#skyfaced clock

[i-have-41-protons]

The sky-faced clock should, by all means, be aligned with The Vast. But, somehow I don’t quite see it… I mean, an avatar of The Vast would totally use it for a victim, it’s perfect for that, but the clock itself is not aligned with any fear but the Spiral, given the confusion it causes — as well as the feeling of betrayal in, for example, Morrigan, when Eventide arrived a year earlier than predicted.

[jasperwithproblems]

Oh my gah <3

The Basking

reblogs appreciated!

[wundrousarts]

Was suddenly reminded about this moment from a November 2020 interview where Jessica Townsend briefly talks about Ages.

Based on the timing of the interview I am unsure if the “not in the next one” bit refers to Hollowpox (which had just recently released) or Silverborn. Regardless, the idea that we might be learning more about Chronologists and Ages in future books intrigues me!

Between the clock emojis (especially the 🕰️🌌 ) and the “… before the clock strikes midnight?” part of the blurb, I think the Silverborn theories floating around regarding Eventide or just moving into a new part of the Age might be on the right track…..

[sincerelynne]

i finished!!! i can unblock the silverborn spoilers tag!! i can consume all the content!!

i wrote all my thoughts below but it’s very long and rambley so you can just ignore me

it was so good!! jessica townsend is my favorite author ever. the worldbuilding is exquisite. the skyfaced clock and the way the ages work? the signs for basking guiding the plot? the culture in the silver district contrasting with everywhere else? all the wundersmith history?

and all the references to the previous books were so fun to recognize. she must have planned all this from book one because it all makes so much sense. of course mog had a genuine third bid, it never made sense to me that they gave her two prank ones, it just felt a bit off. maybe none of them were pranks and the last one was real too and we’ll find out later. the plot is so intricate and fascinating and fun and i love it

and so much happened in this book especially near the end so it was slightly overwhelming but all of it fit perfectly once the full picture was revealed and it all worked so well together

and all the characters but especially morrigan felt so real and relatable. like when she skipped two weeks of school to stay with the darlings and wasn’t even investigating anymore and she felt guilty but still didn’t do anything, i understood how she felt bc that’s me pretending to be sick and avoiding my homework. and keeping the hush on so that she wouldn’t feel guilty about not telling jupiter about squall.

anyways silverborn is a masterpiece in a series of masterpieces and nothing can change my mind

i’d also like to formally apologize for making so many posts about it, i don’t have anyone to talk to about it bc my brother is going to read it after me and i can’t spoil it so i’m sending my thoughts into the void instead.

[susiephone]

Morrigan: I don't know if I can ever forgive you, and maybe you don't want my forgiveness because everything between us is too broken. And that's okay, because I don't need you and haven't in a long time. But I have to ask... Did losing your brother to the curse change you? It would've had to, right? Is that the moment you stopped being a kid? Did you hate Bertram for being a cursed child too, or did you love him until he left you, and that was part of why you didn't love me? Corvus: I'm sorry, you're NOT dead... because a spider robot carried you into the Skyfaced Clock? Morrigan: Yes, but it was more complicated than that, and you're missing the- Corvus: The Skyfaced Clock as in the clock that faces the fucking sky?

[nevermoor-described]

[ID: postcard saying "greetings from nevermoor" in front of the skyfaced clock with crows flying around it and stars alongside them. the letters of "nevermoor" have images from the aus cover of nevermoor: mog, jack, martha, and fen. in each corner there are little images. top left: a man leaning forward, top right: a building with two towers, bottom left: a sailing ship, bottom right: morrigan. End ID]

Thinking about this Nevermoor postcard from a 2017 Owlcrate Jr. box today…

[octopuschair]

A comic I made a while ago.

Notice that the Age of Thi[ngs in Jars] is only two years long - the Skyfaced clock in Jackalfax would have changed colour from week to week.

[queen-fenestra]

The skyfaced clock for mogtober day 23 - eventide

[newssplashy]

Watch: Wendy Shay's debut single hits 1million YouTube views

Wendy Shay has officially clocked 1 million views with her new single "Uber Driver".

RuffTown Records newly signed artiste Wendy Shay has officially clocked 1 million views with her new single "Uber Driver".

