I don't even know anything about Fairy Tail and I think this is the more important choice. Malenia has no need to get directly involved in some guild feud, but helping an important character so they can fight again is more valuable and subtle. Probably, depending on how many people know that Mirajane's magic is blocked. That also deepens the gratitude they feel towards Malenia and she can call in some favors later on in the future.
After a period of indecision and observation, you reach out. Malenia and Ranni both notice the convergence of your attention, but neither acts on it. They observe, just as you have thus far.
Mirajane has no idea that she entangles herself in your tendrils with every step she makes. Every punch and kick she throws. Her strength is considerable, with and without the aid of Ethernano. But it is an exercise in futility nonetheless. She knows it too, but she fights on against the shadows as best as she can.
Untangling her most deep-seated issue is not a simple affair; or rather, doing so without lobotomising her is not. Mirajane blames her own nature for her beloved sister's death; her power made her complacent, made her feel invincible to the point she took her siblings on a mission they were not prepared for. And then she was too weak to stop their brother from killing little Lisanna when he lost control of the beast he meant to absorb. She can not accept that it was a tragic accident, or that only the monster is to blame.
Just then a roar sounds from above, terrible and familiar to her. It shakes the heavens and earth, makes Mira's head snap up in sudden horror. She knows exactly the monster that produces such noise, for it keeps following into her every nightmare.
Mirajane falls to her knees in fright, not for herself but for her little brother. He is up there, and he has brought forth the King of Beasts once more.
People shout, several crowd around her to protect her from the phantoms. Mirajane barely hears them, trapped in her own mind.
She is not lacking in resolve. She does not miss a desire for battle, nor the aptitude for it. Her Take Over magic is not blocked by weakness, but by the self-flagellating belief that she will never endanger another if she herself is weak.
You make her remember that while this is true, she herself can not help anyone while she is weak, either. You tease out a memory of her beloved Master Makarov, now incapacitated and at death's door. Words she herself long forgot, but that remain all the same: "Power alone isn't good or evil, Mira. It is what we do with this power that defines us."
The block begins to give way, more than enough for you to make the tiniest push.
Ethernano surges like an ominous heartbeat.
Fairy Tail flinches almost as one.
The various shades pause, even their simple minds aware that something happens.
Malenia, though unable to sense Ethernano, pays close attention.
And Mirajane screams.
A pillar of darkness encases her, cresting into the sky. The bloodcurdling wail of an awakened monster follows it; not of pain or despair, but of wrath that has finally overflowed. You needed no further nudging, the abuse of her found family is more than enough to make Mirajane livid. Now she lets these feelings out.
When the darkness fades, Mira has changed. Her dress vanished, her skin is now akin to chitin and cracked in places. A heavy, reptilian tail cracks the ground and leathery wings spread wide.
Several members of her own guild hug each other in fright when the She-Devil takes a step forward. Her nostrils flare as she takes a deep breath of air. Her gaze lies on the shivering and shaking phantoms.
As Mirajane approaches, the shades retreat.
"You're scared of me, aren't you?" she chirps, her gentle tone at odds with her cheshire smile.
"Good."
Just as you let go of her properly, she lunges. There is no great strategy to her assault, only overwhelming power; she needs no more, in truth. The shades' strength lies in being unable to fall under any regular circumstance. A demon with natural alignment to darkness rampaging in their midst is not regular in the slightest.
Where the rest of the guild struck in futility, her claws rend the shades in mighty blows. They do not reform, fading away one by one as their creator is too busy to make more.
While Mirajane destroys his minions, Master Jose is locked in stalemate with Fairy Tail's Laxus, whose anger is only slightly lesser than hers. And between these two occurences, Phantom Lord's most powerful wizards are beaten one after the other by Fairy Tail's cadre of rising talents.
Malenia watches the slaughter from the sidelines. She lowers her blade, no longer seeing the need to use it. Mirajane's change is a surprise to her and she does suspect a major alteration from you, but observing how her guild begins to cheer for the demon changes Malenia's mind.
Between Phantom Lord's guild master being beaten into the ground after a harrowing battle and Mirajane destroying any hostile outside of the lumbering castle, the invaders surrender within the hour.
The Rune Knights, the Magic Council's enforcers, arrive an hour after that. Malenia is not involved in that matter, being a mercenary rather than a wizard, but her statement is taken as an unaffiliated witness.
With everyone being held for questioning, Malenia has Sagittarius relay the message that she will return another day. Then she leaves town in deep thought, mulling over what she witnessed.
