Multiversal Characters

[Ronald Dukarski]

This is speculation only... I wonder if character naming on Dale's part plays a role in character grouping, if so, then Mariposa "Merrry" of the Dawn and therefore Bridget belong to the other "Merry" grouping (Merilee, Mary, Meriland) in the list. Therefore if true, Sara the Orc looking 7 year old in the Infected series could be linked to Sara Debry in YA, except for Penny, also in the Infected series. So maybe not.

[qHnED7SnYgQs]

While there is obviously some correlation with the names in some cases, that's clearly not a primary indicator if you look over the list of confirmed similar persons.

If we look at the two groups:

[YA] Merriland of the Forten
[*3] Merilee "Merry" Merchant (encountered in YA)
[Hobbs' World] Mary Wyrdcraft (encountered in Infected)
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[Demonverse] Meredith "Merry" (no last name ever given, an Elth)
[Alternate] Mariposa "Merry" of the Dawn (Elth)
[Infected?] Bridget "Impulse" Chambers
-----

While there is no overlap in the realities that would fundamentally prevent these from being the same, that would make Bridget, who is Mary Wyrdcraft's granddaughter, the same person. Which is pretty iffy.

On a tangential topic here, given the thing with Doug "Gravity" Tibs and Mickey "Sure Shot" and receptive parents, assigning Scott and Bridget Chambers to the [Infected] really as their origin becomes somewhat suspect given that Mary Wyrdcraft is Scott's mother (on the other hand Brian is his father, so what that mix means for the origin reality of Scott and Bridget is somewhat open).

Also, Alternate Zack has met Merilee Merchant and I would have expected him to comment if he recognized her as a version of his wife. Given his powers, that recognition should be pretty much guaranteed if it had been the case.

As for the Sara thing, looking at the two groups:

[Demonverse] Ginger Harris
[Alternate] Christopher "Chris" Karver
[Infected] Sara (the orc girl)
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[YA] Sara Debri
[Infected] Penny "Cellophane" Cooper
[Gwen Farris] Bethany "Beth" Westmorland
[Discipline] Felicia (not her real name)
-----

The Sara/Penny thing pretty much excludes that already, but as above, Alternate Zack has met Sara Debri, and I would have expected him to comment on it if he had recognized that Sara as being Chris.

[qHnED7SnYgQs]

[qHnED7SnYgQs]

Timon and Taman...

Cin and other Infected seem to be quite worried about compensating Timon and Taman for their work, thinking that they are currently essentially working for free.

But that's because they don't realize that the two are already being compensated in ways that money couldn't buy. With priceless knowledge.

Given my musings about the nature of the Infection above, everything that makes the powers of one of the Infected work should be part of that persons pattern.

So every Infected that Timon or Taman is working on to remove their First Mode and/or visual signs of the Infection gives them the opportunity to learn exactly how the field pattern that's responsible for the Infected's powers works. Allowing them to then later replicate that pattern in other people (like using Lauren's shape shifting for Lobo) or for powers that just project external field effects of some kind, possibly putting them into field devices (amulets).

I don't think anything about the patterns they are learning here actually requires the presence of an Infection to work, so they should be applicable just as well to people from the YA reality (or any other reality).

Also, it seems clear that Timon has essentially learned how to put the pattern of a field device (amulet) directly into the personal field pattern of a person.

What Timon did with Soar is create a new pattern for a physical body, based on Taman, and then add what probably amounts to a current generation Tim-shield into her pattern to fulfill the flight requirements of the Infection, keeping it from forcing the hosts (new) field pattern to evolve to meet the Infection's requirements.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see Soar go into orbit in the future. Timon already knows the pattern for his current generation space shield by heart, there really wouldn't be much of a point to invent a totally different flight system. All he had to do was replicate his existing shield pattern and modify the mental interface slightly to account for the fact that it's part of the persons pattern instead of having to interact with the persons pattern externally.

All this means that we might see some very interesting developments in the next YA novel.

[Ronald Dukarski]

ED,(and I'm labeling you that because Q, for me brings to mind "? And the Mysterians" -96 Tears" ? Who I've known for almost 40 years and the band always refers to ? [Yeah, that's his legal name, he changed it so, Prince isn't the first artist to be known by a symbol instead of a name] as Q and I'm not sure you would like to be confused with him... even in my mind. He's rather ...um, flamboyant, well, EXTREMELY flamboyant, though there's nothing wrong with that, of course.)

Anyway, ED, your analysis of the infection is inspired. So much so, i almost expect Dale to chime in with " Yeah, what he said" ! Since I haven't finished Ripped II yet I can't comment further. But I did see ( probably because I was thinking of crossovers at the time) the Tim/Cindy analogue quite clearly.

[David]

Yeah, I caught the Timon making away with the knowledge as well.

Also from the other side, Sara. If she visits YA and browses the magic shop...... Or perhaps says hi to a greater demon... Heh. Enough said if you've read the book.

[brainsniffer]

Dang, didn't see Infected 2 was out - I'll have to disappear until I can read it.

That theory of the nature of the infection makes it sound like Midichlorians though.

[brainsniffer]

[wrightl]

I think that, considering all the different/same characters that have different names, we should give them titles, like Greater Demons in the Kellyverse.

Tor could be something like The Central, because of how important he is to almost every story, although I don't love that title, so others are welcome.

Jake/Mickey/Doug should be The Nice Guy.

The director/Hardgrove should be The Administrator, because that's his soke function in every case I can think of.

[ArgyrosfeniX]