 A new entrant into the music business, she seems to have picked up fast with her craft and exposure into the Ghanaian music marked.

Backed by Ricky Nana Agyeman professionally known as Bullet in a music circles being a member of the hitmaking group Ruff N Smooth, Wendy Addo is solidifying her foundation with what talent.

The song was produced by MOG and the video was shot in South Africa by Yaw Skyface.

It has an attention-catching set of lyrics and this is what has made the song caught the attention of music enthusiasts.

Check out the video below.

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/07/watch-wendy-shays-debut-single-hits.html

[wundrousarts]

Disclaimer! I wrote this all on and off over the last week and jumped around a lot, so it’s kinda really all over the place, so apologies in advance! But if anyone needs any clarification on anything, just let me know!

Okay this is actually really interesting and I could see it being true! Another thing that could tie into it: the whole thing about Jupiter saving some of the other “cursed children”, at least maybe (still on the fence because of how shifty he is whenever Mog asks lol)

If we go with the theory that Squall routinely goes around killing cursed children, whether they’re suspected Wundersmith “reincarnations” or just randos unfortunately both on that day, every Eventide, then he wouldn’t be planning to do that for another year. So Jupiter C&D’ing an early Eventide might’ve also been a way to get some of the other kids on Squall’s radar out of his grasp!

However, I also think that maybe neither Squall nor Jupiter intended to trigger an early Eventide when they started out with their respective plans, and just went with it.

Going off of that, under the cut is me rambling a ton about some ideas I’m throwing at the wall for how I think an early Eventide could’ve worked, what led to the evening, and what both Jupiter and Squall were thinking:

I don’t really know what triggers an Eventide / a new Age, but I’ve mentioned before that my personal theory is that it might have something to do with Wunder irregularities (ie. a Wundersmith dying, because I’m sure there would be either a significant sudden lack of Wundrous energy and/or a sudden burst of it when that happens.)

Unfortunately, that means that one or more of the other kids would’ve died that night. It says there’s only 3 other cursed children registered in the republic, although considering there should be 7? other possible Wundersmiths out there (maybe, because of the “reincarnation”) it could be that they just aren’t on the register, exist somewhere outside of the Republic (if possible, idk how the world works), were already hidden long ago, or just don’t gather enough Wunder to be notable to folks (aside from Squall, who I assume has a trained eye after like. what is it, 7? 8? times of killing Wundersmiths). Morrigan is shown to gather an abnormal amount of Wunder ( I think due to many reasons that I can totally get into) so some other children might just not be Wundersmith-y enough, idk. Like she’s passively gathering so much Wunder that other folks don’t really have Wunder to gather (and bc their circumstances might be better than Mog’s).

I think, perhaps, here’s one way the night could’ve gone down from Jupiter and Squall’s perspectives. I would LOVE any suggestions that don’t involve death being involved, but as I mentioned before, Jupiter’s shifty answers regarding the other children are very. hmmmm.

I think that one way that it could’ve gone down was that Jupiter slowly took some of the less noticeable cursed children and dropped them off. wherever he put them idk what he really did with them (especially if they might be Wundersmiths? maybe?????). But he didn’t get too far in that before Squall caught on, so he killed one or more of the remaining Wundersmiths so Jupiter couldn’t get them, which triggered Eventide, and then scurried away to snatch up Morrigan.

The facts of the situation are these:

Three days before Spring:

— Eventide is supposed to be a year away, but some folks are thinking it might come early. The reasoning is unknown. Going with my personal theory from before, it could be that all the wonkiness that’s going on with Wunder in the Republic at the time is reminiscent of past pre-Eventides.

— The other states in the Republic have been dealing with Wunder shortages, except for Great Wolfacre, where Morrigan resides, all charged up.

Two days before Spring:

— Bid Day!

— The Skyfaced Clock is in Gloaming, but I’m not even going to try and think about how the clock and it’s method of telling time would apply to my Eventide theory so. I am mostly ignoring it! However, again, it could be affected by the wonky Wundrous energy that has been building, and perhaps this happens each Age post-massacre— maybe the clock changes as the unknowing Wundersmith children gather Wunder without really using it, kinda like a pot boiling up but not boiling over quite yet. It’s in the same place that Morrigan is, and that’s where there’s a massive amount of Wunder as of late.

