Avatar of Moonlit Sonata
  • Last Seen: 4 yrs ago
  • Joined: 10 yrs ago
  • Posts: 459 (0.13 / day)
  • VMs: 0
  • Username history
    1. Moonlit Sonata 10 yrs ago

Status

Recent Statuses

7 yrs ago
Current The dazzling Sonata makes her return~!
1 like

Bio

User has no bio, yet

Most Recent Posts


Well, it seemed that at least someone here was attempting to ally people together to deal with the threat. Ruler couldn't deny that he was opposed to this measure at some level; otherwise, he'd just have called the war off until the threat was dealt with. The show had to go on, though; the Grail War had to reach a conclusion, and if they waited until the threat was dealt with then by that time the very limited clock on the Grail War could have ticked away.

However...

The other party would probably undermine the war itself if this was allowed to continue. A simple hiatus until the threat was neutralized would waste too much time, but continuing the war as-is would go against his duty as Ruler by just as strong an amount. Whatever the enemy was, it needed to be dealt with before another step forwards could be taken.

"...I know the locations of all summoned Servants. Priests will be sent to deliver a message to each of them; these are neutral parties, so do not attack them or follow them in the hopes of ambushing who they are delivering the messages to. Doing so will make me view you as a threat." He spoke up coldly, adjusting his sunglasses as a sharp exhale left him.

"The message will be as follows: come to the Eastern Field at sundown today. I will be calling for a meeting between all Servants of this war. Servants who do not attend will be forced by means of a Command Seal to commit suicide. Masters are also encouraged to attend if they think themselves able to contribute, but this is not required. The purpose of this meeting will be to work out a way to deal with this interference."

The overseer of the Holy Grail War stood tall, an unbending oak to weather the storm that laid ahead, and with this new source of conviction, he made a statement that dwarfed all that had been said so far.

"I will bring snacks."

The Holy Grail War had finally begun in earnest.
Team Sumanai and Team Yukimura have been crippled because Breo, so I've been yelling at him. @Cu Chulainn's status is unknown. Teams Chi You and Rostam are around, Team(?) Norton and Solo Scrub as well. @Player 2's more or less freed up now. I'm not sure if @ConstantlyComic and @Kost Alter are doing something.

So basically we've got a couple of people who are making things drag.

At @SIGINT's Master's suggestion, there will be an event that will hopefully help things pick up shortly.
Two


"Eh?"

A mock sort of surprise flitted across the homunculus's face at Ivy's question, which then shifted into amusement. "What sort of question is that? I call it a freak because it's a freak. It's like Father's always said, calling whatever it is a tree is off the mark. The Adventurer's Guild officially has it classified as a tree-class monster with a mutation that gives it abnormal spiritual strength, which makes its poisons and its control domain off the charts, on top of letting it control magical energy inside that domain. But, here's the snag, it doesn't matter how strong your spirit is, creating a domain that controls the world within a specific area like that is impossible with methods like that. Doing the impossible, what else do you call that but a freak?"

Shrugging haplessly, Two let out a chuckle under his breath, an unseemly look for one of his apparent age. "If you ask Father, though, then it's not that Yggdrasil has that spiritual strength because it's a mutation, it's that it has that spiritual strength because it's the only one that's not mutated. As for what that means, only Yggdrasil and Father know. My Total Appraisal might be at the peak, but I don't have the insight needed to make perfect use of it, like owning a library but only knowing a handful of languages."

At Iris's other remark, though, he nodded slightly. "...hm, yeah, that probably has something to do with it. Injection by a foreign source, divine intervention maybe, who knows. It's probably nothing special though, so don't go getting a bloated ego; I said We've seen this before, after all, and the last person We saw who had that sort of information got full of himself, grabbed a sword, and went charging into that dungeon that not even Yggdrasil knows the contents of, despite it being in his forest. Don't be like that idiot. Also probably stay away from Father's tower. I'll be reporting this all to him, so if you decide to visit, odds are he'll make you an experiment in an attempt to work that information out of you."
Two


"The library isn't hiring, but if you hit it off well enough the librarian, she might be willing to give you a part-time job. With that said, you don't exactly have much in the way of employable skills." The boy replied to Kluuto, shrugging slightly. "And to answer the others' question, no, I don't have jobs I need done. Nothing that shouldn't be done by myself, at least; a newly-awakened goblin without an ounce of magical strength doesn't have any use for me." He said rather coldly, leaving Sabu to only laugh slightly at the boy's demeanor.

