Spirit of the West
Anastasia I
Agent Anasia had woken up in a jolt. It wasn't at all unsurprising really, these older trains were loud and cumbersome vehicles. Case in point, the steam engine whistled that ungodly whistle. That contraption woke her up worse than a Governess on a Monday morning. She stood and stretched from her seat. She took notice that thankfully, the conductors kept to her request of privacy. The train had come to a stop.
It was hard to believe that despite being two states over from the capital, this antique of a train was the best the Maritimes could offer. If this was what the Lower Canadas had available, she pitied the other Commonwealths. Unfortunately, not many could match the Commonwealth of the Thirteen in quality of life but that was the way things were.
The train was a quaint piece of history at least. A working marvel of the 3010s. She scanned her cabin once more, just as she had done before her nap. Her belongings remained untouched, good. She looked at her single suitcase, laid across her. It was a worn-out antique. It was a miracle that it stayed in such good condition at all. Twenty-ninth century Hippo leather with Sao Luís craftsmanship, an heirloom from Mother's family. Anasia smiled at the memories, Mother would have wanted her to remember her for all the good she's done. Anasia was just glad to carry a piece of Mother along while she travelled.
The only reason she resorted to using the locomotive train was that a traditional caravan train would attract too much attention to her. Riding here by horse was unfeasible, her holidays were short and she had no patience to rest a single horse. The Pony Express was also unviable, Couriers were just a source of column fodder. Taking a boat would attract too much attention to her too, the journalists loved to skulk the Capital docks.
Attention would be detrimental to her goal in mind. She was on a mission of sorts, with her objective and destination in mind. This wasn't for the Department nor the Agency nor even for her Father, this was for herself. She could give herself a little indulgence, annually at least. She had earned this leave, Councilor Gutfreund could choke on it for all she cared.
Her ears on the ground brought him to her attention. He was returning from California, after so long. He also picked the strangest route home, across the Wild North. He stopped moving after departing on a boat from Nunavik. Its destination was unknown, the trail went cold. Her intuition led her here to the only place on the North Atlantic he'd find a friendly face or more so she narrowed it down to the state. Her abilities would take her the rest of the way.
Anasia pulled open the curtain and looked at the outside of the compartment window. This train station was familiar, it reminded her of when she and her siblings were children. Mother and Father would leave them in the care of the Absolu Family.
Ah, so he decided to stop by here? Gaspé City, of all places? Before even seeing everyone back home in Boston? She knew he had a falling out with Father but it had been a decade since that incident. Wouldn't that be water under the bridge by now?
The Maritimes were led by the Abolus then and even still now. She'd never been to their ancestral home, they usually spent time in Moncton, but the Maritimes had the same atmosphere wherever she was in this state. She opened the window to cool down the stuffy cabin. It was chilly year-round and near-frozen in winter but it wasn't like New England Proper was any better. The cold eastern winds brought the familiar scent of the Atlantic. She never was far from the ocean. Or more accurately, the Atlantic. She should visit the Pacific at one point in her life. She was still young, she still had time.
Anasia closed the window and curtains. She knelt and opened her suitcase. She procured a mirror and looked at herself. She inspected her appearance, making sure nothing was out of place. Her hair was a bit too messy to be fixed in a reasonable amount of time. She shrugged it off, she could have asked for a private compartment with a bed but it wasn't really that much of an inconvenience. She grabbed one of her larger hats and adjusted it to hide her hair.
She looked again in the mirror, a wide summer hat, a thick coat for the cold Atlantic winds and her field uniform skirt. She was a picture if did say so herself.
Anasia then lifted a smaller wooden box from her luggage. Opening it revealed her mask. The white ceramic was machined into the visage of a fox. Its hand-engraved patterns were passed down from both her mother's family and her father's line. The mask held her father's feather idolatry while also holding the flower motifs of Mother's family. She secured the mask on her face.
