Somewhere cold, and dark, and beautiful. 

She's in a city, of sorts, the streets narrow, slick, and sooty. Industrial-era, perhaps, judging by the electric street lights and the smoke rising from many chimneys. 

But something is definitely out of the ordinary. An enormous shape floats overhead, tethered to the ground with what look to be massive cables. Its shadow falls on the streets, looming, the shattered moon barely visible behind its many shining spires, each wreathed in rings of light. 

A floating city. The local magic must be something impressive if that's possible. She starts with a quick check for EM transmissions, are they using radio or something similar?

Yep, that's a lot of radio chatter. There are two main signal clusters, one corresponding to high-frequency short-range ground transmissions and another to lower-frequency transmissions consistent with a global relay network. The former is fairly busy, but the latter much less so. 

That's convenient, she'll start archiving signal logs. Are the transmissions encrypted?

Most are. Only a few of the short-range batch lack encryption. 

Well, best not to stand around with a vacant expression, she sets a background process to try to decipher the encryption but she doesn't expect results unless there's a vulnerability. She starts walking towards the cables, or whatever they are. With part of her attention she starts listening to the unencrypted signals, what sorts of things are being transmitted?

"Party to Scrapper, how's the rig holding up? You need assistance? Over." 

"Negative, Party, she's limped along to Crowbar's for a lookover. Think it's the transmission again. It'll be a late delivery but eh, whatcha gonna do? 'preciate the offer. Over." 

...

"THIS IS SO COOL!!!"

"Nooo, Fuschia, you're doing it all wrong, you gotta be quiet and use the codenames!"

"You didn't!"

"Did too!" 

...

"This is DJ Rainbow with the very latest underground hits! This next song's a special request, so stay tuned for "Sky High Sighs" by the Raspberry Beats!" 

...

And a great deal more of similar. 

Nothing urgent, she'll record it all just in case but for the moment she'll turn her attention to the people and sights around her. For the moment, she'll hold off on active scans.

Plenty of sights; not many people. It's the middle of the night, after all. A strolling couple giggles drunkenly past. A group of figures clad in ragged coats huddle shivering around a burning bin. 

A black metal humanoid shape with glowing red marks, carrying a gun, turns from a side street onto Riley's. It's heading the same direction she is, and she's a block or two behind it. 

She makes a note of the unhoused people and where they are. Maybe she can find a way to help them once she knows more about this place. She really wants to do an active scan on the robot but restrains herself. It's more likely to notice a scan than the people are in all likelihood and more likely to attack her too.

The cables from the floating city lead down towards the center of the non-floating one; eventually Riley gets close enough to see that it's a walled-off area patrolled by more robots - and one bored-looking blond woman. The woman is dressed warmly, but maybe not warmly enough for this weather, and carrying a bird-shaped crossbow, of all things. She's alert enough to notice Riley's approach, and is watching from the moment the wall enters Riley's view. 

Well, here goes nothing. "Hello there."

"PLEASE STAND BACK, CITIZEN -" 

"Oh, shut up, you humorless hunk of metal. If she's a threat, I'll handle it." She sounds almost hopeful. 

"Hello yourself. Please tell me you have something to talk about that isn't guard duty. Or at least are trying to plant a bomb or something." She's attentive, but her eyes continue to rove the surroundings, alert for any hidden threat. 

"Are there often people trying to plant bombs? I'm new to the area."

"Not often enough." She pauses. "I shouldn't joke about that. It's not super common but it's been known to happen. Hence the guards. Honestly there'd be guards even if nobody ever tried to plant bombs, it's a good precaution. Where do you hail from, if not Mantle?" 

"I'm from a settlement called Crescent. I don't think most people know of it."

"Nope, never heard of it. Is it part of Atlas?" 

"It isn't. I travelled quite some distance to get here."

This elicits a slight frown, and a wary alertness. "From where, exactly, and for what purpose? What continent is Crescent on?" The war was over seventy years ago, but some grudges last for generations. 

Maybe she should have lied but in for a penny in for a pound. "I'm something of an explorer. And I'm not from Remnant at all."

"...Okay, this is not at all what I was expecting, but at least tonight is no longer boring. How are you not from Remnant, and if not, then where are you from?" 

"Crescent is a space station in a solar system we call Ikoria which itself is in a world distinct from this one. As for how I got here, I used a piece of equipment we call a transposer to make the trip."

This is officially above her pay grade. 

She doesn't care. She wants in. And nobody else can just check, can they - 

She approaches Riley and extends a hand.

"Take my hand and repeat that, please." 

"Ooh, do you have truth detection magic?" Riley takes her hand and repeats herself.

Riley's arm glows a bright green, Robyn's a fainter yellow-green. Robyn stares at the light as though it were a snake.

But something like excitement glimmers in her eyes, too. She drops the handshake. 

"Well, either you're telling the truth or you're crazy enough to think you are. It's my Semblance. Do you have Semblances in Ikoria?" 

They have space stations. They have interworld travel. They could save Atlas, maybe. They could save everyone. 

No jumping to conclusions, Robyn. Especially not ones you really, really want to believe. Evidence first. Still have to distinguish the crazy from the real miracles. 

"We don't have abilities which reflect the nature of the person who possess them. Which is how my translation magic is parsing that word. Most realms have a unique collection of exotic effects supplementing baseline physics."

"Translation magic, oooh. Well that does explain how we're chatting while being from different worlds."

"...do you have Grimm in Ikoria. Giant maneating monsters, attracted to suffering, bone masks, puff into mist and soot when killed?" 

"We do not... that sounds like a candidate explanation for the high death rate on this world and the low population relative to your apparent level of technology."

"That would be the Grimm, yep. Well, there's also the occasional warfare, but I think we'd survive that a lot better if it didn't attract so many Grimm. I'm a Huntress, it's my job to use our...exotic effects supplementing baseline physics, that's one way of putting it...to kill Grimm and keep people safe. Well, it was, until I mouthed off to the wrong official and got stuck with cable guard for a month." They also may have been upset when they caught her unlocking the Auras of her friends in Mantle, but that wasn't technically illegal, just frowned upon. Hence the argument and subsequent mouthing-off. 

She muses for a bit. "I'm surprised your world exists without Semblances, those are a feature of Aura and everything alive has Aura...unless you don't have that either? What about Dust?" 

("Aura" translates roughly as "innate life essence and center of personality capable of protection and healing in activated state", and "Dust" as "crystallized resource holding magical power of specific elemental natures.")

"It's hard to know if we have Aura as you understand it. We have exotic effects constructs that form around people with biological bodies that fall within certain bounds and only the people those constructs form around can become Magecrafters. I don't know if those constructs are related to what you call Aura or not. If we do have auras, they certainly aren't activated. We definitely don't have anything like Dust."

"Huh. Maybe they're your world's equivalent of activated Auras? It's hard to imagine not having Aura, the only things that grow and don't have Aura are Grimm. Can you tell me more about Magecrafters?" So maybe she can think of a test that a Semblance couldn't mimic, and finally get some evidence against Hypothesis 1: Extremely Thorough Delusion. 

"I'm Robyn, by the way." 

"I'm Riley. Magecrafters are people who can activate magical arrays. Arrays are effectively instructions to tell the magic what to do."

"That's kinda broad and it sounds a bit like computer programming...can you give some examples of what Magecrafters can do?" 

"Let's see what do I have in my staff right now..." Her eyes go slightly glossy. "I have a simple telekinesis effect, a reactive shield that's currently running to protect me against kinetic weapons, a light emitter, five different analysis arrays, water filtration, a simple healing magic, a chemical synthesizer, and you just asked for a few examples."

"So there's a lot more, about that level of utility? Some of those sound pretty helpful and others could be downright lifesaving if they go far enough. Would you mind demonstrating a few of those? Telekinesis, healing, uh, small-scale synthesizing? I can prick my finger or something for the healing test, if I coax my Aura into letting it happen." All three of those are rare as Semblances, and getting one that does all of them is nigh unheard-of. 

"Sure," she looks around for something to lift. "A pinprick is well within my ability to heal. The array is designed to treat some kinds of infections and to repair tissue damage. As for chemical synthesis, I should clarify that I'm rearranging matter not creating it, and it is a bit slow but..." she focuses and holds out the hand not holding a staff. A diamond begins coalescing it'll be about an inch wide in a minute.

After a bit of poking and admiring, this satisfies Robyn on the synthesis front. She hands over a small cobblestone to levitate for the second test, then concentrates briefly, poking a fingertip with a crossbow bolt and offering it for the third. 

Riley sets the cobblestone flying in a figure eight and then heals Robyn's finger while it's still flying.

Yep, that's healed, and faster than Aura could normally manage, too. Well, Hypothesis 1 is now looking sheepish and huddling in the corner. But she had to test it. On to Hypothesis 2: Worldshaking Discovery. 

"Thanks for humoring me, Riley. Wanna talk bigger picture? What would you like to accomplish while you're here? Any friendly polity back home?" 

"You've partially resolved my highest priority task by explaining the Grimm though I'll need to know more about them to make a complete report. My next highest priority is understanding local magic... it sounds like there's two kinds you're aware of and perhaps that's all there is. Beyond that diplomatic relations are a priority and so is general precept work but I have a lot of flexibility there."

"Three kinds if you count the Grimm, they break all sorts of physics. And just so you're aware, if you call Aura "magic" you're going to get some funny looks even from the scientists and Dust engineers, it's like calling language 'telepathy.' Not that it's wrong, exactly, just, indicative of foreign-ness. 

"I can give you the 101 on Auras and Semblances - I know how to awaken Auras, it's skill-intensive and requires a pretty close connection to a person - but for Dust you'll probably want the engineers or theorists. Atlas" she points upward at the giant floating city, "is home to both the de facto ruling elite and all the fancy laboratories, so it's the place to be for diplomatic relations and magic study. I'll see if I can get you a fast track to visit the relevant authorities. Maybe you can convince them to be less dickish to Mantle while you're up there. What's general precept work?" 

"That sounds helpful, and yes the Grimm do probably qualify as magic. The group I work for calls itself Starlight, a long time ago before the crisis times and before we discovered magic they were an educational institute and they still frame themslves and all our work around two central precepts 'Learn all there is to learn' and 'Teach those who would be taught.' Over the years, those two precepts have come to be interpreted pretty broadly and we've accumulated a number of official derivative precepts. Those derivatives can be summarized as making sure people are in a state conducive to learning and protecting diversity and uniqueness because of the lessons that diversity and uniqueness can teach us. Precept work means doing things that fulfill or advance one or more precepts."

"I like this group. Are you recruiting?" She draws a small handheld device from her coat pocket. With a quick touch, she activates it, extending a small holographic screen with which she fiddles for a minute. "This is a scroll, a combination communicator-and-sundry-other-things. I'm going to call somebody, if you don't mind holding tight a bit."

