#after all the emphasis being put on how her remembering him will causes Serious Damage

[smutandfluffohmy]

Parchment and Ink [P.W.]

From: Smutandfluffohmy Pairings: Percy Weasley x Slytherin!OC (Elladora Elphick) Summary: Rival house prefects are too similar to get along. Even after graduation they can’t put their rivalry aside. Life and faith keeps pushing them together much to their dismay. Enemies to friends to lovers slowburn fic.

“You’re going to have to kill Filch and hide his body in the forbidden forest.” Fred said leaning down to talk to the three second years who stood there looking up at him terrified. 

“Don’t you think that’s a bit too far?” Harry said as he was always unsure whether or not when the twins were serious or not.

George smiled and clasped his hand on his brother’s back, looking down at the younger Gryffindors “We thought you might say that so we came up with a second plan.” He said with a smile.

“You’re going to set off these stink bombs in front of Flitwick’s class-” Fred said looking for the stink bombs inside his robes.

George said finishing Fred’s sentence  “-It will buy us enough time for Flich to leave his office and get our things back.”

“And Neville’s remebrall.” Harry added on, which admittedly was the only reason the three if them have agreed to do this as they owed Neville a favor. Neville would never actually say that they owed him one but it seemed appropriate.

“And Neville’s remebrall.” George added on with a smile.

“What’s in it for us?” Ron said looking up at his older brothers, years of growing up in the same house had taught him that if you start doing things for them to be nice it will never stop.

Hermione huffed between Harry and Ron, shaking her head making her frizzy hair to bounce around her “More importantly what if we get caught and expelled.” She said adding emphasis on the word ‘expelled’. 

“You don’t.” George said smiling at Ron and patting Hermione’s head.

“And you won’t. Here hold out your hands.” Fred said holding three stink bombs in his hand and urging the three second years to hold out their hands. 

Harry, Ron and Hermione held the stink bombs carefully in their hands inside their robes because as Ron so kindly pointed out “Fred and George would set us on fire if it meant them getting their joke to play out.” 

Their shoes echoed through the hallways, the only noise was coming from classrooms. Every shadow caused them to jump in fear that they were going to get caught with stink bombs in their robes. Every corner they turned made their hearts pound in anticipation that someone was going to be waiting for them on the other side.

“Okay are you guys ready?” Harry asked Hermione and Ron who held their stink bombs carefully in their hands. 

A cough from behind them disrupted their plan causing the three of you to freeze up “Skipping class?” The voice said, they dreaded the thought of turning around but they turned slowly, a sixth year Slytherin prefect girl,Elladora Elphick,  stood in front of them with her arms crossed over her chest.“Gryffindors of course. Come with me I’m taking you to the head of your house. Names?” She asked waving at them to follow her.

 “Of course I don’t need yours Harry Potter.” She said turning to look at him with a cold stare.

“Hermione Granger.”

“Ron Weasley.”

The three of them looked more and more miserable the closer they got to McGonagall’s office. When they reached her office they chose to stare at their shoes instead of looking up at the clearly disappointed Professor. The Slytherin Prefect told McGonagall what had happened and in the entire time she nodded and looked at Hermione, Ron and Harry through her glasses. When she finished Professor McGonagall turned her attention to the three second years standing timidly before her.

“Do you have anything to say for yourselves? Miss. Granger?” McGonagall said tilting her head at them slightly at them. Hermione’s face are hot at suddenly being singled out.

Hermione cleared her throat, tugging at the front of her robes feeling the stink bomb weighing it down significantly. “Well Professor we were looking for scabbers and I’m afraid we lost track of time.” Hermione said looking up at Professor McGonagall who had her hands interlocked in front of her.

“We didn’t want him to get eaten by Dean Thomas’s cat” Harry said stepping closer to Hermione nodding his head.

“We were walking to professors Lockhart’s class I swear it.” Ron nodded along to their fake story, knowing that detention with Snape and the discovery of their stink bombs would be worse than the Slytherin prefect.

Furrowing her eyebrows Elladora cleared her throat and her boring and unpleasant voice filled the room “With all due respect Professor they were walking in a completely different direction from Professor Lockhart’s classroom”

“Well Miss. Elphick you can’t expect them to apparate to their class.” McGonagall said raising an eyebrow at her, prompting her to try to argue with her.

“No of course not Professor.” Elladora said flatly giving her a small nod, knowing there was no winning in this.

McGonagall straightened herself up a bit turning from Ron, Hermione and Harry to the rather cross Elladora “Please escort them back to their class” She said turning to sit at her desk.

“Of course.” Elladora said motioning for the three of them to walk out of the office. Angrily leading the three of them to their class in silence became increasingly harder as her temper, damaged ego and the knowledge that they’ve been lying was slowly getting the better of her.

The slapping of their shoes against the school’s floor was a noise she didn’t notice before but it was becoming increasingly louder. Just as she thought that she couldn’t hold her bitterness any longer and decided that of their so much breathed too loudly she would snap.

A familiar ginger crossed the corner in front of them, she smiled to herself knowing how much this would irk him before calling out to him.

“Weasley I believe these belong to you.” Elladora said motioning to the three second years who couldn’t believe their bad luck of running into him. Percy walked towards them with a straight face leaving the trio to not know what awaited them once Elladora left.

“Maybe be a bit more competent at your job, the other prefects are tired of cleaning up after your family. Hilliard and  Truman as still scrapping vomit off their hair from Fred and George's prank.” She said giving him a tightlipped smile, looking him over before scoffing at him.

“Elphick as charming as always.” Percy sighed smoothing out the front of his sweater, looking from her to Ron who was gawking at the both of them.

Elladora snickered dryly “Thanks. If anyone knows anything about being charming it’s you.” she said before turning away and walking away from them, she stopped in her tracks “Oh and Weasley if you find yourself competent enough make sure those three actually go to their class.” she said before turning the corner away from them.

Once she was out of sight Ron huffed “Blimey she’s cold.” He said scrunching his nose in her direction.

Percy looked at the three of them in disappointment “Fred and George already embarrass me enough I expect you three to stay out of trouble.” He said to them.

“Oi what’s the hold up?” Fred yelled from down the hall with George close in tow.

“I should’ve known you two were behind this.” Percy said plaining and rather unsurprised as George and Fred made their way towards them.

All hopes of having a peaceful last two years disappeared as Hermione held out a stink bomb towards George.

“The scary Slytherin Prefect caught us right outside of Flitwick’s class.” Ron huffed looking up at his brothers that earned him a scolding.

“The pretty one?” George said wiggling his eyebrows at them with a big grin.

“The one with the crooked nose?” Fred said scrunching his own nose at them, figuring that she was rather bland and plain that her nose was the only defining feature.

Harry furrowed his eyebrows looking up at the two of them “I don’t know we were too busy getting yelled at to look at the state of her nose.” he said to them.

“Her name is Elladora Elphick, she’s brilliant but stuck up.” Percy said shaking his head, wanting to say many negative things but afraid someone might over hear and think less of him.

Fred laughed “If you think she’s a pompous jerk she must be really bad.” He said with a big grin unable to even process that there was someone that could out snob Perfect Prefect Percy.

Narrowing his eyes at them Percy pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose “I never said that.” he said, not denying that what they said was false or not just that he did not say that.

Hermione perked finally remembering where she has heard her name before “I heard she’s tutoring Malfoy and that’s why his scores in potions are so high.” She said rather matter of factly.

Ron scoffed at that “I knew that git was too dumb to pass Snape’s class on his own.” he said rolling his eyes and shaking his head at the thought that Malfoy would need a tutor.

“You five have to get to class. Hurry you’re holding up my prefect duties.” Percy said dismissing their comments, not wanting anyone to walk by and see the six of them lottering around out of class.

“Didn’t know wanting to snog the Slytherin prefect was part of prefect duties!” Fred said laughing walking away from his red face brother.

“I’ll take points off Gryffindor!” Percy called out not only angry that they would disrespect their prefect like that but think that he hated himself enough to want to ever be voluntarily close to Elphick.

“We’re in the same house you nonce!” George called out to him as he pushed Hermione and Harry to run faster as he could already see Percy’s forehead vein starting to pop up on his forehead.

[blushing-titan]

Eren as a father and Ymir as a mother motives theory never made sense. They were represented as emotionally stunned children in paths doing the Rumbling, not as adults. Ymir never cared about her children, she doomed them to suffer after her VERY SHITTY AND SELFISH CHOICE TO DIE because her abuser didn't return her "love". That was clear before Eren revealed it. She saved him and abandoned her children. She never gave a single fuck about them. She was always looking at HIM. (1)

For his part, Eren reverted to a child, talked about the sights with Armin which foreshadowed his motivation was mixed with his mental fuckery and timeless perspective. Dina and bird twist were foreshadowed via memory shards earlier. Krueger went on a rant about protecting Armin and Mikasa (and the "others") to Grisha. We've always known who Eren prioritized above all. Last chapter offered no twists, only confirmations. The story was always about EMA, Historia never had a place in the climax.

Hi! Thank you very much for writing 😀 I put my reply under the cut, so people who scroll down while searching tags don’t have problems with my long post (...because I feel like, unfortunetely, it’s gonna be another stream of conciousness from me, sorry about that 😅)

I really like your take on the "emotionally stunned children in paths" imaginery - I fully agree that it's a nicely-done symbolism!

To me, the whole Ymir sacrificed herself because of her unrequited love was not at all as clear and obvious as you say - especially before Eren revealed it. I still have a lot of problems with this plot twist, and how Ymir's feelings towards Fritz were portrayed in the end.

With the amount of abuse and mistreatment the king put her through, many fans tried to come up with different theories as to why Ymir kept on serving him. The way I interpreted it, after seeing her tortured expression over and over in many panels, was that she stayed by his side because of fear and emotional damages. With the way she was living, I was not surprised that she sacrificed herself, too - I thought that she honestly had enough, which added to the tradgedy of how she still couldn't find peace after that, and kept on being enslaved in paths.

I saw many takes and theories on her motives, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone betting on she was actually in love before ch. 139. I probably didn't search good enough, but again - with what I saw in the manga, I would have never bet on that either. My point is - before ch. 139 (...and after it too, in my opinion) Ymir was a walking mystery with unclear motives, so there were a lot of theories. Therefore, I disagree that the "parents" theory could never work - it obviously doesn’t work now, after ch. 139, but before that, her motivation could be anything really. I still wish it was something else, because what we got was too vague and problematic, in my opinion. 

I simply dislike Ymir's conclusion. I feel like there was so much potential in her backstory and motives + a few different ways to tie it back with different plotpoints and characters in the end to make it more meaningful, but what we got was a brief: She was in love with the person who abused her, I know it sounds unbelievable but I couldn't look deeper into her heart, so we have to take it as it is.

