If Taylor reacts like this to a nightmare from merely knowing about the curse then an actual karmic curse would actually break her.
Hereafter [Worm x Fate/Grand Order]
- Thread starter James D. Fawkes
- Start date
- Crossover
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Personally, I think about in the lens of Pan-Human History Nasuverse Theory: the multiverse is real, the Throne contains everything and everyone, and you can theoretically summon anyone you want. It's just if you lack the necessary catalyst, the further away from the timeline you are, the less popular the Heroic Spirit in your timeline is, the less likely you are to summon, say, Captain America or Superman. Like yeah, Superman is very cool, but he breaks the rules of the setting in a billion tiny pieces, so Alaya itself actively resists you. Have the original first issue? Cool, here's Caster Jerry Siegel, have fun.
- Pronouns
- He, his, him, they
I would love a Caster Tolkien.
And if voice actors are, somehow, included (like Sieg), I would dearly love Matt Mercer to be summoned and go "what the fuck is happening"
- Location
- Philippines
Yep, Taylor herself thought otherwise, but Olga and the rest of the more knowledgable staff corrected her.
It's not a matter of willpower letting them power through it (then again, Taylor's broken several times before, triggering at all meant she broke, then there's multiple other incidents where digging her heels in and escalating weren't enough or broke her further), but literal karmic weight.
Iirc he was the true endboss of trial 7 Greed, but he wasn't the LoJ. After you beat the 7 Lords you have to finish reenacting his legend to escape. That means he has to die, but he won't just stick his head out over a basket for you so you fight him.
It was surprising to see that Taylor actually told them about the dream. Granted with her effectively running a Master-Stranger call on herself, it makes more sense, but the fact that she trusts them enough to have THEM check to see if she's been cursed is an important step for her.
Rika, on the other hand, is not handling this well, and unlike Taylor, would probably benefit more from helping than from not psychologically. That being said, I have a feeling that it's going to get worse for our adorable redhead. She's still blaming herself for Emiya's death in the precious Singularity from what I remember, and I'm fairly sure that he hasn't had a proper talk with her about it yet. As a clarification, the whole "Servants are weapons" shtick is NOT what I'd consider a proper talk. Having her do SOMETHING to help would help alleviate her guilt, but then again, that same guilt is also likely to make the Chateau D'If harder on her if she goes in. And that's not even getting into the possibility that someone has to DIE in order for someone else to escape.
Rika, on the other hand, is not handling this well, and unlike Taylor, would probably benefit more from helping than from not psychologically. That being said, I have a feeling that it's going to get worse for our adorable redhead. She's still blaming herself for Emiya's death in the precious Singularity from what I remember, and I'm fairly sure that he hasn't had a proper talk with her about it yet. As a clarification, the whole "Servants are weapons" shtick is NOT what I'd consider a proper talk. Having her do SOMETHING to help would help alleviate her guilt, but then again, that same guilt is also likely to make the Chateau D'If harder on her if she goes in. And that's not even getting into the possibility that someone has to DIE in order for someone else to escape.
"You had a dream that showed you exactly the same things that Aife and Emiya reported from their time in the Curse? Old stone construction, iron bars everywhere, a prison you had to fight your way out of? And all of this from before they said anything, meaning you couldn't have known anything beforehand? Pffft, don't be silly Taylor, you're not a Servant, you're not allowed to do anything important, I'm sure it was just a nightmare."
Romani and Marie really don't think very highly of Taylor here, do they?
Romani and Marie really don't think very highly of Taylor here, do they?
the master stranger protocols wouldn't really help here, as they are almost purely in-field protocols, as in 'we got reports of a potential master or stranger in the area, initiate master/stranger protocols' sorta deal, that is, they go in pairs, use codewords, check in regularly, call in anything suspicious and so on.
all that stuff about locking someone up in 'm/s containment' is fanon, there's no reason to think a power would have a time limit or something ya know? i know m/s containment is not brought up here, but it is adjacent enough that it should probably be pointed out.
the way that it usually shows up outside in-field protocol is by way of suspicious behavior being noted, passwords, identification, segmenting information so only certain people know important stuff and only as much as needed etc. like, probably only the ward handler and the director would know the wards identities for instance.
anyway, that's a lot of words for what is essentially that the master stranger protocols won't help here much specifically, she noted something wierd was going on, and explained that to her superior, that's about as much as can be expected there from the protocols
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Evil Atlas
Inspector of Details
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That did strike me as odd. My assumption is that if this was actually a nightmare, those details were just bleedthrough from the Servants who did get pulled in that night.
