Double Indemnity

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To quote dangerboy from his accurate inside knowlege of the hidden agenda's of both Aeon and Trevor in Last Time for Everything:

Trevor would be the first to tell any or all of those women (in the lookalike bedroom scene, were it important to any of them - or any other if it were important to her) he had no never loved them any one of them in any of their lives private public or other. And AEon, entering to have a word with the man, knows it and is properly nonplussed at the squalid tableau. And she doesn't bat an eye, she retains so impossible, glaring a cool at this moment, neither embarrassed, flattered, amused or appalled by this atrocious tableau simply and perfectly because she herself (AEon) is come this moment for what is her business with the man, not for what should or shouldn't be anyone else's. The one who is immediately embarrassed by the situation of this moment - a moment that is itself too charged of its own impending weight, too crucial in the delicate poise of its own fatal momentum - is Trevor himself. Not AEon - who must ascertain immediately the back-handed complement that this most ludicrous situation can only amount to as a pathetic resort to such garish, unceremonious, brazen, tawdry and even grotesque extremes on Trevor's own part and on his part only. Trevor has "issues" with Love not because he cultivates a streak for the bizarre (sex) or because he were innately incapable of loving anyone at all or beyond all identification. AEon surrendered herself to Trevor in disguise"...

At this point I was hoping to recieve an answer to what happened to Aeon, as she was about to enter her own event horizon in Trevor's arms. So my question I now repeat; As heroic and elegant Aeon was walking in the room would you say when she misconceived her own inner mind the physical relationship to ensue that evening could also have come as an even greater shock in regards to what ways her unknown heart could lead her. What would she have learned about herself that she had to deny to keep her own balance?

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), December 21, 2001

Answers

Aeon going into Trevors bedroom had one thing in mind. To destroy him and make him hurt. That was the plan HER plan. What happened was that she lost control, she followed her heart, she fell into her own trap.She wanted to end it once and for all with Trevor or maybe drive him insane. Have him think she fell in love with him, die and have him hurt beyond anything and utterly destroy him, all the while the other Aeon lives on doing her deeds and trevor goes mad thinking she's alive.

-- Emma Frost (ice_cold_emma_frost@yahoo.com), December 22, 2001.

Her heart wasn't what led her to a new realization she couldn't've had before the actual experience ("There are things you don't know...") .

And I'm tempted to cop an out here: "Yours (orig's) to begin with! To make him hurt." AEon (copy) is probably only putting it that way because guess who's left out of the picture, now: the copy; as if she weren't a person (which she is; completely identical except for nothing, there's no catch here). But if anyone's going to get hurt it's got to be Trevor when AEon (orig.) comes to kill her other self, right? It wasn't supposed to be any other way.

So now thewre's a literalized conflict between self acting out during the last act there. . .

-- dangerboy (artian@earthlink.net), December 22, 2001.


'There are things you don't know', After that encounter this was spoken! I didn't see it that way. Oooh a lot to contemplate. BTW, I thought the copy was to kill the orig.?

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), December 22, 2001.

That's right.

-- dangerboy (artian@earthlink.net), December 22, 2001.

What makes it so monumental to me is that she surrendered. That it took his intimate physical touch to accomplish that. Surrendering has reaped great rewards in female lit, (harlequin, ect) but I think it is the misplaced values of these women. Someone as powerful as Trevor can 'take' a girl, ( to these silly girls delight) but with unconditional surrender in THOSE eyes it seems to be the giving of her soul. A given soul can have no copies.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), December 22, 2001.


When I speak of surrender in regards to what AEon or Trevor face at a certain point personally, I mean surrender of their distrusts or of any remnant of hidden or ulteriore agendas or motivations on the part of either towards the other. Trevor tossing the vial is his surrender; AEon's is of much greater consequence. This is surely because since they both have chosen Trevor's territory, the fact of AEon's having hijacked Trevor's design(s), his contraption (for making copies ), and the actual ends to which all of this would have been put if he'd been in control of the whole affair as he'd of course imagined himself up through to the point where he realizes what she has done to make his construction, his apparatus her own to dedicate as she saw necessary, as she reckoned to apply to matters.

