A Celestial Forge on Remnant

[RamblingMadness]

Jaune Arc was not a very complicated young man. He wanted to be a huntsman, to continue his family's legacy and make something of himself. Quite a few of his sisters were accomplished graduates of the huntsman academies, having teams of their own, and of course his parents were huntsmen too. Except . . . Jaune was never trained for that. He'd tried, when he was younger, but he didn't have the necessary qualities. That's what he was told, at least. Something or other about not having the grit, or determination, for the job. Which was blatantly untrue! He could have done it . . . maybe he could have been a little more serious about it as a kid, and his parents might have continued to train him.

Anyway, Jaune was simple. He knew what he wanted, and he knew who he was. He would be a hero, just like his great-great-grandfather! In fact, in a couple months when he enters Beacon Academy, he'll be using his heirloom sword, Crocea Mors, passed down from that same ancestor. Sure, it wasn't a real great weapon, but it would do.

What was not simple, though, was the key he'd suddenly found himself in possession of. It was decidedly very complicated. That morning he'd awoken to see the key sitting on his bedside drawer which was strange because he didn't recognize it, and because the only key he owned was for the door to the house. The weirdest part was this sort of . . . construct, in his mind. It was very odd. When he thought about this new, strange thing he could see something like a night sky covered in stars, and each of these stars formed very particular constellations. Thirty-seven of them in fact, and he definitely couldn't tell you how he could keep track of all that, except that he could for whatever reason. The stars, though, well they didn't actually shine. They had the potential sure, he could even feel the energy building up to provide that shine, but they didn't right then. All except for one right at the very center, which somehow seemed to exclaim its intent and purpose, and that was to provide him with a workshop, and a key. That was another odd thing. All those stars? The constellations? They were all connected to invention, and building things in some manner. Jaune could feel it, when he pictured that night sky.

Jaune wasn't an inventor. He wasn't some kind of mad scientist, and he was way out of his depth. As he had laid in bed and observed that new thing, that construct of information suddenly found within his mind, he discovered reaches of imagination and impossible technologies he'd never considered before. Of course at the moment he'd only had the vaguest of impressions, but the implications were insane and immense. He figured he would understand in time, since those stars largely provided knowledge, but still.

Jaune didn't know exactly how this would work, but this would likely be changing his plans in a big way. Originally he was going to apply to Beacon through . . . maybe, sorta, a tiny bit of forged documents. But he was totally ready! He just didn't have the official qualifications so there were some things he'd had to do to make sure it went through. Well, he would have had to do. He hadn't yet arranged for those documents to be made, so he still had the option of taking the entrance test next month. Beacon was accommodating like that, allowing for both students who'd graduated through the combat schools like Signal, and also allowing students in based on demonstrated skill. He'd heard the test was really grueling though, so he'd originally wanted to go with the forgery.

As Jaune had laid there, it seemed that the energy was building up really quickly. It'd only been about ten minutes since he'd awoken (thank the Brothers it was a weekend), but he was starting to think it'd be better to continue to wait out the process of the . . . whatever was going to happen. He didn't know whether his parents and sisters might notice if he went down stairs and whatever happened happened, so he didn't want to risk it. Jaune wasn't really sure they would understand if he told them about what was going on. Like, if you heard somebody talk about the stars in his head and great mechanical monstrosities, would you think he was sane? He wasn't really sure what Aura was, but that didn't sound anything like that. Wasn't Aura like an energy thingie? (Jaune really should have worked harder when his parents tried to teach and train him. Ah well, he would figure it out).

In any case, he decided to finally get up. He'd woken up early that morning, so he wouldn't be expected downstairs until later. It'd probably be fine if he readied for the day and he should still have time to explore his new workshop for a while. Jaune pulled himself out of his onesie (Pumpkin Pete was great cereal with fantastic merchandise, and he would fight anyone who said otherwise), and switched it out for an everyday sort of outfit. His hoodie went on last, and as always it was snug, warm, and just right. Alright. This was it. Jaune took a deep breath, turned to his drawer and picked up the key. It . . . seemed to be a very ordinary key. Like a house key, with its jagged teeth in a normal looking pattern. Nothing really looked special about it, but he knew that if it were to be lost or destroyed, it would return to him within three hours. With the key in hand, he turned to look at his closet door. At this point, his heart was beating a mile a minute. Not that uh, the building energy was doing anything to him or something, but because of his nerves. Somehow, this moment was timed in such a way that he was about to enter the workshop and reach the peak of energy.

The key entered the knob, and slid into place.

Jaune turned the key. The constellations in his head spun around and around, picking up speed every moment.

Then they stopped. He turned the knob.

