Royce had once, for a long time, thought that the structures he designed and gave to the people of Cloudbank as a gift were his greatest achievements. That the buildings he had once worked himself to the brink of exhaustion to turn into works of functional art would be his legacy, embraced by the people and at least granted slightly longer lifespans than what most other architects came up with. Now, locked away in his darkened lab in Fairview, he looks back at his previous optimism, his naivety, and laughs. Of course the people of Cloudbank were far too fickle to let anything but the most iconic of structures stand for more than a month or two before tearing them down in favour of a park or bridge or anything else new. How foolish he had been, only a few years ago, to think that they would treat even his most brilliant designs any different?
When he found the algorithms that showed the patterns in the seemingly random whims of the public, Royce could hardly contain his frustrations. Here it was, in mathematics, evidence that the city was stuck in a pointless loop disguised an innovation and change. That was the tipping point for him, really. He became determined to break this system, to pave the way for some true permanence and progress to occur in Cloudbank. When Grant proposed the Camerata Royce leapt at the idea eagerly, knowing that such changes had to be handled with tact and grace that he himself did not have but the older man had in spades. The two of them couldn’t do it alone of course, they both knew they would need a little more help to really get anywhere, but they could make a good start.
With the addition of Sybil to bring the total of their little club to three and add a new, very different perspective and set of skills, Royce and the others were confident that with the right tools they could change the city from within. Royce was working diligently to locate those tools while Grant and Sybil laid the foundations for the efforts to come.
He pulled the Transistor into reality, and with it came the possibility of calling up and controlling the process. Then and there he knew that his legacy would be in this astounding discovery, this new ability to manipulate and bring to light the very creatures that had shaped Cloudbank’s structures from behind the scenes for so long. All this new potential simply needed a proper, firm guiding hand.
Royce was more than happy to provide.