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80/20 Merlin's doing it for the lulz vs trying to get a message across. Actually, what am I talking about - Merlin's definitely doing this so that Charlie stays up all night in worry as petty revenge for ducking out on him the entire time they were in Babylonia.

Merlin can try to get a serious message across and be a petty little shit at the same time.
 
you're too broken to be admired, and too pathetic to be hated.
That's gotta hurt. That probably hit him harder than any noble phantasm.
Most of the time he's been making do by playing dirty and resorting to tricks. I wonder how that will help with Goetia who is just going to bombard him with sheer power. Maybe he'll use the fact that Goetia seemed to imitate whoever it interacted with (like it did with him and Saint George) in order to create some sort of plan.
Oh, thank God! Listen, I've been trying to get a word with you, but you kept dodging me! Listen, whatever you do, you can't-
That's pretty ominous. Is it about Fou? In canon, Ritsuka showed the fluffy side of humanity, so Primate murder wasn't a problem. Here though, Fou is seeing the uglier side. So, that might really fuck things up for Chaldea.
 
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Why was Charlie doding Merlin? Heck, did Gil not tell him that was Merlin? Did Merlin not fucking introduce himself!?

Seriously, not taking a few seconds to go "Hey, I'm Merlin and you fucked up with Fou!" seems too heavy-handed.
...You know I actually forgot about Fou in all this drama, guess he didn't like Flynns aggressive friendship "Be my friend or die."
 
If Charlie does fail in the final fight with Goetia I really hope a version of Gilgamesh is there who remembers this conversation so Charlie can get off a "Thank you" to him for this shit. I mean it isn't like deliberately hurting a "broken, pathetic man" who is stepping up to save your people because you won't be assed to(why didn't YOU use Rule Breaker GILGAMESH?? YOU HAVE ALL THE ITEM BASED NPs!!!!!!!!!) is a bad play, per se. It just means you want to see all your works and reality blended into a bland non-existence.

GG no Re Gil. Also Merlin.... is this really the time, place, and person to play at being the Anti-Christ with?
 
I have a feeling that the plan that was enacted was the plan that merlin was trying to warn against... oh boy.
 
Honestly, I feel like with Gorgon gone, Charlie's right that he doesn't need to stick around since, y'know, Quetzalcoatl was conning her fellow members and was as benevolent as the myths say, and she now has no reason to keep pretending to be evil, so it's really just Ereshkigal that's technically a problem.
 
Interlude: Mash Kyrielight
I wake up in the morning, and then I'm up. I brush my teeth, shower, get dressed, and then head out to go about my day, doing my best to help Chaldea!

…by helping Senpai as his personal assistant.

You could do so much better.

I ignore Galahad being an overly critical ass as I make my way to Senpai's room. He was drinking again last night, so he'll probably be a bit late in getting up.

Yes, my point exactly! Why are you helping this shambling wreck of a human being cover for his own vices while he drinks himself into an early grave? You could do so much more than just following him around as his sidekick!

Senpai is a good person! And he needs my help!

Yeah, if you were actually trying to help him, you'd get him to stop with the drinking! You and I both know that between the alcoholism and the poisoning attempts, he has maybe a year before he drops dead of ciirhosis.

You're exaggerating. Now be quiet.

The door slides open, and Senpai emerges, purple bags beneath his hollow eyes. His cheeks are covered in stubble, so he stopped shaving again, and he looks like he hasn't been eating.

So, in other words, typical Senpai.

"Senpai!" I have my clipboard ready, and today's task list on the front page. "Do you want to get straight to the meat of things, or do you want to get breakfast first?"
He's probably going to skip breakfast again. The longer the Grand Order has gone, the more he's been missing his meals. I don't think he even notices it. He just keeps moving forwards.

"No. We have work to do. I'll grab myself something later."

I try not to sigh.

"Well, then, our first task for today is visiting Sir Gilles again, followed by board games in the Berserker Lounge."