Although little of the battles inside came to her attention, Malenia now has a rough estimate of an elite wizard's abilities. Mirajane did not need great finesse, her motions were rusty from disuse, but she showed a base for notable skill. Her ferocity and mobility make her a dangerous opponent on their own, but everything else makes for an interesting conundrum.
How difficult would it be for Malenia to defeat Mirajane? She does not doubt her victory, merely the exertion it would take. Natsu still had to realise much of his potential when they met, Mirajane is different. Not quite at her peak, but certainly near.
Perhaps, she thinks, she will challenge the younger woman someday. A battle to the death is infeasible, but a friendly spar may grant clarity regardless.
The prospect of meeting such a powerful warrior in battle fills Malenia with anticipation. And Fairy Tail has several of them, even.
While the wizard guild will soon begin the arduous process of repairing their damaged home, Malenia returns to Crocus.
She makes it barely past the train station before running into a familiar face. Or rather, an unfamiliar face runs into her.
Her first hint of something unusual is when the young woman suddenly stops at the sight of her; she dresses modestly, her dress falling down to her ankles and long sleeves hiding her arms from view. Artificial black hair runs down to her shoulders.
Malenia thinks nothing of her at first, but then she can sense the Scarlet Rot churning within her body. The faint sensation gives her pause, then she changes course to approach the hesitant woman.
"Sherry," she greets calmly. Her voice prompts a little twitch, but no more. "How have you fared?"
A glimmer of anger rolls through Sherry Blendi, but it is snuffed out just as fast. She heaves a little sigh and looks away. "As well as I can be, I suppose," she mutters. "I'm still alive."
The way she says it tells Malenia all she needs to know. Even tempered, the Rot still cost her much of her vitality. Magic sustains her, perhaps it even prevented any greater damage to her body. But it did not save her hair.
"I see. May I ask what became of your companions?"
Sherry looks back up at her in response, searching for hostility. When she finds none, the much younger woman shrugs ever so faintly. "We split up for the afternoon to get some shopping done. It's a nice change of pace, the guys took to hovering over me. Like being sick means I will drop dead any moment if they aren't watching."
Malenia's lips twitch in response. "I am quite familiar with that," she offers, not unkindly. "My youth was much the same."
"But you're still here, aren't you?"
"Indeed I am. Perhaps you will be too. I persevered when by all rights I should have died young, nothing stops you from doing the same."
Only then does she realise, much to her own surprise, that she tries to encourage a virtual stranger. Without prodding from another, without any greater goal. It is true that Sherry's plight is Malenia's fault, but guilt does not factor into it. She and her group battled Malenia and paid the price. Yet she empathises with the feeling of impending death, the uncertainty of how much time is left.
Earthland certainly changed her.
Sherry changed as well over the last months. She snorts derisively and makes a dismissive motion. "Don't bother giving me false hope. I made my peace with it, now I'm just going to make the best out of what time I have. If I keep on going, that's just a nice extra."
"Very well. I can respect that. May your days be blessed by peace."
Malenia offers her hand, which Sherry takes after a moment's hesitation. She does not smile, but her inner state has become tranquil once more.
"Thank you. I hope you understand that I can't honestly wish you the same, not after what you did to me."
"I understand."
Just as Malenia says it, Sherry's head turns to the side; following her gaze, the women quickly spot a scowling Lyon making his way through the crowd. Yuka follows with a young girl riding on his shoulders; her fuchsia-coloured hair is quite reminiscent of Sherry's, so likely a relative.
Sherry sighs and takes a step away from Malenia. "Looks like this is goodbye."
"So it seems. Farewell."
Sherry offers a minute wave and takes off to intercept her companions, preferably before Lyon can make a scene about Malenia. His frown is rather quite pronounced. Yuka stands by the heated but quiet exchange between the two without comment, though he too is wary. The child on his shoulders looks from Sherry to Malenia with innocent eyes.
Leaving them to their own devices, Malenia makes her way back to her lodgings.
She does not notice your pseudopods shifting, nor does anyone else; not even Sherry whose ravaged body they slide into from various places. You carefully stimulate the Rot into a more dormant state. You can not dislodge even this weakened offspring, but slowing it down is perfectly possible. You do not have the ability or knowledge to restore what was lost without introducing different cancers, but it matters little. Sherry's time has been extended further, this time by years.
At the same time, your minute manipulations make you aware of something profound: your grasp on Earthland continues to slip. It may be a consequence of having no anchour anymore, or a result of something Ranni does beyond your view. You can not tell, though it ultimately does not matter.
