Dresden Files II: Dealing Drugs To Tiny Faeries

[lord_khaine]

So if I'm not mistaken, the implication here is that Luccio undressed and cleaned Harry while he was blacked out from weariness. Did this strike anyone else as slightly creepy?

No.. why?
Harry needet to get out of those clothes because he were dangerously cold, and since he were also rather flithy and as i recall a bit injured, then he also needed to be cleaned up.

[Mauve Shirt]

If butters had done it it would not have been creepy. I do kind of see what you're saying about a male undressing a female seeming creepy, but a paragraph of Harry undressing his senior officer out of necessity would be so full of stuttering and blushing and IT'S NOT LIKE THAT that I wouldn't think of it as creepy either.

[Soras Teva Gee]

My personal theory is that a Wizard's magic is in many ways a reflection on how they view the nature of Magic itself, just like how not ever wizard sees an image when they soulgaze. Harry views magic like an engineer views physics, a series of ways in which forces move around and do stuff.

I tend to agree especially given the comparative modernity of physics as a system of understanding... well unless Newton was a WC member and just codified a view held by wizards. Which is more plausible then it might sound.

That said we still know there are some more strict rules I think. The Dresdenverse plays around with it some but never quite gets into consensual reality. We just don't have a complete enough knowledge to say what is or isn't

I suspect for example all wizards have to obey some basic conservation of mass/energy/etc for example. All (right now) have the techbane issue though that is also a good example for a more casual relationship since its known to have changed with time.

I still like the idea some young spellcaster of say Molly's generation forward will actually manage to be a technomancer.

Take, for example, Healing Magic, which we know exists, Listens To Wind is a specialist in it. Magical Healing makes no sense in terms of "Forces moving around", is the healer magically pumping some sort of "Life Energy" into the patient? are they using telekinesis to push skin, muscle, and flesh together?
Harry, Coincidentally, has never been shown to perform Healing magic. It does not fit with his worldview, or definition of magic.

Inference would suggest that magical healing is more along the lines of mundane medicine then say your game system Cleric or White Mage. Say Traditional Chinese Medicine that actually works. With perhaps a few advantages but not like wave your wounds away, which so far only Lea and (sorta) Mab have don.

Otherwise Harry would have put a frantic call to Listens to Wind when his back was broken I'd think. He should know what its capable of even if he doesn't practice it.

So if I'm not mistaken, the implication here is that Luccio undressed and cleaned Harry while he was blacked out from weariness. Did this strike anyone else as slightly creepy?

Yes but when I stop and think about it what's actually wrong here other then that I'm biased by coming from rather prudish stand-offish culture of no touching people?

And come to think of it don't some methods of treating hypothermia involve using water? Not hot water ('cuz shock and such) but like luke warm?

I think the real problem is that Harry's phrasing is such it rather kinda implies Luccio like... licked him clean or something.

[Philistine]

Why? The DF can totally stand on its own without any WoJ even if you do believe my statement. Having lots of WoJ is just a very nice bonus.

Seriously? You're really asking why it's a problem if a writer, in particular, has to go back and clarify what they were attempting to communicate in their works? Really? Guess it's time to earn my username again.

Art is communication if it's worth anything at all. Whether we're talking about painters, musicians, dancers, chefs, sculptors - the goal is to convey something to the audience. (Otherwise, why would anyone care?) That something may be an image, or a feeling, or a sense of wonder, or whatever. That part doesn't matter. For any artist, having to go back and explain what they were trying to communicate is failure, because that means their work has failed in its sole purpose for existing. How much moreso then for literature, the actual art of words? Literature should be the most precise of the arts, largely immune from accidental ambiguities, because the artist/author gets to pick the first words the audience/reader will associate with the ideas being related. That's why it's so terrible if an author feels the need to come back and clarify the intent behind a work - because making that intent plain is Job One, and authors have a uniquely precise set of tools to accomplish that job.

