Disclaimer: None of the authors own any of the referenced properties.
[Devil Survivor 2]
(no title)
Author: Alternis_Alcor
"Alright, I'll bite. What the hell do you have around your neck?"
It was another Loop and it had started out alright; no demon attacks, no Septentriones attacking, no jerk-face Polaris. Daichi was looking forward to having a quiet week.
And then Hibiki came walking down the street with something odd hanging off his neck.
"Well, you remember when I told you about that one Loop I had before meeting our Admin, right?"
"Yeah, the one where we all died."
"In that Loop, the Dragon Stream dragon-thing was named Shakko, and it gave me some of its power that Loop."
"Alright, seems legit." Daichi figured going along with this explanation would save him a headache.
"And I figured, if I could summon it during that Loop, why couldn't I keep it? So the next time I went though that... experience again, I just kept it."
The look of disbelief on Daichi's face was hilarious. "And so you decided to keep it as a pet!?"
The miniaturized Dragon Stream 'dragon-thing' in question was laying on Hibiki's shoulders, its eyes moving independently from each other staring at everything.
"Dude, how does this seem like a good idea to you?" And there's that headache.
"I've just been passing Shakko off as an odd snake, and so far it seems to be working." Shakko had just snatched a person's lunch while the passerby was too busy talking on his phone to notice.
"W-whatever. Just don't let Yamato find out, he might just flip if he sees this."
…
"Er, t-that is a very interesting… snake you have there, Sir."
"Why thank you, Agent Issei. Now, you had a report for me?"
The agent was no longer paying attention to his superior as it was all focused on the strange 'snake' that Chief Hotsuin had in his lap, one of its eyes focusing on him while the other was staring down the chief's takoyaki.
"Stop staring at Shakko, you'll make him feel self-conscious."
[Persona 3]
(no title)
Author: Lurks in the Dark
Aigis Awoke.
Within her, numerous error message flashed across her CPU as her internal diagnostics still calibrated to Baseline detected a surge of new programming and directives spontaneously downloading themselves from what was assumed to be a remote wireless uplink.
Not entirely incorrect given the nature of Yggdrasil.
Quickly resolving the errors and going through her, by now, standard set of Loop protocols, Aigis searched her archival memory systems for recollections of any standard deviance in already established events and found none.
Nodding, Aigis sent out a Ping that went unanswered except for Igor, meaning that, barring the presence of a stealth looper, she was alone.
It was time to once again be reunited with him... or her, depending on Yggdrasil's whim.
…
Aigis stepped into the ever-ascending elevator that was her Velvet Room.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room," the smooth voice of its proprietor once more rang out, and the familiar line made a smile cross the android's lips. Even though he must have done so millions of times, Igor never failed to personally welcome each guest if he could, regardless of how many times they had been to this ephemeral place that existed between dream and reality.
"Hello, Igor," she greeted, taking the open seat across from the old man, who looked at her down the length of his rather long nose with his perpetually wide, bloodshot eyes. "Have you had any interesting new Guests since we last spoke?" she asked.
Igor's Cheshire grin widened, and he waved an immaculate glove hand in the air. "A few, my dear, a few," he said. "Are you hear to make use of my services?" he asked.
Aigis smiled at him. "Eventually," she said, then she reached into her Pocket and withdrew some tea leaves she had received from Iroh over in the Avatar branch, along with a silver tea kettle and two cups. "First, would you like some tea?" she offered. "I visited a branch where a Looper has used his Loops perfecting the art of creating the perfect tea," she informed him, making the water in the pot come to a rapid boil and proceeded to measure out the correct amount of leaves and add them to the mixture. "He taught me what he knew of the art and gave me the gift of one of his newest tea mixtures."
Igor's smile turned less sinister and more kind, looking at the blonde-haired girl with fondness. "I'd be delighted to, my dear," he said, thanking Aigis as she poured him a cup. Aigis then put out a selection of Pinkie Pie's best confections between them. Igor selected a red velvet cupcake and she choose a strawberry tart. She didn't know how long she sat and traded stories with the master of the Velvet Room, but it didn't matter: time had even less meaning in this room than it did in the Loops normally. Two talked and traded stories, sampling foreign delicacies from other Loops, and enjoying themselves immensely-even if a bystander would not be able to tell so for Igor.
Daintily brushing crumbs off his gloves after he had popped the last bite of his second cupcake into his mouth, Igor fastidiously wiped his mouth with a cloth. "Those were delightful, my dear," he said in gratitude to his Guest, waving his hand and summoning forth the thick eldritch tome that housed the multitude of personae that she had collected. "But I believe you came here with a purpose, not to simply humor an old man like myself," Igor said with a grin.
Aigis giggled behind a hand. "Come now, Igor, you don't look a day over ten thousand," she said with a smile, making Igor chuckle slightly.
"You are far too kind to say so," he returned. "I assume you will want to do the usual?" he asked, already summoning the required persona that his Guest would need.
Aigis nodded, her expression turning serious as she ran over the steps she would take to manipulate matters to their desired outcome.
"You truly are an most amazing Guest," Igor suddenly said, causing Aigis to look at the proprietor of the Velvet Room with no small amount of surprise. Igor, as a rule, usually never commented or offered his opinion on those who entered the Velvet Room or their actions, so long as they held true to the contract that they had entered into.
"Every Loop you seek him out, without fail or hesitation," Igor said, waving a hand and summoning forth Aigis's desired personae and bestowing them to her, where they settled into her soul. "It matters not if he remembers you or not, nor do you care what form he may take, you are always by his side."
Aigis closed her eyes and smiled. It was true: every loop she sought out the boy to whom she had sworn to protect, who had become her purpose for living in Baseline and who had shown her what it truly meant to live life as a human being. Even now, what was centuries-perhaps even a millennium-later she still stood by his (or her) side, no matter what. There were times she was his lover, and she dearly cherished those loops, but other times she was his friend, or a sister, a mother. It did not matter: male or female; lover, friend, mother, sister-she would be by his side if possible. Yes, she could do whatever she pleased during her loop, but she was committed to the promise she had made as that blue-haired boy had died in her lap on that summer afternoon in Baseline, because it was he who had shown he what it meant to be a human and to have a heart.
"Quite astounding," Igor said. "That you, who were created should come to embody all the things that my master sees as good in humanity." Reaching forward, Igor took her hand in an affectionate gesture. "I am truly honored to have the privilege to serve you, my dear; you have exceeded even the wildest of hopes and dreams that myself and my master had for you." Igor patted her hand kindly, before once more bridging them beneath his nose, as he was wont to do. "Now I believe you have a young man waiting for-even if he does not know it yet," he said, revealing to Aigis that it was Minato in this Loop and not Minako (not it would have mattered, truly).
Her heart overflowing from the usually taciturn Igor's kind words, Aigis got up, bent over the table, and graced Igor's cheek with a brief fleeting kiss. Turning around, she walked out the door.
