DISCLAIR: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishnt at threads/rwby-the-gar-the-gas-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.
First Class
"So what were you thinking?" Adam asked later that day. "For this whole power armor business?"
We were in our first classboth of the day and of our ti at Mistraland it was every bit as dull as I'd expected it would be. I'd listened for about half a minutes, checked the teacher's notes, and had pretty much stopped listening. Well, that was a lie, since I listened to everything that happened around and there was always that off chance that he'd tell sothing I didn't already know, but I'd stopped giving him any particular focus. Thanks to my interest in Babel, I'd read dozens of history books, including the one for this class, and found the subject about as interesting as watching paint dry. Which, in fairness, I was also doing, thanks to my senses and the recent paintjob parts of the building had gotten, but that wasn't particularly interesting either.
So this was as good a ti as any, I suppose.
Throwing up an illusion around us to go with Levant's sphere of altered sound, I picked up several pencils with my mind and began sketching a rough outline on the paper in front of . I was fairly good at art thanks to a combination of skills, so it was easy enough to make an image of a man to begin with.
"I should specify that the power armor is a long term goal," I answered. "I don't think I have the skill to manage it yet, which is why I'll be grinding for a while yetthis is mostly just planning for the future. For the ti being, I'll still be making you a weapon of so kind; here are so of the things I've co up with so far."
The pencils rose from the sheet of paper to move into a new position on another page before lowering their tips to the surface and continuing to draw. I made the picture's detailed, confident that Adamwho I was pretty sure had built his own weaponswould be able to understand them. All of them were swords, favoring Adam's style; tachi, wakazachi, and such. I added a few other blades I knew had originated in Vacuo, such as Firangi, Talwar, Jian, and Dao, but tried to stick to weapons he would be comfortable using. Several of the designs incorporated guns, with images of the interiors drawn beside them, while others transford into them or other weapons. A sword whose sheath could turn into another sword, one that, when sheathed, could turn into a rifle, that type of thing. It took several pages to complete all the designs, but I'd had plenty of hands to work with and it didn't take long since I'd already morized them. When I was done, I tore out the pages with a thought and slid them over to Adam to look over later.
"But as for the armor," I continued, still drawing but this ti adding a crystal to the original page. "I started thinking about it because I wanted to find a balance between the different uses of Dust. As is, each type has its upsides and downsides, which have caused a number of forms to fall out of use entirely. You have Dust in its raw, crystal form, which can release enormous amount of power, but which is extrely hard to control and which can even turn upon the wielder if used wrong. You have Dust Eating, wherein you take Dust into your own body in order to control its power, keeping it from turning upon you at leastif you do it right, that is. Done wrong, the power can run wild inside of you doing horrific damage if it doesn't kill you outright. Even if you do it properly, however, long term use can have so pretty enormous side effects"
"Which you ignore entirely, I'm guessing," Adam said with a roll of his eyes.
"It's good to be aweso," I confird with a slight smile. "But even beyond what it can do to your body, Dust Eating is still had to use. It makes the user safer, but the power of it is still hard to control. So if you use a red crystal, for example, it should keep you from burning alive, but you might still burn down whatever it is you're trying to protect. It suffers in versatility, as well; while on one crystal, it can be hard to switch to another if the situation changes, just like it can be hard to turn off."
"Once you snort Dust, you ride the high until it's over, huh?" Adam stated, smirking as I frowned at him.
"More or less," I replied, a touch annoyed at the analogy. "It still provides an enormous amount of power and because you're channeling the Dust through your own body, there are a number of tricks you can do with it in terms of your Aurabut because of the costs, it was eventually shuffled out of popular use. Dust Weaving was a sowhat later invention, made by sewing the Dust into cloth and then channeling Aura through it to create an effect. This lowered its power significantly, but made it far easier to control, so it was very popular."
"It's not the size that matters, it's how you" Adam began, still smirking widely. The boredom seed to be getting to him already.
"I'm sure you'd know all about that, Adam," I cut him off with a nod. "But actually, yeah. Truth is, you can make up for a lot with proper controlbeing able to shoot a blast of fire the size of a bus is cool and all, but unless you're hitting a bus sized target, odds are good that most of the attack didn't hit anything, an it was a lot of wasted energy. But let's say you take half that energy and focus it into an area the size of a marble; that attack is going to lt through just about anything you put in its path. What's the point of having a lot of energy if all you're going to do is waste it? For a while, Dust Weaving was considered the most powerful use of Dust, simply because you could focus what power you could into so extrely lethal forms."
Adam frowned for a mont before humming.
