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tales-of-the-party · 6 years

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ToftP - Necessary Evil

Rizu: So..... none of the others were expecting me to actually get around to editing a story any time soon probably and I know Bry wants to start promoting the story soon, so I decided to go through story 4 and post it! I’ll try to take good pictures with my iphone (printer and scanner are in a box somewhere) of the characters soon!

Anyways before Eric complains I’m blathering on and on again... Here is the story!

“All I’m saying,” Coil said as he, Bry and Rizu walked into the marketplace, “is that it wouldn’t kill you to try being a bit quieter.” “Seriously.” Rizu added in. “When I was staying with you I got, maybe, five hours of sleep. Total.”

Bry snorted “Maybe you two deviants shouldn’t listen in on a husband and wife’s personal business.” Their pay for the eight months Bry, Rizu and he had been out doing jobs had finally arrived earlier that morning. Three hundred thousand gold each. “Get thicker walls then.” Coil hissed. “You’ve got the gold for it now.” “Can’t,” the warrior shrugged, “gotta buy and repair gear.” Coil and Rizu snorted in unison. Their gear had become kind of ragged during their travels, Coil had to admit. Coil was running low on throwing knives and bombs. He’d also noticed his blade was beginning to chip. He looked at Bry’s halberd and shield. They were suffering from the same issue. And he’d noticed, both during the last two months and from helping Rizu with the sick people in the slums, that Rizu was being extremely careful with her herbs and potions because she was running low. Now that their pay had come in, it was time to restock. Rizu wanted to make sure they had a full inventory before heading out on another mission. “I’m gonna go to Emerra’s Apothecary.” Rizu said pointing at one of the larger kiosks in the marketplace. “She should have my shipment by now. I might also stop by Roharin’s books, see if he has anything new.” “Alright,” Bry said as he wrapped an arm around Coil’s shoulders and shook him slightly, “I’ll be showing Coil to Galladun. See if we can get him some new gear.” “Meet up at the Guild Hall in two hours?” Rizu asked. “Two hours.” Bry and Coil said in unison. Rizu nodded and walked off to the kiosk she’d pointed out earlier. Once she was out of earshot Coil shot a glare at the large warrior. “You’ve got three seconds before you lose that arm.” he warned. Bry rolled his eyes, but removed his arm none the less. “C’mon,” he said pointing at the blacksmith, “this way. But a heads up.” Coil raised his eyebrow, wondering what he needed to worry about. “Galladun is a grumpy bastard.” Bry said rolling his shoulders. “He only makes gear for Guild members, but even then he won’t make ‘em for newbies.”

“That seems a bit...odd.” Coil said after a brief pause. “A lot of newbies to the Guild die,” Bry shrugged as they walked around a large group of people watching a Jester dance on a ball, “so a lot of what he makes goes to waste. So he only makes weapons and armor for veterans.” “Then why am I-” “However,” Bry interrupted, an annoying habit of his that sometimes made Coil wish the snake hadn’t alerted Bry when Coil was about to kill him so many months ago, “he’ll make an exception for a newbie who has a recommendation from a long time member of the Guild.” “Ah, that explains why you’re coming with me.” “Partly.” Bry said as they reached the opening to the smithy. “He may be a crotchety old bastard, but he makes the best gear I’ve ever seen.” From the inside of the smithy, Coil could hear a hammer pounding metal and he could see weapons of all types lining the walls. “Do you know the last time I had to get my halberd repaired?” Bry asked. When Coil shook his head Bry grinned and said. “Three years ago, and even now it’s just a couple small nicks and cracks.” The inside was hot and smelled of metal, heat and sweat. A large furnace sat against the far right wall, and a short ways away was an anvil, with someone standing over it and hammering away at it. “Who are ya an’ whadda ya want?” the figure asked, without turning around. His voice was rough and gravelly, like he had rocks in his throat. “Your favorite halberd wielding pal,” Bry said cheerfully, “and a stray that he picked up on the road.” Coil glared at him and Bry simply shrugged with a grin.

The figure hammered at his piece for a few more minutes before taking the metal he’d been beating into a pair of tongs and dipped it in a sink off to the side. The water hissed and steam rose. After a few moments he pulled it back out and inspected it. He turned and Coil had to suppress a grimace. The blacksmith, Galladun he assumed, was an elf and like all of his kind he looked young. He had black hair tied under a dark red bandanna and dark brown eyes. He wore a blacksmith's apron, the pockets on the front containing a small hammer, tongs and other tools, a sleeveless black shirt and black trousers with matching boots.

Starting under his left eye, covering his cheek and jaw, and going down just barely touching his shoulder, the skin was warped from being burned. Galladun narrowed his eyes when he saw Bry and he spit on the floor. “Thought ya were dead, given’ how long you’ve been gone.” “Oh please,” Bry drawled and waved his left hand in a dismissive gesture, “we were just taking a bunch of jobs. All of ‘em I coulda done in my sleep.” Galladun snorted and turned his gaze toward Coil. “You a Guild member?” he asked. Coil grabbed the corner of his mask and tugged it down slightly to reveal his Brand, visible only to Guild members. The elf snorted. “An’ how long have ya been in the Guild?” “Technically a week.” Coil said, tugging his mask back up. “But I’ve been traveling with Bry and Rizu for around six months.” Galladun’s face twisted up in annoyance and he looked toward Bry. “You know how I feel about new members.” the elft grumbled.

“I know, I know.” Bry said holding up his hands, palms out. “But that’s why I’m here. I can vouch for his skills, he’s almost as good as me.” Coil scoffed at the last comment. Galladun eyed Coil and strode up to him. Bry moved to the side and leaned against the wall. The elven blacksmith circled Coil several times, eyeing every part of him. “Thin, light gear, more the type for sneaking or quick strikes.” he heard Galladun mumbling as he circled Coil. Finally he stopped. “I’ve got some ideas for the wear, but for now I have some weapons that could work for your style.” “What would those be?” Coil asked, following the elf as he wandered to one of the walls and picked out a sword. “The first is this.” Galladun replied, handing the sword to Coil. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. It was similar to his current sword, a katana. But instead of one blade, there were two. The blades were about an inch to an inch and a half apart. The guard was in a thick diamond shape and the handle was wrapped in tight black lace. He noticed a small trigger under the guard. “The blades are close, so that even if you miss a killing shot,” Galladun rasped, “they’ll still either bleed out or die of infection.”

“Impressive” Coil said, giving the weapon some test swings, thrusts and twirls. “Press the trigger under the guard.” Coil did so and jumped slightly as the left side of the sword suddenly separated from the rest. He caught the half of the sword in his left hand. “It can split to become a double blade.” Coil said approvingly. “What else do you got for him?” Bry asked, walking forward and looking at the blades over Coil’s shoulder. Coil snapped the two halves back together and handed the blade back to the elf. Galladun walked to another section of wall and picked a bow off the wall. The longbow was painted black, the rubber grip fit snugly in his hand. There were four metal plates on the front of the bow, two on top and two on bottom. Between each set of plates was a long thin blade sticking out. “A bladed bow?” Coil asked, examining the weapon.

“Made of Ironwood.” the blacksmith said, then added proudly. “And the string is made of unicorn hair.” Coil pulled the string back as far as he could, testing the tension. He eased it back to it’s regular position and handed it back to the elf. “How much?” Coil asked. The elf grumbled a bit before spitting on the floor again. “Normally I’d say a hundred fifty thousand gold,” he said before flicking a wrist at Bry, “but since you’re with him, I’ll say a hundred twenty five thousand. And I’ll throw in thirty arrows for free.” “And for the sword?” “Same.” Coil rubbed his chin in thought, he admitted he liked both weapons but he wasn’t sure if he could afford both. He also needed throwing knives and bombs on top of needing to save a little bit to buy a house. After several more moments he looked up. “Give me the bow.”

“And what about you, runt?” the old elf asked, looking up at Bry “What’re you botherin’ me for?”

"Need some repairs to my halberd, ya old coot." Bry drawled. It was an old game between him and the elf, they’d insult each other and whoever reacted first lost.

"Oh, is that all?" Galladun asked as Bry handed him the weapon and he examined the weapon.

"No, I also want you to install Runes."

Galladun looked up at him and raised an eyebrow, Bry also noticed Coil look over at the mention.

"You sure about that, boy?" Galladun asked. "You know installing Runes is expensive."

"I know," Bry said with a grin, "but I’ve saved up quite a bit over the years."

Galladun let out a ‘hrmph’ and nodded.

"Which Runes do you want?"

"Sharpening on the halberd and impact on the shield."

The blacksmith chewed for several seconds.

"Normally I’d charge you nine hundred thousand." he said finally. "But for you...Seven hundred thousand."

Bry nodded and took his bag off his shoulders. He set it on a nearby table and opened the pouch containing his gold. He counted out the seven hundred thousand gold and placed it on the counter. Bronze were worth ten, silver twenty five. Gold was split into three categories: one hundred, one thousand and one hundred thousand.

After a moment’s thought he also pulled out four silver and five bronze.

"Need the halberd sharpened too, same with Coil’s sword."

"An’ the bronze?"

"A tip." Bry said with a grin.

Galladun gave Bry an evil eye look and sniffed.

"Give me about forty-five minutes." the old elf said, taking Bry’s halberd and Coil’s sword over to a whetstone.

"I thought you said he was a grouchy, mean guy?" Coil asked "Considering the discounts he gave us, I find it hard to believe."

"Yeah." Bry drawled with a grin. "I said it just to scare ya."

Coil punched him in his bare left arm and Bry laughed.

The near hour passed in silence, the two men watching the elven smith work. The sharpening had only taken a few minutes, no more than ten. Putting the Runes on Bry’s halberd and shield, however, took much longer.

After the final etching had been done he returned their weapons.

"You want me ta finish that armor for ya?" the blacksmith asked, pointing at Bry’s bare arm.

"No." Bry said, maybe a little too defensively. "It’s fine the way it is. Thanks though."

He noticed Coil staring at him, but only out of the corner of the rogue’s eye.

"Humph." the elf said "So be it. You lads need anythin’ else, or can I finally get some peace around here?"

"I need some throwing knives." Coil said. "and some bombs if you have them"

Galladun gave a grumpy sigh before turning toward the shop "I’ll see what I can find." He walked off, grumbling something about ‘annoying whipper snappers’

After Galladun was out of earshot Coil finally spoke.

"I’ve wanted to ask about that." he said eyeing Brys arm. "Not wearing armor on your left arm I mean."

Bry was silent for several seconds before flexing his left arm.

"It makes me look cool." he said finally with a smile.

Coil started at him flatly and snorted.

Bry hummed a few moments before Coil’s stare finally forced him to sigh.

"There’s a couple reasons." he said "You know I use my halberd with my left arm. Not having any armor over it gives it more flexibility."

"And the other reason?"

"My pride." Bry said, staring off and smiling slightly.

"You’re pride?" Coil asked, tilting his head.

"My left arm is my weapon arm. If I lose it, my life as a warrior and an Adventurer is over."

"All the more reason to put armor over it!" Coil hissed.

Bry shook his head and said "It’s a challenge, to anyone I fight."

Coil raised his eyebrows but Bry said nothing more on the matter.

The blacksmith returned shortly.

"How many ya need of each?"

Coil took several more seconds before tearing his eyes from Bry toward the elf.

"How much are they?"

"Ri! My love!" Emerra shouted when she saw Rizu break away from Bry and Coil and head toward her kiosk.

A human, Emerra was in her mid thirties with long sandy colored hair and big green eyes. She wore a long red and blue dress and a matching beret.

Rizu waved as she walked to the kiosk. Her old team had stopped in Largun two or three times and Emerra had been one of her first stops after receiving her pay. Part of the reason Rizu had decided to live in Largun was because of her. Emerra may not have had the largest stock of ingredients, but she had some of the best and most potent ingredients on half of the continent.

"Hello Emerra," Rizu said with a smile, "how have you been?"

"Without my favorite customer around? Business was… fair." Emerra said with a grin.

Rizu snorted.

"Did my shipment come in?"

"I believe it did." Emerra said turning to a stack of boxes behind her "Fifty Redroot, two jars of pinecones, ten orcish sunflowers-"

"That’s it" Rizu said quickly, the list of ingredients was long and she needed to make her potions quickly. "How much for it?"

"For the entire shipment…" Emerra hummed, tapping her chin "fifteen thousand."

Another reason Rizu used Emerra as her main source of ingredients, she always gave Rizu a great price. Rizu went through her coin pouch and pulled out the fifteen thousand.

"Appreciated love," Emerra said pocketing the coin "I’ll lend you a dolly so you can get it home."

"You’re too good to me, Emerra." Rizu said as Emerra slipped the dolly under the boxes, tilted it back and moved them out of the kiosk.

"Well naturally," the herbalist hummed "gotta treat the regulars right so they keep coming back."

Rizu moved behind the dolly and kicked it back, she turned to thank Emerra again but paused when she noticed the herbalist biting her lip in thought.

"What is is?"

"There’s...something I should tell you Ri." the woman said with a grimace. "Another white mage came by yesterday."

"Okay?" Rizu said with a tilt of her head "You expect me to act like you’re cheating on me by selling to other people?"

"No," Emerra said holding up her hands, "it’s...The people was she was. I recognized one."

Rizu wasn’t sure what to say, so she remained silent.

"It was Jarren," Emerra finally said, "he’s got a new group. And from what I could pick up of their chatter...they’re moving into the city after the job they’re out on."

Rizu felt her stomach clench up and her breath got caught in her throat.

Jarren had been the leader of the last team she’d been on. After finding out he’d been using her and shirking on her pay and that he was going to sell one of their members out for a bounty, she’d broken from the group on less than good terms.

"Ri?" the herbalist asked, snapping Rizu out of her thoughts. She hadn’t noticed she’d been gripping the dolly so hard, her knuckles were white and her fingers hurt like hell.

"I’m fine." Rizu said after taking a deep breath to calm her nerves "Thank you for letting me know."

Emerra said nothing, only nodding as Rizu walked away with the dolly and her boxes.

Her old team leader living in Largun. There was no way that they wouldn’t meet at some point. She’d deal with that hurdle when she came to it

"There she is." Coil said pointing out toward the far corner of the market. Bry placed his hand over his eyes and squinted.

Rizu was walking toward the Guild Hall, of which Bry and Coil were sitting on the rail while they waited, with Fluffles in tow behind her.

"Her walk…" Coil said hesitantly.

"She’s walking too fast," Bry said, leaning back and crossing his arms. "Something’s bothering her."

She walked up to the two of them and only said "Let’s go."

"Something bothering you, short stack?" Bry asked, not moving from his spot.

Rizu glared up at him and Bry almost regretted the jokeful tone. She was in full on team leader mode.

He saw her clench her teeth and her fists tighten on her staff.

He flinched back slightly, preparing for the verbal assault he knew was coming. He was surprised when she sighed and her shoulders slumped.

"I’ll tell you two about it later." she finally said. "For now, let’s just focus on finding a job to do."

Bry and Coil shared a look. After a few moments of silence they both nodded and the trio entered the Guild Hall.

As always, the Guild Hall was full of people. Every seat of every table was taken. Even the bar stools were all taken.

They moved through the crowded group, Bry giving an evil eye to anyone that bumped them, and walked to the notice board.

"Not a lot of new jobs." Bry noticed, seeing the papers hung up on the board.

"Doesn’t matter," Rizu said reading through the notices, "we just gotta take whatever is available."

After a couple of minutes Coil pulled one off the wall.

"How about this one?" he asked, holding it out as Bry and Rizu leaned in. "It’s a request from a town being attacked by goblins."

"How’s the pay?" Bry asked.

"What does that matter?" Rizu asked shortly. "It’s people in need of help."

"Indeed." Coil said with a nod "But, to answer Bry’s question, it looks like seventy-five thousand."

"How far away?"

"It’s in a town called Hartua." Coil said, pointing at the name.

"Been through there, I think." Bry said rubbing his chin. "About a three days walk from the city."

"Why don’t the soldiers handle it though?" Coil asked. "It seems like something they should take care of."

"Probably think it’s too far beneath their notice." Bry huffed in annoyance "Back when I was with Boltol, the higher ups were like that. Anything not involving an invasion or invading force they left to the local Guild. Goblins usually travel around in groups of twenty to thirty, not enough to send the garrison out."

"Lazy asses." Rizu huffed, taking the paper out of Coil’s hand. "Let’s go."

"That it?" Bry asked, looking down from the hilltop at the town.

"Matches the coordinates on the map." Coil said. "So it must be"

"Let’s go introduce ourselves then." Rizu said from atop Fluffles, now back to his regular, large self.

She still chuckled a bit every time she thought of the looks on the guards faces when Fluffles passed by the wards she’d etched into the gate, turning from a small fluffball that she could carry with one arm into a massive beast that could tear through squads of soldiers like butter.

Hartua had one single road running straight through the town. The town itself was built like a box, houses on either side of the road with a single fence reach behind all the homes on either side. A ways off from the houses on the left was a large wheat field. The only exception to the box shape was the temple that was at the end of the rows of houses.

Easily the largest building around, it dwarfed the homes of the townsfolk. Made out of pure stone it had a vast stairway leading toward the entrance. Eight pillars stood on either side once they reached the top of the stairway. The door was twelve feet high and ten wide and were wide open.

The entire town was inside, praying. In the back past the pews was a tall statue of a humanoid figure wearing a toga, holding wheat in one hand and a hand scythe in the other.

Roth, Rizu thought, God of the Harvest. She thought people had given up worship of the Old Pantheon years ago. Interesting.

She looked to Bry and the warrior raised an eyebrow. She nodded in response.

He grinned and held his arms out as far as they could, and quickly clapped his hands together. The metal gauntlets created a booming echo throughout the temple, causing all the townsfolk to jump.

They turned, timid and frightened.

"Heard you guys have a goblin problem." Rizu said leaning forward and resting her arms on top of Fluffles head, her chin resting on her arms. "We’re here to see if we can help you with that."

The townsfolk were silent for a moment. Then the whispering began as the man who’d been kneeling right in front of the statue moments before came to greet them. He was bald, had tanned leathery skin with a short white beard and grey eyes

"I am Palanar, headsman of Hartua and priest of Roth, God of the Harvest." he looked between the three Adventurers and the chimera, then behind them. "Where is the rest of your force?"

"Force?" Rizu asked.

"We sent the request to the garrison at the Crown City..." the old man started.

"They handed it off to the Adventurers Guild," Coil said, "the three of us took the job to come and help."

The old man’s face fell and his shoulders slumped.

"It’s just a wandering Goblin group," Bry said with a shrug, "we can handle it in no-"

"It’s no group" Palanar whispered.

"Eh?" the three Adventurers said in unison.

"It’s an entire clan, numbering three hundred strong."

"Three hun-" Coil started, his hand flying to his head and beginning to rub his temples.

"We can make it work." Rizu hissed, scanning the pews. "I count four hundred people here. If we can set up a defense-"

"NO!" Palanar shouted, the ‘no’ echoing throughout the temple.

"We’re farmers," the old man explained, "the only ones among us who know how to use weapons are the hunters. We tried to fight when the creatures first arrived, two weeks ago, but…" he cut off and shook his head as tears began to form in his eyes.

Rizu looked through the crowd again, eyes turned down toward the floor and lips pressed together until they turned white.

