and a means with with to view it.
Time will only fucking tell whether or not that was a good or a bad move; I expect a response soon - the dust store robbery that puts Ruby Rose in Ozpin's sights will happen tonight, and that'll prove to him what all I have isn't BS.
I'm hoping, at least, he'll take the same Doc Brown stance I have, in regards to fucking with time. He told me that he had read about the Manhattan Project from what he recovered from the airplane, so I used the whole 'set the world on fire and they did it anyway' thing to impress upon him what it was we were dealing with, here, and how we had to deal with it.
I like to think he's smart enough to figure it out on his own... But his people don't have nukes, mine do, so I felt it prudent to make the point, just in case.
They also don't have superheroes (not like ours), so I used the Spiderman mantra too, but that was more to explain why it took me so long to bring this up and why I - among other things - didn't save Amber when I could have.
And then... Pretty much exactly when I thought I'd get it (the very next night), I got his response.
Apparently I put the pants-shittingly terrible fear of God into him, so much so that he wants to meet.
As in, face to face.
The good news is that, that probably means, like yesterday, I'll have done so much and been up so late that day, that I'll be so exhausted when I get done that I'll actually have a good night's sleep.
The bad news is that I'll actually have to be up so damn late in order to do so.
Oh, and, you know: I've got to have a pow-wow with the guy who fooled my Radar Pulse, which means I can't rely on him being as alone as he implies he'll be.
Welp: If I don't make another entry, you'll at least know I proooooooobably fucked it up.
Hopefully I'll leave as big a smear on the rooftop as possible, and ruin at least one more person's day.
'Till next time.
For the Record
About to leave for the airship to Beacon.
Jesus Christ, what a night.
In short: Ozpin is the original Master, he's from Earth - from ANCIENT FUCKING ROME no less!
Jesus, the only thing that would have made more sense than 'All roads lead to Rome' would be if he told me he was from Nazi goddamn Germany... Because everything stupid in fiction has some sort of tie to Germany.
I bet Hitler snorted Dust - moving on!
Salem was Talion (dominated the Grimm and added them to her army) and now is Sauron (skips the middle man and makes the Grimm her damn self), the god damn gods themselves cursed him with pseudo-immortality (should I stop saying 'god damn it' now that they're apparently real, and watching? Fuck no.), he's running out of magical power, he thinks that I could turn out to be stronger than him because of some fucked up 'pen is mightier than the sword' logic, and he more or less implied that he's one hundred percent certain that, with him or without him, I can - at least with Ruby Rose's help - kill Salem and be done with it.
Jesus Christ, did I miss anything?
Wait, I did!
Turns out the Power Glove doesn't really work like I thought it did.
Or... It does, since I liked to joke and say it was so good it was magic.
As it turns out: It is.
He more or less validated everything I've been saying about the whole 'visualize it to do it' thing.
Magic works like it's a Green Lantern ring: If your will is strong enough to overpower the fucking laws of physics, you can feasibly do anything; and if you can visualize it, the result is even better. And because I've based pretty much my whole arsenal off of stuff from Earth, I've associated it all with those things, and have been unconsciously - and literally - working my magic on them... Functionally making them exactly what it is they were inspired by.
In other words: Because I based it off of Captain America's shield... It fucking is.
And while that may beg the question - if I'm really walking around with a hunk of vibranium (the only one in the universe, now that I think about it... Neat.), why couldn't Pyrrha do anything to it? - I actually have something an answer, because I'm pretty sure at some point Magneto tried, but the metal was so - in a word - weird, that it took some dedicated focus to do, which is probably what tripped Pyrrha up.
And if that doesn't float your boat, the goddamn thing is (technically) literally made of magic in the first place. So I'll say 'a wizard did it', laugh because I'm right, and move on.
Anyways, expanding on the above, because I have all of these theoretical scientific concepts locked up in my head and stored on all of those hard drives, and because I've long since displayed the fact that I'm pretty much a walking talking repository of obscure facts, movie references, and pop-culture shit, Ozpin thinks I could very well be more powerful than he ever was. Again: Because the pen is mightier than the sword.
New plan: Master my Master Magic (say that five times fast!), build a tesseract, which is basically an object of infinite mass and energy... Technically - and even if it isn't I think it is, which by the rules as laid out by Ozpin means it goddamn will be - and then blow the fucking thing up in Salem's face.
Problem SOLVED, the end, go home.
Ugh.
Last little bit on that:
If I'm to understand all of what he said about the power glove correctly, then that means that it's more or less a focus for my powers. It, in a sense, creates the object, and I, in a manner of speaking, program it.
If I can get a damn clear image of it in my head (Cap's shield), understand what it's supposed to do from the world I drew it from (Absolutely fucking indestructible, bounces everywhere, et al), maybe have a good understanding of the science of it, and then use the Power Glove to create its general shape... I will unconsciously use that hardlight construct as a focus, and turn it into whatever it is that had either inspired it, or I had intended it to be.
Easiest example, obviously, being my shield. It's not a hunk of light, it's a hunk of vibranium.
Another example: More than once I've made Wolverine claws. Conclusion: They weren't three sharpened daggers of light, but three adamantium blades.
Now that I've hopefully got the gears turning in your head, realize what I could do with this.
My first thought goes to... Why not a lightsaber? That'd sure as hell break the mold, here on Remnant, and it's serve as a damn good opposite to the shield: Impregnable defense, and unstoppable offense.
God, I can only imagine the look on Cinder's face when we have our fight. Maybe I throw the shield at her, or some shit, and she blasts that thing away and I can't get it. She thinks I'm disarmed, and them - ZHOOM!
Bright-ass blade of ionized plasma about the temperature of the sun.
Aura or not, Master/Maiden or not, you're not getting away from a strike from that thing, untouched.
It really goddamn is a Green Lantern ring... But better.
And, silver lining: I've been doing this myself ever since I got the damn glove. So that should mean I should be able to do this without instruction from Ozpin.
I'll have to do some tinkering whenever I'm not surrounded by people, and I'll definitely start looking through all of my archives to try and think up what other weapons from fiction I can create, and feasibly wield. Lightsabers, maybe a BFG 9000, Mjolnir, a Piece of Eden, an Iron Man suit - fuck, the Nanosuit! - I need to figure out the limit of this thing... If there is one.
Or... Wait, no, I'd have to be smart about this, if I start pulling an arsenal out of fiction. A lot of them would have immediate drawbacks.
Like, I (somehow) make an Iron Man suit? I don't know how to pilot that fucking thing!
A Nanosuit? Those things symbiotically bond to their wearers - I'd never be able to take it off!
BFG? I'd have one shot, and while it would be glorious, after that one shot, that's it, unless I could fuel it with my magic.
Mjolnir? Only the worthy can wield it, and I do not want that question answered. I barely feel worthy of Cap's shield, let alone the third greatest physical symbol of heroism in modern comics. (Second being Cap's shield, and first being Superman's S.)
A piece of Eden... May? Help? I think? But unless I had Altair's, I'd get brain aneurysms every time I tried using it... And Ozpin mentioned he was able to replicate every semblance he came across, with his magic. So with the cloning abilities, mind control, and pseudo-astral projection all knocked out, the only thing it could give me would be advanced scientific knowledge. So maybe.
So really, of that list, only three things could potentially be usable for me: The BFG, the Piece of Eden, and the Lightsaber.
And only one of those things has long term use as well: The lightsaber.
And, you know, I'm kind of already a Jedi, by way of usage of a mostly undefined force that allows its user to exert its will over the universe, so... Fuck yeah, let's do it. I'll keep you posted.
Anyways, last bit of news: Ozpin had my plane's black box, and convinced Ironwood to abuse his power to get its data.
Now I have it.
Whenever I get an interface between my tech and Remnant tech working, I'll copy the file over, but until then, you'll have to deal with my shoddy transcript.
Ho boy.
The Final Minutes of Continental Flight Six Three Six
[Recording Begins]
(1) Maintaining altitude.
(2) Altitude steady.
(2) You see the trailer for the new Marvel movie?
(1) Don, I love you to death, but there are two people in this cabin, right now. One of them watches comic book movies. It's not the guy speaking.
(2) You see, I'd be tempted to believe that, but I saw your locker.
(1) I'll have you know, I got that picture for my son.
(2) And if he watches the movies, I guaran-goddamn-tee it that you've seen, maybe not all of them, but most of them.
(1) Shut up and check our fuel.
(2) Fuel level's a bit high, but we expected it.
(2) Tell me you've at least seen Die Hard.
(1) It's not Christmas unless Hans Gruber gets thrown from Nakatomi Plaza.
(2) You know apparently that was pitched as a sequel to Predator?
(1) No kidding?
(2) Yup. Initial idea was: Arnold's guy would have retired to private security, and would have helped build Nakatomi's whole defense network. But then the robbery happens, and he'd have to fight through it and the guys in order to save the day.
(1) How the hell do you know any of this? You're either in this cabin, or asleep.
(2) How do you know that?
(1) Your wife.
(2) Oh, well: Fu -
(LAX) CF Six-Three-Six, LAX.
(1) Go ahead, LA.
(LAX) Yeah, satellite's showing a tropical storm developing right ahead of you. You'll hit it in approximately fifteen minutes, recommend you descend to thirty thousand feet.
(1) Uh, roger that, LAX, descending to thirty thousand feet, but where was this storm when we took off? Last update would have had clear skies through to Monday.
(2) Beginning descent.
(LAX) CF Six-Three-Six, this caught us by surprise as much as it is you.
(1) Clarify, LAX.
(LAX) It wasn't there ten minutes ago, CF Six-Three-Six. LAX Out.
(1) [A sigh is heard] Copy that, LAX. Keep us advised, CF Six-Three-Six out.
(2) Might want to let the folks know.
(1) Mhm. [Click] Uh, ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Got some bad weather brewing ahead of us, we're expecting some minor turbulence. Until we leave the storm, the fasten seat-belts sign will remain lit. [Click]
(2) Holding steady at thirty thousand feet.
(2) Wonder who dropped the ball on this one.
(1) Thor's probably pissed.
(2) Fucking knew it.
(1) I think I can see it, actually. One o'clock.
(2) 'Just' a storm? Holy crap, it's raining cats and dogs out there.
(1) LAX, CF Six-Three-Six, care to check your satellites again? This thing is looking severe.
(1) Check our fuel again, see if we can't go around it.
(LAX) CF Six-Three-Six, roger that, we're looking into it. Get you an update in two minutes.
(2) I dunno, man. We got a little extra fuel from the winds helping us out, but I don't think it would be enough to go around.
(2) GPS transponder's still working, for the worst case.
(LAX) CF Six-Three-Six, be advised: That storm is just getting worse. We have no explanation at this time but it's spreading far and it's spreading fast, your best bet is to go straight through.
(1) LAX, can we handle what something like that can put out?
(LAX) Until such a time as it develops hurricane-force winds, that's an affirmative. Better batten down the hatches, LAX out.
(1) Roger that, CF Six-Three -
(2) Holy shit, look at that!
(Rumbling and shaking is heard)
(1) LAX, be advised, this thing's dropping lightning. We've seen three strikes - four - in the last five seconds.
(2) No - wait for the next lightning strike and look at twelve.
(1) Standby, LAX.
(1) Talk to me, what did you see? Hurricane?
[The turbulence becomes more pronounced, almost constant]
(2) Hold on... There! What the hell is that?
(1) Let's not fuck around and find out. Divert course.
(1) LAX, be advised, there's some sort of... Anomaly, in the storm. Diverting course.
(2) The controls aren't responding.
(LAX) CF Six-Three-Six, clarify. Did you say 'anomaly'?
(1) Damn it - can we pull up?
(2) Not in time!
(1)-LAX, CF Six-Three-Six, roger, 'anomaly'. It appears to be a full sphere hovering at our approximate altitude. Be advised we are unable to divert course or ascend. Do you have our location?
(LAX) Affirmative, Six-Three-Six, but be advised: We don't see what it is you're describing.
(1) Be ready with any rescue crews, we have no idea what will happen when we hit this thing. We have no time to try troubleshooting procedures and an impact is unavoidable at this juncture. [Click] This is the captain: Brace for impact. [Click]
(2) Here it comes!
[Turbulence is joined by heavy rainfall]
(1) Brace for impact. Brace for -
[Turbulance and rainfall vanishes]
(2) Whoa!
[Alarms begin to sound]
(1) We're dropping. LAX, be advised, we are rapidly losing altitude.
(2) I've got control again!
(1) Pull up - LAX, CF Six-Three-Six, we have regained vertical control and are attempting to stabilize our altitude.
(2) It's fighting me Joe!
(1) Fight harder - LAX, do you read?
(2) [Struggling]
(1) Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is -
[A muffled thump, followed by a return of the turbulance]
(2) Left engine's gone!
(1) Captain Joseph Bailey of Continental Flight Six Three Six. We are in a rapid descent, losing control of our altitude. Our left engine has been damaged and we are going to crash. Anyone hearing this, please advise.
(2) Twenty thousand feet!
(1) Here come the clouds - Deb! Make sure they're all strapped in! - Mayday, mayday, mayday, anyone receiving me, please respond. This is Continental Flight Six Three Six, we have two hundred souls on board and are... Are...
(2) Are those towers?! How did we get over land?
(1) If those are towers that means there are people here. Someone has to be on a radio - I see a clearing, that's our best shot at landing this thing.
(1) Mayday, mayday, mayday, we appear to have entered the airspace of an unidentified city. We can see mountains and large... Possibly stone towers. Anyone receiving this, be advised we -
[Another thump, more alarms begin blaring]
(2) Right engine!
(1) - Are in an uncontrolled descent and are aiming for a clearing north on... Check: We have lost GPS navigation. We are flying blind. If anyone is receiving this, respond immediately, we are declaring an emergency. Is anyone -
[A loud screech, like that of the cawing of a bird, is heard.]
(2) JESUS!
[A tremendous impact is heard, soon followed by the sound of air whistling, alarms blaring, and a multitude of screams.]
(1) Be advised! We've just collided with a bird the same size as our plane! We are going down hard, we are in an out of control descent!
(2) Oh fuck, oh fuck oh fuck!
(1) [Click] Brace for impact! Brace for -
[The words are drowned out by the sounds of glass shattering, branches snapping and scraping against a metal hull, a deafening explosion, a massive tearing sound of metal being sheered from metal, and alarms blaring.]
...
[Silence]
[Recording Ends]
For the Record
And my collection is complete!
Kind of...
Met the last bit of the RWBY team, met half of JNPR, ran into Cardinal again.
God damn, I'm really here, aren't I?
Initiation's tomorrow, it does occur to me that Ozpin's a far more experienced player than I am, he may use this as an opportunity to play a game with me.
If only because I'm certain he's the kind of guy to get his kicks where he can, and fucking with me because he can would, admittedly, be funny.
I suppose we'll know once the teams get picked, though.
Side note: I would love nothing more than to try and build the lightsaber tonight... But I'm kind of surrounded by every rookie student, I would reveal 'unregistered' weapons, and, you know - I'd probably scare the pants off of everyone in here if, in the middle of the night, whole room got woken up with a loud ZHOOM!
It's definitely happening - I've thought about everything I remember from Star Wars lore the last few days too much to not do anything with it - but it'll probably take a bit of time.
'Till next time.
For the Record
I don't know how, I don't know why, but Salem has managed to invade Earth.
This changes everything. Before now, I always took solace in the idea that, no matter what happened here, Earth - my home, my friends, my Mom - they would all still be kicking even if I wasn't.
But now they're fighting Grimm.
I guaran-goddamn-tee it, that they'll eventually connect what happened to LA to that little production studio in Texas, if they haven't already.
I didn't tell Ozpin this - though I think it's already crossed his mind - but this act may have lost us any chance at all of getting the terrans as allies, if we needed them.
They're mad now - for fuck's sake, the United States invaded, conquered, and locked down two whole countries over two buildings and a few thousand people.
But this was all of Los Angeles - the west coast New York - and this wasn't some terrorist attack. Either you spin it as an alien or a demonic invasion - but it's still an invasion, and it managed to scare the White House so much that they wiped LA off of the map.
GONE!
This won't just galvanize my country, or NATO - my entire planet will get in on this. This is an outside, existential threat, that they all but know will attack them again.
This will piss off my entire species, and if they ever find a way to get to Remnant - which is an astoundingly real possibility, once it occurs to them that Dust exists on Earth and they start turning the entire planet inside out looking for it - they will take all that rage, all that anger, and all that fear...
And they'll heat it up until it fuses, and they'll drop it on Remnant. I fear they won't even ask for surrender, not with the threat they face.
I wonder if this may not be Salem's plan. To piss off Earth, to get the tension boiling on Remnant... And then open a permanent bridge between the two planets and pit them against eachother, and to use her Grimm to wipe out whatever's left when the dust settles... If she even needs to in the first place.
Remnant has quality, in the huntsman. Just one of them could probably tear through dozens of terran soldiers before they were overwhelmed, and through Atlas, they have advanced robotics and unmanned armies. Every one soldier from Remnant - be they a Huntsman or otherwise - could stack up to dozens of times their number on Earth.
But Earth has quantity. Remnant is just four kingdoms cowering behind their walls, barely taking up a few percent of their planet's surface area. But Earth? The terrans have access to their entire planet. There are seven billion of us - while I hesitate to even say there is a tenth of that here on Remnant.
And beyond the sheer numbers we have, the terrans also can pull resources from their entire planet - and even worse is that we have the technology, right now, to feasibly change the orbits of asteroids such that we could take their resources - whereas Remnant is limited solely to what is close to the cities and to what outposts they can defend, and that's not a lot... At all.
And then there's the obvious: Remnant doesn't have access to nuclear weapons.
So even if their quality brings the advantage terran numbers has to zero (which is a great possibility), we can just turn right around and split the atom on their ass.
So if the United Nations and the Four Kingdoms went to war... It doesn't matter who would win - a lot of people would die. Millions - perhaps even billions.
We may very well kill eachother off, or bring our respective populations so abominably low, that Salem could just stroll right on in and finish the job.
Jesus fucking Christ... She's changed the game, here.
What the fuck do I even do?
I can't believe I'm saying this - but I'd rather be getting the shit scared out of me by Neo, right now. At least that I can deal with.
Jesus.
Ozpin's going to use Ironwood to tap some geologist contacts, see if the bomb they launched made it through, and if it did, where it detonated. The theory we're running with is that it had to have taken two Masters to open and sustain the wormhole to Earth, and enough power from both of them that if the bomb made it through and exploded, they wouldn't have been prepared for it, and as such were probably annihilated.
Considering the five names on the manifest (myself included) that I could never match to bodies, that means Salem potentially still has two more Masters on her side, and the League's war got a whole lot harder.
God forbid there was a third there with the ones keeping the portal open, whose sole job in life was to protect the first two in case the terrans somehow launched a counter attack. That would mean, aside from killing a shit ton of Grimm, the terrans wouldn't have done any lasting damage, whatsoever.
I can only hope that she was staging that invasion from her creepy ass castle, and that it got destroyed by the bomb, and she's on the backfoot as she relocates outside of the radiation hot-zone.
One could be so lucky, right?
Also, this didn't occur until right about now, but it's been bugging the shit out of me, and it took up a lot more presence in my mind once Ozpin said I was basically in some sort of hyponitized trance, explaining everything I saw on Earth.
I possessed a dude.
Like... I found some random asshole on Earth, completely overwrote his free will, and took him over... And not once did I feel any kind of struggle from him.
Does that sound familiar?
Because it almost sounds like what Ozpin's capable of.
And that makes me wonder: Who the hell have I been speaking to, this entire time? Which Ozpin? The Wonderful Wizard? Or the silver-haired body he's possessing at the moment?
