#d20 the stepmother

[brionbroadway]

“Princess, is it your time to rest? Or do you want your story to continue?”

Rosamund is glad to be asked.

This is what she wants: a chance to write her own story outside of the narrative that’s planned for her. She is not ready to rest--she already rested for a hundred fucking years--and true love is no longer an option. It must be something else; there has to be something else for her to choose. She will take her scrap of a page and discover what it is.  

“I don’t think it’s my time to rest.”

“Then I think—”

She feels the briars before she sees them, wrapping around her heart the way she guaranteed a lover never would. With each pulse of her heart, the briars pierce it.

But her heart must be stronger than everything than every piece of Thumbelina, because she splits in half.

“I take it back!” Rosamund yells. “I take it back!”

“Oh, my dear Rosamund.”

The voice comes from a briar that’s coiled itself into her ear. It’s unrecognizable as any individual fairy, but it drips with both the saccharine sweetness and depraved wickedness Rosamund has realized they all possess.

“You cannot take a choice back, my girl. This is why you should have trusted the ending that was written for you.” The voice tuts, a disapproving parental figure that never gave Rosamund anything but rules. “Your gifts did not come without a curse. You have sacrificed the one condition that would break it. You have rejected rest. What did you think was left for you, Sleeping Beauty?”

Rosamund tries to use her own voice, but a briar invades her mouth and replaces her smile. Its teeth are sharper than her own.

“Oh, I know what’s that like.”

The voice in Rosmaund’s heads changes, a conspiratorial older sister like she tried to be Red. The briars morph into thick strands of golden hair.

“It’s a shame we never got to talk.” Rapunzel’s voice comes from everywhere her hair touches.  “We have a lot in common. Locked away, someone else claiming to know what’s best for us, unable to make our own choices…”  

The briars spin, like hair being twirled around a finger.

“But when we did write our own story, we gained power. I know it hurts, Rosamund. I know it may not seem like it, but my hair hurts too. It chokes me, and restrains me, but more importantly than any of that, it keeps me safe—”

She’s cut off, because Gerard is eating Rapunzel on the battlefield. Her voice returns, hoarse from screaming. It sounds the way her hair feels in Rosamund’s throat.

“He will consume all of you, Rosamund. He has already done so to Elody in their marriage, though she does not recognize that. You must him put him to sleep.”

Rosamund cannot see a prince on the battlefield, only a monster. 

Suddenly, the hair transforms into chains.  

“Hello, my love.”

The deep, cruel voice of the Baron of Bricks feels like the weight of the chains on Rosamund’s skin. It comes from the ones trapping her heart into beating.

“I know, of course, that I am not your true love,” he says. “I know you will not get that. But, I do believe we have more in common than either of us first thought. You have rejected death, and I respect that, but I must warn you that it will not last as long as Death is around. She just took a Beast. She can certainly take a Princess.”

Rosamund cannot see a girl on the battlefield, only The Big Bad Wolf.

“If you need to put her in a stew, I have a recipe. Otherwise, you have all the tools you require. You must put her to sleep.”

The chains drop, but Rosamund is quickly snatched up by sharp claws. The Baba Yaga runs them down her face, her neck, and finally stops at the same wrists she considered feasting on. Her voice comes from the wounds she created.

“Thank you, Princess, for your gift. I am taking good care of your true love. He is only feeling the pain you would have caused each other after happily ever after.”

She cackles, and it infects the wounds.

“You made a wise choice in putting him to sleep.”

The claws release Rosamund, and the briars consume her again. Slowly, a pattern appears on them that represents a kind of evil she still had not accepted existed.

“I am sorry my son could not keep you safe, Rosamund. You do not need to worry about punishing him for that; I assure you I will take care of it.”

The Stepmother’s voice sounds like Rosamund’s own thoughts.

“Sleeping Beauty, I know what it’s like to have a role assigned to you. But, I also know what it’s like to edit the story. We can change this together. You can make your own choices, just as you wished. Put them all to sleep, Rosamund, and we will write the stories this world deserves.”

