Well, Sally's got problems from three angles:

1. She was seriously messed up by the treatments the Baroness gave her and the jobs which she did in Elizabeth's employ.

2. She was badly disturbed by the brain-games of the Spawn of Umsharr in the Journey to the Centre of the Earth (which for her was only a couple of days ago), which showed her things she didn't like and brought the whole Beth/Laurie thing to the fore again.

3. She was messed up more than most of the still-around cast by the nu-Hood's retcon, since if the Baroness was with Mumphrey she never did the things to Lisette that Sally remembers and feels guilty about, or not in the same way. So even Sally's memories of her guilt are disturbing and shifting.

Toss in that Liu Xi at this point in her life has got it about as good as she ever did: LL membership as a great hero, a stable relationship with a loving boyfriend, a lot of friends on whom she can rely. When Liu Xi got mind-zapped by the Spawn she had a voyage of self discovery and came back stronger (although she's not mentioned meeting her potential-timeline daughter, the massively powerful Celestian Madonna). So while Sally Rezyliant once had a future as a scientist and as a person and lost it all, Liu Xi once had no future and managed to make one for herself.

Yes, Liu Xi has some urgent problems with Slithis and the Void Spectre. But Liu Xi is choosing to attend to Sally's problems first, which is an act of compassion and generosity unlike many that Sally has experienced. She finds it difficult to accept non-sexual relationships with men, so she's not really bonded to any of the male team - CSFB! might actually be her first close male team-mate by actually sleeping with her in a sort of therapeutic manner! - so Liu Xi reaching out is a MASSIVE thing to Sally.

I think Sally likes Liu Xi a lot more than Sally likes Sally.




There are a number of players in the field, but Iscanean Went is part of a team, the New Pantheon. He's not the leader. Lara got offered a try-out for a spot too, but she turned it down. You'll notice she's not around to help out the LL this time. The New Pantheon made sure she couldn't interfere.




Feel free to speculate. Rhiannon put it all together as she was reading it and accused me of being, well, things a daughter should not say about her father.




He pays attention, for sure, but Jay's used that cap for a very long time, from back when the poster regularly wrote his stories. Poster-Jay generally restricted Hatman to sporting team caps in the early days and the Tampa Bay Lightning Bolts (hockey team) was one of his go-tos. If Hatty is picking up ideas from Lara it is more likely to be in application of the power.