"Belay that. Medea and I are submitting a proposal to Roman today. If successful, we could fix our Master shortage, and give ourselves enough backup to manifest Chaldea's full Servant complement when Solomon finally shows his ugly head."

He- He had something planned? And he didn't tell me?

"Senpai, why didn't you tell me? I'm in charge of keeping your schedule, and-"

"I mean, you kind of appointed yourself my scheduler," he says, heading towards Roman's office. "Look, I keep telling you, find something you want to do, don't just follow me around. I feel bad enough for taking up your time in the field, I don't want to waste your free time, too."

He… I…

See, Flynn agrees with me! Following him around like a lost puppy is a complete waste of your talents! You could do so much more if

I feel tears start to leak from my eyes as I stare at Senpai's back.

He doesn't need me. I just wanted to help him, and he doesn't need me, and I'm useless, and I should just let Galahad have the body full-time, and-

Oh crap, Mash, Mash, I'm sorry!

It's fine for you, you get to be useful, but when I try to help as best I can, you get all critical, and I'm not even doing anything, and-

Mash, no, that's not what I'm trying to do here! You're a brilliant, incredibly talented person, and I just think that hanging around Flynn and trying to be his personal assistant is a waste of your abilities! Both because you're not actually doing much, and because you're wasted on him.

All I had was being a Demi-Servant. Now, you're doing that, and you do that better than me anyways, so why do I even bother?

Then try something else! Try helping the chefs, or working with Da Vinci, or…

"Mash? You doing okay?" Cu (I think it's the Caster one) asks, as he materializes. "Did Flynn do something?"

"I'm fine," I say, quickening my pace to catch up with Senpai. Cu follows, matching my pace.

"You know that if he's giving you trouble, I can set him straight."

Listen to the man. He can help you. But don't let him into your pants.

"I'm fine, it's just, do you ever feel…" I stop, feeling like an idiot. This is Cu Chulainn I'm talking to. Ireland's Child of Light. The greatest hero of the Emerald Isle, whose name is remembered even millennia after his death. Why would he ever feel like I do right now? "Never mind."

For Christ's sake, TALK TO HIM! He's trying to help!

"Look, Mash…"

"I have to go, Cu." I dry my eyes and jog off after Senpai, who's eating up the distance like a man possessed, same as ever. He's always more intense than usual when he's hungover.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

"If you ever need my help, just ask."

I hurry on after Senpai. Even if I'm worthless, I'm going to help as best I can.

Stop thinking about yourself like that!

I ignore Galahad as I catch up with Senpai. Medea is waiting for us outside Dr. Roman's office.

"Apprentice."

"Teacher."

Oh, joy, it's the crazy infanticidal bitch.

Be nice.

"You brought your tagalong?" the witches' eyes shift to me, and I suppress a shiver. I never really got the sense that she liked me. She stares at me with a vicious intensity, as if she's always thinking of just how many steps she'd have to take to slit my throat.

"She likes to follow me around. God only knows why, I'm terrible company." He shrugs. "But I don't see what harm she could do. Do you?"

"I suppose she can stay." Medea turns and opens the doors, and Senpai and I follow her inside.

Roman looks up from his paperwork as we enter. "Oh. So, what's this all about?"

"Medea and I had an idea for how to solve our Master shortage, strengthen our forces for the final battle against Solomon, and massively cut down on our overhead."

Dr. Roman sighs, leaning back in his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is going to be a horrific human rights violation of some kind, isn't it?"

"Oh ye of little faith."

"I think I'm displaying exactly the appropriate amount of faith for one of your proposals. I haven't forgotten your little suggestion that we be prepared to conduct a systemic purge of the Mage's Association after we stop the Incineration."

