#jolene meemaw of all time

[frogseasons]

jolene moonshine convo ep 99

[operationslipperypuppet]

out of all the broken trios, Jolene/Marabelle/Cobb is a little bit the most interesting.

to start, they're basically the second one introduced overall. they establish that Alanis/Thiala/Ulfgar is the beginning of a pattern, not an isolated incident.

second - we know the most about them the fastest. while it takes a while to build to backstory as to the why and how other heroes separated, Cobb explains what happened to his adventuring party the first time he's asked. they are also visited in narrative flashbacks more often than any other trio, iirc. we get to see Jolene fighting alongside her daughter in the endgame, saving the One Hells. Cobb is basically a member of the Boobs for two entire arcs, and comes back at the end for a bit. we see the most from them when it comes to fights and supporting new heroes.

third - their reconciliation is poignant and immediate. but it's also possible. Aryox is long gone, and Telaine likely wouldn't have heard him out. Thiala was a fascist, Alanis will never forgive her (nor should she). there is reconciliation possible and that happens for other trios, but not in the same way. when Cobb leans down it's because he's already forgiven Marabelle's mistake. Moonshine knows she can pretend to be Jolene because Jolene, too, would immediately forgive her sister. and when the context is explained to Jolene, all the ill will she ever had for her sister (which was likely low at that point) washed away.

fourth - Cobb and Jolene clearly and without exception remain a duo, friends, together, even without the third member of their party. Marabelle's assumed betrayal hurts them, certainly, but it does not have a long-term effect on their friendship. we don't exactly see independent duos with the other broken trios. not from the outset. when Jolene takes her place as the MeeMaw, Cobb remains. he's a stalwart defender of the Crick. there's nothing anyone could say to get me to believe he wasn't sent to Galaderon on Jolene's request, as he does in the later episodes when he travels to Irondeep and helps the Goo Gone Gang. he's an institution at the Crick, he makes the best fireworks shows (non-magical) and is someone everyone knows and cares about, in a place where someone he could have avoided due to baggage is in charge. but they don't really let the issues break apart their friendship. not that we can see.

and finally - it's the one that, now, we see as the most broken. Jolene was always going to outlive Cobb. it just happened tragically, and likely sooner than she expected. when we return to the Crick in campaign 3, an argument could have been made (by me, to me, at least) that Cobb was out on a scouting mission, and that Murph did backflips to get the Boobs to leave him behind in C1, so why would he tempt them with him again (this is a joke, to be clear). but that's not the case. he's gone, and Jolene is alone. the only member of her party to remain. Alanis let the breakup of her adventuring party crumble her: she meddled with the world for centuries, trying to right her wrongs; she’s still doing work to make sure Thiala’s actions don’t destroy the world and she may never be finished. Jolene would never fall into that path. she keeps working toward the advancement and protection of her community, even when it's threatened. she stays the defender of the Crick that she always was, the woman we know as an audience. she won't rain arrows down from her towers, she will always shine a light.

broken trios break the people in them. we have seen most of the other broken trios as shattered parts of the whole, where the individuals, even if they come back together, continue to show the baggage of their break. Cobb, Marabelle, and Jolene are the exception to that second half of the rule. and a little bit that’s because of the Crick and how they were raised and continue to live, but it’s also about who they are as people and how they (Cobb and Jolene) seemingly actively chose to not let what happened ruin that.

and if you were to ask me? the band of boobs will follow their path, especially given that hardwon is on his way back to them.

[loveriddenmp4]

I choose to interpret Jolene Cybin having hundreds of kids as her being the matriarch of The Crick rather than having hundreds of actual biological children because 1. I know it’s fantasy and the joke is that Crick elves are really fertile but hundreds of kids is insane. Like MeeMaw wouldn’t spend a moment not pregnant and 2. I think if Moonshine had a bunch of siblings she would like. Talk about them all the time. But rather she talks about her relatives that are sort of cousins. 3. Where the fuck are Moonshine’s siblings they’d be powerful as shit 4. MeeMaw and Moonshine’s very sweet and meaningful relationship feels kinda messed up if MeeMaw has hundreds of other kids she barely talks about

In my heart Deadeye and Moonshine are MeeMaw’s only biological children but of course the rest of The Crick ARE her children as well

[naddpod-arc-tournament]

It's here! The final showdown!