"Yeah, I get it," He answered. "I once fought a guy who was good at using ice Dusthe froze the entire battlefield and created a shitload of jagged spikes of ice, and I rembered thinking it was an amazing display of power rendered utterly worthless by the fact that it missed entirely."
I nodded once at that.
"My power gives a lot of bang for my buck, MP-wise," I said. "Because the cost tends to lower as I train skills more. Even then, there's a reason I favored my Magic Missile over Flare; it focused all of its power in a small area or on a single target. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to handle Gungnir just yet, but we'll see how it improves as it levels up. That's the downside of wide-area attacktheir usefulness tends to decline as their area increases. City-destroying attacks sound cool and all, but how often do need to destroy a city? Isn't there anything more useful you could do with it? The Grimm, thankfully, are always good targets, but I'm not sure I'd use Gungnir anywhere near people."
Adam bobbed his head in understanding before pursing his lips.
"I get the idea; control over power. Butif Dust Weaving was considered so amazing," Adam mused. "Why do you barely see it anymore?"
"Because it had a fair number of downsides," I said with a shrug. "For a long ti, it was sothing that had to be done by hand and even after it beca possible to do it with machines, experts were still favored over mass production because it often had to customized to get the best results. Further, while it addresses the issue of control, it's entirely limited by what's sewn into the cloth beforehand and can't respond to any situation you didn't predict or prepare for; you can't just add more Dust to it on the fly if you need more power, nor can you suddenly switch between ice and fire. Add in the complications that can co from sewing errors or damages to the cloth andwell, they were eventually replaced by Dust rounds, which made up for their lack of individual power by being easy to use, trivial to switch between, simple to carry in large numbers, and compatible with a wide variety of weapons. In the end, Dust rounds and the powdered Dust used to make them beca the most popular to use in battle, with a few specialists using other forms."
"But you have sothing in mind?" Adam guessed. "A way to add power back into that equation?"
"Maybe," I answered, glancing up as the professor called upon Adam. I used Levant to give the right answer in my friend's voice and focused on him again. I began sketching the design of the armor over the figure I'd drawn earlier. "Sothing that can balance versatility of Dust rounds, the control of Dust Weaving, the safety of Dust Eating, and the power of raw Dust. On top of that, it should be possible to enhance the capabilities of the wearer with Dust, both directly and indirectly. Color and direct the use of Aura as needed, support the user's body, switch between types of Dust on the fly, that type of thing."
"Interesting," Adam admitted, looking at the design I was slowly filling inand yet, his frown was slowly deepening. "A best of all worlds' kind of deal. Butif this was possible, shouldn't soone have tried it already?"
At that, my smile dimd.
"I'll bet you anything that sothing like this has been tried this before," I answered, shaking my head. "We use Dust to power our robots, after all, and with Dust armor, there'd just be a person inside operating it. We already have a few things like that, they're just bigger and they just don't use the Dust directly. There must be several problems with it and I can take a few guess at what. The first, of course, is going to be the cost, in terms of both money and Dust. The monetary cost is probably obvious, but the Dust is arguably more important. If it's just powering a robot or a machine, that's one thing, but if you're using the Dust itself to fight, you bare the risk of burning through in a fightand if you run out in the middle of the battle, suddenly you're just being weighed down by a shitload of deadweight. You'd need a way to keep that from happening, first and foremost."
I shook my head.
"And while fuel economy has got to be a major issue," I said. "I think that combat potential has to be another. The result has to be worth the cost or there's no point, right? But there are a lot of things that need to be done to make it work. The armor is probably going to end up big enough that it's going to need at least so lightening, which will cost Dust. Then it'll need the auxiliary stuff, which could rack up costs quickly; if you want it to fly, if you want it to have computer systems to aid the user, on and on. Then there's the Dust itself and how it's going to be used in battle, making it versatile and easy to usethere's all sorts of things to take care of and they could all lead to roadblocks. I bet the guys up in Atlas has probably spent a fair amount of ti thinking about it."
Adam considered that for a mont before nodding.
"Probably," He agreed. "Might even be related to that girl you ntioned they built. But you've brought up a whole lot of issuesdo you have any solutions."
"Actually?" I replied, smile returning. "I just might. I think Cinder could be the keyI told you how her clothes had sothing like circuitry sewn into them and how I thought they worked like programs; input power, output results. Add in her own skill with Dust and she probably has a wide variety of tricks at her disposal for surprisingly little cost. I was thinking sothing similar might be possible with other forms of Dust; ways to both save power and bring out large amounts of it. If you could incorporate similar things into armor and set up the circuitry to make use of different kinds of Dust, it might be possible to get so real results. Mix in so of the other types, like rounds for weaponry, crystals in the power source, or even a few sections made out of Dust andit might possible."
Adam lifted an eyebrow.
