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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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Unfinished Obligatory Worm Crossover (Imperial Fister)
  • Apocrypha
    • "Do I really have to do this?"

    'You want power, don't you?'

    "I... I do."

    0~0~0

    Unblemished flesh still covered my hand. I still had full range of motion. I still had my hand, blackened though the bones may be.

    So why did it feel like it was gone?

    'Power requires sacrifice.'

    I already knew the answer; it had been drilled into me from the moment I started down this path. And yet...

    'Just as the All-Father sacrificed himself for power,'

    There was a world of difference between knowing something and understanding it.

    'So too must you.'

    "I know," I whispered in the oppressive silence of my room, the only source of light the lick of flame flickering an inch above my palm.

    I snuffed it out and cast myself into the shadow-filled darkness.

    School was in the morning and I would need all the sleep I could get.

    0~0~0

    I smelled the inside of my locker before I saw it.

    It was indescribable, but compared to the smell of your own body melting?

    Downright pleasant.

    Didn't stop me from being shoved in, though. Sophia-

    'That coward! May her cows be ever barren and her bulls forever impotent. Let her children know Cold's bite and Hunger's despair.'

    -was still stronger than I.

    Garbage squelching underfoot was bad, yes, but I'd been through worse.

    The worms wriggled against my skin and bugs made homes in my ears, yes, but I'd been through worse.

    Needles spilled my blood, yes, but I had,

    Been.

    Through.

    Worse.

    The laughter of those outside plunged daggers into my soul. The bite of nid stung sharply, like a fresh paper cut doused in hand sanitizer.

    'This insult cannot be left to fester.'

    "I know," came my whispered response.

    The cultivation of the soul was a delicate process. The slightest insult—the slightest bit of nid—was more than enough to render years of effort worthless. I didn't have years of effort to waste.

    'Then you know what you must do.'

    "I-I do."

    Her betrayal left a hole in my heart, a hole in my very being. My soul made it clear that nothing less than blood would mend that wound.

    I would do what I had to do.

    0~0~0

    Tears trickled down my face as I beheld the whimpering, trembling thing I once called sister.

    It had red hair like she once did. A body like the one she once had. A face like the one that had once adorned her head.

    But she was not the creature before me.

    "P-please," it warbled, tears mixing with the liquid leavings of its broken nose. "I-I'm s-so-sorry."

    Up until that point, I was monolithic as it begged for its pitiful existence. I was stoic, silent, utterly implacable.

    I crouched before its shattered form and directed its gaze to the wet strips staining my cheeks. "Do you see these tears?"

    Blood spilled from its broken mouth as it nodded its head, looking more like a bobblehead than any sort of living creature.

    "These tears are not for you, but for the girl you once were." I pressed my palm to its face and its eyes filled with pointless tears.

    It tried to struggle, but in the end...

    It didn't even have the grace to die with dignity.

    'Pathetic.'

    I couldn't agree more.

    0~0~0

    They found its body in a storm drain a week later — what was left of it at least, the rats had clearly feasted well.

    The media was making a big deal about it, which I found odd. There was nothing strange about how the powerful punishes the weak. But then again the media hadn't had their souls replaced with an otherworldly viking's.

    'Not replaced, you know the correct word.'

    "Fine, 'Alloyed'."

    'There we go. Words have power, Taylor Hebert, it would be best for you to remember that.'

    I sighed and swished my spoon through the cereal bowl. I eyed the spot where my father should have been sa-

    No, not yet. It's too soon, far too soon.

    Hallr Blackhand, an old warrior from a world both too similar and completely unalike, frowned as I ignored my problems yet again.

    0~0~0

    AN: I found this while poking around some older notes. Figured I'd give you something to chew on, so have a little treat.
     
  • Apocrypha
    • Yeah... I doubt a Norse Quest!Taylor would be super popular in worm, what with parahumans being unable to kill without serious consequences due to social conventions. On the plus side I doubt Taylor or Blackhand would let the E88 stand for long.
     
    mythfan12 said:
    Yeah... I doubt a Norse Quest!Taylor would be super popular in worm, what with parahumans being unable to kill without serious consequences due to social conventions. On the plus side I doubt Taylor or Blackhand would let the E88 stand for long.
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    As discussed previously, she'd also straight murder Jack Slash because all his meaningful powers just don't work on someone from another system. At all.
     
