"Hm? Asking my opinion now? Consultations aren't free, you know," Gisena teased.
He scoffed. "Riding on my back isn't free either."
"Are you saying you didn't enjoy that?" She giggled. "Well, I think it's a wonderful creation! I'd love to study it. But my realm didn't have anything like this. The technology's mostly a shell, isn't it? An accoutrement of the creature beneath."
for all of her
claims to be a genius scientist, Gisena actually doesn't know that much. Unavoidable, as her world was pretty low-tech and it even had an anti-tech 4th coalescence sorceress...
Actually,
why was she anti-tech? Guess we'll never know.
"There is power there. Far more than it's shown to us." Briefly he closed his eyes, reaching out with his instincts. It reminded him almost of the Tyrant, or of his own power at the very height, but much greater. Even the Tyrant was a mere tributary compared to the ocean that slept within this beast. Power of enormous scope, but of a tenor that was similar to his own. And yet like him it was diminished, wan shadow of its full potential. Not dammed, but run dry. And yet it would not take so terribly much for the deluge to come again.
"Think it was holding back?" Gisena snapped him from his thoughts.
"No." He shook his head. "It's injured. Lessened."
"Probably safest just to observe and see if it does something," the Sorceress sighed. "How boring."
well, I already know the giant Robot basically has Accretion as well, which explains the similar power he feels to his and the tyrant's.
You know, Accretion reminds me a bit of Chrysopoeia. They're both about becoming
more than humans, and Chrysopoeia DID need you to have a self-image to aim to, kinda like Accretion instead depends on building your own legend, making you distinctive. They have some similarities.
She turned to him. "So... Got a name?"
He scowled.
Gisena pouted. "I did tell you mine, you know. Noble title and all! That's valuable tactical intelligence."
A name. He'd sacrificed his name, and claiming another at this juncture would just see it slip from his mind. But he needed something for others to call him, that was true enough. He looked down at his hand and the blade that it held. A pseudonym would hold, if it was memorable. Something practical. And yet even a pseudonym held power. Properly chosen, it could bind his objects more strongly to him, or establish that he was separate from them.
Something easy to recall. Something as familiar to him as the back of his hand.
"Hunger. Technically I'm a City Lord, but they've likely had me deposed."
Decent name/title. A bit evil-ish though.
I'm now imagining him choosing an actual name, writing it on his hand and constantly looking at it to remember it
As he spoke, he felt the essence of the ring shift, become his in full, interlacing its nature with his own. Now, like a ring of power, he would only grow mightier and more cunning with time. Age would have no purchase upon him, and even the Tyrant's curse that had stolen his youth would be reversed and superseded. He hoped that taking this name would also bind the Decimator's Affliction, allowing him to exert some measure of control over it. That would be a priority in the near future.
oh, so might repose won? While I started with a preference for feast of lives (i think that was the name?), I've actually grown to like this one too. We would have needed anti-aging measures anyway at some point after all, and if we manage to mitigate Apocrypha that gives us some down time to take advantage of for the passive growth.
"Hunger?" Gisena said brightly. "Hm... Lord Hunger. I like it. It's only a little pretentious."
"More than a little. Don't be polite."
"Arrogant and a liar too! Why do I put up with you?"
"I'm a noble. It's to be expected."
"Well, at least he's self-aware."
"Keep talking to yourself. It's better that way."
"Oh? Already in love with the sound of my voice?"
"A-ahem!" A voice boomed from the direction of the giant. "If you two are done flirting, we have important matters to take care of!"
...
look, I'm sure our wife would understand if we added Gisena to the family. It's going to be a few thousand years at the very least before we rez her, a man has NEEDS!
Just look at them, they already sound like a married couple!
It was a girl's voice, clear and high, but somewhat stilted, as if forcing herself to sound authoritative.
"Sorry, we're not!" Gisena answered cheerfully.
"Huh?"
"We're not done flirting. Isn't that what you asked? So, mind waiting a bit longer?"
"Ah! Um..."