"Can you do that?" He asked, making chuckle.
"No," I admitted before raising a finger. "Not yet, at least. Like I said, it'll take so work before I can even think about a project like this."
"Ah," He nodded in understanding. "Right. You're going to train this at night, then?"
"At night?" I repeated, lifting my own eyebrow. "I'm training it right now."
Adam blinked once at that, furrowing his eyebrows for a mont before catching on.
"Oh," He said, glancing at the pencils I was using to draw. "Of course."
"Sorry if I seem distracted," I continued, smirking. "My mind is busy elsewhere."
Adam's expression beca one of disgust.
"Ugh," He groaned. "I didn't sign up for puns."
I chuckled and smiled as I looked down at my drawing. I'd ant it, though, at least in part. When we'd finished our training, I'd had us exit Naraka in the city, giving a chance to gather all the supplies I needed to weave and craft. Even as I sat here in class, my mind was at work elsewhere, grinding my skills in our empty roomand in this room, really, as I was floating a milliter above my chair.
There was too much to do to let this get in the way of my training.
Returning to my work, I could feel the forming cloth as if I were doing it by hand. If soone had managed to walk into my room without my knowing, they'd have found a complex web of thread and fabric held in the air and spread throughout the room. The web shifted constantly, as if being woven by invisible machines and gripped by unseen handswhich was exactly the case. Granted, the machines and hands were made out of focused thought rather than steel or flesh, but they moved in accordance to my will, spinning and sowing and shifting as I wished. One of the benefits of being Psychokinetic was that if you understood the processes, which I did, you could use it in place of even industrial machinery.
There were limits, of course. My mind could create things that were physical, giving the impression of conveyor belts and sewing machines and far more besidesbut it could replace the need for the materials those machines worked. I'd stocked up, thankfully, and so that wasn't a concern so long as I remained focused, but though I had a number of flaws, a lack of attention to detail was not one of them.
Simply by focusing, I could turn our room into a factory, except more versatile, because the machines didn't run according to any designs or schedule except those I wished. I could change the entire process with a thought, switching out machines or materials or whatever else simply by willing it, and so things moved. It was simple enough to weave clothes together, just as it was simple to weave threads of Dust into them as I did. While so of my ntal machinery was focused on fabrics and thread, the rest was devoted to several sets of hovering Dust crystals that I was slowly unravelling to lace and coat specific threads, sewing power into the forming clothes and lighting the room with eerie colors.
That wasn't how it was normally done, of course, because most people couldn't spin Dust into threads as they worked, coating specific segnts as they went so that it would later create a greater whole. Usually, specially prepared threads would be sewn into sothing to give it power, added to already completed clothingbut this helped grind my Crafting, too, and helped practice my Dust Weaving. If I chose, I could weave other threads into the pattern, creating a growing tapestry with so planning beforehand. Keeping Cinder's almost circuitry-like designs in mind, I connected the clothes as I worked, testing what I could do. When I got results I wanted, I rembered them and added them to the next workwhen I didn't, I simply took it apart and went back to work.
But already, I'd made so progress. Being able to do it myself, to check the results and play with the possibilities, gave a pretty good idea of what Cinder was doing. I'd been right about her designs; they were like both circuitry and programs. Circuitry in how they allowed power to flow through the garnts, and programs in how directing that flow could generate results. Really, there were two layers to what Cinder did, with a central design that carried power surrounded by sothing to focus and color itand having keened to that idea, I was eager to test it.
The circuitry aspects were simple to puzzle becausethey really did work pretty much like a circuit, at least in so ways. It needed an energy supplythe user's Aura, generally, to minimize the cost to the Dust itselfand what amounted a closed circuit, made of patterns and lines throughout the cloth. The patterns needed to connect, sohow, so as to guide the Aura of the wearer without drawing too much upon the Dust's own power; the idea was for it to be the conductive material, rather than the power source. There were drawbacks to that, but depending on how the patterns in the cloth are designed, the energy that flows through it can be colored in different ways.
That was the 'programming' aspect of Dust Weaving. It was also part of why the effects were weaker than the rawer forms of Dust usebecause you were actually trying to limit how much Dust was used, relying more on one's one power instead. At its most basic level, this could be used simply to aspect the Aura of the wearer towards the elent of the Dust and allow them to project it in a useful way; to generate fire with red Dust, electricity with yellow Dust, and so on. With a more complex design, however, you could also generate a more complex effect. It was like my old Energy Bolt, which I could change into things like Fireballs and Cannonballs by adding in an Elent; that would be the basic shift. Sothing bigger might allow for more complex techniques like Flares or Magic Missiles.
