Chapter 1: The Interview
I was nervous, okay I was more than nervous. I was freaking out a little, okay maybe a lot. Though what could you expect, one moment I'm sitting in my room eating cereal and petting my cat James, and the next I was sitting in what I could only describe as an interrogation room for the dead. The room was completely white the seams for the edge of the wall and ceiling were barely noticeable giving the room an almost odd endless look to it. The surface of the walls, ceiling, and floor gave off a faint iridescent white glow that diffused perfectly on the single metal table with two metal chairs on opposite sides. The only thing on was my phone, my jeans, and my shirt. They even took my socks. I'm still not really quite sure who "they" are, but looking at my phone my home screen isn't what I see when it lights up.
Welcome to the waifu catalog user FD21J99 Your patron has accepted your application and filed it on your behalf. User FD21J99 should be advised due to patron all bindings will not apply any mind-altering effects, enforced loyalty, or friendship. Proceed with the interview of Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon. You have a limited time to come to an accord, your interview begins once you seat yourself at the table. Neither you nor Cirilla will be truly present in the room, merely soul projections so that the interview can be done without any interference. There are of course options you may enable or disable for the interview process. You may select options as well as review your build before you begin the interview. WARNING interview will start immediately when you are seated.
The popup minimizes and goes into the "notification" tab on my display. Trying to get out of the waifu app does nothing, it seems like the entire operating system on my phone was replaced and the only thing left is this. Going over the "build" I apparently have it's pretty clear to me that it's actually the build I made last night. I was just dicking around on my computer thinking about how "cool" it would be to travel around the different planes in magic and capture beats to sell instead of Companions as the catalog terms them. Like since creatures can technically become familiars or just part of your retinue there isn't really any need to rip random women out of their lives to sell them off to some dickhead who's just going to mind rape them for fun. Not my particular taste and the creatures give the same amount of credits compared to a waifu of equal tier. Sounded like a win-win to me. The downside to that of course that I'll be in the fucking Magic The Gathering verse that I barely know anything about besides it's got a bunch of planes and there is a really big city called Ravnica that has a DnD setting book. That's about all my information runs me. The shitty DnD campaign my buddy ran for a few months and my random wiki browsing to look at the neat shit in Magic. Not to mention the place I picked is a rating of 8, which means it's comparable to the mainline timeline for DC, Marvel, and fate/grand order. All three of those are full of complete bullshit running around, like "Hey I'm a conceptual level that you can't even comprehend and I just don't want you to exist anymore, thanks." The worst part is in at least those I have a decent understanding of who the players are and who to avoid. In Magic? I don't even know what the original plane is even called, is there even an original plane? is there an earth equivalent or are they just a bunch of somewhat connected planes? Sure I could go by just the Rating of the plane and probably be okay. The problem is the rating is based on the difficulty for the average person of the verse for all I know the average person in that plane is some kind of demon-eating human. Well either way I'm stuck there at least until I figure out how to fucking planewalk or Cirilla actually sticks around and figures it out. That's also assuming the entire verse doesn't work on different conceptual laws that just make both of us broke dick losers who can't even use our spatial abilities without recalibrating our entire conception of how space works.
