I picked a good time to show up here, it seems. Anyway, let's begin.

>- William Shakespeare
>The Tempest, Act 2, Scene I

Aww, I'm a sucker for an appropriate Shakespeare quote. And you guys went with his second-best play, as well.

(His best play is and always will be Lear.)

>For a moment, Utena wasn't sure what to be more surprised by:
>that the staff of the Phoenix House had learned from somewhere that she
>held the rank of captain, or that she was apparently expected to take
>the big book on the Phoenix Flight with her when she left.

They do have the internet on Diqiu, Utena. I mean, it's not like you're in a third-world galactic hellhole. They probably just googled you.

Now, if they'd addressed her as Prince Tenjou, THAT would be some impressive sleuthing on the part of the hospitality staff. :)

>"Wait for it," Corwin replied, still grinning - and a moment
>later, the bulky and unmistakable shape of Mogi swooped between two of
>the buildings on the other side of the street, passed straight over the
>press group at barely more than head height (causing hats, scarves, and
>notebook pages to go flying amid cries of surprise and dismay), flared
>like an aerodyne, and made a stylish six-point landing smack in the
>middle of the Phoenix House's striped loading zone.

I really like this passage for some reason and can't articulate why. It just seems particularly well put together, particularly the parenthetical aside (I have a crippling addiction to parenthetical asides) and various similes. But I can't point to anything specific and say 'yeah, that was pretty awesome'. So, y'know. For what that's worth.

Also, I like that the hat is still in fashion for men in Diqiu. Hats are awesome but these days people either don't wear them or have no idea how to wear one properly. (You need to get them fitted, people, and also to match them to your clothing!)

>A crowd of
>the youngest airbenders and Air Acolytes swarmed around Mogi like the
>deck crew of a spacecraft carrier around a returning fighter, even
>though he'd only been gone for ten minutes and required neither
>refueling nor fresh missiles.

I'm willing to bet that while he may not REQUIRE it, Mogi will never, ever pass up a chance for a good refueling.

>"Like a -stone wall.-
>Oh, if only you'd been here 120 years ago!" she added, clasping her
>hands wistfully under her chin. "We'd have been spared all that
>tiresome business with - "
>
>"Ikki," said Korra from behind her. "Standing right here.
>We've talked about this."
>
>Ikki turned to see the Avatar giving her a grumpy look, arms
>folded, and grinned at her. "I'm not blaming -you,- dear," she said.

Oh man, did Ikki just burn Mako?

Ikki, you are now officially my favorite among the UF Tenzinspawn. Sorry, Jinora. Anyone who points and laughs at Mako wins my undying love.

>"That changed the following year. When we learned that you were
>Cephirean, and that you and Corwin had found yourselves caught up in
>the... cosmic... events there, a few high-ranking members of the Order
>of the White Lotus... overreacted. Panicked, might not be too great an
>exaggeration," she added frankly. "This was only reinforced by news of
>your various exploits in both worlds over the next few years. I'm sure
>Korra has told you of the way in which their apprehension ultimately
>found expression: Certain members of the Order conspired in a secretive
>effort to prevent you and the Avatar from ever meeting."

Okay, hmm. I have opinions about this plot point, and I'm gonna try and express them without being insulting.

As near as I can tell, the reason an enormous chunk of the White Lotus leadership decided to try and prevent Korra from hanging out with Corwin is that they didn't want her going off-plane where if anything happened to her they couldn't be sure of the consequences to the Avatar Spirit, yes?

(That's not rhetorical. I'm asking it legit because its from there that my other assumptions flow.)

If that's the case then, well... that was unbelievably dumb on their point. And I'm using "unbelievably" to mean "no, I don't buy it."

I can see one or two Master Lotuses making a bad decision. It's not like Master Pakku was a model of rational thought, and Jeong Jeong was... volatile. But a massive conspiracy?

I mean, lets unpack this. These guys don't even think "hmm, we have reason to believe that occupying positions of cosmological significance in Cephiro will interact badly with our own cosmologically significant person. Let's do some research. In the meantime, keep Korra in the dark." They just have vague, unrealized fears that maybe something bad will happen if Korra dies off-plane. Not just "goes off-plane" but "dies off-plane." And their reaction to this is engage in an incredibly shoddy conspiracy to prevent her from ever again interacting with people she's befriended offplane?

I could almost, almost buy that if it were just one or two of them, and they were at least being subtle about it. But... intercepting her mail? Intercepting wedding invitations? I mean, that's something you only do if you're desperate, or if you're very, very sure your incredibly ill-thought-out conspiracy will work and Korra will not only never see Corwin again but will never even communicate with him again.

It might be just me, but I can't see them being this... this stupid. And petty, and just straight-up dumb. I was actually anticipating a bigger payoff here, that the OWL had some kind of legitimate concern about Korra interacting with the Trinity and they wanted to keep her in the dark while they worked things out, as is their shadowy way. This kind of cheapens the whole plotline; it's nearly to the level of cartoonish villainy. It's the sort of "obviously dumb and wrong and shitty thing to do" action you give to people who you want to be perceived as possessing near-suicidal levels of breathtaking idiocy and to be completely unsympathetic villains, and I would argue that presenting Master Lotuses that way doesn't work. I suppose it's possible the Order has fallen a long, long, long way from it's roots, when it was about philosophy, beauty, and truth, and has started staffing itself with complete imbeciles, but...

It would be different if this were some kind of legitimate fear, but Jinora basically completely dismisses it. Or, well, not exactly dismisses it, but elides around it.

As always, not trying to be jerk about this. Just calling it like I see it, and the way I see it, this plot thread ended badly.

Having said all that...

>"On the other hand," she said, many other voices layered upon
>her own, "you might want to hold onto something."

The actual confrontation with the Lotuses, up to and including the way Korra set everything up, was excellently conceived and written. When I talk about how I like seeing more political drama in UF, this is the sort of thing I mean, where someone does some sleuthing, digs deep, discovers ironclad evidence, and then works the system like a stripper pole until it does what they want it to do. I love that stuff. I'm still not sure about the wisdom of reaching for Kyoshi specifically, but whatever else you can say about Kyoshi when she opens her mouth people shut the fuck up, sit up, and pay attention.

>His predecessor, Avatar Roku, was
>murdered at the age of 70, so there's not much help there. Contemporary
>depictions of him near the end of his life do show him as an old man,
>albeit a vigorous one."