The door opened, and light shone down from the stars above. His focus centered on one in particular (This star was what he would choose). The constellation was of quality, and its relationship to resources. And with this . . .

He could build a treehouse. Oh, wait, there's more! So, with this particular star, he now knew how to use real simple stuff in place of rare and intricate stuff so he could make more complex stuff. And it would just . . . work. On top of that, he had ideas now for things that he could make, mostly focused on engineering and architecture, and thus, treehouses. On the other hand, he still didn't really know what was going on with the sort of weapons that hunters used. Like, how did those things shift their parts around, and go from a pistol to dagger? It didn't make sense! It would though, eventually. He could probably study Crocea in the meantime, it seemed simpler, but still used the same mechanisms, right?

Jaune stepped into the workshop and found that this was actually just an empty room. It looked like his, actually, but smaller and as a cube. There were no furnishings, either. There was another door across from him though, so he went and opened that up too. The second room met his expectations. Inside he found a large variety of tools and worktables with various attached machines, and a little of what he saw were things like drills and circular saws, a forge and anvil, even a couple stations for creating electronics. He only recognized these things through what the star had taught him. His attention gravitated toward the woodworking stations. Maybe it was because the room behind him looked a little sad without anything in it, but his first impulse was to build some kind of furniture. Maybe a cabinet of some kind, if he wanted to store any of his future creations. Before he would get started on the actual building process, he instead drifted over to a desk setup with sheets of paper and writing utensils. Straight edges such as rulers and squares were supplied aplenty so he went to work. First, he decided on a tall sort of cabinet, about a foot and a half deep. It would have five, no, six shelves and it would be around three times as wide as his body. Perhaps this was excessive, he thought. Nah. Eventually, it wouldn't be able to fit everything he might like to store, but that was fine. The workshop would expand, and he had the impression that rooms like the entryway would expand along with it.

His drawing and measurements continued along, and he decided on making his cabinet from plywood. Not that this was an unusual choice, apparently. He'd had some prior assumptions and ignorant beliefs that were definitely wrong, in this case thinking that plywood was some sort of cheap material that wouldn't compare to something like say, hardwood. But there was more to it than that. There were in fact a few different varieties of plywood, including hardwood and softwood types, each made from specific trees. Plywood was a type of composite material engineered in such a way to improve certain qualities. It reduced splitting, expansion and shrinkage, among other things.

Anyway. He finished up with his first design, and decided to actually leave his room and face the day, along with his family. After his first experience with lighting up one of those stars, he was confident that he could play off any weird behavior as daydreams or something like that. Jaune had always been the sort of person with his head in the clouds, so that wouldn't be unexpected anyway. He left his room and went downstairs.

Down in the kitchen he found his mom and three of his sisters, each preparing breakfast for themselves. That was easier than making a meal for everyone to share; that sort of thing was dedicated to dinner.

"Hey Jaune! I thought you were gonna be up there forever," said Canary. She was his littlest sister, and like most of the family she had bright yellow hair. Canary was a little bit of a brat, energetic and getting into things she shouldn't, but Jaune loved her all the same.

"Ahaha, no, I couldn't let you finish off the Pumpkin Pete," Jaune said. So saying he picked up a bowl from the cabinet and grabbed the cereal. Once he had his bowl ready he sat down at the table with his sisters. Goldenia was sitting next to him.

"Good morning Jaune, did you sleep well?" Goldenia was probably his sweetest sister. She was a year older than him, but was not a huntress. The young woman was working to become a botanist, which Jaune thought suited her very well. Already she was an intern at a local lab, but she was hoping to be fully hired on and head her own projects soon.

"I slept great! I did wake up a little early, but I was uh, studying," said Jaune. He wasn't the greatest at lying, or making things up. Goldenia didn't seem to believe him, but she accepted it and smiled at him anyway.

"I'm glad to hear it! You'll need to work hard to get into Beacon, Jaune," she said. Jaune gave an awkward laugh and turned back to his bowl.

"Pfft, yeah, it'll take a lot of work for you, Jaune," said his third sister. Jasmine sat across from Jaune next to Canary, and she had a sardonic smile on her face as she laughed. Jasmine was 21, she was his third oldest sister. She often messed with Jaune, as evidenced here. Jasmine was a huntress, and she was visiting on a break between missions.

"Hey, I'll have you kn-" Jaune stopped. There was a flash of light as the energy built up once again, and this time was very different. The flash came from the budding inventor, and looking down he saw that something was different. A scar that used to be on the back of his left hand disappeared; his skin in general was a slightly tanner shade. He'd felt an odd sort of adjustment in the structure of his body, even his nose in the corners of his eyes appeared to be . . . straighter? He looked up to his sisters, and mother.

