Red Soul: You Might Make it, Girl, But by the Skin of Your Teeth

(Note: First story post moved to post # 3)

Link to the Story Only Thread. Note that some entries have been substantially edited from their appearance in this thread, especially #7, after further review)


For previous writing I have done on Kyoko Sakura, please read Tip of the Spear, which could be considered an unofficial prolouge to this Quest, and insight into how I view the canon character.

[] Meaning for what confounds you.

Everything I know comes from wikis, so apologies if I miss anything obvious. Also, what do the three choices actiually mean? If you can tell me, that is.

You awaken, groggily, to the sound of something heavy hitting the floor in front of you.

You open your eyes with difficulty. Doing so feels like being stabbed with needles. Large ones. You see that you are in a small, stone room. It is disgustingly dirty; there is a layer of stagnant water in one corner of the cell where the floor is uneaven. You hear skitters of movement above you; rats. You've heard a lot of rats, living on the street. Anyone who tells you Japan is clean has never lived in its alleys. Against the wall, there is a small, peculiar-looking doll.

And in the middle of the room, illuminated by a shaft of light, there is a body.

You hear more movement from above, but bigger, heavier, and with a clank of metal. You look up. Looking down into the hole in the ceiling is a person, dressed in armor from medieval Europe. He (although you honestly can't tell the sex of the person, you assume that the person is a man) looks at you, points at the body, nods once in an encouraging manner, then slowly stands and walks off.

"Hey, wait a minute!" you yell. Or, rather, you want to. It comes out more as a murmured "eah, earhwe mughgh."

Then, the memories return to you.

The Witch that was once Sayaka Miki simply watched, no longer attacking, waving its sword the length of a bus languidly through the air. Kyoko, rose up in the air to look it in the mask, the three hollow sockets in the crowned helmet that hours ago had been a blue-haired girl of fourteen. As you look over your clasped hands, holding your soul gem in prayer, you whisper to God, who you have not talked to in so many years, and to Sayaka, and you promise her, that she shall not die alone...

You shudder, and vomit, but nothing comes up from your stomach but air and memories. But how can you have a stomach? Why do you have a body to vomit with at all? The very last thing you remember before waking up in a filthy cell was tossing your Soul Gem forward, watching it crack and shatter as you forced all your magic through it to make a bomb that would kill both the Witch that the idiot had become and y...

You look down at your hand, and recoil from it like it was a venomous snake.

There, on your finger, is your Soul Gem, looking quite whole and un-exploded.

However, the red is laced with black. You estimate that it is about "half-full."

A part of your brain wants to panic, but you squash it down. You did expect to go to Hell after death, after all. Obviously, you have to keep your Soul for eternal torment.

Hopefully, this means that Sayaka went to the other place, the one you didn't deserve...

Shaking aside those thoughts, you move over to the body, and regret it. Although the gaping sword wound in the corpse's back is still leaking blood, the body already looks like it has been dead for a long time; the skin is red and dessicated and looks like old leather. Still, you've been a magical girl since you were nine; six years is almost an eternity in this business, and you've seen much worse in those years. You reach down, and start going through the body's meager clothing in a detached manner rather unbecoming of someone your age. It's not like you've never had to do something like this before.

The first thing you find is a rusty key. You quickly run over and try it on the padlock. It works, and the bars swing open. You return to finish loo-er, checking the body.

Some scraps of blank paper.

A coin, made of copper or bronze, with a man's face on it.

Moving on to the next pocket, you find....

[] Balms for what ails you.
[] Meaning for what confounds you.
[] Passage for what bars you.

And something else...
__________________--

[] Meaning for what confounds you.

I want HomuHomu quest back. This will do for now T.T

[] Meaning for what confounds you.

So.

We're Kyoko. In the world of Dark Souls.

This is gonna be FUN!

In the Dorf sense of the word. (Of course)

[] Meaning for what confounds you.

[X] Meaning.

Data first. As always.

Any experts on Dark Soul can tell me where we are? I think we're in the starting area, but I could be wrong. Also, does that body belong to Dark Souls protagonist?

Ohohohohoh

This is gonna be Goooood

Dark Souls is a crapsack universe that makes other crapsack settings look like Utopias, not even death is a release from your torment here.

And everything wants to kill you, eat you, lay their eggs to replace your head you, or curse you so fucking bad it actually Follows you through reincarnation and can only be cured by transferring it to something else.

[X] Meaning for what confounds you.

Because bandwagon...I guess....

[X] Passage for what bars you.

The choice implies that something will/is restraining us, and it is best that we eliminate it.

Ah, someone else voted for that. Excellent.

That was my original choice, but there didn't seem to be much hope of it.

[X] Passage for what bars you.