— Both Squall and Jupiter have been watching Morrigan for awhile and are aware that she’s a Wundersmith. They are also aware that other “cursed children” exist, but neither of them really care about the others that much. Squall wants to snatch Mog up because she shows much more potential than all the others, and Jupiter wants to snatch her up to save her from the typical fate of Wundersmiths, and to allow her to have a proper education at WunSoc.

— Through both of their spying, they knew that Morrigan would be at Bid Day. They both put in their bids, and I feel like the other bids were most likely orchestrated by Jupiter. Maybe he had a hunch that Squall would want to bid as well, so he orchestrated a bunch of the other bids in order to make it seem like a possible Squall offer was fake to Morrigan in order to dissuade her from entertaining it. Squall shows up at Bid Day, Jupiter does not.

— The Eventide bells ring a year early on the way back home from Bid Day

Perhaps during Bid Day Jupiter was working on squirreling away what cursed children he could, and then when Squall was no longer distracted, he caught on and killed one or more remaining Wundersmith (?) children, triggering Eventide. He then probably deducted that Jupiter wanted to snatch up Morrigan as well, so he sent his Hunt to herd her. Why it took him like 24hrs to do so, IDK, but he’s a busy man so I’ll let it slide.

I would like to note that I don’t think that a Wundersmith dying means that Eventide happens IMMEDIATELY the next day, I just think that a Wundersmith dying means that it’s the last year of an Age, so that year’s Spring’s Eve will be an Eventide.

I think Squall making up the curse so that the Cursed Children die on the next Eventide then works in his favor if they’re Wundersmiths, because most folks wouldn’t know that Wundersmith death would trigger an Eventide. So they might think it’s a bit weird if like, a Cursed Child dies in October, and then at the end of the year it’s Eventide, happens over and over again. But it’s more convenient if they just die at the last day of the year, because someone like Squall would be aware of how Eventides and Wundersmith “reincarnations” work, so he could keep track of possible Wundersmiths by knowing when they were born, and also hit two birds with one stone by resetting the Wundersmiths and dealing with Eventide at the same time. Also, I think that the Massacre could’ve happened on (or at least very close to) an Eventide, so Squall might’ve wanted to have his Wundersmith killings happen on an Eventide for his own little sick parallel or something.

Some miscellaneous things that are tangentially related:

— This exchange in Nevermoor makes me raise some eyebrows:

“Were there others?” asked Elder Quinn.

“Others?” Jupiter looked at her in surprise.

She raised an eyebrow. “You know exactly what I am asking you, North.”

“Right, others.” He cleared his throat. “Yes. Three others registered.”

“And they…?”

“Didn’t show any signs,” Jupiter said resolutely. “Not worth pursuing.”

And I SWEAR he has an exchange with Mog at another point in the series where he says that the other Eventide-born are safe while still being vaguely shifty, but I can’t find it for the life of me. So as much as I love Jupiter, I honestly don’t know how much I believe that the other ones are alive for so many reasons 😭

— Some more about how Eventides + lengths of ages are determined, and how stuff differs between pre-Massacre and post-Massacre:

To me if definitely makes sense for Wundersmith deaths to be a major factor if not The factor in the ending/beginning of a new Age. Could the fact that there’s a Divinity for Time (Tempus) factor into this connection? Perhaps, idk. There’s only so far I can try and understand about how the world and magic in Nevermoor works.

While we don’t know the length of most Ages that are mentioned before, we do know that there was a 17 year Age. Additionally, if Wundersmith deaths are a trigger for a new Age to begin the next year, that’s something Squall would probably know because he was around to be taught by living Wundersmiths and etc. He would also know about the “reincarnation” that occurs with Wundersmiths as that information was open enough that Sofia found out about it.

So stuff like an Age that’s at least 17 years long, along with other likely really short Ages (guessing by the small age differences between Squall, Elodie, and Owain), was common pre-Massacre. Stuff was sporadic and unpredictable because back then, Wundersmiths died naturally.

