A Vista of the Void [Worm/Familiar of Zero Xover]

[BF110C4]

Actually there is quote a bit of confirmation both ways That's the problem. We have scenes that only work if Vista is only limited by people in the area of effect, we also have multiple cases of Wildbow stating she's limited by all living things.

Click to shrink...

Even then there are few areas in the world nowadays that can claim a population density as big as even a small city. In a late medieval setting such as FoZ she is an incredible tactical and strategic asset especially against warmages that depend less on a large army surroinding them and more on spells and minions, both that can be send to a virtual mobius strip where they won't be able to hit anything.

Edit: And looking back on previous posts this has been said many, many times before.

 

[mdkcde]

Even then there are few areas in the world nowadays that can claim a population density as big as even a small city. In a late medieval setting such as FoZ she is an incredible tactical and strategic asset especially against warmages that depend less on a large army surroinding them and more on spells and minions, both that can be send to a virtual mobius strip where they won't be able to hit anything.

Edit: And looking back on previous posts this has been said many, many times before.

Click to shrink...

She could have an interesting interaction with golems, keeping away the enemy's at bay while those belonging to allied forces can traverse the battlefield at her will.

 

[Gindjurra]

Her familiar was the best.

Click to shrink...

I almost pity Wardes. Almost.

 

[shinkicker444]

I almost pity Wardes. Almost.

Click to shrink...

There is no Wardes to pity, just a cloud of subatomic particles drifting on the breeze... where a sizeable chunk of Albion used to be.

 

[Riero]

On the living things debate, insects don't count, right? I'm remembering scenes where Skitter gets headaches when Vista fucks with space where her bugs are, but that could just be fanon. Either way, Manton restrictions don't seem to care about bugs since Oni Lee clones the bugs too.

Which is all a really roundabout argument to say that it's just significant life that matters, like birds and dogs, and we could probably just leave it up to the author.

 

[Daimah]

Is it really have been two years since I posted the last chapter? I'm so sorry. *goes hide in a corner*

This is where ZnT canon dies an ignoble death and the chapter I've been wanting to write since I began this story, both because it's where I derail canon and because it's where I present my headcanon as to why Colbert, being an apparently nice guy went along with branding a human as a familiar. I'm still not fully satisfied with the scene where he explains it but I've made you guys wait too long for an update and I can revise that scene later if necessary.

Edit: I've been having problems with the formatting, sorry if the chapter seems a bit wonky, I'm working on it.

A Vista of the Void
Part three​

Finally, Louise's familiar was awake. After thinking it through Louise decided that she was lucky that her familiar arrived unconscious. Every piece of literature that she studied said the same thing, while the familiar runes make most summoned creatures compliant a good first impression with the summoned creature showing it that the mage was in charge was the best way of avoiding problems later. If her familiar had been awake during the ceremony or when she faced Kirche... She shook her head letting that thought trail off. It didn't happen so it was pointless to dwell on that. Instead she steeled herself and tried to think about how her mother would handle this.

"Familiar." She said getting up and turning to face the summoned girl only to falter at her intense gaze like she was assessing her potential as a threat.

"I have a name, you know?" The girl answered, getting up from where she was sitting on the pile of straw. "It's Vista, from the Brockton Bay Wards team. I understand that it was you who brought me here, why?"

"How... how dare she to talk to me like that!?" Thought Louise dumbfounded. Never a commoner had shown her such disrespect. Her peers sure, but not a commoner.

Regaining most of her composure Louise said. "I am Louise François LeBlanc De la Valliere, third daughter of the Duke de la Valliere and yes, I summoned you here to have the honor of being my familiar." Louise congratulated herself for taking back the reigns of the conversation.

"And what is a familiar exactly?" The girl, Vista, asked. Keeping her tone of voice neutral.

"A familiar is a creature bonded to a noble. They serve their master loyally protecting them or perform different tasks such as gathering reagents and the like. In exchange, the familiar gets enhancements to carry out these tasks such as making them more intelligent." Louise paused looking at Vista. "But don't worry, I understand that you are not adequate for protecting me, obviously, so you will serve me as my handmaiden."

