#the entire budget went to Oswald

[paarassha]

ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sheliesshattered]

This Isn’t A Ghost Story - Chapter 3

Whouffaldi non-canon AU. 8 chapters, will be about 32,000 words when complete. Rated Mature for heavier themes starting in this chapter, please contact me privately if you’re worried about triggering topics. Clara Oswald/Twelfth Doctor. Mystery, pining and angst with a happy ending. Available on AO3 under the same username and title. Updates every Friday.

This Isn’t A Ghost Story

Chapter 3: The Journal

Clara couldn’t sleep that night. Alone in her flat, she tossed and turned in bed, the day’s events replaying on a loop in her mind. The revelation of the identity of her ghost, the family secret he had spent almost a century protecting, her uncanny resemblance to her great-grandmother, it all felt like a complicated knot she needed to untangle. Beyond everything she’d learned, there was still more her ghost refused to tell her, and the thought nagged at her, keeping her awake.

Shortly after midnight she gave up on sleep, getting up and padding down the hall to her small sitting room. Given that it was early Sunday morning, she wouldn’t have to be up for work in a scant few hours, so if she was awake anyway she might as well do something useful. She flicked on the lamp closest to the sofa and pulled over the ancient box she’d brought from her Gran’s house, positioning it at the near end of the coffee table.

Before she left, she’d managed to extract a promise from her ghost that he wouldn’t burn down the house while she was away. But she still hadn’t completely trusted him alone with the box that had caused so much upset, so she’d loaded it into her car and brought it home with her, uncertain of exactly what she intended to do with it. 

It’d been obvious that he was no more comfortable with the idea of her in sole possession of the box than she was with the thought of leaving it with him. You won’t stop digging until you’ve uncovered all the gory details, he had said to her, and she knew herself well enough to admit that he was probably right. Now that she knew of the existence of this box, she could hardly just let it be. 

But it was more than simply feeling entitled to her family history. There was something there, some hidden edge of the mystery that called to her, something she felt like she should know. It wasn’t just her resemblance to her great-grandmother, or her attachment to her ghost, or his unwillingness to explain the situation to her. It’s more than that, and you know it, he’d told her. Deep down, you know it. And now it’s only a matter of time until you realise...

Clara shivered a little, remembering his words, more unnerved in the silence of her flat than she’d been when he’d first said them. Whatever this was, wherever this led, she had to know.

Glancing into the box, she picked up the wedding photograph from the top of the pile of papers and leaned towards the lamplight to examine it again. It was less disconcerting than it had been earlier, now that she knew some of the context behind it, but it was still odd to see her own face in a photo taken more than ninety years ago, in the spring of 1923. Staring at it, she was struck again by the feeling of what should have been, of how fiercely she wished it was her in that photo, marrying the man she loved.

But it wasn’t her in the photo. It couldn’t possibly be her, no matter how much it looked like her and no matter how much she wished it was. Perhaps getting to know the woman depicted there, her great-grandmother and namesake, would help her shake the feeling that somewhere along the line, fate had gone horribly awry. With that thought firmly in mind, she reached into the box and began pulling items from it.

There was no sense of order to the box, but as she dug through it, Clara began to suspect that it was the contents of her great-grandmother’s writing desk, quickly and haphazardly transferred to the box, however long ago. It was a mix of correspondence and shopping lists, photographs and small pieces of memorabilia, all jumbled together, fragile with age. She took each item out one by one, sorting them into piles as she went — a stack for photos, another for letters, a third for keepsakes, and a smaller pile for the ephemera of everyday life, things she probably didn’t need to keep. She could spend tomorrow going through them in more detail, reading the letters and looking at the photos in the light of day.

At the bottom of the box she found what appeared to be a well-loved brown leather travel journal, thick with envelopes and postcards and loose leafs of paper fitted between the pages. The front was emblazoned with a globe and the words 101 Places To See. She smiled softly, running her fingertips over its dips and ridges, and thought of her own brief travels after university. When her Dad had balked at the idea of her travelling on her own, her Gran had declared it a family tradition for the women in their family to travel. Apparently it was one that went back further than Clara realised.

Curious about the sorts of travels her namesake had chosen, she leaned closer to the lamp and opened the journal to the first entry, written in the same small, looping handwriting as on the back of the wedding photo:

1 March 1921, London

I purchased this journal for my upcoming holiday, but I fear the title may be more aspirational than factual. Mother and Father have agreed to allow me a solo European tour, perhaps under the mistaken belief that giving me that much freedom will quench my thirst for more far-flung adventures. If they knew of my ambitions, they would certainly forbid me from leaving home at all. We shall see how far I can get on the stipend they have gifted me, before their disapproval catches up with me.

A family tradition indeed, Clara thought, smiling wider, and flipped ahead a few pages.

16 March 1921, Paris

Paris is lovely, if not so very different from London. It is, however, an excellent hub from which to book further travel...

The next several pages were devoted to cataloguing life in Paris in the early ‘20s, an era that had fascinated Clara during her literature studies at university. She scanned through the entries on the off-chance that her great-grandmother might have crossed paths with a famous name during her time there. Seeing none, she ran her thumb along the outer edge of the pages to jump further ahead and get an idea of where she had gone after Paris.

Of its own accord, the journal opened to a place where a small sepia photograph had been wedged between the pages, and Clara carefully prised it free to examine it closer. Though it wasn’t nearly as crisp as the wedding photo, the two figures in it were instantly identifiable as her ghost and her great-grandmother. They stood side by side, her arm slung around his back and his draped over her shoulders, smiling at the camera and squinting in bright sunlight, a desert landscape rolling away behind them. Surprised, she turned it over to find her great-grandmother’s handwriting on the back had labeled it Doctor John Smith, Thebes Egypt, 19 May 1921.

