AN: How you doing everybody? It's a Wednesday night for me, and I'm feeling in the mood to write some. We'll be going along with Liam into the streets of Las Vegas but first, let's cover a guest review!
Guest #1: First off thanks for the review! I'm not too worried about getting recognition for my work; I started writing as a sort of role-playing experience. Basically I'd ask a "What if?" question in my head that would develop to the point of having a story. After that, I made a couple of characters that fit with the basic concept. Overall it's encouraging to see some reviews though.
I've got nothing else for ya!
~enjoy
"Speech"
Thoughts
Powerful Being Speaking
-Setting/Line Skip-
Down Under
As Liam barreled out of the Lotus Casino's main floor into the street the boy's eyes went wide. Perfectly matching the room behind him the strip was filled with blazing lights and colors which appeared to bring life to his surroundings. Looking up he couldn't even see a single star in the night sky through the thick buzz of light.
Quickly bringing his head back down Liam sprinted forward with a cacophony waiting just behind him. The large crowd of people was still pushing about with the casino's guards making a sort of ring around its edges. It was barely enough to hold the horde back. Each of the glassy-eyed people were pushing and prodding at the guard's defensive ring, like a cat playing with a mouse.
Crap, where did they go? Liam thought with his eyes frantically pacing back and forth, looking for any sign of the trio that left him behind. There was a small trill of anger smoldering within his chest at the thought. They upped and left him without a second thought.
It was like there was a small bead of molten iron lodged within his chest refusing to cool off.
"H-Hey, over here!" called out a feminine voice. Instantly, the vampire's head whipped around towards the noise to see Annabeth waving an arm. She, along with Percy and Grover, were both tucked away into a nearby alley between the Lotus Casino and something called the "Lucky 38." The large tower-like building was a beacon in the night, brightly shining like all the rest on the Vegas strip. (1)
As quickly as he could Liam walked over, making a conscious effort to avoid the stragglers as he pushed through the busy sidewalk. Coming up to the alleyway, the boy's nose scrunched as a potent smell of fetid rot wafted towards his face.
Liam's eyes quickly shot over towards a nearby closed dumpster before turning back. Approaching the trio he thought, Gross...I guess I'll just have to deal with it for now.
The four quietly stood within the hidden pathway, looking a little worse for wear. The trio, as Liam had taken to calling them, appeared sweaty and uncomfortable in the cities heat. Annabeth's hair was a definite mess with her pristine ponytail being lost, the tie somewhere amidst the casino floor. One of them appeared to be a little more emotional than the rest with his sea-green eyes angrily glaring a hole into the back of Liam's head.
Finally catching his breath, Percy growled, "What in Hades was that back there?"
The son of Poseidon's voice came out with righteous fury. It was a step up from before with the culled suspicion and anger being pushed into the forefront of his mind. Subconsciously, one the boy's hands were slinking closer to his pocket.
"What do you mean?" inquired Liam, turning around to face him. Like before the vampire didn't pick up on the conversation's undertones, being almost oblivious to the other boy's plight. The young vampire's head was tilted to the side with a disinterested look on his face.
Annabeth appeared to be a bit confused with her sending a curious glance at the two boys. Despite knowing why Percy was originally suspicious, she couldn't quite understand why he was being so confrontational. It just didn't make sense, and she hated it when things didn't make sense.
The last person in the alleyway had his beady eyes darting about, fearfully looking at Liam before moving to Percy. All the while a potent scent hit his nose. Distinctly standing out from the dumpster's stench, the satyr caught a whiff of something that scared him.
Mixed in with a baleful cold was the coppery scent of blood, slowly overpowering the young satyr's mind. It smelled like a monster, but it was just a bit off. He couldn't quite place why. The most worrying thing was that the scent was all around, radiating throughout the alley like the beast was right in front of them.
"You know what I'm talking about!" exploded the demi-god while pointing a single finger at the bloodied shield still strapped onto Liam's hand. The thick red substance was slowly beginning to dry, coating the wood and metal with a crusty brown.
Brown eyes quickly looked down at the shield before a little bit of disbelief sprung up in Liam's mind. Of all things, that's what the boy cared about? A little bit of blood? Nauseously mixing in with the smell of the nearby dumpster was that familiar honeyed scent, silently tempting him to have a taste.
