Don't Trust Your Self
"My... slave... No, no, my servant that exults... exists... ah... somewhere..."
With a heavy sigh, Louise put aside the old tome and rubbed her eyes. For how long was she awake now? Three days, five, seven? She couldn't quite remember, time blurring in her memories like the runic script blurred before her eyes. She knew, however, with clarity defying her half-slumbering mind, that tomorrow was the sacred summoning ceremony, and so she could not rest. Everything must be perfect, or else everything was lost. She needed to keep working, she needed to keep practicing, she needed to keep memorizing the ancient text to prove at last that she was not a failure, to make her last chance count.
She just needed... a little break, to give the insolent runes time to settle into words she could actually comprehend. And if they didn't... well, there would be words, one way or another, and perhaps some fire.
Shaking her head from such thoughts, Louise stood from her chair, stretching her limbs tiredly, and walked to a window. The world continued to blur around her, and so it took her a few moments to realize that something was wrong. She squinted at the sight behind the window, trying to understand what her confused senses were telling her until, finally, she saw it.
There was light.
A single large sickly-yellow moon hang low over the horizon, bleeding its poisonous light onto a grotesque city sprawling as far as the eye could see, its shape paying no heed to geometry or perspective, allowing Louise to see it all. But the moon was not the source of light that disturbed her, the city was aflame as well with thousands lights illuminating its windows and streets and strange horseless carriages moving through them.
Breath caught in her chest, Louise took two steps back, closing her eyes and pressing them with fingers until the darkness behind her eyelids exploded in hues of red.
"What..." she whispered. "I... I... I-It's not real. Just... just exhaustion."
Slowly, slowly she opened her eyes... and the light was gone.
"Just a hallucination," she said with a sigh of relief.
She knew, of course, that prolonged lack of sleep often resulted in hallucinations, though she didn't know they could be such vivid. It wasn't good, but that was something she could deal with... Her gaze fell on the old tome still opened on familiar mantra description... Tomorrow. That was something she could deal with tomorrow, after she proved her worth as a mage.
"At least I'm awake now," she muttered.
Louise closed the window - when did she open it? - and returned to her studies.
...She didn't notice a newspaper lying on the floor, below the window.
The City Times
Madness will set you free
"My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe, I, Louise..."
The world was a vortex of surreal colors bleeding into each other, shifting with her every step. The world was warped, distances changing depending on the angle of her perspective, the hallway stretching for what felt like miles, courtyard collapsing into a single dot. None of it mattered. A pressure was building behind her eye...
"My servant that-ooph!"
"Heeeywat. Ch. Eat."
Louise blinked at the colorful blob she just walked into. Who was it? Kirche? Guiche? She couldn't tell. She could barely comprehend what they were saying, either, the speech fracturing in her mind, sounds forming wrong syllables. Didn't matter. She knew how to fix it all. She knew how to release the pressure...
With great effort, she focused on the blob of colors that resolved into something approaching Professor Colbert and stared at him until she saw him looking back and saying something to her. Taking it for permission, she marched towards the summoning circle, and with each step the pressure grew.
When the world disappeared from her vision entirely, she stopped, took a deep breath and raised her wand.
"My other self that exists behind the closed doors! I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, beg of you! Come to my side!"
It was not the line written in the ancient tome.
It was right.
The pressure was gone, the world was back, and with newly-awakened eyes Louise saw...
The earth shattering.
The sky splitting.
The sun being torn apart.
The darkness descending.
And from the wound in the world, a radiant figure emerging. Her familiar. Beautiful, powerful and wise. Undeniably beautiful, powerful and wise.
She turned around and saw the realization blossoming on the faces of her former tormentors. Former, because now they knew in their heart of hearts that she had a beautiful, powerful and wise familiar. There was no left for denial left in them.
And she had to laugh.
And she had to laugh and laugh.
And she had to laugh and laugh and laugh.
She had to laugh because, for all they knew now that she had a beautiful, powerful and wise familiar, they still failed to realize one crucial, crucial thing.
Their roles were reversed now.
"Familiar!" she shouted in a clear voice. "Kill them all!"
The City Times
Madness will set you free
Forty students and a professor killed by a rampaging familiar
The familiar and its master flee the scene of the crime
Tomorrow, a tragedy will strike the hallowed halls of the esteemed Tristain Academy of Magic...
[ZnT/Don't Rest Your Head crossover]
"F" is for FAMILIAR,
So powerful and wise.
It will do all you can't,
Wouldn't that be nice?
What can I do?
You can summon a beautiful, powerful and wise familiar by your side! It can do everything a friend can, only better because it's not a friend. It's a beautiful, powerful and wise familiar, and let nobody tell you otherwise. In fact, nobody can tell you otherwise because the familiar's qualities are evident to all who can see it, even if it doesn't have any other specified features.
In any case, it's good for performing various heroic deeds like slaughtering a vast amount of enemies and making other people fall in love - or at least lust - with it. The latter is quite tragic, since the familiar is incapable of returning affection due to being beautiful, powerful and wise, and nothing more, not even physical.
(1-2 dice) You summon a familiar, which is a proof of your status as a noble. Nobody can deny that after looking at it. It can perform feats on the level of best animal familiars, though it's prone to disappearing from the story when nobody's looking.
(3-4 dice) You summon a familiar who's probably some kind of hero. Certainly, it's fully capable of fighting off powerful opponents and accidentally seducing everyone else, as well as performing other tasks you may ask from a human-ish creature.
(5-6 dice) You summon an undeniably beautiful, powerful and wise familiar. All shall love it and despair. All will love it and despair. Not even a whole army can stand in its way.
How does it break me?
Fight - Your familiar is powerful, beautiful and wise. Everyone sees it, but not everyone would acknowledge it. There are jealous, hateful people in this world. People who hurt you or who can hurt you. They should pay. They should be brought down, crushed beneath your - well, familiar's - feet, made to beg for mercy. And maybe, just maybe, if they beg well enough, you would spare them.
Flight - Sometimes, the veil of beautiful madness is lifted, and you see the familiar for what it is. And you run, and you hide, and you pray, but it's always, always there, always by your side.
How do I change?
Your familiar is beautiful, powerful and wise. You are not. You have a body that's easy to harm, easy to break. It does not. There is no need to put yourself at risk, and you probably won't make the right choices anyway, not being as wise as the familiar. It will take care of everything, even if it has to go against your will, even if it has to restrain you.
What am I becoming?
You don't need to act, you don't need to think, you don't need to walk, you don't need to live. Those chains are for your protection. The familiar will do everything for you. It's more important than you, anyway. You're just here to let it into this world and empower it. It is the true hero, and you are just the Damsel in Distress.
