28th Day of the 1st Moon

Johnathan

"You're certain about this?"

"Scouts reported back moments ago" I nodded. "A master controls the western coast of Turkey. No idea as to who or their affiliation, but from the information gathered the architecture in the region sounds distinctly Roman."

"Meaning this master to the west could be Satanael?"

"Potentially" I sighed. "If I had to bet my life on it, I'd bet on Satanael having summoned a servant from Rome."

"Hmm… I suppose you of all people would know him best. Question then is, are we in a strong enough position to confront him, should it be him?"

"I'd be surprised if we weren't, all things considered. You've taxed your empire rather heavily."

"That's far more Assassin's doing than mine" it was his turn to sigh now.

"Speaking of Assassin, any word from her?"

"Nothing. I don't even see her, unless she's giving me an order. I fear I've made a worse first impression than I'd originally thought. Even if it was confirmed that Satanael was to our west, I'm not sure anything I say could sway her to action, if she herself is uninterested."

"Then I think it's for the best Lancer and I go alone to confirm the identity of the master and their affiliation. Best case scenario we have another ally."

"Worst case scenario you and Lancer end up dead. At least take some military with you."

"That's only going to give off the impression that our intentions are hostile, or worse, that we're a vanguard force. We need as many allies as possible if we're going to take on Satanael."

"And if it does turn out to be Satanael? How do you live the encounter with only Lancer?"

"If it is Satanael, there won't even be a fight" I laughed.

"How do you know that?"

"Because he wants our confrontation to be satisfying, and this would be far from it for him."

"…Again, you know him best. Not like I can stop you or Lancer anyways."

"All that being said, if it is a magus from Atlas-"

"Say nothing about the alliance until you report back to me who it is. The situation in Atlas is… complicated. Not everyone can be trusted."

"Isn't that always the case with the Association?"

"You're not wrong. Now more so than ever. But the difference between the Clock Towe and Atlas is that the Clock Tower is facing external pressure. Atlas' issues are internal."

"…Atlas is in civil war?"

"Unofficially, yes. Been that way for around a decade or so now. The mysterious invitations certainly didn't assist things. Ironically, the spellcasters from America are likely the most trustworthy. That Sortiara woman is blunt in her distain for the Association in its entirety, but she is, at the very least, straightforward. …For a magecraft user, that is."

Sortiara... Right, she's here too, somewhere...

"Does that mean I have approval to unilaterally invite whoever this master is into the alliance, so long as they're not tied to Atlas?"

"If you and Lancer deem them and their servant trustworthy. You have the advantage of experience when it comes to Holy Grail Wars, and if Lancer can't tell their character, I doubt I'd be able to offer up any relevant input. Might as well have you deal with alliance matters while I continue my research here."

"Speaking of, find anything useful?"

"Still can't confirm it, but I'm finding the reasoning behind the language barriers as hard-set rules of this constructed system more and more likely. In time, the barriers will fade, and different peoples will learn each other's languages, much faster than historically back on Earth, but it's still likely to be a process of a few months, with no means of expediting the process. Not even the servants can circumvent this, likely because they too are tied to this Moon Cell, and thus the systems of this constructed reality, rather than the Throne of Heroes itself. The only exclusions from this still appears to be master and servant intercommunications, where if communication between the parties is desired, some form of translation occurs to enable flawless communication. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising, considering what this Moon Cell supposedly is, but the quality of the translations is, effectively, perfect."

"But nothing new about the world itself?"

"I had less than one year to try and grasp some basic understanding of computing and digital systems, and you want me to know the inner workings of the oldest and most powerful supercomputer in the known universe?"

"Does none of your fancy Atlas alchemy help to understand any of this?"

"My work at Atlas was researching and experimenting on creating superweapons, hence why I'm here. I can tell you so far that this constructed world here doesn't appear to be a superweapon on its own, but that's also assuming any of my earlier experiments hold any meaning. Considering you grew up a spellcaster and were surrounded by technology from an early age, you likely have a far better understanding as to the possibilities of this system than I."

"Sure, I know how to use a regular computer, or a smartphone, but this is far beyond the scope of what even modern-day technology is capable of. Many of the systems us masters interact with and need are based around systems found in video games, so I understand the idea behind how things here work without needing to read those tutorial messages, but that's it."

"Then it would seem we're both in the dark as to the ways of this world and its operations. I wouldn't mind tying to dig more into the spires themselves, as they seem the most likely to yield any sort of meaningful results from experimentation, but I simply don't have the time. Honestly, having to lower myself to learning such primitive alchemical methods…"

"Right… I suppose I'll leave you to… whatever it is you need to do. Lancer and I will head out immediately. If we're not back within two weeks, assume the worst."

"Understood. Best of luck to you both on your travels."

I left the workshop with a sense of disappointment. This wasn't going to plan at all. If anyone could have figured out the nature of this world Tristan had created, I thought for sure it would have been the alchemists of Atlas. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I ran into one almost immediately, and got him to agree to an alliance, but not only had he not managed to figure out anything, he didn't even have the full support of his servant yet.

"An alliance is going to be key, but this…" I muttered to myself as I navigated the grand corridors of the palace.

Give it to whoever this Assassin servant was though, they certainly understood how to portray power through size.

Here's to hoping Tristan wasn't the one in Halicarnassus…

"Lancer" I called out once I reached my room within the palace.