Bringing his view back up the vampire replied, "Really? All that? For just a bit of blood?"
Each small phrase came out with short pauses between them, almost as if Liam was still trying to work it out in his head. At the end of it, the vampire just couldn't understand; it was nothing more than a bit of blood. Why was it such a big deal?
A vein popped on the demi-god's brow as he shouted, "I don't give a damn about the blood! Why did you hurt them? You could have killed someone!"
Each of the words came out in an increasingly louder tone, only being matched by the look of anger on Percy's face. Across from him, Liam flinched at the sudden shout, still in doubt that the other boy would care.
Within the back of his mind, a Prince slowly began to feed a fire. Small emotions started to drawl out like a forge's bellows, growing Liam's ire. Without saying a word, The Prince of Domination had his scion beneath his thumb, following emotions he thought were his own.
The vampire didn't notice his sudden desire to put the boy in front of him in his place. It was like there was some far off part of him that abhorred the boy in front of him. That feeling slowly spread throughout his entire being, becoming vindictive fury.
"So what?" growled Liam, taking one step forward. He could feel small amounts of magicka begin to swirl around, slowly becoming his own. If the three were capable they would have seen light-blue wisps gather around the boy's hands.
Tightly gripping the pen in his pocket, the demi-god fumed, "So what? So what! SO WHAT!"
His words came out with more of that righteous anger, slowly rising up his chest. He couldn't understand it; Liam's voice came out without any care at all, as if the boy couldn't see what he had done. Either that or he just didn't care.
Liam felt power draw within his limbs, just waiting for any attack. His animosity was only fueled further, not only by Molag Bal's rage but a sense of courage permeating his mind. Liam felt like he did back on the first night; the vampire felt like he could take on the world. (2)
"Well maybe I wouldn't have done it if you hadn't left me behind!" he exploded, bearing his teeth with a low growl. Immediately the trio went deadly silent. Liam took a vice grip to his mace before noticing something was off with the three.
Grover had stepped back, tripping over a garbage bag before falling against the dumpster. Annabeth's skin went noticeably pale before she reached down to grab something at her waist. Liam's eyes could easily pick up the celestial bronze sheen of a dagger meeting the night's air. Weirdly, he spotted Percy pulling a small pen out of his side pocket.
Still with the same fury burning in his chest, the vampire asked, "What?"
Silence met his ears. For the trio it was like a slow-building sense of dread was eating at their resolve, a cold tendril of terror pushing into their hearts. Two scarlet eyes burned within the darkness. From where Percy was standing, he could see Liam's teeth. Two digits were outstretched, razor-sharp edges gleaming in the low light. Both of the feature's were something so inhuman that it only sought to bring out more unnatural fear into their hearts.
That sam otherworldly sense of horror circled around, like an unholy miasma pervading their senses.
Liam- no the thing, decided Percy, continued to stare at them with smoldering eyes. The demi-god finally steeled the fear within him before saying, "S-Stay back!"
Confused, the vampire continued to stare as the trio got further and further away. They formed a sort of triangle, pointed directly at him. Before they could even begin, thoughts asking just why they were so scared of him were squashed only to be replaced by more rage.
It flowed like a river of fire, raging through Liam's body with reckless abandon. A large sense of power came with it; however, whether or not it was anything but careless bravado was debatable. Bearing his fangs once more, he exclaimed, "Go on then! Get the hell out of here!"
Almost immediately, Percy's worried eyes turned towards the daughter of Athena. Looking for some type of recognition, the demi-god tilted his head. Annabeth's answer followed soon after in the form of a short nod. Tensing her legs Annabeth thought back to a silver card still stuck in her back pocket.
Out in front of the vampire, worn sneakers impacted concrete as the two rushed off. The satyr quickly followed behind, his goat-hoofed feet clacking away at the stone. Angrily, Liam let off a yell before quickly storming towards the nearest thing to him.
Within the alleyway, loud metal screeching echoed within the night as the vampire let out his frustrations on a poor, lonely dumpster. Curled fists met hardened steel; he let out a frustrated grunt with each hit slowly pouring out an ocean of rage. Liam's fingers uncurled.
