Question The Sorrows of Red October!

Rose Bunny wrote: after reading it, I had only 2 words...


" Oh fuck "

Echo wrote: . . . And now I'm confused.

sam105 wrote: So who is in Tansy's grave?

The hopelessly charred and unrecognizable body that had been recovered was on it...her...way to New Hampshire at the tear-filled request of Marissa Walcutt who wanted what she thought was her daughter buried on the school grounds.

sam105 wrote: So who is in Tansy's grave?

Rose Bunny wrote:

sam105 wrote: So who is in Tansy's grave?

No, Who's on first.

Ebola wrote:

Rose Bunny wrote:

sam105 wrote: So who is in Tansy's grave?

No, Who's on first.

So what's on second then?

E. E. Nalley wrote:

Ebola wrote:

Rose Bunny wrote:

sam105 wrote: So who is in Tansy's grave?

No, Who's on first.

So what's on second then?

Third Base!

Valentine wrote: It's also possible that Grizzly, Kodiak the spirit, Sukawaken and others were lost during the fight with the Bastard.

Valentine wrote: It's also possible that Grizzly, Kodiak the spirit, Sukawaken and others were lost during the fight with the Bastard.

Ametros wrote: 'Twould seem I was barking up the wrong tree, even if in the right thicket. I imagine you Cabal folks were cackling like hyenas when I raised the theory of Lainie dying and Laneth substituting for her.

Wait, what?! Jennifer and Sarah after Jennifer is checked out, yet this line confuses me.

"Ladies?" he asked softly and Elaine smiled, touched by the older doctor's respect for her modesty.

Ametros wrote: I'm wondering who that doctor might be, though.

Ametros wrote: My hat off to you, E. E. Nalley; the twist, and this story in particular, I felt were handled and presented exceedingly well.

Rose Bunny wrote: I find it interesting how powerful Kayda has become. That she could pull off a spell like this and have it go unnoticed (presumably) by Nikki, Chulkris, Graves, Carson (unless she knew and never said anything) that takes skill and power. Might it be part of the whole Kayda and forbidden knowledge that would push her away from her "destiny"?

Rose Bunny wrote: I wonder about Tansy teaching for Lanie, she is doing a good job of fooling everyone about her mechanical aptitude. I would assume she is using her telepathic abilities to pick up what the students think, on the fly and using that to fake it through?

The Sorrows of Red October wrote:


“Tansy and Ah know each other's moves, hell we fooled Wyatt that Halloween...”

“Sister,” whispered Kayda. “This isn't a Halloween prank...!”

“Ah know everything Tansy knows,” Elaine retorted. “We've shared a husband, body and mind enough to the bottom of mah soul and hers, every trick, every move.

Schol-R-LEA wrote: /me dies and is ded

You said fireworks, not the destruction of the second Death Star!

Valentine wrote: It's also possible that Grizzly, Kodiak the spirit, Sukawaken and others were lost during the fight with the Bastard.

ElrodW and Nagrij wrote: "What do you think, Baloo? Deja vu, I think." Wyatt stroked his chin.

*Not quite the same, not quite the same, I'm sure. At least I only had to deal with one overbearing royal, who needed a paw slap on occasion.* the spirit of Kodiak rumbled back.

Wyatt nodded. "And that'll be a problem ... or maybe not. I wonder." Standing up, he pulled off and hung up his lab coat and opened a hidden closet, pulling out a pair of jeans and a polo shirt. "I'm glad that's over with. I know that with someone like her, you have to dress and act the part, but ..."

*You prefer to be honest, and open, yes, but, as you've stated, it's much better to start off establishing your reputation and authority with those who don't know you. Or those who have reason to ... suspect your profession.* The voice was amused.

"Yep." Wyatt's voice was muffled as he pulled on the Polo shirt. "It doesn't help that she's got a double dose of that programming." Shaking his head as he sat back down to pull on his boots, he thought aloud, "And ... well, she'll be a hard case. But the ones who really need me often are." Pausing, he looked at the clock and nodded. "Time to meet the next one."