Nevertheless, she never meant to give up her soul! If anything, she only lost her life because of what was either a spell of real bad timing or indecision on her own part at the end or something in between. Interesting point about souls and copies: "a given soul can have no copies." For purposes of this episode yes they can. AEon (copy) is every bit as real to herself every bit as important a consideration as remains the AEon (orig.) But what cannot remain static is the determinism subsequent and respective between the two: Though both have equal right and claim to AEon's "identity", now that the same person in effect and in fact occupies now two, not one, sets of personal coordinates in reality, what cannot remain same (though must retain an inherent similitude) is the way in which each one of the two's subsequent and respective orientations toward circumstance should now be bound to play themselves out - for now one (or the other) must choose course of action in regards to the fact of the other's simulltaneous existence and how the other may or may not perform. A given soul can have copies; but it may not from that point on reckon a same destiny from both of its two persons (or more, if there had been more).

-- dangerboy (artian@earthlink.net), December 23, 2001.


Was it really the physical intimacy between the two of them that enabled them to surrendur to each other? Or was it the existence of the copy? Even though we never actually see Aeon and Trevor making love in any of the prior episodes, their relationship has a definite intimacy and familiarity and I think we can kind of assume that they have been lovers for a long time. What's different this time is the existence of the copy. Her existence means that one Aeon is now expendable leaving another free to carry on the work. This fact has two consequences. The first is that it enables Aeon O to let down her hair, so to speak, and finally become trully intimate with Trevor because she knows Aeon C is out there to maintain her image, continue the work, and fight the good fight. The second consequence is that Trevor's nemesis/love, i.e. Aeon, still exists as such, it is just that now he can reserve each one for specific emotions. Aeon and Trevor have always had a love hate relationship which they both enjoy. However, for Trevor to surrender himself to completely loving or hating Aeon would be to destroy the other half of the relationship that he holds so dear. Aeon's medling is a constant source of fascination and inspiration for Trevor, and he needs her to spur his scientific pursuits. (Case in point, cloning Aeon vs. hiring look alikes to please him. The look alikes obviously weren't cutting it). I've heard it said that the two most important things in life are love and work. To be fulfilled in one of those is true happiness. To be fulfilled in both of those is bliss. The existence of the copy makes in possible for Trevor to be fulfilled in love and work by the one person who is capable of doing so. And since Aeon herself finds herself to be so expendable, there would never be any moral conflict here (not that Trevor would ever kill Aeon anyway, because that would mean the end of his source of inspiration). This also explains why Trevor tossed the vial. He never would have had any intention of making more Aeons because any more than two would just throw unwanted complexity into the mix.

-- Logo (Vosepherus@aol.com), December 23, 2001.

O?

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), December 23, 2001.

Well, after I posted that a soul can have no copies I realized they can, in the context of the story as per the writer of course. The plot here is about making copies of a human with the exact last iota of feelings and reactions. This is not where I was going though. Trying not to sound like references to some porno plot, but the fact remains that I get the impression Aeon is involved with a man who commands her though she has not wished it entirely. She may like it, but it doesn't fit in with her personal agenda. There is more to this mortal coil than she can shuffle off easily. Aeon seems to be much in need, in fact her libido demands a change from its weary dominant position. Trevor, although on the opposite side of a Breen wall is walled in. That entwinement they enjoyed appears to be the catalyst in an equation for a bond that could be termed enslavement, or love. I had the impression this was the essence of their relationship.

-- Barb e. (Suesuebeo9@cs.com), December 24, 2001.

I would agree that they both desire something more from each other, something a little deeper than what they have, but I think without the existence of the clone they would never allow themselves to be swept up by their emotions to such a degree. The clone created a little pocket of reality just for two where Trevor and Aeon could carry out their emotional lives to a greater degree. What's interesting about their roles is that though they both seem to get top billing in their respective societies, they are still very much prisoners of their own success. Trevor often takes on the air of the reluctant ruler (though just as often he revels in his power), and everybody knows Aeon as a superspy. With the copy running around they are free to step out of those roles and indulge themselves in a way that would not otherwise be possible. It's king of like Trevors room inside Clavius, except here it is more abstract. I would agree with you though, that since their public personas are so involved with controlling others, that they probably yearn to be taken control of, or at least to abandon themselves to chance for a while.

-- Logo (Vosepherus@aol.com), December 24, 2001.


I am taking great satisfaction and arrested in stymied attacks of frozen perpetual dumb want for to give answer, alas, by turns! I'm getting a lot straightened out - but I am honestly astonished at the vast persistence of some of these questions in their total irrespectivity to every effort I continue to summon in effort to render their relentless implications at last in the stuff of a comprehensive if tragic satisfaction.

But fk if this one just keeps getting away!

-- dangerboy (artian@earthlink.net), December 25, 2001.


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