Red Bull Horns Aren't For Grabbing (Percy Jackson/FGO - Asterios SI Chapter 3)
"I still think we should do more with Ms. Rose." Bianca said as she and her group were in another plot brainstorming session.
The school year was passing by very quickly, and surprisingly Bianca... didn't find it a slog to go through.
"No, the mystery is the appeal of her character. We only reveal that she's some ancient magic user and that's enough." Her friend, Mary, interjected.
"Plus we already hinted at her being a vampire." Said Malcom, another student in the plot group.
"Dead Apostle." Said Dave.
"Dead Apostle," Malcom rolled his eyes but nodded. "By her looking intently at Bianca, the character, when she was bleeding, and how the blood in her garden vanished after the fight in arc two."
"Well, if Ms. Protagonist is complaining, maybe we should listen." Said Carrie, teasingly with a smug grin at Bianca.
Bianca felt her ears turn red at the reminder.
Two weeks before that visual novel presentation was due, as Mr. Asterios was explaining the game they would be working on, along with the plot and setting, he said that he didn't come up with the names or characters of the "Master" characters, the mages in the magic tournament plot, and that the best presenters—those who had the most engaging discussion in class—would get to make a Master character and put them in the game.
Supposedly Mr. Asterios did this for every year from Grade 7 to Grade 12. Bianca won best presenter in her Grade, as she surprisingly ended up finding a lot to talk about in the YU-NO story.
Her friends on dare suggested that she make her Master character have her own name, just with a different last name. Then Mary suggested to not even bother making the last name that different, just to see if Mr. Asterios would reject it or not.
Mr. Asterios took one like at her character, Bianca Angelus, her written backstory and everything, then looked at her.
Bianca found herself on the spot.
"Are you sure?" He said with that tone adults used when kids were about to do something dumb.
But encouraged by her friends, and Mary being a horrible influence, Bianca pushed through her nervousness and nodded.
"Y-Yes, sir."
"...Sure, why not?" Mr. Asterios replied, looking like he was trying to stop himself from laughing.
That had been mortifying, but then she hadn't understood the implications of situation.
Bianca Angelus, her character, ended up being the secondary main character, along side the primary main character, the Servant Arachne.
Now whenever Bianca suggested anything, even minor, the group would tease and poke her about being the "protagonist".
Bianca never thought that she (her character) would end up having that important of a role. She wondered if Mr. Asterios was doing this to get back at her for that time she left Nico with him.
She was only going to the bathroom for a few minutes, but met up with a few friends and talked a long while without realizing it.
Then on her way to the bathrooms, she ended up meeting that hardass Sergeant Coffinmore. Bianca wasn't sure if he was a real sergeant or not. He was a strict disciplinary history teacher. He doesn't teach the syllabus like he should be. He keeps talking about the Vietnam War like he's been there, but no one is sure if he actually went to it or not. He looks a little young, like someone in their late thirties, to have been enlisted.
He held up Bianca scolding her about being in the hallways without a pass, when she said she was just going to the toilet. He seem to just enjoy being angry and racking her over the coals.
Only for Mr. Asterios to come up and see what's going on. After Sergeant Coffinmore gave a very biased veiw of the events, Mr. Asterios said he'd take responsibility for Bianca and for Coffinmore to leave. When Coffinmore protested, Mr. Asterios just... looked at him, and Coffinmore went pale like he saw the devil, before he turned tail, and tried to not just run off. He quit Westover soon after.
Bianca felt like Mr. Asterios was her hero for that. So she suggested if it's possible for an alternative version of the Asterios character (which Mr. Asterios found amusing to no end), could be summoned as one from an alternative timeline where he was a hero rather than a monster.
Mr. Asterios looked really surprised, since the idea, according to him, of introducing alternate histories, or possibilities for the Heroic Spirits wasn't something he planned on introducing yet. However everyone else was taken by the idea, and so it was made that the Hero Asterios would be summoned by the heroic rogue character, Percy Jameson. Mr. Asterios for some reason really didn't like that name. Or at least for those two characters to be a Master and Servant pair.
