AN: Well, at the moment, only two guessed a character each correctly (and one in the wrong class). I'm sorry, but no more franchises will appear. There's another fic for that. By the way, I took a glance at the Adventurers of Orario Rhapsodia and became interested in them, like Oriana Drake. Unfortunately, my only sources of information are the wiki (which only has the minimal information) and a few fanfics depicting them like Heroic Myth (with possibly their own interpretations of the characters) and very few gameplays (which are in Japanese) not to say that the game ended service. So I would like to know if I should put them in the story or not. Or at least some advice about them. Thank you.
If you were to ask someone about Hestia, no one except the Gods would know about her.
And they don't say too much good about her, especially a certain trickster Goddess.
Lazy, childish, money spender, Big Boobed Loli… and most of them are true.
Nevertheless, she doesn't let all those petty insults affect her… too much, at least.
She's the Goddess of the Hearth, dammit! The warmth of a home you can always return to! Of the family that will always wait for you!
Do you think she'd be worthy of her domain if she were a depressing emo wreck? Of course not!
Though she'd admit that her luck wasn't the best.
In Heaven, she was a pariah with only a few friends, but on Earth, she's now so poor that one of her friends only took her in because of pity and even then was kicked out…
At least Hephaestos wasn't completely heartless and let her live at a ruinous church. Admittedly, it wasn't the best of living places but, hey, she's managing it well.
In fact, she has now a Familia!
Granted, she only had one member, who was even rejected by the other Familias, but she's still her precious Familia member!
In fact, she would love to go to the next level in their relationship…
… if he weren't that dense, that is. And to twist even further the knife, he developed a skill that allowed him to grow his Falna stronger and faster through his desires… which on paper isn't that bad. The problem was that he also developed a crush on some Wallensomeone and made it his goal.
Arg! Why can't he see that there was already a cute girl at his side, thinking all the time about him? She even has bigger boobs than that doll sword from that washboard of Loki!
*Sigh* But she can't do anything about it. While she may influence him, Bell is the one who has to choose, not her.
As long as he wants to fulfill his dreams, his Goddess will always be at his side supporting him.
Even if that meant working extra hours to lift some economical weight off Bell. He may already be home as long as he didn't overstay in the Dungeon…
Right now, she was returning to the Church after an exhausting day after selling weapons and Jagamaru-kuns.
"I'm back, Bell!" she cheerfully announced her presence there.
Poor Bell. Not expecting her appearance at those moments, he jumped in surprise, like a bunny caught in headlights.
"G-Goddess! Don't give me those scares, please!"
"Ehehehe. Sorry. Didn't expect to give you a heart attack." The Goddess sheepily laughed, then she took note of something else "Oh, and who is this?"
The unknown was a man about his thirties, with a shaved head and beard and blue eyes. Not to say that he screamed military from his eyes to his aura in general. Heck, she was nearly tempted to salute, even if she wasn't a War Goddess! Though there was something strange on him, like that black armor with that shiny N7 engraved that feels like something out of science fiction.
"My name is Commander Shepard." He extended his hand to her "Bell was the one who brought me here."
"I am Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth. A pleasure." She took the hand offered. By first impression alone, from a Goddess perspective, this 'Commander' seemed like a likeable person or at least someone professional enough to have manners to the head of a Familia. "Bell, I didn't know that you would bring someone home. If I did, I would have prepared some tea."
"Don't worry about that, Miss Hestia." Shepard politely declined "In fact, I'm here to stay."
If there was something that the Gods maintained after their descent it was the capability to discern falsehood from mortals. That helped more than once when dealing with businessmen and lords, who would try to scam even the most ignorant or poor of Gods more than once. Of course, knowing you can detect the truth doesn't mean you would fully believe it instantly.
Like Hestia right now.
"I'm sorry." Hestia began slowly, hope filling her "But did you mean that you're here to join the Familia?"
"Uh, yeah?" Shepard now sounded confused "I mean, your child, if that is what you name your Familia member, is the one who literally brought me here. Without him, I wouldn't be in your Familia or even this world."
Now alarm bells (no pun intended) sounded out in Hestia's heart. As in divine (or womanly) instinct, Hestia's gaze shot towards Bell, who wanted nothing more than run away from there.
"Bell, is there something you didn't tell me?"
"Didn't you tell her?" Shepard arched an eyebrow.
"I just got the Grail today!" Wow, Bell caved in easily "I was about to talk her about it but she wasn't home and I decided to test it just to see if it wasn't a scam!"