"Roman, they are not only a hidebound and dangerous organization who tolerate numerous breaches of human rights for a really stupid cause, but they also pose an active threat to humanity's safety! I've read their records, and they have got to go! Or at the very least, be subjected to U.N. oversight!" Senpai slams his hands down on Dr. Roman's desk, and then seems to realize what he's doing. "And they are… not what I'm here to talk to you about. Take it away, Teacher."

"Gladly." Medea raises her hand, and conjures up a glowing diagram. "Now, then, how acquainted are you with the process of animating deceased bodies as familiars?"

"Oh, this is off to a splendid start," Roman says with a sigh. "Yes, I'm aware of the process."

"Well, I noticed that it possesses some similarities with the bond shared between Chaldea's Servants and the mana reactors." She points to the diagram. "Now, I was wondering, would it be possible to direct some of the reactors' energy to animating a master candidates' corpse? To serve as a component in the fate system? I believe I've worked out a viable method by which we can accomplish this feat."

I stare at her in mute horror as Senpai steps up. "I would recommend we use the A-team for this. They're both the best Masters Chaldea has, and they're functionally dead in every way that counts. Freezing them is just a stopgap to delay the inevitable, and quite frankly, we shouldn't waste time and resources on dead men any longer. I personally recommend we start with Zemlupus for our first subject. He's easily the most expendable in the event that something goes wrong."

And now I can only stare at Senpai, unable to say a word. He'd really do something that horrible?

I'm legitimately surprised that you're in any way shocked by this. This is completely up Flynn's alley.

SHUT UP, GALAHAD!

Dr. Roman breaks open a bottle of aspirin as he massages his temples. "So, let me get this straight: Your proposal is that we kill the A-team, and then reanimate them as our undead slaves?"

"Undead conscripts."

"I don't care what you call them, I'm still vetoing this."

"Fine. That brings me to my secondary proposal."

"Oh dear God, not another one."

"In the event of my death, I want you to use the reanimation procedure on my corpse."

For a moment, the room is completely silent. Even Medea looks shocked.

"What- No! I'm not going to desecrate your corpse with necromancy just to get another Master, Flynn!"

My Master stands stock-still, completely silent. Then, he starts to speak, never raising his voice. "As it stands, I am Chaldea's last master. I am our greatest point of failure. If I die, no, when I die, because I'm not stupid enough to believe that I'm going to make it out of this alive, our hope dies with me. If Chaldea, by some miracle, outlives me, and you secure my mortal remains, and instead of using them to ensure you'll have a Master on hand to fix things if this happens again, you instead go and waste them on some stupid, sappy shit like a proper burial? Well then, Roman, if you waste my last gift to you on something that fucking stupid, I will claw my way out of the fiery pits of Hell to haunt your ass."

Roman sighs, and then nods. "Right. I forgot who I was talking to for a moment."

As did I. I suppose that Flynn's dedication to the cause will always be his most admirable quality.

I turn and run.

Senpai… Senpai really thinks we're going to lose?

It's not exactly a baseless assumption. Having come face-to-face with Solomon, I can tell you that we're still seriously outgunned here.

I shove Galahad back into the deepest, most distant corners of my mind.

He doesn't care. He announced it in front of me, and he didn't even care how it would hurt me. He barely even thought of me at all.

Galahad was right.

And why would he care about me? I'm useless, now. Even Fou left me.

I find myself a corner, curl up into a ball, and cry. I let myself break down, finally stop holding it together. It's almost liberating. I don't have to pretend it doesn't hurt, because he doesn't need me anymore. And he hasn't needed me for a long time.

Galahad rages, trying desperately to escape from the corner I trapped him in, but I don't want to hear it from him. He'll just say it's all Senpai's fault, but it's mine.

I should've been better. I should've-

"Fou?"

I look up.

Beady little eyes stare back at me, surrounded by white fur.

"You came back?" I start crying again, and then I grab my dearest friend and pull him into a hug. "YOU CAME BACK!"

"Fou."

He buries his little wet nose into my neck, as I cry into his soft white fur.