Masks had a multitude of purposes, a charm against scrying and wards against glamour. They were said to prevent diseases and if not outright kill miasmas. Anasia certainly didn't know if there were some masks out there that did exactly that but she did know her own mask served a different purpose. It kept her identity hidden from the poor and misinformed. The average citizen cared for nothing of politics, especially not the personal symbols of a daughter of a politician.
She packed her belongings and stepped out of the cabin. She almost ran into someone, a conductor by the looks of him and a different one from the start. Anasia stood up to apologise when the conductor interrupted.
"My apologies my Dame! I should have watched my step! Please forgive me!", he prostrated.
She had seen that look on his face before, on the faces of many a foreigner, the look of wariness and suspicion upon her mask. Most of all, the look of fear. Be it the Acadiens, the Quebecqois to even these Maritimers. In her earliest memories, of the days before her family returned to America, it was the Sao Paolans that feared her heritage.
It was the gift and curse of her people. The Yankees. Despite it been centuries since converting to the Americanist faith, the Yankees couldn't ever shake off their Occultist heritage. Even during the early tenure of President Abbadon's reign, the Yankee's were still seen as nothing more than a barbaric horde by neighbours to even the faraway Beltway of Washington. It didn't help that the Gallowglasses of New England paved the continent in blood for over a century.
"No, you're quite alright. No need to apologise honey. As you were.", she said. Just to make sure he was clean, she summoned 「Homesick」. With the appearance of a gyroscope and detached hands, the sight of her Stand would have at least startled any that would see it. He didn't pay any mind to 「Homesick」 as it passed through him. She walked away, the man still frightened like a statue, absolutely harmless to her.
Her Stand like many others in her family could see the future. Or more accurately, they had prescience. And Anasia had the third kind of prescience, one of the future. Her brother for example had prescience of the past. Her Stand's ability earned her the position of an Investigator of Thamauturgic Affairs within the Agency. As she stepped off of the train she produced a cup and ball from her coat pocket.
She stepped off the train car onto the only platform of Gaspé Station. It was unsurprisingly, in the city of Gaspé. It was the most northern city of the Maritimes. This was her stop, this small district capital was the ancestral home of the current General of the Maritimes.
Without even having a good look around the station and ignoring the looks of strangers, she threw the ball up in the air. She would catch the ball in the cup, hence its name, like she's down thousands of time since she was a child. The ball was about to be caught in the ball when... it bounced off the edge and the ball flew off. The ball was pulling the string tight, pointed off towards the hills opposite Gaspé. Cresting the treetops on the hill was the smoke of chimneys. So that where the Absolus stay in summer.
If there were those like her around, they would have seen 「Homesick」 behind the Agent. What happened just there was her Stands ability. It could affect gravity using the true 「Gravity」 of her targets. Essentially, she was a Stand bloodhound.
If 「Homesick」 was correct, General Absolu and her family were spending the summer in their family home of Fort Tombeau D'Hiver.
The Absolus, she thought. She then cringed at the potential reunion between her and those old family friends. She had fond memories of the Old Wolves of Gaspé. The current General's parents. In contrast, she knew little of the newer General. Oh, but she knew plenty about the General's little brother. It would certainly be awkward to meet Bran Absolu after so long, ever since she broke their engagement.
As she walked past the crowd of local civilians around the train station she made her way to the Fort. The road between the Fort and Gaspé was surprisingly poor. It was little better than a gravel path. Compared to the tarmac of Boston, this was hell. At least she wore her field shoes as opposed to her office shoes. Along the path and up the hill, the sides gave way to more forests. The green corridor almost reminded her of Bostons Old Town and its moss-covered buildings. The quiet here though was more peaceful than the eerie echoes of the Old Town.
As she was about to comment on the almost repetitive pattern of trees, she came across a shrine. Seeing it, she stepped off the path to examine it for a moment. It was never a bad thing to honour the local deities. Within the alcove was a statue of a woman, its paint was faded and its face was long worn away by time. Knowing the history of the area as once been Christian, she thought it could have been Mother Mary or maybe even St Ursula. But given its offerings of fruit and nuts and that the current General is a member of the Green Party, it could be a shrine to Gaia or the Raven Queen.