She waits a few beats, then holds the device to her ear, speaking firmly but quietly. "Bastille, this is Huntress Robyn Hill at Cable Post Six, confirmation code Pabilsag three-twelve-naught-seven. Please get me Headmaster Ironwood. No, I am not going to tell you why, that is why we have Huntress confirmation codes, this is for the Headmaster's ears only. Tell him it's a security issue and an Academy one, that'll get him out of bed in a hurry." She rolls her eyes. "No, not Chief Cordobin. I remind you I am not part of Chief Cordobin's chain of command, however many strings she can pull to dump me at Cable Post Six. I don't want to speak to the Mantle Chief of Domestic Preservation, and I am not asking for Colonel Ironwood either. I am exercising my right to speak with my Headmaster. Yes, Bastille, now, do I have to repeat my Huntress confirmation code...Good, thank you, Bastille."

Another pause, then: "Headmaster Ironwood, this is Huntress Robyn Hill. There's an... out-of-town visitor to see you. It's something unique. I thought you would want - what? A - a staff? Yes, sir, how did you...? R-right away, sir. Of course. Pickup at Cable Post Six. Robyn out." 

Robyn stares at the dead screen as though it were a live snake. 

"How in the Leviathan's loving embrace - even if he bugged the robots - we've been talking for minutes! And he's been asleep!" She shakes her head in mute frustration. "No one is that good. Which means..." she bites her lip, pondering. "Something." 

"We're always recruiting, though travel to and especially from Remnant is restricted until a risk assessment is completed."

She waits while Robyn makes her call again itching to invoke her analysis magic.

"I did appear out of nowhere on a street in this city in the last twenty minutes or so. Maybe someone saw me."

"Honestly it wouldn't surprise me, we have security cameras all over the place, but we haven't done anything else visibly interesting or illegal and Ironwood sure sounded like he'd just woken up...and he had to ask where we were, which means he was either unaware or wanted us to think he was...ugh, I have got to find out what's going on here, this is going to bug me forever if I don't. Do you mind verifying that you've spoken truthfully and without deceptive intent throughout this conversation?" She holds out a hand again. "I believe you, but it's a cheap test. I wish I could offer you a similar reassurance, but all you've got right now is my word and that I'm the sort of person who has truth-verification shining through their Aura."

Riley takes her hand again. "I didn't intend to reveal being from another realm so I was trying to phrase things to lead you to conclude I was just from an obscure settlement but I wasn't otherwise intending to be deceptive. Truth arrays are possible to create but they're restricted due to how invasive they can be so I don't have one."

Shiny green affirmation. 

"Thank you. There's a Bullhead - a flying transport - on its way to pick us up in a few minutes. The man you're about to meet, Headmaster Ironwood, is in charge of the technically civilian Atlas Academy and also a ranking member of the Atlas military, which complicates diplomacy somewhat, but he's also the most knowledgeable and reliable person I can reach on short notice, and the most likely to be able to speak for Remnant instead of just Atlas.

"We're in the capital of Atlas, by the way, or under it at least. Atlas is ruled by an elected council but controlled in large part by military and corporate interests, notably the Schnee Dust Company. The government's first priority is maintaining order and preventing the sort of mass panic that draws Grimm attacks; its second priority is fighting off said Grimm attacks; and thanks to the knowledge that we all die if it fails, it tends to be impressively competent in those two areas. It is notably less effective in the general-welfare-of-citizens department - there are indentured and badly-treated Faunus working in Schnee Dust mines, for instance - and a lot of people would benefit if you could use your otherworldly leverage, once you have some, to nudge that priority higher without sacrificing the first two. Some of the higher-ups will try to downplay that," she adds. "Entrenched interests and all. 

"There are three more inhabited continents on Remnant, none as technologically advanced as Atlas and with varying internal cohesion. Cultures vary significantly between them, since until recently, Grimm attacks made it difficult to communicate very far. That tower," she points at the tallest spire in the floating city, "is one of four recently-built relays that form the Cross Continental Transmit System, or CCTS, letting us communicate with the other major civilizations on Remnant. It's considered one of, if not the most important accomplishment of our age. Atlas will be reluctant to give up its military research advantage, but access to CCTS will likely be crucial to any knowledge-distribution you want to try. My scroll is connected to the same system, for local communication. You can get one too, if you like." 

"I think we're more likely to help by providing resources than exerting diplomatic pressure. That said if you're still mining with manual labor we can help you create automation to handle that and I expect we can launch satellites to supplement your CCT towers. As for getting a scroll, I'd love to get a few, I'd want to deconstruct at least one to see if I can use my hardware to interface with your communication systems."

"Well, we have automation, it's just more expensive than abused Faunus. For now." She grins. "We've tried satellites, but Dust loses its power outside Remnant's atmosphere. If you have satellites that don't rely on Dust, that would be fantastic. The scientists are going to want to pick your brain all about it, I'm sure. After the current diplomatic niceties conclude, I'll buy you a couple scrolls to play with." They aren't cheap, but Huntresses are paid handsomely. 

The grin stays, mellowing into a quiet, sincere smile. "You're going to do a lot of good here, I think." 

"I hope so, we try to have a positive impact everywhere we go. Though I admit I'm a bit more excited about all the new things there are to learn."

"Plenty of learning to go around today," smiles Robyn. "Out of curiosity, what is Starlight's stance on sensitive information, like knowledge of how to build highly dangerous weapons, or people who want to learn but will likely use them on others?" She has mixed feelings about Atlas' growing Dust-based armament. On the one hand, Grimm. On the other hand, Atlas. 

"One of the derivative precepts is 'Ethics is a prerequisite for knowledge of weapons.' To get that sort of knowledge you have to pass some fairly stringent ethics tests. We also place restrictions on possessing certain weapons and we have very good monitoring available to us."

"That's reasonable," Robyn agrees. Now she's wondering what kind of monitoring they have. It will have to wait, however, because she can see a large Bullhead descending towards them. "Our ride's almost here." 

Not long after, the Bullhead settles to the ground, wingjets folding down to allow a vertical landing. A hatch opens and four figures file out, alert and ready as Robyn was on guard. The first is a large armored suit carrying a staff. The suit, perhaps seven feet tall, has to duck to get through the hatch. It's not quite clear if this one is a robot or someone in heavy armor, as no skin is showing. The head - or helmet - rises taller than it ought, and terminates in a stovepipe shape; the visor widens on the left side into a circular shape. Steam hisses from the armor as it moves. Next is a young woman with white hair, blue eyes, and no apparent weapons at all. After her steps a dark-skinned older woman with greying hair, slightly stooped under the weight of a large cauldron on her back. Finally, a nervous-looking, blond young man with a set of tanks on his back and some kind of nozzle weapon steps out. All four take up positions flanking the airship. 

Robyn's eyebrows shoot up. "Wow, the big guns. I'm honored. Or you are, I guess. Riley, these are Po, Dr. Onwugama, Olive, and Gerain, of team POGO, an elite security force for Atlas." The armored suit, cauldron-carrying woman, weaponless girl, and nozzle-wielder nod in turn. 

"Jolly good to meet you, Riley," utters Po, human voice barely distorted by the grille on his helmet. "We'll be your escort to the Headmaster." 

"It's good to meet you." At last the curiosity overcomes her. "Do you have any rules about running scans I should know about?" In the meanwhile, she gets into the Bullhead, what an odd name for an aircraft.

"What kind of scans?" inquires Dr. Onwugama as they board. 

"The ones I'd most like to run are for exotic effects. Composition scans would be the runner up though, I'm so curious about how your technology works."

"By 'exotic effects' she means Auras, Semblances, and Dust," explains Robyn. "I assume the Headmaster briefed you on her own brand of effect?" 

Dr. Onwugama gives Robyn a quizzical look. "Headmaster Ironwood merely told us to escort a VIP to the Academy. And we'd prefer to avoid unknown scans, thank you very much."

"Sounds like just a bit of healthy curiosity to me!" chuckles Po. "If your Semblance lets you analyze things, that's quite a gift. No wonder James wants to meet you." 

Olive remains silent; Gerain looks thoughtful. 

"...Let's hold off on the, er, scanning, until you've spoken with the Headmaster." 

"Fair enough. So what is involved in being an elite security force?"

"Oh, guarding important people - such as your lovely self -" the armored Po inclines at the waist, "tracking down criminals, dealing with particularly deadly Grimm, that sort of thing." It's not the whole of the job, of course. 

"Paperwork," sighs Gerain, by way of addition. 

Po chuckles. "Don't scare off the important person, lad! Why do you ask, Riley, are you interested?" 

"My motto is 'Learn all there is to learn.' I want to know about everything."

"A noble pursuit indeed!" agrees Po brightly. Gerain nods. Dr. Onwugama just rolls her eyes; Olive continues listening mutely. 

A few minutes later, their vehicle lands next to an impressively beautiful and well-lit structure. Five towers rise from the building, with the fifth being roughly centered and much taller than the others. In fact, it's the tallest thing on the entire floating island. 

Po disembarks first, then Olive. "This way, please!" announces the knight, motioning towards a set of transparent doors opposite the landing pad. 

Riley follows without comment.

She is led to a spacious but simply-furnished office with windows overlooking the breathtaking city of Atlas. In front of the windows sits an impeccably groomed man in a white officer's uniform, his only weapon a pistol slung from his hip. 

He stands as the first two members of the team enter. "Thank you, Po, Dr. - "

An expression of startlement crosses his face as Riley enters. His hand jerks towards his pistol, but he does not draw. The elites around Riley tense. "...who is this." 

"Your VIP, sirrah!" answers Po promptly. If he registers Ironwood's reaction, it does not show in his cheery voice. 

Ironwood does not relax. His eyes don't leave Riley's face. "Huntress Robyn Hill. Explain." 

"Yes, sir. This is Riley Clearsky. She arrived at Cable Post Six. We exchanged greetings and spoke, briefly. She...claimed, then demonstrated, unlikely but potentially useful capabilities which I thought would interest you. I verified her story with my Semblance. Her intentions are not hostile." 

She's not sure if POGO are supposed to be in on this or not, but this seems potentially highly sensitive. If Ironwood hasn't told them...

"I see. Thank you, Team POGO, that will be all for now. Dismissed." 

"Are you sure, sir?" inquires Gerain, a tad nervously. 

"...Understood." 

Riley's escorts depart. 

"I'm sorry for the confusion. Riley, was it? I...heard Robyn's report, and jumped to conclusions. You are not what I expected, but that doesn't mean you're not welcome.

"Robyn, thank you for your discretion. You can speak freely here. What weren't you saying?" 

"She's from another world. One without Grimm. She has magic and non-Dust technology, but isn't familiar with Aura or Semblances. I really did check her story with my Semblance, and tested the magic. You can check the cameras too, she popped into the city from nowhere less than an hour ago. She is exploring for a larger group with substantially more resources, called Starlight..." 

Robyn briefly summarizes her conversation with Riley. 

Ironwood lets out a long breath when she finishes. 

"Thank you, Robyn, you did exactly right.

"Riley...welcome to Remnant."

"It's good to be here. I hope I can be helpful."

"I hope so too. We could use the help. 

"I hope you'll forgive me if I go straight to the strategic implications of your arrival. My first priority is the safety and security of Atlas and Mantle. What can you tell me about the combat applications of your world's magic and technology?" 

Riley shifts uncomfortably "Do kinetic and radiation weapons work on the Grimm? In most circumstances we just use kinetic and radiation weapons."

