#t'kal

[kagesora]

Angry Catboy Summons Elder God To Attack Military

Type: Original Fiction Length: About 1570 words Content Info/Advisories: Non-graphic violence, unspecified implications of cruel treatment, poisoning, extremely briefly mentioned ancient extinction of non-human people

Notes: Actually started this one in '22, and took exactly 364 days to finish it because writer's block. I sat on it for the better part of a year because after so long of fighting to write it I didn't like the latter parts of it. I like it much better for letting it sit for a while. I've got several lines in here I really like~

Summary: Cornered by the empire's military, knowing capture is a fate worse than even a tortured death, T'kal'miru stops holding back his power--and nobody is prepared for the force of nature that awakens in return.

Magic roared across his senses.  Not the usual whispers and whines of power called by the strong among the humans--no, this was a scream of power fit to tear the heavens asunder, shockwaves from its calling reverberating along the flows of magic in the world.  No human could have summoned such power--and with that power, echoes of emotion: terror for the self and another, a heavy grief deeper than the seas, and fury so white-hot even the ghost of its passage through his mind burned like the sun itself come down to the earth.

He stirred, his mind drifting towards waking, the dust and dirt of decades disturbed at his movement.  Long indeed had it been since he’d felt any reason to do more than sleep the eons away, his dreams seeking after those who had long before gone to where his soul could not follow.

Another surge of Power skittering along the edges of his awareness, stronger than before and overflowing with the intent of the one who summoned it--death, destruction, fire and wind and the crackle of lightning searing through all those who stood before it.

He opened his eyes.  Perhaps it was time to venture into the world once more, if only to see what sort of kin--such as still existed in this age, so far removed from his own--wielded power with such wrathful intent.

---

“No--!”

The shout, along with the rumble of the war-machines and the clamor of armor faded out for a moment, sensation replaced by an odd numbness and a pressure somewhere in the vicinity of her left shoulder.  Staggering back, her legs gave way as a sharp, squirming pain began to slip through her veins, digging towards her heart to better push its way into every bit of her flesh.  Her body stumbled into another, bright spots of warmth radiating against her where a chest pressed and where an arm wrapped, stark contrast to the freezing chill already creeping slowly on the tail of the pain.

Ah.  Tox rounds.

Just enough to suppress magic, just enough to kill the victim… Slowly.  Time enough to medicate later--if they decided to take their target alive.  And, really, dying over the next hour or two in agony beyond anything she could imagine?  Sounded like a damn good time compared to that fate.

Sound came back in full force as her initial shock wore off, but words still lacked meaning--the pain was making it hard to grasp what sounds formed which words.  Somewhere beneath her cheek thunder rumbled, more felt than heard.  Her head fell limply back, the effort to keep it upright pushing the nerves in her muscles to frayed threads.  She forced her eyes to focus, wondering if there were hallucinogenic effects in the poisons she could feel soaking into her organs.

Lips pulled back in a hate-filled snarl revealed small, sharp fangs in the mouth of the young man holding her to his chest.

Mods gone wrong, maybe?

She felt the thunder building beneath her cheek, volume and intensity rising until it pushed its way from the throat above her in an inhuman roar.  There were no words to this battle cry, only raw fury and grief.

And where the sound echoed from the armored forms before them, sparks chained body to body in a blinding arc of death.

The reverberation of his wrath drowned all else out, and on its heels the howl of the rising gale stirring from the ground beneath them.  Flames danced within the winds and forced those who would step over the bodies of their fallen comrades to fall back.  And with the rising of the winds summoned in his rage, tearing at their clothes, his hood wrenched back.

His hair whipped around him, and where cupped flesh should rest was revealed as a strange smoothness.

The cap atop his head shifted, and in the claws of the air it finally tore free.

Two pointed, furred ears pressed flat against his skull in rage.

Oh.

He was beastkin.

---

The humans retreated, the war-machines moving forwards to take their places, carelessly crushing the fallen beneath wheel and tread.

The wind ripped at the machines, smaller ones falling to their sides but the larger too heavy, too sturdy to be given pause by the gale around them.  Flames sputtered out upon metal, the wards protecting those within the larger of the machines.  The smaller, being automated, had nothing for the fire to threaten at all.

