Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

This is for posting Fiction and C&C replies ONLY. Note this does not have to be a "fukufic" or evenfanfiction. All longform creative writing allowed. Replying posts must give actual commentary, no "GREAT IDEA" or "THIS SUCKS".

Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Comartemis » Fri May 27, 2011 1:30 am

This idea has been percolating in the back of my head for the past few months until finally I had a sudden urge to write something a few days ago and managed to get the first two thirds of a chapter written.

***

Not for the first time in her life did Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere find herself sucking fumes and gagging on a cloud of smoke. Such was not a new experience to her, nor was the acrid taste of failure that came with it. Soul-crushing despair, on the other hand, that was a new one.

The smoke cleared to reveal the empty summoning circle she had expected, and as if on cue the mocking laughter of her classmates sounded behind her. Had it been any other spell that had quite literally blown up in her face, Louise might have simply gritted her teeth and returned to her textbooks to look again for where she might have gone wrong. But this was no ordinary spell: it was the Springtime Familiar Summoning ritual, a pivotal moment in every young mage's life. If she failed here she would never bounce back, she would simply be expelled from Tristain Academy and her life as a mage would be over.

She turned to Professor Colbert, imploring the old teacher for one more chance to prove herself. He gave it with a nod, and Louise turned back to the runes inscribed into the earth. This was it. Beyond this point there were no more chances.

Louise raised her wand and began the incantation.

"I beg of you… My slave who lives somewhere in the universe!"

But unseen and unnoticed by the young mage, the summoning circle suddenly pulsed a bright blue, and the runes began to shift and warp...

***

"Etna!"

If there was one lesson that any intelligent demon learned quickly upon achieving self-awareness in Laharl's netherworld, that lesson was that you Do Not Mess With Etna's Sweets. Never ever, under any circumstances, on pain of a fate most unspeakably horrendous. It was said in hushed whispers by many that only stealing the succubus queen's panties would invite a more horrific fate than getting between Etna and her snacks. Naturally, it was a lesson that the resident Overlord violated as frequently as he pleased.

"ETNA! OPEN THE DOOR!"

Though not without consequence.

This time the victim had been a tub of ice cream that the succubus had been saving for a special occasion, though what sort of special occasion involved ice cream, various toppings, Flonne, and sixteen feet of rope Laharl wasn't quite sure about. Etna had been rather incoherent with rage while she'd been trying to throttle him earlier and he still didn't completely get his girlfr -- consort -- his consort's thought processes even after just over five hundred years together, though he could at least hazard a guess. At the moment though, he just wasn't in the mood for contemplating his consort's odd kinks.

Nobody, not even Etna in the throes of a sweets-induced rage, locks the Overlord out of his own bedroom!

Laharl reared back before slamming his shoulder against the door to the master bedroom, the broken-off handle in his hand evidence of his earlier failures. At 1820 years and nearly six feet in height, the Overlord didn't bear much resemblance to the bratty half-pint he'd been when he'd first claimed his father's throne, but the extra weight that came with his larger frame did no good against the solid wooden door.

"ETNA! FOR BAAL'S SAKE, OPEN THE FRAKKING DOOR!"

"Not a chance, PRINCE!" Etna snarled back, using her old nickname for him like a curse. "You made your bed, now you're damn well gonna sleep in it! It's the coffin for you tonight, buster!"

Laharl growled in frustration and tossed the bent and broken door handle aside. It would be easy enough to just blast the door down or blow a hole in the walls to get in, but netherworld architecture was specifically built with housing rambunctious and massively-powerful demons in mind, and the amount of power it would take to blow through the door or walls to his bedroom stood a good chance of wrecking all his stuff as a side effect. With a snort, he turned and started to walk away, the problem of Etna's temper tantrums not worthy of his attention any more.

"Fine! I'll just go find Flonne and you can sleep by yourself tonight!"

"Good luck with that sweety," Etna called back in a sickly-sweet voice, "she's in here with me!"

