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katybaby00 · 10 months ago

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sweet fairy

a/n: … hi guys… i’ve been a little mia… my bad… but life. with life comes new obsessions tho… so who’s complaining really? ANYWAY i hope you like this. i did use they/them/their for pronouns. i wanted to try, let me know whatcha think🥹 (edit): i def forgot to add

König x fairy!reader

to this… my bad. credits: dividers @cafekitsune / please please please go check their stuff out it’s amazing <3 warnings:none, maybe a teeny tiny bit of angst if you squint.

König has had a rather rough day, with training new recruits, paperwork, and his own training really taking its toll. He rolls his shoulder back to try and shake off some of the stress and anxiety. He runs his hand along his face over his sniper hood and sighs heavily. "Scheiße, es war ein langer Tag." he places his elbows on his knees as he leans forward in his office chair, creaking under his weight, cursing the long day.

He sits a little straighter as he remembers this small trail by the base that was rather peaceful the last time they were out on a training ruck. With it being summer as well, now would be perfekt, he decides then that's where he's going to spend his afternoon. As Konig reaches the trail and walks for a few moments feeling the summer breeze against his skin. He hears a hauntingly gentle melody coming from his right side in the forest. He tilts his head to the noise curiously and slowly makes his way towards it.

König hides and steps lightly around a big oak tree when a small wildflower meadow comes into view. he looks around the meadow. this is where the soft melody was coming from. "*Verdammt*." he whispers as he sits in front of the massive tree. He sits for a moment before he hears the melody again and this time it's practically lulling him to sleep.

His eyes pop open when he catches a glimpse of the source of this sweet song. You. A fairy. König watches you in awe your feet barely grazing the tops of the grass and flowers. Your every movement graceful and so delicate, but powerful. He couldn't move. His whole body rooted right to where he sat as he took in your magical presence. As the small fairy turns around and spots him their eyes lock for the first time, the little fairy's heart beating so fast.

The little fairy's wings flutter nervously as they watch the human. Eyes not leaving theirs in case he's a fairy hunter. König spots your wings and how you have begun to fidget nervously. "Easy there klein Fee." The man slowly stands and approaches you. "I'm not going to hurt you." He says to you gently. His tone and actions not betraying his words. The fairy slowly calms their breathing and their wings flutter softer now. Cautiously the fairy makes their way over to him.

"Easy now little one," his tone gentle and calm his German accent adding a touch of warmth to his words. " I mean you no harm, I promise." His hands come up in front of him in defense, trying to prover he's not a threat to your peaceful meadow. His broad figure looms over you, craning your neck to meet his gaze. The giant notices this and tries to make himself appear less intimidating by lowering onto one knee, bring himself closer to your level.

"Please forgive my intrusion. I could not help but tp hear your song it is peaceful." König says this and isn't actually sure if you understand him or not. "What brings you here? Are you the guardian of these woods?" he asks you curiously, attempting and hoping to establish some connection with you, however fleeting.

Darting their eyes left and then right then straight at the mans icy blue orbs. "I'm- I am Y/n Elreign, light fairy, guardian of the meadows." voice soft and ethereal as you speak to him. I gently float over closer to him and study his features. Never seeing a human before I'm naturally curious.

König's heart warms at the sound of your delicate voice, tinged with the ethereal melody that seems to surround you. "Pleasure to meet you Y/n, I am König. I am a soldier." He slowly leans back against the tree finding a comfortable position, he looks at you in wonder. "Tell me Y/n, what is it that you do as the guardian if the meadows?" he asks me this and I get a little giddy.

"oh! I am just the protector of the meadows. I make sure the animals are happy and the flowers grow." I tell König happily. I turn to a smaller flower that looks like it could use some kindness and I look up at König to make sure he's watching. I place my hands just above the flower and sparkling energy and light comes from my hands and gently brings the flower to life. I look up at König who seems to be smiling from ear to ear. "I do what I can." I say humbly. König who just thinks you're the most extraordinary being he's ever laid his eyes on, rolls his eyes at you. "Ich liebe es, dass du so viel mehr machst." König says this softly, his eyes looking over your tiny form.

I tilt my head curiously at what he said my ears never hearing that kind of voice and words before. The language new and fascinating. "Thank you, I think." I giggle and smile at König. I show him around the meadow and tell him about the different flowers and creatures that live in the meadow for a little while. Our company being enough for each other. I sit on top of a lavender bud and look up at him. "Thank you for not being like most humans." König's brow furrows slightly as he takes in your words. He doesn't quite understand what you mean.

Sharing what it's like to live in the Fae realm and learning all sorts of new things about earth. We can't help but be fascinated with one another. As we talk through the meadow I can't help but feel off, the wings on my back flutter cautiously, danger. I quickly fly into the air and search the outside of the meadow, but before I can make sure the meadow is safe I'm shot down out of the sky by a fairy net as it burns my skin when it tightens around my body and I hiss in pain.

Fairy hunters.

#call of duty #könig x reader #könig cod #cod x reader #cod mw2 #im back #i know #i’m sorry #fairy!reader #gn reader #they them

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r-osehips · 11 months ago

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snooped your tags, so: 12 and 16 for the year end book asks? please and thank you!

YESSSS thank you oh my god

12: Any books that disappointed you?

16: What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

THE FUCKING OVERSTORY. Jesus CHRIST. ok, the descriptions of trees and how they communicate with one another and with the wider ecosystem, those descriptions were beautiful, though sometimes they edged into purple prose. but as soon as this man (author Richard Powers) starts trying to write human beings, it all goes to hell. no one is convincing. every attempt at romance is hamfisted and always heterosexual (except for the two bi women who sordidly had sexual histories with women that they never dared speak of and which the men around them found arousing). the way he describes the character who uses a wheelchair it is some of the most jaw-droppingly ableist language I have read in a modern novel, and also sooo so repetitive and hitting you over the head with the same adjectives every time. and then there's this female character who he has a huge boner for, which, great, i can support that in general, but unforch for him this resulted in weird objectifying language and ridiculous situations, such as, for example, the scene where this girl (who briefly was dead and soaking wet and naked, he described that vividly) -- this girl has been living in a redwood sequoia for months. no shower, no soap, no haircuts, no nothing. she's filthy. and she's, canonically, 200 feet in the air. and this logger who wants to kill the tree, he's shouting up at her and the guy she's with (and they are, i cannot emphasize this enough, 200 feet up). she leans over the railing of the treehouse to yell back at him. he says "WOAH you're GORGEOUS what are you doing up there when you could have any man you wanted!" and she's like "aw ha ha you should see me up close" and it's like. HE CAN'T SEE HER. HE LITERALLY CAN'T SEE HER. YOUR OBSESSION WITH HAVING YOUR MALE PROXIES HIT ON HER AND OBJECTIFY HER HAS LED TO THE DESTRUCTION OF YOUR LAST SHREDS OF PLAUSIBILITY. SOOOO FUCKING STUPID in a good book this would have been ENDEARING but no -- no, not here! because this, despite its countless awards and accolades, IS NOT A GOOD FUCKING BOOK. and yet it is so long. and it drags so much. and for what.

(from this prompt list if anyone wants to ask more)

EDITING TO ADD: WAIT. I forgot the thing I ACTUALLY hated the most about it!!!!!!!!!!!!! which is that. ok. so there's a refrain that happens throughout the book where a mysterious voice inside a character's head intones something like the most miraculous beings in 4 billion years of existence need our help. and the characters understand this to mean that the trees need the help of humans, because, like. deforestation. climate change. rampant destruction of forest ecosystems. etc. and that would be very fitting because the whole premise of the book is about the wonder of trees.

BUT NO. it turns out that the voice was THE TREES TALKING ABOUT HUMANS. as in: the trees are saying that WE need THEIR help and they feel soooooooo bad for us and they're simply begging for us to LET THEM SAVE US because it's ALL ABOUT US and the trees only matter because they're important TO US.

and I just think that if you are good at writing trees and shit at writing humans, and you're trying to write a sweeping novel about the glory and genius of nature, and you purport to be critiquing the destructive self-centeredness of much of modern humanity, then maybe you shouldn't undercut your entire fucking narrative by putting humans at the center of the universe. GOD. it's so stupid.

#THANK YOU for asking these ones i had to get that out of my system. my god #asks #tortoisesshells #reading #me

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onebizarrekai · 4 years ago

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v3′s art is comically terrible for a professionally distributed game in a series: a compilation

in this not-essay I will list all of the mistakes and problems I have spotted in v3′s art. don’t worry, it’s entirely for fun and I’m doing this on a whim, so please feel free to not take this seriously but also it’s hilarious and embarrassing how ridiculous this is like what happened did they speedrun the whole production or what

see, there are some things you can take as meta like “they made it bad on purpose to allude to the downfall of tv shows that have been on air for much too long” but I have a very strong feeling this is not the case due to the nature of some of these errors

disclaimer, the more I study this art, the more I fear that the artists were underpaid and underslept, so if this is in fact the case, I am so sorry to all of them but also I’m going to make fun of the art anyway

anyway let’s get started!

if you study this image for longer than 5 seconds, you will see that kaede is the only one fully shaded and keebo is literally just his normal sprite pasted into the image. every other character is just an ordinary ref, hence most of them facing the exact same direction with neutral expressions on their faces. it looks like a bad edit, and is probably one of the worst pieces of art in the game. it kind of gets better from here on, but my roasting will not.

with that out of the way, here’s the problem that officially bothers me the most and clarifies my viewpoint of “this is not meta and an actual lack of company communication”

this freaking cg, which seems normal at a glance, but some wiseass was like “oh, kaede is a girl, so obviously she’s going to be shorter than the Male Protagonist™” ah, that’s funny. because if you look at the character bios, kaede is, in fact, one inch taller than shuichi and not like 6 inches shorter as she is shown here.

also shuichi’s shoulder is disproportionate and horrendous and he looks vaguely like a jojo character, but I wasn’t even thinking about that until right now.

thanks guys, 50% of the fandom who has never bothered to check these bios thinks that kaede is like 5′3 (did the developers really put so little thought into her to the point where drawing her correctly in the game didn’t even matter??)

also I would like to point out that, even though this isn’t related to the art itself, yes, a character kaede’s size being only 117 lbs is unfeasible, but this applies to literally every character in danganronpa ever and it’s not new news that it’s unrealistic

update: someone in the tags informed me that in versions of the game that use centimeters, like the japanese version, kaede is actually shorter than shuichi, which just adds another thing to the list of weird decisions the localization team made for no reason. that said, after confirming this, kaede is 167 cm in the original, while shuichi is 171 cm, which are approximately 5′6 and 5′7 respectively, but one inch is still nowhere near as drastic as it is depicted above. (in spite of this, I would rather depict kaede as slightly taller, so I’m probably going to keep doing that.)

the journey continues!

bro if you want kaede to have shoulder length hair then stick to it to begin with

you can pretend this is at an angle all you want but they definitely committed the shorter kaede sin a second time

wait a goddamn second.

DO YOU SEE THIS

no………… it wasn’t kaede who shrank. it was shuichi who got taller

speaking of which, can we talk about how shady the perspective is in this elevator pic? look at shuichi and kokichi in comparison to kaede. kokichi, who is canonically 7 inches (edit: or 5, if you’re loyal to the original) shorter than kaede, looks taller than kaede. he’s growing too. what steroids are these gays taking

running into the room, electric boogaloo: I don’t think tsumugi is supposed to be the same height as kokichi

gonta… gonta you’re lookin a bit like a jojo character there

I love how kaito’s head looks kind of like it was pasted onto his body. why is he the same size as shuichi? shouldn’t he be high school bully size or something? his torso is teensy

ah yes, white angie.

I love this cg but why is shuichi’s right hand so much bigger than his left hand

I also love how this cg looks like they literally took pictures of trees and pasted them into the background, especially on the left. the shadows are so weird, especially closer to the ceiling, it’s difficult for me to believe they didn’t do exactly that.

return of Enlarged shuichi

puberty update: kokichi is now taller than shuichi in spite of shuichi never missing leg day. what crimes will he commit

I have to mention it, guys. this has to be one of the worst danganronpa cgs. kokichi’s facial proportions look atrocious. look at the way his face sticks out like his jaw is in the wrong place. his scarf is a pasted texture. that’s it. this moment was so iconic but the cg just looks so… so… off. like something is terribly wrong, but you can’t put your finger on it.

you know what? let’s get into that ‘pasted texture’ thing.

let’s imagine you’re an artist working on a professional game. you’re assigned to draw cgs of kokichi ouma, who has a checkered scarf from hell. sure, it will be terrible to draw, but you only have to draw it once at a time! plus, perspective is pretty important, right? can you be bothered? nah, actually. let’s just copy paste a checkered pattern into the cg, because I’m sure nobody will notice. it’ll blend right in with the other cgs that someone actually put effort into drawing his scarf in, right?

no. the answer is no and I very much noticed. this genuinely looks terrible and I would understand taking a shortcut like that in fanart or even an indie game but this is a full price pc and console distributed game

(an addition: look at kokichi’s TINY HANDS in that last one)

meanwhile, they straight up forgot to color in kokichi’s scarf in this cg.

dude. I forgot about whatever the hell this cg was. anyway look at keebo please just look at him

lovin kaito’s baby arms

real talk, maybe you could argue that he’s missing muscle because he’s deathly sick, but most of his cgs don’t line up with this, and his arms just look disproportionate to his torso size (granted this is a consistent problem across all danganronpa games and a lot of characters have this weird problem, like hajime, but also kaito is bigger than hajime so I kind of have higher expectations of him) maybe it’s his stupid goatee and the way he reminds me of yasuhiro?? it creates this illusion that he’s older than he is and so I keep expecting him to look more like an adult

oh, also rantaro is missing some of his accessories in that video he made–you know the one–but I don’t wanna go back and screenshot it

also you may have noticed that I’m skipping all of the monokub cgs because I literally do not care about them and I’m not even bothering to check and see if they have artistic mistakes in them

JIMMY NEUTRON???

hey um uh kaito you seem to be missing your neck

hey guys do you like my pregame fanart

so, that done, the sprites are also pretty terrible at times. they’re not as interesting to go through, however, and downloading the full sprite sets for every character and studying every single one of them will drive me insane, so I’ll just sum some of the ones I noticed up. I made things for kaede and shuichi before deciding I wasn’t going to get into it, so here are these.

that said, other mistakes include kokichi missing his purple highlights in all of the sprites encompassing a specific pose, stray pixels all over the place on everyone, and everyone also has heavily inconsistent shading, but literally all I think about is how pregame shuichi is unshaded and two of kaede’s pregame sprites have glaring outfit change mistakes in them

anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my ridiculous ramble. in all seriousness, there’s this looming presence of some lack of communication in the development team, like with all the art and design inconsistencies, pieces and sprites that look rushed, stray pixels, and missing basic proportional stuff. these are the kinds of things that you supposedly have to pretty much have in the bag in order to get jobs in professional businesses, so it’s really weird to me that this game suffers from so many of these problems. it’s like they tried to make the art so much more crisp than the other games, but it fell on its face as they realized it was going to take longer to draw everything and they started to rush. it’s weird, because the coloring itself looks normal–it’s just sloppily drawn, and the proportions are a mess once put into the context of perspective. many of the cgs look like they were drawn by different people, and I’m still not over the fact that half of kokichi’s cgs have his scarf pasted in as a texture.

the moral of the story is that if you’re selling a game at full price that also happens to be in a series that has had 3 very good games in it already the stakes should probably be higher than this. v3 has been out for more than 3 years and it’s still $40 (did it cost more than that before? I sure hope not), and the overarching quality of the game is just not as high as the other games. I’m not saying that the other games don’t have any problems with their art at all, they’re just not as glaringly obvious and every artistic choice in those games feels intentional.

regardless, I had a blast roasting the art at 2am, so maybe you got a kick out of all this chaos.