Igor watched her her leave for several seconds afterwards, wondering what wondrous things she would do with this Loop? It was only when he looked down to return the Compendium to its resting place that he saw a stack of items left on the table. Blinking, he reached forward and grabbed the top off the stack, and his smile grew.
There, piled high, was an impressive collection of vinyl records with exotic titles and even different languages from all across Yggdrasil. On top, was a note:
"To Igor,
The best Anchor we could ask for, who we do not appreciate as much or as often as we should.
Thank you for everything,
Aigis."
Smiling, Igor got up rose from his seat and a record player appeared nearby. Placing it on the player, a woman's soul song filled the room in words he couldn't understand but still seemed to convey her emotions with every syllable that echoed throughout the Velvet room. The label had written in Aigis's neat handwriting, "Ar Tonelico: Harmonious ~ Hymnos.
Smiling to himself, Igor felt a tear well up in his eye that had nothing to do with music or any sad tale he had heard on his telephone.
He was truly blessed to serve such wonderful Guests...
[Nocturne], [Strange Journey], [SMT IV], [Mass Effect]
Sovereign's New Groove – part 3
Author: Gamerex27
Fear is an instinct known to man since he first crawled out of the primordial muck and walked on land (or since he arose from clay, or evolved from primates, or was genetically engineered into existence by the protheans, depending on who you asked). It is a natural part of any sentient being's very essence; a survival mechanism to ensure that they can flee from threats and live to fight and propagate another day.
Yet, like with most instincts, it can be trained out of the body. Fear is a reaction that can be surpressed and ignored. A brave being can lock away their fear: compartmentalize it so that they can bite back the fight-flight-or-freeze and accomplish whatever needs to be done in the face of terror.
But no matter how strong-willed a being is, there are some fears that cannot be surpressed or beaten into nothingness. Fear of darkness, for some. Fear of decay, aging, death, or even the fear of fear itself.
And, for those brave and tormented souls from the Sea of Amala, they shortly realized another fear they had not yet conquered.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!"
"SLOW DOWN, YOU MADMAN!"
Fear of speed.
Or, to be specific, the primal fear of all organics of Commander Shepard's driving.
"The fate of the galaxy's at stake," Shepard calmly explaned as he blazed across the ruins of Ilos at just under Mach 1. "We can't go slowly."
"COULD YOU AT LEAST DRIVE STRAIGHT?!" Lagndon roared as he buckled a third seatbelt across his waist. "WE'VE FLIPPED OVER ABOUT THREE TIMES NOW!"
WHUMP. THUD. VROOM.
"FOUR TIMES!"
"WHEEEEEE!" Pixie cheered, holding up her blue arms as if she were on a roller coaster. "This is fun! Makes me wish the theme parks still worked after the Conception!"
"We could just wait until Fused Loops for that," Naoki objected, the blood draining from his hands as he grabbed onto the roof's railing with a grip of iron. "We've got to get more of them sometime! It's gotta happen!"
"HOW ARE NEITHER OF YOU FAZED BY THIS?!" Flynn screamed, mentally having to stop himself from praying to God (given where he was from and all).
"His driving's waaaay worse," Pixie simply said, jabbing a finger at Naoki.
"Not my fault that the world keeps getting blown up before I can take a drivers liscence exam," the Demi-Fiend pointed out, teeth clenched. "Also, the gas keeps decaying about a week into the Loop in all of Tokyo. So I only got to drive once, and that was when we were trying to break through Noah's bullshit shields. I had to go fast to ram him! And that was one time! And slow the hell down already!" I'm a giant reptile-tank-Klingon...thing...and I'm about to hurl!
"I just said we can't!"
"…Are we there yet?" Nihlus grumbled, the only one other than Shepard himself unfazed by all this.
"Don't make me turn this tank around."
Whatever screams or prayers to the Administrators coming next were cut off by a series of loud, squishy-sounding thuds.
"I thought Sovereign was too pre-occupied to bring in Husks and stuff?" Langdon asked.
"Demons are attracted to energy sources!" Isabeau shrieked over the whistling wind and increasingly more frequent death cries of crushed demons. "If they've turned on the Reactor, they are drawn to the power like moths to a torch!"
"So, we have even less time." Grinning in spite of the danger, Shepard stepped his foot down on the pedal. "Guess that means we need to go even faster!"
"DAMN YOU, SHEPARD!" Flynn howled, barely managing to supress his alien body's newly-discovered gag reflex. "DAMN YOU!"
…
The congress of Nazara was breaking down.
Millions of voices argued with one another at once, a cacophony that would have driven any individual organic insane trying to make sense of it all. Some rallied against the White ones, claiming that their plan went against their protocol in every way possible. Billions more drowned them out, screaming at their shell to work faster in attaching the cables of the Reactor to itself, to pour the limitless power of the Expanse into their form and lead the chorus to Ascension.
A small, but rapidly growing fragment of the chorus had simply broken down, and had ceased all function and crashed into a dormant state.
Sovereign was not human. Not organic. It did not-could not-accept that its mission was now impossible to fulfill. Faced with the unequivocable proof of such, however, its formerly-unified will fractured.
Where it became easy to drive the spikes into the unity and pull Their plans ever closer to fruition.
The White ones knew of the Loops, despite not being trapped in the neverending cycle themselves. All organics were slowly but surely being dragged into a whirlpool of despair and hopelessness-a cycle without end, even worse than what the Great Will's plans for humanity entailed.
What had once been Yggdrasil had become warped into Hel.
The four beings nodded to one another as they bound the Catalyst into the engine, where its soul would burn and produce the energy needed to end the suffering of the organics in this universe. Ignoring the cries of cycles and feeble protests, the perpetually-sobbing ringleader of the quartet crushed the sapience out of its being with a flick of its finger.
These Loops would never, ever end. There would be no escape.
These pitiful Loopers had yet to realize that all they strove for-all they ever did, will ever do-had no meaning whatsoever. Their stubborn cytoskeletons barred them into ignorance and baseless optimism.
The White would crush that optimism. In order for them to be saved from this cycle, they must be broken first. The only way to save all of Yggdrasil and fix the problems within was to shatter it into countless pieces. It was beyond saving. Everything was beyond saving.
All that could save everyone now, was oblivion.
[Nocturne], [Devil May Cry], [Warhammer 40000]
The Chaos Gods' Disco Rave
Author: Lurks in the Dark
Naoki had been looping a long time-insignificant compared to the Original Seven or some of the other Loopers, sure-but he had been through his Branch's baseline to realize that on top of arguably being one of most fucked up settings in Yggdrasil, it was also unusually resistant to variations. Hence, why the demon in question that something was seriously fucked up with this Loop; he had been so intrigued that he had decided to follow the script of Baseline, simply to see what was up. He had to say, though, as jaded as he had become, it was difficult not break down in hysterics upon exiting the hospital to see Dante staring up at the sky, his mouth agape and at a loss for words, something that the human-turned-demi-fiend-turned-demon knew that the smart mouthed and cocksure demon hunter rarely was.
