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Fool's Adventures: A Demon's Souls/Buffy the Vampire Slayer Quest

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And that is the vote closed! Thank you very much to everyone who voted.

I'll start working on it today and... We will see when I can get it out.
Adhoc vote count started by BungieONI on Mar 29, 2019 at 2:03 PM, finished with 1551 posts and 25 votes.
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Episode 8, Part 8 "Annoyances"
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    • Episode 8, Part 8
    "Annoyances"    ​

    You bristled at the intrusion, but the mask you wore hid it before any escaped. The Things, the little babies, chittered around the pillar of your thoughts. They were fawning over it. Come here you stupid things. You thought as you gathered them close. The scene outside your Soul was tense as everyone looked at each other, eyes flicking around after Buffy's interjection.

    Buffy spoke up again as everyone looked at her. "Ms. Calendar. Well uh... um we were trying to help Mr Giles with the..." She drifted off with a weak gesture at the smoking computer as Calendar rubbed her forehead in irritation and held up her hand.

    "Just... Really? I know a real magic ritual when I see one." The woman witch said to the surprise of everyone, sending looks flying between the teens and an eyebrow to rising on Giles's expression. She sounded tired of all things.

    She sighed and then looked at Giles. He tensed.

    "So yes I am practitioner, a technopagan specifically. And since there's a real ritual going on here, would you mind explaining what you were doing?" She asked, sounding annoyed and curious in equal measure.

    Your acute hearing caught a tiny, "...say what now? Techno-what?" From the boy as he looked gobsmacked at this lady. Then Willow poked him and shushed him while Buffy's eyes bounced between the witch and Giles.

    You specifically do not speak up, just watched. It didn't serve you to humor her, and truthfully you're pleased with staring a hole through Calendar's head. The fearful clicking of the Things served as a counterpoint to your irritation. Annie's hand landed lightly on your forearm, the tension in it seeming watchful.

    Your Knight was frowning, a rare expression as Giles launched into an abbreviated explanation. It boiled down to that there was an accident and through 'a scanner' a demon of corruption named Moloch got released into the school's internet and you were performing a ritual to trap it and kill it. At which point he introduced you.

    "Jenny, this is Latria and her colleague Annie. They have some expertise with demon hunting, especially in cooperation with us." His voice is calm and steady, having had time to process the surprise. Jenny's gaze flicked over to you and from her tiny frown you knew she had been aware of your stare the entire time. The three teens were throwing cryptic looks at each other now, some sort of silent conversation going on. Are they comparing my feet to Jenny's? You followed their gazes.

    They were, strangely. You decided to ignore it in favor of listening to the rumble of the "technopagan's" Soul. Power, of a different kind to the other witches you have met, more akin to Willow's. You stomped on, killing, all of the Things which tried to reach out through your eyes to that little light in this dark room. After that instant you nodded your head very slightly and spoke.

    "I came here a month ago, hunting, and have done so since I arrived." Your voice was flat, and you knew some of those here might call it 'bored'. The more astute would call it 'restrained'. It was a struggle not to lambast this fool. "I have a gift for magic with spirits and immaterial things. Here they are often more real than most things. And the forces of Hell have never been welcome by me or mine." There, that motivation should appease the witch woman before she asks, "I noticed when this beast was released and warned Giles and the others." You gestured lightly as you spoke, flicking a hand.

    None of the other adults notice the quiet whisper of Buffy saying, "But this one wears shoes?" to Willow as you speak. Her friend shrugged as you continued.

    "As is obvious we devised a plan." You feigned a sigh. Or, well. You would have feigned it, but your irritation made it real as you looked at Giles. "Speaking of which Moloch was wounded by this. All of us should have felt the ripples. What got through has injured him." You said truthfully, because there were indeed ripples in the energy Moloch was using to sustain himself here on this plane. You would have gone on but you saw the witch woman gathering a subtle breath to speak, and so you stopped to throw her off.

    Probably didn't even notice. Such pettiness amuses your irritation.

    She 'catches her breath' metaphorically, but you can tell from her tight expression what she said next isn't exactly what she initially had in mind as her eyes catch on the whispering teens.

    "Why are you three here?" She asked, a lecturing teacher tone for troublemakers slipping in. The teens jerk in place and look at her like startled deer.

    "Oh that's easy!" Your Knight's voice was energetic but bitingly sarcastic as she pointed at them, her hand coming off your arm. She pointed at Buffy. "She's the Chosen One, and was chosen to kick a lot of demon ass." The warrior seems mildly amused. She pointed at Willow. "She's a cute baby witch-girl who's quite nice." Said girl blushes bright red, brighter than her hair. She pointed at Xander. "And he's the muscular help." Xander smiles for a split second, before a brief look of anguish like the universe just kicked him somewhere sensitive. Which is then quickly hidden under a blank look.