"Grimm are more resilient than unawakened humans. Some are extremely resilient. Most variants are not immune to kinetic weapons, though. We use bullets, they work fine on the lesser Grimm and can injure the greater ones. I'm not sure about radiation. Attacks using Light Dust are among the most effective ways to kill them, but it's among the rarest forms of Dust and using it to fight Grimm trades off against many other potential uses. I imagine it depends on the kind and amount of radiation." 

Riley relaxes a bit. "Well, that sounds like something that calls for testing. I wonder whether it's something special about light dust or if it's just a matter of using the right frequencies."

"Popular theory is that Grimm are creatures of shadow who shun the light. They do dissipate quite thoroughly when slain, and most prefer to hunt at night. I can get weak Grimm for testing, they're not hard for skilled Huntsmen to capture. How well do your weapons scale? If they work, could we use them to defend cities, towns, against hundreds or thousands of Grimm?" 

"I can't make any such commitments but if those I represent wish they can mass produce weaponry at a scale which is almost certainly sufficient."

Which makes them a hell of a military threat, if an alliance fails to materialize. Well, anyone with the resources to do something about the Grimm would of necessity be a military threat, so this is good news, really. 

"How did you acquire your knowledge of Remnant - population, violence levels, and such - before you arrived?" 

"To be very brief we used magic. To be more specific our magic is very good at identifying what it sees as people and we used those capabilities to monitor your world for about a month before your realm was put in the assignment queue and I picked it. We also constructed most of our translation matrix that way. It's being refined in the background to adjust for local dialect and such."

"In that case, it sounds like your magic doesn't consider Grimm people," remarks Robyn. "There are a lot more of them than of us." 

"We don't consider Grimm people either," observes Ironwood dryly. "Some are cunning, in a lie-in-wait-for-your-prey sort of way. They lack the sort of strategic intelligence that humans have." Except the millenias-old witch controlling them. Ozpin needs to know about this, as soon as possible. 

"Could you use your magic to monitor Grimm anyway? Their numbers, movements, patterns? Maybe even find out how they...multiply?" 

"Maybe, now that I'm in your realm I can do more. I'd need to take some time to study the Grimm first and depending on how I have to construct my query it might require additional equipment I don't have with me to cover the entire planet."

The most technologically advanced civilization on Remnant spent decades trying to get reliable messaging across the sea, and here's Riley casually talking about getting some extra equipment to spy on the whole planet. This is going to be a security nightmare. 

"What can't your magic equipment tell you?" he asks, tone just slightly exasperated.  

Robyn hides a smirk. 

"We haven't run into much that it can't get information on... some things take longer than others to figure out how to make it do though. There are projects that took years to complete."

Effectively unlimited information gathering, controlled by a foreign polity. Augh. On the other hand, saving the world and all. 

"What makes something take more or less time to learn about? What are some examples of things that take the longest? How long do you expect it to take to analyze Remnant's 'exotic effects'? Could you replicate them?" 

"Exotic effects can take a long time if they're too different from things we've analyzes before. The other thing that takes a long time is mind magic, people are complicated and when we want the magic to apply to people the magic doesn't classify as people... that's where things get especially difficult and in our society people can switch between the categories where magic is concerned. As for a time estimate... it depends on a lot of things... if your auras are the same thing as what we call souls then that shouldn't take too long I already have hooks for analyzing soul based magics. If they're distinct then I'll need to start from scratch. I have no idea how long the Grimm will take I have so many guesses about what they might be. Dust... depends we have some experience with magically active substances, we use them in some of our technology but again that experience is only useful if it's similar enough to things we've encountered before."

Aaaaand they have mind magic, enough that it's an entire category of thing. It's not enough that they keep tabs on every known Semblance, criminal or otherwise, and track the dangerous ones. Now there's a learnable spying tool. The circle of infosec doom is now complete. At least the mind magic is hard. 

This is way above Robyn's classification level, but he needs her to verify he's not being BS'd. Damn. 

This is going to require delicacy. He is shit at delicacy. 

Ironwood sighs. "Please warn me before you start analyzing anyone in Atlas. I would like to be appraised of your results, as well. I think our first priorities will be establishing diplomatic contact with Starlight, analyzing the Grimm, and comparing notes with Atlas scientists about our respective exotics, in that order. We'd like to train some personnel in your magic, if at all possible. And I would very much like to convince Starlight to start sharing their weaponry. It's a minor miracle the Grimm haven't overrun us already; we need to be able to fight them off. Thoughts?" 

"We have very strict rules about mind magic and I'm personally not authorized to use any. I can hold off on Aura tests too if that's what you meant. Travel to and from your realm is restricted until I send enough information for a risk assessment. I can request that an envoy be sent to conduct negotiations and they'll probably assign someone within a day or two. I'd love to work with your scientists. As for training people in our magic... there are several things that could mean. Anyone can learn to design arrays or resonators and that's certainly something I'm willing to teach. Only Magecrafters like myself can activate arrays though. Resonators can be constructed by Magecrafters or in some cases specialized resonators. Becoming a Magecrafters is not something that can be taught... you have to go before the heart, which might be an issue with the travel restrictions and it chooses whether or not to accept you. Starlight also asserts some jurisdiction over Magecrafters due to how potentially dangerous they are. As for technology, there's some technology I'm authorized to distribute without any restrictions... for fairly obvious reasons most weapons aren't included and that would have to be decided by an envoy."

So at some point in the foreseeable future, the only thing standing between his people's brains and a civilization of chronic meddlers is administrative ethics. That's a problem for another day; first he has to keep them all alive. 

"I expect we'll want that envoy, and whatever tech you can share, weapon or otherwise. What information do you need for a risk assessment? What rules would an Atlas citizen who became a Magecrafter be subject to? An array is...a sort of programmed magical instruction set, and a resonator is...?" 

Riley fiddles with her staff. "I sent the request for the envoy. The standard tech library includes several types of power generators, some manufacturing tech, basic space travel, a bunch of medical technology, some computing capabilities and how to make high quality batteries. I can upload all that wherever once I figure out how to interface with your computers. The main risks we worry about are exotics, though some conventional tech you don't appear to have also concerns us. The Magecrafters rules restrict the use of mind magic, and restrict the use of combat magics against people except in defense of self or others. They also place restrictions on creating certain types of resonators. If you break the rules, the standard punishments are either closer monitoring or modifying you so magic no longer works for you. Resonators are like arrays in most respects but they're less flexible, harder to make and they allow for magical effects without the active involvement of a Magecrafter. They can do magic at ranges and scales beyond what a Magecrafter can but to do that they need to be pretty large."

"Those technologies all sound highly promising, and will themselves make a huge impact against the Grimm." If Salem doesn't sabotage them first. "As risks go, you are currently standing in one of the most secure places on Remnant," here a note of pride enters his voice, "but I wouldn't recommend leaving Atlas without an escort. 

"What conventional tech are we missing? Is combat magic allowed for police forces and the like?" 

"I'm fine with remaining escorted. An Envoy won't be it's part of their job to talk to a variety of polities to ensure we aren't unduly favoring any one local government. I wouldn't worry too much about them though, Envoys are used to having their bodies destroyed, it's a consequence of their work. Our main worry for both exotic and conventional technologies is self-replication. Some things can be concerning even without that but mostly we worry about threats that scale exponentially with time. That word Police is translating in a way that implies that you combine security and law enforcement. If someone is an active threat a combat swarm will be assigned to subdue them with minimal force. Our law enforcement personnel aren't expected to fight, that seems likely to make people really nervous."

"I eagerly await your explanation for why you uttered the phrase having their bodies destroyed in the tone of someone describing a minor inconvenience." 

"We maintain backups of our minds in our computer systems. If a body is destroyed we can build new ones. In our experience, souls find people once they're in a compatible body. We're not quite sure what happens to the souls in the meantime. Souls also get kind confused if there's multiple of the same person around. Though I'm assuming that what we call an aura and what you call a soul is the same which I haven't confirmed yet."

"...Robyn, would you...?"

"Frankly, sir, I'm surprised you held out this long. Riley, wanna play Truth or Insanity again?" 

"Sure... I forget sometimes how weird we must seem." She reaches out her hand and once in the proper handshake position she says "Everything I've said has been true to the best of my knowledge and said without any intent to mislead you."

"Well." 

"Dare I ask if you'll share this marvelous innovation? Or how long it will take? Huntsmen and Huntresses have truly staggering death rates, to say nothing of the unawakened soldiers we employ." 

"Of course, it would be pretty awful of us to deny it to you. As for how long it'll take, we can distribute versions that can't be reverse engineered pretty freely It does need some infrastructure to do it on a wide scale though. If you want something you can understand. That will require a lot more infrastructure and a more trust on our part because you can use similar techniques to edit people and that's a scary thing to introduce to a society. It's one of the few non-weapon technologies we heavily regulate."

He didn't think his threat estimate for these people could get any higher. Shows what he knows.

Salem is looking smaller by the minute. 

"Backups...Okay. That infrastructure just moved to the top of our priority list." He blows out a breath. "What other...conventional technologies...do we alarmingly lack?" 

"Robyn says you don't have any Satellites... those make it a lot easier to have consistent communications. I expect we're better at producing food compactly which is probably useful if you're as besieged as you imply. Our full range of medical technologies mean that even without backups people live indefinitely unless an accident or act of violence destroys their body... though without implants memory gets tricky once you get past a century and a half or so. You're also clearly operating in circumstances where material resources are meaningfully scarce. With proper infrastructure that ceases to be a concern. Big projects like building a new habitat have to be planned around but habitats are generally at least ten times the size of your floating city here."

He frowns. "Those sound like good priorities. Satellites would be a tremendous gain if they work without Dust. Food production, and manufacturing in general, are good choices. Every so often, one of the nations of Remnant tries to expand into the wilds. It tends to not go well. The death rate for farmers is higher than for anyone else except soldiers. Worse, if you count the number of towns utterly destroyed by Grimm. 

"How long until an envoy arrives? I will likely want to speak to them when they arrive - at bare minimum, they should know the dangers of travel. And if you tell me what you need for that risk assessment, I can get the appropriate personnel on it." 

"None of our technology requires Dust. Satellites mostly work using batteries and solar panels. The most effective food production at scale is probably aquaponics, it's relatively low maintenance and produces fish and plants. It can also be setup to do wastewater processing but that can decrease the yield. Manufacturing tech varies widely it depends somewhat on what raw materials you have available. I can give you recommendations if you have that written somewhere. I can read faster than I expect you can talk. As for the Envoy... probably at least a few hours, I think my logs so far have been interesting enough that someone will come quickly. As for risk assessment, the most useful thing would be access to a library or digital equivalent. Otherwise it's going to relate to running scans on the Grimm, Dust, and people with activated and inactivated aura."

"I'll be very interested in what your scans turn up. In the meantime, it sounds like I have a great deal of arrangements to make. Speaking of, will you be needing a place to stay? We have guest rooms here at Atlas Academy that would be suitable. And I imagine you may be on a different sleep schedule than the rest of us." If she even sleeps. 

"Thank you, I probably won't sleep for a while but it's good for me to get a couple hours a night. Does that mean I have permission to start doing scans? Are there any restrictions you'd like me to abide by?"

Let the security nightmares begin. 