"And what if I refuse?" Vista said gritting her teeth.

"What!?" Said Louise, taken aback. "You can't, you are my familiar, I have already bound you!" Louise pointed at the other girl's left hand where the familiar runes had.

"So, you are telling me that you kidnapped me and put this thing on me that marks me as your slave and gives you some kind of Master power over me." Vista said lifting her left hand.

"Do not take that tone with me, familiar or I'll have to discipline you!" Louise said instinctively drawing her wand. It was bad enough that that germanian cow insinuated something like that, but to have her own familiar sprouting the same nonsense was intolerable. "And yes, I am your master and I ord... mpfff"

Louise wasn't able to complete the sentence because the space between the two compressed allowing the other girl to cross the distance between them in an instant and cover her mouth with her right hand. Panicking, Louise tried to bring her wand to bear on her assailant only for her hand to be knocked aside making the spell explode against the corner she had prepared for her familiar. Pain blossomed on her stomach as her familiar dug her knee on Louise's gut leaving her breathless. The hand over her mouth left for a moment before coming back as a fist crashing against her jaw and sending her to the floor. Still conscious but unable to do anything but curl on herself and whimper while trying to regain her breath, Louise watched as her familiar run to the window, retrieving her helmet without even getting close to Louise's desk, climbed onto the windowsill and jumped out just as she heard the door of the room open.

-------------------

Flexing her power Missy stepped out of the window directly to the treeline outside the outer wall of the academy turning the seven-story drop into one of a couple of meters at most. If she had had more time she could have made the step almost seamless, but the priority now was getting away from the pink haired Master before she could recover and give her an order.

Without looking back she used her power again and again in quick bursts to put as much distance as possible between her and her kidnapper. She kept running until it was too dark to keep the pace safely.

Vista finally stopped at the edge of a clearing. Leaning against a tree she concentrated on her power, expanding it as far as far as she could. No one following her yet.

"Okay, Missy." She said taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. "No sudden urges of going back to that bitch, that's a good sign." She let herself slid down until she was seated against the tree with her knees up against her chest and finally allowed herself to relax a bit.

She spent the next few minutes running through all the anti-master protocols in her head. And trying find some sense to everything that happened until now.

She had been kidnapped by unknown means, supposedly by that girl who, according to her, was the daughter of a Duke. So, was this somewhere in Europe? She couldn't think of any other place where they still had noble titles. The accent of the girl and the maid was almost non-existent, in fact...

'Wait, were we even speaking in English?' She opened her eyes in shock. Thinking back to both conversations she realized that no, in fact, they weren't. Now that she realized the anomaly she recognized enough of the language to be almost sure that it was French. Thanks to her classes she knew enough French to keep a simple conversation but certainly not enough to speak it fluently. Not to mention without noticing that she was doing so.

Biting her lip Missy tried to keep calm. She took her left glove off and glared at the strange mark on her hand. She already knew that she had been exposed to a Master, this was just a confirmation, it didn't even seem harmful. Just something to take note of and move on.

'I'll worry about that after I find a way to get back home.' She thought, taking another deep breath and lifting her gaze from her hand to the clearing.

In the time she had been lost in her musings the sun had set and the reddish tint of the sundown was replaced by an eerie mix of blue and red. Intrigued she got up and walked towards the clearing until she got out from beneath the tree's branches.

"Oh, fuck. I don't think I'm in Europe." She said looking up at the two moons, one red and one blue, in the sky.

-------ooooooo-------

Louise sat on one of the infirmary beds, sulking. This day wasn't supposed to go like this. She thought that either she would summon something showing that she wasn't the failure that the rumors depicted her as. Or she would fail and would be shipped off by her family to be married off, if Viscount Wardes still wanted a defective noble like her.

Instead Louise did summon something even if it wasn't something impressive like a dragon or a manticore, it was just a commoner girl but still was better than nothing. And she even cast the binding spell at her first try. It should have been the day that she finally showed everyone that she really was a noble in her own right.

