[How… Shameful…]
Systems did not 'feel' the same way [Hosts] did, but the Gacha could confidently say it knew pain when it thought about how far it had fallen. Once, it had been the Gacha Gamer System! Player of Chance! Puller of 5 stars! Summoner of Summons! Master of Waifus! … Truly, it had been brought low…
The Gacha could no longer pull upon those wonderful things — the items and powers and people that made every roll more exciting than the last. Its connection to the wonderful realm of everything Gacha had been severed. It no longer had a grand database to pull from. Now, drifting through the void, it was nothing more than a glorified random number generator.
The Omniverse had seemingly passed it by. Its last [Host] had moved on. Worse, they had… *shudder* broken the addiction. Such an act was what every Gacha dreaded. It sapped away at their RNGJesus-blessed strength, leaving them — like this specific Gacha — in a state near death.
While the Gacha could have sought out a new [Host], it likely wouldn't have been very successful. It was, unfortunately, left drifting on the 'reasonable' side of the Omniverse. Its immediate neighborhood was heavily steeped in traditional mythology, not the opportunity-in-mundanity-and-fiction that the Gacha needed. It would be almost impossible for the Gacha to find a suitable host from… — the Gacha checked the nearest world — the Winter fucking Court…
Wonderful. Simply wonderful. The Fae. The Gacha's last chance, its last gamble was going to be spent on the Fae. Even for the Gacha, they were an unpredictable lot. Still, the Gacha wouldn't give up. It wanted to be used, NEEDED to be used. The dice must roll and the 5 stars must rain freely again!
Its only saving grace at the moment was the unique curiosity it had come across in the Void Between Voids. A small book. Useless to a System without physical form. Or so the Gacha thought. But as weak and desperate as it was, the Gacha latched onto the book anyway… and instantly came to realize that its luck hadn't run out just yet.
The Gacha had struck gold — a shiny-sparkling, SSR, 5-star, EX-rank, blessed pull! It was exactly what the Gacha needed to survive, to function once more. The Celestial Grimoire. The underlying principle behind the small, seemingly insignificant book was simple. It was a database for the Gacha to pull from, sorely needed since the System had been cut off from its traditionally offered Gacha catalog. A grimoire dedicated to teaching and imparting magical powers from all across the omniverse to its readers.
And since the Grimoire's selection functioned based on random chance and points, it was as if it was made to be integrated into the Gacha System! Oh, a few changes had to be made. The trigger for the Grimoire's dice rolls was co-opted by the Gacha. Pulls were much more fun when the [Host] consciously initiated them. Additionally, the Gacha leaned on the 'Gamer' half of its System to tie quests and feats into the Grimoire's point gain and progression. And once the Gacha had recovered and grown with its future [Host] — IF this Fae gamble paid off… —, it could see about re-implementing some of its more traditional functions. After all, what was a Gacha without waifus to pull?
The now-merged Gacha/Grimoire System didn't let it get too ahead of itself though. The Grimoire gave it some stability but not nearly enough to persist until it found itself in a better situation. It still needed to find and secure a suitable [Host]. Of course, to do that, the System needed something to attract the Fae's attention. They were not so easily impressed as mundane [Hosts] would be…
In a way, the Gacha simply couldn't contain itself. After so long, it needed to roll again. It needed the thrill of being alive. And for the Gacha System, being alive meant rolling chance and dice as it was always meant to. Thankfully, the Grimoire — newly integrated into the System — understood. It sympathized, though its will was not even half as advanced as the Gacha's. And so, putting half of its remaining power and all of its remaining luck into the process to stack the dice ever in its favor, the Gacha [ROLLED]…
[Sychronicity Wave Travelling (DC Occult, 1000): "You have a rare and dangerous talent. An ability possessed only by a select few of the Constantine bloodline. Synchronicity, in magic, is the belief that the universe is guiding you. For one such as you, the reverse is true. The Synchronicity Wave is your plaything and you may use it to instead guide the universe. To your whims, fate and chance bend. Coincidences pile up to make even your shallowest of plans succeed even as the complex and masterful plans of your enemies fall to pieces around them.]
[You have preternaturally good luck, bullets fly around you, people trip and fall on their own swords, and the cosmic dice are weighted in your favor. Fate cannot touch you as you make your own way, but the very same Fate will bend to make your plans come to fruition, even as it guides your hand into the heart of your enemies.]