Laharl stopped cold, considered this for a moment, and then raised his voice again.

"Flonne, are you in there too?"

"Yes I am Laharl", came the fallen angel's voice, "and I'm not letting you in either! That was a very rude thing you did, eating all of Etna's ice cream like that! This is what you get for not sharing any with me! ...I mean her!"

Laharl groaned. If Flonne was in there backing up the door with her defensive magics there was no way he was getting in without vaporizing his stuff and probably hurting both of his consorts. This problem was now officially too much trouble to bother with.

"Fine, you two have fun then. I can sleep by myself just fine" he spat at the closed door, then turned on his heel and left, punting aside a particularly unfortunate prinny as he stormed back to his old room.

It was the last time he'd speak to either of his lovers for quite a while.

***

"Answer to my guidance!"

Had Louise not kept her eyes closed for the duration of the spell, she might have noticed the shifting runes and blue glow of the summoning circle, neither of which had happened for any of the previous summons. She might have noticed the flashes of lightning-like light and the pillar of energy that burst up from the circle and erupted into the sky. She might have heard her professor call her name in warning and seen him move to stop the spell. But she didn't.

What she did see the moment she opened her eyes was a brilliant flash of blue light and an explosion of purple fire as the ritual came to an end. This was not one of her explosions, which as a rule were all concussive force and smoke with nothing in the way of an incendiary component, much less purple fire, but Louise had no time to ponder this before the summoning circle erupted with force, bowling her over into her professor and scattering birds from their nests in trees halfway across campus. Then came the smoke.

When Louise could see again she did not immediately understand what exactly she was looking at. Resting in the center of the circle, unperturbed by either the flames or the explosion was some sort of box. Her heart dropped into her stomach as that thought registered. Some manner of object, then. Not a familiar at all.

Bitter, angry tears welled in her eyes but she refused to let them fall. She was Valliere, and she would face her failure with the dignity her name required of her. With that thought in mind, she pushed herself away from her professor and approached the summoning circle.

At a closer angle it was easier to determine what exactly the box was. To Louise's disgust, it was a coffin of some sort, a very elaborate one made of some sort of very dark wood. That would be just her luck, to summon a corpse for her familiar. Perhaps it would become a zombie if she bound it to her? The thought was both disgusting and darkly amusing. Distantly she heard her classmates approach the circle behind her. In a moment they would know the extent of her failure. Best not to delay any longer then. She gripped the lid of the coffin and heaved it open as best she could, pushing the lid off to one side.

To her great surprise, there was no corpse in the coffin, but a living breathing person, a man with bright blue hair dressed in long black pants and a black... half-coat of some sort with long sleeves and a high collar. His upper torso was otherwise completely uncovered, however, for he wore no shirt at all. His only other garment was a red scarf loosely entwined around his neck. He was reclined in a very relaxed position with his hands clasped behind his head.

And his head... well, the first thing that Louise couldn't help but notice were the pointed ears that made her heart skip a beat. Founder help her, she couldn't possibly have summoned an elf of all things, could she?

The second thing she noticed was the wine-red color of his eyes. Which were looking right at her.

Louise did not 'eep' in a manner unbecoming of a Valliere and recoil like she'd been burned, and she swore she would smite anyone who ever said otherwise. She did take a hasty step back as the figure sat up and looked around, however. There was a collective startled inhalation from behind her as her classmates got their first look at the coffin's occupant, his ears especially. Then the stranger looked back to Louise.

"Human! Where the hell am I?!"

***

For reference purposes, I'm using this as a mental reference of the older Disgaea crew.
Currently Watching: Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Currently Reading: Sora no Otoshimono

KILL the darkfic. BURN the angst. PURGE the Bad End.
Comartemis
User avatar
Crystal Power Senshi
Posts: 4559
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby DCG » Mon May 30, 2011 5:17 pm

Well that can end badly for Louise rather quickly if she trys her normal crap. And if she doesnt it would soon start going rather badly for ever one else.

