#also i need new pics of atticus but that will also come at a later date.

[mojaves]

updated my oc page a LOT,, i have had many more thoughts since i first made the page <3

[3wisellamas]

Just Rewatched Books 1 and 2, here’s a bunch of observations and wild, probably completely false theories!

Because dangit, this is how I get my kicks.

-In The Unfinished Car, it was One who Tulip was ultimately speaking to towards the end.  It was One who expressed guilt over allowing the car to happen.  It was One who she finally convinced to let it go as it was, stop trying to fix everything, and even break the car again to restore the turtle peoples’ way of life.  And, it was ONE, not One-One, who jumped into her arms in the end, and made these particular faces, meaning he probably wasn’t entirely emotionless and robotic as conductor:

(apologies for TV pics on these.  ^^; )

-Also, while One-One normally talks in his two different voices, and even converses/riffs on himself, in that scene before his voices combined back into One’s they were literally finishing each other’s sentences -- syncing up again!  Does this mean that One-One is actually just...out of sync, rather than completely broken? 

-I don’t think Amelia was going to the roof of her old university after Alrick’s death to jump.  In The Past Car, she’s clearly on the ground while the roof...flattens?  She literally watches it disappear right in front of her!  And the train tracks are already in place when she gets up there.  So, it might have been less that the train found her at her lowest point, but that she found the train -- and went right up to investigate it!

-And here’s another juicy Amelia theory:  Throughout Book 1, One-One has a tendency to use the words “gone forever”.  He uses it while telling Tulip what will happen when her number reaches zero (making her think she’ll die, when really he just means leave the train forever), then he uses it a second time while in Amelia’s tape, describing “Amelia” (actually Alrick, remember we were led to believe she was Alrick at first), who IS dead.  And the final usage is after Tulip has her exit restored, and One-One says again that she’ll be “gone forever”, but, in this case, he clarifies that that’s a GOOD thing.  So, what if, when One learned about Alrick from Young!Amelia, he used that same phrase, telling her he was “gone forever” -- One meant this as a comfort, maybe even a misguided attempt to convince her she should be happy he’s gone (like, it was One’s way of saying “He’s no longer in pain”), but to Amelia, it’s just reminding her of why she’s on the train in the first place.  Thus prompting...you know.

-Okay, last observation about that damn Amelia tape:  While in there, The Cat mentions that the memories are recorded as the passenger stores them, meaning there may be biases / misremembering / other things that not only change the memories to trap passengers in them, but also change what VIEWERS would see as well -- like how Amelia kept the memory of her wandering the streets after her husband’s death “at a distance”, which prevented Tulip from getting close.  So...what if more elements of Amelia’s tape weren’t 100% accurate, due to misremembering things, convincing herself certain things were true when they weren’t, maybe even her age or the tape itself degrading over time, etc?  Maybe even Alrick wasn’t remembered 100% accurately, with her grief clouding her memories and making him seem like a different, more ideal person?  (I’m bringing this up because MAN did I have a realization later on...)

-After Atticus was turned into a Ghom, the first thing he did was attack Tulip, but he hesitated, allowing her to escape -- as if he remembered being her friend.  And, then, when he was freed from the tube, right next to both Tulip, a passenger whose nice tasty life he could suck out, and the Steward, a robot, the first thing he did was attack the Steward.  Just as he was trying to do before getting Ghom-ed!  So, I think it’s safe to say, that, if the Ghoms really are transformed denizens, they still possess some memory of who they used to be and what they were doing before they were transformed.  So...what does it say, then, that every non-Atticus Ghom we’ve seen has been trying to kill passengers (and NOT hesitate and let them go)?

-Tape Car time.  So, if that’s the only car with its universe projected on the OUTSIDE, then that not only means the train, the wasteland, etc are all fake and part of the car’s projection, but...also the Engine, the control console, and One(-One)?  Does this mean he was a fake conductor, too?

