You're welcome. I'm glad it helps.

>(no no, nothing specific, just general state-of-the-world ennui)

I hear that. I have no idea where the current outburst is coming form; I've been in a state of intellectual and emotional paralysis for months, and still am except that these stories keep happening. I suppose, given the general trend of the content, it's mostly a backlash against isolation and powerlessness. Why else would there be so much cuddling and things-working-out?

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

Oddly enough, that was pretty much my own reaction. This chapter just sort of... happened. The old brain switching gears for a bit to relieve the mechanical tension on the part that's doing Gothic, perhaps, like the British Army used to have to let those 6×6 APCs they had unwind their transfer cases before they broke something. :)

>Mio and Ritsu making
>things official as well was not exactly out of left field, but was at
>least to me a bit unexpected to have occurred at this point.

♪ blame it on hyperspace...

>I was also wondering if Niri's attachment to Yui was going to end up
>more permanent than Yui expected it would. That was delightful, and
>another good look into just how wise to these things Korra really is.

For a while, it was looking about 50/50 whether it would unfold the way it did, or the puppy Korra mentioned would be coming to look after Yui; but I figured she would have enough on her plate without having to train a PBD pup, and anyway, Niri pretty well made up her mind when she went with them on the summer microtour after they were finished on Mount Weitang; I just hadn't quite cottoned onto it yet.

>I have to admit I'm a -little- surprised that the HTT girls are going
>to be housed in a "on-campus but not -on- campus" location, but
>ultimately it makes a reasonable amount of sense.

Well, the way I figured it, living in a completely-unaffiliated setting (like a house or apartment in town) would be too detached, but given their background, settling them right on campus (in a suite/pod of one of the dorms, or siting something like Handel House in the midst of the scrum) would be throwing them in at the deep end. The administration is aware that they're from a setting where they were unlikely to encounter anything like the place they're in now, and splitting the difference seemed the best call. Plus, they can reuse the facility for other visiting faculty and special student groups later, if the music department doesn't keep a steady turnover in its own right.

(It's sort of in the mold of Galaxy House from Symphony 1, which was a block or two from WPI proper, and which was based on the real WPI's "World House" special residence.)

>(I'm also somewhat concerned for
>Touga and Mikage's efforts on campus, but then it looks like that was
>for the previous school year. Though that means it likely went
>entirely unnoticed, which has me somewhat more worried)

Well, not entirely unnoticed, but either way, it's over by the start of the fall semester.

>I've been massively enjoying Gallian Gothic as it comes out and
>deeply happy with the huge influx of new Eyrie work I get to read.

I'm glad to hear it. Gothic is as much a surprise as this piece popping out in the midst of it, really. I hadn't expected to get much of anywhere at all this year, after the drought that set in following Friends Like These, and given Real-World Events, but it's been a comfort to have something pleasant to lose myself in these past few weeks. Hopefully that train still has a ways to run.

--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'm looking forward to the inevitable leash law scuffle. 'Officer, with all due respect, do you really think Niri is going to let something like a bit of rope slow her down?'

Edit: Bonus points if it's a canny Judge, who would allow that much is true, but still insist on the formal application of the Law.

Technically speaking, when saddled she's a service animal wearing an appropriate harness. :)

--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.

A) turn said psycho into a Pollack paining
B) turned the above psycho into a basket case, with a Ranma Satome-level fear of both cats AND dogs.....

Craig

----------------------------
IAMTW-Nominated Author

Author of the Battletech Novels, Icons of War,
Elements of Treason: Duty, Elements of Treason:
Opportunity, and Elements of Treason: Honor

Co-author of Four Outcast Ops
novels -- African Firestorm, Red Ice, Watchlist, and
Shadow Government.

Author of the The Russia-Ukraine War Factbook (Vol 1)

The funny part is, Yui probably thinks Korra was joking when she said Niri wouldn't eat anyone "unless you tell her to." :)

(And really, it's all another variation on the Taken scenario, isn't it? "Ah, jeez, I gotta go, Dad. Some dudes followed us home from the airport and broke in, and Niri and Serge are killing them to death.")

