The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Seeing

"Father, look," Autumn said, drawing my attention at once. As I turned to show that I was looking, her face—currently a mass of vines and thorns clinging loosely to a structure of wood, lacking anything like a mouth, ears, or a nose—began to melt, sliding from its frame and slowly dropping from her face until a ripple of motion when through it and it reversed its course. It covered her face in a smooth, reflective mass that showed only her eyes, before parts began to sink and others began to grow.

After a moment, she was wearing a human face.

"Oh," I replied, drawing out the word with a smile. "You've decided on one of your own?"

Autumn nodded, face unmoving as she did so. She'd chosen hair dark enough that it seemed to fade into the shadows of her hood, masking the odd edges and angles within. Her skin was pale to match the appearance of someone who often hid from the sun and she absently adjusted her hood to draw further into it. Even so, her eyes remained the same, gleaming, if anything, an even brighter silver.

"Raven helped me," She replied, but though her lips moved as she spoke, they didn't match the words. We'd need to work on that, I thought. "She showed me pictures of my former self."

I smiled a bit sadly.

"Is that her face?" I asked, having never seen Summer before. If Autumn was wearing it, though, that could be problematic. Beyond the obvious risk of someone 'recognizing' her, I wasn't sure how I'd feel if Raven had convinced my daughter to wear her deceased friend's face. That was a bucket of problems I wasn't sure how to even begin approaching.

Luckily, Autumn shook her head, features still unmoving.

"I made my own," She said. "But I wanted to keep a little bit, to remind me."

"Ah," I replied, nodding to show I understood. "Nothing wrong with remembering. Well, come here and let Daddy take a closer look."

Autumn's hood twitched once before falling back, revealing what waited behind her face. Autumn hadn't bother making anything but a face and hair, so what flowed up from the confines of her hood was still a series of coils and thorns that affixed themselves to the mask like a stem to a leaf. Her head wasn't a solid thing, but instead a mass of vines that gave her head the approximate shape of a human head beneath her hair and skin, and in certain places was completely missing.

As her hood fell, her vines flowed forward, elongating as they carried her face towards me, light streaming through the gaps as it stopped a few centimeters in front of me—and several meters away from where the rest of her body waited, hidden from the neck down by her cloak.

Pondering her face for a moment, I lifted a hand and clicked my finger nail on it several times. It was hard, feeling more like ceramic than anything human. Motioning to Levant with a thought, a light breeze flowed past us, but it didn't ruffle her hair quite the way it should of, almost as if her hair was reacting to the breeze instead of being moved by it—which was exactly what was happening, as her hair had more in common with the stinging tentacles of a jellyfish than protein filament.

Also, it was attached to an obviously inhuman mass, which reduced its effectiveness as a disguise, to say nothing of her expressions.

We'd need to work on that, too. But one thing at a time.

"Sweetie, if you're attempting to disguise yourself as a human, there are several things missing," I began.

Autumn laughed, the sound so musical that it almost distracted from the fact that her mouth didn't move at all. Instead, the sound originated from within her cloaked form.

"I know that, Father," She said, retracting her fake head and lifting her hood again to hide it. "I just wanted to show you my new face."

"I see," I answered with another smile, absently wondering if 'Raven helped me' had meant that she'd given her inspiration by wearing her own mask. To Autumn, to concept of putting on and taking off one's face had probably been rather novel. "It's lovely, dear. Would you like me to help you work on it later?"

"Yes, Father," Autumn replied, shadow covering her eyes as several bristled limbs reached out from her cloak to brush dirt from it absently. It didn't help much, because it had been heavily stained when she came back from her first training trip with Raven at the start of the week. It didn't matter too much, I supposed; she didn't care that she was dirty, she was just mimicking actions that she saw around her.

"So, how was your day?" I asked as she approached with an odd, sliding step that belied the fact that she wasn't using human legs at the moment. "Did you have fun with Raven?"

"Yes, Father," She said again. "Though she mainly wanted to see how much I already knew. Where the weak points are on a target, how deeply to stab, how to push and follow up and maim. Nothing you didn't already teach me."

"Mm," I agreed. "Good to hear I didn't do too bad of a job. What about after that?"

"She brought me a few weapons to play with and we went Hunting," She continued. "I wasn't used to using something else to kill things with, but Raven said it'd be a good idea to learn of different weapons are used. It was a bit strange, but I got used to it."