Egypt? Her curiosity piqued, Clara backtracked a few pages to try to find the context of the photo, and when exactly her ghost had first entered her great-grandmother’s life. 

2 May 1921, Cairo

Egypt is enthralling, everything I had dreamed it would be. Thankfully I find I am able to stretch my budget further here than I could on the continent. I sent my last letter home from Athens, and carefully did not mention my future plans — my hope is that I can spend a few weeks here before returning to Europe via Malta and then on to Italy, and Mother and Father will never be the wiser. To that end (and to ensure I don’t run out of funds and thus be forced to resort to begging parental assistance), I have already booked passage aboard a ship departing in three weeks. 

The next few days detailed her sightseeing in and around Cairo, and Clara scanned ahead until her eyes caught on an entry almost two weeks later:

14 May 1921, Cairo

I met the most fantastic and intriguing man at the museum party last night! We spoke like old friends for near an hour and a half before he was pulled away by his compatriots, and it was only after he was gone that I realised we did not so much as exchange names. At the time, names felt superfluous, secondary to my desire to know him, but this morning I find myself wishing I could put a name to the face that hasn’t left my mind these last twelve hours.

He is Scottish, an academic of some description, though his interests and expertise seem so wide ranging, I can hardly guess at what his specialty might be. His has the nose of a Roman emperor, more regal than the bust of Marcus Aurelius that lives on the shelf in my bedroom back home, but recently burnt to peeling by the hot desert sun in a way I found entirely too endearing. There is no question that he is significantly older than myself, but he carries none of the condescension I typically associate with such an age difference. He showed more than polite interest in hearing of my travels and my thoughts on all that I have seen, and in exchange told me stories of his many adventures.

He is exactly the sort of kindred spirit I have for so long dreamed of knowing, and yet I know no hard facts about him at all. I don’t suppose we will ever meet again — and isn’t that sad? To have met someone as singular as him, spent an hour and a half in one another’s company, only to be forever lost to each other in the shuffle of humanity. At least he will be a fond memory of my time in Cairo.

Gripped by this introduction to the ghost she had known all her life and the man she had never had the chance to meet, Clara turned the page and read on.

15 May 1921, Cairo

I wrote yesterday that I know no hard facts about the man I met at the museum party, but on reflection I find that isn’t entirely true. His friends called him only ‘Doctor’, though that hardly narrows down his identity, with so many educated men roaming about the country. He has lived in Egypt for several years, can read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, and mentioned he was in Cairo on a brief respite from some activity in Thebes, on which he did not go into detail.

But a ‘brief respite’, by definition, should mean that he will return to Thebes, shouldn’t it? And then there is the matter of his sunburnt nose...

The on-going archaeological work at Thebes is widely known in Cairo, especially amongst those who frequent the museum. Could it be that this ‘Doctor’, this man who has not left my thoughts since Friday evening, could now be found in Thebes? I so wish to see him again, even if only to exchange our names and other such information, so that I might send him a postcard from time to time. And perhaps more, if he is agreeable.

And if he is not to be found in Thebes, at least I will have tried. I will be able to board the ship to Malta knowing that at least I tried to find him.

Despite knowing that her great-grandmother would, inevitably, cross paths again with the man who would become her husband, Clara read on without pause, enthralled by the unfolding drama.

17 May 1921, en route

I have left Cairo for Thebes, though it may well mean I will miss my ship to Malta. He has not been out of my thoughts, and I find I cannot wait any longer. I cannot talk myself out of this. And if there were anyone in a position in my life to talk me out of it, I would not let them, either. My mind is made up.

An adventure, then. To see the archaeological work at Thebes, and perhaps recognise a friendly face. I do hope his sunburn has not got any worse.

The next entry, adjacent to where the photograph had been tucked away, read simply:

19 May 1921, Thebes

His name is John, and I am besotted. I fear I may never recover.

Clara set the journal down in her lap and picked up the photo, looking again at their smiling faces. She tried to imagine it, meeting an interesting stranger and then striking out into the unknown, alone, on the hope of finding him again. Studying the picture, she could almost feel the desert sun on her face, and the giddy joy of new love. In just under two years, they would be married, but it had begun there, with a conversation in the Cairo museum and her great-grandmother’s bold decision to follow him to Thebes. 

In the spring of 1921, she would have been just barely twenty-two years old, and Clara couldn’t help but wonder about the age of her ghost. He looked so unchanged in the photographs she had seen, the length of his salt and pepper hair the only thing that indicated any passage of time. He had always been ageless to her, but her namesake had commented on the age difference, and as she neared twenty-eight herself, Clara had to admit that he still looked significantly older than her. In his forties, easily, perhaps fifties. He’d told her that if she dug into the paperwork she would find him there, and she decided to look into it in the morning, see what information could be gleaned from genealogical websites and the like, since he’d always shown such unwillingness to answer any sort of personal question.

She turned back to the journal, curious where their story had gone in the two years between meeting and marrying. The next section was filled to bulging with postcards and envelopes tucked between the pages — a period of extensive correspondence, clearly. Clara hesitated. Reading her great-grandmother’s travel journal was one thing, but in the current moment, alone in the post-midnight silence of her flat, she wasn’t sure she could bear to read the letters her ghost had written to his future wife as they fell in love. Instead, she flipped through quickly until she reached the last of the postcards, and then read the first journal entry that followed it.