Of course, that was easier said than done. It depended, first and foremost, on the cloth itselfbut also upon the wearer, who would still need to supply and guide the power, even if the cloth helped to shape it. Beyond which, actually writing the programs seed to requirewell, I guess it was sort of like a programming language. Getting a desired effect required the right patterns and the right Dust; without that, you'd be lucky to get sothing that didn't work at all. If you weren't lucky, you might get sothing that worked just finebut not at all as it was intended to. I was betting that, historically speaking, there were a number of tried and true designs that I'd likely be able to hunt down, because experintation might be harshly rewarded.
Thankfully, my senses gave a number of advantages, not least of which was the ability to see the energy flow through the clothes and estimate what it was likely to do. Added to Observe, I could guess what sothing would do with a great deal of accuracyand, more importantly, without actually seeing if it would or would not explode in my face. Once found, my power automatically logged the blueprints and filed them away.
From there, it was just a matter of figuring out what got the best resultsboth in terms of grinding and actual use. When it ca to improving Crafting and Dust Weaving, I knew it'd be key to find sothing that not only generated a decent amount of experience, but which did so for relatively minor cost in terms of both ti and resources. Rather than sothing I could only afford to make one of, crafting items at a steady rate was better, though my ability to recycle things helped quite a bit.
At the mont, I was sticking to the basicsclothes that were very fire or shock resistant, suits that lowered the amount of resistance one would face while swimming through water, and pants that would help soften a fall. Each took only minor amounts of the four basic kinds of Dust and incorporating the designs into clothes was fairly trivial. The experience rewards were fairly high relative to the cost and I'd already made several dozen of each, the results improving along with my skills.
Perhaps even more importantly, however, none of them were particularly dangerous, which ant I had the option of selling them if I felt so inclined. That was one of the upsides of Crafting, after allyou could always sell what you didn't want. Granted, life wasn't as simple as a ga where any shop you ca across would happily buy anything you felt like selling, but there were ways around that; I was certain that if I started manufacturing large amounts of Dust Woven clothes, my grandmother could find a buyer or else set up a proxy store.
Of course, I didn't really need money. I made a point to collect what the Grimm dropped, but there just wasn't a whole lot I really neededand what little I did, my friends or allies generally provided freely. Even recouping the Dust I lost in Crafting wasn't a huge concern, simply because, as I was now, I was pretty sure I could mine Dust if I needed to. Between Ereb and my Psychokinesis, and with the information Raven and I had found concerning Dust deposits, I was fairly confident I could dig upwell, more than I was likely to ever need. I'd already made plans to help forestall the Dust crisis, if it beca necessary, I was just more worried about the Riders and their Master, now that I knew of their existence. If it ca up, I'd just go get so more Dust.
On the other hand, it might still be an interesting idea. The way things were headed, I'd be doing a lot of Crafting while in classand the speed and quality of what I made was rising steadily. While I could just store the results in my Inventory and forget about thembecause I didn't have much use for them myselfwouldn't it be better if sobody benefited from them? Even just so basic tricks could co in handy and I could already do more than that; I just wasn't really big on the whole sell powerful weapons to anyone capable of affording it.
But that wasn't the sa as not being willing to sell them to anyone. I had no objections to making Hunters or the army safer or better equipped and my grandmother could make arrangents to see that it happened. It would take quite a while to produce enough to, say, supply an army, but my days were going to be pretty dull for a while anyway. Once things were in place, I could step up productions and make more powerful items as needed or even take requests. It would be sothing, at least.
I could use my Crafting to equip those close to , too. My friends, family, and allies could use all the help they could get and it was easy enough for to do while I had the ti. And once I had enough ti to Craft and Weavewell, I guess we'd see.
After all, I thought as the teacher continued to drone, it's not like I had anything better to do.
"Is this guy ever going to stop talking?" Adam complained, getting bored again monts after our conversation ended. "I can't believe I woke up for this shit."
"You should have just slept in class," I answered, pulling my thoughts away from my work for a mont. "I'd have covered for you."
"Goddamn it," Adam swore. "I can't believe I stayed awake for this shit."
I smiled a little at that, already drifting again. Watching my Dust crystals unravel and then bind to the threads I'd prepared, I rembered what my father had used his Telekinesis for. I'd continue to work on my Weaving for a while, but I needed to test what I could do with my Crafting, as well. That would require more materials, of course, but I could fetch them tonight.
"Well," I said. "Try to stay awake for a while longer. PT's nextand since it's the first day, maybe we'll get to duel soone. And if sowell, let's try to make a good impression."
"Sorry," He replied. "All I heard was 'beat the ever-loving crap out of them and establish the pecking order.'"
"Well" I glanced at him, still smiling. "That's more or less what I ant, I suppose."
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