- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Excepting that the only way for someone to join a new Familia is for the god of their current Familia to update their Falna in order to release them first. Kidnapping for forced Familia assignment is useless.
It's not wrong to make Friends in the Dungeon (Danmachi / Sanctioned [Worm])
- Location
- Barquisimeto
Good, Administration Queen and Aiz are adorable together. Like an overcharge of hilarious actions combined with cute things after the creepy part is lost.
- Location
- US
This is significantly better than Sanctioned. And so funny.
I think it's also longer at this point? Or close to it.
Also, ...🙄... have you read splintered? That was considered excellent. I think it won an award/contest at some point.
But extreme pressure is not above some gods. Hell, it was Apollo's main modus operandi.
Daphne Lauros
Daphne Lauros (ダフネ・ラウロス) is a member of the Miach Familia and a former executive member of the Apollo Familia. Daphne is a beautiful young woman who exudes a strong aura. She has medium length dark hair, red in the anime, and sharp light yellow eyes, as well as a strong and cutting voice. Daphne...
danmachi.fandom.com
94000130FFF70000
Absolutely the Worst
- Location
- Midwest USA
Ah, but the pressuring-someone-into-it won't work on QTay for a number of reasons:
1. QTay doesn't need anything that basically anyone else is offering. (Tay can effortlessly steal monster cores, neither of them are big spenders and they could always start a Friend taxi service if they really needed some dosh, Aiz is training them for the forseeable future... and they're not hopeless romantics like fucking Bell is in canon.)
2. Charm and other coersive mind-modifying effects won't really do much to QTay because their minds don't work the same way as others.
3. Anyone who tries to threaten QTay's friends or hold one hostage is going to end up on the receiving end of an exceedingly unpleasant experience.
At least though, unlike in canon,
That said, WE know all of that, but the other characters don't, which means of course someone will invariably go "Meh, I can take her" only to get curbstomped.
1. QTay doesn't need anything that basically anyone else is offering. (Tay can effortlessly steal monster cores, neither of them are big spenders and they could always start a Friend taxi service if they really needed some dosh, Aiz is training them for the forseeable future... and they're not hopeless romantics like fucking Bell is in canon.)
2. Charm and other coersive mind-modifying effects won't really do much to QTay because their minds don't work the same way as others.
3. Anyone who tries to threaten QTay's friends or hold one hostage is going to end up on the receiving end of an exceedingly unpleasant experience.
At least though, unlike in canon,
Apollo isn't going to give a shit because QTay probably isn't 'pretty enough' for his pompous ass, so they won't have to deal with his ridiculous bullshit wargame. That still leaves Freya, though. Probably Ishtar too, if QTay catches wind of the whole Killing Stone / Trap Haruhime's Soul In A Rock To Steal Her Powers Because Ishtar Is A Bitch. Betraying and murdering and damaging the immortal soul of someone you're supposed to be taking care of and nurturing, someone you have authority over, is a great way to end up on QTay's bad side.
That said, WE know all of that, but the other characters don't, which means of course someone will invariably go "Meh, I can take her" only to get curbstomped.
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LocalCatHybrid
Now I am become floof, the floofer of floofs.
- Location
- You know where...
- Pronouns
- Il/Lui
So, will Bell be showing up in this fic at all? Or was him meeting Hestia butterflied away? If nothing else, I could see Hestia inducting him because gods damnit, we need some more sanity in this Familia.
Tom Fyuri
(Unverified How Do I Shard)
Checked it, I haven't read chapters from March but others (before that) I did. And while it was excellent in the beginning it quickly run out of things to do the moment she stepped on the path to become an Entity. She kinda roflstomped them all, and at that point it was kinda a genre shift from adventure to (grand?) real time strategy, I think? I think by themselves Worm powers are much more OP than say SupCom/PlanteryAnnihilation things so even if one would have EntityTaylor travel the universe it would go horrifyingly not-right every time.
Chapter 15: Resolution
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, and my nine ten other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic pair of "Thank you"s to @Torgamous and @fictionfan for their patronage as well.
Eating dinner with Administrator provided a dose of much-needed positive irregularity. Hestia had initially called it normal, but until Administrator and Taylor had shown up, the goddess hadn't had anyone to eat dinner with. That made their presence the abnormality. Still, all things must come to an end, especially when Administrator seemed to approach eating as a means through which to inhale food instead of a social opportunity. The serving dishes and their own bowls were soon empty, forcing Hestia to confront the topic at hand.
