bakerstreet | i just wanted to protect you, but now i'll never get to... ( holy grail war )

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i just wanted to protect you, but now i'll never get to... ( holy grail war )

The HOLY GRAIL WAR Meme

Seven Masters, magi of the present day. Seven Servants, heroes of days past.One Holy Grail, granting whomever claims it a wish. Only one team of Master and Servant may claim it.
Who will it be?
For those unfamiliar with Fate/Stay Night or Fate/Zero, you can find a better explanation of the Holy Grail War here.

Instructions
1. Comment with your character. In the subject line, put that character's name, canon, and which role (Master, Servant, or either) you would like them to fulfill. Add other preferences if you would like. (NOTE: If your character can fill the role of Servant, I suggest you state which class(es) -- Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, or Berserker -- they fall into.)
2. Reply to others' comments. Pick your character's role (and the other character's if they list "Either" as their preference), then use the RNG to pick a scenario that fits the two characters' roles.
3. Enjoy! Though there might be triggers, depending on how the prompts are interpreted.

TWO MASTERS

1. Battle. Who says that Servants get to have all the fun? After all, most Masters try to kill each other, too. Whatever the circumstances, the two of you are locked in a fight. Neither of you are willing to use your Command Spells just yet, so no Servants here. Just two magi duking it out.

2. Alliance. There's a bigger threat out there. Either one Servant is exceptionally powerful, or the situation has changed and the participants need to take action aginst it. One way or another, you're teamed up with one of your rivals for the Holy Grail. How long will this last before you try to stab each other in the back? Or, will something more develop?

3. Protection. Uh-oh! One of you has lost your Servant! Unfortunately, there's no way you'd get to the church safely on your own, so the other one will help you get there! Or maybe you don't trust the priest presiding over the Holy Grail War and are giving shelter to them yourself? Given their track record, no one would blame you.

4. Death. One or both of you lay dying. It might have been by the other's hand, or by someone else's entirely. How will you spend your last moments in the presence of one of your rivals?

5. You, Too? Surprise! You may have been friends before, but you've just discovered that you're both Masters! How will you handle this revelation?

6. Wild Card. Roll again, pick one of the previous options, or make one up!

MASTER AND SERVANT

1. Are You My Master? The summoning is complete. Whether intentional or not, catalyst or not, a magus has summoned a Servant. What kind of meeting was it? Was everything totally under control, or did a hitch occur? Or maybe it happened in the middle of a life-or-death situation!

2. Identity. Either the Servant has flat out told the Master their identity, or they unleashed their Noble Phantasm. Either way, the cat is out of the bag. How will the Master react, now that they know their Servant's name and legend? Will anything change between the two?

3. Battle Aftermath. A battle has just ended. Who participated? Are either of you hurt? Did the Master have to use a Command Spell? Any number of things could have happened here.

4. Discord. Uh-oh. It looks like the Master and the Servant don't get along. Here come the arguments! Don't do something stupid, like waste a Command Spell over a triviality...

5. Love. And then, there's the opposite. Sometimes Masters and Servants fall in love with each other. How will this affect things?

6. Wild Card. Roll again, pick one of the previous options, or make one up!

TWO SERVANTS

1. Battle. This is what usually happens when two Servants meet -- they duke it out. This probably says enough as it is.

2. Alliance. There's a bigger threat out there. Either one Servant is exceptionally powerful, or the situation has changed and the participants need to take action aginst it. One way or another, you're teamed up with one of your rivals for the Holy Grail. How long will this last before you try to stab each other in the back? Or, will something more develop?

3. The Grail Dialogues. Maybe you're not interested in fighting just yet. Maybe you just want to sit down and talk with the other Servant. Find out what they want, what makes them tick. Get some wine while you're at it -- nothing like good wine to go with good talk!

4. Death. One or both of you lay dying...again. It might have been by the other's hand, or by someone else's entirely. How will you spend your last moments in this War in the presence of one of your rivals?

5. Identity. Congratulations, you've just learned each other's identities! Will this change the situation, or will you press onward?

