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

Annie wasn't going anywhere. The demon could be left, for now. This idea was what drove you away from the idea that her point was interesting. And it was what kept you going forward for several hours, the greater part of you focused on your more mystical pursuits.

You are walking through the sewers with Annie proudly at your side, tapping her fingers on her leg to a tune you don't recognize but is pleasant. The gray walls are slightly dank with water and smell faintly of human waste. You walk unworried, because of your magic, on bare feet towards the "village" of the Rat King. Without his presence the place looks rather different, making you curious.

More human touches, like small white or red lights, signs marking out warnings and painted yellow arrows pointing in various directions. Were these always there? Hmm. There's no way for me to tell how much the King really changed things, so for now...More evidence of their human oddities. And that's what these markings amount to, to you. A rather pointless oddity, with interesting magical implications.

You're not sure what it amounts to for Annie. Should I ask? The thought flits through your head, before a bubbly feeling pushes a different thought to the surface. Let's find out. So you watch her out of the corner of your eye as you walk.

As the halls twist and turn and slowly slope downwards you first check where she is looking. Straight ahead. Her eyes… don't linger on any one thing for long. Every few minutes you see her glance over her shoulder surreptitiously. And occasionally she glances at your bare feet, looking concerned at the cleanliness. Nothing there… so you look at other layers, other parts of her. Here you find that she walks so as to stay away from the walls, without thought put into it. She's tense, always thinking. Her expression is distant, so she's planning… how to react.

That makes sense to you, but doesn't really tell you much about what she thinks of this place, beyond 'not much' right now. The mild disdain inherent in that set of thoughts is at least a starting point.

The bubbly feeling intensifies as you come to that first conclusion and think of the many more you will likely need. Passing through the room you killed the prince rat in you discover yellow… tape, with the word "caution" printed over and over in blocky black letters along its length blocking the far door down. Before you can do anything Annie steps forward and rips it away. When she moves aside to let you walk past her down the steps you find that all remnants of the village have been thoroughly removed. So thoroughly you can't see a single indication it was ever there. No wooden walls, no graffiti, not a single remnant of the rats at all.

You stop at the foot of the stairs. "Hmm. How odd." The words pop out of their own accord as you look around the simple rectangular box which used to be a pit of sorts. Now it's just, a room with more human markings and pipes travelling along the room's walls in a slapdash mess. Following the path of one large one marked "water" it goes over, under and around dozens of others before disappearing into the wall.

The room itself is also larger with the detritus cleared away. To your surprise the far door is sealed over with new brickwork, an arc of bricks lighter in color than the rest of the walls. This has a delicate mark of magic, unlike everything else, which seems to have been scrubbed clean. You walk across the empty box to stare at the wall.

Not seeing anything of note beyond that delicate mark, you turn away. Annie is standing at the bottom of the steps, her arms crossed and a wary look on her face. Her hair looks wine red and black as she stands partly illuminated in a little cone of light from one of the tiny white lights in the ceiling. A memory tries to rise to the surface but you strangle it and start to speak.

"As my Knight I have given you that Glove. Your task then is to find out its secrets." And further my goals, goes entirely unspoken between the two of you. She hmms in response, walking forward to stand in the middle of the room. You wait to see what she will do, since this is largely up to her. Resting your lower hands on your book and scroll where they sit on your hips and clasping your upper hands as you float lightly in the air with your mantle hanging around your shoulders. There was no need for your seeming for this little project.

She raises her Gloved arm and looks at it for a moment before whispering the incantation to awaken the device. As the words leave her lips you can feel static along your hair, though it doesn't frizz like a human's would and stays obediently still on your skull. Then rather abruptly there is a pah-choom! as a rippling rope of white lightning lashes from the pipes on the right wall.

You're too deep beneath the earth to hear if there is a sudden thunderstorm in the sky, but you can guess there would be with decent surety. You watch with interest as the Glove comes alive to your senses, filling out and its complicated magics being revealed to you. Annie's Soul is now essentially a part of it, filling the spaces of it. And exploring the Glove as she stands there.

