EoR Wine Country - NNWM2k19 - 12
Nov. 19th, 2019 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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heroicrecordsWC: 32551/50000
We are not the ones privy to the information as to how or why history repeats itself, or if it even is. Whatever loose strands go off where, only to be corrected later, creating rifts in the “future” and the “present” as they are is merely an invention of the humans to help their mortal minds comprehend time and magic to a certain extent. It was more so the fact that these spirits that were summoned elsewhere from history appeared to be merely stuck in one role, pulled from a specific instance that locked them into a set of features and characteristics, for better or worse. Illness still ravaged them, but they would not die, and merely dealt with it as an annoyance, whether a cure existed for them or not.
However, the one illness that there seemed to be no cure for, save dying or coming to one’s better mind, was the concept of revenge. It soaked through the best of humans at times, consuming their entire essence almost until they were but a mere shadow of their former selves. Some never embodied this so much but a good majority of the servants, their existences forever stuck in that one time and forever having to fight off those regrets and doubts, until they either became better by luck and work, or found themselves sent back to where we all started, at the altar, waiting for another turn to be summoned. If they were ever to be again.
Bringing those embroiled in the drama of the Japanese warring period into the historical Chinese one was an odd decision, but the Oda would bring themselves here to help this day against one of the most bitter and entitled men that history or fiction surrounding it could have ever possibly produced; one of the major players of the Chinese warring eras.
A man ripped from endless wuxia adaptations and historical figure both, the one that stood on the battlefield by the Sonoma forests and hot springs today was the one taken from a very specific version of the story, meant to add some of the “romance” to the title Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in both definitions of the word.
But the most crucial one on this battlefield, besides the Archer as always, was her compatriot and one of the Four Heavenly Wives; the Assassin of Moon Valley, who was now possessed by a woman named Diaochan, one of the Four Great Beauties of Chinese history. Funny how that counting seemed to consistently work out. They were the ones most likely to drive the country’s history, were they real or not, as much of that truth was left on the battlefields they affected.
It wasn’t long after they arrived in the area that the enemy forces found them. At first, the usual generic fight for cheap grinding looked like it was about to play out, until the main figure stepped into the light, a squat, wide man covered in expensive silk and capes, his beard nearly the same size as his girth, wearing a buckle resembling the imperial palace he resided in, bearing an evil regal air as well as a nasty looking halberd, made himself known.
“This is the army you pick to assassinate me this time, Diaochan?” he laughed hard and loud. “Geeze, couldn’t even give them proper armor or weapons or anything! What do you think this little girl’s sword is going to do against me, huh? I’m the Caster of Chang’an and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll throw down all your territory to me and get out!”
“Plenty, if you don’t shut your mouth and get out of here.” the Assassin replied. “I may be half the woman I chose to possess, but I can tell from reading her personality that the Archer that’s decided to fell you at these gates is more than enough to suffice as your next Lu Bu. And we can both assure you, you want to pursue this one even less.”
“You know Casters tend to wail on Assassins, right? Almost ROYALLY so!” he found this to be the funniest line emitted in this story thus far and treated it as such.
“Well, yes, if you’re going to be picking on my wife, you’ll be going through me.” Atma grinned, using her Counter Force powers to change the shape of Hoshigiri into that of a mighty jian and laughed. “Unless you think this kind of sword is more suitable to the task?” she laughed before flicking her sword’s form into a dao. “I got more. Like, what, you all didn’t think someone as highly regarded as a Counter Force wasn’t going to have some cool ability or something?”
> “A true master swordswoman to come out of this era of gunpowder and lasers...”
>>> “The Archer class is really made up of swordsmen”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Cute if you think your parlor tricks can match the real magic of a Caster!” the man laughed before using it to cut open the sky and the ground, laughing as he tried to debuff the good chunk of the Master’s party.
“Dong Zhuo...” the Assassin smirked. “I mean, we have three Riders with us.”