If we were to refer to the reincarnating soul as the Wizard and the body he 'linked' as just, the Body... Have I ever spoken to the Body? Or has it only been the Wizard?
A lot of folks mentioned how Ozpin seemed 'different' in the opening ceremony - was that the Body? And if that's the case, why only then and not ever afterwards? Why have I never spoken to his Body? Why has he never come back around? What is the relationship between the two Ozpins? Is it as benevolent as he would make it seem? Or is there some kind of something going on, here?
I don't want to not trust Ozpin, but... This is concerning. It calls his nature into question, because if we disregard the 'prophet' theory I mentioned to him, and instead conclude that Earth and Remnant are still of two different universes (which has scientific basis, due to wormholes being capable of bridging two locations literally anywhere and anywhen), then we would have to look at things narratively, and from that standpoint, his reincarnation could be described as having thematic similarities to demonic possession... Foreshadowing and planting the idea that he's still around not because of some divine curse, but because he's so dead-fucking-set on not dying so he can win his war, that he's willing to keep himself alive by leaching the life from other people, and convincing them he's doing right by the world.
Throw a stone at a handful of sci-fi/fantasy stories, and that wouldn't describe the 'wise mentor' or the 'hero' - that would straight up be describing a stealth villain, essentially doing the opposite of what I'm doing: Being seen as a hero, such that he won't be suspected to be the opposite.
Even Salem could be explained by this theory, as a once-hero who had to make the hard choices and was willing to be seen as a villain in order to more freely war against the larger threat. (And doesn't that sound familiar?!)
Fuck, you use this theory and you could call Ozpin a power-mad alien invader bent on conquering a world, and Salem a fallen angel of sorts, willing to do anything and everything to ensure he doesn't win, even if it means destroying what it is he wants to win.
And even if you take Ozpin's idea about us being in the same universe at face value, and thusly have to believe in my 'prophet' theory as fact as well, that doesn't ruin this theory, merely makes it more complicated. As I said to Ozpin, the best way to make everyone believe in his vision and take its information at absolute face value would be to spin it as a work of fiction, and work it as such. If we believe him to be a seer, we don't know how much Oum saw, and he could very well still have been trying to work some sort of warning about Ozpin in there, by means of a 'plot' twist, as it were. We just don't know, all we can do are note thematic similarities.
All that to say... Might I be on the wrong side?
For the Record
I wonder where I'd end up, on the Star Wars moral scale?
See, I'm tempted to think I'd end up a Sith, due to the things I've done... But I actually think I'd fit the bill for a Gray Jedi, better. Those guys straddled the dividing line between light and dark side, seriously. Granted: Maybe I'd lean a bit more to the dark side than the light - again, because of the things I've done/will do - but I don't think I'd be full on Sith, because of my intentions and Batman-level dedication to them, and I definitely wouldn't be Light Side Jedi, because... No explanation needed.
So... Yeah, Gray Jedi.
Call me Aldric the Gray.
Now all I need is a pipe and some good ol' Hobbit Weed. You! Shall not! Paaaaaaaaaaass!
All that to say: I slipped out of my dorm yesterday to work with the Power Glove, and... Zhoom!
Now, I'll admit, I actually had second thoughts, after it worked exactly like Ozpin said it would (or... Is working? Was? I dunno.). The shield I made, yeah, that's dangerous, but it's far better as a defensive instrument than it is as a offensive one. You can work around it, and you can take some hits from it.
But this fucking thing? Holy hell, I'd rather take a direct hit from Ruby's rifle again than take my chances with it. It isn't a tool for defense, it's a weapon of power. I'm almost willing to bet that it could cleave through pretty much any and all aura shields in one shot, unless your opponent was strong enough. I pull that thing out, I'm making a statement: The gloves are off, and I'm going for the kill.
Thank god it has a low power setting so I can train with it (still burns and hurts like a BITCH though. Don't ask how I know this.), else I'd have put far more consideration into letting it go.
But now that this worked, man - the opportunities with the Glove were endless originally, but now they're even more so. I know I haven't experimented with it as much now as I used to, but that's primarily because, A: I haven't had the time since Amber, or B: I've been playing Goud Etiolate, who wields the mighty shield, not the Green Lantern's ring.
And while I'm definitely excited about this, it also worries me tremendously. What is the limit, here? Is there one? Can I really just... Pull anything I want out of fiction, because I want it? That kind of power is... That's infinity gauntlet, shit. That's Doctor Manhattan levels of over fucking powered. That's the kind of stuff that would make Saitama excited that he might get a good fight!
I never actually thought my wasting my free time reading up on fictional lore would actually have any fucking use!
Once again: That kind of wish fulfillment makes me think I'm either in a coma, or in a universe that makes no sense, but I've said this to death.
Even if I stick solely to weapons/items that would have no detrimental effects (ala the Nanosuit bonding with me), I could create a Black Panther vibranium suit of armor, the BFG and the Piece of Eden I mentioned earlier, the Master Sword and the Hylian shield - shit, anything from Zelda, really - Senator Armstrong's Nanomachines (son!), the Boss' Patriot assault rifle (unlimited ammo!), Raiden's high-frequency blade, Isaac Clarke's RIG, Fallout's Fat Man nuke-launcher, WH40K's bolters, one of those bullet proof Kingsman suits with the dope-ass top hat... The Point-of-View gun from Hitchhiker's Guide - the possibilities are goddamn endless!
Especially if I apply it to scientific concepts, and pull a tesseract (or any object above three dimensions!) out of my ass, or create a ten pound chunk of antimatter and chuck it at Salem's head. Or, fuck - I could shoot her ass with a Gamma Ray Burst, see how she dealt with that.
Yeah, that'd kill everything on the planet and probably kill everything in the general vicinity of 'the direction I'm pointing at the time', but it's the point that matters.
Jesus fucking Christ, if I wanted to double down on the 'kill everything too' thing, I could initiate a False Vacuum and fuck up the whole entire UNIVERSE.
Or even less science-based concepts. I could astral project my ass to the other side of the planet, or clone myself, Dr Manhattan style.
And what the hell is stopping me from thinking 'Machine that solves all of my problems' really really really hard?
Choking some poor girl out in her bed would literally be the least I could do, with this kind of power.
And think of this - Ozpin, with far more power and far more control over it than I have now, has been warring against Salem for millennia, and still hasn't won.
There has to be something I'm missing. Absolutely has to be, unless Ozpin really is right, and the primary reason he hasn't been able to win is simply because there is no free flow of information on Remnant, and as such he hasn't had access to nearly as much shit as I did, on Earth.
Fuck, the more I learn about my powers, the more I fear I'm turning into a walking weapon of mass destruction.
Anyways... Last little tid-bit: I forget the fuck out of her name, but I think I saw that lizard chick from the end of Volume 4 prowling about, staking out Blake. Maybe it's because I see everything, but she seemed to be obvious about it... Though considering Taurus, I wouldn't doubt that was on purpose, so he could prompt me to get in contact with him.
So obviously I called her on it, and told her to tell Taurus to set up a meeting with me, through Torchwick.
This'll be the first 'all hands on deck' meeting of the minds on the Legion of Doom end of the Watchmen, that'll be a sight. But it'll allow me and Taurus to touch base, will show Torchwick exactly how far my reach extends, and allow the three of us to all get on the same page in regards to our efforts against Cinder.
I think after that, I bring up the possibility of getting all of the Watchmen under one roof, with me acting as the mediator between the Legion of Doom half [Torchwick and Taurus] and the Justice League half [Ozpin and Qrow].
'Till next time.
For the Record
I wonder what it is about Los Angeles specifically that makes it easier for Salem and her subservient Masters (isn't that an oxymoron?) to open wormholes there, than on other places on Earth.
I think I know the answer, actually, and it will be proven as fact if we learn that the place the nuke dropped was on top of an untapped Dust mine, and the place the jets came through was on something similar.
The long and short of it is: I think there's Roman Dust under LA, and the Legion, on some level, knows this, and is using it and the Masters' connection to it as a means of far more easily opening wormholes; and as much as this may seem good at first glance, this could be very bad for... Everyone, really.
Because Salem (SOMEHOW) got her claws on a military airship (I'm thinking it was a Master who figured out how to do it) and sent it through to Earth as part of her gambit to pit Earth and Remnant against eachother, that means Earth now has Remnant Dust to examine and experiment on. They do that, I guarantee that they'll be able to create a way to detect Dust, and then what do you know: There's a shit ton of it underneath Los Angeles.
So, absolute perfect-world best case scenario:
The terrans won't find that Dust, or won't try to mine it for fear of what nuclear radiation would do to it; and are at 'war' with Remnant as a means of making Salem think we're playing to her tune, when in reality we've got space shuttles and satellites filling up Remnant's orbit as they try to locate her and find a way to stabilize the path between Remnant and Earth.
That means in addition to my Watchmen and all of those connections, I've got a planet of pissed off terrans ready to help out... And that could also arguably only be good because, if and when we win, the terrans could then also help take Remnant back for the humans/faunus, but that's way out there.
And that's best case.
Worst case scenario:
I'm absolutely wrong, they want Remnant blood, they'll find the Roman Dust, it will give everyone on Earth magical superpowers, they'll open a stable Einstein-Rosen Bridge to Remnant, nuke the shit out of the whole goddamn planet, find Salem, nuke the shit out of her, and then within a decade all of the superpowered terrans will do as people do, fight eachother, and it'll be World War Superman, and everyone will die.
And we haven't even addressed the fact that it's a done and done fact that, even if one or two of them may have died because of the bomb, Salem still has one or two more Masters, not including me. She could very well be escalating her plans wildly out of proportion and getting ready to destroy three of the four academies in one major stroke. The only way that doesn't happen is if she doesn't know where the other Maidens are... But even then, that might not stop her, because she doesn't need the Maidens to conquer and destroy the cities, only to access and retrieve the Deity Brothers' relics.
And that is the basic problem with my plan, from the very beginning, even. It relies on two things I simply could not control: My being the only terran on Remnant, and my having the time to execute it.
I thought I was the only terran on Remnant, but it is clear to me now that Salem scouted the Emerald Forest for any survivors that may have been separated from the plane, and sent her allies after them. I got the luck of the draw by being the only one who made it back to the plane and stayed there, and as such Cinder picked me up. So either Cinder has been lying to me the whole time (likely), or Salem compartmentalized the entire thing, and even Cinder doesn't know that there are more Masters running around (more likely.)
And because I thought I was the only terran on Remnant, I thought I'd have the year I'd need to build up Cinder's loyalty, and be brought to Salem's domain after Beacon fell. That way I could be able to locate it again, in reference to where on Remnant it was, and then bring the cavalry in and end Salem and the war. All I needed was the eighteen-odd months to do it, but that was operating under the assumption that the only entity on Remnant capable of butterfly effect-ing the planet was me, and that is clearly not the case anymore. It's only been six months, and my plan is already fucked six ways from Sunday. I'd be lucky if I recognize the next month, let alone the next year, or survive the both of them.
I can't even rely on my hope-and-a-prayer that Salem won't try to Coup De Grace the whole world because she doesn't have a single Maiden on her side - because she doesn't need the Maidens to take over and lock down the fucking Academies! So, god forbid she does that, that means in the eyes of Adam Taurus and Roman Torchwick, I'll have lost control of the situation, and they'll sell me out in a heartbeat, and if I haven't located Salem by then, my entire plan - all those people I'll have killed - will have been for nothing.
To wit: There's literally only one thing I can do in this situation. My own nuclear option.
Or... Should I call it the Batman option?
I need contingencies. I need plans.
I need to be prepared, for anything, and everything.
And I don't mean that in a metaphorical 'be ready for X, Y, and Z' way, I mean I actually need to prepare things ahead of time.
Like, Batman having a batcave at Arkham Asylum for when (not if) it got taken over, prepare.
Or Injustice Batman uploading a virus onto Cyborg the very week they met 'just in case', prepare.
Or the CDC having a Zombie Plan, prepare.
Or the god damn US Copyright Office being fully prepared for works submitted by plants, animals and deities - SERIOUSLY! (They won't accept it, by the way. Sorry God!)
Jesus. It's getting harder and harder to look forward to these 'off days', attending classes at Beacon, especially as my nights are getting increasingly long and increasingly dominated by staying up and training or arming myself.
For the Record
You know, one day this is all going to bite me in the ass.
All the lying, the cheating, the stealing.
What would my Dad think of me? What would my Mom? Any of my friends from back home - any of my 'friends' now?
Seriously. All else being equal, if we win... I'll have either killed, imprisoned, lied, deceived, or cheated everyone that ever trusted me or called me friend.
I won't be able to go back to Earth because I'll either be not welcome there due to my powers, or not capable of returning due to Salem being dead.
So what am I going to do when I win? If I win?
Seriously. I think the only person alive who does not give a shit is Neo, and... Do I really have to explain that again?
Fuck, man. I need a day, or an hour, or a minute of not thinking about this - and my team somehow figured that out, but I did the 'me' thing and lied by telling a truth. I fed them the whole 'symbolism, great power' shtick, and yes, it's not a lie but... Do I really embody that? I'm not a hero, and once my secret is inevitably outed, the image I'm crafting of Goud Etiolate will die. I'm not lucky enough to have these people say they believe in Goud's ideals and not Aldric's.
What is worse, here? Lying to them? Or feeding them a belief that I don't embody?
It's moments like yesterday that really just make me pause and think about the why of things, and the what.
Fuck, man.
All's quiet on the homefront, Atlas/Mistral are almost done with their sweep of Anima, looking for the nuke's ground zero, and I haven't gotten any news from anyone about any new terran attacks.
And it's Watchmen meetup, today.
Fun.
For the Record.
Ho-lee-Jesus.
Last time I saw you, my biggest worry was fucking up the meeting with the Watchmen.
That actually went as close to 'perfect' as I'm willing to classify it - perhaps that was an omen.
To summarize the last nine... Or, fuck, ten, I don't know - the last week and a half in as few words as possible:
World War Goddamn 3.
Or, Worlds War One, if you'd rather.
That crazy bitch opened up four wormholes - apparently stable, permanent ones - connecting Earth to Remnant, and the former promptly rallied its entire fucking military industrial complex to come in and shitstomp the latter.
Remember all of that shit I was spewing about worst case scenarios, and what would happen if Earth and Remnant ever went to war?
About how Remnant wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning?!
Guess fucking what.
Mistral and Vacuo fell in days, Vale would have fallen just as fast as well, if I hadn't intervened, gotten the Navy to flatten half the city, and halted their advance.
Though, that was a delaying action at the absolute best, and I knew that even then, but let me get there first.
The initial fights can be summarized as thus: I made a human railgun with Pyrrha, ate a motherfucking aircraft carrier, then pulled a Vader Down to keep the entire invasion force distracted long enough for their advance to be halted and for VAF and the Huntsmen to retreat and rally.
After I recovered from the obscene amount of brass that got shot through me, I talked to Cinder, and basically had it confirmed for me that everything about this whole Master Plan (pun intended) of Salem's has been changed from what we know from the show, primarily in that it's been compartmentalized to hell and back and that there are four (not five) living Masters on Remnant, Ozpin excluded. Cinder had and still has no fucking idea why the UN is invading Remnant, only that it's 'all according to plan'.
After her, I would have gone to Ozpin... Had Yang not found my effects and pieced together that I knew something about the invasion. She confronted me, and a group of Spec Ops (I think they were SAS? They had English accents.) passing by, ostensibly on their way to abduct Ozpin (good luck with that, Gents. I'll see you again when you're smears in the wall.), heard her and realized I was a 636 survivor.
So they shot me and her, and took us to this Russian Carrier.
Then I parleyed with the Captain (whose name I can barely pronounce, let alone spell), pulled a Commander Shepard, and managed to win the support and alliance of Earth.
All of it.
One problem, though: Doing so basically proved Yang right. She was on a warpath, was ready to kill anyone she saw - me chief among them.
I managed to curtail that by confronting her directly. She now holds a title that, surprisingly, even Ozpin doesn't possess: The first, and so far only, person to challenge me on my philosophies around this whole Green Hornet plan.
The problem, however, was that even if I managed to convince her I was right (which even I don't believe at this point), if we went back to Vale after being abducted for multiple hours, without any injuries whatsoever to show for it, far more than just her suspicion would be piqued. I mean, how would we explain it? "They just abducted us, let us sweat it out with one gunshot each, and then gave us a boat and said 'Thanks for staying over! Bye!'..."
No, we needed to look like we'd been through absolute hell to escape from them. And it couldn't be superficial hell, either - I mean we needed to look like we'd been through the god damn meat grinder. That we'd fought and bled and sacrificed to escape.
For me, it was easy: I just had to reopen old bullet wounds and cover myself in a fresh coat of blood. (Jesus, Neo's looking more right for me with each passing day. I haven't thought about her in forever.)
For Yang, though, tensions were a bit higher and I had to both 'put on the makeup', as it were, and fix the whole - her not trusting me at all thing.
So I cut off her arm with a lightsaber, and shot the hell out of her.
Something weird happened after that, though: Since I didn't have my usual, Anakin Skywalker blue lightsaber with me, and I'd already given Kylo Ren's saber to Cinder (that plan's in motion), I had to go with my last backup: Luke Skywaker's green saber.
But after I cut her arm off, the blade turned red, now it looks more like Darth Vader's lightsaber, and... God damn it, nothing I do can get rid of it. I try deactivating the nanites, I try straight-up using my magic to 'delete' it, but nothing. I can't get rid of it - and I can't just throw it away, either. God help us if someone else, outside of my sphere of influence, started running around with a stick of plasma.
I don't know what this means - but this tells me I don't have as much control over my powers as I initially thought... To the point that I'm pretty sure I couldn't wipe away Captain America's shield anymore, if I tried. Not good. I don't like not understanding or controlling my powers.
Anyways, after that, I neuralized Yang (yes, Neuralize. Men In Black saved my ass. My backup option had been an amnestic from the SCP foundation, and if neither of those worked, straight-up magic, but I didn't trust or understand either of those things enough to be confident in relying on them... So I'm damn glad the neuralizer seems to have worked.), and gave her to the Russians to stitch up. Now she looks like she went through the grinder, and that I put her back together as best I could.
But then was the problem of how to get back.
Luckily, that solution was easy: In the one and only confrontation between the UN's Navy and Vale's Navy, the latter made the genius move to beat feet for a guided missile destroyer. The destroyer promptly shoved its missile-shaped foot up Vale's ass and took down dozens of ships before it wasn't destroyed, but rather crippled. The UN didn't know what to do with it with the invasion on, so it left the ship there. I appropriated it, fired it up again, pointed it at Vale, and let it coast to the coast.
The initial idea had been to drive (so to speak) this thing up the central river that runs through Vale. It'd be a pretty big fucking sign, what with the holes in its side, that something wasn't quite right with it. I'd expected some VAF soldiers and a huntsman or two to board the ship, find me and Yang half dead, all the bodies that had been left behind, conclude we'd done the damage, and then take us back home.
After that, the terrans would have given me a week to recover and prepare for their coup de grace. Their 'Red folder': A high altitude nuclear strike, meant to take advantage of the EMP to knock out, in short order, everything that used electricity in the kingdom. Zero property damage and minimal, if any, radiation fallout or loss of life, but total destruction of any technology more advanced than a pocket watch, not specifically shielded from an EMP (which little if anything on Remnant even is). They'd been preparing for this, actually, constructing fucktons of faraday cages at the docks, to protect their vehicles from the EMP.
The idea was that if they did this, the defenders would essentially be neutered and any resistance they put up would be laughable at best. Vale would fall the day they dropped the bomb.
See, that had been the plan.
But RWBY, GEMS, JNPR, and (of all people), CFVY, had a different one, and it ran long the lines of, 'Holy fucking shit, Ash and Yang are gone, let's go ATTACK THE MEGA-POWERFUL ARMY HEAD ON to try and find them!'
