I love this wording. Both laconic and brutally to the point, kinda like how I imagine Velocity copes with his relative uselessness (fucking loved his POV here, so good).
Thank you! I was trying to convey the fact that they were obviously dead.
Yeah, Velocity... Can't do much if I'm being honest. I was thinking while writing that his best use would really just be scouting out any conflicts and reporting back.
Hypothetically he could carry confoam grenades but that's very much a double edge sword.
I suspect he's actually pretty strong(physically) to maximize what he can do when he's going fast so when he left his superspeed to punch someone in the back of the head, it hurt quite a bit.
Heracles gets both Madlad and F-lister used to refer to him, plus the descriptions in Velocity's internal monologue needed me to pay more attention to what he was actually saying.
Lung's sentences also fucked with me a bit here because I thought those were sound effects.
I didnt know what sounds would make 'Yo DiOOOO' in the middle of a fight which now that I'm actually thinking about it is probably Lung trying to say 'your dead'
It's great and I'd rather you not change anything, but I was not in the right headspace at first to read this lmao
Not quite a shutout for castle, but it's got a pretty healthy lead. Vote isn't quite closed yet, I'll keep taking votes for another 20 or so hours I imagine.
It is a beautiful room; filled with criss-crossing mosaics, gilded trim to the walls, pristine white marble, a resplendent fireplace and it is utterly devoid of any personal touch.
The fireplace lays unlit, unused and vacant. There is no furniture, no bed, or chairs or dressers. Nor any comforts- no soft carpets or overstuffed chairs nor colourful stuffed animals. There is nothing besides the cold floor, a thin blanket and a girl.
Where once the girl wore an opulent purple nightgown, now she wears a white slip that barely sticks to her frame. Whereas before there was a fire to her eyes, now there are only gutted embers. Upon a time, she moved with curiosity and wonder at the world; now, she remains huddled, shaking, her breath visible in the frozen air.
Taylor awoke to the bright morning light filtering in through the blinds.
It was nearly the middle of March which normally meant that she wouldn't have slept that late- school would have already started.
The weekends were nice like that.
She'd even managed to sleep through the radio her dad always turned on when he showered.
There was no school for the day, she had finished her homework aaaand she had a… not unsuccessful patrol last night. Heck, she could even smell freshly cooked something brewing downstairs. Overall all a good morning.
Something half-forgotten niggled in the back of her head.
It was like a worm, digging through her grey-matter yet she couldn't figure out what it was.
Staring at the ceiling didn't help much.
Though…
Her phone had the new message indicator light blinking a dull baby-blue.
Turning over, she went to see who it was.
N: 'Good Morning Taylor! I hope you have rested well!'
N: '
[
^3^
'
This was becoming her new normal- waking up to a text from her girlfriend.
She rolled over, hugging the blankets to her, the phone held firmly in front of her.
'Good morning, I slept well enough. How much sleep did you get?' :T
Taylor kept staring at the screen waiting for a response. Which was kind of a bit much, expecting Nikki to drop everything to respond. It's not like Taylor dropped everything to respond- she certainly didn't wake up
N: 'I slept for eight hours. Any plans today?'
Naturally she replied within half a minute, vindicating Taylor's staring at the phone screen.
'Not really. Lazy Sunday. You?' :T
N: 'I have some plans. Might quickly drive to Boston to meet with babushka for a few hours.'
'She would probably like that.' :T
N: 'Yes. I have not seen her recently and I would like to visit her too.'
'How often do you usually see her?' :T
N: 'Not as often as I should, to be honest.'
'You should see her if you can.' :T
N: 'Yes. I will be going today. I hope you have a fun, lazy, Sunday.'
'Have fun!' :T
Taylor closed the messaging program and dithered for minutes before slowly uncurling from her sheets, leaving the warmth of her bed behind for her daily ablutions.
That didn't mean that she had put her phone away.
Turns out, having a mini-computer at the tip of her fingers made one acclimate really quickly to its usage. Taylor didn't have a problem. She totally wasn't queuing up a documentary to play so she could listen to it while in the shower. She wasn't staring at it and fussing over how it sat on the counter-top, seeing if she could angle it so she could see it over the top of the shower door through the bathroom mirror, no sirree.
