#theories in the comments! mention when you think you’ve found foreshadowing!!!

[tadfools]

You guys are commenting on the fics you read right? You’re at least leaving kudos on the Astarion smut and the pairs that have less than 20 fics for them too? You’re bookmarking stories you really like that are still being updated and ones that haven’t been touched in over a year right?

You know that even the smallest interactions are like cocaine to fic writers right? You understand how important a string of emoji hearts left behind on chapter at three am is right?? Right????

You’re treating AO3 like a community and not a content factory….right?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x21: Details

Okay, let’s talk details. And most of these will just back up what I’ve already said about these sequences being callbacks to Grady and leaving Beth behind, as well as foreshadows of finding her again.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x21. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

Carol and Dog:

Of course Dog goes with Carol and I noticed that when she gets back to Alexandria, she says, “let’s get you home.” So, home theme, and it’s especially potent because Dog = Beth.

She says to Dog, “For the record, I didn’t need an apology for him.” It’s the ‘for the record’ part that caught my attention, not only because Beth mentioned records at Grady, but Negan said the exact same thing to Daryl about Carol several episodes ago. “For the record, I don’t think she’s coming back.” So, it’s something of a theme.

She tells Jerry the story of the Stone Soup, which to me parallels Rick’s “Rock in the Road” story, which we’ve always thought was about Beth. (X). And I’m not sure how exactly to interpret the rock in either story, but biblically Christ = the rock. So, there’s that.

We see her fixing the solar panels as well. Because of the sunlight angle, that could represent Beth. I’m actually seeing a lot of symbolism here for both Carol fixing Beth in some way and Beth fixing Carol. So, I think this has to do with the template for the future. I think the two of them will come together again, as they did at Grady, and they’ll both be kind of a mess at that point and need to help each other through some stuff. I’ll talk about it in more detail later when I do another forecasting post.

When Dog starts chasing the rat and Carol runs to see what’s happening, he knocks over a lamp. Lamp Theory. And the cord of the lamp has been gnawed on by the rat. So can you see how all these symbols kind of interlock?

When Dog chases the rat and knocks over the pot, Carol has a serious/Sirius mention. She says, “This is serious. We need that food.”

Now, for the record, I think food shortages are going to continue to be a thing, and Beth and the CRM will be the answer to needed resources, so both sides of that sentence are important.

She makes a trap to catch the rat, which I talked about yesterday. Then she goes out looking for more ingredients for the soup. While out there, we see a dragonfly, a blue butterfly, and a spider. All three of those are important symbols. 

They all represent some form of transformation, wisdom, renewal, and fertility.

It’s probably important that Carol uses Leah’s knife to fix the solar panels. Again, just more Beth symbols on top of Beth symbols.

@frangipanilove also pointed out that it’s important that the instant she can’t see the rat anymore, the power goes out. See how that works? Rat (Beth) is unseen and suddenly no sun power.

Carol also says at this part, “there will be more sun tomorrow, right?” That’s super important. Sun = Beth. And ever since AOW, I’ve thought the “tomorrow” theme pointed to the CRM war. So again, just more evidence that this is both a callback and a foreshadow of what will happen with Beth and CRM.

As I said yesterday, Dog watching over Carol as she sleeps = Beth watching over Carol while she’s unconscious at Grady. She also says to Dog, “You miss him, don’t you?” Which is exactly what Beth asked Daryl about Merle in Still.

And then of course she destroys the wall. The next day, Jerry comes to see her, and we get lots of interesting references. There’s the poker, poker face reference. He says, “caring…yeah that’s a problem,” which we’re connecting to Beth’s famous line, “when you care about people, hurt is just part of the package.”

Jerry also says, “2+2=Eureka.” Now, Eureka is an expression which means “a cry of joy or satisfaction when one finds or discovers something.” We’re hoping the 2+2 is a reference to episode 22, and the discovery is that Beth is alive. *fingers crossed*

The song that plays, No Worries by Amateur Blond, has references to dogs in it. And it keeps saying “Oh, oh, oh.”

Of course Daryl returns, Rat gets free, and I especially love how Dog runs to Daryl. Cuz, you know, Dog = Beth. :D

One other thing @frangipanilove​ brought to my attention. The scarf Carol has in this episode can be linked to the scarf she wore in S3. They actually look very similar. Remember that at the prison, when T-Dog died and Lori gave birth to Judith, Carol was wearing a scarf over her head. Daryl found it with blood on it, which led him to assume she was dead. They even created a grave for her. But of course he found her (after finding her knife, btw) soon after and she lived.

It’s just a little too coincidental that this can be connected to a death fake out in season 3, and there’s a major knife exchange going on in the same episode. 

Daryl and Bike:

Okay, so I talked a lot about Daryl yesterday and how Bike = Beth. The part where he gets under the car is really interesting. I’m not entirely satisfied with how to interpret it yet, but I do think it represents leaving Beth behind and stuff that happened during the missing 17 days. 

You could call Daryl’s behavior here destructive. I mean, he crawled under a precariously perched car. And that could represent his depression, to the point of self-harm, after losing Beth. He does find the part he needs in the 3rd car (rule of threes). And that car was somewhat hidden at first. 

He didn’t see it until he’d already reached and checked the first two cars. So, that could represent looking for Beth’s body but there’s an unseen element he isn’t aware of at first. It also parallels the “third man” theory. (X).

When he gets back to the bike, he suddenly realizes he gave the knife to Carol and he needs it. His huge, Rambo knife is just too big to get it into the crevices of the bike to attach the new part. 

I think this is important for the future story line as well. After the spinoff starts, when he and Carol part ways, he’ll give her something and realize he needs it later on. It’s when he goes looking for this part that he’ll run into the CRM and Beth.

I also noticed kind of a cute little parallel here. When he realizes he doesn’t have the knife and he needs it, he sort of does this thing where he brushes his hair out of his face. He did a similar thing in Consumed. 

I just remember a lot of people commenting on how adorable it was. So I thought I’d point it out here as well.

So then he goes looking of Beth, er, I mean a new knife. I talked about a lot of this yesterday: the Beth walker, his limp, the dry river bed, etc. It’s important that he finds the knife with military walkers (probably the CRM). I can’t help but wonder if letting walker fall into the ravine represents him letting one of their communities get overrun with walkers or something. 

I also REALLY want to connect it to when the group did this in Them. In that scene, Rick was almost bitten. Daryl came running up at the last minute and helped him, but I think it’s significant that they were doing the exact same thing there that we see Daryl doing here. I’m thinking it represents something about maybe him finding Rick with the CRM and helping him in some way, or something. Again, just speculating about future storylines here.

But he finds the knife he needs and goes back to the bike. And two more military walkers come at him. Yes, two. You may have missed that, as I and my fellow theorists both did the first time. But one is coming at him from ahead of the bike, down the tracks. 

The other is coming at him from his right side. You can tell because he turns his head to look at it.

Couple of things here. Part of the reason it only seems like one is that they show it weird. We only see him killing the one straight ahead, not the one to the side. I’m sure there’s some symbolism in that, but I honestly have no idea what it is.

But here’s an interesting thing. He finds a second knife on that second walker. It doesn’t do a close up on the second knife, so it’s easy to miss. But there are actually 2 knives.

Not entirely sure how to interpret that, but remember that in Still, there were two knives. First, Daryl gave Beth his, but between rooms in the golf club, she found her bone-handled one that she always carried after that, and gave his back to him. So it might just represent Beth and Daryl and their 2 knives.

He also finds military rations (food) on one of them. As I said yesterday, I think TF is going to get to the point where they desperately need resources. Where food is scarce and even water becomes undrinkable. It will be part of the CRM plot. So I think him finding food on military walkers hints at that. They will need the CRM’s resources to survive.

The other thing I’m curious about is what he says. He says, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” To me, that’s a weird reaction. There are walkers all over the place in these woods. And neither of these two are a massive, immediate threat to him. So his reaction doesn’t make tons of sense. But again, I’m sure it has something to do with a future storyline that simply isn’t clear here yet. 

Also, the walker he takes the knife from is missing his leg/foot. That’s part of the missing foot/shoe symbolism, and just proves in my mind that this is symbolic of something to do with Beth. 

He then sets to fixing his bike. But it takes a while and it’s dark before he finishes. This was super cool and something I missed the first time through. While fixing it, he hears a wolf howl. And they draw attention to it by having Daryl turn his head toward it, as thought acknowledging it. 

Plus, the captions say it’s a wolf, not a dog or a coyote. So, this is wolf symbolism. And I think what they’re trying to say her is that when Daryl finds and “fixes” Beth, the wolf symbolism will be in play. I’ll talk more about what the means and how it MIGHT manifest in coming days.

Finally, he gets the bike fixed and started and heads back.

@wdway​, as usual with her eagle eyes, noticed something about this shot. In the sky above him, we see three stars. They look suspiciously like the “spoon” portion of the Little Dipper. And guys, at this distant, stars wouldn’t even register on camera, which means they were put in purposely with a computer. Daryl is riding toward the spoon/star/Sirius symbol. Just saying. 

The only other thing I noticed (other than all the stuff I talked about yesterday, anyway) is that there is some missing time here. Daryl fixes his bike at night and we see him drive off into the darkness, but by the time he gets back and talks to Carol, it’s late afternoon or early evening, and he’s talking about going to bed. I don’t know if he could have gone out far enough for it to take him that long to get back. Of course, maybe he just looked some more the next day and didn’t come back right away. Maybe I’m reading too much into it. But it’s something I noticed.

So, yeah. I think that’s all the details I have. Anyone notice anything I missed?

[shipfishwrites]

Survey: P.E.R.N. Summary

So, to begin: Pern is an acronym now. Of course it is. What a dumb reveal.

And, to further begin: “this pernicious system” is in the first line of the story, and that really ought to be the name of this blog.

Briefly: A team of people have been sent by the government (?) to look at interesting solar systems to see if they are habitable or useful for commercial interests. The story focuses on the exploration of this one habitable planet with weird dead patches on it. The team finds the planet is pretty much fine. They discover some plants and animals. (This is exciting if you can recognize them already.) Then they leave.

The Characters

Castor: he/him, no field given except perhaps Captain. Shavva: she/her, biologist, “latent qualities as a nexialist,” doubling as a botanist. “Now the default leader of the understaffed team.” the viewpoint character? Ben Turnien: he/him, geologist with some chemist in him. Sevvie Asturias: ?, paleontologist-medic, deceased Flora Neveshan: ?, zoologist-botanist, deceased Terbo: ?, zoologist-chemist, deceased Beldona: ?, second pilot and archaeologist, deceased Mo Tan Liu: he/him, nexialist, “[will] investigate whatever remaining aspects of the planet they had time to consider.”

The Events

The short story/ramble begins with Castor being pissy. (Get used to it, it’s his only character trait.) He and Shavva are having a conversation about the approach their vessel is on to their target, the third planet of a system. Shavva mentions that they will be entering normal to the ecliptic (sci-fi speak for at a right angle to the plane the planets orbit in) so they will only get to investigate the one planet, not the “heavy-weight planets” (super-earths? neptunian icey boys? gas giants? unclear) or the Oort cloud.

~ foreshadowing ~

Castor uses the word “fardles.” This is a future word for “fucking hell.” The two of them bicker about having to “double up” on investigatory duties during a trip to the surface. Ben pipes in with punchy comment that leads Castor to almost-mention that four people have died on this mission already. Two died (Flora, Sevvie) just on the last planet visited; this planet was acronymed D.E., dead end. Terbo was killed a while back, on a planet with Intelligent Life Found. Beldona died on a world Good Only For Large, Diversified Interests. Four people have died on this tour while previously they had been through four other missions unharmed. The system they are entering is identified as Rukbat; this is fifth of seven scheduled stops.

Castor can’t go down to the surface because his leg is broken. He appoints himself the holder-down-of-the-fort, and he’ll analyze all the samples and stuff the rest of the team sends back. Liu jumps in at this time (he didn’t get a line earlier, before “the four remaining team members each vividly recalled” some people dying, which is sloppy), saying he’s going to send some probes to look at the planet he’s nicknamed Numero Tres. He adds that “Federated Sentient Planets” needs to be sent a report about the recent deaths, which Castor does huffily.

Shavva does offer to do it, but Castor wants to gripe while he does it.

The Oort cloud is mentioned again. I should add that, unlike Kuiper belts, Oort clouds completely envelop solar systems on all sides; the ship should have been able to analyze the section of the cloud they zipped through even if it was on the normal. 

Ben talks about a “space virus” theory of planetary death and/or Oort cloud existence. Two of the planets they had visited this mission had had life but was stripped: Ben acknowledges he has no idea about one, but the other he theorizes to have been sterilized by repeated asteroid impacts. Ben thinks the space virus thing is bunk; Castor teases him about a Hoyle Wickramansingh theory; Ben thinks it’s bunk; Liu says yeah but that one fits all the particulars -- “What we really need is one in the process of being stripped.”

~ foreshadowing ~

I’d like to note that these theories are never mentioned again, despite being the obvious answer to a mystery presented on the next page.

There is a bit of narration as we learn a touch more about the mission and the people. Their specialties are introduced, their organization is introduced, and there is a brief overview of what sort of life and geology they will be looking for. Shavva mourns that she joined the Exploration and Evaluation Corps for the cool discoveries but didn’t expect to see her friends die.

The specialties, by the way, are weird? Like Ben is supposedly, after a ten-day whirlwind tour, supposed to be able to tell the geologic history of the planet for the last million years, and possibly find evidence of mass extinctions. Uh..... what? Did AM not know that mass extinctions are hard to find? In fact we kind of discovered a new one like, last year? Also Shavva is supposedly going to be able to make decent guesses as to whether native pollinators will be able to handle human crops, and whether things are majorly toxic. That... is not how ecology or toxicology work.

Also, I’d like to make another note: the deaths mentioned frequently throughout the story don’t amount to anything. They add Zero meaning to the story; it would progress no differently with the team was originally composed of four members, not eight.

Anyway, the probe data comes back, and it’s all the Pern stuff -- .9 G gravity, oceans, land, vegetation. Some volcanoes in a “chain of islands extending from the southern hemisphere” (that’s a foreshadow) and... oops, some weird circles? The pictures the probe sends back show barren “groups of circular patches, like ripples overlapping each other”. Ben thinks it might be a fungus.

The narration says Castor blames himself for the deaths, earlier, and that’s why he’s mean. Boo-hoo.

We cut to Shavva landing the shuttle in a grassland that seems suspiciously like the Landing field. Shavva thinks the terrain and air and such are quite nice and unspoiled, and the team begins to take measurements. The find nothing amiss with the barren soil, and note that plants are beginning to re-take the earth. Shavva notes “Great wind systems on this planet,” as if she’s visited the whole thing and not just one field. The team begins to hop west, chasing the sun, taking samples and soil cores and venture a bit inland to take rock cores. The planet doesn’t seem to have much “easily accessible ore or mineral wealth.”