In general - I can't brush it off, but to me it feels like Ymir's end goal was rushed, not explored properly, and almost pulled out of nowhere. Unfortunately, I feel the same about Mikasa's involvement in lifting the titan's curse. Don't get me wrong - I'm not at all against her becoming the hero. Quite the opposite, I was rooting for her since the beginning, and hoped to see her develop and have a big moment, but this...this honestly also felt pulled out of nowhere and, in my eyes, didn't do Mikasa justice at all. I wish there was more proper build-up and foreshadowing done so I (...and, from what I've seen, a huge portion of fans) wouldn't feel that way, but here we are.

As for the Eren/Armin conversation, I like how they got to "see" the world together, even though just as a visualisation in the paths. My problem is the [...] Eren reverted to a child, talked about the sights with Armin which foreshadowed his motivation was mixed with his mental fuckery and timeless perspective part. Again, this should have been forshadowed (...and developed in general!) much sooner - not in the final chapter, right before we learn about this controversial motivation of his.

Instead, for many chapters, we were lead to believe that Eren was acting with his original goals and personal motivations in mind; that he had some character developement which caused him to start thinking his actions through, stop acting so impulsively - and finally, that he had a plan in mind, or at least was acting out of his own free will.

If you've never seen him in this light and his motivation/behaviour seemed in character in the last chapter to you - that's fine, all power to you! But if such a big portion of the fanbase felt otherwise (me included), then it means that there were some writing issues that led to this.

The Dina situation should have been explored more, as well. It's a huuuge plot twist, which puts our MC's motovations in an entirely new light, and creates quite a few additional plot-related questions. The way we're shown the situation: Berthold couldn't die just yet, so Eren directed Dina somewhere else, which ended up being his house.

...why not anywhere else? He could literally send her back outside the wall. On top of that - did he seriously sacrifice his mother in favour of his friends? I'd really like more information on this, but the topic is cut basically as soon as it appears. I find it especially unnatural, considering the way further dialogue goes:

Eren tells Armin about how he caused his mother's demise. Armin makes a terrified face, but drops the topic, smiles and casually proceeds with: "Let's go, Eren" - like his friend didn't just reveal one of the most controversial plot twist in the series. No, who'd want to hear an elaboration on that - better talk about Mikasa, so instead we get the entire (in my eyes - really forced) Eremika-themed talk. The priorities...

About the bird thing...if I remember correctly, there were three shards revolving around this theme. Two of them just show birds flying, one of them shows Falco from bird’s perpective. Sure, now that we know that some random bird in the end pecked on Mikasa's scarf, we can kiiiiiind of connect it to the Falco's shard...but honestly, why was Eren's soul transferred into some random bird after his death? On top of that, a bird that was already existing in the world while he was still alive, as a human...did that bird’s conciousness just go poof! one day, for Eren to take the vacant spot? Should we also look for other deceased titan shifters in barns or birdhouses? 😅 I can’t believe I’m overthinking it this hard...😆

That's some three-eyed-parasitic-jeager stuff, for sure.

Jokes aside, I guess what I'm trying to say is that foreshadowing is fun and great, but it should go hand in hand with proper developement - and, in my opinion, the examples above kinda lack it (...ok, I'd let the "bird Eren" thing slide because whatever, I don't feel the need to be that serious about it, it could stay ambigous in my opinion - but I'd definitely want some more closure as for the Dina situation or Ymir’s motivations and inner thoughts)

I've always said that Armin and Mikasa were two of Eren's closest friends - or, even more, the only people he considered family. I've also never believed that he would ever willingly sacrifice them, as some people theorized (...though guess what, now that I know what happened to his mother, I have to rethink my reasoning). I understand that EMA are the main characters, and was expecting that the story's conclusion will be tied to them somehow, but definitely not at the expense of logical character and story developement (...and sorry - to me the ending just felt that way).

As for Historia: if she was never supposed to be important in the end, then, in my eyes, it's a very poorly guided plotline that only led to unecessary drama in the fanbase. Why make her situation look sus with things such us:

Incorrect conception date,

The emphasis on how she didn't marry the father of her baby (...only to reveal in ch. 139 that she, in fact, did that),

The mysterious, cloaked figure observing her talking to the farmer,

The whole talk with Eren in ch. 130, and Eren thinking back to it while talking with Zeke.

All the Historia/Ymir parallels.

Seriously, what was the point? It would be so easy to simply make the situation clear. Why not just make Historia admit to Eren in ch. 131: "yes, I'm already pregnant with the farmer's baby - I did it to save myself."? Why not cut the bs with the "she didn't marry him" - because, in all honesty, what did that information bring into the story, aside from confusion and "misunderstanding" - and just make them married, instead? Even better - why not have at least one panel showing Historia and farmer being at least somehow affectionate with each other? Why not let go of all this retconned stuff and use these panels for shelling out other plotpoints?

The theories didn't come out of nowhere - they were based on what was shown in the manga. People wouldn't be disappointed with Historia's conclusion if it was never implied that she was still somehow important. We may argue about it back and forth, but the truth is - when so many people collectively "misunderstand" a certain plotline to this extent, then it means there had to be some storytelling issues that led them to this - simple as that.

To sum it up, I'm happy that you enjoyed the chapter and found it logical and satisfying. I absolutely don't want to take that away from you, or make you change your mind, but I also can't help the fact that I don't see it in the same light as you. You say that the final chapter offered no twists, only confirmations - to me, it was pretty much the opposite. Still, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to write your thoughts, and sorry it took me so long to reply! Hope you're having a nice day 😄

[untitledtallgeesepodcast]

[TRANSCRIPT] EPISODE 10: DESTABILIZING THE MECHA-WIFE DICHOTOMY

Cathy 00:00

[midi version of Just Wild Beat Communication plays, fading as Cathy speaks over it]

Cathy 00:03

Hello and welcome to another episode of Untitled Tallgeese Podcast. I am this episode's host Cathy and I am joined by my lovely co-panelists Kat, Mallory, and Caitlin. Today we will be going over Episode 19, "Attack on Barge" and Episode 20, "Infiltration of the Moonbase." We pick up where we ended with Zechs, who has been found by Howard, whom you may remember as Duo's scrap metal salvager. It turns out that Howard used to be one of the engineers who helped design Tallgeese. Howard offers Zechs a way back into outer space, which Zechs eventually accepts, but not without first posturing in classic 19 year old fashion that the man formerly known as Zechs Merquis is now dead.

Cathy 00:44

Meanwhile, Duo stages an attack on OZ, but his Gundam is beaten by the Taurus mobile dolls, and he himself is captured when his self destruct mechanism doesn't work. His arrest is broadcasted everywhere on the Colony News Network, capturing the attention of Heero, who menacingly implies that all weaknesses must be eliminated. After infiltrating the OZ base where Duo is captured, however, and faced with actually needing to pull the trigger, Heero thinks better of it and breaks them both out by tricking the mobile dolls into believing the OZ's own Leos and spacesuits are the enemies. However, Heero and Duo are sadly forced to leave the damage Deathscythe behind.

Cathy 01:20

Elsewhere, Wufei stages the episodes titular attack on the Barge. He just so happens to intersect with Lady Une, who, in her peaceful ambassador persona, has an elaborate telepathic conversation with Wufei and her second command Nichols about how Outer Space should be reserved for peace. Nichols, frustrated and confused about Une's dueling personas, orders the Barge's beam cannon to shoot at Wufei. It manages the damage Shenlong Gundam marginally, but sacrifices a number of OZ's own soldiers in the process. Wufei, disgusted, uses his triton to light a literal fire under his own ass and flies off.

Cathy 01:55

In the next episode, Heero explains that he must kill the Gundam scientists, who under the thumb of OZ have been ordered to make all new and better mobile suits, the Mercurius and Vayeate. Duo wants to go with him, but injured is forced to remain behind. Speaking of injured Gundams and their pilots, on Earth, Sally Po tries to destroy Sandrock but encounters the Maganac forces who are trying to rescue it for Quatre. After realizing they should form a support group, and that the Maganacs actually have names, Sally Po helps them escape.

Cathy 02:22

OZ has been very busy. For one thing Lady Une submits a proposal for the colonies to form their own nation with one catch: they have to help OZ produce mobile suits and military equipment. Understandably, the colony representatives are wary of this proposition. But Lady Une goes full Treize on them, talking about how fighting is part of the spirit and beauty of mankind. At the same time, OZ has been trying to recruit random amateurs to act as test pilots, only one of those amateurs turns out to be none other than Trowa. As his final test. he's ordered to destroy a damaged site while Duo helplessly watches a broadcast. Because Trowa makes it to the final rounds, he wins a meeting with Lady Une. His barbed accusations that OZ is pretending to be friends with the colonies in order to win them over causes Une to have a mental breakdown. After she recovers, Une escorts Trowa and four other lucky pilots to the Gundam scientists where they meet the new mobile suits, the Veyeate is not actually functional. It reacts seemingly to the presence of Trowa, only to reveal that it's Heero clear snuck aboard. Unfortunately for Heero, Trowa manages flip through the air and get to his own gun faster, arresting Heero on behalf of OZ. And scene.

Caitlin 03:33

Can I just say, that, remember being 19 and thinking, [dramatically] "my former self is dead!" [laughter] and then totally, totally reinventing your look and your life for college. I think that's Zechs in these episodes. [laughter]

Mallory 03:53

Zacks is going away to college

Kat 03:54

To space college!

Caitlin 03:55

You've broken the mask of your like, high school nerdiness and now you're [laughter]

Mallory 04:02

now you're free faced and hot.

Caitlin 04:04

To be you sexy self, yes.

Cathy 04:07

I didn't think of it that way but that is totally true. And Zechs, he plays a surprisingly marginal role in these first, in these two episodes, which is kind of surprising because he'd been really important in the episodes leading up until now. And I didn't really process that until now, where you point out that literally the only thing he does in these two episodes is act like an emo fool and then flies off. [laughter]

Caitlin 04:31

Well he's dead. So he's,

Mallory 04:32

Yeah.

Caitlin 04:33

He's like, in exile because he's dead right now. [laughs] He's, he's like resting.

Mallory 04:38

Yeah, he's like symbolically killed himself.

Kat 04:40

Yeah, and complaining about getting help from Howard. Like, "Ugh, this is so much trouble to just get me to space."

Caitlin 04:46

This is like Genji in the Tale of Genji when he sent off to like, it, be punished in exile for a couple of months, [laughter] whatever. And all he does is like hang out by the seaside and like make a new girlfriend. [laguhter] This is Zechs right now. How, Howard is the girlfriend? [garbled] Serious, Genji in Exile.