Drake, Bianca, and Quetz waved hello from the sidelines, wondering what kind of matchup this even was. So much for brilliance.
“Yeah, and? I got multiple HP bars and all sorts of nasty tricks to disable your party! You’ll know a cruel, humiliating defeat before it even clocks lunchtime in these miserable lands!”
“Whatever, shall we, Atma?”
With that, the battle against the next named Servant, Dong Zhuo, the Caster of Chang’an had begun in earnest. However, the setup was forcing use of Atma and the Assassin in the front line at least, prompting Gudako to take a look at these skills.
It wasn’t long before she put two and two together. Skill synergy was one of those only times she was good at math. A nasty sneer appeared on her face, though it lacked the outright unshaven nastiness that Dong’s did.
She immediately threw the Maou Nobu up front with them, creating a hit parade of Riders after. You never knew. Not like her login streak was in danger of being lost anytime soon, so a few quartz could likely be spared.
“Oh, this is funny!” the Maou laughed back. “They’re trying to play the tyrant so hard! This is amazing! Don’t they know that I am the flames of hell itself and the demon lord of over three thousand and a thousand more...”
They just let them go off rambling like that a bit. Everyone knew they’d get the job done, but at least half the battle would be full of self affirming dialogue like that. At least the Maou knew how to bathe and trim themselves. Usually.
“So, what kind of rebellion do you hope to incite this time?” Zhou taunted.
It was a chase for a while, waiting for the initial wave of debuffs to wear off, planning around keeping the Assassin alive as Atma used her evade and kept building up her own noble phantasm alongside her wife’s. The Maou gladly took as much as they hit, keeping things annoying with their own invulnerability and giving the others something to sponge up some of the damage with.
In the distance, a platoon of Nobbu clashed as the old Chinese masters did with Zhou’s resurrected army, all of them undead and rotten, born from the scorched earth around the state and the unending need for revenge that pervaded Dong Zhuo’s mind since he was taken in life. If it weren’t for the fact there was an actual war happening, the Nobbu might even be called adorable doing this, using cavalry tactics by riding each other to knock the Caster’s forces off their horses and slapping them around. They were nothing if not resourceful. Bunyan gave them all a big boost by blocking the enemy escape and giving them rides in her hands over rough terrain, looking like the most amazing little ant fight from her visage. At least it was something useful she could do. Skeletons tend to not play nice with axes or chainsaws, especially not those wielded by giant people.
It was about time to unleash the very same tactic, albeit played out this time by a lesbian rather than a Lu Bu, and as Dong Zhuo came to find his gauge charged, Atma slammed her second skill down and locked it for three turns, adding the usual defense debuff for three, leaving him without any options. It’s not like his cooldowns were done yet and his attack stat wasn’t why you’d bring him around. Any skeletal reinforcements he’d have brought in were already returned to the dirt in haste thanks to the Maou knowing that bodies tend to burn quite well, especially the brittle, dry ones that made up the undead. Like, anyone who ever played a JRPG in their life knew that.
And anyone who knew their Three Kingdoms knew that the Assassin used her skills and her own charge to… well, at first it looked odd. It effectively locked Atma in a charm state for one round, and seemingly nothing else, though a clock ending in one turn did go up after. It meant she couldn’t do anything, and they had to rely on the Master knowing when to throw seals and such up to keep the Archer up just long enough that she could live one more turn.
Because thanks to the Diaochan in her, the Assassin had seduced her own soldier willing to take their blade and drive it into Dong Zhuo’s body yet again. History does repeat itself, at least in the eyes of humans, and this man was not allowed to have his revenge.
The next round came, though it never felt soon enough, and Atma found all her stats buffed, especially her attack, her buster, and her noble phantasm damage, having taken that massive risky deficit the previous turn, she was rewarded.
And it came again…
“To reach for the stars...”
“Oh, you have it in you yet to flail one last time? Your clever tricks end here, Diaochan.” the Caster laughed, trying his best not to look scared.
