Tower City Lunatic (SI) (Fear and Hunger then Danmachi Crossover)

[LostMarbles]

Well damn, his manic episode aside everything thing seems, i wouldn't call it good but at least according to keikaku.

I'm really looking forward to when Erik inevitably snaps and monologues about how he's lived his entire life for this moment

Thanks you for the chapter

 

[JustPlainEdgy]

I'm really looking forward to when Erik inevitably snaps and monologues about how he's lived his entire life for this moment

Click to shrink...

"What do you think I am some saturday morning serial villain? Do you seriously think id explain my master stroke if there remained the slightest chance you'd effect the outcome? I did it 35 minutes ago."

 

[JustPlainEdgy]

AN - Was just reading up on Pav and he chastises Levi for leaving boots behind for sneakers. Like what? I mean I am also a practical guy, but like Pav, you go around almost bare chested. Really peculiar line in the sand.

I recall seeing a bluesky post on Pav mods, and that Miro would like him not to be white washed just by being an ally.

Being problematic is core to him, by design.

Anyway I called myself out by saying I would have a submissive soul. I have to own it even if I don't really like talking about myself.

Also Mind Read text is blue now like in the game. To separate outside thoughts from inside thoughts.

—
Day 1 Morning
Tunnel 7 Ladder Hatch

'Oh yeah forgot about that'

Yeah. Very convenient to forget about getting held at gun point by evil twinks.

Pav aims a luger at me, mildly distracting me from his rumpled pulled open not quite bare chested Bremen uniform.

The man's cleavage is a little distracting, at least for the fact he is walking around. PREHEVIL like a goddamn male stripper.

How does he even get to Kaiser looking like this? Not to slut shame but is he seriously that skilled?

"Oooh~ You made it out alive. Good boy. My~ what an absolutely darling blush." His words are utterly coy, as they are artificially sweet as saccharine.

So embarrassing. I don't flinch at bloody fucking murder, but soldier boy gets under my skin.

There is no point even engaging with this shit.

"Pav, you got a score to settle with Kaiser right? Your grudge ain't the only one he has accrued in his long life. My Dad and I have almost the same burden as you. Kaiser killed our ancestor's home and razed it for a magic box."

"Oh? How very familiar, and curious. I can believe it, I suppose, but for the life of me… I can't recall asking, and last I checked I was the one with the gun." With an obvious smirk he flourishes the luger, like he is fucking Revolver Ocelot.

"Guess I am in the habit of collecting help. Supposing, they don't put lead in me." Abella is pretty unproblematic, but then again I wouldn't mind having this guy help in the bunker since… I mean not in a mean way, what does this guy have to live for otherwise?

"Oh, please. I can behave." With a faint smile he rolls his eyes, gun still leveled at me. "If I wanted you dead at the time, you'd still be in your deep slumber. But you're not, and I must admit you are far more than you appear aren't you."

Pav's gaze changes, something deeper was in there as he seems to finally really look at me as he scans me.

Trying to find confirmation, or find something that doesn't click or mesh?

"You can't kill Kaiser alone, he is a New God. A being of fucking arcane. A simple execution isn't enough. My Dad and I split up because not only is he difficult to kill, he has used sorcery to bind his life to an item or place."

"What tripe, you haven't seem to have woken up, still lost in the delusions from the train. You can't possibly believe the propaganda they feed the Bremen sheep… What would he even need an army for? A God? Seriously?" Pav's grin grows ear to ear as he clutches his own face.

Really fucking eerie. It sparks a faint memory, that one of his skills is 'Bury the Trauma' or something.

"There is his fucking elite troops. You have to admit that if he has Midnight Suns or whatever they are called you would need a hand?" Saying it like that makes me think of those Warhammer army factions, Emperor's Sons? Something like that.

"You know what, I will let you live and think about your offer since I am in such a swell mood. I just got out of the army. I need some alone time." The musical teasing of his voice ebbs as he seems. "See you around. Should you continue to impress me of course."

As he backs towards the tree line he keeps his gun pointed at me. What a dick.

"Y'all can come up now." I think on reflection. The two world events Pav have included him pointing that pistol at people. I wonder if there will be any ripples to trying to recruit him.