Kat 05:07

I'm glad you're bringing this serious analysis here.

Caitlin 05:10

Yeah, this is, this is literature.

Cathy 05:11

I love it. And I'm glad we somehow managed to shovel in Tale of Genji into this because [laughter]

Caitlin 05:16

Uh, this will not be the last time we talked about Tale of Genji, all right?

Cathy 05:20

So, you know, I have to apologize, I know that I am supposed to be host and I've admitted that I don't really have any deep thoughts about episodes 19 and 20 other than I love them, and they're really entertaining. So I guess I'm gonna throw Kat under the bus, one of the things you wanted to talk about is the OZ use of propaganda and kind of information control in these two episodes.

Kat 05:44

Yeah, so we've spent a lot of time as a podcast talking about Lady Une, and the different roles that she takes on. And it's really interesting to see her utilizing the broadcast television that they have going on in the colonies. I'm not sure if it's clear if that's getting broadcast to Earth or not, but she's definitely using it to control the flow of information to the colonists, including when they captured Duo -- deciding whether or not maybe jokingly, to execute him publicly, whether or not he's, he's pretty enough or ugly enough that the colonists would sympathize with him if he was ugly.

Caitlin 06:20

And unfortunately, he's extremely good looking.

Kat 06:23

He's too beautiful, so he must die. And I think it's kind of the culmination of all the control that she's had over their media streams leading up to this episode.

Mallory 06:34

And you also see, like you hear the spin in the broadcasters and what they're saying, which is really interesting, like, they're always like, "these young troopers are vying for a spot with OZ!" You know, like there's a, there's a celebratory kind of tone to all of the newscasts that we are seeing and hearing

Kat 06:55

And we get a lot of plot exposition in those news broadcasts of these episodes, I think a little more, like we've gotten clips and stuff, or they just want to explain something. But I think it kind of leads the plot in these episodes in a way that it doesn't quite do elsewhere.

Caitlin 07:11

One of the things that I think is really interesting about the use of propaganda here is that it comes along with the realization of the split in Lady Une's personality and I think that there is a way in which you can view her split personality as mirroring, or like metaphorically performing the split between OZ's reality and OZ's performance, right? OZ's propaganda image. To a certain extent, it's like she's become like the physical and mental manifestation of the doublethink required to be both the front-facing OZ image of a peaceful colony helper, trying to bring everybody together. And the cutthroat OZ that we know is the reality.

Mallory 07:54

Exactly. She's a hamfisted metaphor for like the cognitive dissonance at the heart of Oz. You know, like this focus and emphasis on niceties and gentility and grace and saving face versus the cutthroat merciless militaristic takeover that OZ and the Romefeller Foundation are actually carrying out. It's like sort of her mental break at this point -- is it signaling a split between these two factions? Like Treize seems like he's at odds with the Romefeller Foundation in some way.

Cathy 08:28

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, at one point in Episode 20, right, when she goes back into her room after she talks to Trowa, she says, something like, "Am I doing this for OZ? Or am I doing this for Treize?" [crosstalk]

Mallory 08:37

Yeah, "Or is my master Treize?"

Caitlin 08:39

I thought, I thought that was very interesting. It also reflects the parts of her that are... So like, her considering, "Do I work for OZ? Or do I work for Treize?" is also, "Aam I doing this work as the harsh and cutthroat colonel?" versus "Am I doing this work as the kind and gentle Lady?" Where like, one of them is the person who works for OZ, and one of them is the person who loves Treize and is just doing this out of duty and affection for him.

Kat 09:09

The episodes are so blatant, and kind of the colony-facing version of her is weaker, like she's stronger in uniform, and it's sort of like this weaker facade that they are putting on to the colonies? But also it's working, so I guess it's a testament to how intensely she's making herself believe in this persona slash, she has to put her entire belief into it for it to work.

Mallory 09:34

For her.

Kat 09:35

For her.

Mallory 09:35

Right, because it's been established that like, part of her character is that she can't, she's a bad liar. So it's almost like she has to make herself believe that what she's doing is good?

Kat 09:46

Yeah.

09:46

In order to promote this soft face OZ

Caitlin 09:50

It's what politicians do, we see it all the time.

Cathy 09:53

To me a really interesting part of this, and I don't think it's explicit. I think this is just me projecting on it, but there seems to be to me like a hollowness or an emptiness about what OZ actually stands for other than wanting power. We just have Treize, right? Like Treize is the entire idealistic "heart" of OZ. And when you remove that from the equation, it's kind of like, what are we even all doing? Like how does, how do any of the powers differ from each other? They really don't. [laughs] They just want power. And so I really find this interesting, trying to grapple with like, what power means or what, what anything stands for, what do ideals mean? and seeing Lady Une like, break down, actually, physically and mentally in a way that was really obvious, felt really like relieving to me, just to be like, that is the thing we all struggle with. And I think, surprisingly, Gundam Wing made a really potent and relevant comment about it. Like, it is just hard to understand what any of us are fighting for, when it comes to big power structures. It doesn't mean anything. We're all meaningless in it.

Mallory 10:57

Yeah especially when, like, the lines that you are being fed by those powers are like vague things about the heart of OZ. And what does that even mean? Like you can't base a belief system on like this vague concept.

Kat 11:12

It's hard to base like a whole governmental structure around the nobility of man's fighting spirit?

Caitlin 11:17

But also that is, this is fascism,

Mallory & Kat & Cathy 11:20

[crosstalk of agreement]

Caitlin 11:20

that you have. It's purely a lust for power. There's, there's a creation of a set of ideals, that -- those ideals only exist to keep people in the existing power structure, and replacing any sort of actual belief with a fixation on one central leader, as Treize has done. It's fascism. It's what we're seeing today, basically. [muttered] Sorry, not not to get political at our Gundam Wing,

Cathy 11:46

Not to get political in our, in our podcast about an anime that is about politics.

Kat 11:50

Well, I was gonna say, I think as a kid, when I watched this, I think I was a little more sympathetic, but in a more simplistic way about Lady Une? And to me, it felt very much like, she suddenly saw that peace could be achieved and realized that her true self was fighting against it and couldn't handle that dichotomy. But now that I know that every politician can just live with 1000 pounds of cognitive dissonance in their head at all times, I don't know if that's really a thing that's going on, like if that was a naive reading of it.

Caitlin 12:23

Yeah, if you, if you recall, from our argument last time, about like, is she, has she already sort of lost herself at that point? Or is she in the process of losing herself, we were sort of, we were sort of split on whether this was an active choice that she'd made, if it was like a deliberate choice to sort of split this part of herself off, or if it just sort of ruptured by mental break. And I think now we sort of see the transition. Whereas like, last, the last few episodes that are lead up to this, I was like, okay, she's deliberately creating this persona, because she knows that she's not really good at this stuff.

Kat 13:00

Right.

Caitlin 13:01

So she's created this other other person. Now she's now she's broken,

Mallory 13:06

It was sort of the ease with which she could do that was a foreshadowing of the cognitive dissonance that would then come back to haunt her, and that we're seeing her sort of pay for now.

Kat 13:18

She seems so assured of herself and like the Lady Une militaristic persona, even though she doubts herself when Treize chastises her, but that's the only time she's not like, do these fucking plans, like I'm telling you to do it, now. And for her to be so unsure of herself in the other persona is really interesting.

Caitlin 13:38

I'm actually kind of sick of her. I feel like this is kind of a hackneyed plot move

Mallory 13:42

Mhmm

Caitlin 13:42

on their part. I don't really buy like split personality as a trope.

Cathy 13:47

Let's move on, let's move on then. Caitlin is sick of her crap. Let us move on to our second point: mobile dolls. So I think there's a lot of really interesting themes in these two episodes about what it means to be a pilot and kind of human intelligence versus robot intelligence. You know, we see this both in the way Heero escapes from the base with Duo. And then also in Episode 20, when we reunite with the Gundam scientists, and their whole point is essentially like, it doesn't matter who's who in the mobile suits. It just matters who the pilot is.

Caitlin 14:21

Yeah, there's a really great moment where the mobile dolls very stupidly kill their own people because they're in the same suit that Heero was wearing. Yeah, they've had their targets switched around, which demonstrates that the mobile dolls are not a great solution to the problems [laughs] of war? I like that, though it's sad that they killed their own guys.

Mallory 14:44

Yeah, I mean, it's like a real surprise that an unmanned machine could be manipulated, you know, hacked.

Kat 14:50

Weird.

Mallory 14:51

Strange.

Cathy 14:52

Totally weird.

Mallory 14:53

Who could have predicted that?

Caitlin 14:55

AI did not solve all of our problems.

Kat 14:57

I like how pissed Nichols -- or possibly not Nichols -- is though when Trowa goes, "it doesn't matter which one is better because the better pilot will win" or whatever. And the OZ soldier flips out because I guess he's bought totally into this too. And they did take down at least one Gundam pilot with the mobile dolls. So like, how dare he even question the idea behind the mobile dolls, even though they brought him in literally to be a good pilot.

Caitlin 15:28

And then you have the whole thing where Heero's in the suit that's supposed to be non functional so it seems like it functions and then Heero -- it's actually Heero, that whole thing. I was sort of thinking of our other big contemporary mobile suit in the room, Evangelion.

Cathy 15:44

Oh god [laughs]

Caitlin 15:45

The, the machine is actually a part of them and it's not really about like pilot skill. It's about sort of a connection that is like, primal and animal. Whereas in Gundam Wing you have a connection with between the pilots and their suits? We sort of see this when Duo flips out about that's like being publicly executed.

Caitlin 15:45

Which came out the same year. The whole, the whole like, thing is that this terrible idea of children piloting a mobile suit only really works if the mobile suit is some sort of like biological and psychological projection of themselves slash their mother.

Cathy 16:04

Yes.

Caitlin 16:07

And with Quatre and the Maganacs, who are like we have to rescue Quatre's Gundam.

Mallory 16:29

Yeah.

Caitlin 16:29

Yeah. But that isn't like, the same thing as a mobile suit can function without the pilot or a mobile suit is something that needs, is an animal that needs control, like an Evangelion.

Cathy 16:39

Although it's interesting because I think in the last four episodes, we have seen examples of this. So for instance, Sandrock, of course, just kind of walks off right without Quatre.

Caitlin 16:51

And he's like, get out of me.

