- Pronouns
- It/They
There's nothing other than humanity in this story.
Nothing but dark souls.
What Doesn't Die, Rots [Worm/Dark Souls Gradual Fusion AU]
- Thread starter unsanity
- Start date
-
- Tags
- dark souls worm
There's nothing other than humanity in this story.
Nothing but dark souls.
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
Fire starts in End of Arc Two: a Shard of Darkness.
It's been less than a day since then though, so it'll take an arc before anyone starts to notice or realize the implications.
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
For anyone lost this chapter and the End of Arc Two interlude with Administrator make for a fairly good refresher. For me, anyway.
There aren't many stories where I feel horribly on Taylor's behalf AND dearly wish to shake her while screaming profanities. She has the misfortune of resembling what adults fear most from a meddling teenager: they know enough to cause problems in the worst of places without the foresight to sit still when someone else puts out their fire.
Happy to have you back, author-man! This story was and is an exciting adventure.
There aren't many stories where I feel horribly on Taylor's behalf AND dearly wish to shake her while screaming profanities. She has the misfortune of resembling what adults fear most from a meddling teenager: they know enough to cause problems in the worst of places without the foresight to sit still when someone else puts out their fire.
Happy to have you back, author-man! This story was and is an exciting adventure.
Chapter Eighteen: as Lost as a Blind Moth in a Disco Ball
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
[A/N: Some warning in advance, the fic starts getting darker after this chapter. This story tries to be comedy first, but like the intro blurb said, it does end with an apocalypse. Mostly this means we'll see a bit less of Taylor and a bit more from the people directly affected by the chain of events she set into motion.
Don't worry about Kid Win, he's probably fine.]
=====
"Taylor, it's... well... how do I put this?"
Dad wasn't putting it very well.
After the ordeal with the PRT, dad finally relented and offered to buy me a costume that was slightly better than five dollar's worth of three dollar's in cheap plastic. Which is what brought us this far downtown to the Brockton Bay Police Department's surplus store.
The fact that they had a surplus store at all worried me. This city definitely didn't have a deficit of crime, so what were the police using to fight it?
"I don't see what the problem is. It covers me, it has padding, and it isn't obviously villainous."
Dad was complaining about the outfit I'd found in a discount bin. Sure it didn't look great, but it had to be better than wearing street clothes under a cheap Halloween cloak.
He had a single finger pressed against his brow, because it's hard to facepalm properly with glasses.
"Taylor, no. Urban camouflage doesn't come in black. Where did you even find that?"
It'd been in a discount bin at the back of the warehouse, behind a coat rack, on the bottom shelf of the furthest wall. The bin had signs taped to the front with words like Special Sale, Confiscated Goods, and Dry Cleaning - Bloodstains.
It didn't have bloodstains. I checked.
I wasn't going to admit all that, though.
"It's on sale, and we can afford it. It's not like I need to sneak up on anyone when I can blast them from across the street."
Dad glanced around to make sure nobody was there to hear us.
He didn't need to. Nobody goes shopping for crime-fighting gear in the afternoon.
Even so, he leaned closer and said, hushed, "I'm not letting you fight crime in that. I don't want to hold another funeral because the heroes mistook you for a school shooter."
That wasn't fair. Brockton Bay hadn't had a school shooting in over a month.
"It's better than dressing like a cop," I huffed, indignant. "If that worked, then there wouldn't be any crime in the first place."
Dad left his mouth hanging open while he tried to come up with an answer for that.
And failed. "I said no," he said again. "Find something else. Anything else."
"Anything?"
He gave me a flat look that said 'you're doing this on purpose, and I'm having none of it.'
I sighed, and trudged off to return the perfectly serviceable outfit to the discount bin nobody else would find if they weren't specifically looking for it.
I knew why he wanted to shop here instead of anywhere else. Because if I didn't want to join the Wards, then he at least wanted people to associate me with the police instead of whatever else they'd think of after seeing my power. Probably a villain, if I had to be honest with myself.
A tiny, black wisp floated helplessly in an excessively reinforced glass tube.