***

As for the Luccio/Harry question, No, of course not. In addition to what others have already said, you seem to be looking at Harry and Luccio as "barely acquainted co-workers," which is just wrong. Wardens aren't corporate drones, they're soldiers, with all that entails - including a reasonable expectation that they may need to stop and render first aid to one another on the battlefield, which may involve removing as much clothing as necessary to get at the wound(s). I'd be much more concerned if they'd risked allowing Harry to die out of excessive concern for his modesty.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

As for the Luccio/Harry question, No, of course not. In addition to what others have already said, you seem to be looking at Harry and Luccio as "barely acquainted co-workers," which is just wrong. Wardens aren't corporate drones, they're soldiers, with all that entails - including a reasonable expectation that they may need to stop and render first aid to one another on the battlefield, which may involve removing as much clothing as necessary to get at the wound(s). I'd be much more concerned if they'd risked allowing Harry to die out of excessive concern for his modesty.

Though, in hindsight, the context of that is a bit more unsettling...given Peabody's meddling and such.

[Lamech]

Dark Magic: Making Creepers since 2009

[Forum Explorer]

As for the "Does Business with Physics" thing, that always seemed like "Occasionally meets Physics for lunch and nods occasionally". Harry throws Fireballs around, and occasionally Pyrofuego's for a combined Fire/Ice effect.

My personal theory is that a Wizard's magic is in many ways a reflection on how they view the nature of Magic itself, just like how not ever wizard sees an image when they soulgaze. Harry views magic like an engineer views physics, a series of ways in which forces move around and do stuff.

Harry also has a high-school level knowledge of Physics.

Harry's speciality, magically speaking, is in the moving around of forces. He pushes stuff, lights stuff on fire, blows stuff up, and finds stuff. He specifically finds stuff by honing in on similarities or connections.

Harry talks about this like ALL magic works like that, but thinking about it that does not really make much sense.

Take, for example, Healing Magic, which we know exists, Listens To Wind is a specialist in it. Magical Healing makes no sense in terms of "Forces moving around", is the healer magically pumping some sort of "Life Energy" into the patient? are they using telekinesis to push skin, muscle, and flesh together?
Harry, Coincidentally, has never been shown to perform Healing magic. It does not fit with his worldview, or definition of magic.

But, if you had a worldview that DID involve some sort of "Life Energy" that you could close wounds and restore vitality, that would be a different story. Listens to Wind was able to perform a rain dance and call down a rainstorm in his battle with the Skinwalker. We have not seen Harry even THINK about the mechanics of that.

In Harry's viewpoint, the Weather is a system of forces too complex to even think about. He has no idea how one would create a rainstorm.

In Listens-To-Wind's mindset, a rainstorm is somthing you can create if you ask nicely enough.


I also put Molly into this theory.

Harry views magic as forces moving around. His first Spell was him doing track and field and accidentally propelling himself with magic. That is very much "Forces moving around" style magic.

Molly's first spell was veiling herself from her mother on instinct. She did not know what she was doing, she just really did not want to be seen, and lo, she was not seen.

I see Molly's view of magic as being less "Moving forces around" and more "Reshaping the world as I see fit". This means she has trouble with harry-style Magic, since while Harry thinks "I am calling up a source of energy within myself, shaping it, and then using that to do things in accordance with how physics works", Molly has to say "That thing that is not on fire-Make it be on fire".

Harry thinks he's playing by the rules, Molly knows she's breaking them.

That said, Illusions and mind magic are much simpler in terms of "Make what I want to happen happen" then "Moving forces around". If Harry tries to do an illusion, some part of him is trying to conceptualize that as moving forces around. Bending the patterns of light around himself or somthing. Molly just thinks "I don't want them to see me". Perception and the human mind are both notoriously subjective things, and they happen to be Molly's playground. She is good at subtle magic because her style of magic focuses on the Result, not the Process. She does not think "I want to make the light that reaches their eyes not reflect off me", she thinks "I want them not to see me". What for Harry would be the subtle and precise manipulation of many forces is, for Molly, a simple declaration of intent and application of will.
Harry thinks about picking a lock by pushing on the tumblers, Molly just skips straight to "And I want this door to be open".

And "I want them to see somthing that is not" is much easier than "I want something that is not to be".


Now let's rampently speculate. Listens-To-Wind's magic probably stems from the traditional beliefs of his people. He can control weather, shapeshift, and heal because his worldview is such that these are things that can happen.

Let's say Carlos views Magic as inheriently disruptive , which leads to his particular flavor of weaponized entropy, as he turns things to dust.