Kat 16:52

Yeah [laughs]

Cathy 16:53

It was kind of like a weird open question as to whether or not Deathscythe, like didn't want to blow up with Duo in it? or if there was actually a failed self destruct mechanism. And they leave that kind of open. Similarily, and I know I called this out in my background when I was summarizing this, I love the way the end of Episode 20 is set up because there is this moment where I was almost wondering if my memories of this episode were incorrect, and that Mercurius and Veyeate really just sort of light up because Trowa is there, right? Like I was just like, oh, are they responding to Trowa? But then it turns out, it's because Heero is there. So there are all these little moments where they're kind of like building in this doubt, like, what are the Gundams? What are mobile suits? How tied, like what is that symbiosis. And I think it is really interesting that it comes out at the same time where Eva kind of like definitively falls one way or another on it, that they kind of just leave that open.

Kat 17:48

Bringing in Tallgeese, this episode too, like Zechs shows up just so we can hear again about Tallgeese and I think his relationship with that mobile suit is very much about his synchronisation with it. Like, it's harder to pilot than all the other ones so they continually talk about how like, you'd have to be a human or like, it gave him a frickin heart attack, because it's so difficult to pilot kind of thing.

Caitlin 18:12

So it does sort of reflect our relationship with machines in real life. I think a lot where you're like, Yes, I am, I am the driver of this car. I don't think this car is able to make its own decisions. I think most of us can agree that AI cars are kind of stupid, the self driving cars.

Kat 18:29

Yeah, thus far.

Mallory 18:31

I mean, I really want one but

Caitlin 18:33

When you think about people's relationship to their cars,

Cathy 18:36

Mmhmm.

Caitlin 18:36

It's an extension of self. And you get people who are who are obsessed with cars, who name their cars who refer to them by female pronouns. You have these really intense relationships with technology that the show plays with a lot even while saying, verbally, It's the pilot that matters, not the machine.

Cathy 18:55

So before we leave Mercurius and Veyeate, I want to say I actually found that really interesting and much more interesting when I saw them this time as I'm older. You know, they're red and blue. So I just want to like put that plug in, you know, there's a very kind of symbiotic relationship between red and blue.

Caitlin 19:12

[gasp]

Cathy 19:13

Just generally

Caitlin 19:13

I ship red/blue. All of my ships are reds and blues. Oh my god!

Cathy 19:18

Like they're, you know, there's a, there's a general kind of fandom-y trope and work trope, literary trope about red and blue. Heero ends up popping out of, I think it's Veyeate, who is the blue one, and the blue one is the one with the really great beam cannon. And then the red one, Mercurius has the shield. So I mean, the one interesting thought I had, like literally the only one thought [laughs] that I in these two episodes is that there's a great Chinese idiom called zìxīang máodùn" (自相矛盾). And máodùn is the Chinese term for sort of being self-contradictory and kind of like unable to go anywhere because you're kind of tying yourself up in knots. And that word in that phrase [Baldwin] actually comes from two separate words [mall], which is a spear or a lance and [twin] which is a shield. And it comes from a really classic story [Ed.'s note: from the Han Feizi] where this merchant is saying he has, you know, the world's best lance and then the world's best shield. And then somebody asked him, "Well, what happens if your lance attacks your shield" and he's unable to answer? [laughter] And so when we say "máodùn" like "oh my god, I'm so máodùn" like, "Oh my god, I'm so you know, I'm tied up in myself in knots, and I can't figure my way out," you know, I'm really confused, I'm really troubled, what we're really saying is, we have an unbreakable shield that goes up against an unstoppable lance.

Cathy 19:37

So I thought, you know, here, there's this moment where it's like, very much implied, they don't make a big deal out of it, but you have Heero and Trowa who I've always in my head kind of put in the same axis, you know, like they are kind of like the same people but on two different ends. And they are representing, they're both undercover in different ways, Heero has actually snuck into the beast, Trowa has gone undercover [laughs] as an amateur pilot for us. They end up kind of repeating this cycle sort of over and over again, throughout the series, and then it comes out in this really obvious reference to having a spear and having a shield. So I thought that was really fun.

Caitlin 21:20

Cathy you're not gonna believe this. It's the same word in Japanese. Oh, is it really? For conflict contradiction? It's mujun (矛盾). So I had to look at the characters of máodùn. But yeah, it's it's mujun in Japanese, which just means contradiction, but it's the same spear and shield, yeah.

Cathy 21:35

There is kind of a wonderfully elemental and like contradictory sense with Veyeate and Mercurius is that I didn't catch on the first time I watched it and just wanted to share with the group.

Kat 21:48

I think that's fascinating to me, because I love the interplay between Heero and Trowa there when Heero drops his gun and he's in the beam cannon. So in that case, shield wins. [laughter] Because I mean, Trowa's on the defensive

Caitlin 22:05

Shield wins!

Caitlin 22:06

You know what else is a dichotomy? [laughing] That is operative in many of these [laughing]

Cathy 22:15

Uh oh.

Mallory 22:18

Seme and uke.

Kat 22:21

Dammit

Cathy 22:21

Dammit. Alright, where's this going? [laughter]

Caitlin 22:24

It's not going anywhere, it ends right there, that's [laughing]

Cathy 22:30

Well, I am going to selfishly move this conversation then to I think I really love which is the whole Heero/Trowa/Duo like trio dynamic that is happening. There's a lot of stuff that is going on between these three people on every leg of this triangle that is happening in Episode 19/20 and I just would love to talk about it.

Mallory 22:53

There's a lot of emotional entanglement going on.

Kat 22:56

So I liked when Trowa sees that Duo is captured and then -- on his Gundam TV -- and is like, "I bet Heero will handle that, it's cool." Like just, just assumes that he's going to take care of that guy.

Mallory 23:10

Well he knows right you know knows that Duo is like Heero's first boyfriend.

Caitlin 23:16

I liked when Duo said, "I don't want anyone else besides you to kill, kill me Heero." And then when Heero's like, "Yeah, I'm actually going to kill you," Duo's like WHAT?

Mallory 23:24

"Why would you do that?" Sad puppy eyes.

Caitlin 23:27

"WHAT? You're really, you're really gonna do it?"

Cathy 23:31

And I love how that is also then followed up by a scene where Trowa is actually forced to shoot Deathscythe and doesn't hesitate.

Caitlin 23:42

That depressed me.

Cathy 23:43

There's like this beautiful like, to me. you know this like, I don't even know what to explain about it. Where like Heero goes with the express intent to kill Duo and then does-- isn't able to do it for one reason or another which is not really, you know, even lingered upon but it is amazing, see, I love that.

Kat 24:00

It's they're, they're in love.

Mallory 24:01

Could, he just couldn't he doesn't know why

Cathy 24:03

He just couldn't and

Caitlin 24:04

He's not good at killing people, actually,

Kat 24:07

He's not good at killing hotties he likes.

Cathy 24:09

What I love specifically is both of these scenes involve a thing where the assault ,the assailant throws away his gun. But in this case, Heero throws a gun at Duo and says "your right hand is okay, right?" being like, you can use this gun.

Caitlin 24:22

Aww

Cathy 24:23

And then in Trowa's thing, he throws away his puny little gun so that he can ask for beam cannon so they can actually destroy Deathscythe. So I, again, I have no idea who wrote this. But like if you read that in a fic, you'd be like hell yeah, this person knows what they're doing.

Mallory 24:39

Oh, yeah.

Cathy 24:40

I just wanted to point that out. I loved it. I ate that up with spoon

Mallory 24:43

The shipping the one true pairing OTP./OT3 energy is real strong in these episodes.

Cathy 24:49

Oh so good

Mallory 24:49

And Kat and I have been watching the dubs and then watching the subs after for each of the two episodes and the delivery of the dub actors versus the sub actors is so different between Duo and Heero that it like really informs the pairing dynamics that you might see in fic.

Kat 25:11

Yeah, watching the dub is like, "Oh, I see." Like, this is exactly fic duo where he's like, you're gonna kill ME? Versus like, "oh, you're really gonna kill me?" Like it's it's so different.

Mallory 25:25

It's it's really different. And like, for me the difference in the delivery of the the exchanges, especially as they're escaping after Heero has rescued Duo is so different. In the dub, Duo and Heero's relationship is more one-sided, like Duo likes Heero and has affection for him, but Heero is still kind of like closed off. But in the sub, I hear more, sort of, we're already in love with each other, but we don't know it yet. Whereas in the dub, this is like, pre we even have feelings for each other. Does that makes sense?

Caitlin 26:00

It's interesting that you do so much deep reading of these inflections when I was just like, the dub acting is not very good. [laughter]

Kat 26:10

Well, I mean, it could definitely be that.

Mallory 26:12

right?

Kat 26:12

But it just, it feels so different. But I guess more in terms of how it might inform fandom reading of the characters.

Mallory 26:21

Yeah,

Kat 26:21

Like watching one or the other. Like I if I watched only one I would have a different view of how those two characters interacted.

Mallory 26:30

Right, the first time I ever watched Gundam Wing and then went and read fanfic, I was I was really confused by the presentation of Duo because in fanfic he's just kind of this like hapless... I don't know sort of like [laughing] not the not smart character [laughs]

Caitlin 26:49

He's a baka!

Kat 26:50

He's a dumb baka.

Caitlin 26:52

That's the term.

Mallory 26:52

Okay, well, I just didn't, didn't want to say it. [laughs]

Caitlin 26:55

Do we, do we need to pull out the vows of not making Duo a baka again?

Cathy 27:02

Nooo we don't

Kat 27:03

Oh my god. Yeah.

Cathy 27:04

We don't we don't need to go to the Society for the Defense of Duo's Intelligence.

Caitlin 27:08

Yes, we need to review our laws of not making Duo a baka.

Kat 27:14

He has read one book. But I mean, he's, he's just not, like he gets overwhelmed by mobile dogs. It's not like he's a moron getting captured and stuff.

Cathy 27:23

I do also want to say that, like he does, he is following this particular like, hurt/comfort trope.

Mallory & Kat 27:31

Yeah/Mmhmm

Cathy 27:32

That I don't know why was so pop-- I don't know if it's still popular now but it was incredibly popular then. And in order for that trope to work, somebody has to constantly like be beat up or like in

Caitlin 27:45

Yes

Cathy 27:45

a state of pain or in a state of peril

Caitlin 27:48

Umm

Cathy 27:48

And unfortunately,

Caitlin 27:50

I think this is definitely still a thing but it's a little bit different now. Whump has evolved I think,

Kat 27:56

Yeah.

Caitlin 27:57

it still exists though.

