Who dies in Peace Talks

[morriswalters]

Can any human action be entirely devoid of sentiment? Can sex be devoid of physical intimacy? Will I ever learn to spell intimacy without spell check?

No.  There is no such thing as human activity without some type of emotion. Yes if you define masturbation as sex.

Rape does not equal physical intimacy...  Turning a trick in the back of an auto doesn't,  nor does selling one's body..  Yet all of those will blow the true love protection...

This is  a trip down the rabbit hole.  And I beg to disagree.

[Mira]

   

No.  There is no such thing as human activity without some type of emotion. Yes if you define masturbation as sex.

But we are not talking about generic emotion, true love is the emotion that burns.   Justine truly loves Thomas, and he, her, they couldn't touch each other without him being burned..  She had sex with another woman, and the true love protection was gone, though they still truly love one another..   So apparently true love doesn't protect, maybe it is mere monogamy.. 

[morriswalters]

So apparently true love doesn't protect, maybe it is mere monogamy..

Your guess is as good as mine. However there is a quote from White Knight that suggests that, at least by implication.

"Bloody hell," she said after a moment. "I can't believe you're still protected. But it's old… My intelligence said Ms. Rodriguez hadn't left South America."
"She hasn't," I croaked.
"You mean…" She turned and blinked at me, astonishment on her face. "Dresden… do you mean to say that the last time you had relations with a woman was nearly four years ago?""Depressing," I said. "Isn't it."
Lara shook her head slowly. "I had just always assumed that you and Ms. Murphy…"
I grunted. "No. She… she doesn't want to get serious with me."
"And you don't want to be casual with her," Lara said.
"There's an outside chance that I have abandonment issues," I said.
"Still… a man like you and it's been four years…" She shook her head. "I have enormous personal respect for you, wizard. But that's just… sad."

[Mira]

Your guess is as good as mine. However there is a quote from White Knight that suggests that, at least by implication.

   
  What is weird is can one have more than one "true love?"   By that I mean before he met Susan and fell in love with her, Elaine sounded like Harry's true love, however that might be because she was his first love...  And yeah, I am familiar with the saying, " my, his, her, one and only true love." The protection from Susan remained until he hooked up with Luccio.. He loved her but she wasn't his true love, Susan remained that until she died... She still might be as far as Harry is concerned even if she is dead, but he is no longer protected.

[Bad Alias]

1a : marked by a warm friendship developing through long association
intimate friends
b : suggesting informal warmth or privacy
intimate clubs
c : engaged in, involving, or marked by sex or sexual relations
It must have been a shock for the author to realize—somewhere between contract and completed manuscript—that while Ms. Brickman was intimate with dozens of mobsters, she was close to none of them.
— Amy Pagnozzi
The father of three children by three women doesn't have a girlfriend and says he hasn't been intimate with anyone in two months.
— Michael Silver
2 : of a very personal or private nature
intimate secrets
3 : marked by very close association, contact, or familiarity
intimate knowledge of the law
4a : INTRINSIC, ESSENTIAL
b : belonging to or characterizing one's deepest nature

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intimate

associated in close personal relations:
an intimate friend.
characterized by or involving warm friendship or a personally close or familiar association or feeling:
an intimate greeting.
very private; closely personal:
one's intimate affairs.
characterized by or suggesting an atmosphere conducive to privacy or intimacy; warmly cozy:
an intimate little café where we can relax and talk.
(of an association, knowledge, understanding, etc.) arising from close personal connection or familiar experience.
engaged in or characterized by sexual relations:
too young to handle an intimate relationship.
(of women's clothing) worn next to the skin, under street or outer garments:
a store that sells intimate apparel.
detailed; deep:
a more intimate analysis.
showing a close union or combination of particles or elements:
an intimate mixture.
inmost; deep within.
of, relating to, or characteristic of the inmost or essential nature; intrinsic:
the intimate structure of an organism.
of, relating to, or existing in the inmost depths of the mind:
intimate beliefs.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/intimate

I guess whether sex is intimate or not depends on which definitions Jim subscribes to (for the books, at least). Based on the facts of the books, I'd say sex is always intimate, at least according to him. If there isn't "true love" between the partners, then there is no protection and, if there had been, it is broken. Further, like most things in life, it isn't the thought, alone, that counts.

Yes if you define masturbation as sex.