    Ah! He's learning. I'm going to need to improve my estimation of him eventually.

    That thought soothed some of your irritation, another track of more amused emotion wrapping it up and carrying it away from you and the Things. Your breath left you pleasantly along with some of the tension in your body.

    Jenny seemed perturbed and bemused by Annie's description and when she looked over to confirm she saw Buffy and Willow nodding. She sighed. "Alright..." She smiled briefly, before looking consideringly at Buffy and then the rest of the room. "How long have you all been doing this?" She said quietly. Willow looks chagrined, while Buffy and Xander just look uncomfortable.

    "Umm… for me? Well, since before I transferred. Giles is a Watcher, basically meant to help the Slayer. Me. These two have been helping me since they… well, got involved? This town honestly has some messed up stuff happening in it, and they're my friends. Consequence of the trade, I guess." Buffy said, slowly, seeming rather unwilling in a way to lay it all out. Her expression becomes almost sad, more worried than sorrowful as she mentioned what happened in this town and implies what might happen to her friends if she wasn't around. Calendar nodded, looking mildly concerned. The atmosphere was solemn.

    Then she looked at you and her expression soured just so slightly, with a overtone of confusion. But she doesn't quite ask you what your story is, obviously seeing you've said what you will for now.

    Hmm. No. You thought in the deepest depths of your mind. You do not like this woman. Far too bothersome for what she makes you think of. Doubt in yourself is not something you will brook in any form. Irritation at equal parts yourself and this woman is displeasing.

    You sigh again as your thoughts circle your emotions.

    Then Giles speaks, looking at the mess. "Well, um. With the introductions out of the way, shall we adjourn to the library?" He asked pleasantly, though obviously uncomfortable.

    Everyone except Annie and you quickly agree with that idea. The both of you just stay silent and follow along behind the group.

    ***
    In the library you end up watching as the teens and Jenny quickly set up a pair of computers on the central tables. Giles asked you if there was anything nearby to be worried about, to which you responded negatively. And then everyone got to work, searching for some kind of lead.

    You had no desire to work with the computers so instead you had Annie and yourself look through old building permits and newspapers. Documents, pages, parchment and so on. To irritatingly little result. It would be simpler if I was only capable of being irritated at one thing, but alas. Was your dry and bored thought as you paged through a stack of loose pages as thick as your finger.

    Title deeds. Those get tossed out aside from a note on the age of the school as several decades.

    Renters agreements. Those get tossed.
    Book returns. Many book returns. Those get stuck under a book and out of your sight.
    Book orders. Not useful. Tossed.

    By this point in the evening the stack to your right is almost a foot tall and you're lounging as you read. From your glances at the teens and Jenny near the computers it was obvious, for one, how delightfully awkward they were near each other. And for two, they're probably onto something of relevance with how intent they seem. Unlike you.

    Hmm.

    Annie is perusing with a machine like regularity through a book on municipal building renovations. Is she actually reading any of it? Or just letting it go past out of boredom?

    With a very quiet sigh you looked over at Jenny. Contemplating your irritation.

    I don't like her. And I already know why.

    From the beginning of your encounter you couldn't forget your old memories from your Kingdom. Before you were made in the Tower, and the fires and murder and mayhem caused by the witch hunts. You were a figure to anyone you could care to name during that turbulent time. Whether it was a positive one is up to perspective. And with your birth that was twisted and used, and you brooked none challenging your dominion in magic outside those in the palm of your hand. As was sensible then, and now.

    And the mage girl is weak. Pointless for now. But the witch woman Calendar is troublesome. Could I woo her to my side? Perhaps. Why she is here would be my main obstacle. Why hide herself specifically as she has?

    A part of you is concerned by how she slipped beneath your notice for more than a month, but that is quickly quashed and fed to the babies.

    But I already know why I don't like her. These questions are irritating. I was made to not like witches. As is sensible, being one myself. Self-consumption and the consumption of things like ourselves is life for me and my kin.

    That thought brought you to a curious stop while you considered what to do. Running your intellect and feelings over your inner thoughts, you pondered as your hands perused useless pages. What you found was a precipice. Your thoughts lacked a surety of where to go, a part of them embroiled in the sensation of sitting in your irritation. Tasting its shape and hesitating. It was a simple hesitation, but no matter what you did you could not circumvent it.

    Hmm…

    This is disturbing. Why do I lack the tools to get past this?

    And you couldn't. Your not sure what to do with this dead end. One way pulls you to the obvious, eat, and another way says, greed. This is confusing. And new. I made perfectly good judgements before. You wonder to yourself as you look at old memories from killing the witches in their home. And from the Kingdom and killing rebellious witches in the Tower.

