Daughter Of A Blackthorn 2014-07-29

[txmystic]

Wonder if that family tree Bia found might have something to do with this?

I see what you did there...wooden we all like to see Castela's family tree?

to the pun jar Robin!

[illiad]

I think castela is just repeating what her parents drummed into her at a young age... it could well be, that the fae were at war with her parents, made gossamer versions to confuse castela or her parents to force them apart.... and she found the reality too late???

[My2Cents]

Also, given how this new information would rank Castela on the list of powerful supernatural beings,

This might be a rock-paper-scissors problem. Castela isn’t that huge of a threat, UNLESS you are Fae.

[My2Cents]

Makes me wonder though what power the Fae could have over her parents/creators that would make them give her up at their behest. Assuming one or both could also do damage to Fae. Maybe a sacrifice to keep the peace?

Or possibly the Fae are not the real villains in Castela’s story. Since the Fae cannot harm her, she may have been given up to the Fae to protect her from a 3rd party after her parents. As a young child (2-4 years of age) Castela would likely see the Fae as the source of her separation and lash out, so the Fae end up placing her in the orphanage in self defense. The Fae she killed may not have been an enemy but her caretaker.

What Calista says next could be very revealing, if she knows more about Castela's history.

[My2Cents]

OK, now Castela needs mentoring. Looks like Phix is handling Bia, Monica has Calista, Jin and Atasli(maybe?). So who's next?

[lake_wrangler]

Also, given how this new information would rank Castela on the list of powerful supernatural beings,

This might be a rock-paper-scissors problem. Castela isn’t that huge of a threat, UNLESS you are Fae.

Well, Castela sure has the scissors part down...

[Warrl]

So, the only ones who can put a permanent hurt on Fae are Monica, and Castela. Aunt M may have to mentor two tiny dynamos for the time being.

Phix didn't say Monica is the only one more powerful than Calista.

She said that Monica is one of few more powerful beings who would care. Actually that's not exactly the wording she used, but it's the same idea.

Which implies that there are more (possibly a great many more) beings who are more powerful than Calista, but would not care. They would either squish her for their own convenience, or ignore her for their own convenience.

And some small number of other beings who potentially could foster her. But they may be even busier than Monica, or less suitable for some other reason, or perhaps whomever decided to suggest the Jaguar Girl just didn't know of them.

Side note: Castela clearly is able to easily overpower a Fae in direct confrontation, but she isn't necessarily more powerful than one. There may be other things that are quite dangerous to Castela and no threat at all to a Fae. Such as large herbivores?

[Aed]

OK, now Castela needs mentoring. Looks like Phix is handling Bia, Monica has Calista, Jin and Atsali(maybe?). So who's next?

I suspect that Castela has already picked her own mentor -- Grandma Lily.

Remember when Atsali and Castela visited the mall and we first learned that Castela had a bit of a potty mouth? We also learned that Castela's enriched vocabulary came from Grandma Lily. No consider this exchange between Castela and Grandma Lily at the beach party. Afterwards, we learn Lily's take on why Castela looks up to and listens to her. Now then, have we heard Castela swear since then - even when confronting a hated fae?

While Lily is not exactly a mentor as envisioned by the MIB, I think Castela has already chosen her as her mentor regardless of what any adult may think.

[eee]

OK, now Castela needs mentoring. Looks like Phix is handling Bia, Monica has Calista, Jin and Atasli(maybe?). So who's next?

Shelly might do for Pickle. She IS the Sage of the Forest, after all. She may know about Blackthorns.

And if Castela acts up, I bet Connie is STILL the more powerful.

[Thor]

I'll just recruit more inmates to the confusion corner by reminding folks that the Tuna just witnessed this display.
Who will lay odds that someone will regard Castela as a ticket to revenge?

Anyone with two brain cells to rub together will see the involvement of a Fae, something stronger than a Fae, and the Jaguar Girl, and just GTFO as quickly as demi-humanly possible.

[Mark N]

Wonder if that family tree Bia found might have something to do with this?

With Paul anything mentioned in passing is more likely to be Chekhov's Gun than a Red Herring.

[Taranatar]

Hi.

Long-Time (and repeated) reader and first-time poster.

Scrolling down here on my reply page I can't find it anymore, but someone wrote that Castela couldn't possibly remember what happened to her when she was younger...