Looking over my build at least it's not a total loss, I think? So the downside is the place I'm going to is rating 8 which is described as "All Nightmare Long". That's not very descriptive, but the example of a tier 8 person, which I imagine Magic has a fuck ton is described as "Has an ability that can affect a significant landmass, a powerful esoteric effect, or can destroy a planet-sized object. An unlimited Dimension Hopper or Resurrector also starts here." Sounds like a bad fucking time, the one upside is that yeah Cirilla is a t8 due to her dimension hopper, elder blood is pretty fucking broken at least conceptually. A bloodline dedicated to the manipulation of space AND time. In terms of utility for a verse dedicated to a bunch of fuck off planes it's a very good ability, the problem is Cirilla doesn't have any of those beginning parts, you know the part about destroying planets. So in terms of raw power were kind of getting raw dogged. I have at least a decently stacked start, the only downside is due to the talent I used "Template Stacking" I have Elder Blood as my one racial template like Ciri as well as the powers of Galactus from Marvel as a general template, but they are currently at t4 for the trade-off of being easily accessible and cheap. Galactus is an absolute unit so he's naturally t10 and Ciri is t8, which I assume is probably 60% because of her Elder Blood, so I have an effectively nerfed variant of both. I assume I won't be able to do over half the shit Ciri can do and a fraction of what Galactus does. I also have my shroud which gives me a magic cape that can transform into various outfits and also gives me an affinity for Void which is just a fancy combination of Space-Time also starting at T4. I can train them up to eventually even surpass their original caps, but that takes work and dedication. With all three combined I'm going to be closer to T6 if I had to guess just due to the stacking nature of it all. I have a bunch of talents to increase my natural affinity and learning rate for Athletic, Soul, Educational, Wild, Martial, and Land talents. Soul is general magic shit, Wild is survival shit, and Land is like natural magic shit like druidic magic. Finding a trainer will be ideal for me to really start out, if Ciri bails I'll be kind of fucked. I can't really edit my build at all looking over it the only thing I can change is to keep Ciri around even though she won't be Mastered at all, so I gotta make sure she's not gonna just fuck me over and bail immediately. The options are kind of shit, but also super useful for me. I can set up a few options, but the main one that is sticking out the most is the fact I can set up the interview to make it so we cannot Lie, of course, we can omit something, or just not answer, but anything we say must be the truth. I don't want to start whatever you could call the "relationship" between us out with some garbage and having a precedent of her being able to grill me and me grill her without needing to worry about that shit would be very useful. It also establishes that as a "truth" in our mind as for any of the modifiers I can put on the interview, but that's the only one I really want. There is an empathy option, but honestly, I'll just be a ball of nerves so pushing that out is probably not very comforting. Welp let's give it a shot I guess. I pocket my phone into my jeans and take a seat at the table.
There is no fanfare or light explosion, one moment the chair across from me is empty and the next Ciri from The Witcher is sitting in it. A lithe woman perhaps 5'10" with white-haired tied up in a ponytail. Green eyes with a cut below her left cheek extending back to the edge of her chin. She looks worn, perhaps a bit downtrodden, but ultimately more confused than anything else. She definitely looks in her early twenties which means she's from around the time the witcher 3 took place. We just stare at each other for a moment.
"Hey... I'm not sure if you have been informed of anything, but basically, you're in an interview right now to see if I want to recruit you to join me. You should have an inherent understanding that neither of us can lie to the other, but we can omit details or simply not answer. We have a limited time to come to an accord or you get sent back to wherever you were at whatever time you were. I do not know how long this "limited time" is. I do not know when or where you were taken from only that I specifically picked you or at least any version of you. I assume you understand that within timelines there are an infinite number of yous..." I say while awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck. I point at myself and say "names Wesley, though most just call me Wes."
She takes a deep breath and leans forwards a bit to rest her arms on the table "I'm Ciri a witcher though I assume you already know that if you "picked" me for whatever this is." She says as she waves her hand around the room.
"Yeah... I didn't exactly pick the location for this interview it just sort of happened... I figure you can ask a question and I can ask a question and go back and forth if you'd be amenable to that." I said.
"That's fine with me, my first question then is what do you want from me?"
"Well, first I'd like to establish that I had a few options for rules on the interview and I intentionally set the truth enforcement rule so that there would ideally be no doubt from you on what I say. So a bit of backstory really quick is that the multiverse/megaverse whatever you want to call it is real, Everything that could happen in your world has happened in a different timeline I'm sure you are aware of that at least, but it goes beyond that. If we imagine each "world" as it were to be a tree with as many leaves as timelines then that tree is but a part of the forest. There are worlds/Universes or just "verses" as I call them that exist outside of yours that have entirely different conceptual laws for how things work. It's not merely a split in the timeline at some point because some of these verses start before or after your verses timeline even begins or ends. The entire fabric of their reality could be different. To get on to your actual question what I want is you. I do, but don't mean that in the shitty pickup line way as well. I mainly picked you because in my home verse your entire reality is part of a fiction book series. You are one of the protagonists of the series, technically speaking Geralt of Rivia is the main protagonist of the whole book series. You show up a bit later in and become the focal point due to well... I'm sure you know why, not sure what timeline you're from so I don't want to shove my foot in my mouth and offend you." I chuckle awkwardly
I notice Ciri shifts in her seat a bit uncomfortable at the mention of Geralt with a slight frown on her face.