4 March 1923, London

He is in Glasgow! After all these months of correspondence, of knowing my true feelings but being unwilling to divulge them via the impersonal medium of paper, the Doctor is no more than a train ride away. And yet after the fiasco of my extended stay in Egypt in ‘21, I cannot imagine that Mother and Father will react well to my desire to go to Scotland to see him. 

His postcard did not say how long he plans to be in Glasgow, only that letters sent to the university there might reach him faster than if sent via the normal address. I worry that he will be this close by for only a short time. With all the news out of the Valley of the Kings these last few months, I don’t expect he will stay in dreary old Scotland for long. 

I’m afraid that if I don’t seize this opportunity, I will never get another chance to tell him of my feelings for him in person. I worry that if I ask to go, Mother and Father will not permit it, and that if I take the initiative and go without asking, they will never forgive me.

And I am afraid that the Doctor does not love me as I love him, that he won’t be able to see past the differences in our ages to all that we could be, the life that we could build together. I worry that in running off to see him, I will destroy not only my relationship with my parents, but also my friendship with him.

What fear should I let rule me? Which worry is the most likely to be true?

No. 

Instead, better questions: How will I live with myself if I let myself be ruled by fear? If I do not live by the truth of my heart, how can I live at all?

I will follow him to Glasgow, as I followed him to Thebes. Let me be brave. Let the fates do as they will.

The next entry was written a few days later, detailing her clandestine departure from home and the long train journey from London to Glasgow, peppered with her simmering fears at how her unannounced arrival would be greeted by the Doctor. Her worry and her longing were palpable, and Clara felt an odd sort of kinship with this woman, her great-grandmother and namesake, as she abandoned everything in her life on the chance to be with the man she loved. She had never done anything like it herself — she had never felt that strongly about anyone, besides her ghost — but somehow it felt like something she would do.

She turned the page, looking for their reunion, but found that the next entry was dated weeks later.

28 March 1923, Glasgow

The days have been too full and too happy to find a scrap of time to add my thoughts here, so in short: one of my fears was unfounded, the other not.

The Doctor loves me as I love him. It is the truth that will chart the course of our lives together, from now until the stars all burn from the sky.

And Mother and Father will never forgive me.

The pages that followed were filled with hastily jotted down notes, interspersed with little keepsakes: a visitor’s guide to the Kelvingrove art museum, a program from an orchestral performance, a short love letter scrawled on university stationary in handwriting Clara had to assume belonged to her ghost. She folded that one back up without reading it, then skipped ahead to the date on the back of the wedding photo and found that her great-grandmother had written:

12 May 1923, Glasgow

Tomorrow we will make our farewells to Scotland and start the long journey south to Egypt, but today marks the beginning of a different and far greater adventure: marriage! 

It will be a very small wedding, with only a few of the Doctor’s friends and cousins in attendance, but I find I do not care. I get to keep him, and any other concerns fade out of existence in the blinding light of that fact.

Tomorrow will also be two years since our first meeting in Cairo, and I am looking forward to revisiting the scene of that fateful interaction, this time as a married woman. How wonderful it is to have not lost that intriguing stranger to the shuffle of humanity, after all.

The journal shifted in tone after that, chronicling their journey from Glasgow to Cairo and the beginnings of their life together in Egypt, as the Doctor returned to his archaeological work in the field. In the summer of ‘23, her great-grandmother decided to take up drawing, and many of the pages that followed were filled with pencil sketches of the monuments of Egypt, the series of small homes they lived in, and the familiar face of her ghost, growing ever more accurate as her skill improved. 

Clara thought of her own childhood habit of sketching his face on any blank corner of paper she could find, and wondered how they might compare. Her great-grandmother’s drawings were occasionally dated, and by the spring of 1925, the journal shifted back to being more of a travelogue again, though the entries were more sparse than they had been before, and sketches continued to fill the margins.

15 June 1925, London

Even in the height of summer, London feels grim and drab after two years in Egypt. When I said as much, the Doctor merely laughed and pointed out that it could be worse: it could be Glasgow. He has spent so many years now, off and on, living in Egypt, moving from dig site to dig site as the work demands, and I think he is ready for a more settled existence for a while. The position at the British Museum suits him well, and will provide us with a more stable foundation on which to build our life — and as much as I enjoyed our transient circumstances in Egypt, there is a certain allure to building something lasting together. A new sort of adventure.

I had hoped that with our return to London, and after two years of marriage, Mother and Father might have found a way to forgive me, but it seems that door is forever closed. I am determined to focus on the future instead, and on the family the Doctor and I mean to create together. 

Reading that, Clara felt a pang of heartsickness for this woman she had never known. She had been close with both of her parents before their deaths, and was grateful to have had that time with them. She couldn’t imagine her parents being so angry with her that they would shut her out of their lives, but scanning ahead, she didn’t see any indication that her namesake’s parents had ever relented. Instead, the journal dealt with the process of settling back into life in London, and her great-grandmother’s dreams for the future, with small sketches peppering the edges of each page.

As she turned the pages, Clara’s eyes caught on the rare use of colour in one of her drawings, and with a surprised blink she realised she recognised it as the stained glass window over the front door of her Gran’s house. The journal entry beside the drawing read: 

1 August 1925, London

The House, as I have determined it must always be called, is a ridiculous rambling Victorian thing, all gabled roofs and ornate woodwork and stained glass windows, such as the one I have drawn here. It is entirely too large for the two of us, but it was love at first sight for both the Doctor and myself, and no house we have considered since has compared. At least there will be enough room for our ever-growing legion of books. And there are several bedrooms — perhaps it is too ambitious of me to imagine them someday filled, but despite all our failed efforts, I remain hopeful.

