Fanwork#2278 Words
Reaction: "Fisher King"
One of the things I like about Accretion is how... not necessarily easy, but
natural it becomes to introduce traces of myths into the Hero's story. Earth has a rich history and quite a few legendary archetypes to draw inspiration from, and part of the fun about this quest is seeing how they can be developed and fit together anew. And of course we couldn't possibly avoid encountering the Arthurian Legend as a former Hero, so this might not even be the last we see of it.
There were no prey for Gisena's blast-fishing experiment in the river, but scarce hours later they encountered a picturesque lake, freshwater glittering in the sun and spanning very nearly to the horizon. Lilies bobbed across its expansive surface as birds and bugs circled lazily about, the halcyon chorus of life uninterrupted.
"Well, this is downright idyllic!" Gisena exclaimed, spinning around to face the water. She skipped happily down to the shore, humming as she went.
"It's downright suspicious." He followed, keeping his eyes peeled. They'd spoken of fishing, and a fishing spot appeared. It could be benign, the world yielding to his whims on this small matter - a faint echo of the causality-bending influence he'd once exerted by sheer power of spirit.
You know, that sounds like it comes fairly close to straight-up reality warping. Is this what we can look forward to when we reach higher Accretion Rank? And how did the Hero persist against the Tyrant during the time when their Ranks were so far apart? When the world bends to the enemy's whims and the foe takes beating up destiny for lunch money as his hobby, how does one continue to survive, never mind fight?
This dungeon might be especially vulnerable to this sort of influence with its confused space - where reality would tearfully complain about logistics and distances in a normal place, here it would just tiredly shrug its shoulders and shuffle space around till the roulette landed on the desired outcome.
Going by that logic, this dungeon isn't only susceptible to our own reality-bending whims, it's equally receptive when it comes to the Apocryphal Curse. Here its might could be enhanced a hundredfold, because it doesn't need to bother about boring things like explanations and credibility, the only thing limiting is our own upper encounter level ceiling. And that's not even taking into consideration that it can just summon enemies from the Beyond in the Voyager Realm, where the space resembles a sieve more than anything.
Long seconds passed. Nothing struck at them, from ambush or otherwise; he settled into a watchful wariness.
It's understandable and logical for him to expect Murphy's reprisal after seeing Apocrypha act first-hand. I still laughed out loud when reading it. Our Lord Hunger has his faults, but he surely doesn't lack courage, basically taunting the Curse to draw it out.
Letrizia had Verschlengorge extend a hand over the water, acting as a makeshift pier. He carved a rudimentary fishing rod from a branch and some wire, while Gisena tinkered with one of the Armament's dumb-fire munitions, its fuses safely set aside.
I'd hoped she was joking, silly me. It was never about the fish with her, was it? I distinctly remember her being amazed at the principles of firearms in the previous fight, now she's playing with explosives?
...Let's just leave her to her devices and go fish in peace. Way over there, far away from the madwoman.
"You go first," he handed Letrizia the rod, and some processed meat for bait. "It's simple. Flick the rod to cast the line and wait."
"A-alright." Letrizia took the rod from him and cast the line with a determined expression. "How long does it usually take?"
Fishing isn't about the end result, Zee! It's about the process, how you approach the task set before you! As long as you have the soul of a fisher, a fish will appear before your mind's eye even if nothing bites. The Dao of Fishing is deep and profoundly mysterious, not every nameless protagonist has the will to take a step on a journey where the destination is so uncertain, so count yourself lucky to be in the presence of a master!
"Depends," he shrugged. "Could be minutes, could be hours."
"That long?" She asked petulantly. "Couldn't you hunt the fish with your physical power? You slew an Astral beast the size of a giant!"
"I'd rather rest for a time," he replied, settling in. "That bandit leader was well-equipped and skilled. I exerted myself more than I'd like. The well of my power has thinned."
This surely isn't foreshadowing, right? It's not like the players would try something silly like provoke another fight right after we'd exhausted ourselves dealing with the previous one. This is a rare relaxing slice-of-life scene, no way we would transform it into yet another exciting battle...
