Birdsie
Sharp Talons Cleave The Worthy
- Location
- Poland
You're free to use it whenever you want.
A Simple Transaction I
- Thread starter Rihaku
- Start date
- Original
Alright.
Base +1
Conflux +5
Marosian Instruction -3
Quest: Slay Them All +2
Quest: Verdict Heart's Notation +1
Burden: Sole Responsibility +1
Burden: Accursed Name: Combat Class Cursebearer -7
Before finalizing the Transaction with the Accursed, use Marosian Instruction to initiate into Ordinalism.
Plenary Brand, Brand of the Champion, Doom of the Chaste
Primary Remittance: Ninefold
Lesser Remittance: To Shatter Heaven (Ordinalism)
Arrive, set Ninefold to Intelligence, Instruct reality to give me Mastery on Ordinalism, for a century's training under the effects of Ninefold boosting intelligence and To Shatter Heaven. Probably not enough training to reach the final Ordinal and enough power to make more Multiverses, let alone break the Attainment limit; but I have TSH and enough intelligence bonuses that I can probably do both eventually, and almost certainly enough to handle the Devourers.
Now, using TSH on Ordinalism is a valid canon move with no fan work necessary, because Haeliel did it. Unlike her, I don't have Progression, so I'm not going to ever hit infinite Attainments, but I can pick up further Intelligence boosts, and, given a few million years, should be able to beat even the ISH 5.0 I got with my previous, overpowered build. After all, the system scales to High Cursebearer if you add enough Attainments, any single digit ISH should be simple, though not easy.
I should be more than able to fix everything even without using Marosian again, but if, 2000 years down the road, I find that Ordinalism and Ninefold are not becoming versatile enough fast enough to either fix the Tree itself or let me copy local magic systems without using it, I can give myself Enlightened Spirit, max that out through just Ninefold, boost the star, and use it to copy the other 1 Spark powers to increase my Intelligence further. This shouldn't be necessary, between the power of the higher Ordinals and the versatility of Ninefold, they should all be redundant. But it's an option if I need it.
... Although, thinking on it, I'd like to confirm my assumption. @Birdsie , trying to use Marosian Instruction to just directly give something To Shatter Heaven would wither vast swaths of the Ever-Tree, right? I can't make things cheaper by just using Anti-Bell for Intelligence rather than Ninefold while also having fewer Curses by using the book to both unlock Ordinalism and give it To Shatter Heaven.
Birdsie
Sharp Talons Cleave The Worthy
- Location
- Poland
I don't think that's achievable without pruning at least a few of the lower worlds completely and dimming the Star significantly. TSH is a pretty major boon.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
I had a brainwave regarding a crossover plot for the A Wish Upon A Star CYOA. Besides the fact that Konosuba is pathetically easy to cross if you take the crossover option, as you can just have Kazuma's home world be the world in question if it's not Shield Hero or Slime Datta Ken.
No, I'm talking about a more conventional crossover. A Yugioh cross.
You see, in Yugioh Arc-V, the plot centers around a dimensional war, where the Fusion Dimension, essentially a version of the second YGO series, including some legacy characters, as it's own dimension with the Special Summoning method it derives it's name from seeing heavy use there. Similarly, the Synchro and XYZ Dimensions are tied to the third and fourth series with the new Summoning methods of those series. The Standard Dimension is where the protagonist, Yuya, makes his home, and early on in the series, he 'invents' Pendulum Summoning. Events in-series begin to come to a head when Yuya's dimensional counterpart, Yuto, and his friend Shun arrive in Standard in search of Academia, who had been waging a campaign of... well, sealing people into cards and destroying civilization as you go isn't extermination per se, but it's certainly not benevolent by any stretch of the imagination. More specifically, they want to find the kidnapped dimensional counterpart of Yuzu, Yuya's childhood friend, who had a Bracelet to his own Pendulum.
The symbol of Leo Institute of Dueling, or Leo Duel Schoo depending on if it's the Sub or Dub, is very similar to Academia's for a very simple reason. It's President, Reiji Akaba, is the son of Leo Akaba, The Professor and leader of Academia, who created Real Solid Vision, Hardlight technology that literally added a new dimension to Duels, including Action Cards one can pick up off the field, which serve the role of fodder for discards or minor spells so people don't have to use the cards in their hand for it, Doylistically. He and his friend, Yuya's father, Yusho Sakaki, pioneered the current format, Action Duels, in their own ways. Yusho, noticing a growing trend of violence in Dueling, acted to become an Entertainer, making Entertainment Dueling, where Duels were intended to make the audience and hopefully even your opponent smile, the model for Dueling. For a time, all was well, Leo and Yusho both having become family men in this time.
However, this is where the backstory of the setting comes in to play.
Over time, as Leo worked on his Real Solid Vision, he began to regain memories, eventually creating a machine that finished the job of restoring his memory of the Original World, before it was split into four. Just as he did in the new reality, he had created Real Solid Vision as an evolution of the Duel Monsters game. He had heard the legends of Duel Spirits, but dismissed them, despite the fact that the Monsters, upon being summoned, reacted slightly to outside stimuli even without any sort of bond with the Duelist, and even had a faint amount of body heat. However, the Monsters, provided perfect vessels for their spirits, were summoned in some truth with each Duel after the institution of RSV in Duels, and the Monsters felt it each time they were killed. Naturally, they began to resent being used for humanity's entertainment.
Meanwhile, by sheer accident, an average Duelist by the name of Zarc, who had a close bond with his Monsters, including four Dragons who represented 3 extant Special Summoning methods and a Main Deck representative, hurt an opponent in one of his Duels. At first, Zarc and the crowd alike were concerned, but then one of the men in the crowd cheered him on, which spread like wildfire. Zarc smiled at the crowd's adulation, and kept doing it because of the positive reinforcement and peer pressure. There was no Yusho in this world, and as time passed, the bloodlust running through society only deepened, and Zarc obliged them, ever a crowd pleaser. He and his Monsters grew more and more violent and bloodthirsty, culminating in Zarc obliterating his competition in the World Championship, almost literally, and then, when the crowds demanded still more, literally obliterated his competition. It is explicitly noted by Leo's daughter, Ray, that the four dragons are, at this point, rampaging on their own. Zarc was simply not stopping them. Then he integrated himself into his Monsters to become the enormous black dragon, Supreme King Z-Arc, as neither he nor they were satisfied.
It is at this point in our crossover that the Illuminosans intervene, attempting to stop their maddened creator from destroying everything, whether by word or force. Yes, you read that correctly. Zarc was the Wish Maker in this 'verse. If Jaden can be the reincarnation of a random human warlord and have enough spiritual mojo to contest one of the forces responsible for creating his reality, I think Zarc having this kind of power isn't that out of left field for the 'verse, and being a fallen creator god in line with Davoth from Doom really plays up the Devil angle, I feel. Not Yuya as one might have hoped. With their help, the locals are able to contain Zarc to their world for a time, mostly because, much like Don Thousand, he's a madman obsessed with the card game, as he could easily have broken out any time he wanted to, he just enjoyed playing with his food. This is the origin of the extremist faction of Star Guardians in the 'verse. They remember Zarc going mad, and want to put down his fragments before he can act to revive himself. Some even suspect that he was, albeit indirectly, responsible for the Devourers, believing that his fall is evidence of something always having been fundamentally wrong with him, and this flaw having corrupted his creation.
Much like in canon, Leo, feeling guilty for his hand in all of this, created the four En Cards. It is unclear if he was simply using the same technology that Zarc had jailbroken to become a world-destroying juggernaut, or if he was in truth drawing from the power of the heavens, animals, plants, and natural elements. Regardless, these cards were created to return entities to a pure existence. There was some hope from the Illuminosans that they could be used to reform Zarc here, and many believe that the majority of his reincarnations being good people technically qualifies as a success.
The thing is, the Cards were too strong. They had a cost akin to Shattering Blow. Using them split Ray into four alongside the Original World, just as it did for Zarc, creating the Bracelets that mark each of the girls in question. Leo had originally intended to sacrifice himself, but she stole the cards and did it in his place. He was in a position to watch and everything. Naturally, he didn't especially take this well when he got his memories back, and began to hatch a plot to restore the Original World and his daughter.
In an effort to undo the mistakes of the past, the world was effectively reset to before Real Solid Vision was even an idea in Leo's mind in the case of Standard, and none of the other Dimensions possessed it despite being further in the future. Leo screwing that up was completely unintentional and something that likely couldn't have been avoided before he recovered his memories. However, he could very easily have not decided to wage a war to turn people into cards, in an effort to gather the energy necessary to restore Ray, the Original World, and, just in case, the En Cards. He began searching for the fragments of his daughter almost immediately, and abandoned his wife Himika and son Reiji to do so, which caused both of them to become much colder. Leo believed the relationship to be artificial, as many of the adults of the new world had had their memories heavily modified in the aftermath of the split. Yusho even has a minor freakout when eventually realizes he has no idea what he was doing when Yuya ought to have been conceived. He doesn't even know for sure he and his wife Yuko were in the same city, though he never stops considering Yuya his son.
Reiji had used his father's technology to follow him, wanting an explanation for why he vanished on them, arriving in the Fusion Dimension, and having a brief altercation involving his father and the local Bracelet Girl, Serena. Finding his father's goals horrific, Reiji swore to oppose him, and Himika was firmly on her son's side. Reiji reached out to Yusho to lead the Lancers, the planned opposition force against The Professor's Academia, but Yusho believed he could get through to his old friend, and attempted to use the dimensional technology Reiji and the Leo Institute had been working on to reach him, but accidentally ended up in the XYZ Dimension instead. He did eventually end up in Fusion, but decided to shelter defectors from Academia, students disturbed and distraught over the invasion of the XYZ Dimension. He didn't actually have a way back to Standard at this point, and ended up disappearing for about 3 years, which badly affected Yuya, not the least because it seemed like he'd skipped out on a Duel for the title of champion, and many considered him a coward for it, especially when he completely disappeared following the event. This leads Yuya to act like a clown in Duels, more concerned with the crowd's reactions that his own feelings or even winning. His Illuminosan watchers are very concerned over how vulnerable to an inciting incident like Zarc's this made him, and are rather relieved when the creation of Pendulum Summoning starts to snap him out of it, aided by one Nico Smiley who wants to make Yuya a great Duelist, and wouldn't you know it, knowing when to go against the crowd is also an excellent lesson for preventing yourself from going mad after constantly providing them with what they demand in greater and greater quantities in an attempt to pursue a greater high like a drug addict.
Reiji's interest in piqued in Yuya after he demonstrates Pendulum Summoning, and he begins studying the new method in pursuit of it's replication. This being the Yugiohverse, the cards and Summoning methods are explicitly supernatural, which causes incomplete Pendulum Cards to glitch out mid-Duel. By the same token, the Illuminosans are always interested in what the fragments of Zarc are up to for obvious reasons, though they don't play as much Yugioh as is the norm for the Yugioh world. Bad memories, and Zarc was fairly young when he made the wish, so it wasn't the massive part of his life it was as he aged, which in turn meant it was less emphasized compared to the Yugioh series to begin with. Eventually, Yuya joins the Lancers in the aftermath of Yuzu getting sent to the Syncho Dimension while trying to avoid Yuri, Fusion Dimension's Zarc fragment, who is more than a little psychotic at this point. Partially to try to find her, and partially because he's horrified by the very concept of using Duel Monsters for war. It's something of a mantra for him that Duels are supposed to be about having fun, not this insanity.
The Professor has Yuri out looking for the Ray fragments as his most powerful enforcer, apparently out of a mix of 'Keep your enemies closer' and not being sure that killing him would actually... work. There's good odds Zarc would just reincarnate again, or worse, start puppetting Yuri's body to personally seek out his other fragments to merge with. The Professor is actually very concerned when he realizes Yuya has accidentally absorbed Yuto, as that puts Zarc much closer to restoration.
Much like the canonical extremist faction, the conflict with Zarc created another extremist faction that wants to restore Zarc. Their motives vary. Some, much like Zarc, don't understand why he was ripped apart in the first place. He was just doing as his creation wished, after all. Others actually resent the mortals for corrupting their creator in the first place, and/or would prefer to fall by his hand than by the Devourers. Then there are those who feel like Zarc would obliterate the Devourers for not playing Yugioh, and as long as they kept his attention, he wouldn't be that bad by comparison since he would rather work his way through the Duelists than go straight for destroying the world. So they work to try and bring the fragments together so they'll fuse, which is one of the reasons there are Star Guardians assigned to keep an eye on the fragments in the first place.