"The goblins made an example of someone," Bry whispered after a few moments, "didn’t they?"

The old man looked up, tears streaming down his eyes, and nodded.

"Show us."

Coil stared at the corpses of the three young women, cut open throat to groin and hollowed out.

The goblin’s had done a rough crucification of the women, their bodies slumped against the wood, arms spread open with nails in the biceps, forearm and palms and their heels digging into the earth. The rotten flesh was dried out. They’d been dead for quite some time.

The former assassin shook his head ruefully and looked to his companions.

Rizu appeared calm, her breathing was controlled and her eyes were cold. But her hands were tightly clenched, her knuckles turning white and he thought he could see them shaking. If Coil had to compare, her fury was a storm held in by glass.

Bry, on the other hand, was an inferno that’d long since burned away the paper cage around it. His teeth were bared in a snarl, his eyes filled with pure fury and his nails dug into the flesh of his palm.

"Why?" Bry snarled, turning toward the townsfolk. "Why haven’t you taken their bodies down yet?"

The crowd either looked down or shied away from Bry’s fury.

"WHY!?" the warrior roared.

"Th-the goblins." Palanar stuttered, looking like he wanted to run "They threatened to burn down the town if we did."

Palanar’s answer seemed to add wood to the fire, Bry became more furious.

"Where are the husbands of these women?" Bry growled. "Bring them up here."

"Bry." Rizu said quietly, turning her head slightly to the warrior. "Stop it."

Coil felt a chill at Rizu’s tone. The mage’s implied far more danger than Bry’s at the moment.

But if the warrior had heard her words, he ignored them. Three men walked toward the group timidly and Bry walked toward them.

Faster than his bulk would suggest, Bry struck the middle man across the face with a backhand. The one on the left he kicked in the stomach.

The right one he grabbed and headbutt to the ground.

"Bry!" Rizu said louder, her anger finally showing. "That’s enough!"

Bry turned and glared darkly at the mage. Rizu returned the look, refusing to back down. Coil could swear he saw angry sparks fly between the two.

Finally Bry backed down. Turning to the three men, now struggling to get to their feet, he said "Pathetic. Your wives are dead and you’re too scared to even give them a burial."

"T-the g-goblins said-" the man Bry had backhanded started.

"It doesn’t matter!" Bry snarled. "You should have buried them properly, instead of looking at them each day and pissing yourself in fear."

The men looked down, trying to avoid eye contact with Bry. The warrior spit off to the side and turned away from them.

"Didn’t expect that." Coil said as Bry approached. Now that he thought of it, he didn’t think he’d ever seen Bry so angry. "Didn’t take you for the kind of guy who’d get mad at seeing a few dead women."

"It’s not that." Bry said as he crossed his arms. "It’s that their own husbands are so pitiful they didn’t even bury them."

Coil stared at the warrior. For all the time he’d traveled with Bry and Rizu, Bry had always seemed guarded. Keeping his emotions locked down and revealing little unless it was needed. Seeing him in a rage and beating down those three men, Coil kind of understood why Bry seemed to keep everything down.

"A wolf of Boltol thing?" Coil asked, turning back to the bodies.

"No." Bry said with a shake of his head "It’s a decency thing."

"Enough banter," Rizu said with a sigh, "cut them down. We’ll try to figure out a plan to deal with the goblins after."

"No!" Palanar shouted "if you cut them down the goblins will-"

Bry and Rizu both turned toward the old man, their dark glares forcing him down.

They’d done it perfectly in unison. Must come from being partners for so many years. He wondered if he’d ever get to the point he could do that too.

"Let’s go buddy," Bry said lightly bumping Coil on the shoulder. "I’ll cut the back of the nails off, you pull them out. I need to test the Rune the old man put on my weapon."

Coil nodded and followed behind. As they worked, he tried to recall all the information he knew about goblins.

Some people theorized that goblins were smaller and weaker cousins to the orcs, though the orcs denied any relation to the beasts.

Goblins had no tusks like orcs did, and while most orcs could pass for humans without the tusks or the different skin colors.

Goblins, however, were small and twisted by their corrupt and bloodthirsty nature.

Orcs were a warrior race that only fought when glory was involved, but goblins tortured and killed for the sheer pleasure of it.

In terms of pure physical strength, the average goblin was slightly weaker than the average human. They weren’t very smart, though the bigger, stronger and smarter of them could speak some basic words of the sentient races.

All in all, if there were three hundred of them then he, Rizu and Bry had little chance of success. In an open battle Bry and Coil could, between the two of them, kill maybe fifty or sixty. Rizu could possibly kill a number more with her magic, but they’d be overwhelmed sooner than later.

"We need to call for backup." Coil finally said as he and Bry laid the last corpse down. "The three of us can’t handle this on our own."

"No." Bry said with a shake of his head. "It’ll take the guards or other Guild members days to get here."

Bry looked back at the town and the anger crossed his face again.

"We have reinforcements right there," the warrior said waving an arm at the town, "but they’d rather piss themselves than fight."

"They’re farmers, Bry," Coil said, "they don’t know how to fight."

"They don’t need to know how!" Bry said with a frustrated sigh. "All they need to do is overwhelm them. They outnumber the goblins!"

Coil shrugged.

"Some people would rather not take the risk of dying." he said. "It’s in every creature's nature."

Bry make a tsking sound before grabbing a nearby shovel and began to dig.

"Making them each a grave?" Coil asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course," Bry growled, "if their incompetent husbands won’t do it, then someone has to."

Bry was halfway through the second grave when Rizu and Fluffles came back, shaking her head in frustration.

"They keep refusing to fight." she hissed. "So it’s up to the three of us."

"We’ll die." Bry grunted as he threw another mound of dirt off the shovel.

"We can make a strategy and-"

"We’ll die." Bry repeated "Three of us against three hundred goblins? The closest we’d get to winning is if we pin them in a choke off point."

"And even then they’d overwhelm us" Coil finished with a nod.

"Well," Rizu said, placing her hands on her hips, "we need to do something."

Fluffles let out a growl of agreement, eyeing the bodies and licking his lips.

"Don’t even think about it." Coil warned the beast.

"I do have an idea." Bry said quietly between shoveling. "But you won’t like it."

Rizu and Coil shared a look for a moment before returning their gaze to Bry.

"What is it?" the small mage asked.

Bry stuck the shovel in the ground, looking to make sure the three were alone.

"We burn the wheat field and blame it on the goblins."

Coil and Rizu’s eyes widened with shock.

"No," Rizu snarled, "absolutely not!"

"I second that." Coil said with a nod toward Rizu. "If we burn the wheat field, they’ll lose a source of food and income. We’ll be responsible for them dying, and I don’t kill anyone except my targets."

"They can always plant more." Bry insisted. "And it’ll force them to fight."

"How so?"

"A man with enough will can survive without food." Bry said, turning toward Coil. "A man with food can survive without will. But if a man has neither, he’ll become desperate and do whatever the person who offers him both tells him to do."

Coil rubbed his chin in thought. Bry had a good point, but still...to destroy the wheat field and starve these people just so he could make them fight? It didn’t sit well with him.

"I don’t know Bry…" Coil said, jumping slightly when Rizu slammed her foot and staff on the ground.

"No." she snarled. "It’ll do more damage than good to these people. The three of us can handle it."

Bry’s eyes darkened and he walked forward. He grabbed both of them by the backs of their heads and forced them forward toward the corpses.

"Look at them." Bry growled.

"Stop it Bry." Rizu hissed but Bry pushed them both forward, closer to the corpses.

"LOOK AT THEM!" he roared. "This is what they’ll do to us if we fight on our own. You like the thought of that? Being crucified, split open and hollowed out while they slaughter all those folks who don’t want to fight?"

He released his grip on their heads and shoved them forward onto their knees.

"Grow up." he snarled. "Three against three hundred isn’t a battle that can be won. If we want to survive, we need to get these people to fight."

Coil stared down at the body of the poor woman and lowered his head. Damn the man, he was right. No matter how Coil played it out in his head, the three of them always ended up dead and the town was torched to the ground. All except for the one where they forced the townsfolk to fight.

"He’s right Rizu," Coil whispered, "as much as I hate to admit it. We can’t win with just us."

Coil could see Rizu shaking and he could hear her grind her teeth as she thought of another way to try and get the people to fight or to fight three hundred goblins by themselves. She finally turned toward Bry, tears streaming down her face.

"Fine." she said quietly. "We’ll do it your way. But goddamn it Bry, I’ll never forgive you."

"Not looking for forgiveness," Bry said with a shrug, "just to survive and get the job done."

Coil sat on the branch, watching the road the townsfolk had said lead to where the goblins had set up camp.

Bry’s plan still didn’t sit well with him, he felt like every town person who died would be his responsibility. But he had to push those feelings down, they needed the people to fight if the three of them were to survive.

Keep telling yourself that, his subconscious said.

According to the townsfolk two goblins came every four days for payment of wheat, grain and meat. If they couldn’t provide the latter, the goblins just took one of the children.

After Rizu and Coil had left from hearing Bry’s plan, Rizu had said something that was still going through Coil’s mind.

"In a way, I’m glad it’s goblins and not bandits." the mage had said quietly.

"Why is that?" he had asked.

"Because, goblins are simple monsters. Animals kill for food, monsters kill for sport. It’d be much more terrifying if one of the sentient races willingly chose to do such evil, don’t you think?"

There was still evil in the world, even among the sentient races. But he’d never given much thought to such things, he’d never really had a reason to.

He saw movement down the road and used his Inner Magic to enhance his vision.

Two goblins wearing leather armor, wielding shoddy and rusted weapons.

The one on the left was taller, his skin a pale grey with dagger like teeth coming from between its lips. The one on the right had a near blue hue of skin, it’s lips cut away revealing all three rows of teeth.

Coil took an arrow out of his quiver, dipping it in oil and igniting it with flint. He took his bow in his right hand and aimed at the edge of the field.

When the goblins were within range, letting out a series of growls and grunts, he released the arrow. The wheat caught fire quickly and the goblins turned in surprise. Coil drew another arrow and aimed at the taller of the two.

Rizu wiped her brow as the patient she’d been working on sat up from the table and hobbled off.

"Next!" she shouted, waving to the next person in line.

She’d decided to spend her time helping to heal the people who’d been wounded by the goblins the first time the monsters had arrived.

She tried not to think of Bry’s plan and what would happen after. Even him mentioning it had felt like a physical blow. It went against everything she stood for as a white mage. It would save their lives, true, but so many townspeople would die as a result.

She still hadn’t spoken to Bry since his mention of it. If she did, she’d say something they’d both regret. The warrior was more than content with that, keeping himself busy with setting traps through the night.

She could understand from his point. He’d been a soldier and was still a warrior through and through out on the field. Fighting and survival were the two instincts he felt the most out in the field, but that didn’t make it right.

She’d already been stressed over the thought of running into Jarren again and Bry’s plan was pushing her to her limit.

She took a deep breath and forced the issue with Jarren out of her mind, she’d deal with it another time. For now, she needed to worry about keeping as many people alive as possible.

She heard a commotion out in the hall which quickly grew into a panic, then she could smell the smoke and waited until everyone’s backs were turned before biting her lip in anger.

"Fire!" She heard someone shout. "The fields are on fire!"

Her makeshift infirmary exploded into motion as the people in the hallway and the cots ran outside to see.

"Damn them." she whispered as she stood and grabbed her staff.

Even if the people did fight and survive, they’d still go hungry. Bry’s plan didn’t call for burning a small bit of the field, he claimed that wouldn’t be enough to encourage the people to fight.

He planned on burning it all.

She followed behind and grimaced at the black smoke already covering the horizon.

In the distance she could see Bry shouting at the villagers and pointing at the field.

She felt a wrenching in her gut at how he actually seemed HONEST about trying to help the people whose crops he was destroying.

She followed close to the crowd, several of them running to the well in the center of town with buckets in their hands.

She looked out at the large greasy black smoke as it rose higher and higher into the sky.

She made her choice. To hell with Bry’s plan, she’d find a way to convince the people without starving them.

She walked over to the well where people were getting their water. Several of the townsfolk looked at her in confusion, and some in rage or annoyance, as she crawled upon the stone well and stood.

She tapped her staff on the stone and focused her energy downward into the waters of the well. She smirked as she felt it go even deeper and reach into an underground lake. That was more than enough water.

Spreading her magic throughout the water, she rose her hand and the water burst from the well. She turned and held her hand out toward the fire.

A long snake-like length of water went from the well to over the fire. About fifty feet side to side and forty from top to bottom, the water slithered in the sky toward the area she’d indicated.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Bry give her an annoyed look.

She felt a great deal of satisfaction clenching her fist and watching the water spread out, becoming a thin sheet and falling over the field all at once.

Steam mixed with the already high smoke, but from the looks of it she’d managed to put out the entirety of the fire.

Bry approached as the people cheered and leaned against the well.

"You’re eager to get us killed, aren’t you?" he asked, his tone flat.

"We’ll figure out another way to get them to fight, Bry." she said. "There has to be another way than that."

"They’d be hungry," he admitted, "but they’d still be alive."

"We can still use part of your plan." she said with a wicked grin as she spotted Coil walking down the road with something over his shoulders.

When he was close enough she saw him look toward the field before raising an eyebrow at them.

Coil stopped about thirty feet from them and dropped the goblin on the ground, an arrow sticking out of the back of its neck.

"A goblin?" one of the men asked as Palanar made his way to the front of the crowd.

"There were two of them," Coil said rolling his shoulders, "I saw them throw a torch into the field and shot this one, but the other got away."

"But...but why?" Palanar asked. "We’ve met their demands!"

"Probably found another spot to bleed dry." Bry said with a shrug. "Figure they don’t need you anymore. Probably set fire to the fields to starve you before coming and finishing you off."

A panicked buzz went through the townsfolk, several people simply fell to their knees or began to cry.

"Enough of that!" Rizu snapped, stomping a foot on the well.

The buzz slowed. It didn’t cease all together, but it was good enough.

"W-will you defend us?" Palanar asked, falling to his knees and pressing his forehead to the ground.

"We will," Rizu said with a nod, "but we can’t do it by ourselves."

"But you’re Adventurers!" someone shouted.

"Three Adventurers." she corrected "Against three hundred goblins. We could kill several of them, true, but we’d be overrun eventually and they’d still kill you all."

"What are we to do then?" Palanar asked. Rizu could tell from his tone he knew what she was going to say, and she felt her gut knot.

"Fight." she said "Bry and Coil are veteran fighters and can show you some of what they know within the upcoming days, and we can set traps."

"But we’re simple farmers." Palanar said once again, raising his head. "Besides our hunters bows, we have no weapons."

"Not true." Bry said with a snort.

All eyes turned toward the warrior and he hooked his thumb over toward the treeline about two miles out.

"You can make spears from the wood there. A spear’d be a better choice for you anyway, keeps the enemy at a distance. And I’m sure, being ‘simple farmers’ you have pitchforks around."

The people began to whisper again and Rizu whistled. The people in the back of the crowd parted as Fluffles made his way forward, stopping and sitting in front of Rizu. She pet him on the head and said "Fluffles, be a dear and make these people shut up so mama can finish talking."

The chimera rumbled, turning toward the crowd and roaring, shaking the dirt on the ground. The closest of the townsfolk covered their ears, and when Fluffles fell silent no one spoke"

"Thank you Fluffles, you’re mama’s good boy."

The chimera laid down, crossing his front paws and purred.

"Now." Rizu said placing her hands on her hips. "Yes, I can understand why you’d be scared. I’m sure very few of you have been in an actual fight."

"But that doesn’t matter," she continued, "you hold the numbers advantage. And, as I said, we can make traps to be sure the goblins take heavier losses."

"If you don’t fight," she said after several seconds of silence, "then they’ll burn this town to the ground, kill and likely eat all of you. Including your children."

She saw several of the townsfolk look up and their eyes harden.

"Now quit wasting time and let’s start getting ready. We’ve got four days."

The people nodded solemnly and broke off, the majority running off to the farms to grab saws and axes to break down the trees and begin making spears.

"Not half bad," Bry said with a slow clap, "not half good either, but I’ll give it some credit."

Rizu snorted in response.

"I think this is a better alternative." Coil said walking up to the pair and petting Fluffles between the shoulders. "Your plan was going to leave a bad taste in my mouth. And this way, they fight AND don’t starve."

Bry shrugged "I’m man enough to admit when I’m wrong."

"Do we have an actual plan for how we’re going to do this?" Coil asked, turning to Rizu.

"I have some ideas, but we need to make sure everyone has the weapons they need and at least a little bit of training. So I don’t think any of us are going to be getting much sleep."

"I’ll scout around. See which paths the goblins are most likely to take and mark them for traps."

Coil said walking off.

"Guess I’ll get ready to show these farmers how to fight." Bry said stretching. "What about you?"

"What I was doing before, tending to the sick and wounded." the mage replied as she stepped down from the well.

Bry nodded and began to walk off before stopping and walking over to the dead goblin, a grin on his face.

"Hey Rizu," Bry said lifting the goblin’s head with one hand, "you never told me your twin lived this far from home."

A vein twitched under her right eye and she bashed him over the head with her staff.

The warrior cursed and rubbed his head "You’re right, this is MUCH too pretty to be YOUR twin."

Three more twitches. Three more hits.

"So does everyone understand the plan?" Rizu asked looking between Bry, Coil, Palanar and four of the younger townsfolk Bry had chosen as commanders. All seven nodded.

"Considering it’s your plan, I’m actually somewhat impressed." Bry said, crossing his arms.

"What’s yours? ‘Hit them really hard’?" Rizu asked, deepening her voice to a mocking tone at the second half of her question.

"If it works, it works." Bry said with a shrug and a grin. "And it’s always worked for me."

"Are they normally like this?" Pelenar asked, raising a brow at Coil.

"Oh no," Coil said with a smile, "normally they’re MUCH worse than this."

The meeting was in Palanar’s barn, forty feet tall from ceiling to floor and forty wide, one of the biggest buildings in the town and perfectly centered to send orders from before the goblins arrived in less than an hour.

"Does anyone have any changes they think need to be added?" Rizu asked looking between the group.

"I… may have an idea." Coil said, rubbing his chin. "But I’m going to need all the hunters in the village and two of our lance fences."

"Oh ho?" Bry asked, a grin crossing his face. "What do you have in mind?"

"You’ll have to wait and see my friend." Coil said returning the smile.

Rizu watched from over the top of one of the houses as the goblins reach the edge of the town. Several were bloodied and wounded from the traps set up on the roads Coil had scouted out.

Every single one of them were angry.

Only a small number of them were carrying torches, looking side to side as they prowled the streets.

"Looks like everyone’s in position." Bry said with a small smile. "We just need them to get a little bit further in before Coil springs his surprise."

Rizu nodded and looked behind her, where half the townsfolk were hiding under fake foliage and fake grass, preparing for their attack.

Finally the last goblin made its way into the center of the town.

"Send the sig-" Rizu started but cut off as she felt a small shiver run through her spine. She reached out with her magic senses and her eyes widened.

She felt three magical presences among the goblins. Their aura’s felt as greasy and cruel as regular goblins were.

She tried to stop Bry, waving her hand toward him and hissing. Her heart fell as he lit the signal flare and fired it into the air, catching the attention of the goblins.

