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Post by miki on Sept 7, 2009 18:37:09 GMT -5
Yeah, I knew you were joking.
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Post by elle on Sept 10, 2009 21:55:27 GMT -5
wow am I behind the ball ... sheesh ... still contemplating theories though ... I really do want to know how long it is between DM and Scent, though, I don't think it can be all that long, cause I'm fairly certain that I saw a couple certain socialites described a couple times and he was more interested in the dark haired sulkier one than the blond that all the guys were falling all over themselves to try to impress. so going on what others have said about Tonya's prophecy being about Jo and not Sola, then he did know her to be special when he saw her. but that's just my random theory. like I said, still working on them.
almost thought Regan was his daughter for half a second, but so not enough time for that.
*sighs* need to go back through and reread all the books with the anthologies and everything in one go and then I can really get some theories going.
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Post by montbriac on Sept 11, 2009 13:02:00 GMT -5
Elle, I think you've asked the quintessential $64,000 question -- how much time has passed between Dark Matters and Scent of Shadows.
In the promo video for Dark Matters, Vicki says that the events in that story precede the current time line by about three years.
But, in The Taste of Night, Hunter gives a synopsis of his encounter with Solange and he says it happened a decade earlier.
“Okay,” I said, wrapping my arms around one up-drawn knee. “So why don’t you drink?”
“Because whiskey nearly killed me a decade ago.”
I drew back, startled, and Hunter let out a humorless laugh, pulling his ankle up to cross his knee, looking large and dangerous and tough, even surrounded by eyelet and lace. “Well, it wasn’t just the whiskey,” he said, and told me the story.
He’d just come off a mission, rescuing a commuter airliner from the Shadows, who’d hijacked it and were flying it right over Nellis air base. It was going to be shot down in seconds, as close as he’d ever come to being killed, and he said he’d never felt the passing of time so acutely. I could imagine. Agents couldn’t be killed by mortal weapons, but if you happened to be blown to smithereens? I shuddered at the thought. Even if he’d lived, it’d take some doing to put those pieces back together again.
“Anyway,” he said, shaking his head, “chalk another one up for the agents of Light. But I was ready for a little vacation after that, which I took as soon as I got back.”
In the form of a shot glass and a bottle.
He sighed at the memory, and when he spoke, it almost sounded apologetic. “See, I’m not like Warren. I don’t believe in a greater cause, or in the troop as an institution. I believe in people. Individuals.” He looked at me, and I knew that’s why he had tested me so greatly in the beginning, why he’d remained on my side since I’d proven myself to him, and why he kissed me even after I revealed the darkness living in my core. He knew my Shadow side and he still believed in me. “There has to be a deeper involvement for me. I…feel more if it’s personal. I feel alive.” He snorted. “And if there was anything I needed to feel that night, it was alive.”
So when the raven-haired siren with the lush lips and the body that wouldn’t quit asked if she could join him, he welcomed the company, ordered another shot glass, and drove away the Reaper with some hard-core XXX flirting.
“In retrospect, I knew something was wrong,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, wincing. “I scented deceit on her, but didn’t want to admit it. I tasted guile in her kiss, a smoky heaviness that found harbor inside me. You possess the same flavor, though not as strong. I recognized it when we shared the aureole.”
I licked my lips self-consciously, and he hesitated, but I motioned for him to go on. If he really believed in individuals—in me—then I didn’t have to apologize for who and what I was. So, he continued, even though his instincts told him something was off, he’d ignored them and took the woman home. He shook his head thoughtfully. “I don’t know how I woke up when I did, but she was straddling me, naked but for a tomahawk bowing toward my heart. I killed her in the bed that still smelled like our lovemaking.”
I was about to say, So? when he cut me off with a shake of his head.
“I’d…been with her only minutes earlier. I know the alcohol was clouding my senses, but it also slowed every moment so that her death seemed to take years, not minutes. So even as her last breath rattled in her chest I was still seeing her in a lover’s light. If I let myself, I can see her even now.”
And he looked at me like he hoped I might understand that.