When she described it she said she went into Supervillain Supermax (a modern prison facility) and had to kill recurring mashups (and one Mash-mix) of new and old allies and enemies.
That was different than what EMIYA and Aife described.
She also described how things changed though
Iirc I don't think she said that the dream turned into a stone and mortar dungeon.
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
Don't feel like reading the whole section again, but I can at least confirm that the words: "stone" "mortar" and "dungeon" did not show up when I used the find in page feature on the previous chapter.
FunkyEntropy
Occasionally insightful, possibly grumpy
- Location
- Los Angeles
I am extremely disappointed that Rika didn't go, "Cristo? Isn't that a kind of shortening for baking?'
James D. Fawkes
Court Scribe
- Location
- Avalon (Isle of Mists)
Please excuse her, she's off her game right now.
In the Count's specific case, he existed and did his thing and Dumas took his story and embellished it for publication.
Rajvik_wolfboy
Wolf amongst the stars.
- Location
- Florida
I thought that was the case, but i wasn't certain,
MWKillKenny84
Lurking from the Trauma Switch.
- Location
- Vado Ligure
Not that anyone would blame you for this, it happened in Strange Fake during an interlude with Dumas/False Caster as the PoW character with the Servant confirming that he met post-revenge Edmond Dantés and that he more-or-less 'romanticized' the story of the revenger for his book.
Prison Tower - Part Three
James D. Fawkes
Court Scribe
- Location
- Avalon (Isle of Mists)
Part Three
"Enfer Château d'If!"
Scintillating rays of black not-light shot out from a dozen pairs of hands, and Aífe, caught in the middle of these beams, could not escape. Each one slammed into her with ponderous weight, carving away bits and pieces of her body and boring holes through her flesh that never even burned. One would have been devastating, two more than enough to do in a lesser Heroic Spirit, but even Aífe couldn't survive the dozen that hit her all at once.
When it was over, black flames smoldered on the stone, flickering without any fuel to burn, and with a flick of his wrist, the fire licking at Avenger's hands went out, leaving only the low blaze that clung to the stone floor like oil. Aífe, standing at the epicenter of it all, was a ruined, ragged mess, already fading away at the edges. That she even had enough strength to speak spoke of exactly how incredible she really was.
"Damn…it…" she said hoarsely. "Just…when it was…really getting…fun…"
A moment later, she was gone, and nothing remained of her, not even a single fleck of blood. For how much of it she'd shed during the course of the battle, it was something of a relief to no longer be standing in a room where it looked like an entire army had been slaughtered.
With the battle over, Jeanne Alter nearly collapsed, stumbling, and only caught herself by planting the tip of her sword against the floor and gripping the hilt with both hands.
"Fuck!" she swore passionately. "Super Bitch is a fucking nightmare! She just didn't know when to fucking quit. Goddamn motherfucker took two Noble Phantasms to put down!"
Privately, Ritsuka remembered that strange dream he, Rika, and Senpai had been pulled into and the fight between sisters that they'd witnessed during it, and he wisely chose not to mention that the Aífe they had just gotten done fighting wasn't anywhere near her best. She'd been downright sloppy, compared to how she usually fought.
"Yeah…"
And that was frankly a good thing. If they ever had to face an Aífe who was giving it her all, Ritsuka wanted Siegfried there to do it, because he was the only one Ritsuka thought stood a good chance of actually beating her one on one. Just as a matter of close combat skills. Hippolyta might be on that list, too, but Ritsuka honestly needed to see her fight more to get a better idea of where she stood by comparison.
"And now you have borne witness to the embodiment of gluttony," said Avenger. "A woman who always desires more, who can never be satisfied. How pitiful. How pathetic. As someone who already exceeded her lot in life, what she already accomplished was more than she could possibly have asked for, and yet she still hungered."
Avenger spun on his heel, cloak flapping with the motion, and started back towards the door.
"Come, Master," he said. "No need to dawdle. The quicker we face the next Lords of Judgment, the sooner you might find yourself back in your comfortable bed in your room at Chaldea."