6. Wild Card. Roll again, pick one of the previous options, or make one up!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only | Expand All

[ Leslie is most likely to be a Master, as she canonically comes from her world’s equivalent of a mage family: possessing a specialized set of magical powers passed down through bloodlines, keeping their magical practices very secret, and being unrepentant superjerks. As an example scenario, Leslie’s family might intend to use her as a sacrifice to support her older sister’s Master status (either as a mana tank to take the weight off her sister or as an Apocrypha Jack the Ripper-style human catalyst), but something goes “wrong” with the plan that leads to Leslie’s survival (either the Servant choosing to make Leslie their Master instead when Leslie’s older sister does the ritual or Leslie pre-empting the ritual proactively by performing it herself before her family does). However, I am flexible, either towards more accuracy to Leslie’s canon (a family tradition of ritual sacrifice of secondborn children in a fire for the sake of the firstborn’s magical power, because the Sperados are almost cartoonishly evil) or towards something different.

Leslie can also be a Servant, though, most suitably as either a Caster or an Avenger, but we can work something else out. This likely works under the assumption that, later in life, she managed to bring about the fall of the Sperado family, as her canon seems to be moving towards, or accomplished some other great deed to make it to the Throne of Heroes, but is summoned at the age of 12. As a Caster, Leslie would display her usual temperament: while she can be harsh and cold towards the people who abused her and those who would do the same to others, in a loving environment she is a reserved child with low self-esteem and little knowledge of a normal childhood, but also a mostly cheerful disposition and a large amount of gratitude for even small acts of kindness. Her powers would remain the control of a probably sentient shadow that may have picked up some consciousness from previous generations of sacrificed Sperado children and has been shown capable of things such as binding people, plunging entire mansions into darkness, and consuming physical objects. As an Avenger, Leslie’s Servant form would draw more from those times when she considered consuming the whole household in the darkness. She would more generally demonstrate the entirely reasonably much more negative attitude that she has only turned on the Sperado family and their lower-case servants, who all either abused her or turned a blind eye to that abuse. This would be a very experimental situation, as I have not played this side of her outside of small moments where she is recalling the Sperados, but it could be interesting to try. Information on a previously used basis for placing Leslie’s canon in Fate universe Earth to allow for a hypothetical Heroic Spirit version of Leslie in the form of a Singularity may be found here as well as at the thread linked within this post. Other time periods, including one more accurate to her world’s prrrrrobably more post-Renaissance Europe-like status (don’t look at me, I am aware I don’t know enough about history) can be used when I am not using wiki-diving to drag the author of the Divine Comedy.

More information on Leslie’s small canon can be found on her journal, including a screened opt-out post, because my gosh Leslie’s birth family are terrible people and she constantly leaks information that she’s been abused, And also she’s a 12-year-old child, which means interactions will be much different from that with a fellow adult/teen that is more common (no shipping available, for example). Feel free to contact me through PM or even on the opt-out post if you let me know you don’t need your comment to remain screened to make plans or ask questions. Thanks for reading this behemoth of a top level. ♥ ]

["Independent Action EX."]

[A servant that manifests with this skill is capable of working outside the bonds of just a simple Master-Servant relationship. It's supposed to be a boon- freeing the Master from too many mana restraints and serving as a failsafe. The Sparado family didn't need such things, of course. The youngest daughter could alleviate the mana needs of the eldest. They could focus on summoning something powerful, amping up a Madness Enhancement, they could provide a servant that was extremely powerful.]

[but, it turns out, Archer was also extremely unpredictable]

Yo, Master! Maaaaa~ster!

[the family manse is in ruins and Archer stomps around with about as much respect for the rubble as she did for the house itself]

[How many bodies had been crushed in the destruction? And for what? Asking for a demonstration of power had fucked up this badly. Archer was a curse, bad luck, a... well, a Jinx.]

[And her master was probably a paste under support beams and stone, now. How boring! Sure, having a master could be boring, too, but if she wanted to play with everyone else she prooooooo~bably needed a little more motivation than just her guns. But, it should probably be someone funny. Like, maybe...]

There you are.

[The device intended to let Leslie's mana be siphoned had, ironically, protected her from the brunt of the building falling. Archer pries a pile of bricks away, using her rocket launcher as a level.]