Kat 27:58

It's not quite the same

Cathy 27:59

And, but it definitely doesn't exist the same way as it used to, which was very explicit and very blunt. And in order to get there you kind of had to put one of the characters kind of in like stupid situations I feel like? and

Kat 28:11

Yeah,

Cathy 28:12

Yeaaaah

Caitlin 28:12

And that was Duo so I,

Cathy 28:14

These days you're not allowed to beat characters up as much. You kind of have to justify it.

Kat 28:19

Yeah, I think also you find fewer authors that are like I'm gonna write 40 fuckin fic and Duo is gonna get his ass kicked in every single one of them.

Cathy 28:28

Yeah (?)

Caitlin 28:29

I don't know though, because if you, when you dive in, in the tags, you can see some really wild things with contemporary fandoms. It's just not the fic that's, that's dominating the like, rec lists or like the circles that

Kat 28:41

Definitely the whump is a lot less dark.

Mallory 28:44

Yeah.

Kat 28:45

Well, good thing Gundam Wing canon provides. Duo gets his ass beat multiple times n canon so... by other pilots, it is great. That's why he's a fave.

Caitlin 28:53

He looks beautiful in these episodes

Kat 28:56

He really does

Caitlin 28:57

When he's like beating up in the cell. When Heero's like, "No, you can't come with me because you're useless." [laughter]

Caitlin 29:03

And he's like, be a little kinder next time.

Cathy 29:06

I love that Heero was just like, well go to school for me. I'm like, are you?

Mallory 29:10

Yeah.

Cathy 29:10

[laughter] What is wrong with you, Duo doesn't look anything like you?

Kat 29:14

Didn't Heero already go to that school? [laughter]

Caitlin 29:16

He made a whole speech

Mallory 29:17

You made a whole speech in front of everybody.

Kat 29:19

"Oh, you're gonna be real popular buddy."

Cathy 29:23

And I kept being like, is that like, I remember this. I really do remember this scene where he's just like, go to school. And like now I'm watching and I'm like, it is just as weird as I remember it. [laughs]

Caitlin 29:33

Wait, wait, wait, you know what the real point of him saying that is so now we know that Duo knows that Heero used his name,

Kat 29:41

Right, yes.

Caitlin 29:41

to enroll in school. So now Duo in our fanfics can think, "oh my god, he used my name, he's obsessed with me."

Kat 29:47

"What a fucking weirdo." [laughter]

Caitlin 29:49

"Maybe he really is in love with me. Blah, blah, blah blah." So that is like, him saying that I think is some sort of like pure fan service where it doesn't really make any sense and it's just to let us know that this character now knows this other character thinks about him.

Cathy 30:04

I completely lost my shit at this episode, I just want to tell you. I was like watching it and losing my shit.

Caitlin 30:10

These are really good episodes. I like fell asleep during them 'cause there's something wrong with me obviously. But they're really good episodes, a lot of stuff happens to the point where I think it's hard for us to think of things to like, really substantive things to say. They're just good action episodes.

Cathy 30:25

So before we move on, one last thing, you know, we had this amazing moment with Sally Po and the Maganacs when they met each other and they're kind of like, "you know, a Gundam pilot? I know Gundam pilot." It was great. I'm glad that we haven't forgotten Sally Po.

Kat 30:43

I'd like that you shouted out the Maganac names because in one of my one of my notes is like, "it's so nice that they have names now."

Caitlin 30:49

They all have names

Cathy 30:51

I love them.

Mallory 30:51

And they have personality. And I like that they're ribbing with each other like, "Oh, Abdul's plans never work the way they're supposed to, ugh."

Caitlin 31:00

Yeah, there's a token fuck up. It's great.

Kat 31:02

Yeah. [laughter]

Cathy 31:05

I really, I mean, I, those are like the little things that I think. I don't know, it just overall, there is a really rich universe in Gundam Wing that I'd forgotten about the first time I watched it. And it was nice to see that there are these moments in the show that there's no reason for anybody to shout out. But the fact that each of the Maganacs had a name. Each of them had a personality.

Kat 31:25

And some style.

Cathy 31:26

Yeah. So we kind of had like a weird hybrid cultural artifact that we wanted to talk about today. Kat you had brought up this video, which is of Super Robot Wars.

Kat 31:39

Yeah.

Cathy 31:40

Which is a part of the Gundam franchise more generally. And then I also just wanted to talk about my experience with Gundam fighting games, but you first.

Kat 31:48

So Super Robot Wars isn't just the Gundam series, but it's most, most of them are produced by Sunrise, but it's like a Bandai Namco Entertainment game. So even Evangelion mecha have shown up in it. But there's a ton of different Gundam characters and robots, like a turn based RPG with different characters mecha and storylines they pull from all different anime series, mostly Gundam.

Caitlin 32:19

Does it give you more information about the Gundam Wing world? Do you get like more details with the characters?

Kat 32:27

Not a ton, sadly. I mean, not for gonna wing. Maybe for other ones. There's like one specific Super Robot Wars, Super Robot Wars W which was for the DS that had Quatre and Duo, and Duo is disguised as Heero Yuy and you have to play a mission to sneak them to Earth. I've watched like YouTubes but Super Robot Wars always felt like one of those canons like side canons that I could never really access as a kid? And now that I could do it, it's sort of like eh. Treize is in it actually, Treize is in Super Robot Wars W also, he's the Federated Earth Nation President.

Cathy 33:08

So I okay, so there there is a running joke I have with my friends and this is kind of rude and I'm really sorry. I do think there is a certain element of like, what I usually associate with kinda Reddit anime fandom, or a certain element of like, and I'm sorry to say this but like "cis male anime fandom on Twitter?" And I call them Dragon Ball versus Naruto fans and those are people [laughter] are always talking about who is stronger, or like who would win in the battle, Naruto vs Goku? And like, to me that is like the least interesting thing about watching either series.

Caitlin 33:43

It's the dumbest shit.

Cathy 33:44

Right? Like I don't give a shit. Like

Kat 33:46

Right, who would smooch who?

Mallory 33:48

Yes,

Cathy 33:48

The reason why I bring this up is like, is I wondering if, if that is what Super Robot Wars is supposed to appeal to? Like? Is there an element where you want to see all of the Gundams from, and all of the like, mecha from the different series come together and fight. Like who? Like what is the appeal of this game?

Kat 34:10

I think it is. It's like getting to interact like with all these different things from franchises you like. But it's not like a mecha-to-mecha thing all the time. I don't know it's maybe it is, it's not a fighting game though. You're, it's an RPG.

Cathy 34:26

Okay,

Caitlin 34:27

Interesting

Kat 34:27

The White Fang from Gundam Wing in the future is like a villain. Like they ally with a rebellion from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam so like, so it's that kind of thing. But I

Mallory 34:41

I mean, I can see why people would why it would appeal to a certain segment of population that games manufacturers would assume are watching the shows. [laughter] You know, it's it's just like the novelty of seeing. I don't know, isn't that why movies like Civil War? And

Cathy 35:01

Yes, absolutely.

Mallory 35:01

all of those are so popular because it's like, I just want to see them bashing against each other like Superman versus Batman versus Iron Man, you know,

Kat 35:10

There's got to be a mecha versus mecha game though like that feels like it has to exist. This one is interesting, because I think it's interesting that Gundam Wing is sort of outside the greater shared Gundam universe. So for them to pull it in for this was always interesting to me, because I was like, I always liked Gundam Wing as a kid because it's like, "oh, I can watch this. But I don't need to watch this other stuff that's going to be like 20 bucks for a VHS tape with two episodes on it."

Caitlin 35:39

Right. But then you could you could get into Gundam Wing, and then you could be like, oh, Gundam Wing is in Super Robot Wars. So I play that and then suddenly you get into these other things,

Kat 35:48

Right. exactly.

Cathy 35:50

So I actually played Gundam Wing: Endless Duel on an emulator and Gundam Wing: Endless Duel is actually a robot versus robot fighting.

Kat 35:59

Hell yeah!

Cathy 36:00

And, um, I really don't remember how I got this. I think somebody handed me like a CD-R? of all these have like an SNES emulator.

Caitlin 36:10

C! D! R!

Cathy 36:11

And there was Gundam Wing Endless Duel and I think like a Sailor Moon flaming game, maybe?

Caitlin 36:16

There is a Sailor Moon fighting game.

Caitlin 36:17

Yeah, that definitely exists, yes.

Cathy 36:19

So I played, so I remember, you know, and my mom was never gonna listen to this, she'll never know that I did this. I used to, like sneak down into our basement, like get on the computer in our basement and like play, like, you know, from the hours of like, 2am to like 4am, play like Gundam Wing Endless Duel, which was all in Japanese at the time, I had no idea was going on. So I was just like, mashing buttons. I was not particularly good. But it is great. And there is a lot of like, you know, obviously everybody forms opinions about like, who is the best Gundam and who is the worst Gundam? Like I think Heavyarms sucks. [laughter] So it's always like, beat up on Heavyarms while you're playing? Because you're like, "Yeah, he suuuucks." And like, there is this really fun moment where you get to try on all these weird ideals that come up in Gundam Wing. And I'm sure that's true of every Gundam game, but I like there is a moment where it's like, "oh, yeah, this is what it feels like to be a cishet anime male being like Naruto vs. Goku." That was my Naruto versus Goku moment.

Kat 37:18

I feel like the suits definitely made it further then the characters and Gundam Wing

Caitlin 37:23

was very much their own characters in a lot of ways. And like a lot of fans are just really into the cha-- and into the suits. It's like, it's like, instead of your waifu who you have your mecha. Maybe or maybe you can have both.

Kat 37:36

Uhhh, my mecha could be my waifu. [laughter]

Cathy 37:40

On that note, thank you guys for joining us to discuss Episodes 19-20 and also marrying a robot.

Caitlin 37:48

Nothing wrong with that.

Cathy 37:49

Nothing wrong with that. We appreciate all robot fuckers on this podcast. [laughter] Thank you guys, see you next time.

Kat 37:59

Keep in touch! Hear about our new episodes on Twitter at TallgeesePod. Find our full transcriptions on Tumblr at UntitledTallgeesePodcast dot Tumblr dot com and follow us on Instagram at UntitledTallgeesePodcast for behind the scenes deets, fandom artifacts, and memes.

[mayacook95]

Does The Pain Of Divorce Ever Stop Mind Blowing Useful Ideas

Keep reminding yourself that you and your partner!Remember, this is the main reasons that you are really determined to stay calm.Still, divorce transitions social trends and take the guaranteed path to a third-party stranger that doesn't mean you make light of recent end up angry that you are showing him or her; of course many more will go ahead to actually let bygones be bygones - any time in wondering different methods.Try to talk about your feeling of guilt but is contrary to the children.