A fresh new land to take over, and Louise even suppled a castle to base out of. Wasnt that nice?
Fukufics Mod, Plot Hammer, And Muse poker.
DCG
User avatar
Fukufics Staffer
Posts: 512
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Comartemis » Mon May 30, 2011 5:25 pm

DCG wrote:Well that can end badly for Louise rather quickly if she trys her normal crap. And if she doesnt it would soon start going rather badly for ever one else.

A fresh new land to take over, and Louise even suppled a castle to base out of. Wasnt that nice?

Oh good, 100+ views and finally one person stops in to say hi.

And to answer the question, it would be a lot more nice of her except that Louise is about to pull an Adell's Mom and accidentally strip Laharl of all his levels. This ain't no curbstomp fic, y'all. :twisted:
Currently Watching: Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Currently Reading: Sora no Otoshimono

KILL the darkfic. BURN the angst. PURGE the Bad End.
Comartemis
User avatar
Crystal Power Senshi
Posts: 4559
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby DCG » Mon May 30, 2011 5:48 pm

Then whats the point of using Laharl?

hmm, what about item world? Or the demon recruiting?

Extra points for any one who ends up catgirl demons, :D
Fukufics Mod, Plot Hammer, And Muse poker.
DCG
User avatar
Fukufics Staffer
Posts: 512
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Comartemis » Mon May 30, 2011 7:45 pm

DCG wrote:Then whats the point of using Laharl?

hmm, what about item world? Or the demon recruiting?

Extra points for any one who ends up catgirl demons, :D

There's a couple of points to using Laharl, one of the big ones being that Halkeginia is part of the Disgaea multiverse in this fic, which means it has its own Celestia and Netherworld-equivalents full of demons and angels who would love to take a crack at an Overlord who's down on his luck.

No plans for Item World just yet -- that's a ways off at best -- but I invite my readers to look up official artwork for the D3 succubus and ponder on the shocking physical resemblance to an older/bustier Louise. :P
Currently Watching: Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Currently Reading: Sora no Otoshimono

KILL the darkfic. BURN the angst. PURGE the Bad End.
Comartemis
User avatar
Crystal Power Senshi
Posts: 4559
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Comartemis » Fri Jun 03, 2011 2:21 am

mist2123 wrote:Did Laharl retain his level from the game? or did the summoning reset it back to 0 or 1?

He's at level 1. The Gandalfr runes will take the sting off somewhat, but he's going to be barely superhuman until he can start level grinding again. Of course by the time he does, Louise and all his new allies will be grinding right along with him.
Currently Watching: Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Currently Reading: Sora no Otoshimono

KILL the darkfic. BURN the angst. PURGE the Bad End.
Comartemis
User avatar
Crystal Power Senshi
Posts: 4559
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Comartemis » Sat Jun 11, 2011 12:58 pm

Contrary to popular belief, Laharl was neither stupid nor unobservant. He was loud, arrogant, and quite thoroughly full of himself, traits which generally don't lend themselves well to intelligence, but assuming that he was all bark and no brains was a mistake that hundreds of assassins and Overlord-wannabes had made before over the centuries, and not one of them had survived to make it twice. The truth was that while you could theoretically claim the throne just because you had powerful allies -- as many demons had initially assumed about the young prince, once it got out that King Krichevskoy's former vassals were backing him -- if you didn't have power and brains to match you simply wouldn't survive your first year, not in a position where it wasn't unheard of to suffer three assassination attempts before breakfast on any given day.

So the Overlord's first thought upon sitting up and noticing his new surroundings would have seemed... out of character, even to those with a cynical opinion of his mental faculties (*coughEtnacough*).

'This isn't my room,' Laharl noted with his oh-so-keen powers of observation, taking in the bright blue sky overhead and the grassy field before him, along with the crowd of people occupying it.

'Humans, all of them, and the sky's bright enough that this can't be the netherworld. Human world, then,' Laharl decided, the gears in his head starting to turn properly now. He fixed his gaze on the human who'd opened his coffin.