I might argue with the use of the word murdered, but Fire Lord Sozin doesn't really deserve having any slack cut. :)

>Jinora chuckled, then sobered again and said, "At any rate,
>there you are. That's what I suspect is happening. Every morning, she
>unknowingly repairs the little things that went wrong during the
>previous day

Minor quibble: I might not have used "morning" here. We're talking about waterbending, which is associated with the moon and the night. Firebending would occur unconsciously at sunrise; unconscious waterbending would be more likely to happen in Korra's sleep in the dead of night.

Also, as Jinora well knows, mornings and Korra are bitter, bitter enemies. :)

>"It's only one hypothesis," Jinora reminded him. "My brother
>thinks it's because the world isn't willing to risk the instability of a
>change of Avatar in the midst of such a rapidly accelerating period of
>change." She smiled fondly. "I think that ascribes entirely too much
>conscious volition to 'the world' as an entity, but then Rohan has
>always been a bit of a dreamer."

To throw my own theory into the ring; it might be possible that the Avatar Spirit has reached the end of its long, long journey and sees no need to move on to another human, but rather is simply preparing for some sort of apotheosis.

(Which might or might not be good for Korra, who is ultimately just a vessel.)

>Corwin looked back at her for a second or two, his gaze level;
>then he smiled.
>
>"Well, then," he said. "I guess we'd better start looking for a
>way to make it happen."

I'd like to note there's a certain amount of irony in Jinora being all "man, those OTHER Lotuses, what dicks for trying to control her life, am I right?" straight to a long a conversation with Korra's friends about how best to control her life. :)

(I kid because I love.)

>"Hmm... yeah," said Utena, thinking it over. "Yeah, I like
>that. We'd still be foreigners, but at least we wouldn't be tourists.
>We'd have a -stake- in what goes on here, and we wouldn't have to
>presume on Korra's hospitality or the airbenders' every time we came."

This is ever-so-slightly arrogant on Utena's part. It takes more than owning property somewhere to have a stake in what happens there, and the ability to casually purchase multiple homes anywhere you want doesn't mean you have a stake in the community.

Then again, this is Utena, who generally develops a stake in whatever community she's part of even if she doesn't try to or, indeed, even wants to.

>Avatar Kyoshi, namesake of Kyoshi Island, had been
>an adept watercolorist with a penchant for landscapes (all of them, Anne
>noticed, a bit disquietingly empty).

This? Was perfect.

I'm not sure why it was perfect. But Kyoshi set up on some lonely rock somewhere painting a very careful watercolor of some lonely, windswept promontory? Yes. Yes, that is what Kyoshi would do.

>At nearly six feet tall, the Scottish redhead stood out
>in most crowds, but especially here in Diqiu, where, even in the
>cosmopolitan hub of all the world's cultures, virtually nobody had hair
>that color.

Trivia: according to stills I've seen, this Friday will feature the first confirmed sighting of a genuine redhead in the Avatar universe. Not just "auburn" like Suki but "actual flame-colored red."

I look forward to it.

>They passed Customs without any problem at all - here as in
>Saikyo, nobody showed the slightest interest in the mysterious runed
>box, which Amy seemed to find a bit disappointing

"I brought all this cash just so I could bribe the customs man! I even wore this skirt in case I needed to show a little leg to seal the deal. When did this town get so boring?"

>Nyima's cheeks colored again. "It's growing back," she said.
>"I had to shave it to get my arrow, that's all."

I still love that they don't require the tonsure anymore.

(In my headcanon, when she achieves mastery Jinora will have a very polite but very -firm- talk with her father about how they may have done it that way two hundred years ago, and no, daddy, of course she isn't saying you look awful with a shaved head, but she still isn't going to be getting up every morning and shaving half her hair off.)

>He was -so- shocked, in fact, that he unconsciously reverted to
>his old default flying-cat form; he'd been cuing that action up when she
>arrived,

I think you mean "queuing that action up", as in, Nall had that action in the queue. Cuing, assuming you're using it as the present participle of "cue", doesn't meant that.

Homophones, man. They are treacherous mofos.

>"... So what was -that- about?" asked Utena while the dust
>settled.
>
>"Well," said Corwin.

The entire sequence of vignettes involving Nall and Lhakpa?

Well played, sir. Well played indeed.

>"I know she would. And I'd love
>to see her again. But your mother must have taught you - there's a
>dividing line between the world of the living and this place for a
>reason.

... Katara doesn't know Skuld very well.

(Valhalla sometimes seems like it has a revolving door these days, especially if you know the right people, even if you didn't earn your Right of Return.)

>"What, you mean 'be 400 years old'? I tried once. His answer
>wasn't that illuminating. He shrugged and said, 'Hell, I dunno, son, it
>just kinda happened while I was doing other stuff.'"

Oddly, this is how I felt when I turned 30. It was like "wait, what? When did THAT happen?"

>"In my time, it was rare for
>people to live as long as they do now in Diqiu. To say -I- was an
>anomaly would be severely understating the issue. Even before I
>attained my great age, I already stood apart from most people of my era
>thanks to my height, and it was only enhanced when I was announced as
>the Avatar."

Hmm. I don't do this a lot, but at this point I would like to pimp The Face Death Forgot, a short and very, very good story about Avatar Kyoshi that more or less paints her as she is painted here with regard to her lifespan, early life, and how she coped with it. It's a wonderful piece and anyone who likes Kyoshi at all should enjoy it.

>"... Wow," Corwin mused. "You -have- mellowed her."

Technically, Korra IS her. :)

>"Have you started on her betrothal necklace yet?"

Hrrm. Corwin is actually going to make one?

It seems a bit... I dunno. Cultural appropriation is usually something that is not cool. Aang wasn't exactly thrilled at all those people dressing up like Air Nomads just because they thought the outfits were nifty.

Might be overthinking it, but it pinged my radar.

>A NEW TEAM AVATAR?

I imagine some debate between Emily and her editor about whether or not 'Krew' was appropriate to use, before deciding it was a bit too precious for such an august publication as the Tribune.

>Korra turned the paper back around and read them a bit of the
>article, in which Emily Wong speculated that this small invasion of
>interesting foreigners gathering around "our Avatar"

Speculation on my part: Emily Wong has, by this point, figured out exactly who most if not all the people she's been following are, and is simply trying to figure out what to do with this information.

Though younger and more callow than her ME counterpart, Emily is probably well aware of the old reporters adage: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." Sure, the fact that they're associating with Korra means that Corwin and Utena probably aren't sinister, which means she can provisionally trust their statement that this series of articles will culminate in a big scoop. But trust is for suckers in the newsgathering game, and Emily is putting not only her rep on the line, but that of the Tribune and her chances for promotion. So she wouldn't just take their word, she'd check it out.