The right sleeve of her cloak grew as an arm pushed its way out. Though the cloak itself was long enough to cover the arms of a woman of Autumn's present size up to at least the wrist, it didn't even reach the elbow on the oversized limb Autumn had created and it seemed strained against the heavy slabs of muscle upon it. Given its sheer size, I had no trouble believing she'd been able to handle any type of weapon she was presented with.

"That's good," I said. "Once you get a feel for all your options, you can start working on making your own fighting style. Having you found anything to your liking yet?"

Autumn shook her head, flexing the massive fingers of her new right hand. As she did, the digits warped into five different blades, each with a different length and shape.

"There was nothing that I couldn't make for myself," She replied. "Though it gave me a few ideas."

I chuckled a bit at that and slipped a hand into my Inventory before drawing out another cloak, pristine white but for the network of bright blue markings upon the length of the fabric.

"Perhaps this would be more your size," I joked, but held it out to her as she looked at it with wide eyes and accepted it gently.

"Is this Dust?" She asked, staring at the designs.

"Mhm," I confirmed. "But don't use it unless someone's around to supervise. It's Water Dust and I was a bit light on the designs, so it should be completely safe to practice with—but I don't want to take any chances with my little girl. Promise me you'll be careful with it?"

"I promise," She answered seriously before her entire body liquefied as she clutched the cloak close to her chest. Her liquid mass gushed from her hood into the empty cloak, filling it and then solidifying it again, leaving the dirty garment she'd left behind to fall to the ground. She pushed at the cloak from within to see how it fit and made a sound like a violin to show her contentment with it. "Thank you, Father."

"No problem, sweetie," I replied, leaning back on my bed and closing my eyes again.

After a moment of silence, Autumn seemed to notice and I felt her concern with my Empathy.

"What were you doing, Father?" She asked, looking me over again. "I didn't interrupt anything, did I?"

"Nothing that couldn't wait for my little girl," I assured, patting her slightly on the head with my Psychokinesis. "I was just meditating again."

Or rather, I'd just been pushing my Acceleration as high as I could maintain it, trying to shorten the time it took to grind my current skillset—a process that meditation assisted with, however slightly. In truth, I'd been meditating so deeply that I hadn't noticed Raven's portal until it opened up in my dorm room, dropping my daughter off from school. I'd just finished classes myself, or least finished meditating through them, and Raven and I had discussed this beforehand, but it had still been a touch alarming when I noticed it.

I was making progress, though. With my Accelerated Meditation throughout the day and my constant training through the night, my skills were growing quickly, especially the ones I had come to rely on as of late. Acceleration itself had come a long way since I'd first gotten to it, mostly because I used it as often as I possibly could—and I was looking forward to seeing what it would become before too long.

For now though, I'd had yet another productive day.

By raising Adamant Serpent's Skin to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Midgardsormr's Skin.'

By raising Sacrifice to the Wolf to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Sacrifice to Vanagandr.'

By raising Clairvoyance to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Remote Viewing.'

When Autumn didn't seem wholly convinced, I reached forward and patted her head physically, opening a single eye as I did.

"Don't worry," I told her. "Really. I'm just waiting for Adam to finish running an errand I sent him on—it's nothing to worry about."

Autumn nodded once and the two of us fell into a comfortable silence as she quietly settled down to wait and I returned to monitoring my friend's progress from several angles, testing my new power. It didn't take long for Adam to return, as I'd only told him to run to the city and back, which would have been an easy trip for him even a month ago? Now, it was truly nothing more than an errand.

But that didn't mean it wasn't worth the effort, as much as Adam complained. He made it to his destination and back within a few minutes.

"Happy?" He asked as he opened the door with a swipe from his scroll, walked in sullenly, and made his way to his bed, pausing only to give Autumn a nod of acknowledgement on the way.

"Ecstatic," I answered dryly, opening both eyes as Adam wished a rock out of his pocket and threw it at my head. I caught it with an absent thought, turning the perfectly smooth sphere over a few times with my mind. I'd made it with Ereb earlier to help with my experiment, which had been simple enough, but I looked it over carefully as I shifted it this way and that.

And then I looked through it.

Remote Viewing (Active) LV1 EXP: 3.07% MP: 500

The ability to observe objects beyond one's range of sight through supernatural means. By gathering and removing the Aura surround an eye, the user of this skill may invisibly mark an object, enabling them to see through it as if they were present. While an object is so marked, however, the corresponding eye is blinded—or rather, sees only what occurs within the vicinity of the mark.

