#sickle (baccano) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

agallimaufryofoddments · 4 years ago

Note

What do you think about the relationship between Sickle and The Poet?

This ask was received a minute after the previous fanfic ask, fun fact.

Just as a little background, I’ve previously written about Poet/Poet and Sickle once or twice. There was a long post (+follow-up reblog, IIRC) I wrote back in the day in defense of the Poet, or more accurately, an appreciation post of his potential (he's not popular enough to be the target of significant criticism, hah). I also once wrote a Poet-centric fic in which Poet is injured and Sickle must protect him.

Anyway. An incredibly long braindump is under the ‘Keep Reading’ cut for length purposes. I had little choice but to start with the ‘slapstick’ aspect, so you’ll have to bear with me through a lengthy discussion of their “usual routine” before I can 'zoom out’ on other aspects of Poet and Sickle’s dynamic.

For those who quite sensibly will not be reading the overlong ‘content’ under the cut, please instead have these easier-to-read thoughts in bullet point form:

We must surmise Narita writes Sickle and Poet with slapstick in mind. I don’t personally find the “Sickle kicks Poet for being annoying’ routine particularly funny, though Poet’s provocation can be amusing.

They don’t only ‘quibble’ via unilateral slapstick, though; their introductory scene, for instance, shifts into near-bickering when Poet argues back.

There’s merit in contextualizing their dynamic rather than take the slapstick as nothing more than comedy for the sake of comedy. One might ask oneself if their routine serves as another method of distancing the Lamia from the world, w/o taking away from the actual personal conflicts.

It’s almost a form of time-passing banter; it’s easy for both to fall back on as an interaction. It breaks the ice between the Lamia in Vol 22, e.g.

Then there’s Leeza’s quip that the Lamia are people “who only know how to fight.” It’s not as if Poet and Sickle are the sole example of interpersonal conflict in the Lamia; just look at Leeza & Rail. Moreover, I don’t think Sickle & Poet actually hate each other, whereas Leeza & Rail absolutely do. Poet may be the group’s butt monkey, since Chi and Leeza insult him just like Sickle, but the barbed back-and-forth between Leeza & Rail borders on downright nasty.

The Lamia are a dysfunctional group by literal and individual design. On top of their literal designs, they individually, deliberately exhibit eccentricities intended to be off-putting. As the “most normal-looking” Lamia, S & P both compensate by exaggerating their speech and behavior; this is something they have in common versus the other Lamia, for whom ‘appearances’ are immediately distinguishing. We might now see how this could foment friction between S&P.

Also consider the Lamia’s make-up. We have: Rail and Frank, set apart by their youth; Sickle and Chi, the brusque fighters; Christopher (leader) and Poet, two exceptionally loquacious ‘madmen’. And the twins.

As if Chris and Poet weren’t enough, Sickle has to contend with Graham as a 3-for-3 “chatty combatant conversationalist.” Sickle is a doer surrounded by talkers; she “takes things seriously” and is exasperated by those who don’t. Poet, a useless fighter who never shuts up, is exactly the sort of person who’d get on her nerves.

But I don’t think she hates him, nor he her.

Volume 10, a volume in which Sickle and Poet are “on their own together’ for much of the events, sees no slapstick between them. Granted, they’re cooperating in emergency circumstances - a dire situation - but I think there are enough moments indicating their “usual exchange” isn’t the sum of their relationship.

Poet genuinely admires Sickle or at minimum respects how tough she is. For all Sickle’s put-downs of Poet as a “moron” and his monologues as “nonsense / drivel / loony claptrap), she does actually understand what he says most of the time, and she privately admits to her lack of restraint as a character flaw she feels guilty over to him in Dolce.

Not only are we seeing a character who projects toughness voicing a fairly personal if not vulnerable frustration with her own failings, we see how Poet reacts: he recognizes he has the chance to launch into “nonsense drivel” that Sickle would accept (i.e. not censure) and does not take it. He doesn’t want to. Not for any noble reason, mind you (like “it wouldn’t be fair to take advantage”) but because he “has pride in his verbal stylings.”

My take on this is that Poet ultimately values his “styled speech” being acknowledged regardless whether positively or negatively; he might not enjoy being kicked, but if it truly distressed him he wouldn’t continue rambling despite Sickle repeatedly asking him to stop.