"You know," Mr. Asterios spoke up. "You could have Percy interact with Ms. Rose more in the second arc, thus revealing more of her character, if he wasn't Hero Asterios' Master, but rather—"
""NO!"" Cried out the group of boys and girls almost as a whole.
"Those two work well together!"
"They're bros for life!"
"Not to mention that subtle sexual tension—" Said one girl.
"We are not adding that! We're not gonna even hint at it. They're just two dudes going on awesome adventures." Countered another boy.
"Gay scared too much?"
"No! Just stop adding gay stuff where it's not needed, Melissa!"
"Mr. Asterios, what problem do you have with Percy and Hero Asterios? Really." Wondered Mary.
Mr. Asterios just sighed and gave up.
Bianca wanted to maybe listen to the teacher but he wasn't really that against how the group wrote the characters. Otherwise he would have firmly came down on it, like when they wanted to make the Master of the main villain, Ibaraki Douji, named Luke Castle. Mr. Asterios firmly stopped that by renaming him Lance Castle, saying "Luke" was too much of a good guy name. Which, okay, fair enough.
So now the plot planning group that Bianca was a part of finally finished the seven characters the story of Fate/Téras Konístra. Or Fate/Monster Arena. Bianca still wasn't sure how she got good at Greek to be able to read that.
They had Percy Jameson, an 18 year old teenager who stumbled on the moonlit world—the in-verse name of the supernatural world—when he saw a Demon Dog chasing his elderly neighbor. Percy jumped in, saving his neighbor but got bit in the process. Rather than get sick by the bit that infected him with demonic energy, his body managed to activate his latent Magic Circuits, resulting in him expunging the demonic energy from his body, and awaking his abilities to use magic, or Magecraft as it's called in the setting. He would then be tutored by Mr. Ron, that hinted to be more than human, and go on adventures helping people.
Percy's Servant is Hero Asterios. A possibility of the Monster Asterios that was brought about accidently due to the summoning ritual being botched due to Lance's ambush—Percy's former friend and student under Mr. Ron—who wanted to kill Percy early before he could get his Servant. He is the Asterios that King Minos decided to raise as a son and protector of his kingdom, where this Asterios went on to make a name for himself as a rightous and powerful Hero who defeated giant monsters and accomplish great deeds. Hero Asterios specialty is his sun powers that come from his grandfather, the Sun Titan, Helios.
Lance Castle would be another student of Mr. Ron, who joined the grail war to seek revenge on a Russian mob, Ведьмин Круг, or Vedmin Krug, the Witch's Circle. They are a mob group that worships the Baba Yaga. A hint of something to expand the world building.
He summoned Ibaraki Douji, an Oni from Japan who wishes to bring back Mt. Ooe and make demons rise up against mankind once more. She would become the big bag guy of the whole story eventually in all three routes, even if she's only a direct opponent in one of the routes. The way this works is that, she's the first one to reach the grail when it manifsts and immediately uses it's power to empower herself to summon Mt. Ooe rather than wish for it, as wishing for things is beneath her. This gives the heroes a timelimit to destory the summoned Mt. Ooe which pours out infinite oni into the world. In all routes but one, Ibaraki Douji doing this, causes her body to break down from the strain.
Then it gets revealed the one route where the heroes face Ibaraki Douji directly, that she did all this to bring back the true leader of Mt. Ooe, Shuten Douji. Except she didn't do it out of loyalty to a commander or anything like that, but because she missed her friend.
Some of the boys thought it was too sappy, saying a bad guy should just be a bad guy sometimes, but the girls liked it. Mr. Asterios said that letting Ibaraki Douji have this character element means, later on it could be expanded upon by interactions with Shuten Douji when she appears in other works.
Then there was Annabelle Chaser, a magus from the Clocktower, from a family of long line of magi whom could trace their linage back to ancient times. She went to the North Macedonia Grail War under orders of her superior in the Mage Association to observe, and shut down the grail war if it proved a threat to the secrecy of magic, and the public. She would be a classic kuudere character with a hidden sad backstory.