Maximum number of marks: 2.

Maximum range: 100 kilometers.

Additional 500 MP consumed per minutes.

I peered out through the surface of the stone, looking back at myself curiously. I'd grown older again, recently, a further result of my constant Acceleration, but the process already seemed to be slowing down. Though looked like I was swiftly approaching my twenties, I should have appeared older than that by now—several years older, if anything. But I didn't, presumably because my power was already starting to preserve me. It was something to keep in mind, though I was more grateful than anything at the moment; people had already commented that I was growing quickly, after all, and while no one seemed suspicious, I'd rather not have to hide my face if I ended up looking like I was thirty. This, however, I could play off easily enough.

Putting those thoughts aside, however, I returned my focus to the stone and how my senses flowed through it. I'd sent Adam out primarily to help me test it out by carrying it beyond the clarity of my senses—and all the while, I'd played might my new eye in a number of ways, checking to see what worked and what didn't.

The good news was that most of my powers worked through it normally. I could see things with the range of vision allowed by my Clairvoyance and though it was supposed to be sight-only, my ESP allowed me to stretch my other senses through it, monitoring the object's surroundings. Attempts to use my Clairsentience through it hadn't yielded any immediate results, but I'd succeeded in feeling things and that gave me hope that I could make a breakthrough by improving my skill with Remote Viewing, ESP, or both. Even if channeling my Psychokinesis through it was likely impossible, just being able to heal, support, and watch over my allies would be a huge boon.

Unfortunately, there were a few…not quite downsides, but things I'd been a bit disappointed at being unable to do. I saw through the mark upon the object, not through the object itself—that is, the stone itself hadn't been my eye, just its socket. Sadly, that meant I couldn't see through the entirety of what I touched like I could with my skin and I could only change my viewpoint in limited ways, looking around as if with a normal eye. Sadly, that meant I couldn't see everything around my marked object, just what was in front of it, meaning I'd need to pay attention to positioning.

Additionally, I couldn't see through my mobile eye while inside of Naraka. It didn't automatically break the connection, but I couldn't see anything through it, presumably because being in another dimension counted as being more than a hundred kilometers away. My vision had returned to me after I crossed back over, but…well, it was a bit sad that I couldn't get around that issue.

Also, the eye I'd used—my left one—had remained blind throughout that process. That wasn't a huge concern for me, truth be told, because with the breadth of my vision the loss of an eye was almost meaningless, but it had been worth noting. More than that, however, I'd been disappointed to find that I could only mark two objects, at least for the moment. I'd have liked to mark various areas for monitoring, and I'd have been happy to sacrifice the sight of, say, my finger tips to do it. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Sighing quietly as I finished my inspection of the rock and stopped rotating it to determine the precise limits of its visual range, I cut the connection with a thought and sight returned to my eye. I'd need to pick the targets for this skill carefully since I only had two, but overall, it had been a successful experiment.

On to the next one, I suppose. I spent a moment pondering where to begin and just as quickly cut myself off—I'd already spent hours pondering it, after all; I was just trying to delay the inevitable. Honestly, I couldn't say I was looking forward to this, but…

Better to test it now than to be caught flatfooted if something went wrong later.

"Don't go to sleep yet, Adam," I told him, glancing at him with the back of my neck. We still have work to do."

Adam grunted again but sat up obligingly, looking towards me for orders. As he did, I busied myself with checking on the locations of everyone in Haven to confirming the coast was still clear, which it was. No point delaying it any further.

Just as I thought that, however, my daughter spoke.

"What are you doing now, Father?" Autumn wondered curiously.

"Adam and I are running a drill, sweetie," I answered, which was mostly correct. "A test for readiness, more or less."

Autumn tilted her head and nodded to show her understanding, though I still wasn't clear on precisely how what she thought she understood mapped to conventional reality. I also wasn't sure I had any room to throw stones on that front, though.

"Can I help?" She asked and I shifted gears quickly to think about it before nodding slowly.

"Sure," I said. "If you want to. It's just a test, but Adam could use all the help he can get."

"Not really filling me with motivation there, Jaune," Adam pipped up. "As the guy who's gonna be protecting your helpless ass, I'd expect more respect."

Autumn tilted her head further, growing confused though it didn't show on her face.

"The goal is to protect me," I informed her. "You and Adam will be guarding me for the duration of the exercise, in case something should happen. Any questions?"