"Speak for yourself," he grunted, turning to address the giant. "Are you the pilot of that creature? What's your business?"
so shameless! I approve!
"Thank you, my lord. Yes, I am. I'd like to come out and speak to you face-to-face. Will you give your word not to attack my person?"
"I won't attack unprovoked. Do as you please."
Steam hissed from countless apertures as the giant's head and chest moved forward, revealing its internals. A dizzying array of runes and glyphs coated every inch of its bio-mechanical interior, faintly emitting the pale, cold blue of a winter sky. Within was a capsule, which hissed open to reveal a young lady in a pale military jacket with accents of gold. Lean and long of limb, she had delicate, fine-boned features and eyes a shade lighter than Gisena's blue. A long shock of hair trailed nearly to her waist, white in color but with all the luster and texture of youth. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. In the fingers of her right hand she held a small text, a manual of some kind.
Emerging from the capsule, she hopped up, landing neatly on the giant's shoulder, leaning forward on one heavy boot.
Evangelion vibes are pretty strong here.
Also I'm now imagining Hunger going "no, I'll attack you the moment you come out"
By the way, look, the robot even comes with an instruction manual! So thoughtful!
"Ah!!" Gisena clasped her hands together, eyes sparkling. She leaned over to whisper in his ear. "She's so cute! Can we keep her, hun? Please?"
"Do not call me that. And she's not your pet."
"Then, what should I call milord? 'Huney' has a certain ring to it... "
"Just Hunger is fine."
"What's this, a nobleman claiming to be just?"
"As you said. I'm a liar."
"You said you had business," he called to the girl, before Gisena could interject again.
ok, I love the way they argue. I honestly wonder if Hunger will develop feelings for Gisena, or if they'll simply continue like this forever.
...what am I talking about, this is SV! what SV player would ever wait the thousand of years until the wife is resurrected?
Also we're Hunger! Why choose only one when we can have it all?
Well, all the worthy ones at least. We should have pretty high standards after all
The girl nodded, stealing a glance at her manual before speaking. "You're outsiders, right? Come in through an Astral Rift? We're lucky we found each other. This place has certain properties making it difficult to navigate. Most outsiders who arrive here either die or are never seen from again, but my Armament," she gestured at the giant, "can bring us to civilization."
waht, this small village/town doesn't count as civilization?
So rude to the poor villagers...
"Okay. I'm listening."
"Well..." the girl frowned. "It's a lot to explain. Since we all look human and are even speaking English, I'm going to assume you're from a world with similar ontological parameters..."
"Hm." He had assumed the Accursed had given him a translation function.
Gisena perked up. "In my realm it's called Angletierre, but I've been speaking it because everyone else has. My native language is actually Joanian."
He raised an eyebrow. That wasn't easy. "You have no accent. Impressive."
"Of course! I am a genius, after all."
modest too!
Also I wonder, would Joanian be french?
Also doesn't Hunger know that English is the multiversal language?
well, either that or Japanese. It depends.
"Anyway!" The pilot said, "The place we're currently trapped is named the Voyaging Realm. We believe it's an artificial universe created by an ancient species who called themselves the Foremost. It's contained by an outer ring the size of a gas giant, with the space inside heavily spun, folded, and distorted. It's constantly shifting and some parts are dangerous. A small portion of the Realm is unaffected and humans have built a city and spaceport there. That's where I'm trying to go." She showed them a picture from her manual, depicting a highly advanced metropolis with towers of steel and glass, over which loomed a small flotilla of angular ships. If this was accurate, these people were far beyond the Earth of his time.
"Since my Armament is so badly weakened, I'd like your help making it there. In return you'll reach civilization and my government will probably pay you a hefty sum as well. If you're interested, we could even arrange longer-term employment. Rift outsiders with unique skills are always welcome. Any questions?"
ok, sort of sci-fy realm (but with magitech), and we're in the boonies.
I'm also sort of disapponted that the manual doesn't seem to be about the robot, but maybe that's just another chapter!