What I understood was that in telling me this he wasn’t only explaining why he didn’t drink, but that he knew how I could allow a Shadow to live. That even those of us who should know better sometimes mistook them for human.
“What was her name?” I asked softly.
“The Shadow woman who so ruthlessly seduced me?” he said, but the teasing note couldn’t mask his shame. I nodded. He shrugged self-consciously. “It doesn’t matter. She’s gone.” And he stood, turned his back on me, and headed out the room. Topic closed.
So which is it, three years or ten -- and we haven't even factored in the Midheaven time warp.
Whatever the answer, I know it's going to be good reading...
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Post by patchymama on Sept 11, 2009 16:43:25 GMT -5
except that he didn't kill Solange... hmmm curious. I would understand why he would not be able to give the real story, but at the same time thats a lot of detail for a lie, kwim? hmmm..
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Post by nat on Sept 11, 2009 17:23:01 GMT -5
*sigh* I do so love Vicki's writting. It is very detailed for a lie, but didn't Warren say that from the end of Dark Matters onward, Hunter would do and say everything he was told? The story could've been rehearsed, the mention that it was a decade ago could've simply been a cover for it. Logically though, it couldn't have been a decade ago because there isn't that much of an age difference between Jo and Hunter. A decade ago would have made Jo and Olivia less fifteen and thirteen years old. And JJ mentioned seeing them on TV, and seeing Olivia in person at the hotel. A decade ago wouldn't make much sense...
From what we were told about Midheaven, time either slows to a crawl or doesn't move forward at all...Assuming Solange went straight from JJ's bed with the changeling aura to Midheaven, their child would most likely still be in her womb. Now if she could maintain the changeling's aura for long periods of time, say nine months, she could've given birth to Lola and made her way to Midheaven -which would make Lola no more than an infant... I'm starting to think that maybe Lola isn't in Midheaven...maybe she's hidden away with a mortal family like Ash...
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Post by miki on Sept 11, 2009 17:58:00 GMT -5
I really need to re-read dark matters. I don't think it was 10 yrs by the end of Dark Matters and Scent. Isn't Hunter like 5 yrs. older than Jo? We all know it was a lie what he told Jo but it was definitely sprinkled with the truth. He made it sound like it only happened one night and Sola snared him when he was drunk. He didn't go into detail about the years he and tha bitch were hooking up.
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Post by nat on Sept 11, 2009 18:09:16 GMT -5
wasn't years though...they only hooked up for a few weeks...
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Post by patchymama on Sept 11, 2009 19:50:14 GMT -5
yeah i am thinking the 10 years must be part of the lie/story because I didn't think he was old enough for it to be that long ago. It would make sense for them to need to make that a long time ago (10years) since I imagine there could be timeline questions amongst the troop if they weren't careful. We don't know exactly how (and how much) mind altering was done to hide JJ. He obviously wasn't taken out of people's head entirely....Makes my head hurt to think about this stuff. I need to reread too, I have a tendency to read too fast just because i want to find out the plot and miss the small things LOL
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Post by miki on Sept 11, 2009 21:09:45 GMT -5
wasn't years though...they only hooked up for a few weeks... years...weeks....whatever time it was it was too many and for too long. lol
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Post by vampyre on Sept 11, 2009 21:32:42 GMT -5
Well it could be 10 years or even more because like you all said, time in MH doesn't move like it does out here. He wouldn't age much if at all while in MH. right?
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Post by miki on Sept 11, 2009 22:07:40 GMT -5
Yeah but he wasn't in Midheaven for 10 yrs. He'd just figured out how to get there in CoS
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Post by MsKay on Sept 11, 2009 22:11:42 GMT -5
LOl finshed Dark Matter ugghgghhh so much packed into 50 pages or so... I loved it and I am not concern with the timeline .. it could be 10 it could be 20 for all I care...I love Hunter
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Post by miki on Sept 11, 2009 22:13:54 GMT -5
Sooo....you liking Sola much, demon?
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Post by MsKay on Sept 11, 2009 22:29:58 GMT -5
LOL
Actually yes I do like Sola.... she is an complex evil manipulative bitch ... I like her because it is like that story of the snake and the little boy...