#god I keep telling myself I'm gonna stop rambling about v3 #v3 spoilers #drv3 spoilers #ndrv3 #random stuff #but making this… it sounded so fun #danganronpa

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littlefoxgw2 · 3 years ago

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OC Interview: Cece (...just ‘Cece’)

Draw (or use an old drawing, don’t worry!) or take a screen of your character in an interview setting and make them answer the following questions!

(edit to add:) I was tagged by @long-journey - I’m so sorry I forgot to put that in the post before!

INTRODUCTION

Can you introduce yourself?: “Cece, graduate of the College of Dynamics, and currently Commander of the Pact.”

What is your gender identity, orientation and relationship status?: "Uh, female, and uh, I don’t really want relationships, thank you.”

Where and when were you born?: “Rata Sum, almost twenty-seven years ago.”

What is your weapon of choice and fighting style?: “I like swords. Big swords, little swords, I like ‘em all. Fighting style? Uh, I stab things ‘till they’re dead.”

Lastly, are you happy?: “Uh... uhm... yeah? I guess? I don’t know... Yeah. We’ll go with ‘yeah’.”

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

What’s your family like? What is your relationship with them?: “Uh, my parents... Let’s just say I don’t feel bad about not seeing them anymore. My sister... She’s okay. We get along alright, even if she is a bit of a chaotic spitfire.”

Have you ever ran away from home?: “Uh... Well... Uh... Why do you want to know? Let’s say ‘no’. Yeah, that sounds better.”

Would you consider marriage or having children?: “Uh, no, not right now.”

Do you secretly hate one of your friend?: “No! If I had friends, I would love each and every one of them. Wait what? Uh, next question...”

Which friend knows everything about you?: “My sister, Sizza.”

ASKED BY FANS

Are you literate? Have you been to school?: "Uh, of course! I’ll have you know I excelled at reading and writing and mathematics when I was a progeny.”

The eeriest prediction you made that later came true?: “Uhm... My predictions tend to be of a very pessimistic nature so I’m actually glad that none of them have ever come true.”

What is something you were embarrassingly late to realize?: “Apparently other people can read facial expressions? I always thought that was a myth because I’ve never been able to do that, but I eventually learned that no, it’s true, I’m just dumb.”

Do you have mental health or physical issues?: “They say I have anxiety, but I think I’m just naturally very alert, which is good, right? I mean, I’m a soldier, I have to be alert... right?”

What is your current main goal?: “Uh, to do the best I can to do my job well. We have a bit of a respite at the moment since Jormag and Primordus died, and I’m enjoying every second of it.”

CHOICES

Drink or food?: “Depends what the food is. If it’s chocolate, I’ll choose that every time.”

Cats or dogs?: “Cats! So many cats. My home is full of them.”

Early bird or night owl?: "Night owl. Sizza hates how late I keep the lights on when she comes to stay over.”

Optimist or pessimist?: “I say I’m a realist, but everyone else says I’m a pessimist, so do with that what you will.”

Sassy or sarcastic?: “Sassy!”

HAVE YOU EVER

Been caught sneaking out: “Fortunately, no.”

Broke a bone: “Thankfully no.“

Received flowers: “No.“

Ghosted someone: “Uh, no.”

Pretended to laugh at a joke you didn’t get: “All the time.”

I will no-pressure tag:

@dasozelotvonnebenan

@commander-wame

@thoseofuswhoblossom

@dumb-dumb-mander

and I can’t find anyone else I’m not too shy to tag so if you see this and want to do it, consider yourself tagged!

#Cece #My characters

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aspenflower17 · 4 years ago

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Finding You (Part Fourteen of ??)

Hey everyone! I hope you’re all having a good New Year so far! I have a bit of an update after the chapter for y’all.

Edit: Oop! I forgot the link to Part One for any new people! My bad!

Tags (ily all!): @simpingforsatan @naimena @hachimochi @wrathandgreed @magi-minminxiii @rensphilia @a-dream-at-night @chloelikesobeyme @getbehindme-satan @theuglypugling @oofthelazyweeb @mammonismyfirstman (as always, if you’d like to be put on the tags list, juust let me know in a comment down below, or a DM)

Word Count: 1,961

TW: None? I’m pretty sure?

Mc didn’t know what she was expecting from the song Satan’s brothers pressured him to play, but a gorgeous melancholic love song was not it, though she should have guessed it was a love song from the title. She was entranced from the first couple notes, and the lyrics pulled her in further. They spoke of someone experiencing love for the first time, though they were afraid of their Love fading away and leaving them. She smiled at the cat lyrics, finding herself not surprised Satan would write about them. He seemed like a cat lover, though she had no real basis for the belief.

Satan’s singing voice was just as nice as his speaking voice and she found herself impressed. It also held a lot of emotion, enough that she was surprised it didn’t affect his singing. Though she had never heard the song before, it seemed extremely familiar. Though, it was a fairly universal concept, so it probably just seemed she’d heard it before. She hadn’t realized she was crying until Mammon offered her a handkerchief. When he finished, everyone clapped, and he started on another song.

“I never thought I’d hear tha’ song again,” Mammon spoke to Mc in a low voice.

“Why?” she asked.

“Oh… Uhhh… Well, it’s about a lost love of his. Once she… disappeared… He played it one more time and then said he’d never play it again.”

Mc felt her throat constrict a bit at the revelation, “He must be doing better then. When he got his next… lover, he probably started feeling better.”

“He… Uhhh... '' Mammon floundered for words, and Mc found herself eagerly awaiting his next words, “I don’ think he’s dated anyone before or since her. If nothin’ else, she is his firs’ and only love.”

“Did she hurt him?”

“Huh?”

“I just ask because I’ve seen a lot of people, well, humans, who had relationships go sour and closed themselves off emotionally. I was just wondering if that’s what happened to him.”

“Not… Not exactly… She was human and she… died…” Mammon seemed really anxious at this point, and Mc decided not to push the subject further.

A human? Really? Well, that adds another layer to the song. It’s the most permanent level of “leave” there is. He knew going into the relationship it would end. But… If she had been corrupted enough by him, wouldn’t she have gone to the Devildom? Then they could’ve been together… Does that mean she went to the Celestial Realm? Do I know her? Or… Did she get stuck as a wanderer? Either way, why would he play it now? Mammon said he’d sworn off playing it ever again… The questions swirled around in her head as she watched Satan play.

“Ooooo! Ooooo! My turn!”

“Asmo, you can’t play piano,” Satan sighed, already getting up.

“But I can play music off of my DDD now can’t I?” Asmodeus said, waltzing up to what had become a stage.

As Asmo scrolled through what Mc could only assume was his list of songs, Satan came and stood next to her. Mammon even moved over so he could. Mc gave him a small smile and then turned her attention back to Asmodeus, who was gushing about the song he’d found to sing. She was still thinking about all the unanswered questions she had when she felt a breath next to her ear “What did you think?”

Mc almost jumped, but instead found herself glued to her chair, “Of the song? Or your singing?”

“Hmmm… Both.”

“You play and sing wonderfully. The song was beautiful. I could really feel your emotions.”

“Thank you,” Mc felt Satan retreat back to a standing position, and she found she missed his presence.

A huff from the other side of the room caught her attention. Looking over, she caught the tailend of Michael watching Satan with narrowed eyes before turning back to Asmodeus. How strange.

When Asmodeus finished, Lucifer was both begged and forced to play by those in the room. While Mc had to admit he was definitely in a league all his own, she found herself preferring Satan’s playing to Lucifer’s. She cocked her head slightly at the realization.

“Excellent Lucifer! Just exquisite!” Diavolo boomed, giving the Avatar of Pride a standing ovation, “I can’t remember the last time I heard you play!”

“Well, it has been awhile,” Lucifer smiled. His pride seemed to have recovered enough he could properly interact with people again. Mc was happy she was able to avert a crisis, not interested in finding out how a brawl between Michael and Lucifer would go. Though… Would either of them actually get into a physical altercation?...

Mc was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t realize the brothers were leaving until they were all asking if she would come to the House of Lamentation at some point.

“... And I would love to paint your nails,” Asmo prattled on, grabbing her hands, “And I know the Devildom’s lack of light can make your skin lose some of its radiance, but I have a moisturizer that can help with that. Oh and-”

“Asmo, come on! Ya want Mc to come visit or not?” Mammon interrupted,

“Mammon, you don’t understand the nuances of keeping yourself looking perfect.”

“Uh, yes. I do. I’m a model. Ya been smellin’ too many of ya fancy products and it’s melted ya brain?”

“I think you’re thinking of yourself, though it was probably when you were trying to con those witches into buying acid, and you drank some.”

“Oi! How do ya know about that?”

“Ugh, there they go again,” a head rested itself on Mc’s shoulder, and she almost jumped until she saw who it was, “Seriously though Mc. You should come over.”

“Yeah. You’re even welcome to bring Luke,” the one brother who she hadn’t talked to added, “Barbatos told me he’s gotten even better at baking.”

“Of course I’ve gotten better at baking! I’m also very good at cooking too,” Luke said, having joined the conversation.

Mc watched at Beelzebub, which is who she figured he must be through the process of elimination, actually started drooling, “Does that mean you’re actually going to come over then?”

Luke smiled fondly, a look Mc wasn’t sure she’d have ever thought he could have for a demon, “If you’d like Beel, I could probably make that happen.”

Beel rushed over to Luke and pulled him into a huge hug. Belphegor removed himself from Mc, walking over to Beelzebub, “Beel, you need to let go of the chihuahua or he’s going to suffocate. Luke can’t make you food if he’s been squished.”

“I’m sorry. I hope these idiots haven’t been bothering you too much.”

“Not at all Lucifer. They were just inviting me over sometime.”

“Well, I suppose it’s time for us to head out,” Lucifer said, starting to gather his brothers.

“You are welcome anytime you want to come over,” Satan’s voice came from behind her.

“I… Thanks. I would really like that.”

“Satan! We’re leaving.”

“I’m coming Lucifer,” Satan called, rolling his eyes, then back to Mc with a smile, “Bye.”

“Bye,” Mc called after him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mc sat in her room hours later, the events of the evening still running through her head. Though she knew Michael wouldn’t approve, she found herself much more at ease and even happier around them than she did around most angels. There was a non-judgmental kindness they all exuded (well, all except Lucifer) that made her feel like she belonged. She found herself excited about the prospect of spending more time with them at the House of Lamentation. She had to laugh a bit, the fact she didn’t fit in with the rest of the angels never more clear than it was now.

Simeon had told her his time in the Devildom had been extremely enjoyable, the less structured lifestyles if the Devildom a welcome change from the Celestial Realm. She had read his work from that time and it was obvious he had felt a lot more creative in the Devildom, even though he had school responsibilities at the time. While she hadn’t doubted his words, she had always figured the change was mostly due to the fact he had been able to communicate with his lost brothers again. Now she understood what he had been talking about.

Simeon generally gets along with the other angels too. What would they all say if they found out I prefer the company of the Fallen to them? Everything is just more natural with them. It’s almost like I already know who they are, as strange as that sounds. Especially Satan, though I’ve felt connected to him since I got his letter. Speaking of which, who was it that he mentioned? Lil… Lilly? Lillah? Lillian? Hmmm… I can’t remember. I do know I’ve never heard that name before. Whoever it was seemed to have a great impact on all of the brothers. It can’t be someone they Fell with. I’ve read all the literature about the Fall and I don’t recognize the name. Though there’s a lot about the Fall the Celestial Realm doesn’t talk about. But... Simeon’s also never mentioned anyone with that name before… Maybe it’s time for me to do some more research.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mc stretched, and checked the time on her DDD. She had been in Diavolo’s personal library for over three hours, and she still hadn’t found any mention of the mysterious “L” person. She found plenty of references to Lucifer though. It seemed he and his brothers had been instrumental in helping Diavolo establish order when the old King had started his slumber. What caused this slumber, why it happened, or if it would end was not covered. Mc wanted to research the topic further, but she couldn’t get distracted until she had answered her initial question.

There was a knock at the door, and Barbatos came in carrying a teacup on a saucer, “I thought you might be in here.”

“Oh, hello Barbatos.”

The butler entered the room, and set the tea down on the table Mc was studying at, “I thought you might like some tea.”

“I would actually, thank you. If you would like to, you can take a seat.”

“I suppose that’d be alright,” Barbatos smiled, and sat down in a chair. His eyes glided across the books strewn around Mc, “You’ve got some heavy reading here.”

“Well, I’m trying to figure something out,” Mc sighed, sipping her tea.

“Perhaps I can be of assistance?”

“Maybe, though I don’t remember what it is I’m looking for exactly,” Barbatos simply cocked his head slightly until she continued, “Satan was telling about… Well, a personal experience, and he mentioned someone. I don’t remember their name, but it was someone very close to all the brothers and they had passed away. I was just trying to figure out who it was.”

“You seem very interested in this person,” Barbatos’ tone wasn’t accusatory, but he seemed to expect and answer.

“... I guess I’m just trying to understand them better. Him better,” The last part slipped from Mc’s mouth easily, surprising even her.

“I think I may know who you’re talking about. If I’m correct, you won’t find any references to her in these books. It’s not my place to explain the situation to you however. You should probably go speak with the brothers about her…” the butler paused for a second before continuing, “I believe Michael also knows a lot about the situation, though he doesn’t know the full story,” with that, he got up and pushed his chair in, “I must continue with my duties, but I appreciate the short reprieve. Good night.”