Having dealt so closely with her Gran’s personal details the last few weeks, Clara knew that she would be born barely three years later, in late August of 1928. Her great-grandmother died only a few months after that, and it felt strange to read of her hopes for a large family, knowing it didn’t happen in the end. Through reading her journal, it had become clear to Clara that they were alike in many ways, but on that one point they couldn’t be more different. She enjoyed children, she wouldn’t have become a teacher if she didn’t, but she’d never felt drawn to motherhood. She was almost the same age as her namesake had been when her Gran was born, and she couldn’t imagine having a baby now, much less hoping for multiple children.

Of course, she wondered if she might feel differently if she’d had the sort of fairy tale romance her great-grandmother had had. Starting a family with someone she loved felt a lot less abstract than the vague idea of having a baby. Maybe that was the difference. She could certainly understand her great-grandmother wanting children with the Doctor—

At that thought, it all came back to her in a rush, everything her ghost had revealed that afternoon, the truth of her Gran’s parentage — and with it, one of the few facts about him that she’d managed to wring out of him as a child. With dread turning her stomach, Clara quickly flipped ahead to the autumn of 1927, scanning the journal entries for any indication, any clue. There was a brief note in early November about plans for Christmas, but then nothing until:

1 December 1927

He is gone. He is gone, and I will never, ever recover.

The bruises may heal, but I will not.

Tears sprung to Clara’s eyes, but she blinked them away, reading on.

8 December 1927

Is it the House that is haunted, or me?

She stared at the words, knowing that almost eighty-seven years later, the house was very much haunted. She turned the page, feeling the tears begin to roll down her face.

12 December 1927

Perhaps it is only my mind playing tricks on me, but perhaps it is something more. Perhaps there is some magic that ties us together even now. I live in hope — for what other way is there to live, now?

The following pages were full of nothing but undated sketches of the Doctor, looking exactly as Clara knew him. I made that promise to the only person I’ve spoken to since my death. The only one who could ever see me, her ghost had told her, not twelve hours earlier. Gripped with the need to know, she turned the journal pages quickly, looking for her great-grandmother’s familiar handwriting amongst all the drawings of her ghost, until finally:

3 February 1928

I have counted out the days and counted them again. My memory of last November is far from clear, but there is no mistake in this: I am with child. And this is no parting gift, no consolation prize from the universe, only one more tragedy to heap onto the pile. This baby will not have the Doctor’s eyes or his smile or his laugh. This baby—

How am I to endure this? Alone in the House we had hoped to fill, how can I possibly find the strength to face what is to come?

I continue to dream of him, to have visions, even. Some days I fear I have gone mad with the grief, but other days, those visions are my only comfort, those dreams my only reprieve from the nightmares that plague me. Something in my heart refuses to believe that the Doctor is truly gone. Something compels me to speak to him, and hope that he will, somehow, impossible though it may be, hear me and respond.

And then:

8 February 1928

They are not visions, and I am not mad. 

But more importantly — I am no longer alone.

Clara set down the journal, taking a moment to swipe at the tears on her face. She had known, deep down she had known that she would find only pain at the end of this story, and yet she hadn’t been able to stop herself. I know you won’t stop digging until you’ve uncovered all the gory details, he’d said to her, and he’d been right, of course he’d been right. Her ghost had tried to protect her from this, but she had charged ahead anyway, disregarding his warnings.

And that edge of the mystery still called to her, the unanswered questions still nagged at her. However much it hurt, she had to know. Picking up the journal again, she skipped ahead, flipping pages until she reached her Gran’s birthday.

21 August 1928

It is a girl. I have named her Margaret Eleanor, as we so long discussed. Our little Margot. None of this is her fault, and I do not love her less for it. I only wish I could love her more. I wish my heart were still capable of it. I wish I could have greeted her arrival with the joy she deserves. I wish I didn’t have to welcome her into the world alone.

The more days pass, the more I am convinced the Doctor meant what he said as a final goodbye. The last six months with him have revived me in a way I didn’t think possible, and to have that ripped away, to once again be facing the prospect of a future without him— 

‘You are stronger than you know,’ he told me, and I wish I could believe it.

Even more, I wish he was still here. In whatever form, I wish he was here. Perhaps in time I will see him again. I must hold to that hope, for it is the last one I have.

The journal entries stopped after that, and again the pages were filled with sketches: a round-faced newborn with wispy hair, bits of the house that Clara recognised easily, and the Doctor, always the Doctor.

Turning the pages quickly, she came across one last entry in the journal, the following pages all blank. Her great-grandmother’s familiar handwriting was no longer small, neat loops, but instead scrawled wide with anguish, and Clara felt her heart skip a beat at the date at the top of the page.

23 November 1928

Where have you gone, my love? Why have you left me?

I suppose I cannot fault the dead for not keeping their promises. You did not choose this fate for us, and I do not blame you for it. I only wish it could have been different. I wish that we had a second chance at life, a second chance to build for ourselves everything we dreamed our life together could be.

I cannot live like this. I will not.

I will follow you, my love, wherever it is that you have gone. Wherever you are now, I will find you. As I followed you to Thebes and to Glasgow, I will follow you now.

I will see you again. 

Wait for me.

