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Forum Name: Our Witches at War/Gallian Gothic
Topic ID: 97
#0, GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-16-20 at 04:47 PM
With the Fusōnese bath finally finished, it's time to start planning the next project—although house improvements are not the only things being planned.

Act V: "Une Inconnue Bien Connue"

--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.


#1, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Verbena on Oct-16-20 at 06:15 PM
In response to message #0
I don't have time to respond in detail now, but that was a sweet story. =)

I have but one question: Should I recognize Lena Oxton?


------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge


#2, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Mephron on Oct-16-20 at 06:19 PM
In response to message #1
>I don't have time to respond in detail now, but that was a sweet
>story. =)
>
>I have but one question: Should I recognize Lena Oxton?

Do you play Overwatch, or know the characters from it?

If so, you may recognize Lt. Oxton as special agent Tracer.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"


#3, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Verbena on Oct-16-20 at 06:54 PM
In response to message #2
LAST EDITED ON Oct-16-20 AT 06:56 PM (EDT)
 
>>I don't have time to respond in detail now, but that was a sweet
>>story. =)
>>
>>I have but one question: Should I recognize Lena Oxton?
>
>Do you play Overwatch, or know the characters from it?
>
>If so, you may recognize Lt. Oxton as special agent Tracer.

Aha! Yes, that explains much. I haven't played Overwatch in a while but that makes a lot of sense.

As for Google, to be fair, I DID Google Oxton, but like an idiot I didn't add the first name. I got Wesleyside or somesuch. =)

Edit: Merseyside. Whichever. XD Goes to show I should have put more effort into it. With that information Lena makes MUCH more sense. Still a lot we don't know though.


------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge


#4, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Astynax on Oct-17-20 at 03:08 AM
In response to message #0
>She didn't quite wake, but sensed he was trying to leave anyway, and
>slipped the hand that had been lying on his chest the rest of the way
>over him, tightening her hold with a mumbled "nooo."
>

Congratulations, G has been promoted from horsey to teddy bear.

>"How did you manage to light those chandeliers?" Remilia wondered, looking up.
>"Neither one of you can fly."
>"Wasn't easy!" Meiling replied with a broad grin, and Remilia considered
>pointing out that that wasn't an answer, but then decided against it.
>

Two options come to mind: pinpoint firebending or Meiling hoisting G up to the requisite height.

>"Oh, ye gods, my little sister is a naturist," Remilia said, observing the
>scene through the fingers of one hand.
>

This got a good chuckle, especially since Remilia really should have seen Flandre's utter lack of modesty in the situation coming.

>"This is amazing," Flandre agreed. "I think we should give Stephen a raise."
>"Who's Stephen?" Remilia wondered.
>"The salamander."
>"You've named the salamander?"
>

Of course she did. I do wonder how many other unexpected namings Flandre might indulge in as time goes on. She seems the sort of name her personal transportation, and possibly even notable appliances once the has some.

>"Yeah, why? Is there anything wrong with that?"
>"No, I suppose not. Why Stephen, thought?"
>Flandre shrugged, making ripples in the water around her. "He just looks like
>a Stephen. Unless he's a girl. I can't really tell."
>

I'm a bit curious about the criteria for 'looking like a Stephen' but that's mostly since it also happens to be my name and I'm sincerely hoping I look the part.

>"This was a triumph," Meiling said.
>Gryphon nodded. "I'm making a note here: huge success." Without looking away
>from the bath, they bumped fists.
>

Heh, I'm guessing this one was considered blaringly obvious enough to not need a reference entry. I wonder if that game exists in UF for G to get the reference he just made?

>"Very well, then. If—I should say when, because I'm sure it's inevitable—Flan >makes such a request of you again, you needn't refuse on my account."
>

I must admit, Remilia's bit here surprised me. I had expected her more traditional nature to have drawn the line G clearly expected, but it didn't. Though if things between them go the way Flandre certainly seems interested in I hope she finds something other than variations on 'brother' to call the man.

>"Well, no, that's true, but still, it would be nice to have an option that
>doesn't involve trimming and lighting two or three hundred candles every night, >even if they do never seem to burn down."
>"Maman was very proud of that particular invention."
>

Remilia the Elder seems to have been the sort of magical inventor you often expect but seldom see in most traditional fantasy settings, the person applying all that magical juice to making life better in small but deeply practical and satisfying ways.

>On a subliminal level, they had probably noticed the patter of it on the roof
>abating, but the first conscious indication of it they had was Flandre suddenly
>appearing in the hatchway leading back down to the second-floor hallway.
>"Bro! Meiling! It stopped raining! Let's go do the thing!"
>

I'm not sure if it is intentional, perhaps as a sign/side effect of Flandre becoming herself and growing in a more modern age, that her speech patterns seem more modern in my mind that pretty much anyone else in the household.