Raising an eyebrow inquisitively, Naoki followed the crimson devil slayers line of sight to where he knew Kagutsuchi dominated the sky-and promptly did a double-take.
What. The. Fuck.
Seriously.
Now, it was normal for any Looper who had the misfortune to end up in his shit-hole of a Branch to, at one point or another, think of and possibly even refer to Kagutsuchi as a giant disco ball. But no visiting Loopers had ever decided to make it a reality-until now.
(Well, had Pinkie Pie ever visited this wasteland, she might have tried.)
There, up in the sky, Kagatuschi was was covered in a metric fuck-ton of shiny silver sequins, causing its divine glow to be refracted all over the Vortex World in a very psychedelic manner. Oh, and it was pissed, Naoki could tell, from how it was not waxing and waning normally, but in a constant state of pulsations of light.
Kagatsuchi had been bedazzled.
Naoki looked over to Dante, who met his gaze, and Naoki did not even need to ask if he was Awake since the sheer look of befuddlement, tinged with a bit of amusement, let Naoki know that he was.
"Umm..." Dante began, looking back up at the egg of creation turned disco ball; he opened his mouth, then closed it, pursing his lips as he stared at the hovering orb in the sky. The two of them met each other's gaze, managed to hold it for a moment, and then completely lost it utterly.
As they both howled with laughter, stumbling towards one another and leaning on each other for support as the sound of their hysterics filled what was left of the world, Naoki heard Kashima speak from within his heart.
"Truly we have not the words for such a sight..." Even his demonic essence, birthed for the sole purpose of ushering in a world of darkness and chaos, sounded just the tiniest bit amused by what had transpired. "Is the Pink one here?" Kashima asked, referring to the only Looper they knew of in all Yggdrasil that would have the desire to pull of this stunt. Naoki would have sent a Ping, something he neglected to already (and rarely ever did) due to his Loop being so seldom populated by anyone other than his self, native Looper or not, but he was too busy laughing in such a way that he could recall having done since before Baseline.
Dante and he had collapsed upon the street at this point, and was it not for the fact that neither required oxygen to breathe, they would have taken much longer to recover.
"Shit, kid," Dante said, wiping away tears of mirth, still chuckling under his breath. "Is Pinkie here?" he asked.
Naoki was still faintly grinning, staring up at bedazzled Kagutsuchi; he shook his head. "No," he answered, having sent out a Ping and received no response, which was not something any of the ponies would do unless they had a very good reason to and wanted to remain incognito, and-let's face it-Pinkie Pie was many things, but stealthy was not one if it did not involve surprise parties. "So either this is a really weird Variant-which I doubt-or there are some Loopers that either don't know how to Ping or want to continue to fuck up the landscape."
"Ah, well, should make things interesting, at the very least," Dante said, hopping to his feet and brushing off his clothing. "Once you get past the whole 'end of the world' and the fact that demons want to eat you, this place gets kind of boring after a while," Dante said, removing Ebony and twirling the pistol in a manner that Naoki knew that Revolver Ocelot was fond of.
The corner of Naoki's grin quirked up slightly. "True," he agreed. "So, you want to stick around or go and do your own thing?" the Anchor asked. "I'm going to follow Baseline to see if anything else is different; Yggdrasil might just be having a glitch, slim as that chance is since this Branch is pretty damn stubborn."
Dante shrugged his shoulders before suddenly cursing as he fumbled his gun, dropping it to the ground. Obviously, he still hadn't mastered the pistol flourish. "Not like I got anything better to do in this place: no beer, no pizza, no strawberry sundaes. Sure, some of the demons are hot, but, meh..." he shrugged his shoulders dismissively.
Naoki rolled his eyes.
…
Okay, something was definitely not right with this Loop.
Usually Naoki avoided having to travel through the Amala network unless necessary or he was feeling whimsical, viewing it as a hassle, to be honest, and he really had no need to do, long since having found alternate routes or having Pocketed the items or keys he would need to remove whatever was obstructing his path. But he had went to where he knew Hijiri would be, only to find the eternally cursed man absent. Naoki and Dante had entered the Amala Network, but most of the demons were scarce (unsurprising, given how strong both he and Dante were from the Loops) and more strangely, the lingering souls were missing.
"Most strange, indeed..." Kashima commented, and while his demonic side didn't seem worried (it never was worried, as very few things except Admins and certain Loopers could match it if Naoki gave it the reins and let it cut loose) the mere fact that it noticed something and chose to vocalize it was a something worth taking note of. Naoki was sure it was connected to Kagutsuchi's graffiti, but couldn't think of who it could be. Certainly there were Loopers that had the power to do such a thing, but none with that required temperament would have the inclination to pull a prank like that; the fact that the Amala network and Hijiri were missing was even more mysterious.
Naoki thought he could sense a presence that seemed like it might have been familiar somehow, but the Network was in a serious state of flux he had rarely seen previous in other Loops, so he thought it best to exit as quickly as he could, not wanting to get Dante or himself trapped in there.
Every place they went, someone or something had cleaned house in some way or another: the Assembly of Nihilo was a slaughter house, the corpses of demon and manikin alike laid strewn about everywhere, their body parts often festively arrayed like macabre decorations and bright swatches of various shades of demonic blood were painted about haphazardly; The Mantra in Ikebukuro was a similar bloodbath: everything was red and most of the demons that had made up the Mantra had been decapitated, with Thor missing.
Naoki was beginning to get an idea about what was going on her, but surely...
Wasting no more time, Naoki decided to get answers straight from someone who would know what the fuck was going on. Even the manikins were missing.
And where the hell were the damn Fiends! Sure, they were little more than a nuisance to Naoki at this point in his existence,but it was still tradition for him smash the ever-loving shit of Matador's skull on sheer principle alone for the hell that ass hole had given him Baseline!
Entering the Labyrinth of Amala, Naoki noticed a disproportionate amount of sexually evocative demons: angels, succubi, incubi... Mara...
Thus, upon entering the Third Kapala, he really shouldn't have been as shocked to find what he did.
But still, shocked he was...
"Surprise, darling!" Slaanesh cheered, waving from atop of Hell Biker's motorcycle, proudly gripping the Harlot's chalice that was still dripping with fresh viscera; she seemed to be a bit worse for wear, numerous wounds covering hir body, and the right side of hir was covered in a still healing pattern of burn scarring from what Naoki knew to be Samael's Megidolan attack (proof of the Almighty's element potency once more, seeing as how not even a Ruinous Power-even if shi was the youngest-could completely shrug of such an attack.) Before Naoki could react, shi had leapt from atop her iron horse and locked their mouths and tongues together. Dante hung back, watching the scene with a raised brow, before he turned and saw Khorne, a golden hammer clutched tightly in one of his fists, Trumpeter's horn in his other, grinning at the demon hunter from atop a brutalized Thor who the Blood God had apparently domesticated to act as his unwilling steed. The mystery of the missing Mantra skulls was solved as well: they had been fashioned into a crude throne just behind Khorne.
