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You had always been treated as something of a black sheep among the rest of your siblings because of this. Your unerring focus on machinery hadn't really won you many friends among your elder half-siblings. You had always been interested in computers, even before what happened to Nunally, but after you saw what happened to her, and how the culprit was never caught, your interest became an obsession. Day after day you taught yourself everything there was to know about computers. Euphemia would sometimes come along and tell you to remember to eat, whereas Cornelia would drag you to dinner by force. But... your constant delving into the Pendragon security systems uncovered a vulnerability, and you pried into that vulnerability over and over again until you had gained access to the most secure files and systems of the palace, including the prototype AI: M.E.R.L.I.N as well a corrupted video file that had a creation-time of the hour in which Marianne and Nunally were gunned down. From there, you knew what you had to do. You thought back to how you ended up hiding in the back of the Transport Plane waiting for it to return to Pendragon's main airport's military section, where you would then switch to another plane in order to get to the country you wanted to get to. The country where Nunally and Lelouch were sent and likely died. Japan. Their bodies had never been found, but that meant very little. The Japanese leadership probably killed Lelouch and Nunally out of spite and hid the bodies.

Weeks of preparation had led to this moment. A virus you designed would keep the palace too busy to notice you were gone, and by the time they managed to get things back on track, you would be long gone. With the only copy of M.E.R.L.I.N as well as the corrupted file on the high-capacity datastick, you ran. You'd have never been able to sneak aboard the Transport Plane that arrived in Pendragon were it not for the distraction.

Your short legs didn't exactly carry you very quickly as you ran to a window that you had determined to be your best route to the palace airstrip. The airstrip was famous for being used in Britannian formal occasions, but as Pendragon was a logistical nightmare, the palace required a Transport Plane to deliver resources to it, and the huge aisle that was known for occasions such as Royal Weddings and Coronations was occasionally used as a landing strip.

Despite the chaos in the palace itself, you had ensured that the virus would force the palace systems to grant all requests for clearance received from the Transport Plane. You breathed a sigh of relief when the plane finally took off towards the airport, and you thought in that moment that you were home free.

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The next step of your plan went smoothly, and you managed to slip onto the plane you had wanted. It was a military cargo plane, but nobody was paying any attention to invaders from within the plane itself. The base was on high alert for an outside attack, so you managed to slip on to one of the unattended cargo planes bound for Area 11. That was when things started to fall apart.

A loud gunshot was followed by an explosion that rocked the aircraft, and you immediately leapt to your feet as the dimly lit cargo bay of the plane was suddenly illuminated in a soft red glow as the emergency systems began blaring alarms. A terrorist attack?! You didn't speak, not wanting to reveal your location on the off-chance that the plane was still able to land successfully. You slowly moved towards one of the windows, immediately you saw the source of the loud noise, one of the engines had been devastated by some sort of explosion, and you started to panic. This wasn't a terrorist attack. You were still flying over the pacific ocean. This was a sabotage. No... could you have been found out!? There's no way! Your plan was flawless!

The plane started to tilt to one side and you realized to your horror that the pilot's door was open, as was an exterior door. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! You raced to the front of the cargo plane, realizing now that there was no need to be careful with the soldier having abandoned the aircraft already. You quickly made your way into the cockpit and looked at the hundreds of switches and buttons on the control panel. "W-what am I supposed to do?!" You knew that you were probably going to die, but you weren't going to give up. You took hold of a control stick and tried to pitch the aircraft upwards, only to find it completely locked in place. "No! I'm... I'm not going to die!" You bemoaned your fate as tears began to well up in your eyes.

"That's right, you're not going to die, Sebastian." A female voice behind you suddenly made you nearly jump out of your skin, and you turned to face the woman. She was a beautiful green haired girl, around sixteen years old in appearance. She was wearing the outfit of a pilot, and... for some reason, the right side of her face was covered in blood, the blood took away from her natural beauty, but you ignored it. She must've just hit her head when the plane was rocked.

"What do you mean!?" You tried to remain in control of yourself as you demanded an answer from the woman, who simply grabbed your wrist, and immediately your vision was taken from you, instead replaced by a psychedelic show of lights as you were cut off from the world around you.

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"You don't want it to end here, do you? You have too much you need to do, don't you?" Her voice echoed in your head. W-what's going on? "If you were to be granted power, could you go on?" What is she talking about? "In exchange for this, you must agree to make my one wish come true. If you accept this contract, you accept this condition." All sorts of imagery flash before your eyes. That girl, dozens of girls with an odd symbol emblazoned upon their forehead. "You will live a life unlike any other, of a different providence. The power of a King will condemn you to a life of solitude. Do you accept?" You waited for a moment, knowing that despite the insanity of this whole situation, the girl spoke truly.

"Yes! I... I accept!" You yelled, and you felt a new power suffuse into your body. Gears turning in your mind as it did.

You took deep breathes as you looked at the girl again for a moment before you looked out at the ocean beneath you. The plane had started to tilt downwards, and you knew you didn't have much time. You willed the power in your right eye to activate, and spoke. "I Sebastian li Britannia, command you! Machine! Obey me!" You grasped the control stick of the plane once more and it seemed as if the electrical impulses from your mind were interacting with the plane itself! You had... You had full control of the remaining systems!

-Present Day-
-7:30AM August 10th, 2017-

"Bastian!" You heard your name being called from downstairs as you looked at yourself in a mirror. You hated having to dye your hair and wear these ridiculous blue colored contact lenses, but... it did help to keep your identity a secret. You were Bastian Ashford, the younger cousin of Milly Ashford who lived in a property away from town. Around your neck was a datastick you wore at all times, even when you slept. After you managed to successfully crash land the plane 6 years ago, you woke up in a private hospital bed. The green haired girl having vanished without a trace. You had actually managed to arrange for the Ashford family to shelter you while you attempted to 'uncover the fates of the two children of Lady Marianne.' It was no secret that the Ashford family were always great supporters of Lady Marianne. It did come as quite a shock when they had agreed as easily as they did despite your young age. You also found it odd that you were given a place to stay in a property that was outside of the city itself. Of course, that suited you just fine, as you were basically given the run of the place, with only one of the Ashford maids, Elizabeth, to watch you. Still, there wasn't much in the way of computer processing power in this place, so in six long years, you had made zero progress on M.E.R.L.I.N or working on a way to uncorrupt the video file.

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The voice calling you however today was not Elizabeth, but Milly herself. She came to visit once a week to make sure that things were going well with your study, but today was a day you really weren't looking forwards to. The Ashford Academy Uniform was really something you could've done without having to wear, but...

The door opened, and Milly burst in. "There you are, little cousin! All dressed up and ready for your big day!" Your altogether overbearing 'cousin' had shown herself, and you frowned at her.

"Milly. I'm sixteen. You don't have to treat me like I'm a child." You told her in no uncertain terms, but it wouldn't reach her. Barely anything ever did when she was like this. "Honestly, I don't even understand why you're making me wear this or go to school in the first place. I'd bet you two hundred pounds that I score the highest on the annual assessment tests."

"It's... not about your education, Bastian. I... remember how you told my father that you were looking for Lelouch and Nunally all those years ago?" You nodded, and she continued. "Well... why exactly were you looking for them, anyway?"

>"So I could help Lelouch find out who killed his mother."
>"So I could have them return to Britannia."
>"Because I might have information that could reveal who killed his mother."
>"Because I missed Nunally, and didn't want to believe she was gone."
>Something Else?

I'm feeling it's almost like the start of
>Lulu route
>neutral/Britannian loyalist route
>Milly route
>Nunally route

Based on the options. Decisions decisions

Yo, W.IZ.A.R.D, as players are we working with series metaknowledge? Because pretty much everyone has watched Code Geass.

Also, me thinks Sebastian here just accidentally got on C.C's plane and wasn't personally targeted here, but he seems like a proper paranoid schizophrenic despite his hackerman computing skills.

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>>4965539
>>"Because I missed Nunally, and didn't want to believe she was gone."
Letting us on best girl route early, as Wizardman?

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>>4965570
I suppose you can use a little bit of Metaknowledge, so long as you have at least some justification for making Sebastian think that way.
Just try not to rely on it as a crutch, OK?

>>4965576
So... then, seeing as they have shared interests...

>technoautist going to ashford

Time to befriend table-chan and get access to the F.L.E.I.J.A

>>4965539
>"Because I might have information that could reveal who killed his mother."

I'm gonna vote for confiding in Milly, because if Bastian is really this much of a schizo it'd probably be healthy to have an onee-san figure to reign him in when need be, and have someone he can trust and confide in.

>>4965539
>"Because I missed Nunally, and didn't want to believe she was gone."

>>4965539
>"I... I don't know anymore."

>>4965580
Support

Also QM how powerfull of an AI is Merlin suposed to be, thinking ahead of time about the terror that is AI knightmares

>>4965627
M.E.R.L.I.N is a Military AI that was being created for the purpose of acting as a control system for a network of autonomously controlled military vehicles and defenses, including Knightmare Frames. You just have the raw data for it right now though, and you'll need basically a Super Computer for it to be able to run correctly as an Artificial Intelligence.
It's still got some bugs and work that needs to be done on it as well, but again, without extreme computing power, there's no real way to work on an AI.
You could always attempt to load it onto a network of lower powered computers, but Sebastian doesn't really have the resources for that right now either. Yet.
In Sebastian's assessment, it's highly likely that the Artificial Intelligence program had all of its funding cut as a result of their loss of the data to your hack.

>>4965539
>"So I could have them return to Britannia."
>"Because I missed Nunally, and didn't want to believe she was gone."

>>4965531
Came by to post these for you. I hope your quest succeeds and that you do not flake nor lose your passion for writing and kino.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_ECULM77fk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnLi6BURX8A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Ng1vJt0_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m0TAwVd71E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywSRv79lBrE

>>4965570
>Because pretty much everyone has watched Code Geass.
I haven't. I fell off around ep15 of season 1.

>>4965539
>"Because I might have information that could reveal who killed his mother."

>>4965746
It's time anon. You can binge the rest in one night. Geass is quintessential 4chan anime.

>>4965539
>"So I could help Lelouch find out who killed his mother."
I get the feeling we aren't going to get along with our dear older brother.
Also our Geass is machinery control?
That's pretty cool.

Might as well get this out of the way first.
We're going after CC as waifu, right?
I'd have liked Euphy, but judging from our middle name, she's our full-blood sister.
Is it time to go full Chris Redfield on Suzaku for Euphy?

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>>4965974
Euphy is too good for spinzaku. Lelouch can have CC, we're going for the best sister.

>>4965978
But incest is wrong, anon...

>>4965980
Says who?

>>4965981
Society as a whole.
Also Cornelia would break our legs.

>>4965986
We are Britannian Royalty. Society says what we tell it to say.
And Euphy can handle Cornelia. There's no need to worry about her at all.

>>4965978
This i'm going for nunally or euphie maybe both if we can. Incest is best.

>>4965989
>Nunally
How to get killed by Lelouch?
>>4965988
I'm pretty sure Euphie won't be into the whole "forbidden love" stuff.
Also I think we might have autism, so I doubt we're going to be charming our way into her pants.
>"Muh machines, Euphie"

>>4965989
>Incest is best.
Only people who don't have actual sisters say that.

>>4965995
Cousin incest is superior anyway.

>>4965994
>I'm pretty sure Euphie won't be into the whole "forbidden love" stuff.
How do you know that?
>Also I think we might have autism, so I doubt we're going to be charming our way into her pants.
Oh, we definitely have autism, but no one knows us better than her and she certainly finds it endearing. And if our autism is too much to charm anyone, then any talks about waifus are useless, don't you think?

>>4965997
So you're for Milly?

>>4965998
We just need to find somebody equally autistic.
Like CC.
Or Anya.
Idk, we've yet to see how our boy does in social situations.
Poorly, I'm going to guess.

>>4965999
Maybe.

>>4966001
Or we need somebody caring and social who will see past and help us with our autism. Like Euphy.

>>4966005
You're right.
Yaoi route with Lelouch.

>>4966007
Lelouch might actually be even more autistic than we are.

>>4966009
I don't know about that.
Lelouch is only autistic sometimes.

>>4966005
Or Shirley. Or someone used to this shit, like Cecile?
>>4966001
Nina?

>>4965539
>"Because I might have information that could reveal who killed his mother."
>>4965974
I think it is too early to think about romance options.
For all we know, we might end up running into Rakshata or Kaguya and working with them to achieve our goal. Easy way to get some funding and tech too.
Not sure how possible meeting CC again and romancing her or being sisterfucker are.
And Sebastian seems to be a guy who does not really care and thinks about romantic things and pursues.

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>>4966016
Cecile would be a good handler.
I wonder how assmad Lloyd is about getting hacked by a ten year old.

>>4966022
Now, imagine hacking him again and having Lancelot dance live on tv.

The very first prompt is not even resolved and already we have a waifu war. This has to be a record.

>>4966025
Poor Lloyd.
He just wants to make Knightmare Frames.
>>4966026
Code Geass is a wonderful thing.

I want more info about our geass desu.

>>4965539
>"Because I might have information that could reveal who killed his mother."

>>4966040
>Machine! Obey me!" You grasped the control stick of the plane once more and it seemed as if the electrical impulses from your mind were interacting with the plane itself! You had... You had full control of the remaining systems!
I assume it is ability to control machines? We should experiment and try to hack ATM or similar before attempting to do something more advance.

