1999 - Uganda
"I never would have imagined a course of events that could push us to this,"
A tall man with red hair said. "Certainly we haven't been the best of friends, but this..."
His opponent grunted in acknowledgement. "I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to come yourself."
"Ah, and waste my cute subordinates? Sometimes, it's just a matter of having the raw power." The redhead turned slightly to look on the wasteland behind his foe without letting his enemy out of his sight. "Besides, who knows how much power you got from that feast."
The being chuckled. "If you really think I only ate the pathetic mortals, then you're really going to underestimate me."
"I was wondering where the Egyptian Pantheon were..." The man replied.
"Weaklings. Couldn't protect even one of their precious followers when it came down to it!"
For a long moment the crimson haired man was silent. Still his slight frown spoke eloquently of his opinion of the news. "Then I suppose I really shouldn't hold back."
"No. You shouldn't."
Red light illuminated the area in the color of fresh blood. A monstrously large black sphere that paradoxically glowed red struck the being and detonated in a brilliant flash of light visible for miles around.
Their battle had only begun.
---
A few months later - Japan
An old woman in a dark shawl shambled through the narrow streets of a suburb. Her skin was cracked and pale enough one might not at first notice her middle eastern descent. Dark eyes still sparkled with purpose and intelligence though as they caught on every face and individual.
Some of those that passed whispered. Wondering if she were a refugee from the recent crisis, or what she might be doing in such a
normal neighborhood. She ignored them easily enough. The fact she
was a refugee meant little to her, and was certainly nothing she felt ashamed of. No she had a purpose, and for her purpose she must find someone who meets her criteria. So few did. So few.
Finally she saw someone who did. A woman, young, in her prime. The subtle divination the old priestess was using revealed more than mere sight. Married, active sex life, soon coming to the peak of her fertility and showed some subtle signs of recently going off her normal birth control. Perfect.
With a burst of speed the old woman placed herself in the woman's path and approached her with all the subtlety of a bull... Or an old woman who no longer gives a shit about other's opinions. Either one really.
"I'm sorry... Can I help you?" The younger woman asks, confused.
A rickety hand withdraws within the old woman's shawl and pulls out a golden ankh large enough for its lower pillar to be held like a handle. "Here. This belongs to you now." She forced the ankh into the woman's hands, honestly not caring what happened to the artifact after it had touched the woman's hands.
Mission complete the old woman turned and bustled off, ignoring the questioning cries of the young woman. She had one last mission and not much time to complete it. Once she'd found herself relatively alone she called on the meager remains of her stamina and the power of a useful acquaintance to open a teleportation circle as far away from there as she could... She managed to land in an alleyway two prefectures over.
"Good enough," she grumped. "It'll have to be."
The woman raised a frail hand in front of her face. "It was enough..." She nodded in confirmation and then leaned back. Her eyes closed as she fell into peaceful sleep. Seconds later the tattered remnants of her soul shattered into dust leaving her body a lifeless husk.
---
The Trials and Tribulations of a would be Yuri Harem Goddess
A DxD AU Quest
2015 (Quest Present) - Japan
"Ow!"
You hastily pull your face away from your vice-captain's questing fingers. You gently slap her hands away.
"Oh you big baby."
Lin Satsuzaki threw her hands up in defeat and frustration. "You know President Shitori is going to bitch you out hard for showing up to your classes looking like you got into a fight."
"I
did get into a fight. It's not my fault the other schools mostly enter
gorillas in the tournaments. It was a club event, all official with the paperwork done and everything. She can't give me shit for that!" You shoot back.
"An official event for a club she doesn't like and clearly wants to shut down." Lin frowned at you for a long moment, but finally shook her head. "This boxing club is your baby, I can't understand why you aren't more careful to keep it."
"Because I'm sick of being careful. Why do you think I took up boxing?" You smirk. "Well, with that taken care of, I guess I can go take a shower now~"
Lins hands clamp on your shoulders freezing you in place. "Now, Captain. The girls have all agreed its safer for everyone if you just wait till they're all done. You wouldn't want any...
accidents, would you?"
"Hah, ha, heh... No. No accidents. You're absolutely right," you nod in agreement while pretending that you're only imagining the dangerous gleam in her eyes.
Silence drags on for a long few seconds as you sweat under her stern glare. Finally the door to the captain's office opens and
one your club members pokes their head in. "Everything okay in here?" She turns her mild gaze to you, but it only makes you sweat more. In fact you put your back up against a wall and try to look small just to be safe.
"We're fine. She's behaving herself," Lin replies.
You nod hastily in agreement. She may appear to be a mild mannered giantess, except in the chest department, but Airi Katsumori does not fool you for a second. Truly this is no girl but a monster in human flesh. Far too strong for the likes of mere mortal. But that strength waits, behind the safety of its mild mannered genius veneer for the first sign of perversion and then...
it strikes.