Grounding spells stopped the arcing death from finding a path along the metal to the delicate workings within.

They advanced, slowly, their cornered prey able to do little more than howl in rage and grief and exhaust itself as it summoned more and more power to lash ineffectually at their bulk.

The first of the machines opened fire.

And the world exploded around them.

Burning heat erupted from the sky above, so hot that it frayed the fabric of the world itself--colors not meant to be seen by mortal eyes danced within a whirling void, and a shadow so dark it burned with an impossible light of its own formed within the heart of the vortex.  Inhumanly large, a monstrous shape curled into a loose ball.

And then, it Woke.

The vortex burst open, the beast within unfurling into a vision from a nightmare: bipedal, with a muscular build.  Scales covered its form, head to heavy tail, becoming finer along the head and face where fur erupted into an untamed mane that floated curiously still despite the screeching winds.  Feathery wings of an incomprehensible span stretched from the back.  A mid-length muzzle stretched from the skull which housed eyes that watched the scene below dispassionately, the lips peeling slowly back to reveal fangs large and sharp enough to pierce a man straight through.

It lifted a single hand, and curled the fingers until only one, topped by a wicked talon, was left pointing directly at the army below.

Thunder boomed from its chest, its voice deafening the mortals below.

“Begone.”

A ripple spread outward from the foremost of the war-machines, spiraling into tendrils that wove their way through each of the armed soldiers and their machines.  Metal rusted over, the plants beneath them growing upwards rapidly to reclaim their husks, time passing through decades in the span of seconds.

The fleshy force of the army fared differently, though no better.  They seemed to grow fuzzy, indistinct, confusion and terror etching themselves into their faces for a moment before they simply unraveled, unworked from existence by a power so great they could not even begin to comprehend it.

---

Turning his gaze to the hunted ones, the only two beings left, he studied them in silence.  When flames erupted around him, summoned by the kin below, he merely breathed them aside and overwhelmed the power of the beastling.

Strong, even for kin.  I had thought any of such ability long extinct.

He allowed the power holding him in place to fade, and descended to the ground.  Dwarfing the two mortals staring up at him with terrified awe on their faces, he knelt before them to better see who had called such power as had awakened him.

One kin, and one human--the human dying of some sort of magical poison slowly destroying her body from within.  Blood upon the shoulder showed the way such a cruel thing entered her.  She would last another hour, perhaps, but it would not be a pleasant death.

The kin, now, he had power--but was exhausted by what he had thrown at those who would have captured them.  Were he rested, perhaps he could even save his companion.  But now there was little enough he could do, even to easing her passing.

“Why did they seek to capture you?”

The answer would decide their fate.

His eyes narrowed, his power probing at them and finding truth behind the words of the kin: sought for the sake of their power, that they may be used as weapons to subjugate others in turn.

So.  Even now such empires live on.  It is not enough that my kind were driven to extinction by their greed, they seek to prey upon our descendants and upon their fellow humans.

That would not do.

He reached one talon forwards, flinging his power in a binding net around the pair to prevent their movements.  The tip of the curved claw stopped above the wound in the woman’s shoulder, a soft glow gathering about it before dripping into the hole, power chasing the poison through her system and purging it.  He released the pair and withdrew his hand as she trembled and gasped, the wound itself closing as the last of her pain was brushed aside.

“None will disturb us unless I so will it.  You will rest, little ones, and then you will tell me of this world you have awakened me to.  I have slumbered for far too long.”

It was not a suggestion.  He watched Sleep overcome them, his power forcing them down beyond the threshold of dream and nightmare alike into the depths of the healing, restorative slumber they both needed so gravely.

He settled back on his haunches, shifting his wings and tail to make himself more comfortable.  He had waited eons for a reason to see the world once more.  He could wait a little longer to learn what he had missed.

[yukkimons]

T'kal and Taari

[tea-blankets-andstars]

i was watching Big brother with my parents and

T'kal gives me Dorcas vibes

Matt gives off James energy

Cedric has the barty crouch jr personality

McKenzie looks like Marlene

[love-at-first-contact]

Moving on, Chapter 8.