It is a very real question, Pav is kind of a blank canvas for the most part.

As Marina comes up last, purposefully so because well, skirt. "Erik did you really blush?" And of course she has to hone in on that.

Well Ralsei said it best for submissive boys everywhere to Flowery. "It is super context dependent! Drop it. Why are you even asking? Looking for a flower for each hand?" Ugh now those threesome Levi, Samarie, and Marina posts have so much more power in my head.

Fucking Prehevil.

—
Samarie

—
Day 1 Morning
Broken Shack

Erik has put the idea in my head, but I didn't see it until just now.

I was afraid Marina would see him in that light wasn't I?

Steadfast, committed, dedicated…

Bleeding himself until his head is faint in the very same ritual circle he sacrificed a goat to Grogoroth.

I feel clammy as I think of all those who resisted the Elder Priests, those who quailed and recoiled in the Ninth Circle.

Those like me who shut down, grit teeth and bare it because they must.

Erik is driven to use that very same, metaphorically, blood spilling literal self destruction.

Because he is like a character from a book, almost like the Gods, he is some sort of idealized person, or he is pushing himself to be like that.

Now… now there is a gulf from how understood Alll-mer's perfected humanity, and… and my perspective now.

There is something I can't name, perhaps it has to do with the suffering of Alll-mer and the fabled Inverse Crown of Thorns.

Those who sought the ultimate spell, wanted to understand Erik, his world, his perspective.

'Her face has paled, did she never imagine I would use Bloodletting?'

I almost choke at the thought.

Erik… Can pull context, hold so much in his mind. But beyond his context is darkness.

"Erik, the ritual should be complete. That's all." I mumble as I reach out to Marina.

I want to feel grounded, I want to feel ok.

But I am still reeling in my mind, trying to push toward my own purpose.

If Erik is a protagonist in some way… What do I need to become?

—
Erik

—
Day 1 Morning
Mayor's Manor

The bullets are running dry, soon the rifle will spit lint and a moth will fly out of the bolt the next time we reload it.

Progress is good, but I am pretty damn sure a priest can chase you around here… Oh I forgot the butler, what's that guy's deal?

What the hell would I even ask that weirdo? I don't even know how to interface with the butler. Is he even in the know, he shows up to play a role for a Moonscorch? Why?

The museum has shit going on, and a high society that is read in on magic… Him being a servant to them, esoteric high society creeps, makes sense!

What is the point of giving the 'new mayor' a servant to compliment him.

There is simply too much going on for one man to distill or squeeze value out of. If he really is just a butler at most he says he is taking orders from someone else to do it. That makes his actions not even his own, a mere proxy.

Ugh, fighting priests is so much simpler, if I can't shoot the bastard I might as well crush glass and throw glass powder in his face.

I take out my gloves, then prepare what glass I have collected from the nearby houses, then pour the powder in separate pouches…

You know… I must be approaching the point where I stopped playing the game.

I have reaped the shanty town, perhaps there is a lake side visit for me, but this marbled and well structured manor nestled in between the squalor of the hovels, and white walled homes.

This pearl of culture in the muck just might be among the last places I explore while I am at my weakest. The end of the 'early game.'

As I enter the receiving area, it's empty. No butler.

Huh.

Without resistance I began to explore the books of the library.

Starting with the closest book shelf I scan and flip open unlabeled books for skin bibles.

The first notable tome is oddly a book about Prehevil.

'There has been settlement here for as long as the history books cover the area. It has always centered around the mysterious Hollow Tower that works as the central pillar of the community. The city flourished during the cruel age in the 1600s, but it quickly fell from prominence the closer we got to the modern times.'

Hollow Tower. I hadn't had a name for it before.

Nas'hrah would be really useful to have around for the context for the sheer scale of time of what this tower looms over.

'While the churches look to be dedicated to our one true god Alll-mer from the outside, insides tell a whole different story. Ancient gods without name in any known language still linger in those crypts. And why wouldn't they? You can hear the priests chant their masses in the moonlit alleys during the dead of the night. The whole wicked city is a playground for the ancient beings and the people living there offer themselves to the first taker without second thought.'

How did the author know this? Survive knowing this. How strange.

Also, does that last line mean Prehevil women were 'easy?' Damn, what the fuck is this town.

