#i hate having to have the worker CONFIRM every single removed item.

[swagging-back-to]

my unpopular opinion is that i actually really like self checkout in stores and I'm glad it's been implemented at basically every big retailer.

[fgodestinyawakenings]

EOR SE.RA.PH Singularity: Final Act~END

At last the final part of this whole Singularity Chapter 1.5! It’s considered canon in ways but..... Why can’t DW just turn this to an actual main story chapter instead of that coming hell Singularity.... Sure it has about the same reason, but... Nevermind, time to finish this CCC collab

Final Act (1/5)

Inside BB’s studio at last, the final boss of this entire Singularity, or is it? With Tristan’s push, Gudas began their interrogation at BB for answer we’ve been waiting for. Suzuka totally not sorry while she apologize for siding with Gudas after betraying her. Tama Cat began going around on her own to inspect the whole area... Along with Lip, deciding to tell off her stupid mother once and for all

Don’t even fake your surprise when you knew Lip will betray you eventually. Aside from her R18 mouth, we’re starting our fight with her! Obviously we’re fighting until our death since our way in is our way out. And you probably locked it to ensure we get torture to death... So bring it on, AI!

<<NOT SCREENSHOT>>

One beating from Saint Martha later.... Someone looks damn cheerful for getting defeated as a villain. Yeah... And a blackout?! What the? Suzuka, everyone!!

After blocking an ambush... We’re in a place... With all those children inside the casket?! What the hell is going on here?!?!?!?!! This is similar to Chaldea with the coffin but.... So many....

Suzuka instantly realized the children’s magical circuits are what powering SE.RA.PH this whole time. All 128 children used as decoy Masters to summon the Servants. Emiya Alter then shows up.... So it’s finally here we know what Seraphix really is

Final Act (2/5)

The Celestial Body Simulator, System Animusphere aka the Heart of Seraphix..... Young children taken and immediately used by Seraphix and later Zepar to summon all 128 Servants. Children that’s already gone has their body used to power up Seraphix.

Must admit, I’m thankful to Emiya Alter for at least giving these children’s soul to rest in peace after a long suffering. And now that we know.... Emiya Alter corroded by some darkness is coming after the Gudas’s life as they are no longer needed.

While declaring his motive, another voice summarized his motive for us... But.... Robin! You’re alright?! Don’t ask us what the hell happened to Emiya Alter, help us now!! Save your reminsince banter with Lip for later!

After... After beatng Emiya Alter.... He...... He’s still trying to do what’s right........ What the fuck, Mable?! What the fuck are you doing here?!!! Where the hell were you and Arnold!!

What do you mean by that? We don’t even want to fight him in the first place! And Tama Cat? As she realized what’s beneath under Mable’s persona... A member of Tachikawa School of Buddishm? Her? Who is she?! What’s going on, Cat?!

Complying easily to remove her mask... “Mable” then undisguised her to reveal... A Buddhist nun? Wait, you’re the therapist for the church here?!! Kiara then reveals she’s the one who worked with Zepar. But she’s not a Demon God or anything... A human? No... So you say.... You worked together with Zepar.... But You’re..... BEAST III, one of the Seven Evils of Humanity: The Beast of Pleasure!!!!

Final Act (3/5)

Beast.... III.... A Beast..... The third Evil of Humanity....?! Kiara then reveals how she became one in a way... Where our Kiara was another victim of Zepar to be killed instead of CCC Kiara’s history.

So she’s the one Zepar made in contact with but... Because of that, that’s why the whole of Seraphix become a human body. Despite lamenting her pain, someone had one hell of lustful face. Robin managed to snap Guda out from Kiara and questioned if she was the one who summoned BB

Kiara confirmed it with Zepar teaching her of parallel world, eventually knowing CCC’s Kiara herself and the history. Because of what she achieved, the Kiara we know is merged with CCC’s Kiara. So from Lip’s summary, instead of digitizing Seraphix... He used Kiara to give SE.RA.PH a form

While Kiara tried to stop him, she no doubt failed since it was human against a demon god pillar. CCC’s version of Kiara swallowed all of the Sakuraface from Lip’s memory, hence they became sentinel from there. Although Zepar managed to convert Seraphix, Kiara then made use of BB and Gudas to run it.

....... Even saying she’s grateful and giving her gratitude for tryng to save Seraphix, that fake applause isn’t buying anyone here. Suzuka then stepped forward, knowing everything she said so far are lies or half-truth instead.

Demanding she confess, Suzuka asked where’s Zepar current location, how many Servants she swallowed as her body and Seraphix are one. Or... She’s the one who tricked every Master to come here in hopes getting their wishes come true!!

Not even guilty that she killed all the Servants.... Kiara even admits in pleasure of the killings she did on the Masters too. Robin was even surprised that BB never said, while both Suzuka and Gudas shows disgust at what she done. Good saying there, Robin! That’s something we agree no doubt, we definitely cannot let Kiara live this point onward!!

There’s a difference between patient and a sense morality, Gudas may have same or not amount of patience as you... But their sense of morality is completely way different than yours!! Suzuka immediately unleashed her Noble Phantasm at her, along with Tama Cat.

But... What the hell?! As Kiara disappeared, Seraphix hit the seabed... No we’re going all the way to the Earth’s Core?!!?!?! So that’s her plan all along?! Kiara’s voice revealed further of how she’ll use Earth to save all of humanity.... And, the place soon changes to her lair where Kiara’s true form is shown.

Not even thinking of giving up, Tristan’s threat is even useless to her to make her stop SE.RA.PH from sinking further. She merely smirked to say we can easily be defeated since we’re at the palm of her hand...?

...... Nothing really hits her.... And everyone was killed.... Kiara even knows about Goetia. Commenting all he know was destruction, she may still weak but.... And then.... Before Gudas was about to get eaten... BB stepped in to save us?! Immediately reyshifting with Lip’s help away from her lair to....

Final Act (4/5)

Zepar’s inner monologue begins at the start of the chapter. Unlike its comrade, it sees potential in humanity rather than destruction. After choosing Seraphix as it’s considered “unobservable region” from Flauros’s POV, it stayed to recover. Eventually deciding to use our world’s Kiara to hide Chaldea’s detection. A church therapist eventually hated by Seraphix members for her innate kindness.

If it weren’t for his intervention, our Kiara would’ve led a modest but happy life. Though it noticed there’s something more of her, so it acted while Kiara was asleep. And at some point, Kiara eventually agree to allow Zepar to use her body to save everyone.

Manipulating everyone in Seraphix with her help, Zepar even succumbed to human lust at some point of its work. Eventually, things turned around where she manipulated the Demon God. Once Seraphix was converted to SE.RA.PH, Kiara become an indispensable member to them... And the one who started the killing fest between the co-workers.

Wow... Even Demon God eventually got a better sense of morality once it sees the hellish sight it become. Once entered the planetarium... Kiara then have it summoned BB and 128 Servants. At this point, she got it completely wrapped by her fingers and ruled SE.RA.PH.

Kiara then learned more from Zepar about the Demon Gods and their current situation. Zepar then begged once it regretted so much for choosing and corrupting her. That explains the Zepar we met, is now a hollowed body with no soul at all.

Once Zepar disappeared, BB then confront Kiara about this. But the latter merely brushed it off like it’s nothing... Which BB then tempered the files of every personnel death before moving onto the Holy Grail War.

So while waiting for SE.RA.PH to emerge, that’s where they began summoning more Servants to amuse herself.

Final Act (5/5)

Now back to the Gudas, we’re transported into a classroom?! I guess the useless AI is useful for once huh, Robin. Both Melt and Lip are okay as well, phew... Uh, you did nothing so just get to your point of why saving us when you want us dead, stupid AI?

In summary, we all definitely died, even the Gudas too. But BB rewind the time before our death to save and reyshift us away from there. Uh again, not really. Coming from a brainless AI, you’re just more stupid than scary.

As they asked more further about the time, we can go back all the way to the time before Gudas arrived. But, we’re definitely stuck here within Kiara’s grasp. BB then admits she’s more of forced to do Kiara’s bidding than an actual follower.... But Robin got a point in defeating Kiara, since this isn’t Tiamat or Goetia at all.

Wait... We’re fighting half of Beast III aka the R side? Right or aka Rapture... So for this case and a certain one in Proto-type, it comes in pair? So, at this rate, she’ll completely become the Beast III/R like a butterfly coming out from the cocoon.

Using SE.RA.PH to become Beast but still bound to SE.RA.PH.... Hence she and the planet will fuse once she reached Earth’s core. So that’s where KP points come in with BB special items to beat her.

