[Witches' Horses] Chevalier de Grammont

[named_by_rhyme]

Title: a long run
'Verse/characters: le Chevalier de Grammont; Sinclair, Grammont
Prompt: 89D "through the fire"
Word Count: 3937
Notes: an edge, an edge! (Ahem.) Chronologically last in the Chevalier de Grammont story; we next see Sinclair and Grammont in the novel Witches' Horses. Now I just need to chart a pattern back to the other edge

Comments

[billradish]

Her khokhloma grew back unevenly, erupting as a twisting flower here, a bunch of golden cherries there, and she couldn't--or wouldn't, he wasn't prepared to dismiss the idea that she summoned him at midnight as a subtle form of punishment for the constant itching--predict what would grow back, or when.

Like this. Both for the hints as to her designs and for the suspicion and their relationship.

The biggest nozzle came out of the set, screwed into place with annoyingly practiced fingers, then the nozzle and solid tube were screwed in turn onto the handle. Feel told him the connections were solid, but he checked the pressure gauge indicator anyway, just in case. When it told him what he knew already, he pulled on the goggles and one glove, flicked on the gases with his bare hand, tweaking the mix for cool and long.

And the sense of familiarity here. We see him doing repairs a fair bit, but I like this. It feels like a different take on this portion of their relationship.

"Ooh," she said slowly, and he heard the way she didn't

[taennyn]

:) They have an entertainingly adversarial relationship at times.

:) Thank you. I knew he'd have to be working on her internal Colours on a regular basis, but I don't think I'd touched on it directly more than once or twice. (It doesn't hurt that I've used soldering set-ups and so have a rough idea of how they work. >.>)

It's kind of fun, playing with her vocal overlayering and how much her listeners catch: Ilya won't know for quite a while after meeting her that she's not human, for instance.

Yeah. That's a bigger hunter than they're accustomed to. >.>

I think the for-feeling translation goes roughly 'Oh, for fuck's sake'. I don't know how to pronounce it, though. >.> Swedish is SCARY.

:)

Dude. Hand a military commander a witch's horse to work with? The world is his OYSTER. (Yeah. He wishes a little bit that she had a war room

[billradish]

Then the lights from the other mirrors displaying local gravity wells and magnified distant stars caught up to his eyes, and the humming and pings from other parts of her body caught up to his ears. He blinked at the newly-lit mirrors, then focused past them and saw several warning lights on the overhead display.

One gets the impression that aside from sheer visibility issues, there are some sensible/practical reasons why they don't use her real hooves often. For instance; the fact that like it or not, Sinclair is mortal.

Not without climbing into his outside gear and praying the heat bleedoff on the steel wouldn't melt his gloves right onto his skin.

*mild* Ow.

he turned the localised thermostat as cold as it would go--thumped it once to get it to pay attention, the way he suspected she did to certain bits of her own anatomy, just less directly-- and settled down to wait.

Bwah! Love the image.

"I was planning to anyway--now I see the landmarks, I remember there's supposed to be a witch's house somewhere out this way

[taennyn]

Sinclair's mortal, she burns through her fuel reserves like you wouldn't believe, and that's ignoring the Giant Screaming Trail of melted and shorted-out stuff if she does it in a populated area. Most of the witches' horses herds hang out in veeery sparsely populated areas for much that reason. >.>

Yeeeeah. That coolant system is not wurking so gud at the moment.

He's convinced she bangs on some of her internal components with wrenches. Admittedly, not technically physical wrenches, and she needs application-d'wrench much less frequently than most of the Russian systems he's had contact with, but oy. =P

:D I love Novgorod.

I think that's a great way to slide in their names organically in their opening chapter in Witches' Horses. :D And it is a good motto. :)

I feel a tiny bit sorry for Ilya, honestly--Grammont and Sinclair might as well be twenty years married by the time he comes on the scene. They work together really well.

She definitely has priorities. They are Large, and Pointy

[taennyn]

Certainly comfortable enough in his surroundings/privacy to leave it off, yeah. (Evidence suggests he feels more comfortable with the patch on as a general thing)

I think they tried that early on--and it may be effective in a couple of places--but for the firebird it Really Doesn't Work for some reason. Possibly ventilation or environmental-controls access issues.

:) They have a small running war as to whether or not she has direct access to his eyepatch-computer. I get the feeling his stance on the topic extends to other people's horse-computers--at least if there's a chance she'll get spotted.

:D Thank you very much.

[taennyn]

*considers* I'd figured it was more the 'goddammit mare don't get CAUGHT doing that!' but hnh, you're rather right.

. . It's a witch's sort of trick, to spy on people through their own things. *makes note to poke this later*

[coastal_physics]

" never hurts to have an extra name or four " :D