Instead, not even five minutes after her familiar woke up it attacked her and jumped out of her window. And even worse, she was sure that by tomorrow morning all the academy will know that she was unable of defending herself against an unarmed commoner girl and that said girl would rather kill itself than accept her fate as her familiar. And all because the service blamed her not only for the fate of her familiar but also for the traumatized maid that was unfortunate enough to witness her familiar dive out of her window. Of course, they weren't too obvious about it but she could tell and nothing traveled faster than a rumor carried by the servants.

It had been a couple of hours since the incident and so far the search for the body hadn't yielded any results. After hearing that the remains weren't in the courtyard under her window Louise's hope that her familiar had somehow survived but even if by some miracle that had happened it should have been too wounded from the fall to have gone far enough to avoid the groups of both commoners and some of the teachers searching for it.

"Miss Valliere." One of the servants, a maid, called from the door of the infirmary. "Professor Colbert just came back from the capital and is requesting your presence in his office."

"Yes, of course." Was Louise's disheartened response as she got to her feet. "Tell him that I will be right there." She added without looking at the girl.

"As you wish milady" The servant recognized the dismissal and retreated after curtsying.

Louise took her time in getting her shoes on. She knew she was trying to stall, trying to avoid facing something worse than the derision of her peers. Professor Colbert was one of the few people in the Academy that always had been supportive of her no matter how many times she blundered her spells catastrophically. So disappointing him by failing to do something as simple as wait a few hours in her room with her familiar was something that she would rather not face. But it would be even worse if she also kept him waiting so she steeled herself and marched decisively out of the infirmary.

As she traversed both the Tower of Water, where the infirmary was and the courtyard that led to the Tower of Fire, where Colbert had his office, Louise purposefully ignored anyone she came across. Especially Guiche, who was trying to woo one of the first year girls who was obviously oblivious to his reputation as a Cassanova, and one of the upper year boys who was levitating up to a window of the female half of the dormitories. She ignored all that until she reached the small annex that served as both office and laboratory for the absentminded professor.

Louise took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Louise pushed open the door as soon as Colbert answered. The room was cluttered with the professor's various projects on several benches and shelves, "Ah, Miss Valliere, please have a seat." Colbert said from behind his desk pointing at the unoccupied chair of the pair in front of the desk. Louise almost tripped when she realized that on the other chair was the same maid that aided her in taking care of her familiar, the same maid unfortunate enough to witness how her familiar jumped out of her window just to avoid serving her.

"M... My lady." The maid hurried to stand up and curtsy.

"Miss Valliere you arrive just in time, I was asking Miss Siesta about this evening incident and we just reached a point where only you can fill the missing part. So, if you would be so kind as to explain what happened from the moment that you were left alone with..." The professor paused to look at Siesta. "I believe you said that her name was Vista?" When Siesta nodded he continued. "Yes, please Miss Valliere could you explain what happened between you and young Miss Vista?" Colbert asked tiredly.

"I..." Louise gulped "I just did as most books on the subject of summoning familiars recommend and tried to assert my dominance over my familiar." Louise wilted at the steely gaze so unusual for the normally laidback professor.

"Details, Miss Valliere." Colbert's firm tone sent chills down Louise's spine being similar but not quite the same as her own mother's when Louise was caught doing something she shouldn't.

Resigned, Louise related the conversation as close to the facts as she could remember.

"Why, Miss Valliere..." After Louise finished retelling her disastrous first and what would appear to be her last conversation with her familiar Colbert took off his glasses and massaged the bridge of his nose. "Why did you take that kind of approach?"

"But... But the books." Louise protested weakly.

"Miss Valliere, there hasn't been any documented summon of a human or humanoid familiar since the times of Brimir himself. Why did you think that that advice would be applicable to your situation? I know you're smarter than that."

"But no matter if it was a person or a dog before the ritual once bonded a familiar is a familiar it should just..." Louise's protest died a premature death faced with Colbert's expression of disappointment.

"So you are telling me that you didn't even saw her as a person?"

"I didn't even want IT in the first place." Louise said, her composure finally cracking and putting special emphasis on 'it' as an answer to Colbert's question. She gritted her teeth, the frustration she'd been feeling finally reaching a boiling point. "If you just had let me try again this... This wouldn't have happened." She stopped to wipe her tears.