Selfish and stupid AI will always be that way, Robin. Might as well use this time to finish up all the quest we have to defeat her. Yeah yeah, oh useless AI, we’re still going buy from you so spare us of you being hardworking there. 

Later before going off, Melt came looking for the Gudas. The Sakurafaces reveals their own attachment to this classroom... As a fragment memory of a certain girl in CCC always looking at her Senpai. Thanking her that she’s joining us, Melt laughed and brushed off at how weird Gudas are for acting sentimental around her. But to her, we’ll always be her one and only Master once they returned back to their world.

But before Gudas can interrogate her, Melt admit that she hides nothing yet knowing there’s already something wrong within her.... 

Epilogue (1/2)

Buying every single buff+debuff in KP shop for an easier fight.... Kiara greeted us that we returned back to face her. Whether a moth or not, we’re coming here to stop you once and for all. And we heard better threats than your sexual harrassment too, Kiara.

Ouch, nice job Melt! That’s not a burn that can be healed by remove debuff for a long while on hitting her age. And unlike you, Kiara, Melt isn’t as much of nut job as you are despite her tsundere side.

Offering once more for Gudas to join her... They asked why did she become a Beast instead? We are not as crazy despite the amount of insanity the Servants available in Chaldea. Nevertheless, she replied she was envious...? Unfair? Seems like the joy of relishing Zepar’s memories in Solomon Singularity made her feel envy and to desire in feeling the same of countless of heroic spirits killing her.... As such her a mere human, unable to make that dream come true....

Unfortunately for you nut job, stupid AI have them start a killing fest so there’s only a few of us left. Also, it’s completely decided we’re never be able to come to terms with each other. Like Beast who love humanity in a twisted way, Melt described accurately all traits Kiara has. Even Alter Egos like the Sakura five are disgusted of her existence, sans BB for later reason.

In her eyes of her world, Kiara is the only “human” and everyone is nothing but “animals” before her..... Regardless what tragic past you have, Emiya Alter was only doing his job because of what you are. And you’re right, enough of this chit chat... For Emiya Alter... For Chaldea... For the world and humanity... We’ll not worshipped you as a god, but a Beast to be destroyed as an evil Demon! 

Epilogue (2/2)

Excluding her unnecessary comment, the Gudas and everyone dealt a fatal blow against her! But before everything ends, Kiara complimented their effort in fighting her... The area around her is collasping, and she’s dragging us along with it!!

Lip calls for everyone to hold her hands before we got suck in with her. Going down further, Lip also detected Zepar’s true presence from SE.RA.PH itself. Even if Gudas did win this Holy Grail War, the way back home is a trip to Hell first. Once laughing the last laugh, Melt decided to have Gudas used all their Command Seals on Lip and her for a powerful Noble Phantasm blast.

Knowing what it means, the Gudas handed their Command Seal all to them. Once BB got hold the Gudas, she also detected the Demon God’s presence being more and more stronger. Good to know how useless you are since you can’t stop what Kiara is doing at this rate

I’d like to play the song It’s Raining Men changing to it’s raining Demon Gods... That’s not what I’d like to happen here! Suzuka then offered herself to help BB to stop Kiara from spreading Demon Gods all over the sea.

Which as Kiara watched us despairing at what’s about to happen... Melt and Lip have a small talk with each other.... Before unleashing their Noble Phantasm together. A flashback involving Melt actually received a fatal blow from Kiara in the previous battle, getting tortured while Gudas are used as hostage against her, and killed before her.

Both eventually managed to escape with their combined Noble Phantasm, while Kiara earned her victory laugh from their first fight. And also later afterwards of meeting her other self in this world... In order to save Gudas this time, the Melt of the present sacrifice herself so the Melt in the past could save them

One last time... Lip used her Brynhild Romantia as a catapult to launch Melt at Kiara. Melt reminsince her past one last time... And unleash her own Noble Phantasm. Kiara caught off guard eventually panicked while yelling for Melt’s reason knowing she’ll die from this.

Beast III isn’t giving up on her hand by summoning more Demon Gods to catch hold of her body to use as catalyst for more Demon Pillars, stating they were one and the same Spirit Origin. But... Emiya Alter shot Kiara to stop her! He’s still alright for a little while more!!

Pulling Melt away... Emiya Alter made sure Kiara sunk way bottom and broken apart... Destroying her once and for all with one last head shot to end her. Though before death... She eventually decided to resummon herself one day as an Alter Ego, as she and Melt are the same kind of person.

The AI congratulates Guda for beating Beast III/R at last. Everyone else gathered once Gudas awake from that sinking place. When mentioned about Tristan and Melt... A flashblack revealed Tristan pulled Melt up with Emiya Alter’s cable.... But Tristan managed to have Melt save before sacrificing his own life. That’s coming rich from a stupid AI, who throws away all emotion to create those Alter Ego.

And seems like Tristan save Melt because she resemble Isolde... *shrugs* Hope DW can give a rough sketch of what she look like someday. But Melt eventually fades away after using all of her Spirit Origins to fight against Kiara.... After BB recording their irregular existence as a Servant in the Throne of Heroes.

So the Melt we meet will be a new Melt... One that have no memories of us and the CCC event. And a reyshift is here for Gudas! Suzuka went away first with reminding Gudas to text her if they ever want to meet. Tama Cat returns to Chaldea to prepare food for us. Robin went back to throne of Heroes since he got dragged here on a whim

Lip... Part us a farewell, knowing the next time we meet her, it’ll be a Lip that has no memories of us. Lastly the AI... Nah, we don’t show you anything. You still like to insult to the very core. So okay, bye.

Now... Finally back home at last, we’re... Greeted by Da Vinci who don’t remember what happened?! Wait, the past even change so that it’s now dismantled?!!?!?! 

That some reyshifting.... ANd.... Some sassy stupid lost child AI invited herself into Chaldea. Oh yeah, you hate humans so much you must travel all the way 2019 to study our technology. Oh wow, your stupidity has gone no bounds as usual! Yeah yeah, stay all you want, knock yourself out. Just because you stay, we don’t need to entertain you 24/7

Thoughts & Observation:

Aside from the crazy difficulty and grinding, I expect no less from Nasu who written the story himself... And again, aside from the unecessary harem scene of course.

Boss fight, majorly Alter Ego are the pain in the ass. Because 2 years later, their boss is still the same with no Anti-Alter Ego class currently

BB’s fight is hell for now, but at least 2 years later with Emperor mothman,.. It’ll be slightly better

Passionlip:

..... First round is what the hell, especially her AOE NP. And it’s better that’s it’s 3 charge, and first time for NA

Second round, it’s practically before first HP break to break it since she charged her NP fast

David apparently died on that second round... From that insta-death. Her third skill buff missed ignore invincibility.... But that insta-death definitely didn’t miss a shit on David

Though at least final hp bar is scrapping whatever luck I have to make sure insta-death doesn’t work....

Suzuka:

She’s.... She’s surprisingly not that hard. Maybe front two rounds is difficult, especially trying to hit a certain HP with that defense buff.

But her third round, after learning my lesson in JP.... Bring an AOE Archer to kill her and her later Shadow Hijikata on second HP break

Jeanne and Merlin have been my MVP since both are taking turns to pull out wide invincibility against her

Meltryllis:

....... She’s the only one I still refused to look forward in 2 years later

Taunting is one hell to go through. Skill seal + attack down that’s practically RNG based especially if it lands on your support to cast defense against her. And finally her hp recovery down every turn... 

It’s not bad if you can get Merlin’s NP spammable every turn.... Only thing is her fucking crits that outdo your healing

I can still remembering making sure Herc-chan killing her with his brave chain....

But main MVP is Vlad III Extra, surviving long enough with his NP to deal the damage most of the time

BB:

My only problem was because I’m too used to Emperor’s mothman, and looking forward 2 years later to beat her with borrowing as support.... Given if I’m unlucky again to not have him home in NA too

Borrow Martha Ruler, but initially had wanted to go for Amakusa... Because Martha Ruler was taking quite a while to beat the front

Even better... I used Arash to get rid of the front.... But I forgot there’s the guts buff. And neither him or the first wave died....

BB herself on boss fight isn’t hard with taunters around to lure her NP away from Waver and Martha

Emiya Alter

Not as bad as Melt, but I’m still not looking forward to his fight.