Hey! Kid! How about it?! Are you my Master?!

[It's hard out here for a child who hasn't learned any swearwords.]

[After some of the things the Sperados did to her in the name of making her a better mana battery, Leslie has come to hate the people of the mansion and try to plan their downfall. This wasn't how she planned it, though, and being in the middle of it is terrifying, even after everything else she's been through in her life. It's, sadly, not the first time she's nearly died, but she's not exactly used to it and certainly not to this scale.]

[She's only had time to think as far as releasing herself from the broken machine (she was fortunate that while the bulk of the machine stood up under the rubble to keep her alive, the restraints were not crash-tested) when the light filters back in. Oh no. How is she supposed to deal with someone like this? Someone who seems to work on genie wish logic when it came to orders -- not that Leslie would know that reference.]

[For a moment, she doesn't look up, her lips slightly open and trembling, as she struggles to think of what to say. But her short impression of this Servant suggests this is not a patient hero. Hesitation will mean death, so she takes a deep breath to steel herself and stands up through the hole the Servant has made in the rubble.]

Thank you, Archer.

[She clambers up to the top of the rubble as quickly as she can manage, which is...well, since her life is on the line, it's actually not that slow, but her malnourished body is complaining almost immediately. She stands up on the rubble and draws herself up to her full...slightly over four feet in height, meeting Archer's gaze with her fear hidden behind her serious expression.]

I am prepared to work with you as your Master in return for having saved me from the Sperado family.

[She doesn't think that she should insist that she's this Archer's Master, but also she doesn't want to show the weakness of what she feels ("whatever you want, ma'am!!"). She holds out her hand for the possibility of a handshake, having seen people do this when they reach agreements.]

I will support you in this war, Archer.

[People were usually scared, shaking in their booties when she came to town. She's not surprised it's the same for this kid. That's how Archer's brain works- that it's clearly her and not the fact that a building nearly collapsed on the kid. She cocks her hip to the side and twirls a braid around her finger.]

In exchange for what-now? ["what, did I just, like, resolve a conflict that haunted you for years?"]

Don't get me wrong! I'm just here to do whatever I want! I don't even care about the stupid trophy cup! But, y'know,

[She bends over, close into Leslie's face, almost nose-to-nose.]

You agreeing pretty much means you're gonna die, right? Why die for someone else?! That's dumb with a capital DUH!

[Up close, her eyes are clear with the terrifying purity of someone who doesn't care about good or evil. Her only goal was to cause mayhem and destruction. Maybe something had gone wrong with the ritual, for such a wildcard to be pulled from the throne.]

[It's terrifying, that look in Archer's eyes. Archer clearly might kill anyone for no reason at all and it can be no better predicted than a lightning strike. But, on the other hand, Leslie has seen the eyes of people who intended kill her. In this moment, when there are no other living people besides her, it at least means that Leslie's death isn't certain.

It's that thought process that allows her to meet Archer's eyes steadily without backing up. She may be afraid, but she is determined to live. She really, really wants to live, and so that means trying to establish a more firm position.]

Did you plan to let me live if I said no?

[Her tone is unwavering.]

I know the war is dangerous. But if it's between dying for sure or dying for "pretty much" sure, I will take the one that has a chance that I will live.

[The flash of light the circle underneath his feet. He knows what this is, the beginning of a Holy Grail War. Everything is relatively normal as far as he can tell, even the child in front of him doesn't seem out of place.

Nothing's out of the ordinary.

Except for him.

It shouldn't usually be possible to summon somebody like him for this. He's barely a Servant at all, the only thing connecting him to the Throne of Heroes is the heart in his chest.

He wonders, briefly, if this girl meant to summon Siegfried instead. Sieg is already aware of how much of a downgrade he is in terms of every single stat. Either way, he's still here.]

Servant, Sieg... Are you my Master?

[Look at him, he looks so worried.]

[Leslie was, in fact, trying to summon Siegfried, but at this point, she's just glad to have gotten anyone. Among the things that Leslie has been put through to act as her sister's mana battery, she has been drilled in history and lore so that she can, simultaneously to getting drained, provide her sister with analysis on enemy Servants' identities. So she recognized the catalyst her family had prepared for summoning the powerful Saber.