"Hmph," She tossed her hair primly. "So, we're to wait your pleasure while you rest? You could just as easily sleep while Verschlengorge is moving."
"Yes, you're to wait," he said dryly. "And fish."
"A-ah."
The Hero doesn't start social combat, but he finishes it quite decisively. While he is still somewhat lacking compared to Nameless' guile and easy charisma, his own brand of dry humor is quite enjoyable to read. And he's not lazy! That alone earns him all the points ever.
Lord Hunger is no Nat Pagle, but Letrizia will learn to appreciate the fine art of fishing if it's the last thing we do! ...Do we have any alcohol at hand?
They sat in silence for a bit.
"W-well, that's just totally unreasonable!" She finally said, turning to glare at him.
"I never told you I was going to be reasonable."
What is this? A sudden rebellion against our Tyranny? Gisena would tell you what a hopeless endeavor that is.
"That's true... Wait, I-I mean, you shouldn't have to tell people that! Reasonableness is the expected order of things!"
"Do as you like. I'm resting here."
"Mmh..." Letrizia slouched unhappily.
Not the best idea, talking about reasonableness to Hunger. Not only does he have a Curse that robs him of reason in response to specific stimuli, he would have quite a lot to say about just how reasonable it was for his past to unfold as it did. Reason is the domain of Elder Beasts, not proper Heroes like ourselves!
He chewed on a stalk of grass. "Hey. What do you think our chances of getting out of here are? Eight out of ten? Nine?"
"At least nine, I'd hope! Both you and Miss Gisena are strong... maybe ninety-five out of a hundred times we should escape? As long as we don't have too many encounters like today."
Hahaha. How cute, she thinks today was the exception rather than the rule. I wonder what she'll look like at the end of our journey. And what her preparations for future excursions into the Voyager Realm would look like, should she dare to try again.
Letrizia: Explosives, rockets, some more explosives, fish bait, null bombs, lasers, duct tape...
Grunt: Sir? We don't have the budget for this.
Letrizia: ...tactical nuclear weapons, instant glue... Don't be ridiculous, we're an interstellar organization equipped with giant robots.
Grunt: Yes, sir, but headquarters cut the funding ever since we inadvertently blew up that moon.
Letrizia: GISENAAAA!
"I tend to attract trouble. So does this guy." He gestured towards the Armament with his head.
"Hmph! True enough. Maybe if you were a bit more reasonable, that wouldn't be the case."
Sadly no. Well, maybe we could avoid swallowing the obvious bait so readily, but Apocrypha would think of something. So best to just enjoy things as they come!
"Fire me if you like. I'll retire and become a fisherman."
The most dangerous fisherman in the universe. That one quest-giver who adventurers hate for giving out ridiculous unsolvable tasks. The last secret boss nobody ever expects! Hmm, that has an interesting ring to it.
She laughed. "I'd like to see that!"
Yes, sadly peace is but a dream for us.
"Point is, we don't know exactly what the future will bring, or if we're all going to make it. It's worthwhile to look around and enjoy this place every once in a while. Steal what joy you can."
...Is this a prelude to getting one of them pregnant? Because that's what happened last time we read about the Hero stealing some joy.
Letrizia looked down, her expression conflicted. "You're right. You're right, of course, but..."
He closed his eyes, letting his instincts guide him. "You feel like you don't have time for that. That people are depending on you. That if you don't achieve what you've set out to achieve, it will all have been for nothing."
She gasped. "H-how did you-"
*wince*
His instincts seem to be quite on point, but it must hurt Hunger quite a bit to dredge up his past. He must like Letrizia quite a bit by this point, I don't think his ruthlessness is up to the level of stabbing his still bleeding mental wounds just to appear sympathetic. Does she truly remind him of his past self that much?
"I felt the same, once." He paused, thinking carefully.
"There was a magic in my second world. Hard to quantify or explain. As you accumulated power you could do impossible feats. My enemy was very skilled in it. He'd spent centuries upon centuries gathering strength. Fighting him was like fighting the tide. Endless setbacks every week. Whenever we failed, people died. Whenever we didn't act, people died. I fought him for eleven years. If we hadn't taken what moments we could, however brief, we would have lasted... maybe five or six. That final stretch, it was only the strength that I'd gained in those moments which kept me going."