I did learn from JP’s experience... So I borrowed Melt with Waver and 3 taunters to fight

Had to make sure the Melt I borrowed had Sakura CE’s MLB so Waver can buff her NP up and she does her brave chain to quickly break away his first HP bar

That was my problem as I realize delaying it will means quicker death for my Servants

So once it breaks... All it left was making sure the taunters takes the damage from the NP while keeping Melt and Waver alive to fight

Kiara aka Beast III/R:

Maybe because it was using Jeanne... Combined with Merlin and Vlad III Extra, that it’s slightly difficult than usual

Especially this is still her NP without the overdue interlude that upgrades her NP to remove her stun

But it’s still not that bad, except some time Kiara tends to crit more often than usual

Fondut au Chocolat CE helps a lot when combine with Vlad’s NP to deal more damage against her

I don’t mind going back to Mash + Merlin setup with BB.... But I’ll try it one more time 2 years later, with Jeanne having her NP upgraded

While Agartha is debatable in how I’m going to go through for that, it’s time to go back to JP for the coming big Raid session!

[mikotyzini]

What Defines Us - Ch. 15

Good morning everyone!  I mentioned in another post, but I now have Microsoft Office so I can more easily copy and past the chapters here without having to reformat everything (ugh, that was always so tedious).

So now the chapter is right here!  And here’s a link to it on fanfiction.net, if you wanted to leave me a review.  Chapter 15!

Also, good luck.  I won’t tell you why, but good luck.

The hallways were busy and crowded - filled to the brim with a bustle Weiss had long ago learned to tolerate but still hated all the same.  They were built wide and tall, yet somehow seemed cramped on the best of days, and suffocating on the worst.

There was nothing she could do about it though - the additional employees were necessary in getting this plant off the ground.  Important deadlines were rapidly approaching and many processes still weren’t completely up and running yet.

“What’s this?” she asked a man standing next to a cart carrying a stack of filled crystal boxes.  She didn’t bother waiting for his response before answering her own question, “These are supposed to be on the third manufacturing floor.  Take them there now.”

There wasn’t a single word of argument to be heard as he took the handle of the cart and pushed it towards the elevators as quickly as he could.

“Incompetence…” she muttered to herself before turning into the nearly operational boxing facility.  

The massive room held several large pieces of machinery that cost more than most houses to purchase.  Feeding into each machine was a towering stack of flattened boxes - not unlike the ones the man on the cart had just taken upstairs - that would be popped into form before riding long conveyor belts to be filled with vials of Dust.  From this morning’s report, she knew that the room had successfully integrated with the refinery next door, but was suffering from several internal yellow lights which needed to be resolved.

Her eyes scanned the silent machines - monstrosities that cost vast sums of money every day they sat dormant - before searching for someone in charge.  Finding a middle-aged woman nearby with a green badge clipped to her shirt and a notebook in her hands, Weiss stalked over.

“What’s the status?” she asked, causing the woman to visibly start from the unexpected demand for a progress report.

“Uh, the uh, assembly line is running smoothly, but the boxing machine needs to be recalibrated one more time.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”  Weiss didn’t allow the woman time to answer the rhetorical question.  “This needs to be working in two hours.  Make it happen.”

“Yes, Miss Schnee,” the supervisor replied, bowing her head before rushing towards her subordinates.

Sighing, Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes.  It was going to take them three hours to have the machine recalibrated, but at least they wouldn’t lose another full day.

“Miss - uh, Miss Schnee?”

Opening her eyes at the sound of her name, she found a younger man in a white polo waving and rushing over to her.  Rushing was never a good sign - rushing meant something had gone wrong.  Again.

“What is it?” she snapped, irritation growing at the continued issues that shouldn’t even be occurring.  There were very clear, very detailed step-by-step guides for every single process in this building - how did these employees fail at every possible turn?

“I just need your signature!” he said, holding a clipboard out to her.  Snatching it away from him, she flipped it around so she could read the form before approving it.  As her eyes skimmed the words on the page, her displeasure grew.

“You lost...an entire shipment of Dust?”  Looking up from the authorization in her hands, she stared at the man in utter disbelief.

“Not lost!” he quickly replied, looking more uncomfortable by the second and refusing to meet her eyes.  “Temporarily misplaced.  It was supposed to come here, but went to Vacuo instead.  We just need your signature to approve the additional transport bringing it over here.”

It was a monumental error that he was attempting to make sound like a simple mistake with an easy fix.  Of course, Weiss knew better than that.  She’d grown up in these factories, after all.  She knew how much it cost to run the lights in the manufacturing floors for an hour.  She knew how much the daily supply of coffee cost.  And she absolutely knew how much it cost to reroute a shipment of Dust from across the globe.

Gritting her teeth in now-simmering anger, she swiped the pen out of his hands and quickly signed her name - there was no other option but to acquiesce, they needed that shipment here yesterday.  She paused for only a second before carefully placing the date beside her name - curling the ‘2’ and slicing through the ‘7’ before shoving both items back into the man’s hands in annoyance.  Before she could threaten to fire him, he smartly spun on his heel and raced the way he’d come without ever looking back.  Staring after him in irritation, she unclenched her fist and tried to loosen her ever-tightening jaw.  

Today was supposed to one of the happiest days of her life.  Instead, she was spending it attempting to squeeze a modicum of competence out of complete and utter incompetence.

Feeling the ache in her chest, she forced her mind away from the date and back to her ever-expanding list of problems.  There were a million different boxes that needed to be checked and she seemed to be the only one doing the checking.  But her agitation at her employees’ repeated failures was a much better emotion to hang onto than that ache, which she needed to keep her mind as far away from as possible.

A loud grinding suddenly filled the air, followed closely by frenzied shouts of surprise before the sound cut off.  Turning towards the source of the noise, she sighed when she saw the thin plumes of smoke rising out of one of the boxing machines.

Someone must have set the calibration incorrectly.  That was going to cost them another day to replace the gears that had just been fried by sheer ineptitude.

Shaking her head, she left the boxing facility behind in favor of the busy corridor.  Moving out of the way when two large, motorized carts transporting heavy pieces of machinery passed by, she then crossed the hall and walked onto the extraction floor on the other side - where Dust was removed from the rocks it was embedded in.  

Upon entering the massive room, she was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by the sight and sounds of a manufacturing center in full production.  There were employees at several of the terminals running last-minute diagnostics, but she could tell them that everything was working properly without running a single test.

There was a particular sound these machines made when they were working in perfect harmony…a soft hum that had its own unique melody.  This was knowledge she’d gained over years of walking through these rooms as a child, so she couldn’t fault the new workers for not recognizing it yet.  But all of the machinery was performing flawlessly at the moment.  When they finished their second and third tests, this would be confirmed and eventually green-lit for operation.

Which meant that something was finally working - and ahead of schedule.

Taking a content breath, she wasn’t able to enjoy the meager victory for more than a second before a familiar flash of white drew her full attention.  Off to her right, stepping around one of the extractors before giving it a nod of approval, was the very last person Weiss wanted to see on this inauspicious day.

Winter.

Straightening her posture on instinct, Weiss watched Winter make a short comment to the floor supervisor before catching Weiss’ gaze and striding purposefully over.  There was something about the way Winter walked that exuded authority.  Maybe it was her hands clasped behind her back, or the rigid posture, or the tightened bun...regardless, nearby employees skirted out of the way without her ever having to alter her path.

“Weiss,” Winter said after she’d stopped a polite distance away, dipping her head in greeting.

“Winter,” Weiss replied in kind - their ultra-formal greeting nearly a ritual by now.  Only after the formality was completed did Winter unfurl a warm smile.

“How are you doing?”

The question was soft and caring, but Weiss didn’t feel like answering the true intention behind it at the moment.

“Everything is progressing as to be expected.  Specs are up-to-date and production is running...moderately smoothly.”  She gestured towards the assembly line while she spoke, and Winter’s gaze briefly followed the path of her hand before returning to her.

“That’s great to hear, but not what I was asking.”

Pursing her lips, Weiss remained stubbornly silent.  She knew exactly what Winter was referring to, but that wasn’t a subject she wanted to broach right now - or ever.  

Winter waited patiently for a reply that wasn’t going to come before finally turning and gesturing with her head for Weiss to follow.  With no other option but to oblige, Weiss fell into step beside her sister as they made their way out of the large manufacturing floor.  Side-by-side, the two of them re-entered the corridor and moved towards the bank of elevators.  Where Weiss had felt cramped several minutes earlier, she now found there was plenty of breathing room - the ever-spacious halls providing ample room for walking in Winter’s presence.

“How long since you’ve slept?”

The unexpected question made Weiss’ brow furrow while the tired pressure behind her eyes re-announced itself on cue.  

“I’m fine.”  

The words were short and clipped as she obediently followed her older sister through the halls of Schnee Dust’s newest operating facility.  A strong cup of coffee had gotten her through most of the morning after yet another night with no sleep to speak of.  Another cup would be waiting for her later on - as many as she needed to carry her through the day.  She didn’t need sleep when she had a steady supply of caffeine at her fingertips.  And, most importantly, she didn’t need to have this conversation again.

