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bigskydreaming · 2 years ago

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thehollowprince

I'm liking the first theory, but I think someone pointed him out as a background character in a former issue of X-Men Red. Haven't gone back to check yet

stone-monkey

I'm not reading it, but my money is on a Summer's family complication.

Ewing said he was a new creation so I’d be really surprised if they just reused an existing design but its not out of the realm of possibility. And lol when in doubt, assume its a Summers.

No, the way I see it, the evidence for:

Jon Ironfire as the unrevealed Vulcan/Deathbird child and Shi’ar prince:

1) Visually he fits, same hair color and general features as Gabe.

2) The missing heir has been heavily lampshaded the entire run. Vulcan brought up their child when facing off against Deathbird a couple issues ago, and with all the drama around the Shi’ar throne and Xandra, the question of where is Deathbird’s kid is a big one that needs addressing at some point. Especially since the thread where Lifeguard and Slipstream were alleged to be Deathbird’s hidden-away children seems to have been abandoned at least for now.

(That said, back during this conversation Ewing made a point to not have Deathbird respond to Vulcan using pronouns to refer to their child. Gabe’s only assumed the child is a boy, because well, Misogynist King. Literally. But Ewing definitely made a point to have Deathbird NOT confirm that their child is a boy, or at least doesn’t identify as such...however whether this was written this way as a hint that Gabe’s assumptions are off-base or simply because at that point Ewing hadn’t decided for sure yet on what he wanted the character of Deathbird and Vulcan’s child to be like....could go either way).

3) The name Ironfire seems to be a clear nod to Vulcan, who of course is named for the Roman god of fire and the forge.

4) Jon’s powerset includes transmuting his blood into any metal he can imagine, presumably including mysterium, and shaping it into weapons, armor, anything else....frequently manifesting it as sharp spikes he grows from his skin and hurls like projectiles. This not only mirrors Deathbird’s iconic javelin-quills she grows and uses as weapons, it also calls back to the blood-burning powerset of Adam Neramani, who according to this theory would be both Jon’s paternal uncle AND one of his rivals for the Shi’ar throne.

5) Given how much Gabe hates Ororo, having his son and heir have zero interest in the throne daddy dearest ‘acquired for him’ as well as being one hundred percent devoted to Storm would be HILARIOUS.

6) The fight between Jon and Mystique implied that Jon theoretically COULD be an omega, like Vulcan, but it could also be just typical fight talk and hyping himself up in front of his opponent. Ewing does like making weird abilities that don’t seem on the surface like they should be omega, however.

Vs....

Jon Ironfire as an unrevealed brother or son of Lodus Logos:

1) His powerset much more directly mirrors Lodus’ than it does Gabe’s.

2) Ewing and other writers have explicitly referred to Jon as being Arakkii in interviews. (That said, we’ve seen with characters like Craig, Beto and Ororo herself that the Arakkii take a very clear view of things: if you consider yourself of Arakko and fight for Arakko, then you are Arakkii, no matter where else you originated. And given Gabe blatantly didn’t care about Arakko other than as another potential conquest of his, this could be a lead-in to having his son reject all that and identify as being OF Arakko, much like Storm herself has rejected all desire to rule and simply wants to be of the land as much as anyone else. ‘No thrones on Arakko,’ round two. This time with the sentiment embraced by the son and heir of her chief rival on Arakko, after Isca herself).

3) Lodus is hands down Ororo’s biggest supporter and friend on the Great Ring, and has been since his very first appearance in SWORD, long before she even started making connections with Lactuca. In turn, she also gave up the Seat of All-Around-Us and the second vote that comes with it, calling him a better fit for it while she took the Seat of Loss in honor of Magneto’s death. They’re very close and while it would be FUNNY for Jon to be Vulcan’s son, with how devoted he is to Storm, thematically and character-wise I think his attitude around her makes a lot more sense if he’s Lodus’ son, and in the wake of his father and most of the rest of his peers on the Great Ring dying in the early days of the Red Diamond Empire....he’s naturally gravitated to one of his father’s closest friends and allies: Ororo.

4) We’ve seen that Jon will live to Year 1000, aging extremely slowly....which is more a staple of Arakkii mutants than Earthborn ones. Most of them possess some degree of longevity, whereas Earth mutants require that longevity be a specific part of their powerset to mirror that. (That said, if any Earth mutant were to live a thousand years without resurrection, it would make sense for it to be Gabe’s son, as many omegas DO have ways to extend their lifespan and Gabe in particular has brought himself back from death or the brink of it before).

My conclusions:

I think I WANT Jon to be related to Lodus Logos, but I’m more inclined to think he’s probably the Vulcan/Deathbird heir. I do think there’s a strong case to be made for either, and thus neither route would surprise me, but the missing heir plotline is too central to a lot of the book’s plots for it not to be coming up soon, and this sorta consolidates plots. Ewing does like to be efficient in his seeding of storylines. And like I said, the heir is of course an as yet unrevealed Summers too, and when in doubt....its safe to assume whatever’s going on has something to do with a Summers, lol.

(Plus, even if Ewing seems disinclined to follow up on it, that dangling plot-thread about Heather and Davis being Deathbird’s kids she stashed away to hide from D’Ken is still out there and someone else could pick it up eventually.....and that would make Jon their younger half-brother and idk why but Slipstream being Ironfire’s older brother is also hilarious to me. Especially when you factor in HIS epic crush on Ororo, back in the day.)

#x-tag

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douglysium · 2 months ago

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Small snippet if anyone wants a preview (sorry for any grammar mistakes I haven’t had a chance to review it for errors yet)

The Web

In order to fully understand the strands that connect the Web to the rest of the Fears we must first seek to fully understand the Web itself, or as much as we can anyway.

The Web is stated in MAG 111 (Family Business) by Gerard Keay to be the fear of “Being manipulated or puppeted. The worry you’re caught in a trap you can’t see” and Jon identifies it as “...spiders a-and control. Your, your will not being your own.” The wiki also lists the Web as embodying fears like arachnophobia and the fear of being controlled. The funny part about a lot of Entities is a lot of people love to overcomplicate the fears the Entities embody, and while the fears are often very nuanced, there is usually a thematic thread of general fear that can be used to describe most / all of the fears an Entity embodies. In the case of the Web, it can ultimately be described as the fear of being controlled by something or someone. So basically, it’s a fear that revolves around control. Just like with the Beholding, let's look through each of the fears I mentioned one by one.

The fear of being manipulated, puppeted, or controlled are ones that go without saying. They are all fears that relate to being controlled either partially or completely. According to Merriam-Webster, if you are a “puppet” you are “one whose acts are controlled by an outside force or influence.” Being caught in a trap you can’t see also ties into themes of being manipulated or not being in control. Traps are usually meant to deprive something of options or freedom which in turn makes the target(s) easier to control. When someone / something actively makes a trap the point is usually to control, manipulate, or lock them in a situation that is advantageous for them. Additionally, if you are trapped you may find that you no longer have any control over yourself or a situation in the same way that the puppet I described earlier may not have any free will. Being trapped without your knowledge often overlaps with the fear of plotting and scheming with the idea that someone is trying to manipulate you in a manner you are unaware of. Certain traps can be used to completely deprive someone of the control they have over a given situation. As some may have noticed, all things considered The Web actually seems like it could have some strong synergy with an Entity like the Buried. There is one specific definition of freedom that I think relates to The Web very well: “the power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity.” This ties into what I’ve been talking about in regards to The Web and the fear of not actually being in control of your life or actions. Whether that be because a conscience being is purposefully putting you in such a position or because of some inanimate force or substance (be it drugs, destiny, etc.).

Then there’s arachnophobia. This is an aspect of the Web that gets the most confusion and if I’m to be honest for most people the fear of spiders tends to relate more to other Entities. For example, the Corruption for people who find them gross, the Hunt for people afraid of spiders chasing them, the Slaughter for those who are afraid of the pain they can inflict with their bites, the End if you are afraid of a spider’s poison killing you, the Desolation if you are afraid they will cause you to lose something like a family member, pet, or limb, etc.. So why spiders? A lot of fans make the mistake of writing The Web’s spider theme off as a disguise or something but there’s actually a pretty good reason for all the spiders. The short answer is that it’s symbolic. But if you are reading an article this long I’m going to assume you didn’t come here for the short answer.

Well there’s a couple of things to keep in mind. To begin with, spiders and webs are heavily associated with manipulation. The term “web of lies” usually relates to a complex set of interconnected lies that are meant to manipulate someone. While someone might argue that lying is more of the Spiral’s thing it’s important to remember that all the Powers overlap and all of them are capable of lying or being truthful if it is conducive to their fear. In MAG 196 (This Old House) Annabelle, an Avatar of The Web and one of the key pieces of its plan to escape into other universes says “[Strained] Because… explaining things, giving answers, like this… it’s not what I am. It’s difficult, against my nature”. Now it’s important for me to stress that while this applies to Annabelle and I think can be insightful to certain aspects of the Web it’s important to remember that this probably isn’t all the Web is and it is clearly capable of being unsubtle or on the nose when it wants to be, such as when it turned Annabelle into a massive spider. However, lying and half-truths are very common tactics in regards to manipulating and controlling others. It also ties into The Web’s domain of the fear of being trapped without your knowledge. Withholding information or giving people false information can be a great way to keep people in the dark as to what’s going on which can in turn make them easier to manipulate.

Additionally, The Web has an association with the fear of planning and schemes and one of the ways someone might describe making a plan is by saying something like “I am weaving a plan.” In fact one of the definitions of the word weave is to “make (a complex story or pattern) from a number of interconnected elements” or “include an element in (a story or pattern).” So here we see how a plan might involve making something complex by connection tons of interconnected elements. Spiders are also a creature that is often associated with extreme patience and planning. Spiders spend all day making traps that can be extremely hard to spot before sitting in wait for something to fall into their trap. Which is at least metaphorically comparable to someone who might make elaborate hard to spot plans or manipulation tactics to “catch” or “trap” their victims. I’ve seen people argue that the Web uses spiders as a cover to disguise itself. This is only true some of the time since we have seen the Web take the form of seemingly unassuming spiders and, as I’ve mentioned earlier, the Web is a fear having to do with manipulation and control. It is not the fear of subtlety even if subtlety can often go hand in hand with manipulation.

It is important to remember a couple of things. First, sometimes the Web is going to need to be a bit unsubtle because just like every other Entity it wants to gather its respective fear. If it’s TOO subtle then there’s a chance that it’s victims will either literally not have enough awareness to feel afraid as they won’t even realize they could be walking into a trap or consider the possibility that they are being manipulated. I’ve also seen people argue that the Web uses spiders to disguise as other Entities but this has a similar problem to the previous point because if the Web is always doing this and it does it to well there’s a decent chance that it might just end up feeding another Entity way more while it itself gets very little fear which doesn’t always seem to be in it’s best interest. Secondly, as I’ve gone over the whole spiders thing is symbolic. This is something literally called out by Jon in MAG 1966 (This Old House) in response to Annabelle claiming Martin came of his own free will when he says “Free will,” she says, as we stand in the middle of her fucking web!” I wouldn’t consider Annabelle turning into a monstrous spider, tricking Martin, and then tying him to a giant web to be exactly subtle. Additionaly the term spider can just mean “form a pattern suggestive of a spider or its web.” So all the Web imagery could just be a metaphorical representation of how complex its plans are.

As I’ve alluded to just now, it’s also clear that at least some (if not most) of the characters we see in TMA associate the spiders with manipulation or the Web. For many this is simply because they realized it’s something the Web likes to manifest as but there are some victims who would not be completely aware of the full scope of the Entities and yet still experience the influence of the Web manipulating them along with spider or web imagery. I’ve seen people argue that spiders might not be associated with manipulation depending on the culture. This is true but let’s not forget that TMA is being written mostly by I bunch of people from a “western” culture that is the UK so that is going to influence their work. On top of that many of the statements we get are from people in either Europe or the U.S. so they might have similar cultural perceptions and symbolic understandings. It’s not like we have a perfectly balanced sample size of statements even within the universe of TMA. Plus, the Powers aren’t always restricted to the lowest common denominator and are very capable of adjusting to a specific person’s fears both before and after the change. The best example I can think of is how the Spiral manifested as storms to torment Michael Crew. Most people wouldn’t associate storms with any sort of confusion, lie, or deception (despite that being the Spiral’s entire thing) but that doesn’t really matter for the specific case of Michael Crew. Just because you might not immediately have a connection between spiders, webs, and manipulation that wouldn’t necessarily mean the characters we see giving statements don’t. When the Web targets people with spiders it may be aware that while it knows not everyone will make the connection the specific person it’s tormenting will.

As I’ve mentioned before, the Powers can manifest as just about anything, so i have no doubt that when encountering different people the Web can and has manifested as things besides spiders but as I’ve mentioned the tapes aren’t necessarily a perfect sample size. We also always need to step back and look at TMA as a story being made. Part of the reason the Entities have strong associates, like eyes for the Beholding, fire for the Desolation, sky for the Vast, etc. is not just for the sake of cultural symbolism but also for the sake of us as the audience. So that we me recognize the Entities when it’s appropriate for the story and only get confused when the story wants to be confusing. So in that way the Web’s association with spiders is not just a metaphorical connection but as a shorthand we can understand as the audience when applicable.

That’s enough about that though. Honestly, if that didn’t convince you that at least in the context of TMA there’s at least two major reasons why the Web is connected to spiders and that it isn’t something just randomly chosen or nonsensical then I don’t know what will convince you… except maybe…

Symbology and Common Manifestations

Well, the two most obvious symbols are webs and spiders, but I feel like I’ve covered those enough for now. The same goes for what the wiki lists as “web patterns” and ��weaving” under The Web’s manifestations section.