Without even thinking, he plunged them forward raking along with the dumpster's green metal. The container let out one last howling cry as the boy's fingers raked through the steel, making small lines in it. The fury within him smoldered down to a low pulse as he brought his hand back out.
The appendage ended in what appeared to be small claws. They ran along the top of his fingertips perfectly following his nails. As more clarity came to Liam he silently wondered how they weren't broken. Roughly shoving the curious part of him to the side, the vampire let out a low sigh.
I almost did it again. Thought Liam, his head slowly pushing itself up into the night sky. The glow in his eyes began to fade as the boy leaned up against a nearby wall, slowing his breaths.
His mind reeled as Liam replayed the scene in his head. In the span of a few seconds, he almost lost it again. And over what? A little bit of yelling? To the vampire, it just didn't make any damn sense. His thoughts were slowly drawn back to the hitchhiker in his mind who was being suspiciously quiet for how close to a fight Liam was.
"So come on, what is it? You got anything to say?" growled the boy with a pointed look on his face. Unlike before Liam's voice came out with none of the all-consuming heat; there was nothing but quickly cooling embers.
Slowly he felt an uncomfortable presence wash over his body like something was watching him. As quickly as the sensation appeared, it fled with Molag Bal replying, They're not worthy. You wouldn't make them leave, so I gave you incentive.
Like always the voice came out like nails on a chalkboard with its demon-like undercurrents climbing up Liam's spine. Slowly, grasping out for some semblance of control the boy yelled out, "Stay the hell out of my head!"
Unfortunately for him, the boy's plea would go ignored with the Prince letting out a small chuckle. The presence left his mind as the baleful laughing suddenly came to an end. Holding back a curse, Liam looked up into the sky towards the ever waxing moon; it was only a few short days away from full.
-The Streets of Las Vegas, Near the Lucky 38-
As soon as Liam got done yelling at the voice in his head his mind was brought back to his current situation. The vampire was miles away from anywhere he knew with, from what he could remember, the area surrounding him being a desert.
He was all alone, with precious little supplies, in a place that he's never been. Any one of those could eventually spell disaster. Pacing about the alleyway splitting the Lucky 38 and the Lotus Casino, Liam thought of a way to get out of his current predicament.
After a solid ten minutes of no slapstick ideas coming to mind, the boy hurried his pace, a little bit of nervousness reaching into his stomach. What if he never made it back? What if he got lost? What if-
Quickly cutting off the vampire's rambling questions was a younger male voice who exclaimed, "What the fuck?"
A short distance away a younger man, early to mid twenties, was carrying a plastic bag of trash over his shoulders. From what Liam could see, he had on a hairnet and apron. The dark-skinned man was staring at the battered dumpster, both of his eyes opened wide.
Instinctively, Liam hunched his back against the wall further slinking into Nocturnal's embrace. The night covered him like a cloak as the vampire silently watched the cook who was running his hands over the marks covering the garbage container.
"An animal?" muttered the man before lightly setting down the large bag of, what Liam assumed to be, foodstuffs from the kitchen. The boy could make out the slight smell of chicken as a yellowish liquid leaked from the bag, spewing onto the concrete below.
The cook quickly turned back towards the wide-open door just a few feet down before hurrying back towards it. In his rush, the man left the door open. Just before he entered, Liam heard the man say, "Dang it; House is gonna be pissed."
A little curious Liam looked over towards the entrance which was bleeding bright yellow light into the darkened alley. Doing his best to stay in the shadows, he snuck around trying to get a better view. After meandering by the dumpster, the vampire got just that.
Out in front of him was a rather small looking kitchen. It had stovetops running along one wall with two large tub sinks on the other. Laying within the sinks was a rather sizable amount of dishes; it looked like the night had been fairly busy.
Slowly, the boy's eyes were brought down.
A rather large part of the ground was inlaid with some type of crack. It appeared to be some type of rectangle or square with there being a very thing indent going all around. Making the mark on the floor stand out, even more, was a crudely drawn triangle in the middle of it, painted a low green.
Quietly the boy approached, a bit of curiosity pumping through his veins. It had already been a while and the cook was nowhere to be seen so Liam thought he would have the time. The small symbol was eerily familiar to the boy. It haunted his mind like an old echo, teasing him with memories just on the tip of his tongue.