Highlights from Tales from the Crick:

pulling Balnor from the deck

seeing the Crick and Mee Maw for the first time, Hardwon bends the knee to Maw Maw

Trust the Gust!

“I’m sorry Jolene, I’m sorry Jolene, I’m sorry Jolene”

Melora restores the Crick with the elemental boons

Highlights from The Chosen Saga Part 2:

Telaine and Melora reconciliation

All-Caster Dominate Person Palooza: Green Teens vs Beverly, Meemaw and Peepaw vs Moonshine, and Cobb, Jaina, and Maw Maw vs Hardwon

“How long do half-elves live?”

297 goddamn damage

One Big Bed

If I forgot important highlights, leave them in the tags to help others make their choice!

(This is the final matchup of the NADDPod Bahumia Arc Tournament)

[kindleaf]

Just finished the crick arc!

The end was such a high point! And Melora showing up at the end????? I really wasn't expecting the gods to get involved this soon tbh. Loved the whole thing in the spirit realm, though I think I would have liked it better as a sort of checkovs gun they can use when the time comes instead of it being specificly for the marabelle fight though ig they wouldn't have much of a reason to get the blessings in that case, the titan charecter were also fun themselves! LOOOOOVE luna and I am very sad to report that I have the same taste in women as hardwon and moonshine😔 I obviously loved the crick and honestly hoped to get to spend a bit more time there since so much of this arc wasn't actually in the crick but the npcs there were great and hardwons situation (?) With maw maw was super fun, hardwon is really growing on me in general, I love him so dearly my beautiful baby girl. I see that the next arc has Siobhan as a guest pc so I'm excited for that. ALSO good to see the whole thing with osmodius and the necromancer (forgot his name) tying into this storyline, the whole thing with moonshine casting the spell on marabelle to let her pass on easy instead of the burning and making it so she can't decompose with it like she planned as GREAT I'm so glad Emily mentioned it bc it really adds a lot. Idk I'm having trouble putting my thoughts into words rn but I REALLY ENJOYED IT AS USUAL!!!

DAMN YOU ARE MOVING FAST!!!! i . LOVE the crick arc so so much. getting a look at the way moonie interacts with her home and meemaw (meemaw is one of Theeeee characters ever of all time..... jolene cybin........) and then also her pretending to be jolene to give marabelle some peace as she moves on... AUGH. also it's very small but bev's "you were a bad scoutmaster" to hardwon while under marabelle's spores is. it hits me. it hits me in my face and i fall over and die. i love the marabelle fight so much. it made me cry. second time naddpod ever made me cry, actually (first was moonie's friend not foe..) AND ALSO MELORA WITH SHADES OF GREEN AT THE END.. "you're not cursed. you were born like this." AUGH.....

[lovevalley45]

#fictober23 day twenty-nine

"That's all? Easy."

fandom: naddpod (campaign 1/bahumia)

word count: 789

tw: referenced drug use

a/n: timezones are a menace so this is technically a late birthday fic for @ginger-canary, and i am uno-reversing you with alanis/jolene as a spiritual successor to the bday fic u wrote for me (which frankly i recommend everyone read bc it's so good). enjoy the rarepair bc where would we be without f/f ships that are literally for an audience of two

Spending a summer watching over the university gardens wasn’t something Alanis ever thought she’d enjoy. Of course, the plants in there had grown on her - no pun intended, but being under the tutelage of Jolene the Green certainly made it worthwhile. 