>Gryphon smiled. "See? It's all connected. Now then..." He turned and squared up
>to the targets. "Divine Flash—Donnerwetter!"
>The bolt of lightning lanced out from his extended fingers and blew away
>another of the torches.
>

Is it me, or has teaching the witches to touch the Force somehow strengthened G's own connection to it? I have this sense that in a lot of earlier stories that touched on the Force flavored foundations of his fighting style it was all much less potent (I specifically recall a scene in one story where he evened somewhat surprised himself by managing some telekinesis to retrieve a weapon.)

>"M'lady..." said Sakuya from behind her hand.
>"Oh, come now, Sakuya. You were the cutest thing. Don't you think your fiancée
>deserves to see that? On her birthday, no less?"
>"... I suppose," the maid conceded, lowering her hand and giving Meiling an >embarrassed smile.
>

Seems like Sakuya is settled into the new rhythm at the mansion, she seems much more emotive here, or maybe Remilia was just particularly on target when it came to her lovingly administered teasing.

>Before he could finish the sentence, lightning split the sky above the west
>lawn, momentarily flash-blinding him again, and the thunderous report rattled
>the windows. Miraculously, none of the panes broke, but as Gryphon's vision
>cleared, he saw that the gazebo had been hit and now lay in fragments.
>

A memorable way to make an entrance, though not without its drawbacks as seen later.

>"Oh, 'ello, Sakuya," said Lena cheerfully before Gryphon could introduce the
>maid. "Ain't you a sight for sore eyes? You're looking well."
>Sakuya looked slightly confused. "I'm sorry, have we met?"
>"Ah, bollocks, I've done it again," Lena grumbled.
>"Now you know how I felt," Gryphon said to Sakuya with a little smile. "Lena's
>a time traveler, like us. We must all be out of order to each other."
>

...and the confluence of the various timelines in this tale just got even more tangled. At this point I'm picturing the picture used in a lot of conspiracy memes depicting a wild eyed fellow in front of a cork board that looks like someone threw a ball of yarn and box of thumbtacks at repeatedly until some of them stuck.

>"Whatever you're doing, turn it off!" Gryphon shouted over the noise.
>

I feel like this is a reference I'm missing, but I'm not sure if it isn't a false positive due to this also possibly being one of those stock lines that come up in such situations.

>Sakuya consulted her vortex manipulator's instruments, then said dryly,
>"Probably because The World isn't brute-forcing the entire timestream like
>someone I could mention."
>"Oi! I can 'ear you."
>"Wonderful! It would have been wasted, otherwise," Sakuya said with just a
>trace of impish humor.
>

Sakuya's wit is as sharp as her murder implements I see. This might be more of the 'loosening up' I thought I saw earlier, or maybe it is just her getting some more time to shine?

>"I'm sure I'll adapt in a day or two," said Lena, and then, with a wry grin,
>"I'm not exactly unfamiliar with creatures of the night—right, Chief?"
>Gryphon chuckled. "Indeed."
>

It was noted where our time witch was imported from, so does that make this a reference to said source, or a tale yet to be told?

>"Well... I suppose there's no reason why that wouldn't work," said Gryphon
>after a moment's thought.
>

Mosquito jokes aside, is Remilia's appetite truly that small that a month's worth of her hard to acquire dietary supplement would be easily portable in luggage?

>"You, all by yourself in the big city?" said Flandre, skeptical. "You've barely
>left this house for the past 150 years, except for your date last week." She
>giggled. "You'd better take Sakuya with you or you'll get lost trying to find
>the train station."
>

This whole sequence was pretty much Flandre gold, facilitated by Remilia's dignity. Somehow I doubt Flandre will ever fully get tired of causing indignant Remilia noises.


-={(Astynax)}=-
"This Space For Rent."


#5, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Peter Eng on Oct-17-20 at 10:17 AM
In response to message #4
LAST EDITED ON Oct-17-20 AT 01:26 PM (EDT)
 
>>"This was a triumph," Meiling said.
>>
>>Gryphon nodded. "I'm making a note here: huge success." Without looking away
>>from the bath, they bumped fists.
>>
>
>Heh, I'm guessing this one was considered blaringly obvious enough to not need
>a reference entry. I wonder if that game exists in UF for G to get the
>reference he just made?
>

Since we know Wheatley works for Skuld, it's possible that GLaDOS exists in UF, and that Still Alive was popular a couple of years back.

>>Gryphon smiled. "See? It's all connected. Now then..." He turned and squared
>>up to the targets. "Divine Flash—Donnerwetter!"
>>The bolt of lightning lanced out from his extended fingers and blew away
>>another of the torches.
>>
>
>Is it me, or has teaching the witches to touch the Force somehow
>strengthened G's own connection to it? I have this sense that in a lot
>of earlier stories that touched on the Force flavored foundations of
>his fighting style it was all much less potent (I specifically recall
>a scene in one story where he evened somewhat surprised himself by
>managing some telekinesis to retrieve a weapon.)
>

Well, one of the old saws about teaching is that it's a great way to learn.