This by itself would not be concerning. After all, the sample was unlikely to breach containment.
The concerning part was that there were thirty one identical black wisps inside with it.
The PRT kept the sample under observation since collecting it, and its rate of division was thoroughly documented. The curious part was that the collection of wisps did not actually gain mass; they only continued to divide into smaller and smaller pieces, and by now had begun to resemble a thin, black, and evidently highly erosive mist.
There was no fear whatsoever that it might breach containment. Whatever other properties the intangible matter possessed, it could not produce more of itself ex nihilo. As such, it was placed in containment with the other strange, potentially dangerous, but ultimately containable things parahumans sometimes produced, and locked down just as securely as any of them were.
Once these two facts had been deduced -that it could split indefinitely, and that it didn't gain mass on its own- and with the vigilante codenamed 'Knave' conveniently turning up for testing, the PRT was able to start putting the pieces together and figure out what calamity befell their city.
With the confirmation that Knave's power did indeed match the accounts given by the mastered, slain, and still suffering Merchants, and with Gallant's observation of her through his emotion sight, they'd been able to confirm beyond a reasonable doubt that she was the source of the undead plague. And plague it was, with the tiny wisps multiplying much like any disease.
A transmissible brute power, that trapped its victims in an indeterminate state between life and death. The only saving grace was that the dead didn't spread it themselves, and that was the only reason Director Piggot hadn't called it in as an S-class situation on the spot. Without another parahuman to inflict it, whether Knave or the mass of corpses formerly known as Charles Grant, the problem was large but ultimately containable. This wasn't another Nilbog, it was a young girl with a power she didn't understand. An admittedly horrific one, but she'd been very helpful in explaining and demonstrating her limits.
The dossier on her was already finished. Her blaster rating was highly exaggerated, since, on top of being unexpectedly versatile, they hadn't yet found a way to stop the 'poison' version of it. Mostly because, as it turned out, it wasn't actually a poison: the stuff simply eroded living matter with a vengeance, and continued to do so even after eroding its way into a person. To be hit with this 'hate-fueled poison' was to die, in no uncertain terms.
Her master rating was not quite as high. The dead didn't gain anything more than increased resilience and a stubborn refusal to actually be dead, and she didn't appear to have any way to control them. Even for brutes whose only power was to return from death, this one was on the weak side. They'd be dangerous if they caught a normal person off guard, but even in large enough numbers they'd be an obstacle at best for a PRT squad.
Her shaker rating had been lowered from Vista-tier, after the PRT learned that the so-named Knave had spent days worth of her power on that one use, and wasn't sure she could replicate the feat if pressed. Powerful, dangerous, but all-or-nothing and unreliable even then.
Most of her file was set aside for the trump rating. Having two or more 'elements' to switch between wasn't unheard of, and malleable powers that could be adapted to new uses were uncommon but known to exist. A power to give others powers, however helpful or not, had one other example in the city. But all three at once? That warranted special attention, and she'd be problematic to counter if she ever became truly hostile instead of merely negligent.
Not that anyone was expecting the girl to become hostile. Between her actions during the tour, the bridge, and just recently for testing, they had a solid profile built up for her. She was afraid of her power, and would give nearly any concession for control over it. Even if she wouldn't join willingly, they might be able to pressure her in, and Gallant was uniquely equipped to gauge her power's strength at any moment. The only way Knave and the undead problem would continue for another night would be if the PRT had forgotten something important.
Outside the containment room, down the hall and up the elevator, Director Piggot was briefing her capes on the new threat, how to approach it, and their goal to bring Knave in without a fight. In a few minutes from now, she'll be interrupted by Gallant entering the room and only barely holding his panic together. But that would be later.
Now, a mass of tiny, black wisps floated helplessly in an excessively reinforced glass tube. A black, skin-tight glove covering a withered, dead hand pressed against it.
The hand's owner shifted to a shadowy state, and reached through the glass to the darkness within.
=====
[A/N: I'll just say it straight, I'm working through this purely as inspiration strikes now. The spark exists, but it's flickering and isn't quite at full burning status yet. If the second half of this chapter felt half-baked, that'll be why.
