HOME | DD
faile35 — Bookbinding Page169
Published: 2014-07-11 06:45:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 18868; Favourites: 64; Downloads: 369
Redirect to original
Description
The next page is here: faile35.deviantart.com/art/Boo… . For more information on the entire series, read the "'Demon's Due' Defined" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… or the "'Demon's Due' Plus" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… .***********************************************
"He is not here," the horror speaks through mouth and eye flickering with power. "All that we are is called 'Hellbinder.'"
Though the response is terrifying, it is the final step in the mental process of inquiry that is foundational to Elina's trained mind, and the Scholar is quick to find her footing. Though she can feel her terrified heartbeat in her fingers and toes, she holds to the clear, dispassionate voice in her mind, swallows, and works the dryness from her tongue as the ropes tighten on her lower body. Sinking to her knees, she clasps her hands before her and channels all her fear into her face as she tries to speak.
"But I know he is within you," she whispers. "You are far more than he, but he is still there." The truthfulness of her claim gives her strength, and Elina is able to press forward more fervently. "My uncle, Anjerome Villios, commanded the respect of all who knew him. How can I but fall to my knees before one such as you?" She leans forward in earnestness, staring with all her will into the single orb. "As the Hellbinder, it is your due."
***********************************************
Like I said, Emily at Feathered-pics gave me some great photos for this sequence. It's very nice to finally get to this scene.
If you like what you see, please let her know! Thanks, Emily! 
Enjoy!
Note: Bookbinding and Demon's Due are a work of fantasy and fiction. The artist/creator in no way condones real mistreatment of this kind toward any woman or man, by living person, gremlin, plant, assassin, ratman, viscous fluid, programmed device, animated home furnishings, or otherworldly spiritual beings. Furthermore, the artist opposes the marginalizing and restriction of women in general by any institution, political and/or religious, including those which have individual women amongst their membership touting/promoting their own happiness within that institution as evidence that ALL women should feel the same way. This includes the religion I was raised in and which I have utterly discarded from my life over this and other issues.
Related content
Comments: 37
"He is not here. But Trent Reznor is. Bow down before the one you serve…"
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
An interesting if somewhat transparent charade. While it looks like Elina is quite certain that a large part of Anjerome is within the Hellbinder, I'm not convinced her certainty represents anything other than something she really wants to be true. Consider that the fragment that was most Anjer like had no problem mirroring Avora and seemed perfectly willing to commit her to the mirror as well. Another point to consider, perhaps going to your knees and telling the Hellbinder that he is Due things might not be the best strategy, especially since it seems like one of the things that the Hellbinder thinks he's Due is you. Seems like she may have outsmarted herself there.
I do understand why she is doing it though, she's playing for time; every moment she doesn't spend naked and bound is a good one. While it may be a transparent charade, anything that stops those ropes, even temporarily, from finishing what they are doing it's a plus in her eyes. And who knows, it might actually create enough confusion in the Demon for a short term escape. Still, even if she manages to make it to her feet fully clothed and unbound, I doubt she'll stay that way for long. After all, the demon will have his due.
Interesting that Chekhov's rope from page 57 still hasn't fired.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Yeah, I'm not buying that whole worshipping/sucking up bit, even for a minute. But it seems ungentlemanly to shout out a warning to the big guy. He'll just have to learn from experience. Looking forward to seeing what tricks our scholar has in her bag.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
We've seen enough females come up against this "individual" (or parts of him) and apply themselves to avoiding what he has in mind to see the move as exactly that: a move. Whether or not the Hellbinder will recognize it as such will be seen over the next few pages. Thanks!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
SPOILER ALERT!!!!!
Here is a bunch of gobbledegook to make it difficult for someone to accidentally see the response to the question, the answer being "No, she won't, but she'll try as hard as she can," and then just a bit more to hide things sufficiently.
END SPOILER.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
quick tip to all villians, never trust anything that has a clean shot to the family jewels. no matter how much they praise you
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
"Quick! What's that over there!" *Smack*
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
to quote the gamers "Called shot to the nuts"
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
If The Hellbinder (aka "Uncle Creepy") has nuts, they're probably wrapped inside massive monkey's fist knots of half-inch hemp rope. Might as well be armored in chain-mail... like Luther.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
hey, the shaft still has nerve endings (I think) so its still going to hurt, and oh god that sentence with out context is strange
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Considering that she's already seemingly firmly bound from ankle to at least thigh if I interpret correctly, it would seem to me that Elina suggesting that her dropping to her knees is even remotely her choice represents an extreme case of making a virtue out of necessity. Given that Uncle Anjer's intelligence is presumably also part of the Hellbinder's make up, I'm pretty sure that Elina's rather transparent attempt at sucking up is likely to fail, probably catastrophically. After all, she recognized Anjerome's tone and style of speaking in the gremlin's voice, back when the zombies had taken her captive, yet his presence did nothing to alter the little imp's behavior. Why should the Hellbinder, infinitely more powerful and self-assured than the Jervil fragment alone, behave any differently?
