sas rh: let eoin survive the fall au » what the gazelles dragged in
"Look what the gazelles dragged in!" calls someone, quite possibly Dave, looking to the side and interrupting the French cheers of victory. The rest of them turn just in time to see one Eoin McGonigal climb out the jeep.
"Can't leave you fellas alone for a couple of days without you lot letting the siege of Orléans fall?" Eoin jokes as he leans against the vehicle, because of course he'd mention such thing, unpromted. It gets Augustin grinning, somehow wider than he already was, and he takes a step forward.
"Well, monsieur McGonigal, there's always room for the Irish exiles within French--"
"Like hell is Eoin gonna join you bunch of pretentious fuckers," interrupts Paddy right away, as it should've been expected, while getting up and promptly making his way towards Eoin, who really hasn't stopped beaming. "Get someone else not to get fucked in the rematch."
or - Eoin finally comes back to camp after getting injured during a raid.
hey, hello, sorry to bother you but i saw you and someone discuss rules of wolves and i was wondering if you could be so kind as to describe what happens with alina and mal and their interaction with the darkling? thank you so much, hope you have a good day!
oh!! hi, don’t worry you’re not bothering me at all, i love talking about rule of wolves.
i’m gonna put this under the read more because, obviously, !! major spoilers !!
most of this is just a description of the scene, but i did add some of my own reading of the events.
the darkling requests to see alina (i won’t go into plot details as to how and why), she agrees, and zoya escorts the darkling to the location of their meeting.
alina, mal, misha and oncat arrive together. Alina and mal seem more relaxed and at ease than zoya, but mal confirms that they are still terrified
The darkling’s taken to the building where they’re meeting blindfolded, the first thing alina says to him (and this is not that important it’s just my favorite tidbit) is “wipe your feet”. he obeys and alina winks at zoya over the little victory.
Mal takes off the darkling’s blindfold, and he and alina are visibly shaken at the fact that it’s actually him, especially his voice. He asks why they didn’t bring him to kerazmin, and alina replies that she didn’t want him in her home, even though he’s been there before.
Misha says they should let him kill the darkling himself (mal tells him not to threaten the darkling cause it makes him feel important, but personally I think misha’s right)
The darkling tries to insult mal by calling him an orphan and mal just laughs at him.
To me mal seems like the most at ease in this entire scene. He’s confident, and he’s not ruffled by the darkling’s taunts
The darkling says she looks different, alina replies that she’s happy, and he’s never seen her that way before. She replies to his taunts by telling him she’s living in peace instead of obscurity. that she didn’t sacrifice her power, it was taken away because she fell prey to the same greed as him, and that it doesn’t make her loss feel any less terrible but helping children heals something within her, that she’s helping people left within the wake of HIS wars (she says “the wake of your wars” specifically and for some reason that really stood out to me, that she’s not skirting around the edges of what he’s responsible for).
The darkling says he wants to make a safe place for grisha, and alina tears into him asking why it has to be him, why he’s so convinced that he’s the one that can save them, even though as she points out he’s had hundreds of opportunities to do so and has failed.
She asks again why he thinks he’s the one, and he says he’s the man best suited for the job, but zoya notes that he sounds less sure of it than he was before he took tea with the saint (of course, every one of the darkling’s reactions can be interpreted as him being manipulative and only showing the emotions he wants them to see, but personally based on his actions later in the book i think this one was genuine)
The darkling asks if she can imagine that he only wants the best for ravka and alina confirms that she believes him. She asks if he regrets any of it, and she sounds hopeful, saying that it’s not too late for him, but he says he doesn’t. She seems disgusted
The darkling asks if she thinks this is what she was meant for, to be “powerless and pathetic”, but alina smiles, and replies that she’s not powerless, and that stories often have you believe kings and queens are the only ones who matter, and that they’re wrong (this claim also felt stronger because at the beginning of the scene zoya reveals that mal and alina have turned their home into a site for gathering intelligence, so they are still involved in helping ravka in many ways)
That is the extent of their interaction. Something happens at the end of the scene, but it’s not an interaction between them, it’s some Plot Stuff, he gets his powers back, but that is as far as their “reunion” goes.
afterwards he disappears, and zoya offers to have the children from their orphanage relocated to a safe place for protection, but mal and alina refuse to be chased out of their home again. They refuse protection or armed guards, saying they don’t want to uproot the children or scare them after everything they’ve been through. They say they’re still terrified, fully understanding how the darkling deals with his enemies, but overall they no longer seem frightened or susceptible to the darkling’s manipulation.
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Sorry this got so long, i hope this was what you had in mind lol. I left out a lot of details, but i’m assuming you were asking more to see if their interactions centered the darkling or if there were any implications of romance or tension between them (you might’ve meant something completely different ofc but that’s what i was worried about for the scene so), hope this helped!
Ahhh português do Brasil!!! Olá, adoro o teu blog (sou uma Jason Stan... Bem, sou uma Stan da batfam em geral)! Espero que gostes do second chances, have a great day!
Oii!! Que legal (eu também hahah), obrigada!!! Já tinha lido online mas está sendo legal ver a versão em português :D Thanks, você também!!
Just picture Augustin looking at Eoin and paddy (as a pair) and him trying to figure them out and ofc his first thought is paddy is the moon and Eoin is the sun ??? Besides of the straightforward comparison just by looking at them and seeing them behave, there's no denying that paddy seems to shine when he's hit by eoin's light, whenever he is around the man
And that seems all fair and good, but something is not quite right anyway? Because the sun and the moon don't orbit each other the way they do - you could argue they helplessly follow one another, never quite meeting but. Even if unsaid, Augustin would propose there's actually something there, paddy and eoin are meeting (however one wished to interpret that). So the analogy doesn't fully track and he shouldn't even think about it that much bc like. Who cares, right? Except he does, and he keeps looking at them and observing them and he wriggles himself sort of next to them whenever he's allowed to, or between them, and he pays attention but still can't put his finger on it
Until there's a mission with both Irishmen leading different squads and augustin happens to see with his very eyes how Eoin mcgonigal goes absolutely feral when paddy does not show up at rendezvous point with his unit. He doesn't scream but he growls, and he very much still raises his voice, firm and with authority, and it booms through the desert, and Augustin literally sees him get all up on reg fucking seekings' personal space, grab him and rough him up against the nearest surface, yell and demand about paddy in more languages than augustin knew eoin was fluent in
-- until paddy does show up. A bit dirty and with probably some bruises, but very much alive and kicking
And everything in eoin mcgonigal's body comes undone, all pliant and invitingly gentle again - even if he does get on Paddy's case about his recklessness
And that's when Augustin comes to the conclusion that whereas paddy is indeed the moon (lunatic that he is,) Eoin is but the earth - they are constantly orbiting each other, eoin's gravity pulls paddy in at every turn.
But most importantly, Eoin needs Paddy the way the earth needs the moon to control the tides. With them gone, tsunamis would wreak havoc inside Eoin mcgonigal, taking anyone who dares come close in the process.
It's somehow fascinating and, dare he say, somewhat alluring.
thank you so much for the careful, interesting & detailed reply you wrote to my message! i was concerned since mal and alina are close to my heart but it seems they shone through, despite the shitty circumstance they were in! thank you, hope you have a great week!!
You’re so welcome! Gave me an excuse to reread that chapter, i love mal and alina so much they’re so interesting, i hope you have a wonderful week as well!!