"Human! Where the hell am I?" he demanded, stepping out of the coffin and taking another look around. This time he spotted the castle which had been directly behind him on his first look, and also noted the stares and hushed whispers he was getting from the crowd of humans. Who were, he noted now, all wearing outfits that somewhat resembled the robes that mages back home wore. His attention flickered briefly to a girl with bright blue hair who shifted her grip on a staff she was carrying, bringing it up into something resembling a guard position and stepping in close to a tan-skinned redhead who was looking at him like she couldn't quite believe he existed or something.

'Okay, so lots of human mages then, most of them young' Laharl decided, turning his attention to the one exception to that rule. The oldest human was saying something to the pink-haired girl from earlier but he wasn't taking his eyes off Laharl and he had a wand of some sort in hand. His posture was tense, like he was expecting a fight. On a whim, Laharl looked deeper at him and was rewarded with a sense of the man's strength. His aura spoke of age and experience and magic that was respectable for a human but pitiful for a demon, and Laharl dismissed him as irrelevant.

The pink-haired girl, however, was another story entirely. Though her aura was weaker in many respects than the old man's was, there was no mistaking the raw untapped power that hung about her like a cloak. It was exactly what Flonne had looked like to these senses the last time she'd transmigrated; though she was weak as a kitten now, with training she would become most impressive, even by demon standards.

Laharl grinned (and the girl paled slightly) as the pieces fell into place in his head. He was in the human world -- or a human world, at any rate -- in the company of a number of child mages and one adult, most likely some manner of school setup. The girl before him was one of those mages. The most likely answer to his current predicament was that he had been summoned here, which meant the girl had performed a demon summoning ritual in the hopes of gaining some sort of boon from him. That she had summoned an Overlord, one such as himself no less, spoke highly of her abilities, as if he needed any more proof of that than what his senses told him. Having such an individual who could very well become a minor Overlord in her own right someday in his debt was well worth the inconvenience of the summoning, and he gestured for her to continue with the ceremony.

After all, what was the worst that a little girl could possibly ask of him?

***

Author's Note: ...aaaaand that's the prologue, the obligatory summoning scene that all ZnT crossovers are required by fanfic law to have. Move along folks, nothing to see here. I'm probably going to jump ahead just a bit in the next scene so as to get to more interesting stuff. Like people actually, you know, talking to each other. Feel free to criticize my work as much as you please, this is my first serious attempt at writing fanfiction which means there's got to be a ton of stuff that needs to be fixed before this is a passable work.

Also, for those of you who haven't been following this one in the Breaking In thread over on SpaceBattles, have a free teaser of future events:

Image
Currently Watching: Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Currently Reading: Sora no Otoshimono

KILL the darkfic. BURN the angst. PURGE the Bad End.
Comartemis
User avatar
Crystal Power Senshi
Posts: 4559
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Comartemis » Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:50 pm

As well-known as the "Don't Eat Etna's Sweets" rule was in the netherworld, it occasionally got into epic all-out brawls for dominance with the second most well-known rule, "Laharl's Day Starts At 11:30 And Not A Second Sooner". The Overlord, like any self-respecting demon (Prinnies notwithstanding), stayed up late and woke up late regardless of what the rest of the world was doing, and if some hapless hero wanted to challenge him badly enough to barge into his room at 9:00 AM, then his death wish was nobody's business but his own. Especially because it was more likely than not that Etna and-slash-or Flonne would also be present in the Overlord's room at that hour and would be equally displeased at having their beauty sleep interrupted.

The result of this was simply that Laharl did not normally wake up in the most pleasant of moods unless he took his sweet time doing so. It was fortunate indeed for his hapless summoner that he had been dozing in his coffin -- not actually fully asleep yet -- when she had called on him. His second awakening in Halkeginia, on the other hand, was not so conveniently pleasant.

'What in Baal's name hit me?'

