"...there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous men who need no repentance."
Ninety-Nine Righteous Men
(Tapastic mirror) is a webcomic that was first independently published by K.M. Claude in Spring of 2015, and then later released on a regular basis as a webcomic through Tapastic and ComicFury throughout 2016. The story focuses on Father Daniel, a young Catholic Priest somewhere in Present Day America, who has grown attached to a parishioner named Caleb. Caleb starts behaving oddly one day, though, leading Father Daniel to believe that he is possessed. When the monsignor doesn't believe him, though, Father Daniel is forced to go to the only licensed exorcist he knows— the disrobed Father Adam, whom Father Daniel has a troubled history with. They then have to overcome their mutual distrust in order to battle Caleb's literal demon.Ninety-Nine Righteous Men contains examples of:
- Ambiguously Bi: Adam is subtlely hinted at being bisexual, and has been declared so via
Word of God. - Arc Words: The quote atop the page.
- Attempted Rape: A few times, most significantly when a possessed Caleb confronts Lydia outside the bar she works at and attacks her, but doesn't get much further than pinning her to the wall before Adam intervenes. She is understandably upset at this.
- Big Bad: Ashmedai.
- Bury Your Gays: Subverted as the bulk of the main cast is gay and only one of them dies.
- Cast Full of Gay: Every main character is to some degree attracted to men.
- Character Development: At first, Adam antagonizes Daniel and blames him for getting him disrobed and does not believe whatever he did to Daniel qualified as rape, but nonetheless agrees to help him tackle Caleb's demons. That situation, plus hearing a tearful Daniel's take on things, prompts Adam to a Heel Realization which leads him to fully repent his actions.
- Cool Old Lady: Juno, Lydia's grandmother, has shades of this. She is good friends with her granddaughter and has no issue talking to her about clubbing or Caleb about his live life.
- Creepy Shadowed Undereyes: Caleb when he begins to act differently.
- Demonic Possession: At the core of the main plot is this happening to Caleb via an unwitting Deal with the Devil. Comes with him gaining Femme Fatalons, Hellish Pupils, and Scary Teeth to boot.
- Fan Disservice: One scene contains a fully nude Caleb, apparently with Ashmedai's tentacle-like genitalia in the vicinity of his butt.
- Holy Burns Evil: Used against a possessed Caleb several times, whether it means tying him up with a rosary chain or just him trying (and failing) to hold a cross. This principle seems to apply to symbols of non-Christian faiths: part of what stops Caleb's assault on Lydia is that touching her bracelet charm(which has a Hindu-esque design)leaves scorch marks on his palms, which catches him enough off guard for Adam to nab him.
- Mr. Fanservice: Adam is often seen wearing shirts declaring his sexual appeal, while Caleb is frequently in some degree of undress.
- Naughty Tentacles: Ashmedai's tentacle-like genetalia often wind up in pretty below-the-belt spots on others.
- Pretty Boy: Adam has noticeably soft features, no facial hair, and shoulder-length loose curls, and Caleb meets several of the same qualifiers. Lampshaded in Caleb's case by Asmodei when he threatens to harm Caleb's "pretty little body" if Daniel acts out of line.
- Older Than They Look: Pretty much all of the main cast. Adam and Daniel appear to be young twenty-somethings despite having both been fully ordained, Caleb appears in some panels to be a minor though he's seen in 18+ areas (and his age is later given as 22), and of course Ashmedai is thousands of years old.
- Only Sane Man: Lydia. Every other character has some degree of moral reproach going on, and even Lydia's grandmother doesn't seem 100% there. While skeptical about demons herself, she still agrees to let Daniel and Adam try to reach Caleb rather than press charges against him for the assault(see Attempted Rape above).
- Questionable Consent: It's never made entirely clear what happened between Adam and Daniel beyond allusions to their past relationship and a "scandal" at the church, Adam believed he had consent from Daniel during their encounter, which Daniel thoroughly maintains was not the case. More prominently, Caleb may not have been able to consent to whatever was going on between him and Father Daniel due to being possessed, though because he never said anything at the end, he may well have been completely aware of everything Ashmedai did and allowed it to continue (that or he just doesn't remember it).
- Sexy Priest: Daniel and Adam (when he was still a man of the cloth, anyway) are both quite easy on the eyes. In fact, his attraction to Daniel is what gets Caleb into trouble to begin with.
- Shout-Out: The bar Adam and Daniel meet up at is called "BJ's Roadhouse," a reference to season 2 episode 11 of the 1989 Beetlejuice cartoon.
- Speak of the Devil: A nonspecific case. When Caleb flippantly remarks to Lydia and her grandmother that he has no chance with his crush (Daniel, a clergyman) "unless I sold my soul," the older woman scolds him for making such a statement, saying that you never know when demons may be listening. True to her suspicions, Caleb undergoes some changes the very next day...
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Adam may be the only exorcist nearby, but that doesn't mean Daniel wants to work with him... or vice versa.
- Wham Shot: When Adam's eyes begin to bleed, it becomes immediately apparent that he's not going to make it out of this alive.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Lydia and her grandmother are not seen after agreeing not to press charges against Caleb for assaulting Lydia.
