Associative Context with a Disassociative Identity.

One of the things I had a great deal of fun with in writing To Cure Deception was creating associative identity markers. Something that means something to the character based off of what those things are associated with. The more context we're given about the character's past, the larger the frame of reference for the character's present and the past context revealed in the story.

It took me a year and a half to design this story so that I could tell four character's stories, as they're related to each other, in a single go. It may be considered a poor design choice, but the story is designed to be read multiple times, with each reading centered on a new central context. Each reading with a new understanding, and a new perspective because it is too much to take in all at once.

That is because the story as a whole follows the associative context premise. We associate consequence with action, much of the narrative focuses on consequence, but story is full of other types of association. I wanted to give an example of this to my readers.

This example is one that I had to explain to three of my four editors:
The word puddle is used exactly twice in the story.

It's first use is an association between puddle and pool for the meaning of Lacus's name in chapter one. The second use is to describe a dish in chapter 2. This is foreshadowing for the events of chapter 8 where the dish is associated with pool to show that foreshadowing has come to fruition. The meaning of shared between the dish and Lacus is how they're indirectly related—how they are associated.

The associations we make give things meaning, because those things are linked together in our minds, and without context they mean nothing. There's a lot of subtly that is designed to at first glance seem odd, out of place, or down-right cryptic when it first appears because we're not given the context that gives it meaning. We are, effectively, not only what we surround ourselves with, but also who. Because of this the first read through will tell us Lacus's story from his perspective. The second will come with HK's and Latere's perspective. Reading further may reveal Latere's mentor's influence on the events.

Just as in Daughter of the First Reign there were interpretations to be made, in this story there are many connections to be found.