    DeadmanwalkingXI said:
    As discussed previously, she'd also straight murder Jack Slash because all his meaningful powers just don't work on someone from another system. At all.
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    He tends to keep a crew around him, some of which are quite dangerous fighters (Shatterbird, Burnscar, Crawler...). It's true that she'd slaughter him one-on-one, but so would Joe Random Nonparahuman with a 9mm.

    Pity she has to keep her first kill secret, striking down a betrayer like that is a good start on earning some orthstirr.
     
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    The Lone badger said:
    He tends to keep a crew around him, some of which are quite dangerous fighters (Shatterbird, Burnscar, Crawler...). It's true that she'd slaughter him one-on-one, but first she has to arrange that.
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    True, but Jack is a cocky shit and likely to say things that get him prioritized in target selection. His crew are not used to acting as bodyguards for him because he doesn't mostly need it. I think he probably dies in that confrontation.
     
    I'm guessing that since Taylor would have many, many issues and difficulties practicing Norse Cultivation on Earth Bet, her Hallr would have access to his full memories and power as compensation.
     
    mythfan12 said:
    Yeah... I doubt a Norse Quest!Taylor would be super popular in worm, what with parahumans being unable to kill without serious consequences due to social conventions.
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    She may be able to develop a norse-compatible version of 'counting coup', where she beats the shit out of someone and makes it clear that she could have killed them but chose not to. She earns orthstirr from the victory, and then she can beat them up again next time they meet and earn orthstirr again. Sustainable farming in the face of opponents who die when they are killed.
     
    I would absolutely read a fanfic with this premise. It would be really interesting.

    I actualy had wrote a rough first draft for a crossover between Norse Quest and Worm.

    The idea was that the Wavedancer with Halla and her household on board would somehow land on the coast of Brockton Bay after a storm.

    They lasted less than one day before starting a brawl with both the ABB and the Empire 88. And become the new gang of Brockton Bay.

    I kind of put the draft in my backlog after that. Togheter with all the other unfinished stories.
     
    The Lone badger said:
    She may be able to develop a norse-compatible version of 'counting coup', where she beats the shit out of someone and makes it clear that she could have killed them but chose not to. She earns orthstirr from the victory, and then she can beat them up again next time they meet and earn orthstirr again. Sustainable farming in the face of opponents who die when they are killed.
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    I'm pretty sure this is already allowed in Norse cultivation. Killing is not what grants Orthstirr. There are insults and betrayals you have to kill for or you get nid, but there's otherwise no actual need to kill. Orthstirr is about recognition of your prowess and proving yourself badass, killing is just an occasional side effect.
     
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    DeadmanwalkingXI said:
    I'm pretty sure this is already allowed in Norse cultivation. Killing is not what grants Orthstirr. There are insults and betrayals you have to kill for or you get nid, but there's otherwise no actual need to kill. Orthstirr is about recognition of your prowess and proving yourself badass, killing is just an occasional side effect.
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    And, of course, you can always style on your foes mercilessly. Like, sure they aren't themselves taking nid for it, but you still get the points.

    The real mess, though, is that the culture isn't set up for it. Like, a Viking Cultivator must act in certain ways. The Viking culture is set up to accept those limitations and work around them. You just don't make certain kinds of insults unless you want a fight to the death or similar. The institutions of Worm are not nearly so respectful, which can make even just interacting with certain organizations actively dangerous for all involved in ways that those organizations would not expect or particularly intend.
     
    She'd also probably get a lot of negative attention from developing new muna and hungreida. And it'd be even worse if someone figured out she wasn't a parahuman. At least watching the various E88 members get turned into bloody smears on the ground after they come up to Taylor because she has a Viking aesthetic would be satisfying.

    Good on Blackhand continuing the tradition of being spirit guide to a girl noticeably taller than him.
     
    I think the hilarious part is that all the killing will likely get Taylor a kill order

    ...only for her to show up again a week later :V

    I personally have always been a fan of either post-canon Taylor showing up in other places, so seeing her showing up as an enemy would have been interesting.
     
    Sivantic said:
    I think the hilarious part is that all the killing will likely get Taylor a kill order

    ...only for her to show up again a week later :V

    I personally have always been a fan of either post-canon Taylor showing up in other places, so seeing her showing up as an enemy would have been interesting.
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    I think even the Triumvirate would hesitate if Taylor came back from being ganked. Though on the subject of the Cauldron trio, would Alexandria's body stasis count as a Perfect Defense, with all that entails?
     
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