They were all gaping at him.

"Uh. I can explain."

---

Here's the perks he earned. Also, the way I do it is to roll for the type of perk (so Quality, Assistants, all that stuff), and then choose from there. He earns 100 cp for every 1k words I write, like normal.

1st Backyard Handywork (100 CP): Who needs a massive machine shop or specially-crafted equipment when you have some plywood and a toolbox? No matter how complex or intricate of a project you might be making, you'll find that you can easily figure out how to substitute commonly available tools and resources for more complex equipment, and still have the final project come out fine. Also comes with a decent understanding of engineering, architecture, and a few other material science fields to help you get started on whatever projects you might want to work on. [Phineas and Ferb] Phineas and Ferb Jump

2nd Her Majesty's Majesty- 100
They say that every hero of these times was a marvel to look upon. The statues that remain from these years in modern times would seem to give that impression and should you eventually have one made of you, it won't fall short. Whether it's being beautiful or handsome, you stand out like a shining jewel even among heroes. Many can't help but gasp once they see your visage ad it'll smooth out plenty of problems for you, not the least is finding a suitable partner. Your beauty will also affect the things that you make and rule over, even something as large as Rome itself, but this effect slowly takes hold over time. While a sword you wield may slowly become more ornate and fine over days of use, an empire might need years to be fully affected, but it and all it's people will be shining by the end. You can have this stop at a certain level if you like, whether that's to keep some parts of your empire ugly or just to stop everyone from maybe becoming self-obsessed snobs that never stop looking in mirrors. [Fate/Legends - Empires of Antiquity] Fate/Legends - Empires of Antiquity

 

[RamblingMadness]

Jaune was in a lot of trouble. Jaune, his sisters, and mom had moved over into the living room, and now Jaune was sitting on one of the recliners. He sat up straight, and he was nervous. The girls had very serious expressions on their faces, whether they leaned toward concern (his mom, Goldenia) or accusation (Jasmine, Canary). He was also a little distracted.

Apparently, his newfound power was quite an interesting one. Beyond totally blowing the secret out of the water before he'd had a chance to keep it, it also had the ability to turn anything he owned or created beautiful over time as well. Even those things that he ruled . . .? What? That was strange, but he would ignore it for now. In any case, he could prevent it from happening too, so he did just that so that all his stuff would stay as it was for now. His looks would be getting him enough attention as it was.

He'd managed to get a look at himself in a mirror, and he had to admit he was quite handsome now. Jaune still looked like him, but more. As he'd noted before, his nose was straighter, but other than that his eyes were a brighter blue, his hair more golden (it seemed to shine) . . . he seemed to be more defined. He was less round, more sharp. Even his musculature seemed to look more pronounced, stronger, but he didn't think he was actually any stronger. Which, uh, how would that work? In any case, there seemed to be subtle differences that created a package that was much closer to a 10/10 than before.

Well, he should probably get on with it. It was time to face the music.

"Soo, that happened, huh? Um, well I don't think I could really hide it anymore, but something happened this morning when I woke up," he said. Jaune was a bad liar. He couldn't come up with a story to hide his changes and his new powers, so he wouldn't. "There was a key on my drawer, and this part is harder to explain, but there were . . . ideas in my head?"

"Jaune, I don't think ideas and a key can explain your transformation into . . . Adonis," said Jasmine. She looked particularly offended, and even a little grossed out. Yeah, Jaune didn't really want to think about whether his siblings were attractive either, so he didn't blame her for that. The girls and his mom nodded along.

"It's complicated! Here, let me show you how the key works at least so you won't think I'm totally crazy," said Jaune. He led them over to a bathroom door in the hall, then opened it to show it was normal as it should be. They weren't impressed, so far. Then he closed it again, put the key in the door and opened it once more. The girls were much more surprised this time to see an empty room bigger than before, "okay, so this is something like an entryway, but the really cool part is through that door over there," then he opened the next door.

They were astonished. Goldenia gasped, and they all had wide eyes as they looked at his workshop. It was actually a little crowded in there, now that he thought about it. There was enough space to work and navigate the room, sure, but it definitely wasn't meant to store any of his completed projects for long. He hoped that there would be a solution to that . . . but he also had a feeling that it would work out.

Jaune saw Canary just about to dart into his workshop to explore, but he managed to stop her with a hand on her shoulder just in time. "Wait! A lot of the tools and machines in there can be dangerous, so I can't just let you run around, Canary," said Jaune. The girl was instantly pouting, and she turned her displeasure up to Jaune. He supposed he should have expected this sort of response, she was only 11 after all.

"He's right, sweetie," said Mom, "here, why don't you stick with me while we look around, if that's alright with you, Jaune?"