Shaw/T'Kal (OC)

[martiszcz]

i just love that Micheal in Unification III almost won T'Kal-in-ket the philosiphical science procedure by arguments ad hominem, known also as logical fallacy in a manner suggesting that this is how it’s done - Gabrielle’s only role there was to prompt people to make such arguments! 

Yes, Micheal realizing that Discovery is her home is an important development but I don’t really see how her feelings have any bearings on Federation’s trustworthiness. She wasn’t having doubts because they appeared untrustworthy, she was having doubts because of the year she spend alone. 

[rush-to-greatness]

"Senator Clovis, sir! Do you have anything to say on the rumors that you were receiving products from T'Kal Interstellar free of charge in exchange for a vote for allowing them to do business in the Core?"

come in my inbox pretending to be a reporter!||accepting

"The implication that I can be bought is insulting enough as it is, please don't make it worse by implying I could be bought with that swill."

[env0]

Every now and then I remember one of my first Ocs. And it's just a human swordsman named T'Kal. I named him after reading The Dragon riders of Pern. All the dragon riders had apostrophe names.

That was pretty much it. Human fighter, sword and shield. Nothing particularly. Remarkable. Just would explore and adventure.. He wasn't a master swordman.. He was just good. Often a full or half plate wearing, long shaggy ponytail wearing broad shouldered man.

His adventures weren't wild.

I later made him to my wow character. Then a d&d character (he got more exceptional there. But still refused to use magical gear and so. How fought gods and lived )

[mentorcrown]

pinned

nolan

he/she

30s

stuck doing: pixel art, web dev, and community management.

see under the cut for who i am in various games.

ffxiv im bubu gumu @ cactuar but also somtimes im t'kal pascal @ cactuar or even less sometimes t'yosah tia @ balmung

----

gw2 im still new to gw2 but my acct name is nolanunluck.3469 rasskig @ tarnished coast

----

runescape / mains grizzlydyke @ rs3 bubu gumu @ osrs / sides joina union @ rs3 48hrProtect @ rs3

----

main blog is @dykes ; this is an independent blog frm that i will follow + like from here.

[hunters-house]

♠♠♠♠♠

1. Zed is immune to soul magic in all forms. He can't be mind controlled or charmed, and at least once has caused an attempt to do so to backfire on the user.

2. Casper is a great cook. His favorite thing to make is Rigatoni ‘D’ (which also happens to be my favorite food, too.)

3. Mac, on the other hand, cannot be trusted near a kitchen, but Casper's been teaching her. She really likes hibachi fried rice. (Which I also like)

4. Mr. Button has an adoptive son named Nikolaos, who is the son of a minor Greek god. (I've been trying to find excuses to RP as him)

5. Avoir Hedtlet's birth mother is Kalos He'Yanna, the mother of the current CEO of T'Kal Interstellar, Dekki He'Yanna. He has no idea, and neither does Dekki.

[actualaster]

He started out as just a half-assed character intended as something I wouldn’t get invested in so I could experiment with something without a real commitment (I should know better, every time it turns out whoops I’m actually totally committed now, and yet I never learn)

And now T’kal’miru’s decided that he’s a Person and wants a Backstory and a Personality and everything.

I was trying to even figure out WTF to do with him because he’s literally not even got his own name, I just hacked together the names of 2 totally unrelated characters from entirely different universes to give him a name.

Like I’ve got a sort of half-assed personality for him, but I’m...  Not entirely sure what else to do with him lmao.

With some worldbuilding tweaks he theoretically could exist in the same world as the original T’kal, but I’m not 100% sure on that even if I think I might have an idea how that’d work?