“It really is a shame we’re both half mythology, or in my case almost assuredly so, and neither it nor history would ever use it to look upon you nicely, huh?” the Assassin grinned. “Hers is the sword that cuts through the mere existence of the ambition and ego of those that would think themselves invincible or godly, you know.”
Before the Caster could retort anymore, Atma unleashed the entirety of her noble phantasm, absolutely surpassing any other damage record for the story thus far.
“So that I may cut even them down! Oh, rays of Amaterasu, guide my blade where it needs to cut! Hoshigiri – The Star Slaying Sword! One small slice for me, one giant cut for womankind!”
Battle Finish, victory in favor of the Chaldea alliance.
“Y-You...” Dong Zhuo sat, already beginning to glow that golden that servants did upon defeat. He refused to acknowledge it, spitting up blood, looking bruised and dirty. “How...”
“Because I sense the same something special in this woman that the mind of the lady I’m inhabiting did. And I’m trusting her sense and her faith in this Archer both.” Diaochan huffed. “Besides, she was the easiest one around here to seduce.”
And just like in history, Dong Zhuo said no more and fell over, his reign of tyranny on this area of California was no more. Gone. Another named servant was defeated. He was far too humiliated to once again be destroyed by this love and seduction stuff. Whatever. It was up to his employers now if they were to have any chance of getting California back.
“I’ll be around in the background, but you can have the woman I’m possessing back. You two are a handful.” Diaochan spoke through the Assassin, as if she were just going to bed after hearing a take from Dong Zhuo that bad. In a sense, she was. Nobody was sure how all versions of any one flavor of servant functioned, and those that possessed the others and used them as half servants was even weirder yet. “I can definitely see why she chose you though, if I’m remembering your history right, the one named Weapon. What an interesting title for what you are...”
“You think so, huh?” Atma asked, not expecting an answer from the figure herself.
“She’s not wrong you know.” the Assassin dusted herself off and let out a sigh of relief. “Good thing you got here when you did.”
“Yeah! That guy was mean! And he smelled bad! And he didn’t even have any lunch money on him!” Bunyan chimed in. “...Is everyone okay though?”
“Yeah, good to see you too, Bunyan!” Atma grinned. “Now that things are settled here, would you like Madge to rustle you up some of that bahl chigrel again?”
Bunyan nodded vigorously. “What an amazing woman she is! I am always amazed at everything America came up with for itself, I don’t know if I ever encountered anyone who talked like her in my day! I would have at least remembered her food, if not her hugs.”
“At least she’s as easy to please as ever, huh?” Atma turned to the Assassin. “But yeah, we’re here. Which you can guess only really means one thing; we’re gonna go meet up with the Avengers up at Atlas Peak. Our counter attack came on sudden and strong and unstoppable once I secured us the Master I said I’d go looking for.
>>> “That’s a me, Gudakio!”
> “So three of four now, huh?”
“She seems… exuberant.” the Assassin replied.
“That’s one way of putting it.” Atma went and put Gudako in front of the Assassin. “Gudako, this is Cassandra, who is sometimes also Diaochan. Cassandra, this is Gudako, the Master of Chaldea. She’s as efficient and deadly as she is odd and horny. You’ll get used to it.”
> “Pleased to meet you!”
>>> “How come I can’t even get one of four wives like what gives”
“Told you she’s got that one track mind thing going.”
“Reminds me of someone I know...” Cassandra replied, teasing.
“Like I haven’t gotten enough of this out of the other two!”
The majority of the California Coast from Wine Country on up and going inland was gaining a lot of traction as a reclaimed land. Farmers and the like found they could go out freely again, beginning to rebuild yet again what had been burned down, betting it all on this renewed hope that Atma and her friends were giving them that this would be the last time.
There still, however, remained the place that started these fires to begin with.
And within lay the most dangerous players of them all on either side.
The gaze of the Praetorian Avengers, however, only grew more and more cold the more hot on the trial the heroes became.
It was perhaps time to lay it all out over at Atlas Peak.