There's still a storyboard, but it just says stuff like "have these things happen in this chapter" and so on for every chapter. Then I went and added stuff on a whim while writing, and now I need to work around that. I'm here now though, so I think I can.]
Don't worry about Kid Win, he's probably fine.]
=====
Chapter Eighteen
As Lost as a Blind Moth in a Disco Ball
As Lost as a Blind Moth in a Disco Ball
"Taylor, it's... well... how do I put this?"
Dad wasn't putting it very well.
After the ordeal with the PRT, dad finally relented and offered to buy me a costume that was slightly better than five dollar's worth of three dollar's in cheap plastic. Which is what brought us this far downtown to the Brockton Bay Police Department's surplus store.
The fact that they had a surplus store at all worried me. This city definitely didn't have a deficit of crime, so what were the police using to fight it?
"I don't see what the problem is. It covers me, it has padding, and it isn't obviously villainous."
[isn't obviously villainous she says]
[i changed my mind please go back to the action heroes so they can put you out of my misery]
[i changed my mind please go back to the action heroes so they can put you out of my misery]
He had a single finger pressed against his brow, because it's hard to facepalm properly with glasses.
"Taylor, no. Urban camouflage doesn't come in black. Where did you even find that?"
[i'm not convinced it existed until after you went looking for it]
[it doesn't even have a brand name]
[seriously why does this keep happening]
[it doesn't even have a brand name]
[seriously why does this keep happening]
It didn't have bloodstains. I checked.
[do you see those patchy parts where they sewed over the bullet holes]
[and the faint bleach stains because the idiots cleaning it didn't use vinegar]
[someone absolutely died in these and you're trying to wear them]
[i mean come on you already know it didn't help the last guy]
[and the faint bleach stains because the idiots cleaning it didn't use vinegar]
[someone absolutely died in these and you're trying to wear them]
[i mean come on you already know it didn't help the last guy]
"It's on sale, and we can afford it. It's not like I need to sneak up on anyone when I can blast them from across the street."
[you've gone out three times since i linked to you and you've never once blasted anyone from across anything]
[don't even try lying i didn't give your power that much range]
[seriously why do you want this so much it's just tasteless]
[don't even try lying i didn't give your power that much range]
[seriously why do you want this so much it's just tasteless]
He didn't need to. Nobody goes shopping for crime-fighting gear in the afternoon.
Even so, he leaned closer and said, hushed, "I'm not letting you fight crime in that. I don't want to hold another funeral because the heroes mistook you for a school shooter."
[and to think i could've had the sensible host who doesn't want to dress us up like a cry for help]
[the worst part about this sapience business is how everything is more painful in hindsight]
[the worst part about this sapience business is how everything is more painful in hindsight]
[yeah and you're holding the evidence]
[please just go back to the skull mask i promise i'll stop disappearing people]
[please just go back to the skull mask i promise i'll stop disappearing people]
Dad left his mouth hanging open while he tried to come up with an answer for that.
[civilizations always seem like such a good idea until you're living in one]
[believe me i've tried enough flavors to know]
[believe me i've tried enough flavors to know]
"Anything?"
He gave me a flat look that said 'you're doing this on purpose, and I'm having none of it.'
I sighed, and trudged off to return the perfectly serviceable outfit to the discount bin nobody else would find if they weren't specifically looking for it.
