The haberdasher looked Sabrina over as he took some measurements. He muttered some things that sounded as if he was fitting her, some other comments were… questionable, to be sure.

"Hartman standard, such a quotidian practice." the haberdasher contemplated as he measured Sabrina's hips. "Too much tail… although surprisingly lacking..."

"Are you making fun of me?" Sabrina questioned as the haberdasher went about measuring from her hip to her ankle.

"My hippopotamus appreciates a seraph in periwinkle purple polka dots, don't you?"

"I think the mercury needs to seep in through the pipes a bit more, your blood isn't dangerous enough."

"Oh, I agree! The air is too stiff, something must be done about it!"

Sabrina resisted the urge to let out a smile and took a peek over at Mickey, Oswald, and Gus getting an eyeful of her fitting. None of them really paid much attention -she'd give them something to in a few minutes, just wait- and they talked amongst themselves about something. Being the slightly nosey brat that she was, Sabrina tried to strain her ear to hear their conversation, but her attempts were blocked by the haberdasher as he made comments over her measurements. As humorous as they were, it was starting to get annoying.

Just barely though, she could make out a few strands of dialog…

"Oswald, are you feeling alright?" Mickey asked his brother.

"Yeah." the rabbit agreed as if it were nothing new. "Why?"

"You just kinda seem… absent recently." said Mickey. "You're thinking of something, or… remembering something. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Mickey, I think you're just looking for excitement after dealing with the Mad Doctor!" Oswald quickly claimed. But looking at Mickey's unrelenting expression made Oswald let out a deep sigh of defeat.

"It's a long story." Oswald admitted.

"We have time." Mickey rebutted calmly. Oswald looked at Mickey with a less than grateful look, but couldn't resist the mouse's curiosity.

"Before Ortensia came down and everyone else, it was just me." he informed Mickey. "I didn't start working on Mean Street and Ostown until after everyone else came, but I found the Caverns early by mistake. It was there were I… talked to the Angel carving. She never replied, but the Tints and Turps did. I always thought that she… that she sent them to communicate for her. Angels have their own guardians, right?

"It didn't take long for everyone to come to Wasteland with me, so when we started working on Ostown and Mean Street I just... stopped visiting her in the Caverns. In some ways, I think I forgot about her and in turn the Tints and Turps went into a sort of dormant state until you came along. They could tell that the power you had could free her, I think, that was why they decided to help you throughout Wasteland.

"I was going to apologize to her, for some reason, before the Blot Wars… but you know what happened during that time. And even after the Blot, I couldn't come down to face her. It was like… abandoning someone you loved, and I couldn't… I didn't want to go through that. Not again, not on the other end of the spectrum."

"You did eventually though, when we had to investigate what was happening on Mean Street." Mickey reminded him.

"Only because we needed to." Oswald rebutted. "If it weren't for the Mad Doc using the Guardians, they could have told us how she was feeling after seeing me again after so long. Knowing how it felt after someone left me, and wondering if she felt the same after seeing me..."

"Do you want her to remember you?" asked Mickey curiously. Embarrassed, Oswald hid his head in his hands.

"I don't know..." he mumbled quietly. "I don't really think I want her to Mick… Is that wrong?"

Mickey thought about it as he looked over at Sabrina. The human girl looked ready to slap the haberdasher five ways until Sunday as the Toon attempted to slip the bodice of her new outfit on top of her; it wasn't going over very well.

"I think she means a lot to you if you feel so conflicted about asking her what she knows." Mickey decided.

"Mickey..." Oswald whispered so quietly that Mickey almost didn't hear him, "Before I knew that Ortensia would come… I… I fell in love with the Angel of Wasteland. And I thought that I would have grown out of it after getting Ortensia back but… but I haven't. Mickey… I think… I think I love Sabrina more than I do Ortensia…!"

If Mickey jaw could have dropped any lower, it would have touched the ground.

. . .

Timid, for the first time in never, Oswald made his way up to the Angel's engraving on the Cavern walls. "H-hey..." he greeted with a sheepish grin, "It's... me again… I guess."

The rabbit felt and seemed so small compared to the looming, silently judging face of Wasteland's Angel, as he had decided to call her. Slowly rising up from the ground to circle around him, the Tints and Turps greeted Oswald with warm sensations that substituted for little butterfly kisses. Oswald smiled as he let the greeting surround him with its kindness and gratefulness- he looked up at the Angel's carved face and let out a bright, wide smile. His respect for this piece of clay and marble was outstanding, considering that it served nothing more than to let him talk to himself without being judged. Maybe that was just what he needed; he just needed to… let it go, and this seemingly inanimate thing was just here waiting for him, always ready to lend an ear whether it wanted to or not.

"So I was considering building a town or something," Oswald announced after the Guardians dispersed back into the ground, "But I want to know if others will come too. You're great company and all, but it's not… it just isn't the same thing without someone answering you, you know? And you can't exactly go anywhere either so… there's that too."

Nervously, the rabbit let out a chuckle as he waited for a response. Several minutes passed and there was nothing. Oswald let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head, still waiting for an answer. A small pit started to form at the bottom of his stomach and climbed like a snake up to his chest, seizing it to take his lungs with him.

She was mad at him.

"I'll still come to see you!" Oswald offered, just wanting a single response. "I'm thinking about a way of transporting through areas, like how projectors take movie goers to different worlds through a screen! There's plenty of space near the Falls, so I think we could build a substation or something around there to just get the first few projectors working. Heh… what do you think?"

A few minutes passed for the rabbit before he noticed Turps slowly starting to appear, and they soon circled around Oswald with a tense feeling to them.

Oh for the love of the Nine Old Men… she really was mad at him!

Doing all in his power not to run in the opposite direction screaming like a little girl, Oswald looked up at the Angel with an expression of mild panic and foreign control over his stress levels. Well, he wanted to get an answer, and he did. Why the Turps though? They could leave a mark if you're not careful…

"I'll find a way to preserve the Falls!" Oswald insisted, his voice cracking slightly. "The only thing you'll ever have to worry about is… is how many people are going to find you as beautiful as I do! I mean, sure you're a fancy pile of stone, but your heart isn't! I mean, you send the Guardians to 'talk' to me, right? You wouldn't do that if you didn't care; not if you didn't have a heart..."

The Turps flickered in and out for a moment before disappearing all together, allowing Oswald to let out a breath of relief.

"I'll find a way to protect you, and all of Wasteland." Oswald then promised. "Even if it means my own life! Do you hear me? Do you understand? If there ever comes a day when we can't talk because Wasteland has died, then so will I- and that's a promise!"