Now standing over the mark, Liam whispered, "Just where have I seen this before?"
One pale finger brushed over the mark before it suddenly started to glow blue. Almost immediately the memories rushed back to him. The symbol, it was the same one near Zeus' Fist. The Mage called it some type of ruin. Liam would call it a maze.
The glowing symbol suddenly faded as the floor beneath Liam's feet lurched. Suddenly, the boy's stomach churned as the ground beneath him disappeared with the floor falling away at the indent. A frantic yelp sounded out in the back of the kitchen as Liam plummeted down into the darkness below.
Entering a sudden free fall, Liam cursed, "Shit. Shit! SHIT!"
He could feel air rushing by his ears as his body continued to plummet down the chasm. Losing his balance, Liam started to tumble a bit with his entire body rapidly spinning. Down below the boy, small little blue dots came into view giving something for the vampire to focus on.
Adrenaline started to rush through his veins as the glowing blue dots grew larger and larger. Wildly flailing his limbs, Liam thought Oh god, I'm gonna die.
That harrowing line of thinking started to overpower his mind, filling Liam with dread. As his doom drew ever closer the boy tried for one last bid to survive. Roughly, he shoved out his limbs hoping to level himself out. Two arms and two legs outstretched as what was glowing below finally came into view.
They were giant glowing mushrooms. Each of the fungi were capped by a large head of glowing fluorescent moss with large blue tendrils just below them. They looked to be flashing in a pattern, letting out the glow before quickly stopping then doing it again. Just barely, as Liam leveled himself out he noticed one of the caps was right below him.
"Come on! Please!" cried the boy as the large fungus approached. His voice came out at a noticeable higher pitch than before, being filled with a squeaky fear. Small tears were budding in the vampire's eyes as he impacted the giant mushroom cap below him before his vision suddenly cut to black.
instantaneously, a thunderous boom rocked the cavern with a single glowing mushroom collapsing in on its self. Following soon after, fungi fell towards the ground below, snapping at the base. The boy's unconscious body fell to the ground with one of its legs sticking out in the wrong direction. A small trail of cold blood was leaking from the vampire's nose and eyes with him gurgling as he breathed.
Without any input of the boy's own, his body went to work desperately trying to heal itself. Instantly large amounts of blood began to pool around Liam's broken left leg. Loud crunches played out as the leg quickly snapped into position, the foot being forcefully turned back around by the large tentacles of blood. All the small cuts and abrasions across the vampire's skin started to disappear, slowly regrowing reddened skin over the wounds.
Gradually Liam's breathing became less labored as a loud pop came from beneath his skin. One of the vampire's ribs had pierced through a lung, easily cutting the organ when it fractured due to the fall. The bone was pushed back into place as more cold blood flooded within the lung slowly converting itself into new tissue.
In his unconscious state, he rolled over to the side with his head leaning up against a small blue rock.
The mineral was smooth with just a small part of it peaking out of the rough dirt below. If Liam were to be awake he would see the same material covering the cavern around him, along with some other major standouts. Seemingly growing directly from the stone was a small red plant.
It looked to be some type of fern with four red leaves as well as easily seen red roots making up most of its mass. The plant's roots were wrapped around the stone in an almost hug-like manner, ultimately ending with the life-giving roots down in the soil below. Every few seconds the plant would let out a loud ring, simultaneously glowing in a manner akin to the giant mushrooms all around.
The tendrils of blood pulled themselves back within Liam's body as the majority of their work was done. Despite his supernatural healing abilities, the vampire remained unconscious with nothing more to show he was alive than the slow rise and fall of his chest.
He would stay in the condition for a while yet. His body was entering a coma of sorts, slowly healing the more delicate things he destroyed. In large droves, parts of the boy's body started to twitch and move as fractured bones began to reconnect finishing off the healing process.
In the distance, a rather old voice called out, "Well that's not something you see every day."
-Within the Cavern-
The man looked to be quite ancient with large tufts of white hair sticking out the golden mask he wore over his face. The gold-colored metal coating his face had no real distinguishing features beyond two large pieces of glass in the front, letting him see. Just barely, you could see his chin sticking out below it with his cut-up lips sticking out from the metal.
