3x01, "The Unicorn Evils"

[makito]

- The itty bitty glimpses into Frost's non-robotness were interesting, to say the least. That little pang when she heard the ringtone Hafidha put on her phone.

That was Faulkner. Frost was calling.

*frowns and tries to remember* Hm. Must've gotten the names mixed up while reading.

[Bunny M]

Which is part of what makes it possible to cut Chaz some slack - just not to the point of saying he'd never intentionally hurt someone innocent.

I think it's perhaps more "Chaz would never intentionally harm an innocent, unless he felt it was absolutely necessary."

The one dude on the subway was worried about being a good father: that's probably not the worst thing that's ever happend to him.

Wow, did we ever read that differently. I saw a father remembering his daughter dying in his arms. Or at the very least, she was so sick or so badly injured that he was afraid she was going to die.

So you raise the mirror.

Nissa, he whispers with your mouth. Honey. Hang on. Hang on, baby. You'll be okay. Just stay with Daddy, okay? Baby girl, please, baby girl, please...

His tears burn down your face from under the sunglasses. Or are they yours?

Don't die. Please, just don't--

Stop it, stop it. Cut it off.

For myself, I read that as something that was going through SubwayGuy's head at that moment. Which was horrible enough, but ohh, so much worse if it should have been a memory... 

And I had tears in my eyes at least twice, reading this episode, the first time was the moment of bonding between Danny and the grandmother, about not being able to protect against everything, and the other was during the endings. I don't remember if it was Sol's wishing he was/had fallen for Mehitabel, or Nikki's aching loneliness, the import she placed in the PJs, or her call to her dad.

Actually, both those endings made my heart ache again, just now, skimming over them to find Mehitabel's name. 

[Clarentine]

For myself, I can't see any way around feeling that intentionally taking a whack at a scar you know is there, is worse than hitting it by accident.

There's two sides to that equation - worse for the person receiving an accidental whack, or for the person accidentally giving it?

[Felicia1066]

For myself, I can't see any way around feeling that intentionally taking a whack at a scar you know is there, is worse than hitting it by accident.

There's two sides to that equation - worse for the person receiving an accidental whack, or for the person accidentally giving it?

Worse in terms of any kind of relationship with the person giving the whack, was what I was getting at. I said earlier that it's equally painful for the recipient. Out of those two, which one would you tell about your other scars? Which one would you forgive, and want to spend time with again?

[Scedasticity]

For myself, I can't see any way around feeling that intentionally taking a whack at a scar you know is there, is worse than hitting it by accident.

There's two sides to that equation - worse for the person receiving an accidental whack, or for the person accidentally giving it?

Worse in terms of any kind of relationship with the person giving the whack, was what I was getting at. I said earlier that it's equally painful for the recipient. Out of those two, which one would you tell about your other scars? Which one would you forgive, and want to spend time with again?

Mostly playing devil's advocate here, but while I would be inclined to forgive someone accidentally whacking scars, they only get to do it a few times before they are labelled as Hazardous To Mental Health, and thus not someone I necessarily want to spend time with.

If they did it intentionally... well.  Why, is the question?  But make it a pattern and it's right into the Hazardous To Mental Health box.

In either case: Are there things about them I like enough to let them out?

[tylik]

Another difference with Hafs-as-gamma is this time they have an assessment tool.  Chaz can reflect her thoughts to monitor progress.  Essential if they want to know if any of their treatment programs are working.

Keeping in mind that the mirror always reflects the glass as half-empty.  And is viewed as a severe invasion of privacy.  And my personal gut feeling is that use of the mental mirror should be minimized -- it can't be good for anyone's mental health to see the nastiest or most pained parts of other people all the time.  This isn't to say that it should never be used as a diagnostic -- but not regularly, not if there's any other way to get the information, not if they don't absolutely need the information.

I don't know if we know all the propensities of the mirror, though certainly we haven't seen it reflecting back strong positive emotions, and I suspect you're right.