She closed her eyes, clasped her hands and gave a silent prayer. A gust of wind seemingly answered her but as she looked up the statue remained unchanged. She shook her head and walked back on the path. The climate here is always windy.
As she made her way closer to the Fort the trees gave way. Fort Tombeau D'Hiver was an unimpressive little thing, squat and ugly it almost seemed like an imitation of a much larger fort. Design choices that don't necessarily work on a small scale. Its only saving grace was the snow-white plaster the fort was covered in. It made it shine against its natural backdrop.
Another thing Anasia noticed was the complete lack of guards or soldiers. Gaspé wasn't the most strategically important city but it deserved more of a garrison than this. There weren't even soldiers guarding the front gate. She just walked up with no to stop her or question her. She looked around and found no one. With a shrug, she took the gate's iron knocker and simply knocked. Someone had to be home, 「Homesick」 was sure of it.
"This is the home of House Absolu. State your name and intentions.", answered an accented guard. He got here pretty fast and what was with the way he talked.
"I'm just a simple visitor and I've come to... visit, obviously.", she said. If he didn't bother looking at her Agent's attire she decided to mess with the grunt.
"Who the fu- Who is- Wha- I should kick your fucking ass, who is this?!", the guard said. Anasia sighed.
"Agent Anastasia. I've come here for my brother.", she explained.
"Brother? For him? Really? You two are siblings? Well, forgive me if I find that hard to believe.", he said.
"Would you please get Bran Absolu, he knows me, he'll confirm what I've said.", she asked.
"I won't take such risk unto my charges lives for the sake of some harlot. Scram!", he said.
"Listen to me you...", she continued.
"Sargeant! What are you doing?", asked a new voice, it sounded like Bran.
"Keeper, sir! This stranger was...", trailed the guard.
"Let her in already.", Bran insisted.
"But..."
"Step aside already before you make any more of a fool of yourself.", said Bran.
"Forgive him, Agent Anastasia, Sargeant O'Dvorak didn't recognise you.", Bran said. 'O'Dvorak'. He had an 'O' in his name, so he's the new General's husband. And if his accent was anything to go by, he was a Texan or maybe some Texan minority. He didn't sound like the typical Texans she met before. The fool of a man was already bowing in apology to her. She just huffed and made her way inside. The courtyard was devoid of anyone, where have all the solider gone? This was atypical of a fort.
Bran let her inside. This was certainly awkward since she metaphorically left the man on the altar. It never went that far. It never even went to the stage of regular dates or correspondences. She just wasn't attracted to the man and neither was he to her. It was mutual, she hoped. Her induction into the Agency and its public vow of celibacy saved her making awkward excuses to end the engagement. Still, she couldn't bear to look or even thank the man.
"He's been here for a week, we were expecting your arrival. He didn't want to leave. I also didn't have the heart to turn away my old friend. But you've got to get rid of him. It's because of him that we sent away our rank and file for leave.", Bran explained.
"That's what I'm here for.", Anasia said lamely. As they walked along a corridor parallel to the courtyard she spotted the kennel brimming with activity. Seemingly the largest concentration of household staff and animals. "I see you keep a lot of dogs here. Is the symbol of your house actually a husky then?"
"No, of course not! They're here... temporarily.", he snapped. He seemed to not like them then. If she remembers correctly, Bran hated dogs, which was ironic considering his Houses crest was of a swimming Blue Direwolf.
"Fathers sake. I was just asking a question.", she said.
Bran had stopped in front of a door and Anasia did the same. She assumed this was her brother's lodgings. She looked at all the surrounding doors and found them all to be similar. At least anyone wanting to harm her brother would be just as lost in this place as she was.
"I'll have to warn you Agent Anasia, Guilherme is a different man than who you would have remembered him as.", he said.