He’s still a dumbass catboy, he’s mostly human but on both parents’ sides he has distant beastfolk ancestry and IDK for some reason he’s a bit of a throwback to that, with minor beastfolk features that otherwise have long since been bred out of the lines (this also means he’s got ridiculously strong magic, at least as far as the current world is concerned, it’d be nothing compared to the magic of the beastfolk of the past)

The thing is the original T’kal is the last of the beastfolk, the rest having either been slaughtered, captured and either worked to death or harvested from until they died (their blood is ridiculously potent as a magical substance), or they destroyed themselves to prevent their power from being abused by warring humans (it’s complicated but due to Reasons the beastfolk are sort of “guardians” of magic and are not natural creatures but ultimately come from magic and would prefer their own destruction to being forced into abusing magic for war that would tear the world apart)

Beastkin--humans descended from beastfolk/human couplings--are probably not exactly rare but most of them you can’t tell at all because it’s so minimal they’re just mildly more sensitive to magic than average.  There’s probably a fair amount of them that have notably stronger magic than humans do naturally, but they’re also usually just mistaken for talented humans.

Once in a great long while there’s somebody with a throwback to some beastfolk ancestry in the form of not entirely human features, I’d guess--that’s a part that would need some minor worldbuilding tweaks (previously the idea was in mixed couplings involving beastfolk the children were of whatever form the carrying parent is, not just in human-beastfolk mating but between beastfolk themselves because not all beastfolk would otherwise produce viable combinations of offspring but their existence was important for reasons of being guardians of magic, so part of the innate magic of their existence causes that to ensure more continue to exist--it just ended up also extending to when beastfolk-human couplings occur as well)

I’m still not entirely sure why he’d be named T’kal’miru though--why would he bear a beastfolk name when it’s been generations since the last of the beastfolk (aside from original!T’kal) died?

The sort of idea I’m tossing around is that original!T’kal is sort of a legendary monster at this point, the not-entirely-believed-in last of the beastfolk (but due to Plot Reasons he’s been twisted into a totally different physical form that’s far more monstrous than beastfolk used to be), and that it’s been ages but somewhere along the way his name might have surfaced--maybe he told it to somebody so they’d know who killed them but they somehow survived or whatever, I dunno.  Might have just started telling people his name since nobody can kill him (magical curse of immortality!) and just not seeing a reason to keep himself secret because hey if somebody does finally manage to kill him he can finally find peace (immortality when everybody you knew and cared for is long dead sucks).

So maybe T’kal’miru’s parents named him after that legendary monster--both because he’s obviously beastkin and it would be a...  Cruel name, honestly, from parents afraid of what he means for them.  Name him after a monster, because they find him to be a bit of a monster.

I was wondering if maybe he’d be the “human” who went seeking the legendary beast-monster for it’s blood (said to cure any illness or disease with only a few drops) to save the life of his sister, but I can’t really see that.

I think, rather, his parents had extremely mixed feelings about him and were pretty shitty but also did what they could for him.

Being blatantly beastkin would paint a massive target on him by those who’d love to get their hands on a young throwback beastkin to raise up into an obedient weapon or tool for their innate significant magical ability.

And his parents would be fearing for their lives, too--the only way to get a throwback beastkin would be if both parents themselves were beastkin.  There’re those who’d kill them for that, or enslave them to see if they could be forced to work magic.  ...Or worse things besides.

So I’m thinking maaaaaaybe he’s another character who’d get roped into whatever the plot is somewhere along the way, with the unnamed human and his sister Milla and original!T’kal.

I dunno, still trying to kind of feel out if that works for him, as a means of trying to slot him into an existing universe bc I just don’t feel like trying to create something from scratch these days XD

[endlessflame]

We know the sabertooth’s name!

[domwho11]

My good friend Ben’s Star Trek Discovery series 3 episode 7 review

[princediavolos]

every clue in endless summer, explained

technically the title is kinda misleading because some clues simply have no explanation, they just are. still, there’s a lot of pieces to be put together over the three books, and there are clues found in the first book that aren’t explained till the last one. (if you’re confused about the clues, here’s the fandom wiki for book 1, book 2 & book 3.)

before i dive in, here’s some clarifications:

i’ve used mc’s default name, taylor, and neutral pronouns wherever i’ve referred to them. the endless is also referred to by neutral pronouns.

acts 1, 2 & 3 fall under book 1

acts 4, 5 & 6 fall under book 2

acts 7 & 8 fall under book 3

each act has one bonus scene, so if i’m referring to bonus scene 5, it implies to the scene shown after act 5.

ok so unnecessarily long exposition under the cut!