They are largely stymied by the guardians assigned to the various Zarc fragments, though Yuri represents a chink in the armor, as his gradual descent into madness from, much like Zarc, receiving the overwhelming majority of his positive attention from acting like a psychopath until he was effectively Pavlovian conditioned into enjoying himself carding people and destroying things. Partially because he's so messed up that his reaction to 'If you Duel your counterparts, you'll merge and destroy the universe!' can be summed up as 'Really? Awesome!' and deliberately trying to do so, and partially because attrition among Illuminosan observers is high because of how much it reminds them of Zarc's fall and how hard it is to filter out infiltrators from both extremist factions at once. The only reason one doesn't get to him sooner is because the extremists are working at cross purposes, but the Zarc supporters do eventually manage to reveal the truth to him while foiling an assassination attempt by the other extremists, under the correct impression he'd react as in canon, and he leads them in an effort to restore Zarc. I'm going to say that, since Fusion is magical, it's superior to normal starlight, being closer to the Final Star in general nature, and massively boosts the empowerment of Star Guardians by proximity alone. A single Fusion Summon by the average Fusion user is like a month of sunbathing for a Star Guardian, and Yuri and other Zarc fragments are more akin to a year even at the very beginning. A Gisena-style genius might figure out means of boostrapping other Summoning Methods to do something similar, which might be a post-YGO series project for The Professor as he works to redeem himself for all the pain he caused, starting with helping the Star Guardians in their fight with the Devourers.
One of the major differences to this setting is that Zarc, rather than 4 pieces, is divided into 10, hence, despite being God, the fragments merely possessing bizarre physical prowess, such as shrugging off impacts that ought to kill them or knock them unconscious, and the ability to create new cards and break fate in the usual Yugioh protagonist manner. They also demonstrate the ability to shrug off brainwashing via Zarc being far too spicy for things like a parasite digging into your brain like a Yeerk and controlling you, though it's not entirely clear if individual fragments can do that, as the example was from a merged pair. It did also make them collapse for a few seconds before Zarc disintegrated it.
There are the canonical four, Fusion, Synchro, XYZ, and Pendulum being an 'evolution' of the original Odd-Eyes Dragon, as well as Link, Maximum, Ritual, Trap, Flip, and Tribute, each with an associated Dragon. Starving Venom Fusion, Clear Wing Synchro, Dark Rebellion XYZ, Odd-Eyes Pendulum, Split Self Link, Lonely Ruler Maximum, Burning Emotion Ritual, Sharp Claw Trap, Table Turner Flip, and Mournful Cry Tribute/Advance. Any four merged Zarc fragments can form a Zarc, using the dominant fragment's body as a base, which will immediately drive any fragments in the same Dimension into the Awakened state normally triggered when their rage allows Zarc to start trying to take over, and immediately start trying to either become one with each other or the more complete Zarc, and they aren't picky which happens first. In theory, this could lead to two Zarcs fighting their way towards each other to complete their resurrection. The completed Zarc would contemptuously sweep aside the average World Eater. Heck, even the 4 fragment form could make a decent fight of it with some of the stronger ones, seeing as the Duels are pretty clearly a handicap compared to how nasty he could actually be in a fight. Considering he required 4 cards specifically made to beat him and splitting the world apart the first time, and a second use of the cards alongside Yuya taking control just long enough to throw the Duel the second time, that's saying something.
In his full 10-fragment form, he has effects like 'Not only do instant win conditions not work, but they get turned back on you.' and an effect similar to Orichalcos, where he gets a whole second set of Monster and Spell/Trap fields that block their respective normal Fields from assault or effects as long as they have anything there. Though it's specifically that Monsters in the special fields protect Monsters and Spells/Traps are protected by filled fields, not both at once from either quarter. Basically, if he gets his full form back, your only real shot is 'Literally every named character in Yugioh ever gangs up on him' since he has deliberately arranged things to be more than twice as strong as the first time, and he was mostly beaten by a surprise superweapon and not being interested in just blowing the world up then. Not to mention how he would have been nigh-immune to the En Cards if Yuya hadn't specifically gone out of his way to screw Zarc over, and the final conflict of the series is convincing him to stop once and for all, as it's made fairly explicit that, despite being sealed, he could break free again if they don't.
There's three main directions to take the story. First, the Illuminosans reveal themselves by saving Yuzu when she takes a major fall that is disturbingly similar to how Carly in the original 5Ds series became a Dark Signer, because they're concerned that if she dies Yuya will go Zarc then and there, and having her go Dark Signer would be only marginally less bad, since she'd basically be a zombie, which is worse in some ways. Alternatively, have her and the Bracelet Girls get possessed by Zorc and the Light of Destruction, become Dark Signers, and whatever threats the Ritual, Flip, Trap, and Tribute Dimensions were dealing with, and the Illuminosans introduce themselves, because clearly things are FUBAR, and they're more terrified of the Restraining Bolts/Morality Chains Ray introduced to Zarcs fragments being inverted than they are of the risk of letting extremists get too close. Or perhaps the Illuminosans introduce themselves early on to try and act as moderating influences specifically to avoid a situation like Yuri from developing and the revived villains of the various series are working to revive Zarc in case their own plans fall through. In Zorc and the Earthbound Immortals' cases in particular, they don't even particularly mind if Zarc destroys the world in their stead. If you want to get really crazy, hybridize the second and third ideas, to have the Illuminosans desperately trying to fill the void the Bracelet Girls left in their various states of possession and Face-Heel Turns, and increasingly distraught as they only manage partial successes because they feel they are directly failing their Maker, and the Bracelet Girls being used as pawns by the various villains to accelerate their Zarc-related backup plans. Probably with at least one instance of a villain corrupting one of the Bracelet Girls right in front of a Zarc fragment and/or allowing them to break free temporarily to purposefully Yank The Dog's Chain to piss them off and leave them open for Zarc.
One of the struggles in the story is that a large portion of the Iluminosans desperately want to believe the best of Zarc. The extremist faction of supporters are just that, the most extreme examples. Many harbor similar sentiments, just not in great enough quantities to betray their charges in his favor. So, they would very much want to try and get through to him as canonically happened at the end of the series, where Yuya managed to make him chill out with the Entertainment he'd always wanted underneath all the madness. At some point, they realize that part of Zarc's rampage was fueled by resentment over the crowd for demanding screams instead of smiles, which, regardless of the route the story takes, gives both sets of extremists major fuel. The ones who want to kill Zarc one way or the other say 'Even he realized he'd become a monster, if he resented them for making him one.' while the supporters say 'See? They drove him mad with their demands. We should let the Maker finish what he started.'
3540 words above this line, if somewhat derivative, being a crossover for a non-Rihaku CYOA.
No, I'm talking about a more conventional crossover. A Yugioh cross.
You see, in Yugioh Arc-V, the plot centers around a dimensional war, where the Fusion Dimension, essentially a version of the second YGO series, including some legacy characters, as it's own dimension with the Special Summoning method it derives it's name from seeing heavy use there. Similarly, the Synchro and XYZ Dimensions are tied to the third and fourth series with the new Summoning methods of those series. The Standard Dimension is where the protagonist, Yuya, makes his home, and early on in the series, he 'invents' Pendulum Summoning. Events in-series begin to come to a head when Yuya's dimensional counterpart, Yuto, and his friend Shun arrive in Standard in search of Academia, who had been waging a campaign of... well, sealing people into cards and destroying civilization as you go isn't extermination per se, but it's certainly not benevolent by any stretch of the imagination. More specifically, they want to find the kidnapped dimensional counterpart of Yuzu, Yuya's childhood friend, who had a Bracelet to his own Pendulum.
The symbol of Leo Institute of Dueling, or Leo Duel Schoo depending on if it's the Sub or Dub, is very similar to Academia's for a very simple reason. It's President, Reiji Akaba, is the son of Leo Akaba, The Professor and leader of Academia, who created Real Solid Vision, Hardlight technology that literally added a new dimension to Duels, including Action Cards one can pick up off the field, which serve the role of fodder for discards or minor spells so people don't have to use the cards in their hand for it, Doylistically. He and his friend, Yuya's father, Yusho Sakaki, pioneered the current format, Action Duels, in their own ways. Yusho, noticing a growing trend of violence in Dueling, acted to become an Entertainer, making Entertainment Dueling, where Duels were intended to make the audience and hopefully even your opponent smile, the model for Dueling. For a time, all was well, Leo and Yusho both having become family men in this time.
However, this is where the backstory of the setting comes in to play.
Over time, as Leo worked on his Real Solid Vision, he began to regain memories, eventually creating a machine that finished the job of restoring his memory of the Original World, before it was split into four. Just as he did in the new reality, he had created Real Solid Vision as an evolution of the Duel Monsters game. He had heard the legends of Duel Spirits, but dismissed them, despite the fact that the Monsters, upon being summoned, reacted slightly to outside stimuli even without any sort of bond with the Duelist, and even had a faint amount of body heat. However, the Monsters, provided perfect vessels for their spirits, were summoned in some truth with each Duel after the institution of RSV in Duels, and the Monsters felt it each time they were killed. Naturally, they began to resent being used for humanity's entertainment.
Meanwhile, by sheer accident, an average Duelist by the name of Zarc, who had a close bond with his Monsters, including four Dragons who represented 3 extant Special Summoning methods and a Main Deck representative, hurt an opponent in one of his Duels. At first, Zarc and the crowd alike were concerned, but then one of the men in the crowd cheered him on, which spread like wildfire. Zarc smiled at the crowd's adulation, and kept doing it because of the positive reinforcement and peer pressure. There was no Yusho in this world, and as time passed, the bloodlust running through society only deepened, and Zarc obliged them, ever a crowd pleaser. He and his Monsters grew more and more violent and bloodthirsty, culminating in Zarc obliterating his competition in the World Championship, almost literally, and then, when the crowds demanded still more, literally obliterated his competition. It is explicitly noted by Leo's daughter, Ray, that the four dragons are, at this point, rampaging on their own. Zarc was simply not stopping them. Then he integrated himself into his Monsters to become the enormous black dragon, Supreme King Z-Arc, as neither he nor they were satisfied.
It is at this point in our crossover that the Illuminosans intervene, attempting to stop their maddened creator from destroying everything, whether by word or force. Yes, you read that correctly. Zarc was the Wish Maker in this 'verse. If Jaden can be the reincarnation of a random human warlord and have enough spiritual mojo to contest one of the forces responsible for creating his reality, I think Zarc having this kind of power isn't that out of left field for the 'verse, and being a fallen creator god in line with Davoth from Doom really plays up the Devil angle, I feel. Not Yuya as one might have hoped. With their help, the locals are able to contain Zarc to their world for a time, mostly because, much like Don Thousand, he's a madman obsessed with the card game, as he could easily have broken out any time he wanted to, he just enjoyed playing with his food. This is the origin of the extremist faction of Star Guardians in the 'verse. They remember Zarc going mad, and want to put down his fragments before he can act to revive himself. Some even suspect that he was, albeit indirectly, responsible for the Devourers, believing that his fall is evidence of something always having been fundamentally wrong with him, and this flaw having corrupted his creation.
Much like in canon, Leo, feeling guilty for his hand in all of this, created the four En Cards. It is unclear if he was simply using the same technology that Zarc had jailbroken to become a world-destroying juggernaut, or if he was in truth drawing from the power of the heavens, animals, plants, and natural elements. Regardless, these cards were created to return entities to a pure existence. There was some hope from the Illuminosans that they could be used to reform Zarc here, and many believe that the majority of his reincarnations being good people technically qualifies as a success.
The thing is, the Cards were too strong. They had a cost akin to Shattering Blow. Using them split Ray into four alongside the Original World, just as it did for Zarc, creating the Bracelets that mark each of the girls in question. Leo had originally intended to sacrifice himself, but she stole the cards and did it in his place. He was in a position to watch and everything. Naturally, he didn't especially take this well when he got his memories back, and began to hatch a plot to restore the Original World and his daughter.
In an effort to undo the mistakes of the past, the world was effectively reset to before Real Solid Vision was even an idea in Leo's mind in the case of Standard, and none of the other Dimensions possessed it despite being further in the future. Leo screwing that up was completely unintentional and something that likely couldn't have been avoided before he recovered his memories. However, he could very easily have not decided to wage a war to turn people into cards, in an effort to gather the energy necessary to restore Ray, the Original World, and, just in case, the En Cards. He began searching for the fragments of his daughter almost immediately, and abandoned his wife Himika and son Reiji to do so, which caused both of them to become much colder. Leo believed the relationship to be artificial, as many of the adults of the new world had had their memories heavily modified in the aftermath of the split. Yusho even has a minor freakout when eventually realizes he has no idea what he was doing when Yuya ought to have been conceived. He doesn't even know for sure he and his wife Yuko were in the same city, though he never stops considering Yuya his son.