-And then, to make this even more of a mind screw...the Mirror World is apparently NOT a creation of the train, since MT / Lake has been with Tulip since the beginning even in the real world, and she was eventually able to leave the train -- when it’s shown that train-created items (like, say, the device Jesse was wearing when he got his first exit in the Mall Car) CANNOT go through exit portals.  (But, then, for some reason, the handcuffs Mace had slapped onto MT also didn’t go through the portal with her?  Meaning they were from the train?  IDK.)  Point is, though, the Chrome Car is a projection of the train, which itself is not real, as a projection of the Tape Car...but it’s connected to the Mirror World, which is connected to both the real world and the train?  Does this mean the real world is part of the Tape Car’s projection as well?  Is this a damn Matrix situation?

-There’s more Mirror World emergency services than just the Flecks -- remember the two paramedics that showed up in the Chrome Car to take care of Mirror Atticus and Mirror One-One?  I honestly wonder now if they used to be reflections as well, who chose to keep their memories but not be cops?

-Alright, this is my most out-there theory, but I gotta say it.  Mace and Alrick look slightly similar, at least as similar as a human and a featureless reflection cop can look -- the square jaws especially.  And his voice also sounds a LOT like Alrick doing his robot voice with that modulator.  So...maybe a connection there?  Mirror Alrick decided to keep his memories after his death?  I know I’ve seen this theory floating out there before, so it’s not new, but I just had to add it.  But, then, another implication if this is true:  Did he do this to keep remembering Amelia?  And...Mirror One-One wasted no time at all in getting a hold of the Flecks, maybe because they’ve been keeping in contact with him through that car, and Amelia by association?

-Now, for the inside of the Tape Car.  Specifically...what the hell is this thing?

That...looks a little like One.  And during that scene in which MT / Lake is wading down the canal towards the tape -watching room to get her number, the camera actually focuses on this thing for a few seconds -- not enough to really call attention to it, but enough that now that we’ve seen One himself if stands out on a rewatch.  So, what is it?  It looks kinda like it’s watching over the whole Tape Car, with its one eye light thing?

I’ve got two theories that kinda work together on this one, neither of which are very likely considering I’m probably just taking a small background detail way too seriously, but come on, I’m having fun:

-If the inside of the Tape Car is the only real part of the train, and even One(-One) himself is fake...then that’s the REAL One, overseeing the train’s core operations but not interacting directly -- that’s what all the other robots, including One-One, are for.

-I’ve always kinda had a feeling that there’s a Zero to go along with One -- come on, it’s an obvious joke, what with robots running on binary and passengers needing to get their numbers to 0 and whatnot.  So, for now, I’mma call that thing Zero.

-One last Amelia Takeover Theory.  We know, from the Tape Car, that One-One is pretty hands-off about a lot of the train’s operations, his lack of hands aside -- he doesn’t seem to actually visit the Tape Car until something goes wrong there, and grabs his attention -- like Lake smashing up a few Porters.  So...why were One and Amelia there in the past?  Sure, two passengers boarding at the same time and sharing a number is unusual, but One even says it himself, it’s no big deal, on the train anything can happen.  So, why WERE they there?  Maybe it’s because something happened with Amelia in that car...like her waking up before the number-engraving process was completely finished?  (And she smashed a Porter for good measure?)

-Things required to wake a passenger, according to One-One:  Robots, coding, and juice boxes.  (Things required to wake a passenger, according to Lake:  Flicking them on the forehead with metal fingers)  What if one of the actual purposes of the Stewards is to manipulate the pods and wake the passengers inside, and then slip out unnoticed so they can start their journey?

[jolie-goes-downton]

The Downton Abbey Oppositions Tag Game

Thank you for tagging me, @naevery !

1. Favourite plotline from your least favourite season?

My least favourite season (so far) is S5 (except its Christmas special, of which I love every single minute). S5 gave way too much screen time to characters that were neither interesting nor likeable to me, such as the Prince Kuragin saga and the Denker/Spratt feud, and intolerably drew out other plotlines that could have advanced a lot faster, such as Edith’s distress at the Marigold situation, Tom’s uncomfortable friendship with Sarah Bunting and Mary getting rid of Gillingham for good. But the two plotlines of S5 that I liked unequivocally were Rose growing up and finding Atticus, and Isobel and Lord Merton’s romance, which I find incredibly touching.

2. Least favourite plotline from your favourite season?

Favourite season is a draw between S2 and S3. In S2, I hated everything about Richard Carlisle, even when it served the plot and ultimately helped to advance Mary x Matthew. That guy made me shudder!