The history behind the closure of Disney World was kind of interesting.
The beep from her phone that stopped it playing while she was in mid-shower, less so.
She hurried through the shower and barely had the presence of mind to wrap a towel around herself as she opened up her phone.
N: 'I will be going soon if I wish to make good time. While I am gone, enjoy this.'
N:
Birb
Taylor couldn't help but catch her own smile-
-flash of molting red, like putrid blood-
-bleached bone white-
-luminous silver strands-
-in the mirror when she looked up.
The half remembered thought was on the tip of her tongue. Wiggling, squirming to break free and finally rid her of the sensation of knowing she forgot something but not what it actually was.
She could just about taste it.
Speaking of… the smell of breakfast drew her like a moth to a flame, making her speed up finishing her daily hygiene routine.
Also trying to find a good image to reply to Nikki with.
That was hard.
Surprisingly, it was kind of hard to find whatever you wanted on the internet. Or in this case, funny bird images. Or more specifically funny bird images that didn't come from a five minute tangent that Taylor had no idea on how to wrap back to what she had originally been searching for.
…the crow riding along a fan blade as it spun seemed pretty good, though.
...although that crow pulling a dog's tail and flying away was also cute…
Decisions…
Perhaps that was why it took her brain a moment to catch up to what she was seeing in the kitchen as she walked in on autopilot.
...long black hair
...an older, almost feminine figure.
...holding an apron neither her nor her dad had touched in years.
"...Mom…?"
"Not quite, child," replied Kage, setting a plate on the table, "sit, we have much to discuss."
[] Sit down, and eat.
[] Stand and glare, she can say her piece now.
[] Tell her to leave.
[] "Berserker. Kill her."
Author's Note: New chapter! Exciting things be happening.
Feel the pain I go through when it comes to formatting this again on these sites! LibreOffice's formatting doesn't stick when it comes to alignment when I move it to the forums.
A truly weird series of votes has led to this. I'll not add much to this as it may come up in the future in-character.
Unrelated to what every other person is probably thinking about, Taylor got sucked into the smartphone reaaaaally quickly. She also discovered that very few people copyright strike documentaries because companies don't seem to care much.
Please vote and discuss. The next few chapters will be, I wager, rather important votes. I highly suggest everyone votes so we do not have later regrets. The top two options are usually pretty damn close.
...Holy shit. Kage finally decided to follow her curiosity. Nice (?) to see Illya and what I assume is Angra Mainyu haunting her, and Taylor and Nikki being cute together. Looks like the Illya connection is getting stronger with each dream, given Taylor's starting to sorta dissociate/see Illya's image superimposed on her own.
[X] Stand and glare, she can say her piece now.
Medium option. While I don't think Taylor would be willing to just sit down and eat, even with the Annette flashbacks going on, neither do I think jumping straight to the lethal option (especially given the potential collateral) is the play.
Turns out, having a mini-computer at the tip of her fingers made one acclimate really quickly to its usage. Taylor didn't have a problem. She totally wasn't queuing up a documentary to play so she could listen to it while in the shower. She wasn't staring at it and fussing over how it sat on the counter-top, seeing if she could angle it so she could see it over the top of the shower door through the bathroom mirror, no sirree.
The history behind the closure of Disney World was kind of interesting.
The beep from her phone that stopped it playing while she was in mid-shower, less so.
She hurried through the shower and barely had the presence of mind to wrap a towel around herself as she opened up her phone.
Watching Taylor slowly become more of a normal teenage girl is a great thing, god knows that Winslow only ever held her back. Honestly the conversation between her and Nikki is also adorable.
Welp we fucked up somewhere along the line here and now that rooster has come here to crow or...something.
To note though, Kage has her hair out? She's never had her hair out before? Right? She cooked food?
[SB CROSSPOST] Sit down, and eat.
I mean, she could have killed us in bed so not poisoned. Let's hear her out? Keep this cordial even if we don't feel like it? The ABB know where we live, let's see how we can try and turn this around.
