Trinity Angles (Discussion Thread)

[Funderfullness]

Oh hell yes. Good thing there's precedent for parahumans pretending to be wizards so they can blend in a bit.

I sort of imagined Galen would get his Avenger powers and become sort of an Eidolon-lite, with his penchant for forcefields and lightning.

The Simurgh isn't going to like this one bit.

Though most of the characters have pretty good backgrounds for trigger events. Galen has the car crash (Brute power that resurrects him as a reality-bending wraith), Takara has her father slowly dying (Thinker power to see when her loved ones are in danger), Shirou has the fire of Fuyuki (Shaker power that makes a world of swords), Hermione has the revelation that her world is a fiction (Breaker power where she becomes a vampire, a fictional monster, herself).

I fucking love Worm, if you couldn't tell.

[Kieran]

Oh hell yes. Good thing there's precedent for parahumans pretending to be wizards so they can blend in a bit.

Yeah - there's even a half-decent Dresden Files crossover to that effect.

I sort of imagined Galen would get his Avenger powers and become sort of an Eidolon-lite, with his penchant for forcefields and lightning.

Maybe . . .? I'm playing around, to a point; it's difficult to decide exactly what he ought to be able to do. Since he's technically from Earth Sefr (Zero), that alone might give him certain abilities against Thinkers . . .

The Simurgh isn't going to like this one bit.

Nope, not at all.

Though most of the characters have pretty good backgrounds for trigger events.

Which, according to their "backstory," they probably would be.

Galen has the car crash (Brute power that resurrects him as a reality-bending wraith), Takara has her father slowly dying (Thinker power to see when her loved ones are in danger), Shirou has the fire of Fuyuki (Shaker power that makes a world of swords), Hermione has the revelation that her world is a fiction (Breaker power where she becomes a vampire, a fictional monster, herself).

. . . And here I was going to leave Hermione alive . . .

I fucking love Worm, if you couldn't tell.

As Ilya says, I've found some entertaining (and even some good!) fanfics, but what I've seen and heard of the actual work is a bit grim and dark for me. Now that said, I am following the sequel, and more or less enjoying it.

[Funderfullness]

That's interesting, because I like Worm for much the same reasons I like your stuff: smart writing, compelling characters, creative use of powers, satisfying action and of course a big long story with many arcs to fill the time.

[Kieran]

That's interesting, because I like Worm for much the same reasons I like your stuff: smart writing, compelling characters, creative use of powers, satisfying action and of course a big long story with many arcs to fill the time.

*Shrugs* As I said, I'm enjoying Ward, so far - but given how badly so many of the characters in Worm seem to have it (Taylor, Panacea, Tattletale - hell, the Undersiders in general), I suspect all reading that would do is make me want to throw my laptop against the wall.

[Kieran]

Parahuman Response Team (ENE) Headquarters
Brockton Bay, New Hampshire
April 7, 2011








The room was hardened against intrusion, both physical and electronic, but not truly sealed at this juncture—this was simply a debriefing regarding the recent investigation, and that level of security was not required. That was not to say, however, that it might not become so, based the report, and so the room was occupied by only two people.

The seated individual was a woman of middling age, nearly as broad as she was tall with bleached-blonde hair cut in a no-nonsense bob. The standing one was a man in midnight-blue-and-silver body armour, streamlined and futuristic-looking. No further details could be discerned due to the armour’s concealment factor.

“Masamune?” Director Emily Piggot repeated, eyes narrowing. “I’ve heard that name before . . .”

As expected, Armsmaster picked up on the prompt. The man might have next to no social skills, but he understood discipline and the chain of command, at least.

“Yes, Director,” the armoured hero answered. “According to our records, he was a Tinker who specialised in mass production, associated with Japan’s Sentai Elite team—he’s listed as MIA, presumed dead following Leviathan’s attack on Kyushu.”

Piggot said nothing, even as she noted the information. It was certainly worth thinking about.

Every Tinker-class parahuman had a scientific specialty; Armsmaster’s lay in miniaturisation and efficiency, for example, which allowed him to carry an otherwise absurd amount of devices mounted in his armour and weaponry. The Azn Bad Boys’ latest recruit, Bakuda, was a “bomb tinker” who could produce wildly improbable effects from explosive devices—like turning everything in an area to glass, or stopping time within the blast radius of a device. Of all the ludicrously improbable powers parahumans seemed to manifest, Tinkers seemed to be the most “bullshit” of them all.