I mean, for fuck's sake - It's Russia, China, and the UK up here! That's three great powers! Three nations with permanent UN-Security Council seats! Three of literally the strongest nations on Earth! Who steamrolled through half of Vale in a day! And these crazy fuckers thought they'd fight them head on, and that they'd all survive to see the end of it! That's me levels of stupid!
Thank God Adam Taurus chose then to launch his PR 'The White Fang totally aren't just terrorists, guys!' attack, else they'd all be dead, instead of injured.
The Russian Captain Guy called me on my shiny new satellite phone (confirming they do, indeed, have them in orbit) and told me what was going on. The collective White Fang/Huntsmen rookie attack was kicking fucking ass, and he told me on no uncertain terms that, if he were the only one making the decision, he would have opened the Red Folder then and there as a matter of course, lest risking the stability of the invasion, but since I was the only guy on the inside, he wanted to know my stance on it.
I promptly proved that I am entirely too fucking powerful. No, not Saitama powerful - or, actually, I do have a theory on that, but I'll save that for another Record - but Lex Luthor powerful: Merely telling him to do it, got him to accelerate our initial plan from a week to... An hour. Ish. My mere word got a nuke launched and a kingdom killed.
Jesus Fuck.
I got a little fun out of it: I pulled an Alucard and rode in on a warship with 'Ready to Die' blasting out of the speakers. Freaked a lot of people out.
Then barely two minutes later, they launched the bomb from a local nuke-sub, and now, as they were the only fighting force with advanced technology, ground and air vehicles on their side, the terrans promptly turned around and tore the ever-living-shit out of everyone audacious enough to shoot at them. White Fang? De-fanged. Huntsmen? Hunted. Vale Armed Forces? Disarmed. It was rifles and swords against tanks, humvees, and jets. Basically World War 1 versus the 21st century.
Now, Goud Etiolate, along with the Beacon students and Adam Taurus, are all being held prisoner while the UN finishes fucking Vale.
And since he alone did so much damage to them - killing more than a hundred soldiers on their first encounter, eating an entire aircraft carrier with his nanites, then destroying a GMD and killing its crew on his own - the UN isn't fucking around in regards to what they're doing to keep Goud out of the picture.
I've ostensibly been sedated with enough drugs to knock out fifteen elephants, been bound head to toe in a straight jacket and chains, been blindfolded with three folds and a pair of welder's goggles, gagged with one of those Silence of the Lambs muzzles, thrown in a submarine, parked on the bottom of the ocean, and have no fewer than fifteen guards armed with anti-tank rifles on me at all times.
Once again: They're not fucking around.
They're basically the Reapers abandoning a plan that's worked for millions of years and bum-rushing to Earth through the galaxy, dedicating a majority of their galaxy-conquering siege engine solely to Earth, just to find and kill Shepard.
The demons dropping a motherfucking mountain on Doomguy and chaining him up in a coffin.
The goddamn Covenant sending literally their entire Reach invasion force to kill Noble Six.
They're scared to death of me and just want me to not be a problem anymore.
At least, that's what it needs to look like.
What's really going on is that this whole stunt is buying me the one and only stretch of time in the last eight or nine months in which no one will be observing my every movement. Not Cinder, not Ozpin, not even them really. For the next week I'm operating solo.
Obviously, the priority is to go to Atlas (who's been going toe to toe with the United States and has been giving just as good as it gets), find some way to get them to stop fighting, and end the war between Earth and Remnant.
But with seven whole days to myself, I'm hoping I'll be able to eek out a little time to make something I've been kicking around for a while now.
I'd say what it is, but that Russian Captain found and read this journal. If that ever happens again, and they know what it is I hope to build... God damn, they'd start another war just to try and find it. So I'm keeping it to me, and to me alone, I won't mention it by name or location unless I have to crack it open and turn it on.
And yes, I specifically chose words that may more may not contradict eachother, and improperly describe what I intend to program.
Or maybe I didn't.
You don't know.
Fuck you.
Give me my journal back.
So... Yeah.
It's been a hell of a week.
Formed the Watchmen, fought in World War 3, maimed someone I consider a friend, stole her memories, convinced a man to launch a nuke, and I intend to end World War 3, and build a huge and likely literal deus ex machina.
And it's only been two or three months since the school year started. What the fuck's going to happen next?
Seriously: I have no fucking idea what Earth is going to do once Atlas falls. Occupation? Annexation? A sudden case of 'holy shit, these guys can't have done what we thought they would'... Pseudo-alliance?
And beyond them is Salem. What's her play in all this? I mean, fuck - Cinder seems to think things will still go 'according to plan' and there won't be any major anythings until around about the time of the Vytal , that's not the case. I still stand by what I said: It's absolutely ridiculous to think that, once this war ends, the entire planet of Remnant will basically go, 'That sucked... Let's party!', and then do it. I'd lose faith in this entire species if they did, plain and simple.
I mean, mine are barely any better - but that's a topic for another record.
Unless, of course, this is another product of Salem compartmentalizing. That the plan really has changed, and she simply hasn't appraised Cinder of it, and as such Cinder is still working under the auspices that it's 'Vytal or bust'.
If that's the case, though, exactly how much of RWBY can I still use? How much is still applicable, and how much is straight-up reference material?
Fuck me, I need sleep. I need a lot of sleep.
I'd say I need painkillers too, but the senzu bean I used to 'remove' the 'makeup' kind of solved that problem for me.
So, sleep, and a shower.
That sounds nice.
For the Record
World War 3 ended in a month.
You realize that, according to Einstein, we'll be fighting the next one with sticks and stones.
My little secret project is as finished as it can be. I got a care package from Coulson I'd like to drop off, but aside from minute additions and changes, I can't do anything more until I open up the care package and see what's inside.
Atlas also surrendered after we cracked open their bunker with a MOAB, and I threatened we'd go nuclear next.
Anyway, I'm typing this midflight. Just as 'fun' as it was the first time, but this time I'm on Earth, and with how fast I'm going I'm probably freaking NORAD the fuck out, I have thirty six (thirty five, really. Coulson took for-fucking-ever.) to get something done that needs to be done.
But, yeah. Just like I predicted, in the interests of Earth vs Remnant, Earth won, wholesale. Even without me, it wouldn't have gone much longer. I think it may have even gone faster, since I interrupted the blitzkrieg in Vale. Had I not, after they took it, everyone would have turned-tail and made for Atlas, and the entire UN would be bombing the shit out of it, not just the US.
Gawd dayumn, nothing will be the same after this. It's hard to fucking believe just two weeks ago my biggest worry was getting the Watchmen on the same page, and not killing eachother. Now I've got to worry about the aftermath of an interplanetary war, whether or not Taurus and Torchwick will even throw in with me now that things are so horrifically FUBAR, and what in God's fucking name Salem is going to do with all of this.
Oh, and there's the psychological damage the war may have had on my 'friends'.
That's a little important.
Although, right now, I'm going to something even fucking 'less important'.
Probably with the single greatest chance of me dying since I came to Remnant, to boot.
For the Record
There was a reason I didn't spend that extra day on the secret project, and she and I just spent the entire night together.
No, not Neo - gawd no. My Mom.
Yeah yeah, get it out of your systems now - but once you're done, realize that everyone loves their Momma, and everyone misses their Momma when they've been gone awhile, and those who say they don't are liars.
But, as with all things, this too must end.
I need to drop off Coulson's care package at the Secret Project (preferably inside fifteen faraday cages and ten miles away from where it really is), and then I have to go back to that submarine. I agree that, in order to sell the story we've been feeding to Ozpin, I need to actually be put down like they say they've been doing. So they're going to sedate the shit out of me while we're going in, then bring me out of it once Ozpin comes aboard (under armed guard, of course.). He'll confirm I am who they say I am, and that I haven't been abused while under their care, then they'll release me and the girls to his care, provided he makes good on his promise and does... Whatever the fuck it is they want him to do.
I'm still not fully aware of what the UN's long term plan is with Remnant, I need to drag that out of Coulson next time we meet up. but what matters most is this:
The war's over,
And I got to tell my Mom I loved her.
But, as with all things: These moments I steal are too short, go too fast, and are gone before I really understand what the fuck it is I just went through.
I had a home cooked meal, gave my Mom a hand cannon, watched some Kevin Smith movies, and got to see my Dog.
Now's the time to go back.
And I know what you're thinking: Why, oh God why, aren't I staying to try and re-up... Literally anything? If shit I can only half remember got me this far, why aren't I downloading movies, pirating books, or printing wikis?
After all, while I've been gone, two Marvel movies and an entire RWBY volume have hit the internet, so all of that should be worth its weight in gold.
Well... Who's to say I haven't?
Well, no - I haven't, but I had Coulson (through Captain Russia) get some things for me. Chief among them being a new tablet, but as well an external hard drive.
A big external hard drive. Like - they pulled the damn thing from a supercomuter, big.
The idea being that something like that would be able to store everything I could ever need or want, and should I need or want it, I could plug it into the tablet and access it.
As I said a moment ago: While I was gone, but before Salem dropped the Grimm on LA, Volume 5 either... Was aired, or was finished, one of the two.
I'm sure and well fucking aware that anything contained therein would be functionally useless, as barring an act of God/s, nothing will be going down the same way it did there. But the way I see it: Damn thing may have something useful for me.
So, while I'm flying back to the submarine, I'll have that drowning out the roar of the wind in my ears.
And once I get back to the Remnant?
Man, who the fuck knows. Maybe it'll blow up.
Again.
For the Record
And just like that, it's done.
Well, the war, at least.
This 'this', going on? My idiotic grand game? That's still happening. As a matter of fact, it started up full-fucking-blast the moment my weeklong sojourn was done. Torchwick figured out I'd been up to some SHIT after the terrans 'abducted' me, and since he didn't feel safe enough running around in Vale yet, he sent Neo (in the Yuno disguise we made) to ask about it.
Neo promptly showed how well she plays the game and straight-up confirmed what I'd thought, awhile back - that she's in this for herself just a smidge more than Torchwick. We defined our terms and once the coast is clear for Yuno to 'go home', she'll head back to Torchwick and tell him the whole truth: That I left Vale in the submarine, and came back in that same submarine, and nothing interesting happened in that submarine between those two events.
And in case it isn't clear yet: Neo's chosen a side, and it ain't Torchwick's.
And apparently she's been killing folks since I was in middle school.
Oooooh boy, we'll see how that turns out.
For now, though, she's going to lend a little credence to the Yuno story we cooked up. I'd told the girls she was here, so she's going to stick around, play nurse while I heal up, probably tease me any chance she gets, teach me to sign, the whole shebang. She's actually watching me write this right now.
Wonder if she'd actually paying attention... She can't read it, of course, but still.
Hm...
8===D
Yup, that made her laugh. Some things transcend the (written) language barrier, it seems.
Anyways, since Ozpin's most likely going to be embroiled in the political half of having lost the war for a while yet (Thank god I don't have to deal with that.), I'm probably not going to get a face-to-face with him for a few weeks. Not until the terrans finish pulling out... Or establish an occupation center. Whichever ends up happening.
But that's not to say I won't hear from him: I guaran-goddam-tee you that Qrow being there at the docks was intentional on Ozpin's end. Qrow will be our go-between, most likely the one who keeps the entire Watchmen on the same page, until the CCT gets fixed.
And speaking of the Watchmen, I highly doubt Taurus is going to stay as dark as he claimed. He's going to rock the fact that he fought the terrans while the VAF cowered behind its defensive walls. Torchwick probably won't be silent either - dude's got money and dude's got resources. I bet you he'll be racking up favors and a better public image by throwing that money and resources around to help expedite the rebuilding efforts.
Really, there's only one wildcard in the mix... And I hesitate to actually call her such, since Salem (and Cinder) seem so dead-fucking-set on the Vytal plan. I doubt I'll hear from the latter until the CCT's back up, and since that's how Remnant talks to itself, you know the four kingdoms and the UN will prioritize getting those back up and running.
So, ballpark, I figure I have a month... Maybe two, of just playing Goud.
Which isn't a bad thing, mind. I've got a lot of stuff I need to fix.
At worst, maybe one or two nights of having to pick up the Ryan name and get updates from Earth. But aside from that? I honestly think that's going to be the plan: Salem is going to lull the worlds into a false sense of security. Let them think the worst has passed and that it's time to get back to normalcy. Nothing (major) will happen until or unless Vytal starts up.
That's not to say I probably won't hear from Torchwick or Taurus that they're being told to shift resources over to Earth... But I hesitate to actually think they'll be told to operate anywhere but Vale, seeing as how Salem has three other Masters to work with. They could very well be working on the Earth half of the equation as we speak.
Which would only play into my fears of a coup de grace even more: Wait until Vytal, destroy it, spark another war between Earth and Remnant, and in the utter fucking chaos that would follow, decapitate the academies, use the Masters to crack open the vaults, and failing that find the Maidens during the war, steal the relics and then...
Well, anyone ever read Infinity Gauntlet?
I doubt I need to say any more.
I worry that I may not get the chance to lead Earth and Remnant to Salem's Domain, if that ends up being the case. I know she won't get all four relics - Ozpin said he threw one in the ocean, so taking Beacon won't get her its Relic - but I'd still have to deal with the big bitch with three relics... And who knows if getting the other three won't enlighten her to the fourth's location? According to Ozpin, she seemed somehow innately aware enough of where they were back when, that she was able to track them to him in their first encounter.
I already have a Plan B brewing if I'm not ever able to kill her (Going to give... Someone... The Master Sword, under the idea that, since she's part Grimm and thus 'pure evil', that its power to repel said evil will let it seal her up like it does Ganon.), but not only does that rely on me finding someone it would allow to wield it (since you know damn well it won't ever let me use it), and effectively at that (since how many people in this world use swords?!), but that also relies on me being able to lead the fucking armies to Salem in the first place.
So now I need a plan C: What happens should Salem go Coup De Grace, get three relics in one night, and become nigh-unstoppable as a result?
That might warrant a nuclear option.
Like, 'ignore any and all potential drawbacks and focus on the benefits', nuclear option.
'Summon a Warhammer STC', nuclear.
'Build an army of Vibranium Terminators', nuclear.
'Wake up more Masters', nuclear.
Ignoring the downsides I could go on - build a bunch of Nanosuits, fire up an Iron Man suit, summon a bunch of Lantern rings, the unworthy Mjolnir... - but the point is, Plan C, Salem getting three quarters of the way to victory in a single night, would necessitate me doing something drastic.
Fuck. How have I fallen so far that talking to Yuno over there is a more appealing option than trying to think this stuff through?
Anyways, last but not least: I got a care package from Coulson (I also have a CIA handler now. Go fucking figure.). The easiest way to describe it is just calling it an encyclopedia of everything I'd ever need. Movie, book, video game lore... Actual copies of movies, you name it and it has it, as well as actual science to help out.
It also has Volume 5, and the most recent Marvel Movies. The former because it's necessary, the latter because... Damn it - I may not get that chance again.
Got some usable stuff out of it. Know who the Spring Maiden is, now. Know what the relics look like, now. Know what Jaune's semblance is, now. Aside from that? Not fully sure what all will prove useful, short or long term.
But, that's really all I have, now.
Now I sleep (with a psycho-bitch watching. Help me.), and when I wake up, I go back to Ash.
And if it isn't clear by now: I don't know WHAT the fuck happens after that.
For the Record
Something occurred to me this morning. Sitting in the darkness, candles out, seeing Deer's coat swishing in the door, Neo trying to pretend she was asleep:
I'm an Ork.
No, seriously, think about it:
If an Ork in 40K duct-taped nothing but a couple rocks and a piece of rebar together in the vague shape of a rifle, looked away for a week, and then looked back and went, 'Holy shit, a rifle!', it would work based solely on the fact that the Ork believed it was a fucking rifle. It would shoot people, and it would work, where anyone else would pick it up and it wouldn't work at all, returning back to a chunk of iron, a few rocks, and some duct tape, literally because the Ork would look at it, think, 'This is a rifle!', and it would be.
Does that sound familiar?
Let me swap out a few words for you:If I took nothing but a couple nanites and hardlight generators and made them up in the vague shape of a multicolored shield, it would work. It would deflect shit, and it would bounce off walls, and it would work, where anyone else would pick it up and it wouldn't work at all, returning back to a battery-operated chunk of very fragile light, literally because the I would look at it, think, 'This is vibranium!', and it would be.
Replace with the relevant words for lightsaber and it would only continue to work. See my point?
I'm a goddamn Ork.
Why?
Because Ozpin convinced me that's how my fucking powers work.
No, no, think about it - before I had my little 'Wham' session with him, the shield was always just a chunk of light and colors to me. I'd always pull it up and wipe it away through function of the nanites. But ever since then, I've had trouble making another one. That's not an issue that existed before - I remember pretty clearly having two shields when I fought Adam, him having stolen one and I having made a second one.
But after I talked to Ozpin, all of a sudden I have trouble making more than one of anything.
But that could be anything.
So here's some more proof: Before that heart to heart, all I had and all I ever did was color my shields and a few little odds and ends I used from time to time.
After that, I was making simple machines, light sabers, I have a bolter, I had a neuralizer... All from a bunch of nanites that only make physical light.
And, Ozpin himself literally said he tried making the same things I did (though at the time it was just the shield), with the same nanites I used. The batteries ran out, the shield was destructible, and it didn't bounce. All things that don't happen to me.
And if we're going to ask why his don't work the same way mine do - they do! But he was from ancient Rome, and as a result he thought in simple terms, like fire, water, and so on. His multiple lifetimes were completely colored and influenced by that fact, so by the time machines and things of that nature entered the playing field, he couldn't change his way of thinking in a meaningful enough way.
So when I came around, instead he told me straight up that I could 'will the universe', and essentially have or do anything I wanted, as long as I 'understood the concept' behind it.
Conclusion?
I'm a fucking Ork, because Ozpin realized the nature of Magic and specifically wanted to make sure my powers wouldn't function the same way his did.
Alright?
Alright.
Now say it with me:
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
(I didn't sleep at all I thought too much about Salem and Earth's long term plans and I'm very fucking tired.)
(Seriously. There's something I'm missing on both ends, and it's keeping me up.)
For the Record
Jesus fucking Christ. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
You know, I find it simply amazing how often the standards for 'dumbest decision ever' keep getting higher for me, and subsequently how often I have to raise those standards.
Seriously, originally the dumbest thing I've ever done was try to fight a demon with a fire axe axe, a bow made out of airplane cables, and a flare gun. There was no way I could have topped that - that alone would be at the top of anyone's life list of idiotic things, and yet a day later I made the conscious choice to play spy for what basically equated for a doomsday cult, and holy shit did it snowball from there.
Picking a fight with a demigoddess, betraying everyone and everything I know, outright lying to everyone who trusts me, betraying my allies to gain even more, fighting an army of modern soldiers with a sword and shield, walking into a pseudo-nuclear bunker with a pistol and a police baton, bluffing the strongest man on the planet, telling my Mom that I'd done all of this, you all know as well as I that the list goes on and it only gets crazier the further it goes. Every single time I make a dumb choice, I'm always convinced it's the dumbest thing I can possibly do, and that nothing before or after could top it.
So now I'm not even going to bother labeling it. My next feat will be stupid beyond comprehension, and you know what? By the end of this year - no, by the end of the week I'm convinced I'll be doing something dumber. That was just how my fucking life works.
Now, you're probably wondering what the fuck I'm rambling on about now.
Well, I'll put it to you this way:
My plan was what I said it was: To play Commander Shepard's Damage Control and visit my 'crew', as it were.
