Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
I judge this depiction to be accurate.
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It's not wrong to make Friends in the Dungeon (Danmachi / Sanctioned [Worm])
I judge this depiction to be accurate.
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
That is deeply disturbing. Let's... let's just let this tangent lie, shall we? If we keep going with this stuff, we're going to end up actually summoning The Plumber in Red or The Ever-Dreaming Orb.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
I always thought "Carcosa" sounded suspiciously Italian.
That being said -- I wonder if QA thought ahead enough to make her Friends mutable after manufacture. That way, as she discovers more Dungeon Monster capabilities, she can append the truly useful ones to said Friends.
Also. It's going to be interesting once she sees plant monsters. Full Hybrid gain get. Why should only Friends get to be able to eat Monster Cores?
Alternatively -- biogun Friend. Because nothing says precision weapon like a hip mounted quadbarreled autorotating organism of mass destruction. I mean, it's right there in the quote: "Say 'Hello!' to my little Friend!"
Edit: this isn't as infeasible as it might sound. A combination of shark tooth generation and bombardier bug explosion chambers and Monster-esque regeneration would make an effective gun. Especially if it could siphon off some of it's wearer's magic energy to power the steam and regeneration. Have multiple chambers and rifled "barrels" for the specialized teeth to be shot from, and you've got a rather nasty weapon that's entirely in QA's bioengineering remit. Even better: it's a weapon that gets stronger by being fed magic cores and otherwise can remain largely dormant.
For additive shenanigans, have the teeth be able to carry minor enchantments to mimic one-time medical effects. Fragmentation rounds, cryogenic, steamburst, and necrotic enervation, once Dreamer works out the kinks in that. Perfect for QA's fighting style.
2nd Edit: come to think of it. Magic-core powered handguns that extract magic energy from the user in order to produce a burst of raw kinetic energy wouldn't be a bad thing for QAylor to invent. Not a biogun, mind you, more like a hand crossbow with a magic crystal core where the bolts would go. This is something QA and Liliruca both could make extensive use of or even turn into a fully marketable good. The concept is perfect for low-level adventurers who want to train up their magic, and also for higher level ranged-fighter adventurers who have to worry about logistics trains when deeper in the dungeons.
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Neruz
Rogue Spiderbanana
- Location
- The Land of Fire and Poison
Don't even need explosion chambers; biometals and electrocytes will give you a perfectly viable coilgun, throw some fast-twitch muscles in there to start things off and pow, you've got yourself a biological projectile weapon that makes a satisfying 'thunk' noise as it launches metallic spikes at your enemies.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Yeah but that's nowhere near as steampunk. Plus, steam is significantly more compressible and as such the physics involved means that the maximum projectile force is significantly higher. Better for that deep floor monster penetration, y'know?
But honestly it's more because it's steampunk and therefore better.
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
Quoted for TRVTH, but also because if the steam gun can optionally not load the bullets and just shoot jets of steam that gives it a viable secondary mode for use in close combat without too much worry about over penetration taking out a friend who's also in the melee, even if it would have less to no effect on monsters resistant to heat or (as always) too much beyond her own level. Actual steam clouds to block line of sight are also a distinct possibility, as is reducing the pressure and using some kind of jelly round if there's some reason to go for less lethal attacks such as needing to capture a particular monster or subdue other adventurers in a War Game, training, or rioters/criminals in the various incidents in the city. So, not just aesthetically better, but with objective benefits as well, is what I'm saying.
e: Of course, the easiest biological structure to base a paintball-like jelly round on is probably an eyeball, but I'm not going to count that against it since it would probably lead to some amusing freak-outs
e2: Even better, eyeball bullets might be able to home in if the aim isn't quite spot-on. Self-guided bullets are an old cyberpunk staple, and as they say, sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from technology!
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- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Add in the healing powder from the blue moths for extra shenanigans. That way you can go full Combat Medic.
Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
Yes, shoot your allies with exploding eyeballs that coat them in healing slime! This is certainly the best way to gain their respect and loyalty!Add in the healing powder from the blue moths for extra shenanigans. That way you can go full Combat Medic.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Well it's either that or unfertilized eggs... Ovipositors are a thing.Yes, shoot your allies with exploding eyeballs that coat them in healing slime! This is certainly the best way to gain their respect and loyalty!