"Gahaha! You could let them down a little bit easier, you know!" He remarked, grinning widely, only to be met with the terse reply of the boy.

"...what's the point of that?"

"Gahaha, you haven't changed a bit!"

At Iris's question, though, a hint of amusement entered the boy's eyes, the trace of a laugh leaving him. "Well, likely not, but that's largely because the number of humans my age is relatively slim. The population above ninety years in age is a pretty small proportion." He replied. "To make that clear, I'm not human. I'm a homunculus, artificial life created through the alchemy of humanity's strongest magician. I've been stationed here for just under a century to monitor that freak, Yggdrasil. Well, that and potentially to serve as a last line of defense for the city if something were to happen, but I despise combat, so I'd rather that doesn't happen." He explained, puffing up with pride a bit at the mention of his creator.

With that, the process of Total Appraisal was conducted on those who remained. Lyminia, Ivy, and then Redd.

"Mostly the same as the last one. Standard physical parameters, no skills of note, slightly stronger soul than expected, possession of a Gift, no Evolution criteria met, information that I can't penetrate. Oy, just what's up with this group of yours? Even among all of my siblings, We've only seen this sort of thing, information outside of Total Appraisal's purvey, three times in the past. I'll have to report this to Father. Your Gift is related to heat and earth, so you've got some heat resistance and a subpar affinity for fire elemental essence; of course, as your soul gets stronger, so will that affinity since it's a result of the Gift. Depending on Evolutions and training, the Gift could either stay balanced, or one aspect could get exaggerated over the other. Valuable training places would probably be places like volcanoes, but there are only a handful of those on the continent, and they're all hotbeds for monsters that could kill you in an instant. There's also Below, but you'd need to be Father's equal to even attempt that."

"Mm, as for you, it's exactly the same thing in specs. Really, the only thing different among you is your Gifts and your minds. Oy, Vaish, are the gods engineering this or something? At any rate, your Gift currently lets you gauge properties of plants. That'll become more detailed as the soul grows stronger, and later on it could do things like grant certain affinities, allow one to speak with nature, or any variant of similar things depending on your Touchstones. If you're able to earn Yggdrasil's respect, then it's probably your best resource for the time being; that thing's the strongest plant-type existence in the known world, after all. In this specific case, the guidance it can give you is better than what I can."

"And you...oh, blood, huh? By coming into contact with its blood, you can gauge something's species. That could expand out into a more general detection ability, blood elemental affinities, vampiric capacities, maybe even acquiring abilities through blood. Again, it depends on your Touchstones. Most humans aren't going to take very kindly to that, especially if you try to go for vampiric Evolutions. It's also one of the harder ones to train, but combat's probably the easiest means. Consider visiting the Adventurer's Guild. Ah, and be careful, if you decide to shoot too high above your class in dealing with blood, you probably won't survive. Ingesting the blood of a Greater Dragon, for instance, would kill you almost immediately even with your Gift."

"Uh...physical description...I mean, he was there for like, half a second maybe, so I'm not gonna paint a picture of him. Most-all Berserker managed to get was that it was a black-haired man. Kinda long-ish, maybe..."

"-and something about his eyes being off."


...ah, so that was it. That was the source of this feeling. Ruler's right hand, having released the cane previously held in it minutes earlier when the Boxzerker had appeared, clenched into a tight fist.

“When the familiar reached him, Lancer had brought out his spear... not that it did him much good. I don't know if they fought beforehand or if it was an instantaneous attack, but a... man with black hair had put his fist through Lancer's heart."

"No, 'man' isn't the right word. I don't know what he was. He didn't seem like a Servant, but yet he struck Lancer down in a single blow.”

“I looked at him for a moment, this 'thing'. I can't describe it exactly, but something was deeply wrong about him. He was... empty.”


That could hardly be a coincidence. This thing, this existence that almost certainly one of the freak's demons and yet was capable of matching and exceeding a Servant in parameters, was interfering with the war.

