I've been editing / proofing 'for fun' since I started reading...
I tend to be a natural at it. I mean, I still make typos myself, but your/you're, sense/since, quiet/quite and the like tend to jump out at me and disturb the flow of what I'm reading. Netspeak crap like your/ur is
very annoying. As you can imagine, reading message boards or practically anything else online tends to set off that peeve on a near-constant basis. I try to control it, but I always have the urge to say something about it. Do you get that urge too? If so, how do you turn it off?
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Ok, a question for Jim. What happened to all of the Red Court infected? Was their connection strong enough to kill them? Were they cured? Did they remain as they were, meaning the next time one loses control and kills, the Red Court is reborn?
Also, as I understood it, the bloodline curse would travel up the generations, killing all direct ancestors. If Maggie had been killed, it would have taken Harry's and Susan's parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on. If it could jump over to siblings as well, Thomas would be in danger, who would have passed it up to the White King. Possibly Lara and the other Raith sisters could have died as well, if the curse could spread to the other siblings of a half-sibling. Suffice it to say, many would die. The trouble comes in if the curse is also able to trace it's way
down bloodlines. It seems to have done that in the Red Court. Susan was sired by Bianca, sired by Ortega, sired by Arianna, sired by the Red King. Any other childe (please excuse my use of V:tM terms) of Bianca, Ortega, Arianna, or the King would die. So that takes out the first and second generation vamps, but descendants of 2nd generation vamps other than Arianna would not be in direct ancestry or the siblings of someone that was.
Red King - Arianna - Ortega - Bianca - Susan
|________N2 - G3N2 - etc.
\________N3 - G3N3 - etc.
While nobles N2 and N3 (on through Nx) would die because they were siblings to Arianna, the 3rd generation vamps of their lines are only cousins to Ortega, not siblings. Since those vamps did die, that means the curse traveled back down bloodlines from anyone it targeted, as well as up them.
The trouble with that is, if Maggie had been killed, the entire human race, and possibly all life on the planet could have died with her. Either this curse was only theoretical until now, or it can't travel up and then back down other branches, and there are still Red Court vamps around, just with no central authority.
I suppose that another possibility is that the curse's ability to trace back down lines of ancestry stops at any point that the direct ancestors are already dead. Then it would seem that Thomas was safe, because Margaret was already dead. Any other children of Ebenezer would die, but unless
his mother or father were still alive, any siblings or cousins of his would be safe. However, the fact that the Red King was still around meant that every vampire of his court would die, as the curse traveled up to him and then back down every branch coming from him.
Hmm, that was much longer and more difficult to explain than I'd expected. Perhaps I can mock up a better family tree illustration if necessary.