Also, Harry is deeply familiar with the Gandalf-style pop-cultural idea of the Wizard, and he seems to fit that himself. His spellcasting makes a lot of sense if viewed as a fushion between High-school dropout physics and "I am Gandalf". He thinks about Forzare as conjuring up a wave of kinectic energy to knock someone down. It never occurs to him to question the idea of just conjuring up kinetic energy because he is a Wizard, and that is just the sort of thing a Wizard can do.


In Ghost Story we see a low-level spellcaster guy use magic to enhance his own speed. Harry is far more powerful, and probably far more experienced than this guy, but we don't see Harry ever trying to boost his speed like that. Because if Harry tried he would have to conceptualize pushing himself around with kinetic energy in just the right way. He would see it as using kinetic energy to add extra force in very precise ways according to the complex physical process of somebody running. He could theoretically say "I'm making myself faster with Magic", but his image of himself is based off Gandalf, not The Flash, and making yourself faster does not fit his image of a Wizard the same way throwing fireballs does.

I really do love that idea and I think it's one that works. I don't think you got Molly's view correct though. I'd say it's a weird mix of her own and Harry's ideas after becoming his apprentice. So she thinks magic is a sort of energy you can use to do stuff. Physical stuff takes a lot of energy while mental stuff takes no energy, because mental stuff is on in your head if you know what I mean.

I don't know much about the lives of European females from centuries ago so I couldn't really say.

But Luccio is knows about Harry's modern perspective. Is the explanation here that she knew he wouldn't be skeeved out since she was a hot women?

And suppose the genders of the characters were switched. Luccio is a dude who undresses and cleans the body of a blacked out female colleague. Would that the readers still accept that kind of explanation?

I'm not sure of my own views here but I'm surprised no one else I've seen at least brought it up.

It's a well known fact that when someone is hypothermia you get them out of their cold clothes. Warm water can help, so cleaning Harry with heated water works as well. Similarly with wrapping him in a blanket and making a fire. So I think it was more a matter of survival first, skeeviness second.

To put it a diifferent way, I don't think Luccio would have done it if Harry hadn't been suffering from hypothermia. She also enjoyed it more then she'd think so that's why Harry got that little stiptease.

Inference would suggest that magical healing is more along the lines of mundane medicine then say your game system Cleric or White Mage. Say Traditional Chinese Medicine that actually works. With perhaps a few advantages but not like wave your wounds away, which so far only Lea and (sorta) Mab have don.

Otherwise Harry would have put a frantic call to Listens to Wind when his back was broken I'd think. He should know what its capable of even if he doesn't practice it.



Yes but when I stop and think about it what's actually wrong here other then that I'm biased by coming from rather prudish stand-offish culture of no touching people?

And come to think of it don't some methods of treating hypothermia involve using water? Not hot water ('cuz shock and such) but like luke warm?

I think the real problem is that Harry's phrasing is such it rather kinda implies Luccio like... licked him clean or something.

For magical healing Harry's back wasn't there a load of issues that'd make it impossible even if it was White Mage style?

Like the White Council being in lockdown and a Fallen whispering in his ear. I think the Senior Council was MIA at the time anyways.

But yeah I kinda agree. It might work, but I think it's slower then a 3 second action.

[123456789blaaa]

<snip>
I still like the idea some young spellcaster of say Molly's generation forward will actually manage to be a technomancer.
<snip>

Well the Murphyonic Field (tech-smashy field that wizards produce) tends to change every 500-600 years (which hey, coincides with the average age of each generation of wizards). It used to make crops go bad and warts pop up. So we won't be seeing a technomancer wizard within the books but they'll have to pop up later given the increasing significance of tech.

Unless you mean a wizard figuring out ways to work around the MF while being tech-smashy? Maybe...it's very plausible but I don't know if Jim would want to include that in the books.

It reminds me of Bob gaining access to the Internet. There's just so much knowledge in there and to have something that can sort through and dredge up that info in two seconds seems invaluable. But it's just a joke in the books.

Yes but when I stop and think about it what's actually wrong here other then that I'm biased by coming from rather prudish stand-offish culture of no touching people?

And come to think of it don't some methods of treating hypothermia involve using water? Not hot water ('cuz shock and such) but like luke warm?