“Night,” Mc called after him. Huh. Michael knows?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part Fifteen

I wanted to let you all know that as it is January, ever since 2014 the first moth of the year has been terrible for me. So far, we are 3 days into 2021, and I have already gotten a near constant tooth ache meaning I’m going to have to go to the dentist, and have gotten sick. I don’t know what else this month has in store for me, but I just wanted to warn you all, if my updates get sporadic or short, that’s why 😬

#OBEY ME #obey me!#obey me! swd #obey me satan #obey me satan/mc #obey me barbatos #obey me brothers #obey me! shall we date?#obey me mc #obey me long fic #obey me michael #obey me lilith #Finding You #my writing #aspenflower17

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succulentsunrise · 4 years ago

Text

Where the Fire Lilies Grow

Content: SFW!

Mereoleona and Tani get to talk a bit!!

EDIT: I forgot to add, Solara Equinox is Laura's OC from her fic, Embers of Sun and Fire!!

Tag list: @thoughtfullyrainynightmare, @lyranova ❤️

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Chapter 7: Red Raven

"It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them."

Agatha Christie

Tani slipped into the hotspring, hoping to relax for a little bit. There was no such luck, however. Lady Mereoleona settled near her, one arm draped to the side of the hotspring, the other holding a mug. She seemed to be enjoying herself. For a moment, they sat there in silence, with Mereoleona sipping her drink happily. It was a little unnerving for Tani. She cleared her throat, preparing to make another attempt at a conversation.

“Thank you for letting me train with you,” Tani said sincerely, watching as those blue eyes turned towards her.

“Gamma said he wanted to bring someone in,” Mereoleona answered dismissively. “Didn’t tell me it was you.”

“You didn’t know who you invited?”

Tani’s tone had perhaps been a little too incredulous, as Mereoleona scoffed a little.

“What does it matter? Someone wanted to grow stronger,” she commented.

“Fair enough,” Tani consented with a polite smile. “I am grateful for the opportunity, though the climb was hellish.”

“Complain and I’ll throw you back to the bottom.”

“...yes, ma’am.”

Tani wanted to challenge that threat - and perhaps the other woman had expected her to, based on the arched eyebrow - but she was determined to stay respectful this time. Nobles were easier to deal with if one agreed with them, no matter one’s own views. It was different with Icree and Luka, naturally, but with Lady Mereoleona...Tani shook her head, slightly frustrated with herself. She had felt more brave the first time they had met due to exhaustion. Now she was aware of social boundaries once more.

“Want some?” Mereoleona asked, offering the bottle of alcohol towards her.

Tani’s eyes lit up, her previous thoughts of respect once more being swept away by the promise of a drink. Her eyes scanned around for a cup. She had not realized to bring one with her, as she had not known there’d be drinks. Technically, there wasn’t. It seemed like the lady had brought her own to this training session.

“No cup?” Mereoleona guessed, watching her frantically search for anything with her gaze. “Too bad.“

The disappointment must have shown on her face, as the woman burst to cheerful laughter. She seemed delighted.

“Share yours then,” Tani demanded boldly.

“No way,” Mereoleona laughed.

“I’ll arm-wrestle you for it.”

“With that broken shoulder?”

“I’m right-handed, it won’t matter.”

“You won’t even be a challenge.”

“I respectfully disagree, ma’am.”

Tani put her right hand towards Lady Mereoleona, placing it at the edge of the hot springs challengingly. Mereoleona seemed amused, perhaps even a little fired up. That same wicked smile that Tani had seen before appeared on her lips, as she put away her drink and clasped the hand. Her grip was strong, though their platform was not the best for this.

“If I win, you’ll give me your mug to drink from,” Tani stated her demand.

“And if I win, you’ll buy me a bottle,” Mereoleona replied.

They counted down - and then, began to push. Tani pressed against the previous Captain’s hand with her whole arm, hoping that all that training was not for nothing. Most Knights relied on magic to reinforce their natural strength and were weak beyond it. The muscular arm in front of her suggested otherwise, however. Slowly but surely, Mereoleona was pushing Tani’s hand down. Tani struggled to fight against it, clenching her teeth together reflexively. Part of her left shoulder ached from her tensing up. Mereoleona was smiling, looking unfazed and perhaps excited. Still, it was clear Tani was losing, and it didn’t take long for her arm to be pushed down in a slightly painful angle. Tani let out a displeased noise, much to the other’s amusement.

“Bottle it is, then,” Mereoleona announced happily. “Liquor, thank you very much.”

Tani scoffed, a slight playful look entering her eyes. She refused to accept that she enjoyed that happy smile this much.

“Best of three?” she suggested instead, earning another grin from the other one.

“You are determined, I’ll give you that,” Mereoleona said, shaking her head. “But no. I earned my liquor.”

“Another time then.”

“I don’t remember inviting you to another training.”

“I don’t remember asking.”

Again, that attitude - it just slipped past her lips before she thought about it.

“What I mean is,” Tani began, starting to backtrack. “We don’t need to meet only during you training your squad. I would be honoured to join it, of course, but its benefits are...less effective for me.”

“How come?” Mereleona asked, clearly curious as to her reasoning.

“I would like to believe that I have a good control over my mana,” she explained carefully, trying not to sound boastful. “My problem is, well, the limited amount of it.”

“This place might still be more useful to you than you think,” Mereoleona commented. “It can drain your magic very quickly, leaving you to figure out what to do after your mana is gone.”

“I’ve figured that one out already. It’s called a sword.”

“A sword?”

“Surely you’ve heard of one.”

Mereleona considered her a while, but shrugged.

“Do what you will. I maintain that this place would do good for you,” she simply replied, turning back to her drink.

“We’ll see,” Tani said slowly.

She had perhaps been a little too aggressive. She had wanted to tell Mereoleona that she could use a sword, but it had instead come out wrong. Why was talking so difficult? They drifted into an awkward silence, both looking elsewhere. The water was warm and nice, easily washing away the previous heat. All it needed to be perfect was a drink. Which she still did not have. She stole another peek at Mereoleona, who was drinking with a more thoughtful expression now.

“Will you stay with the squad still?” Tani asked carefully.

As far as she had heard from Icree, Mereoleona Vermillion had been expected to become the leader of Crimson Lion Kings. Instead, she left the capital, leaving Fuegoleon Vermillion to take her place. Now she was back, and she had had a taste of being a captain. However, Lord Vermillion was no longer in coma, and would likely not give up his place.

“For now,” Mereoleona answered after a brief pause.

It seemed like even she had to think about it for a moment, her gaze rising to the starry night sky.

“There’s still some unfinished business,” she continued quietly. “Some people who can’t speak up their minds.”

If Mereoleona’s gaze hadn’t been so unfocused, Tani would have thought it to be a jab at her. Fortunately it seemed like the woman was thinking of someone - or someones - else.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Tani said sincerely, causing Mereoleona’s unfocused gaze to turn to her.

“Well, you know, because,” she stumbled on her words, a small blush rising once more to her cheeks. “Otherwise delivering that liquor would be really hard.”

Mereoleona smiled at her widely.

“You just bring it to the headquarters,” she commanded happily.

“Well, how about we meet in the Red Raven this week? You know it?” Tani suggested boldly, relieved to see Mereoleona nod.

“I know the place. It’s in Kikka, right?”

“Yeah, it’s a nice place. I could share a glass with you there.”

“Hey now,” Mereoleona interrupted with a suspicious glance. “I won a bottle fair and square. What’s this about sharing?”

Tani slowly got up from the hot springs, summoning all the confidence she had.

“I’ll buy you a bottle worth of liquor, but in small amounts. I’m not rich, you know,” she announced with a smile. “You’ll just have to meet me in Red Raven a few times.”

“This sounds more like you want to spend time with me,” Mereoleona remarked.

“If you don’t like it, you can wait longer for me to save money for a proper bottle.”

“Ha! Drinking with company is more fun, anyways.”

Tani gave her a gentler smile, and stepped out to dry herself. She could see some people washing themselves here, but with her arm, there was no way she’d do the same. She’d ask Icree to help her back at the base.

“See you around,” Tani waved goodbye to lady Mereoleona, receiving but a wave of hand in return.

It was still enough. The whole flight back to the base, Tani felt giddy and excited. She did realize that she hadn’t fixed a proper date with the lady, but surely she could do that later. Somehow. It was perhaps another excuse to see Mereoleona, and the lady had at least seemed like she wanted to meet as well. Maybe. With butterflies in her stomach, Tani returned to the base to meet with her friends. It was too early to tell them anything, but it would be good to see how Kliodna was faring. She had not seen Kliodna since the attack. She had heard from Icree that the girl had returned to normal, but they hadn’t met due to her hospitalization. Tani was determined to talk to her in the morning. The return was easy enough, and with the help of Icree, Tani’s arm was patched up again. They spoke little of what had happened, instead concentrating on making sure they were both alright.

The next day Tani received visitors in her room: Icree, Luka and Kliodna. The former came into the room rather timidly, as if she was afraid that Tani would be angry at her. Kliodna was herself again - the purple hair was tied to a high ponytail, and her sad eyes were filled with worry. Icree walked cheerfully to the bed, carrying a small collection of cupcakes with her. She gave one to Tani without hesitation, and distributed the leftovers to the others.

“How are you holding up?” Icree started with a smile, sitting to the bed and beckoning Kliodna to sit next to her.

“Mostly healed up,” Tani answered honestly. “The arm still needs some healing. How about you guys?”

“Well, most of us - as in the knights - are resting or helping with the city. You won’t need to exert yourself. We three, we are...”

There was a small pause, as Icree glanced to her side.

“We are also mostly fine,” Luka finished the sentence, staying near the wall.

He seemed perhaps even more reclusive than before. His forearms bore marks of clay or some other material, and there were black bags under his eyes - signs that he had been working all night on some new statue.

“We do have a small problem in our hands,” Icree admitted, her gaze meeting Kliodna’s.

“What’s wrong?” Tani immediately asked, alarmed.

Kliodna shifted uncomfortably, sadness filling her tired eyes. She too had bags under her eyes, as if she hadn’t slept in ages. Her fingers moved slowly to sign words, her lips mouthing them alongside.

“Since Kliodna attacked other Magic Knights of her own squad, it could end up being troublesome,” Icree interpreted. “She has no proof that there was someone else in her body. We are waiting whether the royals have some evidence of the possession, because otherwise…”

Icree didn’t quite finish it, instead exchanging glances with Tani. Kliodna would be charged with attacking the other knights. The Magic Parliament wasn’t known for its unbiased opinion - its seats were filled by nobles, who could easily be swayed to any opinion. If someone decided to call this possession an insurrection or something worse, Kliodna could be in trouble. Considering that she was a noble, they might take it easy on her, but she was only a petty noble. As far as Tani knew, her house had some sway over other noble families, but not enough to ensure that Kliodna wouldn’t be executed by the opinions of scaredy-cats. The kingdom was tattered, in shock and about to face multiple crises. The nobles would be eager to find someone to blame this matter on.

“We were witness to your possession. We’ll testify for you,” Tani promised quietly, looking to Kliodna.

“If they’ll even consider calling for witnesses,” Kliodna signed, her lips barely mouthing the words.

“We’ll do everything we can for you, Kliodna,” Tani insisted with even more determination.

She rose up from the bed carefully to go closer to the girl, and pulled her to a gentle hug. Kliodna was very awkward about it, and a bit tense, trying hard to avoid touching the broken shoulder.

“You have more connections than you’d think,” Icree added, winking a little. “And I’ll pull on every string I can for them to see our way.”

“Your magic was amazing,” Tani changed the topic, trying to also make Kliodna’s thoughts move away from her possible fate. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Kliodna smiled bashfully a little.

“It’s hard on my throat,” she signed, her fingers moving quicker again. “It didn’t used to be so strong, like then. I’ve never hurt anyone like that.”

“The elves have a different relationship with mana than us,” Icree explained, her face thoughtful. “Whoever possessed you probably had a lot more power and experience.”

“We should figure out how to protect your throat,” Tani commented, looking at Kliodna’s throat as if she could somehow see the damage inside it. “Your magic shouldn’t hurt you so. I’m certain there has to be a way to negate its effects on you.”

Icree’s thoughtful look only deepened. Tani was certain that the gears were turning in her head, trying to dip into her immense pool of knowledge. She couldn’t help but smile a bit. She had been so worried over Icree, but it seemed like her friend was alright, in most parts. She was still cheerful and trying to help others at every step. It was almost like nothing had changed, and yet - everything had changed.

“I’ll look into it,” Icree assured, her gaze still seeking answers from the ceiling of the room. “

“I’ll help,” Luka suddenly piped up, surprising them all.

Kliodna gave him a grateful smile and nodded.

“Me too, then!” she signed, her mood seemingly much cheerier.

The day moved on, with the group staying largely together - perhaps out of some unconscious need to be within eyesight of each other. They ate, they walked and studied together, and the day turned to night, and the night to another day, and so the week began passing. Tani did not tell them of her plans to meet with Lady Mereoleona, but instead dealt with it slightly in secret. Though Luka saw one of her messages arrive, he did not question it, nor did he talk about it. Eventually, Tani was able to find a day when they were both free, and a meeting was scheduled.

The tavern was familiar to Tani. Red Raven attempted to be fancy enough for nobles to visit, but it was mostly frequented by workers and commoners due to its affordable prices. Every now and then a noble was drawn in by the beautiful sign outside, the rich red banners and the generally pleasant atmosphere. Tani had come early, ordering two glasses of liquor and taking a place near a window to the street. Her stomach was completely in knots, and she kept fidgeting with her fingers. She was nervous. Luckily it didn’t take long for Mereoleona to arrive - otherwise Tani might have shredded a napkin to pieces. Mereoleona greeted her with a big smile, and sat down on the opposite side. Tani smiled back, trying to think of all the talking topics she had been rehearsing before this.

“So, your first glass, as promised,” she said while gesturing to the liquor.

“Such small glass,” Mereoleona joked. “It will take quite a few meetings for you to make me drink a whole bottle.”

“How are you doing?” Tani asked quickly, not wanting to divulge into her motives.

She had said to Mereoleona that they didn’t have to meet, but she didn’t want the other to reconsider that so soon. No, Tani was determined to make these meetings fun and get to know her.

“Pretty normal day,” Mereoleona answered in a noncommittal manner. “More training since we’ve last met.”

“Admirable pace you have there.”

“Challenges are a part of the fun. If those knights want to call themselves Lions, they’ve got to learn to act the part. How’s your shoulder?”

“Not any different from the last time, I’m afraid. It’s going to take its sweet time.”

“I see you’ve added decorations.”

Mereoleona pointed at Tani’s arm sling, which indeed had small, yellow flowers draped over it. They emitted faint mana.

