Appendix:

Okay, so I'll use this non-chapter for some clarifications, including important book element some of you might not be familiar with, and some personal head canon-stuff/ stuff I made up for this story, which is not IN the story though. Here you go:

This first section is especially for those among you who haven't read the book or can't remember much of the stuff going on (especially since I'm partially playing at details not central to the plot of the original Wicked series.

Yackle.

So what's up with that Yackle person?

In "The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," an old crone who calls herself Yackle has this uncanny tendency to show up at several (turning) points of Elphaba's life. Somewhere on the internet, I read someone calling her Elphaba's "fiend guardian" and her "anti-fairy godmother." I love those descriptions, especially the last one! In fact, it is later (in "A Lion Among Men") clarified that she was created for the sole purpose of witnessing Elphaba's life. Huh… A bit odd, right? But yeah, that's what it looks like. Arguably, she pushes Elphaba more and more towards her destiny (?) as the Wicked Witch of the West whenever they meet. I tried to portray her in a more favourable, yet still not entirely unambiguous light (I say "more favourable" because ultimately, Elphaba could have had a much happier life and much less crappy ending if certain things in her life had just turned out differently). Some of my interpretations of Yackle diverge even more from the book version, so see below in the next section.

Glinda and Elphaba's final final meeting.

A while ago, heatqueen and I did a little project - a style write off where we both took on one-shot prompts and did our own versions (if you're interested: see link on my profile page, or check out heatqueen's story list). One prompt we never got to was submitted by Smarmy Puggles, who unfortunately no longer hangs around here (but her writing really is amazing! You totally should check it out!): "The two meeting again in colwen grounds towards the end of the book (the bit with the boulder pressing down etc - but maybe you could make a happy ending?" So I sort of did that… except that it's still ambiguous – which is arguably better than a definitely not happy ending, right? lol So the original was:

"As she strode through the forecourt of Colwen Grounds, she crossed paths once again with Glinda. But both women averted their eyes and hurried their feet along their opposing ways. For the Witch, the sky was a huge boulder pressing down on her. For Glinda it was much the same. But Glinda wheeled about, and cried out, "Oh Elphie!" The Witch did not turn. They never saw each other again." Some of you might criticize the shortness of the entire part where they finally meet again. I'd agree that the balance seems a little off, maybe, but that's because otherwise I'd just copy everything in the book. So read the book if you want more ;)

Now concerning things that slightly changed from the book(s)…

First a totally insignificant thing:

In the book Glinda visits an Orphanage by Mossmere, not in Center Munch. Center Munch fit better in my story, I thought. But seriously, who'd even care? Lol

Some more Yackle.

So in "resent day" Oz, Yackle was born from the Grimmerie to witness the life of Elphaba Thropp. When she came into this world, she was already fully aged and had no memories of any past life (if there ever was one). In my story she did have an earlier life (and actually probably many more) and at least one of them she remembers surprisingly well. Now my idea was that (and that's not included in the story, so don't worry if this doesn't sound familiar – you didn't miss it) because of the similarities, and maybe for various other reasons – such as sheer coincidence – she remembers the story of Saint Aelphaba and Galynda (whose name might not have been 'Galynda' after all) after meeting first Elphaba, and then Glinda (maybe also because she was reminded when Glinda read the book to the children). That's why she turns up at Glinda's hotel to recruit her as a little helper of fate.

Finally, a short Q&A section, inspired by some reader questions I received via PM.

How does Yackle disappear into the book?

So Yackle was created from the Grimmerie. She lives for quite a while, watching over Aelphaba first, then later, Elphaba. In "The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West," she waits for death to finally take her, but apparently she is immortal. She can finally retire once she finds the Grimmerie. So every time when her task is fulfilled, she goes back to where she came from. For a little taste as far as the technical side is concerned, here an excerpt form "A Lion Among Men":

"She disappeared into the Grimmerie like a diver entering the deepest parts of a magic pool: slow-motion, full of grace, the toes in the gleam; casting off wretchedness, casting off the shroud. She folded magically into the Grimmerie, her third and fourth dimensions laddering accordion-like into the secret unnamed dimensions of a page. They all leaned over the great book to watch."

(There is more, but if you want to read that, you should consult the actual book ;) )

How did Galynda get pregnant?

I consider Aelphaba a bit of a magical being, due to the spell that has been cast on her. When they get really close, emotionally (which was also physically expressed, but the physical act of lovemaking itself was not the cause for the pregnancy!), a part of Aelphaba's soul, energy, spirit – I don't really care what you wanna call it – is transferred to Galynda. Yackle notices that, and to prevent imminent (and actual) heartbreak (because the longing for Aelphaba was threatening to consume the poor girl), she gives her two potions to choose from. One of them would purge Aelphaba's spirit from her body, and she'd never remember the two even met. The other would strengthen whatever bit of Aelphaba remains within Galynda's body, so that it's almost like they are always together. As it happened (and that is quickly touched on in chapter 9), that spirit was sitting in a most opportune place – Galynda's womb. Due to the portion, it was strong enough to develop into a child.

Now there are two options. I originally hinted at the first one in one of my AN's, and it freaked some of you out. Although the explanation might make it somewhat better, I'd also like to say that I decided that it was stupid at me not to let you guys just make up your own mind. I usually don't like dictating readers' interpretations if it's left blank in the story [[Okay, so what the heck am I doing with this appendix?! Actually, it was requested by some ppl… so yeah…]]. So anyway… the options: 1) The child consists entirely of Aelphaba's spirit and is therefore technically Aelphaba herself, or a clone, or whatever. In this case Galynda would be more of a surrogate than a mother. Or 2) Some mingling of spirits/DNA took place, and both girls are the child's biological/ spiritual mothers. Pick one, I don't mind which one you prefer ;)

Related to this: Why did the child need "more Aelphaba"?

Like a normal fetus needs oxygen or nutrients, this child needs Aelphaba's spirit to grow. It was already created from that soul, but due to the potion Galynda took, some of the soul left behind in her body was too firmly attached to her. The childe needed that bit though, so Yackle gave her the other potion she had offered her in the beginning – the one that would make her forget. Aelphaba's soul detached from Galynda's body and was absorbed by the child, who was still born premature, but strong enough since it had all it needed.

I hope this sorta helped…If anyone else has any questions, don't hesitate to ask me! If it's something I think I could share, I'd also add it to the Q&A.

TBH, I'm not 100% sure how I feel about adding this appendix to the story… I'm a bit worried that me writing this means that I did a crappy job at writing it properly in the first place… but then again, sometimes there just are works that need some further explanations on the side, because adding everything to the actual story would make it a clumsy read. This case is probably somewhere in the middle, so I suppose I can live with this, haha!

Okay, so that's me signing out! Next story coming up is "May I Hold You Tonight" – another Gelphie, slightly messed up and in the M-rated category :P I won't be able to post before the end of the semester (so November, I guess), but I'm already working on it :)

Bye for now!

Xoxo

MLE :3