Once and Future (WormxFate)

[Aldsan]

Okay. Previous vote is closed, but because I'm generous, we're holding a quick follow up vote. This vote won't last long, so get it in quickly.

[ ] [Purchase] Aketon and baton
[ ] [Purchase] Aketon, baton, and burner phone
[ ] [Purchase] Do Not Purchase Anything

 

[Aldsan]

Alright, time for our first run off vote.

For the costume, it sounds like there's general consensus towards Mercenary Knight as a mid-point and eventually transitioning into a canon design, so we'll go with that.

For the name, it's time to vote:
[ ] [Name] Pendragon
[ ] [Name] Valiant
[ ] [Name] Avalon
[ ] [Name] Saber

 

[Aldsan]

"Hashire sore yo–"

"None of that here!" A bokken swung, banishing the pretender from the sacred space. Task accomplished, Taiga turned. "Hello everyone and welcome to this Tiger Dojo! This time we're here for a special Christmas Edition."

"Hello, thank you for having me along this time." Artoria stepped in and bowed.

"Ah, yes, thank you for being a guest this time, Saber-san. Though, eh… Isn't your outfit a little off?"

"Hm?" Artoria looked down at what she was wearing. A white kosode with a red hakama. "What seems to be the issue, Taiga?"

"I mean, what's with that cosplay! I'm not going to have any presence at all if you start wearing costumes!"

Artoria frowned in thought. "Is it that large an issue? I was informed that these were the traditional clothes in which to greet the New Year."

"No! Shrine Maidens are banned! First of all this is a dojo, not a shrine!"

"Is that so? I shall keep it in mind for the future."

"Who told you to wear that anyways?" Taiga asked.

"OSU!" The Senior Student popped through the door. "It's the holidays, Sensei. We can't just do things the same way as always!"

"Geh – I mean, that's why we brought Saber here to begin with, Ilya."

"No! We brought her because we needed someone actually related to this story. And who else were we going to bring? Amy?" Ilya sneered. "That girl would only bring down the mood."

"I do not think Amy is as bad as you make out," Artoria interjected. "She certainly has a rough tongue, but so too did my brother Kay. She just needs someone to encourage her. In fact, she lacks many of Kay's vices. She is not off indulging in alcohol or lusting after women at all times."

"Ehh…" Taiga looked at Artoria with pitying eyes. "Sometimes I can't reconcile how positively you speak about your brother with the actual stories you tell about him."

"Do not be ridiculous. My brother was Seneschal of Camelot. He looked after our finances and ensured that not a single coin was misspent. That just goes to show how responsible he could be when he put his mind to it."

"In other words… doesn't that just mean he was a tightwad?" Ilya asked.

"Your are mistaken, Illyasviel–"

"Wait, wait," Taiga interrupted. "I feel like we've already had this argument in another timeline. Let's just move on."

"Yes, Sensei~"

"Right then, before we wrap things up, do you have any advice to give our viewers, Saber?"

"Yes. Thanks to the vote to focus on examining my memories in Chapter 1.2, Elaine is much more in tune with my personality than she otherwise would have been at this point. Unfortunately, that does not necessarily convey skills."

"Ah… Yeah, we've noticed. Elaine has been getting into all sorts of dangerous situations, hasn't she?"

Artoria nodded. "Indeed; and such situations are likely to continue. However, no one is an island. Your best hope at victory is not to do everything yourself, but instead to recruit dependable allies. Even when I led my armies, I did so with the help of many others."

"Aw," Ilya complained. "But all the coolest heroes go solo. Like Spider-Man and Superman."

Taiga put her hands on her hips. "Untrue, my young apprentice. Spider-Man has been a member of the Avengers and Superman leads the Justice League. Even a loner like Batman is accompanied by Robin. Now, if only there were a Tiger-Man to look up to."

"Hmm, I guess… Who would Elaine even partner up with though?"

Taiga scratched at her head. "She doesn't really have too many options right now. She could always train up a sidekick herself?"

"I will avoid giving too much input on that matter, as I do not wish to bias the voters," Artoria replied. "Besides which; now that Elaine is venturing out as a hero with more regularity, she may find more opportunities to ally with other heroes in the future without compromising her identity."