I think the real problem is that Harry's phrasing is such it rather kinda implies Luccio like... licked him clean or something.

<snip>
It's a well known fact that when someone is hypothermia you get them out of their cold clothes. Warm water can help, so cleaning Harry with heated water works as well. Similarly with wrapping him in a blanket and making a fire. So I think it was more a matter of survival first, skeeviness second.

To put it a diifferent way, I don't think Luccio would have done it if Harry hadn't been suffering from hypothermia. She also enjoyed it more then she'd think so that's why Harry got that little stiptease.
<snip>

Ah I see. The issue here was me just not knowing anything about the type of treatment you give in that situation. I was assuming She could have piled him under the blankets right away and that the cleaning was just a bonus.

I think what contributed to that was the placement of that little snippet of text. I'm not sure of the right word for it but I've seen that type of thing in other books as well. Right before the person is about to go back to sleep, they notice that the other person has done something extra-special for them. They then lose consciousness before they can ponder it. It's a way of giving hints to the readers without actually having to deal with the relationship-talk.

Seriously? You're really asking why it's a problem if a writer, in particular, has to go back and clarify what they were attempting to communicate in their works? .
<snip>

No.

Let me attempt to clarify.

I posted a statement which you quoted.

In your reply you seemed to be assuming that believing my statement meant, that the person believing it also had to believe that, the writer has to go back and clarify.

I asked why you could not just believe my statement, while not believing that the writer has to go back and clarify.

[The Glyphstone]

Well the Murphyonic Field (tech-smashy field that wizards produce) tends to change every 500-600 years (which hey, coincides with the average age of each generation of wizards). It used to make crops go bad and warts pop up. So we won't be seeing a technomancer wizard within the books but they'll have to pop up later given the increasing significance of tech.

Unless you mean a wizard figuring out ways to work around the MF while being tech-smashy? Maybe...it's very plausible but I don't know if Jim would want to include that in the books.

It reminds me of Bob gaining access to the Internet. There's just so much knowledge in there and to have something that can sort through and dredge up that info in two seconds seems invaluable. But it's just a joke in the books.
.

My headcanon, which I think overlaps with Sora's, is that the Murphyonic field isn't an inherent property of magic itself, but a manifestation of the whole 'magic shapes itself according to one's will) that's been passed down from master to apprentice so many times it's become institutionalized. Tech - whatever it might be defined as that century - breaks around wizards because they were taught by their masters that tech breaks around them, who were taught in turn, etc., reinforced by encounters with those century-old wizards who also believe such. Under this paradigm, a wizard who was completely self-taught (who also would probably be a warlock, unfortunately) would be able to function fine around technology simply because he'd never been told otherwise, but anyone even remotely connected to the establishment would get sucked into perpetuating the belief. It has no positive text support at all, but then we've never seen any wizards other than Molly at the very beginning of their career.

[123456789blaaa]

My headcanon, which I think overlaps with Sora's, is that the Murphyonic field isn't an inherent property of magic itself, but a manifestation of the whole 'magic shapes itself according to one's will) that's been passed down from master to apprentice so many times it's become institutionalized. Tech - whatever it might be defined as that century - breaks around wizards because they were taught by their masters that tech breaks around them, who were taught in turn, etc., reinforced by encounters with those century-old wizards who also believe such. Under this paradigm, a wizard who was completely self-taught (who also would probably be a warlock, unfortunately) would be able to function fine around technology simply because he'd never been told otherwise, but anyone even remotely connected to the establishment would get sucked into perpetuating the belief. It has no positive text support at all, but then we've never seen any wizards other than Molly at the very beginning of their career.

Well, the reason that the Murphyonic Field is there in the first place (according to WoJ) is because humans are conflicted (that whole Free Will thing). A Fae who uses magic (and I mean taught magic, not inherent magic) can sit around and play X-box all day.

And if the MF is due solely to belief, than why does it change periodically? Why do wizards suddenly start thinking that magic breaks tech after it's been ruining crops for the past 600 years?\

I think your headcanon is on the right track though. It seems to me that the MF is more tied to the nature of people (whether it's only wizards or just humanity in general I'm not sure). The visible progress of tech is quite recent. People did not create Sci-Fi stories in the Middle Ages (someone is gong to correct me on this aren't they?). For the older generation tech often seems bewildering and strange. I think the current effect of the MF is tied into that.