    An idea appeared. Was I... dissatisfied? That would explain a lot. If you were dissatisfied with killing the witches in this land where Soul magic is not used, the only way to tell would be to look back and compare. So you do.

    Hmm. How odd.

    There is nothing there to feel dissatisfaction.

    You had simply been incapable of being dissatisfied with performing your proper and ordained function. But now, now you found yourself adrift because you did not have such a mind anymore. You slog through another attempt at parsing your desires before having to conclude in a rising sea of irritation that, this is annoying. I'm still stuck.

    You look at Annie. Later, I can ask her.

    Carefully sectioning your thoughts away from your conundrum you refocus and while away the time making tiny mostly inconsequential notes as you listen to the humans chatter. Maybe in a few days after this event you can have something useful out of them.

    It is at least another hour after that before Willow leaps up from her seat in a poof of red hair and cloth while shouting. "Giles! Giles I found something! Look!" She points excitedly at her computer screen as you glide upright and step over to her. Annie looming near your shoulder.

    "Willow?" Giles sounds confused, understandably. Then he looks at the image on the screen, which is a collection of text and advertisements. You think. It is certainly colorful and the CRD logo across the top is interesting.

    "Local Tech Company Calax Research and Development reopened after being purchased by private entrepreneur Malcolm Black."

    Buffy spoke up. "Malcolm Black? Wait, didn't Latria say Moloch introduced himself as Malcolm?" She paused for half a second as Willow nodded, the warrior girl's expression darkening. "Dave went there after I talked to him. Yeah that's something." Her tone was concerned and intrigued as she put her book down and came over to stand on Willow's right side.

    Xander had a considering look on his face as he spoke up. "I know that place, one of my dad's friends used to work there. Dad said he hadn't heard from him in two weeks and they usually talk frequently. Just, up and disappeared."

    "Oh dear." Giles' voice neatly summarized the feelings of the humans in the room except for Annie. She just looked vaguely excited.

    "So who is going to go check it out?" Jenny asked immediately after that. "Annie and I will." "Me and Giles and Xander." You and Buffy speak up at the same time, and look at each other over Willow's bowed head. She probably isn't happy about that exclusion from the list. Silly mage girl.

    You put on a considering face, a scheme coming to mind. "Wait." You hold up a hand. Buffy looks confused before she processes the look on your face. "Moloch is an elusive or at least immaterial creature right now and we've only wounded him. I think some people should stay behind in order to make sure his presence is completely cleansed." You said.

    Everyone in the room listened, and got considering looks, though Willow's was slightly more complicated than everyone else's. Giles was the first to speak.

    "Jenny, you called yourself a technopagan. May I uh, presume, that you have a specialty with blending magic and technology?" He asked the woman beside him.

    She sighed and nodded. "Yeah that's one way of describing it." She seemed to mull it over for a moment before she gained a look of conviction in her eyes. "I can hold the fort and set up something to catch or contain Moloch. But some help would be appreciated."

    Before anyone can glance at Willow, she's already raised her hand slightly and given a meek, "I can". Jenny smiles, which seems to put backbone back into the girl.

    You smiled. "Well then I think that settles it." You looked at Buffy and Giles. "Meet you there?"

    They nodded. "See you there Latria."

    You turned and got out of that room as quickly as reasonably possible, Jenny and Giles whispering tensely behind you.

    The walk to the car was silent and tense as Annie hovered close to you, attentive. You stayed silent as you sit in your seat and brushed a hand through your hair, which sent your ornaments clinking. The sound of your fingers on the ornaments made Annie uncomfortable you noted.

    She started the car with minimal fuss, but didn't go anywhere, instead looking to you. You sighed.

    "Drive. East." She pulled out with a smooth glide and you are quickly zooming away from the school and that insufferable group of idiots.

    You cruised over the road top, eating up the miles as you brushed your hand through your hair and ran your fingers over your jewelry. The Souls around you were quiet, some laying down to sleep at this late hour. Others though are just starting to move around. Vibrant and fluttering Souls these ones were. Party creatures, like butterflies.

    Besides you though is one of the most powerful Souls, further entwined with a bolt of lightning captured in steel. Holding her up to the others you wonder at how she could ever have been beaten down by these masses. A more worthy Knight I could not find. You remind yourself.

    Then you sigh.

    "Annie." You said quietly. "Yes ma'am?" She responds.

    "I find myself facing a dilemma." You feign a huff and roll a hair on your finger.

    Her eyes flicked towards yours in the windshield. "I want to kill Jenny Calendar. She's a witch, and I cannot brook a witch who isn't mine. She will learn of my true nature eventually and complicate matters. But, I find myself hesitating. I find myself caught in irritation. I want to linger for a time as I use her as an unwitting pawn." Your Knight went through a slew of feelings as you speak. Interest, eagerness. Then confusion and consideration.