"I don't work well with others," he said, "I'm happy to kill things for money, but I won't act under your chain of command. If that's fine, I've got a few more questions."
She nodded.
But Gisena interrupted, practically vibrating with excitement. "What incredible technology! Flying ships! Cities that scrape the sky! This day has turned out far better than I thought. When I opened that Void I expected only death, not to be sent to another world out of my wildest dreams!"
that's something I've always wondered, how a people from pre-industrial society would react to advanced technology.
By now we're at a point at which very few things would actually COMPLETELY surprise us I think.
Sure, tech will continue to advance, but we have at least
ideas about just what is possible, just look at sci-fy! we might be impressed by something like a Dyson Sphere or some kind of machine capable of creating anything out of thin air, but it's hardly
unconceivable for us.
and Gisena is a science enthusiast. It's like bringing Leonardo Da Vinci to modern days and showing him all the cool things we now have, from helicopters to tanks to tv to the internet to 3d-printers to...
"I used my powers to tear a hole through reality," Gisena explained. "I didn't think it would work, and almost burned out that Grace. I was trying to assassinate the.... hero of my world for murdering my sisters. It didn't go so well, so I had to run."
"You're quite brave, Miss Gisena!" said the pilot. "And you, milord?" She turned to him.
He frowned. "I was the hero of my world and assassinated after I slew the Tyrant."
Gisena beamed, wrapping her arms around his left. "We're a perfect pair!"
This is a pretty good reminder that the term "Hero" can actually mean many things, and someone's hero is someone else's villain.
Jotaro Kujo Jotarun was the hero of the orcs, but basically the demon lord for mankind. Hunger was the hero right until he beat the Tyrant, then he basically threatened the current social order, which made him a villain to the nobles of that world.
I wonder, will all the heroes we get tasked to kill be such controversial figures as Jotarun, or could we get asked to kill the equivalent of, say, Naruto?
And again, I can't really help but wonder just what kind of quests the Accursed is given, and who benefits from them.
He shrugged her off. "This is the third dimension I've stumbled into. My home was a planet called Earth. We had a technological civilization, planes and satellites, but nothing truly interstellar. Tell me about your society. What volume of space do you occupy? How many stars do you control?"
"Well, it's complicated," the pilot temporized. "The Human Sphere encompasses about ten thousand inhabited worlds, and includes another twenty thousand uninhabited systems used for resource extraction. The Realm we're standing in technically isn't a part of it, aside from our spaceport and city. The Sphere is divided into three polities, and the nation I'm from controls about twenty-seven hundred stars. But, I actually work for a jointly-funded agency supported by all three nations, so... like I said, it's complicated. It's not really relevant, none of the states has much power here!"
ok, so the human's sphere is 30.000 systems, a third of which is inhabited, and they're divided between three polities.
Damn, we were given a pretty hard fist mission! Who set the difficulty on our Geass of Indenture? I want a refund!
"Fine. You mentioned a number of other hazards. Creatures like this dragon? Are they related to these Astral Rifts? Any strategic or tactical information we should be aware of?"
"Y-yes. How to explain this..." She mused, tapping her lip with a gloved finger. "So, your home world, you said you weren't interstellar. Were you bound by the speed of light?"
"We knew about it. We didn't have ships nearly that fast."
yet. who knows in a few centuries... there was that one quote I really liked "When a scientist tells you that something is possible, he's almost certainly right. When he tells you that something is impossible he's almost certainly wrong".
Humans are pretty good at cheating reality and nature to do things we should really have no business doing. I suppose we're just that stubborn and arrogant
...
quick search... oh, it's the first of Clarke's laws!
"Neither do we, really. Long-distance travel is mostly conducted with Astral technology, either supplementing our movements or tunneling directly into the Astral Realm. Doing this destabilizes the gradient between realities, sometimes creating rifts through which Astral denizens sometimes attack us. They're especially attracted to Armaments, which can forcibly re-stabilize that gradient in a large radius. Mine is so weakened that its beacon isn't strong, so we shouldn't have to deal with anything too serious, but the Voyager Realm also has a natural rate of rift incidence. That's where you guys came from."
ok, so basically using the local hyperspace causes Kaiju beasts like Pacific Rim's to reach this universe.