There is no happy ending for Rosamund. Only what must be done in this room.

[notesbynor]

If i had a nickel

[waterisntreal]

I absolutely adore Rosamund being like I promise to think about it and then immediately turning to Timothy and being like we need to leave right now these guys are bad

[canonicallyanxious]

[neverafter episode 9 spoilers]

everything about ylfa's flashback scene made me feel fucking insane. the wolf is death and the ending of stories. the wolf ate ylfa's grandmother because it was time for her story to end. but for whatever reason it's not time for ylfa's end. for whatever reason the wolf wanted ylfa to live. the wolf ate the grandmother so that she could die, and ylfa ate the wolf so that she could live. the wolf wanted ylfa to live, and at the deepest core of herself she wants to live too. i'm scratching at the WALLS. LIKE "i met death and death wants me to live" EMILY SAID IT SO CASUALLY BUT LOWKEY THAT'S THE RAWEST SHIT I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE!

also though you need to eat to live and the consumption of stories to stay alive beyond the end of your own story... i am Thinking...

[ineffably-bisexual]

“Grandmother… close enough”

[applebees4prez]

the stepmother from neverafter is one of if not my favorite villain(s) of all time. she’s so truly and genuinely horrifying but you also completely understand her motives. while i can barely even comprehend the imagery of maybe millions of people inhabiting one body while simultaneously many clamor to escape AND more are (non-sexually) vored into joining them, it is exactly what i would want from horror dnd and is just so fucking cool yet disgusting and terrifying to me. yet you’ve kinda gotta be like yeah of course she went insane. she doesn’t even have a name! she’s written to be the villain, given no depth or story. she’s a side character. she’s not even real. endless amounts of people know who she is and hate her.

honestly brennan crafted this story so much better than any other “villain origin story” we’ve ever seen. most of those disney live action ones are like “actually here’s a different side of the story and they’re not that bad. and we’re going to throw away a bunch of plot to get here.” but in neverafter, the stepmother is full evil! she fucking sucks! she’s abusive and she eats people’s stories. but also you can’t help but feel bad for her at some level. she has real depth and she’s interesting. i will forever be obsessed with our stepmother, minerva.

[rabdoidal]

a recent physical commission for fanaticofbeads of the stepmother from neverafter after visiting the baba yaga + lyrics from the ballad of jane doe!

🗡️ kofi link in bio if you’re feeling generous 🗡️

[sylvansleuth]

Hell no!🙀😹

[midnightdemonhunter]

so what IS on the other side of that door, anyway?

[magicratfingers]

You are Wicked Stepmother… don’t you know?

[dropoutconfessions]

Just about to finish neverafter and it was super fun as usual I liked generally everything about it give or take but what I really didn't end up liking was the official art I understand it's supposed to be creepy bc it's a horror season so it's perfectly in theme and the artist did an incredible job but I wish it was more those classic print block drawings than like real life photo stuff I end up liking the fanart of the characters more than the official artworks (Except for maybe Stepmother, her official art is the best)

-

[islandoforder]

everyone talking about how narratively interesting The Stepmother is, and lawful good murph in the corner like >:( she wants to burn the world down you guys

[sideblogdotjpeg]

doodles from episode 8 & 9!

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was a ghost and I was in love with this dude who was alive, so I decided to take a picture of him with ghost camera to carry around but. The camera fucking zapped his soul away and he disappeared. I thought he was just in the camera so I went to look at the picture and it was the most horrific image. If you've seen D20 Neverafter think The Stepmother. Absolutely terrifying.

[electracopes]

Brennan Lee Mulligan has defined a 6th love language: consuming

eat the feather. eat the letter. eat the dance card. eat your daughters.

[mulligans-tavern]

Images below the cut, I got the least scary art of all of them (eg none of them are in their "final form" horror creatures)