However, one of the primary drawbacks in Tinker-made equipment was its unreliability. Whatever principles a given device worked on were generally understood only by the Tinker in question, and unable to be comprehended, much less duplicated, by conventional scientists and engineers. Thus, they were generally only usable—and repairable, which was just as important—by a single person.

. . . And that wasn’t even counting certain unique drawbacks, such as Leet’s. The villainous Tinker was infamous for being able to build anything, but only once. Any subsequent project that was too similar to a prior one invariably self-destructed, no matter his precautions. Really, half the reason his online channel had so many subscribers was because people were waiting to see when and how he finally killed himself.

But a Tinker that specialised in mass production could, in theory, produce sufficient devices to be usable by, say, the PRT . . . If he was still alive, of course.

Unaware of his commander’s train of thought, Armsmaster continued, “Even though our file on Masamune is thin, however, I don’t believe this is the same man.”

“How so?” Piggot demanded.

“Well, while there’s no physical evidence that’s the case, as we don’t have a picture,” the Protectorate leader admitted, “nothing in our files indicates that Masamune is capable of this.”

The initial video was blurry; done by someone’s cell phone, and not one equipped to handle the high speed of the combat. Eventually, it smoothed out to a degree—the effects of their tech department, if not Armsmaster himself, to enhance the recording—and gave Piggot a clearer look at things.

A clearer look, not clear; the subject of the video had a definite Mover rating to be going that quickly. He was obviously male, garbed in red and black—the latter some kind of bodysuit, the former belonging to a long coat that covered it. He also wielded two swords, and with them, went through the Azn Bad Boys like a threshing machine through a field of wheat, severing weapons and limbs in the span of heartbeats.

It was an almost surgical brutality, Piggot noted. Certainly, it required remarkable precision to perform such actions at those apparent speeds—especially since she noted that, as brutal as it was, none of the gangbangers seemed fatally injured, at least initially.

Confirming her thought, Armsmaster said, “Though none of them will likely ever be in a condition to commit crimes again, they’ve all survived their injuries. Apparently, he called an ambulance to the location shortly before he even engaged.”

“Wonderful,” Piggot said sarcastically, “a considerate psychopathic vigilante.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “We need to get this situation under control, and quickly, before it spreads to the public. To begin with, because Lung will respond to this; we need to be ready. On a more private level, Shadow Stalker is bad enough as she is—we do not need her previous behaviour reinforced by the actions of a rogue cape.”

“Understood, ma’am,” Armsmaster acknowledged, though what, specifically, he understood was open to interpretation.

“Good,” she said bluntly. “Dismissed.”

As the door closed behind him, Piggot sighed, wishing that she was allowed to drink.

“At least,” she muttered to herself, “if we can get to him fast enough, he’s only one problem . . .”

[MWkillkenny84]

Poor poor Piggot, how much you will wish that it will be only one problem around...

[Kieran]

Yeah - there's close to a dozen of them.

Now, whether to have them all form one team, or split the wizards and the magi - and how, precisely, to rate their powers . . .

[Kieran]

. . . Just a head's-up: I'm going to be out of town this weekend, so there won't be an update of any sort this weekend - sorry.

[GhostKing 666]

If you've somehow killed Scion(which is a huge cop out) then the easiest and fastest way to fix Earth Bet is to contact Cauldron. If you can manage to convince them of the truth of your origins and what you were able to do when coming to this universe(killing Scion), then that means that Cauldron can stop trying to prepare for trying to fight a god (by ensuring there's as large an army of parahumans as possible) and start working on fixing the planet since it wont end up being collateral damage from fighting Scion and there's no longer any need to keep society in a state that generates as large a number of parahumans as possible. The biggest threats are now the Endbringers and various rogue S-Class parahumans, which while dangerous aren't nearly as apocalyptic as Scion once he finally hits the Rage part of the grief cycle.

[Funderfullness]

Except as far as we know, Scion is the only one who can kill Endbringers. Nothing the Scarlet Seven have faced even compares to one of them, and even if they manage to kill one, three more will take their place.