Her Servant would be Medusa Lily. The "Lily" part was offered by Mr. Asterios to distinguish an earlier or younger incarnation of a Heroic Spirit, to show who they were in their younger years before their prime. She would be an irregular summoning of Medusa, as she would be summoned in her younger incarnation, who wishes to get back the Shapeless Isles and her sisters, to go back to that time were they lived together in peace as a family.
That connection between the cold and apathetic Annabelle and the stoic but emotional Medusa Lily would also hint at Annabelle's backstory, to show why those two connected.
Then there's Jason Gambit. A guy from a dying magus family who is trying to revive his family and regain their past glory, as well as uncover a missing part of his past. His Servant Fenrir is the wolf who in her mythology destroyed the world, but she only wishes to break free of her destiny, and be able to live the life she never had.
Hazel Lesley is a girl from a family practicing the occult, and wanted to get rich quickly but constantly failed. Hazel's parents tried to join the grail war, but thought to cheat by just summoning the Grail directly without fighting anyone, using human sacrifices. The ritual failed horribly resulting in her parent's death adding to the sacrifice ritual that turned into a summon ritual. Hessian Lobo was summoned due to this botched ritual, an Avenger, an abnormal Servant Class (hinting that there are more than seven), who was an amalgamation of two legends, each not that famous, but together made a fully functional and deadly Servant.
The final pair of characters where the "fun" characters in a sense, as the plot group just didn't seem to care about adding details to them.
Rachel Ellywar Danger was an orphan who literally gave herself her two last names. She is an abnormal magical genius, who taught herself magecraft, traveling around on her own seeking riches and adventure. Her Servant is Fafnir, a shota dwarf prince who due to his greed became a dragon, and that greed was so strong it became a continuous curse that existed in the world. Fafnir would be this ridiculous Servant who, like Rachel, relished in refuge in audacity but just doing ridiculous things unapologetically. Fafnir wanted the grail so his dragon form would be golden. Rachel wanted it to drink coffee from it and get speedster powers. Yeah, they're that stupid and ridiculous. But fun to write when they pull off something cool.
Finally there's the mysterious Master, Ms. Rose, who is hinted to be a Dead Apostle who joined the North Macedonia Grail War for reasons that won't be explained in Téras Konístra, but in later games. Her Servant is the Virtra the serpent Asura that opposes Indra. Vritra is only in the grail war to serve as an obstacle for the successful Masters, because she wants to see if they can overcome hardship.
Mr. Asterios upon hearing that Master/Servant pairing wrote a joke ending where Ibaraki Douji is stumped by a puzzle box Vritra made that contained the Holy Grail, before giving up the whole grail war and leaving for ice cream. Some found it funny, but Bianca didn't see the point of this ending. Didn't it completely undermine the scary feeling Ibaraki had till then? Mr. Asterios said she's get it in the future with later storylines.
And that was the set up of the Grail War in Téras Konístra. Now they just have to write the three routes of the story, which technically were also the love interest choices of Arachne.
There was the Normal Route with... Bianca, but it was more of a friendship really. Technically it counts as the Percy Route even if Arachne doesn't end up with Percy or travel with him. Rather it's the route where the heroes face Ibaraki Douji in full, with Percy and Hero Asterios pull a Big Damn Hero moment to face the demons of Mt. Ooe, while Bianca (the character) and Arachne face Ibaraki.
The Annabelle Route which explores Annabelle's backstory as well as show how North Macedonia Grail War came about, and why it was a knock off grail war, and has the heroes face the mountain of endless oni, where Medusa Lily grabs the grail, and uses it to recreate the Shapeless Isles, trapping herself and Mt. Ooe and its demons away from the world for all eternity stuck in never ending battle. It's kind of a bittersweet route and really endears the readers to Medusa Lily.
The last route is the one they have a struggle with at the moment, as they don't know which character to make the focus of this route.
But honestly the project had been so fun so far, that Bianca didn't mind the struggle. When it ends it will be worth it.