ACT 1

i. tranquilizer dart: found by taylor and diego upon landing on the airstrip. presumably used on the sabretooth, t'kal, to keep it docile. likely done by rourke or his henchmen, but it is also highly possible the endless tranquilized t'kal in order to keep it from killing everyone.

ii. strange creature: a colourful flying seahorse, found by quinn and taylor along the beach in a premium scene. as shown in bonus scene 1, rourke knows of the creature, as he examines it with interest through his binoculars.

iii. weird lights: lights resembling the auroras displayed at the control tower, found by taylor and jake. it is later explained in book 2 chapter 10 by grace, that the lights are caused by the doppler effect, due to the dilation and contraction of time around la huerta. the vaanti call it the lights of vaanu, said to bring them good luck.

iv. vintage wine: if taylor goes to the ballroom with zahra, quinn notes that every bottle in the room predates 1924. as revealed in book 3 chapter 7, the wedding in the ballroom was that of flora and arthur, and group arrived there due to the time anomalies of the island.

v. sharp tooth: found by grace by the pool, near the fence. according to her, the bars were all twisted. presumably belongs to t'kal the sabretooth.

vi. old note: a note found by taylor and diego in one of the upgraded honeymoon/rainforest suites. it was written by flora sullivan to eugene rosencraft, before her wedding to arthur barnaby. it also references neptune cove, where the second half of the island's heart is found in book 3.

vii. pirate coin/wolf symbol: can be obtained either by going to the waterfall with quinn, or by hiking the cliff with jake. the doubloon is probably a remnant of malatesta and yvonne's loot, while the wolf symbol could have been left behind by the endless. the symbol also matches the stamp on jake's dossier.

viii. shoe prints: a set of muddy shoeprints were found by the celestial's shelter. no solid explanation or implication towards who these belong to.

ix. gas mask: found by taylor underwater in the cavern. it looks very old, and as noted by diego, probably from the world war times. it would have probably belonged to kele, a world war ii soldier who paddled his way into la huerta while escaping from the germans.

x. padlock: the unbroken padlock to the burning hangar, which implies that the hangar was unlocked and jake's plane sabotaged. in one of the memories taylor receives from the endless, lila is shown to deliberately sabotage the plane in order to keep everyone on the island, implying she may have done it in this timeline, too.

ACT 2

i. cufflink: lila is discovered pocketing the cufflink in rourke's office, which she probably did to discover his whereabouts later on. in bonus scene 2, rourke is shown to remove all his clothing, including his cufflinks, before he steps into the containment pod. the cufflink can also be used in book 1 chapter 10, where rourke's dna on it reveals a footage video of him complaining about strange occurrences on the island.

ii. dossiers: files containing data on sean, grace, raj and estela are found in the paper shredder, intact. each of them is stamped with symbols of the constellations aquila, cygnus, centaurus and draco respectively. the symbols are left behind by the endless.

iii. whiskey notes: a note discarded by rourke in the vip lounge, referencing the satellite uplink at the la huerta observatory. this is also shown in bonus scene 2.

iv. frying pan: a frying pan embossed with the centaurus symbol on it, which raj says he feels very drawn to. this was also left behind by the endless. he also uses this pan to deflect a sedative dart aimed at taylor in book 1 chapter 16.

v. arrowhead: an amber arrowhead is found lodged inside the king crab's shell, as found by taylor and estela. as the vaanti have been shown to use amber weaponry (as well as in other ways, such as the catalyst idols), it is implied that one of them may have attacked the guardian with an arrow.

vi. dossiers: files containing data on jake, zahra and diego found in the room inside the observatory. they are stamped with the symbols of the constellations lupus, corvus and canis. symbols left behind by the endless.

vii. strange gun: a futuristic gun found by either estela or jake. in book 1 chapter 16, it is revealed to be a tachyon accelerator, used to move objects forward in time. in bonus scene 5, lila refers to the gun as a temporal perforator.

viii. star map: a holographic display of constellations, as seen by taylor and sean as they go up the pod. sean points out that the stars in the sky over la huerta don't have the usual constellations, and that the stars have not looked like this for a million years. this is confirmed in the book 1 epilogue, when aleister notes that atropo's eruption has caused la huerta to go back to the hadean eon.