Rose Bunny wrote: I find it interesting how powerful Kayda has become. That she could pull off a spell like this and have it go unnoticed (presumably) by Nikki, Chulkris, Graves, Carson (unless she knew and never said anything) that takes skill and power. Might it be part of the whole Kayda and forbidden knowledge that would push her away from her "destiny"?

elrodw wrote:

Rose Bunny wrote: I find it interesting how powerful Kayda has become. That she could pull off a spell like this and have it go unnoticed (presumably) by Nikki, Chulkris, Graves, Carson (unless she knew and never said anything) that takes skill and power. Might it be part of the whole Kayda and forbidden knowledge that would push her away from her "destiny"?

There IS an explanation for the spell, and a variation of this theme will show up in another story by another author, with a magic user and similar need for 'disguise' - although it won't be obvious at first. but it IS out there, and we have discussed it.

I will be sitting by smirking to see who guesses wrong, and which misdirections y'all head off on trying to figure out this little conundrum.

Yolandria wrote: I'm curious...What happened to Laneth. She seems to be Awol atm. Maybe Laneth and Grizzly are having a fling off somewhere?

E. E. Nalley wrote: 1) Not once did 'Elaine' use her signature Southern accent in Gen II. (Ah really got mah jollies with ya'll missing that...)
...
4) But the biggest clue was “She was my very best friend, Laura. The kind of friend that only comes once in a life-time.” Would Elaine talk that way about anyone but Kayda? And we knew Kayda was still alive.

Yolandria wrote: I'm curious...What happened to Laneth. She seems to be Awol atm. Maybe Laneth and Grizzly are having a fling off somewhere?

The Autumn Leaves wrote: “Oh, Tech lost last year I'm afraid, but it was a close game and there's hope this year will be a winning season. And Navy beat Army so 2015 was just kind of a bad year. I still won't forgive you for getting me hooked on college football!” She tried to laugh, but the joke fell flat and a silence fell for a bit.

Katssun wrote: My only issue with these two is that Lanie spent most of her time from 2006 onward in the Northeast. Accents do drop off, even ones as signature as Georgia or Texas. Some survive, despite all odds, but they're few and far between in my experience.

Schol-R-LEA wrote:

Valentine wrote: It's also possible that Grizzly, Kodiak the spirit, Sukawaken and others were lost during the fight with the Bastard.

That appears to be contradicted by this scene in IDTWIKA part 4 (following Wyatt's first counseling session with Hikaru):

ElrodW and Nagrij wrote: "What do you think, Baloo? Deja vu, I think." Wyatt stroked his chin.

*Not quite the same, not quite the same, I'm sure. At least I only had to deal with one overbearing royal, who needed a paw slap on occasion.* the spirit of Kodiak rumbled back.

Wyatt nodded. "And that'll be a problem ... or maybe not. I wonder." Standing up, he pulled off and hung up his lab coat and opened a hidden closet, pulling out a pair of jeans and a polo shirt. "I'm glad that's over with. I know that with someone like her, you have to dress and act the part, but ..."

*You prefer to be honest, and open, yes, but, as you've stated, it's much better to start off establishing your reputation and authority with those who don't know you. Or those who have reason to ... suspect your profession.* The voice was amused.

"Yep." Wyatt's voice was muffled as he pulled on the Polo shirt. "It doesn't help that she's got a double dose of that programming." Shaking his head as he sat back down to pull on his boots, he thought aloud, "And ... well, she'll be a hard case. But the ones who really need me often are." Pausing, he looked at the clock and nodded. "Time to meet the next one."

But there would be ways to weasel around that, I guess. Recall that Wyatt subsumed Kodiak; like with Fey and Aunghadhail (but not Grizzly, who was off-world when the Sundering occurred) , the Kodiak is Wyatt's soul, with Wyatt providing the last missing piece for Kodiak to be re-formed whole. While both of those spirits had separate existences and memories - enough so that Aung's personality and memories could be destroyed without killing Nikki (seemingly - I suspect that while the identity/personality is gone, the memories are still lingering but inaccessible, and probably remain so for the most part in Gen2) - they were/are, in a very real sense, the same person. So who knows what that 'conversation' really was?

E. E. Nalley wrote: Fair points Kat, and well reasoned! Oh, lord, I nearly forgot the big clue.

The Autumn Leaves wrote: “Oh, Tech lost last year I'm afraid, but it was a close game and there's hope this year will be a winning season. And Navy beat Army so 2015 was just kind of a bad year. I still won't forgive you for getting me hooked on college football!” She tried to laugh, but the joke fell flat and a silence fell for a bit.

