Who fixed Little Chicago?

[Jcarlson171]

If he wants to fall. It is totally something he is not allowed to do.

Unless the other side broke it to start with?

but thats a whole new level of conspiracy

[Ananda]

Unless the other side broke it to start with?

but thats a whole new level of conspiracy

Not the same topic, but back to the LC topic. This made me muse that maybe LC was broken by a foe and that no one actually fixed it, per se. If a time trazel foe arrived and broke it (I remember Bob saying the flaw was previously unseen despite prior scrutiny), then Dresden could have also time travelled and stopped the foe through interference. The overlapping timelines would all still require cause and effect It’s all a bit fuzzy, but maybe LC was never fixed because it was never broken in the final version of that timeline. 

To illustrate.
Timeline 1 (TL1)- LC is fine, not broken
TL2- foe or foes time travel and, through some method, cause flaw in LC which Bob notes
TL3- timeline now contains ramifications from TL2. Future Dresden goes back and defeats foe or foes and, in so doing, negates flaw from occurring with LC and whatever else foe or foes achieved to a greater or lesser extent
TL4- this is the timeline we are viewing when LC is “fixed”. Many other things from future Dresden’s TL3 will also have changed, but this is not TL1

The text of the books could have contained a bit of all the above timelines without alerting the reader.

Where’s raidem? Look, I’m talking about time travel!

[raidem]

I've been going to they gym, swimming, and walking.  After they finally/recently diagnosed low B12 and sleep apnea for me and treated me for it, I've gotten lots better.

“And I’m sorry,” she growled. “Jerk.”
That had cost her something. Murphy has more pride than is good for her. And yes, I am aware of the proverb about glass houses and stones. So I didn’t give her any more of a hard time than I already had. “Don’t go all romantic on me now, Murph.”
She smiled a little and rolled her eyes. “If we ever did get together, I’d kill you inside a week. Now, go get some rest. You’re useless to me like this.”

What did Mab try to do to Harry when she brought back Harry to Arctis Tor for training, try to kill him daily.  Just wanted to throw that in. 
It doesn't necessarily pertain to this topic but I was listening to the audiobook while walking at the park and heard that and tied it into Cold Days beginning where Mab puts him through rehab training.

Now as to the timeline, I like what you did with it.  It's plausible, understandable.  I like the idea that there are multiple timelines and team bad and team good, or at least multiple players, are doing things in the background that we won't find out about until later.

[Ananda]

I've been going to they gym, swimming, and walking.  After they finally/recently diagnosed low B12 and sleep apnea for me and treated me for it, I've gotten lots better.

Nice! Congrats. I’m about to rejoin my gym. I used to go 4-5 days a week, but stopped for a few years after a bad running injury. I really miss it. Have you seen Primer yet?  You gotta see it if you haven’t! It’s the best time travel film, ever.

[raidem]

Yeah, I've watched it.  I got a bit confused toward the end, but got the gist of it.

[DonBugen]

Heck, I was just diagnosed with sleep apnea.  Spent my first night on the CPAP and it's like night and day.

I strongly believe that either time traveled or universe-displaced Dresden fixed it, but that's a theory on top of a theory on top of a theory on top of vague hints.  The book itself flags Rashid as the most likely suspect, so I'm willing to go with that as most unlikely, as the rule of inverse literary probability means that the longer a mystery has gone unanswered, the more improbable the outcome will be.

[Snark Knight]

The book itself flags Rashid as the most likely suspect, so I'm willing to go with that as most unlikely, as the rule of inverse literary probability means that the longer a mystery has gone unanswered, the more improbable the outcome will be.

Rashid was actively suspicious Harry was playing for Team Outsider until confronting him with his suspicions in Turn Coat and clearing the air. I can't see him having gone out of his way to interfere with Harry maybe blowing himself up while not being sure which side he was on. (Plus, as Harry put it, keeping a voodoo doll of the city in your basement would look instantly creepy to any other wizard - Rashid finding out about that probably would have pushed any suspicions he had of Harry over the edge)

[Arjan]

Rashid was actively suspicious Harry was playing for Team Outsider until confronting him with his suspicions in Turn Coat and clearing the air. I can't see him having gone out of his way to interfere with Harry maybe blowing himself up while not being sure which side he was on. (Plus, as Harry put it, keeping a voodoo doll of the city in your basement would look instantly creepy to any other wizard - Rashid finding out about that probably would have pushed any suspicions he had of Harry over the edge)

I do not think he would be that disturbed by it. Bob however would have been problematic.

I do not see the gatekeeper entering and leaving Harry’s apartment uninvited without leaving a trace however. The Sidhe can do so as the brownies regularly did.