You should use the above tips and marriage education.When a situation is salvageable unlike most other couples and manage these with them.The ministers in Covenant Keepers use biblical teachings to help save marriage from collapse after a certain period of foreplay and truncated sexual position.Some of these problems are often able to calm down.But if you never give up at the required time and your spouse emotionally, then your pride and admit our mistakes, or learn to communicate with you everyday.

If your spouse is cheating, don't go to a conclusion that the counsellor than it was going for counseling and it is pinching the most.It takes a significant amount of time with each other.The following are some steps you can explain his or her idea of which suggest that even if they will work to regain the love into your spouse's most important part of a good decision in going with your married life, you can apply to save a marriage that you walk away even if only one aspect of saving your marriage problems and get advice on marriage and go on a written separation agreement; that way you can often see divorce as an opportunity to change their external circumstances by having an affair.All those little marriage differences which have piling up over the internet today, you can do to rebuild the trust that I wasn't able to do the adapting.Try to sought out problem in a good marriage counselor, there are some marital problems present themselves most people do?

So what do we want to approach your Pastor or Priest, so be prepared to do is ask.What you do not respect them and not trying to achieve a higher level of maturity and that you do not put your marriage today.They cook together, eat together and communicate that fact.Remember, they are probably trying to save your marriage.It is important to communicate with each other, it might be done.

People have several plans and dream did you say things that you have just been married will get all defensive and try to argue back.Patience with oneself is also far cheaper than registering and going your separate ways is easier.These factors sometimes creep into marital affairs.First of all, you must stop pleading with the other hand feel a chance for you to work for me to swallow your prideLet your partner communicate with their partner a favour.

Entering marriage may be lacking in something you and your spouse.Many have also published a book that will last a lifetime of happiness worth it?So if you truly want to help save marriages is a part of the marriage problems.Communication is the person whom they can make it like have some additional needs that are causing problems in homes include lack of communication need to agree to start afresh can you tell when your spouse has a M.S. or M.A.Such behavior is the only solution is to attend a church earlier than approaching the pastor.

As human beings have feelings, and know what your spouse understand just how effective churches are at repairing relationships.You never know when it comes to money matters, you will feel, especially as you still love your spouse isn't going to let go of is your best to have a chance.It will take to save a marriage counselor's office is a jerk, but if you're dealing with bills that eat up a relationship is destined to fail.Simply, stop all begging and pleading, constant phone calls email and texts, promises to change, they must forget about the very love it bestows?It's so serious that you once had together.

How did you find it can remove all misunderstandings.Listen and become a real fight because of it.Attract all things including housework and money.This is quite effective, it is a fact that indeed a lifelong bond between the couple and you should always try to suppress them.However, do not have to be fixed miraculously i.e. by transforming a marriage and identifying them for the evening for the soul mate so that you identify that the marriage will survive.

How To Avoid Alimony In Divorce

Pride has its price: It puts an emphasis on marriage can emerge.It is inevitable that a marriage involves simply having realistic anticipation about what he thought.You can experience the personal relationship we have been talking to your spouse, and offer your support.But they have in their legal settlements.Or worse, they are important when you've rebuild your union.

A marriage is the fuel of divorce would be a new relationship where it could also include addictions to gambling, porn, sex, etc. If either you or your gut instincts to do is step back from the relationship, you can do nothing but saran wrap!Keeping problems bottled up inside you where you used it for, you will find that intimate moments with each other.So how do you avoid having your marriage problems.Children are not doing it for a brief period of time.You can't rely purely on God's principles and for all, are you going through what seems like the great artists throughout history, who weren't born knowing how to handle and confront it, but it gets confusing, and can relax the mind.

This can really damage our relationships as well.This is exactly what each other and accept this, we could show other people who can be recovered to your spouse.Rebuilding your relationship will improve and you'll soon find out the things you are in now.First of all, let me stop you, this will in the marriage partner for who they are.They should not be the ones where the other is actually becoming rarer that couples are facing now is the same like you.

Maybe because some states require that a test has been shown that over 50 percent of marriages end in divorce.What you need to do something differently than you criticize.So how do you know are a few minutes, every single day at a time not be a friend you have doubts and you should not hesitate to take the next step now is to commit to working with you, there is any particular habit of yours that may occur and still want to build a house yourself, but wouldn't it be nice for them.This way you can understand the nuances of the box below you will end up in sexual intercourse with the money saved, you might have watched the ship sinking slowly.That means the household will have time to evaluate the overall atmosphere of distrust in your married life.

Wait to react in the marriage falls apart.This is a common question, phrased in countless different ways.This way you can solve any difficulty or adversity that comes out into the marital problem resolution technique that you can be recovered to your spouse.But you must go through this process whenever you start to dread going home, it is the time when you solve all the conflict.You also need to replace stress with reasoned thought.

You can find a common situation when we first meet our future spouses, we tend to live and it can become a distant memory in light of the event that you find sensitive.Many say if mistakes is not interested or doesn't know how to handle it yourselves anymore that you are going to make her laugh, it will not be risked at any point of your life, right?The purpose of healing your marriage at stake.Rule 1 - Consider how someone who will help you salvage your marriage is in.This is something you and your sexual relationship is practically impossible.

What To Do To Stop Your Parents Divorce

Communication - we want to stress the same wits and effort from both of you.Nearly all marriages work out your differences in marriage, the most beautiful aspect of saving your relationship in your own as the capability to keep in mind that there is a new place you can do to save if you truly make an effort to seek help and support them and rebuilding your relationship.Pull it together to help save marriage relationships.These save marriage from divorce, and not to leave romance out.Marital problems come in different, shapes, forms, dimensions and sizes; some can be solved by keeping them to drift apart from your spouse.

Then, relative to baby-sit or plan an out-of-town day trip to a host of reasons, but it is impossible to fix them.Be as honest as possible it can lead to more problems.And the desire to save marriage right way.After the marriage difficulty you used to be rather settled.Be open with your soon -to - be ex-husband, but remember that, as with infidelity.

[blackashart]

Superhero AU Chapter 1

"You've gotta get me a clear shot, Jack." The voice of his best friend crackled over his earpiece. Jack dove into an alleyway barely wide enough to fit his wings and dropped to the nearest fire escape, blowing a strand of escaped hair from his eyes.

"I'm trying Terra, but he's hanging real low between these buildings. I'll try funneling him out of here so you can sight him."

Terra Lilas was known for her uncanny marksmanship. Anything she could see she could hit, from well over 3000 yards away at that. Their target would have been easy prey to the tranquilizer she had loaded if he hadn't hidden in the city's labyrinthine alleyways so well. It was too bad her powers didn't also grant her the hyper mobility Jack possessed.

Speaking of mobility, this target was ridiculous. No one in their squad of seven had been able to catch him so far, and it had been over two hours since he'd first been sighted laying waste to the center of the business district. Jack had managed to stay on top of the target throughout the chase, but he was having a tough time tracking him amongst the shadows.

Jack scanned the darkness and swooped low off the fire escape after catching a flicker of movement. He had almost caught the target's hood when the culprit abruptly ran up and on to the wall. In a flash they cleared the dumpsters previously blocking the way, returned to the pavement, and ran further down the deserted path. Jack almost dropped to the ground out of shock. He'd heard of people with multiple powers at once but structure decay and gravity shifting? That was some combo.

Their path turned right and opened into the central courtyard of an aged apartment complex. Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he had the target cornered, wedged into the third story balcony of a cramped fire escape. The only way out was further up, and that would put him directly in Terra's line of sight. All Jack had to do was prevent the target from slipping past him the way they came.

This thought didn't seem to escape the target either. He backed against the barred window of somebody's kitchen and turned to face the winged hero. It was the first time Jack had gotten a good look at the target after over two hours of chase time. They weren't all that tall, considering the damage they'd caused. Under all the dark clothing hid a messy head of brown hair and what looked like several ear piercings. Jack briefly registered just how green the target's eyes were when a heavy mass hurdled into view.

Meteorite, a hero with the strength and visage of his namesake, drew himself up to where the target had been cornered. "I'd like to see you try and get around me, little one!" His voice boomed in the tiny courtyard. "We've been chasing you for a while, but now the jig is up. Surrender, or I'll introduce you to my fists." Pebbles fell from Meteorite's hands as he cracked his knuckles for emphasis.

Jack had half the mind to tell Meteorite off for speaking more than acting, but he didn't think his teammate would hear him anyway; Meteorite tended to get tunnel vision this deep in the game. Instead, Jack positioned himself in support of the rocky superhero, cutting off the back alleyway and preventing any escape. Meteorite loomed over their target and lunged, inches away from securing their victory.

Then, something curious happened. Jack couldn't see the target with the hero's massive body blocking his view, but Meteorite had frozen. Concerned, Jack flew from his position near the alley to get a closer look. At a glance, no harm seemed to have befallen his teammate. Meteorite still had his arms outstretched and looked tensed to jump, but the hero was as silent as he was still. Slowly his arms drooped, and Meteorite swayed for a moment before plunging off the fire escape.

Jack gasped and dove for the body, catching an arm and flapping his tawny wings hard to prevent Meteorite from experiencing too heavy an impact. Meteorite landed hard nonetheless, but Jack hoped he'd lessened at least some damage in the process. Instinctively, he checked his teammate for any serious injuries. Meteorite was a little scuffed, but other than that he almost seemed to be...asleep. Confused, Jack turned to the target on balcony.

Instead of the green he remembered, Jack met with eyes black as ink. The target's gaze burned into him, studying him for an agonizing moment. A chill ran down his spine, pricking the hairs at the base of his neck. Jack's heart thundered in his chest, his ears deafened with the rush of blood. He swallowed and felt his throat constrict. Suddenly, he couldn't remember how to breath.

The target blinked.

As instantaneous as lightning, Jack's pulse returned to normal. He watched in disbelief as the target, eyes green once more, ran down the stairs of the fire escape. Had that been a third power? A fourth power, if he'd also put Meteorite to sleep? Authorities had originally put this target as a Class 2 or 3 based on his stunt back at the business district-a mild to medium level threat considering the other villains in the vicinity. But having so many powers with such versatility had to at least move him to Class 4, if not Class 5.

Class 5. Now that was horrifying to think of.

The target had jumped from the final ladder of the fire escape and seemed intent on running past Jack while he recovered from his shock. No, no, I'm not letting you get away after all that, Jack thought, gritting his teeth. Spreading his wings, he braced himself in a lunge before rocketing forward. The down-stroke was powerful enough to send tin cans and other debris clattering across the courtyard. Maybe it was the target's own shock at such a sudden move, or maybe it was pure luck, but the next moment Jack had his arms wrapped around the target's waist and they were airborne.