~ END OF CHAPTER 6 NODE 5
We are not the ones privy to the information as to how or why history repeats itself, or if it even is. Whatever loose strands go off where, only to be corrected later, creating rifts in the “future” and the “present” as they are is merely an invention of the humans to help their mortal minds comprehend time and magic to a certain extent. It was more so the fact that these spirits that were summoned elsewhere from history appeared to be merely stuck in one role, pulled from a specific instance that locked them into a set of features and characteristics, for better or worse. Illness still ravaged them, but they would not die, and merely dealt with it as an annoyance, whether a cure existed for them or not.
However, the one illness that there seemed to be no cure for, save dying or coming to one’s better mind, was the concept of revenge. It soaked through the best of humans at times, consuming their entire essence almost until they were but a mere shadow of their former selves. Some never embodied this so much but a good majority of the servants, their existences forever stuck in that one time and forever having to fight off those regrets and doubts, until they either became better by luck and work, or found themselves sent back to where we all started, at the altar, waiting for another turn to be summoned. If they were ever to be again.
Bringing those embroiled in the drama of the Japanese warring period into the historical Chinese one was an odd decision, but the Oda would bring themselves here to help this day against one of the most bitter and entitled men that history or fiction surrounding it could have ever possibly produced; one of the major players of the Chinese warring eras.
A man ripped from endless wuxia adaptations and historical figure both, the one that stood on the battlefield by the Sonoma forests and hot springs today was the one taken from a very specific version of the story, meant to add some of the “romance” to the title Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in both definitions of the word.
But the most crucial one on this battlefield, besides the Archer as always, was her compatriot and one of the Four Heavenly Wives; the Assassin of Moon Valley, who was now possessed by a woman named Diaochan, one of the Four Great Beauties of Chinese history. Funny how that counting seemed to consistently work out. They were the ones most likely to drive the country’s history, were they real or not, as much of that truth was left on the battlefields they affected.
It wasn’t long after they arrived in the area that the enemy forces found them. At first, the usual generic fight for cheap grinding looked like it was about to play out, until the main figure stepped into the light, a squat, wide man covered in expensive silk and capes, his beard nearly the same size as his girth, wearing a buckle resembling the imperial palace he resided in, bearing an evil regal air as well as a nasty looking halberd, made himself known.
“This is the army you pick to assassinate me this time, Diaochan?” he laughed hard and loud. “Geeze, couldn’t even give them proper armor or weapons or anything! What do you think this little girl’s sword is going to do against me, huh? I’m the Caster of Chang’an and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll throw down all your territory to me and get out!”
“Plenty, if you don’t shut your mouth and get out of here.” the Assassin replied. “I may be half the woman I chose to possess, but I can tell from reading her personality that the Archer that’s decided to fell you at these gates is more than enough to suffice as your next Lu Bu. And we can both assure you, you want to pursue this one even less.”
“You know Casters tend to wail on Assassins, right? Almost ROYALLY so!” he found this to be the funniest line emitted in this story thus far and treated it as such.
“Well, yes, if you’re going to be picking on my wife, you’ll be going through me.” Atma grinned, using her Counter Force powers to change the shape of Hoshigiri into that of a mighty jian and laughed. “Unless you think this kind of sword is more suitable to the task?” she laughed before flicking her sword’s form into a dao. “I got more. Like, what, you all didn’t think someone as highly regarded as a Counter Force wasn’t going to have some cool ability or something?”
> “A true master swordswoman to come out of this era of gunpowder and lasers...”
>>> “The Archer class is really made up of swordsmen”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Cute if you think your parlor tricks can match the real magic of a Caster!” the man laughed before using it to cut open the sky and the ground, laughing as he tried to debuff the good chunk of the Master’s party.
“Dong Zhuo...” the Assassin smirked. “I mean, we have three Riders with us.”
Drake, Bianca, and Quetz waved hello from the sidelines, wondering what kind of matchup this even was. So much for brilliance.