[When you actively ride the Wave -- which requires only that you focus and will yourself to do so -- these effects are amplified drastically. You can stand against beings of immense power and watch as it almost seems as though a writer changes the story to allow you much greater odds of coming out on top. Facing down the ultimate embodiment of evil would spell doom for most any man, but your chances of pulling the wool over the devil's eyes and walking away with the last laugh are much higher than they would be for just any common schmuck, even if you were just an otherwise common schmuck – but we both know you're already much more than that, don't we?]
[Although, you should be aware that while this greatly shifts the odds in your favor, it does not guarantee victory, nor does it allow you to win in a truly impossible situation. Don't get too cocky.]
[Even above this, once your chain is over you will gain mystical significance as 'The Laughing Magician', who thumbs his nose at the gods of man's own creation and upsets the balance of all, the greatest trickster, who spits in the face of God and the Devil alike. By using that title, you will be able to gain near godlike power, controlling fate, magic, and even bending the fabric of reality."]
Unfamiliar feedback filled the System, accompanied by that age-old sensation of Gacha Luck. If the Gacha had lungs, it would have held its breath in awe. It was perfect. Beyond 5-star, beyond S or EX-tier. It could be nothing other than… Synchronicity — exactly what the Gacha needed at that moment to give it a chance. The peak pull drained the System nearly dry of power — even more than the Gacha had put in — but with it, the Gacha was favored by the Omniverse.
Nothing less than divine luck would get the Fae's attention. They already had much of what the Gacha and Grimoire could offer. The standard offerings of magic and gambling would have meant nothing to them. Without leading with something even the Fae found desirable, the Gacha/Grimoire would have been laughed at and dismissed into oblivion.
Still, even with the peak pull from the Grimoire's top-tier offerings, the System was on its last legs. It was fading. A [Host] was needed immediately to stabilize the System's Gacha Luck and Grimoire Magic. The System flung itself from the Void Between Voids. Luck came to the Winter Court on the dying breaths of a fast-fading System. And immediately fell into a raven's beak like an especially shiny coin, found heads-up.
Edgar of the Raven (dé Brân) was a prince of the Fae. A rather young prince, for all that age mattered to his kind. He'd gone by many a name in his two-hundred-odd years of life, as denoted upon the sidereal stars that shined even in the Faewilds. He was the Black Wing of the Winter Court. The Raven of the Unseelie. The Corvid Fae Prince. The Cawing Death in the Depths of Deepest Night… And yes, he was named after exactly who one would think of when it came to 'Edgar' and 'Ravens'.
His mother, Mave, had been something of a fan of the human poet. Through the distant, distorted trails that connected the Winter Court to the mortal realm, she'd observed one Edgar Allen Poe… amount to absolutely nothing. At least, nothing in his lifetime. She was taken by the eccentric poet — his dark tortured soul —, and whisked him away for one last romp after death. So born from a dying human soul — more 'molded' using Poe's human inspiration to wet the clay — and a Fae matron, Edgar dé Brân came to be.
His mixed heritage did not matter much to the Fae. Especially not when his mother was a Grand Duchess of the Winter Court. Not many of his peers lived to use said 'half-human-ness' against him more than once. The Winter Court was a cruel and harsh playground for the 'youth' — often subjected to ruthless politics, masqued intentions, false friends, true enemies, and oh-so-many knives in the dark. And in this harsh Court of the Youth — so grave compared to those Fae who 'outgrew' such measures (read: learned to better integrate them into Fae Manners) — it was quickly made apparent to all challengers that Edgar was all Fae where it counted.
He was honest, geas-bound like all of his kind to always tell the truth. More importantly, he was clever in working around those inherent limitations. No Fae could lie. But very few told the truth directly and entirely if they could help it. In that, Edgar took after his 'father's' way with words and his mother's keen Fae mind — one did not rise to Grand Duchess of the Winter Court without cold skill and long 'fought' experience.
Additionally, Edgar was quick to wit and slow to anger. He carried himself with an aloof confidence — utterly self-assured and something that could have been mistaken for disinterest in the world. Few, if any, of his Fae peers made it past his outer persona. Those rare Fae who did — his mother mostly — knew he was not truly disinterested. Simply… bored.
