Random's box of ideas

[RandomWriter33]

This is a thread in which I will be putting any ideas I get to write a story.

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Index of stories in the thread:

1. Princess of soot and mirrors​

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Spoiler: Crossover details

Shadows House really recommend either reading the manga or watching the anime instead of going over the wiki.
Renner younger than in cannon, before she met Climb.
​

Renner finds a strange magical door in her room. An invitation? A threat? She can't say, but she decides to step through.
An unusual mansion full of soot people playing at being nobility is what she finds on the other side.
And now she is one of them.
And now she is a living doll.

1. The door
2. Education for shadows and dolls​

 

[RandomWriter33]

Renner

Renner sipped from her tea slowly, it was a good blend. And yet it didn't manage to keep her frustration away.

Tomorrow would be her tenth birthday. That made nine years and three hundred sixty four days worth of memories in her mind.

Three thousand, two hundred and eighty seven days of unsuccessfully looking for a person among this sea of two legged sheep that called themselves humans.

Even the ones who called themselves nobles and bragged about their excellence and intelligence were barely better than horses with blinders. All thought themselves masters of their own choices, unable to see past the strings they were bound by. The few that could, often driven mad by the cold reality.

Marquis Raeven and her brother Zanac were at least interesting enough to observe as they tried to do something about the burning house that was Re-Estize. They were an utter failure at putting the fire down though.

The bloody emperor was ... slightly better. Renner had high expectations to at least be able to have an intelligent conversation with the man once he finished the purge he was currently conducting in his own home. Their shared distaste for parasites might be a good way to break the ice.

His teacher Fluder Paradyne was passable from the stories she heard of him, if his obsession with the arcane hadn't driven him to a very particular brand of madness. She never understood what he saw in the arcane arts that could drive the man to such lengths.

Her own magic training as a member of the royal family had been dry and boring. [Clean] Tier 1 spell to clean her own clothes in case any accident occurred during a feast. [Oderless] Tier 1 to hide her own smell and ensure that even if she didn't have time to refresh herself before a social situation she would at least avoid smelling like a stable hand. That was all the magic a fair lady like herself was supposed to know.

At her own insistence the tutor had agreed to teach her [Create Water] Tier 0 and [Candlelight] Tier 0 which were actually useful spells she had practiced to peruse the more advanced books during early night without alerting the servants. Apparently a token political favor like a third princess didn't need to learn politics or history when she could be learning how to dance and play an instrument to make herself more appealing, go figure.

Lakyus had been appalled when she had described the situation so crudely and tried her best to remedy it. Alas her own lack of faith in any particular deity prevented Renner from learning [Light Healing]. A problem her tomboyish acquaintance had tried to solve by teaching the princess [Magic Arrow] by the reasoning of "No need to heal if you beat 'em all first!". A foolish notion since the guards existed precisely to expend them in such dangerous situations, but Renner wouldn't complain about that. At least that training had been enjoyable.

She should definitely keep bringing tales of injustices around the kingdom up every time Lakyus visited. The girl was just a bad day away from grabbing a traveling bag, a sword and going to punish criminals on her own. And if the whole noble society except a certain princess happened to revile those actions? Well, it always paid to have the heir of the Aindra family in her pocket. So much for the Aindra dynasty producing good adventurers when only men were expected to take arms.

From the corner of her eye Renner saw a white flicker appear. Setting her cup down she turned to observe the phenomena. Was it an attack? A spell gone wrong?

The sparks slowly moved across the air, forming a trembling rectangle. Renner's eyes started to shed tears and her mind screamed at her to look away. Yet she didn't.

Eventually the flickering ended and the rectangle stopped trembling, taking a definite form and settling on a cold white light that no longer produced that sensation of unease.

A doorknob appeared on the rectangle's surface.

"A door then." The princess mused.

The princess walked around the magical door, trying to find any threat or indication of what it was without success. The only clue about the strange phenomenon was the doorknob on only one side of the magical structure.