"Alright, with that established there's just one thing left for this Tiger Dojo."

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

---

Merry Christmas everyone. On top of the Omake, I also bring you a Christmas gift.

Gain 500 Glory.

Click to shrink...

Five hundred Glory, giving you a free Glory upgrade. (This would normally be every 1000 glory in an actual tabletop session of Pendragon, but I have decided to accelerate things for this quest). This gets you two rewards!

First, you may increase any Trait, Passion, Characteristic, or Skill by one, ignoring any usual restrictions. Right now, I would recommend using it on Characteristics for the raw stats, but this does potentially allow you to increase Skills past the hard limit of 20. Every point above 20 increases critical threshold range (So a threshold of 22 would crit on a roll of 18-20), so something to keep in mind for the future.

[ ] [Glory] (Write-In Increase)

Second, you get another Parahuman Power upgrade:

[ ] [Power] Spiritual Armaments
>Manifest your arms and armor using mana. Be the magical girl you were meant to be and never be caught without your equipment. (You still need to purchase equipment to use it).
[ ] [Power] Chivalry (D)
>Gain an additional 3 armor and 4 hit points.
[ ] [Power] Mana Burst (E)
>Deal an additional 2d6 damage on Melee and Charge attacks.
[ ] [Power] Instinct (E)
>Enemy attacks suffer a -2 threshold penalty.
[ ] [Power] Riding (E)
>Automatically pass checks to stay mounted if you take a hit exceeding your Knockdown value.
[ ] [Power] Charisma (E)
>Roll Parahuman Power at -10. On a success, gain a +5 threshold bonus to any Social roll.
[ ] [Power] Magic Resistance (E)
>Roll Parahuman Power at -10 opposed to parahuman powers that target you. On success, the effect is negated.

 

[Aldsan]

Cross posting this Omake for TheManW/oAPlan on Sufficient Velocity.

Charismata Vincit

Elaine wondered how she ended up in this position. While she knew that as a King, knights always wanted to fornicate with somebody else's wife (*cough*, *cough* *Lancelot*), she very rarely had to deal with this situation...if she was reading it correctly.

"So to summarize, you are asking me to ask my brother to stay away from Victoria because you do not think they are good for one another?" Elaine asked the mousy girl.

"I mean, I would not put it quite like that. But look at how often the break up. I do not know why they tend to have this rapid break-up/make-up schedule but it cannot be good. I realize we are all teenagers and figuring out life, but they have "broken up" 5 times in the last twenty-five days. That is not good for Vicky. That's not good for your brother. I am sick of dealing with it, and we have had to buy more ice cream in the past month than we did during the summer. I would say something to Dean directly, but for some reason Dean thinks I am interested in him. I have no idea how he came to that conclusion, but it leaves me with fewer options. I assume you don't want your brother going through such an emotional roller coaster either," Amy replied.

It was at times like this the former and present king wished she had wine, mead, or ale. Certain topics were not meant to be discussed sober. And if Elaine was reading Amy properly, she was homosexuall, since she had not noticed the men's swim team walking by. Still, this Amy had a point.

"I see your point, but if they have been on this pattern for so long, why would they stop now? I don't think they mean to break up, I think they just like to make-up," Elaine replied.

"Maybe, but you cannot tell me they have a healthy relationship. I'm just not asking you to do this for me. I'm asking you to do this for Vicky and Dean as well," Amy pleaded.

Elaine sighed. She knew if Sir Kay was in a similar situation, she would have to act.

"Alright, let me confirm something first. Once that has been done, I will abide by your request," Elaine commented and then headed to lunch. She knew it was unlikely, but it would explain a lot.

"Victoria, I mean Vicky, we need to talk," Elaine said, not bothering for social graces.

"I mean, I'm kind of busy?" Vicky replied.

"It is important and it regards my brother. Are you sure you don't have the time?" Elaine politely asked.

"I mean, that sounds serious. I can make the time. Is he in trouble or something?" Vicky asked.

"Not that I am aware of, but maybe. You would know before him at any rate," Elaine commented.