"Yeah, go for it," said Jaune. They all seemed to get over their initial shock, and his mom took a hold of Canary's hand while they looked over everything. Goldenia and Jasmine wandered in as well, each heading to different areas. Jaune decided to take a more thorough look at his workshop as well, since he'd been caught up in designing a cabinet when he first entered the room this morning. The room itself was really big, larger than his home even. But it had to be, to hold all the equipment here. Yet, to Jaune's amateur eyes, it appeared to only contain mostly basic facilities. A long while back he'd seen a video on his scroll showcasing the production of an old model airship; some of the machines they'd used were nothing like what he could see now in his own workshop. As he'd noticed before there were stations for woodworking, electronics, and blacksmithing. Along with that were supplies for each craft. It was an odd sort of arrangement, really. At this point he still had no real clue how to go about creating electronics (that has to do with those green things called . . . circuit boards, right?). He had a little better understanding of blacksmithing, but it was woodworking that his first star had provided the most knowledge for. How could you build a treehouse, without knowing how to cut a plank with a table saw, after all? Though, he figured it was likely the stars in his head had at least a couple methods that would skip out on planks and table saws. (He really needed a better name for that thing in his head). Ah, speaking of, it was very close to completing another charge. Jaune wondered what would be next? Giant robots, like from Atlas? A method to revolutionise the industry of cereal production? (He was still hungry).

Stars spun, and stopped. This type of star was of . . . Mundane Facilities! Or something like that, it still wasn't clear. Anyway a particular star shone, and now, he knew that he was the proud owner of a horseshoe. Oh, uh, it just looks a little like one. He turned away from his workshop and quickly found the matter manipulator sitting on a pedestal off to the side in the entry room. It had a light brown coloration, with a black handle, yellow trigger, and black housing for the optic emitter. It came with a wrist mounted tablet that let you switch between modes, or select the material you wanted to construct. It had three different modes (or four? The star insisted on three, yet it had four distinct functions): deconstruction (plus construction), wiring, and painting mode. They were self explanatory, deconstruction would destroy and store matter in cubic meters, quite quickly at that, wiring would connect two fixed devices without actually . . . wiring anything. That seemed exploitable. Ah, wait, those devices needed particular inputs and outputs that Jaune didn't know how to build yet. Finally, painting mode would allow you to recolor any object either blue, red, yellow, green, orange, pink, black or white. Wait, pink? That's not a secondary color. Shouldn't it be purple? Ah well.

Jaune's family quickly noticed his absence and all came into the entryway, where they saw him putting on the tablet and looking at the matter manipulator.

"Jaune, what is that? That wasn't in here before, was it . . .?" asked his mom. He turned back to them, and saw they all looked curious, or surprised. They would probably get used to it, though.

"This is a matter manipulator. It'll let me destroy just about any solid matter and store it. Then I can place that matter once again, but only in cubic meter blocks. That part is kind of inconvenient, actually, but I think I should be able to modify it in the future," he said. The girls nodded, then Jasmine's eyes widened.

"Wait, any solid? Solid matter like, dust?" Jasmine asked. Jaune looked up at her and realized the implication. The mining speed of the matter manipulator was variable depending on the material, but it was likely to be much faster than current methods. The way it worked would also mean that it could only produce the crystal varieties which was convenient since it was more sought after than the powdered form. If they needed it powdered, then it could easily be transformed into such after building the block (could it? Jaune didn't know how that worked). Of course, a single device can't actually compete with an entire organization like the Schnee Dust Company, but it didn't need to. It was perfect for personal use, or even to supply a family. He would just need to actually find a vein of dust. Well, much more than that.

X​

Jaune found himself once again facing his family in the living room. They seemed to be thoughtful about what they'd seen, except for Canary who clearly wanted to play with his matter manipulator after hearing his explanation. That of course had precisely zero chances of happening; can you imagine what a rambunctious child would try to do with technology like that? The house would be gone, the neighborhood up in flames . . . chaos. (Jaune ignored the fact that doing that sort of thing himself was tempting him).

"Alright, so clearly you weren't making up anything earlier. And this seems like it probably isn't your semblance; I don't believe I've ever seen anything like your workshop or everything else you have," said his mom. Mom had seemed to take all of this rather calmly, which didn't surprise Jaune too much. She was the level headed one, as compared to his father. Rose and Lionel Arc made a complimentary pair.

