#the mechanicsburg solstice story

[leletha-jann]

Even more headcanons no one asked for: the Mechanicsburg Solstice tradition!

I recently reread the Mechanicsburg Solstice Story because I like it and it's a nice discrete slice of this universe. (...I have also watched enough of Kaja's office hours livestreams that the voice-acting in my head is now prepared for this story specifically.)

So in lieu of actually writing this as a fic, for your amusement, I've pulled together my headcanons of Agatha (and family) vs. the Mechanicsburg Solstice chase:

(I have - of course - assumed the OT3)

Agatha finds out about the Solstice tradition ahead of time the next year, maybe at some kind of meeting with the town elders

Gil and/or Tarvek immediately go "The hell you will," at whoever told her they'd be chasing her all over town (probably Van, but he can deal with them, he'll be fine)

Agatha immediately goes, "Yes actually the hell I will, sit down." Per the Agreement [my headcanon, not from the comic], Agatha gets to argue with them about Empire things if she wants to, but they do not get to argue with her about Mechanicsburg things

Everyone immediately perceives that the Lady's consorts are going to get involved for her if something isn't done. It's not a huge leap of perception here. No one's willing to fight them, so...

Excessive negotiations finally settle on that Gil and Tarvek are allowed to attend the party beforehand but MUST be back in Castle Heterodyne, in reboot mode or not, before midnight (Cinderella vibes a bit here...)

Joke's on the council, this is exactly the outcome that Tarvek had in mind and he was cuing Gil to start deliberate arguments that they could then strategically lose; they only run an empire, c'mon

Agatha isn't allowed to take tools, weapons, and/or equipment into this game, thus the specifically chosen-for-her outfit, but...

...no one is frisking her consorts while they wander around the festival as a couple being cute and chatting with people

(side note, Tarvek knows a remarkable number of Mechanicsburgers by name specifically; when Gil comments on this, Tarvek admits that he doesn't take food or drink from people he doesn't know, because they're less likely to poison him if they actually know him)

(the argument about how anyone who actually knew Tarvek would poison him faster lasts them most of the rest of the way through the festival. C'mon. They're cute and they love each other, but they're not going to miss that good a fight)

...every single pocket Gil and Tarvek have at this point, and they're wearing coats because it's midwinter and, c'mon, they're Sparks, so that's a lot of pockets, is full of useful tools and materials and power cores and such

Violetta has helped with this a lot. These pockets are practically bigger on the inside now

Is anyone actually going to stop the Lady of Mechanicsburg from kissing her consorts in the street where the whole town and the Jägerhorde too can wolf-whistle and cheer at them?

NOPE

Remembering that most people are a bit drunk by now, is anyone taking notes on where all those hands are?

NOPE

Do an awful lot of useful things move from Gil's and Tarvek's pockets to Agatha's under the cover of adorable public displays of affection?

YEP

Is Agatha, from that point on, quite as unarmed as she looks, or as the new Revelsmeister thinks she is?

ABSOLUTELY NOT

This chasing game is about to be a great deal of fun...for Agatha, who can literally build death rays in her sleep.

This works for YEARS until someone catches on. Bonus points if the person who figures it out thinks it's funny and doesn't tattle.

Gil and Tarvek still worry about her after they've been sent home for the night, although I suspect this does not stop them from raiding the Castle Heterodyne kitchens on the way while the Castle is rebooting and can't stop them

They watch from the windows spotting for death ray stun gun blasts (the Heterodynes don't kill their own people, and Agatha certainly doesn't) until it's clear Agatha is winning

...and probably for a while after that

The next morning, Agatha usually finds them camping out sleepover-style in a reading room or lab with a good view of the town. The Castle ringing the Doom Bell to call time would wake them up, of course, although I suspect they're smart enough to set a predawn alarm. No one deserves the Doom Bell as an alarm clock. But once the Castle assures them that Agatha won (again), they might as well go back to sleep...

Agatha probably just crawls into the campout nest with them when she gets home

It's a very quiet morning in Mechanicsburg the day after Solstice

(quite a lot of people are still sleeping off the stun gun Agatha seemed to pull out of nowhere. Everyone's very impressed about that once they wake up, though.)

Bonus headcanons:

Zeetha was 100% delighted to have a specific (fun) thing to train her zumil for, and much running around Mechanicsburg being loudly pursued by Zeetha happens all the time now.

