Oh look, a new WIP. :'D No idea when I'll get around to updating this! Just testing the water. And very stuck with Bittersweet Sweetness. Short prologue is short. Mostly just set up. Next part calls for a scene change, so I decided to just cut this short. *puts on backburner* I want to write this, but too many writing projects already! what am I even dooooing
Title: Invincible, that is the Legend - Prologue
Fandom: 1/2 Prince x The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,102
Summary: On their way to finish the Dictator, the Execution Squad's "invincible battleship" crashes, separating everyone, landing them on foreign soil. "Look Aldrizzt, an elf! I want her to join us." "Neo, that's not a her."
Notes: This started as a small scene inspired by a prompt I received for No True Pair. I'd planned on writing this as short segments for No True Pair (the scene that sparked this featured Wicked and discrimination against dark elves), but I never got around to that, so now I'm fleshing the entire thing out as a longfic. There will be lots of characters (20 just from 1/2 Prince) and tons of things happening, and there will also be a few OCs to flesh out the cast even more since an adventure isn't complete without some adversaries. My writing skills will probably not be enough to manage this, and my motivation...well, we'll see how it goes... ^^;; Spoilers up to volume 7 of the 1/2 Prince novels, volume 3 of LSK, and also for Unbeatable, Neo and Aldrizzt's story (which is what this fic is named after). That doesn't mean spoilers for volumes past these won't sneak in, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum and only incorporate them once translations of those chapters have been released. The story starts from 1/2 Prince's V7C2 and diverges from there while the timeline for LSK is fuzzier. I haven't decided yet for LSK.
All names and terms follow Prince Revolution's translations for both 1/2 Prince and LSK to the best of my memory, but there may be particular names or terms where my choice of translation differs. With all that said, enjoy the story!
Prologue: Invincible Battleship, Sunk
In the middle of the ocean under the clear blue sky drifted a large clam with eyes. This was no ordinary clam (after all, it was gigantic and it had eyes), and it was actually serving as the invincible battleship of a group of players who called themselves the Execution Squad.
They were on a mission that only they could accomplish -- defeating the Dictator of Life.
Within the clam, the members of the Execution Squad tried to position themselves so that they could steal a few winks before their inevitable clash with the Dictator of Life once they reached the Northern Continent. There would be no time for rest then. They would slay their way through and end things once and for all, saving Second life in the process, or die trying.
"Why is the Dictator of Life waiting for me in the Northern Continent?" asked a white-haired elf to a busty female elf dressed in pink armor. He tore his gaze away from the pearl that was emitting light at the center of the shell above him to glance at the female elf inquisitively. She was the daughter of the Second Life Game Company's president. If anyone would know the mind of the final boss, it would have to be her.
The female elf toyed with her long red hair, eyes gazing faraway, except there was nothing to gaze at save clam meat. "That's a long story," she hedged.
"We have plenty of time," the white-haired elf replied dryly. "You've been keeping things from me. I don't like it."
The female elf opened her mouth, but before she could answer, their "invincible battleship" suddenly shook back and forth violently. The white-haired elf yelled out, "AnRui, has something happened?"
Their ship, which happened to be a clam, replied, "We have just hit a glacier."
"...are we reenacting the Titanic?" asked the white-haired elf in disbelief. "Lolidragon, you better not have jinxed us by naming AnRui 'the Titanic'. Naming our previous battleship after the Challenger had been bad enough."
The female elf snorted and swatted him on the head. "Shut your mouth! That was a perfectly fine name."
"Argh, guys, can we argue later? I feel clam-sick..." came a muffled voice from behind them. The man who had spoken had one hand over his mouth and one hand in the air in an attempt to stop them from arguing further.
"What a useless guy you are, Feng Wu Qing," the female elf retorted, eyes flicking over him.
However, Feng Wu Qing's words weren't uncalled for because it was truly no time to be arguing. After Lolidragon's retort, their battleship jerked even more violently, this time in a circular motion that caused Feng Wu Qing to smack right into Lolidragon, who smacked into Prince, the white-haired elf, who smacked into the next unfortunate person (who happened to be the bard Gui), who smacked into...
It was quite a domino effect.