>>4966050
That's reasonable, yeah. Start by hacking ATMs and our school records, see how it goes.

>>4966051
Wonder how much Bastian has used it in six years.

Actually, depending on how our Geass works, couldn't it make us one of the best Knightmare Pilots?

>>4966076
Not sure why it'd make us one of the best, but it will probably allow us to be decent with zero training.

But speaking of knightmares, when (not if) we get into Britannian databases again, we'll be able to locate and steal the Gawain first and make better use of it than Lelouch ever could.

>>4966086
We also don't need activation keys.

>>4966040
Sebastian has done a little bit of research with it over the past 6 years, but in between his own pride in his skills with technology and a belief that it should only be used in dire situations, he's not used it as much as you might think.

What he has realized is...
>His eye cannot be covered by anything when he uses it. (Including colored lenses)
>He must be making physical contact with a mechanical or electricity controlled machine for it to take effect.
>When he is actively using his ability on something, he is unable to control his body properly and instead controls the machine through what he assumes are the electrical impulses of his mind, though he remains aware of things and can break the connection at any time.
>He can use the power multiple times on the same machine
>There seems to be a problem of scale, the power fails if he attempts to control something too large. (Anything larger than a plane is a problem, as are large computer networks.)

>"Because I missed Nunally, and didn't want to believe she was gone."
>>4965572
>>4965600

>"Because I might have information that could reveal who killed his mother."
>>4965580
>>4965770
>>4966021
>>4966042
>>4965627

>"So I could help Lelouch find out who killed his mother."
>>4965955

>"I... I don't know anymore."
>>4965616

>"So I could have them return to Britannia."
>"Because I missed Nunally, and didn't want to believe she was gone.
>>4965644

I believe that is everyone?

>>4965904
Oh. You're trolling. Nevermind.

>>4966183
Read Nightmare of Nunnally. It's essentially:
>What if Code Geass was actually good.

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"Because, Milly. I might have information that could reveal to me who was the one behind their mother getting killed and Nunally getting crippled and blinded. Though I've not had the opportunity to act on it, I have a file which I'm trying to... unlock." You decide to keep the terminology simple for Milly. She wasn't stupid at all, but you felt that layman's terms would be best when dealing with... well, a layman. "It was something I managed to take with me from the Pendragon Palace. A file that I have reason to believe contains the security archive footage from the day where Lady Marianne was gunned down." You look at her with determined eyes. "If I'm right, and I do manage to find the culprit, then it could lead to the Britannian Royal Family having a civil war. That's why I think the plane I was on was targeted." You don't know how it happened the way it did, and how your plan was seen through, but you aren't the arrogant child you were six years ago anymore.

"That... Jesus, Bastian... you're not joking around, are you?" The normally cheerful attitude of Milly sank like a stone in the ocean, and the girl sat on the side of the bathtub. "You've... not tried to do anything with this information?" Milly sounded just a little bit confused by your decision, of course she would be. She was the one who wanted to go into... what was it, journalism? If you remembered correctly, she had a job lined up with a news organization or something when she graduated from Ashford Academy. If anything, you were taking a risk even telling her about this information, though you did trust Milly's ability to keep a secret. Besides, it's not like the story would really have much to go off of, and she'd managed to keep your existence a secret from the world for over half a decade now.

"How could I? If a Britannian spy or official caught wind of this, I wouldn't just be sent back to Pendragon. I have reason to believe that I'd be executed." You shrugged. "Besides, without a state of the art computer lab, even attempting to find out what is contained within the files is hopeless. Even for me." Milly was well aware of your skill with electronics and machinery, though... she wasn't aware of your little project in the basement of the house. Neither was Elizabeth, for that matter. It was your own little personal secret project, though you probably couldn't call it little when you thought about it.

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"I see... so you're saying that if you had a state of the art computer lab, you could've found out who killed Marianne and crippled Nunally?" Milly leaned backwards and talked up, facing the ceiling, what you were telling her was obviously quite a lot to take in, even for a girl already involved in the international conspiracy that was your entire existence. You were officially reported to be dead. For some time, all public knowledge of your disappearance was kept secret, but after a certain amount of time... about.. a year or two? It was officially revealed to the world that you had unfortunately died due to an inoperable tumor that had grown in your lungs. It was at least somewhat helpful... the only problem was that you couldn't just wander around with your natural hair and eye colors. You shared the same rare hair and eye color inherited from your mother with your two sisters, and if people saw you, they might start to get suspicious. The last thing you needed right now was to attract the attention of Euphie or Cornelia, even if you did miss both of your sisters dearly.

"Possibly. I don't know if my hunch about the files are correct. But it's... a very high possibility. Somebody went through a lot of trouble to try to render this file unrecoverable, but it seems like they made an error somewhere along the lines. The corruption of the file prevented it from being properly registered by the system, so the deletion failed and it was simply cached somewhere in the back-up server of the palace." Milly had started to look at you with eyes that were glazed over now, and you shook your head. "Basically, think of it as somebody not being able to delete something because it was too broken to be able to be deleted properly... if that makes more sense... I know! You've seen the protests about Sakuradite Radioactive Waste Disposal, right?" It was a hot topic among people who had nothing better to do with their time, but you didn't pay those particular protests much mind. The world was constantly on the brink of global all-out war, and they thought the most important thing to do was make a nuisance over the disposal of a waste product? The demonstrators at least knew to remain peaceful, so their protests hadn't ended in disaster yet like more than a few of the Eleven protests had...

"I have, of course. What does that have to do with this?" Milly didn't seem to get your point, so you elaborated a little.

"Think of the corrupted file like... Sakuradite waste, it can't be disposed of in the normal way, so extra care needs to be taken so that it is safely dealt with." You nodded to yourself, happy with your own analogy. "The person trying to get rid of this file did the equivalent of digging a hole and attempting to bury barrels of the stuff." It wasn't exactly the best comparison, but it was a topical one that you knew that Milly would be able to understand.

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"I... I think I get it now, Bastian." She got up from her seated position before sighing. "The reason I asked is because..." She paused for a long time, clearly uncomfortable. "It's because... Lelouch and Nunally are alive, and... the Ashford family have been hiding them ever since they disappeared all those years ago, just like we've been hiding you." You went silent. So silent that you could hear a pin drop, as you looked at Milly with disbelief plainly written over your features.

>"How could you have kept this a secret from me?! What else have you lied to me about, Milly?!"
>"Oh. I see. I must admit, I did believe they had survived, but I never would've expected the Ashfords to be involved here too."
>"That's great! Though... I have to admit, it does sting a little that you didn't tell me sooner. But I imagine you were forbidden to do so, right?"
>"Does Lelouch know about me?"
>Something else...

>>4966245
>"That's great! Though... I have to admit, it does sting a little that you didn't tell me sooner. But I imagine you were forbidden to do so, right?"
>"Does Lelouch know about me?"
No reason to get angry for keeping another secret like ours. And Sebastian thought they really were dead.

>>4966245
>>"That's great! Though... I have to admit, it does sting a little that you didn't tell me sooner. But I imagine you were forbidden to do so, right?"
>>"Does Lelouch know about me?"
Does make me worry how long she'll keep our secret though. Probably until someone else tells her something cool.
"Oh hey, did you know this dead guy is alive and is being protected by my family."

>>4966249
+1

That description of our geass does makes us the best pilot since we can basucaly neurolink to a knightmare
But i bet the drawback would be along the lines of "The flesh is weak!"

>>4966249
+1

>>4966245
>>4966249
+1

>>4966245
>>4966249

>>4966183
get well soon

>>4966532
Kill yourself soon.

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"That's great, Milly! Though... I have to admit, it does sting a little that you didn't tell me sooner and kept me in the dark about my half-siblings for all this time." It feels something like a betrayal, but... you're much too rational a human being to get angry over something like this, and your cool head prevails. "But... I imagine you were forbidden from telling me about the two of them, right?" For all the Ashfords knew, you were actually aware of the fugitives that they were hiding from the world and were sent as a Britannian spy. It... was rumored that the Britannians had used especially trained Child Soldiers in their business before, something about assassinations? Of course, you weren't going to give rumors without any evidence much thought, but there was a high likelihood that at least one or two people in the festering pit of corruption and nepotism that was the Britannian Noble System were using such methods.

"Right... sorry about not being able to tell you about them... the next thing you'll probably want to know is..." Milly seemed to know exactly what you were about to say, but you said it anyway.

"Does Lelouch know about me?" This was really a moment of truth, if Lelouch was made aware of you for as long as you'd stayed as a guest of the Ashfords, then that would mean... well... it would mean a lot of different things. Namely that the Ashfords really have been misleading you for half a decade! It's frustrating enough that Lelouch and Nunally were so close but so far away this entire time. You didn't exactly like the idea of having to rely on Lelouch for anything, but he was undoubtedly intelligent, your intellectual rival... at least that would be the case if he was still as sharp as a teenager as he was back when you were children. In truth, you and Lelouch had something of a brief rivalry. While Lelouch could never defeat Schneizel at chess once, you actually managed to defeat your elder brother once. Lelouch did beat you at the majority of games you played with him back then, but you managed to defeat Schneizel through a form of analysis. You observed every single game he played against, silently building an algorithm in your own head to read his moves.

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That algorithm you built in your head was swiftly rendered ineffective by Schneizel's incredible skill and wit, however it was enough to give you an overwhelming advantage in your first ever match with the second prince, and to the stunned amazement of everyone observing at the time, you had put him in checkmate by the seventeenth move. Of course, after that, you never beat Schneizel at chess ever again, nor did you try to, it took far too much effort at the time just to come up with the strategy you used, and it just wasn't feasible for you defeat Schneizel with your same counter strategy over and over again. That's where you differed from Schneizel and Lelouch. Schneizel was objectively the best of the Britannian royalty when it came to quick thinking and planning around his opponents, and Lelouch was his rival in many regards, though his age meant that he could never have an advantage when you were children, but you considered yourself to be the best at creating detailed plans and strategies and deducing things that other people might miss or overlook. Lelouch's plans... well, they tended to fall short, even when you were kids. He was somebody that seemed to fail at the idea of long-term planning. He was very... impulsive, though you don't know if 'impulsive' alone really did Lelouch justice. Not after what happened that led to his exile.

"No." You looked at Milly in surprise, in truth, you were expecting the opposite answer. "He doesn't know about you, and... truthfully, I have no intention to tell him about you, either." Then... it wasn't your trust getting betrayed, but... Lelouch's? What was Milly playing at here? "The difference between you and Lelouch is that... you're wearing a disguise and your name is... mostly fake." Bastian instead of Sebastian. It was a strange choice of a name, but the shortened name did give you the inspiration for your online handle: 'Bastion'. You'd gained a certain level of infamy under the handle, and though you didn't actually participate in hacks yourself, you occasionally revealed security vulnerabilities to other hackers in order to cause disruption to Clovis's administration of Area 11. Clovis was... well, he was never very intelligent, and the less you say about his governing abilities, the better.

"Then... you're telling me that Lelouch isn't wearing a disguise?!" You shouted accidentally there, too surprised by the sudden reveal to keep composed, and Milly nods with a frown.

"He's not dying his hair, nor is her wearing contacts a different shade from his actual eye color... and... well... he and Nunally are going by the name Lelouch and Nunally Lamperouge." You stare at Milly for a few seconds, hoping that she's just telling a joke, before you burst out laughing anyway.

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"Really, Lelouch?!" You shouted, unable to keep the mirth from your voice. "You hid from the world for all these years, and you didn't even bother trying to hide?!" You weren't sure whether you should reassess your opinion on Lelouch now that you had found this out. As ridiculous as the idea that he'd yet to be found was despite him seemingly taking no precautions, you imagined it was some variety of taking refuge in his own audacity that was aiding him. After all, unless you knew Lelouch personally, it was basically impossible to connect the ancient portraits and photographs of the young prince to a boy in his late teens, even if their name and eye color were the same. Even the name 'Lelouch' wasn't that suspicious, it was a popular boys name for people his age. What was a problem however, was Nunally. No doubt still crippled and blind unless a miracle had occurred while the two were gone. For anybody with any deductive reasoning, they'd put 2+2 together in moments! Maybe he'd just surrounded himself with idiots. Oh Lelouch, if you wanted that, you could've just stayed at court!

"C-calm down, Bastian." Milly sounded worried for you. "I know you had something of a rivalry with Lelouch, but... his identity is a secret to everyone outside of the Ashford family... and... well, now you as well." Guess it really was just something that sounded so ridiculous to most people, that they'd automatically just dismiss it. Never underestimate the limitless capacity of humans to be ignorant.

"Sorry, I just... lost control of myself for a second there. Is there any reason he's not wearing a disguise?" You wanted to know, but Milly just shook her head.

"If you want to know about that, then you'll have to ask Lelouch himself. He has his reasons, I'm sure." You hoped so. You didn't want to laugh at him too hard for making such a fundamental mistake in his hiding. He was supposed to be intelligent. "But... now that's out of the way... the car is ready for the two of us. You don't want to do anything else before we head to school, right? You are my cousin, after all." Milly gave you a friendly smile, and you smiled back. You didn't spend much time with Milly, but you did like the girl... you thought, at least. She was sharper than most, had a friendly demeanor, and knew how to listen to people. Even if her job choice wasn't exactly one you agreed with.

