Fool's Adventures: A Demon's Souls/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Quest

Someone linked me some really nice Fool's Idol art so I'll just leave that here, with a recommendation that if you like cool fantasy art you should probably visit this twitter.



Furthermore I'm working on editing the older updates, based on stuff from that same someone. 99% of it is comma stuff, because I have a habit for run-on sentences. Additionally I'll be starting school again on the 23rd, but its one credit hour lab class and I might not even technically need to do anything with it for a couple months, because of how the lab work is structured. All in all I expect it to either do nothing or improve my ability to write more of this.

Before you noticed you were moving, the crowd of Maple Court, and the spot of brightly colored clothes amongst them, grew close. For just a moment, before you enter that crowd, a fragment of the feeling you are chasing pulls your eyes aside. You turn a little, and look past Annie where she stands beside you, to the dimmer street with the music and the sounds of happy people. But then it fades and you turn away.

There are many Souls here, meandering across the street in currents and tides. The Hellmouth is quiet, its touch upon them light. You are quickly enfolded into the crowd, passing besides a man in a red shirt talking to another man in a green and blue striped shirt. You do not pay attention to their words. And nothing else about them makes you keep paying attention to them, so you do not. Annie follows you in, slipping around the people easily.

The people are all around you. But, what you are chasing is not focused on them. As you walk deeper into the crowd, there comes a moment where it looks like you might not be able to pass through the deeper crowd, obstructed by a wall of people. But they part unconsciously at your presence. For an idle moment you wonder why and then toss it aside somewhat… contemptuously.

It does not matter why.

Your thoughts amuse you a little. And amusement is one feeling you know well, because you were capable of feeling it before. It is not what you are chasing now, and does not share much similarity with it. Though, intriguingly, there is still some connection. It is something of note, to your writhing mind, that the feelings you have felt recently all share at least a little similarity to one another.

People are talking, as they do when gathered together, but it washes over you with no attention spared for it. All of your focus is instead aimed at the racks and racks of colorful cloth you have now reached, spread out in front of a little shop.

Yellows, reds, greens, blues, blacks and whites.

You want to look at all of it, and so you move faster. The faint scent of the Warrior, hanging over another, similar scent, doesn't make you stop. You reach a shelf with a collection of shirts, spread out for perusal, in many shades of blue and black. Their design is simple, though you aren't sure if you feel anything from that. You scan across them, your eyes pulled to the lighter colors at the far end.

You drift over and pick up a bright blue shirt, with a hint of silver under the collar. The texture is only somewhat familiar to you. As you hold it, examining it and running your hand along it, your feeling diminishes sharply. Not it. You drop the thing and move on. After a few twists and turns amongst the racks you find a sea of greens, reds and browns. Following the sudden snarl in your own head at the sight, you disregard the greens and reds and drift along the long rack of brown cloth.

Shirts and dresses and pants and other shapes, arranged seemingly at random to you. You touch some of them before moving on, and quickly find an orange-brown item which is at least somewhat interesting in color. The shape of it is simple, with it being long sleeved and secured through buttons of subtle yellow color.

Your feeling surges, almost making your fingers tingle, and then makes you look around, seeking threats. Your darting eyes lock onto Annie, who stands at the end of the rack, watching you with a bemused expression.

"Help me find something." You say abruptly, struck by an idea as you drop the thing you are holding, frustration leaking into your thoughts.

She blinks, then with a determined look on her face, slips past you into the racks. You watch her move to a section of previously missed yellow clothing, which was partially hidden by a rack of primarily green colors, and thus was ignored. You watch her head dip up and down a few times and hear various clacks and rustles, before she comes back around the corner and holds a dull yellow thing up to her chest.

Disgusting, not what I am chasing. A part of you feels emboldened by the progress.

"No. Next." You say, gesturing away. She dips back out of sight, then her red hair repeats its bobbing course, accompanied by more clacks and rustles. She comes out with a brighter yellow shirt, long sleeved and ruffled at the hem and collar.