"Well, isn't that a given? It's been a decade since I last saw him and years since his last letter. It would be strange if he wasn't charged.", she said. How bad could it be?
As Bran opened the door, Anasia was treated to the strangest sight she's seen... today. The room was in a mess, there were way too many belongings stuffed in there for a normal traveller to carry. What struck her as bizarre was the junk was... floating. Or more accurately orbiting. They were orbiting who Anasia presumed was her brother. It had to be her brother since 'seated' below him was her brother's stand, 「We Didn't Start the Fire」. She didn't remember his Stand having this ability. His Stand sat in a lotus position, her brother mirroring it. The blindfolded humanoid Stand held an antique lighter and wreath in both hands. It was Gui alright. Although his hair was longer and was dreading now. Gui's face was no longer clean-shaven, a beard reaching down his torso. He certainly looked different.
"I'll leave you two to it.", Bran said, before walking away.
"Guilherme? Is that... you?", she asked tentatively.
"Sister? Sister!", Gui exclaimed. He and his belonging fell from their floating as 「We Didn't Start the Fire」 dissipated. Gui landing lightly on his feet while his belonging plummeted down. Gui gave Anasia a vice of a hug. Her arms were locked in an awkward position and she couldn't do much apart from patting Gui's back. "How many years has it been? Three? Four?", he asked, letting the hug go.
"It's been ten years Gui. How have you been? You haven't been writing back. Father's been worrying about you. You look terrible.", she said. The two of them sat down, Anasia on the bed and Gui makeshift chair from a pile of his junk.
"Hmm, I'm sure he has. Ten years? A decade? Time flies. I've been doing great actually, I haven't felt more alive!", he exclaimed.
"It... looks like it. You look like you've been outside for all these years. You haven't aged well Gui.", she said.
"Ha! I've had mirrors for all this time, I know that better than anyone! And Anastasia, I go by Hermes nowadays, Hermes Rodrigues.", reintroduced her brother.
"Um, okay. You dropped your surname?", she asked.
"I didn't want Father's shadow to follow me all my life, I respect him for taking me in when he did but I can't keep his name. I hope you understand.", he said. She couldn't but she could try. "But unlike me, do you know who's aged like fine wine? Zeus! Look at her!", he proclaimed, holding up a greying calico cat. Where did he pull her up from? And Zeus felt familiar to Anasia for some reason. She had seen those sleepy drooping eyes somewhere before.
"Zeus? What happened to Aco? Didn't you travel with a different cat?", she asked.
"Aco is dead now, Zeus is her new name! Isn't she a doll? North Atlantic Cod! Rockie Mountain Oyster! Pacific Marlin! Cascadian Salmon! Even Colorado Catfish! Can you imagine it? A Sao Paola street cat had eaten all of that?! How can I not sing Zeus her praises?", rambled 'Hermes'.
"How has your study been? What breakthroughs have you made in the past year?", she asked. Despite wishing for her older brother back for so long, she didn't actually know what total about once he was back. Work was always a good icebreaker.
"The past year? Uhh, I took part in last years Iditarod before travelling here.", he said.
"The Iditarod? The longest dogsled race in the world? When did you become a dog musher?", she asked. This she could have guessed. It certainly explained the dogs outside.
"Well, racing really wasn't a priority. I just did it for the experience. I only used a dogsled once before you see, to cross the Rockies.", he said.
"Sounds exciting, it would have been nice if you wrote to us about your adventures.", she said. With how he was avoiding eye contact, at least she knew he was aware of what he'd done.
"Haha, anyway yeah, that race wasn't really my focus. I don't think I made any places in the race anyway, but I did bond well with my dogs, all 50 of them. Which is good if I wanted to make it across the northern route to the East Coast.", he continued.
"Yes, I'd like to ask you that as well. Why did you decide the best route home was through the Wild North? You could have gone through Salt Lake or the Colorado River or you could have even taken the sea route through the Panama Canal.", she asked. Did his time in California make him more stupid?
