The disgraced Duke Greengrass has lost his power, his influence, and his good name. There seems to be no alternative for him other than a fast retirement and a self-imposed exile far from the public eye. Greengrass, however, cannot imagine life outside the Court, and he refuses to stop playing the Game no matter how difficult it becomes. When he stumbles across evidence that a Sun Cult chapter is plotting a terrorist attack, he decides to infiltrate and expose them, hoping the resultant fame will be enough to salvage his career. Now he must survive the murderous fanatics of the Cult, expose its powerful backer, and evade governmental authorities who would be all too eager to hang him if they learned he had 'joined' the Cult. It's the toughest Game Greengrass has ever played... and if he loses this time, he won't live long enough to try again.
Non-canon Lunaverse story.
Very enjoyable! I was glad to see you found this. Of all the villains in the Lunaverse, I don't think I've hated anyone worse than Fisher. Maybe Puissance at times, but only for her Cersei Lannister-like self involvement. Fisher is just a loathsome bigot with delusions of grandeur. I always had a soft spot for Greengrass.
Can't wait to see what else is in the works from you.
Carrot Top: "Trixie! What's that horrible thing on your neck!"
Greengrass: "Nom, Nom, Nom!"
Trixie: "Don't ask"
I might have to think about having the USF appear in Mountain, maybe when Max first gets put on the defence committee.
Well I'd imagine a game against Max would go very differently.
"So these little castle like ones how do they move again? Are they the ones that go diagonally?"
Awww! Nice to see Notary and Greengrass back together again, although I know it won't last.
Now Greenmeadow's background, that will useful for what I'm writing at the moment.
7197256 : It's worth noting that this is non-canonical and GM's background likely changed a lot. EG, I don't think the current one would think his life was a waste just because he didn't manage to loot the nation. (Also, it's implied he died--GG refers to him in the past tense--which isn't the case in the main story).
That said, if you do see some workable inspiration here, all the better. :-)
Its interesting that Notary often gets referred to as small in this. I've not previously thought of her as being anything but of average size (and in fact may be sort of aggressively average, to make her harder to remember), do you actually visualise her as being short or small?
7197546 I visualize her as being slightly shorter than normal, yes. Not dwarfish or short enough to really stand out, but I think an inch or two less of height than the norm helps her to not be seen.
Go Notary actionpony, she certainly gets bashed up a lot here doesn't she.
7197673 : Yeah, one reason I scrapped this story was it got a little grim for the Lunaverse. Notary being thrashed around so much wasn't really the tone I wanted to take in the main canon-verse.
Well that was a fun chapter nice Notary / Greengrass and Puscience / Greengrass interactions.
Right finally finished it all now, took a bit longer than I thought it would.
Overall I liked it, I get that it puts the court in to bad a light to make current canon but I don't think it would be totally impossible to have a canon version, maybe have things being run by an ally of Fisher who does get caught for it.
It actually worked out differently to how I expected in the end, I'd assume Notary would leave Greengrass in the end in this version, probably driven off purposely by him, but I guess that was another version, and I thought the sun cultist angle would be bigger as well.
7198020 : If I wrote it today, I'd probably make it more like your initial thoughts than how it actually turned out. But I wrote it more than 3 years ago when I was... not as developed of a writer, to put it kindly. :-) My style's a little different now than it was back then.
Anyways, I'm glad you liked it!
Wait, how long has this story been a thing? How did I not know about it until today?
Whelp, there's 56,000-ish words I have to read now...
I'll start reading this presently, dropping comments as I go.
7200971 : I wrote this a few years ago, actually, and forgot all about it until February of this year when I was going through files and found it. So I posted a blog that I was putting this up got all the chapters published on the site... and then totally forgot to submit it until today. :-)
Anyways, I know this is non-canon, so don't worry when things start to get weird--I'm not trying to force nonsense into the canonical Lunaverse. But I wrote this a while ago and figured it deserved to at least see the light of day.
7200971 : So... what'd you think?
Man this was a ton of fun. You did a fantastic job exploring Greengrass and Notary's relationship with each other, all wrapped in a fun little caper that shows off the intrigue of the Night Court. I don't know if this really deserves a "dark" tag, but it was quite a thriller.
I don't know if I would agree with the characterization of Fisher as a tribalist, but it certainly raises the stakes in this story. You do a lot of good work building his character as well.
I can see why this isn't cannon but it was a fun read anyway. Well done sir.
Well, that was a fun read. It definitely has some issues and absolutely doesn't belong in canon as you said, but for all that I feel like you could do something great with that ending. I really like the idea of Greengrass and Notary as one of Luna's "troubleshooting teams" like Fancy Pants and Fleur, and I think there's a ton of potential to have fun with that in the canon timeline. Greengrass is at least apparently adrift and aimless which could be cover for him slipping into this role without anyone the wiser, so if you just add a chapter or two of him making that transition to a canon rewrite of this you can set up some serious fun down the line when the Elements inevitably get dragged into his new work. This would be especially useful with the changelings coming up since covert action is going to be the name of the game there so it would be good to set up an ally to help them with the required social manipulation ahead of time.
I have no sympathy whatsoever for Greengrass. And Notary at the end? Screw. You.
You'll be sorry, Fisher...
Hmm... I actually support this group's goals. Not sure if that's good or bad.
The injuries will continue? Huzzah!
Greengrass, quit. Now. Go back to your garden and stay there.
Boy. I'm really hoping Fisher's horn gets broken off either here, or in canon. Little shithead.
Great. So we've got evil corrupt nobles on one side... and psycho cultists on the other.
Black versus black, basically.
Damn. You made Fisher to be an even bigger slimeball than Greengrass. Well done, there.
Greenie, you are a sociopath.
God, Fisher. I hope your horn gets broken off.
Who should I cheer for, here?
Kinda like the Marx Brothers here. That's a good thing, mind.
It's a very good thing it's not canonical. More at the last chapter.
Okay. This is...
Technically speaking, it's great. Great action, dialog, characterization and the like. It all flowed wonderfully. It all came together at the end, too. The thing is...
With the exception of Fancy Pants, everyone here is an asshole I rather loathe.
Greengrass is a sociopath who destroys and tears down in his quest for power the the goddamned 'Game'. Notary aids and abets him willingly. Fisher is a bigoted asshole, aided by Majordomo. And Mango is a bugfuck nuts cultist. I don't have anyone to cheer for, to root on to win. I want them all to fail. And for me, that's really bad.
I give this a thumbs-up for the technical side, but honestly... I wanted to cross the fourth wall and punch almost every character here.
*jumps straight to the last chapter*
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