Her brow furrows.

"That was weaker than it should be… " She mutters to herself as she turns to face the wall the bolt came from. Pointing her hand at a pipe she says the trigger and a small bolt leaps from her index finger to a patch of brick with a Zzzzt! and leaves a bright red spot on it the size of your fist. She's right… you muse to yourself about why that may be as she looks up at the ceiling, pondering.

The next few minutes are filled with Zzzzts and Pah-chooms as she plays with the Glove and figures out that while it is definitely weaker, it is also less controllable. Until she starts performing multiple charge attempts and manages to fill it up, which returns control at the cost of time. You can tell from her huffy expression and pout she isn't exactly pleased with this development.

You take the opportunity. "Since the lightning seems temperamental down here, try one of the other ones."

Annie looks at you, slightly slumped by her frustration and frowning heavily. Then she sighs in one long breath and then straightens up. Running her flesh hand through her hair she looks at you and says. "One of the three I can't do. There's something… missing." She waves her metal hand around loosely at the room around you.

You tilt your head to the right, ornaments clinking. "What else is there, around your Soul?" You ask with actual interest.

She grunts in frustration, shrugging. "I can't find the other two, but one of them I definitely can't do. The other one…" She clenches her hands, then lets go and starts pacing. "It is definitely here, I'm just not sure what to do…" She gets a thoughtful look as she trails off, one eyebrow rising as she taps her chin with a finger.

Then she starts waving her arm around slowly. You… aren't sure what she's doing. At all.

Her… antics, which involve her waving her arm around and muttering nonsense syllables under her breath goes on for several minutes. She even seems to be making progress, strange and subtle energy occasionally slightly twisting the air, the wind, around her. You were essentially satisfied with the slow progress, even if she seemed to be getting more and more frustrated as time went on. You got to make progress on finding out what she thought.

And from her posture and how she was abusing the walls with her power, or at least attempting to, you can conclude she… really does have an opinion which aligns with yours. It's as you're being washed in that bubbly feeling that you are both rudely interrupted by distant cackling echoing down the tunnels, and the feeling of vampires.

What are they doing…?

"Tar chugam…" You approve as your Knight starts chanting to summon her lightning. You ponder making Images of yourself, but discard it as you take a closer look. You can feel six vampires in a pack moving through the tunnels towards you, and you can hear them too. Cackling and jeering at each other like dogs. Annie is taut like a bowstring as the sounds slip down the stairs. You wait a moment more, judging that tension, and then when you hear them coming close to the room above you let her go.

"Annie, hunt them down for me." You command her, and before you finish she's already out the door, streamers of snapping light traveling along the walls of the tunnel to her like a halo. You follow after, floating slowly up the steps. You can't move quickly but that doesn't matter.

Running footsteps sound on the concrete of the room above as it descends into view. In front of Annie the vampires are coming around the corner at the other end of the entrance tunnel, all sporting looks of wariness and surprise. One of them, a springy girl in raggedy clothes with a poof of white-blond hair, hissing and fangs bared.

Zzza-KRACK!

Boom!

A bolt of white fills the tunnel, silhouetting Annie, and cries come down the tunnel as the blinding light singes eyes. Through it you can see the girl evaporate into dust. They disappear around the corner in a rush of snapping cloth and exclamations of surprise. Good, good. This pleases me. Though...

Annie slows down, walking quietly as she approaches the corner. You touch down and stride down the tunnel silence, a multi-limbed pressure building in your head as your thoughts begin to race. With her arm raised Annie steps up to the corner.

A leather clad arm whips at her face, before it is intercepted by her Glove and burns in a snap-sizzle! The screams of the vampire tear at your ears, and Annie's improved reaction time peaks your interest. Maybe one thing the Slayer is good for. While you contemplate that you slide into the commotion and rest a hand on her shoulder. When the lightning stops you grab the burned arm and yank.