“Not just decorations,” Tani started slowly. “Though my recovery magic isn’t the strongest, I am trying to fasten my body’s natural healing. I’m not planning to wait six weeks with this arm sling on.”

Mereoleona laughed a little, perhaps amused by her stubbornness.

“You shouldn’t underestimate your abilities,” she commented. “Your healing capabilities are quite adequate for most injuries.”

Tani let out a small, nervous laugh. She should probably take that as a compliment.

“It should not have enabled you to walk that day anymore,” she teased. “You are too reckless, walking around like that.”

“There’s no rest in war,” Mereoleona said, a little more serious.

“Ah--I suppose, yes. I heard your brother was up and walking again?”

“Yes, nothing’s wrong with that fool that wasn’t wrong before.”

“What does that mean?” Tani inquired.

“Do you have younger siblings?” Mereoleona asked thoughtfully in return, swirling the liquid in her glass.

“Yes, a younger sister.”

“Don’t you ever think that her actions are sometimes foolish?”

Tani smiled widely, but shook her head. It seemed like Mereoleona wasn’t willing to gossip about her brother, and Tani wasn’t seriously that interested.

“I guess sometimes. She’s much more level-headed than me, though,” she replied.

“Fuegoleon’s plenty sensible when it comes to work. Life outside of work?” Mereoleona continued with a shake of her head. “The man’s a fool.”

“At least he has such a sensible older sister,” Tani laughed happily.

There was a new twinkle in Mereoleona’s eyes, as she slightly cocked her head to one side.

“Damn right he does,” she answered. “Someone’s got to rival his foolishness. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“What’s your sister like? Do you compete? You were eager about armwrestling before.”

“Oh, we’ve done plenty of armwrestling together, but we don’t really compete. We are interested in different things.”

“What kind of things?”

“She works at the mines here with my parents. Stone, metal and their infinite possibilities are all you’ll get out of her sometimes. She has her own circle of friends and I have mine, and they don’t overlap a lot. We have around four years of age difference, after all.”

“Ah, I see. And you are not interested in the same things?”

“Partly, yes. My interest simply is more...botanical. I have quite a nice garden at the headquarters. I used to work in the mines too, before I became a knight, but plants speak more to my heart than rock and stone. How did you--I mean, I guess you became a knight through your family?”

Mereoleona nodded simply as an answer. It didn’t seem to need further explaining. Royals were that way - they didn’t even need to attend entrance exams to join the Magic Knights.

“Lucky,” Tani commented. “Not that I’d doubt that you wouldn’t have gotten in anyways.”

“You’d be correct in that,” Mereoleona answered without hesitation.

“I’m curious if you work out in addition to your crazy training sessions. You’ve got quite impressive muscles.”

“A-ha,” Mereoleona said lazily, that small canine peeking out of her wide smile again. “Most of my workout comes about naturally, since I don’t like sitting around.”

“My sister’s the same way,” Tani laughed happily. “And so am I, I suppose. Though I like to train - it’s good fun.”

“Does that involve your famous sword?”

“You are teasing me now.”

“Perhaps.”

Tani felt a small redness rise to her cheeks, but she nodded still eagerly.

“I like to practise with my sword, yes, but it’s all self-taught,” she explained. “Any real swordsman would probably scoff at my techniques.”

“What are you basing your techniques on, then?” Mereoleona inquired with a curious tone.

“Oh, this and that. If I am alone, I sometimes add a bit of dance to it. It’s not a valid technique for me, but it’s fun.”

“I see.”

The conversation continued in good humours, with both of them beginning to talk about fighting. Tani learnt that Mereoleona was - as rumoured - very in tune with the nature around her, and instead of weaponry, used her own fists to fight. It was fitting, somehow. The topic changed very naturally from there to the wilds and Mereoleona’s experiences there, which were filled with dangers and good meat. It seemed to Tani that the woman in front of her made unashamedly many decisions purely based on what she liked. She had moved to the wilds because it was more comfortable for her. When she was describing a particularly juicy hunt rather expressively with her hands, Tani suddenly grabbed it. She held Mereoleona’s hand in hers, positioning it to an armwrestling position with a grin.

“The one to lose 3 matches is going to buy us some food,” she challenged. “I’m hungry after all your descriptions.”

“The meat here won’t be as good as the one in the wilds,” Mereoleona commented, but placed her arm into proper position as well.

“Then you’ll just have to serve me some wild meat later.”

“You lost last time, are you sure you want to do this?”

“You simply distracted me last time, and the platform was bad.”

There was again that twinkle in Mereoleona’s eye as she listened to Tani’s excuses. Tani wasn’t quite sure how to interpret it. Perhaps something amused her.

“Your loss,” Mereoleona said with a shrug, and prepared to wrestle again.

So they locked hands again, pushing against each other with all of their might. Unfortunately for Tani, she had not miraculously gained more muscles in less than a week. Though she put up a good fight, it was her arm that hit the table three times in a row.

“Ah, you’re going to make me poor,” Tani laughed with a wide smile.

She quite enjoyed Mereoleona’s company, and unless her judgement was completely off, Mereoleona seemed to enjoy hers. They ordered food and continued talking for another half an hour, the topic shifting to their families. Tani talked about her family quite sparsely, as there wasn’t much to tell in her opinion: they were miners, they had always been miners, and Tani was the only outlier of becoming a Magic Knight. Mereoleona seemed similarly short about her family - they were royals, after all, and most of their life was known to the public. She was a lot more talkative about the Crimson Lion Kings, explaining how she had recruited a great new member to the squad. Tani recognized by the description the blonde woman she had seen at the Royal Knight exams with the youngest brother, Leopold Vermillion. She was called Solara Equinox, and seemed to be held in high regard by Mereoleona. So highly did she talk about this Solara, that Tani started to have a perhaps unreasonable suspicion.

“So,” she began carefully, pushing away her finished plate. “Are you two...involved?”

“Involved?” Mereoleona repeated, arching an eyebrow.

Tani felt the awkwardness crawl up her spine.

“As in--together. Are you and Solara together?”

“Together?”

“Are you a pair?”

“Pair of good friends,” Mereoleona said with a grin.

Tani sighed, feeling embarrassed. This was a mess, and she had no reason to give as to why she was interested.

“No, we are not dating,” Mereoleona continued, playing with her glass. “Why, are you interested in her?”

“No!” Tani denied quickly, hoping that the other wouldn’t read too much into it. “That’s not why I asked.”

“Then why did you?”

“I was just curious!”

“Probably for the better. I think she’s got someone else in sights.”

“Ah. Well, I am not interested. I don’t even know her.”

“I could always introduce--” Mereolena started with a teasing tone, but was interrupted by Tani.

“Won’t you stop it? I’m interested in you, not her!”

The moment Tani let it slip, she turned quite red. Especially watching the pleased smile that decorated Mereoleona’s face - it felt like she had fished for this response.

“Are you now?” she questioned with a satisfied tone.

“Oh boy,” Tani sighed, holding her head with one hand.

This was a mess. A big mess. At least Mereoleona seemed to have some pity on her.

“So, are you involved with someone?” she asked calmly, as if Tani’s confession had not happened.

“...no,” Tani answered silently. “I’m not.”

“Good to know,” Mereoleona said with a teasing tone.

“Don’t misunderstand,” Tani pleaded quietly, trying to gather her thoughts. “When I say I am interested--”

“Don’t worry,” Mereoleona interrupted her, but Tani shook her head.

“No, let me explain. You seem like an interesting person. I don’t want you to think that I am after you romantically--or for your status or--or anything. I just want to make clear that--I just wanted to make a friend. You are a very interesting person, so it led to this.”

“I understand.”

“If it’s alright, I’d like to meet like this again, and talk some more.”

“I would like to get to know you better too,” Mereoleona replied, a thoughtful look on her face.

Almost like she was evaluating her words. Tani sighed. She might have screwed this one up, but at least Mereoleona was willing to meet her again.

“I should probably get going,” she said hesitantly, not feeling comfortable staying much longer.

Mereoleona nodded and started to gather her things.

“I’ll be free next week on the same day again,” she said with a smile.

It wasn’t quite the same confident, wide smile, but a more thoughtful one. To Tani, it was a sign that she had indeed soured the mood a little. Perhaps - maybe? - the other woman was interested in her? Had she ruined it by saying she wanted to be friends? What a headache.

“Then I’ll meet you here. Perhaps that time you can pay for the food,” Tani attempted to joke, earning a little wider smile from Mereoleona.

“Beat me first,” Mereoleona simply answered before walking away.

Tani gathered her things as well, and, despite her uncertainty, felt a little smile rise to her lips. All in all, it hadn’t gone that bad. As she flew back and landed in the courtyard of the headquarters, her steps had a little bit of a spring to them.

Tani could not wait for the next week.

#Where the Fire Lilies Grow #black clover fanfiction #black clover oc #I hope I didn't butcher Mereoleona 😭😭

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inevitably-johnlocked · 4 years ago

Note

Hey not sure if you know any but any johnlock fics with a Downton Abbey/gentry falls for the servant theme? Or any “the posh boy loves the commoner” type theme?

TIA! Love your blog! (It’s nice to see some 25+ bloggers around at 28 I feel positively ancient in this fandom)

Hi Lovely!!

Ahhh, thank you for your lovely comments about my blog!! I’m happy you enjoy your time here!!!

Ah, I do have a few fic that might meet your criteria on my Rich Sherlock (March 2020) fic list! I know that there’s a few I haven’t read yet that have this theme, so if anyone has any, please add them below!

EDIT: just double checked my Rich Sherlock list and I can’t believe I forgot this on the list:

we have never seen a greater day than this by Lediona (T, 36,420 w., 7 Ch. || A Royal Night Out AU || WWII / VE Day, Prince Sherlock, Soldier John, Alternating POV, First Kiss, Bittersweet Ending, Homophobia, Dancing) – Peace. At long last. It’s VE Day and Prince William desires to join the celebrations. It is a night of excitement, danger and the first flutters of romance.

Which has a bittersweet ending, but it’s a Prince Sherlock and Soldier John during the end of WWII.

Oh! And I found these checking my MFL offline list that has “regency” in the tags:

A Marriage of Convenience by Phuchka (E, 43,116 w., 24 Ch. || Regency Omegaverse || Jealous John, Mpreg, Angst, Whump, Fluff, Smut, Arranged Marriage) – You are cordially invited to attend the wedding of ~The Honourable Sherlock Holmes, Alpha, younger brother of the Earl of Sherrinford with Mr. John Watson, Omega, son of Mr. Howard Watson, chairman of the City Bankers Guild.

Human Nature by delightful_fear (M, 57,585 w., 17 Ch. || Regency London AU || 1819 / Gregorian England, Historical, Alternate First Meeting) – Rich and spoiled Sherlock makes a wager with his older brother that he can take a penniless man and make him presentable in high society.

A Matter of Chance by weneedtotalkaboutsherlock (E, 100,631 w., 18 Ch. || Regency AU || Forbidden Love, Slow Burn, Class Differences, No Period-Typical Homophobia, Gay Marriage is OK, Forced Marriage, Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Humour, Angst with Happy Ending, Drama Queen Sherlock, Sexually Naïve Sherlock, Aromantic Mycroft, First Kiss / Time, Declarations of Love, Minor Character Death) – "If it were only for me, I would never marry." "Why so?" "I do not believe in love, Dr Watson. It is a great disadvantage to lose one's head over such a volatile matter."

Over Fathoms Deep by bittergreens (E, 397,575+ w., 51/? Ch. || WiP || Historical / Regency / Sailing AU || Sailor!John / Aristocrat!Sherlock, Pining Sherlock, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Virgin Sherlock, Sailing, Bottomlock, UST / RST, Hand/Blow Jobs, Frottage, Masturbation, Happy Ending, Anal) – When the youngest son of the aristocratic Holmes family is shipped off to sea in an attempt to cure him of his poor temper and bad manners, he fully expects to spend a long tedious voyage as miserable as ever. What he does not count on is having his heart stolen by the strapping young crewman, John Watson.

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Let us know gang, if you have any others!! <3

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #regency fics #rich sherlock #help steph find fics #closetsherlockian

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sakura-haruka · 4 years ago

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Mike aka captainpoe is talking shit about me so let me get things straight.

He’s gonna do screenshots of what will makes him look like the victim, like he always does so you will have to believe me on my words (since I coun’t found our conversations by pm) but most people who know me or I've been following me for a long time know that I usually stay out of the drama. Big thanks to my friends for telling me what he was doing behind my back like the adult he is.

3 years ago Mike started following me, I was back then a small blog and I thought “wow a big blog is following me!”

He started to talk me and really fast told me to send him my edits by messages and I did! he also reblogged me on his mcu blog (and his sw blog too... I think).

I was really stressed with a big exam around July and I became obsess with EVERYTHING, I was a true pain in the ass to everyone. I’m not gonna lie. So yeah I also became obsess with my Tumblr notes, I did gifs to relax but it was not working very well back then. my behavior was childish and I apologized to him after!

(He accused me of wanting to be reblogged on his sideblogs, it’s true, but it’s natural to me to reblog everything that people send me or tag me in on my sideblogs, I sincerely don’t understand people problem with reblogging on sideblogs things ).

When he got harassed on here, more like called out (it was actually around the same time I was a dick) he asked me to take his defense and to reblog a post he made, he was basically whining about how he was the victim and never harassed anyone, he sent me messaged telling me that he was a married man in florida and never did anything against the once upon a time fandom, wasn’t homophobic and meh meh meh... Back then I believed him because he was the nice guy who was helping me getting notes in the MCU fandom. He used me, after talking to other members I realized that I wasn’t alone.

I WANT TO APOLOGIES TO THE POEPLE I DIDN’T BELIEVED BACK THEN. I KNOW WHO HE IS NOW.

He started being aggressive but nothing worriedly when TLJ came around, it was a real little thing but I wasn't shipping Rey x poe and I felt like it was problem for him that I wasn’t shipping them. I didn't thought too much about it but still, it left a bad taste in my mouth, I wasn’t talking a lot to him after that.

When I had problems and got hate on my blog he didn't do shit to help me.

I was still sending me my edits because... Notes. I can’t lie about that, like every creators here I want my edits to get notes.

I think we haven’t talked for a verrrry long time, I was sending my edits that’s it.

Last year he asked me to join my GOT blog, after all the reblog he did for me I thought It would be really bitchy to me to not add him as a member. But I also noted that it was funny how he joined both the B99 and the GOT fandom once he realized that it was very popular.

He did edits on the blog so no problem at all, until s8 ended. I’m like everybody, I hated that season but when someone join my sideblogs, especially my got one, I am very clear about the no hate rule (I had problems with that on this blog before). But he thought that since he was popular he could do what he wanted, I deleted the two first he reblogged, one of them was calling people to harass D&D and I hate what they did but as someone who has been victim of bullying at school and still suffer from that I was disgusted by what he posted but I haven’t told him anything since he’s really popular and I didn’t want to create any drama... I have a life so I finally forgot about it.