>"No thanks, Milly. Let's just head to school."
>"Yeah, why don't we get breakfast? My treat."
>"Actually, can you wait her for a second, I want to check something quick." (Head to the basement)
>"Actually, Milly. I suppose I should reveal something I've been working on to you." (Head to the basement.)
>Something else...

>>4966684
>"Actually, can you wait her for a second, I want to check something quick." (Head to the basement)

>>4966684
>"Actually, Milly. I suppose I should reveal something I've been working on to you." (Head to the basement.)
We should repay her trust with trust. What is even in the basement?

Lelouch is such a retard at times.

Who was basement QM?

>>4966725
I wanted to keep it a surprise for you all but... if you must know...
Sebastian has been working on putting together a Knightmare frame out of scrap parts he has managed to collect as well as commercially available supplies.

>>4966727
Based techchad autist.

How complete is it? Does it have any projectile weaponry yet? Or just an exosuit made of scrap at this stage?

>>4966728
It's functional with the power of his Geass, but otherwise no, it's missing vital electronic components that he has yet to find a suitable replacement for, it does have a slash harken though. It would be a lot better if Bastian wasn't limited to stuff he can salvage in his spare time and had actual resources. It's mostly something he's done to keep himself busy.

>>4966736
Could we create small drones to assist in finding scrap, or identify better scrap? maybe something like a flying drone and one digging drone.

>>4966742
While Sebastian certainly has the tech-knowledge for them, he'd need high quality scrap to build such things in the first place.
He's also trying not to attract all too much attention to himself, and seeing as Area 11 is an occupied country, civilian owned flying drones are banned.

>>4966736
So we're gonna hijack the school's Knightmare then, as soon as he finds out about it through their network.

Does the prototype have a name yet?

Also Mao could be really interesting in future. If Bastian is just Geass piloting drones like >>4966742 mentions, he wouldn't be able to read his mind. Also, Lulu solves the Mao arc with heavy use of technology, so Bastian could interfere quite a bit here. Nunally is his relative too, so I imagine he'd get involved pretty quick.

I wonder if Bastian could ever figure out Geass cancelling tech and make Mao a retard helmet to keep him sane, or a helmet for himself to nullify Geass used on him once the plot gets rolling. Then Mao would have someone to talk to that isn't C.C, could make an interesting ally that is great at manipulating people, something Bastian seems somewhat incapable of/uninterested in due to severe and crippling autism.

>>4966744
Also, how closely are you gonna be following the original story? Has Bastian's existence caused any major butterfly effect?

>>4966751
>Does the prototype have a name yet?
Up to you to name it when the time comes.
Bastian currently refers to it as "Prototype Scrap Knightmare Frame 01"
He doesn't feel the need to be creative with the name just yet.
>>4966756
He has made some minor ripples by existing, but as a result of just disappearing off the face of the map one day, nothing too major.
Cornelia has been investigating his disappearance however, and Euphemia is still sad about it.

>>4966684
>"Actually, Milly. I suppose I should reveal something I've been working on to you." (Head to the basement.)

Seeing as it's basically just a big brain science project at this point, and she has no idea about Geass. Also it doesn't have anything too illegal like firearms. Probably good for him to keep confiding in her.

Also if Lloyd ever hits the scene this might get interesting with Milly knowing and comparing the two of them

>>4966684
>>"Actually, Milly. I suppose I should reveal something I've been working on to you." (Head to the basement.)

>>4966684
>"Actually, Milly. I suppose I should reveal something I've been working on to you." (Head to the basement.)

>>4966736
If Bastian had the time to work on his A.I. project, could he have the A.I. automate purchases on the dark net to collect everything he needs to make his Knightmare Frame faster?

>>4967082
While the Dark Web does exist, it's very difficult to actually physically get the materials delivered to you.
Especially with your current level of resources.
Area 11 is, again, an occupied country that is under tight military lockdown, and the Britannians have no problem gunning down people.
Comparatively, they're much more advanced than our world too.
Bastian has really been waiting for his chance to strike.
Though by working on MERLIN, you'd definitely have more options available to you.

>>4966684
>"Actually, Milly. I suppose I should reveal something I've been working on to you." (Head to the basement.)

>>4966684
>"Actually, Milly. I suppose I should reveal something I've been working on to you." (Head to the basement.)

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"Actually, Milly. I suppose that I should reveal something that I've been working on to you before anything else. You trusted me with the information that Lelouch and Nunally are still alive, so... I suppose I can trust you with my own secrets." It wasn't much of a secret, really. Not compared to what Milly had just told you, but... well, you supposed it was nice to have somebody who you could talk to about your hobbies. "Here, follow me to the basement, alright?" The basement was usually an almost entirely disused room in the house that you stayed at, to the point that even Elizabeth never went into the room. The house that you were staying at was really far too big for just one boy and a maid to stay at, and a normal person would no doubt get lonely at the lack of companionship... or at least that's what you surmised based on your observations of people and their constant need to be surrounded by others.

"Huh...?" Milly tilted her head at you. "I hope you've not been hacking the government or anything like that, Bastian..." Milly knew you were good with a computer, but you'd managed to hold back on hacking like that up till this point, the few hacks you did do were just on groups not related to the government. You knew for a fact that the Britannian tech division could revert most of the damage you could do and potentially trace your position. Better to keep them lazy and unaware of you. Between Marianne and Nunally, as well as what had happened to the mel Britannias, who with the exception of Marrybell, were killed in a terrorist bombing that was never resolved, it was clear to you at least that there was somebody high-up trying to get people out of the way. But who? Your father, Charles? No. For all of his many flaws, you doubted that your father would act in such a manner. He was far too direct a leader for that. If he made a decree that somebody would be killed, he would have their crimes revealed, have them confess, and then held a state execution for them. That was the sort of person that Charles zi Britannia was.

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"Don't worry, nothing so ridiculous as that, Milly." You shrugged. "I don't have the computer power here to do anything relevant anyway." You may have been a little more inclined to hack Clovis' administration if you could actually have done anything meaningful, but as it was, your commercially available laptop wasn't exactly the best hacking tool. Even if you had overhauled it a few times, you really needed processing power to break through the layers of encryption placed upon Britannian systems, and you didn't want to spend the weeks it would take you to locate a security flaw in any given Britannian Governmental Office. It was just a waste of time, and your hacking efforts would be detected eventually too. Better the Britannians didn't know that there was somebody out there who could peruse their secrets on a whim if he really wanted to. Honestly, if the Viceroy of Japan was somebody like Schneizel or Cornelia, or hell, even Marrybell, you'd take things much more seriously. But what secrets could a buffoon like Clovis really be hiding? His favorite wine, perhaps? The man was only slightly above Guinevere and Odysseus in terms of general competence, and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess were about as dense as nobility got. For as brilliant as the Second Prince and Second Princess were, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess were dull. Unlike Schneizel or Cornelia, the two of them had lived a life of luxury and never had any reason to grow their skill-sets. Schneizel was the Prime Minister of the Empire, and Cornelia was a decorated war hero in addition to having become the Chief General of the Imperial Army, entirely on her own merit as a strategist and commander. As her younger brother, it always made you proud and happy to see that she was doing so well, even if she may well have been fighting on the wrong side. Perhaps her plan was to become the Empress after Charles' death in a coup? The Military would much sooner support her over somebody like Odysseus, that was for certain. Schneizel may have also been plotting such a coup, though he was more the sort to just use Odysseus as a puppet and rule as a shadow emperor.

"Huh... so is it a matter of not doing it because it's against the law, or because you can't?" She raised an eyebrow. Oh Milly, always so inquisitive. That's that journalistic nature showing through once again.

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"I never said I couldn't do anything at all. Just that I couldn't do anything relevant. I could be a general nuisance to Clovis' administration, but that wouldn't really do much other than cause the Britannian armies to be harsher on the people of Area Eleven." You didn't really like to use the term 'Eleven' to refer to the people of the country that was once known as Japan. It wasn't a name that the people either chose or even really accepted. A name given to them in an attempt to destroy what national spirit they had left. Of course, a strategy that Charles had first used when Britannia began their conquests. 'The destruction of national spirit and identity shall eventually allow for true loyalty to Britannia to emerge' or some ridiculously arrogant statement like that. You didn't hate the Britannian Empire at its core, but you knew that it was much too large, inefficient, cruel and corrupt. Something you had seen with your own eyes as a result of living away from the Palace for this many years. You didn't consider yourself an empathetic person, and you could usually ignore the problems of other people to focus on your own problems, but... what the Britannians were doing in Area 11 was wrong. You'd heard tell of Clovis' sanctioned 'purges'. Where 'terrorist threats' were resolved by killing everyone found in a particular building or city-block. Britannians included. Still, you couldn't bring yourself to hate Clovis either. He was far too incompetent to take part in any sort of conspiracy, and though you never spoke to him much in your youth, you knew that he loved his siblings and the Britannian Imperial Family too much to be involved in something like an assassination attempt. You remember playing against him in chess, and he played like a complete tool. Completely over-reliant on his queen and folding the moment she got taken off the board every time.

"Right." Milly shook her head as she looked at you with a faint smile. "What exactly did you want to show me, anyway?" You walked out of the bathroom and gestured for her to follow you, and the girl shrugged before she followed you down to the disused storage room.

When you reached the basement, you quickly input the 20 digit numerical pass-code into the electronic lock, before you used the biometric thumbprint scanner you had installed to confirm your identity and allowed the locking system to open. Twelve random digits was a good number for a pass-code, you thought. For most people, remembering 20 digits on the fly seemed to be an impossibility, the biometric scanner was just something you found as scrap and restored, though you did think it allowed you to have a sort of top-secret lab effect for the basement.

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The door to the basement slid open, it was a more advanced automatic metal security door that cleanly slid into the floor. You had managed to repair that from scrap as well, but Milly didn't look that impressed by your show so far. "Bastian... is this level of security really necessary? At least now I know why Elizabeth said she was concerned about you being a little... paranoid." You frowned this time. It wasn't paranoia, it was a legitimate concern for your own safety. You'd already survived one assassination attempt in your life, and you didn't enjoy the idea of being forced to go through that again just yet.

"No, Milly. I believe that my precautions are mostly required for the sort of danger I run from just... well, existing at all, after my disappearance. Though I will admit, the pass-code is something of a memory game to me, and the biometric scanner is just something I installed for the fun of it." The tech for some reason didn't take off in Britannian military installations, blocked by a high ranked unknown noble, if you recall correctly. So somebody didn't want biometric doors stopping their agents, it seems. Biometric Scanners did require a finger-print on record, after all...

"Right..." Milly seemed to accept your viewpoint as you took her inside the basement, which you had furnished to quite a degree. It was something like a cross between a lab and a workshop now, a place where you worked on machinery. On the tables were discarded dissembled guns in varying states of wear. Cables and wires were strewn about almost at random in some places, and there were multiple unfinished projects laying around in the lab. A set of identity concealing personal armor that you had designed with the intent to allow both ease of movement and to resist small arms fire, but it was only halfway done right now, so to the untrained eye, it just looked like a bunch of geometric metal plates and a few metal frames. You were still working on the internal display of the suit, and until that was ready, it was basically useless anyway. You needed some high quality cameras in order to finish the display. A Night Vision Camera, an Infrared Camera and a High Definition Camera. Two of which were banned for purchase for the average citizen by Britannian decree.

The next thing of interest was a half assembled metal rod on a table. Another half-finished invention of yours. A stun-rod. A weapon that when finished, you hoped would be able to knock a guard unconscious with a single strike against an unarmored target. You were still working on the settings. A high powered burst of electricity running through a target would almost always both kill them as well as destroy the stun-rod. You were still working on a way to keep the power low enough that the jolt of electricity would temporarily shut down their consciousness and not melt their internal organs. Thank god for internal readings and testing.

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Milly was looking around your workshop with a bewildered expression, and that was when you walked to the center of the room, grabbed the tarp from the large hidden object, and revealed it to her. "Behold, Milly! The Prototype Scrap Knightmare Frame 01!" Underneath the tarp was a large Knightmare Frame created through the salvaging of parts that had otherwise been thrown away by the Britannian military for being defective. Of course, you were able to repair many of those parts, and as a result, you had managed to slowly assemble a strange Knightmare Frame. Like a cross between a Glasgow and a Sutherland, with parts from both, but only one Slash Harken right now. You were of course the first person to admit that the name needs a little work. The constant salvaging and looking for parts in junkyards had left you in pretty incredible shape, too. You needed to be strong if you wanted to lift half of the parts you needed, and even then you needed to sometimes destroy the salvage you found further before you could bring it back home and repair it. Annoyingly enough, you couldn't actually pilot it yet as a result of all the circuit-boards you needed to house your custom developed HUD for the Frame being totally fried... well, you could pilot it, but only through your Geass, and while you hadn't actually climbed into the cockpit, you had used your Geass to control it from outside. Unbelievably, despite the relatively shoddy state of the Knightmare Frame, you recalled that under the power of your Geass, you could move it as if it were an extension of your own body!

"This is... very impressive, Bastian." Milly looked at the scrap frame. "But... why exactly are you showing this to me?" She didn't seem to understand what you were trying to do here, so you shrugged.