Meanwhile, post-Massacre, the lengths of the Ages are pretty standardized— Ages 1-7 have been (most likely) all 12 years, while Age 8 was 11. This adds up to 95yrs, which is seemingly around how long it’s been since Squall helped form the Wintersea Republic after his exile, so he’s likely been going through this plan ever since he got exiled, plus leaves some room for growing/trial and error when he first got kicked out, and he probably started carrying out the “Eventide Curse” plan ever since the Republic was founded. Wundersmiths now die unnaturally, routinely culled by Squall.

This means that Squall has been controlling the lengths of Ages ever since he started, since he is the only person alive that both knows how to trigger Eventide and has the ability to do so (as in, he’s the only person really able to find Wundersmiths anymore (half because no one else is looking for them) and he’s the only one who can kill them (technically other people and things could kill them, but you what I mean). So he caused Eventide to come a year early because he wanted to get to Morrigan before Jupiter did while also making sure that other Wundersmith children couldn’t be snatched up, because they’d be dead. Granted, I don’t think he really cared about any of the others because they didn’t show nearly as much potential as Morrigan, so I don’t think he really cared that he had to move it a year early, but still. At least both Jupiter and Squall’s plans were happening at the very end of the year!

— Before rereading Hollowpox I was kind of wishy-washy about Cursed Children = Wundersmiths, but I found this fun little parallel while writing out this post that I feel maybe cements it:

Squall, in Nevermoor, talking about the Cursed Children:

“The ‘curse’ was nothing more than a convenient way to explain why all you Eventide-born have such a nasty habit of kicking the bucket before you come of a troublesome age. Before you start attracting and absorbing too much of my precious Wunder, like the greedy little lightning rods some of you have the potential to become.”

And then Squall in Hollowpox talking to Morrigan who needs to truly put her Wundersmith lessons to the test:

“Tonight, you need to be the brightest beacon in Nevermoor. A lightning rod. This is how we will draw the Hollowpox out of hiding.”

While both quotes in general are referring to just the general gathering of Wunder, I feel like the specific usage of “lightning rod” is interesting. To me it kinda confirms that some of the other Cursed Children are Wundersmiths, bc as they grow and don’t use their powers they’ve just got Wunder gathering around them, waiting, which is what the deal with Mog was. Side note: since only 8 Wundersmiths are born each Eventide (going with the “reincarnation” thing), does that mean that if there’s any unlucky normal folks also born on Eventide, Squall would kill them too to keep up the pretense of his “curse”? Yeesh.

This post got off the rails and detached from your original theory over the week that I chipped away at it, but still, I hope you can get something out of it! And I mention a bunch of other theories to tie into my nonsense, so if you need me to elaborate on any of that, just send me an ask and I totally can.

C&D and the early Eventide

So this was a theory bouncing around in the discord a while back, but I’ve been thinking about it lately and decided to bring it to tumblr as a talking point.

It’s been well established in canon that the Eventide we saw happened earlier than it should have - a year exactly, iirc. We don’t know enough about what determines the length of the Ages to say why or how, but I’m going to say with confidence that it wasn’t natural. It’s very likely that Eventide came early because it was in some way forced.

(I say this because of the fringe chronologists or whatever they were called - the fact that there’s people specialised in detecting when Eventide occurs definitely implies some natural process behind it, but the fact that some of them predicted the early Eventide and weren’t believed suggests foul play to me.)

The probably more obvious explanation is that Squall caused it. He’d certainly be the type to have the power to - like I said, we don’t know enough about why or how the Ages change for me to say that with certainty but, y’know, he’s been the only Wundersmith around for a hundred odd years, so anything probably goes. The likely explanation is that he brought Eventide early because he knew Jupiter was going to come and take Morrigan, and Squall wanted to beat him to the punch.

But I kind of feel like there could be more to it than that! Namely - as outlined in the title of this post - what if the early coming of Eventide was orchestrated as a C&D event by Jupiter, so he could smuggle Morrigan out of Jackalfax unnoticed?

