Elaine: Spoilerific Fun

[Psyklone]

Now that we know Nemesis took over Justine, does that clear Elaine?  I have always suspected Elaine would be one of the baddies.  How does Nemesis actually work?  Are there more than one, because we know it got Cat Sith, as well, but it said it had Justine for a few years...  Could it take over someone, and then just leave them lifeless for a bit and hop to someone else?

Now that Harry has implied he's going to beef up the paranet in his Castle, this would be a prime opportunity to have Elaine play an active role.  Is she good, self interested, or nemesis? 

[Icecream]

Need to know how many people Nemisis / HE WHO WALKS BESIDE can infect at a time.

Did it jump from Leah to Justine? Were Cat Sith, and Meave possessed at the same time? If so, Justine as well?

How far can it reach, and can they possess a Starborn?

[bigdangmoose]

I would assume, after the talk with Eb in PT about the powers of a starborn, that Harry is immune to HWWBS. Elaine only possibly being one when Justin picked her up doesn't mean she's is one and probably isn't immune.

[huangjimmy108]

Now that we know Nemesis took over Justine, does that clear Elaine?  I have always suspected Elaine would be one of the baddies.  How does Nemesis actually work?  Are there more than one, because we know it got Cat Sith, as well, but it said it had Justine for a few years...  Could it take over someone, and then just leave them lifeless for a bit and hop to someone else?

Now that Harry has implied he's going to beef up the paranet in his Castle, this would be a prime opportunity to have Elaine play an active role.  Is she good, self interested, or nemesis? 

I peg Elaine to be Murphy's role replacement, assuming Harry still need a default partner in crime during the series.

As of now, Murphy's old role as Harry's boss during the start of the series has been taken over by Mab. Now that Murphy is gone, her role as Harry's main sidekick need to be filled in, unless JB wants to revolutionize the entire format of the story which he has been using so far, which is entirely possible.

Harry now has enter another phase of the story. He has switch from the human camp to the monster camp now. Murphy's death seals this fact. The only vanilla human with enough influence over Harry who still has some respect over the letter of mortal laws aka Karrin Murphy is no more, while the battle of Chicago has put the supernatural world and the mortal authorities almost on opposite sides.

His friends, his allies are all involve in the supernatural world, even his daughter study in a supernatural based school. Harry's connection to the world of vanilla mortals is almost severed in BG with only members of the carpenter family as the remaining link.

[Arjan]

He has Michael and charity. Butters and the alphas. Santa. I think his connection with his oldest friends will only gets stronger.

[huangjimmy108]

He has Michael and charity. Butters and the alphas. Santa. I think his connection with his oldest friends will only gets stronger.

Butters and the Alphas are supernatural to begin with. With the tension between mortal authorities and the supernatural denizens grow more severe, it won't surprise me if these people will get marginalize by mortal authorities like the Librarians.

Only the carpenter family is full vanilla and though they don't have any supernatural powers or bloodlines of their own, their eldest daughter is the winter lady and Harry Dresden the high profile Chicago wizard is their family friend. Knowing how ugly this could become, it won't surprise me if even the carpenter family would be considered supernatural by association in the eyes of the mortal authorities.

[bigdangmoose]

I think we can argue about Butters. He's not supernatural, he just carries the only functional lightsaber in the world. Take it away and he's just a good man. Would you consider Murphy supernatural if she had taken up a sword?

[Mira]

Butters is as human as it gets, so is Michael,  they have dished out morality and common sense to Harry for years.  There is nothing supernatural about them at all, they just wield Holy Swords.

[huangjimmy108]

I think we can argue about Butters. He's not supernatural, he just carries the only functional lightsaber in the world. Take it away and he's just a good man. Would you consider Murphy supernatural if she had taken up a sword?

I think Butters is vanilla, but would those politicians in office would think the same? Would the Librarians think the same? That's the question.

[forumghost]

He's not Vanilla, he's the only person who's come into contact with Harry who's life has actually gotten consistently better because of it, there has to be something supernatural going on there.

[Conspiracy Theorist]

Elaine is one of two other wizard talents Harry knows (the other is Mort) who are not White Council, he  would be reaching out to both of them I would imagine. But working with her regularly, no, she has her own practice in LA.

His day to day partner is likely to be Bradley, I think he will end up in SI and assigned against his will as liaison to Harry, Rawlins is retiring. I think this was one reason for the soulgaze, Harry knows Bradley is completely solid (in every sense of the word).

Harry can offer him something no one else can, day care at the Castle, the best protected day care possible. I would though see if Charity would like to set up and run the day care, she has been a full -time mother (and armourer and sparring partner), it would be a good cause use of the Carpenter diamonds, and could specialise in Paranetters kids and changelings.