In S3, I hated the very idea of Mrs Patmore marrying the disgusting grocer. And I also disliked the whole continuation of the Ethel storyline, which would have been so much stronger IMHO if it had ended with the heartbreaking farewell when Charlie’s grandparents take him away.

3. What’s a quality that you actually like about (one of) your least favourite main/regular character(s)?

Like everyone else, I loved to hate Sarah O’Brien, but I was really touched by how protective she was towards Mr Lang the poor shell-shocked valet, and how she genuinely regretted having been a witness for the prosecution against Bates. That hidden, caring side of her was a real surprise.

4. What’s your least favourite quality of your favourite character?

My favourite character is Thomas, and while I totally understand where his bitterness and his mistrust of everyone and everything comes from, I’m not sure I can easily forgive his behaviour against Anna. To be scheming to get the same woman into prison who had put her arm around him when he cried about Sybil’s death, and who was the only one to offer him words of comfort when Jimmy had to leave, was just beastly. Ugly as Thomas’ systematic bullying of Miss Baxter was, at least there was a clear (if ignoble) purpose behind that. But Thomas’ cruelty to Anna, who has never done or even wished him anything bad, is just gratuitous. So, gratuitous nastiness to people who haven’t even remotely deserved it probably sums it up.

5. What’s your favourite thing that your least favourite main/regular character has done?

Not to repeat myself about Sarah O‘Brien (see no. 3), I‘ll say that I was also really touched by how grim Lord Sinderby acknowledged that he‘s human and not infallible at the end of the S5 Christmas Special. (I hope he qualifies as a main/regular character.)

6.   What’s your least favourite thing that your favourite character has done?

Probably Thomas‘ wine stealing in S1. Because that was neither understandable, nor clever, nor entertaining from the viewer‘s perspective, but just plain juvenile stupidity. I guess I‘m just miffed that it was nowhere near as clever as his later plots, nor accidentally beneficial, as they usually are.

7. What’s a positive aspect about (one of) your least favourite ship(s)?

I hated the whole Prince Kuragin storyline, that guy was such a creep. The only positive thing about it was how it took Violet down a peg or three!

8. What’s an aspect about your favourite ship that you don’t like?

My favourite ship (keeping in mind that I’m currently at ep. 6.02, so I can’t officially ship Thomas x Richard yet) has to be Mary x Charles Blake. The bit that I hate about it is that it didn’t happen! I was so disappointed that even the possibility just fizzled out and Blake, although he said he’d put up a fight, gave up just like that, even once Mary had rejected Gillingham. They would have been so well suited, and they’d have made such a power couple.

My other favourite ship is Isobel x Lord Merton, and if her (very understandable) “no” at the end of S5 will turn out to be final, I’ll cry. The fact that he turns up again in the hospital subplot at the start of S6 has given me new hope though.

9. What’s your favourite and least favourite styling/outfit of your favourite and/or least favourite character? (feel free to add pics if you want!)

Least favourite outfit is easily Thomas in a bowler hat. The shape just doesn’t suit him at all IMHO. Makes him look like a clown.

I also love his military uniform less than many other people do. It makes him look like such a hulk when he really is no hulk.

And while I love the cricket sequence in S3 for storytelling reasons, I’m not fond of the cricket whites either. (On anyone, TBH.)

Most favourite outfit - so hard! I won’t say no to any of those sharp suits and liveries, the Brancaster livery and the under-butler livery probably being my favourite. They’re his suits of armour, and boy does this poor man need armour. But deep down, my all time favourite outfit is probably when Thomas looks most relaxed and at ease, so I’ll go for the waistcoat & shirtsleeves look of the S3 tug-of-war scene or the S4 CS day by the sea. I also won’t say no to the t-shirt & pyjama pants of the famous “you know why” scene with Jimmy in S3. Maybe it‘s the hair, even more than the clothes.

OK, who to tag who hasn’t done this yet? @soft-in-my-old-age, @misunderstoodnotevil , @oleander4 , @thedanceronthestreets , @sgt-barrow, @bitletsanddrabbles , if you haven’t already, let us know your thoughts! And of course anyone else who feels like having a go.

[vampykitty-kun]

Update:

Well, it’d been about a year or so and I guess it’s time to say that I’m not dead. I’ve only just now, as of an hour ago, gotten internet hooked up in my ‘home’.