However, the blood-soaked fig leaf was held behind far too much security for her to sneak it out in the middle of the night, but she could make away with one of the rejected catalysts and give them a shot. She grabbed what was possibly-but-not-guaranteed the hilt of the sword Balmung and broke into the room where the summoning circle was mostly prepared for tomorrow's ritual.

She gives a sight of relief as Sieg appears in the circle and, though there's a flash of concern when she realizes that this is a very different Servant to what her family hoped for, she shifts her expression to something more serious.]

Yes, I am.

[She has to look down at her hands to be sure that she does, in fact, have Command Seals, but once she sees them, she holds up her right hand to show him the command seals on the back of it (what appears at first glance to be a tree, but a closer look shows the boughs to be three hands on the end of a trunk of the arms entwining).]

Sieg. I...I want you to get me out of this house, and stop anyone who tries to pursue me. Can you do that?

[Nobody ever intends to summon him, but the fact is the core of him is the same as Siegfried. He was prepared for disappointment, but it seems this girl has other things on her mind.

There are command seals on her hand, so she must be his Master. His own command seals are still on his hand from the last Holy Grail War he participated in. It's an oddity among Servants, but he's already an oddity to begin with.

He nods. He's not here to question his Master, he's here as a tool. If she wants to leave, he'll facilitate it.]

Do you care about this house at all? May I destroy it?

[If he's allowed, it'll be a very easy out. If not, they're going to have some trouble.]

[Leslie can't keep from looking startled.]

What, all of it?

[She's not even necessarily against this idea, but golly that's a very large jump.]

[It's a bit odd to say something like that when he looks like such a weak Servant.]

My Noble Phantasm transforms me into a dragon. If I transform indoors, the house won't contain me.

[Thus a wrecked house.]

[..............okay wow that is much more extreme than she expected, but also less extreme than destroying the whole thing. Her mouth drops open and her expression looks a lot more suited to a child her age than the expression of a Master she'd started with. After a moment, she closes her mouth, but her expression isn't quite so much more mature than her age as she started with.]

I -- [A thought occurs to her.] That's a little less subtle than I was thinking, but...how fast can you get away as a dragon?

[If he gets her to the next postal code quickly, maybe it won't be such a big deal.]

[She really is a child. Though he's not entirely sure what a normal child is like, considering how little time he got to spend with them.]

Fast enough no human device could catch up to me.

[Dragons are Phantasmal Beasts. Maybe a hippogriff could follow, but it's unlikely that Astolfo was also summoned.]

... That form takes a lot of mana, but I have confidence in my ability to generate my own as long as you don't need that form again in the next few days.

[That makes two of them not knowing what a normal child is like.]

Don't worry. I can provide mana. It's what I've been trained for.

[~~like a normal mage you eroge protag deviants~~ Are Servants normally able to generate their own mana? She will have to figure out how to look at his magical stat sheet because Fate is silly sometimes later. For now, she doesn't want to be in this house any longer than she has to.]

All right. I'll trust you. ...Do I...just hold on? When you transform?

I was made to produce mana. There shouldn't be an issue.

[That's a weird thing for a Servant to say.]

Yes. Climb on my back and we'll go. Is there a direction you want to travel, or should I pick one?

I won't be able to speak to you while I'm transformed, but I will understand if you talk to me.

[Made to produce mana.... She can think of a couple of potential Heroic Spirits who could very roughly approximate that statement, but none of them have a name anything like Sieg. It could be an assumed name, but....

They can work it out when she's not having to hope a guard doesn't think to look inside the room. She's taught herself enough of the Sperados' magic to be able to slip past a couple of guards, but she shouldn't count on that too much.

She bites her lip, turning just a little red.]

I, um. Don't know very much about outside of this mansion. I was thinking that we could make it outside the city and then carefully make our way from there. But I have looked into Sperado properties that they don't go to very often, so I'll...probably be able to find them. And we can hide out there.

Leslie | The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess | content warning: child abuse/attempted murder

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Master & Servant 1

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