Also, it's possible that Contessa's power won't work on the Seven because they have "Kaleido-shards", similar to how her power doesn't work on Entities, Endbringers or Eidolon. If that's the case, Cauldron would see them as either not worth the trouble at best and a threat at worst. The Seven would probably be better off getting help from Tattletale so she can work her way towards her "punch holes in dimensions" plan.

[Kieran]

If you've somehow killed Scion(which is a huge cop out) then the easiest and fastest way to fix Earth Bet is to contact Cauldron. If you can manage to convince them of the truth of your origins and what you were able to do when coming to this universe(killing Scion), then that means that Cauldron can stop trying to prepare for trying to fight a god (by ensuring there's as large an army of parahumans as possible) and start working on fixing the planet since it wont end up being collateral damage from fighting Scion and there's no longer any need to keep society in a state that generates as large a number of parahumans as possible.

[/QUOTE]

To a point, it is; but really, I think the Wormverse has enough world-ending threats (potential and actual) without Scion - and stopping the little system Cauldron has set up is easier said than done, I think.

. . . If it really matters, I seem to recall hearing the second one can be revived, under the right circumstances; and there's also a third one . . .?

The biggest threats are now the Endbringers and various rogue S-Class parahumans, which while dangerous aren't nearly as apocalyptic as Scion once he finally hits the Rage part of the grief cycle.

Only if I involve more than one Earth; as it stands, the aforementioned are apocalyptic enough in regards to the scale of single world - and possibly more than one.

Except as far as we know, Scion is the only one who can kill Endbringers. Nothing the Scarlet Seven have faced even compares to one of them, and even if they manage to kill one, three more will take their place.

Exactly. The scale is new, even for the TYPE-MOON protagonists; it's like taking on a Type. And given what some of the parahumans can do . . .

Also, it's possible that Contessa's power won't work on the Seven because they have "Kaleido-shards", similar to how her power doesn't work on Entities, Endbringers or Eidolon. If that's the case, Cauldron would see them as either not worth the trouble at best and a threat at worst. The Seven would probably be better off getting help from Tattletale so she can work her way towards her "punch holes in dimensions" plan.

That, too . . .

[Mattias]

Exactly. The scale is new, even for the TYPE-MOON protagonists; it's like taking on a Type. And given what some of the parahumans can do . . .

Fate protagonists sure, but Note's characters kill a bunch of Types. Pluto, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn all die, and Zeltrech killed Moon a long time before that.

[Kieran]

Fate protagonists sure, but Note's characters kill a bunch of Types. Pluto, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn all die, and Zeltrech killed Moon a long time before that.

My apologies for being unclear - I was referring to the ones specifically in this setting.

[Kieran]

Aozaki Home (Towers District)
Brockton Bay, New Hampshire
April 7, 2011








It was saying something, Takara supposed, that she was almost used to these random upheavals in her life and personal history. Between finding out that her parents were supernatural assassins, her brief stint as a Vampire Slayer, and then finding herself on the train to Hogwarts, finding that she had an entirely different new world and existence to again wasn’t nearly as shocking it really ought to be.

Still, that didn’t mean it wasn’t without some unsettling aspects; namely, that she was so close to home, this time. The wizarding world had been positively Victorian, if not outright medieval, in its culture, and its mundane counterpart had been before her time—she hadn’t been born in the 1990s. But this place . . .

I remember this technology, she thought, as she examined the cell phone in her hand. It’s ridiculously primitive compared to what I had when I was going to Homurahara—but I know it. And that’s just . . . Eerie.

And speaking of eerie . . .

It had taken her a while to learn to do this; Occlumency didn’t quite transfer over, unless she deliberately accessed her Kaleidoshard—which made it a Catch-22 situation, since she needed mental skills similar to Occlumency to access it. Eventually, she’d had to have Rin teach her how to activate the powers she knew she had, and that had led to other discussions.

For now, however, she simply sank into the depths of her mind . . .








The chamber had changed since she’d last seen it. Where once had stood the throne room of the Millennium Castle, there was now the Great Hall of Hogwarts. The banners of the four Houses adorned the walls, while empty tables and benches sat silently throughout the room. The enchanted ceiling remained as well, displaying a night sky which held a brilliant and bloody full moon.

The chamber’s occupant, however, was no different than ever before. Bound in chains of leather and ivory (flesh and bone something within her whispered), with midnight-blue hair and silver eyes, her other self gazed back at her.

