ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND

[raidem]

I've posted this before but I wanted an updated version that hasn't been delete.

Death Masks

Mac caught my eye when I came in and nodded to my left. I looked. A sign on the wall said, ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND. I looked back at Mac. He drew a shotgun out from behind the bar so that I could see it and said, "Got it?"
"No problem," I answered.

Dead Beat

The minute I shut the door behind me, some of the fear and tension faded, the dark energies Cowl had stirred up sliding around the tavern like a stream pouring around a small, heavy stone.
A sign on the wall just inside the door proclaimed, ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY.

Proven Guilty
Referred to by Fix in phone call as:

Accorded neutral territory,” he responded.
He meant McAnally’s pub.

Then when they meet at McAnally's

There’s a sign Mac’s got hanging up at the door that reads ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND.

White Night

On the wall beside the door was a wooden sign that stated, simply, ACCORDED neutral ground. That meant that Mac had declared the place a nonpartisan location,

Small Favor
Reference to it

It doesn’t keep out any of the supernatural riffraff—that’s what the sign by the door is for. Mac had the place legally recognized as neutral ground among the members of the Unseelie Accords, and members of any of the Accorded nations had a responsibility to avoid conflict in such a place, or at least to take it outside.

Cold Day's References
(Vadderung's Bodyguard, I think)

A woman with a voice cold enough to merit the use of the Kelvin scale spat, “He will meet you. Accorded Neutral Ground. Ten minutes."

Thomas swung to his feet and slipped the little automatic into the back of his pants, then pulled his shirt down over it. “Where are we going?” “Accorded Neutral Ground,” I said.

When they visit to meet Vadderung, sign reads see excerpt:

The two of them went to a far table, bickering cheerfully, and sat down, passing by the real reason we were meeting here—a modest wooden sign with simple letters burned into it: ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY.

Skin Game
When Harry meets with Mab and Kringle at McAnnaly's it reads, see excerpt.

Normally, Mac’s does a brisk trade, but today there was a sign on the door that read: CLOSED FOR PRIVATE PARTY. A second sign hung inside the door, a wooden one, into which the words ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY had been neatly burned.

[wardenferry419]

I am guessing that a simple explanation like Mac had a new sign made ain't going to cut it.LOL

[raidem]

So, there is a flip flop between ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND, ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY mainly and one OUTLIER of ACCORDED neutral ground.  The last though might simply be a not ALL CAPS mistake.

[wardenferry419]

So, what if Mac's bar is a nexus point existing out of time. (Like the Restaurant  in Adams' book) And, sometimes the scenery shifts, minutely, but Mac stays relatively unchanged.

[jonas]

So, what if Mac's bar is a nexus point existing out of time. (Like the Restaurant  in Adams' book) And, sometimes the scenery shifts, minutely, but Mac stays relatively unchanged.

Wow, beat me too it, what if, like MW, Mac exists in so many different realities as the same relative thing in each? So the background timeline shifts cause his sign to change more often than other examples?

Also, I wonder at the difference in wording in defining grounds and territory. Grounds makes it almost a 'hollowed' place whereas Territory refers more to it's protection by a group authority, small nuances like that.

[raidem]

Yeah the last time I had this up, I was wondering about a central nexus like your talking about.

[jonas]

Yeah the last time I had this up, I was wondering about a central nexus like your talking about.

One could say as it's a sign gotten from Mab, a being of singular existence. as opposed to his own item, it's the only thing directly from each interrelated reality. The rest is his domain/he brings it makes it himself, like his microbrew(which seems to end up in more than enough alternate realities even without a Dresden in the mix lol)

[raidem]

So, Mab's sign is changing with Mab's identity or history in some sort of EXTREMELY MINOR flux.
Or, Mac succeeded in Quest but his Reward is in flux changing from ACCORDED NEUTRAL GROUND to ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY.
The exact language of the quest Mab lays out to get Accorded status for a bar and the exact language of the reward is in flux.
Or, maybe there is two very close parallel realities that are getting flip flopped with just that change being noticed as separate between the two.

And exactly what the Quest says the sign/bar will be called as a result.

[Mira]

   It is a difference that makes no difference in my opinion, call it ground or territory the bar is a neutral area.

[Kindler]

It's likely just an inconsistent mistake, but Harry does comment that vanillas never seem to be able to find it.

The beer is certainly beyond this mortal plane.

It is clear that it is Mac's demesne in the Nevernever. Ipso facto, Mac is a ghost. One that brews beer. A... spirit spirit.

[jonas]

It's likely just an inconsistent mistake, but Harry does comment that vanillas never seem to be able to find it.

The beer is certainly beyond this mortal plane.

It is clear that it is Mac's demesne in the Nevernever. Ipso facto, Mac is a ghost. One that brews beer. A... spirit spirit.

Mistakes have been corrected before, but certain things though pointed out, still remain the same. Other things were pointed to as timeline flux, which would make sense too.

[Kindler]

Mistakes have been corrected before, but certain things though pointed out, still remain the same. Other things were pointed to as timeline flux, which would make sense too.

Is there a list of previous corrections in subsequent editions somewhere? That'd be interesting to read.

I don't think that we can use dialogue as an example; that's just difference in word choice, and they're synonymous terms. The sign changing is concrete, though. It was messed up badly in Cold Days during the fight with He Who Walks Before, and was likely replaced. I don't recall damage to it in previous books that would explain it, though.

Small inconsistencies like the exact wording can be explained by this being Harry's recollections, looking back years after everything had happened. I'm not sure this is a firm example of timeline changes. However, the sign is specifically different in Proven Guilty and White Night, the two books with the most time travel theorizing; they're the same as Death Masks, which doesn't have anything to do with time travel, as far as I'm aware on my theory readings.

Heh. Maybe Harry went back to switch out the Shroud to give it to Hades, which is why it isn't the real one.

[jonas]

Is there a list of previous corrections in subsequent editions somewhere? That'd be interesting to read.

Not that i'm aware, of but he has plenty of Beta readers... might be a list of things left unchanged though. Bianca's assistants name, the car changing models in DB, Morty's Hair and domicile switched back and forth, this sign shenanigans, ect. Things that clearly are not correct but are not corrected in later editions either.

(actually, I think there is a pinned post of caught mistakes somewhere too)

[Rasins]

So it's Ground until Cold Days.

Wasn't there a fire in Cold Days?

[Kindler]

So it's Ground until Cold Days.

Wasn't there a fire in Cold Days?

Yeah, Mac picks up the sign and hangs it back up on the wall after the fight with He Who Walks Before, but it's all messed up and charred to hell.

But it switches in Dead Beat to "Territory," then back to "Ground" in Proven Guilty.