>
>>"I'm sure I'll adapt in a day or two," said Lena, and then, with a wry grin,
>>"I'm not exactly unfamiliar with creatures of the night—right, Chief?"
>>Gryphon chuckled. "Indeed."
>>
>
>It was noted where our time witch was imported from, so does that make
>this a reference to said source, or a tale yet to be told?
>

I suspect that the Tracer who first met Gryphon either is dating or has dated either Saya or Marceline. Canonically, she's dating a non-powered person, which (thankfully, in my opinion) shut down the Tracer/Widowmaker pairing that some fans liked.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.


#7, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-17-20 at 04:32 PM
In response to message #5
>I suspect that the Tracer who first met Gryphon either is dating or
>has dated either Saya or Marceline.

I wouldn't put it past her to have stepped out with Marceline, now that I think about it, but she's not Saya's type. ;)

>Canonically, she's dating a
>non-powered person, which (thankfully, in my opinion) shut down the
>Tracer/Widowmaker pairing that some fans liked.

Oh my, dear boy, if you think canon has ever shut down a fanon pairing, you are catastrophically naïve. :)

Anyway, in this instance she is alluding to Widowmaker('s local incarnation), although not necessarily in the sense you're thinking of. And Emily would be mildly insulted at your labeling her "non-powered". As Lena's crew chief, she has a very important power, that of making the dang Striker work again after Lena's crashed into something, or blown a cylinder head, or otherwise ruined the bloody thing again, who do you think you bloody well are, woman, Nipa Katajainen?

--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.


#6, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-17-20 at 04:24 PM
In response to message #4
>>She didn't quite wake, but sensed he was trying to leave anyway, and
>>slipped the hand that had been lying on his chest the rest of the way
>>over him, tightening her hold with a mumbled "nooo."
>
>Congratulations, G has been promoted from horsey to teddy bear.

Next stop: dakimakura!

>>"How did you manage to light those chandeliers?"
>
>Two options come to mind: pinpoint firebending or Meiling hoisting G
>up to the requisite height.

It was the former; the chandeliers are out over the main pool, so the latter approach would've been... tricky. :)

>>"Oh, ye gods, my little sister is a naturist," Remilia said, observing the
>>scene through the fingers of one hand.
>
>This got a good chuckle, especially since Remilia really should have
>seen Flandre's utter lack of modesty in the situation coming.

She should have, but somehow Flan just keeps surprising her. (Alternately, she did, then couldn't help but react that way anyway.)

>>"You've named the salamander?"
>
>Of course she did. I do wonder how many other unexpected namings
>Flandre might indulge in as time goes on.

All of her dolls and stuffed toys have names as well, we just haven't heard any of them. (Or seen any of the toys themselves in detail, come to think of it; I have ideas for a few of them, but there hasn't been a good place to work them in yet. I should've mentioned somewhere in the frontispiece for this episode that they're part of the obstacle course one must navigate to get into or out of her bed. :)

>>Flandre shrugged, making ripples in the water around her. "He just looks like
>>a Stephen. Unless he's a girl. I can't really tell."
>
>I'm a bit curious about the criteria for 'looking like a Stephen' but
>that's mostly since it also happens to be my name and I'm sincerely
>hoping I look the part.

I have no specific data about this, since the criteria exist only in Flan's head.

>>"Very well, then. If—I should say when, because I'm sure it's inevitable—Flan
>>makes such a request of you again, you needn't refuse on my account."
>
>I must admit, Remilia's bit here surprised me. I had expected her more
>traditional nature to have drawn the line G clearly expected, but it
>didn't.

It surprised G too, and he's still thinking it over as the act concludes, despite her admonition that he shouldn't think too hard about it—because she obviously has, despite how casually she tried to present her conclusions.

I think it's fair to say that in virtually any other instance, that line you (and he) were expecting is there. In fact, looking at the passage now, there's a paragraph missing that I have a clear memory of writing which would have spelled that part out as well. I wonder what the hell happened there? Grumble. Anyway, she is only talking about Flandre there. Everyone else is out of luck if she has any say in the matter, which of course she has.

>Though if things between them go the way Flandre certainly
>seems interested in I hope she finds something other than variations
>on 'brother' to call the man.

She's still workshopping alternatives, but for now she remains comfortable with "bro" (although she's relying less and less on the "big" modifier as she herself feels less of a child.

>>"Maman was very proud of that particular invention."
>
>Remilia the Elder seems to have been the sort of magical inventor you
>often expect but seldom see in most traditional fantasy settings, the
>person applying all that magical juice to making life better in small
>but deeply practical and satisfying ways.

It's true. When she wasn't being a straight-up magical doctor, she was all about what we would now call "quality of life improvements". The peculiar resistance to entropy that things in the house seem to have (like the fact that everything in the music room is still more or less in tune after being completely neglected for 70+ years) is also almost certainly her doing.