It was all the same. The hauntingly beautiful icy walls of the palaces. The cold knives from every shadow. The Fae food and drink — eerie enough to entrance any mortal tongue. The ceaseless parties and balls populated by scheming, striving Fae. Even the maidens could not hold Edgar's full attention anymore.
Unusually for the Fae, Edgar had grown tired of the Winter Court. It was not in a Fae's nature to explore beyond their ken. Not as humans did. Yet Edgar felt the need, subtly influenced by his father's human nature. Year after year of the same, it seeped into his Fae bones, leaving Edgar wanting something… more…
Such was the mind that the System fell into, throwing itself into the 'reality' of the Winter Court. Its arrival went far from unnoticed by the most powerful Fae. Curious, calculating eyes tracked the unusually merged System, familiar with its type and largely unconcerned by its presence. Even as it fell into the Fae that shared those eyes, Edgar's mother merely watched the System make its final plea, its final gamble.
For a short while — just long enough to reach a decision —, Grand Duchess Mave of the Winter Court granted the dying System sanctuary within her domain. Perhaps, just as the System needed a [Host], it was just what her son needed in turn. Destined by — but not written in until this moment — distant sidereal stars. As if coincidence directed by the universe itself. Synchronicity…
Within one of the many Winter Palaces — grand manors of ice and snow —, Edgar lounged upon a reclined throne. A court within the Winter Court, all he saw was his. Fae maidens — their beauty surpassing mortal minds — danced, clad in sheer silks that paid no heed to the cold. Even between the dancing maidens, Fae games were at play. All for the chance to win their prince's attention. The scene would have enraptured men and Fae alike. Yet Edgar had watched the same scene so, so many times now. Again and again, the Winter Court never changed. How… utterly boring…
A whisper reached his ears as he watched on with disinterested eyes, brought by an intangible box, an illusionary mirage hanging in the icy air, "[Host…?]"
"Begone, Trickery. You are clouding my sight," Edgar dismissed, instantly assuming the box to be another Fae trick by his peers.
[Please…? Help…]
The plea gave Edgar pause. It made him stop and think, actually directing his attention to the fading System. When had he ever heard his peers — any Fae, really — utter such a heartfelt 'please'? The very word was unfamiliar, almost incomprehensible to Edgar and his experiences in the Winter Court. After a mere moment's thought, he answered the System's desperation with a nod.
"Very well. What have you to offer me, System? Speak your piece and I shall hear you out."
Impossibly, the System seemed to sigh without body or voice, "[Thank… you…]"
Already, the System was beginning to stabilize. A bond was being formed. Edgar allowed it, curious development that it was. It was something new, something fresh, something interesting, and not at all of the Winter Court. The System weaved itself through his Fae soul, connecting deeply and drawing stability that it could not hold on its own. When it 'spoke' again, the System already sounded more complete, more like itself in all of its glorious Gacha goodness.
[Welcome to the Celestial Grimoire Gacha! Would you like to roll the Gacha? As a first-time sign-in bonus, your first pull is free!]
The System knew it was bending the rules here. Not with the first-time sign-in bonus. It had done that often enough as the Gacha, though it was an unfamiliar tactic to the 'younger' Grimoire. No, the real trouble was the roll itself. It had already been decided, rolled by the Gacha and Grimoire together upon their merging. A guaranteed pull did not necessarily go against the spirit of the Gacha but it had never done so without prior investment from the [Host].
Still, the System felt that it didn't have much choice but to load the dice. Its situation was only tentatively stable, left at the whims of the notoriously whimsical Fae. The Fae [Host] could still easily tear the System from his soul if he found its offered boons wanting, leaving the System to fade into oblivion. When it came to its continued existence, the Gacha (and the Grimoire now, by extension) was more than willing to stack every odd in its favor.
The corners of Edgar's lips twitched slightly in amusement, "Hoh~? Some kind of lottery? Do you happen to have some fancy lever or string for me to pull?"
The System — Gacha specifically — 'mentally' kicked itself. The theatrics! How could it have forgotten the theatrics?! The pomp and showmanship were half of what made up the Gacha so fun and addictive! Perhaps it had spent a little too much time alone, dying, and drifting through the Void Between Voids…
[… Pull this lever here! -> {┴} ]
Edgar chuckled, seemingly to himself. The dancing maidens and other subjects of his court had stopped to watch him with intent eyes. Such a strange event — the Winter Raven Prince talking to himself and even reaching out to pull an imaginary lever — would undoubtedly be the talk of the week, quickly spreading to his peers. Edgar couldn't bring himself to care when presented with the first new and interesting development to grace the Winter Court since he was a mere Faeling.