If the speaker is Elaine, that would mean that TANSY has a fascination with college football, and infected Elaine with that, and that Tansy might have any interest in the annual UGA/Georgia Tech grudge match. Does anyone think that was the case?

Valentine wrote: For those worried about the teaching, Tansy taught herself how to play guitar in a few minutes, with just the guitar, and her memory of hearing a guitar played. Then she played and sang a song from only having heard it. She did this in just a few minutes. I imagine given a few weeks and some car repair manuals and youtube videos she could be ready to teach. It's also possible that Lanie never recovered her gadgeteer trait.

Malady wrote: When I read that scene, I thought she might have used her telepathy / ESP to help as well, getting the info from Jericho's mind and stuff.

E. E. Nalley wrote: And, as promised, I will walk you all through the clues that were left:

1) Not once did 'Elaine' use her signature Southern accent in Gen II. (Ah really got mah jollies with ya'll missing that...)
2) In the Autumn Leaves 'Elaine' says, "And I love them, my darling! I hold them and read them stories and all the things I wanted..." What mother talks that way about her own children? Wouldn't her love be a foregone conclusion? But a de facto step mother at the grave of those same children's biological mother trying to give ease to her spirit, that would make perfect sense, wouldn't it?
3) Most of you picked up on Wyatt being the 'He won't ever know' but what did slip by you.
4) But the biggest clue was “She was my very best friend, Laura. The kind of friend that only comes once in a life-time.” Would Elaine talk that way about anyone but Kayda? And we knew Kayda was still alive.

And yes, Jennifer Kelly was the biggest clue and I actually let slip that almost gave the whole thing away which Dreamer caught in Laura and the village with:

Wait, what?! Jennifer and Sarah after Jennifer is checked out, yet this line confuses me.

"Ladies?" he asked softly and Elaine smiled, touched by the older doctor's respect for her modesty.

And while I did have a brain fart, and I did write that scene quickly, while writing something else, the mistake was the give away, not that I carried over what I was writing into this. So, I didn't lie about it being a mistake, but I WAS misleading as to why it was a mistake.

E. E. Nalley wrote: Fair points Kat, and well reasoned! Oh, lord, I nearly forgot the big clue.

The Autumn Leaves wrote: “Oh, Tech lost last year I'm afraid, but it was a close game and there's hope this year will be a winning season. And Navy beat Army so 2015 was just kind of a bad year. I still won't forgive you for getting me hooked on college football!” She tried to laugh, but the joke fell flat and a silence fell for a bit.

If the speaker is Elaine, that would mean that TANSY has a fascination with college football, and infected Elaine with that, and that Tansy might have any interest in the annual UGA/Georgia Tech grudge match. Does anyone think that was the case?

null0trooper wrote: Still - two exemplars graduating in 2008, and by 2016 they haven't managed to get any further education, while Wyatt has a degree? Surely Atlanta has apartments big enough for three.

As long as they don't go all 'dawgs on us, they're redeemable

It had been dark for so long. Dark and quiet, floating in an endless emptiness without form and void. The girl flowed through the darkness, blind, deaf, when slowly a sound echoed in the emptiness. “…Knockout!” It was a voice, a sound, a word. The word stirred memories blinding, flashing too much too fast, whirling and buffeting the girl like a raging river.

“…Meat when she got here…”

No sooner had the girl thought of a river than blindingly bright after so long a darkness she was on a river, in a raft with a man and she was laughing with exhilaration… “No way! That’s impossible…!”

“Regeneration, my friend, this is a mutant exemplar…”

The river washed away to a laboratory with strange machines and a roly-poly little man who was balding and had kind eyes and too many pins on his lab coat. “You’re an exemplar, my dear…”

“Who’s paying for this?”

A dark haired girl in expensive clothing smiled at her as she produced a check she gave her that had so many zeroes on it. “Now that you’re rich, who’s paying for lunch?” she asked with a wink even as she was removing a card from a man’s wallet she had for some reason instead of a purse.

“Insurance, can you believe it? I didn’t think you could get insurance this good, but…”

At long last the girl found her mouth and made her throat that was so horribly dry speak, “Stop… shouting…” Two men screamed and with a thunderous crash preceded more screaming further away. Then there were wheels and shouting…

LIGHT! Blinding horrible bright… “Miss Kelly? Miss Kelly can you hear me?”

