3/17 Evening, in another world.
Nefaria wasn’t panicked, per se, but she was quite distressed. It was painfully obvious that Netorarian was up to something, but he was right here in the list, as clear as day. She could verify that the timer was still ticking down to her victory, and that it was moving at sixteen times the speed of time in her own perception, but far too much was hinging on an unreliable source.
“Mistress.” Netorarian said. “I have a question.”
“What?” She demanded. As she did she checked Netorarian’s profile and her blood ran cold. He’d somehow gained the female and spirit tags. He was probably about to make his move. On a positive note, the timer still listed him as bound and was ticking down just as planned. She raised her crystal. She didn’t need to hear what he had to say.
“Are you actually yourself?” He asked, eyes closed, mouth curling into a smile. “You see, I’m from somewhere else, beyond Azeroth. You act like Nefarian, but that could just be good casting. I’m genuinely curious.”
“Of course I’m myself.” She snapped, “Now open your eyes, I command it.”
“Nah, I don’t think I will, but you don’t have to worry. I’m in a cage, right?” He made a valid point. She felt her guard starting to drop until one of her secondary minds pushed the intrusive influence away. He was still dangerous, but he’d only be more dangerous unobserved. “So, with that in mind, what were you told your job was?”
“To study these powers.” She answered warily. “See how they work in the context of this world.”
“Then why aren’t you powergaming?” He chuckled. “Emmagosa and Hakkar didn’t even know what a regional upgrade was. You’ve been copying my homework since day one, as far as I can tell. You didn’t even know about love confessions until I did one right in front of you! For fucks sake, how can you be this lacking in curiosity?”
“You will be silent!” She commanded, making a gesture that sent a wave of lightning through the magic circle. It inflicted pain, but no real damage.
“Hey, I’m not saying you should be ashamed.” Netorarian’s smile grew forced as he endured the lightning. “You see, my favorite girl is a lot like you. She cares about results way more than the learning process. I get it, it’s endearing. She took after her uncle instead of her mom. Well, aunt. Have you two met?”
Nefaria, so incensed that she wasn’t paying attention to the future, was batted across the room by a massive claw.
“Hey, babe.” She barely heard. “Here to pick me up?”
••••••••••
3 Stage Boss Fight triggered.
Your connection to captured alternate timeline variants has been severed. You have lost control of all retinue members that are not in your current timeline.
••••••••••
A single crystalline claw swept through the circle, severing the channel of energy and ending my torture. Stress defense or not, that fucking hurt. I didn’t have long to chat with my Titan-dragon girlfriend; she was too busy brawling with her Old goddess auntcle. My dear Lividia was at a firm disadvantage; in raw power she had Neffie dead to rights, but Neffie had quite a lot more experience with… well, anything and everything but throwing around massive torrents of power. I love her, but I’m well aware of Lividia’s limits.
I blinked into a safe spot nearby and called for my company swag. Specifically, I wanted my pen. I wasn’t likely to get another chance this good, and Lividia would only be able to hold her down for so long. I also didn’t want to scare her off by bringing in too many big hitters at once with apportation. I could feel Neffie trying to summon Ny’alotha; there was a rather unpleasant quiver in the air that felt distinctly off to my Watcher senses, but Lividia kept disrupting it with bursts of Light.
I waited for my chance, and eventually Neffie managed to pin Lividia. I blinked in close, threw some knives at her ineffectually, and yelled.
“Hey, Neffie,” I shouted with a voice laced with Siren Song, “look at me!”
Between her heightened awareness, combat reflexes, and sheer instinct, the lure had hundreds of places it could grab hold of Neffie with such a simple demand. The mutant dragon she had become whipped her head towards me and looked into my eyes, and I used my amulet directly from my inventory. She didn’t recognize my eyes as a threat, and her precognition was on the fritz where I was concerned. So we locked eyes, and she was drawn into the hypnotic powers of my amulet.