“How long since you’ve eaten?  A real meal?”

Snapping her jaw shut, Weiss glowered down the hallway and remained silent as they stepped into the next empty elevator.  There were plenty of other employees waiting to be ferried to the higher levels, but no one attempted to share the confined space - instead, the doors shut with just the two of them inside.  As soon as the doors soundlessly sealed, Winter selected a floor and then resumed her perfect posture.

Glancing at the number, Weiss now understood that her sister was taking them to Weiss’ office on the top floor of the building.  Fine by her.  At least there they would have some privacy if Winter insisted upon continuing this one-sided conversation.

“I thought you’d be in Mistral until next week,” Weiss commented as the elevator climbed into the sky, both of them watching the floor numbers illuminate in succession rather than look at one another.

“I came back early.”

“To check up on me?”

There was no response, which may as well have been a resounding ‘yes.’  Grinding her molars together, Weiss attempted to hold the indignation to a moderate level as it built in her chest.  

The only reason she’d assumed it would be a normal work day was because Winter was out of town.  To hear that she’d flown all the way back for no reason other than to monitor Weiss’ wellbeing was aggravating and entirely unnecessary.

“Today’s the 27th -”

“I’m well aware,” Weiss snapped before Winter could finish the thought.  The blunt reply caused Winter to pause for several seconds before finally speaking again - continuing her soft, patient tone.   

“I thought that today, of all days, you might need someone to talk to.”

Winter couldn’t be more wrong.  Today was the very worst day for Weiss speak about what had happened.  Today was the day she wanted to do anything but acknowledge the past.

“I’m fine,” she grumbled towards the wall, folding her arms over her chest and tapping one foot in agitation.  In the silence that followed, her stomach gave a small jolt when the elevator came to a stop - a soft ding announcing their arrival.

The doors slid open to reveal a sparse corridor with no employees in sight.  Compared to the manufacturing floors, this floor was well-decorated, with expensive paintings on the walls and living plants that required their own assistant to care for them.  There were only a handful of offices on this level - Weiss’ included.

In relative silence, Weiss followed Winter’s lead towards the glass door - second on the left - which opened into a larger lobby that acted as a reception for any of Weiss’ visitors.  There was a desk placed immediately inside the doorway, although it was noticeably devoid of anyone at the moment.

When Weiss glanced around the room in search of the secretary who practically lived in this chair, Winter broke the quiet.

“I asked her to take an extended lunch break,” Winter explained - the response only creasing Weiss’ brow further.

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I wanted the opportunity to speak with you,” Winter answered calmly, continuing in earnest when she heard the sigh Weiss let slip.  “I knew today would be difficult for you -”

“Winter,” Weiss interrupted, holding up one hand in an effort to prevent her sister from saying anything more.  “I’m fine. Today is a day like any other. There's nothing special about it.”

The response would have been more believable if her voice hadn’t cracked in the middle of delivering it, but, instead of arguing, Winter smiled sadly and placed her hands behind her back as if she didn’t know what to truly do with them.

“I had a feeling you might say that...” she commented before turning her blue gaze back to Weiss.  “I would do anything for you, you know that?”

“I know,” Weiss replied, fully understanding that what Winter said was true.  When Weiss had been younger, her sister was one of the only people she’d had in her life to lean on for support.  Winter had done her part in ensuring that Weiss was protected - as much as was possible given their family circumstances.  It still hadn’t been easy, but...Weiss shuddered at the thought of what it could have been like without her sister.

Thankfully, the answer made Winter nod in content.

“I know we weren’t able to grow up as normal people do,” she continued.  “There was always so much pressure to be perfect, on you more than anyone else.  I worried how that would affect you…”

Weiss frowned, unsure if the comment was vaguely insulting in some way - as if Winter might be implying that she wasn’t able to handle the pressure.

“I think I managed just fine.”

“I know you did.  You thrived in it.  But at what point does perfectionism begin to affect you?”

The question appeared rhetorical from the way Winter’s gaze unfocused, then drifted into a distant corner of the room.  When Winter did return to the present moment, she took a step sideways to lead them towards the solid wood door of Weiss’ office.

“Have you thought anymore about returning to Vale?” she asked as they walked, hopefully failing to notice how the mere mention of the city was enough to make Weiss flinch.

“No.”

The answer was a complete lie.  There wasn’t a day that passed without Weiss grappling with whether or not she should leave Atlas - she considered it each morning before heading to a job that served only as a distraction, and each night while attempting to find some semblance of sleep in a house that would never be her home.   

But the idea of returning to Vale terrified her far more than the reality of staying away did.  That life had ended - this was her life now.  One of these days, she had to accept that.

And Winter would have to, too.

Reaching the office door, Winter finally stopped and turned to Weiss with caring eyes that were almost too much sometimes.  Knowing what Weiss had done, how could Winter still look at her in that way? Weiss wasn’t the one who needed compassion or concern right now.  She wasn’t the one who’d been forced into months and months of doctor's appointments and physical therapy.

“I only want what’s best for you,” Winter said, her eyes never leaving Weiss’ so she would know that the words were true.  Sighing at the sincerity, Weiss tried to let go of her stubbornness and at least recognize that her sister was looking out for her.  And, even though she didn’t believe she deserved any of that kindness, the fact that Winter still extended it was worthy of gratitude.

“I know,” Weiss replied softly, dipping her head a fraction of an inch in deference.  “I appreciate that - I really do.”

Satisfied with the answer, Winter nodded her head once before opening the office door and gesturing Weiss through.  Willingly obliging, it was only when Weiss’ eyes found the room beyond that her feet planted to the floor.  She actually took one step backwards, only to hear the sound of the door closing behind her.  A second later, Winter placed one hand on Weiss’ shoulder and gently prodded her forward.

She’d only been annoyed before - now she was on the verge of steaming mad.

“Weiss, this is Dr. Marigold,” Winter explained, gesturing to the petite blonde woman who was rising from one of the comfortable leather chairs situated in front of the desk.  “Doctor, this is my sister, Weiss.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” the woman politely replied, stepping forward and extending a hand.  

Agitated by the intrusion into her personal space, Weiss wanted very much to ignore the greeting, but she failed - the social training ingrained too deeply for her to circumvent so easily.

“Nice to meet you, too,” she said in a clipped voice, quickly shaking the woman’s hand before turning to Winter with a meaningful glare.  “Now if you’ll both excuse me, I have work to do.”

“I’ve already cleared your afternoon schedule.”

The sentence made Weiss spin back to Winter in disbelief.

“You did what?”

“I cleared it,” Winter repeated, not wilting at all under Weiss’ withering gaze.  Instead, Winter stepped closer, setting one hand lovingly on Weiss’ shoulder while dropping her voice to a whisper.  “If you won’t talk to me, you need to talk to someone.”

“I’m fine,” Weiss spit out through gritted teeth.  The response only managed to make Winter sigh while the briefest expression of hurt flashed through her eyes.

“Please, Weiss.  Do this for me?  Fifteen minutes - that’s all I’m asking.”

There were so many words Weiss wanted to say right now - none of them very nice - but she could say nothing while company was present.  The incredulity and annoyance would have to wait for another day when their conversation would remain private.

“If I do...then you’ll drop this?  For good?” she asked instead.  Winter was slow in responding - her nod a hesitation late - but she did nod in agreement.  

“If you want me to, yes.”

This wasn’t at all what Weiss wanted to do right now, but if she could put up with it for a few minutes it would be worth finally escaping the subject altogether.

“Fine,” she huffed out in response, hastily sitting on one of the chairs in the most disgruntled way she possibly could.

“Thank you,” Winter replied softly, squeezing Weiss’ shoulder again before quickly exiting the room and pulling the door quietly shut behind her.  Once the room fell silent, Dr. Marigold took the seat in front of Weiss and watched her intently.  It was a gaze of careful analysis that made her want to squirm in discomfort, but she refused to grant the woman the vindication.

“How has your day been, so far?” Dr. Marigold asked after several seconds.  It was a simple question, but every bit of the woman’s persona reeked of too much concern.  It was hard to find that level of concern believable, even though the veneer was genuine.

“It was wonderful until two minutes ago,” Weiss quipped in reply, folding her arms across her chest in what she knew came across as a defensive position.  But she was defensive.  This was her office and her sister had invited a goddamn shrink into it.

“Your sister is worried about you - that’s the only reason she would go to such great lengths to help you.”

“So I’ve heard,” Weiss replied before rolling her eyes.  Falling silent, she stared out of the floor-to-ceiling windows of her office while clenching and unclenching her jaw in anger.  She’d always known that Winter would try to help, but to do this?  This was nearly unconscionable.  