It’s that thing again of not knowing enough about the process behind the Eventides to say if this is feasible, especially presuming he did it alone. But even if he couldn’t, maybe he’d predicted that Squall was going to bring Eventide early, and played that to his advantage. People were going to notice a giant mechanical spider waltzing through an otherwise dreary little dump of a town, but Jupiter had learned enough from his experience with C&D to know that if they were sufficiently distracted - like with, say, an unexpected New Age and all the accompanying fanfare - they were less likely to ask complicating questions.

I raise you the fringe chronologists again. They’d been theorising an early Eventide for a while; we know that it wasn’t a day-of decision, that whoever caused it had planned it far enough in advance that select experts were finding breadcrumbs on it before the big catalyst. Assuming Squall did it, it’s possible he knew in advance that Jupiter was planning to come and get Morrigan - and it’s also very possible that Jupiter was aware of that, or even trying to ensure that Squall knew of his plans. Because Jupiter wanted to guarantee that nobody would be paying attention when he took Morrigan away.

The thing is, as much as I love Jovey boy, and as insanely multi-faceted as his skill set is, I don’t think he could have genuinely outgunned The Wundersmith Ezra Squall if he hadn’t been expecting the early Eventide. Whether he intended for it to happen, Jupiter would had to have been absolutely certain that Eventide was coming early, because quite honestly, I think Squall would have won otherwise. If the Wundersmith had had as much of the element of surprise as Jupiter might have led Morrigan to believe, I feel we would be reading a very different set of novels.

I just think that the idea of Jupiter having had a hand in it is fascinating. The straightforward answer that Squall did it feels too basic for a series that has demonstrated really brilliant foreshadowing in even otherwise mundane moments. If anything turns out to be deeper than its surface, I feel like it has to be this.

Something else to consider in the possibility that Squall WASN’T responsible for the early Eventide is this:

Disregarding their respective competitors, Squall didn’t need Eventide to come early. Jupiter did.

Squall could have gone and gotten Morrigan whenever he chose. In fact, we can assume that was already in the process of happening, when he gave her a letter on Bid Day. In a normal timeline, he could have returned to that, and acquired her as his apprentice through whatever means he liked, conventional or not. But most importantly, he could have done that literally whenever, because he wasn’t on a time constraint.

But Jupiter was. He needed to enrol Morrigan in the Wundrous Society Trials before she was too old, so that he’d be able to grant her safety and protection in Nevermoor. He had a cut-off date for that - he didn’t have the freedom Squall had regarding when he tried to bring Morrigan over.

If we’re ignoring each of their need to get to her before the other did, then the fact of it probably is that Jupiter would have needed an early Eventide way more than Squall did. It was a distraction that kept people from stopping him taking Morrigan, for one thing, and it was a very convenient excuse for why she was gone, for another - everyone could simply presume she’d died. Whereas with Squall, he wouldn’t have technically needed Eventide to come early to get her under his thumb, as I said earlier with his attempt to recruit her on Bid Day. Heck, if he’d wanted to, he probably could have sent the Hunt on any given day, and just concealed it from everyone but Morrigan - surely that’s within his abilities. But for Jupiter’s plan to work, he needed Eventide as a distraction.

The D in C&D. You can’t say he never paid attention in his classes.

I know there’s probably more to this that I haven’t explored, or alternate explanations I didn’t consider. Whether any of it holds water or not is up in the air! I just think it’s interesting to think about and could be a fun point of discussion. If anyone has thoughts to add, please do so!

[wundrousarts]

I discovered these paintings by James McNeill Whistler recently, Nocturne in Black and Gold: Falling Rocket (top) and Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Firewheel (bottom). I’m sharing them because they make me think of Nevermoor, as so many things do.

With paintings, a nocturne refers to the depiction of night. This is derived from the musical term, where a nocturne refers to a musical piece that is “inspired by, or evocative of, the night.” These both just come from the fact that “nocturne” essentially means “of the night”.

On a basic level, this just reminds me of Nevermoor by the aesthetics. The dreamy nighttime setting strikes me the most, but also the sparks of yellow fire that make me think of Wunder. Think of how many important scenes happen at night- Morrigan on Eventide, the Museum of Stolen Moments, and the Hollowpox in Courage Square. But the concept has me thinking, obviously, about the Wundrous Art of Nocturne. The only songs we know are Morrigan and Squall’s, who both chose nursery rhymes as their Nocture. Their choices make me think of lullabies, sung at night… and there’s lots to think about with that.