There was silence. Bell's face was red as a tomato, Shepard awkwardly scratched his head and Hestia rubbed her head in response to the seemingly nonsense that she just heard.
She sighed "I think I need an explanation…"
Project X Familia
"So there's a Grail that is capable of calling forth the souls of Heroes…" Hestia said, processing that information "I never heard of something ever remotely similar and if I weren't a God, wouldn't believe it either."
"To be honest, even I would have a hard time believing it if I were at the time I was alive. Especially where I come from there isn't magic. Or at least not heard of." Shepard put his opinion "Then again, most people wouldn't or did not believe what I experienced until it was right on their noses." He let out an exasperated sigh "Damned politicians…"
"You don't have magic where you lived, Commander?" Bell asked curious.
"Yeah. Instead we had incredibly advanced technology. For example." Shepard's arm was encased in an orange light.
"Wow! Is that some kind of futuristic computer?" Hestia said at the sight of the Omnitool, making Shepard blink.
"Eh, yeah. I wasn't sure if the concept existed here from the limited information I received from the Grail."
"In the Inferior World they don't exist, however we have tons of the stuff in Heaven thanks to a huge number of Gods of Knowledge and the Forge allying themselves to experiment how they could squeeze their respective Authorities and Domains at their maximum." Hestia reminisced "Not only were they very useful for administration, but multiple of art-related Gods uploaded tons of free entertainment like books or games. Not to talk about the social network gossiping." then she pouted "I was hoping to bring mine but due to being of divine origin, they are forbidden here and those of us who descended have to wait for mortals to develop the technology, which I think will take a few centuries."
"So even if you have developed home appliances you're still far away to make for computation."
"Yeah… unfortunately, there's not many people obsessed with advancing math and the Gods are limited in how they can influence development or more like they don't want to spoil their entertainment too early."
"Uh…"
Shepard and Hestia blinked. They forgot there was someone else with them.
"I didn't follow completely what a computer is but if the Commander has one, does he know how to make them or have more?" Bell proposed "I mean, that's simply a suggestion." he quickly added.
Shepard simply raised an eyebrow and a holographic tablet appeared in his hand.
"For your information, I summoned it from my ship." He offhandedly explained to the Goddess and mortal who had wide eyes and slacked jaws.
"Wait, ship?"
Shepard sighed, thinking how he should word it "You know what's a Noble Phantasm, yes?"
"Oh, yeah." Bell took out the manual "It says it's the crystallization of a Hero's legend, which would take the form of their most iconic weapon or ability."
"That's basically it. As a Rider, my Noble Phantasm is a vehicle, however, I've never piloted it." Not that they would let him, they had enough of his crazy driving for a lifetime or two. They would NEVER ever want to experience it in a functional spaceship.
"Uh? Then what did you do with it?"
"I took command over it." Shepard chuckled at his own joke "I bet not many foot soldiers, special forces or not, had the opportunity to be the captain of their own spaceship. I was lucky that I took an officer course while in the N7 training as well as given Spectre privileges."
Hestia's brain scratched once again. "A… spaceship?"
Shepard rubbed his neck sheepishly "Yeah, that's the difficult part to explain."
"You… can use a spaceship. Originally made with highly advanced non-magical technology. And you're in a world where mortals haven't even considered building a vessel towards the stars, yet." Hestia breathed in "Don't tell me you have aliens, guns and robots, too."
She took Shepard's awkward silence as a yes.
"... My child summoned a sci-fi space Hero. It cannot be real." She fainted.
"Goddess!"
Project X Zone
Hestia opened her eyes to a metallic and unfamiliar ceiling.
"Goddess! You're awake!"
She turned to the side to see her beloved Bell with a face shining with so much relief that it would melt her from overload cuteness if she could.
"Bell, where the heck are we?"
"You're in a spaceship."
A woman entering advanced age replied from a nearby desk.
"Dr. Karin Chakwas. I'm in charge of the infirmary. The Commander brought you here when you fainted. Fortunately, it was only emotional stress." she sighed "Sorry about that. Shepard sometimes is too blunt for his own good. Dropping a bombshell like that..."
""Don't worry about it!""
The goddess and teenager shouted embarrassed.
Hestia then took notice of something.
"Bell, how did we enter the ship?"
"Oh, the Commander made some kind of portal and we entered it. I don't know how he did it. It's… overwhelming and awesome at the same time. Wonder if all Servants are like that."
He said that with sparkling eyes.