Perhaps in quite the literal sense, he could only get past the finishing line thanks to burning some precious memories of peaceful in-between moments. It's exciting to read about heroes burning with a bright flame on both ends, but quite another thing to deal with the aftermath.
That he can act like a functional individual is already pretty exceptional, future healing is going to take a lot more than stabbing some Tyrant-looking guys. Hopefully peaceful occasions like this will happen more frequently and manage to alleviate at least some of the damage.
She blushed. "I-I get it. You d-didn't have to make a whole speech and everything."
And of course she's a tsundere too, why should I be surprised?
"Stupid."
"What?"
"'You didn't have to make a whole speech and everything, stupid.' Say it properly. What is the nobility coming to these days?"
...
Hunger: I forgot my name and my origins, burned my life and memory on the pyre of victory.
Hunger: Only the dearest memories I held onto, skill and knowledge only so much timber for the fire.
Hunger: But never! Would I forget the fine culture of the East (or was it West?) that brought us such rich memes!
Never change, Hero.
"You! Aaah... I was trying so hard not to be a stereotype! Is this how everyone sees me, even you and Miss Gisena? That stupid Old Terra show..."
No, Gisena shouldn't know about it. Probably. Unless Evangelion managed to transcend Earthly bounds and some Sorceress suffering from depression wrote a version of it.
So that supposition about the worlds we traveled to all being related to Earth somehow? I guess we can consider this proof. In this case, it begs the question just what is so special about Earth in this verse... In the first Simple Transaction quest we'd learned that there were a dozen Cursebearers he'd created. Do the Hidden Masters perhaps originate from Earth itself? Maybe they're actually Cursebearers or somehow stole Cursebearer powers.
"I don't remember much. Bits and pieces. But you have to admit... the Armament. And you kind of look like her."
"Yeah. Neuron Genesis Cathedrelion, right? It's been a joke for almost as long as we've had the Armaments. I even got implants to change my hair..."
"What?" He sat up. "So you're a natural redhead as well?"
Yeah, it sounds funny on the surface, but at some point the coincidences stacking up start looking too suspicious to dismiss them as just that. Especially true for the Hero, who is used to magic messing with probability in accordance to archetypes and legends.
Her hair shimmered for a moment, then shifted to a shade of fiery red. "Y-yeah. I thought white was more professional and would break the association, but everyone was like, 'That's exactly what she'd do!'"
So the anime hair isn't natural, what a relief to know! I'd been worried we would develop some of our own if we spend too much time here - after all, Seram didn't expect to become a male Sorceress, but these universes have a strange habit of infecting invaders with their particularities.
"Don't fight it. Embrace it. Then people will naturally see the areas where you're different."
"Oh? L-like what?"
"You're childish at times, but on balance I'd say you're much more level-headed and mature than she was. She always acted like she had something to prove. You're truly comfortable piloting Verschlengorge. You and he have a good connection. Though not as good as mine with my sword."
She never stood a chance, did she? This can't be said to be social combat anymore, he's completely steamrolling Letrizia and has her eating out of his hands. She's so desperate for acknowledgement and he is such an obvious role model (on the surface) that this result was inevitable with the social skills of the Nightmare Praetor.
"Well," She said quietly, failing to contain a smile. "I am five years older. Of course I'd be more mature!"
Some think Apocrypha will kill us one day. Some believe we'll starve ourselves in a desperate attempt to quell our Affliction. Some say the Tyrant will inevitably get too big for his britches and will be destroyed while trying to accomplish Geas' tasks.
But no, it's clear as day that cuteness overdose will do us in far sooner. How are we supposed to maintain our noble brooding demeanor like this?!
He nodded, leaning back down again.
"Hey," She spoke up again. "That magic from your old world. It sounds a bit like the power of the Armaments. Have you ever heard of the concept of Astral Rank?"