“Is there anything you’d like to talk about?” Dr. Marigold finally ventured to ask.

“No.”

More silence followed as Weiss refused to look anywhere but the freshly-cleaned window glass.  The cleaners had actually missed a small spot.  She’d have to point that out to them later...

“Your sister told me a little bit about what happened.  I can only imagine how difficult this has been for you…”

That statement brought Weiss’ eyes snapping back to the woman, feeling a sudden surge of fire burn through her veins.

“You can’t even imagine what this is like,” she replied, her voice low and angry.  “Unless, somehow, you’ve also lost your partner and best friend - all because of a mistake you made.  Because of your own failings.”

She glared at the woman while waiting for a response, but Dr. Marigold was silent for several seconds before speaking again - undeterred by the hostility.

“Sometimes, when traumatic events happen, we forget that even those who escaped physically unharmed can suffer emotional injuries -”

“I’m fine.”

How many times must she reiterate that sentence before it became true?  She couldn’t not be fine.  She couldn’t be weak or broken.  ‘Emotionally injured’ wasn’t a label someone in her family could ever accept.

“You might be walking fine and speaking fine, but what about sleeping?  Eating?”

Pausing, Dr. Marigold finally caught Weiss’ gaze - her own yellow-brown eyes emitting open empathy and compassion for stories and woes she’d yet to hear.

“What do you like to do in your free time?”

“I try not to have any,” Weiss answered easily, pulling away from that understanding gaze.

There was no one more involved in the day-to-day tasks in this building than she was.  Even her father had seemed mildly impressed with the level of commitment she put into getting this factory up and running ahead of schedule.  Each day she came in earlier than anyone else. She stayed later.  She worked weekends.  There was no such thing as a day off for her.  When she did end up away from the office, she brought work with her and spent her evenings consumed in the fine print until she might literally fall asleep at her desk.

Free time wasn’t a part of her schedule by design, for it was in the moments when life slowed down that the tidal wave of emotions began to erode the edges of her mind.  The doubt...the agony...the overwhelming sense of loss...

“I understand today is an important day for you.”

The comment succeeded in making her flinch in pain - if that had been the doctor’s intention.  Weiss had started the day determined not to acknowledge the date and its significance.  It would’ve been much easier to accomplish that goal if life wasn’t set on reminding her at every possible turn.

“It was supposed to be,” she replied, dropping her gaze and watching her fingers curl and uncurl in her lap.

“Do you ever think back on what happened?”

It was a stupid question, and she gave the woman a look that said as much.

“Would you think about it?” she shot back sarcastically.

Even though she’d removed all free time from her schedule, her brain always seemed to find pockets of time to dwell on the past.  No matter how busy she kept herself, no matter how much work she did, her mind found moments in which to needle her heart with agony.  When she walked from meeting to meeting, waited for a cup of coffee, or was driven home from the office - there were still small gaps in her schedule that were more than enough for the wave of emotions to wash against her levees.  The moments, though seemingly minor, constantly threatened to unravel her...preventing her from ever feeling whole.

Even if she could somehow manage to block out these portions of the day, there was the problem of sleeping…as soon as she closed her eyes the memories came back - the forest, the blood, the hospital, the blank way silver passed right over her.  If she did manage to fall asleep, it was with the assurance of nightmares - a replay of true events or new tortures her mind created just for her personal viewing.  They were filled with ‘coward,’ ‘failure,’ ‘your fault,’ and the worst of all…‘I thought you loved me.’

So, yes.  While she attempted to keep herself busy at all times and hours of the day, she still thought about the past - constantly.  There were triggers all around her - the smell of flowers, which she’d ordered removed from the building to be replaced by scentless plants.  The smell of baked goods, causing her to alter the path taken to work to avoid passing too closely to a small bakery nearby.  

In every way, the world beckoned her to look back - and, when she first arrived in Atlas, she made the mistake of listening.  There were messages between her and Ruby still trapped in her scroll. There were photos, saved voice messages, saved video messages.  She’d spent nearly an entire day crying after going through them, and hadn’t dared glance at them again. Instead, she silently grieved, and grieved, and grieved, for the love they’d lost.

“Have you spoken with anyone about it?”

“No.”

That was a pretty simple answer.  Of course she hadn’t spoken to anyone about what had happened - besides when she’d still been in Vale.  Everyone had needed a summary when Ruby had gotten hurt, but that hadn’t meant they needed to know how Weiss felt about it.  There’d been no reason to mention the rampant guilt and anguish that spread through her like an infection...taking over her system the instant it was clear Ruby was never fully coming back.

“Would you like to talk about it?” Dr. Marigold followed up.

“No,” Weiss still replied - another easy answer to give.

Evidently undaunted, Dr. Marigold leaned forward and rested both elbows on her knees before clasping her hands together.

“You’re not alone in this,” she remarked quietly.  “You have people who care about you.  People you can lean on for support.”

“Who?” Weiss asked, anger again beginning to swell in her chest at the woman’s continued lack of understanding.  “The friend whose sister I abandoned?  Or that friend's partner and girlfriend?”  She shook her head at the idiotic idea.  “The only person I’ve ever felt comfortable being honest with is gone.  And she’s not coming back.”

When Dr. Marigold leaned away, Weiss shook her head again - this time in annoyance that the woman had managed to pull that information out of her.

“Have you ever thought about how that day might have hurt you too?”

“Do I look injured to you?” Weiss snapped, leveling a steely gaze across the space between them.  

“I work with huntsmen - many of them,” Dr. Marigold continued, ignoring the sarcasm.  “And I can tell you that physical injuries aren't the only things that leave scars behind.  While you may appear uninjured, that might not be the case.”

Weiss scoffed at the psychoanalytical attempt at rationalizing her behavior.

“Clearly you don't know much about my family.  We aren’t exactly known for our mental weakness.”

“Does your family name grant you invincibility?”

“Basically,” she retorted, using the answer to be haughty and confrontational.  However, Dr. Marigold didn’t take the bait.  Instead, she looked at Weiss closely, carefully, as if she could read the guilt and insecurity tattooed on Weiss’ skin.

“How does it make you feel that you’re sitting here, ���unharmed,’ while your partner is still in and out of the hospital?”

Weiss immediately felt her face contort in pain and rage at the question.  In and out?  Ruby had been released and readmitted to the hospital?  Why?  Had something gone wrong?  Were there complications?  Were her injuries worse than initially diagnosed?

“How would it make you feel?” she weakly shot back while struggling to regain control of her spiking emotions.  Unfortunately, Dr. Marigold took the question seriously and furrowed her brow with great thought.

“It would make me feel...very guilty, I believe,” she answered sincerely.  “I would be sad...distraught...maybe even angry that the results had been so unequal - where I was able to walk away when she could not.  That’s not very fair, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” Weiss mumbled, finally agreeing with something the woman had to say.  

The results hadn’t been close to fair...and there had been absolutely nothing Weiss could do about it.  She would’ve gladly taken all of the pain for herself...but if she couldn’t do that, couldn’t they at least share in the repercussions?  Why had Ruby been forced to shoulder everything?  Why hadn’t there been some way for Weiss to alleviate her partner’s burdens?

“Can you tell me what made you leave?” Dr. Marigold asked.  The quiet question was innocent enough, but it touched on the one subject Weiss refused to discuss with anyone.

“I’m sure Winter already provided you with a rundown,” she replied before checking the clock - making the motion as obvious as possible.

“She told me about how successful your team was, and how talented your partner was personally.  She seemed very proud of what you were able to accomplish with them.”

The longer Dr. Marigold spoke, the harder Weiss clenched her teeth together.  But the doctor continued regardless, seemingly oblivious to Weiss’ growing anger at her former team being spoken about so casually.

“She also mentioned that your partner was very special.  ‘Extraordinarily talented’ I believe were the words she used.  How did it make you feel to have a partner who was able to hold a small candle to yourself?”

Squeezing one hand into a fist in her lap, Weiss frowned at the woman sitting across from her.  

“Ruby was always better than me,” she answered in quiet anger, annoyed by the way Dr. Marigold refused to use Ruby’s name.  “She did more than hold a candle to me - she blew me away.”

Dr. Marigold nodded at the statement.

“That must have made it even more difficult to see her fall in battle.  We expect our heroes to always be there for us -”

“Then she shouldn’t have gotten in the way!” Weiss shouted at the woman, rising out of her seat as frustration and anger flashed past her boiling point.  “I never asked for her help! Why did she always insist on being so - damn - selfless?”

The room became deathly quiet as hot tears sprang into Weiss’ eyes.  Quickly retaking her seat, she raised one shaking hand to wipe across her eyes while trying to pull herself together.  