>>"Bro! Meiling! It stopped raining! Let's go do the thing!"
>
>I'm not sure if it is intentional, perhaps as a sign/side effect of
>Flandre becoming herself and growing in a more modern age, that her
>speech patterns seem more modern in my mind that pretty much anyone
>else in the household.

This is also true. Not only is she temperamentally less formal than her sister, she speaks English more like Gryphon and Meiling do—not altogether coincidentally, since they're the people she's conversed with in that language the most since her recovery. (I haven't noted it in the text anywhere, because it felt clunky and fourth-wall-y, but you can assume that when she and Remilia are the only people in the scene, their dialogue is really in French.) How much of this is unconscious imitation of people she thinks highly of, and how much is just because she's at an impressionable "age" and those are the linguistic influences she's surrounded with, she probably wouldn't be able to tell you herself.

>Is it me, or has teaching the witches to touch the Force somehow
>strengthened G's own connection to it? I have this sense that in a lot
>of earlier stories that touched on the Force flavored foundations of
>his fighting style it was all much less potent (I specifically recall
>a scene in one story where he evened somewhat surprised himself by
>managing some telekinesis to retrieve a weapon.)

I would say it's partly that, and partly a result of his own closer study of the matter in the year or two before his displacement to 1946. He started paying more deliberate attention to the Jedi side of Katsujinkenryū after Leonard went off to become a Jedi Knight himself, and a lot of his work with Raven has involved the Force/magic intersection as a matter of course as well. Zauberschule is a very big part of it, though.

>Seems like Sakuya is settled into the new rhythm at the mansion, she
>seems much more emotive here, or maybe Remilia was just particularly
>on target when it came to her lovingly administered teasing.

Again, both impressions are applicable. The "family" vibe in the household is so much stronger now than it was in the old days with the large staff, and she and Remilia are so much more open about their relationship than they were in the dark period when it was just the two of them staggering along under the weight of the 10th of Floréal, that she feels a lot more free to express the emotions she's always had. And of course there's Meiling, who unlocks a lot of things just by being there. (Early in their relationship, she found this troubling to the point of annoyance, until it finally dawned on her that there was nobody around she needed to front for in the first place.)

As for Remilia, well, with all due respect to Meiling, nobody knows Sakuya better, and now that she's gone and deliberately ripped open the curtain of Professional Detachment that used to hang between them, she's going to make the most of it any chance she gets. She enjoys teasing Sakuya as much as Flan enjoys teasing her, and all is right with the world. :)

She still does her job perfectly and elegantly, of course. She wouldn't be Sakuya if she didn't. But she's a lot less of a Vulcan about it these days, and I dare say it's a healthier way of life for all concerned.

>...and the confluence of the various timelines in this tale just got
>even more tangled. At this point I'm picturing the picture used in a
>lot of conspiracy memes depicting a wild eyed fellow in front of a
>cork board that looks like someone threw a ball of yarn and box of
>thumbtacks at repeatedly until some of them stuck.

The really fun part is that it's even crazier than that hypothetical guy thinks, because of the whole Crisis on Infinite Tracers thing. :)

>>"Whatever you're doing, turn it off!" Gryphon shouted over the noise.
>
>I feel like this is a reference I'm missing, but I'm not sure if it
>isn't a false positive due to this also possibly being one of those
>stock lines that come up in such situations.

It's not a specific reference to anything, although such a reference may be appearing in a future installment, since Gryphon and Meiling working on the house always give me "Han and Chewie trying to fix the Falcon" vibes anyway. :)

>Sakuya's wit is as sharp as her murder implements I see. This might be
>more of the 'loosening up' I thought I saw earlier, or maybe it is
>just her getting some more time to shine?

Yes, and also yes.

>>"I'm sure I'll adapt in a day or two," said Lena, and then, with a wry grin,
>>"I'm not exactly unfamiliar with creatures of the night—right, Chief?"
>>Gryphon chuckled. "Indeed."
>
>It was noted where our time witch was imported from, so does that make
>this a reference to said source, or a tale yet to be told?

She's talking about one of her colleagues back at the 508th JFW. Captain Lacroix is not a vampire (ED. NOTE: in this universe), but she is markèdly eccentric even by the liberal standards of Night Witches.

(Lena runs into the local version of Amélie Lacroix in every timeline she manifests in. She has no idea why. It's not like they're Destined to Be Together or anything of that sort; they rarely even get along all that well! Indeed, sometimes they spend entire lifetimes just trying to murder each other. But she always turns up, regardless of context. Even Lena thinks that's kind of eerie, although by this point she's learned to roll with it. And hey, at least in this life they're on the same side.)

>>"Well... I suppose there's no reason why that wouldn't work," said Gryphon
>>after a moment's thought.
>
>Mosquito jokes aside, is Remilia's appetite truly that small that a
>month's worth of her hard to acquire dietary supplement would be
>easily portable in luggage?

Probably not, and that is a logistical concern nobody's actually thought of yet in this scene, and will need to be addressed. (Technically speaking, it's not that hard to acquire, although the fact that Remilia isn't very good at the game, either socially or in terms of technique, does have to be taken into account.)