One thing that The Web commonly manifests as is addiction or addictive substances. This is a pretty important because it ties into one of my earlier points. The Web isn’t just the fear of being manipulated or controlled by another person but just losing control to something else in general, be it person or not. People can be manipulated into addictions but sometimes addictions are more of our own making or due to certain mental / biological factors. There’s not always a person scheming involved in addiction.

Something that the wiki also lists under The Web’s manifestations is marionettes. This actually ties back to what I said in the previous names section. Marionettes are a type of puppet and a puppet can be used to symbolize / refer to someone who is being controlled or manipulated by someone else. Marionetters are particularly famous in regards to how strings are used to control and manipulate them. Which ties into The Web’s whole spider imagery. Since webs are basically sticky string and spider’s silk and string are often compared to each other. Strings are also often associated with control, just like webs. If someone is “pulling the strings” it means they are the ones in control or are otherwise manipulating a situation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionette#/media/File:Prague-Marionette.jpg

The Web also seems prone to manifesting as reels, tapes, and other kinds of recording strips. There’s the titular tape recorders but in MAG 110 (Creature Feature) it seems connected to some film reels. One line even mentions that “It was dark inside, lit only by what spilled in through the open doorway. I could hear a sound like the turning of an old film reel, but I couldn’t say where from. I stood there, unable to step inside, not because of fear, but because this space inside was threaded all over with film strips. Up and down, one side to the other, wrapping around and through each other. I gingerly reached out and touched one. And as I did, Dexter seemed to emerge from the darkness. At first I thought he was taller than usual, but then I realized that he was suspended ever so slightly by the strips of film, his feet a good couple of inches off the floor.”

This relation to recording strips could simply be because long reel strips vaguely resemble string or rope, and this is emphasized in episodes such as MAG 110 in which Dexter is being held up by film reels, like a puppet or something caught in a web. Reels can also get tangled, so you could get tangled or caught in a long enough reel in a manner analogous to being caught in web, rope, and /r or string. It could also have to do with the idea of not having any free will in the sense that you are trapped in a sort of reel, movie, or story. An even that is already set to play out in a predetermined fashion based on what has been recorded or filmed. Reels also have a connection to stories which could tie into the whole “web of lies” thing. Stories, information, half truths, and lies all being spun and edited / spliced together to create a narrative for a person to knowingly or unknowingly follow. In a way stories can be used to manipulate people, it is not uncommon for someone to falsify events (ie come up with a story) in order to trick someone into behaving a certain way or doing something. It could also simply be that the reels we see in moments such as MAG 110 are just meant to foreshadow or allude to The Web being connected to the tapes.

How it feels spending all my time writing TMA essays while Magnus Protocol is coming out

youtube

#TMA #the Magnus archives #the web #mother of puppets #magnus archives #entities #dread powers #tma entities

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bedlamsbard · 4 years ago

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Putting aside aesthetics and characterization (inasmuch as I can), I have been trying to logic out why Mando Ahsoka feels so different from Rebels Ahsoka (to me, personally; I know many other people feel fine about it), especially in terms of having a character who’s known in Rebels for her “I am no Jedi” line going to a character who is specifically introduced as “The Jedi” in The Mandalorian. (And who is identified as “Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Knight” on merch -- merch is merch, it’s essentially meaningless, but it’s still a choice that was made somewhere along the line.)

“Shroud of Darkness,” Rebels 2.17

“Twilight of the Apprentice,” Rebels 2.21

This is strictly Doylist and not Watsonian; I don’t care what went on in the character’s life in between Rebels and Mando; I’m trying to guess what was happening in the writers room.

I was noodling through this on Twitter, in case it looks familiar.

My first thought was Dave taking a cut scene from Rebels as canon going into Mando, something he shared on Twitter back in the lead-up to S4. Looking at this again I’m not sure this was a cut scene or a scene that he wrote that never made it into the actual script. (Certainly I can’t see how it would have fit into the episode.)

Here Bendu specifically identifies Ahsoka as “former Jedi Knight.” This is also obviously not canon, because Twitter posts aren’t canon, Dave. (Though that doesn’t mean that he might have taken it as part of his working backstory for the character anyway.)

I was then thinking about TCW and the unused TCW arcs as they existed in 2016 when this aired (with the rough guess that Rebels S2 was probably written in 2014). There are three Ahsoka arcs that were written and existed in 2016 in some form (”scripts and some artwork” is what Pablo Hidalgo says, and some pre-viz and recordings from the original Walkabout arc that were shown at a couple Celebrations), but which hadn’t made it into S6 (which came out in 2014): Ahsoka’s Walkabout (in its original form with Nix Okami instead of the Martez sisters), the Siege of Mandalore, and an arc which would have taken place between those two, “Return to the Jedi.” We know about these because of a panel from Star Wars Celebration Europe in 2016 called Ahsoka’s Untold Tales -- I was actually at this panel, but I haven’t thought about it in a while. Here’s the SW.com liveblog of it; here’s the video.

I remember hearing somewhere that the TCW team had nine seasons or so written, but can’t find the source for that number now. When S7 was made, there were obviously a lot of compromises made that we’ll never really know about, minus a tell-all memoir or documentary, which probably isn’t coming any time soon. Knowing that this Return to the Jedi arc existed, I wondered if at one point Dave had tried to get all three Ahsoka arcs into S7 before having to give one up for the Bad Batch arc (especially as we now know there’s going to be a Bad Batch TV show); it’s also entirely possible that at one point in the production process there was the possibility of a full 22 episode season floated, which would have made three Ahsoka arcs in one season less unbalanced.

I went to go look up what the Return to the Jedi arc actually was, since 2016 was a long time ago and I haven’t really thought about this panel since. My guess is that it had been intended for one Ahsoka arc per remaining season (7, 8, 9). Pablo Hidalgo says that after the Walkabout arc, Ahsoka would have stayed on Coruscant as “an under-city vigilante of some degree, helping people who can’t help themselves,” and Dave points out that he talked about this with George Lucas, as well. The Return of the Jedi arc would have involved Ahsoka finding out about a nefarious plot targeting Yoda and working with the Jedi to figure out what’s what with that -- this revealed that below the Jedi Temple was an ancient Sith shrine. (Some details of this were revealed at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim in 2015.)

Ahsoka would have been protecting the holocron vault from Darth Sidious, putting her lightsaber blade through the door while Palps shoots Force lightning up the blade.

“The whole purpose of that particular arc would have been to bring Ahsoka back. She’s not a Jedi, she doesn’t change her decision, but she gets involved in Jedi business again.”

The next Ahsoka arc and the final arc of the series would have been the Siege of Mandalore arc, which “reunites Ahsoka with the clone troopers, with Anakin.” My guess is that the end of the Return to the Jedi arc would have involved Ahsoka making the decision to go to Mandalore because the Jedi themselves couldn’t get involved in that conflict at the time (especially the emphasis in the panel that Pablo and Dave put on Ahsoka as being “a responsible person” who couldn’t ignore that the war was still going on, and because Ahsoka knew Satine). (It would be interesting to know when if this arc would have fallen before or after the Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir comics, which are based off another unmade TCW arc.) This would probably have put as much as a season between this arc and the final arc -- given TCW’s funky timeline that doesn’t mean much, but in terms of audience expectation it helps.

(also, damn, the context of the beginning of Siege of Mandalore in the original concept vs. how it actually happens in S7 is very different -- like, on the surface identical but the emotions involved are totally different.)

Before going into the next part of the panel (post-war), Pablo Hidalgo adds “We consider it to have happened and that’s how we inform the writing in Rebels, because that’s the history that these characters carry in their heads.”

So going into Rebels, the writing team was working with the background that Ahsoka had not only left the Jedi Order once, in “The Wrong Jedi,” but had reinforced her decision not to go back to the Jedi by not returning to the Order during the Return to the Jedi arc. That explains why in Rebels she’s so adamant about not being a Jedi or being in the Order; it’s a decision that she has made not once, but twice.

Fast forward four years to 2020, where we have the Siege of Mandalore arc in S7.

It’s heavily implied that Ahsoka was planning to go back to the Order after the end of the war, and in fact Yoda treats her as such.

Now, there’s no way to know if this exchange was in the original Siege of Mandalore scripts short of those being released at some point (which is possible but seems unlikely when the character is still in play), but because of the way S7 plays out there is no way to put the Return to the Jedi arc back into the story, which means all the emotional context and Ahsoka doubling down on not returning to the Order is thrown out of the window. That’s a fair chunk of backstory to take into the Rebels writers room.

(It should also be noted that presumably E.K. Johnston wrote the Ahsoka novel with the assumption that that arc was still part of Ahsoka’s working canon, though she may not have seen scripts for it; I feel like I read somewhere that she had seen scripts for the original version of the Siege of Mandalore, which changed quite a lot between original concept and the eventual 2020 version, as is evident from the novel vs the show.)

Going into The Mandalorian, then, Dave Filoni is not only working without a writers room (as Mando has only had two writers, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau), but working with an entirely different continuity than what the Rebels writers room was working with.

Trying to backtrack when various scripts were written is an exercise in futility to some extent; I usually guess anywhere from a year to two years out from when the shows air. (I seem to remember that around this time in 2016 it came out that Katee Sackhoff was doing something for Disney, which ended up being the recording for Bo-Katan in Rebels S4, which wouldn’t air for another year, but don’t quote me on these dates.) Dave ends the panel by saying that “After the season 2 finale for Rebels I was very adamant that that was it for Ahsoka...in Rebels...but after this reaction it might just be possible...it might be possible to see her again. She might have something to do. Maybe.” (For those trying to run dates in their heads: the con was in July 2016, the season 2 finale aired in March 2016, WBW aired in February 2018.) My guess is that they hadn’t recorded for that part of S4 yet (and S4 is so weirdly paced that I have questions about how it was made), but that the initial scripts for S4 had already been written at this point.

Looking back at the Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 TCW panel where Ashley Eckstein talks about getting the news about TCW S7 from Dee Bradley Baker (rather than from Dave Filoni, and hoo boy is this uncomfortable to watch knowing that the script for “The Jedi” had almost certainly been written and Dave may have already made the decision not to talk to Ashley about it), there’s still not like...a clear way to tell when that happened. Except that Dee talks about “wine tasting with the Rebels,” which likely puts it back when Rebels S4 was either still actively airing (2017-2018) or before it had wrapped filming (2017). (I actually vaguely remember seeing pictures from this wine tasting but I can’t remember whose twitter it was on and going to look feels creepy.) Probably the scripts weren’t fully revised at that point but they may have been -- still, this was certainly after S2 and could potentially be before S4 had been fully finalized. We got the TCW renewal announcement in 2019, but the animation wasn’t fully completed yet so didn’t get more than that teaser trailer. This is only important insofar as it involves which set of backstory was being used for WBW Ahsoka, an episode that Dave Filoni wrote and co-directed. (Honestly? I think Mando Ahsoka matches okay with WBW Ahsoka but is a little off Rebels S2 Ahsoka, but that’s off my memory of WBW, an episode I refuse to rewatch.) Certainly with the epilogue he knew he was setting up for something else.

ETA: I FORGOT AN IMPORTANT PART OF THIS TIMELINE AND THAT’S THE RISE OF SKYWALKER because I try not to think about TROS, frankly, but as we may remember Ahsoka is included in the “be with me” scene in the final confrontation. This always struck me as weird given the “I am no Jedi” thing from Rebels, but she’s the most well-known female Force-user so I had just mentally written it off as easy shorthand and JJ Abrams being lazy about it. HOWEVER, presumably JJ talked to Dave about which prequel era Jedi to include (there’s a note in one of the previous SWC liveblogs about Rian Johnson being in the Rebels writers room at some point). TROS came out in December 2019, I can’t recall exactly when they did the voiceovers for that scene (if anyone has ever mentioned it), but it was probably fairly late in the process since I believe that there were still edits being made up until fairly soon before the premiere. (I have a completely different theory that the Lego Star Wars Holiday Special from this year was written off an earlier version of TROS.) If Dave had already moved towards making Ahsoka more inclined towards the Jedi, with a full-on return to calling herself one regardless of the existence of the Order (as Mando implies), then her inclusion here makes a LOT more sense than it did a year ago.

Anyway this is all very conspiracy theorist, but it does explain something that was puzzling me: Rebels S2 Ahsoka and Mando Ahsoka (as well as TCW S7 Ahsoka and potentially Rebels S4 Ahsoka) were written off slightly different backstories which differed in one very key thing: how committed Ahsoka was to no longer being a Jedi.

Now, this sort of thing happens all the time in anything with an ongoing continuity; obviously TCW makes major changes to how viewers might read or write Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader in RotS or the OT. I was just trying to narrow it down in this particular case because until I started thinking about it I had assumed that it was all being written off the same assumed backstory. And many people read Ahsoka differently in Mando than I did or found her perfectly in character, this was for me to track references down about something that was bothering me in hopes of an explanation that would satisfy me.

#bedlam watches the mandalorian #bedlam watches tcw #bedlam watches rebels #mando the jedi #btw this is the same sort of thing I do for academic work this stuff is just easier because I remember it better #and can google it which I usually can't for scholarship

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gianarosegoestothemovies · 4 years ago

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New Queer Cinema

Starting from the late 1980s through early 1990s, a “new wave” of queer films became critically acclaimed in the film industry, allowing the freedom of sexuality to be featured in films without the burden of approval from the audience. This raw and honest film genre displays the truth, secrets, and vulnerability of the LGBTQ+ community and the representation that is deserved. The New Queer Cinema movement was started by scholar Ruby Rich who wrote “This movement in film and video was intensely political and aesthetically innovative, made possible by the debut of the camcorder, and driven initially by outrage over the unchecked spread of AIDS. The genre has grown to include an entire generation of queer artists, filmmakers, and activists.” (Rich) This movement started from Rich’s writing piece, not the filmmakers themselves. An article by Sam Moore discusses Rich’s start of the movement. He states, “Rich acknowledges that the films and filmmakers she considers under the umbrella of New Queer Cinema (including Todd Haynes, Cheryl Dunye, Isaac Julien, Gus Van Sant and Gregg Araki), don’t share a single aesthetic vocabulary or strategy or concern.” Instead, they’re unified by the ways that they queer existing narratives, subvert expectations and foreground queerness in material where it had been only implicit” (Moore). The journey through the New Queer Movement started with Ruby Rich defining the movement through her writing and inspiring filmmakers to continue producing movies with the correct representation.

