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saneijeijei · 6 months

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Academy of Sword and Magiс

[1\?]

Penelope and Callisto's relationship begins six months before the young woman's debut. Eckhart is in love with the Crown Prince and believes that her feelings are mutual. They meet secretly, knowing that neither the duke nor the emperor will support their relationship due to political tension inside the capital. They do not show their feelings and what they know in public, for fear of being revealed.

But after Yvonne returns, everything changes. Callisto rejects Penelope and laughs if she talks about their relationship, saying that she allegedly made them up. Heartbroken Penelope barely remembers how the debut is going, how the terrible thing happens - the poisoning of Yvonne.

The whole family blames her for this, not wanting to listen to any excuses and evidence. Left completely alone under a house ban in her room, the young woman did not know what to do when an angry Callisto came to her, wanting to avenge his new lover.

Penelope, miraculously manages to survive this meeting and escape.

Thanks to the low-ranking magic she learned, after the events of the hunting competitions, she was able to leave the capital and go to the most remote part of the empire, where she wanted to settle down and start living again, hoping that the duchy, like the Crown Prince, would not search for her anymore. They enjoying happy life with the real daughter of the Eckhart family.

But she didn't know at all how she could make money here. The jewelry and the torn dress that she was wearing, she sold for good money on the first day. But money tended to run out, and it was a bad idea to think about work when they were completely gone. Climbing into her small travel bag, Penelope found a fragment of a Mirror.

"What a useless garbage," she snorted and wanted to throw it into the swamp, as the shard began to shine brightly in her hands, showing her and the fact that she put the shard of the mirror back in the bag and went somewhere. "What the hell?"

Thinking about it, she decided not to throw it away and watch. Maybe the thing wasn't as useless as she thought it was. In the evening of the same day, after a hearty snack and going into the room she rented in a tavern, she took out a fragment and tried to make it show at least something other than a reflection again. But nothing worked. Giving up, she muttered: "Maybe I was dreaming.."

The shard shone again. Penelope looked there and saw herself creating something out of boards and fabric. Finally, she understood how it worked and figured out how to make money.

"Wizards? You mean the charlatans?" the owner of the tavern was perplexed with the guest's question. "If you need useless freeloaders, then they live on the outskirts of the city, towards Aunt Dor's farm. One of them also has such a strange sign.. With a cat? Or something similar to it."

Thanking for the information, Penelope went to the local wizard. The middle-aged man was immensely pleased with her until he realized that she was rather not his client, but just a random passerby who was unlikely to give money.

"I need a room. For divination, I see the future of people and can help them find out the truth." Penelope explained.

"A fortune teller? I hardly believe it, but if you pay rent, I will be glad to consider you a fortune teller" the man happily rubbed his hands, hoping for a promising income in his pocket from another "charlatan".

What was his surprise when the number of customers in a small fortune-teller's room became more and more every month. At first, the young woman did not charge her clients who were residents of a small town. Satisfied and especially impressionable, they told their visit to Penelope to their neighbors, and those to other neighbors from the neighboring village, spreading the story further and further.

In addition to ordinary citizens, aristocrats began to visit it, although not of the upper class, but still. From earls to viscounts. Fearing that she might be recognized, Penelope decided to furnish the room with an entourage and wear a suit that hides her eyes and hair. In it, she looked like a mystical fortune teller whose gaze is hidden from the visitor.

The fee for services grew, Penelope paid the wizard money for rent and assistance in servicing clients. A simple room has turned into a real mystical corner with incense and magical objects, one view showing that a real member of the magical world works here.

But in addition to the man, a nanny settled in the house, who looked after little Judith, who required a lot of attention and time, which Penelope did not have because of constant work and a desire to feed and provide a comfortable future.

Until one day, a strange old man comes to her for a foresighted session, asking her to tell about him and his past. Of course, she had similar clients who, due to illness, forgot where they lived or something important that they needed to remember and she did not charge them, letting them go with a pure soul to their loved ones.

But this old man was definitely not that kind of person. His past was filled with horror and death. A shard of a mirror reflecting fragments of the past into a glass ball chilled the blood in her veins. The old man, with a certain weariness and sadness in his eyes, watched his past.

