West of Bathurst, by Kari Maaren
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Wednesday, July 3, 2013

West of Bathurst 1293
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    Barbara has now clarified her position a bit, so I can reveal the winners of Contest #1.  There were a lot of good entries (which you can see here),  ranging from the practical to the wildly inventive.  Doctor Who and Star Trek both offered inspiration.  But there can be only one winner.  Well, that's not true.  There can actually be a number of winners.  That sounds much less dramatic, however.

    The "practical" winners are as follows:

    Earthgirl:  "Because Marie was there."
    Dances With Fish:  “The mouse came back to life because Marie was subconsciously trying to create a distraction.”
    Nobilis:  “The mouse came back to life because Marie was (subconsciously) wishing it would.”

    Dances With Fish was a bit off, but the "subconscious desire" element was there.  Nobilis also offered some supplementary Star Trek-related theorising but noted that the initial sentence could be right even if the theorising was wrong.

    The "creative" winner was really no contest:

    Erwaro:  

    “'The mouse came back to life because Marie was the mouse the whole time!'

    "How does that make sense? Marie is actually a shape-shifter, though she does so unconsciously, and has not, to date, remembered any of her transformations. Casey is an alien from a very, very distant galaxy who was sent here to study our planet, who also has (much less powerful) shapeshifting abilities. The mouse came about when Marie changed into a blob-creature and then changed back. While transformed, a bit of her dripped off onto the carpet, and was, unbeknownst to either of them, still alive. Casey figured out that this fragment of Marie was alive when a mouse touched it and the bit of Marie turned into a copy of the mouse. That was a bit of a giveaway. He tried to catch the Marie-mouse, but failed. After a while, though, he came into possession of the deceased remains of Marie-Mouse. He knew it was her because of alien shape-shifting-detection powers that make total sense. Reviving the Marie-mouse required contact with some part of Marie that was still living. He ended up getting a bit of her blood when she got a papercut. He revived the mouse, gave it a tracking device (an ALIEN tracking device) and set it free, hoping to gain a deeper understanding of Marie’s transformative abilities. The mouse has mostly just run around since then, though.

    "Incidentally, Marie’s transformative powers are also the reason she can create fires. Her transformative abilities regard fire elementals as perfectly legitimate creatures. And, finally, she doesn’t have to transform all the way, duh. Just a little fire elemental will go a long way."

    That entry...is simply sublime.

    Contest #2 continues today.  The rules are as follows:

    July 1st was Canada Day.  Hurrah for Canada.  Name what you consider West of Bathurst's most Canadian attribute.  One point will be awarded to the answer that is the most sensible and likely to be true; another will be awarded to what I consider the most creative answer.

    Please post your answer (you get only one try) in the comments section; I have opened a new comments thread this week for this purpose.  The contest ends at midnight EDT on Sunday, July 7th.  This week's twist:  you may not repeat what someone else has said before you.  Posting early thus has certain benefits, though posting later does as well.

    Wednesday, July 3, 2013
    Panel 1: Marie and Barbara are in a restaurant.

    Marie: Okay, explain.

    Barbara: I only know what Casey said, and again, he could've been lying.

    Panel 2:

    Barbara:
    He claims your presence makes things...more possible, especially when they're things you want.

    Panel 3:

    Barbara: He's left himself out of the equation, but what I deduce is that he's capable of weirdness and your subconscious desires fuel that weirdness.

    Panel 4:

    Marie: So it's back to "Either I'm supernatural, or Casey is the Father of Lies."

    Barbara: 'Fraid so.

    Alt-Text: That is how Casey rolls.

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