"Yeah, I guess I should explain what I meant by ideas earlier, too. So I woke up with this . . . thing in my head. I mean, my mind, not y'know, literally my head. It's like- I see it as a night sky, with a bunch of stars and constellations, and the constellations represent categories while the stars are either collections of knowledge on how to craft things in different ways, uh powers like the one that changed how I look, and actual items like the workshop itself. Except, the stars aren't lit up yet, and they charge over time. When the charge reaches a certain point, I sort of choose what I want? It's hard to explain. I didn't really want to change in front of you guys earlier, but in general I do like that star, or power rather. I guess it's a sort of subconscious thing?" said Jaune. His mother hummed to herself, not making any sort of comment.

"That's really cool, Jaune," said Goldenia. She gave him an encouraging smile, "do you have any idea of what else you might unlock?"

"Oh, yeah! I couldn't really give you a full grasp of what this thing will allow me to do, though. There are . . ." Jaune took a moment to attempt a count. He wouldn't have been able to actually count them if he was relying on his eyes and attention span, but luckily the answer sprung forth, as if answered by the construct itself, "1,791 stars. Um."

This, as it turned out, was the biggest shock of the day for the Arc family. Already he had four things from this strange phenomenon, and they each changed his life drastically, and still there were more than a thousand different stars?! It was overwhelming, incalculable; the human mind wasn't really meant to fully grasp all of that, with as much detail and intricacy there seemed to be for every star. As far as Jaune could tell, the power and impact of these stars only escalated the further along the path of each constellation you went. After this, he wasn't sure that he could bear the weight of the stars.

And yet, the stars spun, constellations turning in his mind as he was greeted once again by Resource's Quality. Somehow, as he took another star, another burden of knowledge, he had the tenacity to face his future. His determination may have not been enough for his parents as he trained to be a huntsman, but even as the stars pressed down on him they lifted him up. He could stretch that willpower beyond his original capacity, now.

Back in the moment of the real world, Jaune focused once again on his family.

"Just now, I unlocked a star that taught me how to use the bare minimum of resources to meet my goals, how to connect old technology with newer tech, and repeatedly repair items more than they usually could be. There are stars that have very narrow effects, such as the one that gave me the matter manipulator, and stars that are broad. I learned architecture and engineering from the first unlocked star, along with some material science, but there are others that teach me things like magic, technologies like airships without using dust, so much that you couldn't even imagine. I'm having trouble really understanding it," said Jaune. "Some of them, they'll change me like the one that made me look better . . . I'm not sure what to think about those ones. They won't all be about appearance either.

"In spite of that, I'm excited. Worried, but I'm eager to see what's next, y'know? I don't mind so much that it'll change me; it won't make a difference to who I am deep down as a person, only as if I had gone through new experiences. I hope that you don't think it's bad or something like that, there's a lot I could do for us, for the world, with these stars!" Jaune finished up with his rambling on a positive, maybe naïve note. But, when considering the grandiosity of his . . . celestial forge (now that was a name that rolled off of the tongue), there really seemed to be nothing he couldn't do.

It was a lot to digest. As he'd expected, Rose was the first to respond, "I'm worried too, but I'll trust you, son," said his mom. "Your father and I may not have fully trained you, but your heart and character was never in doubt. You didn't seem like you were meant for the huntsman life, though I suppose that just means you were supposed to be some kind of inventor or mad scientist instead," she had a wry smile on her face. "You know that we'll always be here for you, right? If it ever seems like it's too much for you, just come and talk to us, Jaune."

This was a rather hard moment for Jaune; he'd felt for a long time that his failure to follow through on his training meant that he'd disappointed his parents. They'd put in the effort to turn him and his other siblings who'd wanted it into strong huntsman, and yet for Jaune it was a waste. His aura was never unlocked, he never faced off against any grimm so much as a beowolf, and the less said about his swordsmanship the better. He . . . wasn't ready for Beacon, and he knew it. But what else could he do? He wasn't going to be a burden for his parents, and just like huntsman training he'd never found the drive for anything else.

Now though, now he was meant for something much greater. He wouldn't be a disappointment; he could be the huntsman he'd always wanted to be, or maybe something completely different; instead of arriving unprepared, perhaps it would instead be Beacon that couldn't handle him. Jaune Arc's destiny was in the stars, and he would be the light that would shine down on the world of darkness and grimm.

X​

After their talk, wherein he'd gone on to explain more of the details about his celestial forge, Jaune and his sisters went outside to experiment (read as: play) with his matter manipulator. Their property ran up against the treeline of their neighborhood, and so they went into the woods to test out the device. As the information provided by the mote of light indicated, his matter manipulator had extraordinary capabilities. They'd dug into the ground with a series of steps, to see if they could find dust underground. Jaune and his sisters were lucky that his first star had given him some knowledge to know how he should dig to keep the ground stable. They found . . . soil and dirt, mostly.