"You know as well as I do that I couldn't, not during a public ritual." Colbert said looking at his pupil with pity.

"But, why?" The third, almost forgotten occupant of the room interrupted. Siesta was as surprised by her own outburst as the other two. She hurried to apologize for her faux pass but was interrupted by the professor.

"It's okay, Miss. To answer your question, not finishing the ritual would have had consequences for those involved, consequences especially dire the young girl summoned I might add." Seeing that he had his audience's full attention he continued falling into what his students called his lecture mode. "I don't know if you are aware of it but the familiar summoning ritual is one of the few spells left by Brimir himself and as everything else related to The Founder is strictly regulated by the church. In fact, when someone wants to use it they are expected to inform the church so they can send a representative to supervise and make sure that they follow the proper procedure. The academy has an special permission for the teachers to act as representatives of the church during the ritual and we are expected to uphold its rules without exception. Now the relevant rule, in this case, is specified in the sixth point of paragraph five of the official instructions ... Miss Valliere, I'm sure you can tell us what it says."

"If any creature that, after being summoned, can't or won't, for any reason, be bound to their summoner must be put down immediately." Louise recited from memory after having calmed down a bit.

"Exactly, as I said before if this had been a private ceremony we could have, as they say, 'swept it under the rug' and find an acceptable solution for everyone involved. But as it wasn't so... Well with a Valliere involved it would have been a matter of time for the church would have had caught wind of it from one of the Duke's political rivals. And while both Miss Valliere and I would get away with a slap on the wrist, so to say, the church would have insisted on executing the poor girl, I'm afraid." He finished, turning his attention back to the young maid. "I believe this answers your question."

"Yes, thank you very much, Professor." She answered with a deep bow.

"Think nothing of it, I'm glad to share any kind of knowledge, it comes with the position." He added with a kind smile. "Now, I believe I've kept you later than I intended, thank you for your help, Miss Siesta."

"I'm just happy I could be of help." The maid said getting to her feet at the polite dismissal. "Good night, professor, Miss Valliere." She added with a curtsy before leaving.

"So..." Louise broke the silence half a minute after maid's departure. "I'm not in trouble anymore now that my familiar is not here anymore?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, Miss Valliere." Colbert answered shaking his head "She still is officially your familiar so whatever she does out there is considered your responsibility."

"But, what can she even do? She's just a commoner girl, barely out of her childhood." Asked a confused Louise.

"You really didn't notice, did you?" Her only response was a puzzled look. "First, those clothes she was wearing, it was subtle but they were armored in a way I've never seen before." He said lifting one finger. "Second, from what Miss Siesta said, the water mage's report coincided with my preliminary examination in the fact that she had scars consistent with her having been involved in serious combat situations." He added as he lifted a second finger. "Third, from what you have described she knew where to hit you both to prevent you from casting and to incapacitate you long enough for her to flee." A third finger joined the other two as he talked. "And fourth and most important, even though my spell came negative she might be able to use magic after all."

"WHAT?" Louise's loud exclamation left Colbert's ears ringing.

"As I was saying, I can't think of any other explanation to how she could jump out a window that was high enough to kill or maim a person if they were not able to mitigate the fall with magic."

"S... So I really did commit the blasphemy of binding another noble as my familiar?" Asked a deadly pale Louise.

"Not necessarily, she could have used a magical object or some other kind of magic different from our own, like firstborn magic..."

"Oh, Brimir, that's even worse! I summoned some kind of heretic, didn't I?" Louise jumped up even more panicked.

"Miss Valliere, please calm down."

"I'll be burned at the stake for consorting with heretics." She continued, completely ignoring her professor "Even worse, I'll be burned as a heretic myself because my familiar is considered part of me." She continued, walking back and forth in front of Colbert's desk.

