Polendina (Rewritten)
Polendina
Doctor Japeth Polendina was a man entering the end of middle age, with long hair falling down in waves to his shoulders, carefully brushed back from his forehead and curled around his ears. His hair remained dark, in spite of the fact that his beard was almost completely grey or white with only a few flecks of darkness remaining. His eyes were brown and sharp and fixed upon the three organic members of Team RSPT as they wheeled Penny into the lab on a pair of gurneys.
Rainbow and Ciel pushed the first gurney, with Penny’s actual body on it; for reasons of operational secrecy, they had to wheel her in covered up in a black bodybag – what people thought they were doing, wheeling a dead body around the office of Research & Development, hardly bore thinking about, but if everyone had been able to see Penny, it would have looked even stranger. They had tried to be as gentle as possible as they had carried Penny out of The Bus and then wheeled her down off the landing pad on top of the research building, into the elevator and down the hall; Rainbow wasn’t sure what, if anything, Penny could still feel, but there was no reason not to be gentle with her. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to avoid the bumps getting the stretcher into and out of the lift.
But they were here now, and now, they could finally unzip the black bag and, together, lift Penny out of said bag and off the gurney and place her on the high-tech examination table. Said table sat in the centre of the lab and had all kinds of scanners and stuff built into it. It was solid and grey, and the surface was white right now, though it would change soon enough once it got turned on.
Penny was completely still. She had been disconnected from the computer and from any drone, so she couldn’t speak. It was all kinds of unfortunate that they’d had to stuff her up in that bag, because she looked… kind of dead already. It was only the light in her eyes that stopped from looking like a corpse.
At least there are no injuries to cover up because they’re too upsetting to look at.
Twilight followed Rainbow and Ciel inside, pushing the second stretcher with the disconnected blades of Floating Array laid out upon it.
The lab to which they had brought Penny and her weapons was cold, grey, and metallic, with the only spots of subdued colour coming from the computer monitors that lined four out of the six walls of the hexagonal chamber. The lighting was subdued, leaving Doctor Polendina in his pristine white lab coat to stand out all the more in the room. His stare was more like a glare as the two huntresses and Twilight brought in Penny in all her pieces.
Rainbow and Ciel both stood to attention. Although Doctor Polendina wasn’t an officer, he was a senior member of the R&D division and was entitled to respect on that basis.
For now.
Twilight didn’t stand to attention; she’d been a part of Doctor Polendina’s team working on Penny, so he knew that she wasn’t any kind of huntress and wouldn’t expect her to act like one. Instead, she crossed the room to stand by Moondancer, the only one of Doctor Polendina’s assistants who was here today, where she lurked in the corner.
“Team Rosepetal reporting, sir,” Rainbow said.
Doctor Polendina glowered as he made his way over to the examining table. “Penny. Oh, Penny, what have they done to you?” He glowered at Rainbow Dash. “What have you done to her?”
“Doctor, this isn’t Rainbow Dash’s fault,” Twilight murmured.
Doctor Polendina ignored her. “Are you the team leader?”
Rainbow’s face was without expression. “Yes, sir, I am.”
“Then this is your fault,” Doctor Polendina said. “Your job is to protect my daughter; that is your only job! How could you let this happen?”
“My report-”
“I have already read your damn report; I know what happened!” Doctor Polendina snapped. “I want to know why you let it?”
“Sir-” Ciel began.
“Quiet! I’m not interested in what you have to say, I don’t even know who you are, I’m talking to the leader, not the…” He waved one hand dismissively. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I made a decision,” Rainbow said, her voice even. “That decision turned out to be… a mistake.”
“'A mistake'? A mistake is an understatement. Your orders were to keep my daughter safe!” Doctor Polendina yelled. “If you can’t do that, then I will see you tossed out on your ass and find someone who can do the job they were selected for! That goes for both of you.”