They overnight at a beautiful cove that seems suspiciously like the location of Cove Hold. They same some algae, remark upon exoskeleton-having marine life, and find a motile fungus (???). They spot larger creatures in the water, then build a fire to keep themselves warm, and also to attract bugs. Liu seems disturbed that they haven’t found any large land animals yet.

Ben says they saw fat flying creatures earlier, those count. Liu disagrees. He thinks the ecology is missing elements. (You’re right, Liu. I like you.)

The next day, they go on to the ice caps and take some cores, then they head off to the norther of the two continents. Liu is worried about not seeing large animals and Shavva avoids a “reptiloid” animal... which is 10 cm wide and 7m long. Um.... Anne? That’s more than 21 feet. That’s a Large Animal. Also Liu calls the birds “wherries” because he recalls the name of a kind of barge. There is an unclear number of species; “two identifiable types” are mentioned, but it’s unclear whether that’s two species or large wherry and then some small ones or one big and one small. They find bugs, “a thousand types”, and eggs. (Dragonet eggs.)

They go to a tar pit and find 50kya ruminant fossils. Also apparently the grass isn’t grass? It’s not silica-rich, so why would ruminants have evolved anyway. Confusing and bad. (Anyway, this 50kya number is important: it is when I estimate thread began falling.)

Also, they find a “diamond pipe” in a rift valley fault. Shavva takes a hunk of diamond the size of her fist. (What was that about no mineral wealth?? Apparently diamonds aren’t valuable anymore, the galactic economy uses different cool gems now. Probably a lowkey shout-out to the Crystal Singers series.)

Ben, Liu, and Shavva talk a little bit more about how pleasant Numero Tres is to work on; Liu isn’t fully convinced there isn’t a problem, but he grudgingly agrees that yeah, this planet at least has earned an initial P.E., Parallel Earth. The team goes north and stops on Ista island. They find a tiny horrible creature who is my baby now who has no mouth and at least two tentacles, who gets spined by a needlethorn. The team packs up the spent needlethorn for analysis.

That night, as they prepare to send the day’s samples to Castor, Liu finds some glow-fungus. It’s cute. He calls it “Some kind of luminous variety of mycelium” which is a really weird way to say “glowing fungus.” Then, interrupting Liu playing peekaboo with the glow-light, the team hears some peeping and they go see a fair of dragonets -- in all colors -- playing games in the forest. All of the characters are quick to call these creatures magnificent and beautiful and gorgeous. They agree the creatures are “marginally sentient”. Ben hopes they’ll find large, related organisms for Liu to squeal over.

~ foreshadowing ~

They go look at reef systems the next day. Then they go to the tropical eastern peninsula (Nerat) and look at more reefs, which are apparently growing so old that they have fossils going back 500 my. Whaaaaaaat the fuck. You mean the oceans haven’t moved? This one spot. Has just been growing the same coral. For half-a-billion years. AM what the fuck.

Ben notes that the rainforest isn’t “stale-mated” which he thinks reinforces his theory about a recent meteorite storm, but which is actually a fairly subtle note about threadfall. Also, dude, you’ve found no geological evidence of impacts. So.... space virus it has to be.

The narration switches abruptly to talking about the circles, letting you know What Was Just Discussed It Relevant, and it is noted that the circles aren’t descructive enough to be meteorite impacts. The circles occur everywhere except the ice caps and “one small band of the southern hemisphere” (why???).

They do some more coring and go over the central delta area of the northern continent, noting that the area of Crom and Telgar has lodes of various minerals like iron and bauxite -- but it’s not enough goods to interest a mining consortium. They even find impressive gold nuggets just laying out in a stream: Shavva takes one the size of the end of her thumb.

And then... The part I like the least about this story. Shavva finds a tree with some good-smelling bark. And then... you have to know where this is going...

She boils it and drinks it. 

I’m.

Hey, Anne? That’s not how anything works. First of all, Shavva is a fucking idiot for eating some tree skin from an alien planet. Like, a fruit? A fruit I could get, fruits have been evolved for animals to eat them (not Earth animals, but still) but bark is Not Edible. There are only a very few barks on Earth that are edible and none of them are foods  they are spices. Shavva what the fuck!! Also! It’s fucking obvious that you’d have to dry and cure the klahbark before you can consume it! Why would you want some bitter, sappy, wet bark boiled in a pot to drink! Fucking eww!

Also Liu’s inner narration says “he, too, found the odor stimulating to his salivary glands” which is a really weird way to say “it smelled tasty.” Ben tries the second draft, which is brewed like a coffee, and gives the standard Klah Description (coffee, chocolate, but a little spicy). I’d also like to note it took No Breeding to get the klahbark perfectly edible and delicious. I’m just really mad about this one particular thing because it is so egregious.

Aaaand then the story starts to wrap up; the three are happy to let Castor call the planet Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible, unless they discover something crazy in the soil analyses that we never heard back about. Castor goes ahead and puts that tiny little c next to the acronym, because it can be colonized.

“That is, if any colonial group wanted to settle on a pastoral planet, far off the established trade routes, and about as far from the center of the Federated Sentient headquarters as one could go in the known galaxy.”

~ foreshadowing ~

[flusteredmountainman]

Muriel route speculation as told by an English lit major (lol)

OK so i kjnakjffae am procrastinating doin uni stuff so im going to throw together some thoughts I had yesterday about Muriel’s route and his themes of isolation/family being a running theme throughout all the characters stories + foreshadowing for his route in details from the game + in the meaning of his patron arcana card.

Spoilers for the upright and reversed endings for asra, nadia and julian’s routes obvi, Speculation for Muriel’s route, and spoilers for the side stories Travel at Night and Dawn of the Grub

So basically I realised as well about a week ago that each character’s upright and reversed endings can be guessed from the upright and reversed meanings of their patron arcana’s tarot card, which are as follows for the main 3:

Asra (The Magician)

Upright:  Now is the time to take action, before all comes to naught. Stay focused: You have a job to do.

Asra concentrates on the goal of saving the world and the two of you end up in a happy, independent relationship because he isn’t distracted by the compulsion to help/protect you constantly

Reversed:  Be wary of lies from the mouths of charismatic charmers. They will not keep their promises

You and Arsa make a deal with the devil in the understanding that you’ll eventually be able to reach your friends again, but you both forget about your previous lives as an unforeseen consequence 

Nadia (The High Priestess)

Upright:  Listen to your dreams; allow intuition to guide you. All will be revealed in time.

Nadia trusts you (from her past when she was in her coma) and her own intuition and you defeat the devil together

Reversed:  Be careful of losing touch with your intuition. Do not close your mind to the world's mysteries.

Nadia becomes impatient, deciding she’s the only one she can rely on closes off her own options by becoming too single-minded - sacrificing her humanity to the devil

Julian (The Hanged Man)

Upright:  Sometimes, the best strategy is a swift retreat. Take time to regroup and re-examine your options.

Julian listens to you in the confrontation with the devil, you regroup with all the people who care about him and defeat the devil as a team

Reversed:  Be careful of stagnation- your own goals have value. They don't deserve to be put on hold.

He sacrifices himself and his own goals to save you, and as a result ends up living as a demon stagnating in his own private version of hell - becoming less and less human

So! We can look the explanations of The Hermit to try and figure out what his plot is going to look like. So we have:

Upright:  Look inside yourself for the answers you seek. Take time for introspection in the days ahead.

Reversed:  Be wary of retreating too far within your own mind. Others still have valuable things to share.

I feel like these are fairly self-explanatory - in the upright ending you help him recover from his trauma and come to terms with himself and his past - we’ve already seen a lot of the way he just. doesn’t think at all about his own comfort or emotions because it’s clearly too painful in his first couple of books.

In the reversed ending, we may still convince him that his feelings are valid - but that might cause him to reject the reality of his trauma and sever ties with other around him - isolating with you perhaps?

Another thing I’ve been thinking a lot about is connection and how that would relate to his upright and reversed endings. Connection and support with other people besides MC are huge components of the romance arcs for the first 3. 

In Nadia’s upright route, you support her in reconnecting with her family, and she learns that she can ask people for help and rely on them to support her, but in her reversed ending you let her keep you like a pet, she doesn’t reconnect with her family, and she becomes single-minded and isolated.

For Julian, in his upright route he also learns that he doesn’t have to sacrifice himself for those he cares about - and that they’ll support him and fight with him no matter what. In his reversed ending, his self-sacrificing tendencies are encouraged and he ends up alone and isolated, and in this ending MC also has the option to stay with him in his realm forever instead of reconnecting him with his family.

Asra’s upright arc revolves around learning that the two of you are individuals, and that he doesn’t have to constantly worry about your wellbeing and can focus on himself. He is reunited with his family and maintains meaningful relationships with other characters. In his reversed ending, you become his whole world and the two of you literally forget anyone else exists - isolating yourselves in your own world. 

I think that this is going to be especially poignant in Muriel’s route - especially because he already isolates so much. I was reflecting on the role of family (both found and blood) in the routes of the other characters and I was considering how this might manifest for Muriel. 

I was specifically thinking about his past - he was made homeless because Lucio’s tribe attacked his village and his parents had to give him away so they wouldn’t starve. Obviously he hasn’t seen them since they abandoned him, but I’ve replayed two of the side stories recently - Travel at Night and Dawn of the Grub. 

We know that a lot of Muriel’s preferences and personality are shaped by the culture he left behind. His favourite colour is green - the colour of his tribe (evidenced by his blanket which was all he had left from them), his favourite animal is a bear (the animal of his tribe - mentioned in Dawn of the Grub), and his favourite flower is the forget-me-not - which is only found growing in colder regions in the South etc etc etc. 

I’d been wondering at the circumstances of Inanna’s relationship to Muriel - it’s not like it’s common for wolves to ever be without a larger pack, and in Muriel’s first chapter it’s clear she’s highly intuitive and intelligent, plus she’s been described as his “wolf mom” by the devs. When I replayed Dawn of the Grub I noticed something that stuck out a little more - which was that specifically when Lucio is talking about neighboring tribes he mentions just two - ones symbolised by bears and one symbolised by wolves. I know this is a tiny detail and I may be Reaching but lol hear me out. 

It got me thinking about how in other routes the LI ends up reconnecting with blood family in their upright endings. Asra spent at least two decades thinking his parents were dead, but you help him reunite with them. I feel like it’s too much of a coincidence that Inanna watches over/protects Muriel like a maternal figure (that he hasn’t had for a very long time) combined with the fact that the writing specifically mentioned Muriel’s neighboring tribe as being symbolised by wolves, and the fact that we know nothing about his actual family besides that they abandoned him. We only really get to know anything about Asra’s parents in  his route - they’re mentioned in Julian’s, but we don’t find anything out about them in Nadia’s either.

My crackpot theory: Inanna was either sent by Muriel’s family (who survived and are living with the wolf tribe) or by Muriel’s neighboring tribe to keep an eye on him. I don’t think this is such a huge leap especially when you consider that a Lot of animals have been shown to talk to each other/communicate telepathically with people (Malak, Faust, Cameo, and Inanna understanding what you’re saying when you first meet her in Muriel’s arc). I think that in his arc his family might try to reconnect with him - which may be facilitated by Morga’s presence - especially since she’s not a huge part of any of the other arcs besides being present at the ritual. 

I think that a big factor as to whether or not you get his upright or reversed end will be if you encourage him to reconnect or support him in his isolation. It’d be easy to see why he wouldn’t accept them if they tried to contact him - it’s been a couple of decades and they abandoned him, so of course he would be hurt, frustrated, and want nothing to do with them. I get the feeling that if you tell him that he’s valid in wanting to do nothing with them, it will contribute to his reversed ending (isolation), whereas if you’ve brought enough attention to how he’s feeling so that he can work on himself, constructively managing his feelings, and healing from his past then it will contribute to his upright ending. 

Also there’s such a like. dumb teeny tiny line of dialogue that i haven’t been able to stop thinking about, I really can’t remember specifically which route it’s in (either Asra’s or in heart hunter somewhere) where another character comments how he and Asra could be brothers (i think it’s Asra)? And Muriel replies that he doesn’t have any brothers. At first I thought that this was a wink to asriel content in Nadia’s route - that he doesn’t consider Asra a brother bc he might have romantic feelings for him, OR that he doesn’t consider Asra a brother because Asra is nonbinary, however, it might not be that as Nazali is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns but is still referred to as one of Nadia’s sisters? Another option that I’ve been pondering is that it’s a breadcrumb specifically for his route around him actually having siblings who might have been born after he was abandoned! The little line would specifically make sense if he didn’t have any brothers, but might have a sister/sisters instead, and this line would still make sense in its context after more of Muriel’s route comes out.

EDIT: I found it! It’s not actually in the game, but was an ask answered for Muriel’s birthday by the devs here

I feel like it’d also be interesting because it’d provide a different dynamic for Muriel in working out his own feelings about his parents particularly - especially around feeling replaced and unwanted. I also tbh desperately want Muriel to have a younger sibling kjnakkjaf give me good big brother Muriel!!! 

Anyway! A very long post but I’m highly excited to see what comes in his route! I’m going to cry!

[soveryanon]

Reviewing time for MAG156 /X_X/*

- I can’t believe that Simon was actually (not) foreshadowing this statement:

(MAG151) SIMON: I’d say “anytime”, but honestly, if you see me again… I may just throw you off something for a joke. How do you feel about… rollercoasters? MARTIN: Uh… Neutral. SIMON: Oh… [CHAIR SCRAPING] You’re no fun.

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “This was all too much for our witness, who had decided that whatever was going on in this place, he wanted no part of it. But as he turned to look for a way out, there was a sound that cut through the background din of the park: it was a scream from the rollercoaster, but not the joyful cry of adrenaline and mock terror, but a dreadful, piercing wail flying through the air. It seemed one of the riders, unable to properly benefit from the safety bar, had been thrown from the car at the height of a loop, and was sailing through the air, landing on the unforgiving ground of the main avenue with a horrendous crunch.”

(It’s like “rollercoasters” became part of Jonny’s imagery book in recent episodes only – there was this episode, there was Simon, and there was also Annabelle: “But by then, you’re away: the roller coaster is dropping and you’ve no real choice but to hold on and hope that… I don’t crash you.” (MAG147) We didn’t really have any before that!)

(I got Roller Coaster Tycoon flashbacks – you could get accidents so easily in your rollercoasters with badly controlled velocity, you could trap your visitors forever, they could be miserable, you could bury them in never-ending holes, they could drown… How come, except for this statement and The Stanger’s circus, the entities haven’t really banked on theme parks to get their hands on many unsuspecting people?)

- HEY, that’s so cool:

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “It’s a little too out-of-the-way to be a common destination for teenage delinquency, but has become, I’m told, quite popular with what could be described as “rural urban exploration” groups. Apparently, the lack of – well – actual urban areas to explore means that locations such as this? Become quite a draw for those in the area with an interest in abandoned places. And of course, its rather forbidding appearance, after ten years of decay, has led a few ghost hunters out that way as well; though I’m not aware of any specific tragedies or stories about it that would give them much to go on.”