My laptop broke and gosh, I really understood who he was at that moment! I sent a messages to all the members of my sideblogs asking them to keep the blogs active while I can’t, normal stuff for an admin. I had my tablet with no photoshop... spidey got “fired” and like a lot of other people I thought about that scene in iw where Tony told him “you’re an avenger now”, lucky me I have already made that gifset before so I took my tablet and just reposted my own gifset, it took me so long because I had to convert it back to gif format because of Tumblr... Anyway, later he sent me a message accusing me of having copied him and I haven’t seen his gifset so told him exactly that. He then accused me of doing that ALL THE TIME with endgame and I told him “listen bro we’re both using the same 30 seconds YouTube clips that marvel gave us”, like 20 other people (they were not a lot of people because that channel was weirdly unknown), it’s true that I was doing them after him but it’s just because I have a life and cannot always do gif, I make them when I have time. He also basically told me that I must be rich for having replaced my laptop that fast, I haven’t, I was using my tablet but even if I did replace my laptop, mêle toi de ton cul ( I have no English expression coming to me ).

I really understood who he was then.

He totally stopped making edits for my got blog, because it stopped trending so it wasn’t interesting him anymore.

a few months past and I think the only thing he told me is that he was scared of clowns... Literally.

And then the BIG ONE, I know he was a douche but omg. Mike asked me to reblog ALL his posts on a sideblog I'm only a member of. He told me that the admin have blocked him because she was shipping reylo and well reylos hate him because he’s posting shit on them , they were a huge misunderstanding then (because i’m French and I may not have explained myself right) , I told him that I wouldn’t reblog him if the admin didn’t want to see his posts on the blog, he was blocked! and I was, at the same time, talking to another member of this blog who is a close friend of the admin and she agreed with me. he was very insisting and I told him that the admin was checking what we add to the queue and would certainly delete his posts, it was the big misunderstanding that could have hurt the admin of the blog, I just meant I know she checks what’s happening because she told me when I don’t tag a post with the right tags, it’s just what a good admin (unlike myself) does. I also told him that it was a new blog with “only” 14k followers, he must have something like 50K followers sooooo, and that his edits were getting 100K notes, more than anybody here. He became... I have no words to describe that. He told me that it was a dictatorship if I couldn’t reblog what I wanted, and that I should leave the blog, I stopped answering pretty fast after that.

In our last conversation I was vulgar. (it’s in the post he sent to my friends), he really need to get over it, I’m French and from Normandie : I am vulgar! wtf. It’s also the last thing he ever posted on my game of thrones blog. It was a Sunday either two days after after the last star wars movie came out or ten days ( I don’t remember if he waited a week or not) but he reblogged a text post from his blog sending hate toward the writers of both got and sw and spoiled the entire Star Wars movie on my game of thrones blog, which was “the drop of water that caused the vase to bleed” like annoy me all you want but when people goes on my got blog they don’t want to be spoiled, it was so rude and mean and that post had nothing to do there and it was at least the third time so I told him to “fucking stop” and since mr thinks he is the king he went all “you can’t talk to me like that” “I'm an adult” meh meh meh. I told him to never go in France ‘cause he wouldn't like us. And it was the last time we spoke. Nothing to do directly with me but I would never do what he does to get notes, that man he’s ready to use any big events such as pride or women’s day to get notes. I do make edits for those events too but I'm actually a bisexual woman and not an heterosexual man and I really don’t think he’s doing those edits to show his support to those movements but just to get notes, this year he did the same thing with blm movement I thought it was disrespectful at best, he even made the famous “I we burn you burn with us” gifset from the movie and no, just stop dude. Making that gifset of Naya before she was even found was awful, a lot of people are doing gifs to feel better about things but I don’t think it would have came to anybody else mind to have it ready in their draft. It actually make me think of myself because after they died I made a gifset of Carrie Fisher and Stan Lee and in my head it was a tribute but now that I think back about it I wouldn’t make gifset when people dies anymore, I said it once again but in my head it was a tribute to those wonderful people life and work. I did to feel people and myself a little better in those situations but it didn’t makes me feel better. I thought about it even more, especially for Carrie, because I couldn’t stop thinking about Billie and losing my mom is the worst thing that could happen to me. You can say that, at the end, Mike makes me realize something.

He has been calling out for his behavior but instead of facing it like an adult he just want to take people down instead of him, I'm one of them and I certainly won’t be the only one. it’s someone who doesn’t know how to face the consequences of his behavior and still think he’s untouchable, me and one of my friend said that he thought he was the king of Tumblr and I sincerely think that in his head he is.

Sorry for the grammar I'm French and it’s almost 4 am so I'm gonna check the grammar tomorrow.

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just-random-obsessions · 5 years ago

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This is gonna be a long post so sorry to all the people who follow me for Loki.

Edit: I forgot to give credit to @ceridwenofwales for the amazing album covers! Thx!

The Heathens

Genre: Metal

Lead Singer: Sigtryggr Drums: Ubba Guitars: Erik and Sigefried Bass: Bloodhair

Yggdrasil

1) Pheonix

2) Fuck The Irish

3) I Love Stiorra

4) Shield Wall

5) Yggdrasil

6) Don’t Piss Off The Gods

7) L’Oreal (Because I’m Worth It)

8) Fuck You Better (Metal Cover)

9) Kill Them All

10) Fire Arrows

11) Heathen’s Theme Song

12) We’re Afraid Of The Nuns feat. The Good Christian Boys

Fun Facts!

~ Sigtryggr has a very long argument with the rest of the rest of the band on whether they should add Track 3 to the album or not. Erik took his side because “if he wants to sing about his love, he should”.

~ Bloodhair and Sigtryggr used to be L’Oreal models before joining the band; Sigefried used to be the lead singer.

————————————————————

The Good Christian Boys

Genre: Metal

Lead Singer: Uhtred Guitars: Sihtric and Finan Bass and Rock Piano: Osferth Drums: Stiorra

Bebbanburg

1) Welcome To The Bastard Life feat. Lil’ Aethelstan

2) Thank God I’m Pagan

3) Bebbanburg

4) Women (I Love Them)

5) Valhalla

6) Heaven

7) I Love My Wife (sung by Sihtric)

8) Uncle Issues feat. Aelfric

9) Fergalicious (Metal Cover)

10) Babysitters feat. Eadith

11) Turd feat. Sigtryggr

12) Too Good A Woman (For God Alone) feat. Hild

13) Arselings feat. Leofric

14) Destiny Is All

15) Ale, Women, And Prayer (sung by Finan and Osferth)

Fun Facts!

~ Uhtred and Sihtric used to be Instagram models before starting a band with their friends Finan and Osferth.

~ Originally, Finan was on the drums while Uhtred played guitar and was singing/screaming. When Stiorra joined the band she kicked Finan to the guitars and took over the drums. Finan is still pissed.

~ Lil’ Aethelstan is a rapper who is good friends with Sihtric and Osferth. They almost started their own band but Aethelstan wanted to be a rapper while Sihtric and Osferth decided to join Uhtred and Finan.

~ Eadith is a Nordic Folk music artist with Aethelflaed and Leofric is a country artist.

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Abbess

Genre: Christian Rock

Lead Singer: Hild Guitar and Rock Violin: Beocca Guitar and Trumpet: Young Uhtred Bass: Aelswith Drums: Pyrlig

Amazing Grace

1) Daddy Issues (sung by Young Uhtred)

2) Baptism

3) Forgive Me Father For I Have Sinned (Sorry Daddy I’ve Been Naughty)

4) Stupid Nature feat. Uhtred the Older

5) Of The Water Bucket

6) Warrior Priest

7) On The Battlefield

8) Wash Out My Mouth (With Ale)

9) Armored Nun

10) A Young Deacon (sung by Young Uhtred)

11) The Bastard Thinks feat. Leofric

12) Saving My Father (sung by Young Uhtred)

Fun Facts!

~ Pyrlig used to be a martial arts teacher before joining the band.

~ Interviewers keep asking Beocca what a “rock violin” is and he just says “it’s a violin but rock n roll, deal with it”.

~ Stiorra wrote Track 3 because “‘sorry daddy I’ve been bad’ and ‘forgive me father for I have sinned’ are the same thing but mean completely different things” and she thought it would be funny.

~ Uhtred the Younger is still trying to get his father baptized because “fourth time has gotta be the charm”.

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The Turds

Genre: Rock

Lead Singer: Alfred Guitars: Aelfric and Edward Bass: Aethelhelm Drums: Aethelwold

Jackasses

1) God’s King feat. Aelswith

2) My Bastard Children

3) Gruel (I Need Meat)

4) It Was Done (To Damn You)

5) Praise Him feat. Aelswith

6) Rightful King (sung by Aethelwold)

7) Good Christian Boys feat. Abbess

8) Lord Of Bebbanburg (sung by Aelfric)

9) Middle Finger From Heaven

10) Ambitious (sung by Aethelhelm)

Fun Facts!

~ Officially, they are just a rock band but their consistent amount of songs about God leads many people to label them as Christian Rock.

~ Alfred is a vegan and promotes the lifestyle to everyone. He pushes the rest of the band to be vegan before eventually being kicked out of the band “for being to annoying” about his veganism. The new lead singer had yet to be announced and rumors say the band has split up because they couldn’t get along.

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Fuck Men

Genre: Metal

Lead Singer: Brida Guitars: Mildrith and Skade Bass and Rock Flute: Iseult Drums: Gisela

Kill All Men

1) A Warrior Alone

2) Men Aren’t Actually That Bad (sung by Iseult and Gisela)

3) I Won’t Warm Your Bed

4) Half Your Life (All Your Madness)

5) I Have Tits

6) Keep Your Eyes Closed

7) Feminsit Anthem

8) Stick Up Your Ass

9) Collectively Men Are Dumb (Individually We Love Them)

10) Ragnar (The Only Good Man)

11) She-Wolf

Fun Facts!

~ Stiorra played drums for the band before leaving to join her father’s band. She was replaced by Gisela.

~ The band’s first name was “Uhtred’s Ex-Lovers Who Now Hate Him” however the name was too long, and Iseult and Gisela don’t hate him so they scrapped it.

~ Rumor has it that Mildrith is soon to leave the band because “being the only Christian is rough sometimes”. Apparently, while Iseult and Gisela have “been incredibly kind,” Brida and Skade have been “unbearable at times”.

————————————————————

I put too much time into this shit-post 😂

Tag List:

@oddsnendsfanfics @amyyreblogss @theargopriestess @beowulfsdottir @lady-antheia @0caribgoddess0 @rihbreezyfan @queen-manning @finnickssortinghat @sisiaubarca @shawnme-boy @chrissar17 @sibillalost46 @keenstar-gawain @astral-finan @i-cordelia @miss-hartdegen @grincheveryday @marvelausmylife @lily-paddd @bookswithkaatiee @raiheena @thewildbeauty @ravenclaw-rohirrim @ucancallmechlo @ivarinleatherpants @lauwrite1225 @inforapound @tiyetiye @laketaj24 @kawennote09 @whenimaunicorn @geekandbooknerd @ceridwenofwales @pokeasleepingsmaug

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miracle-sham · 5 years ago

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Plan D for Dicey.

| {MaribatMarch2020 – Week 1, Day 6: Unconventional Weapon} |

| [Ao3 Link] | | [Masterlist Link] |

| Triggers/Warnings: D&D typical Violence, kidnapping/imprisoning of Player Characters, Explicit Language/Swearing, (Also not so much a Trigger/Warning but this a gen/platonic fic). |

| The Wayne (bat)family attempt to play their first streamed session of Warriors and Warlocks. Unpredictably, things go surprisingly well. |

| Word Count: 4323 |

==–==

| A/N: So firstly, I got really carried away writing this so it's being posted a day late. Sorry! But fun fact, this means I'm posting this on my birthday, so wooh! Also if you can't tell yet, I'm a massive D&D geek (been playing for roughly five years now but I still fell like a complete noob whenever I play or DM :P). And DC has its own version of D&D (W&W/Warriors and Warlocks) and upon reading Day 6's prompt, my immediate thought was the improvised weapons mechanic from D&D. Also also, I originally intended for this fic to be MariTim (hence the tags) but I got caught up in all the platonic fun of the family playing D&D I kinda forgot to write in the shippy bits? |

| A/N cont.: Writing this was actually a massive challenge because at the start of this I had absolutely zero idea on how to write a D&D session as a ficlet. So this might be a bit more clunky and unrefined compared to my normal work (or that could just be my self-doubt talking). As I mentioned earlier, I got really carried away writing this because I love D&D so much. I would have written more but this ficlet is long enough and late enough as is. But if I were to continue this ficlet in additional parts, I definitely can already think of so many ways to improve writing this sort of fic (and maybe next time I won't forget to add in shippy stuff). Anyway, thanks to those who read these A/Ns, and I hope you guys enjoy reading this! |

| If you want to be tagged in future oneshots/fics, or a specific Au, then comment or send me a DM/ask! |

| Also side note, Don't Like? Don't Read. Also also, please do not criticise any of my writing. This was written for fun and receiving criticism, even in a compliment/criticism sandwich, is the exact opposite of fun. |

==–==

Marinette, with Tikki on her shoulder, bursts into the Wayne Manor games room, barely able to contain her excitement. As the first in the room, she can't help but glance across the square conference U-table already set up with everyone's character sheets, dice equipment, other equipment, and snacks and drinks. Bounding over to her designated seat (right side, place nearest to the DM's section of the table), she pulls her chair out and sits down.

The rest of the Wayne (bat)family, including Steph but sans Alfred and Barbara, slowly filter into the room and take their designated seats. Jason takes his seat next to Marinette whilst Dick takes the seat directly opposite. Steph nabs the seat beside Jason, Damian stakes a claim to the seat next to Dick (despite it already being his designated seat), Cass sits down in the seat beside Steph, leaving Bruce to take his seat next to Damian.

Tim's the last of the family to enter. He slips into his seat, the DM's seat—as he is the most experienced Warriors and Warlocks player at the table—and grins downright ferally at his players.

He looks up at the cameras and recording equipment that is set up in the middle of the open space in the square U-table. “Hello and welcome to Plan D for Dicey, the first-ever Wayne Family Warriors and Warlocks fifth edition stream. We weren't quite expecting so many people to petition that we stream our sessions after a few people—” Tim fake coughs twice, “—Dick and Marinette—” Tim fake coughs twice again (whilst Marinette and Dick both grin and wave cheerfully at the cameras), “—rambled about their characters and some highlights from previous sessions, on Twitter. So we decided to give this a go and see how the session pans out whilst being streamed. So as a word of warning, prepare yourselves for the Venators, probably one of the most dysfunctional parties in W&W to miraculously band together.”