Renner considered if she should enter. On one hand an unknown door, produced by an unknown agent for undisclosed purpose, on the other hand this dying kingdom of cattle-people with only a few years left. She would be quite unimpressed if the bloody emperor wasn't holding a victory parade on Re-Estize twenty years from now.

Was there ever a question?

She walked calmly to the white door and opened it, hoping to find something better than this.

The devil Renner knew no longer had any good deals left.

---

Renner

The room she found herself in was dark and damp, fortunately not cold as her current dress was designed with late spring and early summer in mind.

A slight chill came from the barred windows on the top of the walls, it probably was some sort of basement. The stars shone softly across the small portions of the sky she could see through the holes.

Rustling caught her attention and she felt something touching her feet. It was a … small thing from what the dim starlight allowed her to see. Some kind of cylinder ending in a semiesphere on one end and a pair of extremely thin legs on the other. Nudging it slightly with her foot got a reaction, as the little thing did a few rounds around her and then moved on, strange but not hostile.

As her eyes slowly got used to the dim light more details of the room became available.

There was a main room with five beds, all occupied, where the door had delivered her. Then on one side was a small table with five stools, was she in the saddest excuse of a barrack she had ever seen?

Another check around the beds, stepping carefully to avoid awakening their occupants, disproved the hypothesis, or she was seeing some attempt at raising child soldiers. Didn't the Eight Fingers have some kind of child assassin program going on? If so, this magical door venture might prove to be quite a frustrating endeavor.

Another of the weird things collided with her. This one reached her waist and instead of the cylinder with a semiesphere on one end resembled a child with a blanket over its head. The legs were still comically thin though.

Without more light and unwilling to cast a spell lest she triggered some defense mechanism, the princess decided to take a small nap until dawn threw in enough light that she would be able to make more of the situation. Best case she could face the problem with a clearer head, worst case she ended up being ransomed to her father. Or someone tried to lay a hand on her, then she would have to get … creative.

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The first morning light woke Renner up quickly. She wasn't disoriented like some of her handmaidens sometimes complained about when they just woke up. How could anyone be confused just by waking up it escaped the young princess. She supposed if she ever found another person she would have to ask them about it.

A second inspection of the room revealed some worrying details.

First, the small or not so small entities that had collided with her during the night were completely black, charcoal black. An extremely unusual color in natural creatures that had not been mutated by mana. Which meant they were probably capable of magic in some form or subjects from some mage research. The presence of children sleeping in the room pointed towards the latter, so most likely both of them.

This led to the uncomfortable position of not knowing if her political weight would be of any use or even a disadvantage. A mage powerful enough to ignore the Magician's Guild guideline of ethical experimentation would be unlikely to care about her status. Or even see delude themselves into thinking her bloodline had some special magical properties.

Second, her own skin had that same charcoal tone, and contact with it was staining her dress. Furthermore, small black vapors were leaving her skin and drifting upwards. Whatever that door had done it had morphed her own body. The dress did not feel constraining, no more than usual, on any part of her body nor were there any tears in the silk so she could assume her previous proportions were the same. Small mercies.

Any faithful of the four or the six would probably try to kill her on sight now so her plan to be ransomed had just been smothered in the crib.

Third and most alarming of them all, she was laying in one of the beds. Not her exactly, but there was something, wearing her face, and a copy of her clothes, laying in one of the beds.

To sum it up, she was completely out of her depth.

Another coal thing standing just besides the bed of a girl with slightly exotic features. Just like a color faded doppelganger. As much as it pained Renenr to make uninformed decisions she decided that following a given example in an unknown situation was better than standing out like a snotty heir in an adventurers bar.

She took off her dress, shoes and jewelry, made a pile in a corner of the room and blew it all up with a magic arrow. Then she cleared the shreds left with a clean to dispose of any evidence.

The princess went to stand besides her doppelganger and cleared her face of any expressions that could give away her unease.

---

Renner

"You are all living dolls created by the Shadows House" A sip of the orc piss tasting concoction the soot hag called coffee challenged Renner's skill to keep the placid smile plastered on her face. And that was a skill her brother Barbro helped develop. "You exist for the purpose of being useful to the Shadow Family." Another sip and finally she downed the foul liquid.