“This isn’t Cadet Soleil’s fault, sir,” Rainbow said. “She followed my orders and performed her duties to the best of her abilities-”
Doctor Polendina held up one hand to silence her. “You,” he said, snapping his fingers at Ciel. “Are you alive?”
Ciel blinked. “Sir?”
“It’s a simple question,” Doctor Polendina declared impatiently. “Are you alive, or am I talking to a ghost?”
What kind of question is that? Rainbow thought.
“I am alive, sir,” Ciel said.
“Then you didn’t do everything you could,” Doctor Polendina growled.
Twilight gasped. “Doctor?!”
“Sir!” Rainbow cried. “I must protest. That’s out of line!”
“'Out of line'?” Doctor Polendina repeated incredulously. “You bring my daughter home broken, and you tell me that I am out of line? You do not have the right to tell me what is or is not out of line in my own laboratory!” He turned away, his lab coat swirling behind him. “Twilight, it’s good to see you again.”
Twilight nodded. “Likewise, Doctor.”
“The lab has been a little less bright in your absence,” Doctor Polendina said. “I’ve been starved of intellectual conversation.”
Twilight let out a slightly nervous laugh, even as she kind of turned away from Doctor Polendina so that she was half-facing Moondancer instead. “That’s very kind of you to say, Doctor, but I’m sure that Moondancer-“
“Doesn’t come out of her shell as much when you’re not around, do you, Moondancer?” Doctor Polendina said. “She shuffles about, does what I instruct her, answers my questions, but she doesn’t think for herself. You must learn to think for yourself, Moondancer! A good scientist must be an iconoclast, and a good iconoclast must be courageous!”
“Yes, Doctor,” Moondancer murmured, her head bowed and her shoulders hunched.
Moondancer Crescent had the pale complexion of someone who didn’t get out in the sun very often; her purple eyes were framed by a pair of glasses rounder than Twilight’s spectacles but with thicker rims; they’d broken at the bridge and been stuck back together with so much white tape, the original bridge was invisible. Her hair was mainly auburn but with a streak of lavender and purple going straight down the centre, lining up perfectly between her eyes. Her lab coat was half-open, revealing underneath a badly-fitting dark grey sweater that was starting to shed fluff like a cat.
She glanced at Twilight. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered.
Twilight smiled with one corner of her mouth, making it look as nervous as it was encouraging.
“Moondancer, would you mind putting those swords on the workbench on the right, please?” Doctor Polendina said. “We won’t start any work until I’ve completed my examination and analysis of Penny.”
“Of course, Doctor,” Moondancer said as she left Twilight’s side and crossed the lab to where Twilight had left the gurney with the swords on it. She didn’t look at either Rainbow or Ciel, but calmly moved the swords from the gurney onto the workbench as quickly and efficiently as she could.
“Thank you,” Doctor Polendina said. He stood over Penny, looking down upon her while Penny had no choice but to look up at him, paralysed as she was.
“Unacceptable,” he said, shaking his head so that his hair flew from side to side behind him. “Absolutely unacceptable. You should be better than this, Penny, and you…” He rounded upon Rainbow and Ciel. “I trusted you with Penny because I was told that you could be trusted! Ironwood assured me that…” He paused, running both his hands through his hair. “Do you have any idea what Penny is?”
“Yes, sir,” Rainbow said quietly.
“No,” Doctor Polendina said. “You don’t. How could you? How could either of you?” He looked at Twilight. “I’m a little disappointed in you, Twilight; I thought you understood.”
“Twilight wasn’t there, sir,” Rainbow informed him. “As my report states.”
“Ah, yes, yes, I remember now,” Doctor Polendina said, “Twilight, you remained behind, didn’t you, that was very wise. Perhaps the only sensible decision in this whole wretched endeavour.”
“Doctor,” Twilight said timorously. She clasped her hands together over her chest, dry-washing them as she spoke. “Are you… how are you feeling?”
Doctor Polendina sighed. “Angry. Distressed. My daughter is lying on my table in this state; how do you think I feel?”