I think Sickle’s frequent irritation with Poet’s bloviating is genuine, but it’s so usual to him that it’s--comfortable, in a way. When everything has gone to shit at the end of Volume 9, and Poet is speaking plainly, him easing back into his poetic speech isn’t something she objects to--probably because he’s providing a one normal constant in circumstances otherwise far from normal. Poet being silent, meanwhile, is more off-putting to her than his usual ‘drivel’; at least, she finds silent Poet ‘creepy’.

Poet is deliberately roundabout even on an occasion when she asks him what’s the matter, so he’s not exactly trying to break any communication barriers here. Both fall back into the “usual exchange” because it’s habit, because it’s safe, because it’s easy.

The Lamia are insular-ish; since they distance themselves from humans, they have little opportunities to form connections outside the group. Since one of Baccano!’s themes/topics of interest is the power of ‘connections between people’--especially as contributing to one’s personhood, and as facilitators of internal and external change--perhaps Sickle and Poet’s relationship may change once their individual worlds expand.

Just as Christopher’s did post-Claire, with Ricardo, and Rail’s world expanded upon Rail encountering Carol. Sickle and Poet could also choose to internally or externally change on their own, though reconciling external change with their deliberately ‘eccentric’ deportment and speech might not come easy.

Okay, that was a long summary. In fact, it’s...it could probably suffice as the post proper, couldn’t it. I don’t want to suggest the difference between the content above and below the cut is that "one is formatted in easier-to-read bullet points,” but that would be incorrect: the content below the cut is overlong even by my standards and rivals the Poet, Christopher, and Graham combined in terms of repetitive rambling epics.

If, for some reason, you enjoy it when I ramble like a Poet-wannabe, click or tap ‘keep reading’ for expanded nonsense drivel. Seriously, it...turned out longer than I realized.

Slapstick. No sense in beating around the bush; Sickle and Poet’s routine wherein...

(1) The Poet is a) about to launch into another rambling monologue or b) has been rambling ‘nonsense’ for whatever amount of time is “too much”...

if a) Sickle either has already hit limit OR no patience that day OR they are on a mission and have no time to humor him

If b) then there is a chance Sickle has repeatedly asked him to stop, growing more and more frustrated or irritated when he does not

(2) Sickle, whether preemptively fed up or losing her “violent temper,” physically remonstrates him one of the following ways:

[Common] Leg or foot to throat, cutting off air (once to point of Poet fainting)

Kick to back

Once jabbed fingers into his temple

(3) Poet can then react or respond in a few ways:

By voluntarily shushing

With a genuine physical reaction (e.g. one-time faint)

Melodramatic physical reaction (rolling around on floor)

Arguing with her.

Option 4 may be complemented by outright provocations, such as asking Rail to send Sickle flying, or suggesting Sickle die and carve her own grave marker.

...was probably written by Narita with slapstick (comedic violence) in mind. “Poet is annoying” provides a (debatable) ‘justification’ or reason for the physical censuring (add points if he has either ignored multiple “stop” requests or goaded her); since there are no serious consequences (well, faint might be contestable, more on this later), or at least, since Poet doesn’t ‘seriously mind’ (he minds, I think, but clearly not enough to not actively provoke her)--their routine does come off as audience-targeted comedy.

Whether this type of slapstick works as comedy, is, of course, up to subjective taste. Personally "Poet: obnoxious / Sickle: I kick” doesn’t do much to tickle my funny bone; I did wring amusement from Poet asking Rail to do him a solid and “send Sickle flying” (also the “carve her grave marker” quip), but not so much from the slapstick essence.

Digression on Slapstick

It’s worth noting this isn’t the only example of slapstick humor in Baccano!, though, given the series’ nature, slapstick doesn’t seem to be very common. Graham and Shaft’s dynamic is rooted a bit in slapstick, what with Graham frequently knocking the wind out of Shaft with his wrench. We see some slapstick with Jacuzzi’s crew, primarily with the “Boy who wants a sister/family” and friends. Hell, I think there’s at least one scene in which some of the kids outright kick Jacuzzi? Ouch?

