BoM/TWS Message Forum

"Thanks Aloft"  gives arguments for each of the two choices--replacing Gordon or replacing Steve--and I'm not sure there's a right or better answer in terms of tactics. I went with "Replace Steve" for authorial reasons: It seems more fun, and leaving golem-Gordon on the loose could lead to complications.

Speaking of golems, this branch does something a little different with them. Will has been been telling them up front that they are "not the real person," and over time that has had an effect. Not that I intended it to have a different effect, but that's the way it has turned out, and in "Three-Point Shot"  the results start to appear.

It was just an accident of composition, at first. I had Will give doppel-Chelsea the speech about "not being the real girl," and then he gave a similar speech to doppel-Kim; and I began to wonder, "Would that make a difference?" I decided that it would. Leave the doppeganger to take the original's place (as usually happens) and the doppelganger will ... assume the original's place completely. But make the doppelganger aware and highly conscious of the fact that it's a fake? I decided in that case you might get a more genre-familiar "creepy duplicate" vibe off the things.

BTW, I don't mean to imply that the things will be unreliable or rebellious, as they were in one branch where they were masterless. My intention is only that when they are not "on stage" they will be the kind of mandroid/fembot/duplitron thing like in genre TV shows. I've kind of missed the fun of having those things around, and I figure in this branch at least maybe I can use Will's accidental programming as an excuse to indulge in it.

And as I kept writing, I decided to push it a little further. Will is very good at picking up the personalities of the masks he is inhabiting, to the point of coming real close to losing himself inside the alias. So (I asked myself) what happens if he is inhabiting a mask of a self-conscious, self-professed "magical duplicate"? That, if you're wondering, is he has been having some dissociative episodes. It is also why robo-Kim is assigning numbers to her creations.

But maybe I shouldn't be giving explanations. Maybe I should be letting people figure it out on their own. Well, too late now.