I don’t even need Tim to be mentioned to feel Sad About Tim. (=> spontaneous feeling since “urbex” was mentioned.)

- Updated chronology of Adelard’s letters regarding The Extinction:

* MAG134: Statement of Adelard Dekker, taken from a letter to Gertrude Robinson dated 22nd January, 2006. * MAG156: Statement of Adelard Dekker, taken from a letter to Gertrude Robinson dated 4th January, 2009. * MAG144: Statement of Gary Boylan, given October 3rd, 2009. * MAG113: Statement of Adelard Dekker. Statement undated, likely circa 2012. * MAG149: Statement of Judith O’Neill, given May 13th, 2013.

Adelard was a biiit less affirmative and dead-set on the existence of The Extinction in this one – he did mention that Gertrude wasn’t absolutely convinced, and the statements&letters he sent her way were precisely supposed to back-up his theory:

(MAG134, Adelard Dekker) “I am now certain my theory is correct: there is something new emerging. A fifteenth Power. I didn’t want to believe it either, not at first, but I was alerted a few months ago to the case of a woman named Bernadette Delcour. […] Now I know what you’re going to say, Gertrude: odd doors are signs of The Spiral, empty worlds tend towards The Lonely, and eschatology is almost literally the study of The End. But this is different. I feel it. This Fear is new. This is a fear of extinction. Of change. […] I know you don’t credit my theories, and I’m sure you’ll have plenty to say on this one, but I’m going to need your help with this at some point – I’m sure of it. […] I’ll keep searching for evidence, trying to find… instances and manifestations of The Extinction. I’ll keep you updated.”

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “I’d be inclined to chalk this up as a genuine Extinction manifestation. But I don’t know. Am I drawing wild conclusions, trying to fit the account into my own preconceptions? Keen to know your feelings on the matter.”

(MAG113, Adelard Dekker) “I was pursuing my researches into the new emergence I mentioned earlier. I know you are dismissive of the possibility, but if I’m right, the sudden urgency of these “immediate dangers” you are so focused on could very well be a direct result. But that’s for another day, as this particular instance turned out to be unconnected.”

(MAG149) MARTIN: There’s… hum, a, a note here as well. [PAPER RUSTLING] Looks like Gertrude’s handwriting? Start of a letter to… Dekker, thanking him for sending Judith to her, though… it doesn’t look like it was ever finished or sent. [PAPER RUSTLING] “I assume this is another one he was trying to use to prove The Extinction? It… certainly has something in it. Mankind’s trash giving rise to something terrible. And again, fear of the other, inanimate humanoid figures. That’s all very… Stranger, isn’t it?”

Had Gertrude managed to temper him a bit, at first, after his initial conviction that there was a new Fear? Given the 2013 statement, what he found later was proof enough for him, at least.

- It’s cool that, thanks to the dates and the mention from Adelard, we can fit this letter in the broader scheme of Gertrude’s own actions:

(MAG130) GERTRUDE: Gertrude Robinson recording. December 19th, 2008. … In your own time. LUCIA: Right, okay. So. Hum. I was on holiday, actually. […] When a deal came up in the middle of October, the five days in Istanbul, I jumped on it. […] GERTRUDE: Dekker really came through with the explosives! It almost felt like cheating. Sad about the loss of history but Miss Wright didn’t seem to think the old Gnostic church got many visitors anyway.

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “Gertrude, I wanted your opinion on an encounter I’ve had described to me recently, and given your recent dealing with Viscera, I would very much value your input. Good job on that, by the way; I’m sure the gnostic temple was a great loss culturally speaking, but I can’t help but admire your directness when it comes to dealing with this sort of thing. I often find myself locked in a bit of an esoteric paralysis about how to proceed.”

(Could have just been “viscera” as the English noun, but given how he had called The End “Terminus” in MAG113, I think it was “Viscera” for The Flesh itself, and that he tends to favour Latin names?)

That statement was sent shortly after stopping The Flesh, then! I’m a bit curious because, from what Gertrude had said, I had got the feeling that Adelard had been present on the scene and had been the one to activate the explosives, although Gertrude herself was there in the flesh (ha):

(MAG130) LUCIA: It was barely more than a ruin. More than that, I seemed to be almost entirely alone. There’d been an old woman coming out of it when I arrived but… I hadn’t seen anyone apart from her. […] GERTRUDE: Well…! That – is – a relief. When I heard there’d been survivors of “The Last Feast”, I was rather concerned that one of them might be able to positively identify me, [CHUCKLE] which could land me in all sorts of trouble! But she doesn’t seem to remember me at all.

But it seems like Adelard wasn’t really involved in person… Did he really just supply the explosives and/or manage to get his hands on some because Gertrude has specifically asked? With what they both said, I couldn’t help but entertain the thought that they were both congratulating each other for… something a third party actually did, without either of them realising.

(If it wasn’t for Adelard’s quick comment in MAG134 (“Sorry I can’t be there in person to go over all this with you.”), I would still doubt that Adelard and Gertrude ever met each other face-to-face. It sounds like they were penpals, but kept a lot of distance – was it a way to try to avoid The Eye’s surveillance? I’m fearing a bit that Adelard will turn out to be yet another deceptive figure ;; Well. At the very least, he was a bit old, or at least had grey hair already in 2001 (MAG078: “his short hair was iron grey”), and Eric did point out that people who manage to get old in this business tend to, uh… not be the Greatest People Around.)

- So, were the teeth marks around the mirrors there because the park’s attendees could see through to the other side, and were really craving some of that (our) meat…?

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “Everything seemed more or less maintained, with paint that was old and starting to peel, but a long way from the bare, rotten wood it had been before. The only thing in worse condition were the mirrors themselves, the frames of which were now pocked with tiny, irregular indentations all the way round. It would be some time before the idea would come to him that they were teeth marks.”

Adelard pointed out that he had been reminded of Flesh with this one, and, indeed, there was the overall idea that “meat is me(at)” in the random outburst of cannibalism as soon as an opportunity arose – that part made me think of The Slaughter a bit (because… they were coexisting beforehand? It was a plain amusement park, with a few oddities), though I mostly got a Stranger vibe all through it (because of the fact that it was the familiar made unfamiliar, that these people were not-quite-people but meant harm anyway, and an overall wrongness to the whole experience).

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “There were people striding down the main avenue, past the well-lit booths trying to entice them with coconut throws and hoop games. The rollercoaster rattled along in the background, the faint screams of its riders drifting over the crowds below. For a few seconds, it seemed almost legitimately joyful. But as he watched, a certain wrongness began to become clear – meaningless details, if they were confined to a single punter, but all the park-goers seemed the same. […] A sudden silence fell over the place. The rides still whirred and rang and jangled, but every person there had gone completely still, their eyes locked on the mangled mess of broken limbs and shattered bone. It was the carnie that went first, vaulting over the side of the coconut shy with an unexpected agility. Then, it was as if a dam had broken, and every half-wasted figure descended on the twisted corpse. […] He tells me he was suddenly very aware of just how much flesh was on his body. […] So: what are your thoughts? I’m keen to hear your own interpretation of this account. My first assumption would have been The Flesh, based on the cannibalism and strangeness of the bodies involved, but… something about this idea of some sort of “famine world”, its location within a made-man ruin, the whole… societal aspect of it… I’d be inclined to chalk this up as a genuine Extinction manifestation. But I don’t know. Am I drawing wild conclusions, trying to fit the account into my own preconceptions? Keen to know your feelings on the matter.”

I’m glad that Adelard expressed a few doubts about his methodology regarding The Extinction, the fact that he’s not quite sure it’s actually a thing and not his own fantasies slapped on “usual” Fears-stuff, because I’m really getting this feeling too? At the same time, we know that the classifications have always been arbitrary, and Jon still might have provided the best summary (MAG111: “An infinite amorphous blob of terror bleeding out in every direction at once.”) – so The Extinction is a thing and is not a thing at the same time, it would always be impossible to perfectly nail it down and put it in a box?

The exploitable data is mostly the reoccurrences in the statements Adelard felt were Extinction:

* Appearing in abandoned places, or (man-made) places that have lost their purposes: Garland Hillier’s flat, which had been forgotten by history (MAG134); the old Bright Lake amusement park (MAG156); Gary Boylan’s emptied rural land in the countryside (MAG144). The only exception would be Judith O’Neill’s statement in the Amazonian forest (MAG149), though it shares the fact that it was isolated and not visited (it actually sounded like the reverse, a man-made-ish thing contaminating another place?).

* It’s never a solitary monster, but always multiple creatures that seem indistinctive.

(MAG134, Adelard Dekker) “But honestly, trying to get a description of these… things, these “Inheritors” from Bernadette Delcour made me wish I could just pull the image from her lips, like you would have been able to. In the end, she would say nothing of them, except that [STATIC]: “There is nothing done in the history of humanity that deserves the things that come after us.””

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “There were people striding down the main avenue […]. all the park-goers seemed the same. The first was how baggy their clothes were: it almost seemed as though everyone was wearing some sort of oversized novelty t-shirt. But it was the same with the shirts, jackets, dresses – until it became apparent that it was not the clothes that were too big, but the wearers who were too small. Their limbs were painfully thin to look at, their flesh stretched tight over jutting bones, and the fabric hung off them like great flaps of skin. The hair on each head was thin, and wispy, often missing in great chunks, and their eyes were sunken so hollow that from a distance, they seemed almost empty.”

(MAG144, Gary Boylan) “There are terrible things coming. Things that if we knew of them, would leave us weak, and trembling, with shuddering terror at the knowledge that they are coming for all of us. We all made them, and their course is already plotted. You can see them in the numbers. If you’d only learn how to read them.”

(MAG149, Judith O’Neill) “There were no people in there, but… that’s not the same thing as it being empty. Instead, there were… figures. From a distance, they looked like human beings, standing impossibly still. But getting closer… quickly revealed the lie. It was just the rough shapes, cobbled together out of a hundred different pieces of garbage: a broken metal clotheshorse for a ribcage; a… plastic chair leg for an arm; rusted screws for teeth. In some cases, it looked like someone had gone through a lot of effort to match anatomy with construction. I saw one with a broken water-cooler where its stomach would be, and another had a pair of oxygen tanks standing in for lungs. They were completely still, but there was something about them that made my mouth dry up, and my mind scream to run. [STATIC] It didn’t feel like they were statues. It felt like they were choosing not to move.”

* People who had an encounter were trespassers who… were thrown into another “world” at a distinct moment, and had to go back the same way. Exception would be Gary Boylan, who apparently received a message without crossing the line – but the message was performative and harmed his community?

(MAG134, Adelard Dekker) “She turned to leave and that, she says, is when she started to get the sense that something was wrong. The door had been damaged by the builders who uncovered the place, and there were several distinct gaps in the wood. But as she walked back out, the door appeared to be whole.  She ignored it, and left anyways, trying to reason it all as a strange quirk of memory. Just one of those things. Unfortunately for her, it was not the only thing that had changed. The walls of the stairwell were discoloured, as though covered with a dusting of some… faint yellowish dirt, and the stone steps were ever so slightly sticky beneath her shoes. There was no sound, no sign of life other than the squeaking of leather as she descended, trying desperately to convince herself that nothing was wrong; that it had been just as quiet on the way up; that this building had always had a thick, humid feeling to the air. […] Remembering Hillier’s words about the door, she had just enough time to retreat back to the apartment and barricade herself inside. Then, she waited until the entrance changed again, and she could emerge back into the world she remembered. At least, that’s my interpretation of events.”

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “It was the third mirror that did it. The one that expanded him into a short, squat reflection caused no problems; neither did the one that bent him out of shape. But the third mirror, the one that squeezed him, made him thin, and gaunt… that was the one which took him. He outright refused to tell me exactly how he was pulled through it, but by the look in his eyes, I have no doubt it was a powerfully unpleasant experience – so much so that he claims to have lost consciousness. […] He then took what I consider to be his only sensible action in the entire affair: rather than running straight to the mirror which distorted him into a thin, angular figure, he took a moment to look at each one, and one of them showed no reflection at all. His next action of running full-pelt into it was perhaps less inspired, but it does seem to have been effective, since when he regained consciousness, covered in blood and broken glass, he was once again in the silent darkness of the abandoned Bright Lake amusement park he had made the unwise decision to break into.”

(MAG144, Gary Boylan) “I was passing by an old cheap metal barn when I heard it. I’d been listening to music as I walked, when my iPod abruptly cut out. I stopped where I was, and took it out of my pocket, assuming I’d knocked it or somehow turned it off. But the screen was on, apparently playing music, though I didn’t immediately recognise the song. I got a pretty sizeable music collection, but I feel like I do know it pretty well. This one had no artist, no album, just the track name: “Numbers”. […] I ran as fast as I could to the pylon, that ruined place that knew all of the numbers, and I fell to my knees and wept. I begged it to spare us, to spare me, as I stared at the flesh I knew would redden, and bubble, and blister away to the bone beneath. I didn’t need headphones to hear the numbers now. They were pouring from the air around me and threaded through my mind, and no matter how I begged, they would not stop.”

(MAG149, Judith O’Neill) “He shifted his leg, trying to keep his footing, but slipped on the now muddy ground, falling and pulling me with him. I instinctively grabbed Fernanda for support, but ended up pulling her down as well, the three of us tumbling down a short and muddy decline and landing hard in the foliage. It took a few moments to pull ourselves together. It wasn’t a huge fall? But I felt strangely disorientated as I clambered to my feet, shaking my head in an attempt to dispel some of the… mm, fuzziness, that had settled over it. The others clearly felt it too, although… checking ourselves over, it seemed we’d been lucky: all we had broken was our equipment. Although Dr. Anastas whined about that almost as much as if it had been a bone. I tried to get my bearings, but… even though we’d only moved a few meters laterally at most, I was finding it really hard to get a solid idea on where we were. I couldn’t figure out exactly which way we had come, and… I couldn’t get a clear read on the sun through the canopy and clouds. Fernanda wasn’t having any better luck with the compasses, as they were either broken, or something magnetic in the area was messing with them. They just generally span around and around. […] That was when I noticed how quiet it was. Aside from the rain, the jungle cacophony had… simply stopped. […] I don’t know how long we ran, but it was hours before we felt even remotely safe. The jungle looked normal again and, more importantly, it sounded normal.”

* The things from the other side marked the people who had escaped, and might be coming through our world because of them?

(MAG134, Adelard Dekker) “I may try to interview her again later, though I have my suspicions she may find herself disappearing. She has that… quality about her, I’m sure you know what I mean, o–of an unfinished meal. And I can only hope that when the second course starts, she can remember her way back to Garland Hillier’s apartment once more. But of course, the evidence suggests that, in the end, even he wasn’t able to.”

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “He told me, near the end, that he had recently been worried he was being followed. He keeps catching glimpses of a thin figure in the distance, or disappearing around a corner, and I can’t quite get past the detail that there was no reflection at all in the mirror he used to return. If my suspicions are correct, there’s little either of us could do for him; but do take care, should you make contact.”