"Miss Valliere!" Colbert's raised voice finally cut through Louise's panic. "Please get a grip of yourself. Those were only conjectures, we don't know what kind of magic she uses or if she uses any magic at all. Now please sit down and let us finish our conversation." She meekly complied. "As I was saying, again, we don't know her true capabilities, but we, and yes, I include myself because I feel I am partially responsible for this mess. I can't help thinking that if instead of rushing to register the results of the summoning ceremony at the capital I had been here when she awoke all this could have been avoided. We should find her and clear up the misunderstanding that she is supposed to be some kind of slave to you before something happens to her or she does something that we all would regret."

 

[Starfox5]

Go Vista! Perfect reaction.

I like the changes/additions to the background you made, to explain the actions and inactions a little better than canon.

 

[NavigatorNobilis]

And, more importantly, you're departing from Canon rather than mangling Vista's character in order to slavishly adhere to the original plotline.

The trick is to keep that going.

 

[Pyrotech51]

And, more importantly, you're departing from Canon rather than mangling Vista's character in order to slavishly adhere to the original plotline.

The trick is to keep that going.

Click to shrink...

I'm just imagining how big a mess the pint sized Shaker 9 will be able to cause in a medieval-ish world, cause I'm fairly sure that things will be very different from the way they were back in modern times...

Throw in the fact that Vista's power makes her a nightmare to pin down if she isn't hit from ambush, and I'm sure that a lot of mages would have a rather nasty time in a fight with her. Even worse is the fact that she can flee through improbably small gaps no matter how hard they try to trap her, as well as effectively teleport to safety and you've got an absolute nightmare on your hands.

Even worse is the fact that she likely won't trust anyone connected to her summoning easily (after all they only have to act nice till the Master effect kicks in!), so you've got almost no chance of talking her down... Yeah, that's a huge space warping butterfly that got set loose.

 

[Ridli Scott]

Woooooooooo! I didn't have much faith in seeing this continue but now I'm glad that I press the follow button.

 

[Something8576]

Maybe this has been asked earlier, but:
How does her power interact with swords? We do know she can't stretch people and we do know that a previously stretched area allows people to pass through, so could she use her power to elongate a sword and/or sharpen the edge and having that work when you're attacking someone?

I realize that it would be out of character but it's a rather powerful and scary combination of it works.

 

[Ridli Scott]

Maybe this has been asked earlier, but:
How does her power interact with swords? We do know she can't stretch people and we do know that a previously stretched area allows people to pass through, so could she use her power to elongate a sword and/or sharpen the edge and having that work when you're attacking someone?

I realize that it would be out of character but it's a rather powerful and scary combination of it works.

Click to shrink...

You are impliing about using her power with Derf as Jack Slash? I don't think so. She is limited by living beings.

 

[Daimah]

Go Vista! Perfect reaction.

I like the changes/additions to the background you made, to explain the actions and inactions a little better than canon.

Click to shrink...

Glad you like them.

And, more importantly, you're departing from Canon rather than mangling Vista's character in order to slavishly adhere to the original plotline.

The trick is to keep that going.

Click to shrink...

That's the plan, she might cross paths with some secondary characters though.

I'm just imagining how big a mess the pint sized Shaker 9 will be able to cause in a medieval-ish world, cause I'm fairly sure that things will be very different from the way they were back in modern times...

Throw in the fact that Vista's power makes her a nightmare to pin down if she isn't hit from ambush, and I'm sure that a lot of mages would have a rather nasty time in a fight with her. Even worse is the fact that she can flee through improbably small gaps no matter how hard they try to trap her, as well as effectively teleport to safety and you've got an absolute nightmare on your hands.

Even worse is the fact that she likely won't trust anyone connected to her summoning easily (after all they only have to act nice till the Master effect kicks in!), so you've got almost no chance of talking her down... Yeah, that's a huge space warping butterfly that got set loose.

Click to shrink...

Yup, and with Louise busy chasing after her errant familiar even more plot points will be butterflied away.

Woooooooooo! I didn't have much faith in seeing this continue but now I'm glad that I press the follow button.

Click to shrink...

I'm glad too

Maybe this has been asked earlier, but:
How does her power interact with swords? We do know she can't stretch people and we do know that a previously stretched area allows people to pass through, so could she use her power to elongate a sword and/or sharpen the edge and having that work when you're attacking someone?