“Took you long enough,” she needled, in a voice that was as soft and cold and falling snow, but still Takara’s own.

Takara didn’t have Occlumency any more, strictly speaking, and she was still seventeen—but at the same time, she was a lot older and more experienced than the first time this had happened, so she simply shrugged, refusing to rise to the bait beyond saying, “You know as well as I do that we needed Rin’s help.”

A razor-thin smile sliced its way across Nanaya’s face. “It was amusing, watching her turn all those colours . . .”

Takara restrained her own smirk. Learning how to access her Kaleidoshard had also let to fully unlocking her magic circuits—she had fifty-two of them, apparently, and of a better quality than Rin’s own, giving her a prana output thirty percent higher than that of the trained magus . . .

And that realisation had led to a ten-minute, high-volume, multi-language rant on her curse to “keep stumbling across these untrained hacks with stupidly high potential.” She’d then blamed someone named Zelretch, for some reason; it had led to another five minutes of ranting.

The unnerving smile dropped from Nanaya’s face. “What do you want?”

“. . .” Takara took a deep breath. “I want to discuss letting you off your leash.”

Silver eyes widened fractionally, and then acquired a predatory gleam. “Really . . .”

“Our Mystic Eyes might—or might not—be able to sever the link between parahumans and their powers,” Takara explained. “If so, it’s too good an advantage not to use against the more dangerous ones. And against the more dangerous ones, I’ll need everything to try and keep up, anyway.”


“As though I wouldn’t give it to you, to keep us alive, anyway,” Nanaya retorted. “Why try to make bargains at all?”

“. . . Because I don’t want to go into a killing frenzy every time a parahuman crosses my path,” Takara admitted. “I need to be able to restrain myself—”

“Then do so,” Nanaya said simply. After a beat, she sighed. “Fine . . . But I want an Endbringer.”

The hunger in her voice was very nearly tangible.

Takara’s eyebrows rose. “You honestly think we can kill one?”

“I know we can,” Nanaya said firmly. “It’s just that it’ll be like trying to kill Godmother as a True Ancestor—a lot of time and effort.” Her wintry smirk reappeared. “But fun.”

“And guilt-free,” Takara agreed.

“And one more thing,” Nanaya said suddenly. “We’ll need a weapon.” She scowled. “We lost our blade.”

“I know.”

“I loved that blade.”

“Me, too.”

“. . . We do still have the Resurrection Stone,” Nanaya pointed out. “We could call Riddle’s shade and kill him again for making us lose it.”

“. . . It’s definitely worth thinking about.”

“And maybe more than once . . .?”

“That’s pushing it.”







Writer's Notes: I hate March Break - by the time I get off work, I've got no energy to write . . .

[GhostKing 666]

Except as far as we know, Scion is the only one who can kill Endbringers. Nothing the Scarlet Seven have faced even compares to one of them, and even if they manage to kill one, three more will take their place.

Who the hell said anything about the seven killing the Endbringers themselves? They'd get absolutely murdered if they tried that. No the point was to get Couldron to start getting serious about fighting Endbringers and other S-Class threats instead of their current half-hearted approach(which exists because they are using the suffering caused by those monsters to farm more parahumans for the eventual fight against Scion).

For example, putting together most of the world's Tinkers and telling them to create anti-Endbringer weapons just like they would have done against Scion.

Also, it's possible that Contessa's power won't work on the Seven because they have "Kaleido-shards", similar to how her power doesn't work on Entities, Endbringers or Eidolon. If that's the case, Cauldron would see them as either not worth the trouble at best and a threat at worst. The Seven would probably be better off getting help from Tattletale so she can work her way towards her "punch holes in dimensions" plan.

No, sorry but no. That's not how the precog Shards work. The reason why neither Contessa or any other precog's power doesn't work on the Endbringers or Scion isn't because the Shards cant detect them, it's because the precog Shards(and every other Shard actually) are full of malware. The precog Shards are literally programmed to ignore the existences of the Endbringers and Scion outside of their actions(which is also how precog's get around said blindspots, by modeling the actions of those beings to further refine their predictions).

The seven would not have that protection, they would not be on the precogs "Ignore" list. As long as they are on the planet they are fully in range of all the various Shard's detection and scanning ranges. And while the foreign nature of their powers might end up confusing the precog shards at first and get them to throw up false predictions in the beginning, the longer they are on the planet the more time they are giving the Shards to watch, scan and analyze them and their abilities and eventually any "fuzziness" in the precog's predictions towards them will disappear.