“Lividia. Stop.” I commanded, “we won.”
“No you haven’t.” Neffie mumbled. “You can’t take me like this. Not quickly.”
“Oh certainly.” I agreed, maintaining eye contact with the multi-eyed terror before me. “I guess I just need to stay here. Maybe for a few days.”
I smirked. Neffie relaxed when I shared that stupid plan. Between my hypnotic eyes and Siren Song, she was willing to believe that I had forgotten the time limit. If we stayed here, she’d get another charge on Three Stage Boss Fight and slip away long before the stamp captured her. I knew from Abby that a shallow trance wouldn’t be enough to approach her with a known threat. No amulets, then.
I approached her, speaking conversationally. “I’m curious about your scales. They seem strangely rubbery. Could I touch them?”
“I… suppose.” She mumbled, “no funny business.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.” I lied blatantly as I approached her foreclaw. I rubbed my thumb across the hand-like claw; it was dry and smooth. Actually quite nice against the skin.
“See, just feeling you up a bit. I’m sure it would be nicer if you assumed your visage.” I noted, “you must be rather pent up. I’ll help you with that soon, one way or another.”
As I spoke, I traced a finger across her scales. My penmanship was utterly shit. Writing without looking was never my strong suit, but I managed to make a few legible words.
“Hey, Neffie.” I said, “what does this say?”
“It says… I am Erich Bismark’s slave.”
“Well,” I smirked, “are you?”
“Obviously.”
“Say it. Say it out loud. What are you?”
“I am Erich Bismark’s slave.” I felt the rush of energy, and it was so.
“Welcome to the team.” I finally let myself blink. “Now get your ass into a humanoid form. It’s time to celebrate.”
“How?” Neffie asked, shocked, as Lividia assumed her visage with a smile.
“Accumulated advantage.” I explained. “I’ve collected tools you don’t know about, so you couldn’t counter them. I just got stronger, faster, and you, my dear, couldn’t catch up. Not with the way you were operating.”
I stepped in and gave her a quick kiss. “Don’t worry, Neffie.” I assured her, “there isn’t a single person in my retinue that’s not happy to be there. I get the impression that you weren’t a particularly nice mistress, but I don’t do that here. Even the people I’m punishing end up pretty happy. Lividia, how about we show her the benefits of membership?”
“Oh yes master.” She purred, stepping in behind a surprisingly flustered Neffie and feeling her up through her black armor. “So, what do you like? I’m sure we can come up with something that makes us all happy.”
“First, let’s get back to my domain.” I cautioned, “If Neffie here has some surprises of her own, I want to be somewhere I hold all the cards.”
“I actually go by Nefaria, master…” she told me as she followed me through the portal, sounding slightly testy.
“Alright. I’ll try to remember that.” I chuckled. “If it turns out you and I aren’t very compatible in bed, Neffie can be my little sex kitten’s name.”
Lividia took me by the arm and I gestured for Nefaria to do the same. As we walked through the gate, I was met with cheers. Everyone knew what Nefaria looked like, and everyone could sense that she was on team Erich now. I walked across the field, uploading a memory of what happened to everyone in the retinue. We arrived into my home, making a beeline for my bedroom. There, Vanessa waited, holding Xal’atath’s dagger.
Technically, Xal’atath was there puppeteering Vanessa while leaving her fully conscious of her utterly helpless state the entire time. For anyone else it would be a torturous purgatory, but I could smell Vanessa’s arousal when I entered the room so she probably volunteered. Weird girl.
“Alright Neffie. We are going to start, and while we have our fun Xal’atath is going to check your thinking and make sure you are truly, utterly defeated.” I bent her over the bed and easily ripped off her mostly ornamental armor to give myself full access. “Doesn’t that sound like fun?”
As I slid into her, she let out a shuddering moan. “Yeeeesssss.”
“Good.” I took a fistful of hair. “Also, I don’t think I need to be gentle with an old god. What do you think, Lividia?”