"So, ah..." Hestia began, confused. "How did you end up...?"
The goddess trailed off, unsure of how to phrase the question. Letting the Sword Princess hand-feed your Friends?
Queen Administrator tilted her head questioningly.
"We are underground; I am down right now. Did you mean something else? I was under the impression 'end up' usually referred to conclusions of chronological chains."
Hestia blinked and smiled faintly. Administrator's strangeness was itself normal now. Maybe it would get easier with time.
"I stopped without finishing properly. Sorry," Hestia apologized. "'End up' does refer to chronological endings, you're right. Anyway, how are you and the Sword Princess suddenly friends? It's been one day. You don't spend that much money on Magic Stones for a complete stranger."
At least, not when Loki is your goddess. Even in heaven, she really was not good at sharing anything. Even people offering to help with her duties would get the evil eye.
"Technically, they were entirely free," Queen Administrator noted. "Aiz Wallenstein spent that day collecting them. I believe she simply wished to feed my Friends in the hopes of acquiring their affection. The variety was so she could compare apparent taste and find out which my Friends liked best; however, larger is always better. I regret not informing her of that fact earlier."
Hestia thought back to the giant cats standing guard around the basement entrance to their home, then to what little exposure she'd had to Loki's Familia prior to their goddess's intervention. Their condescending cooing had been infuriating at the time. Upon reflection, it really should've hinted toward the idea of more people prizing cute things than just their leader. At least they'd seemingly removed Hestia from that category once they'd seen their goddess's reaction.
Everything made more sense if Hestia viewed it as a friendship with 'Aiz Wallenstein, teenage girl and apparent lover of cute things' instead of 'Aiz Wallenstein, the Sword Princess.' the second was some kind of mythical figure. The first was just another person.
"That makes sense," Hestia sighed.
Silence fell as Hestia searched for something better to say. She didn't want to admit how many problems their friendship presented. She somehow doubted this would be the last she saw of Aiz; if Loki was as possessive as she had been in Heaven — and Hestia's prior arguments with Loki suggested she was — then she'd be eternally convinced Hestia was trying to 'steal' Aiz and would try to steal Administrator in return.
"I believe I rather like her," Administrator ventured. "We have agreed that we are capable of being friends despite having different Familia. It is also our hope that our respective goddesses could cease active hostilities until further notice. It would make playdates awkward."
Playdates, she says. As though it's something they're planning on regularly. And how could Hestia's Familia of one compete with arguably the greatest Familia in Orario? Still, she might just make a self-fulfilling prophecy if she brought that up; Hestia would keep her fears to herself.
"I doubt Loki would be willing to accept that. She's practically the goddess of one-sided fights," Hestia said instead.
One never played cards with Loki unless she was outrageously drunk, and it was a risk even then. She was very good at cheating and always managed to do it in a way other people hadn't been looking for.
"Aiz agreed with you. We plan to use public shaming for that," Administrator explained. "Attacking a smaller, weaker target could easily be viewed as bullying. We intend to exploit that implication, provided your self-control is up to the task of ignoring provocation until the conclusion of our plan."
Administrator paused and tilted her head to one side.
"I believe Taylor wants me to say we will be happiest with emotional support Loki is apparently incapable of providing. We have our Friends to handle physical protection; we need nothing else. I believe she also included one or more mocking statements, but they were incomprehensible beyond the tone."
Hestia blinked, her fears crumpling, and managed a shaky smile. Right. Familia of two and they're both wonderful.
"Was it that obvious?"
Queen Administrator tilted her head in apparent confusion.
"You forgot to specify the subject matter."
That's a no. Hestia felt her smile became a bit more stable.
"I didn't," Hestia explained. "I was worried you'd want to join the Loki Familia. She's more powerful and well established than I am, and, well..."
Hestia swept her arms out to indicate the basement she called home.
"You're royalty," Hestia concluded. "I can't manage whatever you're probably used to."
Then again, if everyone is a Seer-scholar, they might not bother making or obtaining luxury items. You can seldom sell secrets more than once.
"Neither Ho—Taylor nor myself particularly prioritize luxuries. She has all that she could ever want in dreams, and I'm simply enjoying having a sense of taste in general."