"Though the point is I want you because you are a badass witcheress who has the Elder Blood which means you have temporal and time powers. The place I'm ending up in is going to be a verse where I believe? that there aren't really any planets per se just a fuck ton of "planes", planes are basically pocket dimensions that connect in some form to the main dimension or at least that is my understanding. These exist within the verse that is called "Magic The Gathering" which is another fictional verse from my world like yours but is significantly more dangerous on average. Specifically, we would end up in the plane called Zendikar which is known for being filled with treasure and dangerous shit just imagine your verses monsters, but most likely roughly two times more "dangerous" on average. Having you who could potentially do what is called "planeswalking" in that verse AKA just being able to teleport yourself and others to the various planes in the verse as well as your combat prowess would be ideal. Though like I said to be honest the other part is because you are you. I would be lying if I didn't say I had a slight crush on your character in the book series. Your strength of character, iron will, willingness to do what needs to be done, and ultimately your strong empathy which I would hope would make convincing you easier. There is the part of my man brain where I think you are very attractive as well which never hurts." I shrug at that last part with a slightly sheepish grin on my face.
Ciri seemed rather intrigued when I was talking about the verse of Magic The Gathering, but when I moved on to talking about why I liked her in particular she coughed slightly and looked a bit embarrassed and maybe a flash of anger. Well, that ain't good.
"I can see that the last part I mentioned might have upset you a bit, my goal here ultimately is to get your trust so I'm going to use my question to ask you to clarify what part of it may have angered you. I don't want any form of misconception or misunderstanding to cause us any issues." I say while leaning forward on the table with my previous jokey demeanor absent.
"I have spent the majority of my life on the run because of those who targeted me for my Elder Blood just so they could turn me into either a transporter for their armies or breeding stock for future children with the Elder Blood. What makes you any different?" with slight frustration edging in on her tone.
"Well mainly because I don't view you as breeding stock I'd say. I already HAVE the Elder Blood myself. In fact, I have 3 different sources for spatial and time manipulation. One from the bloodline, one from an outside source, and one from the system that brought this interview into place. The problem is I have literally zero training or experience in these things that is another reason I picked you Ciri. You know fuck the whole back-and-forth rule, ask what needs to be asked. Just keep in mind we have an arbitrary limited time." I say as I lean back in my chair with what I hope to be a disarming posture.
"What would be the conditions of working with, for, what I am supposedly interviewing for? I know about the reason why you want me, but not what would be required." She asks pointedly.
"Ok so this is gonna sound bad, like really bad and I need you to let me finish the whole way because it's going to be a lot less bad when you hear the full story. Can you grant me that?"
"I will not interrupt you until you say you are finished."
I'm thankful for the fact I only speak the truth and she KNOWS it's the truth. Though I'm not entirely sure if that will backfire after the explanation. "So in OUR agreement technically speaking you won't be required to show me even loyalty or affection, this is why it's an interview because I'm about to drop into a hostile environment I know barely anything about and at this current time if we were to fight you would absolutely destroy me easily. It's a big danger to me to even take you without knowing for sure if your motives are good for me or not. You would be perfectly capable of either killing or just teleporting away to a different plane and leaving me to my fate. The downside to this is you would first A: Lose out on all the benefits being with me provides, one of which is a special power that will augment your Elder Blood and make you stronger with spatial and time abilities. B: The defenses being with me provide such as immunity for mind control or possession. C: The Talents you would get which is just a fancy way of saying inherent learning rate and aptitude with a few things like martial ability, athletic ability, magic, etc. I believe these would all augment your natural abilities, so yes you are already talented when it comes to martial prowess. Just take your current talent and multiply it and I'm guessing you can see how beneficial that is. The potential downside of being with me is a few, first our "partnership" or whatever grants me inherent power in the dynamic above you because of the various gifts above that I could take from you if our relationship ever parts or I die. This obviously puts an inherent value to me that you don't possess, obviously as it is right now you are stronger so it is mitigated because I NEED you to survive. Though once I reach a level of mastery our roles might swap and you would be left with no inherent leverage. Now I won't ever try to leverage that over you, but the thought that I could have an inherent damper on our interactions. I hope we could grow closer over time and pass over that, but that is the thing that requires trust. Trust takes time. I said I know you, but I also said I know a version of you and it's also a version that is merely written in a book. Might as well just be rumors, so I don't know the real you, just the one displayed on the page of a book. Not much different than a random person in your verse who has heard the tale of your journey." I shrug at that last part. She looks contemplative.