"We didn't formally name it or anything. If you lived and did great things, you grew powerful. As your power grew, the world started to yield to you. First in small ways, then increasingly so."
"It's actually a field of study that I dabble in. A hobby of mine!"
She shifted to face him directly, tracing figures in the air with her index finger. "The most commonly used analogy is this. So, you know how objects within the physical realm have a property called mass?"
"Sure."
"Mass distorts physical space. Some say the curvature of that distortion is called gravity."
"Okay."
"Similarly, some entities have a property we call 'Rank.' Rank distorts the Astral realm as mass does the physical, and the curvature of that distortion is called 'Pressure.' By exerting Pressure, an Armament can accomplish great feats. It's an amazing ability! Rank gives you the power to achieve the conventionally impossible, to overturn the system of the world, to blast with awe and with fear, greatness undiluted like a blazing star! It cares nothing for stipulations or prognostications. It is the sharp bright sword of will that cuts to the heart of the matter, bringing mere physical law to heel!"
Well, well, well.
The local magic system is far more similar to our own than I expected. We've been promised that our Scepter would be more reliable across various worlds than normal, so does it accomplish this by connecting us to this Astral of theirs while we're here? If so, we could be quite vulnerable to local methods of enforcing barriers between the real world and Astral.
Huh. Judging from the description of its capabilities, the Armaments might be capable of that as well. Were we in danger of losing our abilities if we accidentally made enemies of Letrizia?
In any case, while I'm a bit disappointed that we won't be finding synergies by incorporating whatever their magical principles are, as they're probably too similar to our own, we might be able to learn novel applications of our own powers here. While the application of Accretion is largely instinctual, I'm sure there's
some room for targeted development.
"...I get it. You didn't have to make a whole speech and everything, stupid."
See? This is how you do it properly, Letty. None of that half-hearted 'but I'm not Asuka'. Embrace the meme!
Before her shocked expression could subside, he gently raised a hand.
"Just kidding. It was a wonderful explanation. Did you write that? It sounds like more than just a hobby to you."
"Mm-hm!" She grunted, her face still red. She cleared her throat. "I'm hoping to present it at a Symposium one day. The Armaments have been with us for millennia, but we still don't understand all their secrets. Even most pilots only know the basics! You compress your Armament's Pressure into a Shroud and that makes you unstoppable within its radius. But recent studies have shown that even humans can develop a Rank! If we properly apply ourselves, we can go so much farther as a species, and even as individuals! It wouldn't much surprise me if your powers operated off a similar principle!"
They studiously avoid calling the AT field by its original name I see!
Maybe not only we can learn something from the Armaments, but their civilization can also learn quite a bit from us. I didn't think much about it before, but our Cursebearer's presence might not only lead to societal and technological upheaval, it could lead to massive changes in magical systems or even the introduction of completely new ones when applicable! A sort of cross-pollination between the magics of different worlds.
Heh. In light of what we read about Armaments later on, maybe this world had been visited by a Cursebearer from the Tyrant's realm already and this is how the principles of Accretion have spread here.
"A shadow in the Spirit realm, huh... Let's test it. It sounds like your society has developed quantified measurements for this attribute."
Don't try to hide it, Hero, you might act like it's a pretext for giving us our long-awaited Character Sheet, but in reality you just want to amaze Letrizia with your huge (for a human) numbers.
"Yup. Rank is usually measured from 1 to 10 in a hyper-logarithmic scale, though values above that should be possible. An Ereadhihr - an Armament - at full theoretical strength is Rank 10. No amount of physical force can so much as impair their actions! We've made some Armor Prototypes that manage to reach the middle ranks, enough to outclass conventional weapons in dogfighting or ground combat scenarios, though no number of them could even compete with an Armament. Individual humans typically have a Rank between 1 and 3, with anything above 2 being exceptionally rare."
Hyper-logarithmic scale? No wonder the Foremost didn't get past 10 and the Tyrant didn't even reach that point. Immunity to physical force should be a quite trivial ability for such a Rank, they should be straight-up reality warpers at that point. No wonder Verschlengorge could call us to its position when we entered this world! No matter how weakened, a Rank 10 is a Rank 10.