Peter also insisted that The Extinction would be coming through from a particular point (“where”):

(MAG156) PETER: Well. There’s something at the centre, a… let’s call it a “device”. Now – our biggest problem with The Extinction is lack of information. We know it’s emerging, but we don’t know how, or where. MARTIN: And this… “device” will help. PETER: Yes…!

… and I’m a bit surprised by that because, so far, the only case of Fears coming through a specific space was during rituals carried out by their servants? So, The Extinction’s birth should require servants in the first place, and that should be the focus? Or are Fears actually tied to spaces and places, as Smirke used to believe? Yes, the Powers have strongholds, but those were created by avatars (and the Fears people felt, such as with the taxidermy shop) – so how could The Extinction come through at a singular, located point…? (Or is Peter absolutely wrong? Or is there a human-made punctual catastrophe approaching in their world, and that would be The Extinction’s cue to sneak in? Once again, Peter: where did you get the info and your theories about The Extinction being “active” and trying to annihilate the world, when the only statements Martin read were these ones…)

- I’m once again reminded of the Not!Them in the way “something” was pursuing Adelard’s statement-giver:

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “Oh – one more thing: if you do try to follow up with my source – and I know you have your own ways of finding him should you wish – please be careful. He told me, near the end, that he had recently been worried he was being followed. He keeps catching glimpses of a thin figure in the distance, or disappearing around a corner, and I can’t quite get past the detail that there was no reflection at all in the mirror he used to return. If my suspicions are correct, there’s little either of us could do for him; but do take care, should you make contact.”

And it’s still interesting to me that Adelard had been the one to bind the Not!Them to the table prior to his research about Extinction? The way The Extinction had been described in MAG134 had already reminded me a bit of the Not!Them:

(MAG134, Adelard Dekker) “This Fear is new. This is a fear of extinction. Of change. It used to be part of The End, perhaps, when The End of humanity was to be the end of all things; but now, the fear is not of a rapture or a revelation; it is of catastrophic change. A change in our world that will wipe out what it means to be “us”, and leave something else in its place.” […] PETER: The Extinction is… different. It’s active. It will seek to create a lifeless world, in a way that none of the other Powers ever would. Some interpretations suggest it might replace us with something new, that can then fear annihilation in turn. But I and those like me would rather that did not happen.

Although Not!Sasha admitted to being a creature from The Stranger (MAG079: “Once upon a time there was a monster, but no one realised. Sometimes someone did and then they were scared, so that was good. […] So the monster got its friends to carry the table all around, and it still got to take faces and scare people.”) – it specifically fed on the Fears of people noticing that someone they knew was now a stranger. And I still can’t help but feel like maybe Adelard was right on a new Fear emerging, but off in his description of it, of what it does and what it feeds from, mostly because his past experiences were colouring his interpretation…?

(Adelard acknowledged it could be the case in this episode, which, nice! But is it supposed to joss the idea that he could have been wrong, or precisely to introduce the idea that he was…)

- … I kinda hope that Adelard is not dead because the SOLIDARITY with Jon…

(MAG076) MELANIE: I was actually a meme for a day or two. … You… do know what that is, don’t you? ARCHIVIST: Yes, I know what a meme is. You were saying?

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “My young friend was specifically intending to use it as the site of a party they were planning to throw. Based on his description, I would have called it a “rave” but when I said so, he looked at me like I didn’t understand what he was talking about. […] He was very interested in the hall of mirrors. According to him, if it was still in good shape, it would have been an amazing place to put on a light show, and let his guests dance their way through the maze. Sounds like a good way to get injured to me, but apparently I used the word “rave” wrong, so what do I know.”

(Ahahaha, 36th episode of a season in both cases.)

I’m so glad that Martin got to read this statement because his voice can get SO nasal and petty in these occasions, and it was Beautiful.

(What was the thing, if not a “rave”, though? Was the guy only squinting because he wasn’t expecting Adelard to use the word? Because uh, if not a rave, what was it supposed to be? An orgy?)

- Confirmed by Word Of Jonny that that mention was indeed there to be heard as Adelard being religious and !!

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “I often find myself locked in a bit of an esoteric paralysis about how to proceed. Still. God grant me clarity to act when I need it.”

(MAG078, Lawrence Moore) “He was black, dressed in a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and a thin necktie. For a moment I had the idea he might be a Jehovah’s Witness, but one look at his face dispelled that idea immediately. It was hard and stern, set in look of determination, and his short hair was iron grey. He was very thin, with aging skin stretched tight over wiry, corded muscle, and though he was slightly shorter than I was, it seemed like he towered over me. […] He told me his name was Adelard Dekker, and that he was an exorcist, of sorts.”

So maybe he didn’t just look like a Jehovah’s witness, but genuinely is one? Also aouch about the gnostic temple then:

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “Good job on that, by the way; I’m sure the gnostic temple was a great loss culturally speaking, but I can’t help but admire your directness when it comes to dealing with this sort of thing.”

Because I can’t tell if he was throwing shade at Gertrude about it and the fact she had destroyed a precious religious place… or was absolutely uncaring about it because it wasn’t his own religion.

- I feel like, as in with Eric’s accusations, Adelard was a biiiiiiiiit harsh (and fair) about Gertrude actually being way more Eye-aligned that we had been led to think in season 3?

(MAG154) ERIC: She didn’t try to keep me in the dark just so I wouldn’t stop being useful. She never made me complicit in a thousand nightmares, and lives ruined for the sick joy of some otherworldly voyeur. […] I know what you say, what you think you’re doing – saving the world one poor doomed soul at a time. I mean, I understand; I do! … But I couldn’t be a part of it. Not when I saw what happened to everyone else you involved. I had to get out, to escape this place. […] I’m sure you’ll find something… “neater”. A strong acid, precisely applied? That sounds more your style. If you decide to do it, that is. GERTRUDE: Nn, I, I–I don’t know… ERIC: No… It’s not an easy sacrifice to make, is it? GERTRUDE: I still have work to do. ERIC: Don’t you always.

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “You will forgive me if I withhold his name, as I have all the verification I need to be convinced he’s telling the truth, and I find it hard to believe any follow-up you’d be interested in doing would be beneficial for him. He’s earned his anonymity. […] Oh – one more thing: if you do try to follow up with my source – and I know you have your own ways of finding him should you wish – please be careful.”

The end of the letter was mostly about Gertrude’s safety, but still… Adelard mentioned shielding his witness from Gertrude, and that’s… something. Did she change her habits around the time she met Gerry (because he was Who He Was, or because she was more reluctant to serve The Eye now that The Watcher’s Crown was an identified threat), or was Gerry… not noticing that she was using her powers to that point…? Both Tim and Basira lauded Gertrude’s efficiency, but at the same time, we’ve been seeing a lot more of her terrible sides this season (Michael Shelley had been a huge one already, and we learned that she was planning to use Gerry to stop The Stranger, Eric mentioned her victims, Arthur was kept in place by her (how powerful and scary must have she been, to contain another monster?), and now we’re seeing Adelard relying on her but being wary of the harm she could do to others…)

(Also, Adelard had a tiny change of heart regarding Gertrude’s powers, between 2006 and 2009:

(MAG134, Adelard Dekker) “I have never envied you your position, Gertrude. I have never coveted your gifts, as I know the terrible costs that come with them. But honestly, trying to get a description of these… things, these “Inheritors” from Bernadette Delcour made me wish I could just pull the image from her lips, like you would have been able to.”

(MAG156, Adelard Dekker) “I do envy you your gifts sometimes, Gertrude. His account of their pursuit through the mirror-maze was so disjointed that I was honestly unable to follow it. Even after he tried to take me through it two, or even three times. Without The Eye’s clarifying influence, panic can make details… difficult to remember.”

Was it the frustration, pushing him to get a bit envious…? Three years is not a lot; had something happened to him in that timeframe…?)

- Ooooooooooh, so Martin actually followed up on his first interaction with a tape recorder this season:

(MAG126) MARTIN: You do you. Spool away, I guess. Just, you know, let me know if need some more batteries or something.

(MAG156) MARTIN: You know… I’ve been wondering about your batteries. Like, could I just take the batteries out each time one of you appears and just… have an infinite supply of batteries? I mean, I, I won’t, don’t worry. Don’t really have anything that needs them these days. … Also, I know there’s every chance you don’t even have any?, and it’s just empty, and… well… I’m not really sure that’s something I want to confirm.

(Gotta love how Martin went from benevolently offering assistance, to pondering out loud about harming. He did say that he wouldn’t do it, but… Martin. (By “love”, I mean: “I’m worried about Martin’s current state of mind.” But at the same time, I Understand, and the fact he’s not planning on doing it, and is just musing about it, is what matters. It’s a bit of a violent thought-process, but also a bit silly, carrying on with an idea that doesn’t serve any purpose. That’s so random. That really sounds like Martin?))

Isn’t it curious that he’s obsessing with those? … isn’t it a bit scary that the way the world “battery” has been used in season 4 was in the context of a “fear battery” (MAG135, Manuela Dominguez: “I never learned his name, never needed to; he was simply a battery. A ready source of constant terror I could draw on for my experiments.”). Are the tape recorders plainly powered by the scraps of Fears (or the static parts specifically?) of the statements or interactions we hear…?

- I’M SO SAD BUT SO GLAD THAT “MARTIN TALKING TO THE TAPE RECORDERS” IS STILL A THING…

(MAG098) MARTIN: Huh. Yeah, y’know, y’know what? A little privacy would be nice sometimes, okay? Not everything’s for you! You don’t need to listen to everything that we– … Alright, you know what? Y’know what… If you’re that eager, fine.

(MAG126) [CLICK–] [CLOCK IN THE BACKGROUND] [TYPING SOUNDS] MARTIN: [SIGH] Oh. Hello. Haven’t seen you in a while. [TYPING] … Really? I mean, it’s just admin. It’s not exactly thrilling listening. … Alright, fine. Whatever. You do you. Spool away, I guess. Just, you know, let me know if need some more batteries or something. [TYPING] … It’s because he’s back, isn’t it. [SIGH] He’s back, so now you’re going to be… around, again. Listening in. Mff. You missed him, didn’t you. … Yeah. … [VERY SHARP SQUEAL OF DISTORTION] Yeah, me too.

(MAG154) [CLICK–] [CLOCK TICKING IN THE BACKGROUND] [TYPING SOUNDS] [COMPUTER MOUSE CLICKING] MARTIN: Oh. Right. [CHUCKLE] Hello, again. [TWO CLICKS, TYPING RESUMES] Look, sorry pal, [SHORT LAUGH] false alarm this time…! [ONE CLICK] Oh, unless… [SIGH] [TWO AGGRESSIVE CLICKS] [TO THE ROOM:] Peter!

(MAG156) [CLICK–] [CLOCK TICKING IN THE BACKGROUND] [PAPER RUSTLING] MARTIN: Hm? … Oh. [CHUCKLE] Yeah. [PAPER RUSTLING] I was gonna read one. Hate for you to miss it! [CHUCKLE] [PAUSE] You know… I’ve been wondering about your batteries. Like, could I just take the batteries out each time one of you appears and just… have an infinite supply of batteries? I mean, I, I won’t, don’t worry. […] Still, kind of nice to talk to some… thing. [INHALE] It’s always… quiet, these days. For me, at least. […] I mean, if you’ve got any thoughts, I’d love to hear them. … Hm? [SILENCE] No – didn’t think so. [LONG INHALE] That’s not what you’re here for, is it? [SIGH] No. You want this. [PAPER RUSTLING] Fine. [LONG INHALE] Fine, have it your way. As usual.

He is the only one to humanise them and talk to them directly (… except for Tim’s “Alright. I don’t know what you are. I don’t even know if you’re listening; I don’t care. Just, if you’re there, I want you to know that I hate you. I hate you for, for witnessing what has happened to us.” in MAG117) – even Jon is talking to them in third person? Except for a tiny humorous bit in MAG132 (“You’re coming with me! [SHORT CHUCKLE] Let’s do this one properly.”).

On the one hand, I’m glad because it’s So Soft and please, allow Martin to have a pet (which would stay alive :|), and on the other hand, it’s so sad, because those are one-sided conversations and it shows how desperate he is…? It feels like tape recorders are supplying him with the only interaction he’s now able to feel some comfort in – one-sided things, without any answers, just him talking to the void and to something that wants something from him without giving anything in return. And now, he also… stopped talking to Jon through them, only addressing the item and the recording act:

(MAG138) MARTIN: I don’t know what Peter’s planning, but my–my guess is that it might involve something below the Institute. Hopefully, by the time you get these tapes, I’ll have something more concrete for you. [PAUSE] Good luck, Jon, I– … [HUFF] Stay safe.

(MAG142) MARTIN: I should probably try to get him this tape, let him know what happened, that someone came in to… But then, ahah, would that just come across as an accusation? Like, because I don’t wanna… And then, then I guess he’d… hear this bit as well, so… I… I… [LONG EXHALE] What do I do…?

(MAG156) MARTIN: Anyway. I know he’s been listening to the tapes so, [INHALE] I guess that’ll have to do. I think I still care that he hears my voice. It’s hard to tell, sometimes. How much do I actually care; how much is just feeling that I should care.

;; He used to address Jon directly… Though he did seem in plain control of the recording in MAG138, contrary to MAG156. I wasn’t sure about his comment above, at first, but given his slight surprise when he saw the tape recorder… aouch, I think it implies that Martin wasn’t planning to record his reading this time around, and to only leave the statements for Jon and the other…? Or at least, that he isn’t sure anymore that the fact that he would be the one recording matters. And that’s… just… so sad…

- Sssso Martin’s spontaneous suspects about what could be inside A Spooky Tape Recorder are:

(MAG156) MARTIN: You know… I’ve been wondering about your batteries. Like, could I just take the batteries out each time one of you appears and just… have an infinite supply of batteries? I mean, I, I won’t, don’t worry. Don’t really have anything that needs them these days. … Also, I know there’s every chance you don’t even have any?, and it’s just empty, and… well… I’m not really sure that’s something I want to confirm. Or, I open up your compartment and it’s like, meat, or–or maggots, or something. … Mm. “Emptiness or maggots”…! It’s kinda the shape of things around here, isn’t it?

Flesh, Corruption and Lonely. It makes a lot of sense, since the three of them (through Jared, worms, Peter) terrorised him:

(MAG131) JARED: When we came up through the floor, it was wonderful. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on their faces. It was like their world had gone with the floor. The weak one legged it, and I thought the skinny one did too.

(MAG022) MARTIN: I think I might have… lost my mind a bit, then. It all… feels very… strange, blurry. I–I remember stamping and stamping as–as more made their way under my doorway. I–I remember grabbing every towel, sock, bit of fabric scrap that I could find, stuffing them under the door, into the cracks around the window. Anything where a slender worm might crawl I made airtight. And then I sat there and waited.

(MAG039) TIM: Martin’s gone. ARCHIVIST: I’m getting to that. Martin has disappeared. Tim was right about there being fewer worms down here, but they are much faster. More aggressive. None of us have been hit yet but… during one of the more alarming encounters, Martin ran off. TIM: He thought we were behind him, I think. ARCHIVIST: He didn’t think at all.