It is likely I think that the Great Hall will survive, as a meeting and Lecture room for the local community and Paranetters. I don’t think Harry is going to distinguish between the two groups. I think he will also offer it as a base for the Knights to work from.

He will need employees and I can think of a couple of candidates. Gary will have the opportunity to move out of his mothers basement and into Harry’s running the protected tech with Bob (Bob give up the Internet, no way). Gary is an oracle, I suspect he has a highly developed mortal pattern recognition ability like most hackers and his low level talent puts a twist on that giving him extra gears. An oracle would be very useful for Harry.

He is going to needs PA’s/Managers, who better than Marcie and Andi. He is also going to need housekeeping staff for general maintenance and cleaning, and a couple of Alphas on site to help with protection woulld make sense I presume he is going to retain guest accommodation etc which need to be serviced, probably a couple of college level  Paranetters.

Oh and Butters, he is a vanilla mortal, but like all the Knights it is real high quality vanilla pod ice cream, none of your cheap fake vanilla essence with a deluxe chocolate flake, and an expensive butterscotch syrup on top (each of the Knights have their own flavour). Not all vanilla mortal are equal.

[bigdangmoose]

I think Butters is vanilla, but would those politicians in office would think the same? Would the Librarians think the same? That's the question.

Hmmmm.  I see your conflict. But I think, being a part of the church and the church never being part of the Accords, the Knights get a pass. They kinda more work for the MIB, even though they don't, so they might be looked over because of what they do for them.

[Yuillegan]

I still think Elaine is a very fine thrall and that she is Kumori.

Based on the fact that all the players seem to have their very own Starborn on the team (Listen for Ethniu for example, Harry for Winter and the White Council etc), I'd say that Kumori and/or Elaine (depending if they are the same person) are Starborn. In which case, Elaine would be immune to Nemesis. Which isn't to say they don't work together. Justin was working with He Who Walks Behind after all.

[Griffyn612]

Need to know how many people Nemisis / HE WHO WALKS BESIDE can infect at a time.

Did it jump from Leah to Justine? Were Cat Sith, and Meave possessed at the same time? If so, Justine as well?

How far can it reach, and can they possess a Starborn?

We have every reason to believe that Nemesis can infect numerous beings at once. We know that Aurora was infected at the time of SK events. Leah was infected somewhere between GP and PG, but the line in SK where Maeve said she just came from Leah, without any other plot purpose, points to her being exposed at that time. 

Later during PG, Leah is infected at the same time Maeve is.  Then we have the potential that Elder Fetch was also infected in PG, so possibly another case of up to three at once.

We know Maeve and Sith were both infected in Cold Days, so there's two again. I don't think Justine was infected yet at that point, because Maeve specifically called out that Justine was close to Lara and that she wanted to talk to her. Everyone should have known Justine was a target at that point, but I think the lack of understanding of Beside prevented them.

Then there were a whole bunch of people listed by Lily in Cold Days that were infected and/or influenced by Beside, which I think at this point has to be considered accurate.  That included Sells, Denton, and others.  So at least three, if not more, at once. I'd like to think there was a cap of three to puppet at once.

All that being said, I still hypothesize that Black Magic (killing with magic, along with some or all of the other laws of magic) opens a door in the psyche/brain/spirit/soul, and it allows the corruption to seep in. The corruption isn't Nemesis/Beside, but he can use the same door to enter and manipulate people.

That's why the Council takes such a hard line against the law-breakers. 

In Justine's case, the question is who infected her, how, and when. It didn't seem to happen on the island during Cold Days, but it could have been done during her kidnapping prior to that. But that would mean someone else on the Red Cap's team infected her, and Maeve was just catching up with her to-do list on the island.

If not during the kidnapping, then it was likely sometime between the end of Cold Days and Peace Talks.  It was likely in the events prior to Even Hand, where she's just escaped from Corb's people with the prisoners and the girl.  Maybe it didn't go the way she remembered, but Beside manipulated her memories.

That would make the story more relevant to the overall plot, as it illuminated the specific event where she was compromised.

[Bacail]

If not during the kidnapping, then it was likely sometime between the end of Cold Days and Peace Talks.  It was likely in the events prior to Even Hand, where she's just escaped from Corb's people with the prisoners and the girl.  Maybe it didn't go the way she remembered, but Beside manipulated her memories.

That would make the story more relevant to the overall plot, as it illuminated the specific event where she was compromised.

Nemesis itself said sometime after getting close to Lara.  if that can be believed, remember her actions during White Night.  Harry was surprised to see Justine actually lucid and ambulatory while waiting to be introduced in the Nut Cave (the Deeps)  She glossed over it quickly, but I think it was Nemesis.