“I think I want to know if she’s any good with her mouth.”
“I suspect about as good as you were.” I teased. “But feel free to test her out.”
Nefaria whined. “Shut up. If you are going to fuck me, fuck me. I’ve got three days to try to turn this around, so you’d better keep me happy and distracted.”
I laughed, pulled her head back by the hair, and obliged.
••••••••••
And from a certain point of view we have our story. There will be a bit of clean up and some postgame, but this story is just about finished. I am thinking of Skyrim as a more casual and occasional thing to do when I feel like it, so it won’t be as consistent a schedule.
So, Talaada will be a successful alchemist business owner. Lividia will be a field agent sticking by Erich’s side. What body, if any, will she be doing this in?
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Did Nef losing most of her retinue in the modern timeline at the last minute deny Erich control of those retinue members on victory? Sounds like the GMs screwing Erich over yet again.
Also that pen is just hilarious about how blase everyone is about it. Thinking back I was legit giggling when he captured the necropolis with it and the scourge higher ups were all like "Well I guess it can't be helped". Giving that 10 uses, it was probably the most valuable OP reward he got the entire story. Wonder if Erich will review the Pen as too strong.
@Videospirit Arguably yes, but nearly all of them were immediately captured or are no real threat to Erich anymore.
@Jerynboe Well at least some of the dead members of Nef's Retinue are probably perma dead now. They'd all been reduced to tier 1, but Erich probably would have tried to revive some of them like the citizens of Gadgetzan out of guilt.
@Videospirit Certainly complicates things. Erich is planning on taking over the shadowlands either way. Likely to track those people down if he can.
Starting to look like Lividia is going to wind up as an Argonian. My mental image of how that will work out is her growing impatient from how long it takes to pick a lock and than trying to bash some doors down. Will using skills perform a sort of autopilot like in magic pirate that might make that easier on her?
@videospirit Not as overt, but yeah she would have small mental shifts to help her put her skills to good use. Personality mismatch matters, but would be (partially) compensated for. That said, I have a rule where people commenting their opinions can add or subtract votes. One of my regulars on my original site is very against argonian and there is a strong contingent of people chanting "Nord, Nord, Nord" for meme reasons, so we actually have a tie. I'll generate some art and throw up a third poll with those two, storage, and probably Khajiit as the final tie breaker. Maybe Dunmer too if that gets any more votes.
@Jerynboe I didn't vote for Nord as an option myself, but it's not a bad option. If I knew the options I did vote for would be so unpopular I might have voted for that one. Lividia is much more suited to melee combat than she is burglary that's for sure. She's brave and doesn't hesitate to take action. She's just... not very good at self improvement without instant gratification, so she'd rely overly on whatever starting combat skills are downloaded into her head, and has probably lost her self preservation instinct from spending so long immortal.
Dunmer probably suits her personality best, it's just not human and she really doesn't like elves(Although maybe she'll be more mature about that by the time he leaves the warcraft world, I think even in the current story she's been more willing to disguise herself as things besides humans or dragons than she was when it started)
@Videospirit Eh. It counts. I’ll throw in a Dunmer Lividia option on the final single-vote poll. She’d probably accept it, though if I was choosing based on what I think is the best 1:1 match for her existing personality and style it would probably be Nord. The meme of her using warcry and chasing down her enemies with a battleaxe screaming “Skyrim is for the Nords!” Because she heard it from a storm cloak one time and thought it sounded good just fits her too well.
@Jerynboe Nord would probably be very amusing for sure, and Lividia would likely enjoy being a Nord.
Dunmer is more about "Metagaming". Least likely to get herself killed, most able to focus on improving her abilities.
Nord is more of a "Erich lets Lividia choose what she wants to be" race, while Dunmer is more of a "Erich tries to steer Lividia's nature in a positive direction even if it's not what she'd choose without his oversight" race.