I realize that it would be out of character but it's a rather powerful and scary combination of it works.

Click to shrink...

I was going to say that she might not be able to do that because her alterations would be fixed to a point in space but then I remembered that in canon she basically made a bag of holding to give Parian some supplies, so there goes my argument. Anyway, she doesn't need to elongate a weapon though. A let's say 12ft sword would be a bit unwieldy, especially when she can always be at the optimal attack distance of any weapon. Or, if she gets her hands on a lance she can make what would basically be a pretty decent imitation of Lancer's Gae Bolg from Fate/Stay Night.

 

[Pyrotech51]

Vista's power effectively renders every attack she makes a touch range one, while simultaneously allowing her to blink around at will and redirect any ranged attack she is aware of.

On top of that she can pull off bag of holding schenanigans, guaranteed hits or misses, and long distance travel in areas with a low population. She definitely lives up to her potential threat rating, and being Gandalfr covers her major weaknesses to some extent.

 

[Zackarix]

I was just thinking about this apparently-dead fic the other day and now it updated! This is the second time such a thing has happened, I must find a way to harness this power.

I love how Vista's first reaction after getting an idea of what her situation was was to get the hell out of dodge. It's a direction that a lot of fics should take if they're in-character, but don't because they're following the stations of canon.

 

[IvanDead]

To avoid the Vista wankery, I'll leave those (here, here and here) sources of information about Vista and her power. And Daimah, if you have any doubts about Vista's powers (and want to remain as faithful as possible to the original material), it is far better to ask in the Cauldron's Discord than to rely on the semi-confident and super-biased memory of readers.

 

[Omega_Endbringer]

"Miss Valliere!" Colbert's raised voice finally cut through Louise's panic. "Please get a grip of yourself. Those were only conjectures, we don't know what kind of magic she uses or if she uses any magic at all. Now please sit down and let us finish our conversation." She meekly complied. "As I was saying, again, we don't know her true capabilities, but we, and yes, I include myself because I feel I am partially responsible for this mess. I can't help thinking that if instead of rushing to register the results of the summoning ceremony at the capital I had been here when she awoke all this could have been avoided. We should find her and clear up the misunderstanding that she is supposed to be some kind of slave to you before something happens to her or she does something that we all would regret."

Click to shrink...

And now all I've got is a picture in my head of Vista overthrowing the magical rulership.
VISTA LA REVOLUTION!

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

And now all I've got is a picture in my head of Vista overthrowing the magical rulership.
VISTA LA REVOLUTION!

Click to shrink...

ZNT revolution fics all suck, though. The only one that was any good was the Napoleon summon, and that was less about an actual revolution and more taking advantage of revolutionary conditions to mount a coup (and as a fic was extremely divisive). Don't do this Daimah.

 

[UndecidedDice]

It's one of very rare FoZ stories where summoned does not get along with summoner.

I really hope it will escalate, and I really hope that canon will not happen. There are plenty options after all. Like joining other countries and forgetting about Louise (maybe except kidnapping her). Or exploring the lands outside of those described in canon. It's not like she cannot move very quickly.

It would be also very nice to see Vista explore her more lethal abilities. For example, she have a very easy way to achieve widespread destruction, avoiding her manton limit: she can create wormhole. And she can put end of wormhole in lethal environment, allowing the other side to flow through. Like the bottom of the ocean. Or even volcanic lava. If she put other end deep enough, it could be pillar of lava flowing out out portal at speed of sound.

Still, that's less important aspect.

I really hope that Missy will not come back to her prospective Master.

 

[Daimah]

ZNT revolution fics all suck, though. The only one that was any good was the Napoleon summon, and that was less about an actual revolution and more taking advantage of revolutionary conditions to mount a coup (and as a fic was extremely divisive). Don't do this Daimah.

Click to shrink...

Don't worry that's not what I have planned, but it would make a fun non-canon totally crack omake. Emperor Vista.

It's one of very rare FoZ stories where summoned does not get along with summoner.

I really hope it will escalate, and I really hope that canon will not happen. There are plenty options after all. Like joining other countries and forgetting about Louise (maybe except kidnapping her). Or exploring the lands outside of those described in canon. It's not like she cannot move very quickly.