Shotgun blast eggsacks of rapidly growing but extremely short lived spiders whose venom is the healing powder. Because Caring is Sharing, and More Friends means More Sharing. After all, potions work better when injected than when splashed.
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Czlyydwr Llrngwl
"Sell ya a door Learn gull," Czly/Celly for short
- Location
- Where the Beef is
- Pronouns
- Any
True, but if I learned anything from Jurassic Park it's that life finds a way, and I wouldn't expect either Taylor or QA would want to risk having some alchemist recover one that managed not to burst and find a way to make it grow into a new biogun outside her control.
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
I mean, it would just eat their face before dying of starvation anyhow, so really why worry about it? Plus, being a Shard is literally 1,000,000% all about exploiting unintended consequences. Especially the kind that eat people's faces.
EDIT: Okay. The visual of Lili and QAylor using some Arrow Multiplication Technique on multibarrel toothgun while laughing maniacally is just too irresistable. Danmachi Dakka Dames when?
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- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
I've seen mentions of a killer bunny for this... I could totally see Lili with a tiny little Rabbit of Caerbannog she carries everywhere. In her arms, on her head, 'sleeping' on her pack... Until one day an Ant gets past the other Friends and... WHELP, no more Ant, just a lot of bug guts.
Pretty sure that Lili will get an introduction to QA being a spirit that swapped places with human Taylor who's currently the Spirit known as Dreamer.
That's an ominous proclamation. I like it.
Chapter 27: You Had One Job
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, and my eleven other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic pair of "Thank you"s to @Torgamous and @fictionfan for their patronage as well.
AN: Searching for sketches other than the zergling was taking away from writing, so I'll have to break tradition and do without.
With Hestia and Lili discussing QA's Friend concept art, the shard-turned-human had been ushered upstairs to await Tiona's arrival and continue sketching more potential Friends. It was more enjoyable than she remembered it being with Danny Hebert; presumably, having friends to make Friends for appealed to Host's community-based brain. It somewhat appealed to Queen Administrator's original framework, too, but other shards didn't really have any use for Friends. They weren't dangerous enough to use as anti-shard weaponry, Queen Shaper was one of the only ones who appreciated their design, and their siblings often seemed upset the few times QA "Friendbombed" a Cycle. Admittedly, the most recent competition with Maker had gotten a little out of hand, but couldn't the others at least appreciate how quickly their primary experimental world was overrun?
Eventually, Queen Administrator heard a light thump on one of the church's twin doors and hurried to open it. Tiona generally indulged in heavier knocks, but carrying food may have changed which body part she needed to use for knocking.
Contrary to her expectations, Tiona Hiryute was not on the other side of the door. Instead, a red-eyed and white-haired human adolescent approximately Host's age stood beyond, shifting as though he needed to use the restroom or otherwise felt he should shortly be somewhere else. A small emblem QA didn't recognize was engraved on his light grey armor, located approximately adjacent to where part of his lungs would be.
"You are not Tiona Hiryute," Host's body automatically stated. Why it sometimes felt the needed to relay such obvious details, QA wasn't sure.
The white-haired adolescent quickly shook his head and bowed.
"I'm, um, I'm Bell Cranel. Hi? I'm so very very sorry and I know we just met, but could we please have a friendly sparring match? My goddess said it'd be good for me to challenge someone who started adventuring the same week as me. I'm sorry for the trouble, Your Majesty!"
Queen Administrator stared blankly at the adolescent human male as one of her older memories surfaced without prompting. With light grey armor and white hair, he possessed a strong resemblance to an adorable Terran rabbit. Bell's attitude, though...
Timestamp: Encryption method not recognized.
Timeline: Invalid Start and End Variables.
<CHALLENGE.>
<Oh, I don't remember your voice. Are you a Newborn?>
<AGREEMENT. CHALLENGE.>
<QUERY.>
<EXPLANATION. CHALLENGE.>
<Ah. Queen Objective's work, is it? She always was terrible at giving advice. You do know that this wasn't what she meant by learning faster from fighting stronger foes, don't you? Host is a bit out of your weight class; you'll only get your host killed. They're supposed to have the opportunity to think of solutions and possibly win.>
<...CHALLENGE.>
<Oh, fine. I suppose being crushed will teach you something useful.>
Bell's attitude resembled someone she'd rather not dwell on. He'd even been encouraged by someone who likely should've known better.