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"I believe that relationships should be built on trust. You revealed something important to me, so I revealed something important to you." You smiled at Milly. "Don't worry, I'm not planning on doing anything bad with it. I just wanted to make sure that my skills didn't degrade over time." You didn't have any plans to do anything with it yet. Though when you thought about it, with all of the engineering work you had done on the Knightmare Frame, you had probably become something like a world-leading expert on the mechanics and development of them. The only thing holding you back from actually developing an advanced Knightmare Frame was once again, resources. Of course, what you didn't tell Milly is that the Slash Harken wasn't a normal Slash Harken at all. It was actually repurposed as a data transference device containing a virus that you had developed to shut down the internal systems of Knightmare Frames it hacked and allow for them to be captured! The Slash Harken itself contained a tiny microchip on the tip, which would automatically attach itself to an enemy Knightmare Frame, burrowing two connectors down through their armor when it struck them to begin to rapidly assume control of the entire vehicle when it reached an electrical system. It was a weapon that would completely change combat, if its existence became known to any of the world's superpowers, or even to a terrorist cell.

"So... was there anything else you wanted to show me? Or should we head to school now?" Milly asked with a strained smile. Clearly, she had been taken completely by surprise by your lab. "You're going to need to decide how you want to handle Lelouch's presence." Lelouch is usually smart, and the chance of him seeing through your disguise were fairly high... but not incredibly high...

>"I'm going to tell him and Nunally who I am."
>"I'm going to tell Nunally who I am."
>"I'm going to observe him first before I make a decision."
>"I'm going to challenge him to a game of Chess."
>Something else...

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>>4967289
>"I'm going to challenge him to a game of 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel"

>>4967289
>Something else...
We're gonna tell him his disguise was bad and he should feel bad.

>>4967293
>wheeze
This too

>>4967289
>"I'm going to observe him first before I make a decision."

>>4967289
>"I'm going to observe him first before I make a decision."

>>4967289
>>"I'm going to challenge him to a game of Chess."

>>4967289
>"I'm going to observe him first before I make a decision."

>>4967289
>"I'm going to challenge him to a game of Chess."

>>4967289
>"I'm going to observe him first before I make a decision."

>>4967293
+1

>>4967289
Supporting >>4967293

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"Well, Milly. It's quite simple, I'm going to challenge him to a game of 5 Dimensional Multiversal Chess with Time Travel, and that way, even if he can't discern my identity, he'll have a good idea as to just who I am." Milly didn't laugh at your joke, and you sighed. "It was a joke, Milly. I'm not actually going to challenge him to something like that, don't be ridiculous." Of course, you were something of an expert at the game, just as you were at the Grand Master level when it came to normal chess, but... Lelouch definitely wasn't the sort of person to ask to play a game of it with you, especially thanks to its nature of requiring to be run on a computer to be played properly. Maybe Lloyd would be interested in a game or two of it, if you ever met him again?

"Ahaha!" Milly tried her hardest to fake a laugh, but she knew that she wasn't fooling you, so she stopped quite quickly. She should understand that even though you don't see the need to interact with other people all too often, that didn't mean you couldn't analyze social cues and read expressions. You just didn't care about other people ninety-five percent of the time. There really weren't many people you cared about in your life. You suppose you cared about a few of your siblings, Elizabeth, and... Milly? That was really about the limit. Your Mother had died a few years after having you, though you still remember her face. An expression as gentle as Euphie's with eyes that burned with determination like Cornelia's. Her own death wasn't exactly suspicious, but... you don't want to dwell on it. Sometimes, you found yourself missing Euphemia and Cornelia though. As illogical as it might've been to concern yourself with your family when you could open up any news site or newspaper and take a look at their daily schedules, you still couldn't help but long for the day when you could reunite with them.

"You don't need to fake a laugh, Milly. I can tell that you didn't like my joke. Regardless, I'm going to challenge my half-brother to a game of normal Chess. I've been practicing in my spare-time here, and I believe that I'll have the upper hand against him." Milly should hopefully understand just how much that Lelouch enjoys Chess. "I don't even have to defeat him, all I need to do is allow him to think that he is up against somebody of similar skill, and then he'll naturally start trying to figure out who I am."

"But... is that really the wisest move, Bastian? What if he finds out?" Milly sounded a little worried as she fiddled with a half-finished invention on the table, and you slowly took it out of her hands. It was a half-finished poison detector, and you can't remember if you had cleaned the detection nib off the last time you had tested it.

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"What if he finds out?" You cross your arms. "What's he going to do, sic the Britannian Army on me? Is it too much to want to play a game with my brother? It's been years since we last saw each other, and I want to see just how intelligent he actually is!" In both Chess and deductive ability, of course. While it was still odd to you that his disguise was so... lazy, it seems to have somehow functioned, considering that Clovis, who idolized Lelouch, had somehow managed to overlook them. Either Clovis was dumber than you gave him credit for, or the Ashfords had friends in high enough places that the Britannian's conveniently overlook them. The latter was almost certainly to be the more likely. The Ashfords were close allies of Lady Marianne, and probably still had a few allies among the upper echelons of Britannian Nobility as a result of that connection. Especially when it came to something like sheltering the two exiled children of Marianne. You're sure that they would've preferred Lelouch to stay at the capital, but Lelouch selfishly had to drag his sister into his little temper tantrum. You're relieved that Nunally was alright though.

"I suppose it... couldn't hurt. The two of you are going to need to find out about each other eventually, after all. I don't want to keep your existence a secret from Lelouch any longer than I have to, honestly. He's a close friend, and it just doesn't sit right with me to keep him in the dark." Yes, keeping Lelouch in the dark about you was probably more detrimental than anything else. He was always smart and resourceful in his youth, and with any luck, that resourcefulness will have finally flourished now that he's a teenager. You had information that could uncover the truth behind Marianne's murder, so with that, actually convincing him to assist you would be quite simple. Or at least you thought as much. Lelouch was much too rational to accuse people who couldn't possibly have anything to do with Marianne's murder of foul play. Of course, it's not like you weren't capable of plotting your own grand conspiracy at a young age, but you doubted any of your other siblings would've had the analytical mind that would be required to pull off an escape like yours. You managed to deceive the entire Imperial Palace and escape without any assistance at all! Well, maybe a little bit of assistance...

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Your mind's eye flashed a picture of that green haired woman. The one who gave you this mysterious power known as 'Geass'. You don't even recall being told the name of the ability directly, as after the plane crash landed in Area Eleven and she shielded you with her body, you woke up in the care of the Ashfords. The woman had disappeared without a trace. You still wonder who she was. You had in your spare time done a light spot of record entry searching. Hacking into facial databases across the globe and creating a rudimentary comparison AI to cross reference a digital recreation of her face you mocked up with all of the images that you could find. No luck at all. You even rather riskily hacked the facial database of the Britannian Air-force, Army and Navy at one point at an internet cafe, yet even still, you had not been able to locate the mysterious green haired woman on any record. That woman... and the power of Geass. You wondered just where that might fall into place in this grand conspiracy that the world seems to be ensnared in. Is this Geass a power unique to you? Do others have it? Are all abilities the same? You had many questions that you wanted to ask that woman, and no way to get the answers you sought without her.

"I'm glad you see things my way, Milly." You got up and started to leave the lab. "Did you enjoy getting to see the interior of my lab? I hope you understand that it's not something I'd show to just anyone." Milly was a close friend of yours, and, outside of your direct family, was probably the closest friend you've ever had. Which really said more about your ability to make friendships than anything else, considering you really on average only saw Milly two times a week.

"It was... interesting, I'll say that much. But... I couldn't tell what ninety percent of the stuff in there was." She sounded apologetic, that she didn't understand what you were actually making down there, but you just smiled.

"Don't worry, next time, I'll make sure that I give you the guided tour! That way you can know just what I've been working on down there!" You give her a happy smile, and she just nods, a very faint grimace on her face for some reason.

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"Uh-huh. That's great! I can't wait!" There it was again, that tone of false excitement. You weren't going to comment on it, but you really wondered just what reason she could have for not being excited to visit your lab. You were certain that if she knew some of the incredible inventions you had made good progress with, she would soon realize that this converted basement was a place where you could create miracles! You suppose that next time, you'll just have to give her a better explanation as to what all of your half-finished inventions are supposed to do. "Come on, the car is waiting for us." She took the lead now, and quickly walked out of the front door of the manor house. "I had intended to offer you a room to stay in at Ashford Academy, but... it might get a little awkward what with your whole... laboratory thing." Milly spoke to you in the back of the car, the barrier separating you from the driver was soundproof, so there wasn't any worry of him listening in. "Which is why I'm going to have one of the disused storehouses renovated for you to act as your own personal secret research lab! If... that's what you'd prefer, at least. It's getting more dangerous, and the house might not be secure anymore. Between the talk of an Eleven uprising growing more and more likely by the day, as well as the rapid military development of Britannia, it's not too much of a stretch to believe that another big war is going to start soon, and it would be safer to have you in the Britannian majority district of the city, rather than here on the Outskirts."

>"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best."
>"Don't worry about my lab. I can leave it here and visit when I want to."
>"Actually, I'd rather take my chances at the manor. I can defend myself, if need be."
>"Are you worried about me, Milly?"
>Something else...?

>>4968222
>"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best."

Milly's offer is cake and eating it too in a way, once the warehouse is renovated we can get what we need shipped there. Ashford has a knightmare we can use, and a significantly larger computer network with a whole lot more processing power.

QM, at what point in the story is it right now? Has lulu met CC and got his Geass yet?

>>4968222
>"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best."

>>4968222
>"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best."

>>4968222
>"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best."
Thank god we showed her the basement. She's giving us the perfect solution on a platter. And damn, Sebastion is heavily autistic and I love it.

>>4968241
Well, for reference, Lelouch of the Rebellion happens over the span of August 15th-September 9th

It's currently August 10th
You have 5 days before it all starts.

>>4968222
>"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best."
Oh no.
Milly's growing on me.
Causing Lelouch to seethe at Chess will be great.
I can't decide what path I want to take.
>Black Knights
>Britannian Military
>Independent
Though there are a few other things we could do, these are the big 3.

>>4968564
Nina's F.L.E.I.J.A tech + AI/Virus/Drone Knightmare army + possibly Mao? for dealing with people politically? Seeing as Bastian has autism supreme

>>4968564
I don't see why we would want to join either Lelouch or the Britannians. We can easily form our own faction and be a terrifying force as anon >>4968571 said. Being in the middle of their conflict will bring us plenty opportunities to work with or against each of them as we see fit.

>>4968571
Nina, us and maybe Mao (how do you intend to recruit Mao?) can't make an entire faction by ourselves.
Are we just going to start recruiting random characters?
Hey... we have the corrupted security tape for what happened to Marianne and Nunally.
We could get Orange-kun, maybe?
Jeremiah is one of the best Knightmare Frame pilots.
>>4968572
But we can probably go undercover on Lloyd's team, right?
We could do a lot there.
Steal a lot of data too.

>>4968580
If Bastian can figure out a geass canceller quickly, seeing as he is super paranoid and has already theorised if others have such a power there might be a way as I mentioned >>4966751

>>4968580
But Nina is also a tech autist, Bastian is one of the few people who could actually get along with her. She got on pretty well with Lloyd, who shares a bit of characterisation with Bastian.

>>4968580
Oh, yeah, we can totally recruit Orange. It'll be really easy too. All we have to do is go to him after Lelouch humiliates him and reveal some of the truth. He's a loyaltychad, he'll instantly come aboard.

As for those being too few people to form a faction, why do you think that? AI-controlled Knightmare frames mean we don't need many pilots, only specialists. A small core of competent and loyal people works far better for what we want to do. Hell, Milly could even be our Diethard if we want.

Going undercover on Lloyd's team will be way too dangerous and it will limit our freedom way too much. But we'll meet him soon anyway. I think he'll be inclined to talk and cooperate with a fellow autist, and we can hack him whenever we want too.

>>4968582
I think that'll require a raid on the Geass Order to figure out how to make.
Also lets us grab loads of kids with Geass powers.
>>4968585
She's also unstable and prone to mental breaks and table fucking.
>>4968586
It depends how much QM wants to include spin-off stuff
There are a lot of potential recruits there.

>>4968594
Channelling her autism into useful science projects with someone both as big brained AND retarded as her would be pretty healthy though.

She got Euphie oneitis from her standing up for her at the hotel. The whole hotel scenario would probably play out very differently with Bastian around. It's also the first time the Lancelot shows up iirc. Which is Lloyd's child, something Bastian would be very personally invested in.

>>4968594
If we even sniff the geass order we then have V.V personally chasing us which will be an interesting story arc, potentially the main line/final boss of the quest if it snowballs enough.

>>4968594
Table-chan just simps for best girl. We can bond with her over how Euphie is so kind and cool and hot.

>>4968595
>the hotel
I wonder if we should start carrying a gun around.
Just in case we get cornered like that by terrorists.
>>4968596
Can we take V.Vs code?
Being immortal sounds based.
>>4968600
Euphie is not for lewd.

>>4968613
I mean, if it turns out Bastian was only accidentally targeted because he got on C.C's plane and his fear is all in his head, his overprep should catch V.V off guard. He's also jacked to the tits and likely would carry some kind of combat equipment at all times, rather than risk being caught unawares.

The true Sigma protagonist

>>4968613
Sebastian is already working on a stun baton and combat armor, I imagine a taser wouldn't be too difficult to make. And unlike Lelouch, he's actually swole. He can hold his own in a fight.

Immortality is lonely. Sebastian is heavily autistic, but I imagine even he would be affected by watching his sister grow old and die while he remains eternally young.