"Let the Mirror show what will happen when I leave the city," he asked. "How do you know--?.." asked Penelope, frightened. "I know a lot of things, child. And I know that very soon the knight's guard will arrive here and take you to the capital. Aren't you, as one of the last representatives of the ancient magicians, afraid to be on your knees again in court for something you didn't do?" "Wh-what?.." "Ask the Mirror to show you if you think I'm lying, child. My name is Uwe, I am an elder from a small town where ancient magicians and ordinary magicians who were expelled from their lands live. I've heard a lot about your abilities and I see that you can use a fragment of an ancient magical artifact - the Mirror of Truth. This is amazing and truly an innate talent that not everyone can possess. I've come to help you. There aren't many like you and me left, but there is a place where you and your daughter will be safe. I can offer my protection and help so that you can live in peace without hiding behind all this masquerade. But we don't have much time and we need to decide right now."

Penelope looked at the flashing Mirror of Truth and clenched her hands into a fist nodded to the man. She needed to escape anyway if the imperial knights were already heading here. There's no reason for her to stay in this city. And Judith, too.

Seven years later, the empire makes a truce with the ancient magicians after a fierce struggle against Leila. In order to consolidate the alliance, the emperor and the elders sign a trade agreement on the purchase and sale, as well as participation in the cutting of precious stones for magical weapons. The Empire also creates conditions for magicians so that they can receive education and not be infringed on their rights.

In order to strengthen the established relations, an academy is being built on the territory of the empire, where both people and wizards will study in the same building in order to create a new generation that will rely on each other. Duke Eckhart's (Derrick) adopted daughter, 7-year-old Nora, and other children from aristocratic families become one of the elementary school students. Nora was a reserved but very kind child who was bullied despite the authority of her family.

The girl was taken from a shelter sponsored by the Eckhart family. Nora, who had lost her parents and was left completely alone, appreciated the duchy for sheltering her and giving her the opportunity to get an education that her own father could not have dreamed of. She was a timid and kind girl who knew that if she rebuffed her abusers, she could be worse off because of it, and not them at all. She kept silent about it and endured, pretending that she was not upset at all by the words of her peers.

Fortunately, by the beginning of the year, her roommate did not come because of family problems, so the first months of study the whole room was in her harness and no one could tell classmates how she cried, remembering all the hurtful things that other children did to her.

On one of the everyday school days, the girls called her behind the building to talk about her being too smart during math lessons. But as soon as the main offender managed to open her mouth, dirty water poured on top of her, which was used to wash the floor in the classroom. Offended girls screamed promising to take revenge on prankster until she saw who did it.

"You shouted too loudly, it prevented me from calmly preparing for the lesson," said a golden-haired girl looking out of the window with a bucket in her hands. "Oh, I'm sorry, Judith!..We're leaving!" classmates immediately ran away with a bully, apparently not wanting to get involved with a stranger.

Nora wanted to thank the savior, but Judith quickly lost interest and went back to class closing the window without saying anything. Eckhart spent the rest of the day in peace and quiet. Tired of the amount of knowledge she had gained, Nora went into her room and realized with horror that the same girl was sitting on the next bed.

"Hi, I'm Judith and I'm your roommate."

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gittetj · 5 years

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by no means is this an excuse for shou's mom, and tbh you've probably sucked up all the information on her you could already, but i remember that when she had her final convo w toichirou, he said that 'shou is starting to show interest in my powers, too' so it's possible she was under the impression that shou was happier living with his father? like, we don't know shou's age at that time but i think it was before he realized his dad was kinda a shitlord. and maybe by the time he realized it 1/2

You’re most welcome to start a discussion about Shou’s mom, she’s an interesting character to speculate about! Now look, you made me go off with receipts and everything haha

Have I ever said anything about Shou’s mom here, other than that comment about how I didn’t think it was forgivable for her to leave her son behind? Well, I still don’t think it is, but she’s just a human being, I don’t consider her inherently bad or good. Even though I can’t find it in me to defend her actions I can still understand the reasoning that might have led to them and how she might have felt about it.

