Heads; Scylla; Four Eyes

Robert Borski · 13 Mar 2001, 12:13 · from whorl-v0012.mbox · original

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From: "Robert Borski" <rborski at charter.net>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Heads; Scylla; Four Eyes
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 12:13:05
Message-ID: <whorl-v0012-0447 at digest.urth.net>
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First up, re the Neighbors having two heads: of course, I misread my own
argument from my original post about Pas-as-alien ("Typhon's Home: Pas as
Neighbor," Vol. 11). What I failed to notice in my haste to post was the
following parenthetical aside I made, where I actually get things right:
"Both Typhon and the Neighbors bear doubled body parts (heads vs. limbs)." I
now stand eagerly corrected and my thanks to the legion of you who pointed
out the error of my ways.

Alex Groce then having written:

<(*) Well, she's her "sister." I take it that Abaia, Erebus, Scylla, etc.
are all definitely space-travelers. So if it is a common language that's the
issue here, they might have both learned Neighbor from their "Fodor's
Blue/Green System for Great Old Ones" or Neighbor may be linguistically
derived from the tongue of the Space Monsters.>

I agree with you about Abaia and Erebus being space travelers, but the
Scylla you're talking about is not from beyond Urth, she's Pas's daughter
Cilinia, who's secretly joined the undersea cabal pre-launch. As Horn tells
us near the end of RETURN, talking about Oreb/Scylla, "The Scylla we see is
no more than a sketch of the original Scylla, of the daughter of the tyrant
who assumed the name Typhon, the daughter who had pledged herself in secret
to one of the gods of the Short Sun Whorl that would in time become our Red
Sun Whorl. It was a a form of treason, of rebellion against her father."
It's this Scylla (the "Greater") who's apparently left behind when young
Cilinia/Scylla is scanned into the Whorl's computers (the same way
Typhon-Piaton is). I'm therefore not sure she's ever had the chance to
travel widely on a galactic basis, nor how she's able to explain to Horn how
to contact the Mother, who, we know (because of Seawrack's ring and
otherwise) is allied with the Neighbors. I doubt that your theory about
Neighbor being the lingua franca of the Great Lords is correct.

Interesting to note how Cilinia's rebelliousness carries over into her
Mainframe avatar, and perhaps she is even the instigator of the revolt.

Insect-eyed blattid subsequently opining:

<But you are quite right about Babbie (and thus presumably other Bluvian
critters, including the Neighbors) having four eyes. This fits the general
theme -- elephants with  eight legs & two trunks, etc.>

Kinda makes you wonder how this works with, er, a creature's more fun parts,
don't it?

Also: I'm still waiting for someone to explain Babbie's spectacles. No
takers?

Robert Borski

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