“Have…?” Twilight trailed off. She licked her lips. “I’m sorry to ask—”
“You want to know if I’ve been taking the pills?” Doctor Polendina suggested. “If that’s what you mean to ask, Twilight, then just spit it out, don’t stand there stammering. Courage, Twilight!”
“Yes, Doctor,” Twilight said softly. “So, have you been taking your medication?”
“The pills dull my mind, you know that,” Doctor Polendina said. “It’s bad enough that I have to be reminded of something I read a few days ago, but…”
He began to walk away from Penny, approaching a desk which sat, laden with paperwork, towards the back of the lab. And as he walked towards it, Doctor Polendina began to speak quietly to himself. “Sinusoidal signals and responses to them of a linear system are the basis of acoustic systems. This introduction gives a brief summary of mathematical expressions for sinusoidal functions that develop the basic… develop the basic… come on, I read this when I was a graduate student, and I’ve been able to recall every word of it ever since. This introduction gives a brief summary of mathematical expressions for sinusoidal functions that develop the basic… the basic…”
He let out a wordless growl of frustration as he flung out his hands, sweeping the papers off the desk and flinging them across the room, engulfing the lab in a flurry of white sheets as if it had been caught in a sudden heavy snowfall. Anything heavier than paper crashed to the floor with clangs and bangs and clatters.
“Doctor!” Twilight cried.
Doctor Polendina leaned upon the suddenly empty desk with both hands. “I… I’m dying,” he announced.
Rainbow glanced at Ciel. It was clear from the widening of her eyes and the way that her mouth was slightly open that this was as much a shock to Ciel as it was to Rainbow Dash. “I… we didn’t know that, sir,” Rainbow murmured. “General Ironwood didn’t-”
“I haven’t told General Ironwood,” Doctor Polendina said. “If I told him, if I told my colleagues, if I told the Director of Research and Development, I’d be put on leave, told to go home, get some rest, put my affairs in order. Prioritise my wellbeing. Take care of myself.” He spat those last two statements as though the sentiments that they contained were worthless — or worse, actively insulting.
“Doctor, you shouldn’t be so pessimistic,” Moondancer murmured. “The experimental treatments—”
“Are just that, experimental, unproven—”
“'A good scientist must be an iconoclast,'” Twilight said softly.
Doctor Polendina laughed. “Very good, Twilight. An iconoclast indeed, and courageous; that’s why I’m submitting myself to an ever-growing list of quackery and unreviewed research, but…” He paused for a moment. “I do not seek death. I will not submit to its embrace lightly, but nor will I live in denial about my chances any more than I will go home and spend what could be my last days pottering about like a race horse put out to pasture. I have dedicated my life to the greatness of Atlas, and I will continue to do so as long as I am… as long as I am alive. That is why I am keeping my condition a secret. Aside from my personal physician and his team, the only people who know are my brother Pietro, Twilight, and Moondancer. And now, the two of you.”
“The three of us,” Rainbow said. “Penny can’t speak, but she can hear everything.” Rainbow glanced at Penny, where she lay on the table. It was probably all in her head, but she almost thought that if Penny could speak, she would be screaming right now.
Doctor Polendina looked around. He looked as surprised to be told that Penny could hear him as Rainbow had been surprised to hear that Penny was dying. “Penny, I… I thought you’d put her to sleep. Twilight, why didn’t you put her to sleep?”
“There didn’t seem a need, Doctor,” Twilight said.
“No need? What need was there to keep her awake so that she could hear everything?”
“I don’t like turning her off, Doctor,” Twilight said, her voice rising. “I don’t like the fact that we can switch off a person by command, even with her consent. And in her present state, we can’t ask for her consent. And besides, Penny preferred being awake. I hooked her up to a computer on the Hope so that we could talk on the way back and connected her sensors to a drone so that she could watch the final approach to Atlas. Penny preferred that to being shut down for days.”
Doctor Polendina was silent for a moment. “I see,” he said quietly. “You … you are a good girl, Twilight, kind and considerate; Penny is… Penny will be lucky to have you.”