Anyway, it’s not so much the fact that she left that gets to me, it’s the fact that she stayed absent. Leaving I can understand, leaving for a while might have been smart, might have given her some space to consider her situation and show Touichirou that she was serious about not tolerating the path he’d gone down. And it didn’t seem like she or Shou were in danger; as far as I can read there has never been anything in canon suggesting Touichirou was violent or even particularly controlling toward his family (until he beats Shou up and tries to kill him in the WD arc of course).

Leaving Shou with his dad, who we know he looked up to at the time, seems like a pretty straightforward decision. Pulling the kid out of his normal daily routine while everything was still chaotic and his mother wasn’t sure what to do and where to go probably wouldn’t have been in his best interest.

So far so good, but, let’s consider why she left at all.

She realized that Claw was (or was turning into, there’s some timeline stuff that doesn’t add up for me) a terrorist organization, right? She realized they were using violence and breaking the law to reach their goals. She realized that Touichirou was acting increasingly distant and anti-social even long, long before she left.

There’s a scene where Touichirou remembers her taking in a stray cat while Shou was just a baby, kind of to try and coax a caring side out of him. She was already worried about it back then. I operate with the belief that Shou was 7 or 8 when his mother left, it’s debatable, but he was at the very very least 5 - so 5+ years where she most likely continued to try and continued to fail at setting Touichirou straight.

She knew he was emotionally distant and ruthless and uncaring about anything or anyone else than his idea of an esper society. Judging from that one omake where Shou dreams of his mother crying because he was using his powers, she clearly didn’t associate esper powers with anything good.

Touichirou was obsessed with his powers and he spoke about Shou like he was going to grow up and follow in his footsteps, take on the same belief that espers are superior to other people.

As a caring, non-esper mother, does that sound like a man you want to raise your child? Does that sound like a good path for an impressionable 5- to 8-year-old kid? It sure as hell doesn’t sound like one to me. Whether Shou loved and looked up to his dad is completely irrelevant. Of course he did! He couldn’t possibly know any better at that age.

From there on, it all comes down to speculation, because, again, we know so little about Shou’s mom. My personal belief is that she was so disgusted by Touichirou’s actions that it extended to Shou. She came to a point where all she could see in Shou was a mini-Touichirou, so she just… let go of him. I suppose she thought if there was no way to change Touichirou, then there wouldn’t be a way to prevent Shou from becoming like him either.

Maybe giving up on it all was a gradual thing, maybe it didn’t happen until after she left. I think leaving was a spontaneous and mildly selfish action. Staying gone was a not at all spontaneous and highly selfish action.

She put herself first and left Shou behind. It’s that plain and simple. Sure, you have to save yourself first before you can save anyone else, but again, there is nothing suggesting she was in danger and she was in a sound enough state of mind to stand her ground and have a big argument with Touichirou before she vanished. No matter how I look at it I can’t think of anything redeeming to say about it. She knowingly left her very young son behind with an emotionally absent, dangerous, bad, bad man. So, there.

The way Touichirou speaks about her, it sounds like he hasn’t talked to Shou’s mom at all since she left. He didn’t even have any idea Shou had been in contact with her.

Look at him, does that look like the face of someone who had even considered the possibility that Shou’s mom was reachable?

For that reason I don’t believe it was the mother’s initiative to search out Shou; Shou must have made that happen himself. How long have they been in contact? Who knows. Long enough for them talking to each other to become a “from time to time” thing - I’d say a year at the very least.

At least a year where she hasn’t figured out something is wrong, hasn’t tried to pull Shou away from the situation he’s put himself in? Of course, we don’t know that she hasn’t tried to do something, but it sure doesn’t sound like it.

I personally don’t think Shou let her know anything about what was going on, I think he lied to her the whole time, let his mom think everything was fine, because deep down beneath the whole tear-Claw-down-and-save-the-world hero spiel, what Shou’s really trying to do is bring his parents back together so they can be the normal, happy family he vaguely remembers they once were - or at least likes to believe they were.

But, lies or not, it’s hard to believe that there wouldn’t be any signs for Shou’s mom to pick up on the fact that something was very, very wrong. Shou says she always asks about Touichirou, but since Shou has apparently managed to keep it from her what his dad was working toward, her questions must have been very superficial.