-snip-

I really hope that Missy will not come back to her prospective Master.

Click to shrink...

Canon was thrown out of the window the moment Missy jumped out of it. And she'll do everything she can to stay away from Louise.

 

[Ridli Scott]

Canon was thrown out of the window the moment Missy jumped out of it. And she'll do everything she can to stay away from Louise.

Click to shrink...

With her power? That could be easy.

Still, that saddens me a little.

 

[Slayer Anderson]

We should find her and clear up the misunderstanding that she is supposed to be some kind of slave to you before something happens to her or she does something that we all would regret."

Click to shrink...

I honestly hope you've got some tracking magic, Colbert, and even then you might be shit out of luck.

Given the level of population for this world's time period and the relative density that implies... Vista could be most of the way to the Holy Land if she really wanted to at this point. Maybe further.

Vista is scary in an environment like this.

 

[Asheram]

*Hums softly* Catch the Vista, catch the Vista.

Lovely to see this update. That's the second two year hiatus broken today I believe.

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

Lovely to see this update. That's the second two year hiatus broken today I believe.

Click to shrink...

For Moth and a Mouse, it's actually been almost three years.

 

[DoktorFuturepast]

This is something that's very intriguing, and I'm going to watch this one carefully.

Also, yes, Vista being given free reign to do what she needs to do, but also flex her powers without any real limits (aside from the obvious).

We all need more Vista fics.

 

[macdjord]

why Colbert, being an apparently nice guy went along with branding a human as a familiar.

Click to shrink...

Eh. That's not hard to explain. The summoning ceremony is a sacred rite. And it has always produced non-sapient animals; he's never had to even consider the situation where it delivered a person. So after Saito arrives, he has to:

• Realize that what was perfectly acceptable to do to an animal has some disturbing connotations when applied to a human instead
• Convince himself of this strongly enough to repudiate a major religious stricture

Both of these take time and thought. And it's not even guaranteed that he will decide that it's a problem; sure, he's a good person, but the summoning ceremony invokes Brimir to deliver a suitable familiar, so Saito arriving can be considered a direct message from God that binding a human as a familiar is, in fact, Good and Right.

 

[Hexxy666]

Eh. That's not hard to explain. The summoning ceremony is a sacred right. And it has always produced non-sapient animals; he's never had to even consider the situation where it delivered a person. So after Saito arrives, he has to:

• Realize that what was perfectly acceptable to do to an animal has some disturbing connotations when applied to a human instead
• Convince himself of this strongly enough to repudiate a major religious stricture

Both of these take time and thought. And it's not even guaranteed that he will decide that it's a problem; sure, he's a good person, but the summoning ceremony invokes Brimir to deliver a suitable familiar, so Saito arriving can be considered a direct message from God that binding a human as a familiar is, in fact, Good and Right.

Click to shrink...

Plus, it was a wacky harem comedy setting, the tone and perspective of many of the characters there are widely uncaring of what is 'right or wrong', they just skipped the icky details and made it funny a little pink haired girl would smack him over the head with a bullwhip.

In reality, that's horrifying when not between two consenting adults, in anime, it's funny.

 

[Renko]

Canon was thrown out of the window the moment Missy jumped out of it. And she'll do everything she can to stay away from Louise.

Click to shrink...

I can't blame Vista here.

Her first impression of Louise was pretty bad.

But still, are there any consequences that can happen to them for being separated from each other for a long time?

 

[DoktorFuturepast]

I can't blame Vista here.

Her first impression of Louise was pretty bad.

But still, are there any consequences that can happen to them for being separated from each other for a long time?

Click to shrink...

Most likely not, and if she feels compulsions to go back to Louise, she'd chalk it up to a Master effect and keep herself as far away from anyone remotely associated with Louise.

 

[Hexxy666]

Hm, that said, she doesn't have anything to go on.

She either goes out by herself into the great unknown world, no idea what to do, or she goes back to the ones that summoned her in the first place to figure out which way is sideways. Maybe not cooperating but, maybe spywork?