"I'm still less familiar with the technical aspects of your scans than I'm comfortable with. Perhaps we can kill two Nevermore with one cartridge. For now, please supply a list of what you're scanning and what your scan tells you. No scans on robots or weapons for now, please, and especially none of people or scrolls that I haven't explicitly authorized; we need to decide what the proper security protocols should be for this new - " gaping network vulnerability " - approach. Once you've gotten a way to interface with our technology, you should be able to duplicate the data from your scans to our devices, correct?" 

"Definitely, I do need permission from a person to share scans of their body without sufficient sample size for anonymity and aggregation."

Ah, the old "anonymous data" line. An old, familiar friend, of the sort you never want to let out of your sight. 

"I don't anticipate authorizing scans of human or Faunus for a while yet. If and when that happens, we'll start with people who consent to their scans being studied. I want to know exactly what information these scans are gathering before I accept their use on my citizens." He pauses, frowning. "Some rare Semblances could plausibly copy abilities like magecrafting. I have to consider the possibility for security's sake. Is there any way to detect scans, or other uses of your type of magic?" 

"Many bits of magic involve imparting forces to matter, those are detectable though any of the ways you could detect forces from other sources. Some other effects show up under exotic effects analysis scans, and some other realms we've visited have exotic effects with similar abilities. For passive scans the only way to know is from the Heart's archives. Those are accessible in person in the Heart's realm or via certain resonators or with very easy to make arrays. The archives record every piece of magic ever done with the Heart's system."

"Convenient, though hard to check on short notice." Also suspicious, in that Atlas will only ever have someone's word about the contents. He needs his own magecrafters. Salem getting access to this would be disastrous. "You mentioned punishments consisting of removing magic. Can you cut off magecrafters remotely?" 

"We can't, I think on rare occasions the Heart has revoked it's blessing but those were all when a Magecrafter was under the influence of mind editing or in the aftermath of major trauma. When we talk about removing magecrafting as a punishment we mean forcibly moving their mind to an incompatible body or using mind magic to make them incapable of using magic. Neither of those are easy to do at long range."

"The Heart is itself an intelligent actor?

"I will need to have a long talk with your envoy. Someone gaining access to your abilities could wreak untold havoc in Remnant if not caught and stopped quickly. I have reason to think that may be possible." If only that it hasn't been proven impossible yet. Not that it would be much reassurance if it were. Five minutes ago, magical mind backups were impossible. 

"We don't actually know if the Heart is a person, it's possible, but it's also possible that it's an autonomous system built by an unknown actor. You can't have conversations with it but the Heart's realm is somewhat responsive to requests and the way it determines who to give Magecrafting and who not to appears to be personality and intent based. We can't turn the Heart's magic on itself though. As for someone local copying Heart based magic, it's happened before though in our experiences thus far people have only been able to copy the effects of specific arrays or resonators not the overall ability to make new ones. There are no guarantees though."

"That is...moderately reassuring. 

"I think we've reached the end of productive deliberations for tonight. Robyn, congratulations, you are no longer assigned to Cable Post Six." 

"I hoped you'd say that." 

"I'm assigning you as escort, consultant, and guard for Riley while she's here. Team POGO is authorized to know her VIP status and that she has an analysis ability, for now; I'll be sending them to assist with the "guard" portion of that duty. For tonight, requisition Riley a blank civilian scroll on my authority. I'll make sure someone is available to help set it up and connect it to the grid. Riley, once you have scroll access you will probably want to start your reading with Athenaeum. It's a collection of articles written by amateur and professional authors on most topics of relevance to Remnant. Not wholly reliable, but a good primer." Also, completely unclassified and therefore will hopefully buy him time to draw up a semblance of security protocols. He's going to envy Riley those few hours of sleep, isn't he. 

"Will you be making specific Dust samples available or should I restrict myself to passive scans of the environment for now?"

"Robyn can get you Dust samples for study from the armory. I'll also send her the location of your guest room within the hour, and future such data can go to your personal scroll once it's set up." 

"Wonderful. Shall we then Robyn?" Her grip on her staff shifts slightly and she starts to scan the first thing she checks for is ambient magical effects.

There's one definite ambient effect, the one keeping the city aloft. 

"Dismissed." 

"Armory's this way!" Robyn announces, saluting Ironwood with a grin. "We'll get you that scroll while we're at it." She turns to depart. 

She follows. "Is there anything you can tell me about how the city flies?"

"Gravity Dust. I've never seen the technical specs and I probably wouldn't understand them if I did. Dustech can take years of study and that's supposed to be one of the most advanced applications." 

"Will there be gravity dust in the armory?"

"Enough for a sample, definitely. Anything else you'd like to examine, besides Dust?"

"I'd like to scan everything but Headmaster Ironwood told me not to scan any of your technology."

"Yeah, his job is loosely defined as professional paranoia. You'll get to it eventually, I bet, once he concludes that state secrets are a lost cause. He only explicitly ruled out scrolls, weapons, and robots, so you could probably scan, say, a Schnee DustHearth." 

"What's that?"

"It's just a furnace that uses fire Dust. Not especially complicated, but also not a weapon, scroll, or robot. No state secrets in a DustHearth, unless you count the Schnee patent on the thing. Don't build one and sell it, or we'll have the joy of experiencing the first interdimensional lawsuit in Remnant history." 

"I have no designs on becoming a tycoon. I'm glad I can start to get a handle on your technology."

"I'm looking forward to seeing more of yours. You have people backups. That is beyond huge. Do you know, until today I gave myself 50-50 odds of surviving to age thirty?" 

Three hallways and an elevator, and they arrive at a large metal door. "Here's the armory." 

"Is that... typical? I knew this world was dangerous but... that's such a small amount of time."

"Before I got stationed in Atlas my odds were even worse. Three out of four Academy graduates die in the field before turning thirty. Granted, that's because we run around outside the city fighting vicious monsters. Unawakened in Atlas and Mantle are much safer by comparison. Those outside the city...depending on location, their odds may not be quite as bad as mine were, but it's a near thing." 

She places a palm on a panel near the door; it glows faintly and emits a satisfied beep. The door opens, revealing a crisp, functional, rectangular room filled with racks of various weaponry, inactive humanoid robots and prosthetics, and colorful crystals and powders. 

"Hopefully we can change all of that."

Riley looks around the room. "What would you recommend I scan first?"

"We will." Robyn smiles fiercely. "We will." 

She points to the colored powders and crystals. "Powdered Dust, crystalline Dust. Colors correspond to elements, see if you can figure out which. Bonus points if you can tell which form is natural and which is processed. Kindly steer clear of this room's other contents. You already verified your intentions, but Ironwood-class security means I should still check from time to time. So expect the occasional Semblance-enforced pop quiz about your scanning habits. I want to watch for a bit, then I'll get you a spare scroll to play with.

"Out of curiosity, how old are you?" 

"A challenge then. I'm 41 and I'm still considered pretty young. Not a child but young." She starts a scan of all the dust at once. The first scan is to see whether Dust is made of ordinary matter with exotic effects added or if it is made of exotic matter.

The signature of Dust is closer to "exotic matter," although it has some traits in common with ordinary matter. 

Hmm, probably stable enough for standard diagnostics. Riley puts up containment fields around each sample regardless. Precautionary measures are not optional. The next scan tries to identify the exotic effects especially how they compare to each other.

The most obvious and prevalent exotic effect is the one that prevents the Dust from immediately exploding. It's "stable" in the sense that it would last a long time, possibly indefinitely, if not disturbed. That is the only sense in which it is stable. 

The samples are mostly similar. Same-colored ones are more similar to each other, in the sense that isotopes of the same element are - that is, the universe does not appear to distinguish one amount of blue Dust powder from another of equal volume. Powder and crystal differ only in structure; crystal seems the more stable of the two. 

So not an obvious way to see effects without setting some off. Before asking about doing that she'll do one last scan to see if dust is conceptual magic, which is to say whether the exotic effects resonate with particular concepts or if they work more mechanically like magecrafting does describing precisely what it will do.

Little of column A, little of column B. Dust appears to be more heavily weighted on the conceptual side, though. 

"Have you started yet?"

"I have, my magic doesn't do anything visual when doing scans by default." What concepts are the various colors associated with?

"Huh. Well, I'll grab you a scroll and start configuring it. Carry on." She departs down a nearby aisle, staying in view of Riley as her eyes flick across the shelves. 

Red is "fire", bright orange seems to be "heat", dark orange is "rock" or "earth", yellow is "electricity", dark green is (curiously) "plant", pale green is "wind" or "air", blue is "water", light blue is "ice." There are a couple rarer flavors on the shelves as well: purple is associated with "gravity" and white with "light" and "construct." 

"I think I can answer one of your questions." She passes on the associated concept for each color.

"White has two? 'Construct,' interesting," Robyn calls from the aisle. "That makes sense, I suppose. You can use white Dust to make hard light constructs, like glowy weapons and barriers. It's a key part of Atlas' defenses against Grimm." 

"At this point I think I need to get into destructive tests. To start with I'd like to try triggering a grain or two of each type of the powdered form."

Robyn traipses back, carrying a small handheld device. "Your scroll, O inquisitive one. I can get you some Dust to sample, sure." She hands over the device and waves her own scroll over a panel near the Dust powder, pressing her palm to it when prompted. As she collects small vials of each color, she continues, "I should warn you that powdered Dust is ridiculously volatile and explosive. One of my Academy buddies sneezed into a patch of rock Dust once and got pelted with gravel. Nearly lost an eye. Would have, too, if not for her Aura. This much shouldn't be too dangerous, but still. I recommend wearing goggles." 

"Thanks," she pockets the device for the moment. "I have a helmet in my bag. I assume we should be testing elsewhere?"

"Probably wise, yeah. There's an arena not far from here that we use for training, it can take a beating and has some safety zones." Robyn leads the way. 

Riley follows. Absently she runs a scan on the scroll in her pocket. Does it use electronic components she would recognize?

The circuitry is markedly similar in composition and function, with a small smattering of "exotic effects." The main difference seems to be in the power source - a small reservoir of crystalline Dust - and power distribution, which uses Dust as well, but to channel instead of generate power. 

She pulls it out and tries to find the 'on' button.

Yep, there it is. Biggest button, engraved with a stylized crystal. A small section of the cylindrical device extends outward from the side, trailing a cheery "welcome" screen.

She goes through the welcome flow running a continuous scan the whole time. Her focus is on recording how all the electronics work. She's not specialized in reverse engineering electronics but others are and she can send her data to them.

The user interface is intuitive enough that she can get through most of the "setup" before they arrive. This particular scroll is not connected to any grid, and it complains a bit about that but otherwise gives Riley no trouble. Robyn watches with idle amusement, offering an occasional suggestion to clarify the process. 

The arena is a large, recessed area, crisscrossed with slits that suggest a modular floorspace. Most of it is a plain, utilitarian white. Robyn leads the way to the center and fiddles with her scroll; blocky shapes rise from the floor, and form a small enclosure out of thin glowing walls. 

She puts the scroll back in her pocket and sends a message to a research team to look at her data. It's dust time. "How much dust do you need for a noticable effect? I was thinking of triggering a couple grains at a time to start with." She gets out a flattened helmet from her bag without looking back demonstrating very flexible joints in the process, then snaps it into shape and puts it on. There's a faint hissing sound.