Twilight looked away from him. “Doctor, I really think that you should take your medication.”
Doctor Polendina shook his head. “I need to be able to think. It’s bad enough that my memory is slipping away from me, but when I take the pills, it’s like a fog has come down over my mind. I… I don’t need a stable temperament to work on Penny, I need my intellect at its fullest… and I need your help, both of you, especially as I start to… I need you to pick up my mistakes and anything that I might miss, and I need you to bear with my moods, even if that’s difficult. Can you do that, Twilight? I need you to do that, and so does Penny.”
Twilight hesitated for a moment. “Of course, Doctor.”
“Sir…” Ciel began. “Why are you telling us this?”
“Because, since I appear to be stuck with the both of you, at least until the Vytal Festival is over, I need you both to understand,” Doctor Polendina said. “Penny is more than just my creation, more than just my daughter, more than just a soldier or a weapon; Penny is... Penny is the last and greatest gift that I will ever bestow upon the Kingdom of Atlas. Penny is my legacy, she is that for which I will be remembered and that which will benefit this kingdom long after I am gone, Penny is… Penny is everything.”
And what if she doesn’t want to be? Rainbow wondered.
Doctor Polendina went on. “I have always been glad to serve this kingdom. Atlas is… Atlas is a light of knowledge and science and progress amidst a world which is still awash with backwards ideas and nonsensical traditions. In Mistral, they cling to their past because they know in their heart of hearts that they have no future worth speaking of; in Vale, they haver between a past that is gone beyond recall and a future they fear for its uncertainty, shuffling awkwardly between both, taking one step forward and two steps back; in Vacuo, barbarians dwell amidst sandy wastelands, scavenging for scraps and scraping for water in the dirt. Only here in Atlas do we embrace the true gods of knowledge and reason. Only here in Atlas do we truly move forward, not only for ourselves, but for all others who share in the gifts that we bestow, like… like angels in the old myths. I am proud of all the good that we have done, and of the contributions that my work has made towards that good, but none of it compares to Penny. Yes, the circumstances of her creation make her difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce; yes, my vision was circumscribed by time and budgetary limitations; yes, if I had unlimited resources, I would do things differently, but what I did… what I did was to not just create life itself, but life imbued with capability and purpose from the outset. Penny carries my name, and so long as that name lasts, then I will be remembered long after I am gone. She is the culmination of everything that I have done, all my research and my experimentation, all the years spent learning my craft, refining my skills, testing my ideas, it has all led to this. To her.
“That is why Penny cannot fail. That is why I will not allow Penny to fail. That is why you cannot allow Penny to fail. That is why the Vytal Festival is so… so vital; I need the world to see Penny for the wonder that she is, I… I need it.”
“And what about her, sir?” Rainbow asked. “Have you talked to her about any of this?”
Doctor Polendina straightened up and looked at Rainbow Dash. “What do you mean?”
“I mean you’ve got some big plans,” Rainbow said. “What if they aren’t what she wants?”
“This is what she was created for,” Doctor Polendina declared.
“But… she’s a person, sir,” Twilight reminded him. “She has aura, a soul, free will. She isn’t just an instrument of… of our will.”
“What are you saying, Twilight?”
“Twilight’s asking whether this is what Penny wants, sir,” Rainbow said.
“I’m suggesting that we ought to consider it,” Twilight suggested, modifying Rainbow’s language somewhat.
“To what end?” Doctor Polendina demanded. “So that if Penny wants to do something other than that for which I created her, she should be allowed to? Twilight, you have a… you have a sister, don’t you?”
“A brother, Doctor,” Twilight said. “I have an older brother.”
“Older, yes, older brother,” Doctor Polendina muttered. “Moondancer, do you have any siblings?”
“No, Doctor.”
“What about you, Crash?”
“Dash, sir, and no.” She didn’t want to talk about Scootaloo with Doctor Polendina, at least not before she was clear why he was asking.