(MAG108) PETER: Do I scare you Martin? MARTIN:  Yes…! PETER: Hm. Probably for the best.

But I’m still squinting hard that one of the prime suspect should have been “spiders spinning inside”, and Martin, who loves spiders, who had specifically described Gertrude’s hidden room in the tunnels through an absence of webs (MAG040: “She was sat in a wooden chair in the middle of the room. No worms. No cobwebs. Just… an old corpse.”), didn’t raise that possibility, so MMMMMmmm…

- If Peter’s dying this season, I’m gonna miss him so much because he’s SO SHITTY…

(MAG156) MARTIN: [LONG SIGH] I just wish [VERY SHARP SQUEAL OF DISTORTION] Peter would finally get round to telling me what we’re meant to be doing about it…! PETER: Then I have– MARTIN: [SURPRISED YELP] [CHAIR CLATTERING?] PETER: –good news for you! MARTIN: Peter, we have talked about this! PETER: In my defence, it is still quite funny. […] Excellent. I’m so proud of you, Martin. MARTIN: I really don’t care. PETER: Perfect.

I really really hope that he’s genuinely confusing Martin’s snappiness towards him as a general rejection of people – to me, it still feels like Peter Remains A Special Case and that Martin personally doesn’t like him? Well. Has grown fonder of/a bit more dependent on him than planned, certainly, since Martin still thought he was better than nothing:

(MAG149) MARTIN: Peter hasn’t rocked up with some more… “insights”? Haven’t seen him around for a while, actually. I mean… eh, it’s not like I miss him [CHUCKLING] but, at least he was someone to– [PAUSE] … Ah. [HUFF] [PAPER RUSTLING] Yeah, that makes sense. [EXHALE] A’ight, fine. Just… me on my lonesome for a while, then.

(MAG151) MARTIN: I can’t. Peter’s the one with the plan, and… it needs me to be alone. BASIRA: And you don’t see anything suspicious about that? MARTIN: Of course I do! But it… might be the only way and… [INHALE] So far, at least, he’s been honest with me. Awful, but… honest. I need to do this. For everyone.

But I don’t think that, unless it’s about Peter’s skills/knowledge, Martin would feel sad if Peter were to disappear. (… Or would he?)

- And AOUCH for that textbook manipulation bit of… suddenly rushing things. They’ve been static for so long, and now, just because Peter has said so, they have to act quickly – so Martin has less time for planning.

(MAG154) MARTIN: [EXASPERATED INHALE] So. What’s the news? PETER: I think we’re finally ready! MARTIN: Great. And does that mean I finally get to know what we’re ready for? PETER: Yes! Well… for the most part. To a certain degree, you really need to see it for yourself. […] If you need more time… MARTIN: I don’t. PETER: … Good! Because I was going to say there probably isn’t any. MARTIN: If it’s been down there all this time, how come we haven’t found it? Jon explored the tunnels pretty thoroughly, and Leitner was down there a lot. PETER: It’s very difficult to reach if you don’t know exactly where you’re going. MARTIN: … And you do? PETER: I will. By tomorrow, I should have my hands on a map, and then… we go. [SILENCE] MARTIN: … Right.

* Martin gets some time, but I’m not sure he’ll leave an audio testament for the others (especially since Jon had discovered the previous tapes sooner than he had planned), just like the assistants had done in MAG117. But maybe a letter…? I’m not even sure he would bother, but…

* What was The Thing that would suddenly require them to hurry things through…? Is it that Jon has found a way for the assistants to leave The Eye? Is it that Jon is coming closer to a breaking point, withdrawal-wise? Is it that Peter actually fears Julia&Trevor? Is it that someone/something (Annabelle, Adelard?) is ready to make their move against the Institute? Is it to mess with Martin, since Martin sounds ready? Is it because the end of 2018 is slowly coming closer and Peter would still need to act before the end of the Institute’s anniversary year and/or they’re approaching the exact anniversary date of its foundation? Is it because Elias is on the verge of breaking free from prison, and Peter is scared of the consequences given how he Lonely’d a few staff members and made a mess of the scheduling…?

(- Ahahahah, and no mention of Trevor&Julia around Martin… does he even KNOW they threatened Jon and the others, and could come back any moment? Does Peter know? Will they mess up their plans down in the tunnels…?

No mention of Melanie either – did Martin read her letter? Did some spiders snatch it up before anyone could read it, or did Peter take it far from Martin’s sight…? There must have been a huuuge commotion at the Institute when Melanie was taken by the emergency unit, did Martin even notice…?)

- Regarding Martin’s… apathy? comfort in his isolation? We had been warned by Peter, and Martin had mentioned pretty often that he was growing accustomed to this situation, but with this episode…

(MAG156) MARTIN: Still, kind of nice to talk to some… thing. [INHALE] It’s always… quiet, these days. For me, at least. I guess I technically have the power to make it not quiet, to… to talk to people, but like… You know, I–I also have the power to clean out the fridge, and it’s still a mess. It’s not that I don’t want to clean the fridge, it’s just… Some things are just hard…! Anyway. I know he’s been listening to the tapes so, [INHALE] I guess that’ll have to do. I think I still care that he hears my voice. It’s hard to tell, sometimes. How much do I actually care; how much is just feeling that I should care. I’m on my own so much these days, I… just wish I didn’t like it so much.

IT’S PLAIN DEPRESSION, MARTIN ??? There was still no mention of Melanie nor of her letter, but… if he has read it, it might have contributed to the numbness (everything is fading, collapsing, Martin is on his own and the other assistants are not his friends, have never have been, and he doesn’t know them much). And gosh, it sounds like Jon was spot-on about it in “Cul-de-Sac” (well, at least about the part about Martin being hit hard by The Lonely; Jon’s examples were… kinda optimistic, compared to what’s happening with Martin):

(MAG150) ARCHIVIST: Statement ends. The Lonely is… possibly the most insidious of the powers, I believe. Certainly it is the one that… most delights in having you do its work for it. Even the Spiders seem to have a hard time matching it for sheer seductiveness. [HUFF] “Time to yourself”, “self-care”, “putting yourself forward”… “not being a burden on those you care about”… [PAUSE] It doesn’t even need to tell you any lies; just waits for the lies you tell yourself.

It just feels so bad and sad, that… Peter’s grooming might be working? That Elias, who had guided Peter in Martin’s direction, is winning by proxy? That Martin is taking refuge in something that feels comfortable and is self-destructive at the same time, in something that actually makes him miserable? He doesn’t seem happy nor at peace, it just seems like Actually Facing things outside of his self-imposed goal (stopping The Extinction, protecting the others from afar) had become scary and too difficult, too… It just feels extra-double bad given how Peter had been around and “tying” Martin up in the Extinction plot when Martin was apparently at his lowest:

(MAG118) ELIAS: Your mother. MARTIN: [BREATHES SHARPLY] ELIAS: She’s always been… “difficult”, hasn’t she? You take care of her for years, feed her, clean up after her and now, with her condition degrading even further, she is the one that asked to move into a home, to have it left to the nurses! She is the one that refuses your visits. MARTIN: Sh– she’s always been– ELIAS: Strong-willed? Stubborn? No. No, Martin; you know the reason. Your mother… simply hates you. You just don’t know why! It’s not your fault. Though I know that isn’t any consolation, it’s just bad luck, really. How old were you when your father left? Eight? Nine? When you mother began to sicken and he decided he was done with you both. Not old enough to remember him with any great clarity, especially when your mother refused to keep any pictures of him. She never recovered from that betrayal. He just tore her heart right out!, and took it with him. The thing is, though, Martin: if you ever do want to know exactly what your father looked like… all you have to do~ is look in a mirror~ MARTIN: [HEAVY BREATHING] ELIAS: The resemblance is quite uncanny: the face of the man she hates, who destroyed her life, watching over her; feeding her; cleaning her; looking down on her with such pity– MARTIN: [RAGGED] Shut! Up! ELIAS: Do you want to know what she sees when she looks a you? [STATIC INTENSIFIES] MARTIN: [STRANGLED BREATHING AND CRIES] [FOR LONG] [LONG] [STRANGLED SOBS] [STATIC FADES OUT] ELIAS: Don’t. burn. any more. statements.

(MAG120) ELIAS: Hello, inspector. Martin. I’m… sorry to hear about Tim. MARTIN: Don’t. ELIAS: And Daisy, I suppose. MARTIN: Don’t. you. dare. ELIAS: I suppose it’s some consolation Basira made it out. And Jon – more or less.

(Season 4 Trailer) MARTIN: We really need you, Jon. Everything’s… It’s bad. I–I don’t know how much longer we can do this. We– … I need you. A–and… I know that you’re not… [PAUSE] I–I know th–there’s no way to… [PAUSE] But we need you. Jon. Jon, please, just… Please. If–if there’s anything left in you that can still… see us, or–or some power that you’ve still got, or–or, or something, anything – please! … Please… [SHAKY BREATHING, STRANGLED VOICE] I… I can’t…

(MAG123) ARCHIVIST: You were attacked. … When? BASIRA: About two months ago. It was… it was The Flesh. ARCHIVIST: [MUTTERING] Oh god. BASIRA: Yeah, it was bad. We took them all out. Melanie did most of them. She was… she got a knife from somewhere and– ARCHIVIST: Basira, I… I don’t know if that’s a good sign…? BASIRA: … She saved my life, Jon. She saved all of us. I won’t forget that. ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] Fine… Fine. Haven’t seen Martin about yet? BASIRA: Yeah, he comes and goes. He’s busy. Well, he seems it. ARCHIVIST: Working for Peter Lukas. BASIRA: Don’t be too hard on him, Jon. Your, er… “situation”, it hit him. Hard.

(MAG134) PETER: Martin, this is what we agreed. After The Flesh attacked, you came to me. MARTIN: [SIGH]

(MAG127) BASIRA: … It was a few months back. After the attack. He’d started spending time with Lukas. At least, he said he was. And I wanted answers. He kept telling me to trust him, to hear the guy out even though he still wouldn’t actually show his face. I told him he could… drop me an email or vanish me. ARCHIVIST: … Right. BASIRA: Honestly, I kind of regret not just… grabbing Martin and shaking an explanation out of him. But I didn’t want to push it. He was in a… bad place, what with the attack and his mom and everything, so I didn’t press it. Now, I try and bring it up, he just… disappears. Nothing to be done. ARCHIVIST: So–sorry, you said… What happened with his mother? BASIRA: Oh, yeah. She died. About two months– ARCHIVIST: Oh… BASIRA: –after you, er… … Martin was… … He tried to stay strong. Keep it together but, that sort of thing… ARCHIVIST: [SIGH] BASIRA: [SIGH] Then those Flesh things busted in, and well, here we are! ARCHIVIST: … God. BASIRA: He didn’t tell you? ARCHIVIST: No…

(MAG129) ARCHIVIST: I, er… I heard about your mother. MARTIN: … Yeah. ARCHIVIST: I am… so sorry. [SILENCE] MARTIN: Thank you. [INHALE] It’s… [SHAKY EXHALE] It’s better, this way. ARCHIVIST: If–if you do need to talk, I– MARTIN: I can’t. ARCHIVIST: No. No, o–of course.

And ;; I know that there is probably not enough time left for this? But I still crave for Martin to actually talk about his feelings on what happened after MAG119 – having to bear with the knowledge that his mother hated him, learning about Tim’s death, witnessing Jon’s coma, seeing his mother die, all in the span of two months… Elias had already preyed on Jon and the assistants by binding them without their knowledge, by trapping Jon with a god he had never wanted or known about in the first place; but it feels even worse with Martin, given how he had to deal both with Elias’s actions and Peter’s looming over him, when he was specifically said to be vulnerable, when he was all alone, when he had lost so many people…? I want to hear Martin talk or scream about his feeeeliiiiiings, even if they’re dark and bitter and sad ;___; Let it go, Martin, please…

(- I’mmmm gonna be That Person (too) but I’m stubborn and I refuse to give up entirely on Web!Martin, or at least manipulative!Martin… ;;

I think, genuinely, that he might still be trying to double-cross Peter: not in the sense that Martin will try to get out of it alive, safe and sound (I think he’s absolutely going for a self-sacrifice), but in the sense that he is expecting Peter to have further plans, and is getting ready to pull Peter in the pit together with him as soon as an occasion arises. There has been a pattern in Martin’s way of checking his surroundings which, at least, screams to me that he has noticed how Peter operates, had been getting closer to Peter on purpose, and could be planning to get rid of the new threat just like he did the previous one:

(MAG134) MARTIN: [SIGH] [VERY SHARP SQUEAL OF DISTORTION] MARTIN: So that’s it, is it? PETER: It is!

(MAG138) MARTIN: So… so what? What does it mean? Am I supposed to be reassured that new Entities can be born? That there’s some, some kind of… precedent for The Extinction? … Peter? [SILENCE] Huh. Maybe he has gone to a party.

(MAG144) MARTIN: Statement ends. [CLEARS THROAT] [INHALE, EXHALE] … Right. Another… statement. Another side to… Peter’s “Extinction”. I think. I… Y– I– [HUFF] I, I couldn’t follow some of his reasoning, but I think it was about… nuclear weapons, or… or maybe doomsday’s weapons…? In keeping with the theme, I suppose. [ARTIFICIALLY AND POINTEDLY] I just wish Peter would spend less time trying to convince me his new power is real, and more time telling me what he plans to do about it…! [SIGH] … And where I fit in. I mean, fine, I guess, I belie– [KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.] MARTIN: [SHORT SHAKY INHALE]

(MAG149) MARTIN: Sort of… surprised Peter hasn’t rocked up with some more… “insights”? Haven’t seen him around for a while, actually. I mean… eh, it’s not like I miss him [CHUCKLING] but, at least he was someone to– [PAUSE] … Ah. [HUFF] [PAPER RUSTLING] Yeah, that makes sense. [EXHALE] A’ight, fine. Just… me on my lonesome for a while, then. … Could be worse. … Peaceful, at least. … I don’t miss all the shouting. [CHUCKLE] Even if it w– [FOOTSTEPS IN THE DISTANCE, COMING CLOSER] MARTIN:  … Wait.

(MAG151) MARTIN: You–you know about that? BASIRA: Yeah. Jon found the tapes you made for him– MARTIN: SHH–SHH-SHH!! SHHHHH!!! BASIRA: [LOWER] Found a stash of them a while ago. I made sure he shared with the class. MARTIN: Oh, there you go, then!

(MAG154) MARTIN: Oh, unless… [SIGH] [TWO AGGRESSIVE CLICKS] [TO THE ROOM] Peter! [SILENCE] [INHALE] Look, Peter, I– [DOOR OPENS] ARCHIVIST: Martin! MARTIN: Oh, Jon! [DOOR CLOSES] God, don’t do that!

(MAG156) MARTIN: Another day, another Extinction scare. The more things change, I guess. [LONG SIGH] I just wish [VERY SHARP SQUEAL OF DISTORTION] Peter would finally get round to telling me what we’re meant to be doing about it…! PETER: Then I have– MARTIN: [SURPRISED YELP] [CHAIR CLATTERING?] PETER: –good news for you!