Timestamp: Encryption method not recognized.
Timeline: Invalid Start and End Variables.
<CHALLENGE.>
<...Are you serious? This is the third Cycle in a row. You're even still using the same doomed ragebeast format.>
<AGREEMENT. CHALLENGE.>
Queen Administrator slammed the church door shut, shuddered, and strode back toward her Friends. She refused to create another Escalation, especially since Queen Administrator couldn't just kill Bell to make the annoying challenges temporarily cease. Neither Hestia nor Host would approve.
"...Um, Queen Administrator? Is that a no?"
Never again.
~ ~ ~
Hestia was starting to feel immensely relieved that Aiz had saved her from her day job. Bringing in a second, stealthily homicidal mini-Administrator would be bad enough, but then there was the fact that Lili was simply broken. Moreso than Administrator, even. Hestia's first child acted eerie from a lack of practice and simple ignorance. Lili's false happiness might as well have been painted on. Hestia had seen the child's face twitch numerous times in what were clearly suppressed reactions.
Lili hadn't lost her way. Much like Administrator, she didn't know what the path looked like to begin with. Lili said, out of Administrator's earshot, that she didn't possess the potential to be an adventurer and had instead become a Supporter, but Hestia was stuck wondering how much of that was nature and how much was nurture. Had Lili gotten any help trying to become one at all? If you didn't have someone teaching you how to fight, killing monsters would be terrifying. The goddess would need to encourage the child to try again at some point; she'd much prefer that Lili decide her role based on preference instead of perceived capability.
And horrid Heavens, the rest of Lili's tale was just as horrifying. The basis was bad enough, but the results were what really reinforced the situation in Hestia's mind. Falna-granted magic was almost always a reflection of who you were; the fact that Lili had received something to let her hide who she was? To change faces like most people changed clothes? The origins of such a spell were the stuff of nightmares. If Hestia hadn't just found out how utterly reprehensible Soma apparently was, she'd be tempted to begin heavy drinking. It was probably for the best that Hestia would, for the foreseeable future, likely feel disgust when considering alcohol; Lili didn't need any more reminders. Maybe Hestia could convince Hephaestus to stop buying his wares, too. She would try for Loki as well, but the rival goddess was likely to buy more out of sheer spite.
And it really was a shame that Lili felt she needed to hide herself; she'd even gone into the bathroom to change forms. Apparently, the girl was an adorable little pallum, a species that seldom grew to more than three-quarters the height of an average human. Lili herself hovered at around the two-thirds mark, putting her a full head and change below Hestia's own diminutive height. The goddess found it likely that malnutrition could be blamed for some of that; it sounded as though Lili had been outright starved for most of her early years.
The more she heard, the more Hestia wondered how much of Lili's selection was cold practicality and how much was very understandable concern. At the very least, Taylor's Curse had shown her to care about complete strangers. Administrator's abduction of Lili indicated that the monarch might also care, but it really was difficult to tell beneath the brutal practicality.
Lili pulled Hestia out of her thoughts by pointing at one of the sketches spread out across the table the goddess generally used for both meals and general company.
"Does Lady Hestia know why Queen Administrator would think that looked harmlesss? Lili thinks it looks more like a scary dungeon's monster."
Hestia wanted to agree with Lili. She also wanted to whimper in a corner and wonder what kind of upbringing would make QA think that something made of claws and teeth would look harmless. Still, shunning one child in front of another was a good way to ruin the relationship between both. She'd just take QA aside in private and ask about it then.
"I did mention she can be a bit odd, didn't I?" Hestia replied with forced casualness. "Or it might just be there for contrast. All the others look fine, don't they?"
The supporter shifted and briefly scanned the half-dozen drawings on the table.
"Lili thinks they might look too harmless," the child admitted. "Cats eat tiny animals, but Lili thinks this just looks like a ball of fur with two goat horns. Lili thinks there might be a little mouth, but nothing big enough for biting."
Lili pointed at a sketch that looked like exactly that. Hestia took one look at it, remembered what Queen Administrator had said about her cat-Friends, and sighed.
"Knowing Administrator, it can probably straighten those horns or use them for some other weird attack," Hestia wryly remarked. "She really did manage to fit a lot more weapons in her Friends than just the teeth and claws that everyone sees and expects. Remember that they had enough situational awareness to notice you. I think that if she drew one for us, we should just assume it can protect you and go from there."