“You?”
“Yes, sir,” Ciel said. “I have six younger brothers.”
“Younger brothers, yes, good, and suppose that one of your younger brothers no longer wished to apply himself to the limits of his potential, suppose that he wished to waste his life and the treasure of his time in idleness and frivolity, would you allow it? Would you let it pass because it was what he wanted? Would you observe it without comment?”
“No, sir,” Ciel admitted. “Not without comment. My comments would range from disapproving to… fiercely disapproving, depending on the exact nature of the behaviour involved, the company kept, the place concerned. I would prefer to see my brothers become virtuous and upstanding citizens.”
“Precisely! You have some rudiments of sense after all!” Doctor Polendina proclaimed. “Just because something is wanted does not mean that it is desirable, just because Penny does not want what she was made to do doesn’t mean that she should be allowed to do something else just because she wants it. I have a brother, Pietro, a mind almost as sharp as my own, talents almost my equal, so much ability to do good for Atlas, but what does he do? He lives in Mantle, in Mantle, down in the dirt, fitting prosthetics to mine workers. Anyone could do that! A fourth-year medical student could do that; you could program robots to do that! All the things that only Pietro can do, all the things that only his intellect could conceive, all wasted and for what? Forget for a moment the vast sums of lien that have been spent to make Penny a reality, I will not see her gifts thrown away like my brother's, not while I have the power to see it otherwise.”
Rainbow took a deep breath. “Penny… Penny doesn’t belong to you, sir,” she declared. “Nor to any of us. Only to herself.”
“Penny belongs to Atlas,” Doctor Polendina replied. “As do you, so long as you wear that uniform.”
“I can choose to take the uniform off if I want to.”
“Good for you; I can arrange it very easily if that’s what you desire,” Doctor Polendina said sharply. “But Penny, thank goodness, does not have that option. Though this city is full of wasters forgetful of the debt they owe to the kingdom that has nurtured and protected them, I will not have Penny join their number. What was she doing in Mountain Glenn?”
“Huh?” Rainbow said, thrown by the sudden change of subject.
“What was she doing in Mountain Glenn?” Doctor Polendina repeated. “What were any of you doing in Mountain Glenn? That was in no way a suitable mission for Penny or for students at all.”
Rainbow glanced at Ciel. “That’s… classified, sir.”
Doctor Polendina folded his arms. “Don’t play games with me; I have vermillion-level clearance.”
Rainbow swallowed. “And this information is classified beyond vermillion. And General Ironwood will confirm that.”
Doctor Polendina looked down at her in silence. “You’re dismissed,” he said, as he turned away. “I have work to do.”
“Yes, sir,” Rainbow said. She glanced at Penny and mouthed ‘we’ll be back’ to her, before she and Ciel turned away and marched out of the laboratory.
Rainbow didn’t say another word as they walked down the corridor back the way they had come, ignored by the scientists in lab coats passing this way or that, until they reached the elevator, which was empty until they stepped inside.
She pressed the button for the roof, where their airship was waiting.
Only once the doors closed, and the lift began to move smoothly up the building, did Rainbow say anything.
With her arms folded, standing on the other side of the car from Ciel, she said, “You could have backed me up a little bit there.”
Ciel kept her eyes fixed straight ahead of her. “Doctor Polendina made a rather compelling analogy,” she said.
Rainbow’s eyebrows rose. “You think?”
“Doctor Pietro Polendina does waste his talents,” Ciel sniffed.
Rainbow frowned. “Do you think the people with the prosthetic arms feel that way?”
“As Doctor Polendina said, many less talented could perform such routine work.”
“Maybe they could,” Rainbow allowed. “But they aren’t.”
Ciel glanced at her. “Since when did you start sounding like a Happy Huntress?”
“Hey!” Rainbow snapped. “Do not lump me in with the Happy Huntresses or anything like that; I am nothing like Robyn Hill! I’m just saying that… look, there are places in the kingdom that are pretty deprived, and where if someone were to come in offering to make your life a little better, you probably don’t ask if that’s the best use of their talents. You’re just glad that someone showed up.”