Then there’s the three Stooges Pamela, Lana, and Sonja: Pamela and Lana mostly verbally spar, but on one occasion Pamela thumps Lana on the head to shut her up; another time, she grabs Lana by her cheeks; there was also the exaggerated ‘slap on the shoulders’. Claire and Berga’s roughhousing has gotten a bit more ‘playfully violent’ now that Berga is an immortal.

If we opine that Sickle is the Chi to Poet’s Christopher, given Chi offers his own brusque put-downs of Christopher’s longer soliloquies, then perhaps the ‘gender element’ becomes harder to ignore. I can’t recall Chi ever thumping Christopher in Vol 7; he’s capable of matching Sickle in insults against both Chris and Poet, but does he ever commit a dope-slap?

If you asked me if Sickle and Poet play into the “female-on-male slapstick” that’s in part predicated on notions where women can’t “seriously hurt” men, I’d say...no, since Sickle was made for combat, unlike Poet, and could easily kill or injure him if she wanted to--and she doesn’t, of course, she just wants to “shut him up.” I fully believe in Sickle as a fighter, though the fact she keeps getting paired off against Graham, whom she’s never ‘beaten’, makes this belief frustrating. Her dynamic with Poet neither undermines nor especially reinforces her power, in my opinion.

Something to bear in mind for later is that the Poet could, if he wanted, immediately render her susceptible to his suggestion simply by making eye contact with her. He could make her cease with the kicks; hell, I assume he could make her and Chi quit with the insults altogether. But he doesn’t.

Whether slapstick has a place in a series with serious violence and abuses being committed is...a question. I’ve seen it raised in certain fandom circles over the years (e.g. Winry, Ed, Al in FMA, Sakura in Naruto - have not seen or read Naruto, to be clear), but I don’t think it’s especially worth discussing in this post--or much of a debate in our fandom.

Narita clearly knows the difference between slapstick and abuse. Baccano! is a series that affords victims of abuse, people with trauma, and people who have otherwise been subject to extreme control/influence with tremendous sympathy; with characters like Czes, Celice, Elmer & Illness, Niki, Ennis & Chané, the Lamia, and more, we recognize and understand there are long-lasting psychological effects of their past environments or traumas. Not just physical, psychological.

We’re given an intimate look into how these characters think and feel about those responsible, how those feelings change over time, and never are their reactions or actions shamed or deemed wrong. I don’t think S&P’s dynamic can undermine any of that, nor do I Graham & Shaft’s dynamic or the slapstick in Jacuzzi’s gang.

End digression.

In-Universe

So, even if I don’t find the slapstick aspect of their relationship comedy gold, do I think there’s anything potentially interesting that can be read into it from an in-universe perspective? Yes.

As we’re reminded frequently in the text, the Lamia all attempt to distance themselves from the world. Sickle’s speech (”masculine”) and behavior (brusque, temperamental, icy, tough with a splash of sarcasm) are intentionally off-putting. Then there’s the Poet. From Volume 10:

> "Instead, [the Poet] evinced his outlandishness in something other than his appearance—his words—so that his companions and the people on the street around him would think… ...No way am I lookin’ that guy in the eye."

Note that he includes his companions there; he does not want anyone—humans or homunculi—to get too close and make eye contact, thus putting themselves under the influence of his eyes.

Yes, the Poet was alone rambling to himself when Sickle arrives and kicks him in Volume 9, and yes, I think Sickle’s frustration with him is genuine (more on this later), but there may be some merit in asking whether their ‘routine’ is itself another method of ensuring humans keep their distance. After all, as Rail and Frank point out when they join them a minute later, neither Poet’s screaming nor “a woman executing a spinning high-kick”) are exactly subtle. Granted, Rail is being a smart-ass since they were supposed to actually be “laying low” (Sickle’s kick was ostensibly trying to silence Poet with that in mind)...anyway.

In terms of group dynamics, their “usual exchange” seems to be as comfortably usual to the other Lamia as it is to them. In Volume 21, their routine (i.e. Sickle kicking Poet mid-ramble) serves to “break the ice”; the other previously-silent Lamia start chatting among themselves. It might be akin to ‘old banter’, a way to pass the time.

Poet on Sickle

At the very least, their usual exchange is usual. It is a routine; ergo Poet is not so passive an instigator. To what extent the physical retaliation affects him is...variable. On one occasion he actually briefly faints (few seconds at most?) due to lack of oxygen courtesy of her foot to his throat, which is...not super great, probably the ‘most consequence’ we’ve seen...

