Best big brother ever.

Look, does the WTF really need to be in DC?  They're always traveling anyway.  Why not just move the J. Edgar Hoover building and Tricia's university?

Or, depending on her manifestation, the invisibility could extend to the food--they'd forget they ever bought it in the first place.

Man, I need to stop reading in class.  Now my physics professor must think that electromagnetism makes me cry.

So many cracks!  Who can keep track?

I think dwg was probably referring to Hafidha's second crack, Erik's death.  It's been pretty strongly implied (which means nothing, of course) that the cancer was her initial crack.

And then there's this:

That should be "disappearing."

Yeah.  Two of the three the gamma's whose heads we've been inside for a significant period--so I'm not counting Cora Marie Pace--have had literal voices in their heads, telling them to harm.


Well, there's no shortage of those.

Hm.  I guess the "Chaz got his betahood through his mother's trauma" bit wasn't too far off.  That's exciting.

ETA:  I love information-heavy episodes.  I can't wait to meet Renee.

Which is a totally valid theory, but not in any way the only valid theory.  I don't think it's true, because, well, I'm not sure to what degree I buy into the beta/gamma breakdown, and also because it seems like we've seen plenty of gammas who had no wish whatsoever to hurt people, but were completely aware that they were doing so (I'm thinking here of Dave Schumacher in particular).  In which case, I want to know what it is about the Anomaly that makes them do it.

Anyway, I've already said what I think about what caused Hafidha's first conversion--she may have had a fiance and a job she loved, but she also had cancer, and we've seen far less traumatic cracks than that.

Ooh, that's a good point.  (And interesting, too, since Susannah's one of those people who could screw with our categories.)

I'm pretty sure, at the very least, her fiance dumped her after she converted, given the following quote from "Knock on Coffins":


I tend to believe that the cancer was or was part of the crack, though I freely admit that I do so partially because it fits with my pet theory (which involves several long jumps to conclusions).  The other part is because we haven't been given any good alternatives.

ETA: Although there is an interesting line, somewhere in this conversation, about breakthrough at a time of great need.  There are only a couple of gammas who we know how they discovered their abilities (Melinda Grossman, a pretty good idea for Justin Saito, etc.) and none of their breakthroughs had that quality, that I can think of.  But it's pretty much the defining trait of Hafs and Chaz's breakthroughs.  In as much as we're still using "gamma" and "beta" as categories, it's interesting to think that there might be a difference between the way the two kinds of anomaloid gain their second-stage powers.  It sort of speaks to something about the way powers develop vs. the descent of the "wants to hurt people" part of the anomaly; like, they're connected, but on separate tracks.  (Think, for instance, of Melinda Grossman, who was hearing the gun talk to her long before she could shoot people with it.)  There's some connecting thought or implication that I'm missing here.  I've sort of been idly turning this thing over in my head for a while.

They're really from different schools of lying--they can learn from each other.

Are you kidding?  They'd be at it for days.

Just dropping in to second Gunnerkrigg Court (mentioned last page).  My only qualm with it is that I tend to forget what's happened as it moves along, and given the arcing, tied-in nature of the story, that can be problematic.  Other than that, it's beautiful art, on its best days it's beautiful storytelling, and it's often funny in an understated sort of way.

Because I'm a geek, I'll also mention Arthur, King of Time and Space, which is a more-or-less real-time retelling of the Arthurian cycle in several time periods (the main ones being medieval, present-day, and IN SPACE!, but there are also secondary Western, M*A*S*H, movie parody, and super hero arcs, for example).  The medieval arc more or less follows Malory, and large liberties are taken with the other arcs, though the space arc is the next closest.  It follows a gag-a-day format for the most part, while still having a definite arc of plot and characters enforced by the story its telling.  I've been looking all over the place for somewhere to recommend it, because, well, it just plays better if you're into Arthuriana, and this definitely seems like a good place to mention its name.

Oh, yeah.  If you're going to try AKOTAS, make sure you have a good stomach for puns.

I'd frame it with an interview (conducted by a woman, of course -- though I suppose you could have Brady watching through two-way glass or whathaveyou, to get that idea across).