VRT as half-abo

Gerry Quinn · 08 Jan 2011, 01:40 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2011 01:40:31 -0000
Subject: (urth) VRT as half-abo
References: <AANLkTinWZmgt0QbTUDPhFBRN+OxynGaKSrZwHHwbui2H at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <EEDEC5E394AB4307A6C79B7FB41D7145@jill>

From: "Tony Ellis" <tonyellis69 at btopenworld.com>
Gerry Quinn wrote:

> > How do you know how VRT's abilities compare with those of his mother?
>
> In his cell VRT writes that he remembers his mother making herself
> unattractive when his father came home drunk, using "the muscles of
> her face." He adds "I have the same ability, though not to the extent
> she did."

Interesting.  I hadn't thought much about his mother, but I think you are 
right that she seems to be comparatively stronger on shapechanging and he on 
tools.  Whether that makes him a half-breed or not I don't know - it would 
be possible either way.  I suspect his education, such as it was, was better 
than hers.

I also notice now: "her beautiul eyes shining like shards of green glass in 
the dark."  Further confirmation that green eyes are the heritable signature 
of Sainte Anne abos.

> A page or so later he has a dream memory of her 'buttoned into her
> dress' by his father. Whereas he can surely dress himself.

That may be due, at least in part, to the difference in attire between men 
and women.  Most men would recoil at the notion of attire that needs 
fastening at the back, and even among the undoubted humans of twenty first 
century Earth, it is not uncommon for men to have to do up women's clothes.

> Trenchard tells Marsch that his wife was useless and "She could not
> even cook!" Marsch says VRT is a great camp cook - but adds that he is
> constantly burning his fingers in the fire.

Fair enough.

> >[VRT] does rather well with it [shapechanging], substituting for a 
> >professional
> > man from Earth and getting away with it for quite some time (he was 
> > unlucky
> > to be caught). His mother did not pull off any coup of this sort.
>
> Which again suggests VRT is only half-abo. His mother stole without
> compunction, "if she had eaten she wanted nothing", and by VRT's own
> account she "knew nothing" either. She wasn't equipped to integrate
> with human society beyond a base level.

Half-abo, or educated abo.  I don't think we have enough information to 
tell.

- Gerry Quinn

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