>It might be interesting if someone were to ask him sometime, because
>when you get right down to it, he doesn't really know exactly
>how old he is any longer. He reckons his age against the anniversary
>of his birth on the timeline he's native to, so that, for instance (as
>we saw in Night of the Kissogram!), he marked his 438th
>birthday in June of 2411 - but given the cumulative effects of both
>time and dimensional travel, that's only remotely accurate.
>
>For example, he spent longer in the Split Infinitive universe
>than he was gone for, and one expects he was not missing from his
>"regular" life for the better part of a year despite having spent that
>long in 1943. He's closer to 500 - probably quite a bit closer - but
>he himself has only a vague idea how much closer. If he sat
>down with a legal pad and a Sharpie for a little while he could
>probably work it out to within a month or so, but he could never be
>exact.

Hm. I knew there was a difference in relative dates between the UF universe and SI; I did -not- realize there was a difference in -rates- of time, too. Food for thought, but as you imply, the exact details are unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

>Indeed. Not many people outside the 501st even know he was
>real, let alone what the actual deal was. Eleanor, obviously.
>Possibly Wilma Bishop (G said he doesn't know her biblically to save
>Lynne's sensibilities and because as far as he knows it's true,
>but anyone who has read Volume 1 of One-Winged Witches will be
>able to make an educated guess as to why he cannot be 100% certain
>about that himself :), and mmmaaaaybe General Adolfine Galland
>(ranking Karlslandic witch in Europe at the time). But that's
>basically it. Wilhelm von Reichenberg would definitely have had no
>Need to Know, particularly since he wasn't even peripherally involved
>with witch operations in Britannia in 1943.

...Is there a whole story I missed? Or is this entire paragraph (minus the portions alluded to in OWaW4) a reference to a story in canon but not written in real life? Because I recognize Adolfine only from the bio profiles, Wilma from only this and I believe one other story (and I think she's a canon character?) and 'One-Winged Witches' not at all.

>
>>>(They also assume that she's harmless and incapable of aggression,
>>>which is a slightly daft thing to assume of a witch whose familiar is
>>>a badger. :)
>>
>>Precisely what I was thinking about. =) I remembered the discussion of
>>her familiar in another thread. Then again, Reichenberg probably
>>doesn't know that--he has access to the information I'm sure, but if
>>there's anyone who might ignore witch-related details on principle...
>
>He probably knows - he'll have read her personnel file - but considers
>witch-familiar behavior-stereotype correlations spurious and
>folkloric. (Which, in fairness to him, they sometimes are. Her
>penchant for speed notwithstanding, for instance, Shirley Yeager is
>not very rabbit-like.)

Sadly for him, tales of witches in general are spurious and folkloric. =) The military barely knows what the rules are and can't really account for exceptions very well.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu