…
Paige took a trip down to the city. It was shopping trip, and she decided to bring along her team leader.
You know, team building exercises that didn't revolve around the murdering of terrifying beasts of darkness.
Paige also bought, with permission, a spare engineer for help.
Qrow had laughed when she asked. She hadn't entirely been sure why. Her requested person appreciated engineering, so they must be serious about/around such a dangerous job environment.
…
"Why do you have a goat?" Ruby questioned.
"It gets my head to be less annoying." Paige muttered. She held "Goat" in her arms. It was hard balancing it with the mannequin, but she managed it.
"If I ordered dust, where should I try to pick it up? Is there a postage office anywhere near? Should I have just written my apartment's old address instead?" she asked, failing slightly as the goat shifted around.
…
"Woods. Did you say you were situated at Beacon?"
She turned suspiciously. "Obviously I gave my current address, Qrow! Why would I discuss other addresses if I didn't put down my current one?"
The other two glanced at each other.
"I'm not going to get them to go to a derelict husk. I'm not insane." Paige muttered.
"Why is that a problem?" Ruby whispered.
"It shouldn't be a pro-" Woods began, before Qrow intruded into her reply.
"Imagine if you spent three times your father's allowance on a case full of dust."
Qrow saw her eyes widen and smugly turned to face the annoyed Woods that watched him. Finally, a rational response.
"That would be so fun to work with!" Ruby shouted out.
…
I am surrounded by insane women. This is never going to end.
"-What are you going to make with it? Is going to be some kickass weapon, or an armor?"
"An LCD grid."
Qrow stood still.
Ruby stood still.
Paige stood still since the others were doing it.
Ruby's eyes locked in like she was a predator that fed on engineering knowledge. "What's that?"
Her target felt some degree of fear, and was uselessly trying to cast her off the trail through useless filler "Eh… Hmm… Oof, how to explain…"
…
…
"Light Compounding Dust. It's a system to create images through various amounts of light being sent through the crystals."
She smiled at her explanation. "You can create any image by simply using varied amounts of light in bases of red, blue, and green!"
…
Ruby stared at her in silence.
…
"So… if you knew the amounts of dust that went in a specific compound, you can make that compound by using the matching amounts of energy?"
Paige thought for a moment. "No, I think that's the wrong kind of device. If you knew the amounts of red, blue, and green that combine to make yellow, you could make a specific area of the grid yellow by applying the necessary energy."
…
"Uncle Qrow…."
"She thinks Dust itself isn't volatile. I'm just applying too much energy and 'blowing out the systems' according to her."
Paige scoffed.
"I'm not going to overload my LCD, Qrow. Quit disabusing my second engineering help."
They walked down the street to Qrow laughing. "What an amazing attitude. How in the WORLD did you get a second person to help you?"
"I asked nicely. Now, where do we find silver, or silver needles?"
Once again, she managed to bring silence with one phrase. It was becoming an annoying situation with how many long silences they did. She needed verbal help, and if they can't give it, she'd be sunk.
"For?"
"Bloodletting."
"… Seriously."
"A small parisenne scoop."
…"Speak sense, Woods."
Paige began to gesture with her hands.
"One: I get my dust."
She made her pinky finger rotate slightly.
"Two: I cover one end of the needle.
A swoop gesture.
"Three: I condense the dust into a small hemisphere with my covered needle."
She pressed her finger to her face.
"Four: I apply the dust globule to my mannequin face."
"I'll cluster a red, blue, and green together, and repeat this for every area I want to be lit as a unit of light, repeated thousands of times."
Qrow renewed his look of assuming insanity.
"You are giving a mannequin face the ability to function as a grid of microscopic bombs… because it makes pretty lights."
"It seems you're working with a false positive. You explode dust because you put absorb levels energy into it. I will have a regulated and consistent energy supply system and have a high chance of safety."
"With dust scooped by a needle."
"The needle is necessary. I can't budge on that."
….
Angeline looked up from her reading and stared into the darkness before muttering and returning to her book.
"Yes, I'm not letting you mangle all my research that badly."
….
Back in reality, her support was getting much more engaged.
This was a good thing.
…
"It seems interesting. I'm trying to think of how the energy would be made consistent to prevent things exploding."
"Ruby. Don't support her."
"It's engineering. I'm great at that!"
…
…
….
Qrow muttered arguments against them, and they went through the town to find a place that sold silver needles.
They eventually found some after encountering some old antiques store, because Vale had one of those for… reasons. The rest of their time spent out resulted in two goat chases, and one (failed) break to buy cookies.
"-What? But it's a necessary requirement of our production process!"
"Your production process, kid. I am using my uncle's veto power to bypass that."
"…That's just cause your necessary requirement is alcohol."
…
...
Qrow changed the subject to the goat, and kept up with it until they returned to Beacon.
"So, you should go ask your team about goat names. Give us some good contenders tomorrow, so okay?" he reminded Ruby.
"I'll head away now-"
Qrow then turned to Woods.
"You should probably come up with a name for it yourself, Woods."
"Qrow."
"How about… Hugo? Hector? Hank? Hyugin? Hod? Hari?"
Paige watched her second companion run down the halls to her dorm room.
"You can stop with the names, Qrow."
"Phew." he blew out. "That was tiring."
…
…"Though, seriously, now that we're alone. What are you trying to do with all of this?"
Woods turned and hesitantly looked at him. He gave a look of interest, so she began to suggest something from him.
"How about you help with it? I'm going to need this mannequin snuck into the city, or the ocean, or the forest-"
…
…
….
He stared for a second before frowning. "Why though?"
Because it's helpful for her younger sister in law!
"You said this thing was going to become a bomb with what I was planning. I… do not want to have to keep a deadly explosive mannequin inside an academy. That's a problem."
"So… don't do the work."
"I will do the work, but dispose of the final result in a safe location."
… "Where, exactly?"
"A forest filled with Grimm."
… Qrow quietly sighed.
"A GRIMM forest. One forest filled with GRIMM."
"It's safe for us though." Paige pointed out.
…
…
…
"Damn it. I can't actually argue with that. Fine, I'll help with disposing of your wooden dust bomb when you need me."
"Thank you. I'll meet you in 163 hours. If you excuse me, I'll be in the workshop."
Paige turned her feet and strode off to the academy's engineering rooms.
She carried her equipment, only briefly stopping to check her room.
"A-ha!"
Paige spotted the large, impressive looking box of unknown origin.
"My rocks! Exactly what I was expecting!"
… She said that, but she wasn't actually fully convinced that "Dust" meant a large amount of refractive coloured crystals, slightly like gigantic rock-candy.
That is… until the box opened with a gleaming shimmer.
Paige resisted her childhood urge to bite down on one, and instead carried the box, marveling at the lustre and shiny nearly luminescent… impressiveness of them. She was, for some strange reason, excited to own a large box of base pixel value rocks.
Huh. Is this what makes dragons do all that hoarding?
Paige heaved the box up, shook her head to slip the needles and mannequin off her shoulders and land on the box, then started her journey out of her room.
Her destination: The workshop room!
She made sure that she brought the goat with her.
…
…
…
"Aw, what am I saying? That's never going to go well." She groaned aloud before glaring at the animal on her floor. Paige increased her intensity, leaning slightly towards the creature until it shouted out and walked forwards.
She raised her finger, twisting it into a dark mass and looking at the animal.
kof
koff
kkkk-kh
ahem…
A rather quick flowing of thick darkness filled the room, and flickering eyes glided down from above to look upon the goat.
They brooked no argument.
No refusal.
No escape.
…
…
…
"Come, Azrael. You have work to do."
…
Then, the darkness flowed back and slid into the shadows.
It was, honestly, rather overkill, but it got the job done.
….
…
Her work began simply, and she repeatedly stabbed holes into the wooden face. With careful consideration, she chipped off small grains of the green crystal "Dust" into her first array of holes. She reached to the eye-level of the face before having to take a break.
The time was now 5:45.
…
I can work for another hour or two.
And so, she cast aside concepts of a break, and worked once more.
Her body rose once more at 7:48 and she trod along the path to her lecture hall.
She spent the lesson in a blank state, noting down the droning ebb of the lecture with scratches of chalk in the form of letters and the occasional diagram.
…
She began to leave the room in the moments after the class ended, and returned once more to her current goal in an emotionless obsession.
Paige carved out a second section of holes, and ended around the upper lip.
More green grains were painstakingly inserted into thirty three percent of the new holes.
She paused around 6:14 when she had a visitor.
…
"What are you calling the goat now?"
Paige turned around silently.
She turned away from the scythe girl, and continued her pursuit.
"Azrael. You'd appreciate it."
"…It's nice to hear you named your new pet, but… why would I appreciate the name?"
Paige pricked her way through to the chin, wincing briefly at the obnoxious stabbing.
"I thought you'd have an interest in scythe users. I named them after one. Just assumed you would keep track of other scythe bearers of legend."
…
"Oh. That's quite interesting. I'll have to look into that."
She went over to do her own work for a few seconds, and Paige completed her green areas shortly after the girl left.
…
...
It was time once again.
She rose and walked to her next class. Paige entered the lecture hall, and encountered her professor, as expected.
"Hello, Mrs Woods! I was told that you managed to complete some of our experimental work. Do you care to discuss some of it?"
Paige responded.
"Sir. I would, but may I become prepared for our lecture today first? I need to be prepared in…"
Paige glanced towards the clock,
1:19.
…
She turned back towards Peter and stared, wide eyed. "I apologize. I am grossly late."
Port stared right back at her.
"Firstly, there's no need to be this formal. Secondly, Mrs Woods, we don't have a lesson today. The students are with Mulberry today instead of me.
…
"Huh."
"Back to the point. I was told you worked with Hunter Branwen and used your ability on a Grimm. Specifically… you caused it to kill itself?"
"Yes, professor."
"Is there any reason you hadn't completely controlled it?"
"I did not have a good enough reason to do so. I was not in full agreement with myself."
"Would you say you will never try, or you are just not willing to at this point?"
I will not. Never. Ever.
"There may be a point that I feel I am capable of doing so. Not yet, though."
Paige shook her head in a quick gesture as she spoke.
"…This appears to be closer to a victory than failure! Don't feel down about it. You did quite well for such a harrowing event."
"Thank you, sir. If you will excuse me, I have some work to complete soon."
"I hope your work goes well. See you tomorrow!"
...
...
...
Paige turned out of the door, nodding her agreement, and began the walk down to her work once more.
…
…
….
"Explain it again. How did she say this… thing would work?"
Two students were standing over the table in the workshop, standing off to the side in an area much like a cubicle. The taller girl was pale in skin, currently from a mix of genetics and disturbed dismay. She was shining a light over the small holes, watching the light illuminate the green dust.
"She said she applies small bits of energy into the Dust, causing them to glow and create light of different colors."
…
"Ruby, this is an explosive in the form of a mannequin head. That idea is insane."
"…"
"What are you so upset about? We should notify a member of the faculty to help get this safely removed."
"I wanted you to try to help explain how it would work, not have me help you throw it out of the school!"
Paige noticed absentmindedly that there were people by her project. She calmly suggested they move so she could work.
"Hello. Please step aside, students." she monotonously requested.
…
…
"Thank you."
Paige looked over the supine body.
"Ahem."
"Yes?"
"You are, to clarify, a member of the staff. Could we get your assistance in trying to safely remove this abandoned… explosive mannequin?"
"You can work with Qrow when I'm done."
…
…
Paige started to insert her red grains, chipping away with her silver needle.
Her work did not go as fast as planned, since she had to distract her mind from the repeated attempts to distract her coming from the young woman that appeared to be having a set of silent conniptions.
"Ahem?"
"Yes?"
"I was told by my partner that you were attempting to create a set of lights with Dust. How are you planning to prevent the Dust from combusting from prolonged exposure to your energy source?"
Hey, Blair. Are you going to be an idiot and overload the screen I am so carefully creating for you?
Nope! I am going to be very VERY careful with this.
"I have a protective dampener on my energy source. It won't intentionally overload."
"I presume the energy source is Aura? Wouldn't that require single or hundredths of a percentage to not combust? That would require incredibly intricate Aura control."
Blair?
Is not your body is the temple of the holy Ghost, which is in you, whom ye have of God?
…No? Blair. This is on if you're good at controlling yourself.
…I can control my body.
…Spirit.
…Self.
Good to hear that.
"There's not a problem. I have a trusted source of control. Now, if you would be willing to leave me to my work?"
…
The two girls left soon after that.