Ciel was silent for a moment. “I suppose you have a point. However, it does not detract from Doctor Polendina’s larger point. If one of my brothers sought to take a crooked or unworthy path, I would do all I could to dissuade them.”
“Would you force them to do something they didn’t want to do?”
Ciel snorted. “I will not suffer disapproval upon this point from you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that you are the most controlling person I know,” Ciel declared.
Rainbow made a wordless sound of outrage. “What? What are you talking about?”
Ciel gave Rainbow a sideways glance. “Would you be happy to see your friends become huntresses?”
Rainbow’s mouth opened, and then closed again silently. When she opened it again after that, she was able to get words out, “That is completely different.”
“Is it indeed,” Ciel murmured.
“Yes!” Rainbow snapped. “I never sat down any of my friends and told them that they had to do a certain thing with their lives, I never called them ‘my legacy,’ I never talked about them like the most important thing about them was how it reflected on me, and I certainly never acted like I owned them! Yes, okay, I would ‘do all I could to dissuade’ Pinkie or Rarity from becoming huntresses, because guess what, you can die doing this; if you’re not strong enough, or fast enough, if you don’t know what you’re doing, or if you don’t have the right attitude, then you can die. But I would never, ever force any friend of mine to do something that they didn’t want to do because it would make me look good.”
“Do we not each have a task?” Ciel asked. “What is Penny’s, but to serve Atlas? It is literally what she was created to do, at vast expense.”
“But what about what Penny wants; don’t you care about that?”
“Of course I care!” Ciel snapped, rounding on Rainbow. “Do not dare suggest otherwise. I care as much as if Penny were of my own blood, but… we must confine our wishes within the limits of the world in which we live. If one of my brothers wished for a pair of wings to sprout from his back, I could not give them to him with the strength of my affections. If Penny were my sister out of my mother’s womb, I would give full weight to her desires, limited only by what was right and proper and due concern for her reputation, but it is not so. Penny is not… she is not ours to do with as we will.”
“Nobody owns Penny.”
“Her father does, and so does Atlas.”
“And that doesn’t bother you?” Rainbow asked. “When Twilight asked me if we were making a slave, I didn’t buy it, but now… how is that not exactly what we’ve done? How is that not exactly what she is?”
“I would think a faunus would have more care not to diminish the horrors of real slavery,” Ciel said. “If this is slavery, it is more comfortable than the most comfortable lies that ever the slave-owners of Mistral spun about the condition of the faunus.”
“But she isn’t free,” Rainbow said.
Ciel frowned. “Perhaps not,” she allowed. “But we cannot make her so. Therefore, if we love her, then our best course is to not encourage her to dream beyond the realms of possibility, but to accommodate herself and find such happiness as she may within realistic limits, as we all must. There comes a time when we must all put aside childish wishing and set our sights on what we know can be. And we will serve Penny better by remembering that than by throwing futile tantrums that her condition is not as we would like.”
“So you don’t like it.”
Ciel was silent for a moment. “There is nothing to be done.”
Really? Rainbow thought. We’ll see about that.
But first, we have to see what Penny actually wants.
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Penny: "Parents are just... THE WORST."
"
Pyrrha: "Preach it?
Jaune: "AMEN, SISTERS! REJOICE IN THE SEVERING OF PARENTAL BONDS! GROW FORTH, AND BECOME MORE THAN THEIR SELF-CENTERED VISION FOR OTHERS! GROW! GROW AS A--And now I've done it again, haven't I?"
Wow, Penny’s father is an ass.
Though I would laugh if Rooster Teeth’ version of Penny’s creator, should they ever meet him, has a similar personality. But the whole “Frankenstein” like touch with the goal to achieve perfection is quite interesting.
How did such a sweet android like Penny come from such an ass? Than again, Data's dad wasn't much better, his mom was cool though.