"No. Next." You repeat. In she goes again, and again you watch her dip up and down, while listening intently to even more rustling noises. Then she returns. You mind immediately leaps to the thing in her hands. A bright and somewhat glimmering yellow shirt. The color is enhanced by a sheen you can only say is good. Held out like it is in her hands, the long sleeves catch the light and gleam.

Want.

"That is good." You say, and turn away, slipping between the racks. Annie's footsteps hurry after you.

You are calmer now, your desire somewhat appeased now that you have a little of what you wanted. But, you are also on the hunt for similar things now and will not be content till you find them. So like hunger in a way.

But you know hunger, so you know that thought to be a lie of ignorance. What you are feeling is only a cousin of hunger, that force which has defined you since your first breath. A hum builds in the back of your throat as you pass through the racks, eyes raking across them, your hands reaching out to brush through cloth as you pass.

"Latria, over here." Your head turns automatically at Annie's call. She is standing at the end of a rack, one hand resting on it. It is filled with almost a dozen dresses in various yellow shades. You start going through them, moving down the line rapidly. Too rapidly.

Before you can process the wordless alarmed noise from Annie, you smack into something and, almost, stumble. Startled, you look up from the golden sundress you have bunched in your hands. The first thought to cross your mind when you see the older woman regaining her balance in front of you is, 'attack'. You reflexively clutch the dress close. It is yours. Then the scent of the Warrior stabs into your nose and you come to the quick conclusion this must be her Mother.

…? You pause for a moment, your lurch forward stopping as well.

"Aah oops! Are you okay honey? Didn't see you there!" The lady says to you, her voice a mix of embarrassment and interest. Your momentary surprise ends and you look her over briefly. She's about as tall as the Warrior, but her hair is light brown and curly, her face faintly lined with approaching age. Her brown eyes are looking at you with concern.

Her shirt and pants combination are a mix of light bronze and beige colors.

"I'm fine, who are you?" You say, your voice level and slightly curious. Your mind is, oddly, quiet and letting you focus.

The lady chuckles, rearranging her own items, before answering. "I'm Joyce Summers. Nice to meet you! Are you new to Sunnydale?"

"Latria, and I am. It's a nice place." You say, edging away subtly. You don't want another bout of erratic thoughts right now. Joyce frowns slightly, before Annie sticks her hand out between you two and slides into the conversation with an abrupt, "Hi! I'm Annie!" Joyce seems slightly off put by the redhead, but then her mood brightens and she shakes Annie's hand happily.

"Nice to meet you too! Clothes shopping?" The older lady asks. You turn to looking at the clothing, though that's just a distraction, since you remain extremely aware of what the two of them are doing.

"Yeah, Latria came from overseas recently and we're working on expanding her wardrobe," that briefly annoys you, since that isn't what you intended at all, before your mind changes track again to spend a moment processing what that means. "... and so while we were walking around taking in the sights we saw what looked like a good deal." In your momentary distraction you missed a few seconds of talking and you flick a glance over as Annie chatters on and see Joyce is essentially engrossed. That makes you relax your grip on the dress, slightly.

Out of the corner of your eye you see Annie look at you, and then look over at Joyce with brief regret, imitated you are certain, floating across her face, "Unfortunately we got to go since we have a meet up with other friends to get to. It was nice to meet you though, see you around!" Annie says cheerily.

Then she grabs you by the arm and pulls you away from the bemused looking woman. You quickly disappear out of Joyce's sight into the clothing, and once you do you take the lead from Annie and head around a corner. You end up in a dead end of clothing racks, mostly purple, and then slip gently out of Annie's grip and look around.

"I don't like that woman." Your statement surprises you. It just popped out of your mouth unimpeded after emerging from your possessive want.

Annie blinks at you, and then her expression loosens into open mouth surprise. You spend a moment looking at each other. Then…

"Pfft!" She lets out a tiny, almost silent, chuckle and smiles brightly.