Dr. Marigold didn’t seem at all disturbed by Weiss’ outburst.  In fact, she appeared rather unsurprised by the sudden display of emotion.  Weiss should have seen this coming...and she should have been better equipped to guard herself against such mental intrusion.  It was always this way with these people - they would needle and needle away at a sore spot until their patient inevitably lashed out, then they would use that fit of temper as proof of whatever point they were attempting to make.  

Knowing this, she should have done a better job remaining calm and collected.  She shouldn’t have allowed her emotions to get the better of her.

“When you say she shouldn’t have gotten in the way…” Dr. Marigold began quietly.  “What you’re saying is that she shouldn’t have saved your life.”

A few minutes ago, Weiss had been successfully masking her lack of sleep with copious amounts of coffee, but suddenly she felt every bit as tired as she should.  Not just tired - she felt drained, as if her willpower had been sucked right out of her.

Given her current state of weakness, she allowed herself a few additional seconds to regain control and place an iron cage around her raw emotions.  She forced the tears back inside, where they belonged, and clamped the lid shut on her wretched past. Only when she was confident in her ability to survive the rest of this conversation did she look up and meet Dr. Marigold’s gaze dead on.  

“I’m saying that she should have saved herself,” she answered steadily.  

They both understood the implication of that statement.  But out of Weiss and Ruby, who was more valuable? Who was the better fighter?  The better leader?  The better sister and better friend?

Between the two of them, who was the better person?  Who was more deserving of a long, happy life?

“What do you plan to do now?”

Opening her mouth to reply, Weiss found no words to use for what should be another simple answer.  Confusion began to mount as she realized that, for the first time that she could remember, she didn’t have a plan for the future.  

What would the future hold for her?  Growing up, this had been an easy question to answer.  She would hone her skills, be admitted to Beacon, and become a world-renowned huntress.  She would save lives.  She would wipe away sour taste her family’s name left in people’s mouths.  She would make a difference.

Maybe her downfall was that she hadn’t dreamt large enough, because she’d partially accomplished all of those objectives before her life came crashing down upon her head.  Even more than her childhood delusions of heroism, she’d found a family who’d accepted her unconditionally, discovered hidden depths of power she’d never known existed, and learned what it meant to be truly selfless.

These days her only ambition was to muddle through the days while avoiding the past.  She lived from minute to minute, one second to the next.  Instead of charging towards lofty dreams, she was drifting through an endless sea of doubt and self-loathing.  Instead of having purpose and direction, she was...lost at sea.

That fateful day had changed everything in the blink of an eye.  That day had taken something from Weiss. She couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was, but a part of her had disappeared along with Ruby’s memories.  

“I'll figure something out.”

What would she do when this new Dust facility was up and running?  When her eighteen hour workdays dropped to twelve or ten?  Would she run off to whatever plant was next on the list?  Would she just keep running, forever, until one day time caught up to her?

They were supposed to spend eternity together.  They were supposed to spend every day of the rest of their lives together.  Instead, Weiss had been forced to confront a life without Ruby.  And who was she without Ruby?

“From what I've been told and what I've heard, you’re an incredibly talented and capable young woman.  I know that this type of situation must be scary and unfamiliar to you, but I want to help.  I don't want to see you self destruct.”

It might already be too late for such a sentiment, but Weiss didn’t bother to say so.  Instead, she glanced at the clock again and mulled over a question before finally asking it aloud.

“If you had any advice for someone like me, what would it be?”

The answer would likely be of minimal use to her, but she’d been taught too well to collect the advice of highly-skilled professionals whenever the opportunity presented itself.  Seeing as how Dr. Marigold had gathered far more information than Weiss had been willing to provide, she would begrudgingly admit that the woman was highly skilled.

Seeming to sense that this was the one opportunity to offer some words of wisdom, Dr. Marigold thought carefully before responding.

“This exile of yours - sequestered away from your friends and teammates - understand that it’s your choosing.  No one asked you to leave.  In fact, they’d probably like for you to come back -”

The comment made Weiss scoff in disbelief.  The idea that Yang would welcome her back was almost laughable, but Dr. Marigold continued on as if Weiss hadn’t just interrupted her.

“Guilt and fear are powerful emotions, but we can’t let them control us.  In most cases blame can’t be placed solely on any one party, but we blame ourselves completely whether or not we’re at fault.  If I were to give you any advice, I would suggest that you try to see the difference between punishing yourself and truly working towards forgiveness - from others, but mostly from yourself.”

Forgive herself...Weiss would never do it.  Not as long as Ruby was still in pain.  Not as long as Ruby’s life was still in shambles.  And even if Ruby somehow made a miraculous recovery...Weiss might not even forgive herself then.

Nodding in acknowledgement of the advice, even though she wasn’t willing to accept it, her eyes shifted again to the clock before she stood up.

“Our fifteen minutes are up,” she said, shaking the woman’s hand again when Dr. Marigold stood to join her.  “It was very nice meeting you.  Please see yourself out.”

Rather than immediately head towards the door, Dr. Marigold rustled briefly in the bag Weiss had failed to notice sitting by the chair before placing a small, white card facedown on the edge of the desk.

“Feel free to call me anytime.  I’m more than happy to come back.”

“Thank you, but that won’t be necessary,” Weiss replied, walking over to her desk chair and picking up a document that had been left for review.  She held it up as if she might read it, but her mind wasn’t capable of absorbing any of the letters on the page.  Instead, she stared at it blankly until the sound of the office door closing signaled that she could finally relax.  

Dropping the page onto the desk, she reached across and picked up Dr. Marigold’s business card before immediately throwing it into the garbage can.  Satisfied that any trace of the woman would disappear with the next cleaning crew, she walked over to the side of her office and stood in front of the glass windows looking out from the top of Schnee Tower - overlooking the bustling Atlas city center below and the massive expanses of forest off in the distance.  In the surface of the glass, she could just barely see a reflection of herself - a ghost of the girl she’d once been.  The dark circles under her eyes refused to be hidden by any amount of expensive concealer. Her skin was gaunt and her clothing hung off of her shrinking frame like she was slowly starving to death.

Closing her eyes to remove that image from her mind, she turned away from the glass.

She was fine.

She was fine, she was fine, she was fine.

The shaking in her limbs was the result of skipping breakfast, not the conversation she’d just experienced.  The sharp ache in her chest was from the stress of her job, not the despair of being worlds away from the people she loved.

Sighing, she opened her eyes and walked back to her desk.  Stopping down, she picked the business card out of the trash before sticking it into one of her desk drawers in case she needed it as a reference later.  As she did so, her gaze fell upon Myrtenaster - who leaning against the back of the desk chair right where she’d set it this morning.  

Picking up the weapon, she spun it in her hands over and over again while pacing the length of her office - savoring the weight of metal that was more familiar to her than anything else she owned.  It was like an extension of her own body and, as such, she brought it with her to and from work every day even when she had no purpose in doing so.  She didn’t need Myrtenaster here.  She didn’t need Myrtenaster period.  Yet...she refused to be separated from her weapon.

She’d always considered it to be the one possession in the world that was hers and hers alone, but now even Myrtenaster was burned with the memories of another.  It was as much Ruby’s weapon as it was her own.  How many hours had they spent down in the workshop together while Ruby tinkered with the weapon and Weiss ‘supervised?’  How many adjustments had Ruby made and then personally tested before every single aspect of the weapon felt iron tight?

It was the one possession Weiss still had that linked her to her partner.  It was the only thing she’d refused to let go of, because it felt like she could communicate with Ruby through the etchings in the blade.  Somehow, someway, through the microscopic alterations and painstakingly crafted upgrades, Ruby spoke through Myrtenaster.

As her pacing slowed to a stop, Weiss closed her eyes, wrapped her fingers around the grip and squeezed tightly.

‘How does it feel?  Does it feel awesome?  Do you like it??’

A small sob escaped while tears burned behind her eyes once more.  Her weapon was perfect because the person who’d been in charge of working on it spent countless hours ensuring it was perfect.  Ruby devoted hours and hours of her life to making sure Weiss had a wonderful weapon to fight with - all while never expecting anything as much as a ‘thank you’ in return.

Holding Myrtenaster upright and touching the cool blade gently to her forehead, Weiss stood still as a statue while her shoulders shook with emotion.

“I’m sorry...I’m so, so sorry…” she whispered before another sob crept out and the first wave of tears spilled over.  “I didn’t mean it…you know I didn’t m-mean it...”

Of course she wasn’t mad at Ruby.  How could she be mad when she would’ve done the same thing without even thinking?  They were teammates - all of them had been prepared to lay down their lives for one another.  It was just...that Weiss never expected that she’d be the one who needed saving…

If she was mad at anyone, it was herself.  For not being better.  For being in the situation where she needed to be saved, to begin with.  