"Oh, you'll notice. Even a grain of Dust powder can produce a sizable effect, relatively speaking. Candle flame, pebble, loud pop of air, static zap, ice cube..." Robyn nods approvingly at the helmet. "Huh, how'd you get so flexible? More otherworldly magic?" 

"My first specialty was in bioengineering. I've tweaked just about everything about my body until I liked it. No magic required though with the technology we have the lines can get blurred. Let's start with the fire dust then. Seems like that's probably the most straightforward."

"I know a few people with shapeshifting Semblances, but the degree of precision that involves, I don't even know if they could manage everything..." Robyn shakes her head. "It's probably low down on the priority list, but I want that too." She hands over the vial of red Dust. "Have fun." 

"Most people just use standard tweaks but increased flexibility is widely available." She taps a single grain of the red substance into the testing area then caps the vial and steps back. Then she starts a wide range of scans and triggers the dust.

And lo, there is fire. A brief puff of heat and flame, approximately candle-sized, engulfs and replaces the Dust grain. 

She looks over the data. Is there anything left over or was it fully consumed? How hot was the flame? How long did it last? On the magic side what was the magic like. Did the energy come from the grain or did it also come from elsewhere. Supposedly dust only works inside the atmosphere are there any hints as to why that is?

The Dust was fully consumed. The flame is hotter than its size suggests, perhaps 2500 K. It lasted a fraction of a second. The energy seemed to come exclusively from the grain. The grain itself vanished completely (not sublimated) but the amount of energy released was less than the apparent mass of the grain times the speed of light squared. 

Background scans of Remnant's atmosphere do detect several exotic effects of varying magnitude. One of them exerts a sort of pressure on the Dust, as a heavy weight compresses a spring. "Triggering" the Dust involves supplying enough activation energy to overcome this pressure. 

"I think I know why dust doesn't work in space. If I'm right. It probably won't work at all off of Remnant." She explains about the way the magic she's detected works.

Do any of the other effects interact with dust?

No, just the one. 

Riley taps her staff twice and it splits apart with a single blank disk flying out before it fuses back together. She holds the disk in her hand as she crafts a new array to tune the coiling field in a limited radius. It takes her a minute or two to get it to work correctly. Then she sets another grain of fire dust into the test area. What happens if she reduces the strength of the coiling magic by 10%?

The grain explodes, just like the last one. 

Robyn watches and listens with interest, withholding comment for now. 

That was not the expected result. "Would it cause problems for me to fly to space from here? I want to see how the field drop off at the boundary."

"Uhhhhhh problems for you, maybe. Unless you can breathe in space. Which...you...probably...can." Robyn takes a moment to process this insight.

"Also I should clear it with traffic control." She opens her scroll to prepare. 

"That's what the helmet is for."

Robyn spends the next few minutes negotiating with a curt-voiced official over the scroll. 

There's plenty of grains of dust so Riley does another test. She adapts her array to make a gradient and levitates a grain slowly into the field.

It's not very far into the gradient before it spontaneously combusts. 5% reduction, approximately. 

Maybe a different type. Riley tries with air dust.

Same thing, but with a pop (and a whoosh of air) instead of flame. 

"Did your satellites explode when you tried to send them into space?"

"Pretty much. We tried with smaller samples first, and our electronics just fry themselves and go inert." Robyn returns her attention to listing security clearances. 

"I'm pretty sure I understand what's happening then. Still worth visiting space to confirm but that seems like about what's happening in my tests." For her next test she just leaves a grain of dust in a 4% reduction field for a while and watches to see if anything changes.

No spontaneous combustion occurs. 

And Robyn gets her cleared for spacegoing. 

"This shouldn't take long. Can you show me to the outside?"

Robyn leads the way, inquiring about Riley's tests thus far. 

Riley summarizes everything she'd found. Explaining the 5% threshold and how it seems equivalent to setting dust off in other ways. And then once they're outside she says "See you soon." And turns on a self-telekinesis array and rockets upward at just under the speed of sound. As she goes she scans the coiling field to see how it changes with altitude.

That'll give traffic control a headache, alright. 

The field is mostly stable until about 30 miles up at the upper edge of the stratosphere, at which point it drops off sharply. 

She hang about for a few moments to take a panoramic picture from that altitude and then lets herself fall restraining her maximum speed to just under mach one until she arrives back at Robyn's side.

It's one heck of a picture.

"That was fast." Also, flying under one's own power = cool. Robyn is impressed. 

"Flying is fun. The evidence seems to line up with my hypothesis. At this point long term testing might be useful to see if dust can be uncoiled slowly rather than all at once. The uncoiling itself probably isn't useful but it might provide insights into how dust is formed. Or do your people already know that?"

"There are theories, but nothing conclusive. Once the scientists wake up and get the Paranoid Security Briefing from Ironwood, you can bug them for more." 

Atlas power plants and batteries frequently use controlled lightning Dust, but she's unsure whether that counts as uncoiling slowly or just using one grain at a time and flattening the surges with capacitors. "I bet Professor Polendina would know if anyone would." 

"I look forward to meeting them. Hmm, I think I still want to see what the other types of dust do and get this scroll connected to your networks. After that I think we can call it a night."

Good plan. 

Bright orange produces a flash of heat but no visible flame. Dark orange conjures a pebble. Yellow makes a static spark. Dark green causes a small weed shoot to grow into the floor, though its roots don't penetrate far. Pale green makes a pop noise (if studied closely, it's generating air). Blue makes a puddle and light blue a small shard of ice. Purple doesn't have a visible effect, but careful magical study reveals it's (somewhat randomly) affecting the gravity nearby its trigger point. White makes a bright flash of light. 

"Purple and white Dust can pull off some very fancy tricks, but they need a lot of technical fiddling to get there. Purple can make things heavier or pull them around, and white is the basis for our hardlight shields and training constructs." 

"I'll be very interested to see your technology when I'm allowed to."

Does the gravity dust effect resemble the one keeping the city up?

Is the process for connecting the scroll complicated? Does the scroll network work via radio?

Oddly, no. The gravity Dust is completely different from the effect holding the city up, which appears to be unique. 

It takes about ten minutes to set up the scroll - though Robyn warns it only has basic civilian access. It is indeed using radio. Robyn recommends checking out the Athenaeum site, first - "it's got a little bit of everything that isn't classified, though some of it can get pretty technical." 

"It seems like gravity dust does very different things inside your technology if whatever holding up this city is any indication. I wonder why that is..." Riley comments after the dust tests.

Riley looks for the root article on gravity dust if there is one.

There's a large article on Dust and a smaller one on each of the colors. The gravity article includes a lot of weapon examples used by Huntsmen and Huntresses; it sounds like whoever wrote it was really into weapons. The section on theory is comparatively small (though it does contain a crosslink to "Dust theory") but it does list among its examples that gravity Dust is responsible for levitating Atlas. 

Well that wasn't helpful. What does the article on Dust Theory say?

There's oodles of conflicting theories proposed by Atlas scientists about Dust in general and gravity Dust in particular, but there's not much discussion of the city-holding-up properties thereof. While gravity Dust could in theory levitate a city, it would take a lot of Dust to maintain the effect for long. The prevailing guess according to Athenaeum is that Atlas has developed a highly classified process for using gravity Dust for levitation at an extraordinary efficiency. There are more wild theories in the discussion section, ranging from "someone's ridiculously powerful Semblance" to "ancient magic ???" to "Boarbatusk Grimm in giant hamster balls." 

There's a great deal more on the hardlight construct applications of white Dust, but a significant chunk of it can be summarized as "this is classified by the Atlas military so we really don't know." Atlas does a lot of weapons research. 

Then it's a good thing she's in Atlas and not another part of the world. More in depth experiments are definitely required but in the meantime she asks Robyn to lead her to where she's supposed to stay.

This way! Here's a guest suite in the Academy residence floor. It's spacious and well-furnished, complete with a kitchen and pantry. (No Schnee DustHearth; it's centrally heated. There's a glowy thermostat, though.)

Also, obligatory security quiz on what Riley has scanned and learned therefrom, ongoing honesty of replies, lack of plans to commit atrocities in Atlas, etc. (Ironwood sent her a list. Eyeroll.) 

"I haven't scanned anything I didn't tell you about already and I haven't learned much yet. I am still a bit confused by what's keeping this city up but people on Atheneum seem confused too. I haven't lied to you as far as I know and I have no plans or cause to do anything I would consider an atrocity or anything on that list."

With this duly verified, Robyn departs with a cheery wave. 

(She's off to make her report to Ironwood and start her transition to the day shift). 

Riley activates her four dodecs and they hover gently a small distance off the floor in various places in the suite as determined by their sentry algorithms. She also sets down her backpack. Time to work a bit more at understanding this world. Boring stuff first. What other polities are there and were there any wars in recent history? Are there any major political controversies at the moment she should know about?

The Athenaeum is happy to oblige, though the account may be a bit...biased. 

In addition to Atlas, there is Vale to the south, Mistral to the southeast, and Vacuo to the southwest. (Everything is south of Atlas). Atlas is the most advanced by far. 

Besides the ongoing struggle against the Grimm, there are quite a few wars in Remnant history, though none within the last generation. The biggest such conflict began about eighty years ago. Mantle (present-day Atlas) experienced a disastrous encounter with the Grimm, and instituted a number of ordering polices designed to prevent outbreaks of mass panic. Art and literature were heavily regulated. Mistral, allied with Mantle, agreed to adopt these Grimm Decrees, but Vale did not. Vale's refusal (and their rejection of Mantle's cultural advances) heightened tensions in Remnant. A joint settlement by Mistral and Vale erupted in civil war, which touched off a full-scale war between the polities. The war drove advances in military and Dust technology, but caused the loss of many settlements to Grimm. The threat of the Grimm was so great that when Grimm showed up to a battle, both sides would cease fighting to repel the Grimm assault. 

Mantle and Mistral pressured Vacuo to support them, arguing that Vale needed to be stopped before the Grimm killed everyone involved. But Vacuo instead sided with Vale, dragging on the conflict further. After ten years of fighting, Mantle and Mistral launched a combined invasion of Vacuo in a desperate bid to end the fighting. But the combination of bad luck, interference by Vale, and Vacuo's perpetually nasty weather resulted in Mantle's defeat. 

In the subsequent Vytal Peace Accord, Mantle managed to avoid ceding its sovereignty to the Queen of Vale, whose role in the war gave her outsized influence. After the war, slavery was abolished, all four governments restructured, and Faunus granted increased rights and their own continent, Menagerie. (The Discussion section of the Athenaeum contains a great deal of angry shouting about the wisdom of this choice). Finally, the four Huntsmen Academies were founded, one in each capital. 

Things quieted down somewhat, with minimal conflict except for the Faunus Rights Revolution, triggered by Faunus dissatisfaction with their treatment and attempts to confine them to Menagerie. The Faunus officially won, but racial relations have been strained since and some parts of the world still consider Faunus to be second-class citizens. A group called the White Fang has been organizing protests, some of which have turned violent. 

Faunus rights is one major controversy, and though Atlas learned from Mantle's mistakes, there is always the age-old debate about how much thought control is justified by the threat of Grimm. 