That situation at the end of the WD arc is the hardest to wrap my head around. Shou and his mom talk on the phone, he visits her sometimes, but she apparently takes no stock of what Shou’s doing the rest of the time, does little to no mothering, asks about Touichirou but doesn’t take it any farther than that. All of it just gives me the feeling she’s still really reluctant to engage with Shou at all.

So why does she keep up with it? I suppose she’s stuck between regretting her actions and wanting to make things right, and still not knowing what to do with her son who, at least in some ways, must have drifted quite far away from how his mom attempted to raise him when he was little.

I don’t think Shou’s mom ever wanted him out of his life, but her need to cut Touichirou and Claw off is bigger than her desire to hold on to her son. I think that was true when she left and I still think it’s true at the end of the WD arc.

If I’m gonna be really mean about it, I’d say Shou came into the world as a bargaining chip for his mom to try and make Touichirou change and maybe she’s trying to distance herself from that ulterior motive, too, because man, that’s not very nice… Maybe Shou subconsciously picked up on that and that’s why he’s so hellbent on proving to her that he can make his dad see reason.

I’m sorry, this is all very awful, but Shou’s mom just hasn’t done anything to make me think she isn’t as messed up as the rest of the family. Does it make her a terrible person to purposely overlook Shou’s issues and put herself first? I don’t know, but it definitely makes her a lousy mom.

Anyway. mp100 is all about change and overcoming past mistakes, so for Shou’s sake, let’s hope that applies to his mom, too.

And of course, this is just my interpretation of the situation.

#mob psycho 100 #suzuki shou #suzuki touichirou #shou's mom #mp100 meta #replies #Anonymous

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overwatch-does-stuff · 6 years

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Overwatch Discusses Their Early Life

(Remember what I said about the selection screen update? Me neither. This will be in current selection screen order.)