As soon as he says this, the rest of the table burst into grins and cheers (excluding Bruce who despite also smiling, looks like he's just aged five years). Marinette's side of the table all high five each other in their excitement.

Tim pauses for a second. “For anyone unfamiliar with who I am, I'm Tim. And as you can probably tell from the table set up, I'm the Dungeon Master for this campaign. That's because I've been playing W&W for just over five years now and have had experience DMing before. But for the rest of the players here, this is their first campaign and by extension first time playing. So before we begin our session, first let us introduce our players and their characters.” He nods to Marinette's side of the table.

She immediately slaps her hands on the table, pushes her chair out and stands, she waves at the cameras again. “Hi, I'm Marinette and my character is Nella Septa-Punctata. She's a Protector Aasimar Celestial Pact of the Chain Warlock, and she has a Sprite Familiar called Tikki. Nella's Chaotic Good and a little anxious but she tries her best to be a kind and heroic adventurer.” She then sits back down, scraping her chair back in again.

Jason raises an eye at Marinette's antics but shrugs. “I'm Jay, I play a Winged Variant Feral Tiefling Gunslinger called Rehodros. He's Chaotic Neutral, verging on Chaotic Evil at times, and he only joined the Venators because they helped save him from backstory related stuff and he ended up getting reluctantly attached to them.”

Deciding to also stand up from her chair as well as slap the table with both hands, Steph smirks at the cameras. “I'm Stephanie, my character's Speilsol Leyer, and she's a Chaotic Good Variant Human Ancestral Guardian Barbarian with the Tavern Brawler Feat. She lives for beating up bad guys and doing good, even if it goes against the law.”

Cass decides to take things one step further and moves to sit on the back of the chair, balancing it carefully as to not let herself fall. She waves at the cameras. “Hi, I Cass. Play Balabitara. Neutral Good, Kalashtar Shadow Monk.” She then sits back down on the chair normally.

With one half of the table introduced, Tim nods towards the other side of the table.

Dick winks at the cameras, “I'm Dick and I play Niriwyse, a Chaotic Good Eladrin Glamour Bard who's along for the ride and just wants to have a good time.” At that, he wiggles his eyebrows.

Scoffing, Damian glares at the cameras. “I am Damian and my character is Rokian. He is a Firbolg Circle of the Shepherd Druid and is Lawful Neutral in the sense that he believes the only laws that should be obeyed in the world, are that or the laws of nature. He begrudgingly joined this party of adventurers after they saved an animal friend of his.”

This leaves Bruce as the only one to have not introduced himself and his character yet. He smiles his Brucie Wayne smile at the cameras. “My name's Brucie and my character is called Chirop. He's a Chaotic Good Bugbear Swashbuckler Rogue. He comes across as very gruff, but he's just a big old teddy bear at heart.”

Tim coughs under his breath. “Alright, with our introductions over, let's get on with the show.” The lights in the room suddenly dim and turn a dark red shade whilst creepy echoing organ music begins to play from hidden speakers. “Last session, our brave party of seven adventurers were captured by the evil Lich Dreldaz whilst trying to rescue the beautiful princess Theophania—”

“—Timothea!” Corrects the rest of the table.

Rolling his eyes, Tim continues. “—from the cursed castle in which she has been trapped in, by Dreldaz.” He pauses, steepling his fingers as the dim red lighting becomes a dark grey shade. “The Venators awaken, only to find themselves shackled to the walls, in individual stone brick cells and stripped of any and all equipment bar the clothes on their backs. From what you all can immediately tell upon waking, these cells are small, cold, dark and dingy. What do you do?”

The seven players all exchange glances between themselves.

“I'd like to look around my cell, see if I can find anything or if I can get an idea of what the cellblock we're in looks like?” Jason announces after a few seconds.

Tim nods. “Roll a perception check, please.”

Jason narrows his eyes Tim. He reaches towards the red and black dice set beside his character sheet and picks up the D20. He shakes the dice in his hands before rolling it into the dice box. It lands on a 7. “Alright so because I don't have my gear any more, that means I don't have my eyes of the eagle right?”

“That's right,” Tim responds.

“Mmk, that's a seven then, plus my perception modifier… Fourteen total.” Jason glances up at Tim once he finishes calculating.

Humming, Tim glances down at his Mysterious™ DM notes. “With your Darkvision, you manage to make out that there are two small barred windows on the walls adjacent to the wall with the cell door. The door luckily has a barred window in it too, but you're too far away to glean anything from peering at it.”

Marinette purses her lips and double-checks her character sheet. “Is there anything magical about the darkness in these cells?”

“Roll an Arcana check to see.” Is Tim's response.

She reaches over to the pink and gold dice set beside her character sheet and picks up the D20. She shakes the dice in her hands before rolling it into the dice box. The D20 lands on a 16. “Sixteen! Wait, plus my arcana modifier, uh…” She scans her sheet for the relevant modifier, “plus six, so that's uh… oh heck maths, uhh I think that's twenty-two total? Yeah.” She nods to herself at calculating the maths.

Jason snorts and addresses the cameras. “This is why you should stay in school kids!”

Huffing, Marinette elbows him in the side. “Fight me!”

Not evening flinching at the elbowing, Jason pats her on the top of her head. “Friendly fire, Mari! Friendly fire!”

Tim waits for silence with his best poker face on. “As far as you can tell, there is nothing magical about the darkness!”

“Really?” She furrows her brows. “Alright then.”

He smiles in response.

Dick glances down at his character sheet then up at Tim, he taps his fingers against the table idly as he speaks. “The walls of the cells are stone? So I can use my Cli Lyre to cast Stone Shape and create a hole in the stone where the metal shackles connect, which would free me, right!”

Clicking his tongue, Tim shakes his head. “Nope, you don't have your Cli Lyre on you right now, so you can't cast any spells from it.”

Cursing under his breath, Dick frantically scans his character sheet for anything. He reaches his spells and freezes and slaps the spell sheet (and by extension, the table). “Ah hah!” He crows, “I will cast Knock on the shackles!”

Tim raises an eyebrow, then looks down to flip through his spell cheat sheet. “When you cast the spell, it makes a loud knock that's audible for up to three hundred feet. Are you sure you want to cast this?”

Dick falters and furrows his brow, then glances around the table at the rest of the party. “I think I'll wait and see if anyone else has a way to escape this first? Wait we can all hear each other speaking from our cells, right?”

“You can indeed.” Tim answers.

“I got nothin',” Jason admits, putting on his Rehodros voice, which is just his normal voice but deeper and with a raspy—almost hissing—clipped tone.

Steph, using her Speilsol Leyer voice (which sounds like she's putting on a weak German accent), shrugs. “I could try breaking the shackles? I'm strong enough to do cool things like that?”

“But that will also be fairly loud.” Bruce points out, speaking with a gruff tone of voice (which is significantly different from his gravelly Batman tone of voice) for Chirop. “If I had my lockpicks, it would be easy to escape stealthily. But without them, I can't see a way for me to get out of these shackles.”

Damian wrinkles his nose. “I might be able to summon creatures, elementals, or fey but what I get is determined by the DM and may not be entirely helpful. However, I could try wildshaping?”

Tim smiles cryptically and the lighting behind him changes from dark grey to lime green. “You could.”

Damian nods. “Alright then, I will use my wildshape ability to transform into a spider.”

The lime green light fades to flickering orange-red light. “As you try to use your druidic abilities to magically assume the shape of a spider, you feel a burning sensation around your wrists, right where the shackles are. You are unable to transform and take…” Tim pauses as he pulls out his black and red dragon dice and rolls a D6 behind the DM screen. “Five points of fire damage.”

Cursing under his breath in Arabic, Damian glares at Tim. He crosses out his current hp and writes down the new amount.

Jason taps Marinette on the shoulder. “What about Nells, Mari? She got any tricks up her sleeve to escape?”

Marinette startles at that, having been chewing her lip and staring intently at her character sheet since her arcana check. She licks her lips then glances up. “I might…”

She taps a small stat block card with a pencil and turns to Tim with an intense stare. “Is Tikki nearby?”

At that, Tim grins widely and raises a finger. “That,” He says, flipping through his notes, “is a very good question.”

“Because on my notes, here it says that last session Tikki was invisible when we all got captured.” Marinette picks up her session notes journal and shows it to him.

“Would you say Tikki followed after you when you got caught?”

Marinette tilts her head to the side and Tikki whispers in her ear. Of course, the cameras inability to record kwamis means it just looks like she's thinking instead of listening to a flying red bug deity. “Yep, I would say that. I would also like to telepathically communicate with Tikki and ask if she can come and pick the locks because we gave her a spare Thieves' Tools kit last shopping session in case she needed to pick the locks during an invisible scouting mission!”

“Indeed you did, so Tikki flies over to your cell and will try to pick the locks on your door first. So roll a d20 and add Tikki's Dex bonus.” He instructs.

Marinette nods and picks up the dice, cupping her hands underneath it so Tikki can shake then roll it without it looking suspicious on camera. Tikki shakes the dice and drops it as Marinette separates her hands. The dice lands in the box and rolls a 16. “Plus Tikki's Dex mod, that's uh…” She scrambles for the Sprite Familiar statblock card, “Plus four, so dirty twenty!”

“That's enough to pick the lock. Do you want Tikki to enter the cell and try to pick the lock?” He asks.

She nods and repeats the roll with Tikki, this time rolling an eleven. “With mods, fifteen.” Tikki then returns to her place on Marinette's shoulder.

“Tikki barely manages to get the locks open. The shackles open and you land on the cell floor.”

Marinette punches the air. “Wooh! Freedom!”

Cass then waves her hand in the air. “Shadowstep out?”

Tim cocks his head to the side. “As you don't have Darkvision, you can't see outside your cell but you manage to use your shadowstep ability to escape the shackles. Then by peering out the barred window in the door, you manage to shadow step into the cellblock corridor.”

Marinette and Cass share a high-five.

“Let's go free everyone else!”

==–==

It takes them ten minutes to finish freeing everyone else, and start making their way out of the dungeon cell block. The Venators now make their way through the bowels of the castle, searching for the armoury in which all their belongings have been stored.

“As you push open the grand oak doors, the faint scent of sickly sweet rotting food and fire hits your noses. The doors reveal the next room to be a grand dining room with a long oak table, set as though prepared for a grand feast expecting many a guest. It's adequately lit but the two corners of the room above the door seem to glow with a dim greenish glow.” Tim pauses in his description as lighting changing to a dim greenish light behind him; he rolls a D8 four times (6, 7, 2, 4), behind the DM screen, followed by the rolling of a D20 four times (3, 19, 13, 18).

“Oh god…” Dick mutters,

Jason huffs. “What are you going to torture us with now, oh great DM?”

Tim smiles cruelly. “Four rays of fire are shot towards the party from somewhere within the dining room. First attack is an eight versus Chirop's AC?”

Bruce sighs in relief. “That's a miss.”

Tim continues to smile. “Mmk, the rest of the attacks are, twenty-four versus Balabitara's AC, eighteen versus Niriwyse's AC, and twenty-three verses Rokian's AC. I assume those hit.”

Damian narrows his eyes at Tim, whilst Dick winces and Cass pouts.

Tim rolls a D6 nine times, behind the DM screen. “Balabitara takes four points of fire damage, Niriwyse and Rokian both take eight points of fire damage.”

The three all jot down the damage taken.

Still smiling, like the truly evil DM that he is, Tim clasps his hands together. “Two skulls, enveloped with green flames, descend from the ceiling. One hovers over the grand table and the other hovers but the top of the opened doors, giving itself cover.” He pauses, then grins. “With the surprise round over, everyone roll initiative!”

Out of habit, all seven players, and Tikki, roll their D20s in almost perfect sync. Dick rolls an 18, Cass rolls a 9, Jason rolls a 14, Bruce rolls a 16, Steph rolls a 17 with advantage, Damian rolls a 2, Marinette rolls a 10, and Tikki rolls a 14.

“Twenty or above?” Tim asks.

“Twenty three,” Bruce announces.

Jason rolls his eyes. “Twenty-one.”

Dick grins, “Twenty one as well!”

Tim scribbles down the rolls on the initiative table. “D'awww, you both rolled twenty-one. Anyway, fifteen or above?”

“Tikki rolled an eighteen.” Informs Marinette.

“I got nineteen!” Steph exclaims.

Jotting down those rolls as well, Tim asks “Alright, anyone ten or above?”

Cass signs her roll, ‘fourteen.’

“Thirteen.” Marinette answers.

Tim glances at the initiative table, then at Damian. “And you Damian?”

Damian scoffs. “Three.”

“Okay.” Tim then rolls a D20 twice. “Chirop! You're up first!”

Bruce looks slightly bewildered. He clears his throat. “Can I grab the nearest sharp pieces of cutlery and sneak behind a chair?”

Tim nods. “Roll stealth.”

He rolls an 18. “My stealth modifier is plus thirteen, so thirty-one to stealth.”

Tim whistles, “To the rest of the Venators, it looks like Chirop just vanishes into thin air.”

“Are any of the enemies close enough that I could move into melee range?” He questions.

“There's one floating Flameskull hovering five foot in the air, with your Long-Limbed trait, it's well within reach,” Tim informs.

Bruce narrows his eyes. “I would like to stab the Flameskull with the sharp cutlery, knives are preferable.”

“Roll to hit. As knives are close enough to daggers, I'll say you can get away with adding your proficiency bonus as well.”

Bruce rolls, with advantage, a 19. “Plus my modifiers, that's twenty-eight to hit.”

“That hits.”

Bruce rolls for damage, 2. “That's two, so seven.” He then rolls for Surprise damage, 8 (5, 3), and Sneak Attack damage, 24 (6, 2, 5, 6, 5). “That's a total of 39 piercing damage. Then I'll use my bonus action to stab it again,” He rolls a 16, “Twenty-one to hit.”

Tim puts on his best poker face. “That also hits.”

“Then that'll be…” He rolls a 1. “One damage from the second attack.”

“The Flameskull you hit screeches in fury as it crumbles to bone dust.” Tim then proceeds to make a horrific screeching sound, for immersion of course.

“What the fuck, Timbo?” Jason asks, wincing.

Dick cringes. “At least you aren't right beside him! My poor ears!”

“Rip us closest seats.” Mumbles Marinette, wrinkling her nose.

“Rehodros, you're up next!” Tim announces gleefully, ignoring his suffering players.

Jason narrows his eyes at Tim, “I want to run over to the table, grab any food on the table that's not rotten, and yeet it at the nearest Flameskull.”