She isn't human, my friends. Maybe she remembers everything perfectly?

(Also I didn't remember what blackwood was before someone said Shillelagh...)

[Wyvern]

We have no reason to accept Pickles story as true. She was very young when left at the orphanage and can only have a vague understanding of what happened and why. No parents when leaving a child would tell it we dumping you because the Fae are bothering us. In fact they would know why the Fae were upset. One of the parents had to be the same type as Pickle after all.

Pickle once said that she was a Whatsit and that she'd made up the name herself because she was the only one. So she's apparently a hybrid of two different things that don't normally run off to form families together. We've still got a lot to learn about her birth parents.

[sheik]

I'll just recruit more inmates to the confusion corner by reminding folks that the Tuna just witnessed this display.
Who will lay odds that someone will regard Castela as a ticket to revenge?

Anyone with two brain cells to rub together will see the involvement of a Fae, something stronger than a Fae, and the Jaguar Girl, and just GTFO as quickly as demi-humanly possible.

Um, I believe that line of logic should have worked earlier at the other school.
Hatred and stupidity seem to have an intimate relationship.

[dex drako]

the problem with Pickles being wrong and the fae being the good guys is FAE ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE!!

it would be a neat twist for them to be the good guys but in most stories the fae are sociopaths with little concern for the damage they do to others in the name of their "fun". pickles is a threat to them and while they can't outright hurt her it's completely in step with their character form them to do everything in there power to maker her life nothing but pain.

[Warrl]

the problem with Pickles being wrong and the fae being the good guys is FAE ARE NOT GOOD PEOPLE!!

it would be a neat twist for them to be the good guys but in most stories the fae are sociopaths with little concern for the damage they do to others in the name of their "fun". pickles is a threat to them and while they can't outright hurt her it's completely in step with their character form them to do everything in there power to maker her life nothing but pain.

In pretty much all the stories, fae are somewhere between very-long-lived and immortal.

After several hundred years, it would be easy to become rather blasé about these short-lived things... and also incredibly bored.

In fact, in one comic I read it's standard practice for the immortal beings to more or less memory-wipe themselves about every two hundred years. They actually refer to this process as dying. (It hasn't been established whether they can be killed or not.) But the main immortal character hasn't done this in probably over 500 years... and calling her a psychopath would be kind.

Now, Calista certainly isn't likely to be much older than she looks - or she wouldn't be in high school, I don't think. But (assuming these fae are also long-lived) she's part of a culture likely dominated and defined by fae who are well over 200.

[Atomic]

Horrible thought: If Callista and Castella are related, is their mother Mama Cass?

(Deposits vintage vinyl 45 record in Pun Jar from a safe distance)

[zachariah]

We have no reason to accept Pickles story as true. She was very young when left at the orphanage and can only have a vague understanding of what happened and why. No parents when leaving a child would tell it we dumping you because the Fae are bothering us. In fact they would know why the Fae were upset. One of the parents had to be the same type as Pickle after all.

Pickle once said that she was a Whatsit and that she'd made up the name herself because she was the only one. So she's apparently a hybrid of two different things that don't normally run off to form families together. We've still got a lot to learn about her birth parents.

Apparently that should have been the only one Pickle knew of. The Fae know of the blackthorn and their ability to slay the fae. Now we don't know if the name blackthorn is a title for a class of being, or an actual race of beings. I lean toward it being a title, the daughter of the forest, a blackthorn. Black associates with death and her type are capable of killing the fae, add in she is part of some sort of thorn bush. Who her parents are would answer a few of those but maybe not. We do know that paras having children across mixed types do lead to strange combinations. So it is very likely that Pickles parents are not the same type as Pickle if Blackthorn is a title.
It is possible that they were Fae themselves in some part and reconized what Pickle was. Fearing their child they left it. If Pickle knew they left her because of the fae but not that they were fae would explain a bit of her state of mind toward the fae.

[AnotherFairportfan]

Blackthorn's not a "who" - it's a "what".

[Warrl]

Now we don't know if the name blackthorn is a title for a class of being, or an actual race of beings.

Actually, it's the name of a species of shrub. One with lots of dense branches and nasty thorns.

Branches/Twigs: The thickets are dark, dense and thorny, the branches and twigs twisting and branching out in all directions.