#better terms

In Better Terms? Well, Bill and Barry found the portal thing that Lucrezia threw Klaus through in the ruins of Castle Heterodyne after the Other’s attack. They went through to Skifander and found Klaus.

Bill was ... it was bad. He ended up locked in a padded cell for a while while Skifandrian psychiatrists tried to work through the language barrier. He was very upset that Lu had slept with Klaus right after he proposed -- and then he was upset that she sent him away.

Barry was better off, but... Barry and Klaus went back to try to track down the Other, taking baby Gil with them because Skifandrian Twin Thing. They leave Gil with the Von Mekkhans and do some research -- this is about when the wasps show up, and Klaus is suspicious. This stuff looks like Lucrezia’s work, kind of.

They go back and get Bill and finish up figuring out where the Other was. When they come back, Bill’s dead, Barry has Agatha, and they know that the Lucrezia had supporters.

So Barry decides to conquer Europa, and Klaus ...

Helps.

They don’t start with Sturmhalten because the Heterodynes have tried to conquer Sturmhalten a *bunch* and never succeeded and Klaus wants to try to use Aaronev to find others who serve Lucrezia.

Red Headed Cousin and Black Jewels are getting separate posts because I got specific questions about them, but –

The Pretender I’ve actually written. Check out the link.

Jägerson is a collaboration with @scribeprotra on Discord. Lucrezia decided to give Tarvek Jagerish qualities when she was designing him. Probably she wanted him to be inclined to obey her when she had her lovely new body. He’s got the nose, so he can smell Jägers. They smell like friendship to him.

Generally an imitation Jäger gets killed instantly, but this kid obviously had no control of what happened to him, so the Jägers aboard Castle Wulfenbach take him under their wings and treat him (and Gil) like little brothers.

Anyway, Tarvek’s still Tarvek shaped, but he can punch through things like steel doors without much issue, and he likes to roll around play-fighting with anyone he doesn’t have to be careful not to break. He once absent-mindedly elbowed Martellus across a room, so… he has to be careful not to break basically everyone. (And he’s tired of it.)

Kings of Clay: The twins are the results of Zanta’s second pregnancy, so Klaus gets back later, and Gil is younger. Klaus tracks down Adam and Lilith and persuade them to raise Gil with Agatha – Barry wasn’t paranoid about Klaus when he left Agatha with them because he still thought Klaus was dead.

Anyway, in order to disguise the fact that there’s a Heterodyne child aboard Castle Wulfenbach, the Jägers show an interest in the entire school. Tarvek notices that Gil and Agatha are there because their parents are personal friends of the Baron, so he decides being friends with them would be useful …

There comes a point where most people think of Tarvek, Gil, and Agatha as a unit. Then Aaronev Wilhelm demands him back.

Better Terms: Sturmhalten is the last holdout (in that region) against a joint Heterodyne-Wulfenbach Empire. Tarvek gets to go to Paris, where he makes friends with Gil Hölzfaller and tries to pretend that he’s doesn’t have a sword of Damocles hanging over his head. Then he has to go home because of what happened to Anevka.

He holds out for a couple of years, trying to mitigate the damage his father is causing, but also not willing to kill his father. That restraint breaks when Agatha shows up (as Madame Olga) and A.W. decides to bring back the Other. 

Oh, yes, they got into so much mischief! Van tried to keep them under control, but they were just so much fun.

But Klaus and Barry don’t see Gil and Agatha as ideal spouses for each other because

a) Barry is still in love with Klaus

b) Klaus is constantly terrified that one of the times Agatha got kidnapped by the Geisterdamen, they succeeded in doing ... whatever Lucrezia wanted.

and c) They are missing out on two possible political marriages that might bring in new allies.

She’s ‘investigating the Empire’. The Heterodyne Boys are letting her pretend to have her teenage rebellion/adventuring stage, with a pack of Jägers following her around.

Gil and Agatha are raised together in the school aboard the Boys’ airship administrative center.

Gil... grows up knowing he belongs to the Heterodynes, he’s the son of a Heterodyne ally.

Once he finds out which one everyone assumes he and Agatha are betrothed, yeah, -- including them, briefly.

Ahahahahaha. Correct.

However, Barry is 0% willing to let Agatha be raised in Castle Heterodyne because he still has nightmares about it.