Actress from Gone with the Wind Susan Hayward claimed that Queer cinema existed “decades” before an official title was given to the genre. French filmmaker Jean Cocteau created Le sang d'un poète in 1934 which is documented as one of the earliest Queer films. This avant-garde style of film is associated with Queer cinema filmmakers such as and is displayed in many upcoming films such as Ulrike Ottinger, Chantal Akerman and Pratibha Parmar. The influence of Queer theory that emerged from the late 1980s helped guide the movement with the creators. The theory states "Challenge and push further debates on gender and sexuality.” Another closely related statement by feminist theory states,"Confuse binary essentialisms around gender and sexual identity, expose their limitations.” Queer cinema filmmakers were sometimes known to depict their films in a “mainstream” way that is agreeable to the audience. There was no exposure to the truths and horrors that the LGBTQ+ community experience and had a lack of representation of historical elements or themes. The concept of “straightwashing” was described to filmmaker Derek Jarman’s 1991 historical film Edward II. This film received backlash from the LGBTQ+ community due to the film’s queer representation catering to heterosexuality and heteronormativity.

The truth of the movement was for Queer films to stop romanticizing or bringing positive images of gay men and lesbian woman. The push for authenticity and liberation for the community needed to be represented in films. New Queer films were more radical and sought to challenge social norms of “identity, gender, class, family and society.” (Wikiwand.com).

To quote the amazing drag queen of all time RuPaul “Everyone is born naked, and the rest is drag” the idea of gender identity and representation in the community is unlimited, why do you need to follow the norms of society when anything is possible? The late 90s documentary Paris is Burning introduced the audience to drag culture in New York City and the people of color who were involved in the community. The term “aesthetic” was repetitive in the research of New Queer Cinema which suggests the significance involved with the style of the films. The documentary includes the aesthetic of the drag world involving the makeup, fashion, and politics. AIDS activism was involved heavily in New Queer films and ridiculed the failure of Ronald Reagans acknowledgment of epidemic and the social stigma experienced by the gay community. Conservative politics occurred during this movement resulting in lack of media coverage and government assistance for the LGTBQ+ community. This political struggle did not discourage the community and the fight is still continuing today.

Beginning in the 2010s LGBT filmmakers Rose Troche and Travis Mathews created a “newer trend” in queer filmmaking that evolved toward more universal audience appeal. In an article from Wikiwand.com states,

“Rich, the originator of the phrase New Queer Cinema, has identified the emergence in the late 2000s of LGBT-themed mainstream films such as Brokeback Mountain, Milk, and The Kids Are All Right as a key moment in the evolution of the genre.[20] Both Troche and Mathews singled out Stacie Passon’s 2013 Concussion, a film about marital infidelity in which the central characters' lesbianism is a relatively minor aspect of a story and the primary theme is how a long-term relationship can become troubled and unfulfilling regardless of its gender configuration, as a prominent example of the trend” (Wikiwand).

The film Watermelon Woman was one of the first queer films I watched for a film class, and this film allowed me to dive deeper into the subject I care a lot about which is the representation of queer narratives about woman of color. Queer woman and men deal with the most discrimination. It is unfair and cruel to see the difference of racial treatment in the LGBTQ+ community because the backbone motto is full exclusion and equal rights. The film Watermelon Woman shined light on LGBTQ+ black woman and interrogated the “Mammy” stereotype that most films depict about black actresses. Minority narratives were pushed into the circuit of the movement with developed into the later academy-award winning film Moonlight that displays those representations makes film history!

Films to recognize in the height of the New Queer film movement are

Mala Noche (1986), Gus Van Sant, was an exploration of desire through the eyes of a young white store clerk named Walt and his obsession with a young undocumented immigrant named Johnny. The film is shot in black and white on 16mm film, contains many of the early Van Sant fixations that viewers would later see get refined in My Own Private Idaho, including male hustlers, illegality, and class.

Chinese Characters (1986), Richard Fung, this early film asks still-pressing questions about the nature of gay desire when it’s mediated via pornographic images of white men. The video defies genre, mixing documentary with performance art and archival footage to explore the tensions of being a gay Asian man looking at porn.

Looking for Langston (1989), Isaac Julien, this short film, a tribute to the life and work of Langston Hughes, is a beautiful and vibrant elegy. Julien creates a lineage of queer black ancestors for himself. The film moves like the poetry it recites, playing with the gaze and how various eyes look upon the black male body.

Tongues Untied (1989), Marlon Riggs, guided by the writer Joseph Beam’s statement, “Black men loving black men is the revolutionary act,” Riggs goes through his own complicated journey of homophobia from other black people, and then racism in the gay community, to find a community of queer black people.

Poison (1991), Todd Haynes, the three parts of the film tell a story about ostracism, violence, and marginality: the bullied child who allegedly flies away after shooting his father in order to save his mother (“Hero”), a brilliant scientist who accidentally ingests his own serum to become the “leper sex killer” (“Horror”), and a sexual relationship between two men in a prison (“Homo”). Exploits radical work that Haynes later uses in his other films.

The Living End (1992), Gregg Araki, the film follows Luke, a sexy homicidal drifter who has a distaste for T-shirts, and Jon, an uptight film critic in Los Angeles. Both are HIV-positive, and as their relationship unfolds, they fight about being respectful or lustrous.

Swoon (1992), Tom Kalin, a black and white film that romanticizes wealthy Chicago lovers kill a 14-year-old boy named Bobby Franks because they want to see if they are smart enough to do it. The murder is more a play of power between them, with Loeb weaponizing sex as a way to control Leopold.

Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (1992), Mark Rappaport, Rock Hudson’s Home Movies is a documentary made up of glances and innuendos from Rock Hudson’s persona, displaying how this dashing, leading man of the Hollywood Golden Age was a closeted gay man.

MURDER and Murder (1996), Yvonne Rainer, is known for her experimental filmmaking and choreography, this film represents a late-in-life lesbian named Doris who suffers from neuroses and breast cancer. Her partner, Mildred, a queer academic, tells the story of their romance as older women. Rainer also makes appearances throughout the film in a tux, going on rants about smug homophobic parents while showing her bare chest with a mastectomy scar.

1992 was the year of the highest amount of New Queer films being produced and exceeding box office expectations. Upcoming 2000s films such as “Booksmart”, “Call me by your Name”, “The Prom”, and “Rocketman” all represent the truths and authenticity of the LGBTQ+ community and creates pathways for more films to include these cinematic themes. The movement continues to grow and succeed in the film industry with new creators and actors being more honest about the LGBTQ+ community.

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janekfan · 4 years ago

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Heart(ache)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26199034

“You, you, you want to say something, Martin, so just say it!”

“I won’t, not while we’re both upset.” Martin gestured tiredly, somehow keeping his temper even as Jon flickered lightning quick between all of his emotions seemingly at once. “Not when you’re like this.” Like this, was pacing the length of the sitting room, shaking top to toe, each and every muscle stretched taut as a bow string. He felt out of control, like a war was waging inside his chest and there was no space, no way out.

“I didn’t.”

He hadn’t.

Because Martin had to bodily intercept him and drag him away from the child harboring the fear he practically tasted on the recycled air in the market. But he hadn’t. He, he wouldn’t.

But he would, wouldn’t he. When his tentative control over the horror roiling just under his skin snapped. When he ate, and ate, and ate up their fears and haunted their dreams until the empty, desolate abyss inside him stopped hurting.

“I know. But it was a close thing and I’m. I’m tired, Jon.” He pinched his nose, glasses riding up on his forehead. “A child, Jon. A child.”

Logically. The part of Jon that still existed logically knew this wasn’t easy on Martin. Knew it was impossible. Knew that this hunger was taking advantage of the man he’d been before this and exacerbating all the worst parts of himself.

And he let it. Some days.

Because it was easier.

It had always been easier to be alone.

Trust Martin to keep coming back and Jon to keep letting him; craving him like a drug, the only one that could quell the ravenous voice whispering in his ear all those seductive, cloying promises of freedom and power and Knowledge of all things.

But Martin would never be able to understand how deep the dark went and how much of it was Jon himself and it was shameful that he couldn’t tell where he ended and the Eye began and Martin could never understand. Wonderful, beautiful Martin asked how he could help and Jon didn’t know because nothing helped except that which he tried so hard not to take.

God. He was tired of being a burden.

Tired of being helpless.

Tired of losing bits and pieces to that covetous pit.

And he was just so angry.

Static filled his head and he realized he was holding it in both hands, tugging at his greying hair and Martin was still talking but he didn’t understand what he was saying. Could only pick up on the displeased nature of his tone.

Martin was upset. Jon made him upset.

He couldn’t breathe.

“Jon.” And he didn’t deserve the concern in his voice.

“You were going to say something. Before. Please.” Jon couldn’t feel his hands. His arms were numb.

“Not now.” But he needed it now. He needed to know so he could fix this.

“Martin--” He was turning away. Leaving. He was leaving.

“No, Jon.” He could. Fix. He could fix this. He just needed to Know. If he Knew he could fix this. Then Martin wouldn’t leave. He wouldn’t leave if he could just fix what he broke. He just needed to Know.

“Tell me!” Despite the desperate fracture in his voice, the compulsion was like a physical blow and Jon grieved it the instant he spoke but the damage was already done. Dangerous satisfaction that didn’t belong to him flooded his mouth with salt.

Time slowed.

Jon watched (because that was all he ever did) in horror as Martin struggled against the Eye’s power, his power, before his answer erupted from his throat like a gout of acid.

“I hate that you’re like this!” Martin clapped both hands over his mouth, hurt, and confusion, and disappointment welling up in his eyes as Jon turned tail and ran into the night.

There were no shortage of places to hide in the highlands and quick as he could, Jon wedged himself, trembling fit to shake apart, under the shadows of a fallen stone wall before the hysterical sob fighting to break free wrenched itself painfully from the dead center of his chest.

And once it was set free there was no way to stop, not even when he became light headed from the lack of air, not when he knocked his head against the stones with his frantic rocking back and forth, curled up as small as he could get. He couldn’t stop crying, hyperventilating between his knees, the mocking laughter of his god echoing in the hollows of his mind.

It’s over.

Over.

I’m alone.

I can’t do this alone.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

Hard, Job bit into the skin between his thumb and index finger, muffing himself with the bite and begging the pain, this new pain, this different pain, to cut through the noise taking up all his spaces, stealing away his control and he’s had so little of it lately. This time he slotted a knuckle between his teeth until he tasted blood.

Again.

Until his paralyzed lungs heaved in a great breath and dizzied him with it.

Until the panting slowed.

Again.

Until each hand was covered in healing, bruising, bleeding marks of his own making.

Until he could think again.

Until the shame blossomed in him and he cried anew, cutting the edge of his pinky on an incisor. Anything to stop feeling for just one moment. He sank in on himself, making himself somehow smaller amongst the rubble boxing him in, resting his hot, hot forehead against the chilly stone. He could feel the cold seeping in, could see his breath on each exhale and took to counting each plume until the only thing he was left with was an aching exhaustion down deep in his string-and-stick bones.

Sodding blighter.

You never stop when you should. Always pushing.

Always needing more than someone gave. Never grateful for what he was given. Selfish. Martin would realize sooner or later, that Jon needed more than he had any right.

And now.

Martin, sweet, kind, beautiful Martin, would let him down gently. Explain that he hadn’t known how much of himself Jon would try and take. That he hadn’t known the depths of his greed and couldn’t allow Jon to use him up. He would be sorry.

And then he would leave.

And the idea that Jon found a certain comfort in the familiar order of these things, knew what to expect, was sickest of all.

Tears slipped down his cheeks, dripped off his chin, and Jon didn’t know whether the furious shuddering was from the temperature or the residual shock of his panic attack. As he continued to calm, the Eye flickered and danced along to the thrum of the insect song all around him, identifying each species, genus, family, order, latin name, who discovered each one and when; the list was infinite. Jon let it have its fun, blinking slowly, wondering absently who’s dreams he’d lurk through if he just fell asleep right here.

He was contemplating that very thing when he heard Martin’s voice calling out and Jon knew if he stayed still he wouldn’t be found and considered doing just that, not knowing how he could ever face him again after what he’d done. The beam of a torch swept over the wall and Jon heard quiet cursing as Martin tripped and almost lost his footing.

He would hurt himself stumbling around out here in the dark looking for Jon so scrubbing his face free of any tears, he stood on unsteady legs, limping forward filled to bursting with regret and shame.

“Martin.”

“Oh, Christ, Jon.” He whirled, hand clutched over a pounding heart no doubt and watched him scan him up and down, expression forcibly neutral and more tears rolled down his cheeks. Wordlessly, Martin bundled him up in his coat and warmth engulfed him as he was led back to the cabin by the hand settled against the small of his back.

He was sat in a chair in the tiny kitchen and Martin made no motion to take his coat so he hunched himself up inside it to watch him putter around preparing tea. Jon knew better than to interrupt. Could tell he was angry by the clipped movements, his stiff shoulders. He swallowed, pushing down the panic. Martin had every right to be mad. To yell at him. To hurt him if he needed to. It wasn’t fair to manipulate him with more tears.

He would be patient. He would wait. Because Martin needed him to wait and he didn’t wait last time.