Maybe Galahad is better than me. Maybe I am useless, now.

But for now, though… this is more than enough for me.
 
Ouch...yeah, I got nothing.

Flynn means well in the bit about her finding something to do herself as opposed to living by the standards of "serve Chaldea", but he completely failed to get it across in the right way such that it stuck.

And Fou is back...right after Merlin was about to say to NOT do something.

Edit: Wait, I do have something. Fuck Gilgamesh, this is at least partially his fault!
 
reads mash's interlude...

fou returns...

we might see a potential beast!mash and not the suit meme...

primate murder!fou might just merge with mash because he sees someone else at rock bottom...

seriously if we even get to the lostbelts we need to work on flynn's self esteem and other issues because the way i see it two future problems have now been created by the wrong person hearing the wrong thing at the WORST time...
 
I'll be honest here Charlie might have been the type of master that would have done well with chaldea's original plan... a team of masters tackling the singularities. put Charlie on a team with say most of the crypters (except that backstabbing sociopathic werewolf) and things might have turned out different.

P.S. Charlie actually having most of team a survive and healping charlie might be a good idea for an AU of how I saved history when you think about it...
 
Shouldn't they have some sort of healing np by now? Maybe some water from the fountain of youth that reverses a body's time, or Avalon and some version of Saber? Why not heal the other Masters?
 
UM... in this case fou coming back is VERY BAD NEWS!!!!!!

At least he will comfort Mash for little while.

Shouldn't they have some sort of healing np by now? Maybe some water from the fountain of youth that reverses a body's time, or Avalon and some version of Saber? Why not heal the other Masters?

They haven't summoned Artoria yet and I think they only summoned Excalibur and not Avalon.
 
He's really reminding me of Kiritsugu. He probably might meet a similar end. Hell, it'll probably be worse. At least Kiritsugu had Shirou who "saved" him.
Now, Flynn has nobody. Normally Mash would have probably stuck with him no matter what. But after this chapter, I don't know if that'll happen.

I wonder how Flynn would react if he saw how the canon Ritsuka saved humanity. Would he mock him for being inefficient? Would he still insist that the things he did were justified and "needed to be done" for humanity's sake? Or would he be jealous because Ritsuka's decisions actually lead to the "good" end while his decisions may probably lead to the "bad" end?
 
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He's really reminding me of Kiritsugu. He'll probably might meet a similar end. Hell, it'll probably be worse. At least Kiritsugu had Shirou who "saved" him.
Now, Flynn has nobody. Normally Mash would have probably stuck with him no matter what. But after this chapter, I don't know if that'll happen.

I wonder how Flynn would react if he saw how the canon Ritsuka saved humanity. Would he mock him for being inefficient? Would he still insist that the things he did were justified and "needed to be done" for humanity's sake? Or would he be jealous because Ritsuka's decisions actually lead to the "good" end while his decisions may probably lead to the "bad" end?

probably he'd have wished Fujimaru was the master of Chaldea instead of himself. I really think that when charlie looks at himself he sees someone that can't measure up... and that is a tragedy for most of the parties involved here because I think if he really stopped second guessing himself some of the future problems Charlie IS going to have could have well been avoided.
 
Oh Mash... On one hand, I lament that your cinnamon bun nature has led you to this point. On the other hand, there could be no other end. Flynn was never going to be what you needed. Galahad was right, if hamfisted and foolish.

All in all, just as expected. Flynn was never going to perfectly fill the hole left by Ritsuka. Flynn's only human. Not some messianistic figure, with endless capacity for compassion, and understanding. He's just a man. A depressed, jaded, world weary fool of a man. Depression gives you a lot of time to think and self-reflect. Self-awareness and understanding of who you are isn't always a comforting thing.
 
...

...

...

So the good parts! I do agree with using the A-Teams corpses to use as remote controlled Masters, hilariously and especially Kadoc. And I do find Galahad's shtick annoying and hypocritical.