She hadn’t counted on there being a magic wielding goblin, let alone three of them.

Coil spotted the flare from his hiding place at the last house before the temple and motioned to the fifteen hunters with him, seven with him and eight on the other side. Four on each side moved behind the large carts they’d hidden alongside themselves and pushed them out into the streets, side by side. The goblins spotted them but were too slow to reach them. Coil and thirteen of the hunters scrambled on top of the carts, the last two taking a position on either end of the carts and began firing into the charging goblins, about fifty.

For every one of Coil’s arrows that hit a target, the hunters missed three. Knowing what was going to come soon, Coil made sure to pick off the biggest brutes of the charging horde.

He made sure to hit eyes and throats with every shot. The hunters arrows more often than not would hit some of the leather armor the goblins were wearing. By the time he’d downed his thirteenth goblin all the hunters combined had killed four and wounded seventeen others.

The goblins closed, in howling for the humans blood. Coil waited until they were twenty feet before turning to the hunters on the ends of the carts and shouting "NOW!"

The hunters on the ground grabbed a pair of ropes (one on either end) and pulled, lifting two large lance fences. Each of the wooden steak was eight feet long and tied so close together the tips were mere inches apart, leaving no gaps for the goblins to squeeze through.

The first few goblins tried to halt their charge, but the group behind hadn’t seen the fences yet.

The first row of goblins were pushed into the spikes with, oddly, satisfying crunches as the steaks tore through them.

Now at point blank range, the hunters didn’t need to really aim. Just fire into the group of goblins and quickly finished off the remainder of the group of fifty.

The main force of goblins shrieked and roared in fury as they moved to charge the barricade, knowing the archers would be low on arrows by now.

Rather than be afraid, Coil smiled as he saw a large form dash across one of the roofs, howling as it leapt and landed on one of the charging goblins, crushing the unfortunate beast.

The three in front turned to see what had happened to their companion and lost their heads in one strike as Bry’s halberd slashed across their necks, the goblins behind momentarily stunned by the large warrior.

Then the screaming began again, this time as the people of Hartua charged with wooden spears, pitchforks and saws from either side of the town and caught the goblins in the middle.

Coil drew his sword and jumped off the top of the cart, over the fences and the goblin corpses decorating them and dashed into the battle, his sword in his left hand and his bow in his right.

Even with the numerical advantage and the small amount of training, Bry could see the hesitation and fear from the townsfolk as they fought the much better geared goblins. He needed to make sure their morale didn’t break. With such a small force he figured twenty percent casualties would be enough to break the townsfolk morale and they’d break rank, and if that happened the goblins would slaughter them. So he’d always throw himself into wherever the fighting was thickest, keeping as many of the farmers alive as he could.

He had to give the old elf credit, the Runes and repair to his gear was top notch. With the sharpening rune he cut through the goblins like a hot knife through butter, one swing and they were in pieces. With the impact rune he barely felt whenever his shield was struck, even when one of the goblins went at him with a mace.

The goblins seemed to realize that he was the one pushing the hardest and causing the most casualties on their side, the tip off was when a dozen of them broke off from their engagements and swarmed at him.

He downed the first with a strike from head to toe, splitting the monster in half. The second he shoved aside with his shield to stab the third in the throat.

The fourth got through and slashed the joint in his leg armor, cutting his knee. He fell to one leg and used his shield to cover his head and neck, feeling the goblins blows banging off his armor.

He thrust out with his halberd, smiling viciously when he heard one of the goblins shriek in pain has the spiked tip tore through it’s stomach.

He felt his grip on his shield loosen as one of the goblins struck his right arm.

Then the attacks stopped after several slashing and gurgling noises.

"Never thought I’d see you kneel." he heard Coil say mockingly.

"Just needed a break, figured I’d give you a chance to look cool. For once." Bry said with a sneer as he stood, limping slightly.

Both Coil’s sword and the blades on the front of the blow were coated with thick goblin blood.

"We need to find their leader." Bry said, glancing around the battle. "He’ll be the biggest and most heavily armed. Take his head and the goblins should flee."

"I had the same thought." Coil said with a nod.

A crackling sound drew both men’s attention upward-

-too late as a bolt of lightning struck between them, throwing them back and on the ground.

Bry and Coil struggled to their feet, barely getting there before a ball of flame appeared before them and exploded, turning the corpses below them and some of the townsfolk and goblins around it into charred meat.

Bry lifted his shield in time to keep it from burning his face, and Coil had ducked behind the warrior.

He felt his armor heat up and he began to sweat as it lightly seared his flesh.

The culprits of their attacks appeared a moment later as a trio of goblins approached through the center of the battle.

The one on the left wore only a bear hide cloak, the top of the bear's jaws over it’s head.It stood at about five feet tall with grey skin marked with blood red paint in random claw-like patterns across its body. In one of its claws was a spear

The one on the right was wearing a brown sheet like a robe over it’s left shoulder. This one had dark green skin and carried a long handled iron axe in one hand.

The middle one had blood red skin and stood the tallest of the three at five foot six, with with only a loincloth and a headdress made from what appeared to be a child's skull, the six tassels behind it were spines likely tied onto the skull. This one wielded a two handed mace as it’s staff.

"Magic using goblins?" Bry asked, shaking as the armor continued to sear him. "Fuck me."

"Bry?" Coil asked, turning toward the warrior. "Are you okay?"

Truthfully, he’d felt better. He was using his Inner Magic to increase his body’s defenses so the searing wasn’t too bad, but the attacks they’d taken while off guard had left him shaky.

The goblin on the left raised his spear and an arc of lightning burst from its tip and slammed into Bry’s shield.

The electricity coursed through his shield and into his arm, making it go numb. His arm slumped and the shield dropped from his fingers.

Coil ducked under Bry’s left side and fired an arrow at the trio.

The middle goblin lifted it’s weapon and the arrow was blown back by a gust of wind, forcing Coil to duck his head before the arrow could hit it.

All three goblins raised their hands and pointed at Bry and Coil.

"Oh fuck me, sideways." Bry cursed as the energy left the goblins hands. The lightning and fire mixed with the wind, making a small horizontal tornado that snaked its way toward the duo.

Bry raised his halberd before, not sure what he thinking in hoping that it’d somehow shield at least a little of the-

-the attack stopped three inches in front of the halberd.

Bry was sure the look of confusion on the goblin mages faces mimicked his own. He looked at his halberd in shock.

"Did I-?" he started until a small white and red form walked by him.

"Don’t flatter yourself dear." Rizu said standing before the two men, facing the goblins. Fluffles walked by them, a dead goblin hanging by the neck in his jaws.

Without turning, Rizu pointed her hand toward Bry and Coil. Two orbs of golden light floated from her palm and floated toward the two men, going into them. Bry felt his wounds healing the moment the orb went into him, the flesh and muscle knitting and the searing receding and new flesh forming over the burns. Feeling came back to his right arm and he knelt, picking up his shield.

"Thanks for the assist" he said with an indignant huff.

The mage snorted and waved her left hand dismissively.

"Need our help taking these guys?" Coil asked, drawing an arrow.

"No." the mage said shaking her head. "You two go deal with the chieftain, I’ll handle these three. Their aura’s aren’t much, they’re probably just novices."

"Novices?" Bry asked, unsure.

"Yeah, and they kicked your ass." Rizu said with a laugh. "It was pretty funny to watch."

"You little-" Bry said taking a step forward but backed off as Fluffles turned and growled at him.

"Fluffles," Rizu said sweetly, "go with them and keep them alive for mommy. Heaven knows what trouble they’d get into without me."

The chimera let out a low yowl of acknowledgement and hunched down so Bry and Coil could get on his back.

After the two men had taken their seats the beast set off at a dash, Bry howling as he cleaved heads off the goblins.

"Now," Rizu said, tapping her chin with one finger, "not only are you killing innocent people but you’re also abusing elemental magic."

The goblins growled and snarled at her in their own language. Their auras had caught her off guard before. But compared to her own magical power… If each of them was a river, she was a volcano.

"And not only those," she said as a sickly sweet smile crossed her face, "but you tried to kill my teammates. That’s a big no-no. You’re just a bunch of unruly children."

The goblin controlling lightning snarled and threw a bolt at her as the flame wielding goblin lobbed a few balls of fire at her.

Rizu raised a magical bubble, slowing the bolt and fire. She sidestepped the flames, and formed a glove-like shield around her right hand. She took the bolt in her and and looked at the surprised goblins.

"Naughty children should be punished." she said coldly as she spun in a circle. Just before she completed her spin she dropped the bubble and released the bolt, sending it back at its original owner. The bolt tore through the top of the goblin’s head, destroying the upper part of the skull, leaving only its lower jaw downward.

"You’re outmatched here." she said pointing at the goblin she’d just killed as it’s body hit the ground. "If you throw down your weapons, leave and never abuse your magic again I’ll let you go"

The goblins responded by combining their magic, the fire wielder jetting flames from both hands while the wind user used his magic to make the flames more powerful.

Rizu let out a low sigh and held out her hand, a golden wall forming between her and the flame. The flames burst out of either side forcing the townspeople and the common goblins to move back or be roasted alive.

"See, you really are novices." she said with another sigh. "You can only use your magic in a straight line. You can’t even get creative, like I can."

She snapped her fingers and the wall pushed forward, stopping just a few inches away from the two goblins. She snapped again and a second wall appeared behind the two goblins. Two more snaps and two more walls on either side, forming a box.

With nowhere for the flames to escape from the sides, the wind-enhanced flame went around into the box and burst upward. By the time she dropped the walls the two magic using goblins had been burned down to the bone.

She cast a glare at the goblins around her, maybe thirty in all, daring them to keep fighting or to attack her.

The goblins broke rank and ran. The townsfolk around her cheered and Rizu hunched over and began breathing hard.

She’d been more powerful and skillful for sure. But healing Bry and Coil, making the bubble to slow the goblins attacks, the shield glove letting her grab the lightning and four walls holding up against a combined magic attack had drained too much of her own magical energy.

If they’d been rivers, she was a volcano. And a volcano released everything in one blast.

"Gonna have to rely on smaller shields for awhile." she said, breathing deeply as the townsfolk gathered around her in case any of the goblins came back.

After a few more deep breaths she stood straight and turned to where the battle was going on. Their side had managed to encircle the goblins and were pressing in on every side.

"Half of you," she said, referring to the people around her, "clear the bodies here away. Four of you go find some tarps and nails to pin them down."

"And the rest, lady mage?" a woman holding a hand scythe and her torso covered in blood asked.

"The rest of you," Rizu said, looking around, "starting bringing the wounded here."

Between a man dual wielding a katana and a bladed bow on the left, a massive warrior with a shield and halberd in the center and a chimera on the right, Bry was surprised the goblins ranks hadn’t broken yet.

Their chieftain must be quite fierce to keep them in line even after losing so many.

They were down to the last fifty or sixty goblins now, and their small army had the goblins surrounded.

The formation was one Coil, Bry and Fluffles had practiced on the road but hadn’t had a chance to use yet.

But it was more effective than they thought it’d be.

Coil defended Bry’s left arm, keeping enemies from attacking while he’s recovering from his swings, and by doing so he could temporarily jump back when Bry struck giving him enough time to catch his breath.

Bry’s shield not only defended himself, but also covered Fluffles left side, allowing the Chimera to deal with enemies that struck it from the front or right.

The goblins were fighting more ferociously now, taking several wounds from the townsfolk before they fell. Usually it ended up with one or two of the people wounded or killed by the single goblin.

"There!" Coil shouted, pointing toward the back of the goblin ranks.

There Bry got a look at the chieftain. A brute of a goblin, it stood nearly six feet, but was much wider than a regular one. Even wider than Bry was.

And unlike the smaller goblins around it, this one wore steel armor over it’s torso and legs. It even had a steel helm to go along with it.

And he was using a massive double headed axe.

"See if you can take him down from here." Bry growled. As much as he wanted to fight the beast, ending the battle quickly was the best thing to do.

Coil jumped back as Bry swung his halberd, severing two goblins heads with one swing, and knocked an arrow. He aimed for a few seconds before the arrow went flying toward it’s target.

The chieftain grabbed one of the smaller goblins and held it up, using it as a shield as the arrow sank into the smaller beasts back.

"Bastard." Bry growled, baring his teeth. "Using his own men as a shield."

"Looks like we’re going to have to get dirty if we want to kill him." Coil said, stabbing a goblin in the neck with his sword and kicking it back.

"Fluffs." Bry said turning to the Chimera. "Think you can get us over there?"

The large beast let out a loud roar of challenge and the two men climbed on his back.

Fluffles burst forwarward, trampling all goblins that dared to stand in his way while Coil kicked goblins in the head or kicked aside their weapons. The chieftain spotted their approach and roared his challenge at them. Fluffles jumped into the air and went to crash his front paws down on the large goblin.

The chieftain took a stepped forward, swinging his weapon and catching Fluffles in his left ribs. The chimera let out a yowl of pain and crashed into the ground, throwing Bry and Coil off. Coil rolled as he fell, coming up on his feet. Bry fell face first into a pile of corpses, swearing as he got up. Coil dashed forward into a group of goblins charging at the wounded chimera with their weapons raised.

The chieftain turned and it’s mouth turned upward into a smile.

"You hurt our kitty cat." Bry said taking a step forward. "Gonna bleed you for that."

The goblin lept at him, it’s weapon held in a two handed grip.

Bry raised his shield and took the force of the blow, surprised when he was actually forced back a few inches.

"Tough son of a bitch, aren’t you?" he snarled, swinging his shield arm and sending the goblin’s weapon wide.

He stabbed his weapon forward, aiming for the chieftain’s throat.

The large goblin side stepped the strike and punched a meaty fist into Brys face, lifting the warrior off his feet and sending him back.

The chieftain wasted no time pinning Bry to the ground and raising his weapon to cleave Bry’s skull open.

Bry raised one hand, catching the haft just below the blade and using his Inner Magic to strengthen his muscles.

The goblin leaned down, snarling and drooling on Bry’s face. He could smell the rancidness of the beast's breath.

"You," the warrior struggled, "should...try...chewing...on...some mint… Might help that breath of yours."

The goblin pulled back, forcing Bry to break his grip on the weapon, and raised it for a two handed strike.

A shadow saved him, leaping forward and using both feet to kick the chieftain in the face and send it back.

"But I don’t think there’s anything that can fix that ugly face of yours." Coil said as the goblin got back to its feet and snarled.

"By the way," Coil said turning to Bry as the warrior stood, "I was talking to both of you."

"Har har, I’ll kick your scrawny ass later." Bry growled as the goblin charged. "Less talking, more fighting."

The chieftain swung his blade at Coil, but the former assassin nimbly danced around the brute’s strikes almost looking bored. Bry pressed forward, swinging and stabbing. The goblin was forced to pull back, blocking each strike by the skin of it’s teeth.

Bry felt a toothy smirk cross his face when a pair of throwing daggers appeared in the joints of the armor around chieftain’s shoulders, making its attack and defense decrease even further.

The chieftain jumped back as Bry howled and charged forward, stabbing at it’s stomach.

The large goblin grabbed one of its followers and held it in front as a shield, blocking it from view as Bry impaled the smaller beast.

He swung his shield out, preparing for it to jump and strike from his right.

The warning shout from Coil registered only AFTER the goblin went around his left and brought it’s axe down. Bry tried to dodge to the side but was too slow, taking the axe between his neck and shoulder.

The warrior clenched his teeth and gasped, refusing to cry out. The chieftain’s face turned upward into a smile. It didn’t pull the axe out by lifting, it PULLED, the axe grating on the bone and making Bry’s vision not only flare in and out but also different colors. The warrior collapsed and didn’t move. The goblin prepared to strike again, only to look at it’s hand in confusion as Coil cut it off at the wrist.

"You bastard!" the rogue snarled, ducking under the goblin’s backhand and slashing the tendons in it’s legs with the blades on his bow.

The goblin yelped and fell to its knees, struggling to rise.

The last thing the chieftain saw before dying was a snake, its fangs bared and death in its eyes.

"Stop fidgeting!" Rizu shouted, slapping her patient on the head when he flinched. It had been two days since the battle and still the wounded were coming for treatment. Luckily, many of these people were used to getting cuts from woodcutting or out in the fields, so many of those who hadn’t been hurt or were less wounded were helping her deal with those who were still recovering.

And since she’d regained most of her magical power, the healing was going much faster. She looked out at the ‘waiting room’, seeing only Bry and Fluffles sitting there.

She’d flown into a panic when she’d seen the two of them after the battle. She’d used herbs to seal off the wounds, but Bry had refused to allow her to heal him with her magic until all the townsfolk were taken care of.

Coil, she knew, was out helping with the burials.

Her current patient got another slap on the head as he twitched when she placed her hand on his calf, which had been split open by an axe. She poured her magic into the wound, watching the muscles, veins and skin knit back together in golden light.

The man stood on the leg and laughed happily as he jumped and didn’t fall over from pain.

"Thank you Lady mage!" he said, tears in his eyes.

Rizu snorted with a smile and shooed the man out of the infirmary.

Bry walked in and sat down on the wooden box she used to seat her patients.

"How’s the arm feeling?" Rizu asked, unwrapping the sling she’d had him keep his arm in for the last couple days.

"Stings like a dockside whore," Bry said with a shrug. "but you know I’ve dealt with worse."

"Shirt." she said.

Bry removed the shirt, showing the red stained wrappings she’d placed a few days before. She slowly unwrapped it, trying not to move too suddenly in case it hurt. She winced when the wrappings finally came off and she saw the wound.

The herbs she’d used had managed to slow the meat from rotting and setting in an infection, but she could see and smell some of the rot coming from the wound.

"Hold still, this will only take a second." she said gently scooping out the herbs and placing her hand on Bry’s shoulder. She saw a small twitch of Bry’s eye, the only indication of his pain.

She took a deep breath and poured her magic into him. She watched as the dying flesh became pink again. She watched, as with the other patient, as the skin, muscle and veins fused back together.

She did not, however, see the cuts to his bones heal. Flesh was her healing specialty in magic, she didn’t have the finesse for sickness or infections unless using herbs and potions, and even with the raw power she could summon from her magic bones were too complicated for her to heal without her Inner Magic.

She pulled her hand off Bry’s shoulder and nodded.

"How’s that?"

"Better than mama’s kisses when I was a kid." Bry said rolling his shoulder. She could still see a slight flinch but a grin crossed his face.

"I couldn’t heal the bone." she said quietly, shaking her head "I’m sorry. It’d take far more magical power than I have at the moment. We’ll try when I’ve rested and regained more."

"Bah!" the warrior said placing a hand on her head and ruffling her hair. "Don’t worry about it. It’ll heal in time, I’m sure."

"Keep messing up my hair and I’ll break your arm." Rizu said flatly. Bry laughed but removed his hand anyway.

"We heading back soon?" he asked, sitting back on the box.

She nodded "After the funerals."

"This job was not worth seventy five thousand" Bry said with a huff.

"Is money all you think about?" Rizu huffed out, walking over to Fluffles and rubbing his mane.

"You try raising a family, then bitch at me about money." Bry said, indignantly. "Besides, money isn't all I think about. There’s also food."

Rizu snorted and said "If you’re well enough to joke, you’re well enough to go out there and help with the burials."