"AnRui, what's going on?!" exclaimed Prince, his voice muffled since his face was currently buried in Gui's robes after toppling into him. When Gui held on longer than necessary to help him up, Prince quickly punched the bard and sent him flying into the dark elf Wicked who immediately tossed him to the ground like a hot potato.
"It seems that we have now been sucked into a whirlpool," the clam answered politely, as if the situation weren't so dire. The light above them flickered, dousing the players inside the clam in periodic darkness.
"...I thought you said we hit a glacier?"
"There is now also a whirlpool."
"Can we escape it?"
"I can use my spinning techni-"
AnRui abruptly stopped in the middle of his explanation and started spinning so crazily that everyone became clam-sick. Feng Wu Qing now had company in his misery.
"Stop the spinning technique!" someone screeched to no avail. They continued to spin around and around and around. Prince became so dizzy that he thought he saw dozens of Meatbuns flying in circles above him. Then, one of the Meatbuns landed on his head.
So I'm not completely seeing things, he thought, but that realization didn't help with his nausea.
"Meat-bunbun's owner, I am afraid that I have been compromised. My actions are no longer my own. I can only spin in the direction of the current and cannot go against it."
"What?!" exclaimed all the players in unison.
"Stop spinning then!" someone yelled.
"Sadly, I cannot do that either," AnRui apologized, his voice tight.
When the spinning only grew worse the nearer the center of the whirlpool they reached, Prince groaned. "It's like we're being flushed down a toilet!"
The light above them flickered out altogether after Prince's famous last words.
More than one person silently apologized to the goldfish they had flushed down their toilets in their youth. Even dead goldfish didn't deserve this kind of treatment.
Down the whirlpool they went, flushed straight out of Second Life.
-----
High in the sky above the clam, a blue, humanoid NPC watched in satisfaction as AnRui disappeared into the whirlpool. He flicked his hand. The whirlpool vanished, taking along with it all twenty-one members of the Execution Squad and their transport.
The ocean returned to its calm currents, except now there was no longer a large clam drifting among its waves.
With a smirk, the "NPC" in the sky said, "Goodbye Prince. May you never confuse the Dictator ever again."
-----
A continent away, the Dictator mentioned by the one who played at being god gripped the arm of his throne tightly, knuckles turning white. "Father, no..."
He swallowed with emotion, the lump in his throat refusing to go away, his eyes burning with a feeling he didn't understand.
"Good luck, Prince..." he managed to utter in the end, his voice nearly engulfed by the large, empty throne room. "I will always watch over you, no matter where you are."
-----
"No matter where" turned out to be foreign soil, but Prince didn't know that. He had been out for an entire day. He didn't know that either.
He moaned in pain and shifted only to cause more pain to shoot up his sides. The pain felt disturbingly real to him, even more so than usual. It was baffling. And it hurt.
Slowly, Prince's eyes fluttered open.
The sight of a player with a head of shining, blond hair framing a face with the bluest eyes he had ever seen greeted him the moment he opened his eyes. Behind the dazzling man hovered a person whose features were hidden by a hooded cloak, cutting a figure that contrasted starkly with the brilliance of the man who stood in front.
Not my type, Prince thought as his eyes wandered over the blond man, but very drool-worthy anyway. He must have chosen to beautify himself by at least 20%. No, maybe even 30%!
-----
to be continued
This will be mostly of the action & adventure genres! Trying to go for 3rd person, more objective than subjective, a bit more omniscient than limited. I'm confusing myself though. XD;; I won't be sticking with any one group of characters. There isn't exactly a main character in this, but 1/2 Prince characters will possibly play a larger role than LSK characters. Seems like Prince is getting a bit more of the focus at the moment (he is a main character after all). Because of the POV, Prince is mostly referred to as "he" though I suspect that will differ when there are POVs that are closer to Prince's/Lan's thoughts.
In addition to a few OCs I'll be introducing to fill in gaps, I'll also be fleshing out minor characters we don't get much canon about. So a lot of this will be my headcanon of the characters. :3
I'm pretty excited about this story (I hope others are too), but... gahhh, too many writing projects! Don't know where this one stands yet. But hey, have the title of the next chapter. ;) It's a fun chapter!
I don't know how much I like my summary at the moment. XD;; Might change it later when more of the plot has been revealed.
Next chapter: Invincible Lack of Teammates, or in Which We Get Introduced to Neo and Aldrizzt (Who Really Do Lack Teammates)