Most people would be intimidated having the Meemaw of the Crick serving as their mentor. Even those who didn’t think of the Crick in the highest terms couldn’t deny her impact as an impressive druid. But when she and Alanis weren’t in the garden, they spent their time stressing out Headmaster Lucanus or smoking weed. 

All in all, she could think of many, many, many worse ways to spend her summer. 

She hadn’t spent much time studying the magic that kept Gladeholme afloat - that was a complicated weave of spells, charms, and enchantments she wasn’t advanced enough to untangle - but she supposed the fact that they floated closer to the sky meant it got much hotter. She had tied her thick curly hair out of her face and stripped off most of her robes, but she still wiped sweat away from her face as she listened to Jolene. 

Or, tried to. Alanis knew the Crick was a much more humid environment, but Jolene had too doffed her forest green cloak. She knew that her mentor was over 300 years old and had reached the druidic feat of slowed aging, but damn. Lucanus was one lucky man - how he had ever secured such a catch still baffled her. Talk about Meemaw, she still had her childbearing hips and-

Alanis forced her brain to shut up. Seriously, what good was a wizard’s intelligence if it still stumbled into phrases like ‘childbearing hips’ about her mentor?

“Alanis? You still there?” Jolene asked. 

“Oh. Yeah. Totally.” She shoved her hands into her pockets. “What was that again?”

“I said, I want you to cast a cantrip on this here flower.” Jolene patted the bloom beside her. It was nearly as big as she was, petals spiraled out in a rainbow of colors. 

“That’s all?” Alanis snorted. “Easy.” She danced between the opportunity to impress her mentor, or to keep things simple. The former won out as she cast Lightning Lure, a line of lightning twirled out of her fingertips towards the receptacle of the flower. 

She yanked, trying to pull it in. But the flower had other ideas, pulling her forward instead. Alanis tried to regain her footing and failed as she flew towards the flower, right into Jolene. As if she couldn’t be more humiliated, the shock of lightning damage from the cantrip went through her instead. 

“You alright there?” Jolene asked. 

Alanis nodded, before she realized how she’d landed. Her hands rested on Jolene’s waist, their torsos pressed together. She pulled her hands away as she backed up. “Yeah. I’m good.” With an air of casualness, she wiped her forehead again. “So, that some kind of magic repelling flower? Some kind of abjuration magic, no doubt.”

Jolene grinned and rested her hand on the head of flower. “Yeah. This is the Counterbell. This is right from the Crick. Some druids enchanted it to serve as a guardian for their group of stumps, but it got screwy and just bounced back any damage it takes instead. Still effective as hell, if people thought to attack a flower out of the blue.”

Alanis ran a hand over one of the violet petals. “That’s metal as fuck.”

“I know, right!” Jolene said. “All these highfaluting wizards don’t have proper appreciation for the flora ‘round them, right in their backyard.” She was still grinning as she turned back to Alanis. “Too bad there’s no kind of menagerie or aviary here.”

“You could probably get Lucanus to start one. He’d do anything you’d say,” she said. 

“I know, I know, but then he’d bitch and moan about not having enough elves around to take care of all them.” Jolene huffed. “Unless you wanna volunteer for zookeeping duty, too.”

She held her hands up. “I’m cool with all the flora and shit, but I’ll leave the fauna for the druids.”

“Fair enough.” She turned to look at the sky. Alanis didn’t quite know what she was looking at, but Jolene said, “Okay. Lesson’s over.”

“Alright.” She was a little disappointed, but she wouldn’t mind getting out of the heat. “Wanna smoke some weed back in my dorm?”

“As your mentor and supervisor for your internship, I should refuse.” She rested her hands on her hips. “But as someone who’s not getting paid by the university, I can do whatever I want.” Jolene slung her arm around Alanis’ shoulders. “It’s time for our next plant lesson - marijuana.”

There were definitely much worse ways to spend a summer.

[naddpod-encounter-tourney]

One Big Bed:

The Boobs recover from their most recent wraith encounters and prepare for the final battle against Thiala.