>This whole sequence was pretty much Flandre gold, facilitated by
>Remilia's dignity. Somehow I doubt Flandre will ever fully get tired
>of causing indignant Remilia noises.

Certainly not! And on some level, she knows Remilia enjoys it too—now that Flan is better at feeling out the line between being impertinent and being hurtful. Remi wouldn't know what to do if Flan didn't tease her. It would mean she must be sick or something.

--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.


#8, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by StClair on Oct-17-20 at 05:19 PM
In response to message #6
>>Congratulations, G has been promoted from horsey to teddy bear.
>
>Next stop: dakimakura!

*snrk*


>Certainly not! And on some level, she knows Remilia enjoys it
>too—now that Flan is better at feeling out the line between
>being impertinent and being hurtful. Remi wouldn't know what to
>do if Flan didn't tease her. It would mean she must be sick or
>something.

Well, she was, once - deathly so. And for a long time after that, she was in a different way. The Child was probably too innocent and spacey to tease, and the Other wouldn't - as you say, she /hurts/.

Bad memories, best replaced with better ones.


#9, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-17-20 at 06:02 PM
In response to message #6
>In fact, looking at
>the passage now, there's a paragraph missing that I have a clear
>memory
of writing which would have spelled that part out as well.
>I wonder what the hell happened there? Grumble. Anyway, she is
>only talking about Flandre there. Everyone else is out of luck
>if she has any say in the matter, which of course she has.

I hunted in the "cuts" bin, thinking I might have stuck the lost paragraph in there with the intent of moving it (that scene got chopped around a bit) and forgot to put it back, but it wasn't in there, so either I failed to preserve it for some reason, or meant to include it to the point of having mentally composed it, but then managed to forget to actually type it.

Either way, I've reconstructed it where it ought to have ended up, to the best of my recall. There is also a new annotation regarding a turn of phrase Remilia uses therein, which is important for context.

--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.


#13, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Astynax on Oct-18-20 at 01:56 AM
In response to message #6
>Next stop: dakimakura!
>

Heh, all that would take is hooking a leg around him as well as an arm, which is probably what would have happened next if he'd continued to try to extract himself.

>It surprised G too, and he's still thinking it over as the act
>concludes, despite her admonition that he shouldn't think too hard
>about it—because she obviously has, despite how casually
>she tried to present her conclusions.
>
>I think it's fair to say that in virtually any other instance, that
>line you (and he) were expecting is there. In fact, looking at
>the passage now, there's a paragraph missing that I have a clear
>memory
of writing which would have spelled that part out as well.
>I wonder what the hell happened there? Grumble. Anyway, she is
>only talking about Flandre there. Everyone else is out of luck
>if she has any say in the matter, which of course she has.
>

That added bit does make it marginally less surprising. It stands to reason that Flandre would be a deeply special case for a few reasons. Still surprising that she arrived at that point so seemingly smoothly, but I expect there was a lot of pondering off screen when she could be alone with her thoughts.

>It's true. When she wasn't being a straight-up magical doctor, she
>was all about what we would now call "quality of life improvements".
>The peculiar resistance to entropy that things in the house seem to
>have (like the fact that everything in the music room is still more or
>less in tune after being completely neglected for 70+ years) is also
>almost certainly her doing.
>

If she was known for such tendencies before they met and married, I'd suspect that was at least one quality that caught Count Victor's attention.

>This is also true. Not only is she temperamentally less formal than
>her sister, she speaks English more like Gryphon and Meiling
>do—not altogether coincidentally, since they're the people she's
>conversed with in that language the most since her recovery. (I
>haven't noted it in the text anywhere, because it felt clunky and
>fourth-wall-y, but you can assume that when she and Remilia are the
>only people in the scene, their dialogue is really in French.) How
>much of this is unconscious imitation of people she thinks highly of,
>and how much is just because she's at an impressionable "age" and
>those are the linguistic influences she's surrounded with, she
>probably wouldn't be able to tell you herself.
>

The answer is likely to be 'yes'. It's been known to happen that groups of people in isolated circumstances will start to develop their own linguistic habits, to the point of inventing new dialects at times (I recall some stories about scientists in Antarctica experiencing this.) Her esteem for those influencing her language use probably has a multiplier effect on how quickly and fully those traits get assimilated.

>As for Remilia, well, with all due respect to Meiling, nobody knows
>Sakuya better, and now that she's gone and deliberately ripped open
>the curtain of Professional Detachment that used to hang between them,
>she's going to make the most of it any chance she gets. She enjoys
>teasing Sakuya as much as Flan enjoys teasing her, and all is right
>with the world. :)
>

I expect Remilia enjoys it for much the same reason than Flandre enjoys her variation, and apparently that sort of thing is contagious going by Sakuya's interaction with Lena later on.