"So some kind of pocket dimension…" Hestia mused. There's no way this ship was already materialised at the same time as Shepard. The energy necessary for that should be massive. So for such marvel of engineering must be accessed any other way and the portal mentioned must be the key.
"I think the term is Reality Marble." Chakwas added "Don't look at me like that, the information was implanted throughout all the crew from the Grail. If it wasn't for the fact I'm technically dead, I would also be very skeptical."
"I see. The magic of the Grail is even more stranger than I have imagined." and potentially dangerous thought Hestia.
Bringing out souls from the deceased, even copies, into the form of Spirits is already improbable and even questionable. But for those Heroic Spirits to have abilities that could be at the level of an Arcanum is crazy! And that's in their weakened forms!
Wherever that Throne of Heroes was in the multiverse, it already paints itself to be a very dangerous place full of people that could probably give a run of their money to fully powered Gods. Which kinda makes sense, due to being previously mortals with already impressive feats that ascended to a superior plane of existence after death.
Hestia is already feeling the shivers. Hope no nutjob ends up summoned or for someone else to discover the Grail.
"Where's John?"
"He said he's catching up with the rest of the crew."
"If I didn't I would be a bad Commander and friend, wouldn't I?"
Shepard entered the infirmary at that moment.
"Commander!"
Bell immediately tensed himself into a rigid position.
"At ease, soldier." Bell visibly relaxed, while Hestia and Chakwas chuckled "In fact, I should be the one saluting. You're technically my superior after all."
"Yeah, but I'm still a rookie Adventurer while you obviously have more experience. Heck, you are a military Commander that leads a ship that travels through the stars. You must have seen and done a lot to be recognized as a Hero. So please teach me!" Bell begged while bowing with the eyes closed.
Shepard let out a bemused snort and let out a small smile.
"I may not know how exactly adventuring is done and I'm far from being the strongest Servant in existence. But if all you want is guidance, I can teach you what I know that would be applicable to this world. But you must always remember something."
Bell raised his head.
"Your actions must be your own. I already had my role in life fulfilled, and while I and other Servants may influence it, this is your story now. Don't let them write it for you."
Bell's eyes were filled with determination. To write his own story… He initially went to Orario for girls, guided by the stories of past Heroes like the Argonaut. But he has a clearer goal now. And it would be rendered moot if it was already served to him in a silver platter.
"Yes! I promise that I will accomplish my dreams with my own hands! For something lesser would be insulting to those that were before me. For I want to become a Hero!"
Hestia was proud of her child. Her child is aiming so high with a conviction so pure that would be able to shake the foundations of Heaven. She wasn't wrong for having fallen in love with him!
Shepard nodded in approval "That's the spirit. Though before planning your training I must familiarize with the Dungeon and that would mean officially joining the Familia and I guess some paperwork."
"That's right." Hestia nodded "Before registering to the Guild, you need to have a Falna."
"So why don't do it now? Unless you want to explore the ship."
"I think I'll leave it to another day. No offense, but I only have energy for so much excitement today."
Some kind of rift in space manifested at Shepard's side, showing the church they were previously.
"Well, whenever you want to visit, say it so. My home is your home."
"I have a question, Commander." Bell asked "What is this ship's name?"
"She's called the Normandy."
"The Normandy… it fits."
After thanking Chackwas, just as they were to exit the ship, Chackwas stopped the Commander.
"John. It's a pleasure to work with you again."
"Same with you and the others." Shepard looked towards the portal, more specifically Bell "I'm already imagining what the others are thinking about all this.
"I think everyone knows that, Commander."
"EDI, were you watching us?"
"Everyone was watching."
"Great. Now I think it should be best to keep the boy out of here for some weeks before the crew pesters him."
Chackwas chuckled "I think he will fit in right here."
"Yeah, but what about the other Servants as well as other possible members?"
AN: It's been referenced from time to time how the Gods have a culture much more advanced, which resembles that of our world, from expressions to some objects (swimsuits). Bet they also developed computers there. And I guess that was how Hestia passed her time in Heaven as a fantasy 21st-century equivalent of a NEET.
Hope you enjoyed this. I left it here as mini cliffhanger to have time for next scenes and it's already late here. I don't think I'll write Falna and Servant sheets or at least not frequently. It takes a goddamn amount of time thinking the stats, skills and Noble Phantasms of one and try to make them somewhat balanced as well as the calculations needed for Falna updates that would not be story-breaking. With referencing those and having a mental representation of strength is enough for me thank you.