...However, on a different occasion of throat-targeted temper, he reacts by rolling on the ground, clutching his throat for a melodramatically long time. He has goaded Sickle by inciting revenge or suggesting she die (once); though he often lets his companions’ insults roll off his back, he’s not above bickering with her. Also, and this important, it seems he has on occasion outright ignored her repeated verbal requests and warnings for the sake of bloviating; since theirs is a routine, he is consciously doing so knowing the risk of incurring violent temper.

Equally important, I think, is this bit from Volume 10:

> "Sickle was clearly irritated with herself, and the Poet chose to remain silent. Right now, no matter how meaningless his nonsense was, she would probably be quiet and accept it. Which was why he kept his mouth shut.

After all, even if they were only a means to demonstrate his lunacy, he had his own small pride in his verbal stylings."

Poet recognizes he has an opportunity to speak freely without Sickle retaliating here--but he doesn’t take it! He doesn’t want to use it. Not even out of some noble notion that he shouldn’t take advantage of her frustration with herself, but because he has “pride in his verbal stylings.” I take this to mean he wants his flowery speech to be acknowledged. To elicit a reaction, whether good or bad or violent or confused, because that means his speech struck a chord.

The insults and physical censuring, meanwhile, don’t seem to strike any particular nerve on his part. When we’re in his perspective, we don’t have all that much in the way of internal reflection on Sickle and the interactions between them. I think Poet admires Sickle to some degree; at the very least, he explicitly respects “her toughness” with regard to Sickle showing no signs of the pain her injury (from Graham’s fight) must still be giving her.

But he doesn’t dwell in this way at all on their routine. He knows her well enough to predict how she might react (temper-wise) to certain situations, but those acknowledgements of Sickle being “fed up” never lead to him worrying she might take it out on him or anything like that. The Lamia have plenty of psychological (and physical, depending) issues courtesy of Huey and Rhythm; not from each other.

Sickle on Poet

Sickle doesn’t dwell much on Poet either. She dismisses a lot of what he says as nonsense, but let us not forget she can understand most of what he says... meaning she can probably tell when he’s being nonsensical on purpose (which is often) versus when he’s actually saying something worthwhile or relevant. That he’s doing it on purpose - that he could speak plainly, if he made the effort, but he chooses to be nonsensical - just might be more irritating than the flowery language?

After all, Sickle is very much a “doer, not talker.” There’s this line in Vol 22, when Sickle is confronting Graham...:

> “Who cares?!” Sickle stomped her foot, a vein in her forehead pulsing. “You and the Poet both! You’re men, aren’t you? You’re supposed to communicate with your bodies, not your words!”

...and upon reading it, one must remember Poet is not the only exceedingly loquacious man Sickle has in her life. Christopher can match him 1:1 on talkativeness, and I’m sure this was to Sickle’s chagrin--she being a “less talk, more action,” serious-minded type of gal. Graham being 3-for-3 on the chatty scale is like the world is playing some sort of prank on her, probably.

She should know full well Poet was not designed for combat, so I don’t think she actually holds that against him; being subject to two, now three men who’ll monologue at a drop of a hat--talking your ear off instead of, eh, trying to rip it off--seems, it seems, tiring.

“Communicating with one’s bodies” is telling regarding her own behavior, too. The contrast between her ‘elegant, high-society feminine appearance’ and ‘masculine’ speech & behavior is meant to be an off-putting defense mechanism; so, she is expected, or believes she must, act a certain way all the time.

The lines between the Lamia’s “cultivated eccentricities” and their “true natures” are blurred to the point where their personas are often “second nature” to them, so I can’t exactly say Sickle doesn’t want to act the way she does. Still, maybe some of her irritation w/the likes of Chris, Graham, and Poet is as much to do with them being freely flamboyant “chatty Cathys” (none embodying the ‘traditional masculinity’ she emulates) as it is them being generally obnoxious.

On that note, she herself (per the English translation) actually uses the word ‘slapstick’ to describe Christopher and Graham’s ‘fight’ in Dolce: after standing on the sidelines, watching them have a merry old time fight-talking and talk-fighting, dicking around, laughing - aka “not taking their fight seriously enough by her standards” - she has enough, and decides to take them both down. So, her character has a personal distinction between what constitutes slapstick and serious violence.