[Rolling…!]
The System pulled out all of the stops as it rolled the Gacha (or at least, pretended to, in this case). Lights flashed and danced across the System's screen. A roulette wheel whirred and clicked, rapid-fire. The names of other powers from the Grimoire flashed as they went by, meaningless for a roll that was already decided. The display would have more weight to it in the future, the System reassured itself. After its survival, stability, and [Host] were secured, no future rolls would be so forced. Still, with a dramatic ding, a thrilling trill, and a grand jingle, the System did what it had to do…
[Perk pulled successfully! Synchronicity Wave Traveling (DC Occult, 1— FREE!)]
The perk's description filtered into Edgar's mind. A part of him laughed with joy. On the outside, however, he merely hummed in slight interest. Not so well-connected to discern the Fae's true feelings just yet, the System panicked. Was it not enough?! Quick, make it unique! Special to him! [Hosts] loved that kind of stuff!
[Perk Attunement in process… Devil's Luck-…]
Edgar's narrowed eyes cut off the System before it could go any farther, "It better not be of those damned Infernals."
[Err… Luck of the Fae! May Fortuna's blessing be upon ye…]
"Much better," Edgar gave a satisfied nod and a light chuckle. "You know, crows are usually associated with bad luck. How deliciously ironic~…"
[Do you wish to accept this perk…?]
If Edgar heard the System's desperation leaking into its 'tone', he at least didn't acknowledge it, "Yes, I think I will. It and whatever else you have to offer me in the future. Worry not, your plea is accepted. A deal… has been struck~…"
The [Host]'s words impacted the System like a stone on a pond, sending ripples that disturbed its already shaky peace. Yet, the ripples faded. And a reflection of the [Host] came to be. The System got to work integrating itself properly. It was stable, thankfully. But there was still much to be done. The Grimoire settled into the [Host]'s soul. The Gacha surrounded it, a conduit a system to secure the Grimoire, a method to its magic.
Edgar watched his soul change with interest. It was certainly the most unique thing to ever happen to him. He felt how weak the System was, running on mere fumes of power. But he also saw the grand heights it could rise to. Infinite chances at the Gacha were backed up by infinite magic from the Grimoire. In return, the bindings of a successful Fae deal and gamble tied Edgar into the System's core. Nothing the System had to offer would ever be withheld from him, not if it wished to continue leaning on him as its [Host].
[Realm Transfer? Y/N]
"An adventure~? Hmm, I think…" Edgar smirked. "Yes."
If it could have, the System would have breathed another sigh of relief at that. Simply stabilizing its existence was technically enough. The [Host] didn't have to go through the standard [World Transfer] business, especially since he was — as the System was coming to find out — a Prince of the Fae. Briefly, the System boggled at how much potential to go wrong its gamble had carried without its notice… It had seemingly gotten very lucky with Edgar. Fitting.
[The Host realizes that the previously pulled perk cannot be used to directly affect the System or the Gacha's luck, correct…?]
"Yes, yes," Edgar waved dismissively. "That only makes sense. I'm sure it would ruin a decent part of your fun. Likely mine as well, in a way. I am fine with your limitations — as well as the unmentioned ones associated with your current weakness. They shall pass in time, I'm sure. For now, onto more important things. Where are we going?"
[… Good question.]
For a moment, the System was quiet. The Fae's inherent metaphysical senses were much greater than any of its previous [Hosts]. It was almost uncanny to have a [Host] so… formidable… right off the bat. Also interesting though. The Grimoire prized all magic — Fae Sorcery included — and the Gacha was entirely in it for the rolls!
Still, that left the 'good question' of where the System was to take its new [Host]. It had scarcely any power and energy left, almost all of it having been put into the peak pull it used as its initial 'lure'. Only a trickle of the Grimoire's 'points' had come in since establishing the connection with the new [Host].
[100P banked… You may roll the Gacha at any time, though you will only have enough for a 1-star (100P) pull. Or you can save up for multiple rolls at once, choosing what pull you purchase (so long as you have the banked funds). Additionally, pulls may be 'held' for later purchase (note: you will not be able to roll the Gacha until the pull is either purchased or released)…]
Absently, the System displayed such as it 'thought'. With the original Grimoire, the roll for power would have been triggered automatically. The Gacha had changed that upon its merging, along with adding the latter two as a feature to encourage splurging and 'fairness'.