I got as far as Yang (my first stop), before the universe went: "Haha! No." And Qrow, plastered and drunk off his ass, showed up to tell me that the UN's basically going to every single motherfucking kingdom and demanding, on pain of no Earth infrastructural support (if that's even a phrase) for their rebuilding, either their Deity Brothers Relics, or failing that, the identities of their Maidens.
Subsequently revealing to me Salem's master stroke: She's pulling an MCU Thanos, revealing and getting out in the open everything she needs for victory, such that she can just one-two punch the whole goddamn world come Vytal, first by sparking another confrontation between Earth and Remnant, and then both of them and the Grimm, and then by finding every Maiden, using Cinder to absorb all of their powers, and then stealing every single one of the Relics.
Worst part is, with the inter-global climate she's creating, she'll be able to complete all of this in days. Cinder and I wouldn't even need to hunt down the Maidens - she could just send the Masters and their handlers out to find them, kick their asses, and round them all up. Then Cinder comes around, steals their power, opens up the vaults, takes the relics, and then...
Well, like I said: Ever read Infinity Gauntlet?
*Snap*.
So, I have a choice to make, and as per the beginning of this record, it's egregiously stupid, but let's be honest: It won't be the dumbest thing I'll do. Give it a week. Give it a day. GIVEITAGODDAMNHOUR!
See, with Salem Thanos'ing everything, it occurs to me that I most likely won't go to her castle immediately after Vytal. If I'm correct, I may not go there period until we've killed the Maidens and obtained the four Relics... And as has been pointed out to me on numerous occasions by Torchwick, while ironclad proof may not exist, it isn't difficult to notice the coincidences in shit going wrong and my not being around when they do. Worse is that I suspect Salem of potentially knowing about RWBY, the show, and subsequently the thought may be in her head that I know about it as well, seeing as I'm the youngest guy to survive the plane crash and thus the likeliest candidate for it to be on my radar.
Resultantly, she may not trust me, and the hiccups I continue to introduce to her plans may lead to fullblown suspicion. So I need to either stop operating against her, which I can't do, or I need to do something that so drastically benefits her that the thought of distrusting me won't ever enter her head.
See, now, I could go a lot more into detail about that... But the interaction, reaction, and subsequent plan of action I got from Cinder invalidates a lot of the thoughts and ideas I'd originally come up with... And since I've gone to the Garden so many goddamn times now that describing the whole thing, top to bottom, like I usually do, is just asinine at this point, I'll instead just get to the point, because things managed to go better and worse than expected.
First is the simplest... In a manner of speaking: I left Neo at the hospital. Faked a throat injury and had it vetted by Deer to excuse her being mute, but before I left I gave her an experiment to run while I was gone. The long and short of that one is that Plan B I mentioned an entry or two back. I used the Power Glove to expedite the process a bit (since that's always given me my best results), and made a Master Sword. And a Hylian shield because it just seems wrong to only have one.
Side note: If I remember right, the implication was that the 'choosing' the sword does was explained by Skyward Sword as being Fi, an AI-Spirit-like-thing that lives in the sword, who judges the wielder of their worthiness. Well, if that's true, she's a crafty bitch, since, because I skipped the whole 'drawing the sword from the stone' bit by just forging it from the Power Glove, she turned around and locked the thing in its sheath. Like, nothing I do can pull the sword out of its sheathe... And she's managed to hijack the Power Glove to boot - I can't despawn it, either proving that the Zelda Goddesses' magic is stronger than mine, or I don't have nearly as much control over my abilities as I like to think. Or both.
Once again: These magic powers are starting to become just as much of a source of unbridled fear as they are a wellspring of endless strength.
I think I'm going to start keeping a periodic table on me. I figured out how to draw water vapor out of the air and fill a cup with it, but I also know I can 'feel' the particles in the air if I focus enough. So, I keep a table on me, practice enough, strictly speaking I can start messing around with atomic recombination. Go Dr. Manhattan, and not need to rely so goddamn much on my magic.
But regardless, at least it gives me a somewhat easy method of judging someone's worthiness: If the sword lets them unsheathe it, they must be capable of using it.
Thus my leaving Neo with an experiment to run. I told her to go around to all of Goud's contacts and ask them to try and draw the sword, and I made it simple on her by telling her to just tell them that the 'who/what/when/where/why' is too complicated to write out, so I'd give them the details when my voice came back.
And if they asked where 'Yuno' went, 'she's' out getting my arm fixed up.
So, hopefully that'll bear some fruit... Else I'm just going to put it in a chest and pitch it in a mountain and start up a legend about a magical sword. I figure that has about just as likely a chance of finding someone worthy as me giving it to a bunch of Main and Supporting Characters would.
After that, I slipped on some people clothes, snuck out of the hospital, and found Cinder.
She promptly revealed to me she's a bit more savvy than Neo gives her credit for... Or she knows me too well. Because when I told her that the 'request' I'd dropped her earlier, to ask Salem what she'd think of me being a double agent for her against Ozpin was less of a request than it was a 'brace yourself' warning, she straight up said she'd pegged that was the case the moment I'd said it.
Yeah.
See, this should have been an omen, because me getting exactly what I wanted, once again, proved to be exactly what I didn't want, and just threw the rest of the things I'd planned on into disarray. I had to draw on so many ideas and details from so many originally disparate plans and scenarios that the resultant mess of a gameplan was an unrecognizable beast, continuing the trend of my plans never going to plan, and that not necessarily being a bad thing, because of how goddamn paranoid I'm becoming.
Moving on: We then proved again that we're on the same page when I offered up that I was doing it as a means of locating the Maiden as my explanation, to which she said she'd figured, or else why even do it? Given those two facts, she spun the story that way to Salem, who cleared it as a... Well, not a 'good' idea, but an idea that could work.
She was pissed when I mentioned I didn't know yet where Amber was.
But that frown turned right the fuck around when I told her that I'd figured out that Beacon's relic wasn't even in Beacon at all. I fed her some more details I'd learned through the Watchmen, and then told her that the UN had demanded either the Maiden, or the Relic, and that, since the former obviously wouldn't happen, Ozpin had no choice but to agree to the latter, or forfeit Earth's help in rebuilding Vale, and that I know when and where this deal was going down.
Now, remember when I said that should have been an omen?
Here's where it kicks in. Because my plan had been for her to basically go, 'holy shit, I need to talk to the boss', take a few days to call Salem and to set up some kind of attack on the terran convoy transporting the relic to Earth. (Side note: I bet you money it's going to Area 51.)
But I failed to consider the fact that Cinder simultaneously has a superiority complex, and has been growing an inferiority complex as a result of the secrets Salem's been keeping from her.
In short: Cinder wants to prove herself as wholly trustworthy and capable to Salem, in the efforts of getting the White Witch to talk more openly, and share more of her secrets of power with her.
So instead of calling Salem and getting her to send a Master to do this (which would have allowed me to slip away from Beacon to fight and kill said Master, to take the relic), she grabbed Mercury, sent word to the White Fang to have a functioning bullhead ready for us, and now we're in Mountain Glenn, waiting for the deal to go down.
Again: Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All of my plans were thrown out the window. Ruined and destroyed, but simultaneously improved and legitimized.
First: The Watchmen won't expect me to be out working against them, because Neo's taking my place and is giving me an alibi... And since the plan is to attack when it reaches Earth, there's even less chance for them to suspect me, as opposed to believing that there may be Masters on Earth feeding Salem information.
Second: The Legion of Doom won't even remotely suspect me if something goes wrong... Because Cinder's right here to watch it all go down, and to vouch for me and my loyalty. After all: I did get this information, and when Cinder chose to act on it, I did provide a plan that would basically guarantee success, and alongside her and Mercury, was instrumental in said success, proving to Cinder and to Salem that there can be no question of my loyalty. I've gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the Legion's success.
Now, that may sound stupid beyond belief.
And let's be honest: It is.
Oh god it is.
But as we've been sitting here in Mountain Glenn, I realized this: Since we're making the likely assumption that Salem isn't bringing anyone home until we've killed the Maidens and obtained all four Relics, had everything gone to plan, and had I obtained the Relic, then Salem would only have had three of the four, and the chance would have existed and perhaps had been high that, instead of recalling everyone to the castle, she would have instead merely appointed one person courier for the three relics she had, and made the rest of us search for the final one.
And since I always go with the worst-case scenarios, that basically means I'd lose my chance to reach her castle... And all else equal, when I would reach it, Earth and Remnant would have trashed eachother so fucking badly that I wouldn't have any of the resources I've spent the better part of the last year building up. Earth and Remnant would have torn eachother apart fighting themselves and the Grimm, and compounded with the damage we'd do in the hunt for the Maidens and the Relics, there would hardly be anything left for me to call on when I finally would locate Salem's Domain.
That would basically be all of my plans gone, right there.
And yes, the chance exists that after months of fruitless searching, she'd recall us all to her castle so we could plan accordingly, but that still would run a heavy risk of Earth and Remnant destroying eachother in the interim.
And, again, yes, that's the worst case scenario. I know I'm overly dramatic like that. But isn't it better to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised by the best?
Now, this does... Obviously, have one major (one might even describe it as 'existential') risk to it, in that I'm fucking giving Salem all four of the relics.
But... I'm willing to bet that obtaining all of them doesn't mean instant victory for her. These are four weird-ass what-the-fucks, not six stones going in a gauntlet for a snap of the fingers - and even if they were, I'd still have all the time it would take for her to place the proverbial stones in the gauntlet and snap her fingers before defeat was inevitable.
In short, in doing this I will have a very... Very... Very short window in which to operate.
Buuuuuut, I'll also have at least nine months to come up -
For the Record
Fun fucking fact:
Black Panther, shrugging off explosions and machine gun rounds, and all that?
Bullshit.
I mean, no, maybe half bullshit. The suit works as advertised: It stops/absorbs/jargons impact force, but it doesn't stop objects from moving. So if I have more momentum or am physically stronger than whatever's hitting me (say: A bullet hitting my chest), then it'll just bounce off and I won't be effected. But if it has more momentum/mass/strength/whatever than I do (Say: A moving car... Or the hammer Mjolnir.), suddenly things get screwy in ways I never had to deal with, with the shield, the long and short of which being broken down to the fact that the suit, instead of being made of firm plates, is essentially a bodysuit of chainmail, which compressed, bends, flattens, whathaveyou.
So if something with more massjargonjargonjargon hits me, the suit bends, my body resists it (thanks Newton!), and that means that all the goddamn magical metal in the world won't stop my ribs from breaking if it bends when I get hit in the chest by the hammer of Thor.
I'm also pretty sure that's why Cap's arms didn't get turned into jelly when he got smacked in the Avengers: Old Glory is a single, solid, plate of vibranium. Firm and unyielding, Cap's a supersoldier to begin with, and Thor wasn't trying to kill him. All of that together, and the more superior defensive capabilities of the shield outclass that of the suit.
So while I may be bullet proof, now, I'm nowhere near punch proof. Not for the level of people I've been fighting, anyways.
Or knife proof, actually - doesn't Black Panther get stabbed repeatedly in the comics, while wearing the suit?
Why the fuck am I wearing this, again? God damn it.
And, here's the strangest part: I bet through my word choice above, I probably 'sound' frustrated and a little pissed.
But at this point?
Well, I'll put it to you like I put it to Cinder. Paraphrased: I've got a chunk of kryptonite on my belt because I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Superman burst into here because he felt a disturbance in the Force.
Ugh, Jesus Fuck.
Mercury's dead, Cinder and I killed someone who wielded Marvel's Mjolnir, basically making him Thor, I had a heart attack when I tried to pull something from Dragonball Z to kill him, had to drop a literal Metal Gear on the Justice League so we could get away, got my ass whooped by Taiyang Xiao Long, and now we're in outer space flying back down to the ground.
Seriously. Superman. Would not. Be. Surprised.
I'd go more. You know I could go longer. But despite the fact that I've been out for two days (and I installed some of those CIA programs on this tablet, so I know for a fact she never even so much as turned it on, let alone tried reading this), I'm fucking exhausted. So I'm gonna sleep, probably going to piss myself when I realize I gave one of God's toys to Lady Satan, and then I'm probably going to get stabbed by my sociopathic... What the fuck even is she? And I'm not even going to be questioning my life anymore.
For the Record:
Something occurs to me, thinking about my fight with Thor, and the exact how of my little Dragonball Z stunt:
Might I be overthinking the whole 'How Ozpin Copied Semblances' thing?
Like, all I had to do to open up the floodgates was... Think about it. Really, really hard - it really wasn't any different from anything else I do with magic.
Could it really have been that easy all along?
And it also goes back to my whole joke about me being an Ork. I was only half kidding, realize. My powers work a lot like the reality warping properties of the Orks from 40K. So is it really just a matter of pulsing my magic, thinking 'Barry Allen, Barry Allen, Barry Allen', tapping my heels, and then drawing on the Speed Force?
I'll have to look into this more when I have the free time.
And I may or may not have a lot, coming up soon - we're all getting out of the hospital imminently, which means I'm going to be exposed to the Postwar Remnant as both Watchman and Student.
Not much else, really, aside from the fact that I think Neo's beginning to wear me down, and that I'm fully cognizant of the fact: I found myself feeling bad for her tonight, making her sleep in a chair, so I gave the fuck in and now she's wrapped around me like I'm a giant teddy bear.
How'd that guy say it in Wonder Woman?
I am both terrified and aroused?
Yeah, that sums it up pretty well.
Speaking of superhero movies, I've got more than a few I still need to catch up on. I have everything released up to Infinity War, but I prioritized more RWBY's fifth volume over that. One can argue how smart that is, considering my track record with RWBY versus my track record with more pop culture stuff, but I digress.
For the Record
I wonder if I have cancer.
Ozpin tried to intimidate me into letting out that I was responsible for the Relic by teleporting me to the moon.
You now - where there's no Ozone, atmosphere, or magnetic field to protect me from cosmic goddamn radiation.
I mean, I was probably only up there for... Like... A minute? Maybe two? But seriously, getting unfiltered sunlight is how people's cancer's cancer gets cancer.
I want to say that Ozpin used magic to make sure none of the really bad stuff hit me, only the 'let's scare the hell out of you!' stuff, but he was also pretty fucking pissed. It wouldn't surprised me if he let that slip.
So...
Maybe I should start calling myself Heisenberg?
I'll keep that name on reserve. I've already used Nathan Drake, Ash (Williams), and Andrew Ryan.
And I honestly don't even fucking remember if I've used any others.
Anyways - apparently Ozpin's solution for the 'Holy fuck, Earth may think I pulled a fast one on 'em' is to sell them frankly obscene amounts of resources for pennies on the dollar.
So... You know. Bright side: Gas will probably be cheaper!
Ugh.
I wonder how things will go, now? The war's over, Salem probably won't want to rock the boat too terribly much... Will things really calm down for a while? I almost don't want to believe it.
And Ozpin says he's going to let Pyrrha in on the whole 'make a Ma(ide)n, out of you' plan, because everyone in the Justice League is accusing him of losing control of the whole Salem situation, in the face of the terrans invading on her behalf.
For the Record:
You know what? I'll be damned - it's been almost a month and there's been no... 'Real' shit.
Some minor grievances here and there, once we and the other countries got their CCT's working again. Ozpin let slip that Ironwood literally has a bullet with 'Nathan Drake' written on it. Gonna steer clear of him for the time being.
And, you know: I realized I'd accidentally killed Weiss' sister.
And my nonchalant reaction to that should be worrying as it is telling.
But aside from that?
Surprisingly little.
I got back into contact with Earth, my new guy - I'm calling him Bubbles. As in, Cobra. - is a lot more no-nonsense than Coulson, thus the name, but he at least understands on some level that their grip on Remnant and information on Salem is partially reliant on me, so he's willing to do the whole 'I ask, you answer' thing.
It took me longer than I would have wanted to get a meeting set up with the Watchmen. Torchwick and Ozpin were game, but Qrow and a lot of other Huntsmen have been out keeping Grimm away from the city while we rebuilded, and Taurus has been making grabs for more recruits. Once the TV's started working again, and specials about what the fuck actually happened started airing, they couldn't not broadcast the fact that the only ones in Vale to actually counterattack the terrans were supposed terrorists. He's eating that shit up.
But, the good news is I've finally managed to get them all on the same page. We've got something set up for tonight.
But before then, I never thought I'd say this, but I've got something else scheduled: Extra lessons.
Yes, perhaps the only class in Beacon I actually intend to pay attention and look forward to, and it's not on the curriculum. Go fucking figure.
See, a few days after we all woke up and classes started, I went to Goodwitch and we defined terms in regards to her helping me out with my semblance.
Don't know what all she's planning, but hopefully it'll give me a much more solid grasp on my 'resting state', such that I can wean myself off of my reliance of my magic.
This'll be fun, now won't it?
For the Record
I now know how to take atoms apart and turn them into hydrogen!
According to Goodwitch, that's really the hardest part. Developing the discipline to not nuke myself trying to do that. Everything next is just getting used to juggling anywhere from one to a hundred simultaneous electrons, protons, and neutrons.
Hopefully this will pay dividends in weaning me off of my magic.
Anyways after that, the Master Sword tried to set my fucking soul on fire.
That's the only explanation I have - I grabbed it from Jaune, and despite touching it with my Venom Snake hand, it felt like I'd dumped the whole thing in a tub of lava, and my aura (You know, my goddamn soul!) was all out of whack, felt weird for days.
Man that puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
But I've gone on about that countless times before now, so I'll spare you all another 'Am I good or evil really?' diatribe.
Instead I'll say we're starting down the road to making Jaune a badass. Pyrrha's working on his sword work (and I may or may not be paying attention, get some tricks from her to compliment my tricks from Weiss), I'm showing him how to use the shield, and waddaya know? He's taking to it pretty well. It's been a few weeks and a few training sessions since the first, and the progress is slow, but there. Pyrrha put it best: Her combat style and his just don't mesh at all, whereas his and mine are a lot more compatible.
Especially since he doesn't fry his aura shields for more combat power, which means he has an even larger margin for error when it comes to taking attacks than I do.
In short: Plan B is coming along swimmingly.
And speaking of plans, Vytal's in eight months, and we've got one final thing to tie up so I can kill off Goud and start working towards the Endgame.
Ozpin brought the Watchmen in on the whole 'Ruby and Pyrrha Against the World' thing, and Torchwick agreed to be a sacrificial lamb of sorts.
I do notice how things appear to be lining up, in their own drastically altered way, with the show as was depicted before I showed up, and while I could have something to say on the nature of time, and some Bioshock Infinite 'constants and variables... There's always a man and there's always a lighthouse' thing... God damn I just don't care to. Be it because I've pretty much given up trying to make sense of how the universe treats me and everyone else, or because I am in part responsible for those things lining back up, take your pick.
Regardless, guess who gets to jumpstart that little sequence of events?
Thankfully I know pretty much everything I need to do, I just need to... Do it.
For the Record
So, by coincidence and by design, I got stuck in this Torchwick shit.
The funny thing?
Neo texts me before I make it to the police station, gives me a picture of some random dude.
I get to the station, get thrown in an interrogation room, five minutes later the guy she sent me a picture of walks in and starts interviewing me.
See, a part of me wants to be paranoid, believe she let this guy in on who I am, but let's be fucking honest. The more likely option is that she sent me that picture almost entirely to fuck with me. I one hundred percent believe that she did it because she thought it would be funny.
Aaaand... Okay, fine, it kind of is.
But what's really funny is the whirlwind of bullshit that has us... Not accountable for anything. For fuck's sake, we trashed a goddamn highway. and were only in an interrogation room for a few hours.
Like, am I supposed to take from this that Neo's picture suggested nothing will happen because the cops are all corrupt? Or that Huntsmen in this world have carte blanche when it comes to performing their duties?