Diqiu has internet access, if I recall correctly, and even if it doesn't Zipang certainly does, and Emily has a ton of photos and at least some of the resources of the Tribune. Running her own image-recognition check (or asking her editor to have a stringer from their no-doubt-excellent Zipang desk do it for them) will produce a shit-ton of news articles about Utena and probably a fair bit about Corwin as well. Hell, assuming Diqiu has full internet access she could likely pull a lot of their public record from Zeta Cygni, Tomodachi, and Bajor.

Unfortunately for Emily, the news reports from half the Federation make Utena look like the biggest damn hero to come along since the original Wedge Defenders, and the OTHER half decry her as a vile war criminal working for dissident elements bent on undermining the lawful actions and sovereignty of the Earth Alliance- er, of independent Federation member-states.

Which would rather put her in a bind when it comes time to decide which way to hop in her final installment. Which would, in turn, make her rather eager to sit them down and get'em on the record before she writes herself into a narrative corner.

/speculation

>"We are," Nyima said. "Or we try to be, anyway."

Aang, ironically, was kind of a failure at both these things.

Well, he was kind of humble. At times. But retiring, not so much.

>"Metalbenders can't bend it - too highly refined - and I guess
>gold was too blingy," said Corwin.

Platinum is also way less malleable and generally tougher and more durable than gold. Higher melting point, too.

Despite Ben's previous Miles Mayhem analogy to Hiroshi, the man was undeniably pretty brilliant. He invented the automobile AND heavier-than-air flight AND the tank. Any one of those by itself would have been enough. I don't know if being one of Skuld's Chosen has a moral component involved (that is, if you have to not just be a cosmically good engineer, but also have a moral compass that's agreeable to her) but if it doesn't, I'd say in the context of UF Hiroshi would definitely be in contention.

Or if not with her then with whoever her demonic counterpart is, I suppose. If it works like it does in In Nomine.

>During the brief intermission following the fourth preliminary
>match (a battle of two teams from the far-flung Si Wong Desert, in which
>the Night Vale Spiderwolves narrowly defeated their arch-rivals, the
>Desert Bluffs Sunbeetles)

Ooooo, those Desert Bluffs Sunbeetles! They're so bad. And ugly. And bad. And just, just awful. Nobody likes them.

>"While we're waiting for the next
>match, who wants refills?" Pointing to various companions, she ticked
>off their preferred snacks. "Popcorn, fire flakes, soda, lychee juice?
>Rory? More rice balls? Amy, you want another squid-on-a-stick?"

What, no fire gummies? Korra seems like a fire gummy kind of girl. Especially the gold ones shaped like little dragons heads, she loves those.

>In his place, sporting the green number ninety-nine, making his Major
>League Bending debut... the completely unknown Watari Karasu!"

Ah. Language puns! Always solid.

Korra, if pressed, is going to claim she simply used a completely valid translation of Corwin's name in standard, isn't she?

>"I bet right around now, Azana's wishing she hadn't listened
>when Karana said she knew someone who could take over for Xiang Wan,"
>color commentator Zheng remarked from Korra's phone radio.
>
>"I'm fairly sure Zanya didn't really know what she was talking
>about there," play-by-play man Kenji said dryly.

This is probably me being confused, but... I'm not sure how we jumped from Azana and Karana to Zanya in this exchange, as she's on the other team and doesn't seem pertinent to the conversation at hand. I want to say her name was used by mistake, maybe? Except I have a long track record of being wrong when I think things like that.

>"Dr. Rockalanche -doesn't know that.- He keeps trying to
>cover her left flank even though she doesn't really need it. That's
>more interesting."

Ugh, really?

I know he just joined the team and all, and this is just an exhibition match, but man, my estimation of the Ice Wraiths as hard-nosed chargers who skirt the rules just went way, way down. There's playing clever and brutal, and then there's playing dumb, and as a hockey fan I can tell you there's a HUGE difference.

I feel like I should have more to say about the pro-bending match. Every time you guys do an extended personal fight sequence (by which I mean, a fight involving people with crazy weapons and/or crazy powers, as opposed to ones involving fleets and armies) I feel like I should have something to say, but they're always so well executed I can never think of anything aside from "I liked this. It was good."

So, you know. I liked this. It was good.

Narratively speaking, I might have had Corwin lose anyway (in order to set up the rematch) but that's such a minor point.

>"Welllll," said Korra with an unconvincingly innocent air, "as
>you know I don't generally like to throw my weight around - " (here she
>magnificently ignored Azana's skeptical snort)

"I don't normally play this card, but... I'm the Avatar."

>"HAH!" said Nall involuntarily; then he composed himself and
>said with heavy mock gravity, "Uh, I mean, scandalous, scandalous." He
>glared at Corwin. "Manwhore."

Says the guy who is currently on the rebound and enjoying every second of it.

>Corwin shrugged, unconcerned. "Failed my Dodge roll," he
>replied.

Shouldn't have spent all your Essence in the ring, Corwin. Now you can't even afford your basic Excellency Charms.

>This would
>probably have happened anyway, since the Fire Ferrets were the hometown
>team,

One imagines one of several hometown teams, a la New York City.

>Korra especially liked the one of Zanya just on her way out of the ring,
>surrounded by dust and water and fire, her fact curiously serene and
>resigned behind her faceguard.

Should be "her face" rather than "her fact", yes?

>He didn't mind, and he supposed
>the young red wouldn't either, but still, Nall found himself with
>certain reservations about the idea that the practice looked like
>becoming a -habit- with Draconia's nobility and Corwin's family line...

I stand by my comment from Le Drout du Dragon that Nall is going to be one heck of a diplomat and mediator one day. The kid has exactly the right kind of mind for it, and once he calms down some he'll have the right attitude for it as well.

... of course, as a dragon, it could take a few thousand years for him to really mature, but heck, who is counting.

>Nall seemed to be considering that for a few seconds; then,
>without any buildup to it at all, he said, "I killed my cousin Nax the
>other day."

Lest it be said I can't recognize when I am wrong, I cheerfully retract my opinion re: the fight with Nax seeming tacked-on and rather superfluous at the tail end of Le Droit. That was me misreading the structure and nature of the story and it's place within the Symphony. I called that one wrong.

>"I had to fully embrace my entire draconic nature in ways I never have
>before. And part of me really... hates that he made me do that."

Awww, Nall.

Nall should spend some time with some people who could show him how to be a bit more Zen about that kind of thing.

