font color="lightslategrey" face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Also I'd argue that there's a difference between being able to recall detail and an obsession with it. There are all kinds of characters from Hallie to CSFB! who can access vast amounts of data. It's that intense desire to make links with it that characterises Clockwatcher.




font color="lightslategrey" face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Chiaki would ask the wrong questions and make the wrong connections and the Hood doesn't want to have to eliminate her.

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Funny thing about Chiaki though - she's probably the one character of mine that most often knows when to keep her mouth shut. I estimate it as one of the background reasons she and Hatman broke up, because she kept too many secrets.

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But that might not be the only reason the Hood wouldn't want her to know. He might find it amusing to test just how deep her nickname goes, and just how much of his plots she can figure out, and just how much she feels safe letting people know.

font color="lightslategrey" face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Given the Hood's multi-reality perspective its quite possible that there are timelines he is aware of where this has already happened and where he's then had to eliminate Chiaki or others. That's how he'd know where to pitch the boundaries of any manipulation or testing in his cultivated core reality.

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The Hood has a number of gambits which make use of Lara and of her relationship to the Parodyverse and to Faite.

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What I mean though, is if Lara does absolutely nothing, she has no bearing on the Parodyverse at all. If a Parodyverse resident does nothing, everything can change. The trick is getting Lara motivated to interact and make changes without alerting her to what she's doing, or in such a way that she doesn't care about the consequences for some reason.

font color="lightslategrey" face="Lucida Sans Unicode">She's affecting the Parodyverse just by existing there. After that fro the Hood it's just a matter of a simple arrangment such as having her take the last space in a crowded lift that diverts someone else to another future - and she's hooked!

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Faite, on the other hand, has a very simple job: To try and maintain balance. Eons of experience has caused her to plan further and further in advance, and to know when to interact as little as possible to make the greatest change. That experience also has taught her to leave the Hooded Hood alone most of the time, because most of his plots *are* integral to balance - or he does that purposely to keep her from interfering. She doesn't like him either, though, because whenever he retcons something, it sometimes means more work for her repairing things in the present.

font color="lightslategrey" face="Lucida Sans Unicode">The Hood is very good at keeping just inside the limits of what he can get away with. And yes, he does often defend the Parodyverse against threats to it. He's no interest in being supreme ruler of a cinder.

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The only time Faite really gets involved and interferes is when the present has been thrown way out of balance, like during the Moderator saga. Bad news is, that means she'll do her best to interfere with the plans of the Carnifex, if she isn't already.

font color="lightslategrey" face="Lucida Sans Unicode">She might recognise that the Carnifex is a lure to flush out those who might interfere with his bosses demolition plans.

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Oh, and as an aside, now that the Hooded Hood is officially back...after I return from Florida on the 6th, I have a partial story in the back of my mind about the Trading Alliance. Something is supposed to go horribly wrong, but I never wrote it because there was never a catalyst. There just might be one now.


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Noted.

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It should be interesting. The only hint I'll give now is that the word "alliance" is key. Any alliance isn't perfect, there's always a point of strain at which enough pressure can cause it to break.

font color="lightslategrey" face="Lucida Sans Unicode">Proceed.