Bev communicates with his dad through the Balnor-phone and later decides to go for gold with his advanced humor patch, nearly killing Denny.

Moonshine visits the Crick with Meemaw and has a discussion about how life will feel with a timeless body. This includes the heartbreaking line “How long do half elves live?".

Hardwon meets JV’s sister and has a wonderful evening with her after a heartfelt talk with Jaina about what Moonshine means to him.

Everyone gets to spend a beautiful last night with the friends they made along their journey, and the ones they had before the story began, so they have a happy note to send themselves into their potentially terrible fate on.

Moonshine also turns a lot of dwarves into ducks.

They end their night ready for what’s to come, in one big bed.

Marabelle the Terrible:

The Boobs, Cobb, and Luna continue to the lair of Marabelle and come face to face with her.

They also get to use their cool elemental champion powers.

After a hard-fought battle with mind control and Hardwon being forced to hit Beverly a couple of times, Marabelle finally was defeated.

In her last moments, she explained to Moonshine, who she believed to be Jolene, what had happened, and they all saw how Ilsed had tricked Marabelle into a contract.

They then meet Melora, who decides to “Step it the fuck up”, as asked by Moonshine, and use the remainder of their elemental powers to heal the Crick.

[gideonthefirst]

7 & 14 for the naddpod asks?

7. Favorite NPC?

This is an even more impossible question than favorite PC was. I love so many of them so much. Lydia Stormborn is really high up there, especially because I got to listen to her kill Galad a second time in ATL and it was one of the greatest joys in my life. Marabelle, obviously. I love Erlin with all my heart I just want that boy to be happy. Alanis, who if she’s evil I will physically fight Murph. After episode 80, Egwene, because damn does that girl deserve a break. Jaina who gets me every single time I relisten to Frostwind. Jeremiah Banshee, lest we forget. There’s just so MANY!

14. MawMaw or MeeMaw?

MeeMaw. Got a lot of...thoughts and emotions about Jolene. I am very, very concerned about her right now

[drinkingdeadpeopletea]

4, 10, and 14 from the naddpod ask meme? 😁

thank you!!!! :D

4. If you had to live in a region of Bahumia, which one would it be?

I’d love to say the Crick because it’s objectively the best, but I honestly don’t think I could handle that lack of privacy lmao. So instead I’m going to say Gladeholm, because the high elves may be pricks but goddamn, they went OFF with a beautiful magical academy built on a floating island. I’m all about that. 

10. Quote? 

OH AHHH THERE’S SO MANY. but i mean, I’ve been thinking about “A child has a duty to their father, but a hero has a duty to the world. I’ve got my opinion on what you are. It’s time for you to decide” pretty much non-stop for the past week and a half. I also heard “I’ve been half an elf ever since I met you” before I even had context for it and then context made it a million times better, and “You killed my father, I will talk to the god myself” absolutely lit me on FIRE the first time I heard it. 

14. MawMaw or MeeMaw? 

I do bend the knee to MawMaw, of course, but I’m gonna have to pick MeeMaw. I adore Jolene Cybin, I think she’s an absolutely underrated NPC who I would love to write about sometime. She comes across at first as the perfect matriarch/mother figure but then the more you learn about her and the more you see how different people in her life perceive her, the more and more complex she gets and the more and more you come to appreciate her. I hope she’s kicking ass in Pandemonium with Ulfgar and Lucanus, that’s an adventure I’d kill to see some of. 

let’s talk about naddpod!!! 

[thefandomcassandra]

11 (Alt.): Infection

It was my fucking birthright. It was my goddamn fucking home too. How dare you snatch it away like that?! My fucking sister! My sister and the man I thought loved me. Fucking took everything from me and didn't give a godsdamn.

It

was

my

fucking

gods-given

right.

But there Jolene is, sitting pretty topside as fucking Meemaw of the fucking Crick, while I freeze my godsdamned tits off in the Hells.