I move onto the next book, having to be satisfied with a glimpse of another life. I shouldn't waste time seeing if the Author kissed and told.

'Who of us doesn't cover their true face and hide behind a persona? In the broad daylight we adopt a social role depending on the surrounding people.'

A boring platform to discuss Rher and the Freudian shadow, persona concepts. Next.

'The Book of Fears.'

Ugh this thing was made to explain the pause menu phobias? A mere clinical text that describes mental issues and how to identify them.

There is a contemporary newspaper dated September 17, 1942.

'The formation of 'The Marching Men of the Nights Day' marked the day Europa officially jumped the shark.'

Is the fucking… Happy Days? A TV show here? Is the Fonzie? In Funger?

Also fuck, the modern military is the Nights Day, Midnight Sun was Le'garde's off brand band of the hawk. I got them mixed up.

I refold the pop culture flashbang and drop it in my cart, might as well help myself.

The final shelf has a town notice tucked in a book as a bookmark.

It is the one with Per'kle's face, the man from the dreams reference image thing.

The selection here is rather lackluster. I would love to read the occult manual front to back, also the skin bibles are as close to a word of God on the subject of the Gods I will get, after all Enki wrote them. But time in the day is quite the resource.

That consideration is why I chose the humble sling. Even if I could fletch, that is a time commitment to gather wood, carve, tip the shafts, everything. Compared to, throw a rock at them, pick up a new rock.

I hope I do get to read the books in the cart, and well that having a cart and collecting things matter.

It is a form of preparation I can do, but unlike skills or magic, items being taken feels a little more hopeful.

As a Dungeon Master, I would be happy if a player tried to answer a prompt I hand out so I think I deserve nice things, also I would be mad at myself for not trying after the fact. So I just have to be diligent when the object is muddled despite how absurd life is lately.

That being said, I can't say I know where to get almost anything besides Miasma, and given the personal history as well as how notable the encounter in the caves is, it's basically a freebie.

Ascending the stairs, doing a thorough sweep I head over to the dining room heading right rather than deeper into the manor and into danger.

Blinking as I enter the room with the table it's not empty.

Henryk is there but he is doing his best Silent Hill impression, specifically the one where the lady is looking into her knife.

Henryk isn't doing that, but he looks zoned out, eyes open but with that thousand yard stare as he fiddles with the knife just… Dicing the blade against the table, as if he was practicing motions, or imagining cooking.

"I can smell it… Rosemary, cardamom, cinnamon… It's all here… It must be…" He is rambling to himself.

I put my arm out creating a silent barrier.

There is a definite chance he is sliding towards Moonscorching.

The 'smart' move is to kill him right now. But the moral complexity of how 4 people will react to killing another 'human.'

That… That can be problematic.

"Erik?" Marina whispers and I silently toss my head back to the stairs, as I make a quick retreat.

Abella is resistant though. She didn't follow suit and fucking went in the dining room.

Damn, the consequences of my fucking actions? God damn it.

"Hey are you alright? I am certain we could spare some food if you are in a tight spot." Abella is immediately so casually helpful, and personable but this really might not be the best time for negotiation and changing hearts and minds.

"No, no. That's not it. That's- I keep hearing things, ticking, endless ticking and I feel so inspired, plagued." Turning around as I approach the door to the dining room standing behind Abella I can see Henryk has stood up and is pacing and swinging his blade, crossing slices in front of himself as his face is now off the table. I can see he has gotten crusty.

'Look Pim this guy is a lost cause-' not fucking now. How do I not set off this bomb Abella poked?

"There is food for us here. All of us in the basement. Why don't we all go?" I burst into the conversation as I hold myself steady as I tense.

"I can literally see new combinations in my head-my mind is almost-full! I can almost imagine the whole process-but I can't-I can't taste it!" He slurps and quivers almost like a drug addict going through a withdrawal.

Even if we get the larder open, will this guy still be fucking human by the time we come upstairs?

"Let's all get down in the basement, then." I quickly try and just wrangle this situation. "You can take the ingredients right away."

"No-no you… You all-" As Henryk begins to ramble horns begin to grow as his skin begins to look more and more leathery as it's forced to stretch.

