The new moon has passed at Scarlet Devil Mansion, and Gryphon and Wolfgang have a new project. Is the First Lensman in over his head? (ED. NOTE: Almost certainly.)

Act IV: "Chanson de la Nuit"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Semi-joking counterpoint: If Gryphon wasn't in over his head, would he even know where he was?

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

>Semi-joking counterpoint: If Gryphon wasn't in over his head,
>would he even know where he was?

I have to concede that a lot of the time, that is a fair question.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Semi-joking counterpoint: If Gryphon wasn't in over his head,
>would he even know where he was?
>

Sure! He'd probably go with "At home, relaxing" as a first guess, that being the most likely situation where he isn't in over his head.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

First off, the link in the RSS feed is broken; it leads to a "ttw43.html" instead.

> "Well, I don't want to carry a piano down there," he said wryly.

I love that he said "I don't want to" rather than "I can't".

> He wondered how she would do against a Neuroi, which led him to picture
> her one-handing a pair of MG 42s like Trude Barkhorn. Truly an image to
> savor.

I think the only gun she needs is Gungnir. ^{Sorry, that was terrible.}

> /* "Weird Al" Yankovic "Classical Gas" (2020) */

<Governor Lepetomane> What the hell are you worried about? This is 1946. You'll be able to sue him!

Side note: I hadn't heard that song before, and wow. Al is a legend even beyond his parodic abilities.

> And she stayed with me longer than anyone else... nearly 80 years. She
> said she was human, but she never aged, and she would never explain.
<...>
> "But then one night she just... disappeared,"

Sounds like a thing a Time Lord would do.

> still open to the last page its owner had consulted before her death
> in 1794.

So we have a Sakuya, but no sign of Patchy just yet; her love of alchemy is well-known, and I think Remi would have trusted her enough to be let in here.

> "Because if you kill me, you'll never know."

He learned this one from Sherazade.

> A crimson blush shone on her face, and a light sweat broke on her
> forehead, reminding him of a person who has just eaten a mouthful of
> MegaZone's chili. Her expression was similar, too, the look of
> someone who cannot decide whether she is in pain, or ecstasy, or both.

Damn you, now I'm hungry for chili.

> No more humans. No more humans with their tiny attention spans and
> their short little shooting-star lives. Either way they always leave
> you.

Gryph, you're going to have to tell her you're immortal at some point. It's probably better that you didn't do so before now, but there's like a zillion other weird things about you, and she already knows at least one unaging "human", so she'll probably believe you.

Ending thoughts:

Honestly, it feels like the break before an all-out sprint to the finish line. Even if I didn't know the next chapter is the last one, it's only a couple days before the next full moon, at which point the fireworks (both literal and metaphorical) will begin.

The fact that Remilia gave him a plan on how he's going to return without anyone noticing he was gone for a month makes me believe that plan will go awry, because that's how it always goes when you say it out loud. The most obvious thing is Neuroi attacking the SDM, Gryph's wingmates finding him rooming with a vampire, Flandre getting out when her power and madness are both at their peaks, and you bring it home somehow in inimitable EPU style. The only thing I know for sure about the ending is that Remi and Flan won't be joining the witches, unless you do a giant retcon of everything from chapter 9 onward.

I look forward to what's next.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-29-20 AT 10:24 PM (EDT)
 
>Side note: I hadn't heard that song before, and wow. Al is a legend
>even beyond his parodic abilities.

Yeah, Al has genuine musical chops. Always has! He'd never have been able to succeed on the scale he has with just his "Weird Al" shtick.

>> "Because if you kill me, you'll never know."
>
>He learned this one from Sherazade.

Always go with the classics.

>> No more humans. No more humans with their tiny attention spans and
>> their short little shooting-star lives. Either way they always leave
>> you.
>
>Gryph, you're going to have to tell her you're immortal at some
>point.

There just hasn't been a good time to mention it yet! He'll get there. Probably. Hopefully. He'd better. (It's certainly going to be on his mind now that he's heard her say that.)

It's really complicated where/when he is right now, because if he starts at the beginning it's "I was born in 1973" and there are already questions from the audience. :)

I think I know when and how it will finally come up, though, if the stars align when I get there.

>Honestly, it feels like the break before an all-out sprint to the
>finish line.

It does to me, too, which is why Act V will probably not be out tomorrow. I've had to kind of take today to regroup. Acts III and IV, especially, took it out of me. The grey-box section of III was very taxing (in a good way!) owing to its intensity, and I had to rewrite a whole swathe of Act IV twice because it kept going off the rails on me. Which, again, not the worst problem to have, but it meant a lot of duplicated effort.

>unless
>you do a giant retcon of everything from chapter 9 onward.

Spoilers: I'm not going to be doing a giant retcon of everything from chapter 9 onward. Beyond that I'm not gonna say. :)

As an aside, quite a lot of Act IV was brought to you by that Jonathan Scott playlist from private-mail, not just the Marriage of Figaro scene.

I almost went with the 1812 Overture there, but the buildup to the Really Loud Part is too long to fit Remilia's mood in that scene. She'd have skipped right to, like, here, and that wouldn't really do the piece justice. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>
>It's really complicated where/when he is right now, because if he
>starts at the beginning it's "I was born in 1973" and there are
>already questions from the audience. :)
>

At least the audience can skip, "Time travel? That's impossible."

Peter Eng
--
If you have to explain something impossible often enough, does it start rolling out like the Rocket Attack USA summary?

>If you have to explain something impossible often enough, does it
>start rolling out like the Rocket Attack USA summary?

As we have seen, sometimes it rolls out as the Rocket Attack USA summary.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I am for some reason (probably the line about committing carpentry) given the image of Gryphon doing an accordion version of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LvkzkmPtt0

All I can say is if Flandre gets the innuendo, the Kissing Game is going to become non-optional. Though I suspect Gryph would let her beat him until he needed help regenerating before instigating a situation like that.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

>All I can say is if Flandre gets the innuendo, the Kissing Game is
>going to become non-optional. Though I suspect Gryph would let her
>beat him until he needed help regenerating before instigating a
>situation like that.

Uh, yeah. I know he has kind of a reputation as a rakehell or whatever, but there is absolutely no way he'd ever mess around with Flan.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Uh, yeah. I know he has kind of a reputation as a rakehell or
>whatever, but there is absolutely no way he'd ever mess around with
>Flan.

Also, he generally doesn't fuck the ladies he unfucks.

>>Uh, yeah. I know he has kind of a reputation as a rakehell or
>>whatever, but there is absolutely no way he'd ever mess around with
>>Flan.
>
>Also, he generally doesn't fuck the ladies he unfucks.

(adjusts necktie uncomfortably)

Well... quite.

--G.
crude but effective phrasing
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.