Reiji had used his father's technology to follow him, wanting an explanation for why he vanished on them, arriving in the Fusion Dimension, and having a brief altercation involving his father and the local Bracelet Girl, Serena. Finding his father's goals horrific, Reiji swore to oppose him, and Himika was firmly on her son's side. Reiji reached out to Yusho to lead the Lancers, the planned opposition force against The Professor's Academia, but Yusho believed he could get through to his old friend, and attempted to use the dimensional technology Reiji and the Leo Institute had been working on to reach him, but accidentally ended up in the XYZ Dimension instead. He did eventually end up in Fusion, but decided to shelter defectors from Academia, students disturbed and distraught over the invasion of the XYZ Dimension. He didn't actually have a way back to Standard at this point, and ended up disappearing for about 3 years, which badly affected Yuya, not the least because it seemed like he'd skipped out on a Duel for the title of champion, and many considered him a coward for it, especially when he completely disappeared following the event. This leads Yuya to act like a clown in Duels, more concerned with the crowd's reactions that his own feelings or even winning. His Illuminosan watchers are very concerned over how vulnerable to an inciting incident like Zarc's this made him, and are rather relieved when the creation of Pendulum Summoning starts to snap him out of it, aided by one Nico Smiley who wants to make Yuya a great Duelist, and wouldn't you know it, knowing when to go against the crowd is also an excellent lesson for preventing yourself from going mad after constantly providing them with what they demand in greater and greater quantities in an attempt to pursue a greater high like a drug addict.
Reiji's interest in piqued in Yuya after he demonstrates Pendulum Summoning, and he begins studying the new method in pursuit of it's replication. This being the Yugiohverse, the cards and Summoning methods are explicitly supernatural, which causes incomplete Pendulum Cards to glitch out mid-Duel. By the same token, the Illuminosans are always interested in what the fragments of Zarc are up to for obvious reasons, though they don't play as much Yugioh as is the norm for the Yugioh world. Bad memories, and Zarc was fairly young when he made the wish, so it wasn't the massive part of his life it was as he aged, which in turn meant it was less emphasized compared to the Yugioh series to begin with. Eventually, Yuya joins the Lancers in the aftermath of Yuzu getting sent to the Syncho Dimension while trying to avoid Yuri, Fusion Dimension's Zarc fragment, who is more than a little psychotic at this point. Partially to try to find her, and partially because he's horrified by the very concept of using Duel Monsters for war. It's something of a mantra for him that Duels are supposed to be about having fun, not this insanity.
The Professor has Yuri out looking for the Ray fragments as his most powerful enforcer, apparently out of a mix of 'Keep your enemies closer' and not being sure that killing him would actually... work. There's good odds Zarc would just reincarnate again, or worse, start puppetting Yuri's body to personally seek out his other fragments to merge with. The Professor is actually very concerned when he realizes Yuya has accidentally absorbed Yuto, as that puts Zarc much closer to restoration.
Much like the canonical extremist faction, the conflict with Zarc created another extremist faction that wants to restore Zarc. Their motives vary. Some, much like Zarc, don't understand why he was ripped apart in the first place. He was just doing as his creation wished, after all. Others actually resent the mortals for corrupting their creator in the first place, and/or would prefer to fall by his hand than by the Devourers. Then there are those who feel like Zarc would obliterate the Devourers for not playing Yugioh, and as long as they kept his attention, he wouldn't be that bad by comparison since he would rather work his way through the Duelists than go straight for destroying the world. So they work to try and bring the fragments together so they'll fuse, which is one of the reasons there are Star Guardians assigned to keep an eye on the fragments in the first place.
They are largely stymied by the guardians assigned to the various Zarc fragments, though Yuri represents a chink in the armor, as his gradual descent into madness from, much like Zarc, receiving the overwhelming majority of his positive attention from acting like a psychopath until he was effectively Pavlovian conditioned into enjoying himself carding people and destroying things. Partially because he's so messed up that his reaction to 'If you Duel your counterparts, you'll merge and destroy the universe!' can be summed up as 'Really? Awesome!' and deliberately trying to do so, and partially because attrition among Illuminosan observers is high because of how much it reminds them of Zarc's fall and how hard it is to filter out infiltrators from both extremist factions at once. The only reason one doesn't get to him sooner is because the extremists are working at cross purposes, but the Zarc supporters do eventually manage to reveal the truth to him while foiling an assassination attempt by the other extremists, under the correct impression he'd react as in canon, and he leads them in an effort to restore Zarc. I'm going to say that, since Fusion is magical, it's superior to normal starlight, being closer to the Final Star in general nature, and massively boosts the empowerment of Star Guardians by proximity alone. A single Fusion Summon by the average Fusion user is like a month of sunbathing for a Star Guardian, and Yuri and other Zarc fragments are more akin to a year even at the very beginning. A Gisena-style genius might figure out means of boostrapping other Summoning Methods to do something similar, which might be a post-YGO series project for The Professor as he works to redeem himself for all the pain he caused, starting with helping the Star Guardians in their fight with the Devourers.
One of the major differences to this setting is that Zarc, rather than 4 pieces, is divided into 10, hence, despite being God, the fragments merely possessing bizarre physical prowess, such as shrugging off impacts that ought to kill them or knock them unconscious, and the ability to create new cards and break fate in the usual Yugioh protagonist manner. They also demonstrate the ability to shrug off brainwashing via Zarc being far too spicy for things like a parasite digging into your brain like a Yeerk and controlling you, though it's not entirely clear if individual fragments can do that, as the example was from a merged pair. It did also make them collapse for a few seconds before Zarc disintegrated it.
There are the canonical four, Fusion, Synchro, XYZ, and Pendulum being an 'evolution' of the original Odd-Eyes Dragon, as well as Link, Maximum, Ritual, Trap, Flip, and Tribute, each with an associated Dragon. Starving Venom Fusion, Clear Wing Synchro, Dark Rebellion XYZ, Odd-Eyes Pendulum, Split Self Link, Lonely Ruler Maximum, Burning Emotion Ritual, Sharp Claw Trap, Table Turner Flip, and Mournful Cry Tribute/Advance. Any four merged Zarc fragments can form a Zarc, using the dominant fragment's body as a base, which will immediately drive any fragments in the same Dimension into the Awakened state normally triggered when their rage allows Zarc to start trying to take over, and immediately start trying to either become one with each other or the more complete Zarc, and they aren't picky which happens first. In theory, this could lead to two Zarcs fighting their way towards each other to complete their resurrection. The completed Zarc would contemptuously sweep aside the average World Eater. Heck, even the 4 fragment form could make a decent fight of it with some of the stronger ones, seeing as the Duels are pretty clearly a handicap compared to how nasty he could actually be in a fight. Considering he required 4 cards specifically made to beat him and splitting the world apart the first time, and a second use of the cards alongside Yuya taking control just long enough to throw the Duel the second time, that's saying something.
In his full 10-fragment form, he has effects like 'Not only do instant win conditions not work, but they get turned back on you.' and an effect similar to Orichalcos, where he gets a whole second set of Monster and Spell/Trap fields that block their respective normal Fields from assault or effects as long as they have anything there. Though it's specifically that Monsters in the special fields protect Monsters and Spells/Traps are protected by filled fields, not both at once from either quarter. Basically, if he gets his full form back, your only real shot is 'Literally every named character in Yugioh ever gangs up on him' since he has deliberately arranged things to be more than twice as strong as the first time, and he was mostly beaten by a surprise superweapon and not being interested in just blowing the world up then. Not to mention how he would have been nigh-immune to the En Cards if Yuya hadn't specifically gone out of his way to screw Zarc over, and the final conflict of the series is convincing him to stop once and for all, as it's made fairly explicit that, despite being sealed, he could break free again if they don't.
There's three main directions to take the story. First, the Illuminosans reveal themselves by saving Yuzu when she takes a major fall that is disturbingly similar to how Carly in the original 5Ds series became a Dark Signer, because they're concerned that if she dies Yuya will go Zarc then and there, and having her go Dark Signer would be only marginally less bad, since she'd basically be a zombie, which is worse in some ways. Alternatively, have her and the Bracelet Girls get possessed by Zorc and the Light of Destruction, become Dark Signers, and whatever threats the Ritual, Flip, Trap, and Tribute Dimensions were dealing with, and the Illuminosans introduce themselves, because clearly things are FUBAR, and they're more terrified of the Restraining Bolts/Morality Chains Ray introduced to Zarcs fragments being inverted than they are of the risk of letting extremists get too close. Or perhaps the Illuminosans introduce themselves early on to try and act as moderating influences specifically to avoid a situation like Yuri from developing and the revived villains of the various series are working to revive Zarc in case their own plans fall through. In Zorc and the Earthbound Immortals' cases in particular, they don't even particularly mind if Zarc destroys the world in their stead. If you want to get really crazy, hybridize the second and third ideas, to have the Illuminosans desperately trying to fill the void the Bracelet Girls left in their various states of possession and Face-Heel Turns, and increasingly distraught as they only manage partial successes because they feel they are directly failing their Maker, and the Bracelet Girls being used as pawns by the various villains to accelerate their Zarc-related backup plans. Probably with at least one instance of a villain corrupting one of the Bracelet Girls right in front of a Zarc fragment and/or allowing them to break free temporarily to purposefully Yank The Dog's Chain to piss them off and leave them open for Zarc.
One of the struggles in the story is that a large portion of the Iluminosans desperately want to believe the best of Zarc. The extremist faction of supporters are just that, the most extreme examples. Many harbor similar sentiments, just not in great enough quantities to betray their charges in his favor. So, they would very much want to try and get through to him as canonically happened at the end of the series, where Yuya managed to make him chill out with the Entertainment he'd always wanted underneath all the madness. At some point, they realize that part of Zarc's rampage was fueled by resentment over the crowd for demanding screams instead of smiles, which, regardless of the route the story takes, gives both sets of extremists major fuel. The ones who want to kill Zarc one way or the other say 'Even he realized he'd become a monster, if he resented them for making him one.' while the supporters say 'See? They drove him mad with their demands. We should let the Maker finish what he started.'
3540 words above this line, if somewhat derivative, being a crossover for a non-Rihaku CYOA.
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[Start +1 Spark]
[ ] The Conflux [+5 Spark]
[ ] A Hissing Beast [+1 Spark]
[ ] Verdict Heart's Notation [+1 Spark]
[ ] Striking Them Down [+1 Spark]
[ ] The Hero Synthesis [+1 Spark]
[ ] Ectonconara [-5 Spark]
[ ] Pearl Necklace [-3 Spark]
[ ] Half-Devourer [-1 Spark]
[ ] Empowerment Phial [-1 Spark]
So I'm going to be leaning really, really hard on Ectonconara for this one. Of course I'll be giving her the Pearl Necklace as well. Probably the most difficult will be The Hero Synthesis? But, it should still be viable.
Anyways as for myself? I'm going to be nomming on all those Devourer corpses that Ectonconara will be bringing back to me to do some easy powerleveling. In regards to the Empowerment Phial I like the power being based off a 'Black Hole Sun'? Basically, it acts like another huge mouth allowing me to rapidly devour vast amounts of things. Maybe like some selective gravity manipulation to drag things inside it. It'd be great for clearing out the chaff, powerleveling, or maybe even locking off an area if I get powerful enough.
Not optimal but a fun build that should be serviceable. Might try for a Cursebearer Build next.
[ ] The Conflux [+5 Spark]
[ ] A Hissing Beast [+1 Spark]
[ ] Verdict Heart's Notation [+1 Spark]
[ ] Striking Them Down [+1 Spark]
[ ] The Hero Synthesis [+1 Spark]
[ ] Ectonconara [-5 Spark]
[ ] Pearl Necklace [-3 Spark]
[ ] Half-Devourer [-1 Spark]
[ ] Empowerment Phial [-1 Spark]
So I'm going to be leaning really, really hard on Ectonconara for this one. Of course I'll be giving her the Pearl Necklace as well. Probably the most difficult will be The Hero Synthesis? But, it should still be viable.
Anyways as for myself? I'm going to be nomming on all those Devourer corpses that Ectonconara will be bringing back to me to do some easy powerleveling. In regards to the Empowerment Phial I like the power being based off a 'Black Hole Sun'? Basically, it acts like another huge mouth allowing me to rapidly devour vast amounts of things. Maybe like some selective gravity manipulation to drag things inside it. It'd be great for clearing out the chaff, powerleveling, or maybe even locking off an area if I get powerful enough.
Not optimal but a fun build that should be serviceable. Might try for a Cursebearer Build next.
Darn, you're right. I guess I'll revise my build and go for a Combat-type Cursebearer.
Alright, finally finished my build for A Winter Dynasty.
Fanwork##877 Words
Trinity Phaeton
Passage: A Quest (16 - Sailor Moon)
Patronage: The Duchess
Provisions: The Overcharge, Flicker of Soliton, Obols of Paradise V, Auger of Companionship
[▲] Regicide
Remember us
Buried in the ashes of a billion stars is evidence of an empire whose lineage stretches into hazy pre-Expansion, when heat and electricity were still one and the same. Rising and falling like the tides, at their peak the Apex dynasty oversaw vast galaxies and distant realities.