What you fish out is a tall vampire, thin, pale, and with a brown eyed face full of piercings under a mop of bright green hair of all things. Wrapping your arms around him you hiss and lift him off the ground as he struggles futilely. His mouth flaps open and you jam it shut with an upper hand, then haul him around the corner. You find amusement in how you are holding him like a dancing partner, almost.

You look at the things, the vampires in front of you, crouched and claws out. Full of fear. You look at them with contempt.

"And why, are a band of ruffians like you in my town hmm?" You ask politely, affecting a look of pleasant curiosity. They all look at you like you were something they found under their beds. "Hmm?" You ask again as you squeeze, and elicit muffled screams from the man-child in your hands.

And they really are ruffians, with their ragged clothing and piercings and formerly cocky attitude. To a one. You can feel your Knight step up besides you, her weapon raised threateningly. They're all so young and raggedy clothed. Then there is a soft, wobbly, intake of breath and a short brown skinned girl steps forward. Her pants are shredded and her jacket rugged and spiked at the shoulders.

"Your town? Lady, you need your head…!" She doesn't get to finish as with a shout your Knight vaporizes her fool head with a bolt of concentrated celestial fire. The rest of her collapses onto her companions with a Skree! And a poof.

There's a moment of silence.

Then the tall one at the back with a shock of red hair and bone pale skin turns around and flees as fast as his long legs will carry him, his coat flapping around him. Good on him to not waste his energy doing anything else. The man-child flops like a snake and screams probable obscenities after him, and then dies when your Soul Arrow engulfs his skull in white fire.

"Richard you dick wait for us!" The brunette girl on your left says as she looks back and turns to run. The remaining two men, probably siblings going by their shaired brown hair and green eyes look at you and Annie in bafflement before following their compatriot. The girl hisses at you like an enormous snake and then flees. Or at least tries to, before another of your bolts blasts her right leg out from under her and sends her tumbling. She immediately starts scrambling on the ground, fear hanging around her.

Your Knight charges after them. The girl sees you both coming and with another scream starts limping away as fast as she can, turning a corner to duck as Annie fires another shot. A pipe on the wall cracks and releases a burst of water and steam as the shot bangs into it. You both round the corner through the rapidly cooling steam and your Soul Arrow reduces her to dust. She was running for a turnoff to your left. Annie breaks away from you as you pass it. You can hear two sets of footsteps echoing down that tunnel. But ahead of you is the coward.

Your thoughts are everywhere, bouncing in your head like children's toys.

Distantly you hear the Zzzzt! of your Knight's weapon through the walls. Your target hasn't slowed at all, running pell-mell away from you like a startled hare. But you can feel his presence as you run through the halls.

Hmm, I wonder if vampires can feel mine. The errant thought has you opening the way for your Fog, letting it go to hang all around you like a banner or storm front. There is no reaction for several moments. Then as you get closer and start to hear his footsteps, slapping into the ground frantically. You hear distant high pitched screams, which eventually fade.

It makes you laugh. Through twists and turns you chase him, surrounded by a nimbus of white Soul stuff. When you come to a straightaway at last you see him, clad in his jacket and jeans. He doesn't even look back when he hears your footsteps.

"Where are you running Richard?" Your voice is inhuman, metallic echoes and the grind of gears in the back of your throat distorting the sound.

"Fuck you!" Is what the doomed vampire shouts back. You get closer and closer and closer. Your pursuit catches up with his desperate flight and soon you are just, just barely out of reach of him. The halls are a blur around you both, lights flicking by one after another after another after another and lighting his body in staccato bursts.

I want his Soul! Is the sole occupant of your mind now. You will have it, or whatever bastard equivalent of it vampires have.

You are so focused on him you do not notice the partially open door visible in the hallway until you have to weave around it abruptly being in your face. Your right hands claw deep furrows and drag sparks as you flip into the room.

"No shit shit shit no no… fuuuuuck." The vampire is whimpering as he looks frantically about the pipe filled room, which is rank with the stench of mortal filth. You growl at the little beast, no longer capable of properly expressing amusement, and the vampire leaps towards a wall, a corner, with a high rabbit like scream.