I'd like to do more, but I have a splitting headache going now. I'll continue in the morning. In the meantime, have a cliffhanger!


[x]Meaning for what confounds you.

...a small, black leather book. Opening it, you are surprised that it is in Japanese, if slightly archaic. At first, you think it's a storybook from what is written in it- lots about Lords (which seems to mean "Gods" in this context), and Dragons, and Fire, but the stories seem to have a certain...gravitas to them that reminds you of stories from the Old Testament. Maybe a prayer book from some obscure religion you haven't heard about? You put it in your sweatshirt and continue rummaging.

In a case tied in the small of the corpse's back, you find a pair of binoculars. They're dirty, but otherwise seem expensive and well-made. You tie the case around yourself.

In another pocket, you find a ring. The color is wierd; it's a sort of reddish-gold, nothing you recognize, and you've hawked a lot of stolen jewelery in between hunting for Grief Seeds. There are a series of scratches on it that are probably writing, but you can't make heads or tails of it. For some reason, looking at the ring sends a shiver up your spine, but you pocket it anyway. Might be able to sell it later.

You find nothing more of note in the rest of the pockets, However, you see a thin silver chain around the corpse's neck. You unclasp the chain, but it's apparently a pendant; it's stuck under the body. You grab an arm and a knee and turn the body over. What you see makes you stumble back, all the way to the wall of the cell, but not out of disgust.

At the end of the chain, glittering in the sun on the corpse's chest, is a teal gemstone in the shape of the English letter "C."
__________________________________

Check all that apply.

[] This might be a Witch's barrier, somehow. Better transform to be cautious.
[] Wherever you are, it's probably not a Barrier, and you need to save your magic.
[] Take the Pendant. If there is any chance that really is Sayaka's Soul Gem, you are not leaving it.
[]Leave the Pendant. That can't be her Soul Gem; it turned into a Grief Seed! ...Right?
[] Finish looting the body and search for anything else useful
[] Get rid of the ring
[] Keep the ring
[] Put the ring on
[]Leave the cell
[]Write in

...That ring...

WARNING!

CURSE DETECTED!

Abort! Abort! A-BORT!

Berserk looks cheerfully opimistic compared to Dark Souls.

Ash nazg durbatuluk...

No? Awww. Still, yeah, probably not healthy to keep.

I should have put this in the OP and I regret the error, but here are the Dark Souls starting gifts.

(You would have gotten the Pendant regardless of what "package" you picked)

... I take it there were possible gifts not in that list?

Each "set" came with certain items from that list, plus one "unique" item (in the case of the "meaning" set, a book that gives a brief overview of the history of Lordran and its major movers and shakers), plus the Pendant.

Ok, bed time now. See you in the morning.

Heh. The One Ring is only mildly cursed compared to Dark Souls's stuff. Using it turns you into an evil dick. The setting of Dark Souls entirely needs one.

Might be a cursed ring but if we're talking gifts, I'm cautiously optimistic about it being the old witch's ring. Would be nice to talk to Quelaan before having to deal with her sister. If we have to deal with her sister.

Pft, yeah right. Of course we'll have to fight Quelaag. Wish we didn't though. I quite like the sisters.

Depends on how you play it. More intelligent bosses might be able to be reasoned with, if you meet the criteria. No, I will not tell you what these criteria are, but anyone whose played Dark Souls or read its TVTropes page should be able to figure them out.

I didn't give you guys any responses in the last post, so here's a list of things to do, in no particular order. Check all that apply.

[] This might be a Witch's barrier, somehow. Better transform to be cautious.
[] Wherever this is, it's probably not a Barrier, and you need to save your magic.
[] Take the Pendant. If there is any chance that really is Sayaka's Soul Gem, you are not leaving it.
[]Leave the Pendant. That can't be her Soul Gem; it turned into a Grief Seed! ...Right?
[] Finish looting the body and search for anything else useful
[] Get rid of the ring
[] Keep the ring
[] Put the ring on
[]Leave the cell
[]Write in

[x] Whatever this is, it's probably not a Barrier, and you need to save your magic.
[x] Take the Pendant. If there is any chance that really is Sayaka's Soul Gem, you are not leaving it.
[x] Finish looting the body and search for anything else useful
[x] Keep the ring
[x]Leave the cell
[x] Look Around you. Is there anything else noteworthy before you leave the room you're in?

I'm very much looking forward to seeing where this quest goes.

Don't transform -- yet.
Keep the pendant.
Loot some more.
Do NOT put the ring on. See if we can wrap it up in something and put in a bag, and if that bit of separation makes a difference as to the feeling.

Look to the top of the cell -- where the trapdoor was. How high up is it, and do we think we might be able to reach it using Puella Magi powers? We could try breaking through the top and leaving that way -- or we could try navigating the prison.