...and yet, Ruler's options were practically nonexistent. If this was a Servant, he could monitor its location from afar, call it to him with a Command Seal, see its weaknesses at a glance, or even force it to kill itself. Against something that wasn't a Servant, though, the cheat-like advantages of the Ruler class were null.

"...it seems I was mistaken, then. The man you've described is not the property of that Servant; as far as I know, he is a true third-party."

He could put the war on hiatus until the offending party had been found and cut down, but how long would that take? The Holy Grail War couldn't be sustained forever, and if it was postponed for too long then it would end in failure, even if the third-party was apprehended. On the other hand, continuing the war as it was would only mean this thing would be able to continue acting.

"Appears as a black-haired human male. Does not emit prana in the same way as a Servant. Capable of killing a Knight-Class Servant with little difficulty. Whatever it is, this being is now a public enemy of the Holy Grail War. Whoever brings me its head will be substantially rewarded."

Wasn't enough, that certainly wasn't enough, but what else could he do? Scour the city aimlessly until he found it? If it could detect Servants, as it seemed to be able to do, then that would be the blind searching for the seeing; he'd fail almost without question. Deploy his Noble Phantasm? Granted, that was an option, but he couldn't play such a card this early in the war, in case another Servant took advantage of the situation.

...draw it out of hiding?

Killed a Servant, kidnapped a Master. What was its aim, exactly? To cause chaos in the war, to obtain those Command Seals, to locate the Grail? If he knew its motive, maybe he could stage a trap.

"Any suggestions to deal with this situation are welcome."

"...really, now?"

At Nakae's statement of resolution, the corners of Ruler's lips turned upwards slightly. Even with his sunglasses on, it was clear to tell that, despite the utter absurdity of what had just been said, he was impressed at some level.

"You have one inactive Command Seal, no Servant, and from the look of you, you're not even a magus. Forget taking on a Servant, if you just plan on taking on an experienced Master, you'd die four times out of five. Even given all of that, though, you're still planning on fighting?"

The overseer shook his head slightly, a chuckle leaving him. "Well, it's not my place to stop you. As per your decision, you're henceforth a continued participant in the Holy Grail War. If not for my restraining of that freak, you'd already be dead, so you won't get any aid from me as per my neutrality. Similarly, you are not under my protection due to this decision. I can only hope you do not regret this choice. If your desire is strong enough though, then I'm sure a path will manage to appear."

Before he could go on, though, the comatose Master of the departed Boxzerker awoke. Ruler turned slightly to face her, coughing slightly at just how casually he was referred to as "the gaudy dude". At the girl's sudden outburst, though, he let out a slight sigh. "As the now-partnerless Master can attest, there is a Servant in this war who commands 'monsters'. In all likelihood, what had 'kidnapped' the magus was one such being. He has almost certainly been killed by that Servant." He explained with a tint of coldness, his mind going back to the thought of that freak.

For something to be referred to as a monster, the most likely candidate was one of her demons. Granted, Ruler had no idea why the Boxzerker had said his Master was "kidnapped", but chalked it up to an eccentricy of that Servant. After all, he was hardly a normal one; in all likelihood, the Master was simply grabbed and then killed seconds later. The Berserker wasn't particularly powerful among Servants, so the idea of one of those demons being able to overpower him wasn't outside of the imagination. All in all-

"Hm?"

Ruler froze up slightly as a chill ran down his back. Something in a sense beyond the physical, not born of his own abilities but rather born of the container that the Holy Grail had assigned him, screamed into his head to the point of being deafening when his mind moved to dismiss the girl's claim.

This was wrong. The same kind of wrong as when that Lancer died. The same kind of wrong that was why the Holy Grail had decided he was necessary.

"...this monster, describe it to me."