As it turned out, it was quite dark underground. The quartet had flashlights to light the way, but it still had them uncomfortable to be in such a confined space. Though Canary didn't seem to mind it so much, funnily enough. Eventually, they decided to leave.

"We should not leave this hole in the ground like this! Grimm could get in, and if you decide to come down here again they could ambush and kill you!" yelled Jasmine. They were going to leave, but Jaune and Canary wanted to leave their little mine as it was. Jaune, so he could dig further down in the future, and Canary so she had somewhere to explore (they'd made a few wandering paths and tunnels in search of dust).

"It'll be fine, Jasmine! Don't be a wuss," said Canary. She thought it was quite silly to be arguing about this; what would any stupid grimm want with a hole in the ground, anyway?

"Uh, well, maybe she's right, Canary," said Jaune. Then he noticed the energy building up once again, "oh, it's about to happen again!" he grinned.

"Wait, Jaune! You mentioned earlier that some of the stars take more power, right? Could you stop and store what you have? So you'd have more for next time?" asked Goldenia. She wanted to know if there was a way to get the stronger powers sooner; the better to keep her brother safe, right?

"Huh. Yeah, I'll try that," said Jaune. He closed his eyes, and focused. The stars had started to spin, but he didn't want that this time. And so . . . they stopped. "It worked! I don't really know how I did it, I guess that's just one of the things that the star forge can do," he said. (He'd taken to trying out different names for the thing. Star forge was quicker to say, so that was nice).

"Ah good to hear it! You can get a better star next time now," said Goldenia with a smile.

"Great, Jaune, now back to the mine thing. Let's fill it up, you don't know for sure that it'll stay stable, grimm might show up, and besides it won't take too long to get this far down again," said Jasmine.

"Yeah, okay," Jaune said. He sighed. It did make sense, he just didn't like undoing all of his work. And so, Jaune placed down soil and dirt in its proper place, and then they left the woods and returned home.

---

So I was using the notepad program on my computer to keep track of the perks, but every time I copy and paste from that the formatting is all screwed up, so now I'm using google docs for everything. Let me know if anything looks weird here.

3rd Matter Manipulator - 100
The Matter Manipulator is probably the most versatile tool you'll find in this universe. A symbol of the Terrene Protectorate, the Matter Manipulator allows you to do exactly what the name says: Manipulate matter. You can move it, reshape it, store it away, among other functions. You start out with a basic Matter Manipulator, for free, with the Deconstruction, Wire, and Paint modes all unlocked.

Your basic manipulator can store vast amounts of non-living material (and living material if kept in special containment units), and can deconstruct 1 cubic meter of material at a time, with generic dirt taking around 2 seconds to deconstruct, and more dense / complex materials taking longer. It can only deconstruct solid materials. The range is limited to 5 meters away. It can store 200 distinct items / materials, in batches of up to 250 cubic meters per item / material. Wire mode allows you to link together specially designed devices, to allow for the transfer of power and signals between them, and paint mode allows you to recolor objects that you use it on. [Starbound - Spacebattles Ver.] Starbound Jump

4th Resource Management (100 CP): What can I say? You're an expert at logistics. You know how to extract the maximum possible use out of even the absolute least resources. Much as a ragtag group of countermutineers managed to not only survive, but actually attack and make inroads into damaging an almost unimaginably better armed, equipped and numerous group, you too can make virtually endless repairs, adapt low leveltech to interface with higher level
tech, and in general stretch the usage of those resources far beyond what even the shrewdest economist could ever manage.

Mind you, this is for people and tech most of all. While it will work on other resources, even magical, esoteric ones like mana and whatnot, don't expect remotely the same efficiency for them. [Empire From the Ashes - Dahak Chronicles, 4chan ver.] Empire From the Ashes

5th Reserved (+100 CP next roll)

 

[RamblingMadness]

Jaune was fairly certain that his cabinet carcass was looking lopsided. It was subtle, and he'd had to tilt his head a little to confirm it, but it was clearly leaning to the right. Jaune was disappointed, but he was still human and even the skills for woodworking provided by the celestial forge so far were still within human range. This was unfortunate, but it was fine. He would scrap this attempt (or maybe he could find the problem and fix it) and try again. Jaune didn't need to finish this right away, he had time to get used to his new abilities. On the bright side, he noticed that he was once again generating energy to light more stars; it was odd, but just about as soon as he'd returned home and started working on the cabinet again the power building up had stopped altogether. The builder wasn't entirely certain what the difference was between then and now, but he was glad it was back to normal.