[newssplashy]

Wendy Shay has officially clocked 1 million views with her new single "Uber Driver".

RuffTown Records newly signed artiste Wendy Shay has officially clocked 1 million views with her new single "Uber Driver".

 A new entrant into the music business, she seems to have picked up fast with her craft and exposure into the Ghanaian music marked.

Backed by Ricky Nana Agyeman professionally known as Bullet in a music circles being a member of the hitmaking group Ruff N Smooth, Wendy Addo is solidifying her foundation with what talent.

The song was produced by MOG and the video was shot in South Africa by Yaw Skyface.

It has an attention-catching set of lyrics and this is what has made the song caught the attention of music enthusiasts.

Check out the video below.

via Latest Nigerian News Online-Nigerian News,World Newspaper

[wundrousarts]

SO MANY THOUGHTS ON THIS!!!

After the emojis many people thought that the clock emojis might indicate the Skyfaced Clock, then post-blurb with the “… before the clock strikes midnight?” line people started thinking about the connection to Eventide or a new part of the Age, and then the rediscovery of this old interview clip about Ages seemed to be bolstering the theory further…

Seems like we were all on the right track!!! So excited to be able to read this and find out what happens and learn what it all meansssss <333

Jessica Townsend recently shared an Instagram story with a sneak peek at the first chapter of Silverborn 👀

[dreams-of-wunder]

That Starry Night Sky could mean so many things!

It could be connected to the Skyfaced Clock. It's possible that it symbolizes that Mog's lessons with Squall will be held at nighttime. Or we maybe it's telling us that the story begins the night of the Black Parade.

Thinking about how the second Neverfour emoji is a starry night sky… and the Silverborn cover background is pretty distinctly a starry night sky….. here's how my Celestial theories can still win!

[dreams-of-wunder]

I KNEW IT!!! IT IS THE SKYFACED CLOCK!!!

Jessica Townsend recently shared an Instagram story with a sneak peek at the first chapter of Silverborn 👀

[yoursassybookwormfriend]

Wundersmith deaths causing Eventides is such a cool theory! 

Going with that, I have a theory why the newer, standardized Ages are around 12 years, besides the fact that Squall needs to kill new smiths off before they become troublesome. 

Most Wundersmiths live naturally for 100+ years, and there are always nine wundersmiths at a time. If Wundersmiths aged and died naturally, then one would die a bit longer than every 11 years (100/9 = a little more than 11, and we know wundersmiths can live even longer than 100 years), which sounds very much like the 12 year Age prediction of the first Age of Mog’s life. I’ll bet that if Wundersmith deaths really do trigger Eventide on the following last day of the year, then Squall would want to keep the Age lengths around the same as they’ve been, to make it seem like Eventide causes the Curse and not the other way around. 

That must mean, though, that all of the Skyfaced Clocks 1: must have predictive abilities, and somehow tell when a Wundersmith’s death draws near (the Morningtide-Eventide cycle), and 2: are likely Wundersmith creations themselves. (I honestly don’t see how these clocks govern Ages for the entirety of the Unnamed Realm and can be anything other than Wundersmith-made) It’s funny to me to imagine, though, that you’re a chronologist, studying wunder patterns and the Clocks so so hard to see when a new Age will start, and all along your job depended on some 9 people’s ability to not bite the dust. 

C&D and the early Eventide

So this was a theory bouncing around in the discord a while back, but I’ve been thinking about it lately and decided to bring it to tumblr as a talking point.

It’s been well established in canon that the Eventide we saw happened earlier than it should have - a year exactly, iirc. We don’t know enough about what determines the length of the Ages to say why or how, but I’m going to say with confidence that it wasn’t natural. It’s very likely that Eventide came early because it was in some way forced.

(I say this because of the fringe chronologists or whatever they were called - the fact that there’s people specialised in detecting when Eventide occurs definitely implies some natural process behind it, but the fact that some of them predicted the early Eventide and weren’t believed suggests foul play to me.)