Also, I say fie to the 'draconic heritage' bit. That's your guilt talking. You ARE a dragon, Nall. Don't let anyone else tell you what that means. Your cultural heritage is just that; cultural. YOU decide how to properly act when you assume your dragon form, not a bunch of guys who came up with rules and habits hundreds of thousands of years ago to justify and formalize the fact that they were pretty okay with using murder as a form of social advancement and dispute resolution.

>"You... you set that on fire just by -looking- at it," Azana
>said slowly.

Awww yus.

I waited two parts for this scene, and it did not disappoint. I like how Juni is now regarded as having superpowers even by -another person- who can set things on fire using only their mind. Validation! It's not just for breakfast anymore.

Diqiu and Known Space (well, I suppose Diqiu is technically part of known space, but you get what I mean) could potentially have much to teach other when it comes to weird-ass mind/body powers. The Diqiu approach is more holistic, but the mind-focused approach of known space can produce some powerful results that the focus on martial arts may have blinded the traditional bending masters to. Aegis should probably see about sending a liaison out, if they can do it without attracting the Corps overmuch.

Is psi talent (by which I mean traditional psi talent, possibly including force powers) known in Diqiu, if I may ask and if it isn't a plot point? I imagine their resident psychics and mages all basically becomes shamans of some type, dealing with spirits and generally being weird and mystical in a different way than benders can be weird and mystical. That's just me, tho.

>"Particularly the Spiderwolves. Those guys are creepy."

I... honestly can't decide if Night Vale would be more or less terrifying if located in Diqiu rather than a benighted strip of the southwest.

>"It's barely even gotten interesting yet."

... Anthy wins.

I'm not sure what, but she definitely wins it.

>Emerging from Narook's at something just short of a run, Corwin
>nearly ran smack into Emily Wong.
>
>"I have questions that need answering," she said flatly,

Still sticking with my theory here, yeah.

>"Remember the original plan, where I
>was just going to drop off some DNA and then head home?"
>
>Utena snorted and headbutted him very lightly. "Not so much
>now," she said.

... you know.

I suddenly wonder if Anthy does, in fact, object to ovafusion on the philosophical grounds she stated back in the day; 'unnatural' seemed a bit harsh coming from her. A bit, dare I say, out of character...

Unless, of course, she had Big Plans for Utena and Corwin and her, and she didn't need a reason so much as she needed an -excuse-.

(Anthy is pretty awesome, is what I am saying.)

>Annabelle Korra Tenjou
>as herself

Well, that finally happened.

* * *

Good lord, this one was long! I'm not surprised you chopped it into thirds. I mean, wow. It took me seven hours just to REVIEW it, I can't imagine how many evenings you lot were head-deep down this rabbit hole.

If I might ask, out of curiosity, was there a Plan A for little Annabelle's entrance into the world before you guys created Diqiu a couple months ago and slotted it and Korra into UF?

I mean, clearly she's been planned for some time. Years, in fact. People, even people who are relatively important, reproducing in UF isn't always a big deal; I'm reminded of "Another Christmas Rose", guest-starring the offspring of everyone anyone ever wondered about where they'd gotten to since Twilight. But Corwin sort of replaced Gryphon as the de-facto male lead in UF awhile back (to the extent the universe has ever had just one leading man) and Utena is, well, Utena, so I kind of figured that their kid would have had their origin, circumstances of conception and birth, and likely future life plan fairly well conceived prior to these last couple months.

Finally... hmm. Not sure how to couch this. Have you guys given any thought to possibly re-naming Symphony 5? Admittedly, I do not know your plans for future parts of it and how the plot is going to play out. It could be the Order of the Black Rose will suddenly start playing a major role in things; so far they haven't exactly been absent, but have definitely been... thin on the ground, as it were. We're already six movements deep, with a seventh on the way, plus assorted side-stories. It's comparable in length to all the other Symphonies already, and while there's no rule that SAYS they all have to be similar in length, it really seems like at this point, structurally speaking, you might want to re-brand it, end it either with Taken by Storm or soon after (what's already there functions at least as well as a cohesive whole as Symphonies 3 and 4 do) and then push the Black Rose stuff into a hypothetical Symphony 6.

That's just me spitballing from a readers-eye view, mind you.

-Merc
Keep Rat

"The city council announces the opening of a new polarbear-dog park at the corner of Shan and Deheleshen, near the Jasmine Dragon. They would like to remind everyone that polarbear-dogs are not allowed in the polarbear-dog park. People are not allowed in the polearbear-dog park. It is possible you will see hooded figures in the polarbear-dog park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the polarbear-dog park."

I do have one question about the birthing scene, but seeing as it will (probably) be resolved when the next piece comes down the pipes I think I'll withhold it for the time being.

Seeing Corwin actually fail at something (if only at first) was a bit refreshing, even if I do generally prefer a strong and capable protag. Kinda wondering what the deal is with the woman the Ferrets triple-teamed at the end there. It's obvious there's history there, but a fireball to the face of a -stranger- just because you've misread the situation horribly takes some colossal anger issues. Assuming she wasn't just a throwaway bad guy, I'd like to see some exposition on that front and the issues between her and... was it Azana or Katara? I can't remember offhand, have to look it up later, when it's not 2 AM.

Polychrome

OH SHIT, oh okay, nevermind.

I will admit, though, that assuming Cecil works on the radio team for Spiderwolves broadcasts, if Carlos is the Water or Earthbender. (Regardless, he is, of course, Perfect.)

Nall's situation seems to be evolving at speed, and I'm genuinely curious where that goes when they head "home", but I'll certainly say it's interesting.

I'm also really wondering what the HELL is going on with Amy and Rory. The more we see them, the more it's clear they've been up to some significant stuff. (Also, yay for Mr. Dr. Pond.)

And then...wow. Hello, Annabelle. We're all really excited to meet you at last.

>>Jinora chuckled, then sobered again and said, "At any rate,
>>there you are. That's what I suspect is happening. Every morning, she
>>unknowingly repairs the little things that went wrong during the
>>previous day
>
>Minor quibble: I might not have used "morning" here. We're talking
>about waterbending, which is associated with the moon and the night.
>Firebending would occur unconsciously at sunrise; unconscious
>waterbending would be more likely to happen in Korra's sleep in the
>dead of night.

Only if she slept in a nice shallow pool each night. Which I don't see happening. Best point for anything unconscious would be while showering - I tend to shower right before bed, so that would be the best time for it to happen. I don't know about these other people who do the "morning shower" thing.