The idea of thought control in general is unsettling it's also strange that this world ever had slavery if the Grimm are attracted to negative emotions. If there is a bias it's not immediately apparent to Riley. The presence of racism is entirely unsurprising, most worlds have some. The biology of the faunus is intriguing what does Athenaeum have to say about that.

Faunus biology is weird! Faunus all have excellent night vision and exactly one animal trait. They are often, but not always, mammal traits. Chameleon skin, fish tail, scales, tusks, cat ears, pig snouts, and just about any other combination seems to be possible. Faunus can breed with humans, and the union always produces more Faunus. Faunus of similar animal traits that breed will tend to produce Faunus of the same type - say, two wolves make a cub. One wolf Faunus and one human will have a cub as well. But two different types of Faunus produce seemingly random Faunus offspring, even those in a totally different animal kingdom. 

Atlas has a concept of heritability but has apparently not yet discovered DNA, which complicates the biology articles somewhat. 

That.... it's utterly absurd, she's eager to study that in more depth and with proper analytical tools.

Also she turns in response to a notification from her dodecs. "Hello, welcome to remnant."

"Hello Cleaksky. What are your thoughts?"

"I don't think these people have much to offer us but they need a lot of help. At this point my main concern is the Grimm. I expect our standard tuning will keep them away but it's possible the magic is intertwined with this civilization's innate magic and if it is we probably have to let it pass for even a partial evacuation. There's also some exotic biology I'd love to study."

"Reasonable, what about their politics?"

"We're being hosted by what appears to be the most militarized of the local powers, also the most technologically advanced, somehow they lost the last war despite that. Either their militarization is a response to that loss or this is a world where the balance favors a few exceptional individuals over large military forces. I can't tell which from what I've read. I can patch you into my connection to their data networks."

"Yes please. What do you think of the people you've met?"

"You've probably watched my conversations and gotten more than I did. Robyn is as best I can tell someone who would fit in well as an envoy. She seems to care about people. Ironwood is a professional paranoid right up there with long-term planning. I didn't really spend enough time with the guard detail to form an impression."

"Yeah, that's about what I got." She switches to an encrypted radio channel instead of saying the next sentence out loud. "It's possible Robyn would defect if we gave her a good enough reason but I don't see why we'd want to force that choice on her."

Siobhán looks up articles on the other kingdoms and on Menagerie. How do they differ how are they the same.

Riley on the other hand wants more information on the Grimm. Specifically theories on where they come from and how intelligent they are.

All four kingdoms are officially governed by an elected council, though the council's influence varies in different locations. 

Vacuo is the least organized, the chaos to Atlas' order. Its main source of governance is Shade Academy. The inhabitants live in a mostly desert part of the largest landmass, with a few scattered towns and small cities near water. Its folk are hardy and have the highest ratio of awakened-to-unawakened Auras, relying mostly on skilled warriors and powerful Semblances to defend against Grimm attacks. Its main natural resource is Dust mines, the strip-mining of which has further desertified some parts of the continent.

Mistral, the largest by landmass, is an eclectic mix of biomes and cultures. They rebounded after the Great War in the opposite direction from Atlas, becoming a center of arts and cultural mixing. Prejudice against the Faunus remains a major problem there, however. A Faunus group known as the White Fang, centered in Menagerie and led by Ghira Belladonna, has been peaceably lobbying Mistral for better treatment for years. 

Vale is the most politically influential of the kingdoms, and its Academy produces some of the most renowned Huntsmen and Huntresses. The Headmaster of Beacon Academy has a "first among equals" sort of authority with the other Academy leadership, whose influence in their respective nations is second only to that of their ruling councils. Vale has declined in population after some recent disastrous attempts at colonization (Grimm, again) but remains a formidable world power thanks to its well-organized force of Huntsmen and Huntresses. 

There are several legends describing the origin of the Grimm, but little in the way of concrete facts. Mistral legends favor ancient "demon magic" (read: Faunus) gone awry. Old Mantle legends speak of a punishment on humanity. Vacuo claims vengeful gods. Vale myths blame a progenitor Grimm, one of the legendary unique Grimm that can spawn all others. (Though they say nothing about where that came from). Grimm are difficult to study in the wild, being prone to attack anyone who tries to get near. They have never been witnessed breeding, nor has anyone ever reported seeing a baby Grimm, though a few of the largest Grimm have been reported to spawn lesser adult Grimm from their bodies. Larger and longer-lived Grimm seem to possess more cunning than their smaller cousins, increasing with age. While lesser Grimm like Nevermore and Boarbatusks will attack on sight, herds of Goliath have been known to frequent the edge of civilization, waiting for a mass panic before they strike. They display some coordination in combat, especially pack varieties like Beowulfs and Morrigans, but they don't appear to have any sort of language. Grimm will maul and eat their victims, but they don't seem to need sustenance in the usual sense (they don't eat animals or plants) and they leave behind nothing but soot and the occasional bone mask when they die. In the end, the only ironclad fact that has been established about Grimm is that there are always more of them. 

It sounds from various articles like the world is mostly at peace. Are there significant tensions between the nations? She'll go looking for any signs of that but it seems like the kind of thing that might be censored. After talking with Atlas's people she'll probably go to Menagerie next. If she's reading between the lines correctly they seem like the people most likely to need help urgently. It'll also send a political message.

Having self-preservation instincts isn't sufficient for Starlight to have problems killing animals if they're killing people. The Goliaths are suggestive of something though. What's this about legendary Grimm?

"At peace" is a bit much for a world where outlying settlements are routinely massacred by Grimm. But at least they mostly aren't fighting each other, yes.

Atlas thinks the other nations are backward and insufficiently prepared to protect their citizens from Grimm, though they seem to have a grudging respect for Vale. The other nations' perspectives may be harder to find on the Athenaeum. A bit of digging might find some folks in Atlas who think that Mistral thinks that Atlas is full of stuck-up regimented corporate asshats, that Vale thinks they're better than everyone else, that Vale thinks Atlas thinks they're better than everyone else, that the Schnee Dust Mines are a travesty, that Vacuo is full of hooligans and criminals, that Mistral security is a joke, that those jerks calling the Dust Mines a travesty are secretly Vale plants trying to stir up trouble who never saw the Faunus starving before they were offered work in the mines...there's some coherent stereotypes but not much coherent opinion. 

Ancient records suggest that some truly gigantic Grimm exist. This is confirmed by the occasional Hunt that penetrated deep into the wilderness (and even more rarely, returned) though little else is known about them. There are tales of sea monsters larger than the largest ships, which scholars hypothesize as explaining the lack of communication among the nations before modern Dust-powered flight was invented. Jormungandr, Leviathan, and even the island whale Fastitocalon. A couple of sketchy old sources reference a massive flying Wyvern near Vale. Other sources mention monsters sighted on land: a many-headed Ananta, snakelike Meretseger, horse-bodied Nuckelavee, or the earth-shaking Gamera. Still others have no names at all. Not all these sources are credible, but since no one has observed a hard limit on how big Grimm can get or how powerful they can grow, most reports are taken seriously. 

Well that's about to be expected. Everyone stereotypes everyone else. That thing about the dust mines bears looking into. It seems that even without their intervention this world isn't about to collapse which is good. Hopefully their presence won't make things worse in the short term, or the long term but that seems less likely. Siobhán spends the rest of the night paging through various articles to get more specifics but doesn't start any new major topic of research.

Massive Grimm are certainly a threat they'll want to watch out for. It's possible they're more intelligent but it's similarly less likely that they could manage to convince one to talk.

Riley decides to sleep for at least a few hours now that her immediate curiosity is sated.

And morning followed; the second day.

(Or, well, more of the first anyway).

Ironwood, it appears, has been busy. Riley's scroll now includes a tentative agenda for the day (visiting the engineers and scientists, mostly) and a way to contact Riley's escorts when they are ready. 

"Do you think Ironwood knows you're here? Also should I signal for the escorts?"

"They're at least pretending that the room isn't bugged. That's polite of them. And yes let's get this day started."

Riley laughs and sends the message.

Shortly thereafter, Po and Gerain of team POGO arrive, resplendent in their gleaming armor. Po is carrying a breakfast tray. "I say, good morning! I hope you enjoyed your stay. May I offer you some tea? I have a selection of the finest brews imported from Mistral." He peers through his eyepiece at Siobhan. "And who might this be?" 

"I'm envoy Siobhán Ionbhá also of Starlight. General Ironwood requested my presence."

"Sure, thanks for the tea and for breakfast." She takes the tray.

"Delighted to make your acquaintance, Siobhán Ionbhá of Starlight." Po tips his stovepipe helmet politely, his armor emitting a puff of steam. 

Gerain wears a nervous smile, tapping absently at a device on his hip. "We, uh, weren't expecting to guard two people..."

"Oh pish tosh, Gerain, we can adjust our arrangements easily," admonishes Po. "I'll just get in touch with Dr. O and we'll have this sorted in a jiffy. Madame Ionbhá, would you prefer to join Madame Clearsky?" 

"It's nice to meet you as well. From what Riley said, you're Po and Gerain? It's nice to meet you too. As for accompanying Clearsky, I wouldn't mind, her research is important, though it's not what I'm centrally here for."

"We can accommodate your more central interests if you wish," assures Po. "Given your diplomatic status, I imagine the Headmaster can arrange a meeting with the ruling council at the drop of a hat." 

"But we won't need to drop any!" Gerain comments hastily. "Hats, that is." He pauses, as if nonplussed by his own words. 

"As for breakfast, if I may suggest - there is a lovely picnic area atop the Academy, convenient to the transport hub. It has quite the view. Though the view from your own rooms should be quite spectacular as well, should you wish a bit more privacy." 

"I'd love to see more of your Academy. And if you could let Ironwood know I'm here I'd appreciate it but I'm not in a rush."

"I'm fine going wherever. Eating food other than rations on a field assignment is a nice treat."

Po graciously continues to pretend that Ironwood has not bugged their room. "Of course!"

He and Gerain lead the way through the Academy's vaulted corridors to an elevator, which takes them to more corridors and eventually a balcony overlooking the flying city, shining brilliantly in the morning sun. The view is, indeed, spectacular. 

"You have a nice city here." And it is a nice city, she hopes they'll find a solution to the Grimm that isn't evacuation.

Riley has seen it all before but she looks around politely before starting to eat.

Po makes pleasant small talk until breakfast is finished, though his head swivels constantly, alert for threats. Then - 

"To the scientists, then?"

They might notice that while Siobhán sips at some water or tea if it's available she doesn't eat anything.

"Certainly. Please lead the way."

If they notice, they don't say anything. 

Po and Gerain escort their charges to another landing pad and Bullhead, which in turn carries them (in a fairly short journey) to another landing near tall structure of glass and white metal. The exterior is brightly windowed, but fences of hardlight Dust guard it on all sides. From the landing pad, twin doors hiss smoothly open. The group passes through a spacious but utilitarian hallway lit with the same steady white-blue glow as the rest of the Academy, then arrives at an office door. The nameplate reads Prof. Pietro Polendina. 

Po knocks.

"Come in!" says a cheery voice. 

A stocky, bearded man sits in a chair on the other side. He wears a rumpled but high-quality lab coat and a beaming smile. "Welcome, welcome! I cannot wait to hear your story, the General has been so tight-lipped about you. Pietro Polendina, at your service." 