She hesitated, then continued to speak. "Any Astral denizens that appear from those in our vicinity are going to attack my Armament. The... dragon you fought was one. Additionally, there are some unusual creatures and societies in this Realm that are hostile to humans. Most of the creatures we encounter shouldn't be too terribly stronger than the dragon you killed. So, it'd really be safest if we traveled together! Especially if we could restore my Armament, even a little bit."
simple enough
"So. We're trapped in a pocket universe that's immeasurably vast, within which space shifts so that locations don't correspond to each other. It's partially inhabited by monsters, and Astral Rifts occasionally deposit more monsters, which will automatically attack if you're in the vicinity."
She nodded. "That's right."
a really good summary.
Also lookie here, it's a perfect universe for the Apocryphal Curse to make our like miserable! What were the odds?!
She swallowed. "G-good question! Most Armaments are Foremost technology, mine included. There's an inbuilt navigational system for Foremost realms. I estimate it'll take us about t-two months to reach the city's staging grounds, give or take two weeks."
As far as he could tell, she was mostly sincere, though her time estimate was likely more certain than she felt. And if she wasn't lying, it would be difficult to escape this Realm alone.
no reason to refuse, really. We need to learn more about the Human Sphere if we want to conquer it anyway, and this is as good a way as anything else
He glanced over at Gisena.
"Oh? Do I get a say in this, milord?"
"No. I'm just looking at you for no reason."
"I do have that effect on people. And I'd love to go. So much technology to explore, it'll be exciting!"
He turned to the pilot. "Then we're in."
It was basically a formality, Gisena was simply too curious to refuse.
"Great!" She curtseyed neatly before them. "Duchess Letrizia von Artriez, pilot of the Devouring Armament, Verschlengorge. We'll be in your care."
Gisena elegantly returned the curtsey with one of her own. "Pleased to meet you, Zea! We're going to be best friends. Now tell me... what's a 'planet?' By what principle are they organized into 'star systems?' And what's that to do with the speed of light?"
"M-Miss Gisena, one at a time, please!"
---
well, what were the odds, three nobles
And Gisena is already starting. At least the Armament doesn't come with an internet connection, or we'd probably lose Gisena for the next forever.
Also I wonder... was the manifest realm a "flat" world? I suppose there's also a chance of it being spherical. That would mean that if you went far enough through Orcwaste or Elfwaste you'd reach the other one. And Humans, in the middle, would likely never notice it.
As you have taken Nightmare Praetor, the hero has chosen the mechanically optimal pseudonym of Hunger, Lord Hunger to those who acknowledge his title. Slightly increases advancement rate from Hunger. Grants opportunities for mitigation of the Decimator's Affliction in the future.
quick ckeck about this build...
[ ] Nightmare Praetor - Planning and preparation are the keys to victory. Not because things will go to plan, but because greater experience wins the day, and improvisation is merely the accelerated form of preparation.
Synergy: As Planned - Competence bonus to creating and adjusting schemes.
Trustworthy Enough, Thick As Thieves x2, Might's Repose
*The most popular options in one build
*Stacked intelligence bonuses from Thick as Thieves and Repose noticeably improves decision-making ability
*A build that focuses on accumulating long-term advantage via mental and social skills
*Naturally accrues power over time via Might's Repose
*Still highly dangerous in any fight they have prepared for, and quite potent whenever they are well-rested
*Better suited to politics & rule than most builds, may be uncomfortably ruthless
*High Intelligence, Charisma and sleepiness - bonds better with Gisena than other builds
oh, so the intelligence/charisma/heartlessness+ agelessness won. I'm a bit surprised.
I was even slowly starting to come around to Unshattered.. though if this universe doesn't have other magic systems that one wouldn't have really worked that well in the mid-long term
Well, More Intelligence should give us more options, and let us keep up with Gisena. Also this is a sci-fy world, maybe we can learn some advanced science too... though that's probably better left to Gisena. She can teach us the
important bits herself later on.