No, you are not fooled at all.
"Well the showers are free. I was the last. Later," she gives a brief wave of goodbye and then disappears on her way.
"I say again. Total baby," Lin says with a snicker as you slide to the ground in relief.
---
"Ah! The Empress of Perversion approaches!"
Aika Kiryuu greets you before class. "You look like you got your ass kicked."
"Nah, I left the ring on my feet. Can't say the same for my opponent. So bow, Queen of Perversion, for not only am I your Empress, but now also the prefecture's lightweight boxing champion!" You shoot back.
She gives you an over the top bow of an obsequious nature, "truly you are a marvel of our time, Kyou-chan!"
Vaguely you're aware of the so called 'perverted duo' wailing in the corner pleading with god to correct some oversight or other. While it was annoying when you first came out to have them constantly going on about it being some great cost to men or something like that, you eventually learned to tune them out. Frankly the opinion of a couple losers meant less than nothing to you now.
"Oh and happy birthday." Aika grabbed a small game case out of her bag and handed it to you.
"Oh, that's sweet. Thank you. Now what's this?" Your eyes light up as you read the title. "Strawberry Shrine*Sweet, Special Edition! This is the version with the loli-gitsune! How did you get this? It isn't supposed to release until the weekend!"
"Oh, I happen to know a few people. Anyways, happy birthday. Honestly, I don't know what you see in that series. They even added the bishounen shrine assistant with a tortured past and you can't even romance him!" Aika expounded.
Your eyes flash, "cute bishounen boys are nothing before the power of Yuri, Aika! He exists only so you can prove your pure heart and intentions to the cynical world weary onee-san character! Truly the value of purifying a young woman's heart is a hundred, nay, a
thousand times as worthy as wooing a mere bishounen!"
You freeze at the sound of a man clearing his voice behind you. "That's very interesting, Hyoudou-san, but if you wouldn't mind taking your seat; I'd like to start my class now."
"Ah, hai-sensei!" You try to ignore Aika's giggles as you shuffle into your seat and get out your home room materials.
For the next few hours you sit in your usual window seat, though for some reason today the sun feels more... friendly? In fact it feels so nice you're having trouble not dozing off. During a particularly boring part you just can't keep your eyes open, your eyelids are just too heavy. You assure yourself you're only closing your eyes for a moment. Just a moment. Just...
You open your eyes to an expanse of sunny field. Drifting. Floating. Gravity doesn't feel real, but you aren't really moving away from the ground either. Then
it appeared before you.
[ ] [Power] A lioness, her fur darkened and stained with blood. Scars cover her form and even as she growls more blood pours from her maw. (
Combat Focus. Fighting is replaced with Ki Artist. [Sun Element Ki] merit gained.)
[ ] [Power] A cow standing on a dais of corpses. Despite the macabre sight, the cow itself seems positively radiant and its stance is oddly protective of the corpses below rather than condescending. (
Charisma focus. Slow Appearance gain. Ability to interact with the dead. Eventual ability to judge spirits and
force them into the appropriate afterlife.)
[ ] [Power] A cat, of black fur with golden tips and adorned with a solid gold collar. It's amazing how well the cat stands out as it's actually in the center of a veritable sea of cats. Just, for some reason you know the first cat is
the cat. (
Luck focus. From now on cats will never really be far from you. While you won't be mobbed, they'll just kind of be there but
everywhere. However these cats will intervene in times of great distress and danger, and may call in their friends if the need is truly great. While they won't simply follow orders, they can pass messages for you if it's of great importance. More may be possible if you train up your animal ken, leadership, and investigation.)
[ ] [Power] An empty throne, resplendent in gold and turquoise. You're not sure what to make of it, since the base is solid gold so there are no legs. It actually looks kind of uncomfortable. (
Magic Focus. You gain 1 rank of Sun Magic proficiency an immediate dot of occult. Also once per week you can ignore any knowledge or skill limits to create a single perfect magical artifact of a rank equal or lesser to your current Sun Magic Proficiency. It does not have to be a Sun Magic Artifact.)
You only see it for a moment before the sun rises behind it and blinds you. When you blink your eyes, the glare fades to reveal your classroom where life seems to be mostly going on like normal. A big yawn forces its way out, but the teacher has his back turned so you get away with it. Soon enough you're following along like normal, only the slightest twinge of concern left for your strange experience.
---
Day 1 - Monday
Like most school days, your day is already taken up by school and your club. Only the evening and night are available. Choose two.
[ ] [Action] Training. You can always tighten up something. (3 hours)
- [ ] Specify what you want to train in. You must already have a dot in it.
[ ] [Action] Socialize.
- [ ] Aika
- [ ] Lin
- [ ] Airi
- [ ] Boxing Club Members
[ ] [Action] Play your new Eroge. It is your birthday after all.
[ ] [Action] Go looking for some delinquents to beat senseless.