But I wonder about that invasion of privacy thing. This is Hafs, who always read Chaz's locked posts and then pretended she didn't. I don't know what standards of privacy they have between them. If the mirror gives Chaz some ability to differentiate Hafs from Bug (if that's even really a valid distinction)... she might appreciate that.

[jimsmyth]

But I wonder about that invasion of privacy thing. This is Hafs, who always read Chaz's locked posts and then pretended she didn't. I don't know what standards of privacy they have between them. If the mirror gives Chaz some ability to differentiate Hafs from Bug (if that's even really a valid distinction)... she might appreciate that.

I was thinking that using it while Bug was dominant might reveal the Hafs underneath.

[Cal]

I don't know if we know all the propensities of the mirror, though certainly we haven't seen it reflecting back strong positive emotions, and I suspect you're right.

I can't track it down at the moment, but when Chaz was working on his 'train time' he made a cryptic comment once about getting 'a good one', and sounded rather surprised.  That may imply that the mirror can sometimes show positive things.

[Felicia1066]

I don't know if we know all the propensities of the mirror, though certainly we haven't seen it reflecting back strong positive emotions, and I suspect you're right.

I can't track it down at the moment, but when Chaz was working on his 'train time' he made a cryptic comment once about getting 'a good one', and sounded rather surprised.  That may imply that the mirror can sometimes show positive things.

That would be this entry. Of course, we don't know what "good one" means - could just be something he can handle, rather than positive.

On the other end of the spectrum, we had this.

[Foxipher Jones]

For myself, I can't see any way around feeling that intentionally taking a whack at a scar you know is there, is worse than hitting it by accident.

There's two sides to that equation - worse for the person receiving an accidental whack, or for the person accidentally giving it?

Worse in terms of any kind of relationship with the person giving the whack, was what I was getting at. I said earlier that it's equally painful for the recipient. Out of those two, which one would you tell about your other scars? Which one would you forgive, and want to spend time with again?

Mostly playing devil's advocate here, but while I would be inclined to forgive someone accidentally whacking scars, they only get to do it a few times before they are labelled as Hazardous To Mental Health, and thus not someone I necessarily want to spend time with.

If they did it intentionally... well.  Why, is the question?  But make it a pattern and it's right into the Hazardous To Mental Health box.

In either case: Are there things about them I like enough to let them out?

I think if they kept whacking the scars after I'd talked with them about it and made sure they understood, then they'd go in The Box.  I'd hate to be a gun going off half-cocked and prematurely write someone off.

[ebony14]

Here's a Question: What happens when Chaz uses the Mirror on the Bug? How would the Anomaly react to having itself reflected back at itself?

[Foxipher Jones]

Whoa.

That's...actually a really good question...

[Felicia1066]

Here's a Question: What happens when Chaz uses the Mirror on the Bug? How would the Anomaly react to having itself reflected back at itself?

That's assuming that the Anomaly is separate enough that you can actually reflect it. Can you reflect, say, cancer? Schizophrenia?

[eschatonic]

The one dude on the subway was worried about being a good father: that's probably not the worst thing that's ever happened to him.

Wow, did we ever read that differently. I saw a father remembering his daughter dying in his arms. Or at the very least, she was so sick or so badly injured that he was afraid she was going to die.

So you raise the mirror.

Nissa, he whispers with your mouth. Honey. Hang on. Hang on, baby. You'll be okay. Just stay with Daddy, okay? Baby girl, please, baby girl, please...

His tears burn down your face from under the sunglasses. Or are they yours?

Don't die. Please, just don't--

Stop it, stop it. Cut it off.

For myself, I read that as something that was going through SubwayGuy's head at that moment. Which was horrible enough, but ohh, so much worse if it should have been a memory... 

You're both right.  I had it conflated with this entry in Chaz's livejournal.


edited to make the link work.

[trick]

Still reading (hey, been busy) but had to pop in with a nitpick: I-90 heads north at Chicago. Across Illinois, Iowa, and points west it's I-80. 90 never touches Iowa soil.