Its last scion saw the cycle broken, but no longer. By imperial decree, my very genes have been interwoven with the nuclear fury of a star at supernova. Who cares that I've been scarred terribly by the solar winds of their dying apogee, or that the shadow of their pan-galactic civilization haunts my psyche? My burning desire to see what they were restored to prominence sustains me. That it cannot be done until the demon order which laid it low is repaid in kind, can only be considered poetic and appropriate.
[▼] Hallowed Be Thy Name
My power is that of the Centurion, an age-old soldier of Stellar dominion able to shatter planets with an errant stroke of the blade. Or at least... most of it. Some was lost in dying, more still in reincarnation. When not in use, the Armageddon Crystal is dull and black like spent coal.
What passive effects mastery of the Armageddon Legacy grants are few, but notable. I cannot die unless fully divested of energy, even if disintegrated. I cannot be injured by forces less powerful than a Tsar Bomba, or allured by any quality less emotionally intense than the sum total of human calamity across all of present-day global history. I can't even fail to manipulate thermodynamic energy at least as well as I could manipulate my own thoughts.
Beyond that, benefits are inexact but immense. Summoning forth a resplendent red-giant corona of nuclear vengeance is both easy, and incredibly satisfying. The patterns of gravity and radiation which alight in the void become visible to me with no more effort than squinting. Forming a blade with nanometer precision is intuitive, as is setting loose a continent-spanning inferno. But I can also muster more constructive ends: stone will liquefy, transmute, and reshape itself with a gesture, overruling little things like elementary chemistry in the process. Emotion and mentality are similarly straightforward.
Of special note, my speed is totally lopsided. I can outrace the orbit of planets by several orders of magnitude, but still can't quite dodge a bullet. Without the reflexes needed to navigate cosmic distances manually, I am forced to rely on interstitial rituals which create wormholes to visit inhabited worlds.
There are no transformation sequences required to wield the Crystal's offering; my transplanted scars of mastery will suffice.
[▶] Boundary Break!
Ruinous appetite aside, Armageddon exists to remember. Whence inverted, its sanguine fire-light will cool and quiet to a watery teal-blue radiance. Immanent matter and distance distort by its passing, diffracted like light returning from a deep pool. If allowed to saturate an area, that relative location will become a gateway to the Lithium Dimension, where time loses some critical facet of its meaning. There, the phantom images of long-lost places and people may be recalled, and by hard-light emission of the Crystal, given form and motion.
These retain knowledge and personality they had in life, though notably muted where the passions are involved. Probably for the best, with how traumatic most of their deaths were. Their skills are also present, but their reserves will have to pull from my own – they couldn't take it with them, as it were.
My control over the summoning is automatic: I can be specific, or just trust the Crystal to know what will help. The full scope of my entourage is mind-boggling: advisors, diviners, scientists, sorcerers, generals, ecclesiarches, courtesans, prisoners... the list goes on. Ignorant to my obsessive tendencies and proud to serve the Trinity resurgent, all but the greatest figures imaginable will come when bidden, and do their best to aid me without further compensation. The exception being the ghost of the Centurion himself, who emerges from the Crystal unbidden and returns as he pleases. His Lithium spirit is weightless beyond the Dimension's edge, but inside he's a world-class threat.
[◀] Another Story?
Then there's my assistant, a young sorceress who managed to escape from her ruined timeline. Her magical tradition is tattered by transference, but she's crafty, ingenious, and patient in the extreme. Bound not to the light of Armageddon but to its physical matter, she can leave the Lithium Dimension as easily as any living person. But her connection to it's not so innate as mine: should it be stolen, she won't be able to distinguish the will of its bearer from her own for very long.
Though lacking in overt power compared to a Sailor Scout, she knows enough subtle magic to see my will done where sapient beings hold sway. In an age where superstition is crippled and pseudo-science is fashionable, even without my support she could conquer an ailing human nation in weeks. But as apt a student as she is, with time I've no doubt Beryl will outshine even the brightest stars in the sky.
P.S.
Discordio Delenda Est!
Fanwork##877 Words
Trinity Phaeton
Passage: A Quest (16 - Sailor Moon)
Patronage: The Duchess
Provisions: The Overcharge, Flicker of Soliton, Obols of Paradise V, Auger of Companionship
[▲] Regicide
Remember us
Buried in the ashes of a billion stars is evidence of an empire whose lineage stretches into hazy pre-Expansion, when heat and electricity were still one and the same. Rising and falling like the tides, at their peak the Apex dynasty oversaw vast galaxies and distant realities.
Its last scion saw the cycle broken, but no longer. By imperial decree, my very genes have been interwoven with the nuclear fury of a star at supernova. Who cares that I've been scarred terribly by the solar winds of their dying apogee, or that the shadow of their pan-galactic civilization haunts my psyche? My burning desire to see what they were restored to prominence sustains me. That it cannot be done until the demon order which laid it low is repaid in kind, can only be considered poetic and appropriate.
[▼] Hallowed Be Thy Name
My power is that of the Centurion, an age-old soldier of Stellar dominion able to shatter planets with an errant stroke of the blade. Or at least... most of it. Some was lost in dying, more still in reincarnation. When not in use, the Armageddon Crystal is dull and black like spent coal.
What passive effects mastery of the Armageddon Legacy grants are few, but notable. I cannot die unless fully divested of energy, even if disintegrated. I cannot be injured by forces less powerful than a Tsar Bomba, or allured by any quality less emotionally intense than the sum total of human calamity across all of present-day global history. I can't even fail to manipulate thermodynamic energy at least as well as I could manipulate my own thoughts.
Beyond that, benefits are inexact but immense. Summoning forth a resplendent red-giant corona of nuclear vengeance is both easy, and incredibly satisfying. The patterns of gravity and radiation which alight in the void become visible to me with no more effort than squinting. Forming a blade with nanometer precision is intuitive, as is setting loose a continent-spanning inferno. But I can also muster more constructive ends: stone will liquefy, transmute, and reshape itself with a gesture, overruling little things like elementary chemistry in the process. Emotion and mentality are similarly straightforward.
Of special note, my speed is totally lopsided. I can outrace the orbit of planets by several orders of magnitude, but still can't quite dodge a bullet. Without the reflexes needed to navigate cosmic distances manually, I am forced to rely on interstitial rituals which create wormholes to visit inhabited worlds.
There are no transformation sequences required to wield the Crystal's offering; my transplanted scars of mastery will suffice.
[▶] Boundary Break!
Ruinous appetite aside, Armageddon exists to remember. Whence inverted, its sanguine fire-light will cool and quiet to a watery teal-blue radiance. Immanent matter and distance distort by its passing, diffracted like light returning from a deep pool. If allowed to saturate an area, that relative location will become a gateway to the Lithium Dimension, where time loses some critical facet of its meaning. There, the phantom images of long-lost places and people may be recalled, and by hard-light emission of the Crystal, given form and motion.
These retain knowledge and personality they had in life, though notably muted where the passions are involved. Probably for the best, with how traumatic most of their deaths were. Their skills are also present, but their reserves will have to pull from my own – they couldn't take it with them, as it were.
My control over the summoning is automatic: I can be specific, or just trust the Crystal to know what will help. The full scope of my entourage is mind-boggling: advisors, diviners, scientists, sorcerers, generals, ecclesiarches, courtesans, prisoners... the list goes on. Ignorant to my obsessive tendencies and proud to serve the Trinity resurgent, all but the greatest figures imaginable will come when bidden, and do their best to aid me without further compensation. The exception being the ghost of the Centurion himself, who emerges from the Crystal unbidden and returns as he pleases. His Lithium spirit is weightless beyond the Dimension's edge, but inside he's a world-class threat.
[◀] Another Story?
Then there's my assistant, a young sorceress who managed to escape from her ruined timeline. Her magical tradition is tattered by transference, but she's crafty, ingenious, and patient in the extreme. Bound not to the light of Armageddon but to its physical matter, she can leave the Lithium Dimension as easily as any living person. But her connection to it's not so innate as mine: should it be stolen, she won't be able to distinguish the will of its bearer from her own for very long.
Though lacking in overt power compared to a Sailor Scout, she knows enough subtle magic to see my will done where sapient beings hold sway. In an age where superstition is crippled and pseudo-science is fashionable, even without my support she could conquer an ailing human nation in weeks. But as apt a student as she is, with time I've no doubt Beryl will outshine even the brightest stars in the sky.
P.S.
Discordio Delenda Est!
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Question. Can we have a list of the tiers each curse is in?
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Status Screen CYOA DLC: Enemies and Allies, Equipment and Duties.
Perhaps you wish to gather more might. You ascribe fully to the truism that power begets power, and starting from a higher tier will dramatically benefit you, as would more options, so you're willing to take on more burdens. Perhaps you want some companions on your journey without having to worry about leaving holes in the defenses of a given world. Maybe you just want some extra goodies. You might even be a heroic type who wants to help the multiverse at large. This DLC is for you no matter what your motivation.
Enemies:
[+1 Bit] Punch Goblin. A Goblin will follow you around, and punch you. It appears to be the manifestation of the Goblin Punch. Meaning, it's not particularly strong, but as long as Goblins exist, it cannot be killed in a permanent fashion, merely discorporate. As long as you are the equivalent of level 10 or so, it will be more of an annoyance than a threat to your life.
[+1 Byte] Urthros. An octopus who appears to randomly travel to other worlds following a string of defeats. Something about your enlightenment has linked him to you... or he's just screwing around and picked you as a target. Luckily, he likes to play with his food, so he'll always be reasonably possible for you to defeat, even if that means he needs to play catch-up with new magics while laying low for a while. Unluckily, he rivals a cat's nine lives in terms of difficulty of being put down permanently, all the more frustrating as he is ostensibly mortal. This is in part from long experience giving him an immensely powerful instinct for survival, and in part a bizarre amount if charisma that lets him make allies with a startling amount if ease for a literal tentacle monster. This will take the form of recruiting allies useful to his goal if messing with you, which means it is much more likely for him to find and rope a mountain hermit with some abilities he has a high affinity for into his shenanigans than to assemble an entire rival alliance unless you devote literally all your time to nation-building.
[+1 Core Feature] Attention of The Void. The Void, the cosmic origin of all things in the Final Fantasy multiverse, is a sentient entity, that resents creation and wishes to return it to nothingness. Your enlightenment was noticeable to others, including The Void. While the original world with it's original Crystal remains a target, it understands that your world is 'the source of the other sources' and subverting your world will allow it to subvert the multiverse, like the root of a tree. This means it will attempt to destroy your world and/or subsume it. The good news is, it's ontological distance means that it will take more effort than is the norm, so it's efforts, that is, monsters and empowerments granted to collaborators unwitting or otherwise, will initially be weaker. Unfortunately, Earth is not prepared for an endless wave of monstrosities with supernatural powers, and if the world falls, everything ends.
There are three saving graces. First, The Void is well-known, because Final Fantasy is one of the most popular video game series to ever exist. Therefore, once people prove it's responsible, countermeasures will dramatically improve. Further, Square-Enix is well-equipped to reverse-engineer native magic systems of Final Fantasy, which The Void will unwillingly support by it's simple presence in your world. Simply defending them with your new abilities until they do so, with or without your direct aid, to buy yourself a significant amount of time is a valid strategy. Second, The Void hates reality. This is it's primary motive, but also a crippling weakness. It will not halt it's assaults on the various worlds of Final Fantasy simply because you're taking up a portion of it's attention. Infinite numbers and energy is not the same as infinite ability to act, so curbing it's efforts in a given Final Fantasy world will weaken it in the short-term. Long term, working to make more Final Fantasy worlds by aiding the development of extant Crystals is an excellent way to make it spread itself thinner. Third, if it's champions in your world are bested in full, it will take a few decades to reassess it's strategies, perhaps even longer in a best-case scenario. All that being said, do keep in mind that a loss for you is a loss for everyone in your local omniverse.
Allies:
[-1 Bit] Slime. Honestly, were it not for the potential to evolve into a Slime King, this wouldn't even be worth the Bit, regardless of the programmed loyalty of all iterations descended from the original including itself. In theory, you can evolve it into a Slime King, separate the King into component Slimes and then evolve them into Kings, forever. Like a Pokemon game, with the base stage, Slime Tower, Liquid Slime, and finally the King. This is immensely time-consuming, however, so the total loyalty of an ally able to subsist off of air and water indefinitely, even if they prefer to eat, is the main reason to take this, for some early safety with a teammate who cannot even consider betraying you. This technically counts as a Prestige system, and the Slime King as the cap, so you could branch into the infinite variety of other Slime types, but again, very time-consuming.