And it's good to hear that they managed to replicate the Armaments somewhat, even if it's a pale shadow of their true might. It would be quite disappointing for them not to manage even that after millennia of development.
"That fits my observations of your Armament as well. Its full potential is well beyond even that of my enemy at his height. Ereadhihr. The language of the Foremost?"
Saying our Hero had the facial structure of the Dúnedain high kings, calling the Armaments Ereadhihr now... should we expect Apocrypha to dig up a Sauron look-alike at some point? I guess it could ascribe to the principle of 'don't fix what works', and with the extent of Hunger's trauma...
"That's right! You have good instincts for this sort of thing." She hummed happily. "Ereadhihr, the Elder Implement. They weren't just a weapon to the Foremost. The Foremost could harness them for countless tasks, bend realms both physical and Astral to their whims, apply the Interdict of Cognition that immunizes us from rampant intelligences, and so much more!"
Apply the what now? Did the Foremost modify the laws of reality to prevent AI rebellion?
...I bet we'll have to deal with AI rebellion too, because that's how things go.
He turned to glance at Verschlengorge. "Did they pull the ladder up behind them? Prevent anyone from making more?"
"Ah, no, we don't think they did anything like that. But... it's complicated. To create a true Armament, an entity with the potential to reach such elevated Rank, there's a special component involved. A sort of... Curse that's inextricable from its core essence. Verschlengorge has one as well, of course. It's called... the Affliction of the Decimator."
What a twist! We'd been guessing what the connection between us could be and there were even suppositions that it's a former Cursebearer or has a power similar to our Affliction, but I don't think anyone has suggested that it's suffering from the very same Curse.
A blindspot in our cognition I guess - we know that the Accursed possesses a myriad of Curses, so we subconsciously expect it to take a while before we meet someone with one of the Curses from our loadout. Everyone wants to be a special snowflake!
That aside, it's curious that they think such power is inextricably bound together with a Curse. As we know, people from our last world could use Accretion without being affected by any Curses.
So either it's really a captured Cursebearer (likely Combat Type, because trying this with Progression Type would end with a devoured universe) or they'd managed to extricate the power from a Cursebearer and implant it in the biomechanical monstrosity - but doing so without taking the Curse along is impossible, so they made do.
---
[ ] Spill - There's no way this is a coincidence. The only question is, is this the work of the Accursed, or of the Apocryphal Curse? Whatever the case, you need answers. Tell Letrizia a reasonable amount about your own circumstances, the power you command and the Curses you bear. [+Letrizia]
[ ] Keep Your Own Counsel - See if you can get more information out of her without disclosing anything about your particular circumstances. It's good to trust; better to trust after you hold all the cards. You've barely known her half a week. You can always tell her more when she proves herself a reliable ally. [+0.5 Arete]
I'm inclined to Spill, because keeping secrets from someone we expect to cooperate with for a long time is unwise, especially with Apocrypha hanging over our head. But letting go of developing the character in Nightmare Praetor's direction and the loss of Arete is pretty uncomfortable...
Though you intend to rest, fishing is serious business. How much should you exert yourself in catching the fish?
[ ] None - You'll conserve your energy. You are already wounded, no need to become winded as well.
[ ] Substantially - Show 'em how it's done. [+Letrizia, +Improved Nutrition, Tired Condition]
[ ] Of Fishermen, A King - The sharp bright sword of will that cuts to the heart of these waters and brings their mightiest bounty to heel! [+???, +Legendary Fish, +Gisena, -1 Arete or Exhausted condition]
You give the chapter a title like Fisher King, talk about the joys of fishing, and offer an option named 'Of Fisherman, A King'. How was this supposed to end up in any other way?
Technically, Evening Sky is no less of a Mystery Box than the Fisherman King, - it's a magical symbiote from beyond the borders of reality, for god's sake, how could it not have its own backstory? - it's just being less obvious about the hooks and more upfront about the price.
So, about that sudden but inevitable yet quite pointless betrayal...
[X] Spill
[X] Substantially
Plan Max Letrizia gogogo!