This past year was a train-wreck.

the move I planned for almost 2 years, and spent all my savings on, was a bust. I had to move back after only 3 months, because once I got out there the property owner changed their mind on a whole bunch of crap. I spent the entire summer in 80-100 degree weather and no AC. Given that I was up in Wisconsin and lived my entire life in northern IL me and heat do not get along. They wouldn’t let me have the electric company come out and install electrical lines, because the company needed the property owner to sign off on it and he was a paranoid ass that kept insisting he was going to get stuck with the bill despite me having the cash in hand and the order being under my name. I spent the 3 months with one extension cord, no gas, no plumbing.

The guy that moved me out there also moved me home. He was a neighbor that was friends with my mother but only 3 years older than me. He was in a rough spot. Lost his job, his girlfriend left him, and the roommates he acquired after she left stole the rent $ and ditched him. By the time the 6 hour drive home was done he managed to convince me to move into his house. My father had stolen my bedroom after I moved out, threw out all my furniture, and was not going to give my room back. Neither parent wanted me to move back in with all of my pets either. I would have been stuck taking my grandma’s old room, which never would have fit all my stuff, and I had no furniture to speak of while this guy already had a bed, dresser, and TV in a room for me.

I took the chance and moved in. Honestly I just wish I never tried to leave home. I moved in mid September and spent the next several months without internet, paying all his back rent, paying most of the ongoing rent, buying all the food and cleaning supplies, etc, etc, etc, to the point that I’ve never been so tapped out financially in my life. He did start working on Halloween, but then was bad with his money, and it took several occasions before i had to start demanding to see rental receipts because not only would he often not give the landlord as much as he said HE was giving him, he often kept money I gave him for the rent and spent it elsewhere. Then because He was having to ride a bike home 40 mins from work as the buses didn’t run that late, he bought a beater car from a co-worker when we still weren’t caught up on rent. In the end I had to even contribute to that cost. Then we were FINALLY almost all caught up and he was laid off the first week of March. 

It got to the point that I flat out refused to pay for anything anymore, sold some things, and started saving money for my own place. But as many people know, renting with multiple pets is a nightmare. We were about to be evicted, he at the drop of a dime acquired a girlfriend who moved in the day they started seeing each other, and I ended up having to drop another $600 to avoid ending up out on my ass. He and she were of course supposed to contribute to that, but they didn’t. She did get a job and start paying rent after that, but he only managed to finally start work last week. I of course no longer have money saved up to move out so I’m trapped here until at LEAST July. I had to pay to get the internet hooked up and $100 towards rent again just 2 days ago.

Past housing related issues there have been plenty. 

Right before I moved out May 2016 my grandmother had a stroke. She ended up in rehab, recovered some after a few months, then came home. But then she had another stroke and ended up with mercer, and ended up back in the hospital just a week after coming home. She did not recover that time. She ended up in hospice. I did manage to go see her a few times before she passed away November 4th, just 2 days after my mother’s birthday and we had gone to see her.