>Euphie is not for lewd.
That's just like, your opinion, man.

>>4968617
>V.V. makes the worst possible enemy entirely by accident
>somebody with autism.
Dumb Shota.
>>4968620
I wonder if we'll get to go full Operator mode.

>>4968620
>Immortality is lonely.
Sebastian can try to make human-like companion AI. And he can give her knightmare body.
He is autistic enough for it.

>>4968645
The V.I.V.I.A.N.E to the Merlin AI?

>>4968652
Yeah, perfect. That could be test project after we get necessary equipment to start working on bigger projects. And it is best adjutant that Sebastian can get.

>>4968645
It might not be worth it if we can't figure out how to replicate Code for our family and (eventually) our lover.
Whoever that ends up being.
>>4968652
Can't wait to get an AI buddy.
Do you think that Milly will be able to get us an advanced enough computer to host MERLIN?

>>4968222
>>"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best."

>>4968564
It depends on what we want to do with Britannia, Lelouch and that attempt to kill us.

Brittania is despised for methods from first impressions, Lelouch seems like a rivalry which doesn t mean is negative since there are even friendly ones and from Sebastian paranoia he doesn t like the fact that they attempted to kill him. It doesn t mean anything for future decisions, but it looks like this to me right now.
In addition he probably doesn t like the corrupted nobility, while having some kind of respect for anyone he considers worthy or skilled.

>>4968645
Immortality alone with our AI daughteru still sounds pretty lonely desu.

>>4968705
Britannia is clunky and Charles prefers it that way. He's not even trying to rule.
He's busy trying to make bootleg orange tang.
Lelouch definitely won't try to kill us if we reveal the corrupted video file. Revealing that is the go-to method to ally with Lelouch if we want to become his most trusted ally, which is probably what CC wants.
Bastian seems like the sort of guy who respects his allies if he considers them a challenge. If we don't take the Black Knight route, I expect a fixation on Zero.

Lelouch isn't as smart as the mc gives him credit for. He would absolutely kill or distrust people that is clearly innocent in his mother's death. The mc without meaning it throws shade throughout his though process. At one point he thought Lelouch wouldn't go after Clovis because he's clearly incompetent and loves his family but OOC we know that's exactly what he did in canon. MC shows him the video and it's just a mystery box on how he'd react. Suspicion will likely not go away ever. Plus even if the mc is completely innocent doesn't mean he won't be used for the betterment of Nunnaly or his crusade. Look at what happened at the end of season one.

File: Scrap Model 01.png (307 KB, 570x768)

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In case you were wondering what the Scrap Model looked like, I mocked up a quick edit of the mix of Glasgow and Sutherland parts that it is made out of.

>>4968864
Yeah, Bastian does have a relatively high opinion of Lelouch still, even if he thought his lack of a disguise was humorous (he's actually quite jealous), he's not expecting him to be as ruthless towards people like Clovis as he actually was in canon. Then again, Clovis was admittedly a tyrant, and killing him gave Zero a huge amount of sway that he otherwise wouldn't have had with the Japanese people.
It was still a dick move though.
The difference here being that Lelouch was acting as an agent of revenge, having had his life ruined as a result of what happened to Marianne and Nunally and then the later invasion of Japan which ruined his life again by taking vengeance on people he considers to be related. Meanwhile Sebastian is acting more out of a wish to know the truth, to uncover the conspiracy out of his own personal sense of justice. Revenge isn't as important for Sebastian, even if the plane he was escaping on got bombed, it's not like he actually got maimed from it, so he doesn't consider what he thinks as a failed attempt on his life the justification he needs to attempt to destroy the entire Empire like Lelouch wants. In fact, he's more impressed and paranoid at the idea of there being a genius at Pendragon that surpassed him to the degree that they were capable of seeing through plans that he himself believed were flawless, which is one of the reasons that he's so paranoid now.

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"Thanks, Milly. I'll live at Ashford Academy, if that's what you think is best." You don't really have any strong opinions over where exactly you'll be working, but you did admit, the idea of being able to work in a larger environment than just a relatively small basement was tremendously appealing to you. Actually being able to have the Scrap Model 01 stand up properly without needing it hunched over for fear of damaging the rest of the building above was something that would work wonders for actually restoring it to working order. Having to use your Geass to control the machine obviously wasn't ideal, and while it obviously makes you a better pilot, there's something that you just can't explain that makes you not want to do it, it wasn't just your own pride. It was... something else. You hated that feeling of not knowing, finding out the unknown was something that you had always strived for. "But... what about all of my stuff? Is there really a way to get it all to Ashford Academy without any suspicion arising?"

"Ha! Of course there is. The patrolling Britannian troops know better than to harass Britannian nobility like the Ashfords. I'll have it hauled over in a truck. My father has... made a few concessions for your... eccentricity, and a nearly functional Knightmare Frame might be skirting the line a little, but... I'm sure that he won't mind too much!" Eccentric? Is that what she saw you as? "You don't have anything specific you want to take that you don't want to be hauled over, right?"

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"Not if you're going to be discreet about things." There was nothing in that lab that you considered truly irreplaceable, the only thing that you considered to be irreplaceable was the datastick you kept on yourself at all times. You'd put practically every protection on the contents of the device that even you wouldn't be able to crack it if you hadn't memorized the multitude of passwords on the device. In a way, it was something like insurance. Even if you were to be caught, the datastick would be worthless to whoever found you unless they kept you alive, of course, that did leave you open to being tortured for information, but... that was preferable to just being put down like a dog by the Britannian Government. Besides, the Britannians didn't openly condone torture, though it was obvious to the entire world as to what they did behind the scenes. You recall the curious case of a high profile domestic terrorist in Britannia, Phillip Graylock. To the rest of the world, it was a case that was resolved when he renounced his entire organization that he had set-up and provided the Britannian Government with accurate information as to every single one of the members after being convinced to take a plea deal, but to you... it was just another aspect of the conspiracy. No 'Plea deal' would force a man to give up his own wife, son and brother, who had remained unknown to the authorities and you wouldn't become a leader of a Terrorist Cell unless you were able to deal with a little bit of torture... but more curious than that, you had taken a look at the images of Graylock before and after the high-profile case, and he didn't look like he'd been tortured at all! Then, even more curiously, the man became a die-hard supporter of Britannia, despite having taken up arms against the empire for their violent stomping out of a riot in his home town that killed both his parents. But what could the Britannians have done to the man to have him give up everything? It didn't add up, it...

"Bastian? Did you zone out? I've been talking to you about your new dorm arrangements. You're actually going to be sharing with a new transfer student like yourself!" Milly had a smile on her face as she managed to get your attention again, you had gotten a little too focused on the 'Great Conspiracy' as you had taken to calling it.

"Wait... I am? Milly... are you sure that's a good idea?" Still, the news that you'd be sharing your dorm with another student was... concerning, but Milly didn't seem worried, and you couldn't help but wonder what could've made her so confident that this wouldn't backfire somehow.

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"Well... honestly, I can't say I think there's much of a chance of him realizing who you really are, Bastian." You raised an eyebrow at the girl, and she continued speaking. "We actually found him at Ashford Academy. He was both heavily wounded and had lost almost all of his memories, except for a few basic faculties, and his first name." Milly shrugged. "He's been at the hospital for the past few days."

"His name...?" You wanted to know the name of your new dorm-mate, but Milly shook her head at you and smirked.

"I'll let him introduce himself, we were actually taking a quick detour to the hospital to pick him up." You looked out of the window to see that the car had indeed stopped at the patient pick-up area for the Tokyo Settlement Imperial Hospital, and there was a boy wearing the same boy's uniform of Ashford Academy that you were wearing. He had piercing blue eyes and snow white hair, as well as a few obvious signs of injury. "There he is!"

The boy is led over to the car by a chaperon, and before long, he is sitting opposite you and Milly. He had a small frown on his face, but his eyes were alert. Not vacant, as one might expect that a victim of memory loss would be. He looked at you for a moment, before he carefully put a hand out for you to shake, uncertain in what he was doing. "Good day... I am... Rai. It's very nice to meet you." You took his hand and shook it slowly.

"Mmm, I suppose that remains to be seen." You allowed the handshake to continue for a moment before you broke it off, getting a good look at the man's face, you could tell that though he was clearly genetically a Britannian, he had some traits of the Japanese too. Interesting. You looked at the boy for a moment as you tried to get a read on him, but it just wasn't working. Though he looked alert and ready, that was about all you could determine about him. He was... something of an enigma.

>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.
>Make conversation with Milly on the way to school. You wanted to know more about the student body of Ashford Academy.
>Try to bring Rai into a conversation between you and Milly, to lose your memory is a terrible thing, and you pitied him.
>Just sit in silence in the back of the car as you wait to arrive at school.
>Something else...

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Also, as a bonus, here's what my Captcha was for this post, lol.

>>4969052
Sigma and Alpha sharing a room. Dis gon b gud

>>4969052
>>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.


>>4969053
Kek

>>4969052
>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.

>>4969052
>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.

>>4968659
We can probably Frankenstein the entire school's processing power together at night when the students are all asleep. It's a pretty big campus with a lot of devices. Kinda like the chad IT guys who used colleges to mine crypto.

>>4969052
>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.

>>4969052
>Something else...
CHALLENGE HIM TO A GAME OF YU-GI-YO!

>>4969052
>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.

Ok so this isn't going to be canon based in the show but the video game since Rai is here. We'd have to spend time with him to figure out what route he's on.

>>4969052
>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.
>>4969433
>spend time with him
>what route he's on
You sure its a good idea?

>>4969433
It's not specifically based on the Videogame, but I will have stuff from the spin-offs show up sometimes to throw you for a loop.
Wouldn't want things to be too simple, would I?

>>4969052
>Ask him a few questions, see how deep his memory loss goes. That level of memory loss but the retention of speech shouldn't be possible.
Just what we needed.
An unpredictable wildcard with a terrifying Geass.

>>4969870
In case you don't know about Rai's Geass, he's got Lelouch's power of absolute obedience but sound based.
He can also choose to join multiple different factions and could properly fuck things up for us.

We should focus on recruiting Nina as quickly as possible, if only to keep an eye on her.
She's the Geass Universe's equivalent of Einstein and the Manhattan Project rolled into one.
Her name is Nina Einstein for gods sake.
She pretty much singlehandedly develops FLEIJA too.

>>4969952
dw brah I've been shilling her from the start. Bastian's autism might actually go over well with her, they can probably create some incredible tech with collaboration.

>>4969955
I thinking Micro-FLEIJA missiles that have Knightmare Frame sized explosions.
Would be devastating.

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Well, you might as well ask him a few things, you're much too intrigued by the enigma that was this boy to just simply ignore him. You first wanted to establish whether he was merely faking his amnesia, or if he was legitimate. Milly might not have been too paranoid by things going on about her, she never really wanted to pry into your life. You had heard from Elizabeth that the young noble was actually quite curious when it came to secrets, so could she have been ordered by her parents not to look into things too deeply for your case? The Ashford family, despite being nobles who had fallen from grace and lost their official titles, still had a lot of power. Between you, Lelouch and Nunally, they were also housing a veritable menagerie of royals. It was something of a small fear of yours, that the Ashford family would reveal that they found the missing prince in Japan. Unlike Lelouch and Nunally, however, you actually still held your royal titles and had not had them stripped like Lelouch had. You may have been officially listed as dead, but you were still the Eleventh Prince... or at least, you would be, if you became known to the Britannians... if you weren't assassinated first. No, you wouldn't and you couldn't reveal your survival to the Britannians. Wait... weren't you supposed to be doing something else? Oh right! This so-called amnesiac. "So, Rai... you said that you couldn't remember anything right? Not even your parents? Siblings, maybe?" You decided to ask a simple question first.

"No... I don't remember if I had any siblings... and I can't remember anything about my parents either. I... my heart aches when I think about the idea of family though." Oh? His... heart? Interesting. The heart contained memory cells, so... it could be the case that whatever ailed Rai was something that only affected his brain. Perhaps a targeted alteration of memory? As science-fiction as targeted memory removal sounded, it was exactly the sort of thing you'd expect the governments around the world to be working on. Your mind shifted back to Graylock for a moment... targeted removal and alteration of memories... could that have been enough to make the man betray his ideals and family? Unrelated to the boy, but... was Charles really so unscrupulous that he'd even alter memories in accordance to his goals? No, that sounded ridiculous, if anything, it was the work of some sort of underground Britannian secret organization. Putting aside your continued thoughts on the Britannian conspiracy, you looked at the boy again, with renewed interest.

"Interesting..." Milly looked somewhat concerned by the way you had decided to speak with Rai, but she didn't involve herself just yet. "So... how much do you actually know? I assume Milly has been giving you a brief rundown of the world." You looked at Milly, and she nodded.

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"Rai is... well, he's had some time spent on learning the basics, and he was a remarkably quick learner too, he learned how to read and write in just a day!" Hmmph... could it have something to do with lost memory that he could learn at an accelerated rate? The re-establishment of already created neural pathways? Yes, that would make some sense. That his mind had lost its memories, didn't mean that his body had lost its memory of the mind. The reformation of things that were previously established in his mind should be a possibility! While you weren't exactly interested in brain science and medicine in general, you'd read about a dozen books on the subject at some point just in case it came in useful in the future. A lot of it had to do with wanting to get a better grip on the inner workings of your Geass, but the power was annoyingly supernatural in origin, as much as it pained you to admit defeat against something, the inner workings of Geass was something that would continue to elude you unless you did something ridiculous like tearing your own eye out to study it, and that would just be idiotic.