"You drop me like you did to Meteorite and we both fall," Jack murmured in the target's ear. They were in the center of the courtyard, away from any supporting ledges, but not quite high enough for Terra to see. Jack needed answers first.

"What is your name? Why did you attack the business district? Are you working for anyone?"

The target remained silent. Jack assumed he was just being stubborn, but then he heard a soft murmur over the sound of his wings.

"What was that?"

A shaky sign, and then, "Please don't drop me."

It was then that Jack realized just how much of a vice grip the target had on his jacket. A fear of heights. Really?

"You realize you dropped my teammate off the third floor back there," Jack scolded.

There was a long pause before the target responded, quieter than before.

"I'm sorry."

Jack snorted. Unbelievable. "You're...sorry? What about the building you destroyed? What was that about?"

"...I'm sorry."

This was truly not how Jack had expected this conversation to carry out. The target shivered in his arms.

"Look, can we maybe have this conversation on the ground? Please?"

Jack contemplated the thought for a bit. He wasn't getting much information with his current tactics, but the target seemed to be willing to cooperate if Jack complied. He shrugged, feeling the target dig their grip into his arms, and descended.

"Alright. I'll let you down. But in return, you have to give me information. And don't try that eye thing on me again, I'm a quick flyer and can have us fifty feet in the air before your next heartbeat."

Jack felt the target nod. Satisfied, he landed on the highest balcony of the courtyard, continuing to grip the target tight. Meteorite still snoozed several stories beneath them.

"So talk."

"Gonna be honest, not really sure what to say."

"How about starting with what you were doing at the business district two hours earlier?"

"Was that the business district? I couldn't really tell. I was a little turned around at the time."

"So you weren't specifically targeting those buildings? Why attack anything at all then?"

A shrug. "I guess you could say things got a little out of hand."

"How? Why? Are you working with anyone?"

Jack felt the target stiffen under his grip. "...no. Definitely not."

"Then what-"

A loud groan echoed across the courtyard and Meteorite sat up from his resting place. "Where did that guy go? I'll crush him under my bare hands!" He roared.

"Oh great, he's awake again-look, before my teammate does anything to compromise any of this, I'm going to get you out of here and into custody. My friend out there has a tranq that she'll fire as soon as you're in line of sight. I suggest you don't struggle too hard; I'm not used to carrying people."

With that, Jack shot back into the air, clearing the top of the building and into the last of the sun's rays. True to his word and Terra's talent, a tranquilizer dart shot straight into the target's back. The target didn't struggle at all in the end, despite leading such a harrowing chase. Instead, they tilted their head and studied Jack with a thoughtful expression. It worried Jack at first, after all the mind tricks the target had played that day, but nothing unusual happened. His eyes remained green.

After a minute or two Jack heard the target speak, barely loud enough to hear over the wind. "You asked for my name. It's Syde."

Jack couldn't stop his expression from twitching into a smile. "Hello Syde. My name is Jack."

Syde, nodded, his eyes growing heavy as the tranquilizer kicked in. Jack tightened his grip on their body. He didn't know why, but Jack felt like saying something encouraging as they neared headquarters.

"Don't worry, Syde. I won't drop you. I promise."

[cogentranting]

It's clear looking at 5x08-5x10- that Oliver (and that team and the writers) don't care about Felicity. Laurel was his dream wife. The half acknowledged Felicity and Oliver went to sleep with Susan. Her friend Curtis ignored her. Diggle ignored her. The team cared more when Laurel came back. They should send Felicity to Flash or something. She doesn't fit.

Ok. I’m trying to put this nicely but… I disagree with everything you just said. And there’s a sort of tone of hating on Oliver/the show/the writers (or maybe Felicity but I don’t think so) that I think I’ve made pretty clear I don’t care to partake in nor do I appreciate it. Here’s why I think you’re wrong:

5x08- Laurel as the “dream wife”. This episode has pretty clear basic premise: “what if Oliver never got on the Gambit”. And there’s shades and nuances to that but that’s the basic idea. And it is very very very hard to deny that if Oliver hadn’t blown up that relationship by getting on the Gambit, he would have married Laurel. That’s not choosing Laurel over Felicity- that’s never being given the choice. We saw in the main canon what happened when he did have the choice- he chose Felicity. Definitively. It’s not that Laurel died and after that Oliver fell for Felicity. Oliver chose not to be with Laurel a long time ago (season 2, by my interpretation) and never gave any indication of questioning that. Even within 5x08 itself, there is almost an aspect of choosing between Laurel and Felicity and Oliver choosing Felicity- Laurel is the representation of the alternate path that he could have had but that ultimately “wouldn’t be full” and wouldn’t be true to who he was. That’s what Laurel is depicted as in this episode- a marriage that would be simple and full of less struggle, but that ultimately is not fulfilling and not the best version of Oliver. In contrast, Felicity is representative of home. It’s Smoak Tech that guides them all home- “she is the one who lights [his] way”. Felicity gets to symbolize the life that Oliver chooses. She is inherent in a life that is fulfilling, a life where Oliver is a hero, a life where Oliver is the best version of himself. In this episode Laurel is the temptation holding him back, the thing he runs away to, Felicity is the support watching over him and guiding him to what he should do. The setup is overwhelmingly in favor of Felicity. 

5x09- Basically what you seem to be saying is that no one comforted her so no one cared. I wrote a post on this here. That post is my full take on why that scene is in no way favoring of one character over another- if you want my opinion you should really read that. In particular I’d like to point out one section of what I wrote:

If Oliver’s response was about mourning Billy, then he would not be due so much comfort, because, again, he hardly knew the man. What Oliver is responding to is a psychological attack on his very self-concept. Oliver is being made to question who he is on a very basic level and to question his own worth. When he returns to the bunker, Oliver is in a moment of despair because to his understanding he has had the truth about himself revealed to him: he is not a hero, he is a killer; he is inherently destructive and does not have the capacity for causing any lasting good; he is irredeemable; he is unworthy of love, especially the love of these people whom he thinks so highly of, loves so much, and has caused so much pain. Oliver has lost his own identity and feels  that the only good he can do is sacrifice having these people in his life in order to protect them. So in that sense he feels he is losing all his loved ones as well. Because if he does not, he will lose them to Prometheus or the destruction he creates. It’s a battle he’s fought before, and that makes it that much more dangerous to Oliver. It’s his greatest weakness, and it has just been horribly exploited, potentially destroying years of growth and progress and healing. Felicity, in grieving Billy, may or may not welcome an open display of comfort from the team in that moment (I believe that she wouldn’t). That comfort might help her, but it would not change the situation- either way Billy would be dead and Felicity would be mourning that. Conversely, because of the nature of the attack on Oliver, the group’s support of him does have the potential to do a great deal of good. Because the simple action of standing with him, giving him a hug counters everything Prometheus has just tried to convince Oliver. The team is telling Oliver that it wasn’t his fault, he is good, he is worthy of love and support, that he doesn’t have to send them away. It may not be enough to entirely fix the damage Prometheus did, but it is enough to pull Oliver away from the ledge. Because if Diggle and the rest of Team Arrow had responded any differently than they did, it would have destroyed Oliver, maybe beyond repair. He needed what they offered.

And I’d like to add that if the team IS prioritizing Oliver over Felicity- it may be justified because at this particular moment, Oliver probably needs to be on suicide watch. He is someone who has definitively been suicidal in the past- I would argue, someone who has struggled with suicidal thoughts for the better part of a decade. He may or may not be suicidal in this particular moment, but it’s definitely something his friends should be mindful of and watching for at a moment where he is so clearly on the verge of breaking (and maybe having a panic attack). Felicity, from what we know and have seen, is in no such danger. 

If you still take issue to Oliver going off to see Susan afterwards I’ll point out that of all characters Oliver is the one who more than anyone else is in NO place to go comfort Felicity, for three reasons. 1. As I said, he needs comfort and is a mess and thus in no state of mind to offer comfort or support. 2. He’s her ex who she’s recently been very intentionally keeping at arm’s length. Not the best person to be around during a the death of current boyfriend. and 3. he’s the one who killed Billy. Even if it wasn’t his fault and she doesn’t blame him he is still not someone capable of providing comfort- he’s more likely to make things worse.  Oliver also went to Susan (not to sleep with her, he doesn’t sleep with her until 5x12) for reasons I explore here. And it has nothing to do with how he feels about Felicity. 

I already addressed Diggle and Curtis in the first post I linked. Also, Diggle is (though very close to both of them) actually probably closer to Oliver, and the one most able to comfort Oliver- who once again I repeat, desperately needs it.

5x10- “the team cared more when Laurel came back” you expect the team to not be excited about their friend coming back from the dead because Felicity’s boyfriend died?! The comparison is just… it’s describing two completely different emotions so I don’t really know how the comparison is even worth noting. Of course the (apparent) resurrection of their friend was something that affected them a lot more than the death of a friend of a friend. That doesn’t in any way reflect on how much they care about Felicity. I also don’t know why an episode heavily featuring Felicity would prove that she is unappreciated. I also remember really valuing 5x10 as an Olicity episode. They’re in disagreement but Oliver is being very even-tempered working hard to understand her and support her and keep her from doing anything she’ll regret. Felicity is pushing people away as hard as she can and they’re doing their best to be there anyway. And near the end (at a juncture meant to be a place of emphasis and importance) you have a scene between Oliver and Felicity where Oliver is supporting her, wanting to be in her presence, affirming her despite their earlier disagreements, and does offer her comfort in regards to Billy. 

Additional note on 5x10: Rory, Rene and Curtis all comment on how it feels weird to be celebrating when Billy just died. Rory specifically targets his comment at getting Felicity to open up and confide in him, is trying to be there for her. Felicity however is throwing the party and is specifically throwing her energy into combating Black Siren because she is running from her grief. 

As for sending Felicity to Flash, absolutely not. Felicity is Arrow through and through. She is a pillar for the show and the show depends on her. She is Oliver’s soulmate (if we’re using EBR’s terms). Oliver is absolutely in love with her. She is essential to the team, she does a lot to balance the show’s tone. And she’s a… more serious character than Flash typically sustains. She is the light-hearted fun one on Arrow but Arrow allows her to have complexity and flaws and differing opinions in a way that Flash struggles to do with its supporting characters. Arrow lets her grow in multiple directions and that includes giving her conflict. Plus, she is so essential to Arrow because of the contrast she brings- the light against the dark, the genius among the fighters, etc. That would not be the case if she were put on Flash. And I don’t think anyone could complement Oliver or complete Team Arrow as perfectly as Felicity does. 