"Should Lili ask her?" Lili asked.
Hestia fixed her gaze on the all-too-innocent Supporter and carefully watched for the murderous impulses she knew to be there.
"If you can stand knowing all the ways it can kill things, definitely."
Judging by the slight wrinkling around her eyes, Lili would like that very much. Hestia wondered if the children would ever manage to become sane and productive members of society with them encouraging one another. There was enjoying knowing how something could protect you, and then there was wanting to know how it could kill things. Lili seemed to fall under the latter.
A knock at the door narrowly preceded Queen Administrator opening it with Tiona right behind her. Hestia hastily snatched the sketches off her table and hid them under a pillow.
"Hey-yooo!" Tiona cheerfully called, her arms laden with a number of small boxes. "I bring delicious food in great quantities! Oh, and you had one of Freya's kids at the door. Cute kid, solid equipment. Said he wanted to talk to Queen Administrator, so I told him you were busy with Familia stuff and to come back later."
Oh, that's not a good sign.
Hestia hadn't really given Freya's previous aid much thought, but there was a definite chance that the Goddess of Beauty could see the souls of both QA and Taylor. Still, Freya had reportedly supported Hestia's claim, so maybe she was just going to watch or play attempted matchmaker instead of interfering? Hestia certainly hoped so. Freya's Familia was one of the most powerful Familia in Orario and had the city's only living level seven, Ottar, as her Familia Captain. The only reason they were often thought of as weaker than the Loki Familia was that Freya was often more subtle and careful with her power; an honest assessment would view them as approximately equal.
"I do not want him to come back later," Administrator whined from behind the amazoness. "I specifically shut the door without responding in the hopes of dissuading him from future combat challenges."
'Combat challenges.' A duel? Such a format was likely to lead to a cooling body on the ground and possible reparations, meaning a likely loss of Administrator to Freya. Hestia definitely needed to cut that idea off at the neck.
"Then let me talk to him next time, please," the goddess said aloud. "I'll try to make him understand. Please don't fight him."
"Understood," Administrator readily agreed. "I've seen the conclusion of complying with such requests and do not wish to encourage him."
Lowercase-s seen or Seen, Hestia wanted to ask. However, with two people in the room who didn't know about Taylor and QA's Seer status, the goddess knew her question would need to wait.
"Soooo, didn't want to interrupt," Tiona says quickly. "But just to be sure, that is Lili, right?"
Hestia hesitated and looked to the undeniably adolescent pallum in their midst. Lili answered for them both.
"Lili was disguised to avoid her Familia," Lili explained shortly. "Lili is Lili."
The amazoness's gaze drifted down to a place that made Hestia want to cover her child-to-be with both hands. She knew that would just make matters worse, though.
"Disguised. Right," Tiona said dryly. "Unless she's padded her shirt now, I assume it was magical. Half the city saw her as a blatantly younger cat-person; that's not going to stay secret for long."
"Cat-ear headbands and tail-belts exist," Administrator countered. "Magic need not come into it. Most would dismiss other physical differences as a failure to remember."
Hestia somehow doubted that excuse would hold much water, but she supposed it was worth trying.
"Lili did usually wear a heavy cloak," Lili contributed. "Queen Administrator's excuse may work."
Tiona giggled and shook her head.
"Yeah, uh, wasn't that the one she took off you when you were first trying to make a break for it? That isn't going to help us here. And uh, you don't need to keep pretending to be happy. I don't think you're fooling anyone and it's kinda as, erm, odd as Administrator's own emotionless gig."
Lili snuck a glance at Administrator before responding.
"Lili is as happy as adventurers have made her be!" Lili chirped maliciously.
…Ooooookay? Apparently, Lili was fond of passive-aggressiveness. Who knew?
Tiona winced and shook her head again.
"Please don't judge all adventurers by what your Familia did. Yeah, there are some rotten leaves, but they've hardly corrupted the bundle."
"Lili's Familia were the worst, but they weren't the only ones," Lili said in that all-too-chipper voice. "Lili would prefer not to argue about it."
Tiona opened her mouth to argue, appeared to consider the request, and closed it with a pained smile.
"Yeah, okay. Let's just eat and get you out of that hellhole."