Clara stared in horror at the final words on the page. Seized with a sudden nauseous dread, she dropped the journal on the coffee table and bolted up from the sofa, lurching towards her laptop on the desk across the room. Her hands trembled as she pulled up a search page, pouring out every scrap of relevant family information she could think of, ending with 23 November 1928 suicide. 

The internet, that modern wonder, took only moments to confirm her fears. Tears filled her eyes again, blurring the screen in front of her, but she fumbled her way through printing the eighty-six year old coroner's report. She snatched up the paper still warm, jammed her feet into her trainers and pulled on a coat, grabbed her keys and her purse, and was out the door before she could change her mind.

--

Chapter 4: The Past

[doberart]

Walt Disney is undoubtably one of the most famous figures in modern history, which is most likely why about 90% of people on Tumblr and other websites (that I know of so far) think that he is an expy of Joey Drew. I understand that- both are entreprenurs who started their careers in the 1930s and went on to be famous lead animators. However, there’s something about this connection that doesn’t add up. Anyone who has read Walt’s reputation section on wikipedia would find that Walt’s percieved personality was nothing like Joey. He is instead described as shy, bashful, self-deprecating and embarrased in public. Now, I want you to be all honest here, does this look like an accurate description of Joey to you? Okay, admit it. If any of you said yes, you’re either being sarcastic or have never played the game before. Joey is the complete opposite of this description! Every audio log which ever mentioned him in any form whatsoever was pointing out every one of his personality flaws, from his obsession with the ink machine to his fixation on ‘appeasing the gods’ and immortality. But aside from their polar opposite personalities, there is one more point seperating Walt and Joey. I understand that there are a large proportion of people today who complain that all the film industeries care about today is making money. By this, they say things about cutting costs and making as many sequels to something as possible, without really going for a creative path for fear of losing money. I’ve seen critics accuse Disney studios of this before, but here’s where it gets interesting. When Walt was still around, he had a thing about style. I read a few articles about what it was like for his animators in the studio, it’s true that he had high expectations but he also really cared about style. Cool fact- when the first colour film they ever produced, Snow White, was still in production, Walt was so determined to make sure that the movement of the animals was realistic that he brought in a bunch of deer and things into the studio so that his animators could learn realistic movement. Years later, the guys who made Jurassic Park took a trip to the zoo to study giraffes and elephants to make the most realistic CGI dinosaurs. Walt was certainly ahead of his time. Now, think about what Thomas talked about from his tape from chapter 3. He was complaining about the elevator, right? What else? He mentioned that Joey *kept cutting corners*. Walt does not cut corners. Walt made sure the company never cut corners. Joey isn’t really doing this for the sake of creativity, he’s trying to leach out as much money from it as he can. What other evidence? Any of you who have been following the lore closely and keeping up to date with merchandise announcements may be familiar with the Hot Topic takeover, when clothing was arriving in the shops. One event made this special- for about an hour before the merchandise went online, Hot Topic twitter went and roleplayed as Sammy Lawrence, answering the questions of fans and raising quite a few more in the process. At one point, a fan asked Sammy where he speculated Joey had gone. Sammy’s reply was that Joey was most likely ‘raising his salary’. This can be taken as an indication that Joey was a greedy individual who had a constant want for profit. As I have stated before, this is not like Walt at all.

Most of you are probably wondering- “If he’s not Walt, then who is he? Walt’s the only guy we know!” Now, what if I told you that there’s someone else who fits the description of Joey Drew perfectly? Minus the ink machine, sacrifices and satanic stuff, and you’ll find yourself with an almost perfect match with another, lesser known person. His name is… …Charles Mintz! I’ll give credit to yunisverse here, had I never read her(?) post I would have never even heard of him. Yuni was so ticked off at Charles that she actually dug out her old lecture notes just so that she could go off on a rant on what a terrible person he was, Jim Sterling style.  Disclaimer: The following recount is what I’ve gathered from several sources, but I think what Yuni wrote is probably more accurate. Walt’s first ever animated series was a thing called the Alice Comedies, but Charles wasn’t happy with how much money it made so he told them to scrap the show’s budget and do a bunch of really expensive stuff to it so that they could get more money from it. Problem- Walt and his brother Roy were working on the lowest of budgets and couldn’t afford to make those changes. The result was that they had to work a lot harder for less pay- the series was increasing in popularity which was the only real reason Walt was still working for him. Eventually they moved into an actual building, but Charles’ demands for better quality pictures and more money meant that eventually they started to lose money for every film they produced. As a result, Walt and his studio had to start from scratch. This was the time when Walt developed a character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Charles was annoyed that Walt was still going at it, but once the films got started it became a big success. Walt’s company decided to keep on going at it, and they got some pretty good ratings. Don’t ask me what Charles was thinking, but this was the time when his evil buisnessman side took over. Charles saw how popular Oswald had become, so he pretty much went like 'That’s a nice character, MINE!’ and then he literally fired Walt and stole the rights to make cartoons from him.

