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The Story Can't Spread
- How did the story spread in the first place? Only two people witnessed the "Neverrest Ninny" incident: Mallardy and Scrooge. Mallardy never returned and Scrooge has strong motivation to never speak of it again. There's nothing to separate the returning Scrooge from any of the other climbers to try, fail, and barely survive to get the story started. It only makes sense if Mallardy spread the Neverrest Ninny story before they left. But that doesn't quite work either; why would Mallardy throw away his life going on one of the world's most dangerous expeditions, one never successfully completed before, with someone he considered a dangerous buffoon? This interpretation also makes Scrooge 100% the victim, and justified in his loathing for Mallardy.
- Presumably the story started as just a rumor. People knew Mallardy went up the mountain with a rookie climber and only the rookie climber came back. Scrooge apparently was too embarrassed/ashamed to tell his side of the story and simply left, leaving the people in the area to speculate on what happened until the story of the "Neverrest Ninny" became the accepted one.