Jumping when the mug was set in front of him, Jon waited until Martin settled across from him, watching his body language, noticing how he wouldn’t meet his eyes. Noticed how he relaxed after the first sip.

“I’m--”

“Drink your tea, please, Jon.” Terse, but not unkind. Until now, Jon had kept his hands hidden in the long sleeves. The bites were healing. Quickly. They weren’t gone. And Martin would see if he reached for the porcelain in front of him.

Would he be mad?

“Breathe, Jon.” How? When he’d ruined the only thing good he had and that knowing was crushing him like he’d been crushed in the Buried. “You’re freezing, love.” Jon’s eyes went wide in surprise, welled up. Spilled over. “Drink your tea.” Softly, like he was coaxing a cornered animal. Ashamed, he looked down at the surface of the worn table speckled with his tears, and reached out his hands, closing his eyes at the sharp intake of breath. He couldn’t look. Too afraid of what he’d see and I don’t need to Know, thank you very much, please, stop.

The first swallow began to thaw him from the inside, out, and it was made just how he liked it and suddenly he was crying so hard he could barely finish, gasping like a fish out of water for just a whisper of air, sore from the effort. He was strung out, a wreck, scarcely keeping it together, not keeping it together. And suddenly he was being pressed against Martin’s chest, one hand gently holding his head in place, the other running up and down his back as he fought himself for permission to breathe.

This wasn’t fair. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He hurt Martin.

And again, he made it all about him.

It was always about him.

“Let’s get these washed up, okay?”

Savlon and plasters applied, Martin settled them both on the couch, tugging Jon against him and pulling a blanket over the both of them.

“I’m so, so, s’s’sorry.” Martin sighed heavily, carding fingers through Jon’s hair when he tensed up at the sound.

“I know.”

“H’how can I--?”

“I’m sorry, too. I was so scared for that child.”

“I kn’know.” Jon pushed away so he could look at Martin. “I’ll do better. I won’t. I won’t go into the village.” Just please, please don't leave me here alone. Martin pressed a kiss against his forehead.

“You’re doing your best.” While falling so, so short.

“Do you.” Jon licked dry lips. “You hate--”

“I don’t hate you, darling.” Jon buried his face in Martin’s jumper. “I hate seeing you struggling because I can’t help you.”

“You do help.” Muffled by the soft yarn. “You’re the only thing that does help and I. I.”

“Made a mistake. And you hurt me. But, Jon? It doesn’t mean I’m leaving.” The relief was heady, overwhelming. “Next time, because there will be one, that’s just how this all works. Next time you need to listen when I tell you I need some time.” Jon nodded. “Good. Well, that’s a start then.”

“That’s it?”

“For now.” Martin hugged him tightly. Jon tentatively returned it. “We’re tired--don’t argue with me. And we have time to figure this out together, love.”

And Jon breathed.

#TMAHC #TMAHCweek #jonmartin #tma #the magnus archives #Hurt/comfort #emotional hurt/comfort #fear #panic #panic attack #anxiety #conflict resolution #self harm #biting

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paradisecost · 3 years ago

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i just spent like 20 minutes trying to figure out vague sexuality shit for my muses

note that these aren’t set in stone and i’m only using the split attraction model for clarifying stuff when someone’s demi/aro/ace sdfjnfkjngg

male identifying muses

flint - queer/gay silver - bisexual thomas - queer oisin - pansexual dutch - bisexual / prefers men, pursues women arthur - demisexual biromantic john - bisexual but heavily prefers women, demiromantic hosea - bisexual atticus - bisexual aromantic isaiah - bisexual, demiromantic, very rarely experiences attraction of any kind johannes - gray-asexual, gray-aromantic, bi raphael - achillean/bi merrick - achillean charles - achillean/bi, prefers women harry - achillean keita - achillean/gay martel - who gives a shit jon - biromantic asexual saul - bisexual, prefers women vox - aromantic, pansexual orpheus - bi/pan geralt - pansexual dandelion - bisexual erik - asexual biromantic charles - gray-aromantic, bisexual frank - bisexual, prefers women matt - demiromantic bisexual, prefers women tony - bisexual bucky - bisexual steve - bisexual t'challa - queer logan - bisexual jim - bisexual mccoy - bisexual, prefers women daryl - achillean, prefers men, asexual jack - gay gabe - achillean/prefers men

female identifying muses

madi - bi, vastly prefers men / wouldnt really consider herself sapphic anne - lesbian esther - lesbian annabelle - sapphic/lesbian carol - asexual gray-aromantic, sapphic/bi

nonbinary muses

lyall - sapphic/lesbian the captain - bi, both sapphic and achillean, tends to prefer women, but when leaning towards a male presentation she almost exclusively prefers men. castiel - demiromantic, asexual, pan, idfk he’s an angel red - gray-aromantic, gray-asexual, pan/demi natasha - aromantic asexual, sapphic david - queer mystique - sapphic/queer spock - achillean/bi genji - achillean/gay

#( OOC. )#[ i love the terms sapphic and achillean so fucking much. theyre so damn versatile ]

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katherinewilliams221b · 4 years ago

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For A Greater Good 12/18

gif not mine, just the text. Appare Vestigium

Summary: Kate Williams, young healer and member of the Order, joins Durmstrang’s staff at Dumbledore’s request. Her mission? Find a Death Eater and survive long enough to tell the story. Set in 1996.

Pairing: Charlie Weasley x ofc/mc

Masterlist

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5]

[Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8] [Part 9] [Part 10]

[Part 11]

–

Kate felt the coolness of the night on her lips and decided to enter the castle again. A chill ran through her body and had nothing to do with the icy breeze that crossed the threshold of the door behind her.

She folded all the scrolls as best she could and slipped them into the inside pocket where her notebook was before she started walking back to her room.

She climbed the main stairs slower than usual; many thoughts came into her mind: the danger that lurked in the recesses of the castle; the responsibility she felt to keep her students safe from a potential killer; the idea of Igor Karkarov wandering around the place even though no one had seen him; the goal of finding a secret room that only two people knew about: one had been dead for several centuries and the other was a serial killer in prison.

Overwhelmed by not knowing what her next step should be, she stopped on the first floor and gripped the staircase railing. She took a couple of deep breaths and looked down.

A shadow quickly crept down the corridor on the lower floor, but before it could disappear, it stopped short.

Candlelight showed Kent Jorgensen’s face changing from an alarmed expression to one of surprise. Kate bowed her head in greeting and hurried off towards the top of the building. She had no intention of engaging in a conversation with anyone in the castle.

She was about to reach the first floor when she saw Jorgensen again at the foot of the stairs. Her heart was racing.

She couldn’t think of anything else but hiding, so she followed her instinct and turned the corner before bending over, letting the shadows do the rest of the work. She saw the teacher looking at the place where she had been a few seconds earlier and followed a corridor in the opposite direction.

Kate let go of the breath she was holding and ran to the safety of her room. She placed her chair under the doorknob and immediately felt like an idiot. She had felt watched before, but the accumulation of things that had been happening to her since she arrived had finally had the expected effect.

Without thinking, she grabbed the quill and a scroll and, standing up, began to write,

Dear Charlie,

For the first time… I felt fear.

She returned the quill to the inkwell and crumpled up what was going to be a letter and threw it on the floor. She sat down on the bed and went over her notes.

She jumped to her feet again, remembering that she had to prepare the greenhouse activity for the lesson.

In the days that followed, many questions remained unanswered; who was waiting in the woods? Someone from the castle? It was a man, that was clear. When did she have to go? The note did not specify a specific time. How long did she have to wait for that person to contact her? Would anyone contact her at all?

Her students noticed her absence and took advantage of her distracted mind to get out of some responsibilities and leave greenhouse chores unattended. If Professor Williams was not aware of it or simply overlooked it, they did not know.

Kate visited Corentin to distract herself from Dumbledore’s map, but her spirits fell when she remembered that she had to investigate Nerida Vulchanova’s plans.

When Corentin laid them out before her, she almost decided to drop the whole thing. He didn’t exaggerate when he said that only Vulcanova knew how to move through the tunnels. The blueprints of the building were composed of twelve scrolls, four had symbols and numbers, four contained fragments of rooms, and the rest showed each floor of the castle.

“How do you know this is belongs here?” She said holding a blank scroll except for a small triangle in one corner.

“I have no idea. It was on top of the others. It could be anything….”

Kate inspected the first document, marked “the ground floor” of the building. She smiled a little and held the scroll up to her nose.

“I like the way it smells. Sweet.” Corentin raised an eyebrow at the comment and sat down next to her.

“I know there is one in this room. But it only connects to the first floor of the library,” he said, pointing to the circle representing the tower where they were, “Sometimes I use it to surprise first graders.”

She turned the paper to place the library drawing in front of her, and Corentin pointed at the symbol of a staircase.

“Where is it?”

“Right behind my desk. Behind the curtain.”

Kate held the map of the ground floor and followed the librarian to his desk. He pulled back the curtain, and they heard a faint sound of chains as the wall opened. A torch lit up the interior.

“That staircase leads to section C on the first floor.”

Kate entered the narrow nook and found that to her left was a staircase that led to the upper floor. To her right, there was only one wall.

“Tsk. I need the other scroll perhaps… or… I better go now. I have to grade some assignments, clean up the greenhouse, go to class, meet with Rhode, and go to…”

They had come back to the table while Kate was talking and started to collect the scrolls. She decided not to comment on the cryptic message Dumbledore had sent her.

She considered telling the headmistress in case she thought she knew the person she had to trust in the forest.

Could it be Corentin? No, he wasn’t the kind of person to hang out with a man like Dumbledore.

“What a tight schedule.” Kate took a deep breath and let the air out heavily.

“Yes… and now this…” She gasped and looked at Corentin with round eyes “And the AEDA! I must check the list…”

The librarian grimaced at her tone of voice, but was reassuring in his speech.

“We don’t have to do this…”

“Yes. I must. I have the impression that someone is also looking for Grindelwald’s room. We are not the only ones who know about the existence of the passages.”

Kent Jorgensen and his evening walks, Mer Yankelevich and her mysterious affairs that Libor Marek knew about, Leron Angelov and his entrance to the greenhouse, all the hours when no one knew anything about Cassandra Steiner…

Any of them could be looking for that room. Any of them could be a Death Eater.

“I’ll keep them safe.” he said, pressing the scrolls to his chest.

Kate said goodbye to Corentin and went to Class 82 to pick up the list she had hung for her students to write their names on.

“I hope they have an idea of what to do…” she said to herself before arriving.

She passed by Grindelwald’s column, now surrounded by a magic barrier to prevent it from collapsing through the crack, and continued on to the classroom.

Before entering, she saw two guards talking at a shift change in front of the lake. She hurried to pick up the scroll hanging on the other side of the door and read the names on it. Micael Angelov was the first on the list, followed by only two other students. Perhaps they could consider working together.

She went to the desk and after leaving the list on the table; she took the scrolls out of the top drawer and set about correcting their writing. She had an hour before the herbology class started.

Kate raced against time and ran to the other side of the castle on her way to the greenhouse, in vain, as she did not manage to get there in time.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” She exclaimed as she walked to the end of the central table. She left the scrolls on top of the wood.

“Professor Williams, you’re not wearing your overalls!” exclaimed a boy as he pointed his finger at her.

“You’re absolutely right, Jon, but you’re going to have to turn a blind eye for a moment. These are your essays.” As she said this, everyone got up to find theirs and Kate slipped into the wardrobe to put on her work clothes.

The sound of papers crumpling up under her cape reminded her of the many things she had to do after that class. Dumbledore’s map was burning in her pocket.

“I’ve made a list of the mistakes that have been repeated the most. I want to start by doing the transplant exercise again…”

Several grunts showed their dissatisfaction. She heard some murmurs saying things like “we’ve done that a thousand times already”, “it’s boring” or “we haven’t done anything else lately”.

“Do you want to do something different today?” Kate asked, resting her hip on the table. “Do you have something in mind?” Nobody answered. Kate observed how they looked at each other. With a gentle but decisive clap she said, “Get your garden shears. We’re going into the woods.”

Like a mother duck and her ducklings, Kate took her students across the bridge to the entrance of the forest. It benefits us all; she thought, to convince herself that she was not making a serious mistake.

“Alright,” Everyone crowded around her so they could hear what she was saying. “Rules: you can’t go to the lake or back to the castle without me knowing about it.”

She turned to point out the path into the forest. “You may follow the path and move away a little as long as you do not lose sight of the castle, the path, or any of your companions. If you move away, I will know.”

A little lie that served to make more than one of them look down.

“What we are going to do is this… do you have all your books?” They shook them or lifted in confirmation.

“Perfect. Let’s do what every good herbologist does: an herbarium. An herbarium is a collection of plants and flowers that are kept after they are dried, with information that identifies them. Today we must do the important part, the collection. I have brought the only basket that we own, I need someone to carry it”.

They looked around, pretending to admire the landscape so as not to be chosen to carry the basket. Michael Angelov reached out to grab it.

“Brilliant. Thank you, Michael. You have your scissors and the book to remember how to cut a plant properly. Cut a maximum of two herbs each. Be respectful of the forest and don’t abuse it. I trust you. Come on, go play”.

Nervous, but still determined to stick to that makeshift plan, Kate looked for Dumbledore’s map in her pocket. She followed the path and went into the woods.

With each step, the laughter and footsteps of her students faded away. Following the line indicated on the map, there came a moment when only her own steps could be heard. A turn to the right, a jump over a fallen log, and a few more steps led her to a clearing. The line on the map did not advance in any other direction.

The wind suddenly picked up and Kate put her hand to her chest and covered her throat with her robes. She looked up. The treetops swayed above her. They were really tall. A strange thing for the climate of the area. She took a few steps to the nearest tree and placed her hand on the wood.

