Random Crazy Florida Dream

Ahh, but don't forget she mentions when saying she saw the guides that they were "hidden from the hospital staff," meaning she might have asked staff closer to hand (ie a nurse or nearby doctor) instead of waiting to talk to her parents of this, and, she does say she didn't really make friends with Muut until after talking to her mother. It could be that Surma told her only they two could see them, which means she might have saw it as something they shared and not involved her father at all.

It doesn't actually require a conspiracy, by the way, as much as it does Anthony being secretive about what he does. If no one knows why Anthony leaves, which the conversation about it seems to relate, then they're free to make conjecture about it. Now, since he doesn't talk about, it's easy to see how people could take this to be a perhaps selfish act, which could lead to a bias against him.

For example, let us assume, for the sake of argument, that Anthony went off and was attempting to build, ohhh, a device to understand etheric power in scientific reasoning, which required quite a bit of research on etheric power to pin down what exactly it was. However, knowing the Court's disdain for the seemingly random and escapist principles of etheric power (Magic works because it's Magic), he specifically does not tell anyone what it is he's working on.

Now, since no one knows what he's working on, and he specifically won't tell them, they're free to speculate, but such mysteries, left on their own, tend to stagnate, and it's eventually accepted as a personality quirk.

Now, following this line of assumptions, we can determine a few things: 1) James, who himself went away for training during the height of his relationship with Surma, is upset that she left him for Anthony, who also leaves for large amounts of time, but without the acceptable reason (James trains, of course, to protect Surma, which he sees as a noble goal, whereas Anthony leaves for no known reason at all, seeming to be flaky and secretive). The donlans don't particularly like the way he says this (see: "James, please. . .") but have no real evidence to refute this veiwpoint of his activities. Anthony also keeps people at a distance, because he doesn't want to reveal what he does, which could happen through a slip-of-the-tongue. This leads to Jones calling him emotionally distant, which, again, is one way to see his behavior.

I'm not suggesting that everyone is somehow against him, what I'm sugegsting is that his behavior patterns could have been such that, whilst acceptable in a friend who's perhaps a bit distant, might not be understandable as Surma's choice of husband, which could lead to their comments (James being angry at being passed over, Jones specifically viewing it in a way to make Antimony mad) making sense, because they don't know the true depths of his character. Of course, this theory is based on the fact that Surma alone learned what he was up to, thought highly of it, and also chose to keep it secret, which is also a bit far-fetched. Still, there are possibilities enough we can't discount he MIGHT have been a caring, decent father.

Now, whilst hospitals don't really have set mealtimes, it's most likely their meals would try to bring them together. If Anthony works in the day (which is a real possibility) he probably does turn in to get as much sleep as he can to be rested to continue his work, which is likely tiring. Antimony compares the sprawl of GC to Good Hope, and Good Hopes variety and number of guides speaks of a large number of patients (or a very bad survival rate for the hospital). Or, it could be as these flashbacks are stories she tells that center around her and the psychopomps and her mother, and as such, don't contain background information, like the people doing their work at night in the hospital, or her father, who can't share those experiences with her.

And by their marriage uniting the Forest and Court, I was running along the thought of Anthony disappearances having something to do with him trying to combine science and etheric tenets, mixed with Surma's knowledge as a Medium, perhaps trying to ease the two seperate things back towards working together as part of the same whole instead of further diverging.

And yes, as a comic anything could happen. It probably won't, though. Though he seems to find mystery useful to keep us following along (which it is). And whilst Antimony and Kat are following the same course, they seem to be going farther along then their mothers did, perhaps because of "tools" and knowledge their mothers passed on to them, or just that circumstances are different (ie Shadow2's involvement, which connected Robot, and lead to the need for a new robot body).