(urth) Cassie's Mobile Home (AEG spoilers)

[Dan]

At 12:28 PM 10/24/2008, you wrote:

>Message: 3
>Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:38:57 -0600
>From: "Dave Tallman" <davetallman at msn.com>
>Subject: (urth) Cassie's Mobile Home (AEG spoilers)
>To: urth at lists.urth.net
>Message-ID:
>         <1bf4dd40810240838m48105531j8e02c373b3f7db03 at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>Something very strange was going on with Cassie's apartment in this story.
>There are too many inconsistencies for the explanation to be typos or
>mistakes. I believe the answer is that Cassie was unconsciously warping
>reality. Dr. Chase implied that the change he enabled in her was more than
>just bringing out latent talent: she had been raised to a near-angelic level
>of power. "It is easy, terribly easy, for someone who has transformed up to
>slip back down" (p. 100).
>
>    1. In the beginning, Cassie lives on West Arbor (p.81), next to apartment
>    3B (p. 52), so she's in 3A. It's probably on the third floor of a small
>    building; it's only a few steps from the elevator to her door (p. 52).
>    2. It's within a short walk of a Baskin-Robbins (p. 43). It's not a big,
>    upscale store since only a single surly teenager is on duty there.
>    3. It's eighteen blocks from the home of the successful Sharon Bench,
>    probably on the poor side of town (p. 24).
>    4. There is a mention of windows, but not French windows or a balcony (p.
>    43).
>    5. It's difficult to find parking places nearby -- Chase has to walk four
>    blocks (p. 81).
>
>A couple of days later:
>
>    1. She's on the fifth floor (p. 111).
>    2. The view shows several cars parked on the side of the street, at about
>    the same time of day as when Chase had trouble finding parking (p. 111).
>    3. Some nearby buildings have doormen (p. 111), but apparently not hers.
>    Several people call unannounced. Her telephone is working, but she gets no
>    calls about them (p. 105-110).
>    4. That night, she suddenly has a doorman who calls to screen her
>    visitors (p. 116).

I agree. But I'm not sure Cassie was doing all this by herself. I seem to 
have the recollection that Margaret was present during some of these 
events. In fact, with the safe episode, it almost seems as if she's 
directing it. I am rereading now and will keep this in mind.


>She didn't just move to a fancier place with her success. She had the same
>upstairs neighbor, Brian Pickins (pp. 85, 250). The hole Gideon Chase made
>to break into her apartment also connects the places (p. 76, 87).


So I wonder what has happened to the personal fortunes of her neighbors. 
They must have improved for them to continue to live in a swank upscale 
apartment. A rising tide lifts all boats?



>After she goes to the South Sea island, the assassin gives her address as
>181 East Arbor Boulevard, apartment 301 and Cassie confirms it (p. 249). The
>fact that it is back on the third floor suggests that it's reverting to a
>lower level since she is not there to maintain focus on it. The doorman may
>also be gone, since the cultists have managed to kill a tenant and take over
>his apartment undetected.
>
>In the end, she seems to have lost her power and she is prematurely aged,
>possibly from burn-out as well as her harrowing experiences. Her apartment
>has gone back to the west side of town ("Best of all it was on the east side
>of Kingsport, across town from her old one." p. 293). This transition was
>rougher than the others and it seems that in the process all of her
>possessions were lost (p. 292).

I know the bank kept her saftey deposit box by automatically charging her 
account, but wouldn't her apt have been rerented and her possessions 
liquidated after her extended absence?


>There are several other instances of reality-warping in the rest of the
>story.
>
>    1. People start thinking she is famous before she has even given her
>    breakthrough performance (p. 45), and Sharon calls her a famous 
> actress the
>    day after that performance (p. 89).
>    2. Early on, Cassie is familiar with Mickey the stage manager and asks
>    for him by name (p. 58). Later, she doesn't know his name (p. 137). A 
> famous
>    star wouldn't know a lowly stage manager, unlike the struggling 
> actress she
>    was.
>    3. Vince Palma knows her full name and uses it in public (p. 63). Later,
>    Cassie is so surprised that Reis has found out her real first name 
> that she
>    stutters (p. 146).
>    4. She sees Alexis Cabana as a waitress at Rusterman's (p. 118). Alexis
>    doesn't remember acting under that name (or she pretends not to). I don't
>    believe this is just a coincidental resemblance. Possibly the past has 
> been
>    warped so that Cassie played the main role ("By this time you'd be Jane
>    Simmons." p. 54).
>    5. Cassie hid her diamond necklace in her hotel room and the next morning
>    finds it in a room safe she doesn't remember using (p. 152-153). I believe
>    she created the room safe overnight out of her wish to have a more secure
>    place for her jewels.
>    6. She calls Sharon from the South Sea island at her breakfast time (p.
>    236), which would be nearly Sharon's lunch time because Cassie is a late
>    riser ("I get up at eleven, don't I, Margaret?" p. 139). There is 
> almost no
>    time difference, which is impossible if Sharon is really back in the 
> states.
>    I believe Cassie has time-warped this call. It's possible that some 
> sort of
>    time-warping is available on the islands and that Reis makes use of it,
>    because he acts so quickly to find Cassie almost as soon as she is 
> recruited
>    by Chase ("This afternoon I found my director." p. 66). There seems to 
> be a
>    connection between Woldercan, where ethermail messages can arrive out of
>    causality order (pp. 18-19, 298), and the Chtulhu-ruled islands. 
> (Woldercan
>    is the name of a city where a pagan god was worshipped with human 
> sacrifices
>    in "The Circus of Dr. Lao", so a link is definitely implied). Former
>    ambassador Klauser also says that time is an illusion (p. 298).
>
>In the end, "Fiona" was hoping to bring Cassie Casey back (p. 296). She was
>going to Woldercan to see Gideon Chase. I doubt he would be able to perform
>the same trick twice, but he will love her anyway ("As soon as he spoke, he
>knew that for him no reversal would have the least effect." p. 81). There's
>a chance for a bittersweet happy ending, but Cassie was still deep in grief
>over Bill/Wally. She may have had a sense of Bill's presence because of the
>last fading traces of her power which she lost when she got far enough away
>from Earth. That would account for her sudden desperate cry: "Please, oh,
>please, Wally! Come back to me!"

I know they said Woldercon was really far away, but outside the galaxy? 
When I read that, I got the sinking impression she really wasn't going 
there and was perhaps comitting suicide.


>Reis had good intentions, but he had a "touch of megalomania" (p. 304) and
>wanted to rule the world ("I have that island now, but I've seen a better
>one. A blue isle in a sea of black. I fight for it every day, and I'll win."
>p. 125). He did far more harm with his good intentions than the amoral Dr.
>Chase, especially when he provoked a fight between the Navy and Cthulhu. I
>would say that the power of his alchemical wealth was the "evil guest" in
>this story which destroyed both him and Cassie.

Plus I don't understand why he just gave up and surrendered to the 
islanders or devise some way to rescue her. I need to reread that section 
again.

Dan