To a point, it is; but really, I think the Wormverse has enough world-ending threats (potential and actual) without Scion - and stopping the little system Cauldron has set up is easier said than done, I think.

Cauldron has Contessa, Number Man and Alexandria and thanks to Doorman can grab any Thinker or precog they want from anywhere in Earth Bet or any other Earth in Worm(and thanks to Contessa they always know exactly who they need to grab as well at any given moment). They are the Illuminati, they are the ones controlling most of the world from behind the scenes(with only the Simurgh challenging them in that way). The current system exists because Couldron wants it that way, the system can change if they demand it to change.

If the Seven want to actually start changing things then they need to contact Cauldron and convince them that Scion is dead and that their priorities need to change. Because if they don't do that then they will never be able to get things to change on a meaningful scale because Cauldron is the one enforcing the current status quo and they will continue to do so if they think they must.

[Kieran]

Who the hell said anything about the seven killing the Endbringers themselves? They'd get absolutely murdered if they tried that.

Absolutely, based on what I've seen thus far; even in full Servant modes, they'd be having trouble.

No the point was to get Couldron to start getting serious about fighting Endbringers and other S-Class threats instead of their current half-hearted approach(which exists because they are using the suffering caused by those monsters to farm more parahumans for the eventual fight against Scion).

For example, putting together most of the world's Tinkers and telling them to create anti-Endbringer weapons just like they would have done against Scion.

Which, as aforementioned, I suspect Cauldron would find more difficult than you'd think - assuming they could be convinced to try.

No, sorry but no. That's not how the precog Shards work. The reason why neither Contessa or any other precog's power doesn't work on the Endbringers or Scion isn't because the Shards cant detect them, it's because the precog Shards(and every other Shard actually) are full of malware. The precog Shards are literally programmed to ignore the existences of the Endbringers and Scion outside of their actions(which is also how precog's get around said blindspots, by modeling the actions of those beings to further refine their predictions).

The seven would not have that protection, they would not be on the precogs "Ignore" list. As long as they are on the planet they are fully in range of all the various Shard's detection and scanning ranges. And while the foreign nature of their powers might end up confusing the precog shards at first and get them to throw up false predictions in the beginning, the longer they are on the planet the more time they are giving the Shards to watch, scan and analyze them and their abilities and eventually any "fuzziness" in the precog's predictions towards them will disappear.

Possibly . . .

*Shakes head* While the Wormverse has some affinity with the wider multiverse, with all its alternate Earths, both the Potterverse and Type-Moonverse are, comparatively, really out there; powers use multi-dimensional cheats and continent-sized alien supercomputers to achieve their effects, whereas Potterverse magic is just that: magic. And while magecraft is relatively predictable, there are things like Reality Marbles, as well. For example, their dimensional incursion is retroactive, which is something not even Scion managed.

Really, I suspect that a lot of pre-cog and analytic shards are going to get: [Compatibility error: please download appropriate software before retrying operation.]

Cauldron has Contessa, Number Man and Alexandria and thanks to Doorman can grab any Thinker or precog they want from anywhere in Earth Bet or any other Earth in Worm(and thanks to Contessa they always know exactly who they need to grab as well at any given moment). They are the Illuminati, they are the ones controlling most of the world from behind the scenes(with only the Simurgh challenging them in that way). The current system exists because Couldron wants it that way, the system can change if they demand it to change.

Again, I suspect it'll be more difficult than they think. With Scion dead, Cauldron's plans and resources might be freed up - but the morale loss, worldwide, would no doubt prompt a number of villains to feel more confident . . .

If the Seven want to actually start changing things then they need to contact Cauldron and convince them that Scion is dead and that their priorities need to change. Because if they don't do that then they will never be able to get things to change on a meaningful scale because Cauldron is the one enforcing the current status quo and they will continue to do so if they think they must.

Again, possibly.

[GhostKing 666]

Possibly . . .

*Shakes head* While the Wormverse has some affinity with the wider multiverse, with all its alternate Earths, both the Potterverse and Type-Moonverse are, comparatively, really out there; powers use multi-dimensional cheats and continent-sized alien supercomputers to achieve their effects, whereas Potterverse magic is just that: magic. And while magecraft is relatively predictable, there are things like Reality Marbles, as well. For example, their dimensional incursion is retroactive, which is something not even Scion managed.