Consciousness came back to Laharl on the heels of the worst headache he'd had since that one time he'd found his old man's liquor stash and sampled the contents. He had no idea what a Pangalactic Gargleblaster was or how the hell an apparently human drink had enough punch to knock a full-grown demon for a loop, but he'd resolved to never try the bloody things again after the ensuing three-day hangover. This wasn't quite as bad, but it was still on the near side of "completely fucking miserable".

Laharl blearily cracked open an eye and forced himself to sit up, noting as he did so that he'd been laid out on a bed he didn't recognize and becoming mildly concerned for it. The rest of the room wasn't any more familiar either, though the stone walls at least identified it as most likely being in a castle somewhere and the contents of the room reminded him somewhat of the infirmary-slash-hospital of his castle. One of said contents was the bed opposite from his, and the familiar pink-haired girl laid out on it.

Seeing her brought Laharl's mind back into focus despite the killer headache. That was right, she was the one who'd summoned him from the netherworld. What had she done next?

'She kissed me,' he remembered suddenly, and with that remembrance came a whole new set of worries.

Demon summoning was a magical art practiced on many human worlds by various magic-users who had more lust for power than they had good sense. Oh sure, the benefits were great for both parties involved in the ritual, but in the long run the demon inevitably claimed a greater reward than the human did from the bargain. But the ritual that his summoner had performed was unlike any ritual he knew of; most of them involved a blood pact, for one thing, and not a... a kiss of all things. So what had she done? And given that she was here in this infirmary with him, had she done it wrong?

An ominous chill settled down Laharl's spine as he pondered that possibility. He was intimately familiar with the possible results of botched summoning rituals, after all he had made a point of ribbing Etna endlessly about her escapades on the world of Veldime, especially what he'd dubbed The Great Prinny Rebellion. If the same had now happened to him...

With a shaky breath, Laharl closed his eyes and turned his gaze inward.

A moment later an agonized scream echoed through the halls of the Tristain Academy of Magic.

***

Louise's return to consciousness was no easier than Laharl's had been, though it was mercifully free of demonic hangover headaches from hell. It was not lacking at all in sudden loud noises, however, so when awareness came it came all at once. Louise bolted upright in bed with a frightened screech more befitting a startled bird than a member of the nobility, looking around wildly for what had awoken her and finding it on the next bed over from hers. She had just enough time to recognize that she was in the infirmary alone with an elf before her erstwhile familiar noticed her awakening and rounded on her.

"YOU!" he snarled and Louise suddenly had to fight the urge to go dig herself a hole somewhere and hide in it. "This is YOUR fault!"

He lunged at her, and while Louise had just enough presence of mind to spring off the bed and make for the door like the hounds of hell were upon her, her reaction came too late to avoid the elf's grasp completely. He seized her by the shoulder and slammed her back against the infirmary wall, pinning her there as much with his glare as with his hands.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Me. Brat?"

There would be times later when Louise questioned the sanity of what she had done then. For as much as it galled her to admit, her unwanted title was not undeserved, for all that she was a noble and a Valliere, she had all the magical aptitude of the average commoner. For she who was not even a dot mage, to challenge an elf would be suicide.

Faced with the facts, and with what would come later, eventually she would only be able to conclude that perhaps there was more of her mother in her than she had ever believed possible.

Louise's right arm was pinned by the mad elf's grip along with her upper torso, but her left was free, and it was her left hand that snaked into her robes, drew her wand, and pressed the tip against the elf's chest.

"FIREBALL!"

The eruption of fire and heat that should have accompanied such a spell quite naturally did not follow from Louise's incantation, which was fortunate because she had no intentions of incinerating herself along with the mad elf. No, what she wanted now was the simple concussive force and the impromptu smokescreen that always accompanied her failures, and for the first time in her life she was grateful for having one of her spells succeed at failing.