"To arms!" I call as I see no reason to wait politely for him to begin his metamorphosis into the Gentleman.

I jump to action, from a belt pouch I take the glass powder and pour it into my glove. I toss the glass at his face making the Gentleman yell with, not to one liner, a blind rage.

I thump the door frame with the haft of my hand axe as I draw the Gentleman to the door to give us more maneuverability by taking the fight outside the dining room.

"This side with me." I guide Abella to the left of the door with me as the others are right, closer to the stairs. "Throw your wrench and then get a spare weapon."

Oh god I just had the realization that I am doing callouts like I am a raid leader. I really hate that my mind works like this sometimes.

"Y-YOU RUFFIANS." The Gentleman arms catch the door frame as he squeezes through as his body shifts becoming bulkier, wider and stronger as he begins to lumber.

"Disarm him!" I call and take a swipe at him, taking a chunk out of his arm before cooling my heels to anticipate his strike and blunt his aggression.

I parry and fade back as he tries to spear me with an oversized fork he takes from his pocket somehow. He did a resident evil big growth from nothing, so like a fork sized for him is equally ridiculous I guess.

Past my side the wrench flies, and boy is that near hit whizzing by not a good feeling, the solid hunk of metal impacts the fork arm before falling to the ground with a resounding clatter in the room open from below making the sound carry.

The other half of the party fights off his discordinated knife arm as he takes wide over committed swings to cover more area.

Moving bolder I hack again and again at his arms taking the limb out of commission as it flops useless, his cutlery clattering to the floor as he is unable to hold it.

As the fight moves to the other side of his body, I have to just shift my focus to kneecapping him, swinging low and sweeping to dig into his thighs.

"I will make you into a casserole, I will savor eating you scoundrels!" The gentleman roars as his other arm is awash with blood a white glints of bone peek from his stripped flesh.

He cries out in pain as I move to take his other leg out from under him. "Head! Kill!"

Marina with the other axe lands a telling blow blood spurts in a geyser from his Samarie slams a pipe into his face suppressing him.

As he gasps his death rattle is intentionally ominous "Y-you are all just his pawns…"

But unlike the Dominating New God, I can't be rage baited or gaslight to death.

"Sorry, you have a weak mental." As he dies I swallow as I feel a presence. His soul.

Henryk's soul, the magical presence is textured, it comes tied with a feeling. The room almost feels smaller and tighter before the feeling passes.

New skills. Yipee…

As the grisly work of Daan extracting resources from his body we find the 2nd key to open the gate, well a second contestant head, and the petty cash and such that Henryk had before he died.

I wasn't prepared for that fight, which led to a moment of passivity where my first instinct was to slow roll the fight against a vulnerable opponent. Actually there are quite a few things that didn't go as planned.

I might have more to reign in than just an impulse to be careful. A party that I have to 'be in control of.'

Abella. She is a literal fucking rebel. Of course she would disregard an order she disagreed with, and a caressing soul besides.

"Abella. I wasn't stopping everyone from helping a poor soul out. It was because that guy was fragile. I was acting on information and you weren't. If you are coming along I am asking you to take my fucking lead." Being polite is just excusing bad behavior, I feel a tad uneasy being confrontational, but if she pulls apart the group.

Will people choose me?

Am I their best option?

The leader they respect?

It doesn't matter, if I don't stand up for myself they won't respect me will they?

"Then don't ask me to leave people behind. Don't ask me not to try, helping people is important and doesn't need to just be for people who ask politely." Abella argues back, all the comparisons in my head of leaders trying to exert authority over the crews are just muddled as I feel pressured to respond.

"I was asking for a delay, so we can make a choice as a group. You didn't give the group that choice, you forced the group into a fight we could have avoided, we fought someone we could have saved instead. I told him about what might have saved him, I knew about it we just needed to grab it first."

I can't recall if Henryk is more useful dead than alive, but I need to argue on the principle that I need to call the shots.

"You fucking know everything. Know us. Sure, whatever. You say that, but you seem to not be too bothered about the-... Man we just killed. I hate that. Even if you are going to save people, I don't trust that you're a good person either." Abella refuses to back down, making it so I might need to think about cutting her from the group.

I have to push away the thought that I failed some kind of IRL morality check. I have to not be ashamed of being the 'worse person.'