Martin knows that Peter can be around at any time, listening and spying on him. He panicked when Basira mentioned his tapes, and the fact they still went on with their discussion about Martin’s activities behind Peter’s back really wasn’t the smartest thing (what if Peter was spying them, at that moment, and just chose to keep watching without intervening? There is a huge chance that it was the case, and that Peter will throw it into Martin’s face down in the tunnels) – but also… Martin didn’t say anything “new” or compromising in that discussion. If Peter was listening to their exchange, Martin didn’t give him much reason to worry about his loyalty towards him and their project: after the mention of the tapes (which was Basira slipping), Martin only said that he disliked Peter, that he wanted to see their plan through, and acknowledged that he wasn’t planning on coming back (he only inquired about Jon, but… from afar). Same thing when Jon rushed to his office to explain to him about the eye-gouging, to the point that Martin firmly rejected Jon’s offer to elope together, and convinced Jon that Martin had been lost (MAG154: “… The Lonely’s really got you, hasn’t it?” “You know, I think it always did.”). Same with Daisy, in MAG144, which had shown Martin acting cold and biting, absolutely contrasting with MAG142… and the main difference was that, in the latter, Peter hadn’t shown up when Martin had expressed how lost he was and how he wanted to avoid confronting Jon, and that he didn’t care much about Daisy at that point.

I mean, it’s pretty clear that the Lonely “got” Martin, and that some of his ability to reach and be reached was deeply hurt in the process. But at the same time: Martin has understood that directly naming Peter, and snapping about him, tends to make him appear – and it feels so much like baiting Peter out? A way to get him in on Martin’s own terms? So given that he sounds like he’s extremely conscious of being under surveillance, potentially all the time, I’m not ruling out that he has been purposefully voicing some of his opinions in order to get on Peter’s good side. After all, it’s because they had observed Elias’s habits and how his powers operated that they had managed to trap him at the end of season 3; they already got rid of one Head of the Institute by manoeuvring around their weaknesses. So Martin could still be trying to repeat the same miracle, although sacrificing parts of himself in the process…?

As usual, doesn’t mean that it won’t go absolutely wrong but… At the very least, I don’t really see Peter&Martin acting as an absolute and undivided unit right now. Peter wants things from Martin, but the opposite is also true.)

- And so, we’re indeed heading towards Tunnels Stuff and it’s still a Mystery.

(MAG156) PETER: You know the tunnels, under the Institute? MARTIN: Ye–yes, I remember. PETER: Well. There’s something at the centre, a… let’s call it a “device”. Now – our biggest problem with The Extinction is lack of information. We know it’s emerging, but we don’t know how, or where. MARTIN: And this… “device” will help. PETER: Yes…! MARTIN: And I’m going to be the one to use it for you. PETER: I very much hope so. [PAUSE] If you need more time… MARTIN: I don’t. PETER: … Good! Because I was going to say there probably isn’t any. MARTIN: If it’s been down there all this time, how come we haven’t found it? Jon explored the tunnels pretty thoroughly, and Leitner was down there a lot. PETER: It’s very difficult to reach if you don’t know exactly where you’re going. MARTIN: … And you do? PETER: I will.

Helen had mentioned that there is something at their centre; Simon also thought that Peter wanted something specific in the Institute; Smirke had reminded Jonah that they had “constructed” something under Millbank, in the same statement in which he was warning Jonah against “wearing” The Watcher’s Crown…

(MAG152) ARCHIVIST: They could have spread all the way through these tunnels, but they didn’t. They didn’t find Leitner down here, didn’t find… Gertrude’s body. Didn’t find… whatever else is here. HELEN: It is a maze. One of the reasons I like it. ARCHIVIST: Mm. [SILENCE] … I can’t see things properly here. I thought it was just me, something interfering with my connection to The Eye, but… I’m wondering. Maybe it affects everything else. Like this place is some kind of… “universal blind spot”. Everyone gets lost, down here. HELEN: What a fascinating idea. Although… some of us are always lost, in a sense. ARCHIVIST: Wait– Are you saying you can navigate it? HELEN: Not exactly. But my door has been part of these tunnels for some time, now. ARCHIVIST: Wh– [SPLUTTERS] What’s it hiding, wh–what’s in the middle? HELEN: A delightful surprise…! [LAUGHS AND LAUGHS, ECHOING] ARCHIVIST: [SIGH]

(MAG151) SIMON: I don’t know the details. But I believe there’s something in the Institute that he thinks can help his cause. MARTIN: … And he needs me to use it. SIMON: Presumably – from what he said, it must be “powerfully aligned to The Watcher”. If he wishes to use it, it would need someone already touched by The Eye. And if he wants to control that someone… MARTIN: They need to serve The Lonely.

(MAG138, Robert Smirke) “I could not go easy to my grave without offering you one last plea for your restraint. What we built at Millbank should be left well enough alone, resigned to the nightmares of the reprobates and brigands contained within its walls. […] I am not a fool; I know well enough what this dream is likely to mean, and I warn you again that if you have any remaining ambitions to use our work, to try and wear The Watcher’s Crown, you must abandon them! Not simply for the sake of your own soul, but for that of the world!” […] MARTIN: I don’t know what he’s talking about when he mentions Millbank. The old prison, I guess? Tim said the tunnels under the Institute were all that was left of it, but… Jon said he’d checked them pretty thoroughly. [SILENCE] [SIGH] I’m not the one who knows all about this stuff…! I wish– … No. No, it’s fine, I’m… fine, I… [EXHALE] I can do this. I don’t know what Peter’s planning, but my–my guess is that it might involve something below the Institute.

And Martin was already suspecting that Peter was interested in the tunnels. (In the end, was that why Peter had given him Smirke’s letter to Jonah? Martin wasn’t sure why he had been given this one (MAG138: “So… so what? What does it mean? Am I supposed to be reassured that new Entities can be born? That there’s some, some kind of… precedent for The Extinction?”), and ended up assuming it was about Smirke’s typology, but the statement also had mentions of Smirke’s overall work and thought-process, to the point that Martin had nailed down that Peter’s interest probably lay with the tunnels under the Institute. So in the end, rather than proving to Martin that a new Fear could be birthed, maybe the main point of Peter handling Martin this statement was actually the tunnels themselves?

Peter didn’t seem absolutely firm on the word “device”, so I’m guessing that it’s a word which fits-but-doesn’t-really-fit, but what is iiiiit arrrg:

(MAG156) PETER: Well. There’s something at the centre, a… let’s call it a “device”. Now – our biggest problem with The Extinction is lack of information. We know it’s emerging, but we don’t know how, or where. MARTIN: And this… “device” will help. PETER: Yes…!

* An architectural structure based on Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon and actually designed by Smirke with Jonah Magnus’s help?

* The Watcher’s Crown, in a literal sense? (The two could be exactly the same thing; “watcher’s crown” could be the name of a structure… But Smirke had also warned Jonah not to “wear” it, so? What would be a thing that you can “wear”, physically or metaphorically speaking…?)

* Something something “crown” and “(an eye’s) corona” having the same root.

* The camera that Salesa had retrieved in MAG141’s statement? (If the tape recorder had clicked on for this statement and not for Jon’s previous four victims, then it means that this one contained something more important to their eyes (… to their plastic gears?); was it only because it was tied to Salesa, a recurring figure until now? Or was it specifically trying to nudge Jon in the direction of the camera?)

* It’s A Metaphor, The “Device” Is Jon Himself (but why specifically in the tunnels, then? Would he need to be afar from The Eye, since Jon was feeling weird down there?)

* The Not!Them? Leitner had reckoned it was trapped in the tunnels, probably not dead… It was powerful enough to rewrite a part of reality (and people’s memory), could it damage The Extinction in the same way…?

* A tomb, à la Schwartzwald, which may or may not have been (re)created thanks to the books Jonah had stolen from Albrecht? The tomb of Jonah himself? (Can’t be Albrecht’s body since Jonathan Fanshawe had burnt it, nor Barnabas’s since Elias said his bones were in his office…)

No idea, I’m mostly guessing that I’ll groan heavily and go “OF COURSE, URK” when it’s revealed. We still don’t know what the tunnels are, why “DIG” guy was feeling something focused on them, why Jon and Daisy felt so off while down there:

(MAG088, Enrique MacMillan) “so here I came. To tell my story, of course, but another thing as well; cold, empty and calling. There’s something here, you see. Something to be dug up, rooted out, buried within. A hollow space that all eyes point towards. And I intend to reach it, if my fingers don’t give out first. I know where to dig.” MARTIN: Uh, um, the, uh, the statement ends rather abruptly there. Based on a few scattered notes and accounts from some of the older staff, it sounds like Mr. Macmillan got in a bit of a fight, which led to his arrest, and the replacement of quite a bit of the floor in Jon’s office. There are still a couple of boards with marks on them that I’d always hoped weren’t fingernail scratches, but I guess…

(MAG120) ELIAS: He catches a glimpse of an advert above his seat: [STATIC INTENSIFIES] “DIG”.

(MAG114) ARCHIVIST: You alright, Daisy? DAISY: [NONCOMMITAL SOUNDS] BASIRA: Don’t think either of us like it down here. ARCHIVIST: Uh, well, no, me neither. Feels… DAISY: Empty. ARCHIVIST: Yeah.

And there is one more thing that’s still a bit weird, related to Martin’s discovery of Gertrude’s body:

(MAG040) ELIAS: Martin finding her body in the tunnels is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.

(MAG040) MARTIN: I wandered for a while. It’s a, it’s a maze down there, Jon. I don’t know how far the passages go. Maybe miles. I think it must be the old Millbank Prison, like Tim was saying before. I even found some stairs at one point, but I really didn’t want to go down them. […] I wanted to get out of there. I was looking for a way up, but it felt more and more like I was trapped. Every turn just led me to another empty corridor. When I finally found a door, I thought it might actually get out, but instead… It was a small room. Square. There was dust on everything. Cardboard boxes were piled around. They were full of old cassette tapes. ARCHIVIST: That’s where you found her? […] Could you find the room again? MARTIN: I don’t know. Maybe. The police certainly expect me to, although I got the feeling they’re not too keen to explore the tunnels either.

(MAG041) ARCHIVIST: This place, it felt more organic in its unpredictability, as though it had been intended to be used, to be travelled, but had gotten twisted somehow. I found spaces that seemed intended as rooms but without doors. Elsewhere, there were doors that seemed simply attached to the walls. Most of these were firmly shut, though some opened to reveal the flat grey stone behind. Only a handful I opened had actual rooms behind them, and in every case I found myself wondering whether that was where Martin had found her. There was no way to tell. Even when the police finally found Gertrude’s body, they took it, chair and all, as well as all the tapes.

“No cobwebs” in Gertrude’s room; the police had some trouble finding her again, Jon wasn’t sure he would be able to, and Leitner didn’t mention anything to imply knowledge of Gertrude’s body being somewhere in the tunnels; and it was still… well-preserved enough for Martin to recognise her on sight? Now that I think about it, is the fact that Martin was somehow able to find Gertrude’s body the main reason why Elias threw him in Peter’s direction…? (Martin said he was terrified, when he was running. Was it “thanks” to his fears that he pushed through…?)

(It’s still so mysterious that, if it’s supposed to be The Eye’s place of ritual, Jon feels that his powers/his connection to The Eye are tampered with in there? If Smirke was aiming for a neutral ground, how did he manage to not make it an Eye stronghold while at the same time constructing something that could use The Eye’s powers?)

This is so exciting, because the tunnels have been part of the story for so long…! The worms had actually been there for a while during the second half of season 1, before they began to pour out when the spider made Jon notice their presence behind the wall (MAG038); it’s where Tim&Jon&Martin briefly took shelter (MAG039), and where the worms attempted to build their portal; it’s where Martin was revealed to have discovered Gertrude’s body (MAG040); Jon began exploring them all through season 2 (starting MAG041); it’s where Not!Sasha ultimately tried to kill him (MAG079) before Leitner stepped in to save him; it’s mostly where Leitner had been hiding for six years (MAG080); it’s where the assistants began to clearly scheme against Elias in season 3 starting with MAG103; it’s how Tim was navigating in and out of the Institute while avoiding everyone (MAG114); it’s where Jon and Basira removed Melanie’s bullet (MAG125); where Helen was revealed to have trapped Jared (MAG131); and Jon has been coming down there recently again (MAG152)… They’ve been with us for so long, it feels a bit surreal to finally (maybe) get more information about what they are, what the intent behind their creation was, and what they could do…?

- Other obvious question is: what is the map Peter intends on getting, and how will he get his hands on it? In order of Least to Most cursed:

* It’s… extremely interesting that we already got a similar configuration with many of the elements that are currently relevant, with The Great Twisting: an expedition to stop an apocalypse, Peter Lukas being there, a map showing the way although the place should be full of deceit:

(MAG101) MICHAEL: Even when they arrived in Dikson, at the edge of the Kara Sea, and they were picked up by a quiet sea captain called Peter Lukas… Even then he trusted her. […] There was a great evil, she said, and Michael was going to help her fight it. […] But Gertrude Robinson had given poor, disposable Michael one more thing before sending him to me. She had given him a map. I couldn’t say how she would have gotten such a thing, or if she somehow made it. And yet it was a map. A map to me. It made no sense, lines overlapping and inverting, but once within, Michael knew which turns to make, which doors to open, which mirrors to shatter. Until he became me.

… and the presence of the Distortion.

We still don’t know how/where Gertrude had obtained that map – if it’s never ever relevant again, I will keep assuming it was a random, inconsequential map (and that what mattered was that Michael Shelley thought it would give him a direction, because he trusted Gertrude), but it’s still an open question at this stage. Interesting things in current events: the Distortion is currently (not) identifying as “Helen”, and Helen Richardson was good with maps, due to her profession (she had been able to draw one for Jon in MAG047); and we don’t know who sent Jared after “the Archivist”/the archival assistants, but the Distortion popped right at that moment to save them, and that event was apparently what led to Martin finally agreeing to collaborate with Peter in exchange for the others’ protection. Given how Michael-the-Distortion had called itself “the throat of delusion incarnate” and how Leitner had mentioned one of his assistants was calling it “esmentiaras” (… “es mentira”/“es mentiroso”?)… there could still be some backstabbing from the Distortion behind Jon’s back, whether it’s for fun or because it’s trying to play all the others, as a revenge against The Eye and The Lonely collaborating to counter The Great Twisting back then…? Or would that be too “coherent” for it…?

* Salesa has many spooky items, and he’s gonna be revealed to be a provider of maps too.

* Leitner’s spooky copy of The Seven Lamps of Architecture, which he had himself used to change the tunnels. Given that Leitner got pipemurder’d, Elias probably got his hands on the book?

* A map done by Tim, because Martin mentioned Leitner and Jon, but we know that Tim had also been navigating through the tunnels, and he was the most familiar with Smirke’s work – something that Martin himself had acknowledged this season in MAG138. (And also: because I miss Tim, and because I’m still so ??? that he has barely been mentioned at all this season, especially compared to how Sasha had been such an open wound in season 3…?)