Wow. A brilliant mind and a progressive thinker open to new possiblities and ideas. More importantly, he's quite harsh... but also not fundamentally cruel. This is a very in-depth character design, well done.
Even so, it just occurred to me that Ironwood chose to welcome Twilight into the circle over Penny's father.
......Well.
*Leans back*
What a dick.
well, this version of Doctor Polendina is about what I'd expect of the general mood and attitudes of Atlas.
Ouch. Dr. Polendina, for all his brilliance, is rather close-minded and short-sighted. Simply making a combat android didn't require making them look and act human. What's the point of giving Penny free will if she's not meant to use it?
9581458
Because, I wager to think, Sci-Twi proved to be able to balance her genius with humanity, while Poledina's eyes are practically telescopes...
9581517
He wanted a puppet where he could project his desires to be a father, the MegaMan version was optional until he realized he could not afford her on his own...
9582147
Is it really anything new though? For a parent to go you're free to choose what to do as long as it's stuff I approve of?
This is how rogue AI are created
Now that we're in Atlas, I have to wonder if Jacques Schnee ran Filthy Rich out of business.
Also, if Blake is in Atlas... will she run into Principal Celestia?! She probably might freak out!
9581382
Where does Jaune fit into this? Wouldn't Weiss be more suitable?
9586256
Jaune's family... is rather smothering, and wanted to drive him away from being a Huntsman as well. Sure, some of his sisters were willing to support him, but...
And Weiss is a bit too... socialite for going full Baptist Hellfire exaggerated.
9586272
I guess you're right.
So we at least 4 members in the parent problems club.
And Penny and Weiss are the only members of the Daddy issues club.
Are there anyone else who can join? Maybe Blake?
Doctor Japeth Polendina is a brilliant scientist I will give him that, however he has no business dictating battle protocol. Soldiers need friends, people they can trust to have their back and not stab them in it. A lone soldier with limited options no matter how powerful will likely be killed. When a skilled veteran in battle offers advice on improvements it would be a good idea to listen.
why wasn't "The Watts Engine" chapter uploaded yet?
9581517
I think... I think he wants to create a new species to replace humans. in this respect he makes a great foil for Dr. Merlot.
9586864
The one person closer to the soldier than family...is the soldier right next to them.
Others have said it before, but Dr. Polendina's a jerk.
To put it more eloquently, he's written well, and not just because his views are to be expected from an Atlesian scientist who's working for the military, but also as a foil for Princess Celestia. They both sent their prodigy to a more casual city than they were from so they could grow as an individual. He's also a foil for Princess Twilight, because many of his opinions on friendship match Twilight's own before she moved to Ponyville: striving for perfection, and having friends distracts from that goal.
9586272
I'm not so sure they tried driving him away from being a Huntsman as much as they didn't think he could handle it at the time. That also fits better with Jaune's motivation to prove his worth to himself and others.
Wow...just wow... Dr. Polendina...people like him are exactly the reason Atlas has so many people that view it as the center of moral bankruptcy and corruption. not to mention, his highly concentrated elitist attitude makes me want to break something...
Dr. Polendina: "What father takes parenting advice from a teenager?"
anyone with a shred of empathy: not nearly enough...
this right here, gives me the impression that, for all his so called "parental wisdom", he doesn't view her as anything but a piece of equipment to be used against the grimm and fuel his own ego and reputation. he doesn't love her at all.
I know I’m super late to this, but I need to give my 2 cents. I love the little subversion that people in the military (And everyone else) seem to truly care about penny despite technically just being property and her father is the one that sees her as a tool. I’m just saying most stories do the opposite.
(Also How are huntsmen and women ranked compared to actual military? Are they like mercenaries?)
This guy doesn't truly understand what he created, he had created a living thinking machine with a soul. With feelings and emotions with free will, what happens when this army of robotic huntresses that have replaced the normal ones decide they don't wish to obey you anymore. That they want to be free, imagine thousands of furious angry mechanical huntresses that want for blood. We can see what Penny can do, take that but amplify one thousand fold.
