drpaladin

The Fiddler may not be able to physically touch the real world, but he's incredibly powerful despite it and Hugo has formed a bond with hin. This moment with Stoker was just the uplift he needed. It does raise the question of how The Fiddler became trapped in mirrors. Was it the Sylerikon?

Uh oh. Blooming new love one moment and on the lam the next.

Presuming one could find a willing orangutan. They do have standards too.

I'm also excited to see what becomes of them. How will the poisonous plants fit in with the story?

Create as much chaos as possible. Call in for deliveries from as many places as possible. Call tabloids and report a bunch of government employees are engaging in deviant behavior there and being entertained by Dottie, the famous female impersonator. Hire sign board walkers advertising Dottie the Female Impersonator. Call in a police raid. If I wanted even more chaos, set off a smoke bomb and call in a fire alarm. Hire P.I.'s to follow everyone who leaves there. If I wanted to risk it, tell the FBI a federal fugitive is there (Stoker), he'd be easier to retrieve from them than Dottie.

If I had a club, I'd be tempted to name it Rocious just to hear people say they were at Rocious. And I could market it with t-shirts, hats, and signs saying 'Be At Rocious.'

This is asymmetrical warfare, so Hugo needs a force multiplier and he needs to do the unexpected. He needs chaos and more variables than Dottie can process or control. Then there is the option to refuse to play this game by her rules at all. I'd not show up and observe instead.

We more often run into atrocious with the meanings of being appalling or of terrible quality.

They still know what batteries are?

I do have some questions. We know what happens in a dynamic time stream if you drop your watch and timeout. What happens in static time? When agents went to those time streams to lay false trails, how did they become part of the time stream?

My guess is even if Hugo surrendered, they wouldn't put them back together except on a carrot and stick basis.

I wondered about this also. I know Stoker is hard headed, but come on. There shouldn't be an odd sound. Then you have Stoker not looking at Hugo or speaking. The only purpose of Stoker here is as a prop. This might be a literal prop and Stoker isn't there at all. It's a big risk to bring your only leverage out in the open like this.

As I see it, Hugo has two basic choices here. He can play the game Dottie has set up or make her play his game by his rules. We already know there are only two to three hundred humans in the time streams, so the number of agents there is finite because watches are finite. They would likely be split between Kulai City and the Citadel when not in a dynamic time stream. There is also a limit to the total number she probably has at one time. Time travel as a reality is not something you want out there as common knowledge and the more people who know, the harder to keep the secret. Those agents are liabilities, not assets. The only place Dottie and her agents are relatively safe is Kulai City due to the peace bond and that safety is only relative. Just thinking out loud.

Even I used both worfs in my comment yesterday. Hence deja vu.

Both Bix and Tawni are fascinating characters. Their romance is well underway.

It's obvious our pair are already hooked up whether both know it or not.

Actually it is since you pointed out the difference between the two yesterday.

As mush as I'd like to see her die in some gruesome way, I also have visions of Stoker patting her on the head as she slurps from a doggie dish.

Actually, I had some visions of this. Since Hugo does know absolutely everything, he can also know how to turn them to his will.

Deja vu anyone?

I was a consultant, not a superior. I demanded and got positively obscene fees. I also put up $1,000 cash to anyone who could beat me. Nobody collected and they all knew what I was going to do beforehand. It's all a reaction time trick. It can't be beaten unless you screw up.

There was a demonstration I used to do to illustrate the illusion of being in control of a situation and the imbalance in reaction times. Keep in mind these were trained professionals. I would hand someone a revolver loaded with blanks. They would cock the hammer and hold me at gunpoint. They were instructed to pull the trigger the instant they saw me move. I was standing with my hands up and gun in my holster. Every single time I was able to draw and fire before they could pull the trigger. Every single time. Back then I could draw and fire accurately in 2/5ths of a second. It's within the range of the time it takes to blink your eyes.

I see lots of flaws in Dottie's 'perfect' trap. Only an utter and complete moron sets up an armed ambush with their men in a perfect circle around their target. They'll end up shooting each other. I may have said it before. If someone points a gun at me, I want them within my reach. Dottie's cold professional is an idiot to be so close to Stoker, with a rifle no less. It's the easiest weapon you can disarm and deflect at close range. It would seem even The Fiddler may be on Hugo's side. The puzzle here is very simple. In a room with 54 targets, only four are important; Dottie, Assassin One, Hugo, and Alec. I can see some solutions.

How little faith you have in Hugo

If in fact we can find something lowly enough to F-Dottie.