"Well, I think it's time we made our purchases and decamped, my lady?" She asks, that smile still tugging at her face.

You nod and lead the way out of the dead end, eyes open for Joyce's Soul. It takes only a few moments to find a person to handle your purchases. Unsurprisingly, you feel more stable about the entire encounter once the items are yours and stowed in bags Annie carries. There was more than the two items you personally picked in there, but all the others were acceptable so you made no comment.

You are feeling somewhat more, balanced now, as you both walk out of the clothing racks and rejoin the crowd. No sudden bursts of your possessive wanting jealousy. Or much else. Now you turn an eye to simply watching the humans as they pass, looking for the patterns of the town where you claim your demesne.

And the humans are still not very interesting. What they do holds no relevance to you, the topics they speak of hold ignorable meaning, and very few of them dress in ways that catch your eye. Instead as the two of you simply walk away from the clothes store for a while, you end up watching Annie watch them.

Her eyes frequently scan across them, sometimes flicking to someone specific and lingering, before moving on. It only takes a moment to figure out that she is just staving off boredom. Can I be bored? A part of you ponders, while the rest watches the Hellmouth. You don't think you can be.

What a strange thought. You discard it and everything related to it, your mind returning again to your project to change the Gauntlet. Sometimes it left you as you became distracted by some feeling twisting your mental innards, but you usually returned to it most days. It was becoming a mark of you having passed through the latest surge.

A motion to your left has you see Annie staring across the crowd, you're both a bit taller than most of the humans around you, at a store filled with animals. Your not sure what the purpose of such a thing would be, until you see the name, Dagon Pet Store.

Squeaaaaaaaaaaak-click.

Under all of the surrounding human chatter and the sounds of animals coming from the store, you hear something very odd coming from the odd little shop. You change course and start heading for the store, that squeak-click sometimes being repeated or answered by a chirp. Annie and the other humans don't seem to hear it, and even you have difficulty picking it out over the tide of other sounds.

Click-chirp. Squeeaaaaaaaaaaak.

Ding-ding, goes the bell above the door as you enter. There is no one to hear it however, the proprietor seemingly missing and the shop empty of customers. As you darken the doorway, stopping to scan the shop, the animals either freeze or nervously fidget as their sounds fall quiet. Except for that squeaking. The shop is a simple one room affair, rectangular in shape, with the door being on one of the short sides and the sales counter being on the opposite short side. A closed door to a back room is behind the counter. Distantly you can feel a Soul coming from that direction.

In front of you and dominating the room is a waist high rectangle, layered with different cages of furred animals like rabbits and mice and other rodent like creatures. A small number of well separated cat enclosures crown it, full of posts and runs for four felines. The entire thing is obviously meant as the main attraction, while the long walls to either side are full of more enclosures. Annie slides around you, eyebrow subtly raised as she takes it in beside you. The rest of the room is more varied. To your direct right along the windows beside the door are enclosures for fish and other small sea creatures, and along the left, visible in a large window, is a larger cat run presided over by a large brown tom and two smaller cats.

Squeak-kkkclick.

You look left, tracking the sound to a long trough of water in the far corner near the counter. The sides of the trough are opaque, so whatever is inside them is hidden. You move around the central square and approach, passing beside a section of deathly silent colorful birds. Then the interior of the trough is revealed. And it is full of a crustacean you have never seen before. Long, with two large pincers wrapped in thin bands, antennae and a flared tail, the sign above the trough proclaims the red things to be "lobsters".

Several have their gazes directed at you incidentally, before they continue plodding along the sandy floor of the trough. Squaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeek. At the far right of a little grouping of the shelled creatures, is one dark red specimen. It is the source of the squeak you have been hearing. You lean over the trough, placing your hands on the lip of it, fingertips just above the water.

You stare at the strange creatures. Then, you pause.

Why am I here? The thought hits you like a stone, and you don't have an answer. There was no reason to do this. No curiosity, no annoyance. You simply did it.

A memory slips to the forefront.