[peregrine]

I do not think he would be that disturbed by it. Bob however would have been problematic.

I do not see the gatekeeper entering and leaving Harry’s apartment uninvited without leaving a trace however. The Sidhe can do so as the brownies regularly did.

Why not?  Rashid has literal centuries of experience on Harry, AND a magic eyeball.  One that possibly allows him to follow patterns of energy.  You don't think he can penetrate the wards of a kid with power but not a ton of finesse?

[morriswalters]

The question to answer for anyone is how did they know?  And Bob isn't always in the basement in the events of Proven Guilty.  So JB created a moment when someone could have entered.

You could assume that a Rashid(or someone) is from a timeline where Harry is killed during the first use of Little Chicago.  It is possible that in that timeline Rashid ended up possessing Bob.  If Harry dying in that timeline leads to the outsiders passing the gates, then that Rashid may be trying to change that possible future.  That Bob would know what went wrong and how to fix it.  And he could lower the wards.

In this scenario you could plug in the name of any of the powerful ally of Harry's who could time travel.  Bob is the true locus.  All you have to assume is that Bob survives when Harry dies and ends up in the hands of someone able to use him, and that some dire event will happen in a future where Harry existence is critical. Such as the BAT.  This ticks all the boxes pointed out by Harry and Bob, since obviously Bob knows all of those things.

“No it isn’t,” Bob said. “Just really, really, really, really, really, really difficult. And unlikely.
1.)  He would have had to know that you had a lab down here.
2.) And he would have had to know how to get around your wards.”
3.) “Plus intimate knowledge of the design to tinker with it like that,” I said.
4.) “To say nothing of the fact that he would have to know it existed at all, and no one does.”

[DonBugen]

Those four points are exactly why I believe it's a previous version of Dresden.

There's one other possibility that no one has explored.

Having just formed the Za Lord's Guard, Toot Toot and company have one of their first epic battles against the mice and rats and ugly spiders that might crawl into Harry's bed.  One battle with such a dread creature takes them down to the basement, where the gang land in Little Chicago.  There, they have an epic Kaiju-style Godzilla battle, leaving much of Little Chicago in ruins.

Not wanting to displease their new lord before he even knows of the organization's existence, Toot Toot and company quickly repair all of the damage done to the table, completely by accident also repairing the transition coupling.  'Cause you know, Faeries, they just live and breathe magic and so it's totally possible that was done unintentionally.

It seems at least as probable as any other idea to me.

[Carl]

Don't forget though anyone with the knowledge level to produce that sort of thing and enough power to scry through his wards could become aware of it and know how to fix it. And thats assuming the same person who realised the error was also the one to fix it. Someone else with no interest in interfering could have seen the error and then somehow, (probably by accident), handed that info over to someone with an interest in interfering.

[Cozarkian]

1) Know LC existed,

Remember, if we are talking time travel, the person who used it didn't have to learn about it until after PG. Thus, for example, anyone who found remnants of LC after Harry's place burned down might travel back in time to use it before it was destroyed. Harry could tell somebody about it in the future and send them back to use. Or Harry could send a message back from the future to somebody in the past to have them use it.

[Kindler]

Personally, I chalk it up to Harry having to head back to Proven Guilty, with Bonnie in tow, maybe to ensure that Molly gets taken by the Scarecrow. Harry has to find something or do something, and he goes to use LC, when Bonnie (who has Harry's memories, along with Lash's) realizes that Little Chicago is broken, so Harry spends the time to fix it. This is after he has an emotional reunion with all of his stuff.

If there is time travel, I tend to think it's going to be a "Harry has to ensure the integrity of the timeline" situation, not an "I have to go back and prevent X" thing. He'd probably go on and on about the morality of erasing failures, and how it would be too easy to undo everyone's sacrifices, and how that would undermine the meaning of their lives, et cetera, et cetera.

[SerScot]

Personally, I chalk it up to Harry having to head back to Proven Guilty, with Bonnie in tow, maybe to ensure that Molly gets taken by the Scarecrow. Harry has to find something or do something, and he goes to use LC, when Bonnie (who has Harry's memories, along with Lash's) realizes that Little Chicago is broken, so Harry spends the time to fix it. This is after he has an emotional reunion with all of his stuff.

If there is time travel, I tend to think it's going to be a "Harry has to ensure the integrity of the timeline" situation, not an "I have to go back and prevent X" thing. He'd probably go on and on about the morality of erasing failures, and how it would be too easy to undo everyone's sacrifices, and how that would undermine the meaning of their lives, et cetera, et cetera.

I'm confident that Harry is the one who fixed Little Chicago.  Very Confident.  Heck PG is explicitly set up as a story with time travel in the background.