"Now for the really bad part, the thing? the people? that put the both of us here much like you and the verse were going to were just fiction in my world. When I picked the world, my powers, and you it was merely a fictional system that I did for fun. I had no idea that it would actually manifest into a reality for me and you. While that may be neat at first the downside is the thing I filled out for fun is called "the waifu catalog". Just so you know a "waifu" is typically a fictional character who is viewed as a potential idealized wife. The Catalog itself works basically by me selecting a verse to start in and the difficulty of that verse gives me credits. Credits are a form of currency within the catalog that lets me buy powers, talents, companions, features, etc. The downside is that the catalog is pretty sinister in its inherent nature, the majority of the abilities it can provide end up in the mind control section, effectively allowing the user to completely alter someone's mind to their liking. While what I'm saying sounds like the opposite of what I said earlier keep in mind I can't lie. I said MOST of the abilities it provides. One of the things that's different about me is none of those functions work, or at least the majority of them do. I have three abilities that could be considered mind-altering. There are different sections in the catalog and the first 2 are under "lures" and those are just more subtle it is magic per se, but more like if I wore a cologne that emits pheromones to make you slightly more attracted to me or something. Nothing that you could not achieve outside of mind control and in no way forces someone to do something. The two I picked are also pretty "meh" in terms of actualization. The first is sticky fingers, it makes my touch electric in a sexual sense and also a sexual savant in general. The requirement for it to work is basically I'm already sexually involved with someone so I don't think it's really a sinister ability. The other lure I have is called Faerie Feast, which makes my cooking magical in nature. Anything I cook will be incredibly good and nothing you will ever taste again will match up to it. This power has the potential I guess to slowly leverage it over you to build a dependency on me. So I'll just say now if don't want to eat what I cook just don't. 80% of the reason I took the lure was for myself because who wouldn't want to be a divine-level chef? Regardless of where I am or what shitty food materials I have I will churn out an amazing dish. The last mind-altering ability is called Conjunction. It connects everyone who is one of my companions into a group-mind. We share a mental connection that allows us to talk telepathically across even the multiverse in real-time as well as being able to share our senses. If you see something you can literally transmit your vision to others in the group-mind. This is an active component, however. I figured this power was busted because if I know where everyone is, teleporting to them with my spatial abilities would be easy and we would never have trouble with communication. The power is a manual one mostly, the only part that you don't actively choose is that you will know what I want at all times. It won't force you to do anything, but you would be aware of my desires. This could be seen as a downside or an upside. The upside is I can't hide most things from you. The downside is that I can't hide most things from you, my stray thoughts will pass thru. That means if I like how someone's ass looks when I'm walking behind them as a passing thought you'll know about that." I shrug again.
"What I can promise you to be the truth is that while I may be interested in forming a deeper bond with you beyond friends, I will not try to enforce it. In my personal opinion trying to mind-bend someone to my will is basically a waste of time. I want to be with someone because I value who they are and that includes their personality. Forcing their mind to my will, will inherently change that and ruin it for me. I'm not even saying I have a moral obligation to think it's wrong, it just ruins the very idea of why I am attracted to them. Sure physical attraction is nice, but considering part of the powers we could gain thru the catalog is immortality physical attraction would get stale very fast. I need someone who is more than that. For the people I care for I want them to have personal freedom especially of their mind, but those I don't? I don't really care about personal freedom. Kind of a shitcunt personality point for me, but that is the way I am. The only reason I'm telling you all of this is that I want you to make an informed decision, otherwise, I probably wouldn't have been so forward with my intentions. I personally hate it when people hide things from me, so I will return the same to you." I say with a surprising amount of conviction, I'm guessing this truth-saying bullshit is probably making it easier for me to open up.
"Since I'm being particularly open with you, I might as well establish a bit more. The catalog works off the credit system as I said, but there are various ways to get more credits such as missions, fighting other contractors, and capturing companions. A capture under normal conditions means binding them with mind control shit, technically speaking I can bind anyone, but they won't have any of the mind control elements added so they won't be loyal. However, I could still "sell" them to the system for points or release them. I imagine most contractors will go to various worlds mind-controlling women and then sell them to the catalog. Not exactly a good look and not one I plan on doing at all. You see what the catalog counts as "companions" doesn't only include women, it could also be men, but more importantly, it can be creatures. The main reason I picked Magic The Gathering is because there are a lot of strong monsters that I could capture and then sell for points. The catalog has many ways for you to bind creatures into subservience so my plan was just to bag and sell them instead of that nasty business of effectively being a multiversal slave trader. I'll be honest in the fact that I want a harem. I'm probably shooting myself in the foot here, but I want more than one woman in my life. I'm not even sure why, definitely a selfish desire. I want what I want, I won't go around forcing women to join or tricking them. Though I won't change this so if you do at any point have an interest in me you need to understand that is something that won't change."