“Yeah, and? I got multiple HP bars and all sorts of nasty tricks to disable your party! You’ll know a cruel, humiliating defeat before it even clocks lunchtime in these miserable lands!”
“Whatever, shall we, Atma?”
With that, the battle against the next named Servant, Dong Zhuo, the Caster of Chang’an had begun in earnest. However, the setup was forcing use of Atma and the Assassin in the front line at least, prompting Gudako to take a look at these skills.
It wasn’t long before she put two and two together. Skill synergy was one of those only times she was good at math. A nasty sneer appeared on her face, though it lacked the outright unshaven nastiness that Dong’s did.
She immediately threw the Maou Nobu up front with them, creating a hit parade of Riders after. You never knew. Not like her login streak was in danger of being lost anytime soon, so a few quartz could likely be spared.
“Oh, this is funny!” the Maou laughed back. “They’re trying to play the tyrant so hard! This is amazing! Don’t they know that I am the flames of hell itself and the demon lord of over three thousand and a thousand more...”
They just let them go off rambling like that a bit. Everyone knew they’d get the job done, but at least half the battle would be full of self affirming dialogue like that. At least the Maou knew how to bathe and trim themselves. Usually.
“So, what kind of rebellion do you hope to incite this time?” Zhou taunted.
It was a chase for a while, waiting for the initial wave of debuffs to wear off, planning around keeping the Assassin alive as Atma used her evade and kept building up her own noble phantasm alongside her wife’s. The Maou gladly took as much as they hit, keeping things annoying with their own invulnerability and giving the others something to sponge up some of the damage with.
In the distance, a platoon of Nobbu clashed as the old Chinese masters did with Zhou’s resurrected army, all of them undead and rotten, born from the scorched earth around the state and the unending need for revenge that pervaded Dong Zhuo’s mind since he was taken in life. If it weren’t for the fact there was an actual war happening, the Nobbu might even be called adorable doing this, using cavalry tactics by riding each other to knock the Caster’s forces off their horses and slapping them around. They were nothing if not resourceful. Bunyan gave them all a big boost by blocking the enemy escape and giving them rides in her hands over rough terrain, looking like the most amazing little ant fight from her visage. At least it was something useful she could do. Skeletons tend to not play nice with axes or chainsaws, especially not those wielded by giant people.
It was about time to unleash the very same tactic, albeit played out this time by a lesbian rather than a Lu Bu, and as Dong Zhuo came to find his gauge charged, Atma slammed her second skill down and locked it for three turns, adding the usual defense debuff for three, leaving him without any options. It’s not like his cooldowns were done yet and his attack stat wasn’t why you’d bring him around. Any skeletal reinforcements he’d have brought in were already returned to the dirt in haste thanks to the Maou knowing that bodies tend to burn quite well, especially the brittle, dry ones that made up the undead. Like, anyone who ever played a JRPG in their life knew that.
And anyone who knew their Three Kingdoms knew that the Assassin used her skills and her own charge to… well, at first it looked odd. It effectively locked Atma in a charm state for one round, and seemingly nothing else, though a clock ending in one turn did go up after. It meant she couldn’t do anything, and they had to rely on the Master knowing when to throw seals and such up to keep the Archer up just long enough that she could live one more turn.
Because thanks to the Diaochan in her, the Assassin had seduced her own soldier willing to take their blade and drive it into Dong Zhuo’s body yet again. History does repeat itself, at least in the eyes of humans, and this man was not allowed to have his revenge.
The next round came, though it never felt soon enough, and Atma found all her stats buffed, especially her attack, her buster, and her noble phantasm damage, having taken that massive risky deficit the previous turn, she was rewarded.
And it came again…
“To reach for the stars...”
“Oh, you have it in you yet to flail one last time? Your clever tricks end here, Diaochan.” the Caster laughed, trying his best not to look scared.
