VIDEO | 11 | Locked away from Darin

[patchricide]

Darin's birthday is only in a week or two. And... I may need some help with it. Because getting him a suitable gift was difficult enough before, but with his current abilities? Material gifts simply don't seem to cut it!

But... you know, if I could give him anything, it would be some excitement. An affirmation of his herodom. And, well, something to alleviate his boredom, to boot.

Now, one way to do that would be to give him a crime to stop, but that would require committing a crime. And that's illegal. [good job, princess, really flexing your brain power on that one] On the other hand, perhaps if he had a villain to thwart...?

I don't have a full idea yet, but I do have the start of an idea. Something that we could all do for him, if at least a few of his friends are willing to volunteer as actors. Or in drafting up designs for some villain roles. And definitely help with costuming, since I don't plan to be drawing my own outfit for anything ever again. [See: The dress debacle from last year.]

... and... well, quite honestly... a little feedback would help as well. This doesn't sound like it would be too silly, does it?

Comments

text: purrsuing

[chainlinks]

I don't know who this Darin is but are you suggesting a....villain play?

[patchricide]

He's my romantic partner. He's known among the imPorts for his bombastic personality, but also for being both remarkably strong and a brilliant creator.

(Which is another reason why the boredom's a problem. He's already dismantled the toaster oven, and he's been eyeing the full-sized oven.)

I can't promise it would be entirely theater. There would likely be combat involved, too — but I would interfere if anyone was at risk of serious injury.

[chainlinks]

Oh! Congratulations! For being romantic partners that is.

[Bombastic personality, what.]

And you think he'd fall for it?

[patchricide]

Thank you! [It's a little odd, since they've been together for a while and she hasn't gotten congratulations before. But honestly, it's appropriate, isn't it?]

Oh, I'm not about to try and fool him! But there's something far more thrilling about real fighting, isn't there?

[rimuru]

[ ELF.

E L F.


Ahem, that's beyond the point, Rimuru ]

You want people to play villain, so someone who is bored can come in and fight them?

[patchricide]

Something like that. As part of a birthday celebration. I was thinking of coming up with a villain moniker for myself, as well...

[Can't you see her pulling off the dark elf look, with black leather?]

Is it too much?

[rimuru]

Well, uhm - [ he doesn't want to rain on her parade but ]

We are all superpowered people. What happens if this goes too far?

[patchricide]

Then I will take the responsibility of stopping it myself.

[It's said with a poised sort of confidence — not out of cockiness, but of someone who's not shied away from that responsibility before.]

Besides, we'll have the advantage of numbers — and I'm not particularly worried about Darin. It shouldn't be any more dangerous than your typical training exercise.

[onederfulhero]

I've played at being a villain before in training exercises with my students. Count me in.

[patchricide]

Have you really? That sounds like a fantastic training exercise. How did it go?

[She might be taking notes for more reasons than just the birthday celebration. Her team hadn't seemed to respond well to her endangering their lives, despite the Altean belief that real danger was the most effective way to learn, but...]

[onederfulhero]

For my first year students' final exams, we paired them off and had a teacher face off with them in an enclosed arena. Their objective was to either handcuff us or escape the arena. Full use of powers allowed, though we had a healer standing by, and I restricted myself by wearing weights to slow my movements. Some of my colleagues also used support items and weapons.

It went well! They had to get clever and learn to work in tandem and utilize each others' abilities, but most of them managed to "defeat" us. That idea won't quite work for what you have in mind, but it's a start. It's easy to get really into the role.

[patchricide]

Perhaps not, but there's certainly ideas that we could tae from it.

For example... I like the idea of an enclosed arena. Not just for keeping things contained, but also to hopefully keep the media from seeing inside and gettig the wrong idea. What sort of locations did you use?

[recommendations]

I can create any costumes you need. Not... Not design them, per se, but I can make them based on someone else's designs.

[ Something about a bunch of people pretending to be villains doesn't quite sit right with Momo's hero sensibilities, but... Allura is right, it is right up Darin's alley. ]

[patchricide]

Could you really?

If need be, I could try drawing some designs... but they would not be professional by any means. And...

And you would need to promise not to show them to anyone else.

[recommendations]

As long as you're okay with synthetic materials, I can make clothes just fine! I once made a whole set of cheerleading uniforms for me and my classmates.

[ Oh, Allura. Your design skills can't be THAT bad. ]

I promise, I would keep it between us.

[patchricide]

That sounds wonderful. [Why would she even have a problem with synthetic? Must be a human thing.] All right, hold on. Let me see what I can come up with...!

[It does take a while, but she sends over... a picture.]

[It might be of a costume design? Maybe if the designer was a two-year-old. No, really, these look like black and purple crayon scribbles.]

video;

[cognitivism]

I don't mind acting as a villain. I don't think it would be an issue and might be a little fun.

Darin seems like the kind of person who would enjoy something like this.

video;

[patchricide]

[Her expression brightens at the last comment.] You think so too, then? I would be quite interested in seeing what kind of villain you could come up with!

[cognitivism]

I think so too. Do you have any ideas? Perhaps use Aegis to stage it?

video

[viciousmaukery]

Well, we can’t have Darin bored now, can we? I’m willing to help with costuming and with acting, I’m told I apparently look like I can cut a man from nuts to neck.

[Yeah, no, he looks like he stepped out of an eighties photo shoot.]

video

[patchricide]

We truly cannot. Just the other day, he entertained himself by connecting the doorbell to the entertainment center — now, it turns on the stereo and increases it to maximum volume.

And when I complained about it, he simply told me, "I've got another idea." What does that mean?

[She clears her throat.] But I digress. I would love to see your costume work, if it's anything like your coat.

And... honestly, I'm curious about that particular maneuver as well. But not for this! Another time!

[viciousmaukery]

It means don’t let him get his hands on anything he can conceivably turn into a vehicle. He might add rockets.

[Molly grins, at the digression.] I’ve done quite a bit of costume work, all on the flashy side, and of course there’s my coat. Have you already got a theme in mind?

What, the nuts to neck thing? [A shrug.] That only happened once, and it was a gnoll trying to kill me. [It did not happen at all, it’s an exaggeration a member of the Mighty Nein came up with to threaten some poor fuck.]

video; Sorry I'm forever late

[pidgewidgeon]

Honestly, I think this sounds great as long as it can be done safely and won't get us in trouble.

We could probably get permission to do this outside town and have other imPorts with super strength play the villains.

video; it's cool I was mostly braindead this week anyway

[patchricide]

That's the idea! Although, I thought it might be fun trying my hand at being one of the villains, too...

[She could totally rock black and purple.]

If we pick the right location, we won't get in trouble at all. Somewhere enclosed would be ideal, but I'm not sure if we can set that up on short notice without an appropriately large force field generator...

[pidgewidgeon]

[ Pidge chuckled as she imagined Allura playing the final big bad. That would be hilarious, and... might actually be perfect. ]

That could actually work perfectly. We could have a random imPort tell Darin that something's happening wherever we host this and hide you away as the final boss.

[ She was suddenly a huge fan of this idea, and of making it work. ]

I could probably put together a force field quickly, it can't be that hard right?