For now, Jaune decided to take a break and leave the rest of his cabinet for later. It was actually rather hard work to try and craft a cabinet. So as you might expect, the blond boy was tired. He stepped out from his closet and removed the key from the door. On his way downstairs he saw Goldenia studying something in her room, likely a botanical paper of some kind; they waved and smiled at one another as he passed by. Jaune wondered if she might like some greenhouses built in the backyard? The garden she and mom worked on all the time was already very nice on its own, but he figured she'd probably like the chance to grow some things year round. It was just a question as to if he should attempt it now, or maybe in the future when he'd have more knowledge and resources available to him. On the other hand, it occurred to him that if he tried to do too much, no matter his intentions, it might feel as if he were taking over her interest. Jaune didn't want that, so he would have to see what Goldenia would want.

Jaune soon found himself in the living room, unsure what to do. His sister Canary was in her room (hopefully) working on her summer schoolwork. His mom was in the kitchen preparing some things for dinner later tonight; he thought that maybe he should go and help her out, but then Jasmine, who was sitting down on one of the couches watching tv, called out to him.

"Jaune-y boy! Come here and sit with your sister," she said. Jasmine laughed when she saw the exasperation on Jaune's face, but smiled when he sat down anyway, "thanks! We haven't watched anything together in a long while, have we?"

It was true. It was rare that Jasmine had the time to visit home, and he hadn't seen her since the last holiday. Now, that actually wasn't that long ago since the people of Remnant often tried to keep morale up with frequent celebrations (it only made sense when the monsters beyond the borders were attracted to negative emotions), but still. And, as it was, it'd been much too long since they could enjoy a good bad movie.

"It would be nice to do that again . . . ah, I suppose I could tolerate you for a little while, Jasmine," Jaune grinned at his sister, "what are we watching, then?"

"Well, in light of your new powers, how about this sci-fi called Life From Dust? The ratings really tanked, but I've heard it's great to laugh at," she said. "They've got ugly alien costumes and everything, it should be fun!"

"That sounds good to me," said Jaune as he sat down next to his sister. A bowl of popcorn stood on the cushion between them, and Jasmine switched the tv over to the video player from her soap opera. Jaune never was sure why she liked those, unironically, unlike the bad movies. Well, people just liked different things, no matter how strange it might seem to him.

The movie started up with a sequence of scenes showing a sort of slime monster appearing from an odd mix of different types of dust and industrial waste. As expected, the special effects and costumes on display so far looked rather silly, but at least it wasn't made with poorly rendered CGI. The monster went on to terrorize a city, clearly modeled after Vale but left unnamed.

X​

"So, I guess that was more of a monster movie and not a sci-fi, but it was still good, right?" asked Jasmine. She'd certainly enjoyed it, and wondered if maybe Jaune would be able to create creatures like that someday.

"Oh yeah, it was a lot of fun," said Jaune. One difference he'd noticed in watching movies like that was that he could recognize how they'd created the scene through the set they'd built. Obviously this would be less noticeable in different media with a higher budget, but how would the celestial forge change his experience with entertainment in general?

"What'd you think of the monster, Jaune?" asked Jasmine. Earlier when Jaune had explained everything, he'd mentioned that one of the constellations had to do with helpers, and although like with everything else he didn't know how it would work, it seemed that the forge would pull these helpers from . . . somewhere, or maybe create them on its own. That was extraordinary, and frightening. New life, or old lives taken away, potentially alien life at that, that wasn't something the forge should have control over. It wasn't right, right?

"I thought it was cool," said Jaune, "it wasn't scary, though, and the plot line with the other . . . girly slime monster? Wasn't done very well, but it was still neat. Oh wait, do you mean like, could I make a monster like that or something? Not right now, of course. Uh, wait for a moment, please."

Stars spun, and they settled on the knowledge of abilities and skills. A selection was made, and Jaune's mind . . . shifted. His train of thought simply stopped, as he suddenly had to process an entirely new way of thinking. It was as if he could see the threads between every thing he'd ever learned. Everything he knew was in a single context called life, and every part of it was based on basic foundations. All knowledge fit together, and proved its own truth, when tested against itself.

A large part of his knowledge was solidified in a way it'd never been before; like his understanding of mechanics. His science classes had gone over things like that before, and sure he'd learned a bit about it all, but none of it had quite clicked until this new perk was unlocked (well, it was probably also supplemented by his very first star, actually). It didn't change his memories in any way, instead his understanding was derived from experiences all throughout his life and it was easily understood now, if not quantified by specific formulae. This was applied to everything he had even the barest understanding of, and the more he knew the better.

He looked over at Jasmine, and he recognized apprehension. It was subtle, something he'd not even noticed before, but of course it was there. Jasmine liked to put up a strong front, but she was the type to worry. Like earlier, when she refused to let Jaune leave the hole in the ground. What could it be from? She probably thought of the assistants he might obtain in the future, or how he might be able to create life himself, possibly. He didn't know for certain what he would be able to do either.

