How can I not totally love this story? The title alone had me smiling before I even clicked on it...hope you update soon!

I'm enjoying this story. However, I wanted to point out that in Ch.19, you typed Sunnyvale instead of Sunnydale the 1st couple of times. Also, in Ch.20, you said Faith was eating a baked potato & then changed it to mashed potato for her analogy.

The Sunnyvale / Sunnydale thing was intentional - Faith was trying to use Sunnyvale as a cover story but got caught. Sunnyvale is a real town, but it's in the wrong part of California (up in Silicon Valley), so her descriptions didn't exactly fit when she ran into someone from nearby who knew better.

Thanks for the other - I think I've fixed it.

I have no clue about the poem Faith's referring to, but I love the fact that at this point she's apparently closer to figuring out who Valen is/was than Jeff Sinclair!

Yeah, well...

The poem is a classic by Longfellow published in the 1860's - "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere". Back in the days of rote memorization (prior to the educational reforms of the 1970's in most states) most American schoolchildren had to learn at least the beginning parts of it, and my mother can still recite most of the first half of it. (And she habitually does so, once a year - in the springtime as Faith said; the events it refers to happened in April.)

As one of the other reviewers pointed out, both of those prophecies (as well as the poem) were veiled references to revolutionary Boston. Faith (being from Boston) obviously caught all of them.

Took me a second to figure out the "city of leaf-throwers," but once I had that "lady of two lanterns" was a bit easier. :)

I have a feeling the poem she is referring to is the one with the famous lines, "One if by land, two if by sea."

Very clever. I love how Faith is figuring it all out. Can't wait for the next chapter.

ETA: Oh, I have no doubt that the other characters in the story will have a very hard time figuring it out. It won't be nearly as clear to them as it is to us. I just happen to love the fact that we, the readers, get to figure it out right along with Faith. Like you said, we have information that the other characters either don't have or are farther removed from it. Plus it isn't completely obvious, the reader (or at least me in this case) has to think a bit to figure it out, even with all the mention of tea-leaves.

Thanks again for a great story.

Yep. I figured it might be easy since I'd specifically mentioned tea leaves earlier in the chapter (as well as the chapter title). Still, *you* made the connection, as did Faith, but how obvious is it to everyone else (in the story)? (Especially considering that it's debatable that they would know where Faith is from anyway, even if they did get the references; and also that they're twice as distant, timewise, from those events.)

So, Callie's from the new, NORMAL "Sunnydale" that was founded on the shores of what's left of old Sunnydale -- and yet, for all her trained observation skills, she's really slow on the uptake about some things, isn't she? Hope she'll live long enough to learn that Faith's doing her a favor by not sharing all those secrets.

Not necessarily slow - Faith's purposefully hiding things. And not just what goes bump in the night. But then, as the Vorlons say, "Truth is a three-edged sword." Faith knows she's on a mission, and she's starting to put together the pieces as to what that mission is (something about helping complete the Circle; more on this in the next chapter).

(I like to have, in my stories, a situation or two where the truth could have come out earlier if someone simply had asked the right question in the right words. I've already done it at least twice in this story, and I kind of think of Callie's conversation with Faith here as #3.)

Couldn't resist the idea of a reincarnated (but normal) Sunnydale.

Nice chapter and with what has happen in the show Cali's reactions was very realistic.

Good work!

Wispr

Thanks. I figured someone might be wondering....

So... any thoughts? (I know where this is going, but there's lots of room for flesh on that skeleton)...

Nice bit with the stairs as the first step, and I can't wait to see how Faith and Jeffrey Sinclair get along now.

Thanks.... the idea with the stairs was just one of those sort of things that came to me and I had to use it. A lot of the "meaning" was actually devised between writing the two chapters.

Nice to see a good B5 story for a change. I really want to see more soon.

Thank you. I'm not sure how 'soon' it'll be, but I do know where the story is going, so that should help.

Oh if only the Rangers knew they walked with Valen literally at that very moment.

I'm sure they'll figure it out after the fact. :)

::Feeds the plot bunny::

You are doing a fantastic job catching the Minbari mindset/believes. Love it that she's met young Valen...lol


Wispr

Yeah - right after saying she's been avoiding legendary figures lately, too. ;) Of course, it's debatable over whether or not, at this stage, he knows he's Valen.

I know.

However my brain somehow thought it would be fun to give the plot bunny some variation in its diet and I didn't remember any Minbarian dishes.

You are aware of that plot bunnies are telekinetic omnivores that enjoys getting tasty food from any multiverse that a reviewer knows about, right?

EDIT:
::Smiles wickedly and gives the muse a jar of encouragement cookies::
Faith might have heard of Plomeek soup if Star Trek if it existed as a show in your crossover verse.

EDIT 2: Very nice indeed.

That's true. And we already know that Star Wars and Potter do....

P.S. Like the idea of the dark staircase?

Nice update... really like the steps, they were very Minbari.

Wispr

Thank you. I named the staircase, too, but it didn't get used (yet) - "The Steps of Valen"

Yay, a new chapter and I hope you will be inspired to write a myriad of new ones.

::Feeds the plot bunny some plomeek soup::

Plomeek soup is Vulcan. And from Star Trek.

Hmmm . . . perhaps Faith will be able to convince the ship's cook to make her a flarn pizza?

Flarn pizza?

I just had to use that. (See "The Dark Staircase")