I have made a grave error.
Hubris truly is the fatal flaw of all things Greek, probably, even monsters.
I'm pretty sure the Fates know what I'm doing.
And they're having a fucking laugh.
I don't even know how this happened. I sure as hell didn't suggest any of the names people made Master characters. But when I saw the final list the kids presented and all of them had the first name of a PJO character with the last name starting with the same letter as the last name of those PJO character I wisely decided to let this be.
Mostly because I was afraid if I used the Mist to make the kids use different names and I got the same result, I would have conclusive evidence that the Fates knew what I was doing. Let me live in the bliss of my ignorance please.
Not to mention the backstories of those characters were eerily similar to the PJO ones. Like you change things here and there, and they're basically the same.
So I may or may not have Fate backing of what I'm doing. ...Yay?
Or is it that other Fates are helping me, while the Greek Fates are still ignorant. I mean, I did meet Skadi before. So the Norn are helping?
Okay!
Stop thinking about that existential dread now and focus on the present.
"Okay, how about this?" I said getting the group's attention.
"We combine the three idea route for Ms. Rose, Rachel and Jason." I started. "We'd have the Rachel Route idea where she and Fafnir are actually serious. Really get those awesome moments, rather then the comedic ones. We use the Jason storyline about his sister who was taken to the Reverse Side of the World, and him regaining his memories of that, as a reason for him to ally with Ms. Rose and Vritra who want to use Mt. Ooe to open a path to the Reverse Side.
"When Vritra takes over Mt. Ooe, we'll use the whole Arachne's ignored Noble Phantasm of bringing her tapestries to life, in that Ms. Rose will have Vritra change Mt. Ooe so that rather than it spilling oni, it's spilling evil spirits representing diseases, death, so on etc. And the only solution is Arachne recreated the scenes of Pandora opening the box, but in reverse as in sealing away all the world's evils. However, Arachne using what she learned on her journey doesn't do that, but adds a scene of Pandora opening the box again to take out Hope, thus dispersing and exorcising all the evil spirits and the transformed Mt. Ooe all in one go."
"What about Hazel?" Asked Ben, who was a fan of Hazel's backstory and wished happy things happened to her.
I'm gonna have to break his heart again.
"She dies. This time trying to stop Jason, after he killed Lance and Ibaraki to aid Ms. Rose and Vritra's plan, as she had figured it out by her connection to the Headless Hessian who use to the new environment of the transformed Mt. Ooe felt like it was an opening to the Realm of the Dead."
"Oh come on, Mr. Bullman!" Ben shouted.
"Benjamin." I said in that teacher warning tone.
"Sorry, Mr. Bullman. But seriously, this mean Hazel dies in all three routes? That's not fair!" Ben argued.
"Yeah, I kinda agree. I figured this is the one where she lives and finally has a happy ending." Melissa added.
"In a different timeline, in a different story plot." I said. "This one sadly, it just wasn't gonna work out. Her parent's ritual had messed up with her soul, even if she didn't get hit with the full effect and she was slowly dying. Hessian Lobo was able to stave off the effects a bit, but as soon as he was dismissed, when the supplied magic energy he had run out, then it was a count down for Hazel. No, she can't support him with her magical energy alone. No, the moment the Grail War ended, with the grail gone, Hessian Lobo would have been de-summoned, and Hazel's lifespan was back on the chopping block. Sorry guys, that's how the dice roll sometimes. I promise in the next different timeline if she appears, it would be her in a happy life, where she only has happy ending."
"Teach, do you have something against Hazel's character?" Asked Mark.
"Nah, I like the concept." I smiled. "And because she's cute and has that woobie effect on the reader, it will hit that much harder that she doesn't have a happy ending in this game, or at best only a bittersweet one like in the Normal Route."
"That is just... sadistic." Said one of the students.
"And that's how you reel in more people, who want to see the character even more in the future." I grinned.
It's been about five months, February now, since I started this whole thing. Half the school year was already done.
Given that I have yet to see a manticore, as one didn't appear last December during the usual annual dance. I'm going to assume I have a year before Titan's Curse plot kicks in.