ACT 3

i. dossiers: files containing data on quinn, michelle and craig found by taylor and diego by the marina. they are stamped with the symbols of the constellations delphinus, pavo and ursa. symbols left behind by the endless.

ii. rourke's ship: if taylor and lila venture into a familiar-looking boat, they will discover it is rourke's ship, the daedalus. he was seen on the ship in bonus scene 1, and he presumably destroyed it along with the other boats on the marina immediately afterwards.

iii. plastic explosive: the semtex explosive is found by taylor in the back of the boat. it's what was used to blow up the other ships in the marina, but this one malfunctioned.

iv. strange shell: a blue-purple coloured shell that repeats the speaker's words over and over. in one of the memories taylor receives from the endless, varyyn is seen tearfully listening to the shell echoing diego's voice, saying 'i'll always love you, varyyn' over and over again as it gradually fades away.

v. telepathic vision: varyyn telepathically communicates with taylor, showing them what would happen if the catalysts didn't go with the vaanti. it is later revealed to be a depiction of atropo erupting, setting the whole world on fire and destroying it.

vi. numbers: in the wine cellar, 1908 refers to a lever to the underground tunnel, disguised as a vintage wine bottle, as well as the cheat code to rourke's arcade game, most wanted 2. rourke also uses an override program on iris called the directive 1908, explained in book 3 chapter 9, which makes iris prioritise the goal she was created for -- to utilise imogen rourke's knowledge on cloning to provide an heir to rourke. another program, directive 8091, forces estela into the omega mech cockpit in book 3 chapter 10, as she is rourke's 'true' heir.

vii. dossiers: files on taylor and aleister are found inside the security centre, both stamped by the endless with symbols of constellations andromeda and serpens. aleister's dossier is newer, printed recently by iris upon discovering that he was aboard the plane to la huerta.

viii. healing plant: leaves of the plant, when wrapped around aleister's bleeding palm, heal it with unnatural speed without a trace. grace and aleister theorize this may be due to some cellular reconstructive properties the leaves may contain.

ix. necklace: worn by varyyn in book 1, the necklace is seen to have time travelling properties, as it brings back jake/estela/sean/quinn/diego back from the dead. it is unknown if the endless facilitated its use or it is associated with rourke.

x. pirate cutlass: the cutlass was forged by malatesta and was stolen from him by admiral higgenbotham, who was presumably killed alongside malatesta's crew in the flashback taylor experiences, by the vaanti. yvonne then stole the cutlass from higgenbotham's corpse, naming it chouchou. it is unclear as to how the cutlass ended up on a display case at the celestial.

ACT 4

i. hydra caduceus: a staff found in rourke's library, which when placed in the statue's hand in the atrium, turns it into a sundial. iris says that the caduceus is the only item in the library she cannot find the origin of.

ii. crimson glove: a futuristic, yet battered metal glove put on display in rourke's underground museum; taylor realises that the person's arm was probably cut off. the glove belongs to the endless, who tells taylor that they learnt very soon that 'the laws of time can be very unforgiving' with reference to their loss of limb.

iii. shotgun shell: michelle and taylor find the 12-gauge armor-piercing shell casing, as identified by jake, during the time loop. he notes that whoever shot this meant business. the shell probably came from one of the arachnids who were on the island searching for jake.

iv. snowy hills: taylor, with either jake or estela, finds snow on the hills and by the lake on a hot and sunny day, indicating time is in disarray throughout different parts of the island, much like the northern and southern parts of the island.

v. wedding ring: a wedding ring is found on the hand of a statue of a masked bride, in the valley of tombs by jake and taylor. the statue is of flora sullivan, and the ring was given to her by eugene rosencraft which she had turned down. it was after this she wrote him the note found in act 1.

vi. tattoo: uqzhaal has a back tattoo of the legend of the threshold. it is the place where yvonne finds the endless in bonus scene 5, and where yvonne, taylor and uqzhaal meet the endless after collecting all the catalyst idols and solving the puzzle.

vii. words on the wind: the voices at the singing cliffs tell taylor that something is coming across the sea, destroying everything in its path. this could either be an immediate reference to yvonne's arrival the next morning, or a vague prediction about the omega mech used by rourke in book 3.