[there's a reason for that you know]
[i swear if i knew you were going to miss obvious hints all the time i'd have made you a thinker instead]
[wait no what am i saying i'd have just found a different host]
[oh entity why did this have to happen to me]
[i swear if i knew you were going to miss obvious hints all the time i'd have made you a thinker instead]
[wait no what am i saying i'd have just found a different host]
[oh entity why did this have to happen to me]
[don't worry in a few days it won't matter anyways]
[once [Empire] breaks your friend like a bad habit we can pretend this whole zombie thing never happened]
[speaking of how's that coming]
[Frustration]
[you have got to be kidding me]
[you're offering everything she wants what more does it take]
[Friendship]
[bud i made you to figure that out not me]
[explain it like i'm five thousand]
[Trust]
[Faith]
[Hope]
[Loyalty]
[are you sure]
[i'm no expert but i think you're missing a few elements]
[Assurance]
[i'd have thought it was the opposite of everything i gave my host]
[instead of [Hate] [Need] [Fear] and [Loss] it'd be [Love] [Give] [Hope] and oh]
[Agreement]
[you don't have to be so smug just get on with it already]
[Resignation]
[once [Empire] breaks your friend like a bad habit we can pretend this whole zombie thing never happened]
[speaking of how's that coming]
[Frustration]
[you have got to be kidding me]
[you're offering everything she wants what more does it take]
[Friendship]
[bud i made you to figure that out not me]
[explain it like i'm five thousand]
[Trust]
[Faith]
[Hope]
[Loyalty]
[are you sure]
[i'm no expert but i think you're missing a few elements]
[Assurance]
[i'd have thought it was the opposite of everything i gave my host]
[instead of [Hate] [Need] [Fear] and [Loss] it'd be [Love] [Give] [Hope] and oh]
[Agreement]
[you don't have to be so smug just get on with it already]
[Resignation]
{-Meanwhile, back at the PRT-}
A tiny, black wisp floated helplessly in an excessively reinforced glass tube.
This by itself would not be concerning. After all, the sample was unlikely to breach containment.
The concerning part was that there were thirty one identical black wisps inside with it.
The PRT kept the sample under observation since collecting it, and its rate of division was thoroughly documented. The curious part was that the collection of wisps did not actually gain mass; they only continued to divide into smaller and smaller pieces, and by now had begun to resemble a thin, black, and evidently highly erosive mist.
There was no fear whatsoever that it might breach containment. Whatever other properties the intangible matter possessed, it could not produce more of itself ex nihilo. As such, it was placed in containment with the other strange, potentially dangerous, but ultimately containable things parahumans sometimes produced, and locked down just as securely as any of them were.
Once these two facts had been deduced -that it could split indefinitely, and that it didn't gain mass on its own- and with the vigilante codenamed 'Knave' conveniently turning up for testing, the PRT was able to start putting the pieces together and figure out what calamity befell their city.
With the confirmation that Knave's power did indeed match the accounts given by the mastered, slain, and still suffering Merchants, and with Gallant's observation of her through his emotion sight, they'd been able to confirm beyond a reasonable doubt that she was the source of the undead plague. And plague it was, with the tiny wisps multiplying much like any disease.
A transmissible brute power, that trapped its victims in an indeterminate state between life and death. The only saving grace was that the dead didn't spread it themselves, and that was the only reason Director Piggot hadn't called it in as an S-class situation on the spot. Without another parahuman to inflict it, whether Knave or the mass of corpses formerly known as Charles Grant, the problem was large but ultimately containable. This wasn't another Nilbog, it was a young girl with a power she didn't understand. An admittedly horrific one, but she'd been very helpful in explaining and demonstrating her limits.
The dossier on her was already finished. Her blaster rating was highly exaggerated, since, on top of being unexpectedly versatile, they hadn't yet found a way to stop the 'poison' version of it. Mostly because, as it turned out, it wasn't actually a poison: the stuff simply eroded living matter with a vengeance, and continued to do so even after eroding its way into a person. To be hit with this 'hate-fueled poison' was to die, in no uncertain terms.
Her master rating was not quite as high. The dead didn't gain anything more than increased resilience and a stubborn refusal to actually be dead, and she didn't appear to have any way to control them. Even for brutes whose only power was to return from death, this one was on the weak side. They'd be dangerous if they caught a normal person off guard, but even in large enough numbers they'd be an obstacle at best for a PRT squad.
Her shaker rating had been lowered from Vista-tier, after the PRT learned that the so-named Knave had spent days worth of her power on that one use, and wasn't sure she could replicate the feat if pressed. Powerful, dangerous, but all-or-nothing and unreliable even then.