--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.

"Fortunately, Sergei and Niri gave a measured response."
"The intruders have multiple cracked ribs."
"Well, yes. They knocked them down, then sat on them. Considering that they're both apex predators, that's a measured response."

Peter Eng
--
"They sat on the intruders for six hours."
"I suppose they didn't want to wake anybody up."

Well, she'll at least be gentler about it. In the source she's really kind of disconcertingly violent. I mean, it's played as slapstick, but still, she routinely leaves a mark. Hereon, I assume the blows will be mostly symbolic.

>>"Yes, Ritsu, they do have boys here," said Kaitlyn patiently. "And others,
>>too. There are life forms at this school you've never even imagined."
>
>I wonder if any Hanar or Elcor turn up at DSM?

Imagine an elcor economics teacher with the voice of Ben Stein from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Like that subject wasn't already hard enough to take seriously. :)

>Congrats to Yui on being adopted by an apex predator with a heart of
>gold. This also mean that if HTT had any notion of trying to
>keep a low profile until they got their bearings that's going to be
>utterly impossible now.

On the plus side, it means Yui is now totally invulnerable to the ISO Standard Anime Skeevy Dudes ("hey, little lady, looks like you got stood up. Why don't you come and play with OH MY GOD RUN FOR YOUR LIVES").

>>"Well, Yui, I guess you've got a cat and a dog now," said Ritsu with a grin,
>>reaching down and ruffling Azusa's feline spirit ears (which, it hadn't
>>escaped any of her bandmates, had been out pretty much full-time since the
>>end of the summer mini-tour).
>
>Background minutiae curiosity, is this from the original source,
>something from Legend of Korra that I don't recall/didn't see (I only
>watched the first season of that show, Korra was awesome but the
>rest... less so,) or something else, like a low power version of the
>witches' familiars perhaps?

It's sort of both of the first two. In K-On!, Azusa's resemblance in person and mannerisms to a cat is a running joke (their faculty advisor, who is a bit unhinged and into cosplay, sticks a cat-ears headband on her when she first joins the club, which is why Yui calls her "Azu-nyan", and she routinely does the thing where she protests verbally but takes no action to free herself when summarily cuddled); and in our extrapolation of the Avatar setting, spirits have been roaming the material world and occasionally intermarrying with humans for several generations by this point (following events that took place in one of the later seasons of Legend).

What this all boils down to is that one of UF-Azusa's grandmothers was a cat spirit, and she's inherited a few cat spirit traits, including the ears. If you look back through the earlier run of TFLF, you can see that she's spent most of her life trying to suppress her cat spirit inheritance (e.g., the ears only appeared when she was distracted or startled and couldn't consciously keep them hidden), because she found it embarrassing, but in the later part of the series she's been leaning into it more. As we see her in this episode, she's stopped trying to suppress the ears altogether.

--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.

Heck, after a micro-tour opening for the Art of Noise, they might be able to pool their money and buy a second set of drums. That's probably a better choice in the long run.

Peter Eng
--
(I may be off on my estimate of how lucrative the tour was.)

As it happens, Ritsu's drum kit is designed to be as portable as they get (the whole thing is meant to pack up into the bass drum and a hardware case that doubles as the seat), but it is still pretty unwieldy. Fortunately, when they're jamming at the house, she can use Dorothy's practice rig, so her own can stay set up in the club room.

As for Mugi's Triton Xtreme, pshaw. It only weighs 40 pounds! That's just slightly more than a Stinger surface-to-air-missile. :)

--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.

RSS seems to have been broken for a bit. I may have just fixed it? But since I don't really know how it works in the first place, don't quote me.

NOTE: If you were seeing the version that only went up to Notes from the Scarlet Mansion Act IV, you may also have missed Notes from the Scarlet Mansion Act V.

--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.

Oh... very well.

--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.