# 5HC: Abo Dex, 5 Legs

*The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 15 Jun 1998*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/786>

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### m.driussi
*15 Jun 1998, 00:06*

alga,

Not to belabor any points, since I'm not trying to change your mind
about Jeanine as abo, nor change your mind about anything else, nor
do I mean to badger you in any way.

But if V.R.T. is "half abo," and V.R.T. is the only
semi-representative of abo-dom we have in the text, then what does
that mean, to you, about his tool using abilities with rope, knife,
and rifle?  And do you yourself then make assumptions about what
"pure abo" tool using abilities might be based upon your opinion
of V.R.T.'s abilities, or do you avoid all such speculation as
being impossible given the "half-breed" nature of the sample?

I mean, you seem to have some very definite ideas of abo ability (for
example, the ability to use a house key which you gave in dismissing
the Jeanine as abo theory), and I'm curious to know what your ideas
are (since we're all so murky, any set is good for a start) and how
they are affected (if at all) by hybridization-through-heredity.

Now for something new--this "Five Legs" thing.  (A constellation in
5HC.)  Quite curious.  It might be a genuine personal Wolfe thing.
The chapter with that name in SHADOW OF THE TORTURER shows that the
legs belong to aquastors Triskele and Malrubius.  Otherwise it is
difficult to imagine a creature with five legs, unless we mean a
starfish--i.e., a five-pointed star.  (And there is some sort of
Wolfe importance to five-pointed stars, like the glowing man-apes;
but this five legs business seems more important.)

Casting about, what could "five legs" be?  I thought of the tripod
(no doubt zeroing in on Triskele's name) and the pythoness.  Well
that's mantic, no question!  Oracle of Delphi, three legs and two
legs.  Still I wonder.

=mantis=

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