>The really fun part is that it's even crazier than that hypothetical
>guy thinks, because of the whole Crisis on Infinite Tracers thing. :)
>

Yeah, I'm still trying to file that bit. Do all of the Tracers exist essentially concurrently, with awareness of one another?

>It's not a specific reference to anything, although such a reference
>may be appearing in a future installment, since Gryphon and Meiling
>working on the house always give me "Han and Chewie trying to fix the
>Falcon" vibes anyway. :)
>

That might be the sort of scene that line pinged. Now that you mention them, I could swear I remember Han yelling something vaguely similar while trying to make the Falcon spaceworthy at some point or other.

>Probably not, and that is a logistical concern nobody's actually
>thought of yet in this scene, and will need to be addressed.
>(Technically speaking, it's not that hard to acquire, although
>the fact that Remilia isn't very good at the game, either socially or
>in terms of technique, does have to be taken into account.)
>

I had more meant hard for Remilia to acquire consensually, discreetly, and without whatever the domestic equivalent of a major diplomatic incident is. Anyway, I have probably spent more time than is healthy out of my life contemplating the care and feeding of vampires, so it jumped to mind quickly when the notion of an ethical vampire traveling away from their usual supply came up.


-={(Astynax)}=-
"This Space For Rent."


#14, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-18-20 at 02:49 AM
In response to message #13
LAST EDITED ON Oct-18-20 AT 03:02 AM (EDT)
 
>>Next stop: dakimakura!
>
>Heh, all that would take is hooking a leg around him as well as an
>arm, which is probably what would have happened next if he'd continued
>to try to extract himself.

Almost certainly, yes. Ah well. Another time, perhaps. :)

>That added bit does make it marginally less surprising. It stands to
>reason that Flandre would be a deeply special case for a few reasons.
>Still surprising that she arrived at that point so seemingly smoothly,
>but I expect there was a lot of pondering off screen when she could be
>alone with her thoughts.

Yes, I think a lot of the time that she's spent in her study, ostensibly reading her father's journals, has actually been spent looking out the window and contemplating the strands of fate. For those purposes, it's been convenient for her that G's spent the last several nights working on finishing the bath project, and Flan's mostly been either in the music room or outside blowing up the yard. It's given her the opportunity to give these matters the reflection they deserve without being obvious about it to everyone else in the house.

... or the narrator, unfortunately. I could've done a better job with that.

In the source, she claims to be able to influence, or at least see, the workings of fate, but if that isn't straight bullshit, it's obviously an inexact science, since in her initial appearance she's an enemy NPC and thus obviously intended to lose, and if she had known that she presumably wouldn't have bothered with the whole scheme in the first place. :)

(Either way, in UF she certainly believes in fate as a concept; she's mentioned it repeatedly since TTW Act I.)

>>It's true. When she wasn't being a straight-up magical doctor, she
>>was all about what we would now call "quality of life improvements".
>
>If she was known for such tendencies before they met and married, I'd
>suspect that was at least one quality that caught Count Victor's
>attention.

Act VI will hopefully have a bit that addresses this very matter (how Victor and Remilia the Elder met and decided to marry), which is a story even their daughters don't entirely know yet.

>Her esteem for those influencing her language use probably has
>a multiplier effect on how quickly and fully those traits get
>assimilated.

Luckily, she hasn't been hanging around picking up their language when they're doing work. Both of them know some very creative names to call, for example, stuck fasteners. :)

This reminds me of a joke that's in Bill Bryson's book about Australia, In a Sunburned Country, which I shall reproduce for you here:

In the 1950s a friend of Catherine's moved with her young family into a house next door to a vacant lot. One day a construction crew turned up to build a house on the lot. Catherine's friend had a four-year-old daughter who naturally took an interest in all the activity going on next door. She hung around on the margins and eventually the construction workers adopted her as a kind of mascot. They chatted to her and gave her little jobs to do and at the end of the week presented her with a little pay packet containing a shiny new half crown.

She took this home to her mother, who made all the appropriate cooings of admiration and suggested that they take it to the bank the next morning to deposit it in her account. When they went to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her own pay packet.

"I've been building a house this week," she replied proudly.

"Goodness," said the teller. "And will you be building a house next week, too?"

"I will if we ever get the fucking bricks," answered the little girl.

>>The really fun part is that it's even crazier than that hypothetical
>>guy thinks, because of the whole Crisis on Infinite Tracers thing. :)
>
>Yeah, I'm still trying to file that bit. Do all of the Tracers exist
>essentially concurrently, with awareness of one another?

It's more that, at any given age, she has access to the memories of all the others up to that same age. Normally they're not obvious except the ones of the timeline she's in, but she can find them if she wants them, which means her head is a giant ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey mess, but somehow still works, apart from her tendency to lose track of whether she's actually met people yet or not. "It just sort of 'appens," is the closest she can get to an explanation for anyone else.

(NOTE: This can be pretty jarring if, say, she goes riffling through the memories of an aspect who, for whatever reason, didn't live to be the age that she is at the time of the search. For obvious reasons, she doesn't like to do that.)