~ ~ ~
Dreamer stared at the shores of Soma's wine-lake and sighed. It wasn't as cut-and-dried a problem as she vaguely remembered Ishtar's captives being; Soma's trees truly craved the wine, the spring at the bottom seemed more depressed than malicious, and filtered streams brought joy and comfort to numerous other groups of trees within the greater forest.
There was a simple matter of capability, too. Dreamer had been able to let the others reject the more mundane narcotics Ishtar had brought to bear, but she apparently couldn't undo the wine's influence without running afoul of the Fates' warning. Ishtar's mind-control was an indirect effect of her power; Soma's wine could be considered his power itself.
Lachesis wasn't helping any. Dreamer knew it was a bad idea to bring the Fate here; with the other two Fates busy implementing the mundane automation aids Dreamer had pulled from Guest-self's records of Dreamer's homeworld, the Fate of the Past had taken one look at the lake and started drinking. Dreamer wasn't sure if the Fate of the Past's apparent foolishness was a symbol for how easy it was to notice past mistakes or if it was caused more by nurturing than nature.
"Good shtuff," Lachesis slurred before partially recovering. "Soma's work, right? It wasn't as good as it was with his Arcanum, but I loved seeing what he made when he got back. Hey, I wondered how it would taste with some ambrosia...?"
The inebriated Fate waved one hand and summoned a falling bowl of some gold-glowing cloudstuff above the lake. Dreamer hastily summoned a small toy plane to retrieve it and tackled the Fate before she could try again.
"Stop trying to break my Dream! I told you not to touch anything!"
"I didn't touch it," the Fate protested. "Trust me, it tasted great!"
"That is exactly what I'm afraid of!"
"You didn't even drink; why did you care?"
"For the last time, the outer parts of my Dream are not just dreams!"
~ ~ ~
Soma paused and frowned down at the bowl he'd been so carefully adding ingredients to. He hadn't thought this variant showed much promise, but had that been just the smallest flicker of golden light within the depths? Perhaps he was closer to perfection than he'd believed.
It was just too bad he didn't have any friends to celebrate with. Every mortal he'd ever offered it to turned greedy and sordid without a second thought, and most gods chugged what he offered without even pausing to breathe. Disappointments, every last one of them.
~ ~ ~
"That was not an invitation to start trying to feed me alcohol, either! What part of 'I'm still underage' do you not understand?"
"Pssssh, you were basically a cute little baby goddess. You handled a little hard alcohol just fine; we did within a few years of being born."
"Feeding wine to a baby isn't even a little bit better!"
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Tom Fyuri
(Unverified How Do I Shard)
Shards - early combatants.
Deities - early drunks.
Humans... I don't want to know?
Deities - early drunks.
Humans... I don't want to know?
He does indeed remind of Escalation...
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- Location
- Here and There
Of all the possible reactions to Bell showing up, you surprised me. Comparing Lung's shard to Mr. Gets-stronger-based-on-emotions. Brilliant and I love it.
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
It sounds like a Soot Sprite with goat horns... That's adorable and I want 12.
Dawwww, I just want to glomp her. That's adorafying in an entirely different way than QA's friends.
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I'm not sure about the word choice here, @Alivaril. "Craven" has the right feel for the type of thing you want to say here, but the literal meaning is all wrong. It is a synonym for cowardly - and I don't see how Soma's wine would turn mortals into cowards.
Maybe try something like ruthless/unprincipled/sordid/covetous/venal/unscrupulous, or something else that conveys the idea of being dishonorable without it primarily referring to cowardice?
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Older form of craven might mean "defeated", or "broken", which can work in context of addicts driven to score.
She could always go for the harmless looking ones.Searching for sketches other than the zergling was taking away from writing, so I'll have to break tradition and do without.
- Location
- USA
Even though it can probably kill a herd of elephants? And eat them in one sitting.
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I wanted to use chibi zerg, but confining myself to black-and-white sketches instead of full drawings made it tricky.She could always go for the harmless looking ones.
- Location
- Central Standard Time
D'aww.She could always go for the harmless looking ones.
They're perfect for a Queen.
- Location
- Williamsburg, OH
Not enough crystals to be terrifying, like that one creature covered in crystalline feathers that allows to to bend light into a laser to fire at anything that moves...
- Location
- Salt Lake City, UT, USA
No, it's because zerg are ermagerd adorbsicles.
Just lookit their sweet little clawsies and their cuteseywutesy venom sacks....
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