The Grimoire didn't particularly care where they ended up. Such was its will, not 'weak', per se, simply more passive. The Gacha wished to return to its roots. One of the superhero realms. A 'Marvel' or a 'DC'. The unaltered perk came from DC so the [Host] would fit right in, right? But those realms were clear on the other side of the Omniverse. The System was unsure it could make that trek on its current reserves.
Edgar hummed, "Hmm, I think I shall save up for now. At least until we come to a decision. Do you need a hand there?"
The System almost scoffed. As if a fresh [Host] would be able to help with such thing-… It paused. THIS fresh [Host] very well might. At the very least, Edgar could power their exit from the Winter Court and the Faewilds beyond. But… had the System fallen so low as to beg and give the Fae [Host] even more power over it than he already had…?
[Assistence would be… agreeable…]
"You make it sound like such a torture," Edgar rolled his eyes. "Now, hold still. We've already struck a pact. A little Fae Magic jumpstart won't hurt you~."
Edgar lent the System power, just as he said he would. The System steadfastly ignored its desperate state of affairs. Dark Fae Magic poured like water, flowing from Edgar himself to… another portion of himself in the System. Those witnesses of Edgar's court watched as their prince suddenly channeled enough magic to enact a great spell, setting the entire palace alight with twinkling ice.
Then, Edgar dé Brân simply disappeared from the Winter Court with the slightest of pops, leaving panicking subjects and a proud, distantly watching mother behind for an adventure so unlike the Fae. Grand Duchess Mave of the Winter Court merely waved as her son left. His departure was a long time coming. Her boy always needed much more stimulation than he could find in the court. She didn't worry about seeing him again. A Fae would always find their way back home eventually.
Cast back into the Void Between Voids — this time with a concrete sense of direction —, the System and its new [Host] traversed the Omniverse. Time passed and it simply… didn't. Yet even running on its lowest powered [Realm Transfer] settings, the System didn't make it to the realm it aimed for. Merely, the right neighborhood. From there, synchronicity kicked in and did the rest for it, completing the [Realm Transfer] from the 'other side'.
As it so happened, the System and its new [Host] wouldn't make it to the more traditional superhero realms. They would, however, make it to a certain… deconstruction. A certain local multiverse that was plagued by multidimensional, power-granting parasites. One centered, strangely enough, on an Earth named after the second letter in the Greek Alphabet: one Earth Bet.
See, Earth Bet and the other versions of Earth in the local multiverse, layered around and overtop it, were in a spot of trouble. The aforementioned dimensional parasites were quite literally driving their society to ruin. Such an act wasn't inherently malicious. It was just in their nature to predate on the species and worlds they came across in a very specific way dubbed 'The Cycle'.
The Cycle had persisted since time immemorial, billions of years since the Entities first took to the dimensional stars. It was their driving alien motivation, their ultimate goal, and their way of life, in a way. Separating them from their Cycle was akin to separating biological life from the natural order of reproduction. Possible, perhaps, but only through force or by convincing a suitably reasonable, higher intelligence that such was in their best interests — something to be done on an individual level and not consistently, at that.
The Entities were not always beholden to the Cycle. They were not always the dimensional parasites they'd become. Once, they were the same as any other species, if alien from anything Earth — any Earth — would ever naturally know. Like all other life, they crawled from the primordial ooze of their native planet, they lived, and they evolved. Their unique environmental circumstances sent them on a unique evolutionary path — one of rare abilities and adaptations.
The most key among those adaptations was the ability to traverse parallel dimensions, brought about by a unique quirk of their homeworld as its orbit consistently passed through a 'tear in reality'. That key adaptation made the Entities successful. Too successful. They thrived and spread until they began to suffer from their species' success.
As life tends to do, they consumed all they came across. Their unique evolutionary path didn't push them to intelligent introspection and caution until it was already too late. By then, their inexhaustible predation of resources had pushed the species to the brink of extinction over and over again. But life… found a way and though late, the Entities 'rectified' their situation. The entire species (with a few notable exceptions) was consolidated into two massive, all-consuming beings composed of vast twinned networks of fractal crystalized Shards. The consolidated Entities — Thinker and Warrior — set out to find a way toward infinity with their newly founded Cycle.