"Hey!" squawked Jeanne Alter. "What's the fucking rush, you asshole? That fight was tough!"
Avenger glanced over his shoulder at her, then turned back away, dismissive. "And there are still yet three more to go. Unless you intend to give up after you've already passed the halfway point."
"You…!"
Ritsuka sighed. "Come on," he said quietly to Jeanne Alter. "Let's just get back to my…cell, I guess. We can rest there."
"Fuck." She grunted. "Fine. Let's follow that prissy asshole before he leaves us here to fucking rot."
And they did. She sheathed her sword, now that the battle was done, and together, they fell into step with Avenger as they made their way back to his cell. It felt shorter, somehow, than the trip to the Hall of Judgment was, or maybe the fight with Aífe had just worn Ritsuka out so much that he was too tired to notice exactly how long it was. She'd been the most difficult fight yet, after all.
Saber Alter had been more terrifying, though. The amount of raw power she'd thrown around at them in the Grail cavern had been completely ridiculous, and knowing as much as he did about how Noble Phantasms and all of that worked now, she was only scarier in hindsight. If they had to face her again, Ritsuka wasn't sure he could be anywhere near as fearless as he'd been to go to Mash's side in that fight.
And knowing Senpai, as soon as the simulator was able to work for Servants, fighting Saber Alter again was going to be on the list of "exercises" she came up with.
Before Ritsuka knew it, they were walking through the door to his cell, and the now familiar environs of the dank, gloomy room greeted him. All he had eyes for, however, was the cot, even if it was threadbare and uncomfortable. Between the long walk to the hall in the first place and the fight with Aífe afterwards, he felt like a wrung towel, stressed and worn.
"Welcome back, Ritsuka," Mercédès greeted him kindly. "I'm assuming you beat the Lord of Judgment?"
Ritsuka nodded. "It wasn't easy, but thanks to Jeanne Alter and Avenger, we did it."
"Tch." Jeanne Alter scoffed. "Not like that bastard contributed much. He just stole the kill at the last second."
Avenger didn't rise to the bait, he merely cast her a contemptuous glare. "Do you intend to rest again, Master?"
"Yeah," Ritsuka answered. "That fight took a lot out of me, so I wanted to get another nap. If that's okay?"
"As long as you don't forget the cost of surrender," said Avenger. "Very well. I have no need to stay and watch you sleep. When you are ready to confront the next Lord, then call for me and I will appear."
And he left, walking back out the cell door without another word.
"Wonder what crawled up his ass and died," Jeanne Alter said caustically.
"Oh," said Ritsuka, "I meant to ask you this earlier, but things moved so quickly. Are you okay?"
"Huh?" She looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Just who are you asking something that ridiculous, Master? Do I look like one of those pansies that needs a pat on the head for everything I do?"
"No, of course not," said Ritsuka. "But… That guy we faced in the second Hall, Gilles… In a way, isn't he kind of like your father?"
"What?" she drawled, drawing out the word. "What kind of silly nonsense just came out of your mouth? Did you forget? You killed Jeanne Alter in that Orléans Singularity, and just because she and I are a lot alike doesn't mean we're the same person at all. Gilles might have created her from some twisted revenge fantasy, but that bitch is gone. Dead. As in doornail. If she thought of him as her father, she took that with her."
Despite her words, Ritsuka felt…maybe she was trying too hard. Nothing she was saying was necessarily wrong, but she was putting more effort into denying it than she really needed to. What was that saying? 'Methinks the lady doth protest too much.' Yeah. That.
"Besides," she went on, looking away, "even if I felt anything for him at all, that wasn't the same Gilles. The Gilles who wished up that Jeanne Alter is just as dead and gone as she is, and unlike me, he wouldn't have any memory of creating her, because he just went back to the Throne. Being attached to a guy who doesn't even recognize me would just be pathetic."
He could have pushed. Maybe, if he was actually a trained psychiatrist or something, he would have. Hiding from your feelings was bad, wasn't it? Even if it hurt, being honest with yourself was important. But, as her Master…
"Yeah. I guess so."
…there wasn't much else he could do except validate her feelings.
She grinned at him. "Glad we're on the same page. Now go get your beauty rest so we can keep going and get the fuck out of this shithole."