"Hah, home. Well to answer that I'll just tell you that I pissed off quite a few people on my first trek. There were those Mottowners in D-Mecca, lots of Plainsmen in Thunderland and I may or may not have insulted a Mormon councilman. A member of the Cor- Khor- Quor- that one Abrahamic cult in Salt Lake.", he explained.
"What?", she asked. That would have been just after he left Boston a decade ago. He's been getting into that kind of trouble for so long?
"Oh you know, just a few misunderstandings, entanglements in family blood feuds and some cultural insensitivities.", he explained as if that was the most normal thing ever.
"So why couldn't you take the more southern routes?", she asked. There were dozens of more reasonable routes to take and hundreds of detours to avoid trouble. Why the Wild North?
"Sister, have you ever been in a desert?", he asked.
"No, why?", she asked, what did this have to do with anything?
"You should try it. Dehydration does wonder for the mind, most of my inspiration came from desert hallucinations. And as to why I refuse to take the Panama Canal, their current Shogun is even more of a dickhead than normal.", he said.
"What would have been your plan if you couldn't get those Huskies then?", she asked.
"First off, they're Malamutes not Huskies and I would have walked.", he explained.
"You would have walked?", she asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"You would have walked 5,000 miles?!"
"Yes! And I would have walked 5,000 more or I would have asked for help from one of the reindeer ranchers I met along the way.", he clarified.
"Brother, you've gone insane haven't you?", she said.
"I prefer eccentric, I'm sane enough to recognise my own oddities if you're curious.", he said.
"Gui..."
"Hermes, please.", he corrected her.
"Hermes, why have you come back now of all times?", she asked.
"Oh you know, this time of year, rain is hard to come by in San Francisco and I remembered Boston was great for a cooling shower!", he joked.
"Hermes, I'm serious. A lot is about to happen around Boston soon, I'm sure of it. 「Homesick」 and I have dreamed of it.", she said.
"Okay. Sister, have you heard of the Silicon Valley?", he asked.
"No, what is it?", she asked.
"It's a myth around California, more so around San Francisco. It's an antediluvian city, which once held a collection of the world's knowledge. A library of sorts not unlike the Crimson Library or the Library of Congress. But it was more than just a library city, I have seen it! People, there could hold lightning in a bottle! They used math to make metal think like a human. They connected every person in the world like some kind of... network. They could talk to someone face to face and also be thousands of miles away.", he rambled.
"You and the other archaeologists of Berkley found all of this?", she asked.
"Ah well, you see... the thing is. They sort of... We... Berkley College and I disagreed.", he explained.
"Hermes, what happened?", she asked.
"Obviously, not all of the staff of Berkely had our abilities, Stands I mean, the Dean especially. So they couldn't really take my explanation of... "it came to me in a dream" as a valid source. 'Insanity' most of them said. 'Thamautrugy' my advocates called it. I told them all where they could stick their opinion. They then let me go and I've been finding other ways to fund my studies ever since."
"You've been living like a tramp for the good part of the last decade?", she asked. If he hadn't dropped his surname she was sure their House would have propped him up.
"Sister, that's beside the point. The whole reason I returned here is the Crimson Library. More specifically, the Wing of Mechanical Philosophies. 「We Didn't Start the Fire」 had shown it to me in a dream.", he explained.
"The Crimson Library? What will you find there? I didn't take for being a religious type.", she asked. She didn't know you could find more in the Crimson Library than holy texts of some cult or another.
"What? No, nothing of the sort. It has to do with... this!", he proclaimed, raising a metal... artefact that he was sitting on. It was a metal box of sorts with a perfectly machined disc inlaid in the casing.
"What am I looking at?", she asked.
"The key to the past Anasia.", he said.
Stand Name: 「Homesick」
Stand User: Anastasia "Anasia" Rodriguez Valentine Maxon
Ability: Relative Perception, Future Prescience
Desc: The user can perceive the weight of someone's Gravity and their connections to Fate. Gravity around a radius of the user will become influenced by another more powerful or closer entity's Gravity.