Atticus, my sweet, adorable smooshy faced kitty jumped out the window a week before Halloween. I had repeated yelled at my roommate to put the screens back in the window, but he was ‘anti-screen’ saying it blocked air flow. I then repeated told him to warn me if the windows were open so I could lock Atticus in my bedroom. He of course never remembered. I was outside when he jumped out the window, I heard his collar bell, and did go after him. Unfortunately it was already dark out and I had no idea where the flashlight was, so when he dove into the garage I let him stay there. The garage has no power and has been used as storage so it would have been a nightmare trying to get in there in pitch black. he had gotten out a couple times before, during the day though, and after an hour or so he’d always come running if called. Those of you that followed me closely know I’m very anti-indoor/outdoor cat due to the zillion safety risks. I wasn’t thrilled by any of this. Well I tried an hour later to get him in and he did not come. I sat down, watched a movie, and just as it ended it started storming. I went out looking for him, got soaked completely through my coat, got the flashlight from the roommate who was home by this point, and NOTHING. He was no longer in the garage, not in the yard, not under any of the cars, not at my mother’s around the corner, he simply vanished. I went a few hours later and checked again after it stopped raining, and nothing. Checked in the morning, nothing. Walked the neighborhood listening for his bell when I called, nothing. I put up fliers. I called every animal control, shelter, rescue, and vet in the area. Nothing. Brought the fliers to them even. Checked animal control and the local rescue in person several times, nothing. I had this cat for 10.5 years and he just vanished without a trace. I got to hoping that someone at least found him and was cruel enough to me and attached to him to keep him. He was half persian which is a desirable look. But at least in that situation he’d be alright. My roommate watch me go nuts for weeks never giving up. It all ended when I found out from this girl he liked and I never talked to (I guess he thought I never would, but I went to McD’s and we started up a convo though when we ran into each other) that my cat was dead. As it turns out my roommate’s friend a block away found him the day after the storm dead at the curb in the grass near his house. My poor cat ended up hit by a car in a thunderstorm and died alone and in pain, all because of stupid ass screens. Instead of giving me the closure, my roommate hid this shit from me. He apparently told the girl this saying he had to get it off his chest but didn’t want to upset me. Then when I confronted him, he denied it. But he’d lied to me about so many things since moving in I never believed him. I continued to bring it up regularly, until he finally got fed up and admitted it to me. He claimed he went to confirm that it was him, then came home for a bit before he went back to pick him up, only to find that the city had already removed him. I doubt it. So not only did I not get the closure, but I didn’t get to bury him or anything. He never intended to tell me. he watched me continue searching. Watched me gt into the neighbor’s car and go to animal control various times. So yeah... coming on here to see that my profile pic was still my poor cat landed me in some serious angst...

Then after Grandma passed and the new year started, my mother had a stroke. Just after grandma had had her two. Turns out she had lupis, and it did something to her heart and tissue tore, and some of that tissue pinged around in her brain. She didn’t lose any feeling, but her speech and some other things were affected for a couple weeks. Because it was the heart and lupis that ultimately caused it, they ended up having to put her on the proper meds, and she had to have open heart surgery to correct the tears. She has since recovered mostly.

Meanwhile I’ve been having a nervous breakdown and existential crisis the past years and it finally blew up to the point where I couldn’t function at all, barely left bed, slept an average of 14 hours and still woke up physically and mentally exhausted. I had lost a good 15lbs out in Wisconsin for 3 months but at this time I have since gained 30lbs. Enough was enough, I started having some seriously shitty thoughts, and I went and got a medical card and adulted, scheduling a shit ton of appointments. I’ve started getting my bad teeth fixed, the ones I suffered through for the past 6 years. My blood pressure is magically stable despite the massive amounts of stress. No diabetes, a miracle. All my bloodwork came back normal. They have me scheduled to check for a couple different cancers, as there’s several in my immediate family. They have me seeing a therapy lady 1-2 a month for anxiety and depression. My anxiety got so bad in all of this that I started breaking out into hives and rashes at random. They have me on anxiety meds now and while they’re still trying to figure out dosages it did completely get rid of the rashes. They want to see how I do on these before they decide how to address the depression. They said if I think I need it they can assign me to someone to see weekly, but really I’m taking baby steps. 

Past all angst and chaos I’ve really not done that much fandom related, and I feel I have to apologize even though I guess I sorta have a legitimate excuse? I did draw some things during my time out in Wisconsin. They’re inked and I had started coloring them but never did finish. I didn’t touch any of my fics, though I certainly don’t want to abandon them, it’s just been a bad time. I did however start on two actual novel-novels, one of which is probably 2/3 of the way through. It was honestly easier in all of this to write something outside of fandom.

As for what I’m currently into, I’m still a big BatFam fan, but I did get into the Marvel Cinematic universe, and several Marvel comic titles outside of that. For the most part not their big main people, I like a lot of the smaller characters and a lot of the alternative versions of main people. I also dove into Teen Wolf the past couple months and a I forgot how much anything werewolf related thrilled me, so it’s been a good time there.

Idk where I’m going from here. I waited to come back to tumblr until I had my own internet connection. I guess I’ll just have to see how things go. I did miss this site’s content quite a bit, and shit, I really missed a lot of the people on here even though I’m sure some of you are gone, and no one has the same profile pics anymore, and a lot of you have even changed your names, so things are confusing, but I’ll figure it out.

I’m glad to be back and I seriously hope I can finish pulled myself out of this hole.

~Vampy