[-1 Byte] First Manikin. A crystalline clone of a hero or villain from the worlds of Final Fantasy. High-level ones, like high-level Nobodies, are outwardly indistinguishable from their originals, to the point they often believe they are the original. This one is the prototype. While capable of mimicking any entity sufficiently important to the memory of their world, and by extension the Crystal at it's heart, they are not capable of mimicking them at their peak, and it was scheduled for termination. It fled into the Dimensional Rift, and only emerged as a result of your enlightenment. They are grateful for this, and are reasonably loyal. Their value comes from versatility, as, while not as strong as the originals they copy, they can switch at will, and in time may even mix and match, giving Cloud's strength to Lightning's speed to Jecht's durability to Vivi's talent for Black Magic and Garnet's for Summoning. At their peak, they can draw on the memories of those around them to replicate other warriors. A world with as many video games and players as yours has great potential in this regard. Do try not to give any of the inhabitants the impression you have some crystalline abomination out to kill and replace them like The Thing.
[-1 Core Feature] Gilgamesh. Once, a man sought to claim every rare sword in the world. To that end, he served many masters, before eventually coming to follow a tree possessed by so many demons it had become a nihilistic warlock, Exdeath. Still, he wasn't the most... malicious of entities, nor the most powerful, and after a string of failures against the Warriors of Light of that world, he was Banished to the Dimensional Rift where The Void's extrusion into that world had been sealed. Fighting for his life, in a place where time in the conventional sense does not exist, his trial by fire saw him gain quite a bit of strength, and he eventually sacrificed himself to aid the Warriors of Light, taking with him one of the Eight Demons serving as Exdeath's generals after he had unlocked the Rift.
Rather than dying, however, he was instead cast adrift. Perhaps the proximity of The Void served to link the other worlds of the Final Fantasy multiverse, or perhaps it was simply chance. Regardless, he gained the ability to traverse worlds via the same Rift to which he was banished. As he traveled worlds, he acquired other powers and weapons, though he remained focused on swords. He remains committed to having a proper one-on-one duel with Bartz one of these days, though he understands that, with how many worlds there are, that may be quite some time off. You can grant his wish fairly trivially. Indeed, having sought a witch's fortune telling, he traveled to your world specifically for this, should you take this option.
Gilgamesh is an expert at traversing the Rift, and traveling between worlds. Whether you have the Overlay or merely the basic power, there is much he can teach you. He is also a potent warrior, and at this point would be a struggle for end-game Warriors of Light unless they specifically prepared for him, assuming he takes it remotely seriously. Either as a tutor or a Party member, he would be a great addition. He also serves as a someone who can tell you a few things about The Void, having seen it's influence across many worlds, and learning as much by experience as anything else.
Incidentally, you may want to specialize in something other than swords if you take this option. He may well fight you over any rare ones, and in his mind, winning an honorable duel means he is perfectly in his rights to take the weapon in question, and will consider it perfectly logical to take rare swords that aren't doing anything, ie, Link's Master Sword if it's not in said hero's possession. This obsession is most extreme for swords, but it does exist for other rare weapons, even ranged ones. He's not entirely unreasonable if it's not a sword, however.
Equipment:
[-1 Bit] Return Clock. A small wind-up alarm clock. May use this to rewind time five minutes or return a battle to it's beginning. Once per day. This can save your life, assuming you learned enough to avoid dying this time. Will expend itself automatically if you die. Repeat purchases allow multiple charges to be stored.
[-1 Byte] Taurus Bookmark. Skill Books do not always exist in a given reality. This bookmark allows you to replicate the effect. Place it in a book, and you will recall anything inside with perfect clarity. After three days, the effect becomes permanent, and can be moved to a different book. Note that this item will draw attention from Taurus Gorefield, as it should normally only be possible to receive this as a reward for besting him through winning a challenge, cooking his favorite lasagna, or killing him, which is difficult for a being galactic in scale, and Prestiges will reset the effect anyway, hence it's relative cheapness. It does remain a viable method to rapidly scale up by writing down your knowledge before Prestiging, repeating the process when you next peak, ad infinitatum, and, as you are not a Jon, Taurus is less interested in you than is the norm. Should he succeed in killing his Jon, however, he will have no reason not to come after you with his full attention.
[-1 Core Feature] Index. A small book with Index as the title. You may, should you take on the Cursebearer option, be familiar with The Interface. This is broadly similar in function, organizing information and equipment, but it cannot do more than this. It is more akin to a HUD, Inventory, and hint provider, synergistic with the Advice Fairy, and allows you to instantly shift between sets of armor, weapons, etc. in your possession. The Index provides the classic minimap, even in worlds this would not be true of normally, as well as many of the common RPG tabs, such as your Character Screen's Equipment section. The latter can have up to 100 sets of equipment saved, allowing for instant swapping, and prevents any of the items stored in it's Inventory function from degrading, though beneficial instances of time passing like aging of cheese or allowing a chemical mixture to settle will still occur.
Duties:
[+1 Bit] Gamer Skills. You will be obligated to participate in 'minigames' and achieve the 'high score' when you encounter one. A hundred failures will allow you to move on if you should choose to. Winning minigames often provides benefits on it's own, in some cases being necessary to achieve the better endings of a game, hence the low benefits. This is more annoying than life-threatening without outside threats, as the narrative rules prevent minigames from costing you anything but time and maybe some money in almost all cases.
[+1 Byte] Dawnbringer. You will be obligated to oppose The Void in all it's machinations. Seeing as this tends to vary from genocide to omnicide, this will be morally palatable to any normal person 99.99% of the time. Aiding the Warriors of Light is more or less a compulsion, for this reason. You need not worry, however. You must first encounter a Warrior or agent of The Void for the compulsion to kick in. Still, when that happens, you can effectively consider whatever you were doing before derailed. If you have outscaled the agents of The Void, this can be relatively trivial, though you are required to empower the Warriors to a minimal level so they don't get ganked while you're gone.
[+2 Core Features] Opposer of Gorefield/Gargyas/Godfield/Garfathoth. You may be familiar with Ultra Instinct Shaggy. You may also know that, in Multiversus, his backstory is that he ate a strange crystal, and began to climb in power, though he has yet to achieve his full might. Something similar happened to Garfield, when the Mystery Meat in the fridge escaped at last, turned into an even greater monstrosity with access to more space and resources, and terrorized Garfield and friends. It was eventually destroyed, but had tainted Garfield's food in hopes of pulling a Thing in the event of it's defeat. This is not what happened, a horror of far greater magnitude and scope occurred.
Rather than absorbing and repurposing Garfield, Garfield himself became an eldritch monstrosity due to the influence of the Mystery Meat. It is unclear if this unlocked something long dormant in Garfield or perhaps catkind in general, or perhaps Gorefield acted to retroactively ensure his own existence. At first he 'merely' disobeyed basic laws of biology, torturing Jon and his friends rather than killing them out of a perverted sentimentality. As time passed, he consumed his entire multiverse, becoming a figure akin to a fully aware Azathoth, hence the last nickname. Many Gorefields exist, but they are but shadows, emanations, of the true Gorefield, often corrupted from ordinary Garfields by this connection. You must halt this entity one way or another, and he will notice your soul-deep opposition, one way or another.
This is not a hopeless battle. For one thing, despite having become an eldritch being capable of destroying his reality, and even your entire omniverse, he refrains for a very simple reason. He once did so... and found it hollow and empty. He proceeded to bring everything back, and now amuses himself by trapping his friends in an endless loop of their happy ordinary lives before he abruptly reveals his new nature and torments them, sometimes after decades, with a habit of mockingly asking 'Didn't you think it was strange Odie lived 40 years Jon?' and similar questions. Not unlike a particularly unhealthily attached Undertale player, he continually destroys and recreates his world, because, in the end, he is a Garfield at his core, and despite the general laziness and cynicism of even his baseline self, finds himself unable to be truly happy alone. Therefore, getting his friends on-side serves to 'weaken' him.
It is entirely possible to redeem him, though by no means easy. He has been driven mad by his rise to power, his mind not designed to handle the physical, mental, or spiritual transformation. The dangers of such an ascension without a safe engine of growth to mold and guide it. One potential method is to befriend and redeem multitudes of his outermost emanations and shadows, as this will eventually begin to reflect on him, and even the Gorefields are not malicious to a cat. Appealing to his sentiments is by far the easiest method to handle him, as he is vastly beyond shattering universes with an errant thought, but still possesses a strong attachment to his old friends. Some of his avatars, like the aforementioned Taurus, are capable of destroying galaxies through simple physical actions akin to playing with a ball of yarn and don't mostly because they aren't interested in doing work for no reason, and The Herald, Capricorn Gorefield, is a semi-direct conduit he uses to investigate strange happenings.
In truth, he has not even achieved his maximum, but, like one Saitama, nothing is strong enough to warrant further growth, in part because he's already at the absolute peak of Tier 2 Omnipotence, only failing to achieve Tier 3 because he cannot(will not?) modify his own value system to be satisfied with either his normal life or his torment of the others, hence the constant swinging like a pendulum. Despite this, expect many extreme acts of reality warping and biological manipulation even when facing lesser manifestations. He can abuse narrative tropes to swing the odds in his favor, for example. This is one of the ways he prevents logical solutions to his lesser forms from sticking, even manipulating individuals' entire lives to make them less helpful or to have a crippling fear of darkness or a useful item. He can also access the powers of any and all lesser emanations, such as resurrecting even the unwilling, as he has monologued about the exact nature of his dealings to his friends before, and in more than one instance driven them to suicide. Death is no escape, and he simply brought them back. Bullets do not work, no matter the target. He has annihilated entire pantheons even before ascending to his current height, so don't rely on divine protection against anything more potent than an outermost emanation or a baseline self driven to madness from an abrupt connection.
If you are stupendously lucky, a Cursebearer might arrive for the same purpose, though obviously becoming a Cursebearer oneself dramatically limits this. Supposedly, one Haeliel is working on mustering the necessary resources and attention from her extant tasks to restore his sanity, which she expects to instantly put and end to his madness for obvious reasons. The problem is, this could be tomorrow or in a billion years, so you'll need to act as if that's not going to happen, at least until you get to the level of a Mid-Cursebearer and can directly contribute on the basis of proximity and fewer burdens on your time and energy. Particularly if you are a Cursebearer yourself.
The potential rewards for causing Garfathoth to turn back to good are almost beyond description. He can do almost anything, and is limited more by personal foibles than anything else without High Cursebearers or similar entities contesting him. Certainly, he is still lazy, and will likely become more so without his broken mind tormenting him and driving him to torment others, but it is difficult to overstate the service you'd be doing him, and he can easily devote a fraction of the effort going into the chaos he's causing to aiding you. Mass production of the Horrorscope rewards for besting them is but one of the minor boons he could offer indefinitely, and they are similar things to Taurus' Bookmark.
AN: So, show of hands, who wants to see Gilgamesh get an Excalibur? Any Excalibur? I'd probably hop over to Final Fantasy 1, either a version where the Warriors didn't find the Adamantine to make it, or one where they haven't done it yet and help them out in return for an amazing sword at a later date, abusing meta-knowledge. Or one where they died and now we have to fix this mess!
Exalipoor is also potentially useful. A sword that always, always hits, even for chip damage, could be very interesting in, say, Fate Grand Order, and Gilgamesh would probably be happy to try getting rid of the thing by seeing if throwing it at Chaos to get past it's weird dimensional flux barrier might work.
You're probably wondering 'What's Gorefield/I'm Sorry Jon! Garfield doing in this CYOA based on Video Games?' Well, there's a real Gorefield Game, Lasagna Boy, and an animation done in the style of a video game, which the creator explicitly calls an alternate universe Garfield Horror Game, Garfield Gameboy'd. If Underfell and the like are valid targets with only chunks of actual video games available, then I'm going to say that a game existing at all is enough, with gaps filled in with extant media. For example, if you went to Warhammer 40K, you'd find each planet to have it's own history and quirks, rather than just the 'important' ones. So, Underfell fills in the blanks with the various comics, as does Inverted Fate, Underswap, and so on. I did make note of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie having a game in the Undertale universe(and you know it does) being enough for it to be accessible, so it's not like I didn't set a precedent for this sort of thing in the first part. Thanks to that mechanic, a few Gorefield games is enough to make the general cosmology a thing. Besides, it's not like there's a deficit of reality warping nightmares trying to destroy or corrupt reality.
Gorefield being 'weakened' by having his friends as allies is similar to how Birdsie described Splintering resistance's true workings. He's not weaker, he's just holding back to avoid damaging something he cares about, mostly because he's only ever deliberately destroyed them once, and if he's after you personally you're making him break out the 'You're dead forever' stuff. He's going to be a lot more careful with the planet if you and Odie are both on it, for example. He's afraid of breaking something he can't fix, in other words. Irrational, perhaps, but The Void isn't perfectly rational either. As mentioned, this is one of the best ways to survive his direct attention. Not the only one, as Prestige and being a Cursebearer make scaling up to him possible in time, especially since he's usually very focused on Jon and company.