"M'Lady?" Asked the dregling before you, standing in their lopsided way as he held a dripping knife. At its feet lay another dregling. An occurrence you always paid attention to, in your role as a idol for fools, and as a Warden.

There were many reasons why the dregs did this. Remnants of passion, remnants of fear. But of late there had been more who simply did it at random. Such behavior was not suitable. You had to make sure which kind this one was.

"Why did you stab that?" You say, pointing at the corpse with a hole in its head. Speak simply. The dregling you address stares blankly, mouth flopping around for a long moment before its voice echoes again.

"I d...n't know M'Lady. I did..." It warbles, rocking slightly in place. The knife in its hand is entirely forgotten. Another then. Not suitable. You lean down from your floating height closer to the creature, letting out an imitated breath. You brush your hand gently over its loose hairs, its floppy grey skin dry and rough under your porcelain hand as its milky eyes stare up rapturously.

"Poor creature. You must be redeemed." Your voice echoes quietly throughout the chapel as you call for the Gargoyles to carry it away. It was mad meat now.

In the present, your head tips forward, and you let out a quiet clicking rattle. You still. The similarity is poignant. With your gaze down cast you can see your shadow mingling with Annie's. Hmm…
The train of your erratic behavior, starting with the event, your strange feelings, and the things in your head which are back and chewing where you can barely hear them, come together to paint an ugly tapestry.

It does not take you very long to reach the conclusion you have known to be true since the event.

I too, am mad m…! Snap! Sudden pressure on your fingers makes you jerk backwards in a blur of cloth and white limbs. "Shit shit shit! The fuck!?" Annie shrieks, her bags thudding to the ground as you suddenly slam into her, her hands flying out to grab the trough keeping her falling over, as you stare at the lobster pinched to your left index finger. The other animals all flinch in their cages, quick bursts of frightened sounds filling the room.

The creature is squeaking shrilly as your motions jostle it and then stare at it. The fragments of old and crumbly band around its right pincer show how it must have gotten free. The next movement happens a fraction of a second later, slamming the thing into the water with a loud splorsh and detonating it with a Soul Arrow. The bits of shell and fluids stain the water around your hand. Pulling out, you look at your finger.

It is unharmed. You slump, all rigidity going out of your posture.

Gentle hands enter your view and grab your hand, twisting it gently, so that Annie can see. Seeing it's fine she looks up at you, her expression already troubled, and falling even further as she sees your face. You don't know what expression you are making. You look at the door as the Soul in the backroom moves and it clicks open, disgorging a portly balding man.

"Ah, customers! Sorry I almost missed you, I was dealing with some new arrivals! What can ole' Dagon do for you?" He says jovially, his flabby jowls flopping like pudding as he rests his hands on his belly.

You stare.

Long enough for the silence to stretch into awkwardness. Then you look down at the floor and speak.

"We were just leaving." Your tone is ill at ease.

You turn to look at Annie, giving her a gentle push towards the door. "Let's go home" You say quietly. Dagon's jovial farewell follows you out into the descending night.

The trip home is deeply, and upsettingly, silent.

The Idol has fully realized something is deeply broken in her mind, what part of this does she focus on?

[] Tasklessness. Her existence has been defined by tasks, and since the event and that day at Maple Court, she has come to realize she has no direction. The results of this are… mixed, frenetic bouts of activity juxtaposed with periods of languid apathy.

[] Erraticness. A new and unwelcome resident in her behavior since the event and that day at Maple Court, she has come to realize she has no control. The result is predictable and harsh, as she constantly fights against herself and falls into barely held unnatural stoicism.

[] Wretchedness. Surety in her state of existence has guided her for centuries, and since the event and that day at Maple Court, she has come to realize she has no relief. The results of this are painful, making her contemplate how to carve it out of her head.

---

Mm, that was more agonizing than I was planning. About the only comfort is that her emotions are only tangentially related to human counterparts.

Demonic anguish sucks.

Vote closed Tuesday, September 11th, 6 pm UTC.