Condition: Head.
Limit: Must have foreknowledge of what must be found.
Range: 100m
Power: A
Speed: C
Range: B
Durability: A
Precision: B
Potential: D
. . .
Stand Name: 「We Didn't Start the Fire」
Stand User: Guilherme "Hermes" Rodriguez
Ability: World Tilting, Past Prescience
Desc: The user can manipulate gravity by tilting the world around oneself, either literally or by illusion. They can tilt the world so a flat surface becomes a slope, flip the world so the ground is above them, move the ground on the side, walls downward to be walked on, move the world so they appear to be going faster/in the other direction, etc.
Condition: Flow state.
Limit: May work only on self.
Range: 40m
Power: A
Speed: C
Range: B
Durability: E
Precision: D
Potential: B
A/N: "What day is it today?" "April 30th?"
Guest: Wow.
Negen: Thank you very much for your enthusiasm. I appreciate that you took your time to read this story.
Mend1cant Bias: It's both, it's a three-way crossover. FFN just can't list it as such.
TheDrkKnight12: Mate. And? Tell me why my fic can't have it be both an "anime rip off" and a story with "logic, military might and political intrigue"? I've checked your profile and with your tastes? I don't see why your complaining. Pot calling the kettle black. Thanks for leaving a comment.
Guest / empoleonz0: Thanks for the review. That's fine, I hope this was a good blind fandom read.
Close? Westeros isn't Europe perse. Earth and Planetos are permanently connected in this fic. Why? Stand shenanigans from centuries ago. On this Earth, the villains of JJBA Part 6 won for a time. It was partly thanks to a certain world hopper from Part 7 that America is the way it is now.
Yes, the worldbuilding has been stewing in my mind for a while, so I hoped it turned out good. Yeah, that's what I wanted to go for, I was advised to make this America my own, make it feel different from IRL.
Yes, when I'm writing the Stands, I try to write them the way Araki does. Find the concept for the character, match that to a song/artist, then design/name the User around the Stand. I'm glad you found one of the connections I wrote in. Yeah, I haven't written an edgy character in a while.
last admiral: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you love it. I'm glad you consider me up there with other similar fanfictions.
There will be entrepreneur types in Westeros, especially since they're regulated and constrained in this US. They'll see Westeros as a prime market with little to no competition or legal restrictions. Its partly been set up with the Kings Landing Green Zone land lease.
Characters/Relationships Map (Alphabetical Order);
Name; Titles
Relationships
House Absolu;
Brandon Eastbourne; First Duke of Gaspé.
The ancestor of all of House Absolu.
Bran Absolu; Specialist of the Commonwealth of the Lower Canadas. The Lower Canadian Keeper of the Green Peace.
Brother of Kathleen Absolu. Former Fiancé of Anasia Maxon.
Kathleen Absolu; General of the State of the Maritimes. Former Senator of the State of the Maritimes.
Wife of Gabriel O' Dvorak. Sister to Bran.
Gabriel "Czexan" O' Dvorak Abosolu; Former First Sergeant of the Commonwealth of the Lone Star. Staff Sergeant of the Lower Canadas.
Husband to Kathleen.
House Maxon;
Meiko Nee Rodriguez Valentine Maxon; Former First Dame of the USA. Former Sword Saint of Sao Paolo. The first wife of President Caesar. Adopted mother of Hermes. Mother of Anasia.
Guilherme "Hermes" Rodriguez;
Adopted son of Caesar and Meiko Rodriguez. Older brother to Anasia and Bennie.
Anastasia "Anasia" Rodriguez Valentine Maxon; Investigator of Thaumaturgy for the Agency.
Daughter of Caesar and Meiko. Sister to Hermes and Bennie. Former Fiancé of Bran Absolu.
Bennie Valentine Maxon; Sergeant First Class of the Commonwealth of the Thirteen.
The youngest child of Caesar. Sibling to Hermes and Anasia.