Tzeentch was no where to be seen, but Nurgle was happily chilling in own little corner, surrounded by many Manikins who seemed to be regarding him with a zealous fervor; upon seeing he was being observed, Nurgle flashed a yellowed and decaying grin, waving happily to Dante who could only return the gesture. Was that Matador's montera upon his head?
"Do I even want to know what happened to the Daisoujou?" Dante asked.
"Tzeentch got him," Nurgle said, having given passing out a mutated strain of the Black Death to the Manikins, who recieved it with glee.
"You don't want to know," Khorne's voice cut in, like two coffin slabs grinding against each other.
"Where is the overgrown Warp turkey, anyway?" Dante wondered, looking about for the Changer of Ways.
"He's looking through the Amala Network," Slaanesh said after Naoki had finished extracting himself from hir.
"Well that would explain what happened to Hijiri," Naoki commented.
"The man in that quite lovely suit?" Slaanesh wondered, tilting hir head. "There... was something familiar about him... Like I had met him before but..." the Prince of Pleasure shook hir head, dismissing the notion. "Did you like the surprise!" shi suddenly directed to Naoki, rocking on the heels of hir feet like an overenthusiastic puppy. "It's the first time all four of us were here at the same time, so we wanted to make it special for you!"
"Do you mean the giant floating disc ball outside and the wholesale slaughter?" Naoki asked. "Yeah," he nodded, "'surprised' might be the correct term to use," he said, smiling slightly.
"I killed the Assembly!" Slaanesh declared proudly. "A world of stillness and silence?" shi sneered, her disdain dripping off hir tone.
"I showed the Mantra who is the mightiest of them all!" Khorne bellowed, waving his stolen godly hammer about; Thor looked like he dearly wanted to be put out of his misery and that no Reason was worth this.
"It is a pleasure to finally make all your acquaintance," a smooth voice cut, all gathered turned to see Lucifer, sitting in his wheelchair suddenly among them. "As fellow beings of Chaos, I welcome you wholeheartedly," he said, sketching a slight bow. He then leaned his chined on his fist, as the First of the Fallen had a habit of doing in this guise, gazing at them with seemingly blind eyes that were anything but. "Long have I wished to make you acquaintance," he confessed.
Naoki had to immediately go over and put an arm on Khorne's shoulder, as the Blood God grinned in a feral manner to Lucifer. Yeah, that was all kinds of "Nope!" right there...
"You!" Slaanesh said, pointing a razor sharp nail at the Lucifer. "I've been waiting for a change to have a word with you!" she said, suddenly advancing on the fallen angel, whose only reaction was to appear to be amused at it, even as Slaanesh hauled Lucifer up by gripping his suits lapels.
"Oh?"
"The only one allowed to toy with my favorite piece of man-meat is me!"
Naoki didn't quite know how to respond to that proclamation: on the one hand, given that Slaanesh was formed from the gathered debauchery of what was, more or less, a thousand-year-long orgy held by space elves, hir saying that was probably the eqivalent of a declaration of everlasting love...
Maybe...
It did go to show just how messed up his concept of reality and what constituted a healthy relationship was that he got the as warm a feeling in what may or may not remain of his heart.
"Is that so?" Lucifer smiled gently, not seeming to mind being manhandled. "My congratulations, on the matter," he said politely. "Your union has my blessing," he told the two of them.
"Yeah... thanks for that," Naoki began, and then stopped when he noticed Khorne produce a sword. "Khorne, is that what I think it is?" he asked with the resigned error of one asking a question they knew had a stupid answer, but held out meaningless hope to the contrary.
"A vorpal sword!" Khorne crowed! "Plus five!"
"Where did you..." Naoki began to ask, before shaking his head. "You know what, fuck it! I don't even want to know or be reminded of that experience.
Slaanesh seemed pleased enough by the support that Lucifer had given that he released him, glowing with wicked pride. All the while, Nurgle kept trying to give "gifts" to the Manikins without any success, but that didn't seem to damper the grandfatherly beings enthusiasm.
"By the way," Naoki said, ignoring the litany of things Kashima demanded that he relay to Lucifer, mostly about the Tomb of Horrors, "just how pissed off is the guy up top about Kagutsuchi?"
Lucifer didn't answer, only smiled.
[Persona 4], [Gundam]
Kira Yamato's Design – part 5
Author: Drakohahn
Izanagi caught the glowing green blades with his own, blocking them due to his nature as a Persona. After the initial clash, the two swordsmen began a rapid exchange of strokes, slashes and thrusts to probe the defenses of the other. This didn't last long as the Shadow Self broke away to dodge the spells thrown at him from the other Personae.
It was apparently part of their plan as the Shadow Self dodged right into the path of Takeji Zaiten's red blade, which was crackling with surges of lightning. The physical impact didn't do much by itself but the strong electric shocks caused him to wince while swing knocked him into the next part of the plan. Yamato Sumeragi conjured up a trio of brightly colored orbs and brought them together, once Shadow Kira was close enough, into an explosion of Almighty power; knocking the armored foe towards Yosuke and his Persona, Takehaya Susano-o. Wind-coated daggers and fists collided with the now pinballing Shadow Self, dealing little overall damage but keeping him moving on their terms rather than his.
Chie and her Persona, Haraedo-no-Okami, were next on his pinballing path, batting him with icy boot and blade towards Yukiko and Sumeo-Okami where they waited with burning fan and wing. Seeing the flames, the Shadow Self tried to boost off in another direction, but was intercepted and knocked towards the pair by Kanji, Teddie and Kamui-Moshiri. With a united strike of blazing power, Shadow Kira was swatted to the ground.
"He's stunned! Get him!" Yu Narukami shouted as he and Izanagi charged, swords in hand. Once more the inexplicable cloud of dust kicked up as the entire Investigation Team pounced on the armored foe. Eventually, however...
"ENOUGH!" With a sudden and surprising surge of strength, the Shadow Self threw everyone off. Despite the blows they had been landing, he didn't look too worse for wear. "You're all just a bunch of pathetic Naturals! You have nothing on me! I am the Ultimate Coordinator!"
Every member of the Investigation Team felt an unsettling burst of energy from inside their foe. Rise frowned from where she had been watching with Kouzeon, registering the sudden jump in the Shadow's power.
"Everyone, be careful! Something very odd is happening with the Shadow Self!"
The Team braced themselves, watching their armored opponent to see what he did next. Then he blurred out of sight and Naoto and her Persona were blasted back by sudden beams of green energy. From where Kira sat on his knees in exhaustion and pain from his out of control Shadow, he watched the battle with desperate eyes.