Anyway, be linking the DLC to the main CYOA and vice versa in hopes of spurring some discussion on it.
3755 words above this line.
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How does this interact with the Willpower effect of Ninefold if you use it to become a Combat Class Cursebearer?
[X] The Forebear's Blade - Inheritance
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
Hm, I'm going to say it can undo that sacrifice, though only because it can work retroactively. If Willpower wasn't kind of bonkers with it's anti-ISH 4 defenses, it wouldn't.
Though that does make Ninefold notably better, keep it's low potential in mind.
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I assume you mean Ninefold here? I'm not writing out my full build right now, especially since I'm not willing to look up the proper names, but the Core Features make up the core of the build, so assuming the weaker version where I need extra Curses to pay for any Lesser Remittances and that Prestige isn't a valid target for To Shatter Heaven:
Prestige
No Backward Compatibility
A Simple Transaction
-Affliction of Slumber, Brand of the Champion
-Ninefold
-The Hanged Man, The Ring Of Prowess, The Lovers: the teacher from Terrascape Academy that can initiate people into Seeker/Shield.
I don't have any drawbacks drawing attention and Willpower blocks precog, so Slumber is safe on Earth. Garfield (...) makes Plenary suicide, so Brand of the Champion. I can afford to handle the quest needed to initiate into Ordinalism with Ninefold, and then I have both + Progression to magic per month I spend with a paralyzed ankle/foot and a skill growth optimizer; while still keeping Ninefold and it's Intelligence mode. I spend a while grinding weaker magic systems fo Prestigious Diamonds on Ordinalism, max out its base (already multiversal) level so I don't lose progress when I head to more refined levels of prestige, and use my three (one accelerating) boosts to magic growth to prepare to actually break that limit. And there's probably some magic systems that are still useful even with maxed Ordinalism, so I can max those too. Give it a decade and I'll probably be at least two levels above Transcendent Souls, whatever those end up being called.
And then there's the Bits and Bytes, where at the very least I'll take Boss Immunity to see if its minion summoning rider applies to Legion. There might be other useful things in there.
- Location
- Peterborough, NH, USA
To Shatter Heaven works on everything. If you repeat purchased Prestige for the linear boost and TSHed it, combined with Progression, it can get nuts.
One Primary Remittance for the deal itself, and Lessers cost further Curses just like Majors would, yeah.
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- Location
- Europe
Responsibility
(1) Spark
[ ] The Conflux [+5 Sparks] -
[ ] Quest: The Hero Synthesis [+3 Sparks] - A
[ ] Quest: Striking Them Down [+2 Sparks] -
[ ] Burden: Among Equals [+2 Spark] -
[ ] Burden: Accursed Name [13 Sparks] - Progression-type Cursebearer (Affliction of Slumber, Doom of the Tyrant, Sign of the Crab)
Three Wishes
Prolessarch [2 Remittances]
Retinue
Relinquishment
Brand of the Chaste -
It isn't entirely clear to me whether you get the same number of lesser remittances as Hunger or Seram. Assuming you get Hungers 3 I'd choose this build.
There is explosive synergy between Lesser Wishes and Progression, as a lifetime of reasonably optimal training with Progression will get you far indeed. This becomes even more effective if you have some kind of already powerful magic system to progress in.
The initial idea was to take progression, three wishes, and Exalted Spirit. Expend the lesser wish on advancing Exalted Spirit as well as using your least wish to get a few rituals off the ground early. That shouldn't take more than a few seconds and you'd be more than capable enough to survive arrival in the Conflux. This would probably make you capable enough in Exalted Spirit to instantly replicate the drawback reducing effect of the Manifold Scroll, which you use to eliminate the Progression malus of Among Equals -- depending on how progression interacts with your lesser wish it may have considered reducing your Progression malus a part of reasonably optimal training already.
Unfortunately that requires taking Sole Responsibility. It seems to me that if you are willing to take the risk that a 54% less wise you won't follow through on your plan then you probably don't have enough wisdom to execute the strategy. Therefore I had to do things differently.
Prolessarch knows the Diagram and can, presumably, be convinced to teach you it by a reasonably optimal strategy. As a consequence the Diagram can take the place of Exalted Spirit. It is, presumably, also capable of mitigating Among Equals within a human lifetime, as well as creating effects to help your survive the Conflux.
I took brand of the chaste so I could still afford retinue. In theory I could have chosen Gisena for mitigation as well, but Hunger already chose Gisena so that would be boring. She's also less suited to surviving the Conflux than Prolessarch.
I also took relinquishment, both to open the door to taking on other Cursebearers burdens when I'm set to help them out and to get a break when needed. Brand of the chaste, with mitigation, may allow romance as long as they only take place while under Relinquishment, for example.
With only canon curses the Plenary Brand may be an option as you can acquire power so rapidly that random schmucks aren't a threat, even as potential retaliation from the Accursed wards off those threats yet greater than you. It would, potentially, make acquiring the Diagram from Prolessarch more difficult, however.
This would be my reasonably serious face build and should also be write-able. The main thing preventing at least a few snippets would be that I have no idea in what ballpark my least+lesser+Diagram+Progression Advancement would leave me. A solid attack and defence Diagram for the Conflux, basic drawback mitigation, some inroads to the Diagram? Or should it be higher, since advancement is being boosted by progression? I have no idea, just that it's probably enough to get you started.
(1) Spark
[ ] The Conflux [+5 Sparks] -
[ ] Quest: The Hero Synthesis [+3 Sparks] - A
[ ] Quest: Striking Them Down [+2 Sparks] -
[ ] Burden: Among Equals [+2 Spark] -
[ ] Burden: Accursed Name [13 Sparks] - Progression-type Cursebearer (Affliction of Slumber, Doom of the Tyrant, Sign of the Crab)
Three Wishes
Prolessarch [2 Remittances]
Retinue
Relinquishment
Brand of the Chaste -
It isn't entirely clear to me whether you get the same number of lesser remittances as Hunger or Seram. Assuming you get Hungers 3 I'd choose this build.
There is explosive synergy between Lesser Wishes and Progression, as a lifetime of reasonably optimal training with Progression will get you far indeed. This becomes even more effective if you have some kind of already powerful magic system to progress in.
The initial idea was to take progression, three wishes, and Exalted Spirit. Expend the lesser wish on advancing Exalted Spirit as well as using your least wish to get a few rituals off the ground early. That shouldn't take more than a few seconds and you'd be more than capable enough to survive arrival in the Conflux. This would probably make you capable enough in Exalted Spirit to instantly replicate the drawback reducing effect of the Manifold Scroll, which you use to eliminate the Progression malus of Among Equals -- depending on how progression interacts with your lesser wish it may have considered reducing your Progression malus a part of reasonably optimal training already.
Unfortunately that requires taking Sole Responsibility. It seems to me that if you are willing to take the risk that a 54% less wise you won't follow through on your plan then you probably don't have enough wisdom to execute the strategy. Therefore I had to do things differently.
Prolessarch knows the Diagram and can, presumably, be convinced to teach you it by a reasonably optimal strategy. As a consequence the Diagram can take the place of Exalted Spirit. It is, presumably, also capable of mitigating Among Equals within a human lifetime, as well as creating effects to help your survive the Conflux.
I took brand of the chaste so I could still afford retinue. In theory I could have chosen Gisena for mitigation as well, but Hunger already chose Gisena so that would be boring. She's also less suited to surviving the Conflux than Prolessarch.
I also took relinquishment, both to open the door to taking on other Cursebearers burdens when I'm set to help them out and to get a break when needed. Brand of the chaste, with mitigation, may allow romance as long as they only take place while under Relinquishment, for example.
With only canon curses the Plenary Brand may be an option as you can acquire power so rapidly that random schmucks aren't a threat, even as potential retaliation from the Accursed wards off those threats yet greater than you. It would, potentially, make acquiring the Diagram from Prolessarch more difficult, however.
This would be my reasonably serious face build and should also be write-able. The main thing preventing at least a few snippets would be that I have no idea in what ballpark my least+lesser+Diagram+Progression Advancement would leave me. A solid attack and defence Diagram for the Conflux, basic drawback mitigation, some inroads to the Diagram? Or should it be higher, since advancement is being boosted by progression? I have no idea, just that it's probably enough to get you started.
[ ] A Quest [+1 Gift] - 18 - Final Fantasy (Randomly select one, or spend one Gift to choose)
[ ] The Overlord [+5 Gifts] -
[ ] The Genius [2 Gifts] -
[ ] The Heir [3 Gifts] - War
[ ] The Barrister [5 Gifts] -
[ ] Fisherman's Association Membership [+1 Gift] -
[ ] The Overlord [+5 Gifts] -
[ ] The Genius [2 Gifts] -
[ ] The Heir [3 Gifts] - War
[ ] The Barrister [5 Gifts] -
[ ] Fisherman's Association Membership [+1 Gift] -
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Enohthree
Hypersane
Here's a story start based on the Winter Dynasty build I did here.
Seed Capital - 1134 words
---
Kunakida wasn't exactly the most wealthy or successful Japanese salaryman, if stumbling home at 2 a.m. after a long shift wasn't indication enough. That's why it stung so much when after finally reaching home he patted his pockets for his wallet and found it missing.
He let out a moan and blearily retraced his steps as best as he could. He wanted to say that he had simply been tired enough to have left it at work so he could collapse into bed and pick it up in a few hours. However he knew in his heart that wasn't the case, he remembered having it right after he left the train, and so he searched.
To his credit he did his due diligence. Kunakida used his phone's flashlight to check his path, ducked down near benches, etc. To be safe he made sure to call his bank to freeze his card. It wasn't just the money he was missing, honestly he didn't even have more than a couple thousand yen on him at the time. But his train pass and government ID was in there, as well as a personal photo from college that hurt to lose. Getting things replaced was going to take time and wasn't something he wanted to deal with.
He wondered if he had been pickpocketed at first before dismissing the thought. The only other person he had even seen on the walk home from the station was that foreigner reading the train maps, and you could hardly pickpocket someone several meters away from you with your back turned. Kunakida called off the search for the night and put the man from his mind. Maybe he would have better luck in the morning.
Kunakida thought of that foreigner again three days later when he found the wallet in his mailbox, everything important still there and absolutely filled to bursting with crisp 10,000 yen notes.
---
Mikuru glanced nervously at the fancy black car waiting for her on her route home. A smartly dressed woman in business attire was standing next to it, waving her over.
Sure, she was safer than most kids because she was a magical girl, but that didn't mean she should blindly walk into an attempted stranger danger! Still, it was broad daylight and maybe it was something innocent she needed help with like borrowing a phone?
Her assumption that the woman was going to maybe ask her for directions or something crumbled with the first words out of their lips.
"Mikuru Kanasae," said the woman, as if a strange adult saying your full name unprompted like that wasn't creepy. "I apologize for meeting in a direct manner like this. Is now a good time to talk?"
"Um," she eloquently replied. "I'm sorry, can I help you?"
"You already have, Ms. Kanasae. My name is Ms. Shiori and I represent the Maskelyne Jewelry corporation. You have recently performed a sizable amount of service for my employer and he'd like to compensate you appropriately."
What? Who? Services rendered?
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I think you might have the wrong person." This was going over her head a little, but maybe it was someone else with the same name? It was a silly mistake to make given her obvious age, but she certainly didn't help out some jewelry store as far as she could remember. The woman quirked her eyebrow.
"Are you not the one who resolved the situation at the Hosu Hosu bookstore, not a few days ago?"
Mikuru froze. Yes she was. It had been a hard fight, a scary one that had too many close calls, but she had almost managed to repress the horror show that was lurking inside of that failed bookstore. And how did this adult know about that!? That was magical girl business!
"There was a bounty posted for the resolution of that situation, even if you weren't aware of it at the time. It took some work to track you down but my employer insisted that you receive the pay out for your actions that day.
"Wait, what? Pay out?" She had gotten the grief seed, hadn't she? She used it to clean her gem and everything.
Ms. Shiori reached in to the car behind her and pulled out a slick black briefcase.
The woman looked up and down the street and found no lingering pedestrians, before holding the case between them and opening it up.
Mikuru's eyes grew as wide as dinnerplates. That.... that was a lot of bundles of bills. Quite a bunch.
She closed itwith a heavy click and presented the case for Mikuru to take. Nervously, she accepted. She had never known that money was so heavy.
"H-How much is--"
"Please understand that there were various conditions associated with different amounts of payouts, and there was a bonus included with this due to several other factors." Ms. Shiori qualified.
She then leaned in and quietly said a number.
"A-Ah. Okay." What. What. Whaaaaaaaaaaat. The already heavy briefcase felt fifty pounds heavier in her small hands. T-That was more than Papa made in a year, she was pretty sure!
This was an insane amount of money to give a fourteen year old.