Offense: Doomfist's early memories are mostly involve his parents; he grew up wealthy and in a large estate. He remembers learning how to fight with his father, training in the traditional martial arts of his homeland; and his mother, who instilled him with dignity and pride, as the son of a wealthy CEO. He had to betray his parents when he became the next Doomfist; he could not be limited by sentimental values. Still, he allows no one to know how much he misses them. Genji remembers Hanzo, first and foremost. His big brother was his idol. They were inseparable. They played together, learned together, and occasionally fought, but they always made up afterwards. Oh, how the times were simple then. McCree remembers a small homestead deep in the southwest of Arizona. He remembers a family, vaguely. His ma and pa are only blurry faces now, overshadowed by the flicker of flames. He was so small when the Omnics started pouring out of Mexico, overrunning the border within weeks. What happened after is blurrier still. Pharah's memories are of Overwatch. She remembers them all: Jack, Gabe, Reinhardt, Torbjorn, Mercy, and of course, her mother. They always smiled when she came into the room. She likes to think that they were always like that; smiling and happy, untouchable by the trauma of war. Pharah knows better now, having become a warrior herself. Reaper remembers nothing. Death does not have a place where it came from. However, in between blinks, he can see it clearly. A small home in the city, always smelling of cinnamon, and an old woman, kind, telling stories of the spirits that looked over this world. In a blink, it is gone. He remembers one thing clearly, however: a barn owl means death. He touches his mask. Death walks among you. Soldier 76 remembers the farm where he was born and raised. He remembers playing with his cousins in the fields, raking hay in the barn, caring for the animals that his family raised and weeding the garden when his mom asked him to. It was idyllic, but boring, at the time. He remembers wishing for something more. That's why he enlisted when the Crisis broke out. The rest, as they say, is history. Sombra knows nothing of a family; only of bouncing in and out of foster homes. Sometimes, if she was lucky and if she played her cards right, a family might keep her for more than a couple months. But no matter how much they said they liked her, they always handed her off sometime thereafter. She learned a lesson early on: trust no one, for they never really care. Tracer was born to a wealthy family in London. Her mother and father were both former RAF pilots that met and fell in love during active duty. She remembers traveling the world for her father's business trips, seeing many places that instilled her with a sense of wonder and curiosity. She also remembers learning how to pilot; her mother helping her learn the controls, and then finally allowing her to fly for the first time. She'll never forget that moment. Defense: If Bastion could speak, it would tell you of the peacefulness and beauty of the forest that it awoke in, and a small, yellow bird that built a nest on its shoulder. It would not tell you, however, of the sound of explosions, bullets whistling through the air, some finding their targets deep within metal or flesh; of fire and blood staining what was once grass beneath its feet. Hanzo remembers his father vaguely. The man was always busy with business somewhere. When he was home, however, he was soft and kind. Hanzo then remembers when Genji was born. His father became much harder on him. Responsibility was thrust upon him. He did not want it. He has never quite forgiven Genji for that. Junkrat knows very little about his past- it never seemed very important to him in the long run, and forgetting what was before made it easier to accept what he had now. All he remembers consciously is the big blow up, flashing across the sky in full glory, that irradiated the wasteland. That giant explosion was beautiful, extraordinary. It makes him sad that he'll never see an explosion of that caliber again. Mei was born and raised in China. Both her parents worked for the government, one a news reporter and the other a specialist in utilities. She grew up hearing news of increasing energy demands and failing coal plants. She also remembers her first visit to Beijing, for her parents' jobs. The city was choked with smoke and pollution, unlike anything she had ever seen before. Through all this, she was inspired to work for the bettering of the environment. Torbjorn remembers growing up in a middle-class family in Sweden. He loved designing things from a young age: from marshmallow cannons to footstools that would unfold for you when sent down (for his mother, who passed on her dwarfism to him,) their house was always alive with his inventions. He did not like school very much, however, for his classmates always harassed him for his height and his ideas. Home was where his heart was. Widowmaker remembers very little of Amelie, and what she does know is very impersonal. She grew up in Chateau Guillard, her ancestral home. She had a mother and a father. She liked to dance. In dreams, she remembers details; dancing in the garden, sunlight streaming down her face. The sound of clapping as she finished the routine. Smiles from two people that are otherwise shadows. After dreams like this, Amelie Widowmaker must report to reconditioning. Tank: D.va was born in Seoul, the capital of what was once South Korea. She remembers glancing out her window to see the big gray walls that protected the city from the Omnic that came from the sea. She remembers the drills that were held every month; evacuation orders, stay calm and orderly, proceed to the shelters. She played videogames to get her mind off of what could happen. The digital world was her escape, a chance to fight back against the monsters. When MEKA showed her she could do the same in real life, she jumped at the chance. Orisa remembers when she first woke up. Her optics onlined to first see her creator, Efi, and the first words that she heard were that of her name. She also remembers seeing her city, Numbani, for the first time. Everything was silver or gold, and the skyline sparkled just for her, or so it seemed. Immediately she knew her purpose was to protect it. She is still in her childhood, technically, only being one month old, but she is eager to grow beyond that stage. Reinhardt remembers being the oddball. He never quite fit in with his peers with his larger-than-life personality and his penchant for the pretend. He remembers playing Dungeons and Dragons with his family on the weekends for hours on end. In school, even though his grades were not the best, he was the star of the drama club and always tried too hard in PE. And from the very beginning, Reinhardt knew that he was destined for something more than a normal life. He wasn't wrong. Roadhog doesn't remember much at all. Whether it's the radiation, or perhaps the drugs he takes for it, he doesn't know. What he does remember are the Omnics. He lived right next to the Omnium when the Crisis started. He barely remembers someone distracting the robots, allowing him to escape into the wilds of the outback. He's been on his own ever since. Sometimes it helps not to try and remember. Winston could never forget Dr. Winston, the scientist of his namesake that practically raised him. When the Dr. showed him the Earth for the first time was a particularly impressionable moment. However, things on the Horizon Lunar Colony weren't all so wonderful. Vaguely, he remembers the tests where they would electrocute him when he got the answer wrong, or the painful shots that made him so nauseated afterwards that he couldn't eat for several days. He was lucky to have Dr. Winston, who helped regulate the tests on him. The other apes were not so lucky. Zarya does not remember the Omnic crisis; she was only a couple months old when the Omnics poured out of the Siberian Omnium. What she does remember is the aftermath. Her village was devastated, and from a young age she worked repair it. This required a lot of heavy lifting, and even though the adults told her she couldn't help, she did anyway. Nearly every building in her village now has been rebuilt by her hands. Support: Ana's parents were always in and out of the house. Both of them were soldiers in the Egyptian military and were in the reserve. Her father was a war hero in the army and her mother was in the air force. She grew up target shooting and learning self defense martial arts, the former being an activity she enjoyed immensely. Her parents encouraged her to join the military when she was of age. Looking back, she wishes that she had more of a choice in the matter. Brigitte remembers entering her papa'a workshop for the first time. All the machinery looked so amazing, and she was pointing to everything and asking how it all worked. Her and papa spent several hours in there, nearly missing dinner. She remembers her first welding creations; nothing could have looked uglier, but her mamma still hung it up on the wall anyway. And, of course, she remembers making jetpack cat. Poor kitty. Lucio remembers the close-knit community of the favela he grew up in. No one had much, so everything was shared. One person had an old MP3, and they would invite everyone that could come to listen to the music that was downloaded on it. He remembers those evenings quite fondly. Things only got better when he finally earned enough money to buy a music player of his own. With the basic programs on it, he started making his own music and sharing it with his family and friends. Music helped distract them from their harsh reality, if only for a little while. No one asks about Mercy's early life, not that there's much to share. Both of her parents died in the Crisis.. She was in and out of foster homes and she threw herself into schoolwork to take her mind of things. She excelled in her classes, skipping several grades and graduating from college at younger than she should have been. One of the only highlights of her youth was visiting the Swiss Overwatch base, where she met Torbjorn and they stayed fast friends. Moira does not like to think about her childhood. Her parents were absent and the other kids in her neighborhood were afraid of her. She loved to take apart things to learn how they worked, whether that be the vacuum cleaner or the neighbor's pet frog. Her destructive tendencies aggravated most adults to the point of giving up on her, and she struggled through grade school. She learned to be self-reliant. As a result, she will do anything to satisfy her curiosity. She looks upon this as a triumph, not a mistake. Symmetra remembers what her life used to be like before Vishkar gave her a better life. It was horrible. She was always hungry and dirty, and her bed was raggedy and itchy and uncomfortable to sleep on. She does not remember a mother or a father, only distant faces screaming. Vishkar told her that her parents did not deserve her, and for the most part, she agrees. The rest of her childhood was spent at Vishkar facilities, where she saw true order and harmony for the first time, and she was at peace. Zenyatta is happy to tell you about his early life if you ask, as most people are curious about where Omnics come from. He was made in an Omnium near Numbani, one of the few still allowed to operate after the Crisis. In the Omnium there is a school set up for the newly formed, run by both humans and Omnics, and he spent several years there before he left to gain his own experience in the world. From early on he sought to define what living was about, and he journeyed his way through Asia before meeting up with other Omnics that shared his same ideas. They would become the Shambali.

