The Grand Reopening of Dark Loans
A Solar Boy comes back from the dead, a Dark Swordsman gets his sword stolen, a Duke tries diplomacy, another Solar Boy gets to see old-fashioned piledriving, and some Immortals get their plans wrecked. Sanity not included.
"In the event of a borrower being unable to pay, incapacitated, and uncontactable at the due date, interest will continue to accrue at the same interest rate, up to a maximum value of ten loan periods. After the maximum debt limit is reached, the borrower's possessions, right to exist, and any life will belong to Dark Loans. Dark Loans will not excuse your debt in case of death if you are rendered undead; All debts need to be paid as if still living. If a borrower is truly dead, their interest will fall to any co-signers."
-Clause in the Dark Loans agreement.
The grave had not been forgotten. The lonely tomb was visited by a floating sunflower every year, even after the Vanargand's rampage buried it farther underground. He'd once been trapped within the seal underground with the occupant of said tomb until he'd died and regenerated above-ground. The Messenger of the Sun would never truly be gone while the sun shone. He'd become the companion and ally of those who still struggled against the Dark Tribe and even acquired a new nickname. At the beginning of summer, he'd come back with Trinity to pay respects to the Legendary Hero.
He visited the location of the grave until, one fateful day, the Messenger did not return at the beginning of summer. Night reigned for years.
With the fall of one regime and vampire leader, many magic seals left by Ratatotosk were redone by the Duke Dumas, if they were deemed important. The seal on the Beast of Destruction was a stable one and checked carefully. Ratatosk had stashed his attack dog back on the moon where he'd found it. Lunar Children had managed to seal it in an eclipse and his magic was subpar compared to theirs. He had to seal it in the darkness of the New Moon. The core of Vanargand he kept closely guarded until his defeat. In the interest of tying up loose ends without the aid of a piledriver, many political opponents were shoved in tightly sealed coffins. These coffins were loaded into spaceships and launched on a one-way, closely-watched voyage to the sun.
Dumas did not get to every seal left by Ratatosk. There was one entirely forgotten location, deemed insignificant and pointless.
A dark seal inside the tomb faded with the death of Ratatosk. A vampire awakened some years later and found himself alone, underground.
The vampire sensed a presence and looked up at the dark haired girl that appeared out of nowhere. This was surprising, especially when the underground ruins were filled with lava and monsters.
"Are you ready for this?" the girl asked with a smile. "At Dark loans, we lend energy and you borrowed some. You were twenty-eight soll short in your account after the retrieval service."
"What? Retrieval service?" He was looking inside a chest he'd found in the ruins of San Miguel. The tunnels and cave ins had been hard to navigate, even with the mouse transformation. He'd been drawn here by the light of the lava and a smell. He clutched the fabric of a blue dress he'd found inside the ruins.
"You fell down a hole. It was 200 soll to get out of the hole. You only had 172 in the bank after you paid an account balance to a Ms. Zazie. It would have been a very short time on the treadmill to pay off the interest on 28 soll. I'm sure that you have your reasons... But you have to return what you borrow, That's the way of the world. You understand so far, yes?""
The vampire was very much trying to remember the reasons as the girl hummed to herself thoughtfully. He did not like the concealed glee in the look she was giving him. "The problem is how to get you to make the repayment. We'll have to get you to do a job for us. At an interest rate of 600% with ten periods of compound interest, you owe us $7,909,306,972 in soll."
She took her victim while he was still too stunned to protest.
Doomy sometimes visited the vampire on the treadmill. She told him about the state of the world when he asked. Every day he asked if the sun had returned. He asked if anyone had seen a floating sunflower. He asked if she knew anything about the ParaSOL and how it worked.
Sometimes Doomy would tell him more information as a reward for putting extra effort into the treadmill. Most of the time, she tried to put a price on the information to add to his outstanding bill. There was a market for artifacts found underground but Django declined to sell some things for his own reasons. He seemed hopeful they might be linked to his past. The blue dress Doomy knew was worth a lot. The Gun De Sol she'd offered to take for a smaller price but he refused that offer, much to her confusion. It wasn't like he could use the broken gun and if ever it was repaired, it would burn to shoot it. The headband he would not part with. He also had a weird set of elemental symbols that, when she tried to take them for appraisal, would vanish and return in Django's pocket.
Doomy was happy to return to her desk and look at the numbers again. At the rate Django was working, she'd be able to reopen the Dark Loans in no time. She flipped through the papers on her desk and then, out of the corner of her eye, saw the mirror flash lavender. She didn't like that mirror. Selling insurance to adventurers had been a short lived business venture. She'd closed all the accounts except for one that she could not work around.
Doomy walked to the mirror and flashed a smile. "How may Dark Loans be of service to you?"