[Fjolnir]

What if The MF does not hinge on how WIZARDS perceive magic as working but rather how MUNDANES do?

"witchcraft" causing boils, warts, and crop failure was a fairly common concept back in the day, now we might picture a wizard and see an absentminded professor, skilled in his field but otherwise ignorant of how things operate outside it...

[The Glyphstone]

Well, the reason that the Murphyonic Field is there in the first place (according to WoJ) is because humans are conflicted (that whole Free Will thing). A Fae who uses magic (and I mean taught magic, not inherent magic) can sit around and play X-box all day.

And if the MF is due solely to belief, than why does it change periodically? Why do wizards suddenly start thinking that magic breaks tech after it's been ruining crops for the past 600 years?\

I think your headcanon is on the right track though. It seems to me that the MF is more tied to the nature of people (whether it's only wizards or just humanity in general I'm not sure). The visible progress of tech is quite recent. People did not create Sci-Fi stories in the Middle Ages (someone is gong to correct me on this aren't they?). For the older generation tech often seems bewildering and strange. I think the current effect of the MF is tied into that.

Beats me. Though maybe it's because in pre-industrial times, crops/agriculture/animals were "technology" as far as people and wizards understood. The most complicated mechanical machinery they had were things like wheeled carts or church bells, and the bulk of the population was rural-based. As society developed and urban populations became the norm, the wizards and their self-projected MF developed to match - the 'complicated' and 'technical' (and thus countered by magic) things in life were now a function of machinery.

I'd expect it to be more gradual, anyways, since it would be really weird if, for centuries, wizards curdled milk by being near them then woke up one day and every wizard in the world could have all the milk they wanted but couldn't ride the newfangled steam engines that had been invented a decade ago. Nor would it make sense for wizards like the Merlin to melt computers if he was born/trained after the 'switch', but before anything like a computer had even been conceived of. Though we don't know when the last 'switch' point was, assuming a hard-and-fast changeover.

[Mauve Shirt]

Dangerous Women comes out today. I'll probably go to the bookstore and read it.

[tomandtish]

Generally, I prefer the people who rub the dirt of my naked body -while I'm blacked out and without my prior approval- to be closer than colleagues. Am I in the minority here?

I think what makes it even skeevier is that Luccio has amorous intentions towards Harry. It wasn't purely a practical matter (which you could at least make an argument for).

A few thoughts:

1) I assume Luccio has had to clean up wounded Wardens before (including undressing them). Inherently, the fact that a woman did it is no more skeevy to me than a man doing it.

2) Technically, unless there is a WoJ that clarifies the point, it is an assumption that Luccio is the one who cleaned him. All we know for sure is that he wakes up, is clean and naked in bed, and Luccio is cleaning herself. Michael or Thomas could have cleaned him, then Luccio come in later (after all, he was asleep for hours according to Thomas).
Note: I think she was, or at least assisted, but it is an assumption with the material as written.

Now, assuming she did clean Harry, and given that she is attracted to him, there is some skeeviness here. But that's primarily the fault of the mental pushing she's been given. (That is, it becomes creepy in hindsight as CG says above). Would she have undressed him and bathed him without the push? Maybe. After all, it needed to be done. Depends on if Thomas and Michael were willing to step up. (after all, if Luccio is not appropriate, then Murphy isn't and Molly certainly isn't). But Luccio certainly wouldn't be engaging in erotic sponge baths in front of him. It would be strictly business.

And that's the sad thing. Luccio is even more of a victim in this thing then Harry is.

[Mauve Shirt]

HEEEEEEY GUUUUUUUYS

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Beats me. Though maybe it's because in pre-industrial times, crops/agriculture/animals were "technology" as far as people and wizards understood. The most complicated mechanical machinery they had were things like wheeled carts or church bells, and the bulk of the population was rural-based. As society developed and urban populations became the norm, the wizards and their self-projected MF developed to match - the 'complicated' and 'technical' (and thus countered by magic) things in life were now a function of machinery.

