Vizh does sometimes take time to demonstrate where Hallie's differences lay. She can be alien because she has access to different perceptions, senses, and experiences. So sometimes it's nice to bring readers up short and challenge their expectations.







The issue in debate is whether Vinnie is at fault in "sacrificng" his relationships or even himself to accomplish important tasks, including saving lives.

There are a number of possibilities:

1. The sacrifice isn't neccessary. He is a fool.

2. There is a cost for accomplishing what must be done but it doesn't have to be Vinnie that steps up. He's either a hero or a fool for doing it, or a smart bastard or coward for letting someone else pay.

3. Only Vinnie has the opportunity to do what has to be done, but there are costs and conequences which will harm him or those he cares about. He has to prioritise cost vs benefits and make a hard choice.

But bluntly, if your job is to stop evil from overwhelming millions or just damning one innocent soul, where can one draw a line and say "I'm not paying that"? It's the mathematics of destruction, to save a billion by sacrificing a million - or himself. That's Vinnie's problem.

Most of the time he can do it smart and get away with it. Sometime on the edge, sooner or later, there'll be a choice he can't dodge.







I have a masive file on de Soth family backstory that I've yet to unship, although that may well be in the Vinnie novel series now if that progresses.










Another worry Vinnie probably has (I would if I was him) is that his life and work seem to threaten absorbing Liu Xi's life. Even since she's come to America, Liu Xi has been dragged into being a co-player in other people's dramas. She's not really established a life or goals independent of her friends, lovers, or team-mates. She has no career, no stated ambitions, no life outide a very small circle of equally or more weird friends.

That's not a criticism of her. It's consistent with her sad history and upbringing, and it is a natural corollary of her experiences and what's been done to her. But Vinnie must be concerned that Liu Xi's compassionate nature is always leaving her facilitating other people, so much that she's never stopped to work out what she wants. In fact Vinnie might even be getting a bit fed up with people taking Liu Xi for granted like that.

At the least, he probably feels he owes it to her to accompany her on a Liu Xi adventure rather than drag her along on another Vinnie case.




Noted.




Vespiir has actively tried to shut down her powers until very recently.




Strangely, I almost used that selfsame example about her last time I wrote.