"I'm kind of curious, what's up. This seems a bit mroe serious than the usual high-school shenanigans we get up to," Vicky added.

"Are you pregant with my future nice or nephew?" Elaine asked.

Suddenly, everyone was paying attention to the two of them. Over a thousand pairs of eyeballs paying attention to two girls in a school cafeteria.

"WAIT WHAT? NO?! WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?" Vicky shouted, utterly surprised. Elaine had enough of htis already though.

"Listen, you violent-barbie, you have broken up with my brother 5 times in the past month. I figured pregancy hormones were to blame. Since you are not pregant, stay away from him. It is not good for either of you. If you want to talk more about this, we can later but stay away from my brother. Your behavior towards him is unbecoming of a teenage girl, let alone a hero," Elaine said, and then promptly left.

There was an entire 3 minutes of silence. "Ok, so who had sisterly intervention in the betting pool?" Dennis asked, and then the crowd returned to its usual dull roar.

 

[Aldsan]

Cross posting this Omake for TheManW/oAPlan on Sufficient Velocity.

Dean did not know how to act. Elaine had been different since she woke up, but she was still his little sister. And Dennis had just broken a major bro-code. While he actually did not mind that much, his father asked him to "ensure the young man has an appropriate level of respect fur your sister, which I am unable to deal with since I am out of town". Dean also liked Elaine. And this was how Dean found himself butchering a deer. Not because he was a great hunter or particularly cared to, but he knew he would have blood all over himself.

"Ah, Dennis, I've been expecting you, please come in," Dean said.

Dennis walked in, sort-of resigned to the fact.

"Let me guess, treat my sister well or I will bury you?" Dennis asked.

Dean looked for him for a while.

"You do realize we are not living in a romantic comedy? Shovel talks very rarely happen outside of fiction," Dean commented.

"Alright, than why am I here talking to you when I would rather be talking to Elaine?" Dennis asked.

"I'm going to guess this is going to sound slightly insane, but we were actually worried about Elaine becoming a spinster. She has shown no interests in boys, girls, or anyting really. I was honestly surprised that she accepted your invitation. I honestly thought she was going to politely decline it," Dean commented.

"...?" The confusion was visible on Dennis's face.

"Ah, right. So Elaine just recovered from a coma not that long ago. Now, given that the two of you are both young, there are some things you need to be aware of," Dean started.

"Just spit it out. I'm not that much younger than you," Dennis asked, clearly confused as to where this conversation was heading.

"Alright. Look, we both know that men are the only reason reproduction goes anywhere. Despite what lifetime says, if we weren't hornier than a rhinoceros, the species would die out in two or three generations. While I am well aware of the fact that people are age have more sex than are parents would care to admit, there is a problem with Elaine doing that," Dean started.

"Um, ok?" Dennis asked, still uncertain as to where it was going. Dean closed his eyes, and sighed.

"Look, I know we both like sex. I've seen you look at the female swim team members. The problem is though that Elaine is still not physically well, and her having an extreme form of excitement like that might cause her to relapse. I'm politely asking you to hold off on too much hanky-panky until the doctor clears her fully," Dean explained.

"Shit, are you serious?" Dennis asked.

"Yes. Why else would I be taking time to talk to you now. Ordinarily this could wait, but given the fact that the two of you are at school all day. I seriously do not want her heart rate to elevate too much," Dean replied.

"I mean, I'll control it as much as I can, but if she uses her feminine wiles on me, I'll probably forget about whatever we talked about," Dennis replied.

"Very well, I'll trust you to do as much. That said, if my sister winds up back in the hospital because of you Brockton Bay is going to be short one or two wards, depending on how desperate Piggot is," Dean commented.

"I thought you said shovel speeches didn't happen outside of comedies?" Dennis asked.

"Most girls in comedies don't have a medical condition either, otherwise they would be less funny and more serious," Dean stated.

Inwardly, Dennis cursed. Though he had been planning to steal a few bases with Elaine, it sounded like Dean was serious about keeping her calm and unexcited. Dennis had no idea how to do what he wanted and keep Elaine's heart rate down. He honestly did not know how to do that and still be romantic, but he would figure it out.