An arm moved to protect her eyes but it was so weak. “Jesus Christ she is awake. Get me a twelve lead, two units of chlorpromazine and somebody get the lawyers on speed dial.” A face appeared out of the blur, dark skin, kind eyes, short curly hair and breathtaking white teeth. “Don’t worry Miss Kelly, you’re alright, you’re in a hospital and you’re going to be fine…”

E. E. Nalley wrote: Lady Astarte has a long history in New York both on her own and as an adjunct member of the Empire City Guard. Her statue, portraying her most famous battle in the five Boroughs was made some years ago and has been in storage, waiting for official word of her demise.

Sir Lee wrote:
OTOH, if she did some even more heroic thing saving NYC... what are they going to do with that lump of bronze? Melt it and order a new one? And then she tops it AGAIN?

elrodw wrote: Oh, ye of little faith!!

If you think that EE would start a very deep plotline like this without thoroughly considering all of this and more, well, all I can say is you have much to learn, young padawan,

Ametros wrote: And besides, it seems that most of your issues are based on the assumption that Wyatt isn't aware, which might not be true. He strikes me as the sort who, while pained by the loss of one of his loves, could deal with it for the sake of his other love, and the care and consideration she needs.

The Riddle Of Sappho Canto I wrote:
Elaine finally nodded, then looked down and noted that the uniform was perfectly fine and fit her as if made for this form. "Why...why didn't mah change destroy mah uniform?"

"Because it's soul-bound to you," Mrs. Carson replied. "You needed a hint of magic to pull off the sorceress archer ploy and binding the clothing to you was easiest."

Mrs Carson stated that she SOUL BOUND the Wicked uniform to Elaine, because that was the easiest way to have her give off a magic aura that other mages would take as her being magically active.

Yolandria wrote:

Mrs Carson stated that she SOUL BOUND the Wicked uniform to Elaine, because that was the easiest way to have her give off a magic aura that other mages would take as her being magically active.

If that was the case...Then it would be a very simple issue of Kayda tracking down said aura. As i'm sure each aura has a distinct signature. And if Kayda wasn't aware of the aura...Tansy should have been due to the extreme closeness the two shared.

Kettlekorn wrote: But what is the range on it, and how easy is it to pick out from the eight million other people in NYC? I doubt it's very useful as a tracking method, or we'd see mages tracking each other this way all the time.

Iwasforger03 wrote: Maggie Finson swore to kill Grizzly. Who says she didn't? Was it ever stated anywhere that she hadn't succeeded yet?

Iwasforger03 wrote: Why the hell do ya'll actually believe Wyatt doesn't know?

Why do you believe Grizzly is still around?

Wyatt is a very smart and cunning fellow. I postulate he saw through the ruse, but allowed it to play out because his children would be hurt, badly, by the loss of their genuine mother. He's simply letting Tansy continue the charade for her own sake as much, or more, than his.

"Can I borrow this?" Mrs. Cody asked suddenly, giving the twins a rather wicked look, which caused them to flinch. She then winked at her husband. "Just kidding. Ah think. Maybe."

Anne wrote: Simply put, I'd say that she was as much in love with Tansy as she was with Wyatt.
As for Wyatt knowing or not knowing, my bet would be that Wyatt knows and loves Tansy, it was easy to see that developing in Gen 1 stories where they are together as a triad. therefore is is easy to see why he would let the masquerade go on, he would not want to hurt Tansy any more than he has to, and he has to know she has to already be hurting. Since she believes that she let Elaine go into danger and die in her place.

Katssun wrote: How much frantic studying did Tansy do to catch up on Lanie's technical knowledge, to the point where she could act as a teacher and adviser?

Or maybe, how many subjective years of gadgeteering tutoring in dreamspace did Kayda give her?

Katssun wrote: How much frantic studying did Tansy do to catch up on Lanie's technical knowledge, to the point where she could act as a teacher and adviser?

Or maybe, how many subjective years of gadgeteering tutoring in dreamspace did Kayda give her?

konzill wrote:

Katssun wrote: How much frantic studying did Tansy do to catch up on Lanie's technical knowledge, to the point where she could act as a teacher and adviser?

Or maybe, how many subjective years of gadgeteering tutoring in dreamspace did Kayda give her?

This is probably why we got the Tansy learns to play guitar in 30 minutes flat scene in What's New, Pussycat? (Part 2). Her exemplar abilities include being able to pick up new skills very quickly.