I mean, considering that they've been dealing with super people for as long as they've been writing down history, I suppose their laissez faire attitude even when it comes to students would be somewhat understandable, but the whole thing just blasts so far past ridiculous it circles around to being funny.
Anyways, all that to say: We kicked the closest we could get to the show's Torchwick plot into high gear, and I gotta admit, it was kind of fun. That there was a fight with no stakes, I just got to beat the snot out of a bunch of guys with no aura, not have to kill them, got into a car chase, a car wreck, and then a standoff, and then I got arrested.
Oh, I also figured out I can run at about ninety miles per hour.
I was sore as fuck afterwards, though. Pretty sure I tore and pulled more than a few muscles in my everywhere. Once the adrenaline faded away I could barely move, took me two damn days before I had recovered enough to start training again, and a week before I was somewhat close to being healthy.
Granted, my baseline these days is 'half dead', but I digress:
For the first time in almost a year... God damn, I knew what I was doing at any given moment.
Obviously there were some variables (one of which being I didn't expect Yang to attempt a krogan airdrop with her motor bike), but on the whole? I knew what I was doing pretty much the whole way through.
That's not a luxury I get very often, and damn it felt good.
Anyways, Ozpin played his role after we got out of the precinct. I'm glad you're safe, be more careful next time, the reconstruction crews have enough work already, blah blah blah.
Cinder, on the other hand, wasn't fully happy with how Ruby was a part of it. She's under the assumption that the whole thing was for my benefit so as to get in closer with Ozpin, and that Ruby just showed up on accident. But I managed to quiet her down and told her this would only help in the long run, that Ruby is Ozpin's little pet project and getting in close with her would give me leverage over him, that kind of stuff.
Now all we've got to do is just go through the motions and play the game.
And, as the saying goes: Game on.
For the Record
Torchwick thing took about three months. Even the end wasn't nearly as exciting as it was before I showed up and mucked up the show, we just, showed up, again... The thugs freaked out, again... We kicked ass, again... Then we had this whole big boxing session with Torchwick's robot mech suit and some of his better thugs, Neo played hooky, Torchwick didn't, now he's behind bars.
That sounds worse than it is, though. His contacts, Ozpin's, and a little terran influence (once I let Bubbles in on the whole act), mean he's... Really not. He's in a prison, yes, but we got him in one he chose specifically - because he'd spent the entire three months systematically putting every one of the guards and prisoners on his payroll - so he still has below-board access to his contacts, and is still basically puppeteering his entire criminal network from inside the slammer.
The guy's a less fat Wilson Fisk, have I said that yet?
To the point where I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he used this as a chance to legitimize himself, like some kind of ex-con 'I was once evil and look at where I am now!' success story.
So basically doing what Adam Taurus is already in the middle of, come to think of it.
So, in summation:
Pyrrha's already got her name out there. She's the invincible girl. She's ready for the world to be led by her.
Goud cemented his with all of the Nathan Drake, Master Chief, Jedi-esque shit he pulled during the Worlds War. He's ready to be martyred to unite everyone, Phil Coulson style.
And now Ruby's name is picking up steam, because she spearheaded the whole damn operation that 'shattered' Roman Torchwick's criminal empire.
The god damn stage is set... On both sides.
Yeah, both sides.
The Legion hasn't been idle during this.
Taurus and Torchwick have been used by Cinder as a means of smuggling things across the interstellar border. Most of the wormholes ended up within the aquatic borders of some country or another, and they got locked down tight, but one managed to get dropped in international waters. So, while it was absolutely legal for the various countries to park a warship and a sub or two nearby, they couldn't demilitarize the shit out of them like the other ones were, what with mines and bombs and all that. This one's locked down tight, but its nature and its location mean there are holes in its defenses.
Holes one of Salem's masters was able to point out to them (through messages, because of course I'd miss a chance to identify one of them), and they were able to use to smuggle... Well, let's be fucking honest. There's only one thing Salem wants on Earth right now. Though I did find it entertaining that their initial idea was to hide the Grimm in Chernobyl (yes, that Chernobyl), but they axed that one when they started dropping like flies. Now they've just got small populations hidden in out of the way places in various major countries, breeding like crazy and just waiting for the proverbial gun to go off. Add that to the aura-users she's decking out in military threads that she hopes to use to either assassinate or terrify world leaders, and the tension that never really bled away between the two worlds (because did any of us really expect Earth or Remnant to forget that we'd been killing each other barely even a year ago? The Japanese are still pissed at the Americans for the atom bombs, for fuck's sake.), and she's got her powder keg, which is only getting worse what with the arms race that is/isn't going on, what with Remnant trying to fix their naval forces and rebuild their military infrastructure, albeit under the excuse that it's for Grimm control, and Earth laughing their asses off and building ten aircraft carriers in the time it takes Remnant to field half that number of airships.
So, when shit goes down, Earth will be just occupied enough dealing with the Grimm that will show up after the leaders are killed, but not so occupied that they can't turn their war machine to Remnant, which itself is now ready for most of the tricks that got their asses kicked last time. The fight will be much more equal this go-round, to the point where I'm willing to bet that they won't even name it a separate war, when it comes time to put it down in the history books. They'll just say the ceasefire was violated and the war started back up. I think there's precedent for that, considering the fact that the Korean War technically still hasn't ended per se. I don't know the proper terminology. The fighting stopped but the war technically wasn't over.
Anyways, it's actually kind of startling. I always wondered what it must be like to be the villain in a movie, setting up the supposed end of the heroes and their world and watching all the pieces get set, and now I know. It feels weird. Like, on one hand I know that I'm setting up some fucked up shit. But on the other, I know for a fact that I've done worse on the small and large scale. So as bad as it feels... I've felt worse.
And admitting that is bizarre... But it's also something I've done before, which is more or less why I'm happy that students from other countries, as well as terran athletes and camera crews, are starting to show up for Vytal.
And realizing that - realizing that I'm repeating myself so often now - that's when it hit me: Soon, I'll have brand new shit to worry about, wholly alien to this Salem/Cinder/Ozpin/Justice League/Legion of Doom stuff. Because in a month... Maybe two? Three at the most. I'll be done with this. All of it.
So, what does all that mean?
That means Sandy Blue, Yuno Magenta, John Grease, and Redd Foley (See: Cinder, Neo, Chainsword, and the Chameleon chick from forever ago, all disguised), are arriving at Beacon today. Vytal, both the games and the tournaments, starts in earnest tomorrow, and Goud Etiolate dies in two...Ish weeks. Maybe sooner. Maybe later. But imminently regardless.
And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain. Whoever you all are, I'll say it clear. I'll state my case, of which I'm certain:
In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance, my head is bloody, but unbowed.
It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
The Record shows I took the blows, and did it my way.
BMFG is touching down, soon.
Let's fuckin' do this.
The video opened up with a look over a long cliff. The sky was a deep, darkening blue, as though taken from a painting. The clouds bathed in the fading golden light of a setting sun, and with every second that passed, the light retreated further and further away from the thick forests below.
"Yeah, it's... Been awhile since I've done this, huh?" Spoke a voice, before the camera turned around and displayed a tired and haggard face. Two gunmetal gray, cybernetic eyes, framed by the lines of lost sleep and beset upon by the stress of trauma, were situated above a smile that wholly failed to reach them. A hand cloaked in an onyx metal suit, with a long, baggy sleeve hanging off of it, came up and swept through the shaggy hair that grew out of the recorder's face, before rubbing at his eyes.
He let out a long sigh, before sniffing in through his nose and nodding to the camera. "I guess I say... 'For the record'...?" He chuckled, and the camera jostled about as he sat down on the edge of the cliff, looking out to the setting sun, its final rays casting his skin in a golden glow. "Haven't done a video recording - on my phone no less! - since you-know-who picked me up." A beat, before he gave the camera a wink and a grin. "I am of course talking about Lord Voldemort." He chuckled.
"Been wondering how I'd do this one for the last two weeks, really. Would I go down to the vault and record among the recovered wreckage? Sit on my Magic Chair? Drink some of the terran alcohol? Maybe pop an Oxycodone and go on a high rant for thirty minutes?" He listed off, before sighing, the wistful smile still on his face. "But then I realized... I've been here for a year and a half, and I've never once watched the sun set. Which is doubly awful because these new eyes -" He indicated the metal spheres in his head. "They're good, folks. Not like those fleshy pieces of shit I used to have, these ones can stare at the sun for hours and I won't go blind." A beat. "Don't ask how I know that - moving on!" He held up a finger.
"To get to the point... This may be my last record." He nodded, lowering his hand to his lap with a light clap. "Something may go wrong tomorrow night and I'll die... Something may go right, and I'll still die when I get to you-know-where and fight the White Witch... Or everything will simultaneously go right, and wrong, and I'll have no time to keep up with it while I'm trying to un-fuck everything." He explained, "so... No matter what happens, even if this isn't my last entry, I decided to record this one, so I could say it...
"Simply put... If you haven't learned it yet, my name is Nebo Aldric, and I don't regret anything I've done in the last eighteen months." He said, with a tone of finality. "I regret that it all had to be done... But I don't regret that I did it... Buuuuuut..." He forced out, each word appearing as though it were resisting being spoken. "With that said... I... Am... Sorry... That I did it. I know what all I did was bad. Evil. Wrong." He grunted, face contorting into an expression of pain. "I am... Truly sorry I did all of these things... That I'll have to keep doing them until this is all finished. You all may not believe me... Fuck, I don't believe me." He breathed. "But... I am. I am." He stressed, voice shaking. "I wish I didn't have to play this role. I wish I could've just been found by Ozpin and just pretended everything was alright. Be Superman instead of Ozzymandias... But the universe didn't quite match up with what I wanted, and now I'm here.
"The Vytal finals are tomorrow. Everything has..." He shook his head, rubbing at his face with his free hand. "Gone exactly how we wanted it. Earth and Remnant are pissed at eachother again, people are scared, Grimm are antsy..." He snorted. "Fuck - Pyrrha thinks this is all on her to fix, bless her. And Yang's been trying to get her Dad and her uncle to come to Vale in case something happens. Of course Goud and Ruby are trying to convince everyone that everything will be fine, but..." He nodded out to the woods. "Everything stopped being fine when an alien aircraft got shot through time and space and crash-landed in demon-infested woods... For better or worse, after tomorrow I'm in completely uncharted territory. Anything can happen.
"So... As the good Doctor - uh, Strange, not Who - said...
"We're in the endgame now."
The video ended.
For The Record
You.
Fucked.
Up.
No, I'm not talking to the 'Whoever' I write this journal for - I'm talking to you! Nebo Aldric, you right there! Reading this! Right now! In the goddamn Pelican you gave to Cinder because she fucking asked for it!
And allow me to prove that it is really me (You?):
You consider your only 'true' ally on this world to be the psycho-bitch that wants to get into your pants.
You are actively ready, willing, able, and preparing to betray everyone who thinks you're working with them.
You straight-up do not trust Ozpin, instead believing him to be the enemy of your enemy.
Fuck's sake, you trust Adam Taurus more than Ozpin.
You genuinely worry that you may be on the path to turning into some kind of Thanos-lite, owing both to the slippery slope you've justified your leaping headlong onto, and those things in your belt that you don't even know will pay off.
And finally:
This is heavy, Doc.
Okay, now that you're done making sure your heart is still beating, I'll actually admit that it technically isn't really your fault, as due to simple lack of experience we didn't really know what to plan for with regard to Ruby's powers. We'd hoped that, after Ruby shot us with her Silver Eyed Bullshit, we'd be evacuated with Cinder, using whatever methods had been used in the show.
Buuuuuuuuut our fight didn't end on top of the tower, but rather in Beacon's vault, leading to it collapsing when she nuked it, and Cinder and Ruby's lives being in danger.
And like a dumbass, we chose to save Cinder and Ruby, and rely on Plan B: Jaune eventually getting to Salem and getting just one hit on her.
And then we died.
Yes, yes - YES, Aldric! We actually fucking died! Keep reading before you try to make sense of that.
And from this point on, Future Aldric will be called 'Marty'.
Not only did Plan B fail, it failed so spectacularly that even with my fucked up comic book life, I questioned what Venom Aldric (More on him in a second) told me happened.
To make a long story short, Salem didn't let Marty rest in peace. In this fucked up timeline, Marty got... A month? Or two? Ish? To just BE DEAD and be done with it all before Cinder found the Winter Maiden, and stole her soul.
And guess what?
Said Maiden, due to said lack of soul, turned into a Grimm. A Human Grimm.
Yes. You read that right.
And exactly what you think happened next, happened next: Salem immediately thought, 'Oh I've got to use this!', dug up Marty's corpse and reanimated it, using some kind of magical bullshit to keep it from collecting any 'ambient souls' (Cough cough - OZPIN - cough cough) and turning fully human.
I, on the one hand, call bullshit on that, because Aldric Black outright had my semblance. As to how, Venom Aldric didn't have much in the way of an explanation, but I think I know what happened, and it runs with something I worried about a while back: That my powers are tied directly into my soul, that over using them causes our soul to 'run out' as it were.
See where I'm going with this?
Salem found Marty's soul in the Wherever and stole all the magic from it - maybe she used it to reanimate Marty corpse? - in effect rotting it, until all that was left wasn't even 'alive' anymore. Then she put it in the reanimated corpse, and we got Aldric Black.
Sound scary?
Well, wait until you realize that we did run out of magic once. When we fought Thor and called on DBZ, we ran out of aura and had a heart attack and, for a little while, we were fucking dead. It was only through sheer luck (and Cinder zapping the shit out of us to restart our heart) that we came back to life and got even the smallest spark back into our soul.
In other words: If Cinder hadn't acted fast, we would have gone Grimm right then and there.
We've been using a fuck ton of magic, lately - for our contingencies, for the shit on the utility belt, to catalyze the Power Glove, you name it - and we only really passively thought about what could happen if we ran out.
That has to stop, or else we could bring about the end of the fucking world. So we need to make a decision, and now, on whether or not we stop using magic period and remove the possibility that Aldric Black will come back, or instead double down on it and hope that will make our semblance weaker to the point of nonexistence.
But, that's for you to decide, and yes - you. From this point on, to avoid Time Travel Tense Troubles, I, before I wiped my mind, am me, and you, waking up after the fight in Beacon, are you.
Good?
Good.
My two cents (which I should point out is our opinion before I wiped the last day from our mind... God this is fucking confusing.) is to cut using magic cold turkey and just eliminate the risk that it could even happen again entirely. But, I also appreciate the opportunities going full Raistlin Majere (magic at the expense of everything fucking else) would afford us.
Anyways, let's continue, shall we?
So Cinder unintentionally turns Winter into a Grimm. Salem kills it, then revives Marty and turns him into a Grimm, creating Aldric Black.
Aldric Black doesn't play fair. He doesn't fight people, he kills them, and nobody alive is prepared for that kind of sheer, cold, brutal efficiency. The absolute lack of hesitation. Everyone on this planet - fuck, even ours! - is programmed to fight each other, to struggle against each other, and then kill, but he just skips all that and goes straight for the kill. He just, kills, the Batman.
Imagine if that stunt we pulled with Rayne - smothering her in her sleep with our semblance - was applied to everyone. Aldric Black was snapping necks, stopping hearts from beating, running people through with Vader's lightsaber... He defeated the Summer Maiden and her guardian in two minutes, he killed everyone in Raven Branwen's camp in seconds, defeated her in barely an instant.
And then systematically killed Ruby, Qrow, Yang, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Haven's headmaster, and then just goes full-on Broly and takes out Salem's crew and the two surviving Masters, and then ALMOST EVERY FUCKING HUNTSMAN IN MISTRAL!
IN A GODDAMN AFTERNOON!
Jesus fuck, and that wasn't even the end of it!
With Mistral destroyed, Vacuo taken by the Terrans, and Vale just fucked, all that was left was Atlas.
Enter: Venom Aldric.
I'll be honest: I know who he is. But I also specifically am not telling you, because following the mind wipe I'm about to do, you'd lack all of the context I've built up in the... Like... Day? Two? Ish? That led me to trust him. I'll do my best to explain why I trust him here in a bit, but suffice to say, I figured out who he is, and why he hid his identity by assuming ours in that fucked up future, and I chose to trust him, which means you can trust him. Period.
Have I mentioned yet that referring to pre-Mind Wipe me, and post Mind Wipe me, as two different people, and yet relying on the fact that we're the same goddamn person, is fucking confusing? This shit is harder than trying to make the Metal Gear franchise coherent past 'Nanomachines, son!'
Moving on: He shows up and follows the clues we left in this journal to eventually find that Super Contingency we builtgrammed back during that Week of Freedom after Earth got connected to Remnant. From there, he activated Sephiroth and did what it told him to... But in the time it took, Aldric Black built up an army of Grimm and attacked the survivors that had flocked to Sephiroth.
Cue: The Battle of Five Armies. (Humans, Faunus, Terrans, Grimm, and I guess Ozpin and Venom could count as a two-person army)
During which, fucking Aldric Black pulled a Thanos and ripped the goddamn moon out of the sky because he was done dealing with the assembled army there to make sure Sephiroth went off without a hitch. He killed almost everyone, destroyed Atlas (which can apparently FUCKING FLY! The whole city! Like some Alita Battle Angel bullshit!) leaving only him, Venom Aldric, and the survivors inside Sephiroth.
So him and Venom started fighting mano-e-mano, and while that happened, through some stroke of divine luck, they ended up crashing into Doc Brown (which had been locked off once our death had been confirmed). And then he got thrown into the DeLorean and launched back to the moment after I finished setting things up.
I'll be honest: I didn't trust the motherfucker. Whole stop, I didn't believe a single damn word he'd said. It was ridiculous even to our fucked up standards. I honestly thought he'd been sent by, or represented someone who worked for, Salem in the future, after we'd won, and was trying to undo it. I thought that Marty was standing there in the future, his hand on a Warehouse 13 artifact that made him immune to changes in time (Something I actually needed to look up on the Terran Tablet, 'cause I remembered that it existed just not what it was.), and was literally waiting on me to bring him to me.
I wasn't wrong: There was an Aldric, they did have several of Louis XIV's forks, and they were waiting.
Come to figure out: It wasn't Marty, and they weren't waiting to go back, they were waiting on Salem to tell them what the fuck had just happened and why Venom Aldric had just vanished in a vintage car.
So I gave Venom a fork, blew up our DeLorean, erased that timeline, and brought Aldric Black here.
Oops.
But I still didn't really trust the guy, even though I dubbed him 'not an asshole'. This could still have been some kind of ruse. I wanted to see what Venom would do on his own, so I let slip a few hints that I wasn't as strong as he thought I was - owing to the nine month time gap between then and my death - and that I had a weapon on me that could do the job.
Venom didn't do exactly what I thought he did, but he did end up getting the same point across, and he tried knocking me out.
Tried.
Since I was banking on him trying to do it, when he got around to it, I pretended to let him do it. He rifled through the Belt and found what I was hinting at: The Blade of Olympus.
Yes, for a while we had a literal God Sword on us. You may realize what I'd wanted to use it for - I wanted to use it on Salem whenever our fight came around. If it could kill Gods and Titans, it could kill her.
So Venom tries knocking me out, he leaves, and then I get back up and watch him interact with Aldric Black.
And, again, I found myself surprised, when Venom actually did mean the shit he said. He fought Aldric Black to the death, and ended up shoving the blade through his own gut to get a killing blow on Aldric Black. They didn't talk at all, no preamble, no nothing - they just looked at each other, and then went at it.
So, sufficiently trustworthy, when they were done, I gave Venom a senzu bean, got rid of the now useless sword - its energy having been expended killing Aldric Black - and Venom and I got to work.
He debriefed me, we spent a long time going over the major information we - and you - would need to know about the future, and we made a plan.