>Also, as Jinora well knows, mornings and Korra are bitter, bitter
>enemies. :)

Back in 170 ASC, this was certainly true. These days, 100+ years later, Korra and Mornings have a carefully negotiated state of detente'. People don't bug her before 9 or 10 am, and she wakes up at the speed she chooses and gets her morning meditation on.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here"

Well, that's what you get with a perfect storm of Summer Break, Unemployment, and New Reference Pools. Don't hold your breath for it happening again, is all I'm saying. ^_-;

>>"Like a -stone wall.-
>>Oh, if only you'd been here 120 years ago!" she added, clasping her
>>hands wistfully under her chin. "We'd have been spared all that
>>tiresome business with - "
>>
>>Ikki turned to see the Avatar giving her a grumpy look, arms
>>folded, and grinned at her. "I'm not blaming -you,- dear," she said.
>
>Oh man, did Ikki just burn Mako?
>
>Ikki, you are now officially my favorite among the UF Tenzinspawn.
>Sorry, Jinora. Anyone who points and laughs at Mako wins my undying
>love.

No, Ikki just burned Korra's romantic hyjinks in general. Admittedly, there's not much of a difference from an outside perspective, but from those in the know at the time they occurred, they're still a point of contention. Korra's still not entirely forgiven Ikki for blabbing about her interest in Mako to Asami, after all...

>>"That changed the following year.
>
>Okay, hmm. I have opinions about this plot point.

[ White Lotus Plot Discussion snipped. ]

This will be addressed later in another post.

>I'm
>still not sure about the wisdom of reaching for Kyoshi specifically,
>but whatever else you can say about Kyoshi when she opens her mouth
>people shut the fuck up, sit up, and pay attention.

Who said Korra was given a choice in the matter? :) Korra's headspace was very interesting right at that moment; it was the equivalent of tag-team wrestling, save that Kyoshi was a bit more forceful about "tagging" Korra on the shoulder. Meanwhile, she got to watch along with Aang et. al. as Kyoshi did her thing.

>I'd like to note there's a certain amount of irony in Jinora being all
>"man, those OTHER Lotuses, what dicks for trying to control her life,
>am I right?" straight to a long a conversation with Korra's friends
>about how best to control her life. :)
>
>(I kid because I love.)

Well, Jinora's addressing it from the viewpoint as a concerned friend/family member, not as a coworker or servant; also, her meddling in Korra's life is about increasing her options and friendships, not reducing them.

>This is ever-so-slightly arrogant on Utena's part. It takes more than
>owning property somewhere to have a stake in what happens there, and
>the ability to casually purchase multiple homes anywhere you want
>doesn't mean you have a stake in the community.
>
>Then again, this is Utena, who generally develops a stake in whatever
>community she's part of even if she doesn't try to or, indeed, even
>wants to.

Well, it's Corwin who brought up the idea, not Utena. Corwin, who's been coming to Diqiu since he was around 4 years old, in later years by himself (well, with Nall), and has very many fond memories of the place. He feels he has a stake in the doings there, even though he's never owned property and had to room in the boys side of Air Temple Island most times.

I mean, I feel like I have a stake in how Bethany Beach is doing, even though I only visit for one week, maybe two, a year. It's not like I haven't been going there for nearly 40 years at this point...

>>"I know she would. And I'd love
>>to see her again. But your mother must have taught you - there's a
>>dividing line between the world of the living and this place for a
>>reason.
>
>... Katara doesn't know Skuld very well.
>
>(Valhalla sometimes seems like it has a revolving door these days,
>especially if you know the right people, even if you didn't earn your
>Right of Return.)

A revolving door for perhaps 100-1000 people that our Primary Cast Members know in some way or another. When compared against the sum total of deceased sapient life in the galaxy/universe that's ended up in Valhalla. That's like saying a handful of sand grains on a beach is statistically significant.

>>"... Wow," Corwin mused. "You -have- mellowed her."
>
>Technically, Korra IS her. :)

Technically, Corwin's met at least 5 of Korra's predecessors (Aang through Yangchen), so in his mind, they're separate entities.

>>"Have you started on her betrothal necklace yet?"
>
>Hrrm. Corwin is actually going to make one?
>
>It seems a bit... I dunno. Cultural appropriation is usually something
>that is not cool. Aang wasn't exactly thrilled at all those people
>dressing up like Air Nomads just because they thought the outfits were
>nifty.
>
>Might be overthinking it, but it pinged my radar.

You're overthinking it. As stated above, Corwin's been coming to Diqiu since he was 4. That's nearly 10 years (off and on) of visiting the world, under the auspices of the Avatar, who's strongly Water Tribe. If he'd managed to come in 2405 (instead of him giving Utena spaceflight lessons), Korra would've taken him Ice Dodging and made him an honorary member of the tribe. He's not appropriating as much as "loaning" from his good friend and godmother the Avatar.

>>Korra turned the paper back around and read them a bit of the
>>article, in which Emily Wong speculated that this small invasion of
>>interesting foreigners gathering around "our Avatar"
>

[ Emily Wong Plot Discussion snipped. ]

This will also be discussed further in a later post.

... Though some of what you brought up does have bearing to what the White Lotus were up to. Diqiu's relationship with the Outer Galaxy via Zipang isn't nearly as clear-cut as you might think.

>Despite Ben's previous Miles Mayhem analogy to Hiroshi, the man was
>undeniably pretty brilliant. He invented the automobile

Point of Order: Hiroshi Sato did not invent the Automobile. He invented the assembly line process that made cheap automobiles possible.

> AND
>heavier-than-air flight AND the tank. Any one of those by itself would
>have been enough. I don't know if being one of Skuld's Chosen has a
>moral component involved (that is, if you have to not just be a
>cosmically good engineer, but also have a moral compass that's
>agreeable to her) but if it doesn't, I'd say in the context of UF
>Hiroshi would definitely be in contention.

One of Skuld's earliest Chosen was Cave Johnson. One does not need to be verifiably sane to be brilliant, after all.

>>"While we're waiting for the next
>>match, who wants refills?" Pointing to various companions, she ticked
>>off their preferred snacks. "Popcorn, fire flakes, soda, lychee juice?
>>Rory? More rice balls? Amy, you want another squid-on-a-stick?"
>
>What, no fire gummies? Korra seems like a fire gummy kind of girl.
>Especially the gold ones shaped like little dragons heads, she loves
>those.

I... honestly forgot about the fire gummies. ^_^;; Though Korra tends to lean towards carnavorism off the island, since it's still vegetarian only on it and Korra lives and eats there half the time.