“It really is a shame we’re both half mythology, or in my case almost assuredly so, and neither it nor history would ever use it to look upon you nicely, huh?” the Assassin grinned. “Hers is the sword that cuts through the mere existence of the ambition and ego of those that would think themselves invincible or godly, you know.”
Before the Caster could retort anymore, Atma unleashed the entirety of her noble phantasm, absolutely surpassing any other damage record for the story thus far.
“So that I may cut even them down! Oh, rays of Amaterasu, guide my blade where it needs to cut! Hoshigiri – The Star Slaying Sword! One small slice for me, one giant cut for womankind!”
Battle Finish, victory in favor of the Chaldea alliance.
“Y-You...” Dong Zhuo sat, already beginning to glow that golden that servants did upon defeat. He refused to acknowledge it, spitting up blood, looking bruised and dirty. “How...”
“Because I sense the same something special in this woman that the mind of the lady I’m inhabiting did. And I’m trusting her sense and her faith in this Archer both.” Diaochan huffed. “Besides, she was the easiest one around here to seduce.”
And just like in history, Dong Zhuo said no more and fell over, his reign of tyranny on this area of California was no more. Gone. Another named servant was defeated. He was far too humiliated to once again be destroyed by this love and seduction stuff. Whatever. It was up to his employers now if they were to have any chance of getting California back.
“I’ll be around in the background, but you can have the woman I’m possessing back. You two are a handful.” Diaochan spoke through the Assassin, as if she were just going to bed after hearing a take from Dong Zhuo that bad. In a sense, she was. Nobody was sure how all versions of any one flavor of servant functioned, and those that possessed the others and used them as half servants was even weirder yet. “I can definitely see why she chose you though, if I’m remembering your history right, the one named Weapon. What an interesting title for what you are...”
“You think so, huh?” Atma asked, not expecting an answer from the figure herself.
“She’s not wrong you know.” the Assassin dusted herself off and let out a sigh of relief. “Good thing you got here when you did.”
“Yeah! That guy was mean! And he smelled bad! And he didn’t even have any lunch money on him!” Bunyan chimed in. “...Is everyone okay though?”
“Yeah, good to see you too, Bunyan!” Atma grinned. “Now that things are settled here, would you like Madge to rustle you up some of that bahl chigrel again?”
Bunyan nodded vigorously. “What an amazing woman she is! I am always amazed at everything America came up with for itself, I don’t know if I ever encountered anyone who talked like her in my day! I would have at least remembered her food, if not her hugs.”
“At least she’s as easy to please as ever, huh?” Atma turned to the Assassin. “But yeah, we’re here. Which you can guess only really means one thing; we’re gonna go meet up with the Avengers up at Atlas Peak. Our counter attack came on sudden and strong and unstoppable once I secured us the Master I said I’d go looking for.
>>> “That’s a me, Gudakio!”
> “So three of four now, huh?”
“She seems… exuberant.” the Assassin replied.
“That’s one way of putting it.” Atma went and put Gudako in front of the Assassin. “Gudako, this is Cassandra, who is sometimes also Diaochan. Cassandra, this is Gudako, the Master of Chaldea. She’s as efficient and deadly as she is odd and horny. You’ll get used to it.”
> “Pleased to meet you!”
>>> “How come I can’t even get one of four wives like what gives”
“Told you she’s got that one track mind thing going.”
“Reminds me of someone I know...” Cassandra replied, teasing.
“Like I haven’t gotten enough of this out of the other two!”
The majority of the California Coast from Wine Country on up and going inland was gaining a lot of traction as a reclaimed land. Farmers and the like found they could go out freely again, beginning to rebuild yet again what had been burned down, betting it all on this renewed hope that Atma and her friends were giving them that this would be the last time.
There still, however, remained the place that started these fires to begin with.
And within lay the most dangerous players of them all on either side.
The gaze of the Praetorian Avengers, however, only grew more and more cold the more hot on the trial the heroes became.
It was perhaps time to lay it all out over at Atlas Peak.
~ END OF CHAPTER 6 NODE 5