You stalk towards him as he desperately searches for a way out. Your hands are claws as you reach for him and hiss. You slink closer and closer, and ignore his please as he wraps his hand around a pipe. When you loom over him, and your Fog is licking at his knees he smiles and pulls-

Clang! Fwooom!

Filth, in my eyes. In my mouth. You can't see and there is… You take a sniff as you stumble about blindly. High pitched keening fills your head. There is filth all over you. It is in your robe! My mantle! My Book! My…

You blink and feel a wet plop as something lands drips off your eye. Squish-sliiiiiide. Your foot catches in a stinking, pile, of mortal offal. You can't.

It's everywhere. All over my perfect skin. I can taste it.

You cannot stand this, this horrible world anymore. The shudder which racks your frame doubles you over and stabs at your chest. You're trying to scrub it off with your hands but it doesn't want to come off and you're just making it worse!

The stabbing intensifies and you breathe in.

You smell the hateful rotten thing that did this to you. Soiled your dignity so. You lurch around and see it before the muck slides back into your eyes, scurrying out the door like a thief in the night.

I HATE YOU!

The walls crack at the force of your denunciation, the ceiling rumbles, and you hear a series of metallic clangs as something is sent flying away from your evil voice. The coward flees before you and you chase him screaming.

Kill you!

Eat you!

You've lost him, and your breath stutters. You can't see, and scrubbing at your eyes won't help. Hunched like a sick woman you paw at the air and mutter to yourself, a litany of mine mine mine and you RUINED IT!

A clatter and a whimper. You lurch around and careen towards the noise. Bang! You hit a, wall? Bounce off it and hurtle towards the noise blindly, your magic raging all around you in a blinding cloud. Thwack! Clang! Then a scream.

"NO NO NO I'M ALMOST THERE, STAY AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" You lurch up after that scream and lash out with a claw. Meat. Your nails dig into flesh, eliciting another frantic squeal as you yank the vampire back down into the dark. With you.


It is a little while after you are done punishing that, eating that…! You howl and blast a furrow into the wall, and then inhale. Relax.

Unclenching your hands you go back to walking forward, feeling your way along the walls, the gaps and mortar dragging over your ruined skin. You can't even breathe without smelling the stink or feeling the flecks coating what passes for your lungs. Rounding a corner, you stumble and catch yourself on a wall, blinking as you hear a clatter of steps rushing towards you and feel a familiar presence.

"Annie!" Your voice sounds wrong, raw and wet and weak. You can feel her, and hear her horrified gasp as she must see you.

"My lady!?" Her voice is horrified and concerned in equal measure and you try to straighten up. Then her hands grip yours and you flinch, before being pulled down. There's a scrubbing, rough sensation on your eyes, and then you can finally see. Blinking, you see her shocked and fearful face. When you meet her gaze she relaxes, somewhat. You feel a slight tug on your left wrist, and your eyes flick down to see her hand, covered in the filth too. Shaking your head as you strangle the strange thoughts trying to make you pull away you follow her as she gently coaxes you forward. It is a long, long trip back home through the tunnels.

When you get there Annie leads you up the stairs and into the bathroom. She coaxes you gently into the shower but your mind is drifting away from the physical world as you seethe in blood boiling anger. It makes your heart beat like a drum or a fist, trying to get out, and your breath hiss through your sharp teeth.

As you feel gentle touches through your hair, you begin to brood.

What happens next?

[] You are in no mood to go to the Bronze on Friday. Send Annie in your stead.
[] You have gotten over it. Go with Annie to the Bronze

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Yeaaaaaaaaaaah. Poor Richard managed to find one of an already unstable Latria's buttons. And now you have a chance to change something because life is a bitch, which should be fun!

Vote will close on the 14th at 6:00 pm UTC, haaaave fuuuuun!

Also my computer has returned from the repair shop!