>>In his place, sporting the green number ninety-nine, making his Major
>>League Bending debut... the completely unknown Watari Karasu!"
>
>Ah. Language puns! Always solid.
>
>Korra, if pressed, is going to claim she simply used a completely
>valid translation of Corwin's name in standard, isn't she?

Nope, that one's all Corwin.

>>"I bet right around now, Azana's wishing she hadn't listened
>>when Karana said she knew someone who could take over for Xiang Wan,"
>>color commentator Zheng remarked from Korra's phone radio.
>>
>>"I'm fairly sure Zanya didn't really know what she was talking
>>about there," play-by-play man Kenji said dryly.
>
>This is probably me being confused, but... I'm not sure how we jumped
>from Azana and Karana to Zanya in this exchange, as she's on the other
>team and doesn't seem pertinent to the conversation at hand. I want to
>say her name was used by mistake, maybe? Except I have a long track
>record of being wrong when I think things like that.

You're confused. Kenji's talking about the "Don't bring your boyfriends in the ring" line that Zanya had made to Karana. It's a long-standing grudge.

>Narratively speaking, I might have had Corwin lose anyway (in order to
>set up the rematch) but that's such a minor point.

And when, pray tell, would that rematch be had? The primary thrust of the series is still Kate/Utena/Corwin/Anthy, not the Pro Bending Playoffs. And Corwin was a temp substitution, anyway. Though there are at least several blogs now pumping for him to join SOME team out there, if not the Fire Ferrets.

>>"HAH!" said Nall involuntarily; then he composed himself and
>>said with heavy mock gravity, "Uh, I mean, scandalous, scandalous." He
>>glared at Corwin. "Manwhore."
>
>Says the guy who is currently on the rebound and enjoying every second
>of it.

On the rebound, yes. Enjoying it, no.

>Diqiu and Known Space (well, I suppose Diqiu is technically part of
>known space, but you get what I mean) could potentially have much to
>teach other when it comes to weird-ass mind/body powers. The Diqiu
>approach is more holistic, but the mind-focused approach of known
>space can produce some powerful results that the focus on martial arts
>may have blinded the traditional bending masters to. Aegis should
>probably see about sending a liaison out, if they can do it without
>attracting the Corps overmuch.

That all depends on how fast and how thorough further cross-organizational exchange occurs. Bending doesn't always 'work right' out in the big galaxy (as Korra noted back in Try Try Again, and she's the freaking Avatar), and while Diqiu benders have developed workarounds, it isn't always helpful when they're off Diqiu/Zipang.

>Is psi talent (by which I mean traditional psi talent, possibly
>including force powers) known in Diqiu, if I may ask and if it isn't a
>plot point? I imagine their resident psychics and mages all basically
>becomes shamans of some type, dealing with spirits and generally being
>weird and mystical in a different way than benders can be weird and
>mystical. That's just me, tho.

That is not an impossible hypothesis.

>[ Renaming Discussion snipped. ]

Well, on my part, the whole of "Taken By Storm" was going to be one movement, period -- or one movement broken up into 3 parts. Which means we'd have 3 more to go, if we kept with the 7 movement thing...

... make of that what you will.

--- Philip

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here"

Well, she just burned somebody. That's all {I'll|Phil will permit me to} say at this time.

>As near as I can tell, the reason an enormous chunk of the White Lotus
>leadership decided to try and prevent Korra from hanging out with
>Corwin is that they didn't want her going off-plane where if anything
>happened to her they couldn't be sure of the consequences to the
>Avatar Spirit, yes?

That's where it started. In failure analysis we might call it a proximate cause.

As Jinora indicates - and she might not have been as clear about it as she could've been; keep in mind that she wasn't actually a participant in the conspiracy, and had only learned about it herself the previous week - it began as an effort to keep Korra at home as much as possible, at least until someone could figure out how disastrous their worst-case scenario really was.

Then Utena got involved and things started getting more complicated.

>But a massive conspiracy?

Nine people is your idea of massive? Hm.

>I mean, lets unpack this.

Never say that again.

>These guys don't even think "hmm, we have
>reason to believe that occupying positions of cosmological
>significance in Cephiro will interact badly with our own
>cosmologically significant person. Let's do some research. In the
>meantime, keep Korra in the dark." They just have vague, unrealized
>fears that maybe something bad will happen if Korra dies off-plane.
>Not just "goes off-plane" but "dies off-plane." And their reaction to
>this is engage in an incredibly shoddy conspiracy to prevent her from
>ever again interacting with people she's befriended offplane?

Not quite.

Like I said, it started with a scenario more like what you outlined in the first quotation-marks bit above. After that, though, it sort of... got out of hand. They started out wanting to keep her from leaving until they could get a handle on what it would mean if she did and met with some fatal misfortunte while Outside. Then some of them began to develop the fear (bordering on paranoia) that (The Notorious) Chief Gryphon or, as he grew toward adulthood, Corwin might eventually lead her to choose to leave and just never come back.

Then Utena entered the picture and started doing things like standing right in the middle of not one but two significant disruptions within the Earth Alliance, fighting pirates across half the galaxy, participating in the Klingon civil war, revolutionizing the Jedi, and so forth. She changes people's lives just by being near them. Many of the White Lotus elders are reasonably convinced that Korra's life doesn't require changing to that degree. And, well, given the way their lives are entangled, how do you keep Korra way from Utena and still let her anywhere near Corwin? Obviously you don't.

To an outside observer, this is plainly an unsustainable strategy, but by that point, through a reasonably gradual process of accumulation, the matter had evolved from something thoughtful and nuanced to something simplistic and basically fear-driven, and thereby no longer fully under the control of the people engaged in it. It's a bit like... did you ever tell a small lie to get out of some minor inconvenience, and then to keep it from being exposed you had to tell a bigger one, until before you knew it you were so hopelessly mired in falsehood that you were a) certain to give it away at some point and b) no longer entirely certain yourself what the truth even used to be? It's a bit like that.

One thing I should probably have made clearer (possibly with an interjection from one of the other conspirators), but which Korra pretty plainly was aware of based on the way she virtually ignored the others, was that the more egregious parts of the mess were basically all on Tenneq. The others didn't even know he had gotten so far down that rabbit hole he'd actually started stealing the Avatar's mail. Looking at it, yes, but they do that anyway - do you have any idea how much mail she gets?