#overwatch #overwatch headcanons #overwatch heroes

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tipsycad147 · 5 years

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Warboys Witches

Warboys Witches : The story of the Throckmorton (also Throgmorton) children in Huntington, Essex, England, in 1589, is the first well-known case of allegedly possessed young people and the successful destruction of witches based on the evidence of minors (see possession).

Squire Robert Throckmorton of Warboys and his wife had five daughters: Joan, Elizabeth, Mary, Grace and Jane. As a wealthy landowner, Throckmorton supported many of his poorer neighbours, among them the Samuels. Alice Samuel and her daughter Agnes frequently visited the Throckmorton household and were well known to the girls.

In 1589 the youngest, Jane, began having sneezing fits and convulsions and fell into a trance. Her frightened parents consulted a Cambridge physician, Dr. Barrow, and a Dr. Butler. Looking only at Jane’s urIne, both doctors diagnosed bewitchment. When the 76-year-old Alice Samuel came to offer her sympathies, Jane cried out against her, accusing the old woman of witchcraft. Within two months, all the other sisters were suffering hysterical fits, and the eldest, Joan, predicted that there would eventually be 12 Demoniacs in the house. Sure enough, the maidservants fell victim to the spells; if any left Squire Throckmorton’s employ, their successors also became possessed. All pointed to Mrs. Samuel as the source of their torments.