Really, I suspect that a lot of pre-cog and analytic shards are going to get: [Compatibility error: please download appropriate software before retrying operation.]

Ok I don't think you are fully realizing just what the precog shards can do. First off there are two main types. The First type makes predictions based on analysis, by gathering huge amounts of data and using said data to predict future outcomes(you know, like Sion with her Thought Acceleration and Memory Partition). Worm is a deterministic universe, meaning that it's fully possible for a sufficiently powerful computer with omnipresent observation capabilities to map out a person's life from start to finish with 100% accuracy. And considering that the precog Shards can observe the whole planet on both a micro and macro scale(which is really nothing compared to when Zion and Eden observed all the various Earth's backwards and forwards through time in the multiverse from outside the galactic cluster), they basically are said hypothetical computers.

As I pointed out yesterday, even if their first attempts are filled with false predictions do to some inherent inability to accurately study the magic of wizards or the magecraft of the magi directly(which for the magi is a huge leap considering how the magi of Atlas are quite capable of studying magic via technological means and how technology in Type Moon is ultimately destined to supplant and replace magecraft completely), the Shards can just refine their efforts by recording every single spell ever casted and recording the Seven's biometric readings to a degree modern medicine can only dream of doing(up to and including reading their thoughts by observing and decoding their neural patterns in real-time. Again pretty much just like what Sion does with her Etherlite cable, only wirelessly because they don't need to physically connect to a person to observe their nervous system).

The second more powerful and energy intensive type of precog shards are the ones that use temporal bullshit to literally see the future(which is the type the Zion and Eden's Path to Victory shards are). Yeah, good luck to the Seven trying to hide from that type of precog when they aren't on the Shard's "Ignore list".


Also on the subject of Reality Marbles, you are aware that like Caster they actually can create artificial ones right? Or in their case create scifi tesseracts by using spatial warping Shards like Vista's and possibly even time warping Shards like Gray Boy's. A power like Shirou's Reality Marble isn't actually all that much of an OCP for the Entities even if the actual method used is something they've never seen before.

Again, I suspect it'll be more difficult than they think. With Scion dead, Cauldron's plans and resources might be freed up - but the morale loss, worldwide, would no doubt prompt a number of villains to feel more confident . . .

Your really underestimating the type of power Cauldron has. Even ignoring the fact that Alexandria is the head of both the PRT and the Protectorate, with Number Man their funds are effectively infinite, with Doormaker there is no place they cannot reach and with Contessa they will always succeed. All Contessa has to do is ask, "How do I fix Earth Bet and bring it into a new Golden Age" and her Path to Victory power will give her step by step instructions on how to do just that. They will know exactly who to kill, who to turn or subvert, which endeavor or investment will result in the greatest success, all at the exact time to get exactly the outcome they want.

Hell they are already doing that, its just that right now their goal is "Kill Scion" rather then making the world a better place. I was really not exaggerating when I said that they effectively control the world, because they really do(and it's entirely thanks to Contessa and her ridiculously OP power that let them become that powerful).

[Kieran]

. . . I think that some of your points require serious consideration - and some of them boil down to a matter of authorial fiat.

In any case, time for something different - and requested a while back, as I recall . . .











The Clock Tower
London, England
May 2, 2004








The head of the Magus Association was not, as a rule, easily perturbed. Indeed, given the dangers surrounding magecraft, and the headaches associated with politics—to say nothing of the egos of the magi themselves—iron discipline and unflappability were unspoken prerequisites of the position. Certainly, this was the case for anyone who wished to last in the position, much less be effective.

In light of the current circumstances, however . . . An entire family seceding from the Association, absconding with priceless artefacts in the bargain, and successfully eliminating no less than fifty Enforcers, before delivering an outright challenge?

Really, it would try the proverbial saint’s patience, never mind that of a magus.

And then, on top of all that, to find this on her desk . . .

Had an idea for solving your Yggdmillennia problem, so I borrowed a few trinkets to help take care of it. Thanks—I knew you wouldn’t mind.

Anyway, you don’t need to bother sending anybody else, and you can tell the sticks-in-the-mud in Rome I’ve got it handled in regards to their representative, too. Besides, get too many people involved and it’ll be too easy—and where’s the fun in that?