>>Gryphon and Meiling
>>working on the house always give me "Han and Chewie trying to fix the
>>Falcon" vibes anyway. :)
>
>That might be the sort of scene that line pinged. Now that you mention
>them, I could swear I remember Han yelling something vaguely similar
>while trying to make the Falcon spaceworthy at some point or
>other.

You are almost certainly thinking of this scene from The Empire Strikes Back, a scene which my father and I have (without meaning to) almost perfectly re-enacted on several occasions, albeit with automobiles or household wiring rather than a beat-up nth-hand starship. :)

>I had more meant hard for Remilia to acquire consensually, discreetly,
>and without whatever the domestic equivalent of a major diplomatic
>incident is. Anyway, I have probably spent more time than is healthy
>out of my life contemplating the care and feeding of vampires, so it
>jumped to mind quickly when the notion of an ethical vampire traveling
>away from their usual supply came up.

Well, it's definitely something that will need to be looked at. Luckily, she only requires a really substantial fix on full-moon nights—the rest of the time her appetite is much smaller, and on the two or three days around the new moon she barely has any at all—so with a bit of care and prudence, she should be able to get by.

(If she and Flan were both going, it would be a definite issue, since that would more than double the requirement.)

--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.


#15, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Astynax on Oct-19-20 at 00:24 AM
In response to message #14
LAST EDITED ON Oct-19-20 AT 00:24 AM (EDT)
 
>Almost certainly, yes. Ah well.
>Another time, perhaps. :)
>

Well, that's just painfully adorable.

>Yes, I think a lot of the time that she's spent in her study,
>ostensibly reading her father's journals, has actually been spent
>looking out the window and contemplating the strands of fate. For
>those purposes, it's been convenient for her that G's spent the last
>several nights working on finishing the bath project, and Flan's
>mostly been either in the music room or outside blowing up the yard.
>It's given her the opportunity to give these matters the reflection
>they deserve without being obvious about it to everyone else in the
>house.
>
>... or the narrator, unfortunately. I could've done a better job with
>that.
>

I guess that depends on if you wanted the reader to be as surprised as G was. Given your comment I'm guessing not, but it works the same either way.

>In the source, she claims to be able to influence, or at least see,
>the workings of fate, but if that isn't straight bullshit, it's
>obviously an inexact science, since in her initial appearance she's an
>enemy NPC and thus obviously intended to lose, and if she had known
>that she presumably wouldn't have bothered with the whole scheme in
>the first place. :)
>

Since this all takes place in a multiverse where the Force is a thing, and it is a thing closely coupled to magic, it wouldn't be outlandish for Remilia to have something akin to the common Force user battle precognition (which while powerful is known to have limits) and some variation on the whole prophetic visions shtick (which has always been portrayed as a deeply inexact science.)

>Luckily, she hasn't been hanging around picking up their language when
>they're doing work. Both of them know some very creative names to
>call, for example, stuck fasteners. :)
>

She's bound to pick it up sooner or later, though Flandre strikes me, at this stage, as the sort who would break out the profanity for maximum (likely teasing/trolling) effect.

>It's more that, at any given age, she has access to the memories of
>all the others up to that same age. Normally they're not obvious
>except the ones of the timeline she's in, but she can find them if she
>wants them, which means her head is a giant ball of wibbly wobbly
>timey wimey mess, but somehow still works, apart from her tendency to
>lose track of whether she's actually met people yet or not. "It just
>sort of 'appens," is the closest she can get to an explanation for
>anyone else.
>

That actually answered my follow up curiosity about how some of her state of existence functions. I figured it was either that, or she had a Dr. Manhattan headache going on upstairs, and she seems far too chipper for the latter to be the case.

>You are almost certainly thinking of this scene
>from The Empire Strikes Back, a scene which my father
>and I have (without meaning to) almost perfectly re-enacted on several
>occasions, albeit with automobiles or household wiring rather than a
>beat-up nth-hand starship. :)
>

Probably? I hadn't actually had a full recollection on deck, but that certainly fits the bill. And reminds me it's been a while since I watched good Star Wars content that wasn't The Mandalorian (which only half counts in my book since it's really got a 'Western in Space!' vibe running strongly through it rather than the original trilogy's sci-fantasy style.)


-={(Astynax)}=-
"This Space For Rent."


#16, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-19-20 at 00:37 AM
In response to message #15
>>It's given her the opportunity to give these matters the reflection
>>they deserve without being obvious about it to everyone else in the
>>house.
>>
>>... or the narrator, unfortunately. I could've done a better job with
>>that.
>>
>
>I guess that depends on if you wanted the reader to be as surprised as
>G was. Given your comment I'm guessing not, but it works the same
>either way.

Well, more that I hadn't really considered the question of whether the reader should be surprised, and I'm kind of annoyed with myself for overlooking it. I guess it does work, although for the sake of people who read the series after the fact and may not read the old discussion threads about it, I should probably backfill some mention of her time spent considering the matter later on. I can think of a decent place to do that in the outline I have in my head for act VI, though, so that works.