He would introduce himself as one Thaddeus Cosma, a roaming fixer...of sorts. (3)
Thaddeus's body was covered in the same material from top to bottom. The only thing sticking out were the two left out joints near his elbows, which allowed for the plate to easily move. Just below it was a thin sheet of mail, small rings of steel intertwined in a mesh. If one were to look at the man's knees and other joints they would see something similar, letting the man move at his leisure.
All of his armor would be considered secondary to the thing that was latched onto his back. The item, a staff, was as long as the man's body with small golden-brown cogs running up its length. Each one of them turned in a different direction, letting out low puffs of steam. At the staff's tip was a small ball of what appeared to be pure electricity, letting out small crackles as it ran up and down the metal containing it.
Currently, the man was rushing forward with his metal boots making noticeable impacts into the brown floor. As he ran an almost comical clanking noise sounded out. Thaddeus was a man of many curiosities, each one of them more mystical than the last. What was drawing the eccentric-looking man's attention, however, was a young boy that seemed to fall from the roof of the cavern making a large amount of noise all the while.
With a small grimace showing on his mouth he thought And that will soon attract this place's "friendly" residents.
Already he could see a couple of the bastards skulking around in the distance. Their blackened armor and long pale ears sticking out amongst the mushrooms glow. The foul, goblin-like, creatures would let out small cries attracting more and more of their kin. From experience, he knew what other beasts would follow soon after.
Thaddeus finally arrived with the broken cap being just a few feet in front of him. The glowing pieces of glass on his mask quickly shot around in the dark before landing on the boy. The child looked to somehow be just fine despite falling hundreds of feet.
Brushing it off the man quickly hoisted the boy up. He gave out a small grunt of effort before throwing him over his shoulder. Taking a quick second to adjust the child, Thaddeus pushed the boy's blue pack to the left, stopping it from grinding into his shoulder.
The two eyes were brought down as he quickly noted what appeared to be a mace and a shield indented into the dirt a couple of feet away. Thaddeus's mouth stood ajar as he noticed the make. Small lines of ebony were intertwined with some type of bronze with daedric runes lining them both. A little bit of worry came to him as he saw the rose printed on both, painting a sign of allegiance few would serve.
Are they his? Questioned the fixer before quickly pulling the objects up. Thaddeus didn't have enough time to pussyfoot around. He'd take them and run before the scoundrels and their pets arrived.
In the distance, the screeching cries got louder as the sounds of wet feet slapping against mud, hit the man's ears. Instantly he rushed off, purpose filling his steps. The same clanking noise from before pinged into the dark as another set of large footprints were left in the sloppy dirt.
As he moved Thaddeus questioned, How did the boy get down here? Through one of the lifts? But then...
The man's memory was drawn back the frantic screams as he looked up from his workshop at a small child falling from above. It just didn't make sense. Despite being hundreds of years old there was no way in Oblivion that the dwarven tech would just fail, especially not that made in this ruin of all places.
That still doesn't explain how he got down here. Hmm...I guess I'll just have to wait till he wakes up. Thought the man as his destination came into view.
Out in front of the two, a large structure came into sight. The building was made of roughly cut stone; similar to the metal covering Thaddeus from head to toe, there were large metal gears poking out of it spewing out steam from time to time. Lighting up the entire abode was a large glowing ball, hung from the ceiling.
The artificial sun was covered in the same dwemer metal, seeming to encase some type of yellow fire like a cage. A trio of large intertwined chains came out of its top, shooting up into the darkness above.
Thaddeus had only just arrived within this section of the ruin rather recently with only a week or two to spare. After clearing out some of the local residents, the man commandeered the place and reinstated it as his own impromptu workshop. It stood as a base of command for any and all of the eccentric fixers projects, letting him have protection and adequate supplies at a moment's notice with the walls and garden surrounding it.
Arriving at a large metal gate, Thaddeus fumbled around in his armor before pulling out a small golden-brown key. Quickly, the small tool was inserted into what looked like a human-like face engraved on the gate. Turning it, the gate swung open letting both of them inside.
Hurrying, the man shut the gate behind him with it letting out a small "Click!" as it snapped shut. Rushing forward the man approached the structure in front of him. The clanking noise began to mix in with obnoxiously loud footsteps as Thaddeus walked up the stone steps to his impromptu workshop.