The probably more obvious explanation is that Squall caused it. He’d certainly be the type to have the power to - like I said, we don’t know enough about why or how the Ages change for me to say that with certainty but, y’know, he’s been the only Wundersmith around for a hundred odd years, so anything probably goes. The likely explanation is that he brought Eventide early because he knew Jupiter was going to come and take Morrigan, and Squall wanted to beat him to the punch.

But I kind of feel like there could be more to it than that! Namely - as outlined in the title of this post - what if the early coming of Eventide was orchestrated as a C&D event by Jupiter, so he could smuggle Morrigan out of Jackalfax unnoticed?

It’s that thing again of not knowing enough about the process behind the Eventides to say if this is feasible, especially presuming he did it alone. But even if he couldn’t, maybe he’d predicted that Squall was going to bring Eventide early, and played that to his advantage. People were going to notice a giant mechanical spider waltzing through an otherwise dreary little dump of a town, but Jupiter had learned enough from his experience with C&D to know that if they were sufficiently distracted - like with, say, an unexpected New Age and all the accompanying fanfare - they were less likely to ask complicating questions.

I raise you the fringe chronologists again. They’d been theorising an early Eventide for a while; we know that it wasn’t a day-of decision, that whoever caused it had planned it far enough in advance that select experts were finding breadcrumbs on it before the big catalyst. Assuming Squall did it, it’s possible he knew in advance that Jupiter was planning to come and get Morrigan - and it’s also very possible that Jupiter was aware of that, or even trying to ensure that Squall knew of his plans. Because Jupiter wanted to guarantee that nobody would be paying attention when he took Morrigan away.

The thing is, as much as I love Jovey boy, and as insanely multi-faceted as his skill set is, I don’t think he could have genuinely outgunned The Wundersmith Ezra Squall if he hadn’t been expecting the early Eventide. Whether he intended for it to happen, Jupiter would had to have been absolutely certain that Eventide was coming early, because quite honestly, I think Squall would have won otherwise. If the Wundersmith had had as much of the element of surprise as Jupiter might have led Morrigan to believe, I feel we would be reading a very different set of novels.

I just think that the idea of Jupiter having had a hand in it is fascinating. The straightforward answer that Squall did it feels too basic for a series that has demonstrated really brilliant foreshadowing in even otherwise mundane moments. If anything turns out to be deeper than its surface, I feel like it has to be this.

Something else to consider in the possibility that Squall WASN’T responsible for the early Eventide is this:

Disregarding their respective competitors, Squall didn’t need Eventide to come early. Jupiter did.

Squall could have gone and gotten Morrigan whenever he chose. In fact, we can assume that was already in the process of happening, when he gave her a letter on Bid Day. In a normal timeline, he could have returned to that, and acquired her as his apprentice through whatever means he liked, conventional or not. But most importantly, he could have done that literally whenever, because he wasn’t on a time constraint.

But Jupiter was. He needed to enrol Morrigan in the Wundrous Society Trials before she was too old, so that he’d be able to grant her safety and protection in Nevermoor. He had a cut-off date for that - he didn’t have the freedom Squall had regarding when he tried to bring Morrigan over.

If we’re ignoring each of their need to get to her before the other did, then the fact of it probably is that Jupiter would have needed an early Eventide way more than Squall did. It was a distraction that kept people from stopping him taking Morrigan, for one thing, and it was a very convenient excuse for why she was gone, for another - everyone could simply presume she’d died. Whereas with Squall, he wouldn’t have technically needed Eventide to come early to get her under his thumb, as I said earlier with his attempt to recruit her on Bid Day. Heck, if he’d wanted to, he probably could have sent the Hunt on any given day, and just concealed it from everyone but Morrigan - surely that’s within his abilities. But for Jupiter’s plan to work, he needed Eventide as a distraction.

The D in C&D. You can’t say he never paid attention in his classes.

I know there’s probably more to this that I haven’t explored, or alternate explanations I didn’t consider. Whether any of it holds water or not is up in the air! I just think it’s interesting to think about and could be a fun point of discussion. If anyone has thoughts to add, please do so!