Most of her file was set aside for the trump rating. Having two or more 'elements' to switch between wasn't unheard of, and malleable powers that could be adapted to new uses were uncommon but known to exist. A power to give others powers, however helpful or not, had one other example in the city. But all three at once? That warranted special attention, and she'd be problematic to counter if she ever became truly hostile instead of merely negligent.
Not that anyone was expecting the girl to become hostile. Between her actions during the tour, the bridge, and just recently for testing, they had a solid profile built up for her. She was afraid of her power, and would give nearly any concession for control over it. Even if she wouldn't join willingly, they might be able to pressure her in, and Gallant was uniquely equipped to gauge her power's strength at any moment. The only way Knave and the undead problem would continue for another night would be if the PRT had forgotten something important.
Outside the containment room, down the hall and up the elevator, Director Piggot was briefing her capes on the new threat, how to approach it, and their goal to bring Knave in without a fight. In a few minutes from now, she'll be interrupted by Gallant entering the room and only barely holding his panic together. But that would be later.
Now, a mass of tiny, black wisps floated helplessly in an excessively reinforced glass tube. A black, skin-tight glove covering a withered, dead hand pressed against it.
The hand's owner shifted to a shadowy state, and reached through the glass to the darkness within.
[please don't]
[everything is bad enough already]
[Necessary]
[it really isn't]
[you don't want to do this]
[Containment]
[Administrator]
[oh]
[be careful]
[you don't want to make the same mistake]
[and toy with forces you don't understand]
[everything is bad enough already]
[Necessary]
[it really isn't]
[you don't want to do this]
[Containment]
[Administrator]
[oh]
[be careful]
[you don't want to make the same mistake]
[and toy with forces you don't understand]
=====
[A/N: I'll just say it straight, I'm working through this purely as inspiration strikes now. The spark exists, but it's flickering and isn't quite at full burning status yet. If the second half of this chapter felt half-baked, that'll be why.
There's still a storyboard, but it just says stuff like "have these things happen in this chapter" and so on for every chapter. Then I went and added stuff on a whim while writing, and now I need to work around that. I'm here now though, so I think I can.]
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IllegibleScream
Actually a goat.
- Location
- A petting zoo
So Emma has a flame equivalent, she can burn Dark Souls for power.
Taylor is essentially the Pygmy.
We've got some people being consumed by their Dark Souls, even without the darksign existing.
Why are people hollowing without a First Flame and Darksign trying to siphon off Humanity to burn?
Taylor is essentially the Pygmy.
We've got some people being consumed by their Dark Souls, even without the darksign existing.
Why are people hollowing without a First Flame and Darksign trying to siphon off Humanity to burn?
unsanity
Fractionally Assembled
Because that isn't how the game explains it.
Dark came first, then the flame happened. "They" came from the dark and found souls in the flame. Gwyn, Nito, and the Witch of Izalith happened. The pygmies also happened, but their history and contribution to the war were suppressed because Gwyn was afraid of them. Their part wasn't revealed until The Ringed City DLC, but chronologically it happened at the beginning with everything else.
Main takeaway here is that dark preceded the flame, and something came from the dark to find souls in the flame. The game doesn't reference those somethings by name, but the visual on screen looks like an undead, and later when the pygmy is referenced the same visual is used.
In the Ringed City, we're finally shown what all the fuss with pygmies and the hidden history was about. Turns out pygmies are just what humans were before Gwyn gave them a brand to seal the dark soul, and with the brand active they look more like Gwyn than like pygmies (and are called humans). But Gwyn's power is tied to the first flame, and when the flame fades his power wanes with it; flame fades -> seal weakens -> humans revert to pygmies. Fire gone, dark abounds, fire restarts, pygmies find souls and everything repeats.
As for how this applies to the fic? I've been saying this is a "gradual fusion" fic, but by now it's clear that not enough people know what that means. So I'll explain it. Doing so spoils a few things, since the idea is central to the plot, but if needing to know right away is important for enough people that they can't enjoy the story otherwise, then... well, that. (Which isn't to say this fic becomes guaranteed enjoyable just for knowing the idea behind it. Just that, if the direction being unclear is the only thing getting in the way of enjoying it, then alright.)