[] Stand and glare, she can say her piece now.
I prefer this one if my OG option doesn't Win. Taylor can be defiant, but we should probably hear Kage out. She didn't sound too happy about things during her Interlude.
[] Tell her to leave.
Boring.
[] "Berserker. Kill her."
Please no, this is Taylor's home and her Dad is probably upstairs. Let's try to avoid whatever countermeasures Kage very likely has set up. The ABB is fond of Deadman switches.
I mean, she could have killed us in bed so not poisoned. Let's hear her out? Keep this cordial even if we don't feel like it? The ABB know where we live, let's see how we can try and turn this around.
The thing I dislike about trying to be as cordial as you say with eating the food, is that if a stranger breaks into your house and wants you to eat food that you don't know the origin of.
Your gut instinct isn't to just sit down and eat the mystery food before you, you want to know what the hell is going on or what they want.
Well, she certainly thinks she could've killed Taylor in bed. Berserker doesn't sleep.
[X] Sit down, and eat.
But yeah, she's giving at least the appearance of cordiality here. And from what we've seen of her she's generally acted strangely reasonable and even kind, almost, for a member of a gang that makes a significant portion of their income off of human trafficking? She's going around offering to escort lost teenagers home, for goodness sake. Which, in hindsight, might have been specifically so as to avoid them getting involved in all of that?
And considering her power let her cut through Berserker's arm where even the Simurgh had trouble, she's pretty strong, too. Would absolutely not be surprised if she was pressganged into the ABB for her power and is looking for allies. Let's at least hear her out.
Also, there's some damn weird shit going on in the Illyasviel dream sequence? Apparently Acht (guiding intelligence of the Einzbern homunculus collective) bit the dust, and she's being haunted by some 'thing of shadows and rot and blood'.
Removing the Zalgo text, it's goading her into going after Shirou like the Einzbern would've in FSN, but its last words are "That gives you a reason to live just like that human, right?" which is. Very different! Did the shadow kill off the other Einzbern and accidentally take away Illya's will to live, and is now trying to fix things? Did it come about separate from whatever killed off Acht and company?
...Regardless, it looks like the Illya that Taylor's getting influenced somehow by isn't canon Illya, but haunted, extra-traumatized, extra-yandere Illya.
Also, there's some damn weird shit going on in the Illyasviel dream sequence? Apparently Acht (guiding intelligence of the Einzbern homunculus collective) bit the dust, and she's being haunted by some 'thing of shadows and rot and blood'.
Long story short about the shadows thing, that's the corruption of the Holy Grail that feeds on humanity's sins and is a planetary threat if let loose.
By planetary, I mean wiping all humans, possibly life, off the face of the planet.
Removing the Zalgo text, it's goading her into going after Shirou like the Einzbern would've in FSN, but its last words are "That gives you a reason to live just like that human, right?" which is. Very different! Did the shadow kill off the other Einzbern and accidentally take away Illya's will to live, and is now trying to fix things? Did it come about separate from whatever killed off Acht and company?
About this part, since Illya was transformed into the Lesser Grail by the Einzberns, she's basically a walking talking mana reactor with a limited lifespan.
Going off how Heaven's Feel ended, it's entirely possible the corruption wanted Illya to use the power of the Grail to obtain Shirou's body for herself, thus saving herself from the fate of her body giving out far before it's time.
Which would have set free the corruption from within the Grail itself.
Notice how we don't know where the food came from, or what's in said food?
If she knows who we are, than she knows that drugging us probably incurs the wrath of the Giant, and thus would try to get us to take drugs voluntarily.
Kage has consistently been wierdly reasonable. I'm not going to discount the possibility she's drugged the food completly, but I also don't not trust her.
Also, conspiracy theory time. While it's probably just the sleepyness and distractedness talking, Taylor even briefly mistaking Kage for her mom makes me wonder if Kage has some Irisviel stuff going on with her.
Edit: remove quote because I'm an idiot who quoted the vote I was going for instead of copying it.
^3^
Birb