I blinked and looked up from my notes on the game. I looked out the window of my office, as I felt the presence of a monster enter my radar.
I heard a far away hiss and the flap of wings.
Did one of the furies come to check on the kids?
No. I know the feel of Alecto now as she did come, as a lawyer, to check on the kids, while I was around. Likely by Hades' orders and also to get my measure. She didn't seem impressed. I didn't care, and she could see that she didn't intimidate me. For some reason that surprised her.
I mean, she's just a fury. Was she suppose to be a big deal? I mean, if she was, it never showed up in the Percy Jackson books. Only making her as an antagonist for Percy to slay and build up his initial cool factor.
I headed out to see this monster. A harpy maybe?
Either way time to earn my keep.
I walked out into the winter cold, snow had been piling up, and a heavy wind would obscure view during the night. I looked at the monster perched on the walls of the school, and frown.
Ah. More than a few students were starting to fall ill recently. That explained it.
Keres. Spirits of diseases and famine. She looked like a furry humanoid bat, with female features that got hit with the ugly stick. Repeatedly.
Usually they stay in the Underworld, but I guess on occasion they roam the surface. I wonder if their presence coming here causes kids to get sick preemptively as a sign of their coming. Or did kids getting sick pulled on their instinct and guided them here.
"Hello there," I waved her down. She blinked at me and hissed. Fugly little bitch.
"Minotaur!" She cried out and flew down, landing on a bench, that's part of the courtyard. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you back with the gathering forces of our lord!"
"My job." I said to her, as she tilted her head at me, twitching every once in a while like a bird. "Either way, I don't need reinforcements here."
"Why do you look so human now? Why are you not with the force of Lord Kro—"
"Do not." I cut off this fucking chatterbox. "Speak our lord's name so lightly." Last thing I need is that King Titan fucker's attention here. Anywhere here.
"Yes." She seemed cowed by my presence when I release a little bloodlust earlier. "Yes, of course." She bowed her head. "So why aren't you gathering our lord's forces?"
...This. Fucking. Birdbrain.
"Monsters with higher rank and authority like me have our own assignments. What it is, is none of the business to the likes of you." I narrowed my eyes and released my power at her for a single moment. Her body stopped twitching as she froze in place. "Understood?"
"...Yes, understood." She nodded. I didn't like the look in her eyes, but didn't show any reaction. As a precaution I will kill her the moment she turned her back—
And then as if to prove the Fates were fucking with me, we both heard it.
Crack.
Someone stepped on a branch.
The keres and I turn at the same time.
"Mr. Asterios?" Asked Nico in his pajamas, having snuck outside of his dorm. "Are you speaking to that bat lady? Is she real?"
"Nico." I said calmly. "You should do back to bed."
"Nico! Where are you?" Bianca's voice called out, as she came into view, also in her PJs. "There you are! I told you—Oh! Mr. Asterios, and..." Her eyes widened in disturbance at seeing the Keres. "What is that?"
The Keres sniffed the air. Her eyes widened.
"DEMIGODS!" The Keres screeched.
I reacted.
In one swift motion I swung my arm, calling my war axe mid-motion.
The bat monster of diseases was bisected before she even knew what happened.
I drew my Stygian Iron sword and stabbed her in the brain.
"!"
She didn't act time to do anything, as her body broke into golden dust.
Then that golden dust, her essence was absorbed into the Stygian sword.
Good. It worked. First time to try it and everything worked out.
I sighed in relief at that.
Then slumped my shoulders as I knew what was going.
"WOAH, WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!?" Nico cried out in surprise and awe.
"M-Mr. Asterios!? W-What was that? She. What was she? Why did you do that?" Bianca cried out in shock, as she hugged Nico to hold him back and shield him.
I sighed. Welp, guess they're learning how their heritage early.
And now my job is gonna be way harder with their smell strengthening.
"Bianca, Nico. Come with me to the teacher's lounge, I'll get us some hot chocolate. We have a long talk ahead of us."