Being ‘serious-minded’, she has little patience for Poet when he’s spouting ‘nonsense’ for the hell of it...but again, she’s not the only Lamia who puts Poet down. She also doesn’t protest when Poet grabs her hand in Dolce in Vol 10 and says “Let’s Go”--okay, she wants to know why, but she doesn’t stop in her tracks and refuse to comply. Maybe there was simply no time, since Graham exits “the john” a minute later, but I choose to think she would’ve followed Poet out of Dolce.

...and then demand to know what he’s thinking once outside? Probably, but look; if she truly held Poet in contempt, and had no respect whatsoever for his intellect or opinion, I imagine she would have stopped in her tracks immediately. She almost certainly wouldn’t have asked Poet for ideas on what to do next if that were the case. When Salomé has her “translate” Poet’s flowery “Graham is bad news” warning in Vol 22, she understands Poet and also backs him up when Salomé asks if Poet has “truly lost his marbles.”

Remember the “Sickle was clearly irritated...verbal stylings” Vol 10 quote from earlier? Here’s what immediately preceded it:

> Then, walking over to the Poet, she spoke in a low voice only he could hear. “I feel awful that I couldn’t restrain myself. This kinda thing is probably why my master refused to teach me true capoeira.”

That’s a somewhat personal admission Sickle makes, isn’t it? Personal enough that she privately, not publicly, utters it. It’s not only an admission that she lacked restraint and that she sees this as something to (and does) feel guilt over; it’s her perceiving it as enough of a character flaw as to make her unworthy of true capoeira. For someone who projects toughness and strength, this seems tantamount to vulnerability.

To privately rue her personal failings to Poet (and to, you know, generally cooperate with him as she does in Vol 10)... She would not admit this in confidence to Poet if she didn’t trust him at all, didn’t see any personal link between them. (Can you see Leeza or Rail saying something like this to each other in 1934? When they actively hate each other?)

(I’m not sure to what degree Sickle’s self-perceived “lack of restraint” issue reflects on her ‘routine’ with Poet? I guess it’d be fair of you to ask if this ‘poor restraint’ explains the slapstick (’she reacts on instinct!’), but I hesitate to seize that idea so readily. In fact, I just might argue the opposite: she is actually exercising restraint against Poet, for kicking without restraint would surely seriously injure or kill him. Since this isn’t a cartoony manga where cartoon physics / visual gags can be liberally used to ‘neuter slapstick’, the slapstick here relies on her restraint. Also, she waited for a good while before intervening in the Chris vs Graham fight; it’s a matter of undisciplined restraint, not no restraint.)

Together Alone

I’ve referenced Volume 10 several times so far, and it bears pointing out that, throughout quite a bit of the events taking place in Vol 10...Sickle and Poet are on their own. Together, that is. And they’re...fairly civil about it? Sickle still has a sarcastic retort or put-down for Poet in Vol 10, but that’s about it for sparring. I don’t think there’s a slapstick instance between them once.

Remember the dire situation that Volume 9 leaves them in--their last scene in Vol 9: when they’re sitting in Dolce, listening to the radio’s report on the explosions at Elleson HIll. They are the only ones remaining of the Lamia: Chi left that morning to join Tim and Adele in NY; Frank has been kidnapped by Nebula; Rail has gone missing; and Sham and Hilton—their communication channels with Huey—have gone incommunicado.

When the Poet raises the likely possibility Rail is behind whatever’s happening at Elleson Hill, he does so, for once, in plain language. He only resumes waxing lyrical once he suddenly ‘appreciates’ just how grim a situation he and Sickle are in. He even laughs. (In a way, perhaps him waxing lyrical is a means of protectively distancing himself from the emotional weight of their emergency...)

Sickle’s response isn’t to agree or disagree with his sober assessment of their circumstances. She simply murmurs, "You're starting to talk like yourself again." This is not a lament. I can’t be positive it’s a positive statement, but I suspect it is leaning more toward relief than chagrin considering the context. When the situation is anything but normal—their companions all gone, themselves cut off from Huey, everything with Elleson Hill, Nebula, the Russos, Graham—having your one remaining comrade remain a constant (by acting ‘as usual’) is probably...reassuring.