She loved that Ruby was selfless.  She loved that Ruby never hesitated to help someone in need.  She loved that, in a world where everyone looked after only themselves, there was someone like Ruby out there making a difference.  Of all people though, Weiss didn’t deserve to be the one Ruby saved.  Weiss didn't deserve to be the one Ruby sacrificed herself for.

As the tears continued to fall, Weiss clenched Myrtenaster tightly in one hand and tried to draw an iota of strength from the weapon that had once been her backbone.  

Every time she broke down like this, it felt like it was more and more difficult to piece herself together again.  It was as if the very act of crying was eroding the edges of the puzzle pieces in her mind - allowing nothing to fit perfectly back together the next time around.

And she was so tired to crying by now.  One of these days, there would be no more tears left...right?

When the tears slowed to a light trickle, she opened her eyes and whipped Myrtenaster down to her side, sending a snap through the air.  After wiping her free hand across her eyes to rid them of the remaining moisture, she stared out of the window towards the forest in the distance and the perpetually snow-capped mountains even further beyond.

Dr. Marigold brought up the subject of fairness - and she was right.  How was this fair?  While Weiss marched around barking orders at subordinates, Ruby probably hadn’t been allowed to walk around on her own.  While Weiss had been spending restless nights in her mansion, Ruby had been stuck in a hospital bed. While Weiss wrestled with the decision of whether or not to leave Atlas, Ruby hadn’t even been able to go home.

And while Ruby toiled through months of physical therapy, probably unaware that she might never regain full strength in her hand, Weiss was a world away - never having to suffer any of the consequences of her own mistake.  There was no struggle in her ivory tower.  There was no difficulty outside of what she created for herself.

How was this fair?  

At the very least, she should be forced to fight for the privileged breaths she took.  She should find the road as difficult and tedious as the one Ruby must travel.  Only then could the subject of fairness even begin to be discussed.

Striding back to her desk, Weiss jabbed the intercom button to one of the other assistants.

“Have an airship ready for me in three minutes,” she ordered before rushing out of the room with Myrtenaster in hand.  Still waiting in the empty reception area, Winter immediately stood and walked over to join her.

“I know you’re angry -”

“No,” Weiss cut her sister off, shaking her head.  “I’m not angry.  But now that I’ve fulfilled your request, I’d very much appreciate if we could leave the matter be.”

For a second it appeared as if Winter wanted to press the issue, but instead she sighed and nodded her head.  It was at that moment that her eyes found Myrtenaster, and she turned back to Weiss in surprise.

“Where are you going?”

“I have somewhere I need to be,” Weiss answered, ignoring the worried gaze and ducking around her sister to walk back into the hall.

“Why do you need Myrtenaster?” Winter pressed while following Weiss to the elevators and watching as she pressed the button to summon the next one.

“Believe me, you’d much rather I had Myrtenaster with me than not,” Weiss commented lightly.

“Weiss...where are you going?”

Done with the conversation, she stepped into the arriving elevator and watched as the doors blocked out concerned blue eyes.

“I’m going to make things a little more fair.”

The elevator was enveloped in silence and her stomach dropped when it was pulled further into the sky.  It slowed only a matter of seconds later, causing her to shake Myrtenaster with the beginning of anxious jitters.

There was one more level to Schnee Tower - the rooftop.  

The doors opened and she was greeted by a cold blast of wind and the steady roar of engines.  Blinking her eyes against the steadily rushing air, she left the elevator behind and strode purposefully towards the airship that was waiting for her - waiting to take her to the forest.

[sheminecrafts]

Facebook upgrades its AI to better tackle COVID-19 misinformation and hate speech

Facebook’s AI tools are the only thing standing between its users and the growing onslaught of hate and misinformation the platform is experiencing. The company’s researchers have cooked up a few new capabilities for the systems that keep the adversary at bay, identifying COVID-19-related misinformation and hateful speech disguised as memes.

Detecting and removing misinformation relating to the virus is obviously a priority right now, as Facebook and other social media become breeding grounds not just for ordinary speculation and discussion, but malicious interference by organized campaigns aiming to sow discord and spread pseudoscience.

“We have seen a huge change in behavior across the site because of COVID-19, a huge increase in misinformation that we consider dangerous,” said Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer in a call with press earlier today.

The company contracts with dozens of fact-checking organizations around the world, but — leaving aside the question of how effective the collaborations really are — misinformation has a way of quickly mutating, making taking down even a single image or link a complex affair.

Take a look at the three example images below, for instance:In some ways they’re nearly identical, with the same background image, colors, typeface, and so on. But the second one is slightly different — it’s the kind of thing you might see when someone takes a screenshot and shares that instead of the original. The third is visually the same but the words have the opposite meaning.

An unsophisticated computer vision algorithm would either rate these as completely different images due to those small changes (they result in different hashes) or all the same due to overwhelming visual similarity. Of course we see the differences right away, but training an algorithm to do that reliably is very difficult. And the way things spread on Facebook, you might end up with thousands of variations rather than a handful.

“What we want to be able to do is detect those things as being identical because they are, to a person, the same thing,” said Schroepfer. “Our previous systems were very accurate, but they were very fragile and brittle to even very small changes. If you change a small number of pixels, we were too nervous that it was different, and so we would mark it as different and not take it down. What we did here over the last two and a half years is build a neural net based similarity detector that allowed us to better catch a wider variety of these variants again at very high accuracy.”

Fortunately analyzing images at those scales is a specialty of Facebook’s. The infrastructure is there for comparing photos and searching for features like faces and less desirable things; It just needed to be taught what to look for. The result — from years of work, it should be said — is SimSearchNet, a system dedicated to finding and analyzing near-duplicates of a given image by close inspection of their most salient features (which may not be at all what you or I would notice).

SimSearchNet is currently inspecting every image uploaded to Instagram and Facebook — billions a day.

The system is also monitoring Facebook Marketplace, where people trying to skirt the rules will upload the same image of an item for sale (say, an N95 face mask) but slightly edited to avoid being flagged by the system as not allowed. With the new system, the similarities between recolored or otherwise edited photos are noted and the sale stopped.

Hateful memes and ambiguous skunks

Another issue Facebook has been dealing with is hate speech — and its more loosely defined sibling hateful speech. One area that has proven especially difficult for automated systems, however, is memes.

The problem is that the meaning of these posts often results from an interplay between the image and the text. Words that would be perfectly appropriate or ambiguous on their own have their meaning clarified by the image on which they appear. Not only that, but there’s an endless number of variations in images or phrasings that can subtly change (or not change) the resulting meaning. See below:

To be clear, these are toned down “mean memes,” not the kind of truly hateful ones often found on Facebook.

Each individual piece of the puzzle is fine in some contexts, insulting in others. How can a machine learning system learn to tell what’s good and what’s bad? This “multimodal hate speech” is a non-trivial problem because of the way AI works. We’ve built systems to understand language, and to classify images, but how those two things relate is not so simple a problem.

The Facebook researchers note that there is “surprisingly little” research on the topic, so theirs is more an exploratory mission than a solution. The technique they arrived at had several steps. First, they had humans annotate a large collection of meme-type images as hateful or not, creating the Hateful Memes dataset. Next, a machine learning system was trained on this data, but with a crucial difference from existing ones.

Almost all such image analysis algorithms, when presented with text and an image at the same time, will classify the one, then the other, then attempt to relate the two together. But that has the aforementioned weakness that, independent of context, the text and images of hateful memes may be totally benign.

Facebook’s system combines the information from text and image earlier in the pipeline, in what it calls “early fusion” to differentiate it from the traditional “late fusion” approach. This is more akin to how people do it — looking at all the components of a piece of media before evaluating its meaning or tone.

Facebook speeds up AI training by culling the weak

Right now the resultant algorithms aren’t ready for deployment at large — at around 65-70 percent overall accuracy, though Schroepfer cautioned that the team uses “the hardest of the hard problems” to evaluate efficacy. Some multimodal hate speech will be trivial to flag as such, while some is difficult even for humans to gauge.

To help advance the art, Facebook is running a “Hateful Memes Challenge” as part of the NeurIPS AI conference later this year; this is commonly done with difficult machine learning tasks, as new problems like this one are like catnip for researchers.

AI’s changing role in Facebook policy

Facebook announced its plans to rely on AI more heavily for moderation in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis. In a press call in March, Mark Zuckerberg said that the company expected more “false positives”—instances of content flagged when it shouldn’t be—with the company’s fleet of 15,000 moderation contractors at home with paid leave.