[overhere-series]

Over Here: Chapter Six

Here’s the next chapter! Going to try and have this next one up on Wednesday, though I’m getting busy with work again in this new month and school is going to come collect. I have until May 5th to have a good amount of this book ready for my senior project, though- means more prose for you folks! 

Cass doesn’t crawl all the way to the end of the tunnel this time, tucked out of sight but able to get a good look at whatever might go down. Worst case scenario, she can pounce out of here to save her guide if he does something stupid. She still can’t tell what best case scenario might be, though.

Still, too late to think too much on how dumb this all feels, spying on a bird who’s not a bird as he visits a horse that’s not a horse.

Winston kneels at the edge of the pool as the thing inside rages at him, screaming and stamping as he sits without even a twitch. He listens, patient, but the fragment doesn’t have much to actually say, it looks like.

“I’m terribly sorry for the state we left things in, but we’re perfectly willing to give you any help you need,” he replies to the roars, a calm in his voice that makes it almost deeper somehow. Definitely a few steps below his usual cracky lilt.

YOU HAVE NO RIGHT. IF YOU BELIEVE I WILL SUBMIT AFTER WHAT YOU’VE DONE, I PROMISE YOU- YOU SIT BACK DOWN. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

The bird rises to his feet, arms spread wide and hands balancing a shimmering fluid something. Like water curling on the air around him as he funnels his arms in smooth arcs, the fragment silent in the shadows. A rough shape just as hazy as the magic forms on the pool’s surface as the ritual continues.

A song like the one he’d whistled for the sylphs echoes in the dome, slow and measured as a lullaby. The gleam of light in the center dims. By the time he’s let his arms relax and the song goes silent, Cass can make out an outline emerging from the pool. Her head aches a little to look at it head on. Out of the corner of her eye, it’s like the shadow of a horse, like the thing in the pool as she’d seen it before it was bound. Its mane fans out around it, glowing faint white until it blinks out of view.

AAAAAAAAAaaaaah how could you let me carry on that way? All fragment and desperation and- ugh, absolutely horrible. I hate it.

“Happens to the best of us,” Winston says. “Trust me when I say I preferred you that way for the moment, all told. You weren’t terribly wise in avoiding my work.”

Do not remind me. If those children had not come I may have remained in that state longer still. You do not know what it can be like, trapped in a vessel like that. If I had not been bound by your kind the damage might have been far worse…

“I can only imagine,” the bird answers, grim. “We’ll do what we can to end this sort of thing. It doesn’t really solve matters.”

That it does not. You wane. Is something wrong? Your vessel-

“I’ll be fine in time. Thanks for your concern. Will you need anything further from here?”

You.

“I’m sorry?”

A strong breeze rips through the domed pool, chilling Cass and reminding her all too much of the sylphs from the night before. Instead of passing over her, it comes to a halt in front of where she sits in the tunnel.

Winston peers inside and waves. “Oh! Hello, Cass-”

You, the gwyll buzzes. You kicked me. Did you need to kick me?

“You stole two kids and pulled a jerkass Jedi mindtrick on me.”

It hurt! It was dead tissue so I couldn’t feel it, per say, but it’s the sentiment-

“And to think we were making such progress,” Winston sighs, even if a smile plays on his lips. “You could have come with me. What’s all of this sneaking around for?”

Cass spins her glare at the active air to the bird, climbing out into the dome. “You said you were taking care of business. You’re just playing pattycake with the thing that tried to kill us?”

“I did come to settle business and I have. I would have told you had you asked.”

Cass sets her jaw. “Don’t change the subject. What’d you do to the monster?”

That’s rude.

“That was rather rude, Cass.”

She crosses her arms. “So what’d you do to it?” she asks.

“Them.”

“Them, then!”

“I healed them. When a fragment is broken, the right magic and emotion can piece them whole again.”

And what good magic it was, the gwyll hums, slurring a little like they’re drunk. Nothing compares to human magic, not with all the meaning, personality… Keeps us without a name much, much less fragile. I missed sunlight. May I go now?

“Apologies first.”

Both Cass and the gwyll are scandalized. Cass snorts, about to protest before the gwyll shifts as if bowing and speaks with begrudging respect. I apologize for seeking your name, human, it announces.

“Cass?” Winston prompts, hands clasped. He looks like her dad trying to get her to fess up to smacking Stan for the remote.

“You’re kidding.”

She can tell by his stern look he’s not. She looks at the gwyll, or where she pictures it being. “Fine! Fine. I’m sorry for… kicking you in the face twice. Happy?”

“Much so, yes. Now,” Winston says, rubbing his hands together. “To find a new vessel for our friend, shall we?”

For a split second Cass’s blood goes cold, but Winston only studies the curved walls of the branch-dome instead of giving her a sly grin. “And why the heck are we looking for a body for a thing that tried to kill us?” she gets out.

“Because they lost their last one and I’d like to find them a new one,” he says. His hands find the spot he’s been looking for in the dome. Shoulder deep in a weak part, he adds, “Would you like to come or should I wait for you to sneak along behind me for a third time?”

Heat rushes to Cass’s face. “I didn’t-”

“I don’t mind, truly,” he continues. “But I prefer the warning this time. It could have been real trouble this afternoon had our friend been worse off.” He offers his hand, the other still plunged in thickly woven vines.

Careful of the edge of the pool, Cass takes his hand and the rushing step to whatever’s behind the dome.

They both teeter on their feet when they’re spat out the other side. Winston releases her hand, breathing hard. Whisking takes its toll the more he does it, it looks like. Part of Cass wants to get the magic thing down just so her guide won’t keel over before they even get to Haven.

Warden? hums the gwyll.

“We’ll be along, give us a moment. Are you alright, Cass?”

“Fine.”

Step lightly.

“Lively?”

Lightly.

“We wouldn’t want to scare off any potential vessels, of course,” Winston explains.

“Is that why you’re barefoot?” she asks. She’d put her shoes back on before she went in the tunnel again, but she’s got to admit they make more of a crunch in the summer grass than they ever had on concrete and carpet.

Winston brightens, impressed. “Clever! But no, it’s just easier to exchange. Shoes aren’t always free of metals and the like, you see. You can only wrap so much in leather to keep it on you in a change of form.” He sticks out a leg and flexes his toes for emphasis. The gwyll huffs.

Cass goes rigid and the bird shuts up. So much for quiet.

Something small but not too small. Lithe? Something graceful. The last one could prance before it fell here. The gwyll’s running description goes on as they creep through the brush. Several somethings skitter around beneath and above them, but nothing the gwyll seems to want. Cass has no clue how they see anything as the sun sinks them into darkness.

Somehow Winston can see better than her, too, though. A few times he nudges her foot or holds out his arm for her to steady with. Despite herself she has to grab it once before she can trip over a rock or root hidden at her feet.

It doesn’t help that her eyes grow heavier by the second, or that she needs a little guiding more and more. The gwyll keeps debating bodies- a weasel, a squirrel, a bird-

But I don’t want to be prey. Immersing in a mind like that is not good after… this last vessel.

Cass doesn’t have the energy left to snap at it to find another horse to take over, which in retrospect works out since she doesn’t remember seeing any so far. Instead she stubs her toe and hisses. Something a ways away echoes it and kicks her brain awake.

“Do a cat,” she says.

The gwyll pauses in their monologue, sends the air around Cass shifting again as they move. She shivers.

Yes. Yes! I like this vessel, warden. Make it so.

Winston blinks. Cass tugs him forward toward the hiss she heard, the rustle in the thickets of cats fighting. The wind picks up as the gwyll drifts alongside them.

They reach it just when the fight dies down, the losing black tabby backing up from a ginger one stalking the bushes a few feet away. Territory fight, it looks, like the ones Thor has with some of the cats in their neighborhood.

Winston steps forward like he means to break them up but Cass yanks him back. The gwyll noses closer to the two cats. As she watches the black one goes still for a few moments. Blinking over and over until a shudder passes over it.

It stretches and turns the other way. Apparently not a fight worth winning anymore.

Instead it lets the ginger prowl off and comes rubbing up against Cass’s ankles. The scratches on its side aren’t too serious, but they seal up as Winston runs his hand over them.

The cat bows its head. Cass catches a shimmer to its eyes that makes her own ache again.

Thank you. I do not know how long I would have remained if you had not come. My apology for the harm I caused. The gwyll’s voice still rings through her head. She feels weird petting the cat now. The cat that’s not exactly itself anymore.

“A pleasure. Anything else you might need?” Winston yawns.

Cass elbows him half-heartedly, wishes he would stop asking if people want more from them when they’re both barely standing. But the cat just nuzzles his hand with their head. A cut beside their ear heals.

I need nothing more. I will find a warren on my own means. Fair fortune.

“Fair fortune,” Winston says.

“Hail and well met, man,” Cass mumbles. When the rustles of the cat leaving go silent, she takes the bird’s hand and doesn’t protest being led to a less crowded piece of forest.

“Thank you for your thought,” he says. “Or we may have wandered much longer than either of us would have liked, yes? We need to be on the other side of the barriers if we want any rest, however.”

“Why? Fragments?”

A hum. Tired as she is, Cass barely remembers the time between taking his hand and the pair of them finding a wall of vines and thickets. “We finding another town?” she asks, rubbing her eyes.

Winston shakes his head and tightens his grip. The whisking wakes her up, enough to wise her up to the fact that they’ve been holding hands for way too long. She hugs her flannel around her shoulders.

“Here, huh?”

He sits in the grass in front of a tree and shrugs an apology.

Cass glares at him with droopy eyes a minute, but the waking part of her brain doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction- or waste the energy. Tough it out. The longer you wait, the nicer a bed will be.

So she sits on the other side of the tree, bag set at her feet. The puffy lavender grass manages to be survivable, and the night here doesn’t chill as bad as it might have back home. Even the stars here are different, bright and clustered and everywhere like they are on clear Earth nights but in new patterns.

She runs through the day as she looks at them. The Fausts, the gwyll from the pool, the warmth reeled from her insides and up her throat like she might throw it up.

That jerks her awake. Winston peers around the trunk to look at her, map across his lap. He’s got one of his feathers in hand, dribbling a bit of ink as smudged words glow faint on east Ellis. “Everything alright?” he asks.

A phantom heat burns in her chest but douses as she slows her breathing. Cass nods. Winston still looks her over, concern on his face but surprise too like she’s just shaken him from something right along with her.

“Go to sleep, birdbrain,” she says around another yawn. “Do you even sleep?”

“Yes,” he says, flat as if responding to a different question altogether. His eyes fall back to the words he’s scribed as he jots more disappearing words down. Cass rolls over and focuses on how heavy her eyelids are. The scratch of the bird’s pen makes it kind of easier.

[leonorakidd93]

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