You recede from Sherry, contemplative.
With time now limited, you have to prioritise what you still want to see. Pick up to three. Top Three Win.
[] What is Ranni doing?
[] Alvarez seems to be troubled
[] Is that a sleeping dragon?
[] What became of Jiemma and Minerva?
[] Follow Sherry around a bit
[] Are Morgott and Wendy holding up?
[] Where is Miquella, anyway?
[] write-in
Alright then. I think now is a good time to talk about it here: the Quest is rapidly approaching its end.
I mentioned it in-Thread before, but I want to talk a little about why this is.
My usual wordcount goal for Quests is between two and three times what DoG currently has. I feel like the range from 80k to 120k is a great size. Unfortunately, I do not see myself able to hit that. Mind, the end was always supposed to be 'you' losing control. All I did here was revealing the meta plot earlier to speed it up.
And I did so because, quite frankly, I messed up badly.
That this ends up so much shorter than my other stuff is primarily because I made some big mistakes in planning. Picking a huge setting such as Fairy Tail was the first one; it is too large to set something in medium length without opening (canonical) plot threads that run far longer. Moreover, while I agree with the sentiment not to want to join the titular Guild, this also added the predicament of how and where to include Malenia.
Malenia, coincidentally, was my other big mistake. Part of it was that I let my players pick the main character, an error I often warn rookie QMs about if they ask for advice; yet I slam-dunked into that same trap and here we see the consequences. Although, in fairness, my first ideas about this Quest still had Malenia in the main role. Hence why letting you guys pick her is not the real issue. It just deserved a honourable mention.
Malenia is a great character and writing her is fun. However, her canon-self is not a good protagonist. She does not go out to interact with the world unless Miquella asks her to. She is not someone who empathises with people easily, nor cares for them. This core personality, taken together with the interactive nature of a Quest, is a problem; the only feasible way I see to stay true to both is dangling plot threads in front of the players until they make her want to interact with one. This is not a good structure to run a Quest with.
So yes. In short, this is on me. And because I saw the writing on the wall, I decided to slim down the scope significantly; hopefully this Quest can at least be short and sweet instead of an actual disappointment.
I'm surprised Laxus didn't use Fairy Law on Jose. He had that spell in Fighting Festival arc but he never brought it up again after his reappearance in Tenrou Island arc and return to Fairy Tail.
Between Phantom Lord's guild master being beaten into the ground after a harrowing battle and Mirajane destroying any hostile outside of the lumbering castle, the invaders surrender within the hour.
I'm surprised Laxus didn't use Fairy Law on Jose. He had that spell in Fighting Festival arc but he never brought it up again after his reappearance in Tenrou Island arc and return to Fairy Tail.
I'm surprised Laxus didn't use Fairy Law on Jose. He had that spell in Fighting Festival arc but he never brought it up again after his reappearance in Tenrou Island arc and return to Fairy Tail.
I considered it, but decided there was no need. Laxus would not bother showing off with Fairy Law of all things when he can hear and feel Mirajane having things in hand outside. If she had not conveniently gotten back her magic, he probably would have cast it.
Or that Laxus needed a punching bag which is Jose, lol. Laxus had a lot of anger issues to work out, which he eventually chilled after his excommunication.
I considered it, but decided there was no need. Laxus would not bother showing off with Fairy Law of all things when he can hear and feel Mirajane having things in hand outside. If she had not conveniently gotten back her magic, he probably would have cast it.
Oh cool, at least the Guild War between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord ended quickly. And that he'd rather keep Fairy Law to himself than reveal his ace in the hole aside his 2nd Generation Lightning Dragon Slayer Magic.
That part of the world being troubled means something is amiss, either one of the demigods found their way there, or something is happening with Zeref. Those are my theories.
[X] Is that a sleeping dragon?
This is always interesting, maybe we get a chance to meet Acnologia , but i hope for a potential vessel as we need one to remain in this world.
On interesting note Dragon Slayer magic should be quite familiar to Malenia given that Dragon Cult and Dragon communion were a thing in Lands Between.
So she should be familiar with Dragons granting spells and with the fact that killing Dragons can give one Draconic traits (Acnologia). Not to mention the fact that Dragons can live within their hosts (Fortissax).
That means we get to see some expansion on Alvarez Empire that didn't get much lore and culture other than some small bits like Rejenca card game and Respect for the Aged Day. Or even how the Machias race came to existence and their technology gave way to the creation of Alchemical Dolls from Guiltina.