"Oh ow, I think some of the stinging is coming back." Bry said walking out into the waiting room

"I’m too tired to hit you." Rizu sighed turning to place her items into her pack. "Fluffles, do it for mama."

She was rewarded with a satisfying thud and a loud curse from Bry.

#Tales of the Party #Toftp #Rizu #bry #coil #fluffles #I don't know why it formatted that way but whatever... one of the others can fix it if it bugs them enough #also we should probably edit and post the backstories next....

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sineala · 3 years

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Tony Stark and Arthuriana

Coming to you by special request, a very long post about 616 Tony's interest in Arthuriana, with a focus on all of Tony's run-ins with Morgan le Fay!

I feel like I should disclaim the extent of my knowledge here, which is that I still haven't managed to read anywhere near every issue of Iron Man -- at least, not yet, anyway -- so I'm just going by the things I know I've read, and Morgan le Fay's Marvel wiki entry is frustratingly under-cited, so it's very possible I've missed something relevant, but I'm pretty sure I've got the big stuff down. My other disclaimer here is that I'm not as big an Arthurian nerd as Tony is, which is to say that most of my familiarity comes from modern retellings -- T. H. White's The Once and Future King, Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset -- and not so much the usual classic sources on the Matter of Britain, though I've read bits and pieces of them.

(This is because I wanted to read versions of them that were as close to the original as possible but so far have not ended up finishing any of them because, well, that's hard. So I've never read the Mabinogion because I do not know Welsh. I've got the Norton Critical Edition of Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, which is probably the best student edition if you're looking for something without modernized spellings, as I was. I've also got -- well, okay, it's my wife's but I'm borrowing it -- a relatively recent Boydell & Brewer edition (ed. Reeve, tr. Wright) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain), which is, you guessed it, in Latin with a facing English translation. I haven't gotten very far in it because, in case you didn't know this about Latin texts, the beginning is pretty much always the hardest, so I gave up and read some Plautus adaptations instead. Anyway, if for some reason you too want to read Geoffrey of Monmouth in the original Latin I'd recommend that one, but I can't recommend any particular English translations because I've never read one by itself. I bet you didn't think you'd be getting Latin prose recommendations in this post. I mean, maybe you did; it is me, after all.)

Okay. Right. King Arthur. Here we go.

We've got:

Flashbacks to Tony's childhood in late Iron Man volume 1

A brief discussion of Morgan's origin story and Avengers #187

Iron Man vol 1 #149-150: Doomquest

What If vol 1 #33: What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?

Iron Man vol 1 #249-250: Recurring Knightmare

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom #1-4

Avengers vol 3 #1-4: The Morgan Conquest

Civil War: The Confession

Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11: Time Is On No One's Side

In terms of universe-internal chronology, we know from Iron Man #287, from 1992, that Tony has been a fan of King Arthur since childhood. This is an issue of a fandom-favorite arc which features Tony having a lot of childhood flashbacks, including the famous "Stark men are made of iron" line (in #286) that for some reason MCU fandom decided it loved; I mean, seriously, I've seen that quoted in way more MCU fic than 616 fic. But slightly later, in #287, we get an entire page devoted to Tony's love of King Arthur.

The narration reads: "Over the next few years, I learned as my father intended. Discipline of body. Strength of character. But in what free time I was allowed, I worked my way through the school's library. At thirteen, I discovered Mallory [sic], who showed me a whole new world. A world of dedication to a cause greater than oneself. Of chivalry and honor. And the fantastic deeds -- of armored heroes."

The art shows Tony as a child sitting under a tree, reading a book labeled Mort D'Arthur by Mallory [sic] -- no, don't ask me why nobody at Marvel checked how to spell either the name of the book or its author -- and daydreaming of King Arthur, the Sword in the Stone, knights, et cetera. Just in case you somehow missed the extremely blatant hint that we are meant to understand that Tony's knight obsession heavily influenced him becoming Iron Man as an adult, we see one of his armors mixed in with all the drawings of knights. So, yes, canonically Tony is Iron Man at least partly because he's a giant King Arthur nerd, which I think is so very sweet. I love him. He's such a dork!

(This issue is currently in print in the Iron Man Epic Collection War Machine, should you need your own copy.)

This isn't actually the only reference to Tony as a King Arthur fanboy in this era of canon, either; a little later, in IM #298, we see that one of Tony's passwords is actually "Mallory." (Yeah, no, they still couldn't spell. But it's cute.)

But in terms of actual publication order, this is definitely not the first time we have seen in canon that Tony is into Arthuriana, as I'm sure you all know. I would assume, in fact, that giving Tony a childhood interest in Arthuriana is because Doomquest is one of the most beloved Iron Man story arcs of all time, and that all started at least a decade before IM #287 here was published.

The villain of Doomquest -- the one who isn't Doctor Doom, at least -- is Morgan le Fay. Yes, that Morgan le Fay. Yes, Arthur's evil half-sister Morgan le Fay. Yes, all of this King Arthur stuff is canonically real history on Earth-616. Morgan's first appearance in Marvel, per the wiki, was in Black Knight #1 (1955), which I have not read, and judging by the summary I feel like this is probably just supposed to be a straight-up comic retelling of Arthurian legends for kids; I don't think Marvel really had the whole Marvel Universe in mind as a concept in 1955, so I'm not sure this was meant to connect to anything else. I feel like this is another one of those instances of Marvel discovering that they can write comics about characters in the public domain for free -- like, I'm pretty sure that's how we also ended up with, like, Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology wedged into 616.

As far as I can tell from the wiki, the first time Morgan tangled with the Avengers (or indeed the larger 616 universe) in any way actually predated Doomquest -- it was in an early arc in Spider-Woman (#2-6) and then Avengers #187, which came out in 1979, actually right when Demon in a Bottle was happening over in Iron Man comics. If you read #187, Iron Man is not in it because he's off the team due to his drinking problem and also his accidentally murdering the Carnelian ambassador problem. So Wonder Man's filling in instead. This issue is part of Michelinie's rather sporadic Avengers run, which makes sense, I guess, considering where we see Morgan next.

Anyway, Avengers #187 is the classic issue where Wanda is possessed by Chthon, but what you may not remember from Chthon's backstory (I sure didn't!) is that he was summoned by Morgan le Fay because she was the first person who tried to wield the Darkhold to summon him. As you can imagine, this did not work out especially well for her and her followers and they had to seal Chthon away in Wundagore Mountain, which was where Wanda found him. (The Spider-Woman stuff is only slightly earlier and also appears to be about Morgan and the Darkhold; the Darkhold is not one of the areas of 616 canon I am especially conversant with, alas. It's on my to-read list.)

Doomquest, as you probably know, was a classic Iron Man two-parter in Layton & Michelinie's first Iron Man run that set up Tony and Doom as rivals; Doomquest itself was IM #149-150, in 1981, and then in their second IM run they came back and did a sequel in 1989, Recurring Knightmare (IM #249-250), and then the much later four-part sequel to that was the 2008 miniseries Iron Man: Legacy of Doom, which was also by Layton & Michelinie but generally does not seem to be as popular as the first two parts. They've all been reprinted, if you're looking for copies; I have a Doomquest hardcover that collects the first four issues and then a separate Legacy of Doom hardcover. Currently in the Iron Man Epic Collection line there's a volume called Doom, which confusingly only collects the 249-250 part of the storyline (as well as surrounding issues), because for some reason the first Layton & Michelinie run isn't in Epics yet but the second one is. So the beginning of Doomquest isn't currently in print, as far as I can tell. I'm sure you can find it anyway.

So what's Doomquest about? Okay, so you remember how Doctor Doom's mother's soul is stuck in hell for all eternity? Well, Doom's obviously interested in getting her back, and the strategy he has embarked on is to try to team up with other powerful magicians who can help him out, and he thinks Morgan le Fay would be a good choice, for, uh, his quest. Doom's quest. A Doomquest, if you will. (If you've ever read Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph & Torment, you're familiar with the part where he later ends up waylaying Strange for this and they go to hell together. And if you haven't read Triumph & Torment, you really should, because it's amazing.)

So Doom is off to his time machine to go team up with Morgan le Fay and Tony thinks Doom is up to something -- Doom has been stealing components for his time machine from a lot of people, including Tony -- and he follows him and it turns out one of Doom's lackeys has a grudge and wants to trap Doom in the past forever, and Tony gets caught up in it. Now they're both in Camelot. Surprise! #149 is actually all setup; they don't get to Camelot until #150.

IM #150 begins with Doom and Tony thrown back into the past; there's a fandom-famous splash page of them locked in combat, only to realize that they have found themselves in Camelot.

They are then discovered by knights; Doom would very much like to attack them, but Tony, who naturally would be happy to LARP Camelot forever, persuades him to play nice. Also Doom thinks Iron Man is only Tony's bodyguard so he keeps referring to him as "lackey," much to Tony's annoyance. Somehow everyone thinks they're sorcerers. Can't imagine why. The knights take them to meet King Arthur himself, and Tony has clearly had his introduction all ready to go, as he introduces himself in a timeline-appropriate manner, says he's here to apprehend Doom, and demonstrates his "magic" by levitating Arthur's throne. Doom's response is essentially "I'm the king of Latveria," which is, y'know, also valid. So they're guests at Camelot for the night while Arthur figures out what to do with them.

We then have a page devoted to Tony alone in his room, musing sadly about how alien he feels, how he doesn't know if he'll ever get home, how he could never fit in here without his beloved technology. Then a Sexy Lady shows up to keep him company for the night, and he decides maybe it's not all bad. Thanks, Marvel. I guess they can't all be winners.

Doom is using his evening much more productively; he compels one of the servants to tell him where Morgan's castle is, because he's still interested in having that team-up. Then he jets off. Literally. He has a jetpack.

The next morning Arthur's like "one of you is still here and one of you has punched a hole through the castle wall and flown off to join Morgan so I guess I know which of you is more trustworthy." He then explains to Tony who Morgan is, because Tony professes ignorance, because clearly we had not yet retconned in Tony's love of Arthuriana. Tony offers to go fight Doom and Morgan with Arthur; meanwhile, Morgan and Doom have teamed up and Morgan has offered to help get Doom's mother out of hell if he commands her undead armies against Arthur because for Reasons she can't command them herself anymore. So that's a thing that happens.

So, yes, it's Tony and Arthur versus Doom and Morgan. Fight fight fight!

Tony tries Doom first but then decides to hunt Morgan down, and in the ensuing fight we get what I think is Tony's first ever "I hate magic," a complaint that we all know he still makes even to this day.

Anyway, Tony freezes a dragon with Freon (mmm, technology) and Morgan gets upset and disappears, so the battle comes to an end, and of course Doom is extremely mad at Tony because he blames Tony for Morgan not sticking around to save Doom's mom, because I guess Doom trusted her to keep her word? Weird. (Like I said, for the next chapter of Doom saving his mother, go read Triumph & Torment.)

Doom says if he and Tony work together, the components in both of their armors can send them both home. So Tony has to trust Doom. Which he does, because he really has no other choice. They build a time machine and Tony makes Doom agree to a 24-hour truce when they get back, so they can both get home. So it all works out okay, and they end up in the present, and Doom tells him, ominously, that they will meet again. Okay, then. That concludes the original Doomquest. It's fun! You can see why fandom likes it.

So that's all well and good, but you might have noticed that Tony's ability to get home hinged on Doom actually being trustworthy. And Doom was. But what if Doom hadn't been? What if he'd just stranded Tony in Camelot forever As you may have surmised from the form of that question, that is in fact a question Marvel asked themselves, because, yes, there's a What If about this! What If v1 #33 is "What if Iron Man was trapped in the time of King Arthur?"

The divergence point from canon, as you can probably guess, is the very end of Doomquest. Instead of Doom bringing Tony home, he deceives him and leaves him in Camelot. And since Tony cannibalized a lot of the tech from his armor to make the time machine, he doesn't have a way to go home.

This is not a story where Tony comes up with a way to go home after all. He really doesn't get to go home. But instead of drowning his sorrows in mead -- because, remember, Demon in a Bottle has already happened and Tony is sober now -- he decides he might as well just play the hand he's dealt. So with what's left of his armor, he defeats some enemies that Morgan rounds up to send against Camelot. And for his services, he's knighted. He is now Sir Anthony.

Tony acknowledges that he is both living the dream and would also like very, very much to go home.

He does end up having some fun in Camelot; it's not all miserable. But he obviously doesn't want to be there.

So if you're at all familiar with King Arthur, you know how this goes, right? Arthur fights Mordred and Mordred kills him. And that does happen in this version. Except Tony is right there, and with his dying words, Arthur asks Tony to rule Camelot... and Tony agrees.

So, yes, Tony Stark becomes king of the Britons after Arthur's death and he never goes home again. The end. Man, I love What Ifs.

Heading back to main 616 continuity, there is still more of this arc to go. The original Doomquest was only two issues, yes, but it was popular enough that Layton & Michelinie did a sequel a hundred issues later, in their second run of Iron Man, and that's Iron Man #249-250, Recurring Knightmare. (In the intervening issues were Denny O'Neil's IM run, specifically the second drinking arc (#160-200), and then Layton & Michelinie came back and most famously gave us Armor Wars (#225-232). I would have to say that Armor Wars is definitely the standout fandom-favorite arc of their second IM run; for their first one, I think a lot of people would have a hard time choosing between Doomquest and Demon.) But anyway, yes. Recurring Knightmare.

Recurring Knightmare is... well, the best way I can describe it is "a trip." It is definitely a sequel to Doomquest, and it is also definitely not a sequel you would ever have expected to see for Doomquest.

Much like #149, #249 is pretty much just setup. Fun setup, but the big action is in the next issue. We open with Doom in Latveria, on his throne, pondering which of his servants he should have disintegrated. Anyway, he's just hanging out there when a mysterious object appears. In California, Tony is suited up and entertaining the crowd at a mall opening when the same object also appears! He takes it to his lab. Please note that this is after the Kathy Dare incident, so Tony is still recovering and is walking with a cane. Doom sees on the news that Iron Man has found the same object, which cannot be carbon-dated, and he shows up at Tony's house. He criticizes Tony's taste in art.

Anyway, Doom basically orders Tony to work with him. Tony refuses, and then Doom sends some robots to attempt to steal Tony's version of the object because he thinks if he has them both he will be powerful. Doom manages to steal it, and when he puts the pieces together, both he and Tony disappear.

So where do they go, you might ask? Camelot?

Not exactly. The future! There is a great callback to the Doomquest splash page.

It turns out they are in London in 2093. Merlin brought them there. Tony still hates magic. And in the future, King Arthur is still there, except he is now a child, because he has been reborn. But he does remember Tony from Doomquest, at which point Tony kneels. Doom, of course, is not impressed. He asks why they have been brought to the future.

The answer is that things are going wrong in the future. If you do not personally remember United States politics in the 1980s, I need you to google the words "Strategic Defense Initiative" right now. I'll wait.

Back with me? Okay, so this is a future where Reagan's Star Wars program actually happened the way he wanted it to, and the satellites are still hanging around the Earth in the future and messing everything up, and Arthur and Merlin need Tony and Doom's help to stop them. Doom once again flies away with his jetpack, of course.

Tony is game to help, but he's not in an armor that can stay in space for long. This is when Merlin takes him and Arthur to the mall and Tony manages to get everything to upgrade his armor at Radio Shack. You see what I meant about this issue being weird.

Tony is out in space trying to disarm the SDI platform, which is where he runs into his future descendant, Andros Stark, who is in armor you will probably recognize from Iron Man 2020. He is referred to as "the resurrected spawn of Iron Man 2020" so I assume he's actually directly related to Arno rather than a direct descendant of Tony; Wiki confirms that Arno is his grandfather. This is all from way before Arno was contemporaneous with Tony in canon. Anyway, he's fighting Tony.

Oh, by the way, Future Doom exists. Future Doom would like to rule this future Earth and for some reason Andros would like to help him. Meanwhile, Present Doom finds out from Merlin that he can't leave except by magic and he can't leave without Tony, so he is reluctantly on Tony's side.

They need help from the Lady of the Lake, except the lake has been paved over and is now a parking lot. Merlin makes the lake come back and then of course they get Excalibur. Arthur is a kid, so he can't wield a longsword; Doom assumes he's going to take it because he is basically a king, and he's pretty grumpy when the sword picks Tony. Tony then uses Excalibur to destroy the space lasers, and I bet that is a sentence you never thought you would read. It's pretty cool. Tony concludes that magic has its good points. Tony stops Andros and Doom stops, uh, himself, and the world is saved and they get to go home. Also, Doom finds out Tony is Iron Man, but when Merlin sends them back he conveniently erases their memories, so neither of them remember anything about this and Tony's secret is still safe. And that's the sequel to Doomquest.

And if you think that's weird, wait until you see Legacy of Doom.

Iron Man: Legacy of Doom is a four-issue miniseries from 2008, also by Layton and Michelinie. Even though it's from 2008, it's set during a much more classic time in Iron Man, continuing on from where we left off in this Doomquest saga. We start with a framing story in 2008. Tony, who has Extremis now, is busy scrapping some of his older armors and reviewing his logs when he suddenly remembers that there was a whole thing with Doom that happened that he seems to have forgotten about until right now. So the whole thing is narrated by Tony in flashback.

Tony's in space fixing a satellite when a hologram of Doom shows up and summons him to Latveria. It's not really clear why Doom needs Tony's help in particular here, but Doom tells Tony that he's discovered that Mephisto would like to bring about the end of the world, which Doom finds, and I quote, "presumptive." So Doom has his Time Cube, and with it he takes Tony to hell.

(Yes, I promise this is relevant to Doomquest. There will be some Arthuriana shortly.)

Doom brings Tony to Mephisto, and it turns out it's a setup! Doom trades Tony for an item he wants from Mephisto, leaves, and Tony's going to be trapped in hell forever! Oh no! (I mean, he's not. But it's quite a cliffhanger.)

At the beginning of issue #2, we find out what the Arthurian connection is, which is that we learned that after the events of Doomquest, Morgan had been granted sanctuary by Mephisto in exchange for a shard of Excalibur that she had somehow stolen. Doom still wants Morgan's help with some magic -- he doesn't mention what it is here, but he says he needs someone of Pendragon blood, and that'd be her -- so he traded Tony to Mephisto in exchange for, I'm guessing, Morgan and the Excalibur shard.

I have probably mentioned this elsewhere, but Legacy of Doom #2 is one of my favorite issues of Iron Man ever, solely because of the next scene. We return to Tony in hell. Howard Stark is also in hell, and he is now a demon, and Tony has to fight him. Mephisto brings popcorn and watches. This is the one time in canon when Tony actually confronts his father, and okay, yes, it's a fistfight in hell and Howard is a demon, but that's comics for you. Howard spends several pages insulting Tony -- specifically insulting his masculinity, but that's a whole other essay -- until he finally insults Maria too, and that's when Tony fights back, because his mother taught him to be good. Honestly if you're a Tony fan I'd recommend this issue just for that scene.

Anyway, we go back to the Doom and Morgan plot, and Morgan casts the spell Doom wanted, which was fusing the Excalibur shard with Doom's armor. Then Doom sends her back to Camelot rather than hell, because he's still mad that she never helped him get his mom out of hell like she said she would.