"Please take my card as well." Mikuru was far too dazed to refuse the business card offered to her. The title Maskelyne Jewelry was proudly superimposed over the image of a crane, along with Ms. Shiori's name and contact information. "I understand you may need some time to process this windfall but we hope you will reach out to us about further services down the road."
"Further services?"
"Indeed. While the primary market for Maskelyne Jewelry is gem restoration, we are happy to provide further bounty payouts, networking opportunities, and general consultation services for motivated young girls such as yourself. Or for that matter, any of your friends who you think might also be interested in contacting us for whatever reason."
Ms. Shiori glanced at her watch and made to excuse herself. Mikuru tried to thank her, only to be thanked in return for her hard work before they drove away.
The full implications of the last thing Ms. Shiori said would hit soon after the meeting. In the meantime though Mikuru was left with a problem most people wish they had, how to explain away getting handed a briefcase full of cash to her parents.
Starting 3 Gifts
[2] A Quest [+1 Gift] (Rolled 17 - Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
[2] The Mandarin [1 Gift]
[2] The Heir [3 Gifts]
-[2] War
-[2] Thievery
[2] The Genius [2 Gifts]
[2] Fisherman's Association Membership [+1 Gift]
[2] Finitude Lacing [+1 Gift, incompatible with November Sky]
[2] A Quest [+1 Gift] (Rolled 17 - Puella Magi Madoka Magica)
[2] The Mandarin [1 Gift]
[2] The Heir [3 Gifts]
-[2] War
-[2] Thievery
[2] The Genius [2 Gifts]
[2] Fisherman's Association Membership [+1 Gift]
[2] Finitude Lacing [+1 Gift, incompatible with November Sky]
Seed Capital - 1134 words
---
Kunakida wasn't exactly the most wealthy or successful Japanese salaryman, if stumbling home at 2 a.m. after a long shift wasn't indication enough. That's why it stung so much when after finally reaching home he patted his pockets for his wallet and found it missing.
He let out a moan and blearily retraced his steps as best as he could. He wanted to say that he had simply been tired enough to have left it at work so he could collapse into bed and pick it up in a few hours. However he knew in his heart that wasn't the case, he remembered having it right after he left the train, and so he searched.
To his credit he did his due diligence. Kunakida used his phone's flashlight to check his path, ducked down near benches, etc. To be safe he made sure to call his bank to freeze his card. It wasn't just the money he was missing, honestly he didn't even have more than a couple thousand yen on him at the time. But his train pass and government ID was in there, as well as a personal photo from college that hurt to lose. Getting things replaced was going to take time and wasn't something he wanted to deal with.
He wondered if he had been pickpocketed at first before dismissing the thought. The only other person he had even seen on the walk home from the station was that foreigner reading the train maps, and you could hardly pickpocket someone several meters away from you with your back turned. Kunakida called off the search for the night and put the man from his mind. Maybe he would have better luck in the morning.
Kunakida thought of that foreigner again three days later when he found the wallet in his mailbox, everything important still there and absolutely filled to bursting with crisp 10,000 yen notes.
---
Mikuru glanced nervously at the fancy black car waiting for her on her route home. A smartly dressed woman in business attire was standing next to it, waving her over.
Sure, she was safer than most kids because she was a magical girl, but that didn't mean she should blindly walk into an attempted stranger danger! Still, it was broad daylight and maybe it was something innocent she needed help with like borrowing a phone?
Her assumption that the woman was going to maybe ask her for directions or something crumbled with the first words out of their lips.
"Mikuru Kanasae," said the woman, as if a strange adult saying your full name unprompted like that wasn't creepy. "I apologize for meeting in a direct manner like this. Is now a good time to talk?"
"Um," she eloquently replied. "I'm sorry, can I help you?"
"You already have, Ms. Kanasae. My name is Ms. Shiori and I represent the Maskelyne Jewelry corporation. You have recently performed a sizable amount of service for my employer and he'd like to compensate you appropriately."
What? Who? Services rendered?
"I'm sorry, Miss, but I think you might have the wrong person." This was going over her head a little, but maybe it was someone else with the same name? It was a silly mistake to make given her obvious age, but she certainly didn't help out some jewelry store as far as she could remember. The woman quirked her eyebrow.
"Are you not the one who resolved the situation at the Hosu Hosu bookstore, not a few days ago?"
Mikuru froze. Yes she was. It had been a hard fight, a scary one that had too many close calls, but she had almost managed to repress the horror show that was lurking inside of that failed bookstore. And how did this adult know about that!? That was magical girl business!
"There was a bounty posted for the resolution of that situation, even if you weren't aware of it at the time. It took some work to track you down but my employer insisted that you receive the pay out for your actions that day.
"Wait, what? Pay out?" She had gotten the grief seed, hadn't she? She used it to clean her gem and everything.
Ms. Shiori reached in to the car behind her and pulled out a slick black briefcase.
The woman looked up and down the street and found no lingering pedestrians, before holding the case between them and opening it up.
Mikuru's eyes grew as wide as dinnerplates. That.... that was a lot of bundles of bills. Quite a bunch.
She closed itwith a heavy click and presented the case for Mikuru to take. Nervously, she accepted. She had never known that money was so heavy.
"H-How much is--"
"Please understand that there were various conditions associated with different amounts of payouts, and there was a bonus included with this due to several other factors." Ms. Shiori qualified.
She then leaned in and quietly said a number.
"A-Ah. Okay." What. What. Whaaaaaaaaaaat. The already heavy briefcase felt fifty pounds heavier in her small hands. T-That was more than Papa made in a year, she was pretty sure!
This was an insane amount of money to give a fourteen year old.
"Please take my card as well." Mikuru was far too dazed to refuse the business card offered to her. The title Maskelyne Jewelry was proudly superimposed over the image of a crane, along with Ms. Shiori's name and contact information. "I understand you may need some time to process this windfall but we hope you will reach out to us about further services down the road."
"Further services?"
"Indeed. While the primary market for Maskelyne Jewelry is gem restoration, we are happy to provide further bounty payouts, networking opportunities, and general consultation services for motivated young girls such as yourself. Or for that matter, any of your friends who you think might also be interested in contacting us for whatever reason."
Ms. Shiori glanced at her watch and made to excuse herself. Mikuru tried to thank her, only to be thanked in return for her hard work before they drove away.
The full implications of the last thing Ms. Shiori said would hit soon after the meeting. In the meantime though Mikuru was left with a problem most people wish they had, how to explain away getting handed a briefcase full of cash to her parents.
Aabcehmu
Confusion as a Natural State of Being
- Location
- Chicago, IL
- Pronouns
- Any/All
I did it.
Waifu Directive
Instantly, I am surrounded by darkness. It's cold and drafty, and there's a harsh, chemical smell on the wind, and noise, like traffic on a wet highway or the crash of waves on a beach, but all that disappears in a fraction of a second, replaced with an even deeper darkness, warm and silent except for a gentle pulsation, like a heartbeat stretched out over vast space and time. Swaddled in that umbral cocoon, I clutched the necklace of pearls and flask of elixir in one hand, chalice in the other, then whispered into the quiet. "Are you the one I wished for?"
A deep rumble shakes my body, before being replaced by a mellifluous voice, all but purring with satisfaction. "Yes, my dear. I am the one you desire."
I nod to myself, directing my will to the chalice and squeeze, shattering it and releasing a shower of golden sparks that quickly disappear into the darkness. My companion rumbles another content purr as I move the elixir flask to my now-free hand and release the pearls into the darkness as well. "These are for you. You know the plan?"
"Exactly." Their voice hardens a bit as they reply, and I can feel us accelerate. Wherever they've got me stored away, there's enough inertial damping that I can just barely tell we're moving, even though I'm sure they're hurtling us through the Conflux at vast FTL speeds. As we fly, we discuss the nature of their empowerment, and agree that focusing on enhancing efficacy and efficiency of her abilities of consumption, given how critical leveraging them to increase her power even further were to the plan. There are a handful of bumps on our journey, all in quick succession, then a sound like a single, enormous wavecrash, followed by yet another pleased purr. I can guess what that was. After presumably handling Satorneal, there's just the search for the Synthesis world.
⁂
"You know everything about me, but I don't know much about you other than what I wished for." I offer, attempting to break the ice. "I don't know your name, or if you have one. What should I call you?"
"I was called by a name, I think, or a few names, before. I wasn't really aware of them, or of much besides my hunger and what I could sate it with." They responded, their voice slightly different, perhaps more melodious or musical than before. "Thank you for giving me this, dear. It's hard to describe the feeling of having more self, of existing more than I once did, but I'm grateful. As for what you should call me, I am the one you desired, so whatever you wish to call me would be right."
"Hm...Maybe 'Desire', then?"
That evokes another rumbling purr, which in turn makes me blush. I may have underestimated how effectively the wish would align my and Desire's habits, but it's far too late to go back now. "Perfect, darling."
⁂
Finding the falling world took significantly longer than finding Satorneal did, which I suppose only makes sense, since the falling world isn't constantly screaming. It was also pretty bumpy, and towards the end I could tell it was starting to wear on Desire, even through her regeneration.
It's hard to tell time in the Conflux or beyond the tree in general, but it felt like maybe a few hours. I can feel it when Desire passes from the void and into the world, and not just because of the lack of turbulence. None of my Half-Devourer mutations were dedicated strictly to sensing stuff like whether or not I was inside a world or not, but even so I could feel a sort of whole-body sensation, a subtle sort of pressure that I hadn't realized had been missing earlier. Just a moment later, Desire releases me from whatever pocket they'd tucked me away in and deposits me on the ground. "Everything alright, dear?"
"Yeah..." I reply, distracted as I take in the surroundings. It was warm and humid, overcast and with the smell of brine and a storm on the wind, diffuse gray light casting fuzzy shadows. The ground is soft and swampy, covered by a few inches of dark, brackish water. There's a stand of trees in front of me, standing on long, spidery roots. Behind me, there's just the open sea and Desire. I take a long moment to just look at them. They have a broadly draconic shape, long and sinuous neck and tail that meet at a bulbous torso with four stout, claw-tipped limbs. They had no wings, and rather than armored scales their skin was smooth and glossy, and dark blue like the seawater they reclined in, and coated in a layer of shimmering, shifting black stripes that moved across her body like running ink. Their head is nearly human, having the same sea-dark complexion as the rest of their body, eyes as dark as night, and with a thick, curly mane of black hair draping down into the water. More stunning than that was the aura they have, rolling off of them like a heat mirage, warping the air around them into a soft haze and positively radiating power despite their distinctly relaxed posture. As I observe the aura, I also realize just how far out into the water they were, and thus their sheer size dawns on me. "You are beautiful, Desire," I say dumbly.
The ground shakes and the water splashes violently as Desire rumbles, and I'm only spared from falling by my greatly enhanced physicality. I hadn't realized how apocalyptically loud that was before. "Thank you, my love." Their speech is not nearly as loud, and retains the melodic quality from earlier, and I get the feeling it's borne by something between telepathy and precise sound manipulation. "The journey here was more difficult than we anticipated. I must rest and restore myself." They heave a sigh that whips the water into waves, then lay down onto their side, producing another wave as their body displaces an enormous volume of water. "Do not wander far, dear. I'll be ready for the next step of our plan soon."
With that, they lower their head to the water, seemingly to start drinking the sea. Hopefully that doesn't come back to bite us. Regardless, while Desire is busy recuperating, I start to explore. My wings unfurl from my back, gaining a pinkish tint as I flush them with blood. After a couple minutes to let them stiffen up, I take off.
The swamp, or mangrove I guess, stretches pretty far up and down the local coast, far enough that I can't find edges without getting too far from Desire. Going inland, the swamp extends a good way, before transitioning to hills shot through with dozens of small rivers, then into a mountain range right as I was losing sight of Desire behind the horizon. I also encountered some strange flying, bird-headed serpents while flying around that were very territorial and kept spitting fireballs at me until I flew away. They were annoyingly agile, too, enough that I could neither land a hit on them nor get away from them until I actually left their territory. Fortunately, my carapace was enough to protect me from their attacks, but I'll still try and avoid their turf in the future, at least if I'm not with Desire. Speaking of Desire, I can see them rising up out of the sea, so I fly back as quickly as I can.
I was able to communicate fine with them earlier from the shore, but it feels natural to get up close. The scale of Desire's body hits me again, as it expands to fill a considerable portion of my expanded field of view, easily rivaling the mountains I encountered earlier. "Feeling better?" I ask them as I fly along their side, towards their far-off head.
"Yes, dear. I believe I'm ready to begin the accelerated training." Their voice has a steely resolve to it, and as I reach their head, I feel a surge of boldness, and fly right up to their enormous lips and do my best to give them a kiss. It only sort of works, given the size-difference, but Desire still released another world-shaking rumble. "Thank you, love. I'll be needing you like that much in the coming week, I imagine." I nod, and attempt to hug their cheek, which works about as well as the kiss. "You have the Elixir?"