Agatha wishes there was less of that, actually.

But it's TRAINING.

Krosp thinks the whole thing is ridiculous, and he probably isn't wrong.

He's also not above raiding the Castle Heterodyne kitchens while the Castle is rebooting, either.

[maximinimaximus]

"Zagreb has been mentioned"

It's mentioned at the beginning of the Mechanicsburg Solstice Story from a few years ago. It's how the (in-universe) Professoressa gets dragged into the Solstice celebrations.

(Hi Van!)

I swear I've also seen fanart depicting Nikola Tesla as the Lightning Count of Zagreb at one point, but it is very late here and I must go to bed, not try and find half-remembered images in the depths of the internet.

Oh, so they never were trapped in the timestop! Are these even the same group Zola and her people gave an extradimensional swirlie?

and besides who would even know they could just saunter into the bubble (possibly information stored with the original report on the take 5 bomb, the black squad, or both) this also begs how and who hid that information from Gil (and Boris? Probably?)

(also they very casually dropped that Klaus probably isn't where we left him, huh. I'm shocked- shocked, I say!)

[calmingpi]

Ok first i made a post asking if this sigil has been featured in other future stories, but then i decided to just go back and look for it myself.

The answer is yes. Agatha wears it at the beginning of Ivo Sharktooth. Though this version seems to have the wings swapped? I didnt notice that the trilobite had two different types of wings until just now.

However this dress is the only example of the sigil in Ivo Sharktooth, and the sigil is not shown at all in Mechanicsburg Solstice or Guild of Monsters, that I could spot.

If the Jagers are ALSO wearing this, that would imply this is now the standard by the time The Great Dragon rolls around. Which also semi implies that this sigil had NOT been standard in the other stories, potentially setting them before this one (unless that was unintentional). Also, that's all the future stories I remember existing, so if I missed one let me know.

Also i wanna give a shoutout to the fake Jager girl from Mama's being here :)

[iztarshi]

Four of Swords

There is a quiet stillness that is present in the Four of Swords, a sense of calm peace that is contrasted so deeply with the pain in the Three of Swords. Here, in a church, there is a carving of a knight that lies upon a tomb with three swords hanging above him while the fourth one lies beneath him. These three swords are a reminder of the suffering that he has endured in the earlier card. The position of the fourth sword seems to be a signal that the fight has ended. A child and a woman are depicted by the stained glass place behind the statue, giving the scene a sense of warmth and welcoming after the retreat. The knight has his hands positioned as if he is praying.

The Mechanicsburg Four of Blades

Maintenance. A time for repair, or rest, or both. The Castle is Mechanicsburg's defender but even it needs time to recover sometimes, and the help of others to restore it.

Inspiration

The statue is from the Solstice story. This is traditionally the "face" of Castle Heterodyne which recieves the order to shut down and rest over the longest night.

[leletha-jann]

Further adventures in "How did I JUST NOW spot that..."

The Mechanicsburg Solstice Story opens with a joke about our Professors considering getting out of a family event by saying they were waylaid by squid bears, but deciding that no, Oggie would know squid bears.

...which you'd think would be a throwaway joke.

On the VERY NEXT PAGE, there is indeed a squid bear.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

...I love this comic. There's always something new to spot. I will never see everything in it.

[iztarshi]

Mechanicsburg Solstice

Aah! I’ve noted before that Agatha gets a lot of solar imagery around Mechanicsburg. Descending on a flaming chariot is my favourite, and it also seems like she takes the town at Midsummer and returns to it at Midwinter within the story, thanks to the six month time skip.

Here we seem to have a midwinter festival that’s straight out of The Golden Bough.

The Heterodynes aren’t Sun Worshippers, but as the Castle says, it’s a very good guess. Rather the Heterodynes seem to symbolically be the sun, stripped of its power (the Castle and Jägers) during the longest night and hunted down to be sacrificed and renewed.

There’s also an element of inversion festival (which Christmas did used to be, and which things like the Mari Lwyd, which seems more like a halloween thing to modern sensibilities, still show echoes of). The Sparky twist is that the sanctioned chaos of the inversion festival is a mob chasing down the town’s Spark... even the best behaved minions need a chance to let off steam! For tonight they can avenge themselves for the Heterodyne’s excesses.

As a last note: the Jägers must know, but Jägers have a knack for loopholes. It’s better to allow this, and therefore I suspect they “forget” it happens once they take the troth.