Tony freezes Howard with Freon -- yes, the same trick he pulled on the dragon back in Doomquest -- and tells him, "You're no father of mine." It is immensely satisfying.

(I had been going to mention that I thought it was a shame that neither canon nor fandom seems to have really engaged with this confrontation, and I know canon never believes in narrative closure but fandom sure does -- and then, anyway, it occurred to me that since the framing story of Tony remembering this is set when Tony has Extremis, there's a very good chance that he no longer remembers remembering it. Goddammit, Marvel.)

(If I got to retcon one canon thing about Tony, I think "the entirety of World's Most Wanted" is up there. I mean, okay, a lot of things are up there, but WMW is definitely on the shortlist.)

Okay. Tony has now engineered his way out of hell, and he's back with Doom in Latveria. Doom has Excalibur. Doom would very much like to fight him. While wielding Excalibur. You get the sense that this is going to be bad. Another cliffhanger!

Legacy of Doom #3 opens with Tony destroying Doom's lab to buy time and running away from Doom and Excalibur. I should probably mention that Doom still doesn't know Tony is Iron Man (anymore), so he thinks he is dealing only with Iron Man, Tony Stark's lackey. Meanwhile, some scientists at SI think there's something weird going on with space. Meanwhile meanwhile, Tony is in a forest taking a breather when a mysterious old man walks up to him.

It's Merlin! Surprise! Merlin wants Tony's help to stop Doom from doing whatever he's doing with Excalibur. The sword makes you invincible and the scabbard makes you invulnerable, so Merlin sends Tony to Scotland on a fetch quest for the scabbard. Doom has now magically sent the sword in search of the scabbard, so the sword flies away to meet it and Doom follows. Turns out the thing that's wrong with space is a thing that's going to hit Earth at the exact place Tony and Doom are. What a coincidence! So Tony and Doom get trapped in a stone circle and fight some stone warriors and then Tony ends up with the scabbard. And by "ends up with," I mean it fuses to his armor. Next issue!

Legacy of Doom #4 is when things really, really get weird. A giant demon made of eyes (???) appears, and this demon is apparently what Doom had been preparing to fight (because it's mad that Doom stole one of its spellbooks), and now he can't, because the sword and the scabbard aren't together. Thanks, Shellhead.

That's when Merlin shows up and says all is not lost. They can defeat the demon... if they put the sword into the scabbard.

"But I'm the scabbard now!" Tony says, uncomprehending.

"Yes," Merlin says. "You are."

Then Tony gets it.

So, yes, Doom has to, um, penetrate Tony. With Excalibur. I love comics. I love comics so much.

So that's a thing that happens.

And then Tony flies off and, I guess, resolves to never, ever think about any of this again.

We head back to the framing story, in which Tony, now having remembered all of this, flies to Britain, buys the land the lake is on, and paves it over, presumably so it will be there for Merlin to bring back in Iron Man #250. The end.

Whew.

Okay, yeah, I know I didn't have to summarize the whole thing, but Legacy of Doom here really is one of my favorite Iron Man miniseries. And I just want to share the love. Please read it. It's great.

But the Arthuriana fun doesn't end there! In fact, now we get an Arthurian-themed arc that actually isn't in Iron Man comics. It's in Avengers! Iron Man is involved, though.

(There is also apparently a Morgan arc in Avengers #240. I actually haven't read it. It seems to be yet another Spider-Woman arc. I get the impression that this isn't really Arthuriana other than having Morgan in it fighting Jess, though, so it doesn't seem quite as relevant. Morgan also apparently has some appearances in FF, Journey into Mystery, and Marvel Team-Up, but those seem like more of just basic villainy. Also, probably not involving Tony.)

Kurt Busiek's 1998 Avengers run, volume 3, is in large part the kind of Avengers run that is a nostalgic love letter to older comics. Heroes are heroes and villains are villains and good triumphs over evil. The Avengers all live in the mansion and are BFFs. I love it. It does assume that you are already a fan of the Avengers, because it starts out by summoning pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger and is available to the mansion, and that is... a lot of people. Thirty-nine, by my count. Also, when the entire team is magically whisked away, we are treated to the following narration, as Steve disappears: "And Captain America's last thought, as the world goes white around him, and he with it -- is that Iron Man would hate this."

The narration doesn't tell you why Iron Man would hate this, or how Captain America would know that Iron Man hates this. This is not explained later on. But if you have read comics -- or if you have read the above summary of Doomquest -- you know that Tony is absolutely, one hundred percent, thinking, "I hate magic." And Steve knows it.

The reference is not relevant to the plot; if you don't get it, you'll be fine. But that's what I mean when I say this is a nostalgia run. There are definitely Easter eggs for people who have read a bunch of comics. Busiek does this a whole lot in his work -- there's a reason you can buy an annotated edition of Marvels -- and, yeah, it happens here too. Just know that there will be references you're not getting, if you're new to comics.

Anyway. So Busiek's run actually starts out with an Arthurian arc, #1-4, "The Morgan Conquest." The name is a dead giveaway. Yes, Morgan le Fay is back. Again. For once, Doom is not involved.

The Avengers are all back from their sojourn on Counter-Earth after fighting Onslaught -- don't worry about it -- and mysterious things are happening. There are a lot of monster attacks. So pretty much everyone who has ever been an Avenger is summoned to the mansion, at which point we learn from Thor about some mystical artifacts that are being stolen. (They are the Norn Stones and also the Twilight Sword. That sounds like something from a Zelda game, doesn't it?) The Avengers go to try to stop this, end up in Tintagel, and then they run into Mordred. He wants to capture Wanda, presumably for Magic Reasons. Morgan le Fay casts a spell on all of them, reshaping reality. Yes, all of them. Surprise!

So now all the Avengers are living in a medieval castle and/or town; Morgan is their queen, and thanks to the power of mind-control they are all basically living in Ye Olden Times. The Avengers are all some variety of knight, except for Wanda, who is chained up in the dungeon so Morgan can steal her magic and use it to fuel all this reality-warping.

Wanda calls for help, and that snaps Steve (Yeoman America!) out of the mind control (or altered reality or whatever you want to call it) pretty fast, because Steve's always been very good at resisting mind control, and then Steve promptly goes and snaps Clint out of it, because I guess Steve is also good at inspiring people to snap out of mind control. "Oh, man!" Clint says. "Not another alternate reality! Not again!" (I assume he's referring to Counter-Earth? Maybe?)

So Steve and Clint go around reassembling the Avengers and orienting them as to reality. They get Jan and Monica easily, but then Steve insists on trying to get Tony because, I guess, he likes Tony and would really like to hang around Tony, who is half-naked and asleep in his bedroom, and certainly I am reading nothing whatsoever into this. Clint tells Steve it's not going to work. Tony has historically been fairly susceptible to mind control; it was only pretty recently at this point that he'd been doing Kang's bidding in The Crossing. But the more serious impediment is that this is Tony Stark and he would obviously like to LARP being a knight forever and ever. Tony, therefore, does not believe Steve, and throws him and Clint out of his bedroom and into the barracks.

"Iron Man's a good guy, normally," Clint says. "But he's waaay too into his whole nobleman/lord of the manor trip. That spell musta hit him right where he lives!"

Clint speaks the truth, clearly.

Anyway, they go around and manage to make pretty much every Avenger in the room other than Tony snap out, and attempt to rebel against Morgan while Tony is stil fighting them because he is Still A Knight. There's a lot of punching, because some of the Avengers still aren't free; they weren't ones Steve found.

The day is saved when Wanda manages to channel Wonder Man and break free. This gives the Avengers a fighting chance against Morgan and the Avengers are all lending Wanda their power when Tony finally snaps out of it and is on the side of good.

Then they take Morgan down, go home, and attempt to figure out which of these thirty-nine people should be on the active Avengers team. Hooray.

But that's not the end of Morgan le Fay showing up to screw around with Tony's life! There's more to come! Not much, but there is one that I know of, and at least one more memorable reference.

(I haven't read all her appearances or anything, but one of them definitely involves Tony; I can't swear that he doesn't appear in any of the other books Morgan shows up in, but it'd be a cameo for him, because I only know of one more arc that she's in in a book that Tony stars in.)

In a few more years, we have now entered the part of Marvel Comics history where Brian Michael Bendis writes all the Avengers books at the same time for, like, seven years running. It was sure A Time. There were a lot of word bubbles.

And the thing about Bendis is, Bendis looooooves Doomquest. If you're familiar with the very end of his tenure at Marvel where he made Doom be Iron Man after Tony got knocked into a coma in Civil War II, you have probably figured out already that he likes Doom. But he also likes Doomquest, specifically.

I mean, if nothing else, the giant splash page in The Confession where Maleev redrew the climactic Doomquest fight while Bendis had Tony talk about how deeply meaningful to his understanding of the world this all was -- and how it allowed him to predict Civil War -- was probably a big clue, right?

As far as I am aware, Morgan le Fay makes exactly one more appearance in Tony's life. And that's in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9-11. Only one of those issues is named, so I'm going to assume the arc is named after it: Time Is On No One's Side.

You remember Mighty Avengers, right? The deal with the Avengers books at the time was that after Bendis exploded the mansion and made the team disband in Avengers Disassembled, the main Avengers book was no longer called just Avengers. Instead, the main Avengers book was New Avengers, and that was the only Avengers book. Then Civil War happened, Steve got killed, and New Avengers became the book about what was left of the SHRA resistance (i.e., Steve's side) after the war. So about halfway through New Avengers, Mighty Avengers starts up, and Mighty Avengers is about an extremely fucked-up and grief-stricken Tony Stark trying to run the official government-sanctioned Avengers team, with Carol's help. This is the comic with the arc where Tony turned into naked girl Ultron. You remember.

So, anyway, there's this Mighty Avengers arc where Doom is Up To Something (there are symbiotes and a satellite involved) and somehow Tony and the Avengers end up in Latveria, punching Doom. Also, by the way, Doom is visiting Morgan in the past because he likes her. The Avengers attacking his castle made him have to come back to the present, so he's kind of cranky. And he fights Tony, and in the course of the fight, his time platform explodes and sends Doom and Tony and also the Sentry to... the past.

This is one of those times where you should definitely look up the comics if possible because the way the past is visually indicated here is that it's colored with halftone dots the way you would expect old comics to be colored, although they have modern shading and color palettes. It's very charmingly retro.

So the three of them are stuck in New York in the past, and naturally they would like to leave. There's one person in this time who has a time machine and it is, of course, Reed Richards. Doom and Tony have a lot of banter in this arc; I think it's entertaining.

Sentry has to be the one to break them all into the Baxter Building because of that power he has where no one will remember him. So they do that, travel forward in time, and end up in Latveria in the present again except Doom is gone and also things are currently exploding where they are.

Doom, of course, has made a side trip to visit Morgan again and he asks her to help him build an army, because I guess this is what their relationship is like. So the rest of the Avengers are captured by what look to me like Mindless Ones and are in a cave in magic bondage, because comics. Jess comments that at least they aren't naked, because she too is remembering that memorable New Avengers trip to the Savage Land. Doom threatens Carol in some creepy sexist ways and eventually it turns out that Tony and the Sentry are fine and everyone kicks Doom's ass. Business as usual.

And the last page of the arc is Morgan alone, wondering where Doom is. So technically Morgan and Tony don't come face to face here, but I think she counts as being at least partially responsible for ruining Tony's day here. And then Secret Invasion happens and Tony has a very, very bad day.

There are a few more Morgan appearances after this, but, as I said, I don't think any of them involve Tony. She shows up in Dark Avengers, apparently, which was one of the post-Civil War Avengers titles I didn't read, and I know that recently, on the X-Men side of things, she's been in Tini Howard's Excalibur one, which I have only read a little of. No Tony there. Just a lot of Morgan and Betsy Braddock and Brian Braddock and the Otherworld.

If you are interested in Morgan's other appearances, you might like this Marvel listicle that is Morgan le Fay's six most malicious acts. I pulled some of the Darkhold backstory from their discussion, but it's not really focused on Morgan and Tony.

So there you have it! That's everything I know about Tony's love for King Arthur and every run-in I know about that he's had with Morgan le Fay! One of two terrible people in Tony's life named Morgan! Actually, I don't think we've seen Morgan Stark in a while. I wonder if he's alive. There should be a Morgan & Morgan team-up. I should probably stop typing and post this.

The tl;dr point is that you should all read Doomquest and its sequels, especially Legacy of Doom. They're great!

#posts i actually wrote

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veiledsilver · 3 years

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What Your Favorite Black Bull Says About You

I’m sure this list has been made already, but has a list been made with these sizzling hot takes that are specifically mine? Doubt it. Before you go in, this list was made for fun and not an actual attack on your character lol

Asta: You don't have the patience for this wizardry book nonsense, not when all you need is your huge muscles and willingness to throw hands. Essentially you're this post:

Noelle: It doesn't matter whether you love or loathe her siblings, you all want them to be punished on such a grand scale it resets the karmic balance forevermore, preferably in a hilarious fashion. You also think her next few outfit spells should include pants and a sports bra so Tabata can't traumatize you ever again.

Magna: You like delinquent tough guys with hearts of gold, or you like underdogs who never actually get a mysterious powerup that make them strong- or both! In any case, Magna is your special little boy and when he did THAT in the manga you damn near exploded. If you haven't seen it yet... I guarantee you will.

Luck: You like characters that act all bright and cutesy but... deep inside their hearts... they harbor d̵͍̲͑ä̴̜̻́͝ṛ̷̗̑̇k̶̟̿͘n̵̮͈͑ẻ̴̥ş̸̪̐͊s̴̙̀̐. To be fair Luck does not hide his feral energy deep within his heart but you still like the contrast between his cute :D face and the way he causes bodily harm. His backstory spoke to you in some way.

Finral: Hm. I would say you relate to his struggles as the least favorite kid in the family, or feel like you can't keep up with your peers in general... but it's actually his dyed tips isn't it. Also you have to deal with people being like "but isn't he a pervert?!" like ALL the time even though he's trying to be better. My heart goes out to you.

Gauche: I don't know if you guys actually exist, but if you do, you probably have to deal with people being like "but doesn't he nosebleed over his sister?!" like ALL the time even though he also kills people for her. You wish he had more moments where he's cool and strong and not nosebleeding.

Charmy: You saw Charmy going around eating food to her heart's content and wearing a cute sweatshirt instead of participating in the stupid male gaze and said "oh, I respect that." You like the rare fictional women who participate in traditionally female roles like cooking but can also be terrifying on command.

Henry: Henry is your poor little meowmeow and you want to snuggle him and feed him soup. Like, I may be exaggerating, but am I wrong? You may also like how cool his magic is- I mean, rearranging buildings is a pretty slapping power- and that he can still play a role in fights without his disability magically being cured or handwaved away.

Zora: You want the heroes to destroy the system that thrives on classism and corruption, and are disappointed that Zora kind of stopped doing that. Sorry, bro, but this is a shounen, and 2/3rds of the Big Three ended with the corrupt system not being destroyed, so. I think you listen to songs about bringing down the Man and not wanting to be an American.

Secre: Let me guess, you watched Princess Tutu. Well, if you didn't, Secre fans, I suggest you do. You think you're emo and want to drown in those moody feelings because you like it or your crush turned out to be dating someone already. Do you make those artsy monochrome edits of anime characters with kpop idols because I always see Secre on there.

Vanessa: Look into my (metaphorical) eyes. Do you have a complicated relationship with your mother? Hm... I see... really?... ok... well, I'm glad we had this talk! Anyway I'm guessing you really, really like women. I think that should be our topic of conversation next time. Just make sure you look respectfully.

Gordon: You probably also have that problem where people can't hear you and they're like "SPEAK UP I CAN'T HEAR YOU" until you give up. I can relate. You... also... (mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble mumble. Mumble mumble mumble mumble).

Gray: You think shapeshifters are really cool and probably headcanon Gray as Not Cis in some way, which is extremely valid. You are proud of her for how she's starting to speak up and stand up for herself, although you might (like me) think she's way too good for Gauche. Sorry, Gauche fans. But she really is.

Yami: Quick! Close your eyes and visualize Yami! You didn't actually see Yami, did you. Only the wide expanse of his very defined abs. You either don't like Charlotte for being a homewrecker or you relate to her strongly. I don't think I've met even one Yami fan who hadn't been drawn to him for his tits you can crack walnuts in.

Nacht: If you went one anime generation back, you would be into Sasuke. I've never seen the show about Boruto's dad but I know this to be the case. They're both edgy, have dark powers, and have a tragic backstory involving their brothers. You want a significant other who's mean to everyone but you, but let's face it. Nacht will also be mean to you.

Morgen*: You want the illusion of the same thing, but you also actually want to be treated nicely instead of nitpicked for your flaws at all times. I know you have a fanfic of him not dying somewhere in your writing medium of choice. Come on, show it to us, don't be shy haha. Your fellow Morgen stans are withering away...

*I know he's a Grey Deer but I needed the joke to set up properly. Let me live

#black clover #asta #noelle silva

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everythingsinred · 3 years

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Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: Natsume (pt. 16)

We've just seen a pretty stressful arc, and on the other end of this post is yet another stressful arc. Upcoming is little break from serious plotlines to focus more on relationship growth and introduce some concepts that may seem minor now but will be pretty important later (though that will especially be the case for Mikan's perspective).

I'm on something of a vacation right now so I don't have a lot of time to format and work on this. The editing might be somewhat limited so if there's more mistakes than usual (not that I ever make mistakes) then I'm very sorry.

Chapter Seventy-One

The next few chapters are a welcome respite from the stresses of two major arcs. We just had to deal with Natsume’s heavy backstory, Mikan’s near-death experience, and a lot of fighting. The next major arc is the Sport Fest, and that gets pretty heavy very early on. So having a short break like this is more than needed so that we can catch our breath and maybe foolishly hope that everything will stay “back to normal”.

We join Natsume, who is again looking wistfully at the little Christmas-wrapped bag. We still aren’t entirely sure what’s in it, reading for the first time, but we can surmise it has something to do with Mikan. But reading for the nth time, we know that it’s his alice stone, and he’s been keeping it with himself since at least New Year’s, but probably earlier as well.

Quick! Put that away, it's embarrassing!

He’s interrupted by Ruka, who is eager to spend time with his friend. They’re both able to laugh and joke with each other, which prompts Ruka to say that he knows Mikan helped Natsume get to the point where he can laugh freely.

It’s interesting, because, even though it should be, Natsume’s DA class life is not necessarily any easier. In fact, it’s harder. He’s going through more now than ever as a way to take all the punishment for the problems with the Hana Hime party. And yet somehow, despite all that, he’s still able to smile. He’s light-hearted. He’s at peace with his life, content simply to stand in the same vicinity as Mikan.

Natsume’s love for her is pure and innocent. All he wants is to keep her safe. Seeing her happy makes him happy. The fact that she considers him a friend is more than enough to keep him smiling. He is not morose that she probably doesn’t feel the same. In fact, in a lot of ways, he’d prefer she doesn’t, because he still can’t give much more than he already is.

So, yes, he can smile, despite his life not being much easier, all because Mikan is in it.

Ruka then points out another fact, that he knows Natsume stayed to protect Mikan.

Natsume confirms it. He says he’ll protect Mikan from anything that stands in her way, no matter what.