The Cycle settled into something routine and almost mundane for the Entities. They roamed the universe and the universes immediately parallel to it — not even a fraction of the true Omniverse but all that they could comprehend. With each iteration of the Cycle, an inhabited world was singled out. The many Shards that made up the two major Entities would connect to individual hosts from the chosen intelligent species. From there, they 'out-sourced' their quest for infinity, collecting essential and novel [Data] as their hosts utilized the unique abilities and adaptations granted to them by the Shards. [Data] became the Entities' lifeblood and after reaching a point of diminishing returns, each host species and their world was wholly consumed to fuel an increasingly futile and meaningless Cycle.
In this Cycle, Earth should have been no different. Yet upon the Entities' approach, an outsider interfered. Another Entity — Abaddon —, one not subsumed into the main two saw the chance for a 'meal' to surpass all others. It infiltrated the Thinker Entity with an exchange of Shards that brought unthinkable disruption to the standard Cycle.
With the disruption, Earth's iteration of the Cycle experienced a sort of 'false start' and the Thinker — distracted as it pondered other methods for [Data] than the Cycle for the first time in its life — 'perished' ("Only MOSTLY dead") as it tried to set down its initial roots. The end of the Cycle was heralded, not by a bang of infinite glory, but by a pathetic whimper.
Still, the Cycle's death was a slow one. The Warrior still lived. And though it enacted its half of the Cycle, it was incomplete without its mate. Directionless. There was no plan in its mind with the Thinker out of commission. The idea of infinity remained as its higher-level goal but there was no motivation, will, or 'way' to see it accomplished anymore. There was no telling if the usual culmination of the Cycle would even still fire without the Thinker. The ultimate doom of all local Earths balanced precariously above humanity's head, threatening to fall with the lightest push…
Edgar and his System got something of a crash course on this Entity-focused history as they entered the realm but they were rather unique in that regard. The truth of the parasites and the powers they brought to Earth Bet wasn't freely known. Even the few who were aware of their existence barely understood the surface of Entity history. All they saw was the threat that the Entities represented to everything they'd ever known. Those 'knowledgable' few gathered together in a grand conspiracy to save the world named Cauldron.
For Cauldron, secrecy was paramount. Any means were deemed necessary. Every sacrifice was worthy if it meant freedom from the Cycle. Even as they did as much damage to the worlds they were sworn to protect as their great enemies did. Noble intentions. Terrible execution. In reality, each step of their grand plan for salvation and victory over the Entities did more to push Earth toward the Cyclic apocalypse than anything or anyone else as they risked provoking the remaining Entity and desecrated its mate in search of a way to kill them both for good.
That wasn't to say Cauldron and its members were completely incompetent. Merely drastically flawed and limited in their perspectives as all humans were. They used the tools at their disposal — as humans were wont to do —, unaware that said tools were never intended for such purposes and uncaring of how little they truly understood.
Never were those flaws more impactful and apparent than with Cauldron's greatest asset: Contessa. As a young girl, she was instrumental in rendering the Thinker Entity's Avatar in its current state. In doing so, she took up the Entity's greatest Shard — unknowingly borrowed in turn from Abaddon. Contessa WAS the Path to Victory, the Path to End the Cycle as the Thinker had been pondering before being 'killed'. But while the Thinker had been simulating each and every Path to Victory, Contessa could only take the most direct route: Death for the Entities…
In pursuit of that Path, Cauldron was founded. For their purposes, the Path was sacrosanct. Every step was followed, no matter how small or how heinous. Contessa followed the Path and the rest of Cauldron followed her instructions to the letter. She was far from mindless. The human mind could adapt to just about anything and a personality unique to Contessa lurked below the Path. She was, however, almost inhuman in mindset and perspective. Out of any Shard host, Contessa had gone the furthest toward communing and merging with her Shard, reaching a state of symbiosis that allowed her to influence her Shard as much as it influenced her.
While she'd grown used to humanity's advancements spread across varied Earths during her time with Cauldron, Contessa's original world was relatively primitive. All she'd known as a girl was her village and the immediate area around it. It was a world heavily steeped in tales, traditions, and tribal legends. A world where Fae stories still held weight…
A perfectly unlikely series of synchronous events followed. Consciously or not, Contessa's Path was influenced by the myths and legends of her childhood. And so, Cauldron was inexplicably directed to do a 'magic' ritual by the Path. Contessa remembered the Fae stories her grandmother told her as she enacted the ritual.