Oh, moreover, the next day -- after the fight in Dolce -- Sickle notices Poet has gone quiet again and says, “What’s the matter, Poet? it’s creepy when you clam up.” Poet’s deliberately obfuscating response successfully serves to irritate her, so she “[fights] back the urge to kick him” and tells him to shut up after all.

Question for later: had Poet answered in plain language, or at least not been deliberately ‘obnoxious’ in his answer, would Sickle have responded so petulantly? This isn’t the first time he’s ticked her off in what he says; in Volume 9, when he (in poet-speak) aligns himself with atheism only to then invoke God, the inconsistency (and commitment to inconsistency) is what grinds her gears.

(Note: Come to think of it, isn’t Poet supposedly acting “even more oddly than usual” in 1934? I remember Rail says something to the effect of “Poet’s been making even less sense than usual” to Chris on their reunion. So if Poet’s behavior in 1934 is overly eccentric / nonsensical even by his standards, than maybe Sickle’s responses to that behavior need to be contextualized.)

In a similar vein, I should acknowledge that Sickle and Poet’s cooperation in Vol 10 is cooperation in emergency circumstances. They have to work together. This only means, though, that I wish we’d been given more scenes of them paired off than we saw. Their later attempts to track down Rail and Frank, wandering the city “feeling cornered” are only summarized; it would have been nice if we actually saw them ‘together alone’ in action.

Together, the Lamia

I can only speculate as to how many years Sickle and Poet have known each other, or how ‘close’ or ‘distant’ they are. They don’t hate each other like Leeza and Rail hate each other, but are they ‘close’ in the way Chi and Chris as friends are ‘close’? Not so sure. All the Lamia have personal issues and their own baggage from their time with Rhythm, but which issues they share with each other, and which ones they’re flippant about versus vulnerable about are up in the air.

We know less about what Sickle and Poet went through in the laboratory than we do Rail and Frank; we know S&P’s bodies weren’t tinkered on “in the special way” Rail and Frank’s bodies were, and Rail, Frank (+ Adele, for that matter) show far more external signs of trauma than the others. (Adele physically shakes at memories and/or the thought of returning to the laboratory; Rail’s PTSD with Huey and the researchers flares w/Renee, Frank is similar).

Sickle & Poet are more like Chris and Chi in referring to Master Huey with any amount of deference, even if rote. Poet is stable enough to calmly self-analyze his ‘powers’ from the laboratory and to critically reflect on who he is; we know he searched for and failed to find the road to happiness, that he questions whether he is acting out of cowardice in “following Master Huey’s orders to stay safe.

He professes guilt (I think) when he uses his powers in Vol 9 -- “Ohhh, ‘tis the apple on my back that extended these keys to me. [...] My sin is” -- but Sickle, who isn’t listening to a word he says, cuts the confession off. This is where their eccentricities / personas perhaps impede the forging of a deeper bond.

Sickle’s brusque demeanor and ‘toughness’ potentially keep her from being too vulnerable--the “I feel awful...restraint...” line is the most personal I can recall her being, and I think we know the least about Sickle and Chi when it comes to the Lamia’s laboratory pasts and personal issues.

Poet’s deliberate abstruse language and ‘insane’ ramblings are so successful in driving away humans as to similarly create distance between himself and his companions. Frank can hardly understand him; Rail understands him better, but not by too much (?). Chi’s experience with Chris might help with comprehension, but he and Leeza are just like Sickle when it comes to putting Poet down. Sham likes Poet better than Leeza/Hilton, while Christopher has actively taken a leaf from Poet’s book.

(I guess Poet didn’t quite appreciate that until Volume 9? I mean, he goes “come to think of it,” Christopher was the only ‘great and faithful’ person to welcome the power of his words. If Poet seriously never ‘thought’ deeply about that until Vol 9, again, we surmise he pays the insults or lack of comprehension similar little mind.

Sickle (and Christopher?) perhaps understand(s) Poet the best (or most often) out of them all, yet, since his gimmick and nonsense irritate Sickle, she’s in the habit of outright ignoring much of what he has to say. A language barrier, in other words (ha). Poet’s language obfuscates his meaningful insights or personal admissions.