Don’t bother trying to contact me; I’ll be too busy laughing at this situation to bother with anything else until it’s all over. Just make sure there’s plenty of popcorn handy for when I get back—if the highlights reel of this doesn’t make this year’s Christmas party a hit, then nothing will!

—Z.

The unofficially-proclaimed “Queen of the Clock Tower” rubbed her temples in frustration, unsure whether to pity those poor souls that the Wizard Marshal had taken an interest in, or thank them for diverting his attention in place of the Association representatives they’d planned to use for this “Great Holy Grail War.” In the end, she decided to pity herself, who would have to deal with Zelretch afterwards.

Specifically, when he’d either be all-too-amused at the successful outcome of his latest prank, or irritated at its failure . . .








JR Mariot Grand Hotel
Outside of Trifas, Romania
May 2, 2004








As a teenager, Shirou had been in awe (OK, scared stiff, but he’d never admit that where there was the possibility that he could be overheard—not that they didn’t know anyway) of the ability of the females in his life to be absolutely terrifying merely by smiling. This capacity was used most often by Rin, but by no means exclusive to her.

As such, he took no small amount of vindictive pleasure in seeing Rin suffer from that phenomenon, for a change—as well as being grateful that it wasn’t being directed at him, because it was still terrifying.

“You seem to know something of why we’re here, Rin-chan,” Ciel Aozaki said in a sweet, pleasant voice, even as the light chose that moment to glint ominously off her glasses. “Would you care to explain yourself . . .?”

Meanwhile, for the first time in Shirou’s memories, Kiritsugu seemed to behaving like the Magus Killer he’d been told of. His expression was more closed-off than Shirou had ever seen it, and he seemed to be making a point of disassembling, reassembling, and loading his revolver; in front of Rin, specifically.

To her credit, the dark-haired young woman—now, so far as he could tell, once again the Tohsaka heiress—did little more than swallow hard, though her complexion was rather pale. She made a point, however, not to look at anyone in the room.

“So,” she began, in a forced-casual tone. “. . . The thing is, I might have had help, tracking Shirou down with the Kaleidostick? And now that old vampire is calling in the favour owed . . .?”

“And what, precisely, does that have to do with us?” Ciel’s tone was still sweet, but carried an underlying sharpness—like razor blades hidden in a candy apple.

Rin threw her hands in the air, demanding in frustration. “How should I know . . .?!”

“Because this Grail War demands fourteen Masters,” Ilya said hollowly. “And apparently, we’re the Red faction.”

Everyone turned to look at her, but it was Shirou who said, “Galen?”

His wife nodded.

“How bad?” he asked flatly.

“It’s a Grail War,” she replied, in an equally flat tone. “So, as bad as you’d expect—only worse, because Galen never knew it all; just enough to panic about.”

Now it was Shirou’s turn to nod, and Rin and Kiritsugu gained matching scowls.

“Tell us everything you do know,” Kiritsugu said, not unkindly, “and we’ll start from there.”

“And Rin-chan,” Ciel added, just as the younger woman was starting to look relieved, “don’t think we’ve forgotten about your getting us into this . . .”

[MWkillkenny84]

The unofficially-proclaimed “Queen of the Clock Tower” rubbed her temples in frustration, unsure whether to pity those poor souls that the Wizard Marshal had taken an interest in, or thank them for diverting his attention in place of the Association representatives they’d planned to use for this “Great Holy Grail War.” In the end, she decided to pity herself, who would have to deal with Zelretch afterwards.

Specifically, when he’d either be all-too-amused at the successful outcome of his latest prank, or irritated at its failure . . .

Or d: Pity yourself and the victims, and send them a gift basket for having diverted the former JoJo expy's attention away from the Association's representatives.

[Kieran]

Or d: Pity yourself and the victims, and send them a gift basket for having diverted the former JoJo expy's attention away from the Association's representatives.

That, too . . .


I originally figured on transplanting the full Scarlet Seven - but when I realised that basically left Ilya out of the running, I thought it'd be best to take the actual experienced magi (and Ciel) into this, rather than traumatise Neville, Ginny and Luna. The seventh Master is probably Takara (though Iris was certainly a consideration). . .?

And as for Servants, well . . . Any guesses?