Do you think if John hadn't purged the knowledge of My Immortal from the universe that the sixth would've known immediately that cyth was impersonating dulcie? I just feel like dulcie is the most likely candidate to describe herself in that style.

SEE i think the tragedy is despite both Cam and Pal having spent over 10 years corresponding with her, neither of them were able to pick up on Cytherea’s lie, even (as we find out later, in HtN) when she really isn’t trying very hard. Like, why didn’t they know immediately? It’s not like they didn’t have enough clues as is.

because…. Dulcie had definitely described Protesilauris to them, quite extensively!! and it doesn’t take a genius to know the vivacious man who loved his children and roses and Dulcie isn’t the shambling zombie that showed up at Canaan house. Not to mention the girl who wanted to run away and smoke cigarettes instead of lying in bed to convalesce from familial blood cancer wouldn’t have spent her days at Canaan house lying on the terrace, reading books and knitting, doing exactly the same thing she would have been doing had she stayed at home to die. The clues were so obvious they were barely even clues!! Dulcie fed Cytherea “a lot of hot bullshit” about her life, which means Cytherea was literally working with less than no information when it comes to a convincing impersonation and… Cam and Pal still missed it.

i know this was probably supposed to be a silly ask but I just can’t not think about the tragedy of it all. Was it Palamedes’ well of grief – maybe even anger? annoyance? frustration? resignation? – at her rejection the reason that both he, and Cam, missed that she was gone? Did Cam’s fire of devotion towards Palamedes blind her to all the obvious signs, her rush to protect and close ranks around him being enough to eclipse all rational thought with regards to the image of the person who rejected him? Were they both so utterly wounded, frustrated, jealous, that they truly did forget the friend they knew?