On The Bad Point, forget all my philosophical ramblings from before. Fucker made Mash cry, he deserves to die and for this Grand Order to fail.

As ominous as Fou's return was, it was nice of him to come back to comfort Mash.

Also what's Medea's problem with Mash?
 
...

...

...

So the good parts! I do agree with using the A-Teams corpses to use as remote controlled Masters, hilariously and especially Kadoc. And I do find Galahad's shtick annoying and hypocritical.

On The Bad Point, forget all my philosophical ramblings from before. Fucker made Mash cry, he deserves to die and for this Grand Order to fail.

As ominous as Fou's return was, it was nice of him to come back to comfort Mash.

Also what's Medea's problem with Mash?

Galahad was trying to comfort someone that he's developed some affection for, friendly affection, from her depressing thoughts.

She's an innocent in his eyes, while Flynn has done some things that Galahad would despise as a Knight.

Medea may dislike Mash because she sees her as offering nothing to the organisation, and she feels her only use is to serve as a host for the spirit that's meant to protect the Master of Chaldea, so whenever she sees Mash in control and not Galahad she may feel that Mash isn't doing her job.
 
Galahad was trying to comfort someone that he's developed some affection for, friendly affection, from her depressing thoughts.
And now we see the problem in someone who is only starting to learn empathy because they never had to deal with emotions before, try to help someone through their emotional struggle. God it's like watching Gallant from Worm...actually no. Galahad does a better job than Dean, at least he realizes what people are feeling and why, and tries to correct.

She's an innocent in his eyes, while Flynn has done some things that Galahad would despise as a Knight.
Funny enough, Flynn agrees with Galahad that Mash is too good for him. He just failed utterly at conveying that. XD

Medea may dislike Mash because she sees her as offering nothing to the organisation, and she feels her only use is to serve as a host for the spirit that's meant to protect the Master of Chaldea, so whenever she sees Mash in control and not Galahad she may feel that Mash isn't doing her job.
I wanna say that doesn't sound like Medea from Chaldea, but the one here had been around Flynn and his always work, work, work, we rest we die, mentality for so long that she probably never unwinded to relax and act on her quirky urges.
 
I think it says something that everyone was simultaneously impressed, surprised, unsurprised, mildly horrified, and just a bit depressed from Flynn's willingness to give his everything for the cause.

Honestly, he comes off as a tragic figure in a lot of ways, making me thing of the 47 Ronin. Giving everything for something they believe in, and fully expecting to die during or after it. Except in Flynn's case, he said fuck death, Imma be a poor man's servant and keep on doing what's needed.
 
He's really reminding me of Kiritsugu. He'll probably might meet a similar end. Hell, it'll probably be worse. At least Kiritsugu had Shirou who "saved" him.
Now, Flynn has nobody. Normally Mash would have probably stuck with him no matter what. But after this chapter, I don't know if that'll happen.

I wonder how Flynn would react if he saw how the canon Ritsuka saved humanity. Would he mock him for being inefficient? Would he still insist that the things he did were justified and "needed to be done" for humanity's sake? Or would he be jealous because Ritsuka's decisions actually lead to the "good" end while his decisions may probably lead to the "bad" end?
The way Ritsuka saved humanity is the mother of all asspulls, and Ritsuka is some kind of Gary Stu with the biggest plot armor you can find, otherwise he would have been deader than dead.
Flynn is actually efficient, fuck that namby pamby sentimental shit.
 
Eh, I'd argue that this story is just as susceptible to plot contrivance/author fiat, just because I have my doubts as to how effective Zabaniya would be on Demon Pillar candidates because the human form is more like a shell than the real deal. That being said, in this instance at least I feel like Flynn is making himself clear enough with Mash, and her mental health shouldn't really be his responsibility to the point where I feel like the blame should appropriately be placed with Roman and Da Vinci since they (Roman much more than Da Vinci) are her parental figures.
 

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