In the TokyoPop, he just says something like "no matter what" but here he just goes out and says it (sacrificing my own life...). Natsume's fate was obvious from the start. It was all leading to a specific outcome. It was always going to happen this way. He's just too eager...

This scene is a further example of how that scene from after the Christmas Ball has really changed their friendship. They are more open with each other. They have conversations. They laugh together. They communicate. There are still some topics Natsume won’t touch, but he can be open with Ruka about this.

Ruka says he wants to protect her too, because he also likes Mikan, and because he wants to keep Natsume smiling. After all, Ruka promised that if Natsume wasn’t smiling, he wouldn’t either, and now Natsume is smiling. That’s worth protecting, because it didn’t come easy.

There truly are no hard feelings between them about Mikan. They aren’t turning bitter, or arguing over her. There’s no resentment. They loved each other before they loved Mikan and ultimately they just want the other to be happy. And whoever Mikan chooses to love, if it even ends up being one of them, would be fine, because she’ll be happy too. Moreover, they both seem to be somewhat rooting for the other, and always have been, especially Natsume. He wants Ruka and Mikan to be happy, and because he’s aware that his life will be cut very short, he doesn’t think she will be happy if she chooses him, which would never happen, in his own mind. Why would anyone choose him over Ruka?

Ruka then reminisces on the day they both first met Mikan, where we get a full explanation of why Natsume tried to escape that day: not because of Misaki-sensei’s claims that Natsume was a repeat escapee, but because he was getting bullied and wanted a letter from his dad.

The story ends and they both notice Mikan crying, trying to find Hotaru. She finds Narumi instead, who makes a comment that he knew from the moment he first saw her that she’d save Natsume, and confirms that’s why he made her his partner. Now that Natsume is no longer such a troublemaker, and that he has done his job in helping him, there’s less of a weight on his shoulders. Of course, the wind is raging and she can’t hear him, but Natsume heard.

Who the fuck is Narumi calling a burden?

He’s angry because Narumi is right. He also finally knows who exactly pulled the strings to make them partners, and that he’s in love with her because of Naru’s meddling. So he jumps down from the tree and kicks him, causing Mikan, who was in his arms, to be flung far away.

That gives Natsume enough time to scold Naru for hugging Mikan in the first place, and also for having the audacity to say Natsume’s behavior was a weight on his shoulders. Essentially, stay out of my business, despite the fact that Narumi sticking his nose in Natsume’s business is exactly the reason Natsume is so happy right now.

But even when Natsume storms off and Mikan angrily follows him, and they’re both trailed by Ruka, Narumi can see the truth. He was spot on.

Chapter Seventy-Two

This chapter is a fountain of lore! There’s so much new information and the online scans have kept me ignorant to it for a long time! There’s a lot of text and info, so it might be daunting to have to translate it all and write it out, but the price of saving time is that fans who care will be at a disadvantage.

I wanted to share some of the information that I’d found lacking in the scans just in case anybody wanted to know: the more powerful a user is, the more control they have over a stone’s size, shape, and vividness of color. Thus, Tono, a powerful alice user, can make his alice stone look like an eggplant. You could imagine a powerful user making their stone heart-shaped, or more circular or ovular depending on what they like best. The color of the alice stone reflects the user’s personality and maybe even their alice, not necessarily their favorite color, which is how Ruka’s ends up being a cream/brownish color, and not blue like I’d imagined for years. Koko reads some color meanings from an aura textbook to help sort out what the colors in a stone might signify.

This is all brought on anyway by Mikan being followed by an aquamarine alice stone, which we can tell is probably Sakurano’s. Out of loyalty to Yuka, he has strong wishes of wanting to protect Mikan, hence the stone following her around and being aquamarine, which symbolizes feelings of compassion and care.

Natsume and Ruka are both confused about this stone--it’s neither of theirs, after all--but since Mikan has so many friends who care for her, even amongst the staff and upperclassmen, it honestly could have come from anybody.

Although everyone wants to see Natsume make an alice stone, seeing as he is the most powerful alice user in Class B, Narumi makes it clear that he’s already learned everything there is to know about making stones, and thus can do whatever he wants during the lesson, which is what Natsume had wanted. This is intriguing information, because Narumi says specifically, “There’s nothing more we can teach him,” which begs the question: how does Narumi know? Has Natsume shown the staff his alice stone? It’s unlikely he would’ve asked a teacher for help in creating one, since he doesn’t trust any of them as far as he can throw them. But maybe, in order to get out of doing the lesson, he showed a teacher his alice stone to prove that he doesn’t need to be taught anything.

Tono brings up one last tip before they all begin to make their first alice stones. For once, you’re not using your alice for your own use. Somebody else will be using your stone, so how you feel about the person will come out in the stone, whether it’s good or bad. Wanting to protect or harm somebody, whether you have concern or resentment towards them, it will all show up in the stone, so focusing on certain emotions is tantamount to getting the result you want. These feelings can also influence the color, like everything else.

Red is mentioned as being a color of passion and strong feelings, and although Natsume's alice stones are all red anyway, according to his personality, it's interesting that when he makes a stone just for Mikan, it comes out as such a vibrant red. He is very passionately in love with her and it shows in the color. He also only had to think of her to get such a huge stone, and although that's also due to the fact that he has such a powerful control over his alice, it's also impressive that just thinking of her yielded such results.

It is after this lecture that Mikan is finally made aware of the true meaning behind exchanging alice stones and the romantic significance it can carry. Anna and Nonoko explain that the romantic tradition is what inspires girls to give stones with their chocolates on Valentine’s Day, and that it can also connote a proposal of marriage.

Mikan freaks out now that she knows what she and Ruka essentially promised. Natsume can see that she’s freaking out, but because he saved himself this humiliation by rejecting Mikan’s stone, the only person he’d really be concerned for is Ruka, whose feelings he was initially protecting by not telling Mikan anything that night.

Before anything crazy can really happen, everyone starts the lesson and gets to work making their stones. Although Iinchou and Hotaru are more successful, making stones that can actually be seen and held without a microscope, the rest of Class B isn’t quite as skilled yet. They’re all exhausted from the effort, even if it only gave them pebbles as a result, and all somewhat embarrassed and depressed that they couldn’t make bigger stones.

So Tono suggests they play “Alice Stone in the Dark”, that is, that you find someone in the dark and when the lights come back on, you have to exchange stones. Class B only gets really into this idea at the concept of getting their hands on a useful alice to make the most of the possible combinations.

He has this expression for the whole scene. He's so cute when he's flustered.

Thus the game begins, and even Natsume participates, albeit reluctantly. He’s probably just trying to avoid other people and possibly being forced to exchange stones--because he’s not going to make one on the spot and he doesn’t want to give away the stone that rightfully belongs to Mikan.

It turns out luck is on his side, because someone grabs his hand and when the light comes back on, the person is Mikan! She smiles in relief that she was able to find him, and explains that she wanted to force her stone on him. She keeps blabbing on and he doesn’t say a single word the whole time, just standing there shocked because of all the people in the class, Mikan wanted to give her stone specifically to him.

He's never gonna lose that tiny pebble... this is one of the best things that's ever happened to him.

It’s tiny and practically unusable, but that doesn’t matter to him. This little pebble is enough for him. She wanted to give him her stone, because she cares about him, and that gesture is enough to finally spur Natsume into leaving her his alice stone by her bedroom window. It’s more or less anonymous, but he wants her to know that she is thoroughly loved too, even if she has no idea who loves her this much.

Chapter Seventy-Three

It’s Valentine’s Day, otherwise Hell on Earth for popular Alice Academy boys. The romantic and sweet ingredients for chocolates at a normal school are replaced with potions and chemicals and pranks. The more popular and beloved you are, the worse your experience on Valentine’s Day will be.

Mikan decides to give her chocolates to all her friends, but they make it clear to her that accepting chocolate from anyone less than your true love would be terribly risky and stupid, so even if she does give it to all her friends, they probably wouldn’t eat them.

Maybe I’m wrong, but Natsume, who’s looking through a Sanrio catalog, wouldn’t be all that bothered about being one of many to receive chocolate from her. She specifically selected him to receive her pathetic alice stone, after all, and he’s made peace with the fact that they can never be together.

He does get bothered later, however.

He’s hiding, because it’s Valentine’s Day and he’s incredibly popular. He has an overly passionate fan club and closet admirers from all over campus, so being out in the open is dangerous business. He stays in the vents for a while, and thus he witnesses Mikan giving Ruka some Valentine chocolate, asking him to be the first to accept them. They both escape the classroom, Mikan dropping a little baggy of chocolates as she goes.

Natsume drops down and decides that he will be the first to accept them, actually, and eats them. It’s not anything huge, and Mikan won’t even find out that he ate them until a year later, but for now, he’s just acting on his own. He can be selfish here because nobody else knows about it. It’s just a harmless little thing to make himself feel better, with absolutely no consequences. Besides, he finds the chocolate disgusting, so no harm no foul.

Natsume, she couldn't have asked you first, she didn't even know where you were!

The climax of the chapter happens when all the most popular boys in school: Tsubasa, Tono, Natsume, among others, are all running from a stampede of rabid and sadistic girls. They’re flinging chocolates willy-nilly, desperate to get a catch. One is heading right towards Mikan, so Natsume gets in the way, catching it just in time, right when a girl flings one into his mouth.

Natsume has just consumed a love potion chocolate, selflessly, for Mikan (this chapter is so silly), so of course he’s now infatuated with Tsubasa, who is terrified, because it’s embarrassing and because Natsume will be pissed when the potion wears off.

This is very romantic but very ridiculous. Natsume really does take protecting Mikan quite seriously.

More or less, since the love potion is like a pheromone extract, we can see how Natsume has changed in his reactions to such an alice. In the very first chapter, Natsume passed out entirely from the pheromones. Misaki explained that someone entirely inexperienced in romance would pass out immediately, but Natsume is no longer inexperienced, so there’s way more of an effect.

The chapter isn’t particularly important, especially compared to the alice stone one, but it’s a silly little break from the real drama.

Chapter Seventy-Four

The next two chapters are joint, forming the little “Elementary Graduation” arc. We find out that students are to remain at the academy until they are twenty years old, so Natsume wouldn’t have to just power through another seven years, but nine until he could truly be free, and that’s much harder to accomplish.

Anyway, Mikan has seen the senior graduation and is inspired to do something special for the elementary graduation. She doesn’t just want to sing a lame song, she wants to do a special performance! Thus begins the drama of Sumire bossing everyone around because she’s one of the only kids with any real musical talent in a class full of amateurs.

One such amateur proves to be Natsume, who confidently selects the sax to play. Everyone, so convinced that he is talented at everything, is shocked to see how horribly he plays his instrument. Class B gets more and more enraged with Sumire’s attitude, only in part because the only lackluster performer she won’t call out is Natsume, who plays the worst of all of them.

The class breaks in two, and Sumire decides that she will play solo with two other partners who are musically inclined, leaving everyone in the dust. They cheer up eventually, when Ruka leads the class in an impromptu playing session, where everyone prioritizes fun over sound. Even Natsume joins in with his sax, and he seems to be making progress.

It's not a mandatory project, but he wants to join in anyway. (At some point Ruka comments, "You've gotten quite attached to that sax, haven't you?" which is cute because it shows Natsume doesn't just want to fit in, he's also genuinely interested in that specific instrument. Anyway Natsume as a famous jazz performer--)

Natsume electing to join in is very interesting. He doesn’t have to do this, especially because he’s terrible at the sax. He’s choosing to have fun with everyone and learn something new, even if everyone can see how bad he is to start with. He’s finally allowing himself to make friends, not just with Mikan, but with the whole class. He’s in a different place than in the first few chapters. Sure, he still has a fan club and devoted followers, but instead of viewing them as vessels to pass the time at best and annoyances at worst, he now considers them his friends. He wants to spend time with them and have fun together. And, no it wouldn’t have happened without Mikan’s help, but Natsume had to accept the change. He helped go on a mission to save Iinchou and Hotaru, to help Class B, and ever since he’s been slowly getting more involved in class. His birthday in particular also highlighted that his classmates care genuinely about him, so it’s made him all the more willing to repay the favor.

Chapter Seventy-Five

Mikan wants the two rival factions to make up, specifically Sumire and Koko. Nothing she says is enough to inspire peace and she’s distraught that no progress is being made.

She sees Natsume and Ruka playing with fireworks for no reason. They can tell instantly that she’s still bothered about Permy’s falling out from the rest of the class. Last chapter, Ruka tried to help Mikan by cheering everyone up and starting a little music session. This chapter, Natsume gives her advice. He says all relationships have ups and downs, and Permy is just aggravating the situation because she’s a kid and doesn’t know better. They all care about each other; they just need time to figure it out. And besides, he says, it’s way more Mikan’s style to give them an excuse to make up rather than forcing them to communicate. This cheers Mikan up and she runs off to come up with an idea.

They haven't known each other for a full year even but he still knows her pretty well. How cute!

Ruka teases Natsume for watching her and being a stalker, and we can see that despite what Natsume said about all relationships going through fights every once in a while, Natsume and Ruka won’t be having a fight anytime soon, least of all over Mikan. They accept each other’s feelings and are just happy to be happy and crushing on a girl together.

And Natsume has been paying attention, clearly, because he always keeps his eye on Mikan. Of course, he does this to keep her safe, because she’s being used against him by the DA Class, but also because he loves her. He wants to know everything about her, and see her everyday, so naturally small things about her would click into place for him.

Later, when Mikan figures out how to make everyone make up, Natsume is one of the first people to step up and help Permy. He’s helping Mikan too, because what she wanted more than anything was for everyone to make up, and it will help give the rest of the class the courage to step up too. He loves her, so he’s willing to embarrass himself playing the sax to help her bring everyone together again.

Conclusion

Chapter Seventy-Six has almost no Natsume in it, and his few appearances are pretty unimportant. He doesn’t do or say anything, so I felt comfortable skipping it. Anyway, these little chapters showed just how much Natsume has changed since he met Mikan. He’s now involved with the class, willing to have fun and embarrass himself. He is much more like he was before the academy stole all his vivaciousness. Of course, he’ll never be that kid again. He’ll always be more mature and selfless than he should be, but at least he can smile and laugh with the others for now. In the next essay, we’ll see that happiness evaporate as the academy narrows in on Mikan.

I don't think I'll be able to post on Monday, sadly. I'll try to post next Friday instead to make up for it, and to keep up four-day-a-week posting. I don't want y'all to catch up to where I am quite yet, so I'm going to put in a lot of effort into writing as much as I can whenever I can over these next few weeks. Thanks for reading, beloveds.

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vaguely-concerned · 3 years

Text

The Mandalorian Chapter 14 reactions: HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME BUT ALSO I’M CRYING edition

- the good good din characterization is back after all the weirdness last episode!!!! that soft way he says ‘no, no, I’m not mad at you’? THAT’S din djarin, he would not be fucking impatient with his son having just been informed and seen for himself that he is terrified, go away mr filoni I know you’ve got all of canon memorized but you don’t get this lol. this feels much more right in how din being conflicted and still thinking he should give the baby away for his own good plays out too

honestly every line of dialogue for him in this one was perfect I was just whispering ‘I love this awkward clueless wonderful man just doing his best’ to myself any time he said anything. “...does this look Jedi to you?” sir I adore you more than words can describe

- we got din chuckling. asjdklfhsdkafghsdafsadhjkfsdahjkfh. fskahfksjad. side note: I can’t believe my joke post about din desperately trying to Force home school the kid with the one (1) jedi trick he knows about and the baby being delighted by it over and over anyway -- listen to his expectant excited laugh when din takes the ball and sets up the game!!!! -- was canon all along. and then the baby & mando music kicking in when he gently put the silver ball into the baby’s hands again and tells him he’s special (because he IS special. to din)? hmng. hmmmmnnnnn

they opened on the height of softness so we would all crumple under the weight of the rest of the episode and that was very mean of them in a way I sincerely appreciate

- nothing to see here... just a dad trying to walk through the literal manifestation of the unassailable underlying forces of the universe to get to his baby again and again........ the desperation in that, the love, the foolhardy devotion................... shit

- okay so I might be a dumbass, but I’d never noticed this before -- the silver ball has a blue spot on the top, like so:

and in addition we get the room where the baby goes full darth grogu (I have to laugh so I don’t cry okay) on those storm troopers, and there’s a red light in there dominating the room (and it did even more in the concept art):

in star wars blue means light side and red means dark side (it’s very sophisticated that way), meaning the visual storytelling here is that there’s a battle for the baby’s soul and gideon and all his nonsense (and the trauma bb’s been through in the wider sense) is pulling towards the dark, while grogu and din’s connection leads him towards the light. just... the image of the baby looking at his own reflection in the symbolic representation of his relationship to din? the way children find their sense of self through being safely reflected and held by their caretakers? god help meeeeeee I will go in there and fistfight gideon myself for disrupting that in any way

the smaller light seems to be blue too, like there’s still the presence of light even if it’s dimmed and small in that shitty horrible room, which is a change from the concept art!

- FENNEC SHAND SURVIVED BITCHES!!! I even called that she’d be back with new shiny robot parts back in season 1, could not happen to a cooler lady, I hope we get more backstory and interaction from her the next episodes -- sounds like she’s basically sworn herself to boba’s service in gratitude for saving her life, I wonder if that’s a cultural thing of whereever she comes from? does she live aboard slave 1 now too?? because that would be hilarious and amazing, it must be like two strange cats trying to get used to sharing the same space

- everything I could ever hope for about boba fett in this series came true, they went down the much more interesting and nuanced route with jango and boba’s identities as mandalorians, he looked cool as fuck and made din as a character shine rather than overshadowing him... amazing beautiful yesss

(I did 100% not anticipate just how ‘cool uncle boba here to help you fuck shit up’ he was going to be but I am delighted to get it anyway. uncle points deducted for getting someone to point a gun at the baby, but the main point still stands lol)

the power and brutality of his hand to hand fighting too... a w e s o m e , I enjoyed the action scenes a lot in this one

- they even recanonized him actually wearing jango’s armour. what more could I ask for. I’ve had confused parent & child feels about these two since I was like eleven and here we fucking go again. and jango fighting in the mando civil wars too!

- so I’m grieving the razor crest (and I always will be, rip you magnificent jalopy, always in my heart) but also there’s the grim satisfaction that my reading on it was sort of true -- it is (...was. oh god it’s going to take a while to sink in huh) a symbol of din’s self and life, and at this point when they take the baby it tears everything else to pieces. the only thing that’s left in the ashes is the beskar and the thing that connects him to the baby. and there’s... a strange solace in seeing that that’s all he needs to keep going? he’s fucking obliterated from orbit but he still has his love for the baby and the beskar and that can keep him going until he finds something new, everything else can be replaced?????? weirdly healing, though he is probably going to have a solid breakdown at some point after they get the kid back (shut up they are getting the kid back) and the cold distant fog lifts

also this scene/shot feels like it carries some Meaning, doesn’t it? I’m on record several times saying I never want din to be mand’alor and that’s still true, but there’s something about the framing of this and the way boba looks at him that’s like... hm. I’m not sure I have the words for it. there’s something heightened about it, anyway, for a moment he looks like something mythic there in the wreckage

(something I would be much cooler with is our clan of two growing a little bit and those new people rallying behind him, actually, that might be neat. imagine if a force user does show up for the baby and gets adopted into the clan somehow??? so many possibilities.)