Tim hums, “Okay, the only non-rotten food you can find, is a block of aged cheese and a bowl of hardened sugar cubes.

Snorting, Jason cracks his knuckles. “Oh, I have to pick the block of aged cheese.”

“Roll your attack then. But make sure you only add your Dex modifier to the attack as you're not proficient in improvised weaponry.”

Jason rolls to attack and also gets a 19. “Twenty four to hit.”

Tim snorts. “Yeah, that definitely hits, go ahead and roll damage.”

Jason nods and rolls a 1D4, managing to get max damage. “Four! Wooh! Plus my Dex mod, that's nine damage!”

“You lob the cheese at the Flameskull, managing to cause a couple of cracks to form on its skull. It turns it's furious gaze to you, intending to intimidate you but the effect is somewhat hindered by the melting cheese covering half of its skull.” Tim flips through his notes and marks down the damage taken.

“Okay, then I want to grab the bowl of sugar and using my extra attack to throw that at the Flameskull, in the jaw.” Jason smirks and switches to his Rehodros voice, “You look like you've got a sssweet tooth, bonehead!” He rolls to attack and gets a 12. “Seventeen to hit?”

“That will hit.”

Jason rolls a 3 on the D4. “That's eight damage total.”

“As the bowl of sugar starts to melt from the heat of the fire, the sickly sweet scent of hot sugar begins to emanate from the Flameskull. The Flameskull does not look happy.” Tim pauses to glance at the initiative table. “Niriwyse! You're up.”

Dick glances down at his spell list and beams. “I'm going to cast Vicious Mockery. And say,” he puts on his Niriwyse voice, which is just his voice but higher pitch and with a British Estuary accent, “Green is so not your colour!”

Tim hums, then flips through his notes. “What's the spell Save DC on that again?”

Quickly checking his spell sheet, Dick answers, “DC 16.”

“Mmk,” Tim responds non-committally, before rolling a D20 twice from behind the DM screen. “That, unfortunately for you, is a nat 20. Which means it takes no damage and suffers no disadvantage. The Flameskull turns to you briefly, to cackle in your face, before turning its attention back to Rehodros.”

Dick frowns. “Aww that failed, welp I'll use my bonus action to give Speilsol Leyer inspiration.” He clears his throat and puts on his Niriwyse voice to sing. “Let's get down to business! To defeat, this skull! Did they order heroes, no they asked for none! We're the saddest party you'll ever meet! But you can bet before we're through, Flameskull, we'll make dust out of you!”

The rest of the table burst into cheers and groans.

“Beautiful, Speilsol Leyer, you get 1D10 bardic inspiration,” Tim confirms. “And now it's your turn. Show the audience what you've got.”

Steph giggles. “Okay, okay, I've got a really dumb idea.”

Tim raises an eyebrow at her.

“So, firstly, is there anything on the walls, like paintings? Wall sconces? Y'know.” She asks.

“There's a painting of a naked elven lady on one wall, and a taxidermied fox head on the other,” Tim informs.

Steph bounces in her seat. “Cool! So I'm gonna rage! Rip the taxidermied fox head off the wall, then run and leap up into the air to bludgeon the Flameskull with the fox head!”

“Right. Make an athletics roll.”

Rolling a D20, she gets 13. “Twenty one!”

“You manage to jump into the air with expert grace. Roll to hit.”

She rolls a 16. “That's a twenty-four to hit because I've got the Tavern Brawler Feat so I've got proficiency with improvised and-slash-or unconventional weapons!”

He snorts. “That'll definitely hit, roll damage.”

Steph picks up her D4 and rolls it, getting a 3. “Do with my strength modifier and Rage damage, that's ten damage! And uh, that's the end of my turn!”

Tim scribbles down the damage taken, he then checks his notes quickly. “The sugary cheese-covered Flameskull starts to cackle madly. It casts fireball on the party, everyone make dexterity saving throws.”

On cue, everyone in the party rolls their D20s. Tikki rolls an 18, Damian and Marinette both roll 16s, and Dick rolls a 4.

Before Bruce rolls his dice, he proclaims, “I'd like to use evasion!” He then rolls and gets a 5. “Fourteen total.”

“Evasion too!” Cass declares with a smile, she rolls her D20, getting 18. She then signs her result, ‘twenty-seven

“Shit!” Jason mutters, staring at his roll of 2.

“Nat one?” Tim questions.

Jason shakes his head. “Natural two, so seven total.”

“I also got seven,” Dick adds.

“Seventeen,” Damian announces.

“I rolled a nineteen and Tikki rolled a twenty-two.” Marinette pipes up.

Steph frowns at her roll of nine. “Eleven…” She glances at her character sheet again. “Wait, no! I get advantage on dexterity saving throws!” She shakes the dice in her hands and blows on it for good luck, then rolls it into the dice box. It lands on an 18. Fist pumping the air, she cheers. “Yes! Dirty twenty, fuck yeah!”

“Alright. Niriwyse and Rehodros both take…” Tim rolls a D6 eight times, behind the DM screen. “Twenty-three fire damage. And everyone else except Chirop and Balabitara take half that, so eleven damage. And of course, Chirop and Balabitara take no damage whatsoever.”

“Wooh,” Bruce cheers.

“Wait a second!” Jason interrupts, triple-checking his character sheet, “I've got fire resistance!”

“Then you also take eleven damage instead of the full twenty-three.” Tim corrects. “And that's the end of the Flameskull's turn. Tikki's up now.”

Marinette tilts her head to the side as Tikki whispers in her again. “Tikki is going to hold her turn.”

Tim nods. “Okay then, it's Balabitara's turn.”

Cass smiles sweetly. “Jump and punch?”

“Roll an athletics check then, please.”

She rolls a 13, and signs her results, ‘eighteen.’

“You barely manage to leap within melee range of the Flameskull,” Tim narrates. “Roll to hit.”

She rolls her dice again, rolling a flat 17. Again, she signs her result, ‘twenty-six.’

“That will definitely hit.” He acknowledges.

Cass then rolls damage, gets a 4, and signs the total, ‘nine.’ She glances down at her character sheet, and then back up at Tim. “Second attack?”

Tim nods again, still jotting down the damage taken. “Go ahead and roll.”

Rolling again, she gets a nine, so she signs the result, ‘eighteen.’

He hums, “That'll also hit, roll damage.”

She rolls and gets a 3. ‘Eight,’ she signs.

Tim chuckles, “As you punch the Flameskull twice, the skull shatters and turns into sugary and cheesy skull dust.”

Cass grins and fist-pumps the air as the rest of the table breaks into cheers.

“Everyone breathe a sigh of relief! Encounter over.” He comments. “And I think we've reached our halfway mark, so we'll take a quick five minutes break to grab something to eat and drink, and we'll continue on after the break.”

==–==

| Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot! Comments, likes, and reblogs are much appreciated! |

| @maribat-march2020 | | @vixen-uchiha |

#Miraculous Ladybug #Maribat #ML x DC #DC x MLB #Timinette #MariTim #Timari #MaribatMarch2020 #MaribatMarch Week 1 #MaribatMarch Day 6 #MaribatMarch Unconventional Weapon #Plan D for Dicey #PDfD #Sham's Posts #Sham's Writing #Sham's Fics

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iamcinema · 4 years ago

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IAC Reviews #016: Captives / Mama’s Home (1988)

It’s almost funny how things happen sometimes. You’re just going about your day, and something will just pop up in your thoughts or memory that you forgot about a long time ago. When you decide to follow it to see where it takes you, and when it finally decides to turn up, it completely chucks all your original plans out the window and you have to see it to believe it. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, we need to finally, after so long, get around to talking about Captives aka Mama’s Home. And, oh boy, we have a lot to cover here.

As a side note to make this easier, I’ll be referring to the film as Captives for the duration of the review when discussing Gary P Cohen’s original film. However, when I’m discussing the release by the original production company, Majestic Home Video, I’ll refer to it as Mama’s Home to help clear up any confusion since I can’t even call them the same movie. _______________________________________

Captives is 1988 horror-drama revenge SOV film directed by Gary P Cohen, who is best known for his Video Violence films that were made just before and after this. To quote VHS Meltdown on the plot, it goes as such;

“Three weirdos invade the home of a well-to-do family while the husband is at work. They aren’t there to steal anything; they have a video they want to show the wife. On it is the past life of her husband, something much more violent and drug-fueled than she ever could have expected. When things go wrong for the invaders and blood gets shed, the wife must reconcile what she has seen and what she knows, and her new knowledge of the past makes her future unthinkable.”

According to Cohen, this was intended to be a serious commentary about violence, which was tonally different from the sort of black comedy nature of the Video Violence films. He originally pitched the film to Camp Video, who turned down Captives, but took in Video Violence 2 after distributing Video Violence the year before. So, Cohen turned to Majestic Home Video for help, and they took the film in for release.

Well, what happened to the film was beyond a travesty and feels criminal.

If you want to learn more about that, I highly recommend seeing Paul (Analog Archivist/VHS Collector)’s review of the tape because he goes more into the history of the film and included Cohen’s interview where he discusses the treatment of Captives; which included large chunks of dialogue being manipulated, bad amateurish editing, and loud music being played over the dialogue scenes. It’s just a shameful butchering of the film, but this does sort of have a happy ending because Camp Motion Picture picked the film up in 2011 to be showcased on The Basement: Retro 80s Horror Collection; which included Timothy O’Rawe’s The Basement (1989), another SOV horror film that was widely considered lost for nearly 20 years. Copies of Mama’s Home are considered extremely rare, with one user saying they saw a copy of it go for over $335USD.

The film stars many of the actors from the first Video Violence film, including Cohen himself. So, if you’re a fan of the film, then you’re in for a bit of a treat. But, if you’re in the other category that hated the film, then, well, you’re in for something. Plus, I don’t think the notoriety of Mama’s Home helps much either as far as what you think you can do with your expectations. It’s going to be a rough ride for some of you, I’m sure.

VHS Collector | Mama’s Home Review:

youtube

So, now we’ve been finally given the opportunity to see Captives and all it’s glory without the cloud of shame that Majestic put over us. It’s been a long, long time coming to see Cohen’s true vision unearthed - even if I’m about ten years too late for the viewing part.

Captives (1988) in One Gif:

Oh. Okay, then. So, let’s really dig into this one. _______________________________________

First, I think I should comment on what VHS Meltdown said as the plot summary since there’s a bit more to it than that. The primary thing is who our “three weirdos” are, which are that of Nikki, Chick, and Paulie whom we learn have a personal vendetta to some degree with Ellen and her family - more specifically her husband, Barry. So, I don’t know, the vague descriptor can make the invasion seem a bit less personal.

Speaking of which, let’s talk about our guests of honor more.

The ringleader of the group is Nikki, who has more stake in the home invasion and a motivation for revenge due to her treatment and abuse by Barry and former mother in-law, Estelle. She’s accompanied by her brothers, Chick and Paulie. Chick is the arms of the group, having a hot temper and seems to take the most pleasure in the violence and madness. Paulie is, for a lack of better terms, the slow “idiot” brother of the group and he’s a trope you’ve probably seen in other slasher films of the time like Mother’s Day, Redneck Zombies, and Cannibal Campout. He’s the docile one of the team and only tagged along because he cares about his sister and was pressured into it, not because he’s out for blood or vengeance.

If you’re a fan of Video Violence, then you probably already recognize Art and Jackie Neill right off the bat who are playing polar opposites of their other characters. It makes for an interesting watch to see them relish in the violence they cause, rather than be repulsed by it. On the opposite side of things, we have Ellen, Estelle, Barry, and little Zach.

There isn’t a whole lot to really say about them. Ellen is the unsuspecting housewife, Estelle is the loaded mother in-law that would do anything for her son, Barry is a two-faced, mama’s boy husband with a secret double life, and Zach is, well, a baby that links them together in a few ways. Much like their co-stars, some of them were also in Video Violence with a similar take on things. Seeing as how this (or Video Violence) was their first acting role, and one of their only ones point blank, you can expect something mostly amateurish and nothing too special. If I had to name any specifics, I’d say the trio is the best in their own right; Chick being a great sleazy dirtbag, Paulie being sympathetic, and Nikki being almost justifiably unhinged with the lengths she’d go to for revenge.

Plot wise, it’s not all that bad and it’s not to see something that isn’t like Blood Lake where the motive isn’t sloppy or feels like a complete after thought. It’s a bit shocking to say the least to see a topic relating to child death or murder done this way, something I don’t think I’ve really seen in some time since Las Vegas Bloodbath or Beware! Children at Play. It’s a bit of a slow burn after the trio makes their motives known to Ellen, with the occasional burst of violent mayhem and the trio trying to figure out an exit plan when things don’t go as they planned. We also get some occasional cut scenes with what Barry’s doing with his time, but they’re brief and only add to what kind of a picture Nikki paints for us of him.

As far as the violence goes, it’s not all that bad. However, some of it was a bit hard to make out what was going on because the quality was on the low end. But, that’s kind of how it is with SOV some times, so it is what it is. There’s also not a whole ton of blood either, so don’t expect a total massacre. What we do get isn’t too shabby or rough around the edges either, which is a really nice surprise. There’s some general torture, humiliation, and sleaze scenes too, and those are also nice when it comes to adding a bit more grime to the mix; including a really bizarre moment where a drunken Chick is groping and coming onto Nikki (and she may or may not be into it) and we see what Barry is doing when he’s not at work.

If I had to say something that really hinders this, it’s the sound and music aspect.

Just like with Mama’s Home, there’s moments where the sound mixing doesn’t feel right, so the dialogue is a bit drowned out by the music. On the bright side, it’s a bit better here with Captives than Mama’s Home since you can at least make out most of the conversation that’s going on and I had to do a side by side comparison with this and the clips Paul included as a reference to be sure I wasn’t hearing things. If it’s not that, it’s how the music robs the tone and mood of the film.

As I said earlier, Cohen intended for this to be a serious film about violence, and having this audio track in the background for so much of it kills the mood for me and it unintentionally brings it back to Video Violence with it being a dark comedy. On the flip side, the tracks on their own aren’t that bad and are exactly what you could expect for a low budget SOV trash flick from the time period. So, if you’re like me and you have a guilty pleasure for this type of thing, you might have some fun with it. I’d like to hope that Cohen still has the masters for these somewhere and would be open to releasing them if they weren’t included on The Basement: Retro 80s Horror Collection.

The film ends on a weird open ended note and since there’s no post credit scene, we’re largely left to wonder if Ellen is able to follow through with her choice given what she’s seen and learned and she’s able to escape. I think it was probably for the best as well since it plays into this being a revenge flick as well, but I’d like to hear Cohen’s thoughts and what he thinks happened after the final scene.