[ ] On Second Thought... - You're fairly certain that sufficient Rank would allow you to navigate this place easily on your own, and partnering with a giant, mostly useless target that attracts monsters is just begging for the Apocryphal Curse to put all of you in peril. Not worth it for a nebulous payment from her government that's only 'probably' going to occur. Best for you and Gisena both to encounter their civilization on your own terms, when you are stronger.
*Probably safer
*There should be plenty for you to explore around here
*You're still not sure why Verschlengorge has such an affinity for you.
this will never win. It would mean giving up a giant robot, a new (probably temporary) companion, and a source of intel.
Also Verschlengorge attracting enemies it's actually somewhat useful to us, seeing as we can't progress without fights. Hopefully we'll be able to mitigate the Apocryphal curse as to keep the enemies to a manageable level though.
[ ] Plan Your Trip - Choose 3 options below.
Letrizia has supplies and advanced camping materials in her Armament, though you could probably live off the land.
[ ] Speak with Gisena I - Learn more about the Nullity Sorceress. The circumstances of your mutual arrival are suspicious. Inform her of your Curses and see if she can help. +Gisena
[ ] Speak with Gisena II - Speak on personal matters. Additional ++Gisena. Requires Speak With Gisena I.
well, 1 is a good idea for obvious reasons. 2... maybe. We kinda have more things to do though
[ ] Speak with Letrizia I - The girl seems fairly intimidated by you. Perhaps you came off as harsh. Put her at ease. +Letrizia.
[ ] Speak with Letrizia II - Explain the matter of your affinity with Verschlengorge. Perhaps she has some insight? Req. Speak with Letrizia I. Additional ++Letrizia, ?
might be a good idea to talk to her one time to make her more at ease with us.
[ ] Errantry - Perform various tasks for the people you encounter within the Voyaging Realm so as to more effectively forge your legend. Slowly increases Accretion Rank.
[ ] Errantry II - Perform more demanding, dangerous and time-consuming tasks. Increases Accretion Rank at a considerably faster clip. Risky. Requires Errantry.
the training option basically
[ ] Learn to Pilot - As you are bound to the Ring Hunger, your learning speed outside battle is slightly worse than an average mortal's. The intricacies of the Armament are easy to learn, difficult to master, and many functions are incomplete or unavailable due to its state. Still, there is time enough for the fundamentals of movement.
[ ] Commune with Verschlengorge - There is something here, something of great import, though you feel little sense of urgency... Req. Learn to Pilot.
not quite as immediately necessary, though Apocryphal means we shouldn't get complacent. More power is more power, no matter the source.
[ ] Sleep Heavily - By default you will sleep 9 hours a day. Sleeping more increases the (at this time, fairly small) benefits accumulating from Might's Repose over time.
nah, don't need it.
[ ] The Name of the Curse - Attempt to exert some measure of control over the Decimator's Affliction, by the combined power of yourself and your Ring.
this one could be quite good when combined with Gisena I.
[ ] Seek out Artifacts - With wandering monsters and strange civilizations come objects of power, everyone knows that! And bereft of your armor, you could use a third object to complete your panoply. In theory any object can do, but a formidable artifact would grant greater bonuses. Not guaranteed to succeed.
this can wait.
[ ] Seek Worthy Opponents - Actively pursue rumors of powerful monsters & the like. Hunt them down to advance your Progression. +Stats. Risky.
do we need this? monsters will come to us anyway. Of course there's something to be said for facing them on our own terms...
And now for the most important part of the vote. What to call Letrizia?
Req. Speak with Letrizia I
[ ] Letrizia
[ ] Zia
[ ] Zea
[ ] Zee
Zia sounds weird to me! I'm italian, and Zia means Aunt to us!
I kinda like Zee though. It's cute.
Also I think I'd go for Gisena 1, Name of the curse, and then either Gisena 2, Letrizia 1 or Learn to Pilot.