Ritsuka laughed a little. "I'm going, I'm going…"
The cot was just as uncomfortable as it had always been when he lied down on it, and yet Ritsuka sank into it with a sigh and laid back, relaxing as much as he was able. Despite how miserably awful the cot was, it wasn't long at all before he felt himself drifting off to sleep, and just for a little while, the horrific cell melted away again.
Despite the prison being some kind of mental and spiritual construct, as he slept, Ritsuka thought he dreamt. From somewhere far away, he heard a voice, a familiar voice that spoke in kind and gentle tones.
"Ritsuka, can you hear me? I know it's been some time since last we met, but there is something I must talk with you about. A story I have to tell you, about a man who was consumed by vengeance and whose feelings never faded, written into history with a bloodied pen…"
"Enfer Château d'If!"
Scintillating rays of black not-light shot out from a dozen pairs of hands, and Aífe, caught in the middle of these beams, could not escape. Each one slammed into her with ponderous weight, carving away bits and pieces of her body and boring holes through her flesh that never even burned. One would have been devastating, two more than enough to do in a lesser Heroic Spirit, but even Aífe couldn't survive the dozen that hit her all at once.
When it was over, black flames smoldered on the stone, flickering without any fuel to burn, and with a flick of his wrist, the fire licking at Avenger's hands went out, leaving only the low blaze that clung to the stone floor like oil. Aífe, standing at the epicenter of it all, was a ruined, ragged mess, already fading away at the edges. That she even had enough strength to speak spoke of exactly how incredible she really was.
"Damn…it…" she said hoarsely. "Just…when it was…really getting…fun…"
A moment later, she was gone, and nothing remained of her, not even a single fleck of blood. For how much of it she'd shed during the course of the battle, it was something of a relief to no longer be standing in a room where it looked like an entire army had been slaughtered.
With the battle over, Jeanne Alter nearly collapsed, stumbling, and only caught herself by planting the tip of her sword against the floor and gripping the hilt with both hands.
"Fuck!" she swore passionately. "Super Bitch is a fucking nightmare! She just didn't know when to fucking quit. Goddamn motherfucker took two Noble Phantasms to put down!"
Privately, Ritsuka remembered that strange dream he, Rika, and Senpai had been pulled into and the fight between sisters that they'd witnessed during it, and he wisely chose not to mention that the Aífe they had just gotten done fighting wasn't anywhere near her best. She'd been downright sloppy, compared to how she usually fought.
"Yeah…"
And that was frankly a good thing. If they ever had to face an Aífe who was giving it her all, Ritsuka wanted Siegfried there to do it, because he was the only one Ritsuka thought stood a good chance of actually beating her one on one. Just as a matter of close combat skills. Hippolyta might be on that list, too, but Ritsuka honestly needed to see her fight more to get a better idea of where she stood by comparison.
"And now you have borne witness to the embodiment of gluttony," said Avenger. "A woman who always desires more, who can never be satisfied. How pitiful. How pathetic. As someone who already exceeded her lot in life, what she already accomplished was more than she could possibly have asked for, and yet she still hungered."
Avenger spun on his heel, cloak flapping with the motion, and started back towards the door.
"Come, Master," he said. "No need to dawdle. The quicker we face the next Lords of Judgment, the sooner you might find yourself back in your comfortable bed in your room at Chaldea."
"Hey!" squawked Jeanne Alter. "What's the fucking rush, you asshole? That fight was tough!"
Avenger glanced over his shoulder at her, then turned back away, dismissive. "And there are still yet three more to go. Unless you intend to give up after you've already passed the halfway point."
"You…!"
Ritsuka sighed. "Come on," he said quietly to Jeanne Alter. "Let's just get back to my…cell, I guess. We can rest there."
"Fuck." She grunted. "Fine. Let's follow that prissy asshole before he leaves us here to fucking rot."
And they did. She sheathed her sword, now that the battle was done, and together, they fell into step with Avenger as they made their way back to his cell. It felt shorter, somehow, than the trip to the Hall of Judgment was, or maybe the fight with Aífe had just worn Ritsuka out so much that he was too tired to notice exactly how long it was. She'd been the most difficult fight yet, after all.