- from the way he picks up the silver ball... din djarin is on his way to straight up murder some people huh

I think part of what reassures me about this scene is the music -- this mando flute is not distant, is not beaten, is not despondent, it’s clear and determined and strong.

I love this. I love when we get explicit baby POVs, it makes it feel so real and intimate and... like home. (I especially loved baby’s point of view inside the razor crest, which just made me tear up again. baby lost the closest thing he’s had to a home in a long long time on top of it all. everything is suffering)

Emotionally Significant Thumb Grabbing tm; the show

- din djarin looking for the ‘on’ switch on a magic rock fhsdakjfhsadlfhsdjah I can’t breathe

“Well, this is the seeing stone. Are you. Seeing anything?” fsafkdsajhfsa sdhfksjalhfkjsdahfkjsdhf

- the energy around the baby as he’s, in ahsoka’s words, ‘choosing his path’ is blue, and the force sort of works across time and space, right?? so there’s definitely still hope for our lil green bean to not have to come up with a really dumb unsubtle sith name for himself, as is regrettably yet delightfully tradition. darth babbu should never come to pass (I do like how they’re interrogating the normal dark/light side dichotomy in this series, seeing as this is a literal baby who can’t really be responsible for that stuff himself yet and has such capacity for both.)

- listen. listen, the way din says ‘can you please hurry up’ with no sarcasm or real impatience whatsoever, more like a harried worry, to his force-meditating son as he jogs off to make sure no one’s trying to kill them. is hilarious and also YES this is what the character is!!! weirdly and incongruously polite under stress sometimes and with a slightly odd reaction pattern to things!!! he’s not just quiet and badass, he’s a little strange sometimes and it’s so good!

- a friendly opening volley warning shot from boba there

also din uncertainly asking BOBA FETT if he’s a jedi... now this is the dramatic irony I’ve been looking for haha

I guess neither shand nor boba actually know din’s name after this either. baby you gotta start introducing yourself at some point it gets real confusing when there are two mandos on screen

oh the long weary sigh going through din’s frame when boba says he wants ‘the armour’ and he thinks it’s just someone trying to peel the beskar off his corpse again. sorry the galaxy’s so shitty dad

- “But fate sometimes steps in to rescue the wretched” is a killer line well done mr favreau. I like that boba actually offers din a good deal as well and seems to intend to deliver on it from how things are going.

- din using his beskar-covered bod to cover someone he’s fighting alongside!!! literal moving cover haha. also I love fennec’s costume design

- I don’t know where din got more whistling birds from and I don’t care, it was really cool haha

wow haha um so anyway --

(cue all the ‘who wore it better’ with cobb vanth’s ‘spiderman’s first home made costume’ look on one side and ABSOLUTE UNIT DADDY boba fett on the other side posts lol)

- aaaghh the music almost like a stunned desperate fluttering heart beat as din watches the razor crest be destroyed

- for someone who has willingly worked for them in the past boba sure sounds less than thrilled about having the empire back in any capacity

- oof the deadness in din’s voice when he says “The child is gone”. ooooh no that got me h e l p

- guessing next episode is at least partly a ‘gathering old allies and preparing the assault’ step before the grand finale, then! they cannot go for the season ender cliffhanger with this, I will fucking riot. anything can be up in the air except baby and dad being separated, I will not allow it

it would be very funny if the force user baby called out to comes stumbling into the middle of all this like the troy entering the room with pizzas meme too

- the music in the darth grogu scene is partially a dark mirror of the baby & mando music :’( is nothing in this world sacred

also from how he reaches out for it baby might have used a light saber before in the past with the jedi? ngl the idea of baby wielding the dark saber not when he’s all grown up but in like two episodes -- with all the chaos a toddler holding a laser sword would involve -- is all that is keeping me sane here

‘liable to put an eye out with one of these’ well gideon you sure have doomed someone to lose an eye with that one, here’s to hoping it’s you, for full dramatic payoff

he is a deliciously smug awful force with great musical cues tho, you have to give it to him

- okay so this

is obviously awful and horrible and it makes me so sad... but it is undeniably also very very very funny in how it’s framed. you know what? after all this bullshit baby grogu can have a little dark side tantrum, as a treat, we’ve all been there right

(forget finding a jedi, we need to go out there and find a child psychologist who can help him deal with this without adding the fear that he’s on the path to become a two foot tall evil space sorcerer to the mix Y_________Y)

- rip the razor crest except for the second time :’’’( gone but never forgotten

- the last thing din tells the baby is “I’m gonna protect you; I’ll be back soon”. and I hope that stays with the kid somehow and that it actually comes true, that din will be back for him as soon as humanly possible and all this pain and fear can be repaired. ggggghhhhh my emotions are too big for my dumb human body

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian meta #okay I'm gonna have to. go take a calming walk or something after this haha

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adaru32 · 3 years

Note

Hey! I'm so obsessed with Dante and I was scrolling through google for looking stuff about him and found you! Very nice account!

I just want to ask you a few questions :)

1. Have you watched the dmc animated series and did you like it?

2. In dmc 3 Dante tried to kiss Lady, so he isn't shy with women, right?

3. In the dmc 3 manga Dante visits Enzo in a brothel and it seems like a few prostitutes know him. One of them even knows the names of his guns, so probably he slept with her and other prostitutes?

4. Do you think he had any girlfriends in the past?

5. There's a novel with that Gilver incident. Do you think it's canon? Dante also had that girlfriend named Claire (I think it was a reference to Claire Redfield and Dante should be Leon Kennedy before lol)

6. How tall is Dante?

Sorry for the questions and I hope I can always ask you something :)

Heya! I have no words on how honoured I am with what you stated in your first sentence about finding me, and stuff. Thanks. Dante’s a huge obsession of mine, too ^_^ Alrighty...Got a lot to respond about here...So.... 1. Yes, I have watched the anime (looking forward to the one made by the Castlevania anime creator next). Since it was first released back in 2007 to be precise, and I have all 3 DVDs of the series where each one is about 4 episodes long. I managed to get the first 4 episodes from Devil May Cry 4 Collectors Edition. I found the anime to be okay...Not as good as the games in my opinion, but it did have its great moments like how we got an origin story of how Lady met Trish, and a little bit of Dante’s childhood backstory, and seeing a bit more on Dante’s character with his (almost) everyday life, and how he interacts with different kinds of people. The only complaints I have about it are that I felt it concentrated on the side characters more than the main cast, that there wasn’t enough action, and that the audio and scripting in the English dub were strange (then again, the recording studio was shutting down and had to make-do with what they had. And of course when it comes to translating from Eastern language to Western language, they always feel the need to fix some things up to cater to the Western audience so it doesn’t sound “too foreign”, or something. I don’t know how to explain it but a lot of Eastern and Western companies tend to do this in their media). 2. No, Dante didn’t try to kiss Lady at all at the end of mission 16. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s one of those things that people can easily misunderstand and assume. For example, when Dante mentioned in DMC1 about Mundus giving regards to “his son”, he was actually joking around and not being serious about having a son at all. People assumed he was going to, but that’s not the case. He’s just playing around. Another example is at the end of Vergil’s campaign in DMCV where Dante mentioned about Vergil having grandkids, which made people assume that Vergil will have them in the next game. But again...Dante’s just playing around and not being serious at all. It’s plausible that they’re hints to what could happen in future titles, but for now...They’re just jokes from Dante. Yes, Dante did flirt with Lady and such on mission 7, but he didn’t try to kiss her later on. However, there’s an audio drama exclusive to Japan where Lady showed feelings for him, but he got oblivious and she decided to brush off the idea of getting into a relationship with him afterward. Even the DMCV producer Matt Walker confirmed that Dante and Lady had never, and have no plans of being with each other (Here’s a trivia post I made about it on my Facebook, which I can’t find on my Tumblr page). 3. It’s plausible that Dante did sleep with strippers and prostitutes, but we don’t know for sure. Only CapCom can give us that answer. 4 and 5a. I made a trivia image about this awhile back. In the DMC1 novel, Dante did have that girlfriend, Claire, and that it’s possible that it’s an allusion to the whole Resident Evil thing. But only CapCom can give the answer on whether he had more than just her. He even does say in DMC3, “I’m beginning to think I’ve got rotten luck with women”, so it’s possible that he hardly had any. 5b. It’s confirmed that parts of the DMC1 novel are canon with the story plot since DMCV’s creation (bits of the DMCV Japanese exclusive novel show the one character Gru’s daughters running a bar dedicated to him), but I just recently saw someone post on Twitter (can’t find it now) that Gilver wasn’t actually Vergil at all. He was a failed Nelo Angelo clone (in other words, a rehash of what Trish is that Mundus sent after Dante). Not sure where that person got that information from, but that actually makes sense since Vergil doesn’t become Nelo Angelo until way~ after Dante gets his pistols (in other words, after DMC3′s plot where Dante already has the pistols in that game). 6. I made a few trivia images about this awhile back but in the DMC3 Note of Naught art book, Dante is 180cm tall (for some reason I can’t find that trivia on my Tumblr page, but here’s my Facebook page where I have it). In the anime concept art, it shows that he’s 190cm tall. In DMC4, there’s a height chart that measures in meters. The only trivia I didn’t include (yet) is his height in DMCV, where he’s a few centimeters taller than his anime self (I think that info can be found on the Devil May Cry Wiki, but I also remember a Tumblr user even measured using the models ripped from the files, or something, which I can’t find).

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ettawritesnstudies · 3 years

Text

Storge Edit Update Ch. 9

(links to catch up, I didn’t do any dedicated posts for #1-3: here’s 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8)

Stats

48709 words, 95 pages (standard Word settings) in total

This chapter is 7200 words and 13 pages. My chapter lengths vary between 6-17 pages so I need to decide if I should break up the longer ones by scene or leave them alone.

This chapter includes 2 entirely new scenes, and I finally reached the part where the new pacing catches up to draft 1, so I could edit again instead of rewriting! (It’s also one of my favorite scenes, so I was excited to revisit it)

I hit my 10K goal for the month with this chapter! I’ll be taking a bit of a break to finish my 10K in Runaways but I’ll be back to this soon enough. I’m almost to the fast easy-to-edit parts and I can’t wait to start making quicker progress.

Excerpt/Commentary/Taglist under the cut!

Pre-Training Chatter

“Since when have you cared about your magic being useful?” Grace asked, cocking her head to look down at her brother.

“Probably since Acheran started letting us work with him. I know you don’t pay attention to what he’s making because it isn’t anything you could use without draining it, but some of it is fascinating. There’s so much about magicraft that we don’t know. So many ways that it could be used to help make people’s lives easier. It’s potential…” He drifted off, considered, then continued in a pensive, bitter tone.

“I guess I really started thinking about it since the arena. Lyss wants the magic boy because of his power? The irony is that if I knew how to control my abilities, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess. I spent so many years afraid to try, and couldn’t count on raw power saving me when I needed to know.”

Hope

“Don’t be snippy,” Enne told Grace, “It’s an honorable ideal. But we have to be cautious about it. Otherwise, all the scheming and dreaming won’t do a bit of good when we’re all dead or in the dungeons. Dad could bring the news and plans to Philomena’s family and spread the word during the visit. Quietly, just among our people at first. But word will spread like weeds in the field, and wild ideas of hope will be stronger than the scare.”

“Hope…” Luca said the word quietly, almost reverently. “It won’t stop this madness on its own, but it’s half the battle, isn’t it?”

Aimon put an encouraging hand on his shoulder, and put his other around Grace’s shoulders to pull her close. “Yes, it is, but I think you two knew that already.”

Hope, but at 3am

“Are you still scared?” Luca asked. His voice pitched high, and the words came tumbling out almost faster than he could say them, “Scared you’re running out of time, that is? Scared that the world is moving too fast and you’re not ready for it to change, and you won’t ever be ready when the future comes crashing into the present? Scared that you’ll be powerless to change the world until its too late for it to matter?”

Acheran gazed at him through the dark, the weight of the words settling heavily on his wings. “Terrified.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I spent too long feeling sorry for myself to let you make the same mistake.”

“I don’t want to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I want to act, but anything I could do would only cause trouble. We’ve come full circle again,” Luca grumbled... “Grace came up with an idea at dinner, that we could try to garner the support of our community, to stage a quiet rebellion of our own. There are so many ways it could backfire, it’s such a distant hope…”

He trailed off, but when he spoke again, his voice was steady, resolute. “Hope’s all we have. I need to be prepared to kindle that.”

“Luca. I think if anyone can kindle the hope of the Debilan, it’s you. And I’m prepared to build it up alongside you,” Acheran said, and with that, gave a heavy blow to the final rail, completing the stairwell.

Commentary

This is the first chapter with full scenes from Enne and Grace’s POVs. I’m still debating how to manage seven (7!!) pov characters in one book, whether through limited perspective or omniscient without head hopping. The way the plot works out with characters splitting up, I need at least that many to cover all the story beats and so I think introducing them slowly is helping to mitigate some of the 1st draft characterization problems

For not having a POV in this chapter, Luca gets to have an small existential crisis AND training scenes, so I had a lot of fun with the angst and experimentation as he starts to slowly figure out his abilities. I also finally got Acheran to share his backstory (stubborn introvert never bothered to share his motivations before now :P). It’s satisfying to fill in the gaps in the character development that I glossed over on the first draft. Since this was a slower transition chapter between the inciting incident and rising action to the midpoint twist, I had more time to enjoy their interactions.

Next chapter I get to rewrite a disaster of a fight scene and turn it into an riot>ambush>fight scene, so that’s going to be fun! Next update you can look forward to some excerpts from everyone’s favorite maniacs.

Storge taglist (ask to be +/-): @inkwell-attitude @re-writing-h @thescreamingtwenties @siarven @kittensartswriting @yearlyaquariace @abalonetea @andiwriteunderthemoon @andifthestarsweretodie @davey-in-a-minivan @the-great-teller-of-tales @lothloriien @isanyonetoknow @piyawrites @viawrites-andacts @fuyugomori @thiscrypticfangirl @thescatteredscribbles @avian-king @writeblrfantasy

#storge edit #storgewip #storge update #storge edit chapter 9 #ch 9 #wip excerpts #my writing

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snarktheater · 3 years

Note

Hey, d'you have any French book recs? I'm trying to work on my French, and rn I have downloaded one of my favourite book series' French translations, but I figured maybe books already written in French might work better? Also have you read the Ranger's Apprentice series? 1/2

RA's def flawed - the books' narration does like to point bright arrows at the protagonists' intelligence, and the last few books def have the tone of 'old white man trying to write feminism', although at least he's trying? - and it's aimed more to the younger side of YA, but it is still a very fun series, and I can ignore the flaws fairly easily, at least partly due to nostalgia? This rather long lol but I'm wordy.

I'll start with the second question: no, although every time the series is brought up I have to check the French title and go "oh, right, I've seen these books in stores". But I've never purchased or read them. It sounds like something I probably would have enjoyed as a teen but I just missed the mark, and these days I'm trying to drown myself in queer books, so that probably isn't happening.

As for your first question, geez, I haven’t read a French book in years, so this is gonna skew middle grade/YA, though that may not be so bad if the point is to learn the language. I will also say that as a result, these may read a little outdated.

I'll put it under a cut, even if Tumblr has become really bad with correctly displaying read mores. Sorry, mobile crowd.

It's also likely that old readers of the blog will have seen me talk about most of these. I don't feel like going through old posts.

One last thing: while I was curating this list I took the time to make a Goodreads shelf to keep track of those.

The Ewilan books by Pierre Bottero

(It's a testament to how long ago I read these books that these are not the covers of the edition I own, and I can't even find those on Google. I'm settling for a more recent cover anyway since it'll make it easier to find them, presumably)

There are at least three trilogies (that I know of) set in the same world.

The first trilogy is essentially an isekai (so, French girl lands in parallel fantasy world by accident) with elements of chosen one trope, though I find the execution makes it worth the while anyway.

The second trilogy is a direct sequel, so same protagonist but new threat, and the world gets expanded.

The third one is centered around a supporting characters from the previous books, and the first couple of books in it are more her backstory than a continuation, though the third one concludes both that trilogy and advances the story of the other books as well.

Notably these books have a really fun magic system where the characters "draw" things into existence. It's just stuck with me for some reason.

A bunch of stuff by Erik L'Homme

I have read a lot of this man's books, starting with Le Livre des Etoiles.

They also skew towards the young end of YA, arguably middle grade, I never bothered to figure out where to draw the line. They're coincidentally also using the premise of a parallel world to our own (and yes, connected to France again, the French are just as susceptible of writing about their homeland), but interestingly are set from the point of view of characters native to the parallel world.

It also has a very unique magic system, this one based on a mix of a runic alphabet and sort-of poetry. I'll also say specifically for these books that the characters stuck with me way more than others on this list, which is worth mentioning.

This trilogy is my favorite by Erik L'Homme, but I'll also mention Les Maîtres des brisants, which is a fantasy space opera with a pirate steampunk(?) vibe. I think it's steampunk. I could be mistaken. But it's in that vein. It's also middle grade, in my opinion not as good, but it could just be that it came out when I was older.

Another one is Phaenomen, which was a deliberate attempt at skewing older (though still YA). This one is set in our (then-)modern world and centers a group of teens who happen to have supernatural powers. I guess the best way to describe it is a superhero thriller? If you take "superhero" in the sense of "people with individualized powers", since they don't really do a lot of heroing.

...I really need to brush up on genre terminology, don't I.

The Ji series by Pierre Grimbert

This one is actually adult fantasy, though it definitely falls under "probably outdated". It is very straight, for starters, and I'd have to give it another read to give a more critical reading of how it handles race (it attempts to do it, and is well meaning, but I'm not sure it survives the test of time & scrutiny, basically).

If I haven't lost you already, the premise is this: a few generations ago, a weird man named Nol gathered emissaries from each nation of the world and took them to a trip to the titular Ji island. Nobody knows what went down here, but now in the present day, someone is trying to kill off all descendants from those emissaries, who are as a result forced to team up and figure out what's going on.

I'm not going to spoil past that, though I will say it has (surprise) a really unique magic system! I guess you can start to piece together what my younger self was interested in. Which, admittedly, I still am.

Once again, this one also has a strong cast of characters, helped by rich world building and the premise forcing the characters to come from many different cultures (though, again, I can't vouch for the handling of race because it's been too long).

The first series is complete by itself, though it has two sequel series as well, each focusing on the next generation in these families. Because yes, of course they all pair up and have kids. Like I said: very straight.

A whole lot of books by Jean-Louis Fetjaine

OFetjaine is a historian, and I guess he's really interested in Arthurian mythos especially, because he loves it so much he's written two separate high fantasy retellings of them! I'm not criticizing, mind you, we all need a hobby.

The former, the Elves trilogy (pictures above) is very traditional high fantasy. Elves, dwarves, orcs, a world which is definitely fictionalized with a pan-Celtic vibe to it. The holy grail and excalibur are around, but they're relics possessed by the elves and dwarves with very different powers than usual. Et cetera.

Fetjaine also really loves his elves (as the titles might imply), and while they're not exactly Tolkien elves, there's a similar vibe to them. If you like Tolkien and his elf boner, you'll probably like this too. And conversely, if that turns you off, these books probably also won't work for you.