I thoroughly endorse this view. Magic mucks up what is complex and civilized from the reference point of the magician.

I'd expect it to be more gradual, anyways, since it would be really weird if, for centuries, wizards curdled milk by being near them then woke up one day and every wizard in the world could have all the milk they wanted but couldn't ride the newfangled steam engines that had been invented a decade ago. Nor would it make sense for wizards like the Merlin to melt computers if he was born/trained after the 'switch', but before anything like a computer had even been conceived of. Though we don't know when the last 'switch' point was, assuming a hard-and-fast changeover.

This comes from the DFRPG, so the value of it as canonical information is a little questionable, but the game suggests (I can dig up the reference when I get home) that hexing is actually different in its time frame for each wizard: i.e. the older technology that Harry doesn't have trouble with (older cars and such) might get totally fried by an older wizard.

HEEEEEEY GUUUUUUUYS

WOOP WOOP!

Of course, the pressure's on for me to blaze through the series on my reread, now......

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Rereading the series, btw, to get ready for Skin Game. Noticed something interesting early on, though maybe Butcher superseded it with other things later.

For obvious reasons, I can't use a computer to store information and keep track of the slowly changing laws of quasiphysics.

To me, this indicates that from Harry's perspective, the rules by which magic operates are manifested in constantly-changing ways. I'm gonna have to follow that notion and see if it pops up again in the books.

[Feytalist]

Rereading the series, btw, to get ready for Skin Game. Noticed something interesting early on, though maybe Butcher superseded it with other things later.



To me, this indicates that from Harry's perspective, the rules by which magic operates are manifested in constantly-changing ways. I'm gonna have to follow that notion and see if it pops up again in the books.

Yeah, I'm doing the same. Halfway through Grave Peril now.

I actually noticed the same thing. Also, later on (somewhere in Fool Moon?), Harry mentions that's why Bob is so invaluable; his knowledge is so vast that he can extrapolate on the new laws (using X instead of Y in a potion, stuff like that).

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Have you ever felt despair? Absolute hopelessness? Have you ever stood in the darkness and known, deep in your heart, in your spirit, that it was never, ever going to get better? That something had been lost, forever, and that it wasn't coming back?

Oh, Harry, you poor, poor, clueless thing.

[Mauve Shirt]

Oh, Harry, you poor, poor, clueless thing.

It's almost laughable.

I love how jam-packed with foreshadowing the older books are, but Harry's cluelessness and low power level is almost shocking. That's kind of how Ghost Story felt, come to think of it.

[Mauve Shirt]

So Bombshells,

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Cute story. I like how even in a short story with an ending I already know, Jim can make me feel excited about what the characters are doing, and even fear for their wellbeing. That said, he really can't separate first person voice from Harry's voice.
At first I was kind of like, yay, Molly kind of sounds like herself! But then I realized that Jim was using the same "I'm not Harry Dresden" trick that he used in Backup, Aftermath and Even Hand. Seriously, does every single alternate PoV story have to continue to remind us that they're an alternate PoV? It just reads like they obsess over our protagonist. Which I can believe from Murphy and Molly, whose short stories both take place in the traumatic aftermath of Changes and Harry's death/undeath. But not Thomas and Marcone. Thomas's story took place in the happy times between White Night and Small Favor, and Marcone's took place shortly before Changes as well. They're all strong enough in their own right that they don't have to justify their existence as separate characters.
Murphy and Molly both did kind of have the "I'm not as good as Harry!" thing going on. I'd like to see some Thomas PoV from between Changes, see if he justifies his not-being-Harry-Dresden as much.

[123456789blaaa]

So Bombshells,

Spoiler

Show

Cute story. I like how even in a short story with an ending I already know, Jim can make me feel excited about what the characters are doing, and even fear for their wellbeing. That said, he really can't separate first person voice from Harry's voice.
At first I was kind of like, yay, Molly kind of sounds like herself! But then I realized that Jim was using the same "I'm not Harry Dresden" trick that he used in Backup, Aftermath and Even Hand. Seriously, does every single alternate PoV story have to continue to remind us that they're an alternate PoV? It just reads like they obsess over our protagonist. Which I can believe from Murphy and Molly, whose short stories both take place in the traumatic aftermath of Changes and Harry's death/undeath. But not Thomas and Marcone. Thomas's story took place in the happy times between White Night and Small Favor, and Marcone's took place shortly before Changes as well. They're all strong enough in their own right that they don't have to justify their existence as separate characters.
Murphy and Molly both did kind of have the "I'm not as good as Harry!" thing going on. I'd like to see some Thomas PoV from between Changes, see if he justifies his not-being-Harry-Dresden as much.