Paige began to get started on the red layers, chipping out red grains into another 33% of holes.
…
...
...
...
Paige slowed the needle's repetitions.
"What was the goat even for, Angeline?" she asked to the air.
Blood. You carve out the hand's blood vessels with the blood soaked needle, and carve out the inside of the limbs of your flesh with fresh bone marrow.
…We can just get Blair to move the mannequin with her soul.
Fine, ignore my ridiculous advice after I brought the dead to life and discovered the methods to transfer souls. What about the sacrificial goat? What do we do with it?
Paige flinched as she heard an auditory hallucination of a young woman screaming in excitement.
I WANT THE GOAT PLEASE. PLEASE.
… Paige shrugged. I don't care. Anyone else?
I accept Blair owning a goat.
Damn it Brandon. Don't spoil her.
…
…
…I'd let her have Azrael if she behaves.
All in agreement! Good!
Now that she was thinking more about it… Paige could just give Blair the body now. They didn't need the needle, or the goat blood, and the LCD was just for helping others.
…Damn. I forgot about the electronics. Speaker, cameras, microphones, I don't have any of them. We need to do a second shopping excursion to get everything.
… Paige stood up in the workshop. She's going to have to put completing everything in a week on hold.
…
She yawned, or tried to. It just resulted in some mouth pain.
"Wuuub, Wuuuub, Wooooble, Wether Weather Weevil-"
Paige. Paige Woods. I have a question for you.
"Angeline. Fire away."
…
…
…
Paige. did you use my research to create your daughter?
…
Paige looked up and around the dark room in surprise.
.. Paige.
Angeline, that was you? Incredible.
Woods. Did you-
"Of course not. We had her in a much more normal way."
Ah. Adoption.
"… What? No."
Donor, then. I don't care what you say you did, as long as you didn't touch Elucidations to create a child.
"Angeline. We had a daughter in a perfectly healthy manner."
Paige Woods. Did you create a child with Elucidations or not?
"That's not how little girls are made, Angeline. It's obviously darkness, love, and light from above."
….
….
….
….
Woods. That's not fucking normal.
"My sex life is none of your business. You're also fucking abnormal."
Angeline's soul was not rolling in her grave at the offence. Angeline Hardy would never be that undignified.
She was grimacing in an offended manner.
…. Paige heard her voice hiss over to somewhere left. Brandon. Are you hearing this?
Angie. She does have a valid point. Paige is clearly discussing in vitro fertilisation. This has nothing to do with the fact that we were in a classically accepted heterosexual relationship.
….
Angeline stared blankly at her soulmate.
Angeline slowly began to manage her emotions.
She thought out a short curse.
Damn it, Brandon. I forgot how obnoxious you were when you were mad at me.
She spoke in a clipped tone.
"Paige Woods. Have you ever used Elucidations?"
"This is my first time using it practically, and I do not intend to use it again after this point. If we had an alternative, I'd take it."
"Alternative? Alternative? I was a genius that broke the laws of nature and went so far I encroached upon God's domain. I am the only human on the earth to reach this sheer level of talent."
"I'm trying to say that I'm not going to abuse your life's work, okay? You don't really deserve it, but I'm still willing to listen to your opinion on it."
"…"
…
...
…"Thank you." she murmured.
The quartet went out of the workshop and traveled the distance to their room.
Paige grabbed her scroll. It was an interesting little device, mostly made useless to her since she'd eventually memorize her single lecture timetable, the fact that she could probably buy her own scroll at some point, and her rather practical ID existed in a physical format that she would never lose.
Additional reasons to get rid of it were twofold:
1: It had a camera, microphone, and speaker she could use.
2: The thing's spying on her. They always were.
...It honestly probably wasn't... but she lived for years having to deal with Angeline Hardy's omnipresent eye through technology. It was reasonable for her to do this.
Paige jogged down the hallway to the workshop, and began to complete the rest of her work. The extra stress in her system caused her to risk using a little… extra help to get it done. Thus, if anyone cared to look in the workshop that night, they would have found a staff member's arms missing and her eyes flickering with an unnatural fire within.
…
…
Ozpin calmly marked that night's security recordings of the workshop under "Important Review."
He then proceeded to grab a book labelled "Ancient History of Remnant", and began to read.
….