>Since this all takes place in a multiverse where the Force is a thing,
>and it is a thing closely coupled to magic, it wouldn't be outlandish
>for Remilia to have something akin to the common Force user battle
>precognition (which while powerful is known to have limits) and some
>variation on the whole prophetic visions shtick (which has always been
>portrayed as a deeply inexact science.)

True. She almost certainly does have some form of the former, since she can outmaneuver energy pulses in aerial combat, and as for the later, while I don't think she has visions as such, she sometimes gets a strong sense of how things will, or at least should, unfold. She claims to "see the threads" of fate, but that's a metaphor. It's really more of a feeling.

>She's bound to pick it up sooner or later, though Flandre strikes me,
>at this stage, as the sort who would break out the profanity for
>maximum (likely teasing/trolling) effect.

Given that her close reading of parts of Shakespeare is one of the only clear memories she has of all the reading she did during her confinement, I fully expect her to call someone or something a whoreson beetle-headed flap-eared knave at some point. :)

>I figured it was either that, or she had
>a Dr. Manhattan headache going on upstairs, and she seems far too
>chipper for the latter to be the case.

Yeah, the weirder parts don't really impinge on her consciousness unless she goes looking for them, so for the most part they don't bother her.

--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.


#17, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Astynax on Oct-19-20 at 00:54 AM
In response to message #16
>Well, more that I hadn't really considered the question of
>whether the reader should be surprised, and I'm kind of annoyed with
>myself for overlooking it. I guess it does work, although for the
>sake of people who read the series after the fact and may not read the
>old discussion threads about it, I should probably backfill some
>mention of her time spent considering the matter later on. I can
>think of a decent place to do that in the outline I have in my head
>for act VI, though, so that works.
>

Since the mention of Remilia doing her pondering while ostensibly reading her father's journals came up I've had this half formed notion of her commenting "really now, you've seen me reading regularly, and even at a leisurely pace did you truly think it would take me that long to work through father's journals?"

>Given that her close reading of parts of Shakespeare is one of the
>only clear memories she has of all the reading she did during her
>confinement, I fully expect her to call someone or something a
>whoreson beetle-headed flap-eared knave at some point. :)
>

Whenever that occurs the look of utter bafflement on the recipient's and/or bystander's face will be golden. I could actually see it causing enough of a 'wait, what?' moment to be useful as a distraction in combat, at least the first time.


-={(Astynax)}=-
"This Space For Rent."


#18, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Peter Eng on Oct-19-20 at 01:32 AM
In response to message #16
>
>Given that her close reading of parts of Shakespeare is one of the
>only clear memories she has of all the reading she did during her
>confinement, I fully expect her to call someone or something a
>whoreson beetle-headed flap-eared knave at some point. :)
>

Now I'm wondering if some of those unclear memories will come back eventually, either when she's able to handle them effectively, or when the information is useful.

Peter Eng
--
"Flandre, when did you learn about sonnets?"


#12, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by SneakyPete on Oct-17-20 at 08:23 PM
In response to message #4
">"This is amazing," Flandre agreed. "I think we should give Stephen a raise."
>"Who's Stephen?" Remilia wondered.
>"The salamander."
>"You've named the salamander?"
>

Of course she did. I do wonder how many other unexpected namings Flandre might indulge in as time goes on. She seems the sort of name her personal transportation, and possibly even notable appliances once the has some."

She'll get along well with the people of Barsaive and Elizabeth Shustal.


#10, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Zemyla on Oct-17-20 at 08:06 PM
In response to message #0
LAST EDITED ON Oct-17-20 AT 08:15 PM (EDT) by Gryphon (admin)
 
This doesn't belong in the Touhou art thread, so it'd probably best be placed here: Tracer in a maid outfit.

At one point she claims that she has dreams about being a kitchen maid in a large house in the country. This is a joke about her VA having been in Downton Abbey, but this might be a good place for those dreams to come true.


#11, RE: GG 2/V: Une Inconnue Bien Connue
Posted by Gryphon on Oct-17-20 at 08:14 PM
In response to message #10
LAST EDITED ON Oct-17-20 AT 08:16 PM (EDT)
 
>This doesn't belong in the Touhou art thread, so it'd probably best be
>placed here: Tracer in a maid outfit.
>
>At one point she claims that she has dreams about being a kitchen maid
>in a large house in the country. This is a joke about her VA having
>been in Downton Abbey, but this might be a good place for those dreams
>to come true.

I feel like Remilia is not so coldhearted as to make a houseguest with a broken leg work off her keep, although once she's feeling better, I could see Lena hatching the idea with Sakuya as a joke. (She'd need Sakuya's help with the uniform, after all. :)

--G.
"As for the animal ears and tail, you're on your own there, I'm afraid. My supply of cosplay accessories is very limited now that I haven't access to the TARDIS wardrobes."
-><-
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.