Siobhan and Riley may recognize the name as a prominent Atlas bio-roboticist. 

It came up in their research. "Hello, I'm Siobhán Ionbhá, an envoy for Starlight. I also wear a robotic body."

"And I'm Riley Clearsky. I'm an explorer and researcher. I'm largely biological but I have a number of implants."

"A robotic body, you say? How absolutely fascinating. That wasn't in the briefing. But then again, the briefing consisted of about three paragraphs -" 

Po coughs, his helmet making it echo slightly. 

"- whose lack of any useful information whatsoever apparently constitutes a state secret. Bah.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Siobhán and Riley. I expect we'll have a lot to talk about. My own research is in prosthetics, mostly, although a fully functional robotic human has been something of a long-term dream. Please, have a seat." He gestures to a pair of elegantly functional office chairs in front of his desk. 

"It's nice to meet you too."

"What are we going to be working on today?"

"I would personally be delighted to hear all about the technology that enables a fully functioning robotic body, but I suspect that is not the highest priority. I am told, however, that you have a way of preserving the lives of individuals after their bodies are destroyed? Perhaps this is related to the robotic technology after all?" 

"That's not exactly what we have. We have a way of taking snapshots of people and rebuilding them from those snapshots. If someone loses their body any memories they formed between their last snapshot and that loss can't be recovered. People in certain critical roles take snapshots constantly but most people do it less frequently."

"What happens to the Aura of someone who is killed and revived in this manner?" 

The word he's using, "Aura", continues to parse as "soul" in this language. 

"That is a good question, our people don't have Auras that can be awakened, so it's untested. We have something like Auras but we have no idea how similar they are. Our interfaces, which is the technical term we use, will reattach themselves to someone's new body as long as they're sufficiently similar. Which they almost always are. The exceptions tend to be when someone has undergone major personality shifts or there are a lot more memories than the last time they had an interface-compatible body."

"I have made something of a study of how Auras interact with technology. As a general rule, they don't; or rather, it takes conscious effort and no small amount of practice to extend one's Aura to cover non-biological prosthetics, except where Semblances are concerned. Yet it may be possible to test whether Auras and interfaces are, in fact, the same thing. Have you a way of detecting and studying interfaces?" Pietro's tone is businesslike, but his eyes are alight with excitement. 

Gawain is gawking, eyes wide. 

"Of course, there wouldn't be a technical term or experimental results if we didn't. Ironwood asked me not to run scans on anyone without permission though. I'm not sure if you're allowed to give me that permission."

Pietro rolls his eyes. "If the good General wants experimental verification, he'd best be approving of experiments, no?" He gives a pointed look at Po, who, after a brief hesitation, nods. "Besides, the briefing didn't bother saying anything against it. So I officially volunteer to be...erm...scanned." 

"Great." Riley fiddles with her staff and initiates a scan of Pietro. Pietro's interface is a tight and seemingly solid thing a bit outside his skin it seems to fluctuate a little but it's mostly static. Riley activates another array to project the scan in real time as an image in midair and adds a scan of herself for comparison. Her interface is a cloud and definitely not solid or opaque, it's more concentrated around her head but it's present around her whole body. From her center of mass there's an apparently liquid braid of something that stretches beyond the scope of the scan. Both scans include a translucent rendering of their bodies without much detail for reference.

"Your interface is very different from mine."

Pietro watches this display with absolute fascination. "Remarkable. Taking this on face value, it would appear that Auras and interfaces are the same substance, but perhaps in different form?" He begins asking all sorts of questions about the technology, if Riley chooses to answer. What is the braid of Aura, is that her Semblance? Has she gotten permission to scan an unawakened Remnant native for comparison? Would Riley mind if he (nondestructively) examined her staff with his Semblance? 

"Yeah, it does seem like they're the same thing. It's always nice when new discoveries fit into existing frameworks. I wonder whether an awakened Aura can have information embedded like an ordinary one. We use that for a few purposes though I don't have anything embedded at the moment.

Riley is happy to answer. The braid is a connection to the Heart which is the source of her magical abilities. From what's she's researched semblances are unique things only people with awakened auras have. She hasn't done any scans of the inhabitants of Remnant before just now.

She separates a bit of the end of her staff for him to look at, though she explains that the staff itself is just a series of magnetic discs they're a focus for her magic rather than devices with independent functions.

"You have the gist of Semblances, yes. Mine is ensoulment; I can place my Aura in objects, and make small changes and recover information thereby." Pietro takes the disc and turns it over, peering closely at it. His hand glows a dappled green, and for a moment, so does the disc. Then the glow...retracts? into Pietro's hand, and he returns the disc to its rightful owner. "So simple," he murmurs. "But the staff is merely a focus, you say...then the magic is bound to you, but not to your Aur - your interface, hmm?" 

"I'm not sure what you mean? My magic connects with me through my interface. That's why we call it an interface it's what connects a person to the magic they use. That's true of most magic systems we've encountered."

"You commented that you didn't have any information bound in your interface at the moment. That implied, to me, that your interface was not otherwise changed by your magic system, but it seems I was wrong in thus assuming?" 

"The Heart link isn't something we're able to change. Bound information is something we can. It looks like this." She does something and a small cube appears floating in her cloud. "That's storing a record of this conversation so far. Interfaces can store a pretty large amount of information in them without issues."

"Ah, that is a more...literal interpretation of data storage than I had in mind. We have not previously observed Auras to have this effect without Semblances involved - incidentally, nearly everything I say has that caveat, Semblances can do a lot of things - but it is always possible. Could you try storing information in my Aura, or would I have to be connected to this Heart first?"

"You don't need a heart link. Would you like me to try? I don't know if it'll work given how different your interface is."

"If you have no specific reasons to believe it unsafe. I doubt it could cause harm; the worst that seems likely is that my Aura would reject the outside influence, but I may be able to prevent even that if I focus on it. Auras respond to intent rather strongly, though not always conscious intent. And it would be further evidence whether Auras and interfaces are qualitatively the same." 

"Alright, I'll give it a try." She looks expectantly at the image of his interface for a moment and then frowns when nothing happens. "Hmm, it's like you have anti-modification magic setup, I wondered if it would be like that."

He glances between her and a small screen on his wrist. "This device measures my Aura strength, to a high degree of precision. It took a slight dip just now. My Aura appears to have rejected your attempt; opposing outside forces drains Aura to one degree or another. Let me see if I can adjust." 

And lo, the focused staring into space. 

"Alright, I'll give it another try." She does something and this time a square badge manifests on the chest area of his Aura in the image. "It seems to have worked that time."

A corresponding small green patch likewise glows, briefly, on his chest. Pietro positively beams at it. "A delightfully successful experiment. Your magic is at least somewhat compatible with Auras - and we may even be able to awaken your own Auras, in time. I recommend it; they are quite convenient." 

(As he stops concentrating, the data start to corrupt and disappear.)

"I'll think about it, I expect it's not reversible so it's not a step I want to take lightly. It also seems that it makes storing data unreliable."

"Possibly it could improve with practice and familiarity as Huntsmen and Huntress weapons do, but yes, it could be a problem at first. Well, at least we have established possible cross-compatibility. What do we need to test the first applications of your - interface snapshot - technology?" 

"Siobhán?"

Siobhán takes out a small off-white crystalline device shaped like a sphere with a flattened bit from a pouch at her waist and sets it on the table.

"This is a basic snapshot system, this version stores the encrypted snapshot in our central repository and produces tokens that can be used to retrieve and decrypt that data. I expect it should work for people with activated auras but it's something that needs testing, the magic works by using someone's interface to access their mind. We can make versions that bypass the interface but those can also be disrupted by anti-magic defenses and I'm not sure if an activated aura functions that way for magic that doesn't explicitly target it."

"Auras are, generally, protective of their owners' bodies, and resist physical harm. Evidently this also includes etching things on our souls, but if this works more on the mind than the body, it might suffice. We do not have much in the way of anti-magic, as you call it, but there are documented cases of Semblances that partially negate or counter others or render Dust inert. Do I need to touch the device...?"

"Yep, that's how it's setup to work. It'll also ask for your permission."

He looks at the crystal almost-sphere. "How...? Well, let's find out." He places a hand firmly over the top. 

In his mind there's a voice This is a standard snapshot system, it stores an encrypted backup to the Heart's archive and produces local tokens which can be used to retrieve and decrypt that backup the tokens can be copied as many times as desired. Do you consent to being snapshotted?

"I do," he says aloud in case it matters, and, also just in case, he concentrates on convincing his Aura to treat the device as an extension of himself. 

If he's paying careful attention to his aura he'll feel something gently reaching through his aura and then something flowing back. And then it stops and the voice speaks again. Snapshot complete, integrity checks complete. Please supply a medium to store the authentication token.

"Ah? Oh, I see." A bit taken aback, Pietro fumbles in his pockets for a moment. Then, struck by a thought, he opens a drawer in his desk and produces - of all things - a worn brass key. 

"That should work, storing tokens in objects like that makes them harder to copy though for better or for worse."

"What does the token do, exactly? Allow someone to create a new body if I die?"

"Yep, it lets someone create a new body given the correct equipment, with the memories you had just before touching the snapshot device"

"What else would one store them in?" 

"At this point a research team back where we come from has analyzed a scroll enough that we could store it as a file on that."

"I am humbled by your scientific efficiency," he says wryly. "I think, for this first test, I shall stick with my first idea. It has certain...sentimental appeal." Gingerly, he taps the key against the crystal. 

For about fifteen seconds the key glows with blue light. Once the light fade the key appears unchanged.

"Immortality is certainly unassuming." Pietro turns the key over in his hands thoughtfully. 

"Are you offering this particular snapshot device?" asks Po. "A Hunt group is slated for patrol this afternoon. If this truly works as you say, we should get them snapshotted immediately." 

"And the rest of Atlas and Mantle," interjects Gerain. 

"In time," agrees Po. 

"Sure, if you don't want to do more testing first then feel free."

"It will be something of a field test, I expect," replies Po grimly. "Deaths are hard to avoid." And if there weren't any losses among the handpicked group sent to scout Grimm-infested territory, then Ironwood would need to find a volunteer for the most dangerous experiment in the history of ever. Po himself would volunteer, of course, if Ironwood chose to risk his loss. 

Po and Gerain each take a turn at the snapshot as well. Po stores the activation on a mini-scroll embedded in his gauntlets, and as for Gerain...a small object about the size and shape of a bee emerges from his metal backpack and buzzes to the table to receive the blue glow. 

Afterwards, Po turns to Gerain. "Take this to team GMBL at the staging area. They'll be briefed before you arrive." Gerain nods grimly and departs. 

"I hope it doesn't prove necessary. The first time is always the hardest to deal with."

"If you are taking this risk it would probably be better for the team not to carry their tokens with them."

"Oh, but of course," agrees Po. "Scrolls can send and receive files. Mine is already on my commander's terminal, and on a deadman's switch with staggered time-delay release to be sent to several loved ones with instructions should I perish. Gerain likely made similar arrangements - his token is a recon mite, designed for scouting and communications, and it can send files too. And for physical security they can be programmed to return to a particular person or object - such as, say, a snapshot crystal. Atlas has grown highly competent at strategic redundancy, if I do say so myself." 

