> See the thing here is it's nice to think about Vlad/Parrfi/Steve as separate > entities but really it is Steve/Steve/Steve. Sometimes I get caught up with > that, the idea itself is entertaining so I go along with it. Ha! I see he has one, at least, taken in completely! I think Steve, like Sethra Lavode, has multiple personality syndrome, but that really, he's psychicaly in touch with various individuals from the world of Dragaera. Either that, or he's secretly stashing a ship that can cross dimensions and has been making jaunts out to the farthest reaches of imagination! Just wait. Time will prove me right.... > Steve is reliable AFAIK and I think this shares very close to the no one > else's is anyone else scenario, you are after all suggesting that Loiosh is > aware he was Mario. Of course he's reliable, as long as you don't play poker with him. <jk> > INSANE! An entertaining and creative notion however. Yeah, well, I've never denied that I need serious psychological help. And as I was shooting for entertaining and creative, I think I scored correctly on that one. > I think the real reason we've never seen Mario again is that he isn't > relevant to Vlad's experiences or in Parrfi's case irrelevant to his > histories (other than he is relevant to Aliera). Does Vlad even know Aliera > knows Mario? Does Parrfi even know Aliera knows Vlad? Nah. He's saving Mario to take out Vlad by the request of every House in the Empire, the Empire itself, the Jenoine, the Gods, and the girl he took to Valabars with Krager that one time. But first, Vlad needs to piss them all off (which he's doing a good job of starting anyway). Everyone but the Serioli, that is, who, I think, really like Vlad. > The greater point in not being able to define Parrfi or Vlad as reliable is > that since the stories are affected by them our perception of the world is > skewed, it's almost as if the only 'canon to the universe' book is Brokedown > Palace. And considering that one was closer to a Faery Tale than the others....:) Tehehe, Chris (Who hopes that no one took him too seriously, as the subject suggested....:)