The voice from the mirror was just as polite, if less cheerful. "May I ask about claiming on the Azure Sky Tower policy?"
"That was years ago when Vanargand damaged your tower. Dark Loans has since declared bankruptcy, and can no longer be held responsible for repairs."
"If you reopen with the repayment that vampire has, you will owe me."
Doomy did not like the sound of that. She and the mirror traded icily polite policy interpretations for hours before coming to an agreement. Against all expectations, the parties came to an agreement which they both liked the sound of. Doomy got to keep what soll were already paid and did not owe any cash to the Azure Sky Tower. Doomy did wonder why the Silvery White Knight was interested in this vampire and how he'd found out. Maybe it was something to do with the full moon that night. Django was likely an adventurer he'd tested and felt obligated to release from the darkness or something.
It wasn't her problem what happened to Django now. He was traded for the entire payoff of the Azure Sky Tower insurance policy and sent to the care of the Silvery White Knight. The Solar Boy's former self would want to have the knight save him from becoming a danger to the living.
Irony was where the Guild got their cash to rebuild town after Byron's destruction. The Guild sold equipment to protect people from the sun.
Perhaps this deserves explanation. There was, after the sun returned, a number of people who were used to perpetual night. The bright sun, while cheerful, gave people headaches. Since sunglasses were in low demand during the reign of darkness, no one was making any eyewear to protect eyes from the bright sunlight except for the Solar Gunners. They did not like accidentally blinding themselves. They had production set only to make enough for themselves and didn't produce nearly enough goggles to meet the demand. A sizable black market for stolen gunner goggles emerged.
At least they had ramped up production enough for a sizable income. The new hideouts were, while still hidden, outfitted with a lot more purchased goods than stuff dropped by undead. They were able to pay off all the bar tabs in full. All thanks to sun-protection gear.
This was why there was less fuss about the grand reopening of Dark Loans had less fanfare than one might expect. There was still some fanfare and a terminal in every Solar Bank branch that unobtrusively appealed to the desperate and stupid. Laura pointed it out to people.
Aaron saw the terminal that Toasty was trying very, very hard to block from his view.
"Toasty, what's that over there?"
Toasty knew it was futile to try. "Stay away from that. It's been the downfall of many a Solar Boy."
"What is it?"
Laura flashed a smile at the boy and sunflower. "This is a console you can use to access the Dark Loans service! Anytime you are short on energy or money-"
"It's not worth it," Toasty said, petals twitching.
Laura, seemingly oblivious, said, "You can borrow as much as you like! It will be due in three days and make sure to look at the interest rates. If you need to go on an adventure, it's no good to die before you come back so..."
Toasty buried his face in his leaves as Laura continued the sales pitch. He'd lost count of how many vampire hunters had ignored his warnings. No other Terrenial had to put up with this nonsense. Maybe it was the Solar Boy optimism that made this happen. Every single generation.
This was what Nero saw as he floated into the bank. "Hey, what's taking you guys so long? Aaron?"
"We're going to see Sheridan. We haven't got all day here." Lucian said, frowning. It was Lucian and Nero. The dour gloom was welcomed by Toasty at this point.
Aaron whined, "But this is like the second time this week we've gone there! Can we call ahead and make sure he will actually be home?"
"He's been working on something with Alice. I want to see it. It might help me with my revenge." Sheridan was okay with the interruptions. He claimed Carmilla was happy to see the two hunters come by. Nobody else saw any such emotion from Carmilla happening, so they took his word for it. Aaron had not picked up on the reason for the many visits to the mansion, nor had Lucian admitted to himself what he was hoping for. Sometimes Sheridan was out and Lucian would still ask the android about news and weapons.
Toasty stopped wilting. "Lucian, Aaron was thinking about borrowing from Dark Loans."
"I was just telling him that interest is only 250% today! Borrow any amount over a thousand, and you will get this complementary hat. Only the first 100 borrowers get this collector's item. They're not going to last long." said a smiling Laura.
Lucian had less patience and more muscle than Toasty. Lucian grabbed Aaron's scarf and bodily dragged him from the terminal. This spared Aaron having to see the Punishment Room. He was the first Solar Boy in a long line of the sunflower's pupils to have escaped such a fate. Thank the sun for Lucian, thought Toasty.
"We would do better killing monsters on the way to Sheridan's place."
"But Luciaaaaannnn!"
Notes: "Hmm how about something popular with vampire slaying ancestral weaponry? Dhampirs? Carmilla? Counts that will not stay dead? Gloriously cheesy dialogue? Castles that chaotically regenerate enemies because they are filled with evil? I'll write Castlev-Boktai." Goal was, finish this by Halloween with or without a coherent plot. I liked my other work better but still had fun making this one. If you want quality, go look up Kura5.