"Yes," I reply, holding up the hand where I still hold it. Protecting it from the weird bird-snakes' fireballs was part of why I didn't try and fight off the weird bird-snakes for longer. "Are you ready for it?"
"Give me a moment." It's tough to read their expression when I'm this close to their face, but their expression does something. It's not clear what's happening for a moment, but the wavering the black stripes across their body are writhing more vigorously, and expanding until it covers them from tail to tip, rippling and wriggling. "Don't!" Desire commands as I'm about to touch it, instantly stopping. "I've primed my interface for autophagy, but if you touch me now, I don't think I'd be able to maintain my focus and might eat you. As sweet as you are, I don't want to do that until I'm entirely sure I can put you back together again afterwards." They give themself a bit of a shake, with the attendant tsunamis where their swaying belly crashes through the water below. "I'm ready. Pour me the Elixir."
I do so immediately, flying down to where their mouth was (now covered by their interface), uncorking the flask and pouring it directly into their inky interface, which bubbles as it absorbs the dark green liquid. The interface keeps bubbling like boiling tar, spreading from where I poured outwards, until soon Desire's entire body is roiling. Desire wasn't saying anything, but deep groans and gurgles were emanating from their body, and their posture gave me the sense that this was less than comfortable. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, dear." Their tone wavers, sounding concerningly strained. "Just as long as you stay with me. Stay right where you are."
⁂
Over the first two days of their metamorphosis, Desire's form steadily unfolds, the bubbling black of their interface expanding, stretching out into jutting spikes and panels until their underlying shape is completely obscured, replaced entirely by this star-chrysalis. Their groans likewise transform, sharpening into a crystalline keening, though it retained the musical quality of their prior speech.
On the third day, Desire's continued growth seems to draw the attention of someone. Someone's flying towards us over the mangroves to the north, and I don't want to risk distracting Desire from their work if the newcomer is hostile, so I fly out to meet them. "Greetings!" I shout to the approaching figure now that I'm a safe distance. "I assume you're here to investigate my partner? I apologize if we've interrupted something."
As they get closer, I can see they're a distinctly wizard-looking fellow, dressed in a long, flowing black robe and with their hair done up in two big cones. If I weren't worried about potential disruptions to Desire's ascent I'd probably have to resist laughing at the absurdity. "Not exactly. I was simply performing a routine scrying of powerful magic in this prison-realm and discovered your...partner, as you put it." They gesture to Desire's chrysalis behind me. "Naturally, I've come to investigate."
I nod as I reply. "Reasonable. My partner is performing a relatively delicate power-gathering ritual at the moment, which is likely what you detected. Any distractions from their current task will reduce the ultimate profit of the ritual, so to spare them the trouble I will handle any inquiries you might have."
The wizard harrumphs, and seems like they might tell me to fuck off in some wizardly manner, before looking behind me and reconsidering. I might not be a threat, but Desire presumably is, so the wizard acquiesces. "Very well. I suppose my most pressing question is, what sort of power-gathering ritual is i-- are they performing?"
"Ah, it's somewhat unorthodox. Through some fortuitous circumstances, I came to possess a magical artifact which could permanently grant superb regenerative abilities to a single individual. My partner, being a Devourer, could use such abilities to gather power via autophagy. Through the same fortuitous circumstances, we obtained an elixir which would fortify them against the stress of this methodology and also vastly, if only temporarily, enhance the efficacy of this, which was the catalyst for the current ritual."
The wizard stroked their goatee in the most wizardly way possible before shooting back another question. "What about this self-consumption ritual brings you to such a world as Felgrade?"
I'm thankful that my carapace obscures my expression as I grimace at that. "There's no connection between the ritual and this world in particular."
They give me a glare, or attempt to through my carapace, as they respond. "This prison-world was sealed off from the Ever-Tree with some of the most powerful magics my gaolers had to spare. I doubt you wound up here on accident."
Well, I get the feeling I know who this is supposed to be now. "Ah. I suppose you may be unaware, but this world isn't just sealed...it's been cut off from the Tree entirely. It's falling as we speak, and is projected to enter the Conflux in a little under five years. One of the first things we intended to do once the ritual was complete was to reattach this world to it."
The wizard grumbles, but doesn't seem greatly perturbed. "I should have expected as much. And, how exactly would you and your partner have done that?"
"Honestly, I'm not entirely sure." I shrug with honest ignorance. "My partner is the one with the actual expertise, I'm mostly just here for moral support."
They scoff again. "Figures. Well, I will leave you be for now. But if you or your partner interfere with my escape, know that you will face the wrath of the Warlock!" They say with conviction, as though I know what that means, before flying back the way they came.
That was probably the Dark Lord that the Hero Synthesis saddled us with. They seemed a bit ornery, but if I remembered the Quest right, it should be a few months before they're a real threat, long after Desire's completed their metamorphosis. Hopefully they won't be a problem.
⁂
The next four days pass slowly but unstoppably. As Desire continues to grow, rising exponentially in power as the gains from their autophagy are themselves consumed and redoubled, singing an alien melody all the while with the voice of a crystal orchestra that overwhelms other sounds like the Sun outshines a candle, no creature dares to approach us until the very last day. By my count there are mere minutes until we could begin the next step of our plan, when a galley of all things comes rowing down the coast. They're headed straight for Desire, not that there's much else out here in this nameless mangrove, and with Desire so close to their ascension I can't afford to let them interrupt it, no matter how unlikely the possibility, so I quickly fly out to meet them.
I don't put any effort into being discreet, but none of the galley's crew and/or passengers seem to notice my arrival anyway, too distracted by Desire and deafened by their music. Taking the time to observe them, I see three people in particular who stand out: a warrior decked out in a full suit of very magical armor, a priestess-looking young woman with a legitimate halo shining behind her head, and another wizard, though seemingly as young as the woman and wearing a green robe and holding a quality staff with a bunch of charms hanging off of it. I'm confident these are the Hero and their companions, though I'm not sure who is who.
Obviously I can't speak to them over Desire's song, so I tap the warrior's shoulder to get their attention. I regret this immediately, as seemingly between instants, the entire party is now facing me, the warrior's sword at my throat and the others with spells at the ready. Hoping to de-escalate, I give them a little wave. The warrior tries to say something to me before stopping half way and sheathing their sword, the priestess releasing the spell that they were holding and holding their face in their hands, while the wizard places their spell into one of the charms on their staff before putting their hand behind their head and giving a sheepish smile. A moment later and the priestess and wizard have patched me into the telepathic network that they've been using to keep the galley's crew functioning through Desire's incidental deafening.
"We've come to investigate that." The warrior, Gil, indicates with a sweeping gesture. "The sound it's emanating can be heard all over the world. We thought it might be part of some plot by the Warlock, and if it is, we can't let it continue."
"You couldn't stop us even with the Warlock's help," I reply, mostly fishing for a response. Gil immediately puts his hand on his sword, while Arthur, the wizard, goes pale and Erin, the priestess, puts her hand on Gil's shoulder to calm him. I figure he's probably the Hero, then. "Fortunately, you don't need to! We aren't affiliated with the Warlock at all, we're actually here to help you on your quest. My partner, Desire, is powering up as we speak, and this whole thing is just a side-effect."
"I-- We don't need your help," Gil asserts angrily, to the continued anxiety of his companions.
"You really do! But don't worry, Desire will have it all handled rea--" And then Gil's hands are crushing my windpipe, through my carapace. Gil is very strong.
"Gil! Put him down right now!" Erin telepathically yells, and also physically yells going from her mouth movements. She and Arthur are pulling Gil off of me the next instant, then she heals me while Arthur leads the no-longer-murderous but seemingly still very angry Gil away into the bowels of the ship. "Sorry about that. Gil has an ego bigger than your friend over there. We've been trying to help keep it under control, but...."
I gently touch around my neck, making sure all the plates of my carapace are intact and in the right places. "It's alright, I had a feeling and I was pressing his buttons. Thanks for saving me, though, Desire would have been very cross with him if he'd killed me and that would be bad."
Erin nods, then looks from me to Desire's chrysalis and back. "What exactly are they doing?"
"Ascending," I reply simply. "We're here to save the Ever-Tree, your world included, and to do that, we need power. Soon, Desire will have the power they need."
Perhaps Desire is eavesdropping on our psychic conversation, or I just get really lucky, since at that moment Desire's song rapidly fades, and their sky-spanning black tendrils and wings begin to collapse inwards. They've reached the culmination of the Elixir's effect and now, it is time for them to emerge.
Desire's mass collapses into a point, surrounded by thick, hazy grey aura. Then, in an instant, Desire is here with me. Desire is with Arthur and Gil below deck. Desire is with the Warlock. Desire is with the star guardians in the Conflux. Desire is with the ancient leaders of the illuminosians in the Starworld. Desire is everywhere. Desire is within everything.
⁂
I am with Desire, everywhere and everything and more. We are side-by-side, in a dark void, vast and empty. They hold a candle in their hand. There are lights, far in the distance. Though the darkness swallows every one, we know they are there, and we know that, together, we can reach them.
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- Location
- 1
A Wish Upon A Star CYOA analysis At Great Length. It suddenly occurs to me that a good chunk of this might not be coherent without looking at the original CYOA at the same time- I removed the original CYOA text as I went so it wouldn't be in the wordcount and stuff but that means I'm replying to things which aren't there a lot.
12600 Words.
- broad spectrum commentary and builds
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as a part of the 10% or so of people who don't celebrate christmas and the probably much larger percent of people who doesn't watch for or make wishes on stars, I'm reasonably sure this is a case of mistaken identity.
Clearly I am obligated to pick among equals
---
The first line of description here is actually potentially important because it means the fire of the Star at the peak of the tree leaves a sort of detrius- the flames that trickle down are no longer part of the star. A half-devourer could consume those flames without harming the Star.
...probably.
The framing of the next line is... a bit inconsistent with what's to come. It implies the realm is doomed in any case, devourers or no- that there is conservation of energy in the worlds to follow, and no power to supplant it. which would make the cursebearer option fundamentally more appealing, but in the end it turns out that nah, even one Exalted Spirit wizard who reaches their Breakthrough can sustain this entire world indefinitely while continuing to grow stronger- so long as the Devourers are defeated.
the phrasing here suggests that time travel would make sparks more powerful or possibly replicate them
---
- The Realms Ahead
-
The Realms Ahead
so yeah here's the evertree everyone.
...okay obviously not.
Regarding the 'nascent and final' seventh crossworld, that suggests the seventh crossworld is... still growing, incomplete? but the wording of a later companion entry suggests the eighth crossworld was at one point nascent. Maybe several crossworlds were growing at the same time?also don't trees usually grow up and not down?
So the higher you are on the tree the more magic there is, but I get the impression the magic available at high levels isn't... higher than you can get in this CYOA- that 'arrive at Starworld' isn't going to give you access to any individual thing worth 2 Sparks or more, won't give you more or even as much benefit then Ectonconera could.
It also sounds like the seventh crossworld is about one infinity big so that's nice
It's also notable that the Conflux isn't "Where the Devourers come from"- that's the flat line at the bottom of the image, I assume. It's just the place they're mostly done eating, the not-quite-gone Eighth Crossworld which grew into a messy fractal when they interfered with its creation. I think.
The existence of Branchworlds means the setting has a lot of places other then what's mentioned directly. It also has other implications but I'll get to that later. Also, I assume the long line of small circles coming from Sixth Crossworld's branches and down below the Conflux is the Chainworld.
...
couldn't you just chop off the bottom fifty-or-so chainworlds? They would fall away but they're doomed anyway, the devourer'll get to them within two years. And then the devourer can't get the rest of the way up without jumping across several times more blind-infinite-distance.
Anyway. - Their Dangers
- The Choices You Make
Having fully analysed the whole of the CYOA at great length and detail... the builds. Unlike the Winter Dynasty builds, these are not just the same build with increasing levels of greed.
- Hapy Lyf Buyld
- To Save the Evertree, Forever
- Omni{Property} is an awesome power
- Curseborn
- Curseborne
12600 Words.
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While I work on my serious build, here's one I came up with out of the blue.
OMEGA XLR
Baseline (+1)
Location: First Crossworld (+0)
Burden: The Plenary Brand (+3)
Burden: Seven's Number (+3)
Omega Sky (-4)
Alexandra 'the Fierce' (-3)
I have a hyper-competent companion, an OP giant death fortress, am terminally incompetent, and everyone knows it. LET'S GO!
OMEGA XLR
Baseline (+1)
Location: First Crossworld (+0)
Burden: The Plenary Brand (+3)
Burden: Seven's Number (+3)
Omega Sky (-4)
Alexandra 'the Fierce' (-3)
I have a hyper-competent companion, an OP giant death fortress, am terminally incompetent, and everyone knows it. LET'S GO!