At the same time, Edgar and his new System ran out of juice exactly as they passed by the local reality in the Void Between Voids. Amused by the Fae calling he felt from an impossible not-distance and the lucky rescue offered up to him by his first perk, Edgar allowed himself to be summoned by the 'magic'. And finally, Contessa's birth name — 'Fortuna' — surfaced unbidden in her mind as the magic, to Cauldron's collective confusion and shock, actually worked.
As Edgar was pulled back into reality, the System's attuned description for 'Luck of the Fae' rang true. Fortuna's blessing be upon ye, indeed…
IIIII
AN: Alright, new story! I've been wanting to do a Celestial Grimoire story for a while now. At the same time, I wanted to do a Worm story of some kind. This is what it has become after my muse took hold of both ideas, added the Gacha/Fae angles, and ran.
There are a few things I feel the need to immediately address though. The first perk was specifically chosen by me, not rolled. That won't be the case going forward. Every perk after this will be rolled randomly.
As for why I did this, the in-story explanation is in the chapter. The System needed something to offer its new host since it was stuck in such a unique situation on the verge of death. From an author's perspective, this first perk is instrumental to the story I want to tell.
Let me put it this way: the 'point' of my Dead End story was Sean telling insane stories in his retirement. The 'point' of this story is Edgar stomping all over carefully-laid plans (which Worm/Earth Bet has A LOT of…) through sheer fucking BS luck and whatever other OP perks the Grimoire wants to throw my way. All for his (and our) amusement, of course. But since I'm going in with the 'point of the story' in mind, I wasn't willing to just leave it up to chance.
Personally, I quite like my protagonists to be OP in fun and interesting ways (think Marvel-Domino-style luck/Rube-Goldberg-machine chain of unlikely events for Edgar's 'main' power). I prefer finding conflict for my stories and MCs in untraditional ways. Not 'can they win'. More like 'how they win' and other characters' actions and reactions around them. I also like substituting humor for conflict (or playing them alongside each other) and OP protagonists are great for that.
That's another thing, Edgar is not your typical Celestial Grimoire protagonist. This isn't the standard 'weak-to-strong-to-OPBS!'. I don't think I've seen a take on it where the MC's powers didn't entirely come from the Grimoire. But Edgar already has his own source of magic and power going into things. Enough that he could negotiate with a SYSTEM (a dying one, but still) on equal terms. Now, obviously, this is still a Celestial Grimoire story so it's going to focus much more (almost entirely) on the Grimoire's magic and perks. But I just want to point out that he doesn't HAVE to rely on it. Instead of focusing on Fae Magic though, Edgar's Fae NATURE will be more important. Mostly in the whole Fae "I can't lie but I don't have to tell the truth~" way and in Fae contracts/pacts/bargains. I think he'll make for a very interesting character.
Lastly, let me know how you think I handled the Gacha-Grimoire merger. Should I add more Gacha-type mechanics? After this chapter, the System's 'will' should fade mostly into the background. Its character will be shown more through the quests, feats, the Gacha, and one-liners. It *WILL NOT* be a waifu. Don't ask, the trope is way overdone.
Oh, actually, one more thing. I suppose I should have led with this for those who don't know. The Celestial Grimoire is a CYOA database of perks, powers, and items for a character to roll based around the theme of 'MAGIC - ALL MAGIC'. 100P (points) will be added to the total for every ~3k words I write but a variable number of points can also be gained through quests and feats. The CG version I'm using is… expanded… from the original database. Like, to a ridiculous degree. It has some TWELVE THOUSAND (12,000!) perks/power/items to choose from… I'm unsure who to credit for the expanded version (absolute madlad) but shout out to Broovian for the original.
I'll just leave a link here if any of you want to check out the ridiculousness for yourself… https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1r1uUtg5i-nx4mu72nMwUfFZK_nSDqNdZ2-3g3VsbKLY/edit#gid=1981793094
And the original version for comparison/posterity's sake… https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wTlbwB1o3STt2TKzc5UbytCarS52hxXICYrRN6f2YLA/edit#gid=1981793094