So, yeah, that’s the story of Charles the evil buisnessman. After I read through this, I suddenly felt that Walt actually had a part to play in Bendy’s universe after all. Expect that his side of the story didn’t turn out as great. Remember that description of his personality I wrote above? I’m pretty sure you can all think of a very certain Player Character who fits that description and has had similar events happen to his pre-game. Henry. He doesn’t talk much during the game at all, especially when faced with monsters and things. Matches up with how shy Walt was in public places. We even get a hint at the degree of involvement back when he worked in the studio, in chapter 3 when he talks about a 'new character’ that he believes that people are going to love. Also, Walt was known for basing his cartoons off himself. Now people are going to tell me: “Walt was the really successful buisnessman! Henry doesn’t seem to be well known at all! What happened?” Bit of history for you- after Walt was fired there was literally only one person who was supporting him. That was his best friend, Ub Iwerks, seeing as Charles forced all the other animators from Walt’s company to work for him instead. Ub is literally the only thing that stopped Disney Studios from dying. Walt called him 'the greatest animator in the world’ once, and for good reason. Ub drew the entire ’Plane Crazy’ episode in the matter of two weeks- ALL BY HIMSELF. I did a double take when I read that. I mean, he had to draw 700 frames each day to do that! EVERYTHING!! I’ve only animated once in my life, it took two months to finish my assignment and it was half the time of that episode, with two cats and no background. How he managed it I had no idea. If only Ub were alive today- imagine what would happen if he got his hands on a drawing pad and an animating program… It’s thanks to Ub that the entire company existed, but from what I can tell from our limited experience with Bendy’s universe, Henry didn’t go off to fame and fortune after Joey’s studio shut down. Chances are, while Ub existed in ours, there wasn’t any expy of him in Bendy’s. We don’t know what happened to Henry during the time he left the studio, but it didn’t seem like anything special happened to him.

So, that’s it for now. I’d suggest that you take this theory with a grain of salt, seeing as I’m not the one behind BATIM, but if anything happens in chapter 4 that supports this, maybe we can look into it further! Later on I might reblog this to add on stuff, but this is my theory for now. Also, Dober, I’m so sorry that this was pushed back 9 hours. This will never happen again, I hope it’s good enough. T.T Homework now…

[oswald-hanciles-posts]

THE OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN (July 16th 2019 edition)

*DELE MOMODU WRITES:*

*100 Reasons Why Buhari Must Go*

1. Buhari is the most nepotistic Nigerian president ever. He makes no pretense about it.

2. Economy, Anti-Terrorism and Anti-Corruption: These were his 3 cardinal campaign points in 2015. He failed in all of them.

3. In 2015, even before he appointed Ministers, Buhari approved over N39.4 billion naira to NNPC to prospect for crude oil in Northern Nigeria. The project has turned out to be a total waste of taxpayers’ money.

4. His current tenure witnessed the 3rd economic recession in Nigeria. The first was during his regime as a military dictator.

5. Within 3 years of his government, over 11 million Nigerians lost their jobs.

6. Under Buhari’s watch, Nigeria became the poverty capital of the world. 86.9 million Nigerians are now living in extreme poverty. This represents nearly 50% of its estimated population of 180 million.

7. Killings by Fulani Herdsmen rose to an unprecedented scale under Buhari’s watch. The killings were carried out with impunity.

8. Buhari destroyed almost all the free and fair electoral gains of the past administrations.

9. The Obasanjo administration removed Nigeria from international debt. Buhari plunged Nigeria back into extreme foreign debt. According to NBS, Nigeria’s debt profile grew by 40% within the first 2 years of the Buhari government. Currently, Nigeria owes N22.4 trillion ($73.2 billion).

10. He promised to sell off planes in the presidential fleet when he becomes president. He never did.

11. Buhari promised to clean up the severely polluted Niger-Delta. It never happened. The Ogoni Clean-Up project turned out to be a huge fraud on the people of the Niger-Delta.

12. It took Buhari 6 months to appoint a set of mediocre Ministers.

13. Ibe Kachikwu – his Minister of State for Petroleum - blew the whistle on illegal oil contracts worth $25billion (N9trillion) done by the GMD of NNPC. Buhari neither probed it nor removed the GMD.

14. Buhari uses state security apparatus to pursue vendettas. For instance, despite court orders for their release, he has kept Ibrahim El-Zakzaky and Sambo Dasuki illegally incarcerated.

15. Before his election, Buhari swore that fuel subsidy never existed. Today, his government has so far paid over 1.4trillion in fuel subsidy.

16. According to an Amnesty International report, the killer Fulani herdsmen have slaughtered 3,641 Nigerians. All these killings occurred within 3 years of the Buhari rule.

17. Till this day, not one killer herdsman has been arrested and prosecuted.

18. Folarin Coker, the former head of an agency in Lagos state, diverted N3billion from the account of the state government into his Wife's 32 bank accounts. Buhari recruited him into his government, as the DG, NTDC. The corruption case died a natural death.

19. The Nigerian currency – the Naira - devalued under his watch. The currency lost more than 50℅ of its value within a few months of his government.

20. Buhari’s mismanagement of the economy introduced Double digit inflation to the country.

21. Abba Kyari - Buhari’s Chief of Staff (CoS) - took a N500m bribe from MTN. He did it to help the company reduce the $5.2 billion fine imposed on it by the federal government. Even with concrete evidences presented to Buhari, he did nothing about it.

22. According to UNICEF, 13.2 million Nigerian children are now out of school. This is the highest in the world. Of which 69 % of these out-of-school children are in the North.

23. The Buhari government’s incompetence are often demonstrated when he appoints dead people into government agencies.

24. Nigeria is currently ranked as the 3rd Most Terrorized Global Nation among countries worst hit by terrorism. Nigeria has held that position four times consecutively during the Buhari administration.

25. He is selective in his fight against corruption. He deliberately ignored some corruption allegations and petitions against some of his appointees, aides, party members, etc.

26. Buhari dominates his top federal political appointments with northerner Muslims.

27. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the 1st quarter of 2016, the Nigerian economy shrank by 0.36% to hit its lowest point in the last 29 years.