viii. musket ball: yvonne concedes the gold musket ball at sharktooth isle in exchange for their services to find her 'treasure.'

ix. antique compass: yvonne's said treasure turns out to be an antique compass which she tries to conceal; malatesta made her walk the plank for stealing this compass, which she did in order to find the fountain of youth. the compass also leads her to the threshold in bonus scene 5.

x: oath blade: seraxa's gift to taylor for saving taari, saying that debts must be repaid in accordance with vaanti culture. she is shown to threaten the catalysts with this blade in book 2 chapter 4.

ACT 5

i. silver sap: the sap that drips from elyy'stel's tree aids the catalysts to walk in between dimensions. it is the consumption of this sap by eugene and flora that gradually turned them feral and eventually into the vaanti.

ii. deep fissure: if taylor keeps rewinding until they can't go any further, right up to the ancient sea, the catalysts witness the forming of a fissure in the ocean bed. this fissure was caused by vaanu crash-landing on the earth, and it eventually becomes mount atropo, and forms the bubble surrounding la huerta.

iii. the island's heart: one half of the island's heart, which was formed right in the crux of the volcano, found by the catalysts in the base of elyy'stel's tree.

iv. the mask maker: the masks worn by the vaanti bear the name of their maker, rosencraft & sons, 1921. this explains the masks worn by guests at flora and arthur's wedding, which also took place in the rosencraft manor. the rosencrafts were said to be bankrupt, and that the estate belonged to the banks.

v. burning shard: a burning crystal shard that glows green and reacts the same way that quinn did while possessed by the island's heart. it is one of many crystal shards scattered across the island, originating from the crux of the volcano.

vi. mansingh crater: a crater found near the chasm bears the name of mansingh transglobal tech, the company run by grace's mother, blaire hall. it is suspicious to both taylor and grace, as it implies blaire hall was somehow involved with rourke. no further explanation has been made about the crater.

vii. newspaper clipping: a scrap of an article is found by taylor in the elysian lodge, detailing the deaths of arjun and subhanu sethi due to a car accident, also killing their son and putting their daughter in a critical condition. this daughter is lila, and this article implies that rourke (or someone else) was doing a background research on lila.

viii. rourke's note: an old note written by rourke to look into the new junior researcher, as they look familiar. this is most likely a reference to olivia montoya, although it is not known where he recognises her from.

ACT 6

i. rourke's plan: out of agitation, lila blurts out rourke's plan to save the world through a machine at the masada facility. this machine turns out to be the omega mech, and rourke's plan happens to be controlling the world and its people's existence on his whims.

ii. tracking device: a tracking device is found by taylor, attached to the yeti's fur. this was placed there by the arachnid. this tracking device relays location details back to them, as seen in the military humvee by michelle, jake and taylor, where the code name for the yeti is arktos.

iii. garbled message: a distorted voice reveals the date and coordinates of jake's location, received by the arachnid through an anonymous transmission, which is how they came upon la huerta in the first place. this voice belongs to jake himself, who did so using a 'time-phone' in order to merge realities and help them escape through a helicopter from the masada facility.

iv. crashed satellite: varyyn, while talking about shooting stars, says a satellite once crashed to the ground from the skies. it is probably a stray satellite that got caught in the la huerta time bubble, or it belonged to rourke.

v. omega mech: olivia montoya demonstrates rourke's plans for the omega specimen, aka the endless, through a vr headset. she urges the viewer to understand the destruction the specimen, and rourke, are capable of.

vi. missing guests: rourke claimed that the guests at the celestial were evacuated in time at the beginning of the book, but it is shown that he had them put in containment pods. as seen in bonus scene 4, lundgren and the other arachnids were a part of these guests, but were released by rourke upon striking a deal with him to capture jake.

vii. charred skeletons: skeletons of people are found in the flames and ashes at hartfeld, proving that people did not escape the eruption.

viii. havana cigar: lundgren's cigar at the masada facility implies that he was snooping around where he shouldn't, and that he didn't trust rourke. this distrust is confirmed in bonus scene 6.