In Caïna no less.

(I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry Jolene. I didn't mean for this to happen. Please, take care of them for me. I didn't mean for you to do this alone. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.)

Spit in my face while I'm down, huh? Kick me in the fucking ribs while I'm busy dealing with the fallout, yeah?

Ain't that just how it goes? Everything Marabelle has, Jolene wants, and Jolene always gets what she fucking wants.

Bitch. Bitch. Bitch!

Fucking liar! Thief! Traitor! You should be trapped here! Not fucking me!

(No. No. No one should be here, in the coldest parts of the Hells. Not you. Not you, Jolene, and not him neither. You didn't take nothing that wasn't mine in the first place and you know it. Don't feel guilty. Please just live your life. Don't linger. Keep them safe.)

If Jolene wants what Marabelle has, then maybe I'll fucking give it to her. You can fucking well have this.

Coz the one thing I've always been better at than you was mushrooms. And now that's all I am.

Mushrooms and hate.

You want it so bad, little sis? You want everything I've ever had? Then you can fucking have it. Take it all. Every last little bit.

(It's sickening, how easy it is for the anger to fester. Bubble and brew into something horrible. How much of this is me and how much of this is Hellish influence? I was always angry, so I guess it tracks. You were the better of the two of us and I should've realized sooner. You were always the better leader anyway. Much more level-headed.)

And time is fucky here. I've got time to spare. Let's see what nasty things I can cook up while I wait? What all I can dredge up from the sludge to make you suffer, yeah? And when all's said and done, I want you to beg, on your fucking knees, that I take it back. I want you to lick my fucking feet and apoligize for ever being fucking born. Then I'll consider putting you out of your fucking misery.

Only then will I entertain the idea of putting you in the dirt to nourish my children. Only then will I court the thought of ending your godsdamned life.

(If you see me again, it's not gonna be me. It's not gonna be your big sister, who wanted you to be the best you could. It's gonna be this monster of fungus and hate and you're gonna hafta put a bullet in my head and I'm so sorry to force your hand like that. Y'all don't deserve that. Not you, not him, not anyone. But I'm not gonna be me anymore and I can't control that. Please, Jolene, just kill me. Help me by killing me. Jolene, I'm begging you to please just end my life. It'll be better for everyone if you do.)

Hope you like my gift. My preview. Coz that fucking hero thought he did me in but he didn't finish the fucking job. And with Asmodeus dead and gone, I'm home fucking free. So you and every other goddamn fucking elf in the Crick is gonna get a taste of my anger.

But especially you.

I'm gonna personally make sure your lungs are swamped with it.

Fucking teach you to take from me.

It was my goddamn right.

And I'm in the fucking right.

So have fun playing house while you can, lil sis. Coz I'm coming home and I'm bringing hell to your fucking doorstep. Set the table for three: you, me, and the Grim fucking Reaper.

(I'm sorry Jolene. I'm sorry Jolene. I'm sorry Jolene.)

[operationslipperypuppet]

There’s something about Meemaw being almost universally liked. Like unless they were an active enemy of the boobs, I feel like every outsider had a positive opinion of Meemaw. The Frost Dwarfs, the Green Knights, even the majority of Gladeholm I think came around. She was clearly like a major player on the council at the end of C1.

Like the idea that Glen thought he could ever be wiser or more respected than Meemaw is insane.

no but exactly.

at any moment when the boobs met a potential ally who was apprehensive about them because let’s be honest, they were insane, and they saw moonshine was a crick elf, the response was “oh I know your meemaw. she helped me with (blank)” and it won the npc over to their side. and this was true wherever they went. it actually saved their asses in Frostwind.

plus! when alanis found the boobs for the first time in her numerous time traveling escapades to save bahumia, she had been looking to ask jolene the green for help.