The Lamia are just. Very dysfunctional. Rail and Frank are set apart by their comparative youth and shared trauma; Rail openly badmouths Huey and isn’t much for respecting people (though they do feel guilty for potentially endangering Sickle and Chi)... Christopher and Chi are decades-old ‘friends’, though Chris, in the same breath he talks about his quest for 100 friends, says he would kill a good friend if they tried to get in his way. He’s as flippant about his insecurities and idolization of nature as he is serious.

Sure, Chris and Chi have their usual exchanges, and Poet and Sickle their usual exchanges, but for us, always in the context of a mission. They’re bound by Huey, they’re bound by work, and they so quickly fragment to do their own things when on those missions? When they have time, at least. The Lamia assemble in Volume 9 for Leeza’s instructions, and minutes after they’re relayed find Rail and Frank fucking off to see the Wrigley Building.

I guess... Christopher calls Sickle and Chi his “beloved family-slash-friends.” When he’s reunited with Sickle & Poet in 1934, he wonders if “family ties” brought them together. He say the Lamia are ‘pretty much’ family to him, but do the other Lamia members feel the same way? Explicitly? (No) Perhaps they don’t need or want to define what binds them in such terms. Maybe they can’t.

These are homunculi who know each other better than anyone. At least, their personas. They’ve spent years together; they’ve spent years distancing themselves from humans, had years to settle into ‘safe’ dynamics.

Winding to a Conclusion

It is in how the Lamia each distance themselves that Sickle and Poet have more in common with each other than the other Lamia. Never mind Sickle and Chi are similarly brusque vs Christopher and Poet being similarly loquacious, think appearance vs behavior. Rail’s and Frank’s physical appearances (sutured scars; abnormal body) immediately create distance between them and humans; Chris and Chi are a mix of appearance and behavior (Chris: teeth, old-fashioned clothing; Chi: Wrist-guards + outfit; brusque).

Sickle and Poet, however, both in theory have the easiest time ‘passing’ as ‘normal’. So, they both compensate via ‘eccentric’ / ‘off-putting’ speech and behavior: Sickle with her icy countenance and “masculine” way of speaking and acting; Poet with his ‘crazy’, long-winded, opaque ramblings that he hopes will make people want to avoid eye contact.

Perhaps we might understand, now, how these respective exaggerated, deliberately off-putting behaviors may naturally clash. I’m not sure whether Narita was trying to ‘reverse’ anything with Sickle and Poet...with Sickle being the tough, masculine, curt fighter vs Poet being the useless-in-a-fight ‘chatty Cathy’ whose special powers are barely relevant.

Eh, who knows. They are at least written to provide some comic relief (success debatable), but their relationship is, for now, a static one. Christopher pours more of his feelings out than Sickle, and is (relatively) more open and comprehensible with them than Poet, but Chi dismisses much of what Christopher says as “crazy” like Sickle does with Poet. Christopher has changed since 1933, but whether that will change his dynamic with Chi is...hard to say.

Since Chi and Sickle have drawn short sticks in terms of character intimacy (how intimate we are with their motives, insecurities, backstories), character growth on their end (i.e. growth from what, to where) isn’t, uh, obvious. Poet has the opportunity, or at least, we know enough about what he lacks and doubts about himself to know what he might seek, but...

...when I think about Poet and Sickle in December 1934 vs February 1935, can I think of any evolution in their dynamic or characters? Not particularly. Rather, when Poet & Sickle were on their own in Volume 10, to what extent did those emergency circumstances affect their relationship / them as people?

Well, they were more cordial with each other. Sickle expressed frustration with herself to him. Poet reflected on his own shortcomings, his failure to find happiness and hope that Rail and Frank, the youngsters, still had a chance. These moments are confined to Dolce, though, and after Dolce...we don’t see much more of them. Once Huey locates S&P, that’s that for “the adventures of Sickle and Poet.”

What would it take for Sickle & Poet’s relationship to change. If Poet seriously minded the slapstick routine, he could try to do something about it--but he doesn’t, so it continues. If Sickle were to conclude her kicking Poet with restraint isn’t true restraint, not like her master (whoever that is) would consider restraint, there might be change. In both cases, the change would be for ‘self-centered’ reasons: Sickle for self-improvement, not out of remorse or reconciliation; Poet for his comfort, not out of consideration or sheepishness.