I fear that Elina may have fallen victim to her own confidence in her intellectual prowess, and the conviction that she is and always has been just that little bit smarter and more informed than anyone in the room. She's always been able to think, and talk, her way out of any situation, and, faced with a challenge that is probably beyond her capacities, she still can only resort to the tried and true method. I'd wish her good luck with that, but that would be a gesture of massive hypocrisy.
Excellent work on her head and face. Her hair, from the luxuriant mane flowing down her back to the delicate wisps at her cheeks, is spot on, and the glow of the skin on her face is sublime. What's even more rewarding for me is to see that you appear to have captured both the fear and the insincerity in her expression. Full marks!!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Thanks a ton! Regarding the Hellbinder's potential reaction here as being far more powerful than the gremlin hitchhiker in which she previously detected Anjerome's voice, there is one thing going for her: gaining such prestige and regard was a huge part of Jervil's motivation. He knew as the possessed rat-man that Dernhem society wouldn't respect him, but as a being of power like Anjerome Villios, he would command their respect. It's a gamble, but Elina hopes to engage him intellectually over this issue or another one that she can conjure rather than get in a physical confrontation that she believes she'd lose, quickly and miserably. It's less over-confidence and more "these are the tools I have to work with and am skilled with, so I'm going to rely on them," though that may not have come across in my write-up.
Hopefully the next couple of pages will clarify that and give an idea for the effectiveness of the move.
Thanks for the comment!
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
How 'bout free will versus determinism? That should slow things to a crawl for a few hours...
The idea that her best defence was to play to her strengths, which are undoubtedly her knowledge and intellectual acuity, definitely came across. I just felt that the manipulative and condescending nature of her approach was blindingly obvious and would be seen as such by what remains of the Anjerome/Jervil consciousness, which is after all who, or what, she's attempting to address. It's not what she did, it's how she did it.
Besides, as sothellio has suggested, I don't think she realizes that Anjerome/Jervil is just a spokesfragment for a much larger entity, which has a whole other agenda in place. She'll probably figure that out pretty fast, though, for all the good that'll do her...
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
"So, you're saying that a being who is made up of many constituent beings all expressing their own desires should have its own desires independent of that voiced by its constituents? I'm not sure I can get behind that, considering we're arguing down to the cellular structure, if not the molecular makeup of the genes themselves."
"No, no, you're thinking too physically. I'm addressing the metaphysical."
"Yes, I see that, but the argument is the same whether or not you bring in the concept of a soul making an independent decision instead of a physical brain."
"Of course, of course. But you must also figure in the concept of prophecy being a direct observation of the linear flow of time from present to a future that is written out for the one making the decisions."
"Not just the one making the decisions, but any decision made by any and all constituents that contribute to the one."
"Now hold on a minute, are we talking about a linear flow of time as if it's a single thread, or a winding of many threads into one great, massive cord? Speaking of which, would you mind getting all of these pesky ropes out of the way. They're getting annoying here."
"Sure, sure. No problem..."
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
It is a rather tense moment for her.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
When in doubt and confronted with an overinflated ego, always take the cue from Wayne's World: "I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!
If nothing else, it tends to be distracting.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Ah, groweling and flattery, when all else fails. Well, no one in this story has tried it before, it worked for Bilbo (sort of) and it juuust might be worth a shot. Y'know, given her lack of other remedies.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It is a rather new approach for the female protagonists in this storyline, isn't it?
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Um... that was odd. Nice pic but I fail to see the logic of her action at present. Sure, I wanna see her in ropes, but this seems a strange and out of character way to do it....
- Polecat
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
She's recently acquired a lot of knowledge about the thing above/in front of her, specifically regarding its psychic assembly and motivations and its recent history with women. What kind of Scholar would she be if she didn't put some of it to use? Well, actually, in that case she'd be a truly negatively stereotypical "academic," to which a Scholar might be inclined. But not Elina, who is more practical in general. From what she's learned, direct confrontation is not likely to go her way, and in her terrified reaction, this is the first idea that occurred to her, logical or not.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Not to quibble, but wouldn't her more logical recourse be to try to emotionally appeal to her uncle (I believe it was) and try to draw him to the surface? Ah well, my opinion I suppose, just struck me as being uncharacteristic of her. To submit, even falsely, seems to run counter to the way she's reacted to problems in the past.
Oddly, her best move would be to try and delay until Luther got there. I can admit I'm not sure how, but submitting to the beast wouldn't slow him down, it would make him faster....
- Polecat
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well, she does have one more play, though it's kinda slim, which she is trying to work out at the moment in her delaying. It will become more apparent over the next couple of pages, too. And, speaking of Luther, I need to finish and insert the next four pages of his storyline update somewhere back in the past 60 pages of Elina's research so that he can actually get reached by the runemote.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Feedback is when helps my creative endevours as well, so no sense in not sharing.
- Polecat
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Some serious looming going on here: although I'd quite like to see what's going on with those tighening ropes.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
It does look like he's "leaning," or... "looming."
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thank you! It was a bit more difficult than usual, but I'm glad you like how it turned out.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0