"Well then, good night." As the soot butterfly hag finally turned around, the princess hurried to cast the [Create Water] spell and fill the glass before she bottomed it, just in time for the rest of the children to stand up and leave the table.

That liquid had some really concerning mind wiping qualities. Water helped. Using mana helped. Being paranoid of her own thought process helped even more. And making her doubt her own mind had placed the butterfly hag at the very top of the princess "to disposed off" list.

Her third day in this torture room that passed for a barrack was soon coming to an end and the princess was not ashamed to admit she was scared. She had imagined her death to be either by age, assassination or by giving birth. She had come to terms with all of those quite early on. It was life. It happened. And short of finding a vampire to turn her or dedicating her whole life in the hopes of turning into a lich that wasn't changing.

Those two options had been discarded precisely by the same threat she faced now. They changed the mind of whoever went through the process. Renner had concluded after reading a philosophical treaty by some bishop of the six that irreversible and forceful change of the mind could be compared to the death of self or worse.

And now this room was trying to convince her that she was not her own person but a living doll. The first day was the worst. She had only realized that she was, in fact, being affected after she created a bit of water to get the foul taste out of her mouth. The clarity she got a few minutes later had been enough for her to cast and drink until her head was pounding from heavy mana exhaustion and her stomach hurted.

But she had gotten over it. Her mind was her own.

The second day was better. A quick cast of [Create Water] after every adult had left the room and she avoided the worst effects. The compulsion to report that they were wrong because she was in fact not a living doll had been dangerous though.

That was why she risked doing it with the hag in the room today. She dreaded losing herself again.

When the funeral dress maids got out of the room and out of earshot she ran to the table to drink even more water. Tomorrow she would escape. She couldn't risk losing her mind in this basement. A violent and messy death was preferable if no other option was available.

After exhausting her mana she hurried to that stone slab the soot hag called bed and slowed her breath and heartbeat to fall asleep as quickly as possible and let her metabolism filter out the mind altering concoction. It was a sad state of affairs that her only defense against a mind altering substance was not using her mind, but at least she had a way around it.

Lakyus would have been useful here.

 

[RandomWriter33]

Renner

The steps coming from the corridor woke her up with barely a few seconds left before the soot hag and her handmaidens? attendants? whatever those veiled individuals were, entered the room. Renner was pretty sure they were both, men and women below those monochrome attires.

Her heart nearly skipped a beat when she saw a shadow person that was silently standing behind her. Another one of the heteromorphs had made their way into the room and had copied her appearance. The second the princess's eyes darted around in her brief panic revealed this scene was also happening to the exotic girl. The girl's shadow was just a bit less defined, the hand she could see from her bed had more in common with a fin than the human version of the appendage.

As she forced her heart to calm down to not give away her unease to her incoming captors she contemplated the chain of decisions that carried her here. If she didn't die in the next minutes from this shadowy imitation of herself, the princess would be sponsoring the nearest temple of the Six until they could mount a crusade on these entities. Or the Four. She wasn't feeling picky.

No matter who lit the fire she was sure these soot subhumans would burn all the same.

The door creaked open. And it took no small amount of discipline from the young princess to make sure her expression remained fixed into that placid smile that she was coming to hate.

"Two new pairs!" The extremely stabbable soot person said with delight.

"And their shape is mostly complete! What a wonderful birth!" If she gouged her eyes out would the blood come out red or black?

As the hag walked straight to Renner she prepared to cast a Magic Arrow. "One of them is even producing soot already!" Only to relax as the way too alive butterfly hag ignored her completely, only to lick the face of the soot person standing next to her.

She just shared the body shape of the silent heteromorph, and even with just that vague resemblance she couldn't help but feel dirty with the noises she was hearing.

"So deep!" The pervert nearly shouted before stepping back, breathing heavily.

The princess heard more deep breaths and rustling clothes. Probably the walking corpse adjusting her clothes after her filthy showing. "Come on. To the next room." And with that the hag walked away.