We had the mother of all arguments, let me tell you - I wanted to convince him to let me swap out the Oxycodone with Senzu Beans, such that you wouldn't die period underneath Beacon, and we could essentially skip to the end and just Avengers Assemble everyone to Salem's Domain and end things before she gets the rest of the relics.
He, however, argued differently - and explaining his argument would reveal some things you can't know yet, but suffice to say our death is the catalyst for someone to undergo some major character development (if you will), and he wants to roll the dice on that happening again, even with you running around and changing things from the timeline he came from.
Eventually, however, I convinced Venom that what he wanted to happen was just fucking impossible. It was a miracle that it had happened in the first place, and said miracle wholly relied upon me being dead, and that person learning things about me in a specific order at specific times and in specific ways. Change any one of those things and we may not have the same result, but remove the fact that I'm dead entirely? The chances of that change happening again may be non-zero, but are so remote as to be impossible. It's Chaos Theory, plain and simple. Step on an ant, and monkeys rule the future, so one can imagine what un-killing a Master would do.
Venom wasn't happy about it, let me tell you.
But, fortunately, the guy is pragmatic enough to realize I had a point, and gambling on odds that low would be bordering insanity.
I... Wish, I could, do what he wants. I do. And you'll understand why when the pieces fall into place for you - and believe you me, they will - but so too will you understand why I had to make this choice.
Anyways, with a plan set, I left him instructions on what to do after Beacon and how to get it done, but after that I had to leave, I was running out of time to leave the mountain, wipe my mind, and then have you go visit Mom.
Fast forward to now: You're alive, and Venom's timeline no longer exists - which is why I chose Doc Brown's time machine, because it obliterates the timelines it overrides, eliminating multiverse shenanigans.
Putting a pin in that, let's finish me up:
After talking to Venom, I wrote this, set it up to remain private and hidden until the day after the Beacon Battle, and wiped our mind - your first memory after me would be standing in front of the Mountain and going to Earth to go see Mom - because I can't have us remembering what's in there in case Ozpin (who Venom outright confirmed reads our mind without our permission. Stew on that, why dontcha?) tries to take a peek.
Actually, wait, I should tell you about that bit - don't fucking trust Ozpin.
Shocker, I know, but still:
Venom decided to roll the dice and try to pick up Mjolnir (didn't work), but before he left, Ozpin showed up and spun some epic yarn bullshit, buttered Venom up real good, and then tried to convince Venom to give his soul to Ozpin, so Ozpin could return to the levels of power he had before the Maidens. And, if that isn't enough, through what Venom told me I've concluded that Ozpin outright fucking hijacked Oscar Pine's body and just did not let the kid take the driver's seat.
If it wasn't before, now it's official, dude: Ozpin just can't be trusted. I can only fucking imagine the 'And I must scream' bullshit that kid was going through... It was almost enough to try and convince Venom to save Ozpin, but that's waaaaaaaaaaaaay too big a spanner in the works for my tastes.
And knowing that, now we have to wonder how much of what he told us about his history is true, and how much of it's bullshit?
Anyways, this leaves you and Venom.
As the name may suggest, Venom Aldric exists for the same reason as Venom Snake - to act as a double and act in our stead.
In other words, right now, while you're reading this, be it in the Pelican or in Salem's castle, Venom Aldric is out there playing Nathan Drake to those who matter. To further prove how much I trust him, I gave him two very important things such that he'd be armed with what he would need to convince those who matter that he is, indeed, me:
A copy of The Record, and I let him in on the fact that Earth had known about Remnant before we'd even made contact.
I wish I could've been there to see him read the former and watch the latter, because holy hell I bet it would've been entertaining, but I was running out of time, so all I could do was give him the context behind both, and my theories as to how the latter was even possible.
He took it... Well?
Ish?
The implication that I had known so much from the word 'go' freaked him out, but he knew me well enough to understand why I made the choices I did anyways (See: Sticking with Cinder and not running to Ozpin), despite that knowledge. Fortunately, I have no reason to think this will make him reconsider his own choices...
But.
If he does, if he turns, or he otherwise becomes too dangerous to keep around, there's something I specifically didn't tell him. I let him in on the fact that the Fork would keep him here, and told him it was important he never let go of it, but I didn't tell him that if he ever lost it, he'd vanish. Gone. Poof. I think he's smart enough to figure it out on his own, but still, I didn't outright tell him.
So if you need to, the path of least resistance is merely stealing the fork from him and watching him vanish.
But, that's a last resort, and again - I don't think he'll turn. I genuinely think he'll be with us until Salem, and from there he'll either die fighting or, assuming we win and he lives, will just go off to do his own thing. We just have to be prepared if he doesn't.
Moving on: While you're with Cinder at Salem's Domain, he'll be out giving information to the major players in the Watchmen (among it being the location of Salem's domain, so they should be preparing their armies and drawing up battle plans, but they'll be waiting for our 'go') and is getting the board ready for the grand finale in your stead, so you can focus on assisting in Cinder's recovery, training yourself, and hunting down the Maidens and their Relics.
Oh, and speaking of the relics, Venom did, indeed, figure out what the Relic of Knowledge does, and he told me.
But I'm not telling you, and it's because that knowledge may interfere with The Big One - the mother of all gambles - - the reason there's a couple black gems and a golden gauntlet in your belt. Magic works like we think it does, and ours works based off of perception and understanding, and if I tell you how the relic works, the Big One may not be viable anymore.
And for similar reasons, some other things that Venom has told me (among them some things having to do with the Masters), I can't tell you. I wish I could, but the variables you knowing these things introduce, and the sheer number of problems they could create, I'm sorry, but they're just too much. It genuinely is easier to withhold information from myself than it is to be open.
I really fucking am Revolver Ocelot at this point.
And... That's it, really. You're up to date.
It's all or nothing, Dead Man.
You're in the endgame now, so wake the fuck up, Samurai.
You've got a planet to burn.
For the Record
Well.
I had to copy/paste the last Record entry so I could get it in the right spot, after the one before I went to fight Cinder in Beacon, and so you could understand what simultaneously did and did not happen.
I really don't fucking know what to say or what to think about this. I'm at more of a loss now than I was when Cinder coined the term 'Master'.
I just...
Wow.
I fucking died! And there's some random asshole running around wearing my face! Apparently I trust him? Or at least I did, I sure as shit don't right now. Who the fuck is he? Why didn't I see fit to tell myself that information?
And it was me that wrote that Record entry, too many things lined up for it to be someone orchestrating the whole thing. So now I'm so dedicated to my fourth dimensional hyper-chess game that my grand plan includes keeping secrets from myself. It's a fucking Memory Gambit!
Jesus Christ, did things really get that bad? I mean, a Human Grimm? Or... Terran - whatever. That sounds terrifying, but would such a thing really be that dangerous?
I just... God, what do I do with all this?
Well, actually, I know exactly what to do with all of it - absolutely nothing. Apparently the entire plan was to just make sure I lived just so I could keep on doing what I was doing, only now with a few extra tidbits of knowledge.
And really, Past Aldric (I'm thinking 'George', if Future-Aldric is 'Marty') only saw fit to tell me three important things:
Firstly: Aldric Black.
Apparently all my whining and worrying about 'running out' of my soul wasn't unfounded, because if a human runs out or otherwise loses their soul... They turn into a Grimm! And if Aldric Black was any indication, they're STUPID powerful, implacable on the level of fucking Terminators, and don't fucking care for bravado or anything else - they do what they need to and will kill anything in their way, without hesitation... Which no one, on Earth or on Remnant, is psychologically built for, or strong enough to resist.
Take your goddamn pick: They're John Wick shooting everyone's head when everyone else is trained and used to shooting at the body. It's Frieza blowing up the goddamn planet to avoid fighting Goku or Vegeta. It's someone whipping out a fucking machine gun to take down a bunch of swordsmen - nobody's ready for that!
Fucking! Wonderful!
Now I need to come up with plans for if that happens to me, and come up with plans for if it happens to someone else!
I might as well actually go ahead and start calling myself Batman too, at this rate. Fuck.
Secondly: Venom Aldric.
Apparently I'll recognize him when we run into each other.
And apparently it's someone I don't trust.
Let's list off the men in my life that meet that criteria:
Ozpin - not likely as Venom appeared to not know about RWBY, the show, and he would never allow me to command him... But he would more than anyone else have a list of people he'd be watching over that he'd want to give the chance to change and/or redeem themselves, as they had done in his timeline, while being smart enough to be convinced that it couldn't happen.
Torchwick - interesting, but no, he wouldn't have thrown himself into the line of fire to fight Aldric Black in the first place, to result in him getting tossed into the DeLorean.
Qrow - Maybe, but not likely, as, again, Venom didn't know about RWBY, and who would Qrow want to undergo major the personality changes George mentioned?
Adam Taurus - Very likely. Dude's strong enough to fight in the big leagues, has a semblance that lets him stand above a lot, and now he has a vibranium katana to boot, basically making him Jetstream Sam with superpowers. He'd also fit the bill for desperately wanting to give someone the chance to undergo the same changes they would in his timeline, while also being smart enough to realize such a thing couldn't really be expected to happen anymore. But the biggest question I would have would be how did he find and enact my contingencies?
Thor - let's be honest, would anyone really be surprised if he was alive? He'd fit the bill, and I wouldn't trust him simply because I know he wouldn't trust me.
Ironwood - It's a stretch, but I could see him surviving everything, knowing what to do with my plans, and fighting Aldric Black to the DeLorean. Question would be how, and why would he have left Atlas? And who would he want to change?
If it's not someone on that list, I don't know who would fit the bill. Chainsword? Maybe? One of the other Masters?
Eh, anyways, moving on: Venom is someone I'll recognize and not trust at first... But won over George's trust by sacrificing himself fighting Aldric Black, and now George brought Venom deeply into the Fold: Venom has seen everything I have on the show, and even has a copy of The Record, such that he can operate as my double while I'm getting in close with Cinder and Salem.
Sidenote: I guess that makes me Big Boss. Cool.
Time will tell who Venom is and if George was right to trust him, but the secrecy around him begs me to not do so... And I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was my plan to begin with. That George didn't fully trust Venom, so he kept his identity from me as a means of fostering distrust, while also supplying me an easy method of killing him such that, should he turn out trustworty, everything turns out fine, but if not, I can take him out with no regrets and no effort.
Finally: Ozpin.
Dude hijacked Oscar Pine's body and then tried to get Venom Aldric to give his soul to him.
Does that sound familiar?
He tried to get Venom Aldric to sell his fucking soul!
And in case it hasn't settled in - he HIJACKED a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD'S body to do it!
I fucking called the whole 'mind reading' thing - I knew Ozpin had to have something of a dark side to him - but this? This is...
Fuck, all this time I've been worried about Adam Taurus turning out to be an enemy in disguise, but not once have I considered what Ozpin's postgame is. He's spent entire generations fighting and resisting Salem, but there's no way he'll just rest and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe once she's down.
And consider this: All I know about Salem is what Ozpin's told me, what Cinder's let slide - which she's admitted more than once is mostly a fabrication during the time she was trying to win my loyalty - and a collective forty five minutes of footage from an internet show that has little use but as reference material. And here it occurs to me that two people wouldn't fight each other for as long as they have unless they have a reason.
So what are their reasons? Why is Salem fighting Ozpin? What does she want or need the Relics for?
Why is Ozpin fighting Salem? What does he intend to do after she's gone?
Am I willing to war against both of them if I have to?
Or am I willing to take a side?
Ugh, fuck's sake - the more this shit piles on the more mentally exhausted I get. I need some sleep.
Side note: In the efforts of attempting to bottle up an existential crisis and pretend to forget it exists until such a time as I die or am done with this whole WateverWe'llCallIt with Salem, I just realized something important:
Past Aldric called this guy Venom Snake and not Future Trunks, which I argue would fit better.
Aldric of YesterWhenever is a fucking moron. He almost died, can you believe that? What a tool! If we'd ever met I'd kick his ass.
Would punching myself in the face have the same effect?
Will have to think on this further.
Also: Ow.
For the Record:
You know, it's funny.
I remember the conversation we had after we fought Thor. I remember that Cinder admitted she trusted me, that she genuinely thought of me as a friend.
I remember believing her.
Shows me.
Thor was my Father.
Cinder and I killed him.
Sometimes I wonder if things would have turned out better if I'd fled Cinder the absolute second I could have - say, the moment I learned I could fly. If I'd have just left her, flown back to the Aviator, grabbed my shit, and gone to Ozpin. Maybe I would have been able to legitimize myself way before things went south. Actually been a good person.
But then I remember all the things I've learned. The secrets to the universe I hold. Hell, the secrets I know that the universe doesn't.
Every time I try to humanize the people I work with, the goddamn universe shows me that I shouldn't even bother to try trusting them. Ozpin is a manipulative bastard who will lie and cheat to everyone and anyone if it gets him closer to his goal. Salem is a demoness who wants to destroy the world. Cinder is evil, power-hungry in an almost literal sense, irredeemable by any stretch of the word, and I may be the worst of them all, as, looking back on it, I realize that if I knew he was my father, I would have done the same thing. I'd have had to, to secure my position in the Legion.
If I'd have chosen to flee to Ozpin, I would have been choosing willful ignorance. I'd be choosing short-term moral superiority over a potentially devastating long-term cost. I would have voluntarily demoted myself to a pawn in a King's game. Maybe my father would have lived if I'd have done this, but again, that's a short-term gain, because we would have lost the chance we've got.
Right now, all over two worlds, the greatest armies in history - both in size and strength - are being assembled. Battle strategies are being written, weapons loaded - fuck, this castle probably has a dozen satellites on it, now that they know where it is. They're all just waiting for my go ahead - they're all just waiting for me to kill the surviving Masters, set up Salem's fallen Huntsmen to be killed, assemble the relics, and then assemble them. By then all we'll have left is Cinder and Salem - the former of whom Venom Aldric, Ruby Rose, and god knows who else can deal with, and the latter I can handle until I get help in the form of Jaune and his sword.
But that's not the chance I'm talking about.
No, the chance I'm talking about is what could be done with the Relics when we bring them together.
I know Salem has a plan, but I have one too. The Big One. Magic works the way I think it does - Ozpin taught me that and I've proven it on countless occasions. But what nobody appears to realize is the opportunity that grants someone if they know how to game the system, as it were. Venom Aldric told George how the Relic of Knowledge functions, and George refused to tell me because it would thusly invalidate how I think it functions - and, as such, would render The Big One impossible. Lacking a concrete explanation on how the Relics function I have to rely on my own preconceptions, and that means when I make contact with them, they'll work the way I think they will.
And if you're perceptive, you already know how I think they work.
Now it's a gamble - they're supposed to be made from beings people like Salem and Ozpin consider to be gods. There's every chance that I'm not powerful enough to even temporarily overwrite all four of them, but if I can, I have a chance to end it all in a way that simply killing Salem would be too little to achieve the same effect.
Suffice to say, if I'd gone the bail-out route and gone to Ozpin, this may have occurred to me at some point... But I wouldn't have the will to do it.
I am the product of every single thing I've done so far, change one variable, even one insignificant, and chaos theory takes hold and the outcome will be wildly different from what it used to be.
I had to be found by Cinder, so this Green Hornet plan would even come to mind.
I had to nearly die against Neo, so I could eventually win her favor and Torchwick's alliance.
I had to fight Yang, otherwise I'd have never adopted the fighting style that's gotten me so far.
I had to gore the fuck out of Amber, or Cinder would have gotten all of her power and I never would have made contact with the League.
I had to murder Rayne in her sleep, or else I would have been compromised.
I had to keep Ozpin and Qrow at arm's length, otherwise my paranoia would have never gotten to the heights it did and I may have slipped up.
I had to eventually accept Ozpin's council, or else I never would have understood how my powers worked.
I had to manipulate everyone in Beacon, otherwise my 'death' wouldn't have triggered Ruby's powers and my eventual 'return' won't steel them for the fight to come.
I had to create the MegaContingency, otherwise I would've stayed dead, and not known about Human Grimm.
I had to lop off Yang's arm, or I wouldn't have gotten Earth's support.
I had to kill my Father, otherwise he would have taken the relic and Salem wouldn't trust me like she does.
Cinder had to not tell me, or else Salem wouldn't have been able to drop the bomb on me, and I might not have gotten that brief look at who she truly was.
Salem had to tell me the way she did, or else I wouldn't have had this revelation:
Everything I've done - everything - has led me to where I am right now. Everything had to happen the way it did, or else I wouldn't have the resolve to do what needs to be done when and if we defeat Salem. I wouldn't have the will to make the hard calls, the devastating sacrifices necessary to make sure we reach the best possible outcome with the given variables.
All these people on Earth and Remnant, including my father. I had a hand either directly or indirectly in their death. I killed them.
But I can ensure they didn't die for nothing.
For the Record
Okay: I figured out how to turn the Pelican on and activate its auto-pilot, I'm a few thousand miles away from the castle, I stuffed Slender Man into a god damn box (Seriously: He can squeeze himself down remarkably small.), and I locked Paarthurnax in a Faraday Cage.
Now you may be thinking: Aldric, what the fuck are you talking about?
To which I say: I think Salem can read surface-level-thoughts, like Ozpin.
My proof: She asked me to kill Ruby.
Or, well, she asked me to go get her, so Cinder could catch her.
But she didn't just ask me to kill Ruby.
She said - I FUCKING QUOTE - 'Would you kindly' kill Ruby.
For those of you that don't get it (Which may be a lot of you): That's a goddamn quote from Bioshock. It was some kind of... Neural programming shit that let folks force others to do their bidding - but that doesn't matter. The point is she pulled a quote from something that only one person in that castle should know about.
So, in short: I'm fucking terrified.
Now, the good news is that I know Ozpin (and, I can assume, her) can only read surface-level thoughts without my knowing. So: As long as I literally do not think about Green Hornet in her presence, I should be fine.
I guess I finally get to put my money where my mouth is, back when I made all that talk about how I could shield myself from Rayne, eh?
I lined Revan's mask with some tinfoil (and then covered that in a shirt I tore apart), so hopefully that'll be good enough for the time being. I won't even have to worry about my head overheating, thanks to my semblance!
Portable air conditioner. One of the unspoken benefits about telekinesis.
Moving on: She gave me a tiny little dragon that effectively immunizes me to Grimm attacks, and lets me control them like she and Cinder can, to boot.
And to make Operation: Big Bad Wolf go smoothly, she gave me a demonic Slender Man-looking Grimm that is basically a ReDead, except instead of just freezing people when it screams, it drains their will.
So, the plan is simple: I drop Slender Man next to Ruby and Co, have him follow them for a few however-long until they're so apathetic that they don't want to wake up, I nab Ruby, kill him, GTFO, bring her to Salem's castle, and Cinder kills her.
Simple!
...
Huh? What's that? I'm killing Ruby Rose?
Yeah. That's the tough part, here.
I have time to operate, obviously - I can just say I needed to find the opportune moment. And I can also spend some time hunting down my shit from Beacon and recovering the Aviator, bringing it all back to the castle alongside her.
But past that, I obviously don't want to kill Ruby. She's kind of essential to Plan C.
And I guess B, too, but I digress.
So I need a plan.
Problem: If I come up with said plan, there's no way I can hide it from Salem, unless I do what I did with Ozpin, and just wipe my mind with the Neuralyzer.
In short: I don't just need to do a Batman Gambit right now. I need to pull a Light god damn Yagami and orchestrate this whole entire convoluted mess of a keikaku (which means plan) that can be executed independent of me being aware of it.
And... I'm not sure I can do it.
I'm not kidding - seriously. Think about it!