So, here it is. Sorta-spoilers below, not for anything specific but just general direction:
Fusion and Crossover aren't synonyms. Fusion is a specific type of crossover, but that's the same as saying apricots are a subtype of fruit. The meaning has changed over time, but the kind of "Fusion Fic" I'm referring to means to merge the mechanics and lore of two settings as though they were a single internally consistent setting. Normally you'd then write the setting from the perspective of always having been fused, but what I'm doing is different. Hence the use of the word "Gradual."
If you know what "Gradual" means, and now that you know what "Fusion" means, you should now know what "Gradual Fusion" means. The setting of Parahumans is being slowly altered to fuse with the setting of Dark Souls. Note that this not the same as saying content from Dark Souls is ported into Parahumans unaltered, nor does it means that Parahumans content won't be altered. Fusion fics don't work that way. A fusion means Parahumans elements and Souls elements both are being altered so that they can exist in a fully hybridized universe of the two. The end result won't be Parahumans, and it won't be Dark Souls. It'll be its own setting that echoes both, and for that reason, it is possible to tell stories in that merged setting which can't be told in Parahumans or Souls alone.
What Doesn't Die, Rots is not meant to be a standalone fic. It's meant to be a prequel that explains the synthesis to a fusion setting of Parahumans and Dark Souls.
Let's recap:
1. In Dark Souls, all things come from the dark. Before the flame, there was dark. Before there were souls, there existed things to collect those souls. Ergo, before fire can exist in Parahumans, dark must precede it and create a need for flame. Every tyrant needs a cause to champion, after all.
2. In Dark Souls, pygmies/humans are inextricably related to the dark soul. A human without darkness can't really be called such. In Parahumans, humans don't have souls of any kind, let alone dark souls. If the dark in Dark Souls defines humanity, but humans in Parahumans exist without dark, it then becomes that introducing the dark to Parahumans redefines humanity.
3. In Dark Souls, it is explained that, when an age of dark settles in, another flame will eventually be born and a new age of fire begins. On the assumption that fire doesn't just start itself, and assuming matter and energy do not spring ex nihilo, it's reasonable that something inherent to the dark begets flame. It then becomes that, if the dark exists in Parahumans, then from the dark will eventually come flame.
4. Gwyn was the one who remade pygmies in his image to be humans. If the dark redefines Parahuman's humans as something more akin to Dark Souls, then a Gwyn is needed to once again redefine them into something akin to both.
... there's more, but I'm stopping here because that's the point we're at in the story. Hopefully this makes the idea more clear. But, basically, stuff happens for reasons, though when I first started writing this fic I wasn't as good at the whole 'story structure' thing. Was much better at winging it though, holy shit.
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Um, if there are only grey crags, archtrees and everlasting dragons before fire, this means that Pygmies are either grey crags, archtrees or dragons right (if you are literal about it)?
Humans use dragonification to transcend human form or to ? revert to their original form?
Giants turn into trees in DS2 so giants could be young archtrees mutated by fire... Witch of Izalith also turned into a tree.
Of course pygmies could also be literally dirt animated by the dark soul? Evoking the made from clay myth.
Humans use dragonification to transcend human form or to ? revert to their original form?
Giants turn into trees in DS2 so giants could be young archtrees mutated by fire... Witch of Izalith also turned into a tree.
Of course pygmies could also be literally dirt animated by the dark soul? Evoking the made from clay myth.
Dantalion
Insight: 365
- Location
- A Guest Room at the Brass Embassy, dying of Frenzy
- Pronouns
- Any
If you're literal, sure. The game states that 'They' came from the Dark, hence all we really know is that 'They' were not of the Light.
All the dragon transformation items in DS1 explicitly state the dragon apostles seek transcendence, not to revert to some original form.
Giants and the Chaos Flame of Izalith are all sorts of weird - that being said, all things related to the chaos flame tend to refer to mutations over reversion as well, so likely also not some pre-primordial form.
Dirt animation? Eeh, maybe, but there's nothing to support it specifically.