________________________________________

So, where are we at now with this?

I’m a bit disappointed that it took me so many years to finally get around to seeing this, and I was initially nervous going into this given all the things I heard about Mama’s Home. As excited as I was, I wasn’t sure if I was going to waste my time with this and I was prepared for the let down early on thinking I was just getting a hybrid of Captives and Mama’s Home.

In a lot of ways, it was worth the wait to see what I was missing all these years, because if I found out it got taken down yesterday, then I knew it would be a long time until I would have this chance again since the box set from Camp Motion Pictures is currently out of print. If you told me that it would stay online and it wasn’t going anywhere any time soon, then I’d say I wouldn’t really rush to seeing it or writing this mock up with what I know now and shift my focus onto the other really obscure SOV material that I wouldn’t know about if it wasn’t for SOVHorror, A Slash Above, or SRS Cinema having bits and pieces of them up. In this case, I could probably go a few more months or so before I’d get an itch to hunker down for it.

Is it worth a watch? Sure.

If you’re a sucker for SOV films, then you should consider crossing it off your list since it feels like not everybody has seen it, let alone is aware of it. If you liked the Video Violence films, then I think you’ll have an alright time with this one. It’s probably the ToeTag fanboy in me saying this, but I’d like to think that this is another one of those proto August Underground movies with how it wanted to push the envelope with the brutality and humiliation, something I still feel would have been better if the incidental music was toned down way more. Nonetheless, if you find this type of thing boring and uninteresting, then you aren’t going to feel like you missed out on something amazing or mindblowing. It’s another run-of-the-mill horror-esque low-budget tier SOV flick from the time, just with an emphasis on revenge. Don’t be too dismissive, but don’t expect anything too impressive.

Rating: 4.5/10

#captives #mama's home #mamas home #iac reviews #horror review #horror movies #horror movie #horror film #exploitation horror #sov #sov horror #shot on video #shot on video horror #little zach productions #gary cohen #gary p cohen #low budget horror #80's horror #80s horror

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stoiccthulhu · 4 years ago

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Update time...actually, why should these be titled? I mean, whats the point of writing a title to these if all I’m going to do is ramble on and on with no specific topic of discussion, just several things on my mind?

Election day 2020 happened yesterday and I voted for nobody. And if I would have voiced my polling choice I would have voted for the candidate I see as being the best option in line with my thoughts and opinions concerning the state of the world at the moment as well as the future.

You can insert whomever you want to believe that would be based off an assumption and a look at my internetting footprint, but you would be wrong, but that’s part of the fun of interpreting what I’m writing down for you in the future. Trying to figure out what I’m actually saying. While it makes complete sense to me, because you don’t have the hidden key phrase you can’t decipher what it is that I am putting to digital paper.

I get it, I’m an asshole.

And this isn’t, completely, a justification towards my actions but a direct result of your intervention within my life that has caused this behaviour. Think of it sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. You interpreted me, came back, and intervened in any little way imaginable. Negatively or positively, but no matter your justification, it was still an intervention that didn’t need to happen because, as Malcolm once said, “Life, finds a way.” And just like destiny, it will find a way. But enough of all that crazy talk, you’re here because you want to hear all about my political leanings and to unravel the mystery as to this anonymous random on the internet’s preferred presidential choice in the election that has already passed.

But before I do that, let’s get some shit off my chest because I tend to swear and if you don’t like it, go the hell away. I’m sick of people being sensitive over everything. As if they’re looking for any reason to complain or get offended nowadays.

“The internet has given everyone in (the world) a voice, and evidently everyone in (the world) has chosen to use that voice to bitch about (anyone they find offensive)” -Holden McNeil (with some modern revisions)

And that’s why I’ve chose not to be PC in this thing, whenever I feel the urge to put pen to paper, relatively speaking.

Like, let’s see who I can offend right off the bat.

Women need to start getting punched more and treated like human beings instead of china dolls. If you’re a pro-gender equality advocate, and you’re a woman, you need to be willing to be punched in the face for doing ANYTHING a man would otherwise be punched in the face for. They also need to be held accountable for the shit they do to everyone. I am a strong supporter in believing that no matter what women say about women controlling the government and such, while women have great communication skills, they have the worst track record when it comes to not being aggressive, biologically speaking.

In the wild, whom are normally the more aggressive of the genders? Whom is usually the one more protective of the young? more willing to go out to hunt?

To be fair, I have a very limited knowledge when it comes to the animal kingdom. But, I mean, the Black Widow is normally depicted as being a deadly female, the female preying mantis devours the head of her mate after they’re done mating. There are so many, example, of females being worse than males in nature its hard to ignore. And, to add religious believers to the list of people offended, if you’re not ignorant to science and knowledge, or at least the pursuit of it, we evolved over a long period of time from apes, which, by nature, makes us, humans, not white people, black people, yellow people(to stick to the color scheme), brown people(gotta throw the other Asian people’s in there as well), animals. Highly evolved and communicative animals, but animals none the less. Was that supposed to be one word? Nonetheless?

Doesn’t matter. So, if you stick with my logic, you’ll see that women are terrible. Terrible. But, because men like to have sex with females as opposed to men for the most part in today’s society women have a stranglehold on the pelvic reason of an entire world, which means they can make anyone, for the most part, do anything they want and see things their way, even if they’re saying the sky is as green as the skies of Namek. An example of this is perfectly laid out in a clip from That 70′s Show. Kelso and Hyde prove women can’t play fight because they’ll turn it real, for whatever reason, just because they’re girls. To prove this, Kelso and Hyde play fight, and it looks bad, but they stop, laugh, and hug it out. Then Jackie and Donna play fight, starting out playfully, but then turning it into hair pulling and needing to be pulled apart. Both visibly angry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUwxxJvtQnI

(OK, my memory was bad, it was Eric and Hyde, and it was set up differently, but the concept is still there.)

And I get it, they’re actors, being paid to do what the script is telling them to do, but it is true. Girls are worst during puberty as well, from what I’ve heard. And I get it, I have a biased standpoint being a male, but in today's culture that shouldn’t matter, it’s about what’s being said, not my gender.

Now that women are out of the way, lets also as black people, but not specifically black people, its more of a systemic form of racism that I believe shouldn’t exist. In which, if you are not of that specific race, you are not allowed to say the n-word. What makes me giggle right now is that with just that sentence every single person reading this probably got a bit riled up. A bit ruffled in the feathers because I’m not a black person. And if you weren’t, you are now, knowing what you know now.

So let me provide you with some context so you can understand how I’m not racist at the same time as saying what I said above.

I enjoy rap music and hip-hop, as do a lot of people throughout the world, black or otherwise. Which, in this current climate, would be considered one of the forms of cultural appropriation we tend to sweep under the rug because it doesn’t fit our narrative of being offended about something. Because I like rap music I tend to learn the word to all of the songs I enjoy listening to. Because I learn the words to the songs that I enjoy listening to I sing along. But, because I’m not black, I have to ruin my flow to edit myself just because the artist chose to use nigger in their song. Which, as an artist, is their choice.

Now, why should I have to edit myself? I have tried to replace it with “wigger”, but because of the closeness of the words, I felt that would still be offensive if I was ever overheard by the wrong black person who, understandably, would be mad if they heard a pasty white boy say the word nigger without any context.

I just think, unless the person is using the word in a hateful way, directed at the person the speaker either personally knows or is conciously speaking about, as in “i hate that nigger” or “you’re a nigger”. If it’s something like that, totally beat the shit out of that racist.

But if you’re singing along to Wu-Tang, and you say:

I be that insane nigga from the psycho ward I'm on the trigger, plus I got the Wu-Tang sword So how you figure, that you can even fuck with mine? Hey, yo, RZA! Hit me with that shit one time! And pull a foul, niggas, save the beef for the cow I'm milkin' this ho, this is my show, Tical! The fuck you wanna do on this mic piece, duke? I'm like a sniper, hyper off the ginseng root PLO Style, buddha monks with the owls Now who's the fuckin' man? Meth-Tical It shouldn’t be labelled as being racist.

There is more rattling around in my head right now, things that I’ve been thinking about for years, and things that have been bothering me for just about as long, but for now those were the two that fell out when I vomited all over my keyboard.

And if you’re offended. Get over it. You need to start.

Oh, I almost forgot. I was going to tell you whom it was I was going to vote for yesterday if I had voted for anybody. Jokingly I wanted to write-in “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. But in truth I was going to vote for Biden. Not because I thought he was the better candidate, but because there was not a good option at all, he was just the lesser of two evils. This election has made me decide I want a third option when it comes to my politicians, or at least, get rid of political parties all together. We spend so much time infighting and holding each other back instead of up no real change has happened in the past decade? Longer? And whatever change that does happen gets nitpicked apart so much it becomes a shell of its former self. But, enough about that. I have a baby demanding eggs and waffles and I still need to tag this.

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chenoehi · 5 years ago

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The number of jikook accounts I’m seeing that still follow thisheartsmadefullmetal after she pulled her shit and disrespected Jungkook in that disgusting post is sickening to me. What the fuck is wrong with you people or are you genuinely ignorant of what she did and what she really is.

Sorry. But,

Really? Really. Alright. I didn’t follow some of you big accounts which I won’t name here, thank god, mostly because I already didn’t like you and for good reason I guess but I am very disappointed in the blogs I do still follow and the one I’ve already named which I just unfollowed because all I’ve been doing lately is losing good blogs but I guess an unfollow spree can lead to a new follow spree and a search for unproblematic favorites.

EDIT: the blog name has been removed for reasons below.

I just have to ask you guys one question first: is Jungkook only good for one half of a ship? Because if that's all, if that's where your interest starts and ends, then don't even call yourself OT7 or ARMY or whatever else you want to call yourself. We talk all the time about how TKs use JK for their own ship and shit on him if it means diminishing his bond with JM, but what about jikookers? A big Jimin bias account spews hate toward JK in a way she's never done toward the other members before, but nearly has, and ? She deletes the post, ignores the criticism, and moves on, and 'jikookers' who follow her continue to lap up her melodrama. So, you guys don't really care all that much about JK aside from the fact that he and Jimin look cute together and sometimes he takes those cute videos and photos of your bias. I see.

Tumblr is a refuge for me, it should be like a breath of fresh air after being on Twitter a little bit which is fun for a hot minute but can become suffocating,

and then I come on here and the first fucking post I see on my tl is a reblog of a post from thisheartsmadefullmetal after seeing that bitch’s posts come up on my tl every day the last couple of weeks

AS IF SUDDENLY EVERYONE FORGOT THAT SHE’S A PIECE OF SHIT WHO SAID GEMS LIKE SHE WANTED TO SLAP JUNGKOOK AND THAT HE ONLY STARTED LIKING JIMIN DURING BS&T ERA WHEN JIMIN STARTING STARVING HIMSELF BECAUSE HE'S A SHALLOW NARCISSIST WHO DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE HAD IN FRONT OF HIM.

But uwu she posted a cute photoset with Jimin and sunsets.

uwuwuwuwuwuwuwu

See, THAT’S where it’s appropriate to say shit like, “You guys don’t deserve x member.” In this case, none of you fuckers who still follow her knowing what she did, NONE of you deserve Jungkook or really any of the other members of Bangtan because if you also forgot:

- she’s called Taehyung a fake friend and insinuated that Taehyung plays their bond up for the camera

- she’s criticized Bangtan numerous times when it comes to Jimin as her way of showing “support” for her favorite

- she basically went on attack mode over MAMA 2018 because “Bangtan didn’t comfort Jimin when he was crying which obviously means they don’t give a shit about him”

- she’s perpetuated the narrative that the only people who care about Jimin are his solo stans, pjms, even at the exclusion of Bangtan because of course, you know, they’re all self-serving assholes and take advantage of his kindness and gentle nature

- she’s written 2k word monologues about her dependence on Jimin and how he’s the source of her happiness

- she’s perpetuated this destructive, highly toxic myth that A. Jimin is this fragile porcelain doll who will just break into a million pieces if anyone criticizes him or is mean to him (thus the reason why his fans are needed, they must come to his defense) and B. that the very sight of this 23-year-old MUSICIAN and CELEBRITY crying will be too much to bear for his fans and will break them into a million pieces because that’s how fragile their psyches are and so is he and they're all going to just melt into a puddle together and drown in their tears

And you bet your ass, if you don’t help trend a hashtag for him or drain a pint of blood for him if he needed it you might as well just leave the fandom.

You’re all a fucking disgrace.

I’m personally done with that shit. I'll most likely unfollow anyone who reblogs posts from her directly because that either means you follow her or you're just finding her in the tags and regardless I don't want to see her posts or support a blog who supports her. And yes, following someone like that who is toxic and dangerous and mentally and emotionally unstable and who is and has been openly hateful toward Bangtan in favor of Jimin, acting like an akgae, a toxic solo stan, yes ma’am and yes sir, you are supporting that behavior so you are just as bad. Actually, you’re worse than she is because at least she’s just delusional and that’s what her problem is. What’s your excuse?

I don’t reblog any posts from her anymore, even ones that have been shared by others, just because that’s my stance and I don’t even want to see her name on my blog after what she did; I only reblogged one of her’s once recently and that was to make a point and add to another post about how toxic she was being.

But still following her after she wrote that disgusting post, deleted it (I have the screenshots and I posted about it, in fact, it’s my top post), never said a fucking word about it, and then moved on like everything was hunky dory, like her shit doesn’t stink, like she’s fucking invincible? Well, how else should she feel when her legion of followers keep bumping along behind her like little ducks. And when the Jungkook post business blew up? That was pretty big. Pretty hard to miss as it was posted all over the jikook tags and she tags other ships too. I’ll have a hard time believing people who say the really didn’t know about it.

Anyway. Maybe soon I’ll get to scroll through my tumblr feed and not get pissed off, once I’ve unfollowed all the people still following her. That would be nice.

But just to save some time: I don’t care how many followers I have and I don’t care how many blogs I follow anymore either. I want a positive experience on here for myself and I don’t give a shit what it looks like. But it’s not going to include her posts. So like last time, if you see this post and you follow thisheartsmadefullmetal and happen to be following me, unfollow me please right now. If you follow her and don’t follow me, block me please right now.

Regardless, if you follow that account and intend to keep following that account, all I can say is shame the fuck on you.

EDIT: This post needs to be edited to remove the other account I mentioned, tumblr is just spitting out my edits. They do not follow this toxic blog. I mentioned in a separate post earlier that I wasn't sure because it was brought to my attention you can just reblog from random accounts when surfing tags; I don't surf the tags anymore and I had a dumbass moment, I assumed they followed the account, and now I know. I've apologized for jumping the gun on that.

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