OOC: After watching the musical Annie earlier today, I am now convinced that the numbers Easy Street and Little Girls are two songs that Araceli absolutely would have sung at some point because she, too, despises having to look after kids like Miss Hannigan does. (And considering that Araceli was beaten by a then-13-year-old Tahirah in a civil war pre-main verse, that probably didn't help.)
OOC: Though I tend to write Sukumara & Araceli as hating each other by default for valid canon reasons (the latter forced/blackmailed the former to work with her in a civil war and then Sukumara betrayed Araceli later on when the opportunity presented itself), I also do imagine some scenarios where the two begrudgingly try to put their past hurt behind them and actually work together.
Most scenarios likely have them working towards getting rid of a common enemy, though. They work best together when united by something they commonly spite.
OOC: I can imagine Araceli singing this song XD (The only change would be is that she'd be singing this to a princess she has captive, not a prince lol)
OOC: I have the mental image of Tahirah, Araceli and Candace singing "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls, including all of them going back and forth with the intro part, and it honestly would fit them for a shared musical number. XD
Me realizing that the Melodian nobles all have some pretty freaky battle techniques: aaaaa
To explain, well...All of them are fairly powerful in their own right. Specifics will be given under the cut as this will be a fairly long post. Also, I'd love to use this as reference for combat scenes for threads and verses where they can fit, so yeah).
(Also this post doesn't include Tahirah's own forces because that'll be a whole post on its own but hey at least you get info about Araceli, Candace and Ariel!)
Araceli's signature battle techniques involve poisoning her enemies. She might poison blades and use them against said enemies by stabbing or slashing at them, waiting for the effects to kick in. She also is a fan of using poisoned arrows too.
And then there's also her wind magic, which she can use to try to actually make others lose their breath/choke them if used in specific ways. And then there are also the snakes she has on hand most of the time, which she'll use to surround and bite/poison individual enemies.
Candace relies on illusions, and will often personalize them to her enemies - she'll make them feel like there's less vision in the area surrounding them, or that there are way more soldiers against them than there actually are.
She'll also make good use of Usama and Luciano so they can either hit the enemies with the earth somehow (Usama's power) or burn them to a crisp with fire (Luciano).
Ariel, though he has no magic, is basically the 'tank' when it comes to attack and defense - he's great at enduring a lot of attacks, defending, and counterattacking on his own with various weapons (including gloves that have short claws that can extend out of them as extra blades). He has enhanced physical senses due to his cannibalism and battle skills learned over the years, and he can even sense whether someone has magic by their scent. And once he gets a taste of their blood, he can immediately track them down more easily too.
Sometimes he'll rely on mages to do the distance-related attacks for him, other times he has archers. But at the very end, when it's obvious that the enemy's about to completely lose for sure, Ariel's more than happy to let his (cannibal) troops feed on them for dinner as a reward for their efforts.
I know I like to make Araceli Nemesis my go-to immediate "villain" of all threads taking place on this blog, and there's a good reason to do so given her backstory.
But also consider this possibility of a plot idea: Araceli Nemesis genuinely trying to redeem herself in the eyes of Tahirah, Candace, and Ariel but she's going to have to work for it for a long time. She realizes that yeah, she definitely underestimated Tahirah's ability to rule Melodia and now she's paying for it big time, and it's a miracle she's not dead like Shula (former ruler of the Anwara Region, Candace took over after Shulda died during Melodia's civil war) simply because Tahirah is too nice to give Araceli a second (and only a second) chance.