The entire tree vibrated, and a golden glow surrounded it for a second. Kate smiled. They were protected with magic, a rare technique given their difficulty in execution, but if done correctly, entire areas of vegetation could be preserved for centuries.

She glanced around, looking for signs that someone had been there, but did not notice anything out of the ordinary.

Drawing out her wand, she mumbled, “homenum revelio”, but only the wind appeared.

She took a deep breath and twisted the wand slightly to prepare for the next spell. It was time to demonstrate that she had been paying attention to Charlie’s tracking lessons, and that she hadn’t just stood by and stared at him.

“Appare vestigium.“

A golden swirl came out of her wand, illuminating the area. Several scenes were played in front of her: Kent Jorgensen transforming into a hawk, a hooded figure talking to Leron Angelov, Cassandra running, Mer Yankelevich looking around, Libor Marek casting a spell, footprints of…

A creak of branches alerted her.

She stood still where she was and looked around, trying to make as little noise as possible. All she could hear was her breathing and the whistling of the wind through the leaves. She saw a glint in the branches and held her breath. A centaur appeared from among the trees.

Keeping her eye on the arrow that was pointing at her, Kate raised her arms, showing the map and wand. She did not look away from the weapon; she knew a herd surrounded her. There was no need to check.

Would he be the one Dumbledore wanted her to trust? Slowly she bent down and left both the wand and the map on the ground.

The centaur pulled the string of his bow, and Kate gasped.

“There are children in the forest! And they are my responsibility. I’m looking for someone, I don’t want any trouble,” she said hurriedly, fearing the worst. She resisted the urge to grab her wand because that would be digging her own grave.

The arrow shot out before she knew it, hitting the target effectively. Kate pressed her eyes closed instinctively.

But the pain never came.

She looked down and saw it stuck in the ground. A scroll was wrapped around it. When she looked up, the centaur was gone. She bent down to pick up the scroll and unrolled it.

Find the room and the names. There is not just one mark.

Nerida had more than one profession.

Do not return. We will not meet.

You can tell this person is a friend of Dumbledore’s, she thought.

She didn’t dare touch the arrow, so she left it where it was and set off to return to her students. She dawdled her way to the children, a little afraid of another reunion with the centaurs. She knew that they avoided humans at all costs and that this time they were just messengers, but the thought of endangering the students gave her goosebumps. She heard laughter and people talking, but before returning to them, she held Dumbledore’s map and the stranger’s note and with a wave of her wand, set them on fire.

“Professor Williams? Professor Williams!”

Kate shot out, waving her wand in the scream’s direction and found one of her students, Vivien, waiting for her to arrive. The smile on her face reassured her.

“Professor Williams, look!”

Kate mentally counted all the children who had arrived when she heard Vivien’s voice and found that no one was missing. They walked to a tree that was thicker than the rest and, with a little more inspection, Kate discovered what Vivien wanted to show her.

“Oh! Umbrella flowers!” Three small umbrella-shaped flowers floated near the tree and swayed slightly in the breeze. Two of them were pink, the other was yellow. “These are beautiful! Very good find, Vivien.”

“They look like mushrooms…” said Jon Hopkins.

“It’s a very interesting comparison because… Look inside, they have some small capsules where they keep spores. They are not reproductive, they are responsible for floating.” She turned away so they could look inside the flowers. “These are tiny, but they can be the same size as you. The cover that gives them their name protects them from heavy rain and cold.”

“They are a bit boring. In the book it says that there are plants that have fangs or claws. What do these do?” commented another student. Kate stood there thoughtfully, reproducing in her head the image of clawed umbrella flowers, and a laugh escaped her lips.

“Well, don’t you think it’s enough that they fly? If they also had teeth that would be…” She gasped, “What a great idea you just had, Ivan!” They shared some puzzled looks before looking at Kate as if she had just gone mad.

“What if I told you it might be possible… to make them have teeth?” He let them mutter to each other before going on, “it could be our project for AEDA. I’ve seen fanged geranium seeds in the greenhouse. We could try…”

“You mean…” started Micael Angelov “crossing the two species?”

“Yes. Exactly that. I’ve never done it, it could be fun, what do you think? Does anyone else want to participate?”

Kate approached the flowers and asked Vivien to borrow her scissors. With great care, she cut a strand that was growing from the inside and gave the tool back to her student. “This will be enough.”

Michael extended the basket for her to examine.

“Very good collection. Let’s see what’s in here… wolf’s bane! Interesting. This looks like wild celery… and these I don’t know. Brilliant! We already have a lot to do.”

They discussed it animatedly together on the way to the castle and Kate used their good humour to remind them that even if they had this project in hand, they would not be spared from practising transplanting between pots. The last stretch was filled with grunts and laughter from Kate.

The next day, Kate met with Corentin again, with all the intention of telling him about her escape to the forest and the information she was presented there.

The librarian received her with his own good news.

“I have found it.” He said with excitement. “Follow me. Last night I couldn’t stop thinking about…you know…so I began studying the blueprints.”

They gathered at their usual small table, away from prying eyes. Corentin pointed to the scroll.

“Here is the library, the duelling classroom, the charms classroom, the hospital wing…” He pointed at each of the rooms on the ground floor until he reached the trophy room. He moved his finger back a little and waited for Kate’s reaction.

She looked at him and shook her head. “There’s nothing there.”

“No… but if you put this on top…” He slid a scroll that had only several lines and squares drawn in no particular order, and had one edge fitted into the space on the bottom plane.

“There is a secret room a little further back.” She nodded proudly, but her happiness quickly evaporated. “But that’s what we expected. There must be dozens of hidden places here. Unfortunately, it means nothing.”

“There are at least four. I’ve done the same for each floor plan, and there’s only one match in each one. These 8 scrolls show each floor in its entirety plus the fragments of the secret rooms.”

Kate looked at the table in amazement. “Excellent work, Corentin.” He bowed his head and smiled. “I have something to tell you too.”

Corentin didn’t believe what he was hearing. He kept his calm demeanour, but Kate noticed that it surprised him.

“So a person you don’t know who he is, and whom you haven’t seen, has delivered a message to you in the woods.”

“Yes.”

“And you trust this person.”

“Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow and looked at the plans again. “Everything seems to point to Nerida Vulchanova, doesn’t it?”

“It seems so. Maybe we should start in the trophy room. There’s a painting of her there, isn’t there? Maybe it’ll give us a clue.”

“Unlikely. But we can try.” They were silent for a while, and Corentin turned to find Kate looking at him. “You mean now?”

She smiled innocently, and Corentin agreed to the little manipulation. Together they sorted out the papers before going to investigate Nerida’s painting.

The portrait received them with a small smile, as if she knew what they had been up to. Luckily for them, the room was deserted.

“Corentin, what do you know about her?”

“Well… the essential. She was a brilliant woman. She designed and built the castle as a perfect fortress. She was skilled in many disciplines; architecture, of course, the dark arts, alchemy, astronomy… It is said that she liked to sail, and that she drew hundreds of maps of the seas showing islands that only she had found.”

Kate touched the plate of her date of birth and death. “How did she die?”

“It is not known exactly. Her death was filed as ‘in strange circumstances’. The books do not agree on the date either.“

“And this one here? Is it the right one?” Corentin approached to inspect it and shrugged..

“It could be. The newest texts date from those years so…” He took a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean the plate from the dust layer it had and, as he did so, it slipped off, leaving a hole in its place.

“Corentin!” Kate gasped. He pulled out his wand and lit the hole, but it was apparently empty.

The librarian went to put his hand in, but Kate stopped him before he could do anything. “What are you doing?”

“It could be a similar mechanism as the one in the library.” Corentin put his hand inside and when he pressed, a slight ‘click’ was heard. They took a couple of steps backwards and Nerida Vulchanova’s huge painting slowly opened.

“It’s Muggle-like. It’s brilliant, if you think about it, the blood purists would never have thought of it,” said Kate.

The painting stopped moving, revealing a stone wall. Disappointment was evident on both faces. They stared at the wall for a moment without saying anything to each other, until Corentin spoke,

“There’s a reasonably simple potion for getting through walls. It’s dark magic, but I know you’d be able to perform. You need water from the lake, sopophorous beans and bottled ghost breath. Then you heat…”

“How am I supposed to get bottled ghost breath?”

“Well, you need a bottle and a willing ghost.”

“You just want to see me bang my head against the wall, don’t you?”

“It was just a suggestion…”

Kate shook her head and went over to the wall. She placed both hands on top of it and pushed to see what would happen. She felt around the stone, looking for any irregularities or anything that might indicate a mechanism similar to the one in the painting.

“Corentin, look at this.” The librarian approached and crouched in the corner where she was. The Deathly Hallows symbol adorned the stone.

“I think we’re on the right track.”

–

[Part 13]

Tag list: @eldritchscreech @meteora-fc @cazreadsstuff @the-navistar-carol @am-i-space

#charlie weasley #charlie x jacob's sibling #charlie weasley fanfiction #charlie weasley x mc #charlie weasley x ofc #durmstrang #Kate Williams

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radiantmists · 4 years ago

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Considering how heavily I identify with/project onto Jon, it should not be this difficult to write his perspective.

#jon archivist #what edgedancer's doing #also i had to make three whole attempts to arrive at the appropriate spelling of write #maybe i need to put this down for the night

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ellaenchanting · 5 years ago

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Hypnovember Day 27: Confidence

Warnings: non-consensual, unethical mental health practices

Richard paced nervously outside in the waiting room. The blue walls and minimalist style were clearly designed to be soothing, but Richard didn't feel comforted. Why had he let Marissa talk him into going to therapy anyway? He felt ashamed of asking for this kind of help. He wasn't crazy or anything- he just needed to figure some things out. Ever since Marissa had broken up with him, Richard had felt lost and unconfident. It had been over two years already. He needed some perspective.

Dr Eleanor had been recommended to Richard by his friend Jon who had seen her previously. "She won’t bullshit you," he had said, "she just gets right to the roots of your issues and helps you solve them." He must have known what he was talking about- a year after visiting Dr Eleanor, Jon had recently married a wonderful woman. He was also running marathons and succeeding professionally. There were worse people to listen to, Richard thought.

So Richard booked an appointment. Some of the questions on Dr Eleanor's website had seemed a bit odd- there was a surreal one where she asked him to imagine a beach and indicate if he could picture the sand, hear the waves, or feel the sun better- but he was here. Ready to be thereapized. Ready to feel better.

"Richard?" called a voice from the office. Dr Eleanor looked very similar to her website picture- older and stylish with cat eye glasses and dark greying hair. She smiled at him. "Come in!"

Her therapy office was a little darker than he expected, but it felt comfortable and was tastefully-decorated. He sank slightly more than he expected into the large plush chair as he sat down. He noticed the position of the blinders and the way their positioning directed light onto him and his chair.

Dr Eleanor offered to make them some tea, which Richard accepted. While she was working, he tried to identify what the office smelled like. There was a dark, musty smell that was almost a little overpowering- not like the patchouli he had vaguely been anticipating. It wasn't unpleasant necessarily but- odd. He'd have to ask her about it later- maybe even politely request that she not use it during future sessions.

If there were future sessions, that is.

Dr Eleanor gave him some tea and watched expectantly as he took a sip. Then she started out the session by explaining her therapeutic style. She stated that a lot of her clients suffered from problematic relationship patterns and, thus, she liked to use the therapist/client relationship as a model for examining and learning how to better navigate others. She indicated that she would ask a lot of questions even from the beginning about the relationship between herself and Richard. She also wanted to let him know that she used a lot of visualization and meditation practices in her work. Based on his intake, she thought Richard would respond very well to these.

After getting his consent, Dr Eleanor asked him to tell her a little about his history of confidence issues. He started by detailing his relationship with his mother. She had been a classic over-protective single mother who limited his ability to explore as a kid. He grew up relatively sheltered and timid but was academically successful until he went to college. There, his first taste of freedom had led to issues with alcohol and him nearly dropping out several times. He told the story of meeting his ex Marissa in the last year of school and how she inspired him to pull himself together enough to graduate. They were happy together for a few years, but she had broken up with him 2 years ago. Although they had remained friends, his life had fallen apart in the ensuing years since the breakup. He had lost his confidence and was feeling aimless.

As he talked, Richard noticed that he was beginning to feel more and more at ease with Dr Eleanor- it seemed like somehow she could truly understand and empathize with everything he was saying. He noticed a few times that she even shifted in her chair when he shifted or moved when he moved- like they were sharing the same mind for a moment. Occasionally she would interrupt his story to ask a few, sometimes unrelated questions. (Who was his favorite teacher as a child? How did he feel when she was paying attention to him? In what ways was she similar to Dr Eleanor? What drew him to his romantic interests? What had made Richard choose therapy with her?)

It was comfortable here, having this conversation with her. Almost too comfortable. He noticed the musty smell from before again, only it smelled a bit sweeter now. It was nice, he decided. Heady. The sun was setting and the light was flashing through the blinds and tiring his eyes a bit.

He didn't mind, though. He felt good and warm and peaceful.

Dr Eleanor must have noticed. She observed that he was blinking more often. She asked him if all of this processing was making him tired.

Tired? Suddenly that seemed very true. He nodded, eyes blinking heavily.

She nodded along with him, “You know, often when people come to therapy they’re just so tired. Tired of having to cope with their life stressors on their own. Tired of trying to seek out meaning by themselves. Tired of trying to solve problems all by themselves. Are you feeling tired in that way?”

Richard nodded again, suddenly feeling too drowsy and heavy to speak. That was ok. He felt more inclined to listen right now, anyway.

