LNH/LUNA/ACRA: The Liminals #6: Bondage and Determination, part 2 [part 2]

[Drew Nilium]

On 11/14/20 5:40 PM, Jeanne Morningstar wrote:
<snip>
> "It's drama-based," said Masterplan Lad, "so it will start working at the exact 
> moment that it seems like everything is going to fall apart."

Of course! :D

> He moved a portrait off the wall (of 
> himself, of course),

:3

> opened the safe behind it, and started hauling out a sack 
> of money that were too large to fit in it. Magic, one supposed.

:D

> "*What* was the deal?" said another mafiosi, this one greyer-templed and 
> blearier-eyed.
> 
> "Mario!" Luigi Vergilio made a wild conciliatory gesture.

Yesssssss :3

> "A misunderstanding. Ha. Wand-explodus!"

X3

> Masterplan Lad plucked another plot-string. Twang.
> 
> "Shit, I just remembered!" said Mario. "Put that wand away! Our father's coming."

I love how this works. :3

> A steely man with swept-back gray hair walked into the room. He appeared to more 
> or less literally be Marlon Brando from the Godfather. Masterplan Lad wondered 
> why he kept running into Marlon Brandos so often.

X3

> "It's him!" he said. "Jumpman Vergilio!"

YES :D :D :D

> "Pasta fazool!" he shouted, gesticulating wildly. "Vento Aureo! Chad Imbrogno!" 
> Masterplan Lad felt faintly uncomfortable even though he knew his writer's 
> mother's family was Italian.

I love this. X3

> They argued for a while in what the author seemed 
> to think was Italian,

heeheehee

> The ostrich prepared to bum-rush the three mobsters. "Freezus forcefieldus!" 
> said Jumpman, 

heeheehee

> The spellbolts veered away from him, knocking the crocodile off the ceiling. 
> "Ouch!" it tried to say, but being a dead crocodile it really couldn't.

X3 X3 X3 <3 <3 <3

> "Gratuitus Bondagus!" shouted Luigi Vergilio.

:3 :3 :3

> Before Masterplan Lad could bet 
> up, he was suddenly wrapped up in ropes and a gag. He wanted to protest that 
> this wasn't' actual Latin, but couldn't say anything.

X3

> "All right," said Jumpman, in heavily accented English, since the writer was 
> tired of that joke.

Heeheehee

> One of the many story threads that flowed into being, which the 
> writer may not have even consciously known when starting the story.
> 
> But why did Masterplan Lad have to just passively let the story fall into place 
> around him? Was there a way to work with the narrative?

Yessssss.

> He couldn't move, he couldn't reach his plot device, but the one thing he knew 
> he could do was flash back.
> 
> What if he could use that? In the tabletop game Blades in the Dark, players 
> could make a flashback move and perform actions that could plausibly fit into 
> the past to set up their actions in the present, a convention of heist 
> narratives. What if he could make that move?

OF COURSE. :D

> Even now, he was afraid to twist the narrative that way for his own sake. But he 
> reminded himself: he was doing this for Maria.

Oh, sweetie.

> He thought about the italians. The fact he was playing the role of a plumber. 
> The terrible joke about the names. The graffiti he'd seen earlier, which was 
> clearly a reference to the urban legend about the Super Mario Galaxy box logo. Hmm.
> 
> So, flashing back to his entrance into the apartment at the beginning of the 
> previous issue, he made himself create a link to alt.nature.mushrooms.

:3 :3 :3

> And finally, with just a small twinge of guilt, he added a bit back into his 
> meeting with Sharon and Alys where he got their numbers.

:3 :3 :3 <3

> "The hell's that?" said Luigi, but before he could do anything a pale tide of 
> little red-capped mushroom people crashed into the room. They looked hungrily at 
> the mafiosi with their little beady eyes and clicked their claws and their 
> sharp, jagged teeth.
> 
> "Someone opened a portal to a goddamn mushroom kingdom in the basement!" said 
> Mario.

yesssssssss

> Back at the apartment, they sat around the table and watched the thousand dollar 
> bill burn in the candle flame..

<3 <3 <3

> "The rest of that's mine," said Maria, grabbing the sack of money and hugging it 
> like a stuffed toy.

X3

> "See? Now you can call 
> on me whenever you need me--and I can do the same for you." She smiled and 
> Masterplan Lad felt a not unpleasant little shiver up his spine.

:D

> They spent the rest of the night talking about magickal narrative theory and 
> terrible movies. After he left, he didn't call Maria back, not for a while. But 
> he did think about her often. And he also thought about painting his nails.

Awwwwwww~

> The Wizard Mafia is the lastl free-for-use element I thought up which can help 
> serve as an unifying factor in Classic Lunaverse stories.

YEAH!

> I also want to thank Drew and Tom whose work helped me feel more comfortable 
> writing about this sort of thing.

Awwwww <3 <3 <3

Drew "HECK YEAH!" Nilium