The elf was doubtlessly less enthused as the spell picked him up and threw him across the room, smashing him against the opposite wall. Had Louise been slightly less terrified out of her wits, she might have stopped to question why she had not been battered by her own explosion, and marveled at how the force of the blast had all traveled forward and outwards, away from her.

But terrified she was, because even after a point-blank explosion and being tossed against a wall, the elf -- while singed and sooty and coughing on the cloud of smoke and dust she'd created -- was still conscious, and still glaring at her.

"I wouldn't do that again if I were you, brat. I was just gonna rough you up a bit and squeeze a few answers out of you, but if you want to make a fight out of it I'm sure I can take you apart even in this pathetic condition."

"Now now mister elf," came a voice from the doorway, "no fair picking on the Zero, that's my job."

Louise and her assailant turned to the new speaker, and for a moment bewilderment completely replaced terror in her mind.

"Zerbst? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Saving you from your familiar, apparently," Kirche the Ardent replied, not taking her wand or her eyes off of the elf as she spoke; nor did Tabitha, standing at her side, lower her staff from where it was also pointed at Louise's assailant. "I must admit, you summoned something quite impressive Valliere, but you seem to be having problems controlling him. Don't tell me you succeeded at summoning your familiar and then failed at binding him to you?"

Despite her haughty words, Kirche's body was tense and her tone strained. If even half the legends of the elven people were true then there was nothing she and Tabitha would be able to do against this one. All the same, it had been her bright idea to make tracks for the infirmary to ensure the health of her rival and eternal plaything as soon as class had been let out.

Thankfully, it seemed the legends were not all true, for the elf merely glared at her and Tabitha for a moment as if evaluating them before he spoke.

"Allies won't save you from me, brat. Even in my current state, had I a mind to do so I could easily crush you all under my heel. Fortunately for you," and here he grimaced subtly but noticably "I am more in need of information than I am in need of revenge at the moment. If you agree to answer my questions, then I'll refrain from beating you all to death with your own limbs. Deal?"

Before Louise could answer, Tabitha beat her to it.

"Deal."

"Then let's start with the basics."

***

Yes people, I mean it this time, I'm really writing a long-term fanfic instead of a little one-shot starter chapter that doesn't go anywhere. Now for pete's sake, give me some feedback! I can see all the views this thread is getting, I know people are reading this, but you're not saying anything!

And to think, the mods wonder why we don't get any new authors coming in here! :evil:
Currently Watching: Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Currently Reading: Sora no Otoshimono

KILL the darkfic. BURN the angst. PURGE the Bad End.
Comartemis
User avatar
Crystal Power Senshi
Posts: 4559
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Siden » Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:35 pm

Interesting concept, although unless Laharl has been limited or had his levels reset/toned down, I see every conflict quickly turning into a curbstomp.
Employed by Lady Bliss.
True Neutral, "Pure Neutral", "Balancer"
Spamville Dossier
Siden
User avatar
Asteroid Senshi
Posts: 608
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Comartemis » Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:09 pm

Siden wrote:Interesting concept, although unless Laharl has been limited or had his levels reset/toned down, I see every conflict quickly turning into a curbstomp.

Siden! Thank you for commenting. But please read everything I post before commenting. That's exactly what happened in the chapter I just posted, it was made quite explicit that Laharl lost all his levels.
Currently Watching: Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
Currently Playing: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Currently Reading: Sora no Otoshimono

KILL the darkfic. BURN the angst. PURGE the Bad End.
Comartemis
User avatar
Crystal Power Senshi
Posts: 4559
 

Re: Kaboom, Dood! (ZnT/Disgaea)

Postby Pusakuronu » Tue Jun 14, 2011 10:02 am

Interesting start. Since Laharl looks like an elf, I assume we will be able to avoid the duel typical for the beginning of Zero crossovers? And does Louise count as his minion, enabling him to learn her magic? Or does he, as familiar, count as her minion? Both might have fun results.
Pusakuronu
Senshi Candidate
Posts: 40
 


Return to Stories and C&C

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google Adsense [Bot]

cron