Frequent Questions of Curiosity

### **Frequently Asked Questions**

Comment any questions you'd like Ro to answer and she'll do her best to answer them! The following is all her words:

#### **What's the explanation behind Jane's gift and how it effects Saffiya?**

Explained briefly somewhere, but I have to look back through chapters and find it. It will be included here once I figure out where it is.

**Are there chapter summaries?**

Because it is taking me longer to write, I am going to be using AI to write up chapter summaries and will likely ask rebelwrite to post them in a page on here.

#### **Why can't Alec use his gift on Fiya for the transformation?**

A fan favourite. And an extremely long answer until I get the sanity to make it more concise.

The easy answer is: I speculated that while Alec's gift could be able to help Saffiya through the change, there are several deterrents to doing so. The main one could be that they would not know when the transformation is complete if Saffiya is under consistent anaesthesia, and if he takes her out of it too soon, it would risk a shock to her system that would almost certainly kill her.

CIPA is a neural wiring issue in the brain. Which, when delved into, gets increasingly complicated. Trust me, I’ve done the research as best I can without a medical degree. And casually finding doctors that have intimate knowledge of has been almost impossible for me.

Keep reading for the longer, way messier answer.

A few of you might have picked up on the fact that Alec’s gift is not very pleasant. We understand Jane’s gift is scary – pain, right? Who wants that? Not me, thank you very much.

Most of us agree, and even Meyer has said that Alec’s gift is quite worse, and he can reach far more people, yes? But I’m not sure how many people have actually delved into why it’s worse. Even in fanfiction, which is why I think I’ve been getting this question. I’ve tried to make it clear through Saffiya’s thoughts, but I’m just gonna lay it out for you.

Mind you, I’ve literally been thinking about this since I was 12 years old. I haven’t been able to get Alec’s gift out of my head for fourteen flipping years at the time I am writing this. There may be holes and gaps you disagree with. And I certainly have not written out every single consideration because this is long enough. This story, and Alec’s gift, is fiction, so I’ve allowed myself some leeway. I have provided some of the sources I used below. I did not include them in-text because the following is my theoretical and loosely based thoughts based on research that I do not have the credentials or knowledge to fully comprehend in order to apply in such a case as this. I am not a scientist. That being said, try to stay with me in the following rant:

So. Why can’t Alec take Saffiya’s pain away during the transformation?

Have you ever met someone that has not been blind since birth? Someone who remembers what colour the sky is but will never again know what colour t-shirt they’re putting on in the morning?

Alec’s gift is the emptiness that manifests true depression. It’s the body part that has been numbed by anaesthesia. You know it’s still there. Right? This is the glory of Alec’s gift, and we know the definition of being numb.

But some of us are definitely masochists here, so let’s delve into it. Sense by sense. (If you’re not, don’t).

1. Or better yet, put on a blindfold, have someone drop you off in some random location, and try to find your way home. That’s taken care of sight.
2. Now put in earplugs under noise-canceling headphones. Try not to walk in front of traffic. Maybe you’d like some help? But you can’t ask for it. You’re trying…but no one is coming. Because out of nowhere, someone’s stolen your vocal cords. They must have? You’re sure you’re speaking, but there’s no sound. Suddenly. Without a warning. Sense two: gone.
3. Now trip and fall into a boatload of acid. (Am I being dramatic? Yes.) Where’d it come from? You’ll never know. The acid will burn off your fingerprints and steal touch. Now, you’ve gotta get up and keep walking. You know how to walk, right? Are you doing it? How do you know? Are you even standing? Sense 3, down.

What are the last two? Ahh, yes. Taste and Smell. You’re probably thinking, haha yeah, Ro. Suck it. How are you going to dramatize and rationalize those two? Well, dear friends, in a long and boring research-guided answer like the following. Have fun.

1. There’s not been much research into the emotional toll of losing one’s sense of smell (anosmia). When you fell in step 3, you suffered a head injury that, for the sake of this argument, resulted in immediate loss of smell. Let’s keep walking; in fact, let’s manage to walk into a building. Unbeknownst to you, the building is on fire. But you can’t smell the smoke, even though it’s bleeding into your lungs, subtly suffocating you. Someone comes to your rescue, pulls you out, and saves you. Someone you love, holding your hand (are they?) and trying to help as you cough out the smoke. But you can’t smell them, their scent that is oh so familiar and comforting. You may as well be alone. And if you lose smell, often, you can lose many of the joys in taste.

1. Sense 5. Taste. What’s taste matter? Did you know you cannot taste air? Instead, we can taste the ‘bitterness’ of things, which researchers thought would cause the body to go on the defensive and make it more difficult to breathe. They found evidence to the contrary (Liggett et al., 2010). Staying on track and using suspension of disbelief a bit as we return to our scenario: what if you cough out the smoke from earlier and you bite your tongue. Not only can you not feel the pain, but human jaws are powerful. Tongues heal fast, but they don’t grow back - if you get the obvious drift. Or maybe you’re expecting air. Expecting to breathe in deeply to scream. To taste something – anything. What if the air is gone. But you need air. Air helps you breathe, so how do you breathe without air? Are you still breathing?

Can you trust your senses if you can’t even tell you have them?

To my hypothesis, Alec’s gift – is all of this at once if he so chooses.

It is thinking you’ll never have any of these senses ever again. The trouble is the introduction of this experience takes away a world we already know on an incredibly intimate level. That is terrifying. Would you choose that over pain? Maybe. If pain would kill Saffiya, probably worth it, right? Temporary vs. Permanent.

Would you want to willingly do that to someone you love? Even temporarily? Yes, she has experienced it briefly once before, so we can rationalize that she’d be fine eventually. Plus, she’d know it’s only his gift so it’s kind of an easy choice…until she doubts it.

**References**

Heist, A. (2016, October 10). Life Without A Sense Of Smell Can Be Scarier And Less Tasty : Shots - Health News. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/10/10/496455192/with-no-sense-of-smell-the-world-can-be-a-grayer-scarier-place

Hellier, J. L. (Ed.). (2016). The Five Senses and Beyond: The Encyclopedia of Perception. ABC-CLIO, LLC.

Hoover, K. C. (2018, March 28). Focus: Sensory Biology and Pain: Sensory Disruption in Modern Living and the Emergence of Sensory Inequities. NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872642/

Liggett, Deshpande, D. A., Wang, W. C. H., McIlmoyle, E. L., Robinett, K. S., Schillinger, R. M., An, S. S., & Sham, J. S. K. (2010). Bitter taste receptors on airway smooth muscle bronchodilate by localized calcium signaling and reverse obstruction. Nature Medicine, 16(11), 1299–1304. https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2237

Smell (Olfactory) Disorders—Anosmia, Phantosmia & Others. (2017, May 12). NIDCD. Retrieved April 14, 2023, from https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/smell-disorders