"You sound troubled, master" Lancer materialized by the balcony. "Things not go as well as planned?"

"No, on that front everything is fine" I sighed. "We're leaving for Halicarnassus, immediately."

"Understood, master. Though if the expedition west is not the issue, what is the trouble?"

"If anyone could have figured something out about this world, I thought for sure it'd have been the alchemists of Atlas, but so far he's found nothing."

"From what you've told me about our true enemy, it is perhaps not surprising that his secrets are difficult to unravel, especially for those who have never had to face him."

"I get that, but something just isn't… fundamentally right with this world" I insisted. "If us masters truly did perform this spiritron hack thing to get to the Moon Cell, and everything is digital or computerized, then why does this world have leylines? What purpose would that even serve? Why does everything seem so… biological? Like, why do I bleed the same as I would back on Earth if this is a digital environment? Nothing is adding up and I hate that no one seems to have the answers."

"Then let us find this Satanael so that you can-" Lancer began to say, before falling silent. "There's a servant in the city."

"I would be surprised if Assassin had left-"

"No, this isn't Assassin. Another servant is approaching the palace, along the road from the south gate."

"No way the masters to the south would send their servants here on their own, not while they're approaching war with one another. Nor would they come here themselves… A third master then?"

"Shall I go and monitor the situation?"

"Yes, but do not engage. If the servant is on their own, then let Assassin deal with it and I'll meet you at the west gate. However, if you can confirm the presence of a master, return to me immediately. I don't know how Assassin operates, and if there's the potential to expand the alliance, then I want to take it. We're going to need as many masters united as possible to take on Satanael."


A/N

Short and late, but that's what 3 papers and Thanksgiving will do to a guy and his writing schedule, it seems xD

That said, I need to vent all the stress of the past couple weeks, and a review since last time has mentioned the Pretender class, so... Pretender rant time?

...

PRETENDER RANT TIME!

Let me start by saying that this work will have no mention of the Pretender class, will not consider the Pretender class in any way, yada yada yada. As for why that is, well...


Simply put, someone who became a hero while feigning being something else. A hero like Zorro who acts while under disguise of a mask does not qualify as a Pretender. For example, let's say a certain A has died with their ambitions unfilled, and in his place a certain B continues their writings, leaves their comments and fulfills the role of A into the end, ultimately leaving all the fame with A. Meanwhile, B who was the interior of this persona cannot find any spots to occupy and ultimately the only one who becomes a hero is A, the exterior. This is what the Pretender class, one who wears a role, entails.


The above is a translation of Nasu's explanation as to the qualification requirements for a servant to be of the Pretender class, given in an interview. This is the best one I could find, if there is a better translation, please do let me know, but as of right now everything I say will be based off this translation.

FATE currently has 4 Pretender class servants thanks to FGO: Oberon-Vortigern, Hephaestion (really, his sister, but that's a whole other issue...), Lady Avalon, and the new Halloween Liz the JP server just got. Now, going off of the above requirements to actually be a Pretender class servant, can anyone see the issue?

...If not, I'll tell you: LITERALLY NONE OF THESE PRETENDER CLASS SERVANTS FIT THE PRETENDER CLASS REQUIREMENT!

Ok, I'll admit, I could be slightly misremembering the exact lore around Hephaestion, and in theory there is a way she COULD meet the requirements of the Pretender class, but I don't believe that is how her lore currently is. Also, by the same way she would qualify as Pretender, she would qualify as Faker, which, you know, SHE IS, SEEING AS SHE'S THE ORIGINAL FAKER SERVANT!

...The Pretender class is stupid. It is redundant. It doesn't even have a single servant that fits Nasu's own stated requirements! The class was nothing more than a marketing gimmick to drum up more hype around that stupid Oberon-Vortigern BS in LB6! There is no actual reason for this class to exist within Nasu's class system for FATE at the moment, as evident by the fact even Type-Moon can't make a servant for it that actually fits the requirements!

Now, I wish this wasn't the case. I remember before Nasu stated the requirements that people were thinking Pretender would be the perfect class for someone like Arsene Lupin (really, he should just be Faker class...). Again, Faker already exists, and by the requirements for Pretender, you'd already fit the requirements for Faker, which is already a lot easier to qualify as to begin with. It's not as if Nasu simply renamed the Faker class either; Faker as a class still exist in the canonic system, so the Pretender class is neither a renaming nor another 'variant' of the Faker class (though it does sound a lot better than Faker as a class name)!

...In my opinion, if Nasu was going to create the Pretender class, it needed to be a unique class where only one person qualified, that person being Nyarlathotep. This is because Nyarlathotep is different from the other Lovecraft deities in both capabilities and modus operandi and has no business going about things in a way which would tie him to a human, and thus make him the outer god aspect of a Foreigner class servant (and no, Summer BB DOES NOT have anything to do with Nyarlathotep, the event AND her profile lines even indicate this, despite what Summer BB may think/claim).

So yeah, I hate the Pretender class. It's stupid, redundant, and the only being who I think would be deserving of being in such a class doesn't even qualify for it under the current conditions. It should not exist, Faker class should have been added to FGO instead, and Pretender class's existence is a prime example of everything wrong with LB6.

...Thank you for mentioning the Pretender class, I needed this xD