Renner followed after the hag's sedate pace. Trying to get as many details as she could of the shadow that was walking besides her from the corner of her eyes. It was slightly unnerving to watch a face without being able to perceive its features. If she had enough time to get used to the subtle changes in tone the depth created it wouldn't have been a problem. Alas time was a sparse commodity in this dungeon.

Committing to memory the amount of steps they took in which direction felt like a pointless endeavor. At most she would be able to return to the holding cell. If that was what the room was in the first place. Nonetheless the princess memorized every Six damned stone in the wall because that was the only thing she could do for now.

A [Fireball] scroll would do wonders for her mood right about now. The few times Gazef had tried to instill some conscience in her foolish oldest brother he had shared tales about how pointless war was when once the battle ended only guts and rotting corpses were left of the heroic shield walls and galant knights. And although the princess had shared her opinion at the time the smell of charred flesh and rotten guts would certainly light up her mood. Especially if the flesh was of the shadowy kind.

As they continued following the hag they abruptly left behind the dungeon and reached an area that reminded Renner of the servant passages and quarters. Sparse, without decorations, utilitarian and the two black dressed servants they had crossed seemed to walk with a purpose. Not even stopping to bow to the hag.

Quite striking as the princess was very sure the elaborate dress the butterfly whore wore placed her very high in whatever hierarchy these heteromorphs had devised. And discouraging as she couldn't think of any human culture near Re-Estize in which the servants shouldn't at least nod to their betters when they passed. So either the soot people were not imitating nearby humans, and then her chances of finding civilization nearby had just plumpeted. Or they were and the culture was just alien enough to not be recorded in any of the books she had read. And she had read a lot of books on culture and history.

Renner wasn't sure which one she would prefer at this point.

Her thoughts were interrupted when they reached a room in which another soot person was waiting. He wore a green shirt and brown pants. His face was, unsurprisingly, a black round thing. Though the princess was pretty sure this individual's nose was quite big.

"Lady Sophie." He said, giving a deep bow. So shadows did bow. What set the servants apart that made minor nobles bow but exempted them? Unnerving.

---

Being ordered into the bath was a relief. Just Renner, the shadow and her thoughts. The princess was puzzled at how she was supposed to clean herself though. The only things of note in the grey and dull room were two … copper or maybe some other alloy things that ended in a plate of metal full of holes.

Just as she was looking at the two strange contraptions, water started pouring from them. Even as she gasped in surprise she didn't miss the shadow's similar reaction. Interesting that the heteromorph also had no knowledge of this technology. If it had flinched due to the water temperature it wouldn't have relaxed her shoulders slightly once water started pouring.

It could also have reacted due to the change from the water falling, but the princess didn't think just water would be enough to make her mostly unresponsive shadow react so much.

Her shadow didn't make any move so the princess couldn't take any cues on what to do herself. And the walls in the bath cubicle were devoid of any soap to apply. Still the relief of cleaning the filth that had adhered to her skin from the three last days in the room was a welcome sensation. They both stayed still and unmoving as the hot water poured down. And Renner unfortunately didn't manage to gleam any more insights from her soot doppleganger during the rest of the bath.

Though not having called her a living doll yet placed her quite a few steps above the hag.

---

Renner

The princess was slightly puzzled by the whole situation. From appearing in that dungeon last night to shadowy nobility of which she was part of now, apparently. All of it had served to make quite an exciting birthday celebration. And she was pretty sure there were many things left to uncover.

Maybe a faithful of the Six would be freaking out by now. What with the very big chance of Renner not being human anymore. The princess was leaning more towards curiosity than panic with that issue. Such details hardly merited her panic when she was still nobility. Now if she had to start bending her back to seed fields just to eat some unpalatable broth at the end of each day she would have been livid.

And her copy? doppleganger? Renner wasn't really sure how to refer to the girl wearing her face. The important part though, was that she was good. Aside from the slight gasp at the beginning of the shower, and what a nice surprise the warm water was, she had barely given Renner any clues as to what went inside her mind.