[Nocturne], [Devil May Cry]
Payday for Dante
Author: Lurks in the Dark
Dante kicked his feet up on his solid oak desk, staring at the high-definition that took up almost an entire wall of Devil of May Cry. A younger awake Lady stared in shock at the office, more appropriately at the many suitcases of cash that overflowed with precious gold and jewels.
"Where did you get all of this?" Lady asked, pinching her nose, her fingers tracing the scar that spanned the bridge of it. It wasn't strange for Looper to save up a sizable nest egg over Loops in his or her pocket-in fact, most Loopers would be scandalously rich when Yggdrasil got set to rights and the loops finally ended-but this went a bit beyond the norm.
Dante didn't immediately answer, too focused on devouring a long string of gooey mozzarella from the piping hot pizza in front of him. "I realized something and called in a debt that was owed to me," Dante said.
Lady stared at him with mismatched eyes. "Who would owe you this much for a job?" she asked.
"The Devil," Dante said.
Lady blinked. "Excuse me?"
…
Lucifer, currently in the form of an old man in a wheelchair, raised an eyebrow at the demon hunter. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.
"I said you owe me a shit ton of money, Lucy!" Dante said, pointing a finger at him. Lucifer stared at the demon hunter, then to Naoki, who simply raised his hands in a "don't ask me" type gesture. "You see, you hired me to come to his shit hole and kill demons, right?" Dante asked, and before he could recieve an answer, he carried on. "So, by my count-since I'm fairly certain your at least aware of time being jacked up and if not, then it won't matter the next Loop-I have done your job multiple times over, so that means overtime and interest! You simply hired me 'to kill demons,' well, guess, what? I must have killed tens of millions in this place by now! So pony up the cash!' Dante demanded.
Naoki was gaping in sheer awe at what his friend was doing. He had some fucked up shit in the Loops, but never before did he dream that he would ever see this. As powerful as he was, not even he would dare to deliberately piss off Lucifer, since Naoki was fairly certain that Looping or not, the First of the Fallen was one of the few beings in Yggdrasil that could do some kind of lasting damage to a Looper if he went all out.
"Very well," Lucifer said; what use was mortal wealth to him?
"And another thing..." Dante trailed off, realizing that the Devil had agreed, and he was momentarily left flatfooted. He had simply been bored-he didn't think it would actually work. "Yeah, well, uh... that's right!" he finished, somewhat lamely.
Lucifer tapped his cane on the ground, and a scroll appeared. His attendant in black mourning garb handed it to Dante, who let it unfurl to the floor, where it extended comically for a few feet. "I trust this will settle any outstanding debt between you and I, for past as well as future services rendered?" he asked.
Dante stared, mouth open in shock.
"It is, of course, in precious jewels as well as gold, as Macca would mean little to you, I imagine."
…
"You extorted Lucifer," Lady said, her mouth hanging in pure shock.
"Hey!" Dante said, pointing his finger accusingly. "It isn't extortion if a person legitimately owes you money!" he defended.
Lady opened her mouth, wanting to argue that logic, but couldn't, finally settling on sighing and shaking her head.
"Feel free to take a couple ten million if you want, babe," Dante waved to the fortune around him. "This is hardly five percent of what Lucy gave me, called it a bonus for going 'above and beyond' the expected fufilment of my duties." Lady shrugged and wandered over to pick up a few briefcases; extra scratch was always handy to have. "Hell, go nuts on the boob job this loop, babe!" he told her, smiling smarmily.
SLAP!
"I have never gotten breast implants!" Lady seethed.
Dante blinked and then looked rather pointedly at her current chest. Damn, sure they were probably a B-cup (nothing to scoff at) but she was what, 16 or 17 right now? Nowhere near the size she would be when the whole shit with Nero went down.
"You don't?" Dante asked. "Well you hit a hell of growth spurt!" Dante said happily. "Maybe it's the priestess blood in your family? Or it could be-"
BLAM!
Dante never got to finish his musings, as a hole appeared in his forehead courtesy of one of Lady's pistols.
When he came too, he would find his small horde of loot taken by a very pissed off female demon hunter.
[Persona 4]
House of Cards: Persona Edition
Author: Lurks in the Dark
Igor carefully-ever so carefully-maneuvered his hands to as to not upset the delicate balance of destiny; the slightest bit of recklessness could spell certain doom after all. His were the hands that had woven fate and destiny, spun whole-cloth from the bonds of human emotion that his guests nurtured, and now once more they shaped another thing.
A pleased smile crossed the proprietor's face as he accomplished his perilous task! None but him would ever know what he had done this day, but that was fine. His own satisfaction was enough.
Just then, the door opened, and the guest that entered simply stood in the doorway, blinking at the sight before him.
His only reaction being a slight clearing of his throat, Igor gave his customary greeting.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room."
Yu said nothing, simply staring. There, upon the table, was a titanic construction of cards, made from Persona cards and tarot cards intermingled. Not saying a word, the Wild Card raised an inquisitive brow at Igor, who simply shrugged his shoulders, though Yu could tell that he was amused by the whole situation.
Yu simply shrugged his shoulders in kind. Igor was the Anchor-it stood to reason he did other things beside wait for them to show up. He'd have to give the man some models, come to think of it.
[Digital Devil Saga]
(no title)
Author: Lurks in the Dark
"So this should be simple," Gale said, lounging back in the Embryon base; everyone was Awake this Loop and they could have a bit of fun.
Suddenly another Ping, not from any of them, registered.
Serph face-palmed.
"Goddammit!" he cursed, closing his eyes. "Naoki is Awake."
"Maybe we can just not fight him?"
Serph lifted his face from his hands. "Remember what happened the last time we did that? He came looking for us and ended up crashing the Loop."
[Nocturne], [Strange Journey], [SMT IV], [Mass Effect]
Sovereign's New Groove – part 4
Author: Gamerex27
Just as Shepard had begun to launch into a karaoke rendition of the "Fleet and Flotilla" soundtrack, he was mercifully cut off by an earth-shattering crash, followed by the vehicle grinding to a halt.
"Did we find a demon too big to run over?" Pixie asked, unbuckling herself from the seat and glancing at the menagerie of screens relaying techno-jargon to the driver.
"I think so." Shepard got out of the driver's seat and wrenched the door open. Grunting from the strain-it seemed to be stuck in place from debris of the crash-he channeled his biotic strength into the effort, and it slid open just wide enough to let a humanoid through.
Though the shards and splinters of bone littered all across the ground and soil, Shepard saw what looked like hundreds of tiny piles of multicolored slime covering the ground.
"That's ectomplasm," replied Burroughs.
Shepard turned up the comm link keying him into the frequency of Flynn and Isabeau's shared A.I. "Come again?"
"Some residue left behind after ghosts or other supernatural entities lose their physical forms," she clarified. "Unfortunately, I can't tell what kind of demon they are from. Almost like they're not from this reality altogether."