"I'm glad you've thought this through. Snapshot crystals can't make new bodies though. The equipment for making new bodies is rather more elaborate, and the process takes longer too."

"Can you tell us more about how that works? What do we need to build a facility here in Atlas?" 

"You need material and energy. For materials food and water work well enough, the closer it is to matching the matter that will make up the body the faster the process works. You'll also need a decent amount of power about 4000 watts for optimal function. The crystal needs power too in the long term, I have a linked generator with me for testing purposes so it'll work anywhere within a few kilometers of me but outside that radius it'll need about 200 watts to work."

"Is there another crystal that does the, er, re-embodiment?"

"Yep, a lot of our technology works that way, the stuff that's easy to distribute and compact anyway." She pulls out another device this one has a crystal in the center but it also has a number of posable appendages of some kind attached including two very obvious bare metal protrusions like battery terminals. "This is the core of a re-embodiment setup."

"May I examine this one? What else is needed to complete the setup?"

"Sure, feel free, we're planning to give you a bunch of these so it's not like we could realistically stop you from examining them however you wanted to. To get it working you need some sort of container with the raw materials in it that has enough space to hold the body of the person you want to re-embody. You'll also need enough water to fully immerse the person. The non-water materials can be kept separate to prevent spoilage or you can keep the whole assemblage in a refrigerated area and the crystal will process the raw materials in advance. Either way you need to connect a power feed to these two terminals and attach the assembly to the container using these grippers. After that you just need to tap a token to the crystal and it'll read the token and start the process if everything's setup correctly. There's also a troubleshooting mode that can either work via mental interface or by giving auditory or visual feedback."

"I apologize, I'm just eager to get started." He repeats his Aura-examination trick, this time focusing for several minutes, frowning intently while his hands and the crystal glow a dappled green.

Eventually, the glow on the crystal starts to brighten, and small patches on Pietro's hands glow less. 

"Pietro." 

"Hmmmm...? Oh!" Po's slightly sharp tone brings Pietro from his reverie, and the green recedes from the crystal into his hands. "I'm sorry. I've never seen anything like this, it is a marvel of engineering. It could take me weeks to fully understand it." Pietro is blinking rapidly, eyes somewhat moist. 

"With a spotter, one assumes." 

"That might be wise," murmurs Pietro, still looking poleaxed. 

"I'm impressed you can even understand it at all, most analyses can't get a lot from resonator crystals. You're right about it being complicated though, I'd be happy to explain in more detail at some point but there's a lot of functionality we had to encode into it even with setting it up to use external libraries."

"So that's the gap I was detecting. I did wonder, it seemed incomplete even accounting for the other equipment you described." 

Pietro asks more questions about setting up the reembodiment and snapshot devices, and he proposes some designs, including one for a robot that carries devices around to collect snapshots. 

Riley is happy to answer all his questions. As for the robot, "That's definitely something you can do if you want you'd need a good power source but you need that for any sort of robot. We can also change the configuration, they aren't technically limited to touch range we just set it up that way to make them easier to use."

"Power is rarely a limiting factor where Dust is concerned. And robots also have security benefits. Even if you distribute these freely, many might be tempted to steal and hoard them. What do you have in the way of security features?" 

"You mean anti-theft features? We mostly don't have those. We can track them of course, I'm not aware of any other measures though."

"Our preferred solution to such things is just to distribute enough that people don't feel the need to hoard them. If that doesn't work we'd use the tracking ability Riley mentioned either in concert with local groups or directly using operatives."

"That may suffice." 

"Now here's an ugly thought," interjects Po. "Can Grimm use them?"

Pietro shudders. 

"The snapshot devices only work on those magic considers to be people which is to say people with an interface and Grimm don't have auras according to your records. Even if they did the re-embodiment devices only work for species they're programmed for. We expect that Faunus as they exist in your world are close enough to human to count but we'll definitely want to do some scans to confirm. Based on what I've read the Grimm don't even seem to be made of normal matter."

"Correct on all points. That is reassuring indeed." 

Cue more discussion of technical details. Distribution is not Pietro's department, but he will gladly note any recommendations there as well. 

"We can easily give you as many snapshot devices as you want, we have a couple billion stockpiled at the moment. Re-embodiment devices are a bit more complicated to distribute because they're a pretty useful military asset, especially if the other communities on your world don't have them."

"Geopolitics is very not my department, but I expect a reasonable compromise can be reached with stakes this high." 

Po takes notes. 

(He's actually recording everything, but they don't need to know that.) 

"I have every expectation that's true it just means other envoys and I need to talk with a bunch of people before large-scale distribution begins."

"If there is anything at all I can do to expedite this," Pietro adds solemnly, "You have my support. Every death before this distribution is an irreversible tragedy. On that note, am I delaying you from such discussions?"

"We've been making arrangements for a conversation with the Council," supplies Po, "so the limit at present is more on our end. But we can tell you how to reach the other nations." To Riley, he remarks, "Robyn reports you can travel exceptionally quickly, which may void most concerns about Grimm attacks en route?" 

"I can be on the other side of the world in a few seconds if I know where I'm going precisely enough."

"I was keeping below the speed of sound. Dedicated craft can go a lot faster and transposers which are what Siobhán is referring to are designed to support interplanetary travel."

"I want one," say Pietro and Po in near-unison. Then they burst into laughter. 

"In earnest," Pietro continues after regaining his voice, "movement such as that would do more than just facilitate travel. It could also save whole communities from Grimm attacks." 

"I know of no Grimm that can travel faster than sound," Po confirms. "Much less teleport. If any can, they are exceedingly rare." 

"Rapid evacuation is certainly a service we'd be willing to provide. It's relatively easy to locate people within an area and get them out, it's a bit harder to take possessions with them, but people typically prefer escaping alive even if it means losing their possessions."

"Can you distribute this ability so people can evacuate at need? At present, we often do not learn of Grimm attacks until they have already happened. That's too late to save the victims, unless you also have early warning systems available. Once the people are gone, the Grimm will largely ignore possessions, though they will attack anything that looks sufficiently alive." 

"That's a capability well within our current plans. Riley already mentioned the lack of satellite technology. We're planning to place a constellation of low orbit satellites for communications which should allow rural communities to contact us regardless of where they're located and we can add cameras to those satellites to track large scale movements of Grimm at least in clear weather. I don't think we know enough about Grimm to promise anything more than visual tracking at this time." Siobhán carefully doesn't mention that part of her job is to see if the Grimm are intelligent and if so try to negotiate with them.

"It is a start." Pietro outlines a broad plan for the rest of the day - further discussions on technical details of immortality, then a meeting with other Atlas scientists to talk medicine, satellites, manufacturing, agriculture, and other technologies. 

Siobhán can listen in, or meet with Ironwood for a short briefing on world leaders. (Pietro endorses the latter, on account of immortality for everyone as fast as possible please). 

"I'm happy to talk with Ironwood. I can always review Riley's recordings later if I need to."

Ah yes, because of course we are all recording each other. Po is glad to be wearing a helmet; he hasn't blushed this hard in years. 

"I would escort you to Ironwood," he tells Siobhán, a tad dryly, "but you could just as easily teleport to his office. He's free at the moment; tell him I said 'get on with it, laddie.'" 

"Hmm, that's not the worse idea, I'm definitely blaming you if it goes badly." She pauses for a moment and then vanishes. She reappears outside the door to Ironwood's office and knocks. She isn't quite willing to surprise a military officer that badly.

There is a pause, then

"Enter."

She opens the door and walks in. "Hello there, Po said you'd like to speak with me and that now was a good time. I'm Siobhán Ionbhá. He also said I should tell you  'get on with it, laddie.'"

"He said - of course he did." Ironwood blows out a breath. It takes him a moment to recover his composure.

"Welcome to Remnant, Siobhán. I understand you are authorized to act as envoy on behalf of Starlight; how thorough is your representation thereof? What sorts of things can you do on your own initiative, and what requires authorization?" 

"I'm empowered to commit a fairly large amount of resources and personnel. I can also make some types of agreements that bind our actions going forward with respect to your world. I'm not empowered to make any decisions outside of that scope. To give a good sense of the upper bound I'm authorized to commit to placing a space station large enough to comfortably house and support a population of a million people and the personnel to run that indefinitely."

A million people. In space. Indefinitely. He's not even surprised anymore. 

He's weighed the risks, this past night. They are not substantially changed by the introduction of teleportation throwing off his multi-week plans. The decision is the same; it is time to enact it. Thank you for the nudge, Po. 

"The Headmaster of Beacon Academy in Vale is named Ozpin. He occupies a position similar to my own, and I respect his strategic and logistical expertise in the utmost. I've appraised him of the very basics of the situation, but there is only so much I can say over CCTS, no matter how secure the channel. I recommend you speak to him in person. He would be an essential player in a smooth rollout in Vale. His peers in Mistral and Vacuo are similarly positioned to help, but Ozpin is the most level-headed of all of us. 

"I cannot prepare you for every possible contingency, but know this: even in a perfectly functional city, there are those who would seek to capture your technology and use it to cause irrevocable harm. Some will be insane, others brilliant and calculating. Some will have access to the highest levels of government. Yes, that potentially includes me, and no, you should not take my word for these things, though for what it's worth I will confirm them with Robyn if you wish. 

"Negative emotions, especially panic, draw Grimm, and Grimm can massacre a city in hours. This is a fact taken as obvious to us who live in Remnant. It shapes everything we do - government, city planning, military doctrine, secrecy protocols, everything. Please bear this fact in mind when you encounter seemingly irrational behavior. And please don't do anything that could make people afraid, not without consulting locals first. That includes too much change too quickly or openly. 

"Know that Semblances, while highly limited, can be an powerful wildcard in their own right. And they are not the only magics in this world. Some could overwhelm or bypass your own defenses, and any awakened has enhanced speed and reaction time, more dangerous than raw strength. There are documented cases of bodysnatchers, illusions, mind control, invulnerability, hyper speed, flight, telekinesis, precognition, impossibly precise attacks, city-leveling explosions, and dozens of other threats. There are Grimm that manipulate negative emotions as well as seeking them. No matter how much proof you are against various forms of attack, there is always one more thing. In Remnant, you are never truly safe.

"With those warnings in mind, if you want to travel, I can specify relatively safe landing sites for a teleport, and inform relevant people of your arrival in advance. The sooner you have a chance to clear Remnant for a rollout, the better. I was thinking of assigning Robyn as a local escort, as her Semblance is uniquely suited to overcoming barriers of skepticism and mistrust.

"Thoughts?" 

"I'm happy to meet with those you recommend. They're not likely to be the only people I meet with but it's a reasonable starting place. This is our rough map of your world. It's based on the maps on your Atheneum, we haven't had time to do a full geosurvey yet." A sphere fades into view, "And this is an overlay of world population." Several million pinpoints appear. In cities they pile on top of each other. Forming mountains of a sort. "I'd estimate that the four cities you names contain about 60% of the world population but I'm not sure how much the city leadership really represents outlying settlements."

He reflexively checks the Land of Darkness to the west of Atlas, populated entirely by Grimm.