Dr Eleanor leaned forward as she continued. “So- let me reflect back to you what I’ve heard so far this session. You’re someone who has been struggling, all by himself, to try and make good decisions for your wellbeing and for your future. But when you try to make those decisions independently, you find that you aren’t strong enough to carry through with them and you fail or succumb to laziness. You thrive when you have a powerful woman in your life to push you and give you guidance, but deep inside there’s a self-sabotaging part of you that rejects help and dysfunctionally seeks self-reliance. This is despite knowing that on some level that you’re the kind of person who isn't really able to thrive alone. You feel guilty about your need for guidance and are trapped by the demands of a toxic masculinity into fruitlessly following your undisciplined urges into ruin, over and over again.” She stopped and looked at him kindly. “I can see why you’re so sad.”

How did she understand him so well after such a short time? Her analysis was incredible and felt so accurate. He wanted to tell her this, but the spinny feeling in his head had increased while she was talking and it was had to think of the words. He settled on nodding again.

She nodded along. Her tone softened more as her face took on a gentle, concerned expression. “You ARE tired. You poor thing, you’re been so alone. So helpless. You must be exhausted.”

He nodded, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes.

Her smile softened. “I want you to try something. Try saying it: ‘I need guidance’ See how it feels.”

As a small tear formed, he repeated “I need guidance.” He blinked and it fell down his cheek.

She beamed. “Good! Excellent! Now- let’s practice an important skill. I know this may be unusual for you to do but it’s really important to be able to ask for help. Why don’t you try asking me directly for guidance now?”

“Please guide me, Dr Eleanor” he asked her. He started to feel like he was floating away, far above the chair.

“Of course I will, sweet boy. Why don’t you close your eyes and we’ll do some meditation exercises.”

Richard’s eyes slammed shut and he was momentarily overwhelmed by the sweet relief of finally being able to relax and let go. Dr. Eleanor started speaking to him, guiding him through some visualization exercises. He couldn’t quite remember everything afterwards- he might have dozed- but he did have a vague fuzzy recollection of re-examining some early childhood memories. Dr Eleanor guided Richard through remembering times when he felt like he knew best but his decisions had been wrong or unwise. “The silly brashness of an ignorant boy,” she said. She noted when his mother and other women around him had guided him safely to better outcomes than he could anticipate on his own.

At one point, Richard started to have a dream about a particularly difficult moment in elementary school- only, this time, when things were hard, Dr Eleanor was there. He could feel her hand on his shoulder as she helped him through a hard time, providing the guidance and direction and care that he needed. It was so nice to re-remember his childhood this way- safe and secure and peaceful. It was nice to not have to make decisions. It was nice to let someone else be in control. It was nice to be guided.

“Well, time’s up!”

Richard opened his eyes, snapping out of his reverie.

Dr Eleanor was rapidly writing down some notes on her notepad. She looked up, briefly. “You’ll be coming back the same time next week, yes?”

Richard felt gleeful at the prospect. Finally, he was going to get the guidance he needed to get his life back on track. “Yes Dr Eleanor! Thank you Dr Eleanor!”

Her smile was business-like. “Good. You may leave.”

Richard beamed, feeling energized and fantastic leaving the office. He never imagine therapy could work this well! He understood himself so much more fully and felt so much better just from one session. Why hadn't anyone told him it could be this effective?

As he left the office, the thought came to his mind of bringing Dr Eleanor a gift at the next session. After all, it was the least he could do to repay all her help so far. She deserved something nice.

He whistled as he made his way to the car, considering the prospect. Then he hopped in and drove away- into his new life.

#hypnovember #confidence #non-evidence based practice #evil therapist roleplay #secret tags twist: the drugs are in the tea #shhhh

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backofthebookshelf · 6 years ago

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105 Hill Top Road: What the Fuck

(Relevant episodes: 008, 019, 043, 055, 056, 059, 067, 078, 089, 114, 130, 134, 139)

I mean, I think it's pretty obvious at this point that Anya Villette came from another reality, right? The timeline's different but the Powers are the same. At least one of them, with that spidery tree. She goes into the house in one reality and wakes up in another one, where all her friends tell her, "oh yeah, when shit like that happens to you, you go to the Magnus Institute," and she says, "the what now?" And there's this building in Chelsea that wasn't there before and they take her statement and then she...what? Does she disappear? Do the spiders get her? Or does she just not have a legal identity in this reality so that's why they can't find her?

(Did Gertrude actually read this statement? She's probably busy as hell in 2009, she's been working on rituals, Mary Keay has just turned herself into a book, Leitner's running around in the tunnels. And she was skeptical of Dekker's theories; would she be as skeptical of something like this? Presumably she read Vanderstock's statement, she would have wanted to know, and he mentioned the "scar in reality" but would she have believed it? Would she have considered it worth following up on, even without the spiders doubtless doing all they can to keep people from paying attention?)

Vanderstock mentions "other Powers" at work at Hill Top Road, but the only one I can identify besides the Web and the Desolation is the Spiral, and that only vaguely: Ivo Lensik and Father Burroughs were both Spiral-adjacent. And I wonder about that table, too; everything about it seems Spiral-like, except for the fact that it is used to trap a Stranger creature. Granted I can make a case for hypnosis being related to spiders, but still.

Still no idea what actually happened there, of course. Agnes would have been fully grown (26, per her death certificate) by around 1980, assuming she ages normally, which is kind of a big assumption. (139 makes it sound like it took her twenty years to be eleven years old, but that might be me misinterpreting.) Vanderstock makes a reference to Gertrude doing something that delayed their ritual preparations just after Jude Perry joined; not sure whether that's when she first met them in '89 or when she "completed her transformation" in '91, but let's average the difference and call it sometime around 1990. But the house at Hill Top Road burned in 1974, so whatever was happening there happened well before they'd given up on their ritual.

(Besides, it really sounded like the Last Feast was the first ritual Gertrude had successfully and intentionally disrupted. So either she did this accidentally or it was something else. But why assume it was her, otherwise? In 2008 Mary makes a snide comment about Gertrude not getting out and doing much herself, which is hilarious because she disrupted at least two rituals in 2008, but it does indicate that she's at least not seen as someone who gets involved. But that's almost twenty years later; maybe she used to get out more? Maybe the Eye had a particular interest in something? We've got a few statements from the 90s but mostly 1996 and later; we've got exactly one statement from the 80s and it's Tucked In. Anyway. This is (probably) a distraction.) (Interestingly Jon only comments on Agnes's death, not on whatever happened in the early 90s, which makes me wonder if it wasn't Gertrude at all but the spiders themselves. But Vanderstock is so sure it was her.)

I can't find anything in other statements that tells us much of anything aside from one thing: the Institute got a new Head in 1973, a year before the house burned. It might be nothing, but if the Web and the Eye are as closely aligned as we keep speculating they are, it might be something. (This was Elias's predecessor, James Wright, about whom we know nothing at all.) There is a really annoying lack of statements from the 80s and early 90s; we have virtually no idea what was going on in the supernatural ecosystem at that time. Would those be the statements on tape that were found with Gertrude's body, perhaps? What did happen to all of those? Two or three boxes of tapes is a lot of statements.

But back to the point, what was happening at Hill Top Road? It was owned by the Fieldings from the 1800s, which makes me think it's been a Web stronghold that long. (I'd love to know if Walter Fielding knew Smirke or Magnus or anyone else in their circle.) By the sixties Raymond Fielding was using it to harvest...victims? Hosts? What did happen to the kids Ronald Sinclair saw in the basement, who had been turned into spider egg sacs? Were they just there to feed the baby spiders, or were they turning into spider-Jaegers like the one Trevor Herbert met in 2009? (Daisy told Basira her first sectioned case was something to do with spider husks but we never got any other details. That would've been the latter half of 2002. We got no other details but I'd be interested to know where it was. HEY JON TALK TO YOUR COWORKERS.)

So okay, 105 Hill Top Road is a spider factory, cool. Then Agnes shows up. Two-three months later she saves a guy from getting et by Raymond Fielding for no apparent reason, that's nice of her. (Agnes likes cute boys confirmed.) And it seems like she stops him from taking in more kids, because they say the number of kids at the house dwindles until it's just Agnes left, and then Raymond disappears. It's "years" that Agnes lives in the house alone and mostly never leaves, though pets go missing from the neighborhood, before, in 1974, a five-year-old goes missing. A week later the house burns down and in it they find only Raymond Fielding's skeleton, sans right hand. So that sounds like Fielding was feeding on the kids, and catching smaller prey after he didn't have them any more, and when he worked back up to kids again Agnes caught him and stopped him. But it had to be more than that, because this is the fight Vanderstock describes as creating "a scar in reality," and which tied Agnes to the location. The fact that she kept Fielding's hand worried Arthur Nolan, which yeah, that would worry me too, but I'm not an avatar of destruction created by an evil cult, so I have to assume it was for some reason other than "eew."

(I also have to wonder exactly what their ritual required, other than Agnes herself, because there's a long time between 1974 and 1990. But.)

Then, in 2006, the house is being rebuilt and Ivo Lensik is working on it evenings and weekends, and who shows up at the door but Raymond Fielding, in an old-fashioned coat and looking "like something out of an old Polaroid," showing off the deed to the house and poking around. This show doesn't really go in for ghosts, and besides he was an avatar or something, so I'm gonna go with "alternate universe Ray Fielding," I guess. Who then...gets burned to a crisp after being inside the (new) house for two minutes? There's a smell of burning and a scorch mark on the floor. This freaks out Lensik so bad he falls and hits his head and also worries that he's getting schizophrenia (which his father apparently had, except schizophrenia doesn't work like that, that was definitely Michael) and he goes to the hospital, where a local nurse apparently likes suggesting exorcisms to people.

(There's no indication that anyone from the Lightless Flame noticed AU!Ray, so I'm assuming for now he was destroyed/banished/yeeted back to his own reality by whatever latent Desolation power is attached to the place.)

So one night the exorcist shows up and while he's waiting outside Ivo Lensik just. Snaps. He cannot handle that tree. That tree is looking at him and he doesn't like it. He takes a crowbar to it and it bleeds; he chains it to his truck and pulls it down. At this point Agnes, who's out with Jack Barnabas being blessedly normal for a change, spasms like something hurt her and makes a panicked phone call, and then Arthur and Diego and everybody show up at her flat with an unlit lantern, a bag of candles, and a jar of tiny spiders, and then she asks them to kill her. Vanderstock puts it down to Jack Barnabas, but in Barnabas's own statement it's very clear that the tree comes down, she calls in a panic, they meet her at her flat, and then she kisses him and he's in the hospital for three days. (I'm not saying her attachment to him didn't ruin the ritual, that's probably why she made whatever decision she did, but the tree was an inciting incident.)

(At the same time the tree is coming down, too, Father Burroughs is inside the house feeling like he's burning alive, and the Spiral is speaking through him insisting that he's already been claimed and the Desolation just doesn't care. It doesn't stop until the tree comes down outside. There's also no indication that any Desolation avatars noticed this.)

Under the tree is a six-inch-square box covered in twisting lines and there's a whole OTHER thing, because that box belongs in the center of the table that trapped the not!Them, and how did it get from here to there? How did it escape the fire that burned down the original house? (Graham had it in 2005. Dekker had it in 2001. No clue where it went between 2005 and when it shows up at the Institute in 2015.) And what was the purpose of it when Fielding used it, had the kids sit around it every Sunday dinner? Did he bury the box, with an apple inside, to protect himself from Agnes? Is that why pulling down the tree hurt her? (In Anya Villette's statement the tree is heavily spider-identified, to the point where she refers to it interchangeably as "branches" and "arms," of which it has eight, but in Ivo Lensik's statement he notices that it was heavily burned at the base. Was it attacked by the Desolation? In which case why did pulling it down hurt Agnes? Was she, in fact, tied to the tree itself? In which case, given the importance of the tree in the alternate reality, is there an alternate Agnes out there? Maybe one where she got to go on dates with cute boys instead of having to either die or burn down the world?)

AND. As more than one of us have pointed out by now, in 114, Jon says:

I’ve half a mind to just go down and have a look at it myself, but… I don’t know. Ever since it first came up I’ve felt like it would be… just a very bad idea.

And then Tim walks in and he and we forget all about it, but doesn't that sound like spidery manipulation to you? It does to me. So whatever Agnes and the Desolation did at Hill Top Road, it had a lasting effect (both in terms of leaving some remnant of the Desolation there and in the side effect of the...apparent dimensional portal?...) but the spiders do still seem to hold a lot of sway there as well.

What this has to do with anything I wish I knew, but I will say that 114 was the first thing I thought of after Garland Hillier's "la porte est la porte," which also sounds a lot like "all the doors are open now" from The Bifrost Incident (which is probably an entirely different continuity and has nothing to do with this other than ~themes~ but you know), but now that we've been talking a lot about the Powers as places I'm not so sure that means anything other than poor Hillier managed to walk into the domain of the Extinction and found his way out again for a while. But if the Powers are places, does that imply that Anya Villette came from one of them, or that there are other mostly-normal universes that haven't been taken over by the Powers? And if they exist...well. What does that imply about saving our universe from them, or losing it to them? (By "our" I mean "Jon and Martin's universe," obviously, "our" universe is another one entirely. I hope.)

tl;dr (TOO LATE): I have absolutely no idea what was or is happening at Hill Top Road but I’m pretty sure the spiders don’t want anyone poking around and also someone should go poke around there immediately, unless that's what Martin is doing right now, Martin stop, go back and get your boyfriend, he's freaking out

#the magnus archives #tma spoilers #it's a meta party #you bet i just spent three and a half hours writing that #i'm so interested in hill top road #(road trip to oxford????)#very long i'm so sorry so much has happened and none of it makes sense

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gleefully-macabre · 5 years ago

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not to seem like a baby on main but what’s the ew het trend? i’ve been on here for maybe 8 years and haven’t come across anything about it

This turned into a rant, so I’m putting it under a cut. I’m sure this is not going to make me any friends, but here we go.