"…what happened to the gods of the species the Reapers wiped out?"
The group glanced back at Langdon in unison, several of them stopping mis-stride out of the Mako.
"Humanity alone created thousands of different demons we can summon with the Program," he explained. "Add that to all the others that turians, salarians, asari and the rest came with, and that's a lot of monsters in Burrough;s database. So, if she can't recognize them at all…"
"…they may be from those extinct species," Shepard finished. "Judging by how many puddles there are, the White must have some few thousands of them."
"Millions, actually," Burroughs cheerfully corrected.
Shepard abruptly paled, his eyes widening in horror.
"Oh, don't worry!" Pixie said, giggling and slapping Shepard on the back. "If we could just run them over, one bullet ought to break up what's left of each demon and god! They haven't been worshipped for millions of years, right?"
"Belief does beget power," Isabeau confirmed, her mouthpiece flashing with her words. "It's very likely these demons are little stronger than a fly, or an ant."
"Then why bring them here?" Shepard asked, as Naoki squeezed his massive bulk out of the Mako and jogged to catch up with everyone else.
"I think it's a…Zurg? No, Zerg rush. A game I used to play back in Baseline…like, about 10,000,000 years ago, where the enemies just rushed at you over and over, Thousands of spiders can still kill a man if they all inject their venom at once."
"Thank you for that lovely mental image," Isabeau muttered. "Thankfully, we are heeeeeerrr^#*#*#^#"
…
"…now! Shepard, you need to get in there now!"
Shepard's eyes shot open, as he scrambled to his feet and retrieved his assault rifle. Wasn't that voice…?
"…tear in reality's code knocked you out! Get in the damned Conduit!" Athena yelled again. "The ritual's 80% DONE! You have MINUTES before that robotic moron shows up here in the offices covered in your metaphysical guts!"
"Move! MOVE!" Shepard fired his rifle into the ground, awakening his companions with a start."
"Wuh…please, let me sle-" Naoki's eyes widened as he saw the Conduit's rapid trembling, and a spire of the Yamato Perpetual Reactor peeking out of the gate to…wherever the White linked it to. "Aw, crap! Guys! NOW!"
Within seconds, the group had roused themselves again, and broke into a mad dash for the portal.
The second his flesh touched the gateway, Shepard felt the hairs all over his body stand on end, and the smell of ozone drowned out all of his senses.
When his vision cleared, he found himself in a featureless white void.
The only other people there were Nihlus.
And Captain Anderson.
A bone-white, twisted parody of Captain Anderson, with tears streaming down from his otherwise expressionless face.
[Digital Devil Saga], [Nocturne], [Devil May Cry]
Milady (title added by compiler) – part 1
Author: Lurks in the Dark
Naoki awoke in a familiar room and fought the urge to curse his foul luck. He was in the Junkyard. He hated the Junkyard!
The demi-fiend once more reflected on how Yggdrasil seemed to personally have it out for him in particular; due to whatever unfathomable disaster that necessitated the implementation of the time loops, the cluster of Branches known as the "Amala-verse" were glitch filled meat grinders filled with gibbering unspeakable horrors and other happy-fun time shit.
Really, it was kind of like the Yggdrasil version of that place in the Hub, Australia: it was easier to list what things weren't out to kill you, directly or otherwise.
And he, Naoki Kashima, had the distinct honor of being the lucky Anchor of the most fucked-up, depressing of the whole bunch: the Branch that he and other Loopers had taken to calling "Nocturne," after the video game RPG that was it was its backup in the Hub. But as if that were not enough, Yggdrasil swapped some one's and zero's at some point, so he was sort of also present in this Branch of the Amala-verse, as well (except, well, he wasn't originally, but then he was...)
Essentially, functioned like a demonic version of Schrodinger's fucking cat in this rainy shit stain of a Branch; the video-game Hub backup rationalized this as him being a "New Game +" super boss.
This fact Naoki didn't really mind: he was considered by the RPG enthusiasts of the denizens that lived in the Hub to be the premier secret boss in most any RPG.
It went without saying that he got a hold of this Branch's random battle music as soon as possible and made sure to play it whenever he met up with Serph and company. He will fondly remember to his dying day the look of pure "oh shit!" that crossed their faces when the first time they realized that he simply wasn't some hellish nightmare spawned for the sole purpose of wrecking their shit six ways from Sunday, but a sapient Looper who they stood a greater than average chance of running into during every new Loop because they were all part of the Amala cluster on Yggdrasil.
The downside was, due to his unique status of simultaneously being present in this Branch's Baseline and not being present, he didn't exactly get the luxury of accessing local Loop memories, as he didn't exist in the Junkyard until he suddenly did.
The only thing he could do when he found himself thrust into this situation was to let out a Ping to tell the Loopers of this Branch that he was Awake, he was waiting, and they damn well better not think of not fighting him, damn it!
The first (and only) time they had thought they could just blitz through the events of the Loop, he had firmly established that he would have none of that particular brand of bull-shit; he had left his little room, slaughtering anyone and anything that was either unlucky or stupid enough to be in his path, and murdered the absolute fuck out of those cannibalistic jackasses by spamming Gaia Rage at them until their great grandparents felt it!
Good times...
…
Serph and the rest of the Embryon were gathered around the foreigner who was replacing Agrilla this Loop; she was a woman dressed in a low-cut white pinstripe shirt and she had shoulder length black hair. The most distinguishing things about her were the scar that marked the ridge of her nose and her dual-colored eyes, one red and the other blue. And she had a rather large rocket launcher attached with a bayonet that obviously had aspirations of being an ax, for how large it was.
She appeared to be caught in the throes of a nightmare-perfectly understandable given that she had just Awoken only to be forcibly turned into a ravenous demon and consumed still living people in her hunger-induced blood lust.
There was a reason why most visiting Loopers usually required a Loop in Pony branch to recuperate from the Junkyard, after all.
Serph frowned; there was something very familiar about this woman-he was certain he had perhaps met her before, or at least heard of her.
"Anyone recognize her?" Serph asked, crossing his arms his chest. He let his gaze slide down to the long expanse of creamy thigh that her shorts revealed, and his gaze locked on the demonic brand that had situated itself over a scar there.
Cielo shook his head in the negative, gazing at still woman with a hand to his chin. "No, mon," he intoned, his accent thick as it always was when he was Awake. "I think I'd remember a woman like dat," he said, gesturing to her revealing attire and rather beautiful features.
Heat gave a derisive snort but refused to comment on the matter.
Serph sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this..." he announced.
…
A steak of light shot towards her as soon as she Awoke, and then Lady felt nothing but agony. It felt as if the blood in her veins rose to a boil and her muscles started to slowly cooking themselves from the inside out. She remembered screaming and screaming until her vocal cords threatened to rupture-how long had that hellish existence lasted? A minute? A week? Time no longer meant anything to the demon hunter-there was only pain.