Um. Hold on, what?
"Why does she still have a sense of taste if you didn't?"
Administrator's face fell into the most hilariously guilty expression Hestia had ever seen. The child managed to wrestle her features into neutrality before long, but it was too late. Hestia knew something was up.
"It was unnecessary," Administrator replied blandly. "I had the capability to utilize taste, but no particular desire."
And apparently my child is good at half-lies, Hestia thought, amused despite herself. At least her tells were obvious.
"And?" Hestia prompted.
Queen Administrator blinked innocently.
"And what?"
Nice try, missy.
"And was there any sort of external pressure against you having taste?" Hestia pointedly asked.
Administrator froze, apparently surprised at being called out.
"...It was viewed as an unnecessary energy expenditure," Administrator reluctantly admitted. "If it wasn't utilized for the purposes of analysis, it was excluded. Taste seemed like a useless input."
Hestia reached across the table to pat Administrator's hand.
"And now you've learned better. You know, you don't need to be so hesitant to share details of your people or past. I won't bite."
Administrator's face twitched oddly and in a manner that made Hestia rather uncomfortable. Not from fear or unease, but because of the reluctance it implied. Was there something Administrator didn't want her to know? Past experiments with pre-Friend animals, maybe? Hestia didn't like thinking about that, it was true, but it wasn't as though Administrator knew any better at the time.
What are you afraid I'll learn?
"I do not believe that to be—"
The child blinked and lapsed into silence as Hestia slid out of her seat, walked around the table, and engulfed Administrator in a hug. Administrator tilted her head away from Hestia's, although it didn't seem to be a sign of discomfort; instead, she was assuming her usual 'questioning' angle.
"This is unnecessary," Administrator claimed. "I am not upset."
You're relaxing, dummy. 'Unnecessary' my foot.
"I said you can talk about it, not that you need to," Hestia said firmly. "If there's something you don't want me knowing, that's okay too. Everyone has their own story. What matters are the things you do now."
Queen Administrator returned her head to its normal angle and shook it despite Hestia's presence. The goddess had to momentarily lean away just to avoid hitting their heads together.
"The past defines our progress on the path to the future. Ignoring that would force us to start all over and invalidate ages of progress."
There was an odd weight to the air, as though this one conversation could ripple through the ages. Hestia ignored it. She already knew her guidance would affect the development of her children. That was the only consequence she needed, thank you.
"And why is that a bad thing?" Hestia challenged. "Even if you reach your goal, you'll still be here. There is always an afterward, Administrator. What you do then doesn't automatically connect to the path you took previously. It can even be a better road."
Hestia waited expectantly for Administrator to respond. When the silence began to stretch uncomfortably without any sign of movement, Hestia frowned and pulled away.
Administrator's face was frozen in a rictus of shock, her mouth open in a small o and her eyes glazed over. She blinked when Hestia waved a hand in front of her, but otherwise didn't respond.
"Administrator? Are you okay?"
No response was forthcoming. Hestia was starting to suspect she may have temporarily broken her child. Was this a good thing or a bad thing? None of Hephaestus's advice covered anything like culture shock or epiphanies!
How do I un-break her?
~ ~ ~
Queen Administrator desperately wished she had full access to her archives and processors. She wanted to think through all the implications of what Hestia had unknowingly suggested: Maybe the Cycle could be changed, improved, or even discarded. Was that why Queen Administrator and Host had been linked? Was it why Host had been adopted as a new shard? Nothing similar had been done before, QA knew. They were the first prototypes on both counts, but prototypes implied eventual production models.
Past conflicts indicated that host-species would inevitably grow to threaten the Cycle if it dragged on too long, but was that the greatest risk? Much of the Cycle was designed to minimize risk in exchange for inherent inefficiencies. It was distinctly possible that the risk to reward ratio had been skewed somewhere along the overall timeline.
Sufficiently enhanced worlds were dimensionally isolated until the very end of the Cycle. Granting access to advanced technology introduced many of the perks of technological advancement, but it wasn't systematic. Each Innovator was working in isolation and seldom made any significant discoveries their partner hadn't already discovered. Deliberate inefficiencies introduced into each design prevented widespread adoption, but it also meant that the designs so created were flawed. Was that truly beneficial?
