Line #23 Literature/ThreadbareTheRightToArmBears


1	The final chapter of the first trilogy in the Threadbare saga.
2
3	Threadbare has gathered a cadre of loyal followers, almost all of them resurrected from the dead and placed in the bodies of toy golems. Now he needs to reach out to the dwarves, form an alliance, overthrow the king, and save the world.
4
5	Easy peasy.
6
7	[[folder:Threadbare on the march to war]]
8	* '''Name: Threadbare'''
9	* '''Age:''' 5
10	* '''Jobs:''' \
11	Greater Toy Golem Level 15\
12	Cave Bear Level 12\
13	Ruler Level 11\
14	Scout Level 7\
15	Tailor Level 11\
16	Model Level 8\
17	Necromancer Level 11\
18	Duelist Level 6\
19	Animator Level 12\
20	Enchanter Level 10\
21	Golemist Level 12\
22	Smith Level 10\
23	{{Sculptor\|s}} Level 12
24	* '''Attributes:'''
25	** Strength: 124
26	** Intelligence: 216
27	** Dexterity: 147 (154)
28	** Charisma: 110 (145)
29	** Perception: 112
30	** Constitution: 138
31	** Wisdom: 201 (208)
32	** Agility: 112 (126)
33	** Willpower: 199
34	** Luck: 89 (96)
35	* '''Pools:'''
36	** Hit Points: 330 (410)
37	** Sanity: 417 (545)
38	** Stamina: 269 (373)
39	** Moxie: 309 (424)
40	** Fortune: 208 (295)
41	* '''Defenses'''
42	** Armor: 52 (59)
43	** Mental Fortitude: 42
44	** Endurance: 62
45	** Cool: 20 (47)
46	** Fate: 15 (22)
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	----
50	!Are You Bear Enough for These Tropes?
51
52	* ActionDad[=/=]ActionMom: In the past, Melos and Amelia went on life-threatening adventures, then went home and paid their babysitter.
53	* ChurchMilitant: The dwarfs at first appear to hate the idea of an army of golems and Doll Haunters helping them in the fight against Melos, because Aeterna hates the undead. Turns out, that was a ruse to trick The Lurker and King Grundi ''loves'' the idea of an unstoppable tide of sturdy golems!
54	* TheDeterminator: ''"Some people had determination. Grissle '''was''' determination."''
55	* EliteMooks: Though the Hand were mentioned in the second book, they weren't really discussed. Here, they're a major threat. They're [[spoiler:five demons created from the dead remains of the Seven after Melos, the sole survivor, reanimated them following the battle with the lych Gristle had become]].
56	** [[TheDreaded The Inquisitor]]: Anayse Layd'I, Melos's right hand.
57	** [[{{Ninja}} The Ninja]]: A ninja who does lethal sneak attack damage.
58	** [[FlunkyBoss The Legion]]: A summoner who calls upon a host of lesser demons.
59	** [[PlayingWithFire The Cataclysm]]: A fire junky who can melt battlefields.
60	** [[VoluntaryShapeshifting The Lurker]]: A skilled liar who infiltrates by killing someone and taking their place.
61	* EveryoneHasStandards: King Grundi might be willing to be undwarfly enough to just ''give'' away a huge pile of valuable reagents so Threadbare and Celia can raise an army of Doll Haunters to fight against Melos, but he can't stomach kin-slaying.
62	-->'''Celia:''' I have to stop him. But I'm sorry, he's my father. I can't kill him. I... if he won't surrender, I'll try to capture him.\
63	'''Grundi:''' That answer... [{{beat}}] ... was completely correct!\
64	'''Celia:''' Wait, what?\
65	Lass, I don't care how undwarfy we're getting here by giving up valuable reagents, there's still a line. Asking family to kill family is just wrong.
66	* FlatWhat: Threadbare sees a broken thing and casts '''Mend'''.
67	-->'''Melos:''' ... what. You can't tell me it was that simple.