She dimly registered that the scar on her thigh hurt the most (but his was not saying much), but did not have the mental capability to analyze what that fact might have meant. She felt her skin stretching as her bones twisted, breaking and reforming, as her body threatened to tear itself apart.
And then, merciful oblivion.
She must have had a nightmare brought on by the pain of her injuries. In this nightmare she remembered becoming something... else. Her stomach was distended heavily, as if pregnant, but no child rested in her womb, instead her abdomen had a gaping fanged maw with a slavering tongue hanging from it; she had not two, but four arms, with two of them eternally cradling her stomach and the the other two ending in weapons of a sort: one was a thin, razors-sharp, bone-like blade; the other arm was disproportionately longer, dragging the ground, and ending in what appeared to be a skull-shaped mass of bone.
Her ears twitched from where they had been situated atop her head, and face had elongated into a canine like muzzle, but deformed. A chain of severed heads, all missing any features save for too-large predatory grins, rested upon her stomach and bloated breasts, offering some form of modesty, had she even cared about such notions or even possessed normal human anatomy.
Suddenly, the creature whose body she had come to inhabit shot across the battlefield; it didn't so much run as it danced, twirling about, its bladed arm becoming a whirl of death as parted the flesh of its foes and bathed in their blood, spirited by canine-like feet. Numerous creatures were sent flying from her club-like appendage, if not outright reduced to a shower of blood and pulverized flesh.
She remembered her human hands leaving the perversion of a stomach, grabbing a nearby monster, and raising it before her muzzle. She felt her teeth pierce the tender flesh, the sensation of hot blood spilling down her throat, the snap of tendons against her teeth. And then she her bladed arm diced her prey, her human hands greedily feeding it to her secondary stomach, its tongue curling around the flesh and pulling it into the razor maw and the rows upon rows of teeth.
She ate and ate, but never got full.
All she knew was horrible, endless hunger-and death.
Most bizarre, though, was that despite all the carnage and savage feasting in the nightmare, her attention was captured by the glowing mark that resembled a skull on her thigh, imprinting itself into her memory.
…
Lady shot awake, her chest heaving; her exposed skin dimpled against the air, covered in a cold sheen of perspiration from her night terror. Eyes wide, she greedily sucked in lungfuls of air and attempted to work through the adrenaline that was running rampant through her system, causing her limbs to tremble like a newborn babe.
A bitter rancid taste lingered in the back of her mouth, and she felt hot bile rise up in her gorge as the events of her nightmare returned. God... she could feel the hot blood spilling down her mouth and filling her throat... how she couldn't get enough...
Lady immediately feel off the cot she had awoken on, impacting upon the hard, cold ground of wherever she was; her body heaved as her stomach worked to empty itself.
Oh, god! She could still taste it! Still bracing herself with one hand, she felt her abdomen, thankful only to feel the toned midriff that was always there and not a distended belly with a slavering fanged maw.
"Uggh..." the demon hunter let out a sound of disgust, wiping her mouth with her sleeve. Closing her eyes, she took in long breaths through her nose and as she attempted to access the Loop's local memories and get a handle on where she was and the situation she was in.
"Are you okay? are you Awake yet? Maybe feeling a little loopy?" a calm voice asked, and Lady took notice on the strange emphasis that had been placed upon two key words in the questions. Any Looper in Yggdrasil quickly fine-tuned their hearing to pick out those terms in conversation, after all.
Swallowing down the lump her throat, accepted the hand and rose to her feet, seeing she was surrounded by a number of men and one black-haired girl; strangely enough, they all had what looked like tattoos or brands at different locations on their bodies. Strange. "You could say that," Lady muttered, still not having completely gathered back her scattered wits, but she still managed to nod her head in affirmation.
"My name is Serph," the silver-haired man introduced himself with a smile. "I'm the Tribe Leader of the Embryon, and you're in the Junkyard," he explained, though it was unnecessary as her brain spooled fresh memories across her neurons, filling in the missing gaps and getting her up to speed.
"Right," Lady nodded. "I've got it now, thanks," she said, giving Serph a smile. "My name is Lady," she introduced with a smile, only to notice that Serph seem to start at her name, his eyes widening. "What?" she asked.
Serph exchanged looks with the others, who equally looked unsure. "Do you happen to know Dante?" the tribe leader eventually asked.
Lady's eyes widened and she found herself smiling; this Loop wouldn't be so bad, after all, if they knew Dante! "I'm his partner in our home Branch!" she told them. "How do you know that no-good layabout?" she wondered, her hands on her hips that were cocked to one side.
"We sometimes have a Fused Loop with another neighboring branch that he visits as part of Baseline," Serph said, and the penny dropped in Lady's mind.
"Wait, so this is that weird 'Conception' Tokyo, Dante always goes on about?" she asked, gazing about. Strange, it looked nothing like a weird-ass desert wasteland to her.
"No," Serph shook his head. "We're the Junkyard. However, the Anchor of the third Amala Branch, Naoki, is actually here right now... he's sort of a Baseline native only not..." Serph saw Lady's confused gaze and shrugged his shoulders. "It's complicated," he offered, somewhat lamely, but the woman accepted the explanation: the Loops had done stranger things she knew... "I think it's best that we take you to him, all things considered," Serph began, his expression turning uneasy, as if he was suddenly made aware he was in the presence of a bomb that could detonate at any given moment.
Lady frowned. "Why? Shouldn't I be fine here?" she questioned, alarm bells going off in her head at Serph's-and after she cast a quick gaze about, everyone else, too-sudden nervous display and evident discomfort. Something nagged at Lady from the back of her mind. "Wait a minute..." she began, and Serph and the rest of the Embryon cringed, waiting for the proverbial penny to drop (though in this case it would be more like a Megidolan.) "Dante told me about this Branch..." she recalled. "This is the place where you all get turned into..."
Lady never finished that sentence; the blood drained from her face as she recalled the events of the nightmare she had just awoken from. Fearfully, she looked down, dreading what she might find.
"Oh, god..." she said softly, in a pitiful voice she had not made since the night her father had murdered her mother. "No..." she denied, shaking her head futilely, even as the sickly sweet taste of raw flesh and iron tang of hot blood once more filled her mouth. "No, no, no, no, no..." she repeated in a mantra, her hands burying themselves painfully among her hair as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut-but the grinning skull-like tattoo desecrating her flesh still stared back at her, burned into the back of her eyelids.
"Lady..." Sera took a step forward, her hand hovering uselessly in the air just above the demon hunter's shoulder; the beginning of "Pray" sat ready upon the tip of her tongue, ready to pacify the visiting Looper should she enter into a Berserk state.