[ ] [Action] Look something up at the school library.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Look something up on the internet.
- [ ] Specify what you want to look up. Can be as generic as a keyword or as specific as individual's name.
[ ] [Action] Wander around town. Why not, it's generally a safe place and none of the local thugs are much danger to you anyways.
---
What you IC know about the AU:
There was some kind of nuclear fuck-up over in Uganda back in '99. Problem is it took a huge bit out of Lake Victoria and blocked off the feed into the Nile. Uganda couldn't afford to fix it so Egypt made a deal with Sudan and mobilised to conquer Uganda. Several of the central African powers saw their chance to gain huge leverage over the militarily and economically more successful Egypt.
Within a year, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had both collapsed as functioning governments and Tanzania and Kenya were seriously embattled with Egypt and several smaller actors. UN sanctions flew, but ultimately did nothing. 'Free Agents' from a host of middle eastern nations entered the region ratcheting up religious tensions in an already ethnically volatile area. It was rumored Isreal got in on the conflict on an unofficial level for the purpose of keeping Egypt in a state of economic recession.
In 2007 an armistice was reached by the major players of the war. A corporation, the Victoria-Nile Corp, was formed with the combatant nations acting as share holders with each country holding equal shares and with a board appointed by Egypt but subject to confirmation or summary dismissal by a majority vote of share holders. Lake Victoria itself and all unoccupied land for ten miles surrounding it was ceded to the corporation.
The first corporate micro-nation was formed. Deliberation is ongoing as to whether they should be granted a seat in the UN or not.
Soon the Nile began to flow again, and Egypt's fortunes were on the rise. Not that the area ever truly pacified. Terrorists of nearly every stripe are always active in the area.
During this, there has been an increase in strange events across the globe. Terror attacks on churches have been on the rise, as well as unexplained disappearances of locally important officials. The internet is rife with rumors of a secret war in the dark and repeated hoax movies showing people with weird laser guns and lightsabers fighting people with black wings throwing around spears of hardened light.
And that's nothing next to the mysterious fire that burned down almost ten square blocks in a town down in the Kyushu region.
What I'll confirm OOC about the setting:
While there won't be wholesale crossovers, ideas will be stolen from various series and made to fit the setting. So you might meet the human-devil hybrid that benefited from their ancient ancestor turning a contract around on a devil. Their immortality spell now only passing on their power and physical attributes to their successor rather than consuming their soul and replacing it with the devil's. (BtVS) Or one of the many organizations of mere humans and what few magicians and creatures they can con or coerce into helping them that take on the hard and often lethal job of combating the lesser supernatural threats that slip the large factions' radars. (Hellsing, FEAR)
Your Sacred Gear is Twice Critical. It isn't active yet, you need to be in a fight in which you seriously chance dying first. No amount of training or leveling it will cause it to become Boosted Gear. This isn't a transitory stage, it
really is Twice Critical.
Rias Gremory isn't interested in you. With Twice Critical locked away and neither you nor it particularly powerful, you don't especially smell of dragons or even seem to have any special power. Unless the only other option is letting you die in front of her, Rias will not add you to her peerage.
Sona doesn't like you and considers you barely above a delinquent. She still
might offer you a spot in her peerage though as you are on the shortlist of possible candidates. Knight and Rook are both on the table depending on how you develop your skills between now and whenever she makes up her mind whether or not to invite you to her peerage.
Don't expect to fall into the stations of canon. This is going off the rails hard and early. Certain canon events are also more or less guaranteed to play out differently. The factions are much more tense in this AU and I'm not just talking about the big three.
I'm using a homebrew variant of the Storyteller system. I'll try to explain the system in more detail in a future post.
While this is a Yuri harem, I'm willing to consider sufficiently feminine crossdressers (see:
Gaspar Valdi). I am fine with lolis in the harem, but ultimately it's up for vote.
Also this quest will ultimately be a Shounen flavored quest, with heroic saves and impressing girls with your pure heart and intentions and all that. After a few turns, I may hold a vote to see if there is interest in running a parallel quest in NSFW for a Hentai flavored villainous route.
Also one last vote to nail things down. What do the players want as a difficulty level?
[ ] [Difficulty] Easy
[ ] [Difficulty] Normal
[ ] [Difficulty] Hard
[ ] [Difficulty] You Will Die (Death is inevitable, its what you accomplish beforehand that counts.)
[ ] [Difficulty] Ma'at (Let your heart weigh no more than a feather... Karma only goes negative, ergo free tickets for the GM to take a die off a roll at will, and every infraction carries more bad karma than the last.)
[ ] [Difficulty] War, War never changes... (The Second Great War is now an inevitability. No amount of good leadership, or impassioned speeches will stop it. The Underworld and Earth will be ravaged by their battles, but even Heaven can't count on being spared. You will not be able to avoid getting caught up in it.)