Like other Demoniacs, the girls shrieked and contorted if the person attempted prayer or read from the Bible, especially the beginning of the Gospel of St. John. Such actions are generally accepted as the signs of true possession but may also have been a convenient way for the girls to avoid pious exercises. In the only account of the Throckmorton possession, probably written by the girls’ uncle, Gilbert Pickering, Elizabeth would throw fits to avoid religious lessons, only to come out of a tantrum if someone played cards with her, and to clench her teeth unless she ate outdoors at a particularly pretty pond.

Squire and Mrs. Throckmorton doubted the girls’ possession, since they had only lived in the area a short time and no one had any motive for bewitching the family. They ignored the girls’ accusations and tauntings of Mrs. Samuel.

In September 1590 the Throckmortons were visited by Lady Cromwell and her daughter-in-law. Lady Cromwell was the wife of Sir Henry Cromwell (grandfather of Sir Oliver Cromwell), the richest commoner in England. When she saw Mrs. Samuel, who was one of the Cromwell’s tenants, Lady Cromwell angrily ripped the old woman’s bonnet from her head, denounced her as a witch and ordered her hair burned. Horrified, Mrs. Samuel beseeched Lady Cromwell, “madame, why do you use me thus? I never did you any harm, as yet.”

Back home, Lady Cromwell experienced a terrible nightmare, in which she dreamed that Mrs. Samuel had sent her cat to rip the flesh from her body. Lady Cromwell never fully recovered; her health gradually declined, and she died a lingering death 15 months later, in July 1592.

By this time, the girls were afflicted, only when Mrs. Samuel was absent, not present. mrs. Samuel then was forced to live with the Throckmortons for several weeks in order to determine her effect on the children. Mrs. Samuel, her daughter Agnes and another suspected witch also were scratched by the girls, a custom similar to Pricking. The girls constantly exhorted Alice to confess her dealings with the Devil and delivered pious speeches that moved onlookers to tears. Giving in to the constant pressure, Alice confessed just before Christmas 1592.

Not too long after Christmas, however, Mr. Samuel and Agnes convinced Mrs. Samuel to recant, and she again claimed her innocence, only to reconfess before the bishop of Lincoln and a justice of the peace in Huntington on December 29. All three Samuels were jailed, although Agnes was released on bail to allow the girls to extract incriminating evidence from her through more scratchings. Mrs. Samuels confessed to having familiars, devils who were far inferior to the princes Beelzebub or Lucifer. She identified them as Pluck, Catch and White and the three cousins Smackes. The Demons often appeared as chickens.

The Samuels were not connected to the death of Lady Cromwell until the Throckmorton children accused Mrs. Samuel of bewitching her to death, thus placing her in jeopardy of capital punishment as a murderer under the Witchcraft Act of 1563.

The Samuels were tried on April 5, 1593, on charges of murdering Lady Cromwell by witchcraft. The court accepted the testimony of the Throckmorton girls, as well as several other persons who claimed that the Samuels had bewitched their livestock to death over the years. The jury took only five hours to convict all three.

Mrs. Samuel, Agnes and Mr. Samuel were hanged, and afterwards the Throckmorton girls returned to perfect health. Since Lady Cromwell had allegedly died due to the black offices of Alice Samuel, her husband, Sir Henry Cromwell, received all of the Samuels’ goods. He used the money to establish an annual sermon at Queens’ College, Cambridge, to “preache and invaye against the detestable practice, synne, and offence of witchcraft, inchantment, charm, and sorcereye.” The sermons lasted until 1812.

The Warboys case had a significant impact on public belief in witchcraft and the Evil Eye. The case was widely publicised, in part due to the impressionable judge, Edward Fenner, who, in collaboration with several others, produced a broadsheet, The Most Strange and Admirable Discoverie of the Three Witches of Warboys, published in 1593. The case also left an impact on the governing class. The Cromwells served in the Parliament of James I, who gained the throne in 1603. In response to public pressure for more stringent actions against witches, the Parliament passed a new Witchcraft Act in 1604, which stiffened punishment for some witchcraft offences.