re-reading the Redoubtable Pali Avramapul and continuing to lose my mind. do you get it. do you see the vision. like Pali and Kip's first conversation in the hotel makes me bonkers because kip is SO EXCITED and he sees some things immediately and he's playing all her songs in his head and from Pali's perspective she's having one of the worst emotional revelations of her life. she's personally and academically mortified. she's furious. she's heartbroken. she's ready to hate herself in the exact same way that Kip just saw in his best friend. and she ends up focusing all of that onto Kip and deciding Ah! You Are Mother Fucker! I can't hate my close companion for being trapped but i can hate you for being the representative of everything trapping him!!
and there are soooooo many OTHER ways that could have goooooone they're so SIMILAR and that's not HELPING because pali's also experiencing a nonzero amount of 'where did that other dog come from who is he i HATE him' and they're both!!! aaaaaaaghhhhhhhhh i'm gonna bite concrete.
listen it's. do you see my VISION. something goes horribly wrong and like. after the fateful Vacation Pali Avramapul is hauled up before the Lord of Zunidh. and he is just quietly losing his mind because he's been dreaming of this but he can't afford this, he can't stand her also being trapped here, and he can't exactly TELL kip!! but kip will still RECOGNIZE her as the woman on the elephant!!
like in my head she's being brought directly to His Radiancy quickly and quietly and he has no warning because if he did he would issue orders like 'release her immediately tell NO ONE' and she gets taken into the palace under heavy guard and Kip sees her and immediately has a quiet Fanboy Crisis but also one of his moments of. it's treason it's SO treason if i just have them...let her go...but also this is Pali Avramapul What If I Just-- (and he doesn't but he HAS THAT MOMENT is the point)
and then as soon as he sees her His Radiancy almost has his heart attack then and there. and does, in fact, pardon her basically immediately. and I don't think Pali recognizes him on first moments but she does immediately get offended because Hey. How Dare You. She Earned That Reputation. and now she is refusing to leave.
and Himself is still, kind of, panicking. what do you mean she won't leave. so his household gets involved. and by his household of course I mean Kip, Kip is now handling this, because well. She's Pali Avramapul. And she's no longer a criminal because she just got pardoned which means now they can put her in nice rooms, right?
she's not mollified in the slightest so she and Kip are now having a long conversation and possibly The Elephant comes up and the vacation and the Moon and she almost goes and bashes the Emperor's door back down because oh NOW she knows who he is get out here RIGHT NOW and as soon as she's talked down from that she's about ready to go punch the Moon in the face again and Kip is just trying to keep up and then! eventually! it clicks for him! and now he's having a Moment!
and now he's also thinking about. well. it's so much treason. but if he got them both out--(Pali: yes! thank you!) it's too much treason (Pali: fine I'LL do it--) but he WILL check over the whole schedule and try to figure out if the heirfinding can happen faster--
and about in here is, probably, when the heart attack actually happens which means everyone is panicking and Pali gets a good look at the taboo and the politics in action and it's all lots of fun.
but. graaaaahhhhh i just. these three are fascinating to me because it's a situation where Pali and Kip can both be described as the same man's love of his life. and that man is the love of both of their lives. and they would get on like a HOUSE ON FIRE if they had the chance they just have THE WORST POSSIBLE first conversation!!!!!