If I want Ruby to survive this, I have to somehow:
Convincingly fake her own death under the nose of Cinder and Salem,
Hide her from them until such a time as I can move her,
Get her out of the castle without anybody noticing,
Get her out of Salem's Domain without being caught by any Grimm,
Then somehow find out how to remove her from play entirely such that she doesn't reveal herself to the Legion of Doom before it's time for the big Avenger's Assemble moment.
And do ALL OF THIS without me even being aware that I'm doing it in the first place.
I don't think Light Yagami with Batman resources could pull this off!
Fuck, Revolver Ocelot couldn't pull this off!
Let's assume I somehow figure out how to set this all up to not only work independently of me, but also in such a way that any wrinkles or variables, the plan can adapt itself and still work, and let's solely look at ways I can do it.
Cloak of Invisibility: Even though I'm pretty sure its magic would be able to hide her, if Salem or any of the Grimm have other means of sight (Say, echolocation? Sensing heat? Or... I dunno... SENSING THE UNBRIDLED FEAR AND TERROR OF BEING ALONE, SURROUNDED BY PEOPLE AND GRIMM WHO WANT YOU DEAD?!), it also still has a physical presence in this world, so someone perceptive enough would see the grass flatten under her feet, notice her feet go visible from a gust of wind or moving too fast, or... It just wouldn't be enough.
Stealth Camo: See above, but doesn't have the COI's magical properties, making it even more tenuous.
Teleportation: It would get her out of there sure, but I don't know how to do it, and it may be noticed by the other two who do/know magic.
Star Trek Transporter (Or any sort of sci-fi teleporter, really): Would be seen instantly. Sci-fi likes its flashy teleporters, after all.
Fake Death Pill: Fake death pill. And if Cinder goes full-Kratos and mutilates Ruby, it won't work.
Senzu Bean: I doubt it can revive people from the dead.
Zelda Fairy: Exactly how would I hide this? And they work immediately, not on a delay.
Vita Chamber: This has potential, since you basically spawn out of it, so I could set it up outside of Salem's domain and leave Ruby instructions, but I don't know how to work it.
Cloning Ruby and letting Cinder kill the clone: Also has potential, but this leaves normal Ruby to run around and fuck everything up.
Literally any of the thousands of SCP's that could solve the problem: Fuck. That. I wouldn't trust a single god damn one of them, even the 'nice' ones. There's a reason even in context they try not to use them.
Warhammer tech: No with extreme prejudice. While I bet there's some kind of miracle machine on an STC I could use, and/or there's even some kind of Imperium-age something-or-another that could do the job, no, no, no, a thousand times no. I honest-to-god barely even trust my fucking bolter.
Literally making the Time Stone, and undoing her death after the fact: 'You could create spacial paradoxes - TIME LOOPS! You want to get stuck reliving the same moment over and over forever or never having existed at all?'
Literally making the Reality stone and just faking the whole thing: I get the strangest feeling Salem would realize something's up when I walk in with an object of infinite power in my pocket.
Any Infinity Stone ever: See the above, but also add that I really don't want to know what happens when I add any one of those things to this universe, let alone all of them. Also I had a heart attack when I tried a Kamehameha, what do you think would happen if I pulled this out of my ass?
Venom Aldric: I don't know how to contact him, and I doubt he'd be able to do anything more than I would.
Earth: While I actually do genuinely think the Navy SEALS, or maybe the Russian Spetsnaz could pull an extraction like that off, Grimm and all, that still leaves how I'd fake Ruby's death.
Nuking the living shit out of Salem's castle: I could theoretically just have Earth carpet-nuke Salem's castle and use my powers to shield me and Ruby, but that opens a can of worms that I couldn't close again. And again: I died when I tried a Kamehameha. I'm reasonably confident I'd die if I tried protecting against the equivalent.
Clearly, I can go on, but the point is: I don't know a single way I could pull this off.
I've already set things up so they remain coherent after I wipe my mind - I know the exact time and date of the minute before I started writing this, and I stared at the neuralyzer for a solid sixty seconds before I moved on.
So right now, I'm in Batman Gambit territory - everything I'm writing here, everything I work on, everything I consider, I won't remember it. Because when I'm done, I will sit back in the cockpit of the Pelican, take off, get in the exact position I'm in now, zap all of these memories from my mind, land, and then go with the actions I can afford to let be seen - that being looting GEMS' dorm and grabbing the Aviator.
Between then and now, I'll have several days to figure something out... But I need to consider the fact that I'll have to go all the way with this Ozymandias thing I've got going on. He killed the Comedian to make sure his plan went off... I may have to kill Ruby.
It tears me the fuck up inside, and I desperately don't want to! But... Let's distance myself from this situation - let's take the 'me' out of it. Look at things objectively.
Why do I not want to kill Ruby Rose?
There's obviously the whole 'killing is wrong' thing, and while I still believe that, and will still avoid it if I can, I've obviously already decided where I stand on killing people to serve my goal: If it's necessary, I'll do it. Period.
So why else?
Well, I know her, right?
But then we realize: I now know I killed my father, and I've already concluded that if I went back and had to do it again, knowing who he was, I would do it again. I'd feel terrible about it, but I'd do it.
So even personal attachment isn't the issue here.
So what is?
Well, it's obvious:
I know her. That is, I knew her before I came to Remnant. She's from the show. She is arguably the reason I'm still alive at the moment.
In other words: I'm biased towards her... And everyone from the show, really.
And that's wrong. It's stupid, idiotic, wrong.
Risking this whole operation - everything I've done - just because of some idiotic abstract attachment to someone would be tantamount to declaring all of the other people I've killed less important because I didn't know about them before I came to Remnant. It flies in the face of everything I've done so far, and it directly conflicts with my reasoning for everything I've done: I will do the bad things so no one else will. I have to plunge my hand into the filth such that others' remain clean.
If we take me, and we take the show out of the equation, there is only one thing that makes Ruby Rose unique above everyone else I've killed: Her eyes.
And while rare, they are absolutely not exclusive to her. Her mother is proof that others existed, and still exist. If I need them, I can find someone else, and that means that her life is worth no more, and no less, than the other ones I've ended, and have allowed to end.
Backing out now, over one life, when I've already ended god knows how many, it wouldn't just be hypocritical of me, but it would be irresponsible, and would invalidate all of their sacrifices, intentional or otherwise. All for some abstract attachment to something that holds no weight or influence over anything anymore.
Through coincidence and design, I've set things up such that the only reasonable course of action is seeing this plan through. I made this bed, and now I have to lay in it: I have to face the fact that I'll probably have to kill someone I grew close to in Beacon... And I've already made this decision, countless times in the past.
I will do bad things for good reasons. Just like how I said I would kill my father again if I had to, I will kill Ruby Rose if I have to. (Or, I guess, to be more accurate, allow her to die.)
I don't want to - just like I didn't want to do any of the things I've done before.
But the simple fact is that it's very likely it's either this, or abandoning everything I've worked for. If you want to be dramatic, you could call this my destiny even - and one could even say I ignored that once. I let things play out without me, and catastrophe happened - Venom Snake is living proof of it.
I can't do that again, not even for the people I care about.
So if I can't find any other option, if I can't find any way to avoid it, I will do it, and face the consequences when this is all over. I can't afford not to. This all is too important - ending Salem's threat is just too important to jeopardize over one life. Let those who would judge me do so from the peace and safety of a world or worlds looking back on me and my decisions as historical events. If there's no other option, I have to, so I will.
I will kill Ruby Rose.
For the Record.
The video opened up, showing Ash, his eyes sunken and tired looking.
"Ruby." He grunted, "uh... So..." He sighed, pinching his nose, rubbing his face, and then running his hands through his hair. "My name... Isn't... Ash." He let out, slowly. "The good news, though, is that if you're seeing this, then it worked. I managed to avoid killing you." He rubbed at his eyes, a few wrinkles having appeared, making him appear equal parts older and exhausted. "But the bad news is... Well, I've been lying to you and to damn near everyone I've run into since the day I got here. You're the first person I've actually... Voluntarily... Given the whole story to." A beat. "Or... Well, second, if you count Venom, but I kind of had to tell him just as much as I didn't..." He shrugged. "You have no reason to trust me, and that's what I'm asking you to do... Even though you're not really being given a choice, all things considered.
"I'm sorry." He said. "For everything. For the lies, for the lives... For what I almost did to you. For... What I may end up doing to the folks at your house, if any of them work up the energy to fight me when the time comes... Though -" He held up a sack, "as ever, I have a plan for that. But, regardless... I've told you everything because I feel you deserve the explanation. Everything, no secrets.
"Now... Obviously you can say no. Obviously you can try to spring yourself from the ship and go rogue, or look for your team, or whatnot. That's your right... But I'm hoping you'll at least help me see this through." He held up his hand and pinched two fingers together, "we're this close, Ruby. The finish line is so close I can see it. We're in the endgame now, it's almost there... And you, with your eyes - Jaune, with his sword... Hell, even Pyrrha, with her shield. All of you together, plus the Watchmen and their collective resources... And Earth on top of that?" He shifted in his seat, leaning close to the camera, a fire in his cybernetic eyes. "We can win, Ruby. We can -" He snapped his fingers, "- take her out. Finally get rid of her... And live on a Remnant where the Grimm aren't gaining ground, they're losing it. Live on an Earth that has access to exotic materials that could solve any number of our crises. A world where both worlds can heal and grow, instead of whither and die.
"So I'm asking you, Ruby - please." He clasped his hands together, "Please help me see this through. Please stay with the Terrans for these last few months - they know everything I do about your world. More, even. They can teach you how to use your eyes, and Myrtle or Neo, or both of them depending on if they both stay, they can help train you, build your skills as high as possible in preparation for the final battle.
"And after that?" He leaned back, shaking his head and letting out a heavy sigh. "I'll have done everything I set out to do. Whatever happens, happens. Whatever you and everyone else thinks of me... Whatever you'll want to do to me after the fact, if you want to..." He shook his head. "Just write me out of your life entirely, or... kill me, or arrest me, or just kick my ass on principle." He shrugged, "I'll be done.
"I'll be done."
For the Record
I'm back at the castle. I've been here a month or two... Maybe more, I don't know - the days kind of bled together after a while. It's been a whirlwind of training, planning, and... Other things. See, after my last entry, Cinder did some damage to herself, on top of what Ruby did to her, by forcing her powers out before she'd recovered. So she's been out of commission for a while, and I've been stuck here with her.
And... Ugh, as much as I want to pretend it didn't happen, I doubt I can, because - as she literally told me - what else can she really expect to do in her current state? She almost literally fried herself by forcibly summoning her powers before her soul had fully recovered. I bet you may even know what I'm getting at if you're genre savvy enough - be it heat of the moment, or something that's been budding awhile, or just the logical conclusion to the trust I've been building with her, Cinder... How will I put it lightly? Cinder pulled a Neo before Neo pulled a Neo. I didn't get to say no, and I haven't really been allowed to since, for any reason, take your pick.
Now, you may be asking yourself: Why in the name of fuck (See what I did there?) would she do that?
Well... When I 'woke up' from my 'little nap,' two words stared me down on the tablet. Two words that told me everything I needed to know: Despite days to myself, essentially unsupervised, I failed. I couldn't find a single way to get a job done.
'Do it'
Ruby Rose is dead. Decapitated and burned to ashes.
I thought I was prepared for it. That I was ready to do it.
And I was.
She's dead, and I don't feel anything about it. No remorse, no sorrow, no anger, no depression or disappointment. I'm just numb to it all by now, she's another body on top of the fucking mountain I've made. It had to be done. I spent days trying to find a way out of it and I couldn't. For all my strength, for all my power, for all my knowledge both practical and fictional, for my literal fucking magic, I couldn't find a way to save her.
'Do it.'
So I did.
What terrifies me isn't how easy it was to just watch Cinder chop Ruby's head off like she did, or how easy it was to watch Cinder literally incinerate the body and go from that to her bedroom.
No, what terrifies me is that because I couldn't prevent that, it's very likely that the Watchmen have fallen apart. I broke my vow to Qrow, so what's to stop me from doing the same to Taurus? Or Torchwick? Or Ozpin? And if I did, what's to stop the others from betraying everyone else?
Maybe they'll rationalize it and understand why, but that won't change the fact that the Watchmen are finished, and that means my allies have shrunken down to Earth - and they won't send countless men and women to their deaths alone. Good as they are, they can't fight as many Grimm as are out here in a straight fight. Not without literally everything the Earth has, or a liberal sprinkling of nuclear munitions to precede it.
So that means Earth's out.
And my only remaining ally is Venom Aldric. God knows what he'll do in response to this. Maybe he'll put out fires, but I don't think he'll fix what I broke. He may very well try and bow out and instead work to prepare for the long haul instead of the final battle - and that's if he doesn't find another method of time travel and just try again.
So that means Venom's out.
And I'm alone.
All the stress, all the sacrifice, all the deaths, all the blood, the literal cancellation of an entire timeline, the people I've mutilated and scarred, the things I've done... It's all for nothing. I have nothing to show for it but the wrong people being on my side.
I have no one but me to help kill Salem and end this whole fucking fiasco. I only have me to run a goddamn gauntlet of Grimm, Cinder, Watts, Tyrian, Hazel, and the two Masters before I even get the chance to fight Salem.
I can't do that. As strong as I am, I just can't. Not without nuclear options, and I'd use up all of them getting to Salem, and have none of them left for her.
So... I have to put all of my eggs in one basket.
Because everything I've done, it did get me next to her, and that may be enough.
I had - well, have - an idea for what I could do after we defeated Salem... Now, that idea required we kill her in the first place, but I can alter it easily. I can change it, adapt it to instead be used as a weapon to kill her.
But the problem is that to make it work - to get the shot I'll need - I'll need the Relics.
All of them.
All of those together, and I'd have a shot.
But I would have to get them first. So that means I have to keep this act going - and I may have to kill former Watchmen to do it.
Or, if you prefer: The only way to avert the apocalypse is to literally bring the world to the absolute bleeding edge of it.
But if it works... Well, to quote a certain Mad Titan:
With all six stones I could simply snap my fingers and they'd all cease to exist.
And if I can do that - if I can fucking end it - I could make all of this mean something. I can validate all of the sacrifices I've made, all the people I've killed.
I have to just hold on, just a little longer.
And then, I can rest, and... Well, you know the rest.
And if I can't? If this failure is just a sign of things to come and I inevitably fail again?
Well: I won't live to see what happens, now will I?
For The Record
Hoooooly Christ.
That's two. That's two in one day.
I remember when it took months for us just to prepare for an encounter with a Maiden, how we got away by the absolute thinnest skin of our teeth, needed weeks to recover, and even then didn't get what we wanted (albeit that last part was by design.)
And here - we just whacked two of them in a day.
Winter turned out to be some kid, tiny. One of the Masters, Ben - the only old bastard I know of to reference a comic book - and Hazel Rainart, they nabbed her out of Vacuo, didn't even appear to have been winded. That one was as simple as us showing up, Cinder pulling her best Imperfect Cell routine and absorbing her, us chopping off her head to make sure she didn't turn into a z̶o̶m̶b̶i̶e̶ Grimm.
Then we flew off to Atlas, some mountain base they had set up with its own slice of their entire military. Grimm on one side, Arthur Watts and another Master, a German by the name of Helmut, on another, and us walking up the middle. The Maiden had a bodyguard/watchdog, I took him on and promptly figured out he was a Templar: Had my powers terminated with extreme prejudice and promptly got my ass whooped.
I feel like I got a few good hits in, but then he pulled out his Semblance, which essentially turned him into Taskmaster: He knew exactly how I'd fight, what all my moves were, how I'd react to any given situation, and would counter immediately.
So I pulled out a Fat Man and nuked his ass. I'm not about to play that game, so close to the finish line.
Then I tore his head off, used it to distract the Summer Maiden, Cinder and I double-teamed her, took her down, and Cinder absorbed her.
I guess that makes her Semi-Perfect Cinder?
Eh?
Eh?
No?
Fine.
We got the fuck out of dodge after that, but then we ran into a problem: No one knows who the Spring Maiden is.
Well, I do, but that's besides the point.
Tyrian Callows is supposed to be hunting her down, but to be honest? I'm at the point where I just want to move all-ahead-full to the climax of this whole shit show. I don't want to go back to that castle until it's time to flail around angrily and pray I can kill Salem or swipe the Relic of Knowledge and hide it from her.
Oh, yeah - I determined that, worst case scenario, I want to keep that one from her. Think about it: How did Doctor Strange figure out how to defeat Thanos? To undo all the sheer amounts of shit that Thanos fucked up?
He used his own fount of infinite knowledge, looked through however many millions of possible realities for the one single timeline in which they won, and executed that timeline.
I equate the Lamp to that - it can tell Salem anything she needs to know. Past, present, future, if she uses it, nothing is a secret from her. So if I deny her any relic, but not that one, she'll use that one to locate the others and then my efforts to hide them would be for naught.
So, in the incredibly likely event that I can't find a way to defeat Salem in the castle, I'm switching everything to putting forth all efforts to steal and deny her the Relic of Knowledge. Funnily enough, I already have at least one plan on how I'll do that - but it ties into The Big One, and I cannot risk invalidating it by talking about it. It's a gamble and it relies on all the magic fuckery I've learned about up until now, so knowing how finicky Magic can be, I'm not taking any chances.
Anyways, back to topic: The Spring Maiden.
I outright outed Raven Branwen. I don't want to putz around and wait for Tyrian to learn what I can easily excuse knowing: I told Cinder (and Salem through a Seer Grimm) that Ozpin had let me into some of his secrets while I was there. Among them was that the Spring Maiden had done a runner before she'd finished her training and had vanished in the Mistrali wilds. I plugged it into stuff Qrow had said about his old tribe doing astonishingly well as of late - and how they were on the Mistrali fucking Military's radar.
Put two and two together: It's possible that the Branwen tribe is harboring the Spring Maiden.
So, Cinder and I are heading to Mistral's continent to deal with her while Arthur, Helmut, Ben, and Hazel go to the kingdom and hook up with Tyrian to set it up for our grand entrance. Once we nab Raven, we're off to Mistral to start taking Relics.
And then?
Endgame.
Sidenote: I have to admit I'm curious. In the show, Cinder secured Raven's alliance, and I suspect that it had something to do with her still recovering from the damage Ruby did to her.
But here?
Here she's fully healthy, completely recovered, soul fixed, and has stolen the powers of two Maidens on top of that. Add on that - in her own words - she's been humbled twice by the deaths of Mercury and Emerald (God I haven't thought about her in a while), it's very likely she won't take any risks with the Spring Maiden and just fight her then and there.
But, considering that we'd also have to tear through her camp and hold off God knows how many thugs with unknown numbers of aura users among them... Maybe she'll pick the smart option and wait for Raven to take us, her little double whose name I forget, and herself to Mistral - separating us from her camp and giving us a much better chance at taking her down.
This is one of the few moments in my new life where I have no idea what's about to happen, but there's also so little risk in the grand scheme of things that it's less existentially terrifying and more just entertaining.
For the Record
Alright, we made contact with Raven Branwen and I got a bomb dropped on me.
Venom Aldric's been hard at work. He hasn't been playing silent observer, he's actually been working on my behalf, wearing my face, making deals.
I mean, I knew this - George told me as much. But he and I both expected Venom to be running around and setting up the final battle.
The curveball comes from a deal Venom made with Raven Branwen. I have no fucking idea what they worked out, but they've got something going on, and my killing Ruby put that in jeopardy (as it did with many of my relationships.), so she needed me to resell her on the deal.
That I don't know the terms of.
Yeah, it wasn't easy, but fortunately all she wanted was my plan. Nothing big, right?
And considering how many of them I've had to throw the fuck out because of the whole Ruby thing, all I could give her was The Big One. My 'I did it thirty minutes ago' Squid Drop. My wish on the dragon. My Thanos snap. My Spirit Bomb. My 'Convince the Jedi to attack me so I can claim they attacked me and take over the galaxy' - I can keep going!