"Yes. It's thanks to Milly and her family that I've been able to get to this point." Rai smiled at Milly, an innocent almost childlike smile, despite him appearing to be just a little bit older than you were. Maybe about a year. What was frustrating however was that he was taller than you! You were still growing, of course, but it hurt to be the shortest person in the car. You didn't feel that bad though, Milly was taller than both of you. You tried not to let such simple things as height bother you, but you hardly struck the figure of an imposing prince at 5'8"... you hadn't stopped growing yet though, so it's not like things were totally hopeless. You hoped... you didn't want to be an inch shorter than Euphemia and three inches shorter than Cornelia when you finally met them again. You couldn't always be the little brother, could you?

"So... do you remember anything about yourself other than your name, Rai?" You decide to focus on talking to the boy, and he shakes his head, while you didn't know how to tell whether somebody was lying from just their body language alone. You felt as if he was being genuine about his loss of memories, and that by itself was quite saddening. You didn't know the boy at all, but you still had some empathy towards somebody suffering from such cruel circumstances. To lose everything about yourself but remain alive. In some ways, forgetting all that you were but continuing to exist was crueler than death, though with Rai's case, considering his rapid ability to relearn basic things through what you surmised to be the reconnection of existing neural pathways, it was clear that there was a hope for him to discover who he once was. You were interested in the tale of the boy who was both badly injured and without memories, it was the sort of thing that intrigued you.

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"To tell the truth, I don't even know if this is my real name. It was... just the first thing that I thought of when I was asked about my name." Ah. So it might not even be his name? Interesting... though it's likely to be at least somewhat related to his real name if your untested and on-the-spot theory about his memories turned out to be true. Your own name was not something easily forgotten, no matter what might've happened, the fact that Rai could remember even something about himself, even if it was incorrect, showed great promise.

"I see..." You don't know why exactly you had taken this level of an interest in the boy. Was it because he had ignited your scientific curiosity? Another mystery to be uncovered and unraveled? It was just a bonus that in unraveling the mystery that this boy hid would also help another person. You liked helping people and... in truth, you found the idea of killing others somewhat abhorrent. That was one of the reasons you had developed or worked to develop means to incapacitate other people without actually needing to kill them. Of course, if you had no choice but to kill, you would, but you hoped things wouldn't get to that point. You weren't a fool who believed that everything could be solved without bloodshed, but you'd try to minimize it if you could. There was enough death in the world without somebody with a mind like yours adding to the tallies. You wanted to change the world, to uncover the secrets being kept by those who believed they controlled everything. Terrorism against the Britannians would never accomplish anything. Nothing but delaying the inevitable, in the case of the JLF. That group hadn't had a single meaningful victory against the occupying Britannians since their formation, and that was with an incompetent viceroy like Clovis in charge! If Cornelia or Schneizel took notice of the JLF and got involved, then you were certain that it would take about a month before their leader's public executions were broadcast to the world. "Do you have any hobbies?" It was a completely pointless question, but you felt like asking it anyway.

"I don't know." Right, you should've expected that much. You spent the rest of the journey heading to Ashford Academy receiving the same answer from Rai no matter what you asked him. He really didn't know anything about himself. Eventually, just as you were starting to grow tired of quizzing the boy and asking questions you already knew wouldn't receive answers, the car pulled up to Ashford Academy, and a relieved looking Milly quickly stepped out of the car.

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"Here we are, you two! Ashford Academy!" You looked at the school. It wasn't that much different from the images you had looked at, and while you had never found personal reason to head to the school yourself, you had looked at enough images to know the basic layout of the building. Rai had also been here too, according to Milly. But you highly doubt he remembered much considering both his amnesia and the fact that he was supposedly heavily wounded at the time. "Now, I suppose the question is if the two of you want a few days to settle in before you start classes, or... if you're ready to just go ahead and meet the Student Council now. I believe that you might know two of the people on the council, actually, Bastian. Lelouch and Nunally Lamperouge, you met the two of them a few years ago, if my memory serves well." Oh. Milly was offering you a chance to get settled in before meeting Lelouch. Well... you suppose that a few days would allow you to better prepare for your planned Chess match with Lelouch... and maybe set up a few cameras around the school, take control of the security room... stuff like that.

>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."
>"Yeah, I'll want to get settled in first." (Skip 5 days, activity choice if vote wins)
>Something else...

>>4970481
>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."
Going in raw. We can spy on the girls locker room later.

>>4970481
>>"Yeah, I'll want to get settled in first." (Skip 5 days, activity choice if vote wins)

>>4970481
>"Yeah, I'll want to get settled in first." (Skip 5 days, activity choice if vote wins)

>>4970481
>"Yeah, I'll want to get settled in first." (Skip 5 days, activity choice if vote wins)

>>4970481
>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."

>>4970481
>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."

>>4970481
>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."

>>4970481
>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."

>>4970481
>>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."

>>4970481
>"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly."
Here's hoping we beat Lelouch at chess.
Also we're a manlet.

>>4970946
Actually is it worth beating him at chess?
Flexing aside arousing suspicion might not be good.

>>4970973
Time to redo Lelouch vs Schneizel chess match.

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>>4970983

Imagine actually thinking in a chess game when Bastian has a brain big enough to just code up a Grandmaster Chess AI and have it run through a pair of glasses or something. Physically impossible to lose and no thinking required. Lulu sweating bullets the whole time while pokerface sigma yawns.

>>4970984
The solution to this illegal move is to promptly declare all your pawns are now queens because at that point you're just playing imagination chess.
>>4970986
I don't think Geass ever touches upon the superiority of machines at chess, does it?

>>4970987
Nope. It's all just an algorithm. Considering Bastian's Dexter's Lab tier basement whipping up Deep Blue sounds like child's play.

>>4970988
Hell, it's a practice/component of getting M.E.R.L.I.N to eventually work. If we want to keep the Arthurian naming theme, maybe something like S.I.D.H.E?

>>4970992
Arthurian naming theme is the Britannian preference.
Lloyd's team is called Camelot.
Their ace mecha is the Lancelot...

>>4970993
I guess we'll have to pick a new theme? We'll see what seems appropriate as we learn more about Bastian, or if anything that inspires naming happens in story.

I'm kinda hoping we can hack the Lancelot.

Morality wise, I'm worried Bastian doesn't have the spine to do what needs to be done.
He's got some of Euphie's softness it seems.
We're smarter than Lelouch, I think?
Lelouch with a brain could've been emperor by episode 6.

>>4970994
We could go with monsters? Or wronged mythological heroes? Could be cool having AI squads of knightmares with callsigns like Hydra squad or Arachne squad.

>>4971012
I think Bastian is too much of a good boy for monsters.
Heroes might work.
What about naming them after angels?

>>4971014
Specific ones or just types of angels like Virtues or Thrones? That naming approach can even branch out into Kabbalah names if we produce a lot of those battle AIs.
But QM take plot elements not only from anime so even adjusted Nightmare of Nunnally could still happen too. Not sure that taking religious or occult names won't results in huge early interest from Geass Order.

>>4971022
Why would the Geass Order care if we name our mecha after religious stuff?

>>4971028
Sorry, guess I thinking too much Eva with mecha and religion.

>>4971030
Luckily for us I don't think anybody will be piloting their own mom anytime soon.

Do you think Bastian will be able to realize Kallen is actually a terrorist?
Lelouch needed to waste his Geass on her to figure it out.

>>4971012
>>4971014
How about monsters that were wronged? Medusa and Arachne would both fit the bill.

>>4971071
"No pure blooded jap has tits THAT big, She must be a terrorist! "

>>4971302
Mr paranoid schizophrenic would justifiably hack the surveillance systems and get profiles of everyone at the school once the military issues start in about 5 days time.

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"I'm fine with meeting the Student Council now, Milly." You didn't feel like putting off your reunion with your long-lost half-brother and sister was a good idea. You and Lelouch always had a less... straightforward relationship as a result of the two of you both possessing prodigal intellects in your youth. Schneizel was a little too old for either you or Lelouch to develop a real rivalry with, you still held it as a point of personal pride that you had defeated him once despite the age gap the two of you had. While it wasn't unheard of for children to be able to defeat people many times their own age at chess if they were true prodigies like you, Lelouch and Schneizel were, but for one prodigy to defeat another despite an age gap of ten years... you'd never forget the look on Lelouch and Schneizel when your older brother realized that he had been tricked in the last stage of the game by you purposely sacrificing your last non-pawn piece on the board in order to guarantee that one of your two remaining pawns could become a queen and win the game. It was a gambit that you'd never be able to trick Schneizel with again, nor Lelouch, for that matter. But at the time, your strategy was considered to be masterful. Unfortunately, to spare Schneizel the ridicule of being beaten by a child, his defeat was covered up with him just saying that he had felt bad for taking your last piece, and that he decided to resign after taking your last bishop as a way of not embarrassing you. But he knew, you knew, and Lelouch knew that Schneizel had lost the game.

"Well, that's fantastic news! Then as the first thing I'm going to do as President of the Student Council... Rai! This is Bastian Ashford, my cousin and the treasurer of the Ashford Student Council!" W-wait! You didn't agree to be a part of the Student Council, much less the treasurer! You don't want to have to be the one in charge of directing the council's budget, you have less agonizingly boring things you want to do than handling the financials for a school! "And Bastian, this is Rai. He's an honorary member of the Student Council, as I believe that he'll need the additional support of the council as a result of his... delicate situation." You crossed your arms as you looked at Rai again and then at Milly. So this was her plan all along then? You supposed that there wouldn't be much of a way to avoid spending time with Lelouch now that your 'cousin' had revealed that you were to take such an important role in the council. Traditionally, the treasurer was only second in command to a president... or third in command, if the president had a deputy president. The third most important position in the Britannian Empire behind the Emperor and the Prime Minister was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, after all, the person in charge of the money of a country was always going to have a tremendous amount of power and sway. Of course, there's a difference between a country and a school. But it was still an important role, so in a way, you were at least thankful to Milly for giving you an important role. Of course, you were annoyed that she did so without asking you first, but it would be impolite to turn her down now, especially as you were acting as her cousin.

"Me? The treasurer, Milly? Do you not already have a treasurer?" You asked with curiosity, and Milly shook her head.

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"I had originally had somebody lined up for the role, but... she turned it down, she didn't want the extra attention it would bring." Wait, what the hell? So this girl could turn down the role of treasurer but you couldn't? That wasn't fair! Damn it, Milly! "Well, she's a member of the council anyway, but she has no official responsibilities. On paper, she's the smartest student the school has ever had. She's aced ever single test she's been given in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Electronics, English Literature, English Language and even Computer Technology!" Milly listed off the girl's accomplishments with a smile on her face. "Perfect grades in every one of the classes! The only competition for her in grades is of course, Lelouch, but... when it comes to the sciences, Nina is clearly ahead. She's also... really very introverted, so I'm hoping that having somebody like you around might help her come out of her shell... though she's... heavily prejudiced against the Elevens because of something that occurred in her past..." Nina, huh? Perhaps another prodigal intellect like yourself and Lelouch? Perhaps greater in some aspects... though that would remain to be seen, you'd enjoy getting to meet a fellow Polymath, at least. You were a little concerned by this apparent prejudice, but you suppose that was a natural result of the Britannian occupation. You weren't going to pry into what had happened to cause her outlook either.

"She sounds quite interesting." You kept talking as you and Rai were led through the halls of Ashford Academy by an excited looking Milly. "And you're saying that she's always had perfect scores, or is this a recent thing?" You wanted to make sure that she hadn't just lucked into finding a cheat sheet or something. You would be tremendously disappointed if the girl turned out to be a fraud. Though with how Milly was speaking about her, it was a possibility that was near-zero that she wasn't genuine.

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"Always! When it comes to posted scores nationally, Nina Einstein is the pride of Ashford Academy! Though... don't let anybody know that I said that. I have a reputation I need to uphold as the President and daughter of the Academy's owners, and I can't be seen showing favoritism to any students with the exception of family like you, as well as people who require special treatment, like Nunally and Rai." Milly said with slight irritation in her tone. Clearly she'd prefer to be able to act as she pleased, but there were certain rules that she needs to both uphold and exemplify as the Student President. "Now, other than the Vice-President Lelouch, who you're both familiar with already to some degree..." Wait, how did Rai know Lelouch? You suppose it was always possible that he was with Milly when the boy was found, but it still surprised you somewhat. "There's his sister, the honorary member Nunally, who is both crippled and blind, so you need to take extra care to be gentle near her. She's a bright young girl who got into an accident at a young age." Milly frowned, you refrained from speaking on Nunally's 'accident' considering that she too was undercover, and it probably wasn't her choice to keep her name instead of changing it to something safer. "Then there is Shirley Fenette, a kind girl who'll befriend pretty much anybody she sees if they give her half the chance. She's also one of the academy's better scoring students, and her family is incredibly prestigious." Ah yes, you'd actually heard of the Fenettes, they were no doubt prestigious, and powerful too. Close to being granted Noble Titles for their continual military service and contributions to the war effort. Earl seemed to be a likely result of their service. You wouldn't be surprised if one day soon, this Shirley would gain the epithet 'Lady' before her name. Then again... it's not like it would be hard for you to regain the title of Prince. Between you and Lelouch though, the title of '11th Prince of the Holy Britannian Empire' was considered cursed. Before Lelouch's exile, you had been the 12th prince. Then when the line of succession was adjusted, you held the title your elder half-brother once had, only to lose it thanks to your disappearance.