"I think I can live with that." I feel almost like Commander Sisko from star check swallowing down his moral compunctions. "A guilty conscience is a small price to pay, because there is a big picture discussion you missed at the train. Gods stir in tombs, and which one to wake matters to the whole of humanity." After a second a juxtaposition I saw in a Lancer TTRPG stream comes to mind. "You sacrifice for humans, I sacrifice for Humanity."

That really is the crux of it. I am Lawful Neutral, and Abella is chaotic good.

We can be on the same side, well if she sees that too.

"Oh you can live with hating yourself, great. Just great." As Abella grumbles I realize I probably need to do more than think things. I need to articulate my 'Game-y' thoughts into something real.

"You don't like hard lines in the sand, and you don't like being an asshole or working with one. I am not unsympathetic. I would say you are admirable actually. I am asking to be taken seriously. I put in a lot of work to get here, if you aren't willing to respect that commitment, it's only that disrespect not just to me but everyone I got a problem with. I am asking you not to take the choice away from us when I clearly showed I had something to say about a situation."

There is a rather nerve grinding pause before Abella answers tersely "If people need help, I don't like just sitting back and uselessly poking around the train like an amateur. I would like to know more ahead of time, rather than just rely on your hocus pocus."

I sigh as I cast a glance over to the door to the stairs where Daan has moved looming, keeping an eye out. "I don't have a full picture. I knew Henyrk can become a Moonscorched Mayor, and that for some reason a butler would show up to back his little act. Why does a butler show up? I can't say. I was able to read the script of a play, but live theater mutates live on stage. Living art can't be contained or made simple. In my 'script' Marina, your father, the only interaction with him that is written if you meet him at all is you meeting him while he bleeds out on the ground. That probably won't happen since you are with me. It's a complicated weird mess, I am doing my best to be forthright when I recognize a moment from the play is in front of me. I am being remarkably transparent, so excuse you for thinking I would even care to play mind games. I would rather you leave if you were so unwilling."

"Fine, fine. Arguing over what you hide or don't is useless and we can't double check that except by watching you. I will admit I didn't help right here, but don't expect me to turn my brain off."

There is a suffocating silence after the argument where Marina pointedly seems to be looking away.

I guess she has quite a few mixed thoughts on not following that 'script.'

"Next threat, magical priest. Should be around here somewhere. Let's go. Take his legs down then cut his head off."

Praying in a Old God's circle the priest with the scarred head stands, crossing fingers over his shoulders, up to his head, then down past his chest before he marches almost like a machine towards us.

Crushed glass sparkles in the dim air like white glitter as the priest silently grimaces and stretches Engraved hands Grogoroth and Vinuska I think.

"Fire and hurting." I call out the threats before moving, staying still and letting him adjust his blind aim is not to my benefit.

There is a sense that glass is slightly better than bullets.

In terms of one on one 'Boss' scenarios at least.

The bullets weakened enemies before we got into melee. Glass changes the dynamic into a Bloodborne esq mad dash to the finish line.

Don't let the glassy void of hurting take off a limb that is all we need to do, so I act fast following the glass with a slash to the back of his thigh.

He turns toward me with a few arcane gestures I recognize from Samarie's use of Hurting. I thump loudly left making it sound like a dash or a jump and hold my breath as I sneak the other way.

The void shimmers as it eats some of the wall, I breathe a sigh of relief as Daan and Abella make their strikes taking him down to a knee as he wildly shoots a Pyromancy Trick backward at them.

Bringing the Woodsman's axe down right at his knee Marina takes him down, I follow with Samarie and I hack away at his jugular as Samarie rings his bells with a blow to the side of his head.

Another head for offering, plus a massive fucking soul stone!

The food stores from the basement are piled up in the foyer, so we can take them out to the train with us so we can rest. Plus from the bookcase in the upstairs, there's a new reason to visit the train.

A skin bible of Alll-mer! Teleportation is open baby!

The train as a fallback point away from the danger of the city is pretty nice to have. Plus that's 1 point in Alll-mer which is something.

After failing to get into the basement's locked door, one of the few things I was smart enough to know adventurers always needed was rope. From the room with the leather armor and the key the rope takes us into the locked basement room.