Ha!

[Regenbogen]

   
  What is weird is can one have more than one "true love?"   By that I mean before he met Susan and fell in love with her, Elaine sounded like Harry's true love, however that might be because she was his first love...  And yeah, I am familiar with the saying, " my, his, her, one and only true love." The protection from Susan remained until he hooked up with Luccio.. He loved her but she wasn't his true love, Susan remained that until she died... She still might be as far as Harry is concerned even if she is dead, but he is no longer protected.

Luccio didn' t love him back. Susan did.
And does it really have to be the 'one true' love or is simple true love sufficient?
And yes, I believe there can be several 'true loves' in one's life.
I know a lot of people including my husband and myself who have at least loved twice.
My two loved ones felt exactly the same. But different to the two before that.
Both times it felt like true love. And no, the first one wasn't my first boyfriend and I wasn't a teenager anymore.

But love can fade through the years. Not everyone finds his or her true love. Sometimes the one you love doesn't love you back. Sometimes your true love passes away while you survive. Sometimes you find someone to love again. And sometimes two loved one's stay together their whole life.

Can one truefully say the second person one loved, wasn't loved as much as the first or vice versa?

[Bad Alias]

I'm not sure "true love" is something that is even defined in Jim's mind. It certainly isn't in mine. I believe he uses the bible quote for agape love, which is God's unconditional love for man as opposed to, sometimes expressly, eros and philia. It's the 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 bit.

[morriswalters]

For the purpose of this I define intimacy as someone being inside your personal zone.  Examples, prolonged eye contact, inside your personal space, touching you(having sex is a subset of touching).  Jim uses all of these at one point or another, in one fashion or another.

For the purposes of modeling what I think Jim is trying to represent with Thomas, I think of a capacitor.  Justine's inserting another person into the equation would be like bleeding off a capacitor.  As long as the cap is grounded it can't build up enough charge to hurt you.  As long as Thomas isn't monogamous whatever it is that hurts him when he is with Justine never builds up enough to be harmful.  YMMV.

[Mira]

For the purpose of this I define intimacy as someone being inside your personal zone.  Examples, prolonged eye contact, inside your personal space, touching you(having sex is a subset of touching).  Jim uses all of these at one point or another, in one fashion or another.

For the purposes of modeling what I think Jim is trying to represent with Thomas, I think of a capacitor.  Justine's inserting another person into the equation would be like bleeding off a capacitor.  As long as the cap is grounded it can't build up enough charge to hurt you.  As long as Thomas isn't monogamous whatever it is that hurts him when he is with Justine never builds up enough to be harmful.  YMMV.

Apparently if Thomas had met Justine and loved her before his first kill the Hunger demon would have been burned out of him... This is why Lord Raith manipulated him into his first sexual encounter the first kill is critical to the host going on to be a WCV..

[Bad Alias]

(having sex is a subset of touching).

I've been doing it so wrong. 

Apparently if Thomas had met Justine and loved her before his first kill the Hunger demon would have been burned out of him.

It was only when they risked their lives for one another was it an expression of "true love." "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" John 15:13. Once again, agape love. Before that, they had sex multiple times. Harry compared Justine to Burger King, saying he wouldn't eat all his meals there even though it's his favorite restaurant.

[Mira]

I've been doing it so wrong. 
It was only when they risked their lives for one another was it an expression of "true love." "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" John 15:13. Once again, agape love. Before that, they had sex multiple times. Harry compared Justine to Burger King, saying he wouldn't eat all his meals there even though it's his favorite restaurant.

But that doesn't quite fit with the little sister,  who hadn't risked her life for her boyfriend, nor he for her, yet Thomas seemed to think that if it was true love she could burn out her demon before it even got started...  That appears to be more choice over compulsion and we are talking serious drives in a teenager...  Huge hormonal drive verses true love,  controlling the natural sex drive that normal vanilla teens have difficulty with...  The emotion feeds the demon, pushing the sex act even more, once the teen loses control the kill is enviable, the demon becomes established. 

[Bad Alias]

I'm not saying risking one's life is the only expression of true love. I'm saying "true love" is mutually held Agape love. I'm also saying that sex is the only thing that is intimate enough, physically, for the true love protection to take hold or be broken. Finally, I'm saying sex, with another, is always intimate, at least in the Dresden Files.