That man may be brilliant, but he's a fool. Through and through. He can't see what standing in front of him.
This chapter was hard to read. Considering the events of RWBY volume 7, though I know that the story was already AU. It’s just hard to read Doctor Polendina acting the opposite of canon, not in small part because I like him in canon.
Jeez, it was really hard to read, especially for me a person that first watched Season 7. Pietro's such a kind a loving man, such a stark contrast.
When this chapter gets rewritten, I wonder if the Canon version of Dr. Polindina (and how Penny was created) will be incorporated, and if so, how those changes might alter the story going forward?
Oh yes, Ciel. Heaven forbid that the miners are still able to mine the precious Dust for you and Atlas. Never mind that your uniform means that you are supposed to consider the lives of Atlas and Mantle you are sworn to protect as sacred.
But yes, you are indeed absolutely correct about one thing. Any decent medical student could do Pietro’s work, they can even program robots to treat the miners. So… why don’t they? Because as Dr. Poledina makes clear, helping miners and the people of Mantle would be a black mark on your prestigious record. So the fact that Pietro does it anyway just means that he’s a better person than any of them.
After all, the people are the true legacy of any nation. The greatest legacy of all.
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Ciel is a elitist atlas-centric bitch.
This is the kind of things which make me not liking Atlas.
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More like narrow-minded if you ask me.
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Well, to be completely fair her elitism, even the "parents own the children", is textbook Mistral nobility. The only difference is that she believes that the kingdom should be the highest priority, while Mistralian nobles think they are the highest priority.
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I get where Ciel is coming from in regards of wanting to be a big sister. She wants her little brothers to grow up and be great people... and she would greatly disapprove if they were doing something unethical or unlawful when they could be so much better then that. The problem is that, much like Professor Polendina, she has something of an elitist view of where values lie.
As for Professor Polendina himself... I don't believe he is a bad man. He didn't intentionally insult Moondancer as much as he believes she is intelligent and worthy of being a scientist, but her natural timid shyness is a problem that she needs to rid herself of to truly be great. I believe the issue is more that he stressed due to a number of things and thus he is growing a bit more... short sighted then he might normally be. When you value the mind so highly, having your own start to slip away is a terrible thing to endure. There is also the fact that Penny, his daughter who I earnestly believe he does care for, is clearly in critical condition.
There is another factor that needs to be considered with Penny that I don't believe anyone but Professor Polendina has... and that is that Penny is the prototype. Penny is the first truly sentient android created on Remnant; It sounds like the Professor didn't want her to be a combat android, but that was the only way to get the resources and funding to make her. In order for more funding and resources to be offered in order to create future sentient, free willed androids, Penny has to be successful. Yes she cost a lot, but she was the prototype; Once you start making something you can refine the process as most of the time and effort on the prototype is trial and error, figuring out how to make it work. However, if she is deemed a failure by Atlas, then they aren't going to produce other androids like Penny.
I wonder if it’s deliberate that Japeth sounds vaguely like Gepetto?
Damn. Good job, Jepeth. Way to show your 'daughter' how much you care about her as a person. I do not think any amount of words can savage this.
Ok so if it's slavery for Atlas then it's not that bad, good to know.
Ciel I know you want to minimize the situation because you feel like you can't do anything about it, but all one needs to do is think things to their obvious conclusions. What starts happening to Penny if she says she doesn't want to do something, or worse if she tries to escape. We've already seen somewhat of that happen when she came to Vale by herself, you guys were to track her down and bring her back. The moment she starts to refuse to do as she's told or actually tries to leave we'll see if she stays "comfortable."
I hate to insult a dying man (however fictional) but...
Wow, what an elitist prick! His brother Pietro is 100x a better man, so humble and caring. And this guy has the audacity to think and say that if someone is not living to their full potential, they're absolutely wasteful? Pathetic...