Its the majority, or maybe just a visible minority, of fandom ignoring or hating any ship that isn’t somehow queer. M/F shipping is ok if at least one character is trans, genderqueer, or their presentation is somehow non-gender-conforming.

Often this involves fandom deciding certain characters are actually gay because they self-ship, which is the same thing as straight male fans headcanoning gay female characters as “actually straight” or somehow converted because they find her hot.

Also deifying and demonizing characters to rationalize the dislike.

This was common in the Gundam Wing fandom with Relena, especially among Heero/Duo shippers.

Much of the Sherlock fandom did this with Mary with the headcanon that she cheated on John and her pregnancy was the result of her infidelity.

I’m seeing it in the Good Omens fandom. Mainly with Anathema, who has been deemed a figure of perfection despite allowing a 300 year old book dictate her life and being dogmatic in her beliefs which when she lists them to Adam sound more like parroted rhetoric than formed opinions.

Meanwhile, Newton is written off as boring, useless, and unintelligent despite being a literary foil in that he believes in nothing and has no direction, yet similarly obsessed in the study of computers compared to Anathema’s study of the occult.

Meanwhile, Beelzibub/Gabriel is becoming inexplicably popular despite both being antagonists, towards the main characters and one another. Gabriel in particular is an abhorrent character that is getting shipped with some frequency, which I can only assume is because it’s Jon Hamm. There’s significant interest in pairing the adult main characters with the CHILDREN characters, for heaven’s sake.

When it comes to explicit content, it seems the only acceptable PIV involves trans characters. Sex with a f/m pair is nearly nonexistent unless it’s pegging.

Maybe I’m just biased because I’m bi and actually enjoy the company of and sex with men, and don’t consider men in general to be awful, hateful, violent, evil, etc. Or maybe because I often identify with the characters fandom hates (Lizzie from Codename: KND comes to mind). Or maybe I’m just a contrarian curmudgeon who chooses to invest heavily in the least popular thing regardless of merit so I can be salty about it.

#fandom discourse #unpopular opinion #glee replies #glee answers #anon

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lawful-evil-novelist · 7 years ago

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This might seem like a very weird question, but if you haven’t mentioned it before- Who are your top 5 or 10 Least favourite rogues + favourite rogues and why? Hope you don’t mind me asking

I CAN ABSOLUTELY DO THAT FRIEND. I’m only going to do a top 5 least favorite because I like most rogues, but I will do a top 10 favorites.

Top 5 Least Favorite

5. Dollmaker-Dollmaker is creepy, and not the kind of creepy I like where it makes a compelling character. No, he’s just creepy and uncomfortable and I don’t like it.

4. The Joker-Joker is a very compelling and interesting as a concept and if you list off his personality on paper he’s a decent character. But he’s usually utilized poorly, and overused to the point of annoyance.

3. Professor Pyg-Nope. No. Nah. No.

2. Lyle Bolton-You all know why I hate Bolton, I don’t think I need to explain that.

1. Dr. Hugo Strange-Look, you all know my problems with Strange, you all know why I hate him, I don’t want to repeat myself.

Top 10 Favorite

10. Pamela Isley-I absolutely love Ivy and how gray her morality is. She has points but she’s going about these points the wrong way. She complains about no one listening and then doesn’t listen herself. Usually, I’d hate a character who is so hypocritical but her conviction really makes you grasp her side and see her anger, while acknowledging that she is still, on some level, wrong.

9. Maximillian Zeus-I find nothing more amusing than Maxie, and nothing more enjoyable. Maxie is one of the few characters in a fictional world who grasps the gods of a pagan mythology perfectly, while also not believing in the same ideals. Maxie is far, far kinder than Zeus in the actual mythology, but he’s still uncaring about humanity as a whole and has a superiority. The only thing you notice is that he considers people he respects as fellow gods and legendary heroes, and that’s kinda the biggest honor he can bestow. It’s fascinating to get into his head and look at how he sees the world.

8. Drury Walker-Look, I was introduced to Drury in probably the worst way, through The Batman where he’s just a dweeby nerd who gets special powers from a fluke. But I love Drury in the comics. Drury in the comics is so enjoyable. He’s a gun for hire, ingenious, but clearly has had to build himself from nothing and doesn’t trust the establishment. I also thoroughly enjoy that he will literally do anything for money and is so open about it he’ll literally switch sides if he’s offered more cash. He’s not loyal to anyone but himself and has no shame in showing that off.

7. Waylon Jones-Firstly, I fucking love this crocodile man and he is beautiful fuck what anyone else says. Secondly, Waylon has got to be the most enjoyable example of prejudice shown in an extreme light. Usually I take issue with these “monster prejudice” stories but they did really well with Waylon in the comics. It’s really clear from how he talks and interacts with other characters that he was not born acting like a monster, but is reacting to how he was treated. When he realized no one would see him as anything but a monster, he gave up and became the monster.

6. Garfield Lynns-I like Garfield for many of the same reasons I like Drury. It’s so obvious Garfield has no loyalty, that he does not care, that he is brilliant and has no shame in his skills or lack of loyalty. I find these characters enjoyable for their sheer lack of fucks to give. It’s so obvious characters like this have been told they won’t amount to anything and just being even moderately well known is enough for them.

5. Edward Nygma- Okay so Edward Nygma barely cracks my top 5 but he is still there so fight me. Edward is bar none one of the most amazing shows of an intelligent, curious character who radiates charisma. He is absolutely the most fun to watch just because of how happy he is to be doing ANYTHING. He has so much energy and he’s so entertaining I just can’t help but crack a smile whenever I see his stupid face.

4. Mary Dahl-Mary Dahl is so enjoyable I can barely put it into words. She just has this energy, how she switches so quickly from this dead-serious and almost furious irritation to her excitable childish nature. She so obviously loves twisting everyone’s expectations around and scaring the shit out of people. AND I LOVE IT.

3. Bane-Okat no joke, I wanna know if a single person exists who does not love comic Bane. Comic Bane is intelligent, he’s strategic, he’s sarcastic, and he’s ruthless, but he acknowledges that he is not infallible, he struggles with addiction, he’s unsure of himself, he refuses to take credit for the good he does do because he doesn’t see himself as worthy of praise. He is just a character with so much depth and nuance and just-I love this man guys, he is the actual best.

2. Lonnie Machin-Now I used to hate Lonnie but recently he’s shot up my list of favorite characters because I’ve begun heavily identifying with him. And this isn’t because he’s perfectly relatable, he’s kinda a jerk sometimes, but there’s something about having a villain around your age who has the same problems with society that you have. Lonnie is so adamant about fighting for people who have nothing and who are thought of as nothing and it’s so inspiring to see a kid stand up for people, and stand up for himself, and get people to notice problems with the world he lives in. Does he pull this off? No, not really, he’s kind of over the top with it, but his heart is in the right place and I like that.

1. Jonathan Crane-Okay, you guys have aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall heard me ramble about Jon and his character so I won’t waste your time here. You know why I love this walking trainwreck. He’s great, and he also needs to sleep.

#asks #answered #Anonymous

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ledenews · 5 years ago

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Suicide? No Way – Part 4

(Publisher’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of articles that examine the passing of 19-year-old Colby Brown, a 2018 graduate of Cameron High School, who attended Marshall University in Huntington. Colby was pronounced dead on Aug. 26, 2019, once paramedics treated him in the middle of Interstate 64. This chapter includes the text of the report from the hired private investigator. The headings in parenthesis are not in the report but included to divide the many topics in the document.)

Introduction

It’s Case #19-4532. First-day sophomore. Gym, two scheduled classes, Madden football, surrounded by friends passing a bowl of weed at Jon Crow’s house. Jovial yet competitive. Then suddenly silent? Then an abrupt departure after a bathroom visit? A closed Interstate 64 eastbound at the 10-mile marker. Huntington. Marshall University. EMS, West Virginia State Police. Found on a freeway. Fractured spine, pelvis, tibias, and femurs. Kaitlyn Arms. Prayers. His last breath. Aug. 26, 2019.

Colby Brown

“I really don’t know why that’s what I’ve run up against, but I just can’t seem to get any answers to the questions I’ve been asking,” said Gwen Wood, Colby’s mother. “I just don’t think they have really looked into anything other than what they think, and that is that Colby jumped off that bridge. “But even though I’m not getting much cooperation from the law enforcement personnel that responded to the scene, there have been a couple of moms reach out to me trying to help. One of them drove around looking for cameras that may have had a better view than what we’ve seen,” she said. “I just hope the investigators know that I’m not going anywhere until my legitimate questions are answered. Those people are paid with tax dollars, and not only do I pay my taxes, but we’re talking about my son.”

Gwen captured this image from a news station reporting on her son's death.

Report of Investigation

Date of Report: October 23, 2019 Report by: John P. Casey, Investigator In Re: Colby Brown – Date of Death August 26, 2019 Action Taken On Sept. 11, 2019, the undersigned met with Gwen Wood and Amy Hill regarding the opening of the investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of Wood’s son. The facts known at this point are that Colby Brown, a 19-year-old Marshall University sophomore, fell to his death at approximately 7 p.m., Aug. 26, 2019, after leaving the residence of a friend, John Crow. The decedent fell approximately 90 plus feet from the McCoy Road Bridge, Huntington, W.Va., onto the eastbound lane of I-64. Cpl. Whittington and Sgt. Joyce of the W.Va. State Police are reported to be the investigative agents assigned. The manner of death has been stated currently as a suicide.

(Witnesses)

Certain individuals were identified as potential witnesses to events and communications leading up to the final episode. They are as follows: Avery Darrow – Ms. Darrow reportedly was in communication with the decedent in the days prior to and on the day of the event.Darby Brown – Ms. Brown is the decedent’s sister and was in communication with him on the day of the event.Jonathan Crow – Mr. Crow was a friend of the decedent and was reportedly with him on the date in question and witnessed his behavior shortly before the decedent left the residence.Kaitlyn Arms – Ms. Arms witnessed the decedent falling from the bridge; she was with him at the scene until EMS arrived.Ryan Clutter – Mr. Clutter was a close friend of the decedent and his roommate and had communication with him on the day of the event.Colby Clutter – Mr. Clutter is the twin brother of Ryan, a friend of the decedent and had contact with him on the day prior to the event.Parker D’Antonio – Mr. D’Antonio was a roommate of the decedent and lives in the house with the Clutters.Nolan Pierce – Mr. Pierce was a friend of the decedent and a frequent workout partner.Rhys Rodgers – Mr. Rodgers is a roommate of Jonathan Crow and was present at the Crow residence on the date in question.Aden Yates – Mr. Yates is a roommate of Crow and was present at the residence on the date in question.Corey Purdue – Mr. Purdue is Crow's roommate and was present at the residence on the date in question.Tyler Roush – Mr. Roush was a friend of the decedent and allegedly was present at Crow’s residence on the date in question.John Gripe – Mr. Gripe is a friend of Tyler Roush and allegedly was present at Crow’s residence on the date of the event. Discussed also at this meeting was the possibility of unlocking Brown’s phone and computer as well as examining the phones and social media devices of those certain identified individuals to determine their location as well as any possible relevant information. Paul White, a cyber-security and computer specialist, was contacted to perform these tasks. On 9/11/19, the undersigned, Paul White, and Romayne Casey met with Darby Brown at the undersigned’s office. White downloaded certain communications from her phone relative to this matter. Ms. Brown also discussed her brother’s background in some detail; indicating that was generally happy, healthy and satisfied with his life, relationships, and educational pursuits. She also described him as a moderate user of marijuana and that he had discussed using hallucinogens such as “mushrooms.” She was unaware of any conflict he was having with anyone and was certain that he would never consider suicide for any reason. She knew of no enemies that he had.

Colby’s goal was to be the best uncle he could be to his nephew, Malcolm.

(Wheeling Visit)

On 9/13/19 the undersigned, White, and Casey traveled to Wheeling, WV, and met Avery Darrow. Ms. Darrow was interviewed and consented to the retrieval of certain communications from her telephone. Ms. Darrow indicated that she had known Colby Brown from school but had not personally seen him for quite a while; she had recently begun communicating with him via Snapchat and was planning a visit to see him at Marshall University the weekend of the 26th, August. She denied that they had begun dating and said they were only communicating via phone. She recalled the day in question, indicating that she had been on Snapchat with him and that he had ceased communication with her at approximately 5:00 p.m. She recalled seeing his picture (the top of his head) during the last communication; she felt that something strange was going on with him but did not know what it was. She attempted to continue her communication with him, but he did not answer. She did not know where he was during her last communique. She recalled Brown expressed that he was “looking forward” to seeing her for the weekend. And that he seemed generally happy. She recalled past conversations where he told her that he would like to try cocaine and mushrooms; she was aware that he smoked marijuana and drank but did not know how much he used.

From the ground to the top of the bridge measures 109 feet.

(Camera Search)

On 9/14/19 the undersigned and Romayne Casey traveled to Huntington, WV, and met with Matthew Christus, Goldy Auto Dealership. By pre-arrangement, Christus had obtained and copied video camera footage from the lot security cameras; the videos were examined on the date in question: it revealed nothing in terms of observing activity on the McCoy Road Bridge; the bridge is within the view, but it is situated at too great a distance to observe any detail; the footage does establish a probable time of the fall, in that I-64 eastbound traffic is observed ceasing movement at approximately 6:59 p.m. A copy of this footage is made part of this report. On this date, an extensive search was made for surveillance cameras of the residences along the path most likely taken by Brown on the date in question, and as well as the neighborhood around Crow’s residence. No cameras are found at all in proximity to Crow; there were numerous sightings of cameras along the route going up the mountain. All were confirmed to either be non-working or “decoy” cameras, and thus non-operational. A visit to the Amazon facility near Goldy Auto revealed a security camera pointed in the general direction of the scene that was observed. A subsequent meeting with the security officer on duty led to the undersigned being able to observe the camera angle. It barely shows the bridge area, but not enough detail for probable determination of critical detail. The undersigned was advised to return when the facility supervisor was present to obtain the authority to copy any video from the date in question. (This was subsequently done. The undersigned was informed that only Law Enforcement was authorized to access their system – a message was passed to Sgt. Joyce WVSP – he agreed to look at the footage and obtain what of it was relevant. A subsequent conversation with Cpl. Whittington revealed that they had looked at the footage and that it did not reveal anything of relevant value.)