"Many," Autumn replied. "Why do you need protecting, Father? You're stronger than either of us."

I smiled at that and shrugged.

"I'll be a bit preoccupied," I told her. "I won't be able to use most of my powers, so I'll be vulnerable. It's unlikely that anything will happen—which is why this is just a drill—but in the future, it would be a good opportunity for an enemy attack. I'd like to be prepared in case that happens."

"I see," Autumn mused before nodding resolutely. "Do not worry, Father; I shall protect you."

"Thank you, sweetie," I answered. "Daddy feels safer already."

Adam rolled his eyes but stood up and moved to the side of my bed, Aura quietly gathering around him. Seeing that, Autumn began to do the same, getting into position to defend me.

Glance at each of them once, I nodded and turned my will towards the room around us. At once, the doorway melded into a single, solid mass, metal and stone flowing into one another to shut people out. A network of vines began to creep out from under Autumn's cloak, spreading across the floor and then up the walls in a reinforcing wall, and power began to slowly gather in the sword I'd tossed to Adam, building slowly in preparation of an incident.

For my part, I began to slowly prepare myself to use Tiferet.

For all the power and potential the skill possessed, the dangers were equally immense. Because of the absurd energy consumption of the skill, I was left extremely vulnerable while using it—and so, if anyone were to attack me, this would be the best time to do it. Therefore, the best place to use it would be somewhere my enemies didn't have access to.

Sadly, as my enemies included the dominant form of life on Remnant, that was easier said than done. Though a random attack was extremely unlikely, the fact remained that I had enemies across the face of the planet, in the skies above, throughout the seas, and even in the ground beneath my feet. No matter what continent I went to or how far into the wilds I went, I couldn't be certain of my own safety. The best I could really do was bury myself somewhere throughout the process, but even that wouldn't be enough if the Grimm decided they suddenly wanted some.

Better then to be surrounded by my allies and in the middle of a school full of Hunters behind the heavily defended walls of a city. Would that be enough if Malkuth wanted to come get me? No. But while it wasn't safe, it was probably the best I was going to get. I'd asked Raven to keep an eye on Cinder and told her I was going to be extremely distracted and might need assistance should anything happen, so I was about as safe as I'd ever be.

That in mind, I took one last breath, checked my surroundings again, and began to process. At once, I felt my power draining away, emptying as Tiferet began its work. Drill or not, this was only the second time I'd gotten to use it and, knowing the risks, I'd been saving it for something big. Last time, I'd fused two skills.

This time, I fused five. It was a combination I'd only discovered recently as my skills improved to greater heights, but it was one I'd had to force myself not to merge on the spot. The skills in question were Clairvoyance, Sense Danger, Detect Bloodthirst, Extrasensory Perception, and Empathy—the sensory skills I'd relied the most up, with the exception of Observe. The only one I'd maxed out was Clairvoyance, but all were as high leveled as one would expect; after all, I kept three of them on at all times and the other two triggered almost constantly while I was training. Between that and my Acceleration, even the length of time between when I'd learned each skill had faded to near irrelevance; a month or two hardly mattered when I trained for weeks every day.

Even so, I had to be cautious. As the power flowing through me burnt in my chest like a furnace and my eyes began to glow, I rose quickly and prepared myself for a fight, too. After what had happened last time, I'd been careful to deactivate my Adamant skin beforehand—and I needed to test out the upgraded version anyway, so it worked out. Even without being rendered helpless and immobile, however, the drastic fall in my strength was nonetheless rather disconcerting and I was well aware that I had been weakened immensely. My Passive skills were all still active, which was a relief, but with just them and with no MP to back it up…I was strong for my age, sure, but not so strong that I didn't worry.

What made it worse was the fact that without my MP, my senses were cut off and all I could see was the inside of this sealed room. If something had gone wrong, if someone had noticed, if my enemies were gathering right outside my door, I' d have no way of knowing, and though the Gamer's Mind kept me calm, it was more than a bit nerve-wracking. Too make matters worse, the process dragged on even longer than the previous one had, probably because of the number of skills involved, and with each passing minute my tension slowly grew.

And then, with absolutely nothing happening, it ended.

Sephirotic Synthesis Complete. The skills 'Clairvoyance,' 'Sense Danger,' 'Detect Bloodthirst,' 'Extrasensory Perception,' and 'Empathy' have been combined successfully. The skill 'Pericognition' has been created.