"You know you get a really dumb look on your face when that happens, Jaune?" she asked. Jaune sputtered in exaggerated offense; and here he was, being considerate of her concerns! "Here Jaune, it looks like this," and with that, her face went slack, her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth, her eyes glazed over and she groaned like a zombie.

"Hey! I don't look like that," whined Jaune. "I obviously look much more elegant than that. Don't you know I'm an Adonis, now?" He stuck his nose up in the air. Jasmine laughed and shook her head.

"Yeah, sure Jaune," said Jasmine. Jaune let go of his pose and laughed as well. He'd been worried for a moment there, because he'd had these odd impressions of what she might do next, but he certainly didn't expect her gag. Jaune didn't want for the people in his life to become too predictable.

"So, like I said earlier, I can't make a monster like from the movie," said Jaune. Jasmine nodded, clearly serious once again as well, "but, I probably could in the future. I couldn't tell you how. I think that if or when I can, I need to be . . . very careful about it. And, careful about the whole assistant category in general. I don't know what to tell you, though: will they be sentient, like us? Will they be unthinking like a program, or simple like an animal? I don't know. Though, it'd probably be for the best if I treated most of those things as if they were as intelligent as us."

"I guess we'll have to deal with it when it comes up," said Jasmine. It wasn't really something she should be worrying about at this point anyway. The idea had only come up because of some of the themes that the movie had tried to convey, but it was still interesting to consider. She decided to change the topic, "so, Jaune, you still want to be a huntsman, right?"

He thought about it for a moment. It wasn't so clear, for Jaune, to understand what he really wanted. For a long time it was the thing he had to do, it felt like the purpose his life was leading up to. Yet, it was with reluctance and half-hearted measures that he'd tried to learn. He put off training, he gave up when it became too difficult, and he eagerly jumped into other activities when he finished up for the day. It wasn't his passion, but the problem was that he didn't seem to have any passion. Not really, anyway.

But now he had the celestial forge! It was like a gift from the Brothers. A gift. He didn't put in the effort to earn this . . . wouldn't it have been for the better if an accomplished and motivated huntsman or huntress had the forge instead? He thought that he owed it to his family, to society, even, that he kept up his efforts to become a huntsman. The Kingdom of Vale still needed defenders from the hordes of grimm. The hard work would be good for him. It would be a challenge to advance his creations with the forge, and to also train himself as a hunter, but it would be worth it.

"Yes, I still want to be a huntsman. To be honest, though . . . I'm not really sure what to do. I'm not combat capable, yet, so I probably can't pass the entrance exam. Um, originally, I planned to pay somebody to forge the documents for me, and get in that way," Jaune said. He figured he might as well tell her; it was obvious to her anyway that he wasn't ready, as her comment that morning indicated.

"Of course you did, Jaune," she sighed. Jasmine was glad he had the forge now, and that he'd told her; there was a big possibility that he would have died in the exam itself. It'd happened in the past. "Alright, so, I won't be letting you go to Beacon without knowing you can handle it! Because of that, I'm going to train you, and there's no time better than the present, right? Get up!"

Jaune was surprised by this sudden command, and also by the stars spinning once again. The charge had snuck up on him while he was distracted. The last time he'd expended his full power, and now he only had one part of energy to spend on the knowledge of intelligence. He did so, and suddenly his memories appeared sharper, not perfect, but much more distinct. Memories and moments of time flashed by his mind's eye as he considered this new change, and even as he thought of simple things his mind brought up related knowledge mostly unconnected to his actual experiences. He remembered the times he'd watched Jasmine train with their parents, and practically simultaneously thought of the fighting forms his parents had taught him in turn. These two stars synced really well, it turned out.

"Okay, Jasmine, I'll train with you, then," said Jaune. He smiled, and he stood up. He'd probably regret this later.

---

6th -Educated guess (Factorio) (200CP)
Your subconscious mind works overtime to sort and fact-check everything you know, granting you a sort of poor man's precognition. In the field, your hunches are uncanny in their accuracy (but knowing false information can return wrong answers.) In the laboratory, this vastly speeds up your work as you quickly identify problems, test for the right thing the first time, and are directed to asking the right questions to find the best solutions. The more you know about a subject, the more this perk helps you. (Knowledge: Abilities and Skills {16})

7th Librarian (Smash Up-Obligatory Cthulhu Supplement) (100CP)
You have a phenomenal memory and organizational skill, and a real gift for research. It's a rare day indeed where you can't find the information you need, or at least narrow it down to a single rare book. (Knowledge: Intelligence {17})