    You continued speaking. "I want to kill her. I want to twist her relationships with the humans so that she gives me more. These are not particularly reconcilable." You sighed in displeasure.

    "Hmm." Annie hums in thought. Tip-tip-tap, tip tap, tip tap. She started playing a tune on the steering wheel as she thought. Seven street lights pass their yellow glare over her face before she spoke again.

    "I think you've been changing," A sentiment you... hmm, you're brought up short again, "and because of that change you want different things." Your Knight waves her gloved hand as you mull over your discontent and muddled thoughts on whether you've been changing or not. I... have, right? You listened as she continued speaking.

    "Happens to people to. Often we don't notice." She turned a corner and you noticed she had already started to drive towards the facility, gently correcting her course when she noted you were leaving your funk. "When we change and do notice it. Sometimes we go back to old habits. Sometimes we reject the change and create something new and convince ourselves it's something old. Sometimes we embrace the new thing." She frowns. "I did that last one for a while. You saw where it left me. So I'm a bit biased." She smiles at you, beaming. Ah. Hmm.

    Then she made an offer you somewhat expected.

    "Whatever you want me to say, my opinion? Let me kill her." She shrugs. "I'm gonna need to kill someone eventually. It's the way of the world I find myself in."

    You consider that offer while you play with the tools she just handed you by being her.

    I could go back to the old habits. The old ways. Just remove the witch before she becomes a further source of displeasure. Let Annie have some fun. That odd hesitation again made you go further. Consider more.

    Or I could have some fun. Turn aside from this and do something new and more interesting. Like figuring out new and interesting things to do with my minions.

    Or I could try and play with Jenny. Refuse Annie's offer entirely and see what might be through my hesitation. And maybe... find something new to feel?

    What to do?

    You wondered as you tapped your finger on your chin and the facility rose out of the darkness at the edge of town.

    What do you do?
    [] Take the offer, let Annie kill her. Rather simple to achieve you think. Care will need to be taken.

    [] Have some fun and walk away from it. Play with your minions and see what happens.

    [] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.

    Liiitle slower than I wanted, but I'll live. Here's hoping I can finagle improved turn around times as the month goes on.

    Vote will close Tuesday 17th 6:00 pm UTC.
     
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    • [X] Have some fun and walk away from it. Play with your minions and see what happens.

    Better to go along with flow and have fun than letting it end or getting involve with her.
     
    [X] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side

    AND THIS

    IS TO GO

    EVEN FURTHER BEYOND
     
    [X] Take the offer, let Annie kill her. Rather simple to achieve you think. Care will need to be taken.

    I just don't like this character and would like to see how the plot progresses without her presence.
     
    [X] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.

    This fits with my long term goal making the Idol not evil. This serves dual purposes because I don't like evil protagonists and also being evil is bad for one's health when one lives in the same town as the Slayer.
     
    [X] Take the offer, let Annie kill her. Rather simple to achieve you think. Care will need to be taken.

    I dislike her, plain and simple
     
    [x] Take the offer, let Annie kill her. Rather simple to achieve you think. Care will need to be taken.

    I'm rather in-between of having fun and letting our minion do as she desires.


    The third option of doing nothing, it feels like that's just going to lead to further frustration on our demonesses part.
    Adhoc vote count started by Edifier on Apr 14, 2019 at 4:58 AM, finished with 1564 posts and 11 votes.
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    Adhoc vote count started by Edifier on Apr 15, 2019 at 2:01 AM, finished with 1573 posts and 20 votes.
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    Last edited:
    [X] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.
     
    [X] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.

    Although honestly I wouldn't mind any option winning.
     
    [X] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.
    Change is good
     
    [x] Take the offer, let Annie kill her. Rather simple to achieve you think. Care will need to be taken.
     
    [X] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.
    Change is good
     
    [X] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.
     
    [X] Take the offer, let Annie kill her. Rather simple to achieve you think. Care will need to be taken.

    We get to eat her soul right? Nom, nom, nom technomagic witch soul.

    Also removes a witch who can possibly out us.

    It's like 3 birds with one stone. Removes a threat, makes The Fool's Idol feel good, gives more power.
     
    I don't mind being evil but I don't particularly like being impulsively homicidal. Her figuring Latria out is a concern but I'm more interested in exploring these changes than safety.

    [x] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.
    Adhoc vote count started by Grigori on Apr 15, 2019 at 4:52 AM, finished with 1574 posts and 21 votes.
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    [x] Refuse the offer and play with Jenny. Push through the hesitation and see what's on the other side.
     
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