Sure enough there was a free armored skirt, gross pulsing sacks collecting dark ichor which I helped myself to just to see if people have reactions too if I can get questions about it, and finally the chest was kind of a dud, a pressure plate trap.

Before heading out there is the last locked room, the Mayor's study.

-
Recommended listening: https://youtu.be/-JzzNHbWTqI
-

There is a saber in the chest, but most interesting of all is an almost ancient feeling book.

As I flipped open the yellow book, I saw a prismatic array of colors. Underneath the rainbow tide I glimpse a figure with hands raised in a triangle and a picture of an outline of a body oozing a substance and becoming indistinct.

I am divorced from myself, my perspective feels skewed like a camera forced into a wall, or like a lens was suddenly placed over the camera to curve everything and make things feel distant that are supposed to be near.

I let out a shuddering breath as I feel disjointed like I am looking over and outside myself, like there was suddenly friction between my 'soul' and body. Reminding me of how a camera follows around and controls an avatar for a character in a game.

I can literally look at myself from outside my own body, like Erik is another person. He is almost, there is continuity but he isn't me.

I was never a go-getter or a fighter, he is something I pushed myself into being… Because I was afraid. Or made to be afraid.

From behind me I see something, the curvature of the room of this world is so twisted I can quite literally see behind myself in my peripheral vision even as I turn to focus on a man I hadn't seen… All my life. 18 years.

His hair was brown, like mine used to be, his beard grew in with other colors too. His hair where it was newer was brighter, next to dark chocolate was a brighter brown almost a caramel to make the confection all the sweeter. Hair I liked. Hair… Like mine was…

I tear up, as I am faced with the utter reality that… He isn't me either.

I am something new now, I see memories imposed over my vision, a flickering repeating vision of me placed like a prop in the center of a shifting diorama in hallways at work, on the curbside of my neighborhood hood, in my room next to my chair and computer.

I will never be him again.

I am… Like Adam, the biblical Adam. I have eaten of the fruit of Good and Evil, I have traded innocence for something else.

Knowledge.

Pocket Cat had been right, I had never truly cared to be in the driver seat of my own life, the most agency I ever exerted was to grab the wheel and shed blood to just demand the car doesn't veer off a cliff.

What an absurd circumstance, to kill O'saa or how many others. Yet lack passion, lack will to impose my will afterward.

What had those I killed and would kill have died for? For me to ghost through life? To seek base comforts as I always had?

What was I to do with myself? With this third new me, I might just have to live one day.

Steel my heart, and brave risk. Live, not just for my sake.

—

AN - 'Jumping the Shark' is a cultural touchstone my dad showed me once. This guy circled a shark in a lake like 10 times before jumping over it.

It was kind of drawn out, but the way it was digested was… Jumping the Shark means now, peaking then falling off?

Also Happy Days is not only American, to which Vinland isn't quite an analog. It was also began in 1974. Not 1942.

Really odd anachronism huh?

Anyway, where Henryk is between morning and afternoon if unpicked is kind of a weird quirk of how the game is made?

Since his location is the manor from morning to afternoon, and he kind of already starts to lose it by the time you met him first needing to snap him out of it, Henryk a little further off the deep end seems to be what should be there.

I mentioned in the thread of Abella, she is a person who is generally kind while being a pragmatist. I came up with a tone setting line to try and write from "You help people, but you aren't a good person" as kind of soundbite in my head. My brother provided "Even if this is the right thing, I hate having to do this..."

Abella in party talks has empathy for even a dead horse, and will have a bit of a clash with O'saa in the slums. So capturing that aspect of her matters to me.

Which is why I mentioned the basement door that locks the sacks. I can't remember if the key opened that door but I assumed not since a circle is needed to get there if not for a bug.

For the Enlightenment scene I was enraptured by the imagery of recent Deltarune animations about the final? Egg room. https://youtu.be/c9rr4LYgHCU Music selection of Piano for the scene lead to me picking my Favorite FF14 song.

I haven't decided what the God of Fear and Hunger circles do, but for Enlightenment, I think they progressively unlock something, I will decide later after more scenes. The next one I might take a note from KH intros. I loved the questions they posed, even if it was all secretly mechanics.