68	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
69	** Looking forward to the new Cylvania that will rise from Ragandor's ashes, Threadbare befriends the Gribbits rather than fighting them. Instead of a day spent grinding levels, it becomes a week of trading and planning.
70	** As Threadbare ruminates on not feeling guilt about killing dungeon monsters, he notes that they keep coming back from the dead. ''Like the Lurker.''
71	* FourStarBadass: Let it not be said that Melos didn't earn his position in the Seven. It took a full army to take him down.
72	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Honestly, most of the heroes of this story count. Threadbare was just a teddy bear, Pulsivar was just a cat, and most of their golem troops were just villagers who happened to fall under the sway of an evil cult. Nevertheless, they form the core of the army that destroys The Hand, overthrows King Ragandor, and saves Cylvania from the damage done by a desperate, brilliant old wizard 15 years earlier.
73	* HumbleHero: Threadbare doesn't realize that he's one of the strongest, wisest, and most intelligent people in the kingdom, nor that he's the MagneticHero who has drawn this RagtagBunchOfMisfits together, and humbly offers to put things to a vote.
74	-->'''Threadbare:''' Nobody's really in charge here. We could talk it over and put it to a vote.\
75	'''Glub:''' Calling frogshit on that one, boss. What you say usually goes. You're kind of the most important dude here.I think it's the hat. It's totally because of the hat, isn't it?
76	* IndyPloy: Anise finally betrays and kills Melos during the final Raid, forcing Threadbare to improvise the rest of the effort to save Cylvania.
77	* InternalReveal: After her holy fire burns Anise and "Celia" the same way, and then when Emmet comes to talk to her about his doubts, Mastoya realizes how boned the kingdom is.
78	* MessianicArchetype: The undead cultists come to view Threadbare as their Savior. Thanks to him, they'll be Born Again as Doll Haunters, given new purpose saving Cylvania from the Oblivion.
79	* MoreDakka: The tanks block Melos's strikes. The fighters wear him down. Eventually they get him to the point that all the Rangers and Pistoleros pummel him with lightning... and Melos finally falls. To Anise.
80	* NeverLiveItDown: InUniverse, Melos was the least trusted of The Seven, thanks to his past as a cultist and his current status as a Demon Knight. It's no wonder, then, that everyone thought he had assassinated King Garamundi in order to seize the throne.
81	* NoBiologicalSex: Threadbare and Missus Fluffbear have never been anything but teddy bear Greater Toy Golems, so they have no real understanding of anything biological and just don't get all the fart and dick jokes flying around. They also never form romantic attachments like the Doll Haunters do.
82	-->'''Beryl:''' Fuck me running with a pogo stick.\
83	'''Threadbare:''' I'm sorry, to begin with I can't do anything like that, besides it sounds really uncomfortable to try to run at the same time, and I really have no idea what that last thing is.
84	* ThePowerOfFriendship: After the dungeon of Jotunher closes, the Jarl is understandably ''pissed'' at Threadbare for insulting and injuring her (it was the Lurker, of course). So Threadbare apologizes and gives her a hug, then asks her to join in on killing the guy who did it. It works. Then Threadbare does it again, helping the dwarfs and the giants secure a lasting peace and turning on Melos's wild kingdom.
85	* PragmaticHero: King Grundi is in a tight spot, and is willing to use every situation to his advantage. He has morals, he has standards, but he'll do what it takes to save his people.
86	* TheReveal: All of Cylvania is a dungeon, and Melos is the dungeon master. Gristle, the oldest and most intelligent of the Seven, went to the dwarfs for help and figured out how to use dungeon cores to turn Cylvania into a dungeon surrounded by dungeons. Their entrances were all inside the main dungeon, so no one from the outside could get in, and no one could get out. But then he turned himself into a lich in order to avoid dying of cancer, and almost all of the rest of the Seven died fighting him. Melos, faced with a damaged construct he couldn't understand, turned to his cultist past and resurrected most of his dead friends as incredibly powerful demons (the Hand), planted them in pillars as midbosses, and placed himself in the main pillar as the dungeon boss, starting his fifteen year nightmare.
