so, now that i’ve gained more context about the story vs. when i was just reading on ao3, i have some questions, if you don’t mind!
1. why did you choose to have tallulah’s character in the separate room from all the others? initially, i thought this was simply because she was a background character, because we see her less in the stalag segments because of that separation. but then in the second part we hear maureen encouraging ida to stay with them because they all needed friends, and now having read more about the depth of tallulah’s relationship with ida, gale, etc. i’m curious about why that wasn’t a consideration with her.
2. why is ida the only one that knows about her being bitten by the dog? did she notice it when they all showered and then remembered to ask about it when she woke up?
3. tallulah seems to be quite competent and knowledgeable when it comes to medicine and healing (we see her being the one to take care of ida and maureen’s injuries), where does that come from?
Hello! Thanks for popping in.
The answer to almost all of these questions is a simple: these aspects were written early on when I didn’t know shit about where this story was going 😆 so some of these things, like Lu’s rooming choice, was not intentional really and we may even see change over the series
Ida was present when Lu was bitten, which is by she is more inquisitive about it. Other girls were beaten and even bit to a degree that they weren’t fully cataloging each other’s injuries during the brief shower.
As a farm girl myself, I always assumed Lu would have gotten experience with tending wounded animals and helping with their convalescence. I may add more background from somewhere else but I really based it off the rural communities that are decently self sufficient from one household to the next unless desperate measures are required. Being natives outside the reservation and attempting to be low profile, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to also assume the Smiths may have wanted to avoid doctor visits when possible. But that’s not my main reasoning for her being that way. She’s just more mentally tough and mildly skilled at it from farm life