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There was this fantastic thread OP on the JB boards about Thomas that I think handily explains this. I'll see if I can find it.

Unrelated: Does anyone have any mythological creatures that they hope will show up in the future of the books? I'd was hoping to see JB's version of the Ahuizotl but now that the major Aztec-themed baddies have been taken out of play, I doubt we will .

[BRC]

So Bombshells,

Spoiler

Show

Cute story. I like how even in a short story with an ending I already know, Jim can make me feel excited about what the characters are doing, and even fear for their wellbeing. That said, he really can't separate first person voice from Harry's voice.
At first I was kind of like, yay, Molly kind of sounds like herself! But then I realized that Jim was using the same "I'm not Harry Dresden" trick that he used in Backup, Aftermath and Even Hand. Seriously, does every single alternate PoV story have to continue to remind us that they're an alternate PoV? It just reads like they obsess over our protagonist. Which I can believe from Murphy and Molly, whose short stories both take place in the traumatic aftermath of Changes and Harry's death/undeath. But not Thomas and Marcone. Thomas's story took place in the happy times between White Night and Small Favor, and Marcone's took place shortly before Changes as well. They're all strong enough in their own right that they don't have to justify their existence as separate characters.
Murphy and Molly both did kind of have the "I'm not as good as Harry!" thing going on. I'd like to see some Thomas PoV from between Changes, see if he justifies his not-being-Harry-Dresden as much.

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Part of the issue is that Dresden's Voice is such a key part of the series that I'm not sure Jim ever really bothered to come up with a good internal voice for the other characters, since he would only need to do so for these short stories.

That said, from what I recall Marcone's story did not include any "I'm not Harry Dresden" moments. Marcone is too confident to do that.

Still, Dresden is very much the center of his world. He's generally the group's strategist, most knowledgeable member, and biggest gun all at once. He's also been both Molly and Murphy's guide to the world of the supernatural, so it's not that unusual that they think about him when they're in over their heads.

[The Glyphstone]

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Part of the issue is that Dresden's Voice is such a key part of the series that I'm not sure Jim ever really bothered to come up with a good internal voice for the other characters, since he would only need to do so for these short stories.

That said, from what I recall Marcone's story did not include any "I'm not Harry Dresden" moments. Marcone is too confident to do that.

Still, Dresden is very much the center of his world. He's generally the group's strategist, most knowledgeable member, and biggest gun all at once. He's also been both Molly and Murphy's guide to the world of the supernatural, so it's not that unusual that they think about him when they're in over their heads.

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He actually says it explicitly, though the tone isn't really a lack of confidence.

Obviously, I am not Harry Dresden. My name is something I rarely trouble to remember, but for most of my adult life, I have been called John Marcone.

[Rakaydos]

Where can I find Even Hand?

[Mauve Shirt]

It's in a book called Dark and Stormy Knights. I would never recommend doing this, but there are some PDFs of it floating around the Internet as well.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Nyuuuuuuuurgh. I'm half-tempted to go in for the novella alone on the Kindle edition. But I should just wait for the next anthology to come out.

[Thrawn183]

Unrelated: Does anyone have any mythological creatures that they hope will show up in the future of the books?

I'd be interested in seeing Thor and Loki. I'd like to see how dragons actually operate. Oh, and the Easter Bunny. I have no idea how JB would have Michael interact with the Easter Bunny, but I'm sure it would be hilarious.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

OH MY GOSH I want the Easter Bunny now.

And I don't know where, but I've heard that JB plans to bring dragons back in. Given what we already saw in Grave Peril...that'll be somethin' else.

I'm also rather curious--maybe we've already seen Loki show up?

Oooh, it'd be cool to see Anansi making an appearance, in that vein.

[Soras Teva Gee]

I'm also rather curious--maybe we've already seen Loki show up?

As who exactly?