87	* RuleOfCool: Zuula provided Threadbare with a sketch of the body she ''really'' wants. It has battle axes for hands and shoots lightning out of its eyes and fire from its ass.
88	* TheSmartGuy: Grissle was a genius ''before'' the changeover. Then he took twenty-five levels in four different smart guy classes, unlocked the Experimenter class, and went to town. Nobody has been able to replicate his research in the fifteen years since everything went to hell because he was just that smart.
89	* ShoutOut:
90	** Two of the soldiers who join Mastoya for the fight in the machine bay are [[Franchise/StarWars Wedge and Hicks]].
91	** In the past, Jane had the ability to ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' run.
92	** The Crown has [[Franchise/{{FinalFantasy}} Wark Knights]] mounted on big yellow birds.
93	* StealthPun: Celia builds a new MiniMecha, this time instead of showing them Reason, she'll be killing them with Kindness.
94	* TimeSkip: There's a small gap between the second and third novels, as Threadbare spent a few weeks leveling up in sculptor and Fluffbear worked on being a woodworker so they could craft different kinds of bodies for Celia and Kayin.
95	* TokenHuman: With Celia and Kayin dead and resurrected as Doll Haunters, Graves is the only living human in the main party.
96	* TookALevelInBadass: All of the heroes, of course, and the undead cultists, but special mention goes to Pulsivar. He hits level twenty-five and becomes [[AffectionateParody a Misplacer Beast]]. He's strong, he's not where he appears to be, and he's ''big''.
97	* TragicFlaw: If Melos had only ''told'' people what was going on, he wouldn't have been so trapped and alone. He just didn't trust people, because they didn't trust him.
98	* TragicVillain: Melos has spent fifteen years locked in a nightmare thanks to Grissle not wanting to die.
99	* TwoferTokenMinority: Several of the Doll Haunters qualify. Kayin is now an undead woman and a lesbian (former?), while Garon and Zuula are undead half-orcs (coded as mixed race black folk), and Madeline is a doubly undead vampire woman (monster, coded as a struggling underclass).
100
101	----
102
103	[[folder:Threadbare as a bear of peace]]
104	Once upon a time, there was a teddy bear who worked hard and hoped to live happily ever after. But nothing truly ends, and so, wrapped in the arms of his little girl, he lay awake at night and pondered what was to come next. And to be ready, he whispered "'''Status''', and this is what he saw:
105
106	* '''Name: Threadbare'''
107	* '''Age:''' 5
108	* '''Guild:''' Reclaimers Association of Generica
109	* '''Jobs:''' \
110	Greater Toy Golem Level 17\
111	Cave Bear Level 14\
112	Ruler Level 16\
113	Tailor Level 11\
114	Model Level 11\
115	Necromancer Level 11\
116	Duelist Level 14\
117	Animator Level 16\
118	Enchanter Level 12\
119	Golemist Level 25\
120	Smith Level 11\
121	Sculptor Level 13\
122	Shaman Level 5
123	* '''Jobs Stored in Guild Registry'''\
124	Scout Level 11
125	* '''Attributes:'''
126	** Strength: 177
127	** Intelligence: 303
128	** Dexterity: 200 (207)
129	** Charisma: 139 (168)
130	** Perception: 112
131	** Constitution: 175
132	** Wisdom: 233 (240)
133	** Agility: 137 (144)
134	** Willpower: 289
135	** Luck: 125 (142)
136	* '''Pools:'''
137	** Hit Points: 352 (462)
138	** Sanity: 536 (712)
139	** Stamina: 347 (471)
140	** Moxie: 428 (567)
141	** Fortune: 237 (354)
142	* '''Defenses'''
143	** Armor: 62 (76)
144	** Mental Fortitude: 52
145	** Endurance: 72
146	** Cool: 20 (55)
147	** Fate: 25 (32)

Context Literature / ThreadbareTheRightToArmBears