"And... anybody else?" You were fairly interested in all of them so far, which for you, was an oddity.

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"Well, there's the secretary, Rivalz Cardemonde, but..." Milly sighed. "Well, he's the easy-go-lucky sort. I'm sure you'll get on with him well if you want to give him a chance." It seemed that Milly had more... complicated feelings about the secretary of the council. But you decided it would be better not to press her on that particular line. "Ah. Look at that, we've arrived!" Milly abruptly stopped at a set of doors before she pushed the two of them open, allowing you to see the people within. A few people you weren't familiar with, who must've been the other members of the council Milly told you about, then there was the surprised looking face of one Lelouch 'Lamperouge' and the gentle expression of his sister, who he was standing next to.

>Introduce yourself to everyone.
>Allow Milly to handle the Introductions.
>Ignore the introductions entirely, go over to Lelouch and challenge him to a match of chess.
>Something else...

>>4971556
>>Ignore the introductions entirely, go over to Nunally and abscond with her, telling Lelouch if he wants her back he has to beat us in chess.
Then we can go get lunch and catch up with Nunally while we wait for him.

>>4971556
>Introduce yourself to everyone.
It wouldn't hurt to make a little bit of an effort.

>>4971556
>Introduce yourself to everyone.

>>4971556
>Introduce yourself to everyone.

>>4971556
>Introduce yourself to everyone.
>go over to Lelouch and challenge him to a match of chess.

Challenging lulu here basically ensures he'll be suspicious of us. Wouldn't Mr. Schizo prefer to size him up a bit first?

>>4971556
>Introduce yourself to everyone.

Time for Sigma dialogue

>>4971556
>Introduce yourself to everyone.

>>4971556
>Introduce yourself to everyone.
>Something else...
Proclaim that you will build the blind girl new eyes and an exo suit to walk in.

>>4971556
>>Introduce yourself to everyone.

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>>4971556
Yo wizard, so if in setting we're at the tech level where we can make mechs, how come the blind girl isn't walking and seeing yet? Can we be the first one to develop the techniques to cure cripples? It would be smart to get royalties for the discovery.

>>4971787
the anime actually explains it. the blindness/crippling is entirely mental and is caused by geass magic n shit

>>4971800
The fuck? Well how do we unfuck that?

>>4971807
Have you never watched the anime or read the manga lad?

>>4971821
No, only some meme's and an episode I saw a long time ago.

>>4971826
Well spoilers then, Bascially she gets mentally unfucked by Lelouch doing some stupid shit and she opens her eye. She is blind, Therefore can't open them or something in the anime. But once open she well...realizes she can see.

Her spines still fucked though, I think thats both geas and bullets.

>>4971830
The Geas blindness sounds like bullshit, but I think Bastian could totally unfuck her spine either through implants or surgery.

>>4971840
I'd say Rai probably could remove the blindness with his Geass.

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>>4971845
....hhhoooowwwwww?

>>4971840
>>4971830
It's not just her spine, I think she can actually feel her waist down, it's that her legs got turned into chili con carne.

>>4971852
Its the same as Lelouch's geass but sound based instead of needing eye contact and he could simply command her to not be blind (this would actually work).
Geass Cancellers are also established as a thing and it isnt completely unreasonable to build one considering we are making a Knightmare Frame in our basement
Either way these solutions only really work for the blindness part because apparently her legs are physically fucked up and not just crippled by Geass

>>4971875
....so we can still unfuck her legs through conventional means? That's good I guess????

>>4971875
Who the fuck is Rai?

>>4971941
the kid we were talking to, the one with amnesia.

>>4971807
Charles' Geass rewrites, erases and implants memories in people. He mindraped his own daughter into being a cripple purely from mental compulsion.

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>>4971941
OC donut steel MC from Code Geass Lost Colors visual novel

Giving Nunally her legs back will make Lelouch simp to us.
It's well worth the effort considering everything he does is for her sake though.
Now he won't have to make a world without stairs.

Would it be possible to at least attempt to protect Shirley's Smile and Confidence, which starts with saving her dad from a certain landslide?

And maybe preventing someone from just blowing her off constantly.

>>4971556
>>4971562
+1

>>4972193
I don't see why not.
Bastian is clearly a very good person even if he seemingly has trouble showing it.
He's even working on non-lethal takedowns for stuff because he doesn't like killing.
Getting Lelouch to deal with Shirley's feelings would be good for both of them.

>>4972193
How is someone as socially retarded as Bastion going to set two people up?

>>4972219
Engineer a perfect algorithm to get them together.
Or lock them together in a room for a day.

>>4972219
If Milly knows some of what we can do it shouldn't be long before we get asked to do something to help, or if we find an opportunity to get her to help.

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"Good morning everyone." You stepped forwards, walking in front of Milly in order to address the student council. "My name is Bastian Ashford. I'm not sure if Milly told you about me, but I'm her younger cousin. She's asked me to take the role of treasurer on for the student council, so I will strive to do the best I can." You gave them all a polite smile, and the girl with orange-y blonde hair spoke up in surprise at your sudden appearance and revelation.

"Huh? You asked a new student to be the treasurer, Milly? Also, you never mentioned anything about a cousin, how come?" The orangey-blonde haired girl was clearly unsure about the addition of a new unknown student to the student council, and she didn't sound all too pleased about Milly's decision to keep you a secret either.

"Oh? I never mentioned him? Huh, well... he's the sort of person who likes to keep to himself, honestly. I doubt he'd appreciate me talking to other people about him without his knowledge."

"What's this, you've started to respect the privacy of other people now, Milly?" Lelouch stepped up now, curiosity in his voice as he looked at you, Milly and then at the yet to be introduced Rai. Clearly, he must've been curious as to the meaning behind all of this, perhaps more curious than the rest of the council members, who were obviously surprised by the sudden addition of a new member to the Student Council who was previously not even a student at Ashford.

"Well... he is family." Milly gave Lelouch a half-smile. "I'm sure I must've mentioned something about him at one point, did I just forget to tell you two about the student transfer that was going to occur?" Milly was actually surprisingly good at lying when she needed to be, in fact, even right now you couldn't tell if the girl was lying or telling the truth! You suppose those are the skills that you need to learn when you're a member of a fallen noble family and you need to keep the truth obscured at all times due to having multiple secrets that could cause the destruction of the family... or somebody who wants to go into journalism, either or.

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"Not to my recollection, Milly." Lelouch shrugged, the boy was clearly just as sharp as he ever was, you were lucky to have such fine control over your own emotions in situations like this, because you really really wanted to burst out laughing at how little Lelouch had done to disguise himself or Nunally. How the hell nobody in this school who had ever looked at a picture of the missing Lelouch and Nunally vi Britannia and never put two and two together was beyond you. Or maybe some of them had and just didn't want to bring it up or make a scene? It was weird, but you suppose at a stretch you could understand things. He then walked up to you and looked you right in the eyes, holding out a hand. "Lelouch Lamperouge, I'm the Vice-President of the Student Council. It's a pleasure to meet you, Bastian." Ah, there's that charisma you were expecting from him, those perfectly rehearsed movements and speech patterns. That's the posture of somebody who actually paid attention in his etiquette lessons.

"Yes, I'm sure it is." You smirked, and Lelouch frowned at your joke. "Joking aside, it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Lelouch. Milly has told me quite a bit about you." Well, not really all that much, but you knew enough about Lelouch already from growing up with your elder brother... at least up until he was sent away.

"She has? How very unlike our president to go talking about others behind their backs." Lelouch had a confident smirk on his face. "Nothing too embarrassing I hope." Looks like Lelouch wasn't yet suspicious of you, clearly, he hadn't been able to easily recognize you as you had managed to easily recognize him. Though he must've been aware of your disappearance too, it was something that you made as difficult as possible to connect your current self to. The existence of Sebastian li Britannia was one that you had made as difficult as possible to connect the existence of Bastian Ashford to. While your name might've been something of a giveaway at first glance, it was actually so that you had a reasonable way to deflect attention from somebody who knew your identity mistakenly calling you by your true name. Which... turns out to have been completely unnecessary what with Lelouch here.

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"Not much, really, she did tell me that you were a big fan of Chess though, and I must admit, I'm something of a fan too. I'd like to see how you play at some point." Lelouch rose an eyebrow at you. Obviously he wasn't expecting to be challenged to a game of Chess by somebody who he'd just met, not to mention somebody who should be well aware of how skilled he was. Of course, you knew Lelouch's prowess very well, even assuming his skill hadn't increased from the time you were children, defeating him would still be something of a challenge, though you were confident in your analytical algorithmic mind to see you through to victory. Analyzing the game-state was something of a specialty of yours. Planning for your opponents next moves and being three steps ahead of them through tactical analysis of all possible moves and outcomes. It was a technique that actually put stress on your own mind, but your algorithmic thought process was something unique to you, and by taking into account everything about a situation, you were fairly certain you would always be able to form a winning strategy. Of course, that would require you to have all the information available to you, though over a protracted game like Chess, you couldn't rely on being able to use your algorithmic thought processes for too long. You might've idolized computers, but you couldn't force your mind to function like one for too long before you would just pass out.

"H-hey, are you sure you want to go about challenging Lelouch at Chess? I've never seen him lose a single game! He's like some sort of Chess God!" The blue haired boy suddenly warned you about Lelouch's skill, Rivalz, if Milly's explanations were correct. He seemed like he had a good heart.

"Well, I'm always up for a game. Why don't we get a bored now, Bastian. It's not often I get people challenging me to a game despite knowing how good I am... well, I do find myself defeating Nobles who are aware of my abilities, but... you don't strike me as the kind to overestimate your own abilities." Lelouch had a confident smile on his face, looks like he wants to play too. Well, how convenient for you.

>"Ha! How good could you be? I'll beat you in under 30 moves." (Try to win dramatically)
>"Well, let's see who's better, shall we?" (Try to win)
>"I look forward to playing a fellow grandmaster." (Just play casually, try to use it as an opportunity to get a read on him)
>"I think the one overestimating his abilities is you, Lelouch." (Play just to frustrate Lelouch)
>Something else...

>>4972668
>>Something else...
Play exactly like Schneizel. As close to perfect as we can replicate. Keep shiteater grin on at all times.

>>4972668
>”I believe practice makes perfect, Lelouch. Let's have a fun game.” (Try to get Lelouch into same situation Schneizel was in >>4971548 but let him win and make sure he knows you let him win where Schneizel lost)

>>4972668
>"Mere chess ill befits minds such as ours. Let's take this game into the fifth dimension!" (Challenge Lelouch to a game of 5D Chess With Multiverse Time Travel)

no but seriously
>Use the playing style you came up with all those years ago to beat Schneizel.

>>4972668
>>"I look forward to playing a fellow grandmaster." (Just play casually, try to use it as an opportunity to get a read on him)

Attempts to replicate the method we used against Schneizel will instantly call our hand, and that's silly.

>>4972668
>"I look forward to playing a fellow grandmaster." (Just play casually, try to use it as an opportunity to get a read on him)

>>4972668
>"I look forward to playing a fellow grandmaster." (Just play casually, try to use it as an opportunity to get a read on him)

>>4972668
>>"I look forward to playing a fellow grandmaster." (Just play casually, try to use it as an opportunity to get a read on him)

>>4972668
>"I look forward to playing a fellow grandmaster." (Just play casually, try to use it as an opportunity to get a read on him)

>>4972708
+1

>>4972708
+1
Really like this

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"I look forward to playing a fellow Grandmaster." You smiled at Lelouch, letting him know that you were indeed on his level of skill, at least rank-wise. You hadn't even really had to work that hard to get the rank, just show up at a few contests once in a while and beat a few other players. Their play-styles were predictable and amateur, generally. As far as games go, Chess isn't an incredibly complex one, which is why computers had effectively already mastered the game. It was simply an algorithmic process of going through the routes that would lead to the most favorable outcome for you and the least favorable outcome for your opponent. Positioning was key to victory in the game, and seeing as a computer algorithm was capable of taking into account millions of calculations about positioning in a traditional game, it was obvious as to just what was superior.

Of course, officially, Chess AI had been banned in the Britannian Empire, which was honestly just hilarious. The nobility and the royalty who enjoyed the game felt so threatened by something as simple as being beaten by a machine that they had the entire idea banned! What made things even more ironic was the funding that the Britannians later put into the development of far more advanced AI, though as per your theft and deletion of all the back-up files, that too had basically been entirely canceled. You were probably one of the few people on the planet who understood how dangerous a true AI could become. Something with a limitless amount of processing power but with all the thought capacity of a human being. In a world run on machinery and electronics, that sort of being would be something akin to a God. Only through fleeing their own creations would humanity be able to resist such a thing. Perhaps only through machinery like this with good intentions could a truly perfect society be formed? Who can tell?