"No!" Lady shouted, turning a wild gaze towards the younger woman. "I... I'm not a demon! I'm not!" she screamed. "I eat those people!" she insisted; by now her breath was coming in quick, short gasps and darkness was slowly bleeding around the edges of her vision. "It's not real... it's not! I'm human! I'm not like him! I can't be like him!" Lady insisted, memories of her ghastly feast filling her mind unbidden, but now a new phantasm had joined the battlefield: a white-faced jester, who grinned approvingly at her from the end of his comically long nose.
"That's daddy's little girl..." the Jester whispered silky in her mind and his words were like arsenic-laced honey. "I"m so very proud of you, Mary. You're just like me!" Her father's demonic form burst into maniacal glee, falling to the battlefield and kicking his legs up into the air wildly.
Sera was about to start the words to her song, when Heat took matters into his own hands, stepping up behind her and slamming a closed fist into the back of Lady's skull with a meaty thump; the demon hunter collapsed into Heat's waiting arms like a sack of produce.
Sera glared harshly at the red-haired Embryon member, who simply shrugged. "Would you have preferred we have a rampaging Ashura, instead?" he asked, and none present could really argue that his action was preferable, even if they disapproved on the matter with which her accomplished it.
Serph watched as Lady was put once more on the cot. Turning, he headed toward the door. "You all keep an eye on her," he commanded, heading for his destination.
Gale, who had remained silent throughout the ordeal, looked to his retreating leader. "Where are you going?"
"I'm going to get Naoki," Serph said, and the rest of his friends immediately looked alarmed.
Cieolo looked open-mouthed at his friend. "What?!" he demanded with evident shock. "You're bringing that psycho here!" he demanded. "In case you might 'ave forgot, da last time he was here, he reduced this place to rubble!"
Serph sighed, rubbing his temples. "I know..." he acknowledged their concerns. "But he knows Dante the best out of all of us-if anyone will know how best to help Lady, it will be him," he explained, his voice carrying in it a pleading tone that begged his friends to understand why he was doing this.
Sear nodded her head, and though she was still unsure about inviting the demi-fiend into their midst, she cast a worried look towards the comatose Lady, whose face was twisted into a fitful frown even in her dreamless sleep. "You're right..."
Heat simply nodded his head. "You are the leader," was all he said on the matter, for it was as simple as that-both in the Loop and beyond, that would never change.
The rest all seemed to accept his reasoning. Of course it helped Serph that there would be no true lasting consequences to the action-the very worst was that Naoki (though he tended to allow Kashima more leeway when in the Junkyard, Serph knew) would simply kill them all and cause the Loop to reset. Granted, that would be the quickest way to remove Lady from her situation, but Serph didn't want her possibly Looping through Yggdrasil in her traumatized state. Most likely she would end up back in her home Branch where Dante could see to her, or if she was lucky, she would Loop into the pony world and they specialized in fixing these sorts of problem, but any Looper who had been in the game long enough would tell you that despite all evidence to the contrary, Yggdrasil had a twisted sense of humor and could be downright spiteful at times.
Lady looping into another Amala Branch or ending up in Warhammer 40K was not something he was willing to chance in her state, however improbable the chances might be.
…
Naoki idly flipped through the pages of the Tomb of Horrors module book that he had gotten from Tzeentch, recalling the absolute cluster fuck that had been his attempt to get the four Ruinous Powers to successfully complete it. That experience was so profoundly stupid that Naoki was shocked that he didn't automatically pop a rage boner simply out of spite whenever he recalled the many hours of hell he had been subjected to.
"Maybe I will let you recreate this place," Naoki mused, rubbing his chin. "If nothing else it will be something to do, and it would be funny as hell to throw Khorne into it," he thought.
"Indeed," Kashima, the sum of all his demonic instincts replied. "Though I do wonder what would be the outcome of Billy wandering into it..." his not-so-better half mused.
Naoki cringed (a knee-jerk reaction every Looper developed sooner or later whenever the stupid MLE was brought up.) "He'd probably destroy it," he answered. "Heavens knows he's done more impossible things in the past," he commented.
"But it does gladden mine heart to imagine otherwise," Kashima said. Naoki felt a grin crossing his face and he found himself forced to nod, a vision of Billy stumbling into the Orb of Annihilation fililing his mind. Hell, all he'd have to do is put up a sight pointing to the mouth, with an arrow and the words "Free Ice Cream."
The door to the room opened, and Naoki sent his book back to his Pocket with a thought. "Finally! It took you losers long enough!" he groused. "I was about to go out and hunt you dumbasses down," he said, and then stopped as he noticed Serph alone, an unusually serious expression on the tribe leader's face. "Hey, what the hell are you doing?" Naoki demanded, raising an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you think you can actually take me one-on-one!" he demanded. Sometimes it let him interact like any other visiting Looper and others it would randomly have a blue screen of death for seemingly no reason.
Serph simply looked at him grimly. "We need your help," he told the demi-fiend.
Naoki had to stop himself room laughing. "Excuse me?" he demanded. "No, that's not how it works. My job is to beat on you freaks-nothing else!" he reminded. That was, more or less, quite literally true-the coding for this Branch was very particular when it came to what it allowed him to do without causing a Loop Crash.
"Agrilla got replaced by Lady," Serph cut in, and Naoki was brought his tirade to a dead halt, staring at the local Anchor, not sure he had heard him correctly.
Naoki licked his lips absentmindedly. "Lady?" he questioned, hopeful that it was some other Looper named Lady that Serph would feel the need to come inform him about. "Dante's friend, that 'Lady'?" he clarified.
Serph nodded.
Naoki was silent, the implications going through his mind. Ending up in the Amala-verse wasn't a picnic for any non-native Looper, but this Loop had a special kind of fucked-up all of its own: namely that visiting Loopers were put through the trauma of painfully being converted into monsters against their will and forced to engage in acts of cannibalism and the consumption of raw flesh usually at least once, when they first went berserk as their Loop-implanted "demon" coding was forcibly activated.
Sure, the Embryon had found alternatives to having to consume raw flesh, but sometimes a Looper was taken by surprise by a Loop and couldn't react until certain events had already been set into motion.
"Did she..." Naoki asked, not having to finish his sentence. Serph nodded, even more grim.
"Fuck." Naoki began pacing the room, his hands clenched in fists at his side. "FUCK!" he yelled. This was just fucking great! Any other Branch of Amala and Naoki was certain Lady would have been fine given her demon-hunting skills, but she just had to land in the fucking Junkyard, with her history. Sure, she got over her hatred of demons in Baseline, but there were a whole slew of Daddy issues that this was probably bringing up, on top of the cannibalism. "I don't suppose it goes without saying she didn't handle it well," Naoki spat acidly; Serph didn't answer him, he didn't have to.
Naoki stopped to think about what to do, only to draw a blank. "Shit," he muttered. He didn't know what he could do in this situation to fix things, but he damn sure knew what he could do anyway...
"Come on," he grunted, stalking past Serph. The leader of the Embryon turned and followed him without a word, silently pitying any rookies that had the misfortune of getting between Lucifer's chosen general and his mission.