#tdf meta

like she can’t *stop* Grace from volunteering for Augmentation, because no matter how hard she forbids it, Grace is eventually gonna find someone who thinks the additional firepower of another Augment is worth risking the ire of the leader of the fucking resistance--or she’ll get her Augmentation before Dani can find her and forbid it

and once Grace *does* go through Augmentation, Dani doesn’t have a lot of great choices: Too few mods, and Grace considers herself the most expendable, and volunteers herself to protect the commander. Too many, and Grace is the best equipped to protect the commander. Too cold and faraway to try to prevent a bond from forming, and Grace sacrifices herself because she truly believes in what Dani is preaching; too personal, and Grace will sacrifice herself without question because That Is What Grace Does For The People She Loves.

BUT regardless of how that goes (THERE’S a “five times” fic I could fucking read lol), Dani ALSO can’t anticipate the intervention of Sarah Fucking Connor, who also put up with Grace’s mostly-unexplained and probably haughty-seeming bullshit for the entire length of the movie, almost strangled her half a dozen times out of sheer frustration after she figured out why Dani is so important, and then by the end of the movie saw Grace insist on sacrificing herself in the most stupidly noble fashion and probably went “welp, this dumb bitch is clearly the only person who can save Dani and therefore humanity... better make sure she gets ahold of a time machine somehow”.

According to the canon, activating and breaking a circle is an act of free will, and that's why this is the mortals' ability. However, one needs to also be careful not to break the circle unintentionally with one's clothes, a shot bullet or even a kicked pebble. This clashes somewhat with the assumption that free will is all about intentions.

So, headcanon: the full mortals use free will the same way as faerie use magic, without really thinking of it, like breathing. It's like the mortals have their personal will fields/auras that can interfere with will-vulnerable constructs, same as wizard auras interfere with technology.

Therefore, sub-headcanon: Thomas, same as other Whites, can break a circle only when he actually intends to, which would be convenient if he used circles more. From his point of view, this has also a downside, though: he can't claim he did it by accident. From Harry's point of view, this is an upside. Especially when they live together.

By the way, this can explain why circles are feline-proof: as far as cats are concerned, they just couldn't give less a damn about whether it's broken or not. (Of course they aren't fully mortal. Come on, they have nine lives.) Zeno's paradox of Dresdenversum about a human trying to break a circle by throwing a cat remains unsolved, though, but if cats owning wizards generally tend to be Mister-like types, the reluctance of researchers in determining the answer on the way of experiment is understandable.

arrowsforpumpkins replied to your post “zA’s Outside Reading: Blood Rites”

"Thomas, why did you get large breed Puppy Chow?" also, apologies for the stock descriptions in every book, the publishers make Jim do that and there's a reason he suggests new readers start at Dead Beat these days >.>

Snerk :>