* Elias had one that had been directly created by Smirke, stored somewhere in the Institute, and either tipped Peter about it, either Peter found it on his own?

* RELATEDLY, I would invite Patreons to reread the Artefact Storage Inventory that was provided as a bonus, because UHM, that first item? sounds absolutely like a miniature/reproduction of the tunnels reflecting what is happening to them?! (Down to the details of the carcasses – the report is dated from the end of 2016 so… after Prentiss’s attack.)

* Peter going to see Jon asking him to “Know” about the tunnels’ architecture, insisting heavily that Martin might die if he gets lost inside of them? (And giving his own statement as a restorative.)

* Adelard Dekker, at last? I still really don’t think that Peter and him were friends, though (/and if someone has killed Adelard, my bet is that Peter was responsible for it).

* Annabelle popping up to provide direction? Tough Peter didn’t seem to be in touch with The Web much (he wasn’t sure why they didn’t have a ritual, and he was wary of Martin having been influenced by ~something~, in MAG134).

* They’re in the tunnels, Martin is snapping snappily at Peter about the lack of direction, rants about the fact that of course, Peter didn’t bring any map in the end, and surprise!Elias pops up in the corridor, “I am Map.” (Martin screams and it’s heartbreaking because he has thrown Elias in prison, only for Elias to reveal that he could come out whenever.)

* You know who was good at finding his way (out)? MAG100’s dinner guy. He comes back to lead the way. With his DOG. Martin gets his feelings back and cries; meanwhile, somewhere in the Archives, Basira shudders and suddenly wants to scream.

- And what fate is supposedly awaiting Martin…? Martin was expecting a self-sacrifice, Peter finally confirmed that it would be in a way that is not lethal:

(MAG126) MARTIN: … When all this is over, I’m telling him everything, with or without your permission. PETER: Martin… when it’s over, you won’t want to. MARTIN: … Mm. PETER: But he will be safe. They all will. MARTIN: … Yeah.

(MAG138) ELIAS: But no. This is too important for me to jeopardise with cheap “mindgames”. I simply have to trust that when the time comes, you’ll make the right choice.

(MAG151) BASIRA: You’re not expecting to come out of this, are you? MARTIN: … I’ll do what I have to. If I’m right… no one else needs to get hurt. [SILENCE] BASIRA: [SIGH] … Okay. You want to do whatever “grand sacrifice” you think is going to save everyone, go ahead. But you’d best be sure you’re not just playing their game. MARTIN: I know what I’m doing. BASIRA: We’ll see. [PAUSE] Don’t make me regret this. MARTIN: Yeah… [PAUSE] Don’t… tell Jon. [SILENCE] Please.

(MAG156) MARTIN: Will I be coming back? PETER: You’re not going to die, if that’s what you’re asking, but… no. If all goes well, you won’t be. MARTIN: [LONG INHALE, EXHALE] PETER: How does that make you feel? MARTIN: … Nothing. [SNORT] Nothing at all…!

What is a thing that could mean “not coming back”…? Is it metaphorical, and related to the idea that Martin would die and not come back as the same (kind of what was expected for Jon between season 3 and season 4)…? Is it physical? And then, what would it mean: that Martin will get sealed in The Lonely together with The Extinction? That he’ll be stuck Beholding it as long as he can, inside of a panopticon? That he would be freed from the Archives in another way, and would be cut off from The Eye? That he would leave with Peter for unknown reasons? … Or is it a bit more bastardly from Peter, and actually related to the fact that he’ll reveal to Martin at the last moment that Martin has to do something terrible to stop it, and that the “not coming back” would be because Martin would be too crushed and ashamed to want to come back…? (Maybe the “right choice” according to Elias doesn’t necessarily mean following Peter’s ideas, as long as they take care of The Extinction?)

On the one hand, we got maaaany signals introducing us to the idea that no, Martin is done for – kinda like we had gotten with Tim, and there was no subversion for Tim, it didn’t prevent Tim from indeed dying just as announced. On the other hand, I really don’t “feel” like we’re absolutely saying goodbye to Martin right now…? But how could Martin “come back” after all of this, indeed, and go back to being an assistant, or close to Jon…? (At the same time, I would be super interested in seeing that!! ;; Martin coming back from his awful experience, and being barely able to communicate with other people without snapping or rejecting them instinctively, and still not being fine around people… but gradually learning to manage a bit again (before the end of season 5 would hit even harder.)). (I also doubt that Jon would keep holding on for very long, if Martin disappears, so it would mean losing our two main leads in one go…? It’s still a possibility, but I’m really not sure.)

The Web has been watching, at the very least, so it could hijack whatever Peter is planning for himself and The Lonely while still slowing down The Extinction if that’s in its interests too… I still like to think that the Spiders have a grudge against Peter for taking Brian, and what better way to get their revenge than to thwart Peter’s plan and/or snatch Martin right under his nose?

37th episode of past seasons: Jon being dead-set on keeping the table that would kill Sasha two episodes later (season 1), Jon listening to Gertrude’s tape labelled “Changeling/Imposter” because Melanie had made him suspicious of Sasha in the previous episode, and beginning to realise that Sasha might have been killed, leading to their confrontation (season 2), the Archives team’s statements/testaments, including Jon’s decision to “trust” them despite it all (season 3), a few days before they would head off towards The Unknowing… So ;; Could be a “breather” before action, could be the beginning of action itself in this one.

MAG157’s title is… very broad? Statement-wise, it obviously screams Corruption, but I’m also reminded of how The Lonely seemed corrosive on the Tundra…? It would also fit for, let’s say, another of the letters describing Jonah Magnus’s activities, I guess (whether it’s nailing down his personality, or whether it’s mostly assumptions). There is also Raymond Fielding that that Web apple…?

It’s the second meaning I’m mostly curious about, because it could be referring to so many things. A place: the Institute or the tunnels themselves? The entities, the Eye in particular? A body filled with eyes (again)? A person meeting that description: and then we would have many to pick from (Jonah Magnus, since it calls back to Jon’s conclusion about his character after MAG127’s statement; Peter; the Lukas family overall; Gertrude; Elias himself, since Jon had snarked about this too in season 3…?)

[monochrome-nocturne]

Yandere Simulator Theory regarding Info-chan

After listening to all the tapes and reading theories about the journalist being Info-chan's father and she actually helps Yandere-chan to take revenge for her father, I think that's absolutely true. Because why does Info-chan actually help Yandere-chan at all? For panty shots? I don't think so. I mean sure, it may be beneficial for her to sell those panty shots to gain money but I think the reason is much, much deeper than that...

 Info-chan is the only person who knows about Yandere-chan's true nature aside from her parents, Akademi High's headmaster Kocho Shuyona and the Saikou family. If you don't count Yandere-chan's parents (since their reason for knowing it is pretty obvious), you're left with the headmaster, the Saikou family, and Info-chan. Both the headmaster and the Saikou family know this fact because they seem to have been working together to put an end to the Aishi bloodline since Phantom Girl's murder at the hands of Ryoba Aishi (Yandere-chan's mother) in 1989. So... Where does Info-chan fit into through all of this? The story of 1980s Mode has three major parties against Ryoba's actions: The headmaster (since he's responsible for the safety of the school), the Saikou family (since they founded the school) and the journalist (since he was the one to find the culprit through his investigations). The journalist is a depressed and alcoholic widower who is the father of a high school-aged daughter who earns her own money (and according to her father, has too much money on her hands for her age, hinting that she is possibly the main provider of the family), spends most of her time on her computer (that she bought herself with her own money) and possibly earns her money by doing shady things, although her father knows little about her private life since he both respects her life and fears what she'll do if he interferes. Now, who else spends most of her time on a computer, does shady things and has little to no information regarding her identity? None other than Info-chan. The evidence is too clear to deny. Also, in the old opening, Info-chan was stated to be the former leader of the NEWSPAPER Club. Newspapers and journalism go hand in hand. The truth has been staring at our faces this whole time.

If she really is the journalist's daughter, she must've found the tapes her father recorded as he hid them specifically for her to find. Being her father's daughter, her detective skills are top-notch so she finds out documents and articles about the trial incident and the names of the people involved in it with ease. Since Info-chan and Yandere-chan attend the same school and Yandere-chan has her mother's last name, she connects the pieces together and hatches a plan to destroy Yandere-chan and her family for good.  Also, if you listen to the recordings about the journalist's wife, you'll notice that she was quite possibly a yandere as well: "She wouldn't let me out of her sight, and got possessive if another woman so much as looked at me." But I think Info-chan's mother was a different yandere than Ryoba Aishi: I think she wasn't as emotionless or deranged as Ryoba and actually cared about her husband's feelings. She didn't force him to love her just because she loved him, he also came to genuinely love her and was devastated when she passed away.

So... Where am I getting with this, you ask? Well, I think Info-chan is even more dangerous than she already seems to be. She has a mother who was possibly a yandere and a father who is a former investigative journalist, a job which requires searching, finding and gathering information, the very skills that define Info-chan. Her personality on the official website is listed as "unscrupulous", meaning she's willing to do anything to reach her goals as her description even says: "If she wants a favor from YOU, you'd better do exactly as she asks...or else." The journalist states in one of the tapes that his daughter sometimes returns to home with blood on her clothes and he doesn't know whether it's her own blood or the blood of someone else...

Remember the mysterious hand that's about to attack Yandere-chan from behind that YandereDev often brings up to hint us towards something? I think that hand is Info-chan's hand. I think just as how Yandere-chan is the protagonist of the game, Info-chan is secretly the true antagonist. YandereDev mentioned that there'll be multiple endings depending on how you've eliminated the rivals, how much damage has been done to Senpai's sanity, so on and so forth. What if you get an ending where Info-chan successfully exposes you to the whole nation with concrete evidence if the most used elimination methods are lethal?  What if she wants you to do bad things to people because she wants to record it and use it as evidence against you? What if she secretly tracks your every move from the services tab and records your murders with it? What if you're already lured into the trap she's set for you since the very beginning?

Also, take this fact into account: "YandereDev has also not revealed if Yandere-chan will officially meet Info-chan in real life in the future. Apparently, it will be a plot twist." A plot twist, eh? Well, what is a bigger plot twist than Info-chan revealing herself as the daughter of the same journalist whose life was ruined by Ryoba Aishi and taking a bloody revenge on Yandere-chan? Especially after listening to the last tape recording, in which her father is basically telling her his last goodbye...

"I searched for you. But I couldn't find you. I can't wait for you to come home. I have to leave immediately. I'm going to gather all of the recordings I've made so far and put them where I know you'll find them. That way, at least you'll know why your father disappeared so suddenly. I only hope that she won't try to get revenge on me by harming you. I don't know when I'll be back. I don't know if I'll be back. I don't know if she's willing to cross oceans to hunt her prey. If she is, I'll try to lure her into a trap, try to expose her true nature in front of the police. It's my only hope. I know you can take care of yourself. If I had more time, there are so many things I'd say to you, but I can't - not now. Stay safe... I love you..."

Or maybe I'm wrong. Info-chan's primary character color is red, so it could be a case of "red herring" symbolism. But maybe, just maybe, it could be a symbol for her spite against the woman who ruined her father's life. Also, I've seen a comment on Info-chan's page on the Yandere Simulator wiki regarding two possible real names for her and one of the names really caught my attention: Oyashi Naruka. Oyashi's kanji characters mean "parent-knowledge" and Naruka is a transliteration of "narc". So, if this is canon, the name basically foreshadows Info-chan's true colors...

Anyways, I'd also like to hear your thoughts if you have any.

Note: I know YandereDev has supposedly confirmed Info-chan being the daughter of the journalist but, like I said, it could be a case of her being a red herring. So, just in case, I shall refer to this a theory until it’s official that this is the case.

[natlovetheauthor]

Mr. CAvAnAugh is  A.D (Updated Theory)

If you haven’t already please read my last theories about Mr. Cavanaugh so you can catch up! I promise everything comes in full circle and your questions will be answered! I was going to do a huge edit to make everything fit, but I decided to leave my other theories, and to update this one.

PLEASE READ OR ELSE IT WILL NOT MAKE SENSE, AND YOU WILL HAVE TOO MANY QUESTIONS……

   1.       https://prettylittleobsessednatalie.tumblr.com/post/159816157736/mr-cavanaugh-is-big-bad

   2.       https://prettylittleobsessednatalie.tumblr.com/post/159816162046/prettylittleobsessednatalie-winter-chill-recap

   3.       https://prettylittleobsessednatalie.tumblr.com/post/159816067786/spoiler-alert-i-cant-get-over-how

   4.       https://prettylittleobsessednatalie.tumblr.com/post/159816169151/prettylittleobsessednatalie-in-season-7-episode

   5.       https://prettylittleobsessednatalie.tumblr.com/post/159816108756/i-was-getting-upset-because-my-phone-wont-let-me

Okay so let me begin……

After reading the book Winter Chill, I have came to the conclusion that the person behind the mask will not only be somebodies parents, but will also be A man. I have been thinking that A is Mr. Cavanaugh since the beginning, and I have a lot of reasoning behind it. I have used Bethany in a lot of my old theories so for now let’s pretend that Charlotte is the new Bethany.

   1.   LOLITA is the first book theory I have conducted. A lot of people       think Lolita was just about the Aria/Ezra or Alison/Ezra       relationship, but I honestly think it was deeper than that. Lolita is       about a 40 something year old man that had a relationship with a 12       year old girl. Although both Alison and Aria were young and having       relations with Ezra, Ezra was never considered old enough to be       Humbert. (Please read my Mr. C theory to know where I am going with       that one.

   2.   We have NEVER met Toby’s father (Mr. Cavanaugh) nor have we ever met       Jenna’s mother. They are one family that I believe should have been       seen by now especially since all these “accidents” have happened to       both Jenna and Toby. When asked if we have seen A.D before, Tyler       Blackburn claims “You’ve never met them. You kind of have. When you       see it, you’ll understand what I am saying.” What a perfect way to       sneak in a parent that has been mentioned but no seen. Another factor       comes from the book “Winter Chill” where the parents, ultimately the       father was the corrupt at the end of the book. It would work PERFECT!    3.   Spencer was asked the join the –A team a couple of times. If you       think about it, Toby, Spencer and Charlotte were all on the –A team.       This team could have been formed for the safety of the A team.       Whoever A.D. is, is making sure that the –A team is safe, which is       why he/she is so upset that Charlotte was killed.    4.   Charlotte sang “Lord help the mister who comes between me and my       sister.” I still think that Charlotte knew exactly who her mother is       no matter what, simply because she used the last name “Drake.” If she       knew that Mary was her mother, I would not doubt that she knew that       Spencer was her sister ESPECIALLY if she and Melissa really had a       conversation “that night.” I believe she was going after Toby when       she sang this, but I don’t think that Toby is the villain. I think       the show is showing a lot of sketchy things about both Toby and Jenna       but it could be aimed towards the parents (step) of these two.    5.   In an “A” text that was sent before the Charles/Charlotte reveal       there was a text sent to Spencer that said “We’re all related Spence.       Some more than others.” Charlotte knows the entire game too, and       someone on the “good” side knew and killed her.    6.   Toby made a comment about never leaving Rosewood. Is he here to       protect his father?    7.   Keegan Allen (Toby) made a comment about how he couldn’t sleep after       watching the reveal of A.D. is this because it had something to do       with him?