jolene’s capabilities, power, and competence are a universal constant, and her hospitality makes all the people who aren’t evil like her about it. she’s trusted and allowed on the war council not just because she’s the leader of a major city (let’s not parse whether or not city is the right word, I am in fact apprehensive about it), but because she’s a strong and capable warrior who can be trusted to hold her own.

on the other hand, there’s glen. the slimy fuck. any time duck team mentions him to potential allies the answer is “he’s a problem” or “his machinations will cause him and others trouble”. the people who are on board with him are bad news.

and he was such a problem coming up at the crick that he was never made a ranger captain, even after everyone else at his outpost was killed (he as the sole survivor could have been promoted out of respect, if it were someone else. he was not).

the thing about some of his heroes (moonshine) is that they left the crick and learned about the world, helping those who needed it along the way. the world came to respect them because of that. (i imagine that, even now, if you were to mention knowing moonshine cybin in a major bahumian city, that person would accept that fact as support for moving toward trusting you)

glen left the crick, angry, and plotted. he doesn’t even really have the respect of his faction. galcard and others betraying their own orders still don’t trust him.

and yet he thought he could waltz back home after fifty fucking years, still impossibly young for an elf, and take over. for someone who was still solidly in the first half of her life. who still has the respect of every single person at the crick. and likely everyone else in bahumia.

based on fall out from past decisions, she could have stopped consulting the old folks’ circle on major decisions. but it’s their call on what happens to glen when he turns himself in. and she immediately moves to reform it when half of them are knocked out and the other half betrayed her.

the world got harsher in the time between campaigns one and three. jolene, in a way that feels both impossible and perfectly on brand, did not.

glen never understood the crick. he never understood how to be a leader. and because of that, combined with his delusions of grandeur, he thought he would be able to take over the crick from jolene, and that he would thrive in that role.

what a goddamn fool.

[operationslipperypuppet]

a second alternate ending to this, which can coexist with this, but i wanted to be separate:

it’s a familiar comfort, every time moonshine asks cobb to braid her hair after the war with thiala and the chosen ends. it’s not something she does frequently, but it steadies her in a way nothing else will in the aftermath.

when cobb agrees to travel to the astral with the boobs, it’s easy. for one, they’re more used to fighting as a unit of four than as a unit of three. plus, it’s one of the only ways jolene is okay with them leaving the crick at all. and, of course, if there’s one thing cobb is willing to prioritize over anything else, it’s the safety of those three.

any time they were going to face down an actual god, and not just defend one hoping no one powerful would show up, cobb would braid moonshine’s hair.

this turned out, of course, to be for the best.

because when cobb sacrificed himself to gruumsh’s forces, allowed them to see him instead of one of his companions, her hair had been braided by him ahead of time.

it was something she could cling to, in the days immediately following his loss, when she felt that nothing could possibly console her and the two people she wanted to speak with most about it were dead or had gone back to the crick.

and she clung to it as long as she could. she couldn’t quite bring herself to take the braid out herself, paw paw was the one who had to do it. at that point, three entire weeks after the battle had ended, it was more of a twist than a braid, but it needed to be detangled all the same.

once paw paw had fully taken it out, he curled up on her chest, comforting her as she sobbed for hours.

she was, of course, worried that when she woke up the next day that every part of her cobb had contributed to would be gone.

but slowly, over time, she realized there was more to it than that.

he had been the one to suggest to her the best possible ways to sneak around, ways the boots of elven kind could not possibly guide her to. he had been the one, not meemaw, to show her how exactly to use her spores effectively when fighting someone off, and how her fungal form should always be something she enjoyed, not feared, as she had the first time she realized it was something she could do.

and, of course, his presence had been the thing that showed her hardwon and beverly could use more support in combat with weapons, not just through spells. his fierce defense of the crick had helped to show her that she could use her anger to help her, instead of letting it simply be something that boiled over.

moonshine had been nothing to be worried about. cobb was all around her.

that’s all that mattered.

and it almost made things okay.