The last indignity, the one that blew the whole matter apart, was when Tenneq saw the first invitation to Corwin's wedding. At that moment he knew he'd finally come up against something he couldn't fudge his way around. There was no way, short of somehow inventing an actual future-of-the-world-is-at-stake crisis in the next few weeks, he was going to be able to convince Korra not to attend that wedding. Miss connections with the gang when the Valiant tour hit Zipang the previous year because of "urgent" pirate problems in the Mo Ce Sea, sure. Just barely not manage to make things line up such that a visit to New Avalon could come off during the fall of 2406, doable.

Talk her out of attending his wedding? Not without the actual world being on actual fire.

At that point he realized that all was lost - she was not only going to go to that wedding, she would inevitably, once she got to comparing notes with the kids, realize that there had to have been more than coincidence involved in their troubles over the previous few years. The whole matter was going to blow up in his face, and he was going to have to admit that a) they had overreacted b) they hadn't accomplished what they originally set out to do when they started c) the whole thing had spiraled out of control and d) it was mostly his fault.

So he panicked and took the Bugblatter Beast exit: He stuck the invitation in a pigeonhole on his desk and pretended that if he ignored it thoroughly enough, the whole business would go away. And the second one. Perhaps in some corner ofhis mind he thought if he could just hold out until she had missed it, she wouldn't pursue the matter further.

Instead, he not only brought about the explosion he'd been afraid of, he probably made it worse than it would otherwise have been.

>Intercepting wedding invitations? I mean, that's something you
>only do if you're desperate

Yes, exactly.

>As always, not trying to be jerk about this. Just calling it like I
>see it, and the way I see it, this plot thread ended badly.

Heh, "ended".

>I'm
>still not sure about the wisdom of reaching for Kyoshi specifically,
>but whatever else you can say about Kyoshi when she opens her mouth
>people shut the fuck up, sit up, and pay attention.

This is Kyoshi we're talking about. "Reaching for" is probably not the phrase you wanted, so much as "standing the hell out of the way of". Korra, I have a few remarks I should like to put to the learned masters. Stand right there for a moment if you'd be so good.

>Minor quibble: I might not have used "morning" here.

That's when bath time is, usually. You know, when the water is around?

Anyway, she doesn't necessarily literally mean morning. For most of this past summer, my "morning" was from 12 to 4 PM. :)

>I'd like to note there's a certain amount of irony in Jinora being all
>"man, those OTHER Lotuses, what dicks for trying to control her life,
>am I right?" straight to a long a conversation with Korra's friends
>about how best to control her life. :)

Who's talking about controlling it? Jinora's talking about enriching it.

(Possibly, given that it's Corwin and Utena, enriching it like you enrich uranium, but unlike the other learned masters, Jinora seems willing to risk it. :)

>This is ever-so-slightly arrogant on Utena's part. It takes more than
>owning property somewhere to have a stake in what happens there, and
>the ability to casually purchase multiple homes anywhere you want
>doesn't mean you have a stake in the community.

It's still where you start, for chrissakes. Does she really need to unroll that entire carpet out loud? Really?

>Trivia: according to stills I've seen, this Friday will feature the
>first confirmed sighting of a genuine redhead in the Avatar universe.
>Not just "auburn" like Suki but "actual flame-colored red."

Maybe it's real, maybe it's Maybelline.

>"I brought all this cash just so I could bribe the customs man! I even
>wore this skirt in case I needed to show a little leg to seal the
>deal. When did this town get so boring?"

"Have you seen Amy drive, Doctor?"

"No."

"Neither, did, her, driving examiner."

>>He was -so- shocked, in fact, that he unconsciously reverted to
>>his old default flying-cat form; he'd been cuing that action up when she
>>arrived,
>
>I think you mean "queuing that action up", as in, Nall had that action
>in the queue. Cuing, assuming you're using it as the present
>participle of "cue", doesn't meant that.

No, I mean exactly what I said. Grüß Gott, man, I know you're old enough to have made a mix tape. Just.

>... Katara doesn't know Skuld very well.
>
>(Valhalla sometimes seems like it has a revolving door these days,
>especially if you know the right people, even if you didn't earn your
>Right of Return.)

I'm not thinking of anyone who didn't have that turning up in Midgard lately, apart from Gin Shepard, who skipped over that stage with a minor apotheosis...

>>"Have you started on her betrothal necklace yet?"
>
>Hrrm. Corwin is actually going to make one?
>
>It seems a bit... I dunno. Cultural appropriation is usually something
>that is not cool.

Is is appropriation when one of them gave it to you? When you have a genuine affection for the South Pole, its people, its cuisine, and so forth? When you've made the Water Tribe's most famous daughter your own daughter's godmother, and, oh yes, she's also your own? I dunno. It seems more like respectful admiration to me. It's not like he's one of these kids going around with the Japanese character for fuckwit tattooed on their necks, thinking it says beauty because that's what the needleslinger told them.

(Also, it's doubtful either Utena or Anthy would wear theirs much; the Water Tribe's colors don't really work for either of them.)

>Aang wasn't exactly thrilled at all those people
>dressing up like Air Nomads just because they thought the outfits were
>nifty.

That might have something to do with the fact that someone murdered all of them. Tends to put an edge on stuff like that. People wearing Water Tribe jewelry? Not so much.

>I imagine some debate between Emily and her editor about whether or
>not 'Krew' was appropriate to use, before deciding it was a bit too
>precious for such an august publication as the Tribune.

The United Daily's styleguide probably permits that, but the Trib prefers to hold itself slightly above the scrum. Which is a bit rich when it has something like Section 4 in the first place, but there it is.

(musings on Emily)

D'you know, we might get to this. :)

>Platinum is also way less malleable and generally tougher and more
>durable than gold. Higher melting point, too.

True, though a bit like saying that Play-Doh is less malleable than, say, custard. For many practical purposes it's a little academic.

>Despite Ben's previous Miles Mayhem analogy to Hiroshi, the man was
>undeniably pretty brilliant. He invented the automobile AND
>heavier-than-air flight AND the tank.

You may be overselling the man a little. For instance, he pioneered assembly-line production of automobiles, much like Henry Ford, but Ford didn't invent the automobile either, and I would tend seriously to doubt that Hiroshi Sato was Diqiu's Karl Benz. He was a very clever chap, but I suspect his genius lay much more in the commodification of inventions than the inventing of inventions, particularly in his latter years. Until turning to supervillainy, anyway. After that, who knows? It amuses me to envision a sort of villain Edison, with a poorly paid and completely unsung legion of employees beavering away on the actual death ray somewhere in the background, but who knows, maybe Hiroshi really did invent the mecha tank all by himself. Despite "tank" being in the name and the crawler tracks (which existed well before they were put on tanks in the real world), they aren't really very tanklike, but I will concede that they are clever.

