Synapsis

A/N: So, this is a collaboration that I proposed with Kamije_Celeek. It's, at its core, a Dishonored AU, and if you don't know what Dishonored is, it's a video game. Don't want to spoil it, but, basically it's about this queen's body guard who, as soon as he returns abroad he and the queen get attacked, and dies, the queen's daughter gets kidnapped, and the bodyguard, Corvo, gets blamed. You spend the entire game sneaking around the city trying to find out who staged the attack, and find the queen's daughter.

This story will show similar story elements, as well as a slight crossover with Final Fantasy, Specifically 8. You can get both on steam if you want to play them yourselves, or you can watch a playthrough on it on youtube. For Final Fantasy, I recommend looking up a youtuber by the name of OSIRIS for his playthroughs. I don't want to spoil it too much, but, get ready for a dozens chapter long epic. I look forward to working with Kamije, but please bare with the infrequent updates as I'm gonna be starting job corps up soon, Nursing program, and Kamije, if you look up any of her stories, is gonna be starting up a job and schooling. So, I'll be getting this explanation out and the first chapter up soon, I also have the first 5 chapters in mind already and should be out by the end of the month, and Kamije can get an idea of what I have in mind for this. So, first off, let me set up the world.

This takes place on Earth, our Earth. 1000 years in the future. Magic exists, science has expanded, but also declined a bit so it's more steampunk, and also, the gods exist. All of them. I'm calling it the Rick Riordan approach. Main characters are the Greeks, Romans, Norse and the Aztecs, but the Aztecs don't play an important role until later. Much later.

Max belongs to the Kasion Empire, which is located in what is today the southern United States, the capital being modern day Baton Rouge with New Orleans being their main port. Apart from the Emperor and Empress there is also the High Sorcerous and High Warlock who handle the magic for warfare. The Sorcerous plays a more defensive role while the Warlock plays a more offensive role. And also the Grand Wizard who is more of a researcher. David is the Wizard and is actually very good at magic. There is also the Queen Regent who is an elected official, usually the Empress, but can be someone else if there elected in. They're the matrons, kind of, a bit like the secretary of state today, and can fill in for the Empress or Emperor if need be.

The parton gods for Max's Empire are Poseidon and Neptune, respectively. Poseidon fills the roll for peaceful sea voyagers. You would pray to him for calm waters for your travels, bountiful catches for fishing and less severe storms once storm season hits. Neptune is who you would pray to for sea battles when your at war. Stroms to wipe out enemy armadas. Poseidon's temple is in New Orleans and Neptunes is under the water, about 500 meters under the surface of the water.

Then there is the New York Empire, where the capital is located in modern day New York, obviously. They are more industrialized than the other two, and is the leading power in weapons and airships. There patron gods are Vulcan and Athena. You can guess why. Neil hails from here

The third and final empire that will make an appearance in this story is the Atleason Empire. The capital is located in modern day Seattle. They are more magically inept than the rest. They're more peaceful than the rest, and haven't participated in any major wars since the founding of their empire. There patron gods are Odin, Zeus and Tir, with Jupiter for any wartime emergencies. Nikki hails from here.

Apart from the three empires and the Aztecs are in Mexico and Central America but there are also the Elves to the north in modern day Canada. The Western tribes of Elves are cool with the Atleasians, but the Eastern tribes are constantly at war with New York. Something about too much pollution?

There are also nomadic tribes and small border kingdoms at the edges of the empires, but are only small skirmishes.

The names are subject to change, but I also want there to be a few Rwby characters in there too. So, the Atlas Empire, the Atleasians, is gonna be such a place. I know that Seattle isn't permanently snowy, but, just roll with it. I also have some GREAT plans in mind involving a certain Adam Torus.

Now, as to why there are empires in what use to be america and gods and magic and elves? Well…. Over 1000 years before the story takes place, there is a war. The gods got fed up with not be noticed for milenia, so, they decided to show themselves, and the modern day millennial didn't like it, so, people fought back. Long story short, nukes ended up being used and the gods called a truce. How can you solicit worship or even be noticed if all the people are dead? Right. You can't. So, to cement the truce the gods gifted man with 4 elemental crystals. Water, fire, air and earth. Water is with the Kasians, fire with New York and air with the Atleasians. The earth crystal is with the Aztecs somewhere, the location not known to those of us in the north. Eventually kingdoms rose around these crystals, and the first families that were gifted the crystals by the gods became royalty. Between then and now, over 1000 years later the empires were minted.

Now, like in all Final Fantasy there is the Party. Not, party as in you get waisted and lucky, no, but there will be plenty of that in this story, I assure you. No, this Party is in a group of people who travel together. The main trio is, of course, Max, Nikki and Neil. The rest of the Camp Camp crew will be there too, Harrison and Nerris will be the party's main mages, Ered will a scout, Nurf will be the fighter. I don't know what practical use Dolf would have, outside of some painfully obvious Nazi stereotypes, but, he's an artist from Europe, but, that's all I got so far. As for Preston, well, he applied to be the castle play right in Max's kingdom. But… he got shoved to be the court jester instead… yeah. I'm gonna have SO much fun writing about Preston :) Hopefully Kamije does too.