28. The Buhari government make claims to have saved trillions of Naira in the TSA. Still, they kept gallivanting around the world in search of foreign loans.

29. Too many of his close relatives were recruited into his government. For instance, Mamman Daura (nephew), Chief of Staff (nephew), Minister of state for Aviation (nephew), his ADC ( in-law), his Personal Assistants (nephews), Minister of State for Trade, Industry and Investment (niece), etc.

30. He removed the Chief Justice of Nigeria without following constitutionally defined due process.

31. Buhari dominates the heads of security agencies with Northerners: NSA (Borno); Chief of Army Staff (Borno); National Security Adviser (Borno); EFCC (Borno); Minister of Defense (Zamfara); Chief of Air Staff (Bauchi State); IG of Police (Nassarawa); NSCDC (Niger); DSS (Kano); Nigeria Immigration Service (Jigawa State); Nigeria Customs Service (Bauchi State); Nigeria Prison Service (Kebbi State).

32. At the early stage of his administration, Buhari’s relatives and children of his aides were allocated 91 positions in an illegal and secret CBN employment exercise.

33. “Budget padding” entered the Nigerian lexicon after federal lawmakers spotted inflated cost of projects and items in Buhari’s National Budget proposal.

34. Buhari vowed to punish “budget-padding” culprits in his government. He never did.

35. $43 million cash was found in an Ikoyi apartment. It is already more than a year since a probe panel was instituted, yet nothing has come out of it.

36. Buhari has demonstrated that the South West (the Yorubas) are only important to him when it is politically expedient. They are not important enough for him for key government appointments.

37. On national TV, he instated that he would not obey court orders.

38. Under his watch, 20.9 million Nigerians became unemployed according to NBS. Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose from 18.8% (in 2017) to 23.1% (in 2018). It went from 10.4 million in 2015 to 21 million in 2018.

39. He has refused to make his asset declaration public.

40. Buhari uses the police, DSS, Army, etc., to supervises the systematic harassment and humiliation of perceived political opponents and people with contrary opinions.

41. Buhari increased the price of petrol, yet he still pays more subsidy on the product than the previous government, which it accused of ‘subsidy scam’.

42. Buhari approved the withdrawal $462 million from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) for the procurement of military aircraft, without a prior approval of the National Assembly.

43. Buhari insults and de-markets the country whenever he travels abroad.

44. Under his watch, the Nigerian Army has killed 492 Shiite Muslims in the last 4 years. These extrajudicial killings have gone on with impunity.

45. The “Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG)” protesters - on whose protests Buhari rode to the presidency of Nigeria - were tear gassed and persecuted by the Buhari government.

46. On a live TV broadcast, Buhari defended the Governor of Kano state who was caught on camera receiving $5m bribe.

47. Under his watch, his VP and his political party (APC) engages in systematic vote buying disguised as “Trader Monie”.

48. A good number of politicians working for Buhari’s re-election have pending corruption cases bordering on stolen monies worth about N300bn. They include: Abdullahi Adamu (N15bn); Aliyu Wamakko (N15bn); Godswill Akpabio (N100bn); Orji Uzor Kalu (N3.2bn); Babachir Lawal (N223m); Rotimi Amaechi (N97bn); Abdul’aziz Yari (N680m); Adams Oshiomhole ($51m); Bola Tinubu (N100bn); Abba Kyari (N500m); Musiliu Obanikoro (N4.7bn); Folarin Coker (N3bn), etc.

49. A member of the Buhari kitchen cabinet – Babachir Lawal - spent N220million to cut grass at an IDP camp. Yet, he has not been prosecuted for the offence.

50. The disgraced and sacked SGF, Babachir Lawal, was replaced with his cousin, Boss Mustapher. Effectively retaining the SGF position within his family.

51. The only leader that retains his appointees to government offices even when the senate refuses to confirm them or outrightly rejects the confirmation of such persons.

52. Under his administration, the Nigerian Stock Exchange lost more than 50℅ of its value.

53. Transparency International announced that corruption increased during Buhari’s government. The country's corruption perception index rose from 136th (2016) to 148th (2018) in the ranking.

54. He dominates the federal judiciary with northern Muslims i.e. Chief Justice of Nigeria (Mahmud Mohammed/Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad), president of the Court of Appeal, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court.

55. He has shown that he is not intellectually wired to understand when corruption is going on around him.

56. Adams Oshiomhole was accused by some of his party members of receiving bribes worth about $55 million before and after the APC primaries all over the country. The case is dead and buried by the Buhari government.

57. A Senator sympathetic to Buhari hired hoodlums who invaded the National Assembly and stole the maze. Buhari did nothing to bring the Senator to book.

58. Buhari promised to end medical tourism by public officials when he becomes president. When he became president, he became Nigeria’s biggest medical tourist.

59. His wife, Aisha Buhari, cried out and revealed that Buhari is not in control of the government. She further revealed that a certain cabal runs the show.

60. Under his watch, INEC created mobile voting centers for Muslim IDPs. This is unknown to the Electoral Act. He has refused to make same or similar arrangements for IDPs of Southeast and minority nationalities’ extraction such as through voters’ cards’ transfer provided in the Electoral Act of 2010.

61. The Buhari government spent an entire tenure blaming past governments for problems they were elected to fix.

62. Buhari’s nephew – Hadi Sirika, the Minister of State for Aviation - spent N1.5 billion naira of taxpayers money on propaganda and to kick-start the national airline – “Nigeria Air”. The company folded up even before it started.