This series also has a prequel trilogy, centered around the backstory of one of the main characters. I...honestly don't remember too much about it, but I liked it, so, there you go, I guess.

I said Fetjaine did it twice. The other series is the Merlin duology, which, as the title implies, is a retelling of Merlin's story. Note that Merlin is also in the other trilogy, but it's a different Merlin; like I said, completely different continuities and stories.

This one is historical fantasy, so it's set in actual Great Britain, and Fetjaine attempts to connect Arthur to a "real" historical figure...but, you know, Merlin is also half-elf and elves totally exist in Brocéliande, so, you know. History.

Okay, that's probably enough fantasy, let me give some classics too.

L'Arbre des possibles et autres histoires - Bernard Werber

Bernard Werber is a pretty seminal author of French sci-fi and I should probably be embarrassed that the only book of his that I read was for school, but, it is a really good one, so I'll include it anyway.

It's a novella collection, and when I say "sci-fi" I want to make it clear that it's very old school science fiction. It's more Frankenstein or Black Mirror than Star Trek, what we in French call the anticipation genre of science fiction: you take one piece of technology or cultural norm and project it into the future.

It has a pretty wide range of topics and tones, so it's bound to have some better than others. My personal faves were Du pain et des jeux, where football (non-American) has evolved into basically a wargame, and Tel maître, tel lion, where any animal is considered acceptable as a pet, no matter how absurd it is to keep as a pet. They're both on a comedic end, but there's more heartfelt stuff too.

L'Ecume des Jours - Boris Vian

(no cover because I can't find the one I have, and the ones I find are ugly)

This book is surrealist. Like, literally a part of the surrealist movement. It features things such as a lilypad growing inside a woman's lungs (and, as you well know, lilypads double in size every day, wink wink), the protagonist's apartment becoming larger and smaller to go with his mood and current financial situation, and more that I can't even recall at the moment because remembering this book is like trying to remember having an aneurysm.

It is also really, really fun and touching. Oh, and it has a pretty solid movie adaptation, starring Audrey Tautou, who I think an international audience would probably recognize from Amelie or the Da Vinci Code movie.

I don't really know what else to say. It's a really cool read!

Le Roi se meurt - Eugène Ionesco

Ionesco is somewhat famous worldwide so I wasn't even sure to include him here. He's a playwright who wrote in the "Theater of the Absurd" movement, and this play is part of that.

The premise of this play is that the King (of an unnamed land) is dying, and the land is dying with him. I don't really know what else to say. It's theater of the absurd. It kind of has to be experienced (the published version works fine, btw, no need to track down an actual performance, in my humble opinion).

The Plague - Albert Camus

You've probably heard of this one, and if you haven't, let me tell you about a guy called Carlos Maza

youtube

I'm honestly more including this book out of a sense of duty. The other three are books I genuinely liked and happen to be classics. This book was an awful read. But, um. It's kind of relevant now in a way it wasn't (or didn't feel, anyway) back in 2008 or 2009, when I read it. And I don't just mean because of our own plague, since Camus's plague is pretty famously an allegory for fascism, which my teenage self sneered at, and my adult self really regrets every feeling that way.

Okay, finally, some more lighthearted stuff, we gotta talk about the Belgian and French art of bande dessinée. How is it different from comic books or manga? Functionally, it isn't. It really comes down more to what gets published in the Belgian-French industry compared to the American comics industry, which is dominated by superheroes, or the Japanese manga industry, which, while I'm less familiar with it, I know has some big genre trends as well that are completely separate.

The Lanfeust series - Arleston and Tarquin

This is a YA mega-series, and I can't recommend all of it because I've lost track of the franchise's growth. Also note that I say "YA", but in this case it means something very different from an American understanding of YA. These books are pretty full of sex.

No, when I say YA I mean it has that level of maturity, for better or worse. The original series (Lanfeust de Troy) is high fantasy in a world where everyone has an individual magical ability but two characters find out they're gifted with an absolute power to make anything happen, and while it gets dark at times, it's still very lighthearted throughout, and the humor is...well, I think it's best described as teen boy humor. And it has a tendency to objectify its female characters, as you'll quickly parse out from the one cover I used here or if you browse more covers.

But still, it holds a special place in my heart, I guess. And on my shelves.

The sequel series, Lanfeust des Etoiles, turns it into a space opera, and goes a little overboard with the pop culture reference at times, though overall still maintains that balance of serious/at times dark story and lighthearted comedy.

After that the franchise is utter chaos to me, and I've lost track. I know there was another sequel series, which I dropped partway through, and a spinoff that retold part of the original series from the PoV of the main love interest (in the period of time she spent away from the main group). There was a comedy spin-off about the troll species unique to this world, a prequel series, probably more I don't even know exist.

Les Démons d'Alexia

Something I can probably be a little less ashamed of including here.

Some backstory here. The Editions Dupuis are a giant of the Belgian bande dessinée industry, and for many, many years I was subscribed to their weekly magazine. That magazine was (mostly) made up of excerpts from the various books that the éditions were publishing at the time; those that were made of comic strips would usually get a couple pages of individual scripts, while the ongoing narratives got cut into episodes that were a few pages long (out of a typical 48 page count for a single BD album). Among those were this series.

For the first few volumes, I wasn't super into this series, probably because I was a little too young and smack dab in the middle of my "trying to be one of the boys" phase. But around book 3 I got really invested, to the point where I own the second half of the series because I had canceled by subscription by then but still wanted to know more.

Alexia is an exorcist with unusual talents, but little control, who's introduced to a group that specializes in researching paranormal phenomena, solving cases that involve the paranormal, that kinda stuff.

As a result of the premise, the series has a pretty slow start since it has to build up mystery around the source of Alexia's powers, but once it gets going and we get to what is essentially the series' main conflict, it gets really interesting.

Plus, witches. I'm a simple gay who likes strong protagonists and witches.

Murena

There was a point where my mtyhology nerdery led me to look for more stuff about the historical cultures that created them, and so I'd be super into stuff set in ancient Rome (I'd say "or Greece or Egypt" but let's face it, it was almost always Rome).

Murena is a series set just before the start of Emperor Nero's rule. You know, the one who was emperor when Rome burned, and according to urban legend either caused the fire or played the fiddle while it did (note: "fiddle" is a very English saying, it's usually the lyre in other languages). He probably didn't, it probably was propaganda, but he was a) a Roman Emperor, none of whom were particularly stellar guys and b) mean to Christians, who eventually got to rewrite history. So he's got a bad rep.

The series goes for a very historical take on events, albeit fictionalized (the protagonist and main PoV, the titular Lucius Murena, is himself fictional) and attempts to humanize the people involved in those events. Each book also includes some of the sources used to justify how events and characters are depicted, which is a nice touch.

It's also divided in subseries called "cycles" (books 1-4, 5-8 and the ongoing one starts at 9). I stopped after 9, though I think it's mostly a case of not going to bookstores often anymore. Plus it took four years between 9 and 10, and again between 10 and 11. But the first eight books made for a pretty solid story that honestly felt somewhat concluded as is, so it's a good place to start.

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neutral-emerald · 4 years

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SILVER THE COSMIC TIME-JANITOR (or: dude, what's with all the alternate futures)

silver the hedgehog has a very simple backstory. he's a kindhearted, sorta-naive but altogether very driven psychic hedgehog here to save the world by time-traveling to the past (also known as present-day) to prevent the apocalyptic future he was born into from coming to pass!

[ID: A screenshot of Silver from Sonic 06. He’s glowing with cyan energy as he flies over a dark, post-apocalyptic city.]

...wait, if he's time traveling 200 years into the past to completely change the shape of the timeline, how do the stars manage to align such that he manages to be born at the exact same point in the new timeline with the exact same genetics? how are his parents born? does silver have parents?? and how does he do this no less than THREE SEPARATE TIMES??!

hey everyone, i'm tumblr user neutral-emerald here to make good on the idea i vaguely gestured at yesterday and point out silver's wildly inconsistent backstory(s) and then explain to you how this isn't just sega playing hopscotch with the concept of time travel, but actually TOTALLY EXPLAINABLE if you don't mind a whole lot of conjecture and "fuck dude i just think it'd be cool."

LET'S GO.

before i get started, a few things to establish.

first, this is about… half serious, tops. it’s less of a theory and more of an observation of something that’s weird and then throwing some possible explanations at it because i am a massive sucker for time-based nonsense. if you wanna take my observations and build your own conclusions, go for it. i’m not your boss.

second, i'm basing my conclusions off of both the games and the idw comics. the conclusions i draw are applicable to either continuity, but the logic does rest a decent amount on the comics, so just a heads-up in case you were expecting pure game canon from this.

and third, i'm working off like half a brain and very intermittent checks of the wiki and cutscene compilations, so there's probably many things i'm missing! if you notice something i said was wildly off-base, go ahead and correct me in the replies and i'll either edit the post or explain to you just how that detail doesn't actually matter, depending on whether it. y'know. matters.

with that out of the way, let's get into the first topic of discussion!

part 1: the future is inconsistent, y'all

now, i'm not sure if you've heard, but in the year 2006 sonic team released this little indie game creatively entitled Sonic the Hedgehog. it was a smash hit, won countless awards, and for some reason went down in history as a messy, incomplete bugfest. but that's not what matters. what matters is that it introduced Silver the Hedgehog.

silver hails from 200 years in the future. the world is a bleak, fiery place, and has been since the monster iblis was unleashed after princess elise's death. silver was born into this world, which we know since it's literally the first thing he says in his story.

[ID: A cropped line from Silver's story in Sonic 06. "This world was devastated before I was born."]

i'm not going to drag you through a beat-by-beat summary of the entire plot of sonic 06, you should know it already. silver meets mephiles, gets lied to about who caused the apocalypse, mephiles yeets him and blaze into the past, he tries to murder Sonic the Hedgehog™, and so on. eventually he helps kill god, and then sonic and elise travel further back in time to kill god even deader so that none of the game ever happened, and the bad future into which silver was born never happened, thus thoroughly scrubbing silver's existence from the timeline!

...until.

sonic rivals.

i'm not going to speak much on sonic rivals, mostly because i'm not super familiar with it. but what matters is that silver is back! he's still from the future, he's still here to change the past, and most importantly he wasn't deleted from existence by the destruction of solaris, unlike everything else from sonic 06 including everyone's memories of it. and obviously, whatever state his future is in, it's not the same as it was in sonic 06.

now, i don't have a single clue what is going on in rivals 2, so do inform me if there's some big information i'm missing from that one. all i know is he's fixing yet another possible apocalyptic future, like always. correct me if i’m wrong, i don’t have the patience to trawl through it myself.

then we've got sonic colors, in which silver is again from the future. notably, he’s definitely not from an apocalypse!

[ID: Some screenshots from the DS version of Sonic Colors, again cropped to just the text. Tails and Silver are talking to each other.

Tails: What's the future you came from like, Silver? Silver: A lot brighter than this. Silver: The sky is blue, and everybody's got a smile.]

sonic generations doesn't add much. again, correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think we learn anything about what kind of future silver is from, and he's definitely not here to fix it this time. that's sonic's job! he's just hanging out like everyone else.

now, up until this point the future has been reasonably consistent, setting aside my somewhat abstract understanding of the rivals games. there's nothing to say that silver's not coming back in time from the same point in a single timeline, which is the one and only version of the future ever since the destruction of sonic 06.

UNTIL.

[ID: Two panels from the comic Sonic Forces: Stress Test. In the first panel, Silver looks worried as he lands in front of Knuckles, who looks skeptical.

Silver: We've got big trouble! Eggman— Knuckles: How can you be here? I thought you returned to the future?

In the second panel, Knuckles looks away with a self-assured grin, while Silver looks more panicked.

Knuckles: Oh wait— I must be dreaming! Silver: What? No! I've come back with a dire warning from the future!]

i have a lot of issues with sonic forces, especially with how its story is written. something i do NOT take issue with is the supplemental comics, mainly because they are WONDERFUL evidence for my crackpot time travel theory.

like i said, up until this point we don't really know whether silver has been experiencing separate instances of the future, or simply traveling back in time to prevent an also-time-traveling eggman nega from messing things up in the past. but here, we get some very juicy information:

[ID: Knuckles and Silver again. Knuckles has his arms crossed and is looking at Silver, who has a nervous look on his face as he slams a fist on the palm of his other hand.

Knuckles: Come again? Silver: Something happens that brings the world to ruin! But the historical records are sparse or make no sense. I came back to hopefully head off whatever's about to happen and save the future.]

silver travels back in time to prevent a terrible apocalypse. this is not the beautiful future silver came from in sonic colors— but this is the same silver. everyone recognizes him. he recognizes everyone. and yet, the future he came from is different.

part 2: silver is a walking paradox

allow me to remind you of what i pointed out when i was talking about sonic 06. silver was born into the iblis-apocalypse. considering no elaborate timeline nonsense happened to him before the events of the game (by his reckoning) i think we can safely assume he was born like a regular person with parents.

in the first post-06 timeline, silver was probably also born. let's be charitable, acknowledge that sonic team doesn't overthink the butterfly effect like i do, and say that silver was born to the same parents, because the universe likes to keep things nice and simple and contrive itself to make this particular character exist in this time period.

so, it's entirely fair that silver comes to exist in a post-06 timeline at the equivalent point in time, aka 200 years in the future. it's also fair that he travels back in time to prevent some kind of apocalypse, because that's his narrative role! it's what he does. when it's time for him to exist in the story, that's what he's there to do.

what isn't fair is the fact that it keeps happening.

[ID: A panel from the IDW comics. Sonic is stretching his legs while looking faintly exasperated at Silver, who is nervously holding his arm.

Silver: Er… No. I came back because defeating Eggman didn't save the future. Sonic: Couldn't even play along. Had to bring the mood down. Sonic: *sigh* Okay, what happened this time?]

[ID: The following panel, cropped to just Silver's text bubbles narrating over a starry sky.

Silver: When I left, my time had been conquered by the Eggman Empire. Everyone lived in fear, choking on polluted air. Silver: When I went back, the Eggman Empire was gone— but so was everyone else. Silver: There was nothing left. No people, no animals, no machinery. Only water and sparse, metallic plant life.]

allow me to summarize my understanding of all this: silver is from the future. normally, the future is good. sometimes it isn't. when it isn't good, he goes back in time and fixes things, then returns to the future to check if that fixed things.

the least conjecture-y interpretation i can come up with is that sometimes silver will go into the past, then go back to the future but end up in a Bad Timeline and thus go into the past again to fix things. there's no weird warping directly between bad timelines, he only gets there by way of the past.

but that's boring, so here's my PREFERRED interpretation.

silver hails from a good future, but sometimes it just changes. he's unstuck from time— if something weird happens in the past, he's the only one to know that the passage of fate was changed, because he went to bed in one timeline and woke up somewhere categorically worse, and the only way he can fix it is by figuring out just what caused this and going back in time to fix it.

or, to say it in a meme:

[ID: A picture of someone lying in a hospital bed with a nurse standing next to them, edited so that Silver is in the bed.

nurse: sir… you've been asleep for 2 hours silver: oh boy i can't wait to wake up in the same timeline i went to sleep in]

part 3: how did this happen?

it's one thing to point out that silver doesn't experience time like a normal hedgehog, and another thing to explain how and why this happens.

fyi, this is the part where i go wildly off the rails and start saying whatever i want. there's a ton of explanations one could come up with, most probably stemming back to sonic 06. i'm just going to go with my own, and probably not come up with a whole lot of concrete evidence because i'm just spitballing. this is me having a fun time. going "heeheehoohoo time traveling hedgehog go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

so. something i haven't touched upon is that in all games after sonic 06, silver can time travel. we never see him do it, it's never explained how he does it. all we know is that he's doing it under his own power.

which is kinda odd, don't you think? should he be able to do that?

in sonic 06, we see three mechanisms for time travel. first is the chaos emeralds. if two people perform Chaos Control with a chaos emerald apiece, they open up a swirling rift in the air which can send them to different points in time and space. silver can't be doing that, for obvious reasons— he's only one hedgehog, and he's not exactly running around with a chaos emerald at all times. that can't be how he does it.

second is a time machine eggman built. that obviously can't be it; the machine doesn't exist at all after the timeline gets wiped, and again, silver is doing this on his own. he's actively antagonistic towards eggman, even. absolutely not this one.

third and finally is mephiles, who can make big purple orbs to take himself and passengers to different points in time. this obviously can't be it either, for similar reasons to number 2, right? after all, mephiles is one half of solaris, who was destroyed before he could be split off. he doesn't exist to be silver's time-traveling uber driver.

...right?

well, obviously. i'm not going to try and tell you that mephiles is secretly alive and shepherding silver back and forth between timelines for no reason. that's ridiculous. no, i'm going to try and tell you that silver is mephiles.

or rather, he's solaris. or RATHER, he's the new solaris, sorta-ascended to the role of Time God after the old one got blown out like a birthday candle.

like i said, i'm going wildly off the rails and as such don't have any concrete evidence to explain why it's this instead of something else, but hear me out. after elise blew out the flame of hope, the universe was left in an interesting situation. someone needs to be in charge of the flow of time, but the previous time-god was just unceremoniously destroyed. but all the power and energy of a time-god has to go somewhere, in some form, in some time.

with nothing else to go off of, the role of time-god starts flipping through every notable being it had interacted with. they're all solidly accounted for in the timeline, except for one. silver the hedgehog was born into a timeline that cannot exist. silver the hedgehog does not, and cannot exist. silver the hedgehog interacted quite a bit with both sides of solaris— he spent a substantial amount of time fighting back iblis, and associated with mephiles, even being one of the few people to directly experience his time travel abilities. silver the hedgehog tried and failed to absorb iblis into himself.

here's my theory: after sonic 06, the universe reasserted itself such that silver was the new Solaris. silver is not consciously aware that this is what he is, but he knows that he can time travel. sometimes the timeline will rearrange itself around silver. he is unaffected by this because he is a higher being unaffected by such petty trifles as "an origin" or "paradoxes".

silver the hedgehog probably doesn't have parents. he sprang into existence one day and everyone just kind of went with it, himself included.

oh also something i thought was neat but couldn't think of where to put:

[ID: More cropped dialogue, this time from Team Sonic Racing.

Silver: I'm fine. It's just, something bad is gonna happen. I can't explain it. I just feel it. Blaze: Have your travels through time given you precognition? Silver: I don't know. Maybe they have. Or maybe I'm just thinking too much.]

silver might be becoming psychic in a future-vision kinda way. that, or he’s riddled with anxiety. possibly both.

TL;DR

silver hails from no less than three separate timelines, his existence is a tangled web of who-knows-how-many grandfather paradoxes, and i choose to believe that he's god.

if anyone who cares more about evidence wants to gather up like, little one-off clues that support or conflict with my conclusions, go right ahead. or just throw your own arbitrary headcanons for what's going on with this at me. or incorporate these ideas into an au or something! i just want more people thinking about what the Fuck is up with silver post-06, because by god there is a WHOLE lot of potential packed in there

anyway thanks for reading make sure to like comment and subscribe—

#hey guys check out how hard i can gesture at a corkboard #is it remotely coherent? not a clue! i cannot process my own writing #sonic theory #silver the hedgehog #text #dot txt

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