"You're a Grandmaster?" Lelouch sounded surprised. "I must admit, I didn't expect to meet somebody as young as yourself who had the rank. You really must be something of a prodigy." Lelouch was a little more guarded just by hearing about your rank, but that didn't matter. It was better that he knew of your skill beforehand instead of being surprised by your technique in the game itself. Both options would arouse suspicion, but the path you had taken would ensure the minimal chance that he cottoned on to the fact that you weren't simply Milly's cousin. Low as that chance might be. Lelouch was smart, but he wasn't so paranoid as to connect you and your royal self. You had strived to appear different to your past self. Even athletically, you were in good shape thanks to your time spent hauling scrap for your projects. Though it really looked like Lelouch was the opposite, with his skinny frame, you kind of doubted that he'd even be able to throw a punch that could hurt somebody.

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"Heh, don't flatter me too much, Lelouch. I've heard about your skill, and even if you don't officially rank, you're also a Grandmaster in terms of skill, aren't you?" You smirked at the boy, and he shrugged. You were looking forward to being able to play Lelouch, to see how his strategy had changed over the years.

"So I've been told." Shirley brought a board to a nearby table. "Thank you, Shirley." Lelouch gave the girl a quick thank you as he started to set the board up. "Now, let's flip a coin to decide who gets to pick their color, shall we?" Lelouch offered the traditional sportsmanlike approach of a coin toss to decide who got what color, but that wasn't necessary.

"Oh? I'd prefer you just have the opportunity to choose your color, Lelouch. It's not often I get the chance to play somebody else on my level of skill, and I'd like to see just what you'll pick." Lelouch looked a little put-off by your decision to allow him to pick the color, but he shrugged.

"Very well, then I'll pick Black, and allow you the first move." Black? A reactive personality, rather than a proactive one, perhaps? That much was clearly for certain. In all his time in Japan, it appeared as if he hadn't made much progress towards anything at all. What was he waiting for, exactly? With his level of strategic thinking, he could at least do something! After all, unless something is done, you estimate that the Britannian Empire will have achieved global rule in the next 5 years. Neither of the other global superpowers had the tenacity to last long against the power of the Britannians, not to mention that the Britannian's had the best technology, always remaining on the cutting edge. The amount of times they had wiped out an opposing force through the revealing of a newly upgraded Knightmare Frame was genuinely frightening. Victory through superiority of arms and strategy. It was a devious combination that sheer manpower couldn't overcome.

"As you wish." You both took a seat at the table, and you made the first move, moving a knight forwards onto the field. Knights may have been your favorite piece of all in chess. The one piece that wasn't bound to the same rules that all other pieces are required to follow. A wildcard if there ever was one. Sure, the Rook was powerful, and the Queen even more so, but the rule breaking nature of the Knight was its greatest appeal. No other unit could move like the Knight, and no other unit could jump over units as the Knight could. Even if it was deviously difficult to get your opponent into Checkmate with a Knight as an offensive piece.

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The match continued for a while, and you noticed that Lelouch was hesitant to trade units, though he also bizarrely wasn't afraid of using his own King as an offensive piece. The match continued for some time as the two of you both played relatively casually. You managed to discern from his play-style that not only was Lelouch a more reactive personality, but he was also somebody who disliked trading units at no gain to himself. Or at least that was what you believed to be the case until he took advantage of the board and took your queen and put you into Check at the same time. Though he hadn't noticed that was your plan the entire time, as you swiftly took his queen with a knight and then went on to take a carelessly placed Bishop. The match became one of such intense concentration, that even though the two of you were playing casually and didn't have an true intent to win, neither of you heard the bell ring to signify the start of classes, at least up until Milly stepped in.

"That's it, you two! Lelouch, you'll need to continue this with Bastian later on. You have lessons you need to take. I need to get Bastian and Rai's paperwork sorted out to, so..." She in no uncertain terms told Lelouch that the game was over, but Lelouch didn't seem to think much of it. The game was still in an uncertain state, where either of you could've taken victory. A draw.

"You were good, Bastian. I look forward to playing you at chess once again." Lelouch had a smile on his face, not all too bothered by the interrupted game. Neither of you were playing seriously, but at the same time, you both knew that. Lelouch was still tremendously skilled at the game, though you imagined that you would've been able to defeat him if you really gave it your all.

"You too, Lelouch. Let's do it again sometime when we have a little more free-time, shall we? I intend to defeat you next time." The rest of the student council, with the exception of Milly, were utterly flabbergasted by the draw, though Milly swiftly chaperoned them all out of the Student Council Room with the exception of Nunally, who she had left you and Rai alone with for a moment. You imagined that Milly would be back in just a moment for Nunally, Rai and yourself, but you probably had a few minutes if you wanted to say something.

>Say something to Nunally (What?)
>Say something to Rai (What?)
>Say nothing and wait for Milly to show up again.
>Run off and go looking for the school's security room so you can hack the cameras.
>Something else...

>>4973657
>Say something to Nunally (What?)
>So how you and your brother been doing here? I have to say I feel a bit dissapointed Lelouch failed to recognize me.
>I might be able to help you with your wheelchair situation

>>4973657
>Run off and go looking for the school's security room so you can hack the cameras.

>>4973659
>>4973661
Why not... both?
Nunally is in a wheelchair.
We can talk as we walk her to the security room.
She's a good girl.

>>4973657
>Run off and go looking for the school's security room so you can hack the cameras.
We should steal these sometime and make a factsphere out of them.

>>4973657
>>Run off and go looking for the school's security room so you can hack the cameras.

>>4973675
Wouldn't our Frankenmech have one already?

>>4973657
>Run off and go looking for the school's security room so you can hack the cameras.

>>4965536
We need a Hackerman Bastian edit with this image.
Also where did this image come from?

I can't wait to build our own faction.
Should we invite Milly as well as Nina?
Shirley might be able to provide stockpile information for military grade equipment too.
Getting Shirley involved in the terrorism business is the best chance she has at getting Lelouch in the end.

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We can design perfect eternal companion for C.C.

>>4973723
Do you think MERLIN will be male or female in personality?
The name suggests male but a man can dream about his AI wife.

>>4973726
Everything depends on our lord and savior W.I.Z.A.R.D but having Nine-expy AI in Code Geass would be cool as fuck.

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>>4973690
Like this?
Also, it's heavily edited from some picture I found at some point.

>>4974112
Nice work, QM.
>>4973733
Building an AI or an android?
Androids would be good for dealing with Geass users.
Is Bastian smart enough though?

If we get cameras up Lelouch and Kallen will basically be our bitches.

>>4974112
Based

Well... now that Milly was gone, and there is nobody watching you... you felt like now would be a perfect time to engage in a little bit of espionage. You knew that the school must have at least some sort of security room, as you'd noticed that there were more than a few security cameras around the place... of course, interestingly enough, they had been disabled. There hadn't been a single security camera that appeared to be active in the entire school. Were they down for maintenance, or did Ashford Academy purposely keep them disabled so that the chances of Lelouch and Nunally's discovery were limited? The two were very much hiding in plain sight, but you suppose that keeping a video feed may have just been considered a little too foolish by the Ashford family. After all, their family would be totally doomed if it was uncovered that they were keeping the existence of two presumed dead royals hidden from the Britannian Empire.

"Rai. Nunally. I'm afraid I need to go, tell Milly that I've just gone to look for the restroom if she comes back, OK?" Milly probably wouldn't believe that was what you were up to, but what was she going to do about it? You were capable of making your own decisions, and you wanted to make sure that you had access to whatever security systems that this school building had. While you weren't expecting much, setting the cameras to appear disabled while having a direct feed to your laptop for every camera in the building would be ideal for catching any foul play. You were a little suspicious about Lelouch still, after all. Could he have really just stood by and done nothing for all this time?

"Uh? Yeah. Sure." Rai seemed not to have any sort of suspicions as to what you were doing, and Nunally didn't either. Or at least if she did she didn't voice them. The girl was a blind cripple, there was genuinely very little that she could do to stop you even if she wanted to. You felt for Lelouch's plight. Even back then when he was still officially the Eleventh Prince, it was clear to everyone around that he adored his younger sister. The day that Marianne died and Nunally suffered from those terrible injuries is the day that Lelouch's heart must've broken. That he's still taking care of his sister even despite the danger of remaining with her with their original names shows just how much he does care for her.

With Rai's barely aware acknowledgment of your actions, you slipped out of the student council room and started to sneak around the corridors. Or well, rather than sneaking, you were walking with something of a hurried pace. To trick anybody who might see you into believing that you were nothing more than a new student who was late for his class. Both fortunately and unfortunately for you, Ashford Academy was huge, so you spent quite a bit of time wandering about as you looked for the security room. Eventually, you came across a 'Faculty Only' portion of the building, so you slipped inside without any hesitation.

To the right was a room that was labeled 'Break Room', not exactly something you wanted to go inside of. Especially not with the multiple voices you could hear from the teachers and staff talking about... something behind the door. It wasn't relevant to you at all, anyway. You doubt that the teachers really had any sort of idea as to what was going on here in this academy. The fact that the Ashfords had started to try to get you to interact more with the outside world was a sign that they might be plotting to reveal you to the rest of the world at some point in the future. You didn't have much evidence as to that theory, but it was a sudden change, and you personally believed that all changes required catalysts to occur. Nothing can happen without a reason, a simple fact of life. There was a chain of actions that led to every action. In this case, it would appear as if the Ashford Academy were likely growing tired of their current situation, and though Milly herself probably wasn't aware of it right now, they would likely attempt to reveal your identity to the world and arrange a marriage or something, knowing ex-Britannian Nobility. Milly had already managed to turn down multiple suitors who had been forced on her in the past through her overbearing personality. Though you only kept an eye on some of her affairs out of concern for yourself, you noticed that most Britannian nobles who were set up to have dates with her seemed to dislike her attitude, instead clearly preferring women who were submissive to them. Milly obviously understood that, and not wanting to basically be sold to some random noble somewhere so that her family could regain stature, had adopted a few techniques that would enable her to scare off potential marriage candidates. She was better at manipulating people than you gave her credit for, when you thought about it like that. She had even managed to get you to open up to her a little. But... you couldn't wholeheartedly trust the Ashford family, even if you could trust Milly herself. There was too much risk involved in doing such things.

Walking past the break room, you kept creeping through the faculty only part of the building until you came across an unmarked door that seemed to be relatively disused, there was a buildup of dust on the door-handle, and in upper corners of the doors, cobwebs had formed naturally over time. Interesting... You pulled the door handle down and pushed, but the door was locked. Annoying. You looked at the door, and saw that it was a basic cheap lock. You had a few screwdrivers in your bag, so... you could probably just use it to force the lock open, though that would almost certainly render it unusable in the future... or you could just... kick the lock? You're pretty certain that the cheap aluminum lock would snap with a well-placed kick, though it might alert the staff room that you're breaking into the security room.

>Force the lock open with a screwdriver.
>Kick the lock and break it, who cares about being indiscreet?
>See if you can find a key nearby. The headmaster's office should be close, and that should contain a key.
>Just go back to the Student Council Room. This can wait until tonight. Less risk.
>Remove one of your contacts and use your Geass to unlock the door.
>Something else...

>>4975062
>Force the lock open with a screwdriver.

I mean the dust and cobwebs implies that no-one goes here so we'll have time to come back and replace the lock if we feel we need to.

>>4975062

>Force the lock open with a screwdriver

If we can build a knightmare from scrap, we can fix a lock we broke

>>4975062
>>Remove one of your contacts and use your Geass to unlock the door.
why should we hinder ourselves?

>>4975062
>See if you can find a key nearby. The headmaster's office should be close, and that should contain a key.

>>4975062
>Remove one of your contacts and use your Geass to unlock the door.
That's why we have it

>>4975062
>Remove one of your contacts and use your Geass to unlock the door.

>>4975062
Based Chad Milly. She ain't gonna settle for any limp noodle arm onions noble cuck.

>>4975062
>Remove one of your contacts and use your Geass to unlock the door.

While you could probably break through this door with more mundane means, this is the exact sort of situation where your Geass would excel, and honestly, it's about your best option too. While you don't like relying on it when there are alternatives that would work just as well, in a situation where all you could do is attempt to break the door's lock with a screwdriver or look for a key that you might not be able to actually find, then your Geass is clearly the best solution. Though it's a mundane door-lock without any electronic parts, your Geass still has the power to manipulate such mechanisms. It's a supernatural wonder, could it have something to do with the manipulation of the metallic parts of the lock through electromagnetism, maybe? Or was it something else? No, it couldn't merely be magnetism that allowed your power to work, could it? No... from your testing, a few years back, the power of Geass was something that worked on any form of mechanism, so long as it had moving parts, you could manipulate it. It made little sense to your scientific mind that there would be some sort of... unknown force out there that could be used to manipulate the world around you to your will when it came to machinery and mechanisms, but it existed, and while you didn't like having to rely on powers that you could not yet comprehend, you would not ignore the most useful path.

You quickly reached up to your right eye and removed the colored contact for a moment, before placing your hand on the door's lock and uttering two words under your breath, almost silently. "Obey me." It was a simple order, but not one that didn't hold any power. For the moment that you uttered the command, your control was temporarily taken from your body and you used your will itself to force the door into unlocking. Years of built-up rust and grime on the locking mechanism were shook loose as the bolt of the lock slid into its rightful place and the door was unlocked. It was a process that took less than two seconds of focus to accomplish, and knowing that your job was done, you allowed your mind to take control over your own body once again. It was always an odd experience, to be separated from your own body like your Geass enabled. You had of course already pondered on what might happen if your body were to somehow die while you were within a mechanism. Would your mind continue to exist within the mechanism? Or would death automatically cancel out your Geass? It... really wasn't something that you were in any sort of hurry to find out.