Next to the large steampunk-themed workshop was what appeared to be a perfectly normal lever. As the cries in the distance got ever closer Thaddeus brought his eyes over towards it before muttering, "Not yet."
Spewing off from the dwarven metal lever was a large bundle of wire. It quickly wrapped around to the side of the stone-cut workshop leading to something that would just look like a normal statue to most. The object appeared to be a fifteen-foot tall automaton.
Similar to the gate, it had a humanoid face pressed onto its metal head. Thick plates of golden-brown armor wrapped around its shoulders, giving the thing a metal carapace which seemed to perfectly follow all of its limbs.
Near the end of each limb, excluding its legs, was some type of large weapon. On the automaton's left hand was a large hammer that had a spear point sticking out of its end. It looked heavy enough to crush boulders. On the robot's other arm was a rather long sword with small three-inch-long spikes which rutted out from the blade, occasionally hooking inwards. Coming from the machine's mouth was a large tube around three inches in diameter.
Despite its fearsome appearance, it didn't seem to have any life in it. The machine was held still by a thin metal frame with small wires wrapping around it. Below the frame, small spouts of steam were seen, blowing out three the holder's metal base. The wire led all the way from the lever into the machine's base, connecting through what appeared to be a small port on its backside.
Thaddeus turned away from the overgrown hunk of dwemer technology and entered into his workshop. Thick metal doors swung open to reveal a rather homey one-room building. It had a few cut-out stone beds on one side with large tables filled to the brim with all manner of exciting items at its other end. Small crystal bobbles floated about with little bits of flora surrounding them. Almost completely covering the tables were small pieces of dwemer machinery, lying in wait.
As quickly as he could the eccentric fixer brought Liam over to one of the stone hewn beds before plopping him down in it. Soon after, he placed the boy's weapon and shield on one of his benches, leaving the mud-covered tools out to dry.
Thaddeus's eyes were drawn back over towards the mysterious child before seeing his arched back. A little forgetful, the man looked down to see the blue pack still holding on to the child's back. Lightly he strode over before wrenching it off the boy.
Despite being jostled around, Liam didn't wake up with him only letting out low painful groans as he back stretched out on the cold stone. Thaddeus walked over to one of his workbenches before lightly picking up what appeared to be a small rod. With a little bit of mischief showing through the cutout part of his mask, Thaddeus said, "This should wake him right up."
One of the man's fingers slid along the shaft of the object before it let out a small spark of electricity.
AN: That's gonna be it from me today! We are officially at the point in the story where you can pick out exactly how I pieced these two universes together. All the pieces are there; it's up to you to put them together. If you know your lore well enough I think it's possible. I've been foreshadowing it constantly since Falion was introduced so if you're wanting to try and figure it out start there. If you can't figure it out though, I'll be revealing it in the future.
I had a whole hell of a lot of fun researching for this chapter. There is just so much cool ass lore that, unexpectedly, worked perfectly for what I had planned. Here fairly soon we'll be coming across the mid to beginning of the end of Arc one. I don't know how long it will take, as I tend to "overwrite" certain scenes, but hopefully you'll be seeing it soon.
Let's move onto the annotations!
(1) The Lucky 38 is a casino from Fallout New Vegas. There's not going to be any Fallout stuff coming into the story but being in Vegas made me want to at least put some kind of reference to the game. Replaying the game on pc also helped a bit though...
(2) This is another active example of not only Molag Bal's propensity to manipulate Liam but how he's slowly losing more of his humanity. This entire scene was a bit hard to balance as I wanted to show Liam as a little more "deranged" with him not caring about hurting other people but still have it be believable. In the end, I decided to do a mix of the Prince's depravity with Liam's frustrations at being left to fend for himself.
Overall, this may or may not get worse in the future depending on how his character develops.
(3) Thaddeus Cosma is a character from the Elder Scrolls Online. Overall he's pretty obscure but be warned if you look him up you will probably be spoiled for this story. There are some things about him that could be major spoilers.
If you don't really care about that I suggest you watch a YouTube video called, "A Very Big Secret has Just Been Revealed" by TheEpicNate315; he goes into more detail about him and his character.
Other than that though, like always I'm open to any and all criticism so if you have any go ahead and hit me with it! I'll be seeing you guys in a couple of days!
~ciao