63. Buhari is never aware of anything that goes on in his government and under his watch.

64. Alpha Beta Consult – a company that belongs to Bola Tinubu is facing a N100 billion-fraud allegations. Buhari ignored the petition. Instead, Buhari rewarded him with an important position in his re-election campaign team.

65. He pretends to be poor while his family lives in opulence. His children attend £26, 000 a year universities in the UK. His son had an accident with his motorbike estimated to be worth tens of millions of Naira.

66. He is resolute in his pursuit of the northern agenda.

67. The Buhari government lied that it has “technically” defeated Boko Haram. Still, he approved $1billion to fight insurgency in the North East.

68. The IPOB agitators have never killed anyone. Buhari classified them as a terrorist group. The killer Fulani herdsmen have killed over 3,641 innocent Nigerians. Till date, Buhari has refused to tag them as terrorists.

69. Buhari is the first Nigerian leader to appoint a member of his ethnic group as the head of the nation’s electoral body.

70. The Meyetti Allah is an open and vocal sympathizer of the killer Fulani herdsmen. Buhari is their Grand patron. Yet, he has never called them to order.

71. On several occasions, Buhari pleaded with non-Fulanis to give up their ancestral lands to the rampaging killer Fulani herdsmen.

72. Buhari’s Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed was alleged to have made financial demands from an agency (NBC) under his Ministry. The N13 million “loan” he demanded for was to enable him travel to China. Buhari ignored the allegation.

73. Billions of Naira was allocated to the Aso Rock clinic in the National Budget. Buhari’s wife, Aisha Buhari, revealed that the monies were misappropriated under his watch.

74. They have to translate English to English for Buhari.

75. Okoi Obono-Obla, one of Buhari’s aides – was alleged to have forged his WAEC certificate. Buhari ignored the allegation.

76. The Buhari kitchen cabinet planned and executed a siege on the houses of the Senate President and the Deputy Senate President. They also coordinated a failed legislative coup with a minority group of Senators. This was done to prevent the defection of members from the APC. Buhari never punished them.

77. Buhari supervised the fraudulent and disgraceful conduct of elections in Edo, Ekiti and Osun state.

78. A fugitive and pension thief - Abdulrasheed Maina – the former chairman of the Presidential Pension Task Team was secretly reinstated by the Buhari administration.

79. Under Buhari’s watch, there was a deliberate and scientific exclusion from voting of 12 million registered voters dominated by southern and northern minority populations.

80. Buhari decided that it was a good idea to share $321million of returned Abacha loot amongst some vague Nigerians. A few weeks later, he took a loan of $328 million from China for investment in the telecoms sector.

81. Buhari’s former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, was indicted for certificate forgery. She was never prosecuted.

82. His Chief of Staff - Abba Kyari - was accused by his cousin of collecting N29.9m to facilitate a contract to supply 15 Toyota Hilux vehicles to the Presidential villa, Abuja. Even with evidences provided by the accuser, Buhari defended Kyari on the allegation.

83. He enjoys foreign health facilities, while thousands of Nigerians die in ill-equipped hospitals in Nigeria. Yet, he has not built a single hospital in Nigeria.

84. Buhari retained Ibrahim Magu as the acting EFCC Chairman despite the fact that the Senate failed to confirm him twice.

85. He insisted that Abacha never stole, yet his government has benefited enormously from the unending return of the Abacha loot.

86. He craves for extreme powers. For instance, he demanded to have emergency powers in his first few months in office. Later, he signed and authorized Order 006 to give him powers outside the provisions of the EFCC Act and ICPC Act — as well as the provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and the Criminal Code.

87. Buhari’s Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Ameachi, admitted his incompetence in a leaked audio tape.

88. He is the first president to publicly announce that he would not favour the regions that did not vote for him.

89. Buhari rarely grants interviews to local media. He prefers granting interviews to foreign journalists.

90. In 2015, the Kano state Electoral Commissioner and every member of his family were killed in the most suspicious circumstance. Ibrahim idris, who was the Kano state Commissioner of Police when the incidence occurred, was later rewarded with the position of Inspector General.

91. He runs away from intellectual discussions like debates.

92. He failed to disclose his ailment as it is done in transparent governments all over the world.

93. A human rights activist, Dr. Osadolor Ochei, wrote several petitions to the EFCC against Adams Oshiomole. The petition bothered on alleged looting of Edo state treasury while he was governor of the state. Buhari’s EFCC ignored the petition. Instead, Buhari rewarded Oshiomhole with the APC chairmanship position.

94. Despite its growing unpopularity, Buhari is a stoic crusader for nomadic cattle grazing.

95. Under Buhari administration, the Nigerian international passport now costs N70k, Car Number plate is N75k, driver’s license N30k, etc. Note, these are just the official rates.

96. His appointees and aides show open disregard for other arms of government like the Senate and the House of Representatives.

97. Buhari makes appointments into constitutionally and statutorily created offices in manners clearly incoherent with and unknown to the 1999 Constitution and the Civil Service Rules of the Federation (i.e. appointments of DG of DSS, Custom CG, and former INEC interim Boss).

98. He has shown open disregard for the Federal Character principle, which he has violated countlessly.

99. Buhari’s anti-democratic and dictatorial tendencies exhibits itself on several occasions when he jettisoned the justice and legislative system in order to have his way.

100. Due to some of his recent exhibitions, his memory, mental health status and fitness have become a matter of urgent concern!

*By: Mr. Dele Momodu.*

🇳🇬Nijja Politics Update 🇳🇬