Yeah, nothing big.
Took a long time, a lot of arguing, and I actually had to show her the tools I had on hand to facilitate The Big One, but in the end I convinced her I had a better chance of winning than she did, so whatever deal she and Venom had, she's gonna honor.
Unfortunately, I don't think that means I'll actually have another set of hands in time for the final battle. It's possible that the deal was to get Raven running around and using her powers in the final battle, but unlikely in the first place, and even more unlikely after Ruby. As a result, whatever deal this is, it won't help me when the time comes to plunge the knife into Salem's back, essentially leaving me having taken one step forward, and one step back.
So, all this was really just another peek into how things could've been better, and how they'll all just fall the fuck apart in the end. Another example of how I thought I was playing in the big leagues, when I'd really been stuck firmly in my local park.
Ugh.
Cinder then pow-wowed with Raven, got Raven to agree to help us out. This was pretty much entirely because Cinder, strong as she's become, has at least cooled her head and learned enough to know it's not a smart idea to get into a fight when we're outnumbered a couple hundred/thousand to one.
Now I'm in the Aviator, flying to Mistral. I'm going to find the others in Salem's circle and give them their role to play, and then we'll go for the Relic.
For The Record
Haven looks nothing like Beacon. Beacon was this great castle surrounded by a bunch of dorms, but Haven is this gigantic pagoda with a tower jutting out of it, surrounded by a bunch of equally-sized pagodas filled with smaller dorm rooms. Like some place out of Chinese antiquity.
Really does make you wonder if Earth and Remnant had some kind of shared ancestry, for lack of a better term.
Anyways: I'm here. Hanging out on the roof of one of Haven's buildings. I ran into Qrow, and fortunately he's convinced himself I'm God (big G) and managed to save Ruby, so I was able to use him just a bit more to make the whole siege thing go a bit easier. The Masters and their Huntsmen are gonna... Set off a bomb or something, I dunno, and draw all of Mistral's fighters over to them, and Cinder, Raven, Vernal and I will fight for the Relic.
I ran into them - uh, the Justice League, that is. Almost literally.
Yang took Ruby hard. She's started taking pages from her uncle's group, according to Qrow there's not a moment that goes by where she's sober. Blake survived, somehow - I guess Jaune woke up his semblance and fixed her enough that a hospital could do the rest, but she's shook. Completely sank into herself, didn't say a word when Yang stumbled out of a bar dead drunk and Weiss went running after her. Might've had something to say if she'd seen me, but she didn't - she didn't even check her surroundings. Weiss is taking Ruby's role, trying to keep everyone together, but it's clear who's better at that kind of stuff.
I also took a peek at JNPR while I was wandering Mistral, but I can't really tell much about how they're holding up. Qrow obviously isn't quiiiiiite as invested in them as he is Yang's team, but I can at least hope they're doing better. Ren's pretty level headed, Jaune's a good leader, Pyrrha's smart, and Nora follow's Ren's example. So as bad as they'll take it... I have a little hope that they're not going down the tubes like RWBY is.
Good news: Jaune's still got the Master Sword, and Pyrrha's still got Old Glory.
Bad News: My pipe dream of Pyrrha becoming the replacement symbol to Ash has effectively went up in flames, thanks to how vastly accelerated Salem made the timeframe.
Aaaand fat lot of good it will do them anyways, since there's no way in hell they'll be going to the castle to fight.
Yet another plan rendered useless by my inability to pull Ruby out of the fire.
I genuinely think at this point that the better option would have just been to blow my fucking cover and pull Ruby's ass out of the fire. Dealt with the consequences. At least then I'd still have my options and resources available to me.
And.
You know.
Ruby would still be alive.
But yeah, in that scenario - I'd sacrifice my ability to be right behind Salem to plunge the knife into her back, for the ability to bring all the resources I'd gathered to bear against her. Potentially before she'd even grabbed the relics, to boot.
But, moot point, I guess.
It's just about time.
Wonder if I'll write in this thing again before it's time for The Big One... Hm.
'till next time.
For the Record:
Qrow.
I know what this looks like - this looks like I'm going back on my word and breaking my deal, and unfortunately, despite my best efforts, there exists a very real possibility that it may happen anyways, but I want you to know: I had no choice.
Ruby - she hurt Cinder. Hurt her bad. I'm paraphrasing, but Salem said she pretty much burned her soul, and no amount of physical healing will fix that - it's got to heal on its own, and while it does, Cinder will be in constant, and agonizing pain. So needless to say, she's pissed, especially when you add her pride into the mix - some fifteen year old little shit just ruined our initial plan and took away her hour of victory to boot.
Salem was happy we'd taken down Beacon and gotten her the Relic of Choice - I'll come right out and say it in case you never figured it out: That was us. I figured if I delivered that to Salem, there would never be a question of loyalty, and I was right: Lady lets me be alone with her in the same room. Is willing to give me her secrets to the universe.
It also plays into The Big One - my end-all final plan, but I digress. Nothing we can do now, you can kick my ass - hell, you can kill my ass when we're done. I bet Ozpin will help you out; you can hold my arms, he can kick me in the kidneys.
Salem offered us a boon for our good work. Mine is unimportant, it's the same thing I told you and the other Watchmen - but Cinder's is what's relevant here.
She wanted Ruby - and she wanted to kill her, specifically, so I couldn't just bring her a fake head so she could mount it on her wall.
And Salem wanted me to bring her.
Let me say again: I had no choice. There was no getting out of this.
But, even though it's eleventh hour, I have a plan.
One of my teammates at Beacon had an invisibility semblance - and she perfected it to make her intangible, too. In addition, Neopolitan - you know her - she can create physical, hardlight illusions. I'm gonna tap them and do what I can to convince them to help me out - It's the best idea I've got.
If it works, I've got some contacts on Earth that will give Ruby safe harbor until it's time for the Avengers to Assemble. They'll keep her safe, they know how important she is.
But I'm going to stress to you: There are a lot of moving parts to this. If they make one mistake, if they get made... My hands will be tied.
I'm doing my best to avoid this and minimize damage - if any of you resist the Apathy I'll be dropping to make the abduction easier, I'll be including some miracle drugs that will undo their injuries and heal them. Just tell them they're some one-shot pills Ozpin gave you for emergencies. A wizard literally did it. They'll buy it, especially when they see it work.
But... Like I said: There are a lot of moving parts to this. This is the best I've got, and if it doesn't work, I know what the consequences will be. If I'm alive at the end, I'll accept them. Period.
And for what it's worth: I'm sorry.
-Aldric
For The Record
Really, what else is there to say?
We got it: We got the Relic.
I got to witness World Breaker Yang firsthand when I basically admitted I killed Ruby to her.
The cut she left on my chin healed up, but there's a scar there now, too. Add the one Blake gave me and my face is starting to look like a patchwork quilt.
The League kicked the shit out of me - Batman fighting four hundred foes, I am not - but I took my licks, kicked the shit out of Yang and Pyrrha, and then the rest of the Legion showed up so the League FO'ed. Cinder took Raven's powers and we got out of there with the ancient artifact before a giant boulder would roll over us.
Vernal... Said something weird, though, in the vault. Left me with the impression that Venom - for some reason I can only guess at right now - wanted to evaluate Cinder. I'm going to need some time to think on it, because the implications that leaves... They paint a picture, one I can't quite see yet, but can already tell I don't like.
We're flying to Vacuo now. The P̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶S̶t̶o̶n̶e̶ Relic of Destruction is there. Then it's off to Atlas, get Creation.
Then?
I either snap my fingers, or Salem snaps hers. Either way, it won't be my problem anymore.
For The Record
Jesus.
Fucking.
Christ.
I - I just - Jesus Christ!
That went to hell in a handbasket faster than I could fucking blink!
So, remember I said something about Vernal acting weird under Haven? Saying stuff?
Well, I put the pieces together. Managed to see that 'picture' I mentioned.
And while I don't have solid evidence, I think that the person who underwent a 'change' (As George said) was Cinder herself. I put together a broad-strokes sequence of events from the birth of Aldric Black to the moment Venom went back in time.
My idea runs along the facts that despite Future-Cinder (Uh... Hm... I think I'll call her Solidus Cinder whenever I'm not referring to her acting as Me in this timeline [which I'll get to]... The idea being that, like Solidus Snake, she's a perfect 1:1 copy of the real deal.) possessing all the Maiden souls, Salem never got her hands on all the relics, and had to have a big Battle of Five Armies at what I'll call the Lonely Mountain just to avoid not having a name for it anymore, and to keep with the Hobbit reference.
That shouldn't have been possible if Solidus Cinder and Aldric Black were on a roll and getting all the relics - they should've whacked Atlas and Vacuo and gone back to Salem.
So what happened?
Well: I know Ruby died, alongside most of the League and damn-near everyone in Haven George said as much. That implied to me an ambush - and an ambush has to be set by someone who knows someone else is coming. In hindsight, it's not hard to think that they could have just fucking waited, but the timing matched up too well for me - I concluded that they must have had an informant, and someone who could have stopped Aldric Black cold.
The Masters - the two old men. They were strong enough to fight something like that, and when I put that together, I had an epiphany - after all, even discounting my Father and I, can we really expect two people, on the same airplane, and old bastards at that, to be closet supervillains?
No.
So when they saw Aldric Black, they decided that was the line they wouldn't cross, and stood their ground against him.
But George didn't once mention what happened to Cinder after Haven - which is significant because he did say that the Masters died.
Conclusion:
Aldric Black threw Solidus Cinder into Haven's vault so he could fight the people who'd rallied to resist him. Solidus, now having seen three of the four Masters Salem had taken from the plane betraying her, then looked at Marty's actions as a whole, under the same light I mentioned a moment ago - the raw odds of so many people on a single plane being willing to just go from zero to Satan at the drop of a hat.
And since I do have verifiable proof that my Cinder has developed a romantic attraction to me, I can extrapolate that to Solidus - and then conclude that, after reexamining everything post-Master Betrayal, would similarly reexamine herself, and conclude that she was on the wrong side.
And you probably know where I'm going with this - you know, since I kind of already said it before:
Venom Aldric is Solidus Cinder.
When you factor in Venom arguing with George over wanting to roll the dice on someone changing, and George's insistence that it wouldn't be possible anymore, it makes sense - Solidus' change relied on my death and Aldric Black's birth causing her to reevaluate herself. Without either of those things, we get the same Lady In Red we've always had.
Add in Venom's deal with Raven and the things Vernal said under the vault, and it only further proves it: Venom wanted to evaluate Cinder because Venom desperately wanted to believe that maybe - MAYBE - George was wrong and they could bring Cinder into the light.
Well, when I realized all this, I came to two conclusions:
One: George was absolutely right, and without his context I don't trust Venom Aldric as much as he does. I'd go so far as to say I simply don't trust him, because I genuinely suspect that Venom's little deal with Raven wasn't planned or sanctioned by George - that she went off the reservation to do it.
Two: I never mentioned it, but one of the Masters, Ben, cornered me before we sacked Haven. He was talking to me about my father, about how I felt - and I didn't realize at the time that he was evaluating me, trying to judge if I was as bad as I seemed to be. Well, I failed that test pretty hard, and I knew that I had to go, define terms, and level with those two fast, before they did something drastic.
But I was late.
I was one.
Fucking.
Minute.
Late.
If those two old fucks had just decided to wait a couple hours until we landed - or just five goddamn minutes for Tyrian to wake up so we'd all be in one place! - we'd be living in a very different world.
But no.
The two Masters murdered the rest of the League, and nearly killed me. I blew up the Aviator (not my brightest move), and then Cinder and I fought them. I used one of my nuclear options to sap the energy of the German one, and then I stuck his soul in a Soul Gem in a science experiment - I myself can't pull out the big guns, like a Kamehameha to kill Thor, for instance... But if I had an alternate fuel source? Like a different Master's soul? What then?
Well: I made the Reality Stone is what happened, and then I pulled a That Guy Destroys Psionics to make a cardinal property of the universe within a few miles of myself that magic didn't exist. Step inside that area, no magic. Step out, you get it back.
I literally have no idea if it's permanent.
Ben went out like a light after that. No superpowers meant he was just a regular old man again, fighting two not-even-twenty-somethings with laser swords.
Good news, though, is that I stole away Ben's soul too - so now I've got a spare tank of gas I can use on something big. Like, if the things in my belt are nuclear options, we'll call these 'Cosmic' options. Stuff like making a Spirit Bomb, or a Super Saiyan Blue-level Kamehameha, or making a fucking Infinity Stone, things like that.
Cinder and I are crashing in the woods for the night - took us a good hour of limping before we got our powers back. I don't know if that means it wore off, or we left its sphere of influence, but I digress.
Salem's probably not going to be happy everyone's dead... But at the same time, they were all a means to an end for her. Long as we get her the relics, we'll be fine.
But... Ugh, fuck.
They were good.
All of them - my father, Ben, Helmut, they all had one strength I lack: To draw a line in the sand and not compromise when the time came to test their mettle.
Once upon a time, I thought my willingness to do the opposite - to do what I felt necessary, regardless of the cost - was a strength. That it would allow me to go the distance... And it did, and it is, but now I'm beginning to reconsider.
After all: I am where I want to be. In practically no time at all we'll have the relics and I'll be standing, perfectly positioned, to stab Salem in the back.
But it cost me my father, it cost me the other Masters, it cost me my (metaphorical) soul, it cost me the 'friends' I'd made in this world, it cost me more lives than I can count - even mine, at one point!
And at the end, the cost of all of that is me no longer being sure that I can make it worth something.
God, I'm tired.
My next entry will either be the last, or the second to last. We agreed that when we wake up, no delays - we just go, all ahead full, for the final two Relics.
And since the world has effectively thrown everything it has at me, at one point or another, and I've come out on top... I have no reservations that I'll make it through. The world doesn't have anything left - I've cleaned house. The mooks are just to fill up the screen, now. The once titanic bosses are now just cannon fodder to slow me down, and that's when I'm alone.
With Cinder by my side, with all four Maidens' souls in her, the best Atlas and Vacuo can do is weather the storm.
And then:
Endgame.
For The Record
In the words of the bravest man to ever live.
The man who, alongside his allies, saw plan after plan fail, but always persevered regardless.
Who saw death and failure staring him in the faith
Who knew that all was lost, as he saw the greatest challenge of his life readying itself to face him.
A man I look up to for his bravery and heroism.
A man whose words I look to for solace and confidence in what I know to be my final hours.
A man who knew victory was impossible in the face of the endless hordes, but who bucked up, sounded his battle cry, and tried anyways:
Alright, time's up: Let's do this.
Leeroy Jenkins.
For the Record
I won.
I want to leave it at that. I won, the end, goodbye.
But this is For the Record. I've come this far, recording everything for posterity's sake. I'm going to finish the job.
One last entry.
I killed Cinder and confronted Salem. She revealed that Ozpin was just as complicit in bringing me and the plane here as she was, all because they've been in an argument for thousands of years over how Humanity should be united: By way of a unifying threat, or through peace.
Three guesses who's on which side.
Salem actually outmaneuvered me at every turn. She knew about RWBY - the show - from the very beginning. I suspect she had done her research into me, as well, but I can't prove it. What I can prove is that I was watching a show by the same people on my plane, and she likely saw that. She convinced Ozpin to pull our plane to Remnant, and after gambling on if I'd survive in the first place, she was golden. She managed to predict, in broad strokes, everything I would do, from the beginning to the end. I was her ace in the hole - I was her proof that she was right. That the only way for Humanity to unite was under great threat.
And she was right. I changed Adam Taurus into something of a noble leader, I pulled Roman Torchwick away from the darkness. I got Qrow and Ozpin to work with them. I got all their collective resources focused on Salem. Earth, ostensibly, united immediately when Remnant 'invaded' them, and kept it up when they realized who was really in charge of the whole thing.
I'll say it for clarity's sake: I actually believe Salem. I genuinely think she's right. Only way you'll get the kind of unification they want is with a huge, universal threat. War, famine, disaster, disease, you drop that on Humanity's plate and then and only then will national or ethnic lines be disregarded instead for one Human vision.
But though I agreed with her, that didn't mean I sided with her.
No, because I believe that our survival has to be a collective effort, not the will of one madman, or one madwoman. It has to be an ideal, shared and believed in. If we're too stupid to not kill ourselves, or too stubborn to join together, and we go extinct, then so be it. We tried.
So we fought.
To my ceaseless amazement, I actually hadn't failed to save Ruby Rose. I later discovered I'd shanghaied Neo and Myrtle into doing the lions share of the work, but in the end, they got it done, and Ruby survived. I hope Neo didn't have to kill Myrtle, but I suppose I'll never know.
Regardless, since Ruby was alive, that meant my alliances were still on.
And fucking everyone showed up. Earth, Remnant, Watchmen, Justice League, they were all there, and it was glorious.
In the single greatest, most coordinated strike I've ever seen, Pyrrha and I held Salem down, Ruby stunned her with her eyes, and Jaune lopped her fucking head off with the Master Sword, smiting her and sealing her away.
But.
But I'm not dumb.
Ganon always breaks out.
So it stands to reason Salem would too.
And then you had the tens/hundreds of thousands of people dying down below. You had the four wormholes connecting Earth and Remnant. You had all the damage done by the war, the radiation from the nukes that they let fly.
And four sources of infinite magic sitting right there.
And the soul of a Master in one soul gem, and the soul of four Maidens in the other.
Six.
Magic is what I think it is - and from day one I've associated the Relics with the Infinite Stones. Salem's endgoal with Thanos snapping his fingers.
The Big One: Using that to my advantage.
And it worked. All according to plan.
I used the Relics, and the two Soul Gems, and made the six Infinity Stones out of them. I pulled the Infinity Gauntlet from my belt, and...
Snap.
I sent everyone where they needed to be. I sent them to their homes and their loved ones. I sent them to their respective worlds. I killed the Grimm and nullified the pools around Salem's castle. I closed the wormholes linking Earth and Remnant. I fixed the damage caused by the war, cleaned up the radiation, got rid of the dragon, gave Oscar his life back, gave Ozpin his body back (for this life, at least), and sent the Relics to I literally don't know where. They'll come back when they're needed, to who can use them best.
Then I spoke to Solidus and merged her with this timeline, gave her a chance to prove to me she's good.
Then I spoke to Ozma and told him I'd do the same for him, but just like Solidus, I'd be watching. Solidus is my check and balance. I'm Ozpin's. I step out of line, Solidus comes for me. Ozpin steps out of line, I come for him.
But that's not all I did.
No... No.
There was still the problem of the Brother Gods.
They were a threat, and though I don't remember much from my stint with omniscience, I do know that I knew they were already coming. They weren't going to wait around - it was Judgement Day, and they were Skynet.
But I wasn't John Connor - with that gauntlet, I was God.
So when I snapped my fingers, I got rid of them, too.
Now?
Now the world's free. Humanity is able to make its own damn way.
I found Ruby after I finished recovering from my injuries. Ozma and the other Kingdoms couldn't really give me any credit as that would mean they'd have to give out a lot of secrets to the universe, so instead they cooked up a big story, and gave credit for the killing blow to RWBY and JNPR. Good for them. At the party, I got my old coat from GEMS' dorm and gave Ruby a scroll with my number if I'm ever needed, but I hope to God I'm not.
Gonna have to deal with the fallout of everything I did one day. I know for a fact Yang's coming for blood and Pyrrha's coming for answers, and, well - they can have it.
I'm going to build myself a home where the Aviator went down. It's as good a place as any. I'm going to walk there, though, take the long way - both to give them a trail, and because I fucking can.
Because it's over.
I won.
And now I'm done.
Goodbye.