Black-Haired Man

++GOOD AFTERNOON++

++PRIMARY INSTALLATION COMPLETED++

++SECONDARY, TERTIARY, QUATERNARY INSTALLATIONS NOT COMPLETED++

++RESONANCE SUBTASK COMPLETED++

++■■■■■■■■■■ TRANSFERANCE PARTIALLY COMPLETE++

++REMAINING TIME REQUIRED FOR COMPLETION OF ALL TASKS: FOUR DAYS++

++ORDER RECEIVED FROM MASTER/MASTER/MOTHER/FATHER/GOD: DISCONTINUE INCOMPLETE TASKS++

++GOOD AFTERNOON, STIRNER CARTISIUS++

++IT IS TIME TO AWAKEN++

++IMPLANTING PRIMARY DIRECTIVE++

++GATHER STARS++

++BRIGHT STARS WHO WILL NOT LOSE TO MANKIND'S EVIL, NOR ANY FORM OF DARKNESS++

++HEROES WHO HAVE EARNED THAT NAME++

++THOSE WHO YOU CAN CALL FRIEND++

++GATHER STARS, STIRNER CARTISIUS++

++AND SO IT SHALL BE, THAT A MORE WONDERFUL WORLD WILL ARISE++
That was the plan, yeah. I'll need a sound off from everyone who wants to be included in the next post, so speak up if you're one of those.

The young boy nodded as Kluuto volunteered herself, a slight chuckle leaving him at the goblins' collective reaction to him. He was hardly surprised by that, of course, but that didn't make it any less amusing to see. "Very well, very well. Ah, you probably don't have a strong enough soul to actually fight back, but if you do then please don't. This is a bit more intrusive than normal Appraisal or those markers of the guards, so if you try to resist then your soul might...break."

Before Kluuto even had so much as a chance to blurt out a response, the air grew dense around the boy with the reek of magical energy; unlike the red and black fog of Sabu and the human general he had fought, there was no visible indication this time save for the fact that one could certainly gauge that "something was being channeled". The boy's eyes met Kluuto's, a wry grin playing across his face.

"<Vaish, grant me eyes.>"

Visible only to Kluuto, from the boy's eyes streamed light, a flowing burst that jolted like a burst of static from his eyes and into the Goblin's. If the actions of the guards had made them feel exposed, then this was that same feeling brought up to the utmost degree. And then, as quickly as it began, it had ended, the boy nodding to himself lightly while Kluuto would likely feel drained from the ordeal.

"Mm, not bad. You haven't undergone any Touchstones, but your soul's a bit stronger than a normal Goblin's would be starting out, even with a Gift. Having a Gift itself is always pleasant as well. Language comprehension's certainly valuable to have, especially if you decide to try your hand at the more ancient ones. Physical parameters are normal. Magical potential...well, you don't have any elemental affinities, but given the strength of your soul, you could probably become competent in magic if you put in the work to learn and get the appropriate Evolutions; your Gift will no doubt help with that. Right now, you're not meeting any Evolution qualifications, but you could probably get into a more humanoid Goblin form if you had higher exposure to humans, or any variant of scribe-themed monsters if you work on your Gift. Alternatively, you could go for a more standard Evolution, improving your physical parameters to qualify for Hobgoblin or something. Those are just some examples of course, not even I know every single monster a Goblin could theoretically evolve into."

"What's a bit more curious is that the state of your soul's a bit odd. There's some information in there that even a Total Appraisal can't penetrate, which is something We've almost never seen in the past." He remarked, grin widening a bit. "Almost like there's information there that doesn't belong in this world."

Shrugging a bit, the boy let out another chuckle. "Well, hopefully that answers your questions. Any others who want a go?"
@SIGINT
Oh, huh.

Well, strictly speaking there's a difference between the CSs and the contract, as per the first bit of FSN. The CSs are all used, but neither party's severed the contract, so technically they're still partnered.

If Berserk Gene consents, then they're still together. With that said, Player 2 had to deal with moving and stuff hence the delay with Stirner's things, but that's more or less done now, so you three will need to work this out among yourselves.

Waiting for an update from Player 2 before I proceed, since what's happening with him will change what I do with Ruler and Nakae.
@Moonlit Sonata So uuuhm... It's been a little while, so I was wondering when can I get started? Me and @ConstantlyComic have sort of formed an unofficial partnership, but I have no clue when I should make a first post and what that first post should be. For example, should we wait until the next day phase (in RP-time)? Should my first post be the summoning of Comic's servant? If so, how do we justify a servant being summoned 2 days after the war's official start? Any help/guidelines would be much appreciated.


Whenever you want. You can wait until the next phase if you want, but now would work fine. You can do things before the summoning if you're so inclined. There's no justification needed given the shape of the war in this instance.

I'll try and have a post up tomorrow when I'm dying less.
© 2007-2024
BBCode Cheatsheet