>I don't know if being one of Skuld's Chosen has a
>moral component involved

NOTE: Yes.

>>"I'm fairly sure Zanya didn't really know what she was talking
>>about there," play-by-play man Kenji said dryly.
>
>This is probably me being confused, but... I'm not sure how we jumped
>from Azana and Karana to Zanya in this exchange, as she's on the other
>team and doesn't seem pertinent to the conversation at hand.

Kenji is referring to Zanya having called "Watari Karasu" Karana's boyfriend while taunting the Fire Ferrets after receiving her penalty, which was picked up by the field mics.

>>"Dr. Rockalanche -doesn't know that.- He keeps trying to
>>cover her left flank even though she doesn't really need it. That's
>>more interesting."
>
>Ugh, really?
>
>I know he just joined the team and all, and this is just an exhibition
>match, but man, my estimation of the Ice Wraiths as hard-nosed
>chargers who skirt the rules just went way, way down.

I'm not sure how those things tie together, but basically, there's a really specific reason why Zanya wears a patch on her left eye, it doesn't actually have anything to do with cheating, and Dr. Rockalanche isn't cleared to know about it. He would eventually have realized (as Corwin did) that she can see on that side, and would then presumably have asked about it and been told to mind his goddam business, but it's questionable now whether they'll get even that far in their professional relationship.

We, however, will get to find out what it is next time.

>Should be "her face" rather than "her fact", yes?

Yeah, the great tragedy of typos is that sometimes they coincidentally make other valid words.

>Also, I say fie to the 'draconic heritage' bit. That's your guilt
>talking. You ARE a dragon, Nall. Don't let anyone else tell you what
>that means. Your cultural heritage is just that; cultural.

He didn't say heritage, he said nature. As in, he is at least under the impression (whether or not it is correct) that being a dragon brings some things innately along with it, one of which is that in a situation like that, someone is going to end up dead. See also the old folk tale about the frog and the scorpion.

>Is psi talent (by which I mean traditional psi talent, possibly
>including force powers) known in Diqiu, if I may ask and if it isn't a
>plot point?

It isn't. Either. Well, the Force might not be entirely unknown, though it's not known by that name, but the Diqiu branch of the human genome has produced no known "standard" telepaths, telekinetics et al. as of yet. Or wizards in the traditional sense either, come to that. There are the occasional Weird Non-Traditional Mystics (Guru Pathik comes to mind, and in a UF context one is tempted to suspect that General Iroh the Elder may have been Force-sensitive in addition to being a firebender), but nobody with immediately recognizable "outside galaxy" psi powers.

>If I might ask, out of curiosity, was there a Plan A for little
>Annabelle's entrance into the world before you guys created Diqiu a
>couple months ago and slotted it and Korra into UF?

Not really. I mean, it was always going to happen on that day, just... wherever they happened to be. Frontrunners before the Diqiu plotline started unfolding itself included Castle Eyrie on Titan, the cabin in the Shinguuji ancestral woods on Ishiyama, and, a bit boringly, Philip Boyce Memorial Medical Center in New Avalon.

>I mean, clearly she's been planned for some time. Years, in fact.

Twelve of them, if the date stamp on Interlude on Titan is to be believed. (In fact, the outline for that interlude existed long before the rest of the Symphony even got there, despite the fact that I had absolutely no idea how I could conceivably (pardon the pun) justify or even explain it.

That suddenly became more of an issue than it had been, recently, but that's a different story.

>But Corwin sort of replaced
>Gryphon as the de-facto male lead in UF awhile back

Somewhere, probably in his office, G just looked up from his desk with a puzzled expression, then shrugged and went back to work, muttering, "Welcome to it, I suppose..."

>(to the extent the
>universe has ever had just one leading man) and Utena is, well, Utena,
>so I kind of figured that their kid would have had their origin,
>circumstances of conception and birth, and likely future life plan
>fairly well conceived prior to these last couple months.

Well, for what it's worth, Corwin and Utena are probably not having children of their own. Utena wasn't interested before she saw what Anthy went through just now, and now, having seen it? NFW, Jack. You want more than the one child, if Anthy's not on board, you just go 'head and put an ad in the paper, son. I'm sure it won't take you long to round up some volunteers. :)

>Finally... hmm. Not sure how to couch this. Have you guys given any
>thought to possibly re-naming Symphony 5? Admittedly, I do not know
>your plans for future parts of it

Indeed you don't.

--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.

Well done. Well done indeed.

Oh, and:

Go Rory. Nice way to step out. :)

And last:

Bad egg, giving Mrs. Williams nothing to do. Bad.

Brian

Also, while the details were obviously glossed over, you did a great job with the birth scene, especially some of the emotional roller coaster being an expectant father is. I've always been amazed at how well you write the most emotional scenes in your work, being powerful and sincere without (usually) being over the top. And having been there myself, I teared up at the bit about "HIS DAUGHTER" - it was dead on.

Welcome little Annabelle, don't mind the chaos. You'll get used to it (or have an aneurysm :))

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

I found it very interesting that Nall is apparently not so sure about the entire thing of a dragon being raised alongside a member of Corwin's family. We don't know how much of his upbringing was draconic and how much was with Man, so we don't know how much he missed out on growing up that would be normal for a dragon (or what it would be). Anyway, I got the impression that Nall's not entirely sure of himself at this point, though, and he's still trying to process the thing with his cousin. Be interesting to see what he decides to do from here - continue as he has, perhaps (or not) make up with Umi? Will he take some role in the life of the still-unhatched dragonette? Will he take some time for himself? Does he need to go balance his rearing with Man with the draconic side of his nature?

My 2 favorite moments in the entire story are also the ones that strike me as the most true to real life. Chronologically,

#1 - Korra telling Corwin not to look when Anthy actually starts to deliver (yes, I know, it's still cliched, but it's also true)

#2 - Utena's reaction as she stood there, just watching Anthy, Corwin and the baby. Her universe just shook and changed in a way it's never done before, nothing will ever be the same again, and it would be so easy for Utena to be put to a very much diminished role in their lives<1> from then on. She needed a great big hug and a reminder that that last was just not going to happen.

<1> Of course, everyone goes into a diminished role when a baby comes onto the scene. The little buggers just love being the star of the show! (or so my boss said after 6 months of no-sleep <g>)

Jeanne

	Jeanne Hedge http://www.jhedge.com
"Never give up, never surrender!"