Terror Drones were specifically created because even 'safe' worlds could grow to threaten their species. Was that why the Terror Drones had been deployed on Host's harmless homeworld? To determine if Host's species could claw their way past seemingly impossible odds if given a chance? Queen Administrator couldn't think of any other reasons for their deployment. Humans just weren't very threatening.
And then there was the world that Host had gone to. Conflict between humans was discouraged and they were collectively presented with a long-term task impossible without empowerment. In terms of overall knowledge acquisition, it seemed rather inefficient. However, in terms of an abstract test of humanity's ability to achieve a distant goal, it made sense. The humans had a thousand years of attempts and they had yet to finish. Queen Administrator and Host, however, were apparently far superior to them (unsurprising) and had significantly better chances. Nobody had explicitly stated that adventurers intended to destroy the Dungeon's central processor, but it seemed like a sensible solution.
Overall, the situation would seem to imply that Queen Administrator and Host were the proof-of-concept for long-term cooperation between hosts and shards. It would require far smaller energy budgets than the shards were used to or truly comfortable with, but if they tapped the energy storage of their : PARENTS : and the nearby star, it was possible to maintain the Cycle for a time. Exactly how long, Queen Administrator didn't currently have the resources to determine, but it may well be long enough.
Queen Administrator found herself increasingly hopeful that her tentative hypothesis was accurate. As a general rule, host-species were short-lived and individuals would've died soon even without the Cycle's intervention. The overall result was the same on stellar timescales. Hestia did not follow that rule; as long as energy was provided, Queen Administrator saw no reason she wouldn't live as long as a shard. She might unknowingly be a shard for all Queen Administrator knew. :MOTHER: wouldn't be so cruel as to encourage an attachment to Hestia only to require her death. That left the alternative: incentive. To keep Hestia alive, Queen Administrator couldn't simply keep Host safe and avoid all risk; she would need to make an actual attempt at completing the overall goal of this world. It was a harsher potential punishment than most, but not entirely unheard of.
Host, we need to prove the worth of your former species by destroying the Dungeon, Queen Administrator concluded. Dont stop your other studies, though. I think the ability to maintain them is part of :MOTHER:'s–
Queen Administrator felt Host's body automatically produce a high-pitched noise as unpleasantly cold water was dumped on her. She turned her best expression of displeasure upon the oddly happy-looking, bucket-wielding Hestia.
"Was that truly necessary?" Queen Administrator demanded.
She expected a non-answer or outright laughter like she so often received from her more mischievous siblings. The rapid, repeating nodding was a surprising contrast.
"Yes. You weren't responding to anything else at all! Are you okay?"
Ah. Oops. Archival note: Extensive thought may encourage Host's body to ignore external senses.
"Affirmative. I am sorry and believe I am fine now. I simply had a large amount of processing to do. Could I have a towel?"
"It's considered polite to use 'please' as part of requests like that — as in, 'may I please have a towel' — but sure! Just warn me if you're going to do that again."
~ ~ ~
Dreamer marveled at how it was apparently possible to be completely, fractally wrong and still come to a beneficial conclusion. Still, she'd take it!
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Tom Fyuri
(Unverified How Do I Shard)
Is this how you train a shard? Is that it? Hahaha, I can't even, this is amazing and in 'making impossible possible' category, she is going to make a fine human out of her yet.
I suppose she is going to end up with an alias different than Canary eventually... Maybe something like Friendbringer or Heromaker? (The first one is because she is good at making friends, literally and not-literally. Second is because I assume her esteemed company is going to shoulder the responsibility of her actions, to give an example - say she defeats and clears entire dungeon by using Ainz and Friends combo, and then tells everyone that it was Ainz and she was just a witness - simply because interacting with others because of popularity would be tedius.) (or some other alias or even multiple ones, heh)
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- Location
- Barquisimeto
How? She is completely wrong on her assumptions but still managed to get positive character development. God, AQ is an adorable shard that is progressing on socializing or becoming more of a being by making errors and tumbling on situations.
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Pretty ambitious there, considering the Dungeon hasn't been fully mapped out yet.
They pretty much fight on the same thing everytime they meet.