Saber Alter had been more terrifying, though. The amount of raw power she'd thrown around at them in the Grail cavern had been completely ridiculous, and knowing as much as he did about how Noble Phantasms and all of that worked now, she was only scarier in hindsight. If they had to face her again, Ritsuka wasn't sure he could be anywhere near as fearless as he'd been to go to Mash's side in that fight.
And knowing Senpai, as soon as the simulator was able to work for Servants, fighting Saber Alter again was going to be on the list of "exercises" she came up with.
Before Ritsuka knew it, they were walking through the door to his cell, and the now familiar environs of the dank, gloomy room greeted him. All he had eyes for, however, was the cot, even if it was threadbare and uncomfortable. Between the long walk to the hall in the first place and the fight with Aífe afterwards, he felt like a wrung towel, stressed and worn.
"Welcome back, Ritsuka," Mercédès greeted him kindly. "I'm assuming you beat the Lord of Judgment?"
Ritsuka nodded. "It wasn't easy, but thanks to Jeanne Alter and Avenger, we did it."
"Tch." Jeanne Alter scoffed. "Not like that bastard contributed much. He just stole the kill at the last second."
Avenger didn't rise to the bait, he merely cast her a contemptuous glare. "Do you intend to rest again, Master?"
"Yeah," Ritsuka answered. "That fight took a lot out of me, so I wanted to get another nap. If that's okay?"
"As long as you don't forget the cost of surrender," said Avenger. "Very well. I have no need to stay and watch you sleep. When you are ready to confront the next Lord, then call for me and I will appear."
And he left, walking back out the cell door without another word.
"Wonder what crawled up his ass and died," Jeanne Alter said caustically.
"Oh," said Ritsuka, "I meant to ask you this earlier, but things moved so quickly. Are you okay?"
"Huh?" She looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Just who are you asking something that ridiculous, Master? Do I look like one of those pansies that needs a pat on the head for everything I do?"
"No, of course not," said Ritsuka. "But… That guy we faced in the second Hall, Gilles… In a way, isn't he kind of like your father?"
"What?" she drawled, drawing out the word. "What kind of silly nonsense just came out of your mouth? Did you forget? You killed Jeanne Alter in that Orléans Singularity, and just because she and I are a lot alike doesn't mean we're the same person at all. Gilles might have created her from some twisted revenge fantasy, but that bitch is gone. Dead. As in doornail. If she thought of him as her father, she took that with her."
Despite her words, Ritsuka felt…maybe she was trying too hard. Nothing she was saying was necessarily wrong, but she was putting more effort into denying it than she really needed to. What was that saying? 'Methinks the lady doth protest too much.' Yeah. That.
"Besides," she went on, looking away, "even if I felt anything for him at all, that wasn't the same Gilles. The Gilles who wished up that Jeanne Alter is just as dead and gone as she is, and unlike me, he wouldn't have any memory of creating her, because he just went back to the Throne. Being attached to a guy who doesn't even recognize me would just be pathetic."
He could have pushed. Maybe, if he was actually a trained psychiatrist or something, he would have. Hiding from your feelings was bad, wasn't it? Even if it hurt, being honest with yourself was important. But, as her Master…
"Yeah. I guess so."
…there wasn't much else he could do except validate her feelings.
She grinned at him. "Glad we're on the same page. Now go get your beauty rest so we can keep going and get the fuck out of this shithole."
Ritsuka laughed a little. "I'm going, I'm going…"
The cot was just as uncomfortable as it had always been when he lied down on it, and yet Ritsuka sank into it with a sigh and laid back, relaxing as much as he was able. Despite how miserably awful the cot was, it wasn't long at all before he felt himself drifting off to sleep, and just for a little while, the horrific cell melted away again.
Despite the prison being some kind of mental and spiritual construct, as he slept, Ritsuka thought he dreamt. From somewhere far away, he heard a voice, a familiar voice that spoke in kind and gentle tones.
"Ritsuka, can you hear me? I know it's been some time since last we met, but there is something I must talk with you about. A story I have to tell you, about a man who was consumed by vengeance and whose feelings never faded, written into history with a bloodied pen…"
Isiri Pudireach
Predictive text can go duck itself
Crazy kid, hearing Magi🌟Mari in his sleep sleep
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Oh, it's worse than Magi🌟Mari. That's the crazy shark-obsessed saint.