I wonder just how Poet tried to find the road to happiness, and what it means that he failed to find it. This goes for Sickle, too. I think, though, that external change in their consideration for each other would be equally important to seeing their relationship evolve. Sickle might be tough and brusque, but she was straightforwardly open about her frustration with herself to Poet in Volume 10. However, when she asks him “what’s the matter” later, Poet chooses to respond in his usual ‘roundabout’ way, and so any concern she might have is smothered by her irritation.

If Poet deigned to meet Sickle on her plane of communication more often, or at least ‘restrained himself’ from responding in spectacularly roundabout fashion, I think Sickle woulld lend him an ear. On the flip side, Sickle needs to shake her instinct to tune out or dismiss Poet’s rambling as nonsense 95% of the time. When she notices him frown in Volume 10, she assumes he’s gearing up for more “nonsense drivel” and thus pays the frown no mind. When he’s feeling guilty about his powers in Volume 9, she’s not listening to a word he says and interrupts him before he actually gets to the ‘sin’ part.

So when I say she understands Poet, she understands him when she bothers to understand him. Since a lot of the time Poet is deliberately being nonsensical, there’s precedent for her tuning out; but, you know, when Person A is in the habit of dismissing, putting down, or ignoring a fair bit of what Person B says... and when Person B is in the habit of playing up the nonsense and flowery language despite multiple requests to stop (and sometimes to the detriment of a mission)...

(not to mention willing to goad or provoke Person A into bickering)

...then you’ve got mutually limited communication that’s easy to fall back onto, but hard to use for discussing ‘hard topics’. (See: lads who communicate entirely in banter, flippancy, and sarcasm.)

Conclusion: Connecting Chapter

You know, when Sham and Hilton encounter Poet on the outskirts of the rubberneckers watching the alleyway fight, Poet bullshits about “the fragility and steadfastness of bonds” between people and “Love” for he, too, is searching for love. This is all a roundabout way of saying, “I was unable to push through the crowd,” haha, ha, but given how “connections between people” is a major subject of the series (see: Ennis suggesting that a ‘soul’ is comprised of the connections one has made with the world” in 1935, talk about thematic!)...

...well, maybe the Poet was being vulnerable or speaking something akin to truth, there. The Lamia try to distance themselves from humans; they are bound to each other by upbringing, origins, work, experience... they are used to each other, they only have each other.

But if Ennis is right about connections and change, that, though there are people who can change in solitude, it’s in meeting others, expanding one’s world, and being acknowledged by others that one comes to change, then perhaps this is what Sickle and Poet and Chi and the rest need.

Christopher changes after losing to Claire, but continues to change in the company of Ricardo. Rail idolizes Christopher, Rail breaks, but perhaps, perhaps, in the company of Jacuzzi’s gang, they will heal. The impact Carol has on Rail after only 1, 2 interactions is, in its own, small way, profound. For someone who has always distanced themselves from humans, and tried to see themselves as superior, Rail ‘connects’ with Carol for something as simple and meaningful as her kindness.

Sickle and Poet have encountered Graham multiple times, now. Will these encounters lead to change? Have they already planted the seeds for change? As Sickle’s and Poet’s worlds expand, they might change; so, too, may their relationship. If their discontent with themselves leads to internal change, then there may be external change; to change their external behavior might call into question their personas altogether, and, well. As stated, the line between what is “second nature” to them and what is “their nature” is rather hazy...

...as is the entirety of everything I’ve written. Wow. Talk about roundabout and repetitive and long-winded. The trouble is that I actually did edit some of this as I was writing; I rearranged some of the content, condensed paragraphs, added sections...and yet it remains...a lot. And I really can’t spend even more time on a proper revision, since, uh, the thesis is again in crisis.

If anyone actually read this whole thing - read all the way up to this point - I will be very surprised. (The ‘true nature’ talk is definitely something for another day. Subject that’s pertinent in Baccano! beyond the Lamia, that’s for sure. I’ve got various relevant notes scribbled down, ramblings that may see the light of day in essay form...but not this day.)

#Baccano!#Baccano #Sickle #The Poet #Sickle (Baccano!)#The Poet (Baccano!)#Anonymous #Asked and Answered #Rev’s Musings #Baccanalysis

10 notes · View notes