At the time he passed, Colby was 6-2 and 150 pounds.

(Three Week Status Report)

On 9/16/19 the undersigned traveled to Huntington Detachment WV State Police and met with Sgt. John Joyce, and discussed the status of the investigation. Sgt. Joyce freely discussed his file but was unable to release any portion of it until the final review process is complete. He was still awaiting the results of the ME (Medical Examiner) Toxicology study, as well as the forensic examination of Brown’s phone. He indicated that often those tests can take months to complete due to the backlog and priority of cases. He very clearly indicated that the matter was not a homicide stating that there was no single bit of evidence to remotely suggest it. He also indicated that they had not ruled the matter a suicide either due to the extensive history developed about Brown’s life. They had found nothing to suggest even remotely that he was a suicide risk. They were heavily focusing on drug interaction and possible hallucinogenic drugs as an explanation. He indicated that the ME office had made the determination to be suicide. He indicated that they had independently investigated and interviewed all witnessed who attended the gathering at John Crow’s house during the hours prior to Brown’s death and could find no element of deception that would conclude that any foul play was a part of the incident. They were able to conclude that all participants smoked a quantity of marijuana. They were also aware that Brown and Crow had used mushrooms a few days prior to the event. The undersigned advised Sgt. Joyce, that John Crow has delivered a quantity of marijuana to Gwen Wood on the date of the funeral visitation, and that Ms. Wood had secured it in a house that she owned; and that she was uncertain about how to dispose of it. Crow had advised her that the marijuana belonged to Brown and that it was the same that they had been smoking on the day of the incident. Sgt. Joyce arranged for a trooper at the Moundsville detachment to meet with Ms. Wood and take custody of the marijuana and submit it to the forensics lab for testing. Joyce was advised about the Amazon camera; he indicated that he would visit them and attempt to obtain relevant footage.

The initial report conducted by law enforcement indicated that Colby Brown had taken his own life.

(Last Breath)

Subsequent to this the undersigned met with Kaitlyn Arms and spoke with her about the incident. She described seeing Brown’s body fall as she traveled east on I-64. She immediately stopped and went to him. She recalled hearing him breathing for a brief time after she got to his side. She prayed with him until he stopped breathing. She recalled the time as being approximately 7:02 p.m. She stayed at the scene until after speaking with EMS and Police.

Penny was living with his best friend, Colby, at the time the tragedy took place in Huntington.

(Always Happy)

On 10/17/19 the undersigned traveled to Huntington, WV. An attempt was made to meet with Sgt. Joyce and Cpl. Whittington. Neither was working. Messages were left for them to contact me. The undersigned contacted John Crow at his residence. Mr. Crow freely agreed to speak about the episode and his relationship with Brown. Crow indicated that he and Brown were extremely close and spent a great deal of time together off-campus. He also admitted that they used drugs together on a frequent basis. He stated that they often smoked marijuana and had recently used mushrooms – the Thursday prior to the date in question. Crow confirmed that Brown was extremely happy and popular with everyone who knew him. He never observed him in a depressed state, and he never mentioned any problems with Crow. On the day in question, he recalled Brown coming to his house to play video games (Madden) and party. Brown was in good spirits when he arrived at approximately 4:45 to 5:00 p.m.; he recalled that Brown was at the house for approximately 2 hours and that he had smoked marijuana that Brown had brought with him. Shortly before Brown left the house (Crow recalled that it was sometime around 6:45 or so), he recalled Brown seemed to be extremely disoriented and stated “that he did not feel like himself, and wasn’t feeling good”; he recalled that he was unsteady on his feet, and abruptly went downstairs to the bathroom, and was seen leaving by Aden Yates. Crow recalled that Yates, Rhys Rogers, and Corey Purdue were all playing with them and that everyone was having an enjoyable time. He also recalled that Brown had been on Snapchat with Avery Darrow while he was at the house, and at one point turned his phone off so that he could party and play Madden with them. No one knew where Brown was going, and that he left abruptly. He described his change in demeanor to be very strange, and certainly not the person that Brown was ordinarily.

Colby played a lot of sports, but was very proud to be the Dragon’s quarterback.

(Abrupt Departure)

Yates had indicated that he had seen him leave, that he had come from the bathroom and was either sweating or had splashed water on his face, due to observing that his shirt had moisture around the collar area. They checked the bathroom to see if he had thrown up but did not observe anything. He indicated that he then started calling friends to see if they had seen or heard from Brown because they were concerned that he may be ill. At some point Rhys Rogers heard sirens and observed EMS vehicles going up 8th Street; initially no one connected this to Brown leaving. Shortly afterward Crow and the rest got into vehicles and began to search the nearby vicinity to see if they could observe Brown or his vehicle; they also continued efforts to contact friends to inquire if anyone had heard from him. At approximately 10 p.m., Crow and his group observed some Huntington Police Officers at the Speedway Gas Station on 8th Street. They stopped and asked the officers if they had seen Brown (showing them a photo of him); the officers replied that they had just left the scene of a fatal accident on the interstate and that the victim was Brown. Rhys Rogers, Aden Yates, and Corey Purdue were also interviewed separately as well as jointly; they all stated the same information as Crow. There was no appearance of deception noted during any of these contacts, and that all information previously known was not in contradiction to what they had told the State Police or any others. All parties were extremely cooperative and freely answered without any hesitation.

Colby’s mother, Gwen Wood, was very proud of her OVAC All-Star son and her grandchild, Malcolm.

(Crow Complaint)

Before leaving the undersigned spoke with Crow privately about the delivery of marijuana to Gwen Wood. He admitted doing it and explained that he was returning all of Brown’s property that was at his house, including the marijuana. He indicated that he had recently been contacted by Cpl. Whittington about the matter, and that he had fully disclosed the same to him. Crow also showed some texts that he had received from one of the Browns family members, that he felt were offensive; consisting of repeated texts to him to tell the truth (implying that he was lying about the circumstances surrounding the event). He informed the state police of the nature of them, and indicated that he loved Brown, and was insulted at the prospect that he would ever hold back the truth from anyone. He stated that he was not feeling harassed for no reason. Crow indicated a willingness to speak with the undersigned for any reason in the future. Subsequent to this, the undersigned met with Ryan Clutter at his residence at 17th Street. No one else was at home. Ryan Clutter confirmed that Brown was at all times cheerful and loved by all who knew him, and by all appearances was having a great time at college. Clutter indicated that he had known Brown from childhood, and that in addition to being an athlete, he was always the same, never depressed about anything. He stated they all got along well at the house and that there were never any disagreements. He also confirmed that Brown frequently smoked marijuana and had heard that he even used mushrooms with Jon Crow on the days previous to his death. Clutter indicated that he last saw Brown on the day in question at around 4:30 p.m. as he was leaving to go to Crow’s house. He said at the time, Brown appeared to be in a normal mood and not high. He recalled later receiving calls about whether he knew where Brown was and subsequently joined others in searching for him throughout the evening. He recalled meeting with others at the service station later in the night and discovering from the police that Brown had been killed. Clutter could posit no reason for what had occurred to Brown; he felt strongly that everyone was a friend to Brown and could not imagine that anyone would want to injure him. He had spoken with Crow multiple times about the matter; and about Crow’s recent experience of being told that he was “hiding” or not forthcoming with information: Clutter felt that this was unfair, that no one, including Crow, was holding any information back.

Colby and his nephew Malcolm spent a lot of time together because, as his sister Shelby insists, family was the young man’s top priority.

(The Boys)

On 10/20/19 and per client request the undersigned, Paul White, and Romayne Casey traveled to Huntington to meet with Crow, Rogers, Yates, Perdue, Ryan Clutter, Cole Clutter, Parker D’Antonio, and Nolan Pierce: White would be examining their phones with their permission and downloading any pertinent communications, while repeat interviews would be concluded. Crow, Rogers, and Perdue easily complied with all requests for phone information and followed up with additional interviews. There was nothing new developed from this visit to change any aspect of what is currently known. Yates was home but sent word he was unavailable. It is the opinion of the undersigned that Yates, and possibly others are growing weary of being interviewed. Especially considering the recent exposure of communications to Jon Crow, suggesting that he is not telling the truth.

Colby earned a Promise Scholarship after he was graduated from Cameron High School in 2018.

(The Day)

The undersigned and company then met with Ryan Clutter, Cole Clutter, Parker D’Antonio and Nolan Pierce at Clutter’s residence on 17th Street. Nolan Pierce confirmed that he had worked out with Brown at approximately 12 p.m. the day of the incident and that Brown appeared to be in usual form. He did not have any problems with his workout, was not complaining of not feeling well, and was looking forward to school. He recalled that they worked out for about an hour. He did not know where Brown was going after the workout and assumed that he was going to class. He also confirmed that Brown was a heavy marijuana user and liked to party with Jon Crow. Ryan & Cole Clutter, along with Parker D’Antonio confirmed that Brown was over at Crow’s on a frequent basis and often stayed over there when he was too high to drive; they stated that he partied there because they had a “drug-free” residence and did not permit any drugs to be kept or used at the house on 17th Street. Brown respected the rule and kept his drug activity at Crow’s house. They recalled that he smoked marijuana on a nearly daily basis and had recently used mushrooms with Crow. They do not recall him having any difficulty or acting strangely as a result. Ryan last saw Brown at approximately 4:30 p.m. as he left for Crow’s house. Cole last saw Brown the night before and was up late talking with him until early morning, noting that there was nothing unusual about Brown. Pierce last saw Brown at approximately 1 p.m. the day of the incident. D’Antonio last saw Brown at approximately 11 a.m. before Brown left for his workout with Pierce. And recalled being at a fraternity meeting that night when he received a message asking if he had seen Brown. Like the others, they were not informed about what had occurred until the meeting with police officers at the Speedway Service Station at approximately 10 p.m. All phones were examined by White and pertinent information was collected; noting none of the information sheds any new light on the issue.

This is the McCoy Road Bridge that is approximately three miles from the apartment where Colby was playing video games with friends.

(October Status Report)

On 10/22/19 the undersigned spoke with Sgt. Joyce, he informed that the Toxicology Report was finished and was available, nothing that there was an extraordinary level of THC in Brown’s blood sample; also a brief discussion was had comparing information received from potential witnesses; there was a consensus that all information received by the undersigned was essentially the same as the state police received contemporaneously to the event. Nothing has changed the direction of the investigation or their opinion that Brown accidentally fell from the bridge (not a suicide as listed by the ME), and that there was certainly no suggestion or evidence of foul play (no homicide). 10/23/19 the final Medical Examiner report was received by the undersigned; the toxicology report reveals an excessively high level of THC (3 types) in the sample; the injuries indicated are all consistent with a fall from a bridge onto black-top pavement from an approximate height of 95 feet. There are no photographs supplied; it is assumed that there were none taken of the final examination. The Medical Examiner’s representative has informed the undersigned that an existing blood sample from Brown will be kept for a mandated one-year period. A sample exists for further independent blood testing should the family desire it. Conclusions Colby Brown’s telephone is still with the WV State Police Forensics Unit and will be available when they have concluded their examination. It is uncertain when that will be complete. Paul White’s examinations of the various phones owned by those certain individuals permitting the examinations did not conclude with any information adverse to the current understanding of the facts in this matter. There did not appear to be any contradictions of statements previously made by any of the parties involved. His forensic examination of Brown’s computer revealed a history of drug use, primarily marijuana, suggesting that Brown, as well as others, were more than just casual users of the drug. There was nothing developed during the examination that shed any greater light on the critical matter at hand. There was nothing found on this device that indicated there was any deceptive communication or practice pertaining to the immediate issue. Concentrating on only the facts developed and known at this juncture, it is more than likely that Colby Brown experienced some type of psychotic event brought on by the ingestion of an excess of very strong marijuana; causing him enough confusion and possible hallucinations, so as to not be completely aware of his surroundings. There are multiple medical studies addressing this phenomenon; albeit previously noted to be uncommon, but now occurring more frequently since the advent of the development of stronger cannabis strains in recent years; along with the more liberal attitudes toward usage, causing greater and freer participating in use than past years. Today’s marijuana is quite often 10 times if not a hundred times more potent in THC than marijuana used prior to the '70s and '80s. It is the opinion of the undersigned based upon the facts known at present, that Colby Brown’s death was accidental; there is no evidence of suicide; there is no evidence of anyone conspiring to do him harm or killing him certainly no homicide. There is not evidence of any person attempting to cover up any circumstances about his death. John P. Casey, Investigator Allegheny Highlands Group, LLC

Colby was a leader on and off the field for the Cameron Dragons.

Nothing New?

Although Casey concluded Colby did not take his own life, Gwen Wood feels cheated. “The report from the private investigator is shameful and a complete waste of $5,500,” Gwen insisted. “Most of everything in what that PI gave us is the information we gave him, and there was nothing but the same repeated stories we’ve heard from his friends every single time. And we told him about that stuff, and that’s still what was brought back to us. “There was nothing new and it just followed the same narrative of the state police report,” she said in frustration. “Like I said, a waste of $5,500.” Suicide? No Way – Part 1 Suicide? No Way - Part 2 Suicide? No Way - Part 3 Read the full article

#Cameron #cameronhighschool #Colby #colbybrown #colbydavidbrown #huntingtonpolice #marshalluniversity #suspicioussuicide

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