And like any and all Final Fantasy's there is also the Love Subplot. As you know from reading my other stories and also from my very own NSFW story on my profile, I like Max/Nikki and a bit of Max/Nikki/Neil. Kamije is for Max/Nikki as well, take a look at her profile just to see. I'm also having plans for a Harrison/Nerris an a Herrison/Nerris/Ered. And a fair bit of smut too. Not a whole lot, but, enough to keep the story spicy and interesting. But if Kamije and I can write this story correctly, the smut won't come until about 20 chapters in, if my planning is gonna go correctly and if me and Kamije do the collaboration right…. THis is my first time writing one. Anyway, to show how I usually write, this is a little scene I thought of last night as I was drifting off to sleep.

So, for context without getting too spoilery, this takes place after the first act and the main party that at this point will consist of Max, Nikki, Neil, Gwen and David, manage to escape from the Kasiain empire capital city and are on a party cruise that's traveling up the Mississippi. They blend in and get lost in the crowd and spot Harrison performing magic tricks in the auditorium. After the show they talk to him and tell him a bit of their situation and to catch up for some old times. A little up the Mississippi the boat docks and Nerris and Ered, who are sort of a couple, boards the ship for a vacation. They meet the party, Nerris runs into Harrison, who have had a past relationship, even was gonna have a baby, but, things went wrong, the baby was lost, and their relationship falls apart, and they each blame themselves. Nerris blames herself because she didn't listen that too much magic during pregnancy could cause… complications. And Harrison blames himself because he didn't stop her. Things heat up, and she leaves. Herrison finds himself drifting and doing what he knows best. Making people smile. Here's what I got.

Harrison was smoking on a balcony overlooking the water below, the murky water of the Mississippi rushing past as the boat made its way up steam. Taking another drag he sighed as he exhaled the smoke from his lungs.

"You know," he said flicking the cigarette overboard. "You can just come out and speak to me. You know you've never been able to hide from me."

He turned around to see Nerris, eyes wide from being discovered and standing timidly. "How… how did you know it was me?"

"I always know it's you," he said leaning his back against the railing. "I know who you are no matter how much you try to hide."

"Oh," she rubbed her arm and looked down. "When did you start smoking?"

"When I failed to quit," he said, taking out the carton from his pocket and bringing out another one. "But in all seriousness," he brought up the stick to his mouth, and snapped his fingers. A small flame came to life on the end of the cigarette, and he took a drag. "I started after you left me. And that was a neat spell by the way. Some sort of archaic curse? Cuz one day I couldn't remember where we lived. I couldn't remember your face. I couldn't even remember how to do magic. Just… poof!" He said poof with smoke coming out of his mouth. "Really, it was impressive."

She didn't say anything, just gripped her arm tighter, here eyes set and some tears welling up.

"Why did you do it? After nearly a year, I think I deserve an explanation." She still didn't say anything. Just closed her eyes, and hung her head in shame. Signing, he took a long drag and threw the cigarette over the railing. "Nice to see you. You look good by the way," and he made his way past her and back into the ship.

She stopped him by grabbing his arm as he passed. "It's because I love you… and I hate myself."

Harrison, for once, was at a loss for words. "What?"

"I… I lost the baby. Our baby! I kept practicing my magic, I kept up with my research, I tried to do that… that fucking experiment!" Harrison fully turned to look at her. "I tried that summoning spell, and all it gave me was a miscarriage and I lost our fucking baby! And… it was all my fault…." She was openly crying now. "I left because I don't deserve you. I left because you don't deserve me. I left because I couldn't deal with it all. And I erased your memory because you deserve better than me. Someone who will listen when they're told that something is dangerous. You deserve better than me."

Harrison had enough. He grabbed her by the shoulders and forcefully turned her around. She squeaked and staired up at him in terror.

"Listen to me and listen good!" He said. "Are you listening?" She nodded frantically. "Good. I love you!" Her eyes, if they could, widened even more. "I have, and will always love you! Yes, we lost the baby, yes, it was devastating, it still is! I could have had a little boy or a girl, we could have had a little boy or a girl! I know it was difficult for you in ways I couldn't even possibly begin to imagine. But, we could have gotten through it together. I don't blame you, I never did. I love you. Which is why it's almost killed me to know that you did that. It took me 6 months to undo your spell, and when it did, I spent another 6 looking for you. I eventually got a job here, on this ship. And when I saw you today, I was so happy… and so angry too! How could you do this? How could you leave me and make me forget you. To me… that was worse than losing the baby, because I had lost you too. The light of my life."

He was crying now. A year of pent up emotion spilling out.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" Nerris said, openly sobbing as well.

"Don't be!" Harrison said. "Just… just…." he sighed, as if saying 'fuck it' and kissed her.

Again, her eyes went wide, but she melted into it.

A few minutes, or a lifetime passed, and they broke apart. "I've dreamed of this moment for so long, when I can be with you again," he said, placing a hand on her cheek, wiping a tear from her face with his thumb.

"Yeah," she said, laying her head on his chest. "Me too.

Well, this is as rough as a rough draft can get. Hope me and Kamije can polish this up. I'm gonna post this and get working on those chapters. The working title I got for this story is Dishonored: Gods among us. Hopefully I got you all hyped, let's get this started.