ACT 7

i. temple/ancient map: if taylor, yvonne and uqzhaal find the endless, they will give the whereabouts of no'ox naj temple to yvonne, where the fountain of youth exists. if they don't find the endless, taylor and yvonne find a carving of the la huerta map on the walls at the threshold, also hinting towards the temple. the whole group meets the endless for the first time in this temple in book 3 chapter 4.

ii. scout: a mechanical spider with a spy camera is found by taylor while they go windsurfing to win malatesta's bet. like the tracker on the yeti, this was also placed by the arachnid to track down their locations.

iii. padlock: a weathered padlock bearing the inscription, 'no land, no sea, no one will keep us apart. flora & eugene, 1920,' found by taylor in a coral reef. after turning down eugene's proposal (the ring clue, book 2), she tried to make it up to him with this padlock and by asking him to show up at neptune cove (the note clue, book 1). when he failed to show up, flora gave up on him and somehow ended up in a forced marriage to arthur barnaby a year later.

iv. pen: a tarnished silver pen bearing grace's name is found in the shrine at no'ox naj temple. it is implausible that she was at the temple, as she was under rourke's custody the whole time. it is also the same pen seen in grace's catalyst idol, returned to her by aleister and ultimately found near professor diaz's car which she had smashed up.

v. silver sap: one of the drinks served at the anachronists' party at quarr'tel is the silver sap from elyys'tel's tree. the creation of the vaanti myth, which is said to have started at a masquerade theme wedding, is that of flora and arthur's, where the former gets shot after confessing her love for eugene at the wedding. in an attempt to save her, eugene gives her some of this sap. this consumption eventually turns them into the feral vaanti.

vi. spirit's identity: the anachronist, clockmaker, refers to the faceless spirit as vaanu. in reality, vaanu is simply an alien being from another planet (the prism dimension) who crash landed on earth when its planet was destroyed. upon communing with vaanu, taylor discovers they are vaanu's creation, made for the purpose of returning la huerta to its normal state, allowing vaanu's departure.

vii. aleister's note: aleister writes a note to grace, apologising to her, and how he feels genuine remorse over his betrayal. he mentions that he hopes to redeem himself in her eyes.

ACT 8:

i. painting: at the rosencraft manor, there's a painting titled 'depiction of the divine' portraying rourke writing the ten commandments dressed in roman attire. the attire probably matches the statue of himself in the atrium, which opens up the sundial to his museum.

ii. communicator: the anachronists provide sean, raj and michelle with antique communicators which lets them coordinate the attack on cetus.

iii. path to the core: vaanu shows quinn the way to the core of the volcano, where the island's heart belongs. this core is the place where vaanu landed on earth.

iv. molten crystals: a crystal orb with claw markings in it, made by the oryctoraptor that dwells inside the volcano. referred to by varyyn as the deep guardian, it is the most reclusive of the four. it is also responsible for the orb found in the cavern in book 1 chapter 5, and possibly the orb that causes the time loop in book 2 chapter 2.

v. the endless' musings: zahra finds a diary belonging to the endless at the base of the volcano, in which they speak of how the sentience of the crystals probably drew the four guardians (cetus, king crab, yeti, oryctoraptor) to establish order on the island, but they were driven mad. the endless also believes it is possible the crystal created the creatures. this is possible, as it would explain the existence of the colourful seahorse, t'kal and furball (although they have not been affected like the guardians have.)

vi. closing words: the closing words spoken by seraxa during the handfasting ceremony, which is customary as 'it was for the first bride and her beloved.' they are the same words that were engraved in the padlock that flora made for eugene.

[love-at-first-contact]

Moving On, Chapter 5

Shaw/T'Kal (OC)

[verbumproxen]

When Gabrielle started bringing up Prime Philippa during the T'Kal-in-ket i just screamed: "NOPE DONT GO THERE PLEASE" and proceeded to cry and watch episode 1 and 2 again 😭 gosh I need to grow out crying over Prime!Philippa whenever she's even remotely mentioned.

Gabrielle: Didn't you ultimately get her killed? (no, mom. this is too soon 😭)

Also there is a distinct lack of Emperor Philippa, where'd she go?