"The little boy was walking down a path and he came across a rattlesnake. The rattlesnake was getting old. He asked, "Please little boy, can you take me to the top of the mountain? I hope to see the sunset one last time before I die." The little boy answered "No Mr. Rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you'll bite me and I'll die." The rattlesnake said, "No, I promise. I won't bite you. Just please take me up to the mountain." The little boy thought about it and finally picked up that rattlesnake and took it close to his chest and carried it up to the top of the mountain.
They sat there and watched the sunset together. It was so beautiful. Then after sunset the rattlesnake turned to the little boy and asked, "Can I go home now? I am tired, and I am old." The little boy picked up the rattlesnake and again took it to his chest and held it tightly and safely. He came all the way down the mountain holding the snake carefully and took it to his home to give him some food and a place to sleep. The next day the rattlesnake turned to the boy and asked, "Please little boy, will you take me back to my home now? It is time for me to leave this world, and I would like to be at my home now." The little boy felt he had been safe all this time and the snake had kept his word, so he would take it home as asked.
He carefully picked up the snake, took it close to his chest, and carried him back to the woods, to his home to die. Just before he laid the rattlesnake down, the rattlesnake turned and bit him in the chest. The little boy cried out and threw the snake upon the ground. "Mr. Snake, why did you do that? Now I will surely die!" The rattlesnake looked up at him and grinned, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."
Hunter knew what she was when he picked her up... what did he expect?
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Post by montbriac on Sept 12, 2009 8:20:24 GMT -5
Great thoughts here!
The concept of a detailed lie actually makes a lot of sense as it would be another tool Warren would have used to keep Hunter/JJ under his thumb and also test Hunter/JJ's loyalty. Brillant theory -- and I here had just thought of some ripple in the time/space continum.
Also, I couldn't agree more about Solange being a compelling addition to the cast of characters. Solange is fabulously complex -- here we have a woman who was ambitious enough as a child to hatch a plan for relevance when she saw JJ a child of the Light. Solange is wicked and a great read.
Maybe one of you can help me out when it comes to Solange, I haven't figured out the reason why Solange is collecting the souls or filling the sky in her planetarium but I think the answer is in this passge from COS, I just can't figure it out....
I sat up on an awed exhalation. My rational mind told me I was at the center of a hollowed-out sphere, that the heaven engulfing me, embracing me as if I’d long been lost, was actually a metallic ceiling, and a bevy of mechanisms worked behind the scenes. But the sensation of being cradled in the pinpricked firmament was like a clap of thunder in my breast.
My God. Did I really identify this closely with the constellations? Because it felt like bloodline and lineage were rearing their heads, letting me know that for all my careful control, I was still very much at the mercy of the planets. I let my gaze wander, mentally crisscrossing lines to link the stunning little orbs into patterns of familiar constellations. It was a perfect diorama of the night sky. And yet, the stars…
“Are those…?” I leaned forward, squinting as I focused on the constellations winging overhead.
“Yes.” She sighed, like she was window shopping at Tiffany’s. “Minerals and some organics. No synthetics.”
“Gems?” There had to be millions of dollars worth splayed out above me.
“Jewelry befitting the sky,” Solange confirmed. “I’ve been collecting them for years.”
Unlike the others in my troop, I hadn’t been raised observing and adoring the natural night sky. Sure, I’d thought it cool and all, but pretty much the only thing I could pick out with any certainty was the Big Dipper, which I did now. “There are some missing,” I said, noting that the Little Dipper was shot through with pinpoints of light, but had no gems.
“Typical of someone with your coloring. Missing what is there and finding fault with what’s not.”
Surprised, I drew back at the venom in Solange’s voice. “No, I was just—”
“It doesn’t matter!” she snapped, eyes suddenly as fiery and fierce as the jewels above. “I’ll fill the entire sky soon enough, and then I’ll be the First.” She tilted her head sharply. “You don’t have a problem with that, do you?”
“What?” I didn’t know what she was talking about, and I was taken aback by her sudden anger. “No.”
Leaning back, she resettled silk over her knees. “Good.”
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