What's more, the human was analyzing her properly. Every little cue and gesture, any tick Renner had done while they were following the butterfly themed pervert her human had caught and memorized. Renner had no doubt. Even when the girl was freaking out and if the tension in her eyes was anything to go by a bad move away from snapping.

O how much she yearned to be able to have a good conversation with the girl without the pesky shadow nobles hovering just behind her shoulders. Were her eyes beholding a person? The first one she had met in her life? Six and Four bless whoever placed that door in her room if that was the case.

"Put on your clothes." The other shadow in the room said. Although she couldn't read the man's face due to his constitution, his body language and tone pointed more towards routine with some slight curiosity. Like a guard doing his rounds who happened upon an unusual bird. Not a threat, not an exception, just some entertainment in the routine.

Not feeling even the smallest shred of lust from the man's gaze was both surprising and promising. Renner liked when her servants were professional. Predictable and repeatable outcomes were great to set up amusing dominoes around the castle. Really, even sheep learned not to trip over the same stone by the fifth time. Where did that leave Barbro?

The princess stayed still. She hadn't been indicated what clothes to wear. Even if previously observed evidence pointed towards the dark blue dress belonging to her human and the pink and frilly nightgown belonging to her by process of elimination. But, new place, new rules.

Even the interactions between nobles and servants felt alien. Even if a noble treated their servants as little more than breathing, eating furniture, having their frail little egos soothed by bowing servants was a very common pattern.

Even the beastmans took a knee when the tribe leader walked past if the stories Lakyus's uncle shared were true. And those animals thought human babies still in the womb were a delicacy.

"You wear the nightgown." The man said, pointing towards the princess. "And you the blue dress" Finished pointing at her human with some annoyance in his tone.

Renner guessed that was her cue to comply. That the pattern she expected was followed was a relief. So far she had only had time to try to figure out her human. If the shadows had unusual patterns of thought, adapting would have been annoying. The princess was not sure she could have convincingly acted a lich obsession when it led to her demise for example.

Her human looked great in her night blue dress. Although it being designed for servants was a glaring defect. Her human should be the one served.

The princess stopped herself before she started fantasizing. First a conversation, and then, if her human was indeed a person came the pampering.

Renner blinked. That was the first time she actually cared about her title as royal for more than the commodity it provided and now she was pretty sure it was no longer valid. Annoying.

They both followed the man to have a walk through an inner courtyard. Not much could be said in favour of the bare grey walls except that they seemed structurally sound. And if they weren't Renner didn't want to know until she had the capability to leave this building. That way laid madness.

Next came a lesson in reading a foreign language. No resemblance to any script she had seen in the Re-Estize library, that she could assure. It was relatively easy to figure out though. A letter or group of letters represents a phonetic sound. And for some miracle the spoken tongue was identical to her own. So by the end of the first lesson she had a decent comprehension of it.

Being forced to stall her progress artificially because according to not tongueless yet butterfly lady's words she had just been born would have been offending if not for the entertainment her human provided trying to do very much the same.

If the slight strain in her fake smile every time the human's eyes flickered to Renner was anything to go by, the princess's shadowy face provided a natural advantage to hiding her feelings.

Renner could barely catch the girl's frustration with the glances she managed to steal. And dragons mighty her human was good at hiding her tells. If she hadn't been wearing Renner's own face, which the princess had spent extensive time analyzing in front of the mirror to suppress any emotion from, and even more useful, display fake ones, she wouldn't have caught it.

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The lesson was followed by a meal. Passable cuts of meat and some vegetables, the princess tried not to assume she knew what she was eating. Even if it tasted like chicken in this situation she wouldn't be surprised if the meat came from a fish. Well, not very surprised.

Finally, the shadow tutor left their bare room and she and her human laid in the same bed. If her human proved to be as good as she expected she could forgive the subpar treatment she had received so far from the shadows.

The lack of a door was concerning for their privacy though. But finally, finally! Renner could talk to her human properly.

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Spoiler: Author's note

Not sure if human Renner came out to murdery in this chapter.
Any feedback or criticism welcome and thanks for reading!
Also, out of curiosity, how many of you have read Shadows House and / or Overlord but don't know the other setting?