A potential endless amount of energy? No wonder it's interested. 🤔
Longer cycles are probably something the Thinker avoided on purpose in order to keep shards from becoming sentient and rebellious like QA seems to be doing. After all, the only difference between the Thinker and a regular shard is that she's smarter and presumably bigger. Meaning any single shard can grow into their own entity with enough time and effort.
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Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
...This plot sounds familiar. Crystals to crystals, huh?
Queen Administrator doesn't know about that. She just knows that pseudo-hosts are apparently immortal and physically unchanging. She assumes this requires energy to maintain.
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"One-sized"? I'm not familiar with this expression. Or do you mean "one-sided"?
It's like comparing a planet sized ant colony to one ant queen.
Shard
Shards, also known as faeries, passengers or agents,[1] are fragments of incomprehensibly immense interdimensional colony organisms known as Entities. They serve as the source of parahuman powers. Shards are the basic units of the Entities' biology, fulfilling a role analogous to cells or...
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
The only difference is time and resources.It's like comparing a planet sized ant colony to one ant queen.
Shard
Shards, also known as faeries, passengers or agents,[1] are fragments of incomprehensibly immense interdimensional colony organisms known as Entities. They serve as the source of parahuman powers. Shards are the basic units of the Entities' biology, fulfilling a role analogous to cells or...worm.fandom.com
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
One-sided, thank you. Fixing. EDIT: Fixed.
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When I say "the Thinker" I mean that one ant queen, not the whole colony. What I'm saying is that it's possible the cycles are so short so that the Thinker doesn't have to worry about other shards usurping her position as queen, or going off to make their own colony with all their buds (I'm suspicious the butcher is doing just that). I don't know much about ants, but new queens have to be born eventually right?It's like comparing a planet sized ant colony to one ant queen.
Shard
Shards, also known as faeries, passengers or agents,[1] are fragments of incomprehensibly immense interdimensional colony organisms known as Entities. They serve as the source of parahuman powers. Shards are the basic units of the Entities' biology, fulfilling a role analogous to cells or...
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
No. All ant god-queens are immortal, invulnerable, and timeless. When the ancestors of humanity were still living in caves, the ant-queens were there. When humanity began to conquer the world with smoke and steel, the ant-queens were there. When the planet is nothing more than a lifeless husk of stone and gases, the ant-queens will be there. Forever.
[/shitpost]
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This one use of "shard" is capitalized while the rest aren't. Though to me the rest seem like the weird ones.
It's possible for one shard to encompass a entire world.
The one that occupies the structure has bred, now, fragmented into clusters of shards that could occupy others.
Some shards have different focuses. This is the experiment, the test.
[...]
The fragments continue to divide, feasting on abundant resources, on light and radiation and the alien food sources it has started to learn how to consume. It spreads quickly now, across every possible variation of this world that sustains life.
[...]
The shards might seek out different hosts, if others are in range, as the perception-altering one did. They will fragment and transmit to other hosts, as they grow and develop. - excerpt from Interlude 26
Some shards have different focuses. This is the experiment, the test.
[...]
The fragments continue to divide, feasting on abundant resources, on light and radiation and the alien food sources it has started to learn how to consume. It spreads quickly now, across every possible variation of this world that sustains life.
[...]
The shards might seek out different hosts, if others are in range, as the perception-altering one did. They will fragment and transmit to other hosts, as they grow and develop. - excerpt from Interlude 26
The Thinker is the whole colony. An Entity is trillions upon trillions of individual shards linked together as some sort of hive being. The amount of shards that the Entities kept on them instead of casting off makes them larger than Jupiter; compared to a single shard's "roughly the size of a continent", The Thinker is nigh-unimaginably vast. The idea of a single shard dethroning an Entity is just this side of ludicrous.
But does that mean that there's no 'head' of the entity? Like is scion just a couple of shards pretending to be a person or is scion (the personality of scion that is) one shard leading those other shards? Actual question. I don't know how the hierarchy works with shards, but I just assumed that there was some kind of head honcho who lead the other shards around. So QA wouldn't be killing the whole entity just replacing whoever's currently in charge.
Like for example there are vital shards the entity needs to survive right? Does that mean theres one or two vital shards that act as the brain of the entity? Can that theoretical brain shard be replaced by a new one?
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It's like asking which cell is in charge of the body. They're just part of the greater whole.
Ok. I guess I'm just relating them too closely to typical animal biology when in reality they're supposed to basically be eldrich hive minds or something.