The pandemic is already reshaping tech’s misinformation crisis

YouTube and Twitter also shifted more of their content moderation to AI around the same time, issuing similar warnings about how an increased reliance on automated moderation might lead to content that doesn’t actually break any platform rules being flagged mistakenly.

In spite of its AI efforts, Facebook has been eager to get its human content reviewers back in the office. In mid-April, Zuckerberg gave a timeline for when employees could be expected to get back to the office, noting that content reviewers were high on Facebook’s list of “critical employees” marked for the earliest return.

While Facebook warned that its AI systems might remove content too aggressively, hate speech, violent threats and misinformation continue to proliferate on the platform as the coronavirus crisis stretches on. Facebook most recently came under fire for disseminating a viral video discouraging people from wearing face masks or seeking vaccines once they are available— a clear violation of the platform’s rules against health misinformation.

The video, an excerpt from a forthcoming pseudo-documentary called “Plandemic,” initially took off on YouTube, but researchers found that Facebook’s thriving ecosystem of conspiracist groups shared it far and wide on the platform, injecting it into mainstream online discourse. The 26-minute-long video, peppered with conspiracies, is also a perfect example of the kind of content an algorithm would have a difficult time making sense of.

On Tuesday, Facebook also released a community standards enforcement report detailing its moderation efforts across categories like terrorism, harassment and hate speech. While the results only include one a one month span during the pandemic, we can expect to see more of the impact of Facebook’s shift to AI moderation next time around.

In a call about the company’s moderation efforts, Zuckerberg noted that the pandemic has made “the human review part” of its moderation much harder, as concerns around protecting user privacy and worker mental health make remote work a challenge for reviewers, but one the company is navigating now. Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is now allowing a small portion of full-time content reviewers back into the office on a volunteer basis and according to Facebook Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen, “the majority” of its contract content reviewers can now work from home. “The humans are going to continue to be a really important part of the equation,” Rosen said.

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Facebook’s AI tools are the only thing standing between its users and the growing onslaught of hate and misinformation the platform is experiencing. The company’s researchers have cooked up a few new capabilities for the systems that keep the adversary at bay, identifying COVID-19-related misinformation and hateful speech disguised as memes.

Detecting and removing misinformation relating to the virus is obviously a priority right now, as Facebook and other social media become breeding grounds not just for ordinary speculation and discussion, but malicious interference by organized campaigns aiming to sow discord and spread pseudoscience.

“We have seen a huge change in behavior across the site because of COVID-19, a huge increase in misinformation that we consider dangerous,” said Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer in a call with press earlier today.

The company contracts with dozens of fact-checking organizations around the world, but — leaving aside the question of how effective the collaborations really are — misinformation has a way of quickly mutating, making taking down even a single image or link a complex affair.

Take a look at the three example images below, for instance:In some ways they’re nearly identical, with the same background image, colors, typeface, and so on. But the second one is slightly different — it’s the kind of thing you might see when someone takes a screenshot and shares that instead of the original. The third is visually the same but the words have the opposite meaning.

An unsophisticated computer vision algorithm would either rate these as completely different images due to those small changes (they result in different hashes) or all the same due to overwhelming visual similarity. Of course we see the differences right away, but training an algorithm to do that reliably is very difficult. And the way things spread on Facebook, you might end up with thousands of variations rather than a handful.

“What we want to be able to do is detect those things as being identical because they are, to a person, the same thing,” said Schroepfer. “Our previous systems were very accurate, but they were very fragile and brittle to even very small changes. If you change a small number of pixels, we were too nervous that it was different, and so we would mark it as different and not take it down. What we did here over the last two and a half years is build a neural net based similarity detector that allowed us to better catch a wider variety of these variants again at very high accuracy.”

Fortunately analyzing images at those scales is a specialty of Facebook’s. The infrastructure is there for comparing photos and searching for features like faces and less desirable things; It just needed to be taught what to look for. The result — from years of work, it should be said — is SimSearchNet, a system dedicated to finding and analyzing near-duplicates of a given image by close inspection of their most salient features (which may not be at all what you or I would notice).

SimSearchNet is currently inspecting every image uploaded to Instagram and Facebook — billions a day.

The system is also monitoring Facebook Marketplace, where people trying to skirt the rules will upload the same image of an item for sale (say, an N95 face mask) but slightly edited to avoid being flagged by the system as not allowed. With the new system, the similarities between recolored or otherwise edited photos are noted and the sale stopped.

Hateful memes and ambiguous skunks

Another issue Facebook has been dealing with is hate speech — and its more loosely defined sibling hateful speech. One area that has proven especially difficult for automated systems, however, is memes.

The problem is that the meaning of these posts often results from an interplay between the image and the text. Words that would be perfectly appropriate or ambiguous on their own have their meaning clarified by the image on which they appear. Not only that, but there’s an endless number of variations in images or phrasings that can subtly change (or not change) the resulting meaning. See below:

To be clear, these are toned down “mean memes,” not the kind of truly hateful ones often found on Facebook.

Each individual piece of the puzzle is fine in some contexts, insulting in others. How can a machine learning system learn to tell what’s good and what’s bad? This “multimodal hate speech” is a non-trivial problem because of the way AI works. We’ve built systems to understand language, and to classify images, but how those two things relate is not so simple a problem.

The Facebook researchers note that there is “surprisingly little” research on the topic, so theirs is more an exploratory mission than a solution. The technique they arrived at had several steps. First, they had humans annotate a large collection of meme-type images as hateful or not, creating the Hateful Memes dataset. Next, a machine learning system was trained on this data, but with a crucial difference from existing ones.

Almost all such image analysis algorithms, when presented with text and an image at the same time, will classify the one, then the other, then attempt to relate the two together. But that has the aforementioned weakness that, independent of context, the text and images of hateful memes may be totally benign.

Facebook’s system combines the information from text and image earlier in the pipeline, in what it calls “early fusion” to differentiate it from the traditional “late fusion” approach. This is more akin to how people do it — looking at all the components of a piece of media before evaluating its meaning or tone.

Facebook speeds up AI training by culling the weak

Right now the resultant algorithms aren’t ready for deployment at large — at around 65-70 percent overall accuracy, though Schroepfer cautioned that the team uses “the hardest of the hard problems” to evaluate efficacy. Some multimodal hate speech will be trivial to flag as such, while some is difficult even for humans to gauge.

To help advance the art, Facebook is running a “Hateful Memes Challenge” as part of the NeurIPS AI conference later this year; this is commonly done with difficult machine learning tasks, as new problems like this one are like catnip for researchers.

AI’s changing role in Facebook policy

Facebook announced its plans to rely on AI more heavily for moderation in the early days of the COVID-19 crisis. In a press call in March, Mark Zuckerberg said that the company expected more “false positives”—instances of content flagged when it shouldn’t be—with the company’s fleet of 15,000 moderation contractors at home with paid leave.

The pandemic is already reshaping tech’s misinformation crisis

YouTube and Twitter also shifted more of their content moderation to AI around the same time, issuing similar warnings about how an increased reliance on automated moderation might lead to content that doesn’t actually break any platform rules being flagged mistakenly.

In spite of its AI efforts, Facebook has been eager to get its human content reviewers back in the office. In mid-April, Zuckerberg gave a timeline for when employees could be expected to get back to the office, noting that content reviewers were high on Facebook’s list of “critical employees” marked for the earliest return.

While Facebook warned that its AI systems might remove content too aggressively, hate speech, violent threats and misinformation continue to proliferate on the platform as the coronavirus crisis stretches on. Facebook most recently came under fire for disseminating a viral video discouraging people from wearing face masks or seeking vaccines once they are available— a clear violation of the platform’s rules against health misinformation.

The video, an excerpt from a forthcoming pseudo-documentary called “Plandemic,” initially took off on YouTube, but researchers found that Facebook’s thriving ecosystem of conspiracist groups shared it far and wide on the platform, injecting it into mainstream online discourse. The 26-minute-long video, peppered with conspiracies, is also a perfect example of the kind of content an algorithm would have a difficult time making sense of.

On Tuesday, Facebook also released a community standards enforcement report detailing its moderation efforts across categories like terrorism, harassment and hate speech. While the results only include one a one month span during the pandemic, we can expect to see more of the impact of Facebook’s shift to AI moderation next time around.

In a call about the company’s moderation efforts, Zuckerberg noted that the pandemic has made “the human review part” of its moderation much harder, as concerns around protecting user privacy and worker mental health make remote work a challenge for reviewers, but one the company is navigating now. Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is now allowing a small portion of full-time content reviewers back into the office on a volunteer basis and according to Facebook Vice President of Integrity Guy Rosen, “the majority” of its contract content reviewers can now work from home. “The humans are going to continue to be a really important part of the equation,” Rosen said.

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