"My last piece in this tirade is going to be what I require from you: a platonic companion who will stick with me til I am of adequate power to survive on my own. You won't be required to be subservient to me or attracted to me. I need you to teach me to control my powers and help me capture various monsters to make more credits. One of my powers has a big trade-off in that basically my power isn't self-sustained, the more power I use the more power I require, which I get by absorbing things. The original user of this power ended up absorbing entire planets and their life. I however will have a fraction of their power and requirements, so I could subsist by simply absorbing various creatures we capture at least initially. One of the things you can buy in the catalog is called "inexhaustible" which gives me an infinite power battery, that will be the first thing I want to buy to solve the major downside of this power before it grows to a point of no return. There is also a power I can get that will allow me to turn off parts of my abilities from affecting my companions. That means I can turn off the group-mind and any other powers that affect you if at that point you want to go your own way and take the powers I can offer while not owing me or having any tangible connection to me I will have no qualms with that. Ultimately I would like for us to form a closer kinship than that, but it won't be required. I just hope we can get along and help each other initially at the very least, for what happens beyond that is outside of our accord. I just need to know you won't betray or abandon me before we reach the previous goal I set. For how long it will take to get Inexhaustible? I'm unsure, to put it into perspective if we captured an adult green dragon from your world and sold it, it would give us 40 credits. A leshen would give us 8 credits for capture and sale. The stronger something is the more points it's worth. Inexhaustible is 140 credits and the ability to turn off abilities costs 50 credits. So if we found equivalently powerful creatures it would take five captures and sales of the dragons. That is also assuming we get the same amount for repeated captures/sales or that these creatures are rated as "important" by the catalog. If they aren't we just get fewer credits, so that could change the amount we need to find. I have no idea what kind of creatures will exist on the plane, but I assume strong if not stronger ones than those two will be there. So it could take us a few hours or maybe a few months, I have no idea how spread out the creatures will be. That also means if we run into any assholes like bandits who by the way will be powerful for being on that plane we could capture and sell them as well. As long as you are okay with effectively enslaving and selling people off, even if they are worthless piles of shit. I will not try to convince or cajole you into breaking your morals. The only thing we require is credits so we can just hunt monsters. You're basically going to be a multiversal witcher." I give her a toothy grin. Which surprisingly she tentatively gives back. I guess the whole being a multiversal witcher probably leans towards her inclinations. "that is the end of my rant so go ahead and say what you want."
Ciri looked like she was going over everything I said again in her mind, over the course of my rant she had a wide display of various emotions. From unhappiness at the mention of mind control to relief when I mentioned they don't work, back to unhappy when said three did. She looked kind of embarrassed when I mentioned the whole sex-savant thing, but rolled her eyes when I got around to me talking about her understanding my desires. I think she gets what I implied there that she would probably be blasted by my urges on occasion. Though she seemed to understand that people have stray thoughts sometimes and not acting on them is what matters, not that you have them. We sit in silence for a bit before her face settles forms into one of determination which looks quite cute to me.
"I agree to the accord and will follow thru as long as everything you have said so far is the truth. I've never abandoned anyone in need before and I don't plan to. We don't know each other very well, but I can see that you went to lengths to keep me informed about the situation at least to the best of your ability. I will help you gain these powers and train you with what I can."
Well a lot said and a lot unsaid with that, but it's the best I will get at this point I believe. Just as I finish that thought the scenery blinks and I find myself standing next to Ciri on top of what I can only describe as one big fuck off tree branch. The whole branch is perhaps 10 meters across and extends twisting around and bending behind a neighboring tree that must be 100m thick. The surroundings are a verdant jungle with massive flora surrounding us. It looks like if you took the rainforest and just made everything big, like really big. I have no idea how high up we are, but it's probably not a fall I could survive. I turn towards Ciri as we both were just looking at the scenery and sticking out my hand. "Well, I guess that was the end of the interview, nice to meet you in person. not sure two disembodied souls really counts as meeting someone." I say with a slight smirk.