      Mr. C is A.D.

      I believe Mr. Daniel Cavanaugh has been around the beginning. Alison       was the hit of the town and Toby’s father may have taken a “Lolita”       liking to her. She always talked about being with older men and may       have strung Mr. Cavanaugh along and used him, or he could have simply       been infatuated with her. He would fit the perfect age for a Humbert       character.  We see Jenna’s family moving into the Cavanaugh house       shortly after Mrs. Cavanaugh’s death. We have never seen Jenna’s       mother or step father which I think is totally sketchy because both       Jenna and Toby’s parents are mentioned. Toby mentioned wanting to get       away from his “screwed up family” 3x05. When Ali claimed to see Toby       spying on the girls while they were getting dressed, I received       strange Mr. Cavanaugh vibes. We have no idea what he looks like, and       in Wikia it claims that Mr. Daniel Cavanaugh looks similar to Toby.       This screams NAT club to me, and I’ll get to that later. Along the       lines of Toby’s screwed up family we are aware that Toby’s mother had       a mental illness (just like the mother in WINTER CHILL). In LOLITA,       Charlotte, Humbert’s wife finds out about his obsession with his       daughter and nymphets in general from his diary. She confronts him,       tells him she is leaving, runs in front of a car, and gets killed.       Although Marion’s death was supposedly done by Bethany, I believe       that she could have found out about Mr. Cavanaugh’s NAT obsession by       watching his videotapes. She had to go because she knew too much.       Mr. Cavanaugh also is mentioned in 4x16 after Peter Hastings plans on       shutting down Radley, then decides against it.(I believe he thought       twice about it, or was threatened with the truth being exposed about       Spencer being a Radley baby.) Mr. Cavanaugh and Toby were given a       settlement for his mother’s death, but told not to speak about the       situation again. Spencer voices that she thinks that Mr. Cavanaugh       should not be involved with the process until they know everything       about Marion’s murder, but Toby tells Spencer that “I want to do       this, I NEED to.”With the settlement money, Mr. Cavanaugh would have       been able to build a dollhouse comfortably. We are still unaware       about what Mr. Cavanaugh does for a living, but I am sure Toby hasn’t       got his handy work from just anyone.       It is very possible that Charlotte and Jenna could have been friends.       Charlotte knew how much Jenna hated the liars and could have let her       in on the plan to a certain extent. We know that Jenna now knows who       A.D. is and she seems very comfortable with who it is, almost as if       she knows that she is “safe.” Who could keep her safe more than       anybody? A parent most definitely. Charlotte and Jenna have been       playing for the same team since it started. I believe Charlotte was       just a pawn just like Mona was. In this episode right after a news       report on Bethany Young was mentioned, the Cavanaugh house blew up.       This could be WINTER CHILL foreshadowing. After the death of a child       the inner monster was created in the book. In 4x16 A.Cavanaugh was       seen in 4x16 which can be literally mean A. Cavanaugh or Daniel       Cavanaugh. The cabin in 4x16 showed two boys in a photo, which is       supposed to be Ezra’s cabin. I’ve mentioned twins before but this       very well could have been Toby and Charles as young boys. 5x15 “Fresh       Meat” Toby finds his old Family knife with blood on it in the woods.       When Spencer asks how he knows it’s his he tells her “my dad popped a       top off the jar with it when I was 8.” Toby also says “When I saw it       I froze, a million things went through my head and for a minute I       forgot I was a cop and left it.” Or did he really know that his dad       very well could have been the one to actually USE this weapon? Toby       also tells Spencer and Caleb “that knife could be the murder weapon.”       Spencer was under the impression that they were being framed for       Mona’s murder, but I believe Toby may have figured everything out at       this point in PLL. In regards to Jenna, not too many people have       noticed that the games did not start until she moved in with the       Cavanaugh’s. When Jenna came, Ali disappeared soon after. Ali was       mean, and snooty to Jenna, and then blinded her with a firecracker.       All the reason for a parent to absolutely hate Ali, seek revenge, and       cause chaos to her entire family, just like she did to the Cavanaugh       family.       I believe that Mr. Cavanaugh may have inserted himself into the game       more fiercely after his house was blown up. According to Marlene,       Charlotte is the one that blew up his house, but the reasoning is       unknown. Maybe Charlotte was actually trying to help the liars, and       this is the reason she was forced onto the A team. Charlotte was       definitely a pawn, and this is why her story made absolutely zero       since. She was told to fake it, and made the decision to kill her       ‘family’ to end everything. She may have known exactly how the game       would end.       As far as Melissa, she knows all and I truly do think that she has       been protecting Spencer all along. I think Melissa knows everything       about the NAT Club, the affairs, the secret kids, Mary and whatever       else everyone is hiding, and to protect her family she is playing       along with A.D. It definitely makes sense that she would be       considered A.D. Melissa stays out of the way a lot and I believe this       is to protect herself. When she does play along, it is for the safety       of spencer and her parents.       In 2x13, as Hanna and Aria were walking through the woods, a person       in a mask popped out and scared them, and when it did it touched       Aria. Could HE be the one that Alison fears the most? Could that have       been Mr. Cavanaugh?       Sara Harvey (RIP) claimed that every year on Septemeber 7th, HE would       bring her a red, white and blue cupcake. The liars blinded Jenna       around the 4th of July, and next to their mailbox was a small       American flag (red, white, and blue). Also, in a recent episode 7x07       when   Jenna tried kissing Toby (WIERDO) they were out on the lake on       the Fourth of July with fireworks going. All of the 4th of July       references with the Cavanaugh family cannot be a coincidence.       Mona definitely knows everything, I’ve said this a thousand times and       will say it a thousand more. She is working to keep the liars safe,       probably from guilt because of what she has started, but she is smart       enough to keep herself safer.       NAT CLUB.       The NAT club, the biggest clue yet! I believe the ultimate villain       will be the one behind the scenes of the club! Mr. Cavanaugh. Because       Alison ‘caught’ someone staring at the girls through the window, and       Ian was recording Alison in a provocative way, I will assume that the       NAT club was more than just secrets about everyone, it may have been       a little raunchy. (Quilty from LOLITA). I could see Mr. Cavanaugh       having his pawns recording for his pleaure, but also collecting and       having dirt on everyone in the NAT club, so that no one had the urge       to spill his secret. It is no coincidence that EVERYONE from the NAT       club is dead EXCEPT for Jason, and I really think this is why he       stays away from Rosewood just like Melissa. He knows a lot but his       years of partying could have made him forget a lot as well. Quilty       from LOLITA had a secret pornographic business going on, which       reminds me of Wilden’s stash that was found in 4x07. Wilden       definitely was apart of the club and could have been worried about       people finding out about his past which made him desperate to shut       Ali and whoever else needed it up.

      I noticed that Toby had a couple parallel’s this season. One was the       similarity he had to A.D. with his glasses on. Antoher was the fact       that he is now a widower just like his father. He has stated many       times about how he can’t leave Rosewood…..

Thanks for reading! M. Natalie Love May 12, 2017

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Water Symbols and Ties Between Grady and Terminus: “A” Rewatch by @wdway

This is another re-watch from @wdway. She totally saves my butt on busy weeks when I don’t have time to write new theories, lol.

Here are her observations:

Hi ladies! I hope you're both doing well. I did a rewatch of s4e16 A, series number 51. I think it's important to mention that this episode was co-written by Scott Gimple and Angela Kang.

It starts out with a flashback of the prison and then we have Rick, Carl's and Michonne talking about how hungry they are. Later, they catch a rabbit in a snare. I thought about how much rabbits were featured in this back half of s4. It emphasized the size when Rick says, "A small one." Later, Michonne mentions again it was a small rabbit. This made me think of Lennie talking about the little ones.

I'll skip over the Claimers, other than the car scene where Daryl and Rick were talking. Daryl brings Rick a bottle of water. There's no label. It's just clear. It's actually a good size bottle and he sets it down in front of them. He brought water = Beth into that scene. They brought Beth into the Terminus part of the episode with the use of symbols that we were totally unaware of at the time. We gradually realized them as the seasons went on, the water being a huge symbol.

This is right after they jumped the Terminus fence and found this door propped open. Notice it says that it's a fire door, a way to escape. I think this can be considered a water symbol, just as a fire pull or ceiling sprinkler would be. I cropped this shot so that you could read the sign on the door a little easier. I do want to mention that Daryl is next to Rick and they are the only two in the shot.

Rick and co come out into a common area or plaza and are about to get a plate full of meat when Rick notices objects from people from the prison. He takes a guy to use as a shield against the sharpshooters.

I just mentioned how the door was the symbol of water, even though it was a door. Well, this is similar. That red object against the wall is a fire hose holder. I know this because I noticed it at the end of Us when Maggie and her group first came into Terminus. I noticed how it said fire hose. You can also see the fire hydrant next to it and if you look closely at the base, it's just a prop. There's a bottom section that should be buried or would be connected to some type of piping if it was real, so these are not objects that were already at this location. That means they're symbols.

Notice how this little corner is visible during the majority of this scene. We see it to the side or behind Rick almost the entire time. So, we have a fire hose and a fire hydrant. Both Beth symbols because they = water.

Look straight above the fire hose stand. There are 2 diamonds at the top of the building. I don't think they’re original to the building because of the shadowing around them. They appear to simply be tacked up, serving no particular purpose other than being diamond shaped, which = Beth.

Now look at the corner next to the hose and hydrant. There is a sign on the brick wall that I believe refers to the hose or hydron. It reads, “emergency water key, replace when used.” Just in case we didn't know this was a water reference, they wanted to make sure that they let us know, but I really like the fact that it's a water key.

I just needed to point out Daryl's Poncho which, ironically, he didn't notice, but Rick did. 

The three small pictures underneath it are original sketches of the Native Americans’ Thunderbird.

Our little group starts to run for their lives. We follow them as they run past a boneyard, turn different corners, and then all of a sudden we see this shot.

Notice the fire hose stand, a tire, the yellow objects, the abandoned car with a shattered windshield and these stacked train cars. During this shot, we hear a female voice calling for help. Here's the funny thing: we never see our group running through or past this, so this is staged simply to show us symbols. In one of the five flashbacks was of Rick coming into the prison with Beth/Judith sitting on the steps, Patrick was sitting on the floor in front of Beth's cell, making something out of Legos. Carl is cleaning his gun. Rick stops to talk to Patrick and Patrick thanks Rick for picking up the Legos and he makes a comment about that they are for ages 4 through 12. I've always thought that was somewhat odd.

I just want to throw out an idea to you. This might actually be a comment about the story arc lasting from season 4 through season 12. I'm not talking about the series ending at 12, I'm simply thinking that this storyline, Rick, Beth, Daryl and Carol will continue through season 12.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Love it all! I especially liked the fire and water stuff you pointed out at Terminus and how they brought Beth into it. The combination of water and key is especially interesting. You did spark one idea from me.

And I know I sound like a broken record on this point, but could Terminus have foreshadowed the helicopter group? (Yes, I know I’m saying this WAY too often, and all the things I point to and consider probably do NOT directly equate to the helicopter group, but think of it as a mindset shift on my part. I’m kind of considering all things in light of the helicopter group.)

I was thinking that Terminus was where all the train tracks met, right? And we’ve seen more than one representation of the train tracks representing character paths. So, it would have made more sense if all the characters had met up at Terminus. And most of them did. Beth was the exception. But if this was a foreshadow of all character paths converging at some future point, then that would make sense. Because Beth is the one that’s been gone for a long time, but since then, others, such as Heath and Rick, have also disappeared.

So, all paths need to converge at some point, and we believe that will happen in some way via the helicopter group. See why I’m thinking this? I think what you’ve found here backs this up.

Another insight? Remember in 5x09, we see some train tracks with the camera moving forward along them, and the tracks disappear into the woods up ahead. Maybe those tracks represent Beth’s path, and the fact that it’s going to disappear for a while. But it will reappear and meet up with other character paths at some future point.

Which also reminds me of a kind of famous passage in the book of Revelation about a woman who gives birth to a child but then goes into hiding in the woods. Most scholars interpret it (a total analogy) as that the true gospel Christ taught would go into hiding for a while (Dark Ages) but re-emerge later. I don’t know if this is what they were going for or even considering, but it’s what I thought of. Might be a similar template. Anyway, great rewatch. You always have eagle eyes.

@wdway:

I cannot tell you how much I agree with you. I definitely think Terminus was tied to the helicopter people or, more precisely, that Terminus is connected to Grady and it is Grady who had a connection with the helicopter or what the helicopter group was at the beginning of the turn. I believe it's around a year-and-a-half into the turn when Beth was brought there, and I believe they have evolved over the 10 years.

Dawn pretty well confirmed that there was a group coming soon, so it makes total sense that it could be a military-type organization. I'm going to show you some shots that will totally bring back what I've been obsessing about all the seasons.

Top one is Hansen, Dawn's Superior until he went crazy. I know the second shot is really dark. This is the best I can do with trying to lighten it. Do you remember this at the end of No Sanctuary, where they give a bit of a backstory of Terminus being taken over by this big guy who terrorized them? I believe this guy is Hanson.

Isn't it strange that they tell a backstory about a group that TF has taken down and that they go to a lot of effort to make this person hard to see?

That's right. I think the crazy guy from the train box car is none other than Hanson. If you look at Slabtown and Coda, this person is discussed several times. An awful lot of screen time is taken up with a story of how Hanson went rogue. What's the need of that when Grady is about to be left behind and, more importantly, why do we repeatedly see a picture of him?

The first picture I showed above has his badge next to it. Another question of why do we need to see that? I'm going to throw out a crazy idea. Why not, haha. In the very dark picture below, the guy seems to be wearing some kind of large belt buckle. I think it might be a gun or something stuck in the front of his pants, but I think there's a badge there.

I guess there's a definite yes to me, believing that all of this relates to the helicopter people. More importantly, the new series The World Beyond apparently did not want to start until after we see episode 16. I've said this before. I think at some point, not necessarily the first episode, but I think somewhere within it we will see Grady, pre-Beth.

@frangipanilove

I love you take on Hanson. I totally agree that they alluded to something that we haven’t quite seen yet, and I would love to see Grady tied to the helicopter ppl somehow. I have wondered a lot about the tattoo guy from Terminus and what the deal was with him, and your pics show a remarkable resemblance between Hanson and the crazy terminus dude.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

It would explain the defunct cop cars at Terminus, if Hansen left Grady and arrived in them. And as you’ve said, the weirdness of some of this that hasn’t yet been explained.

That’s it for today. Anybody have any thoughts on these insights?