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winryofresembool · 4 years ago

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Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 28

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: At Waystation, pt 1/?

A/N: Alright, an update and this time /almost/ on time! So, here's the thing: we are starting the so called 'Waystation arc', which will be many, many chapters because I have way too many ideas despite the fact that Leo and Cal won't even be there that long. So, please bear with me, I know this chapter is kind of a fillery one but I can't really skip the introductions 😅 More interesting stuff will definitely happen soon enough!

I hope that you guys enjoy (seriously it really always warms my heart to see your wonderful comments ♥) and maybe leave some nice words if you feel like it!!

Words: 2700+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

”So, here we are…” Leo told Calypso when he stopped his car, the faithful Argo II, in the yard of Waystation. Both of their exams were finished and Calypso had taken a few days off work so she could join Leo at his family home for the holidays. “What do you think?” he asked, possibly a bit nervous about his flatmate’s opinion. Calypso could understand that; she knew that it was a very important place to him.

She took in her surroundings: a big, old house where the family lived and several other buildings such as a garage and a shelter for the animals next to it. Even though she and Leo were still in the car, she could already hear the sharp barking of Festus the German shepherd somewhere further in the yard. The place wasn’t all that showy especially compared to what she had seen in her childhood, but there were a lot of mysterious corners and fascinating looking objects around that screamed to be observed more closely. Unlike the place where she had been living several years of her life, to her this place… seemed home-y.

“It… looks cozy,” she finally answered Leo's question when she realized he kept looking at her expectantly. “I think I can see why you like it here.”

“Yeah!” Leo seemed happy to hear Calypso liked it. “I like to call it a well organized chaos - just the way it should be in Leo’s world. But c’mon, my fam must be waiting already.”

“Let’s go, then.”

Leo barely had time to open the door of the car and stand up when Festus ran and jumped at him, trying to drown him in wet dog kisses.

“Woah, buddy! I’m glad to see you too!” Leo exclaimed and attempted to pet him even though it was hard because Festus was all over the place. “It’s my holiday break so I’ll be here with you for a long while! Isn’t that great?”

Festus gave him a small bark and wagged his tail even faster as a response. Calypso followed the exchange between the boy and his dog with amusement.

“Not sure if I should be jealous of your… you call it bromance, right?” she teased, while smiling widely. Already she had noticed that Leo seemed more relaxed in this place, and for some reason that made her feel warm and fuzzy even though she tried to battle such feelings.

“Aww, why would you be jealous? I have space in my heart for both of you,” he winked and Calypso had to look away so that he wouldn’t see her blush - again.

“No reason,” she mumbled and got out of the car as well, causing Festus to leave Leo alone and come to greet her instead. “Hi, you!” she managed to say while getting showered with love by the dog. “I guess this means you still remember me!”

“Of course he does,” Leo grinned at her. “I think you made quite an impression on him earlier. Hey, boy!” he whistled at the dog who returned to him. “I’m still your number one man, right?”

“Now who’s jealous?” Calypso chuckled at him. “He was just getting started with me.”

“That’s what you think,” Leo claimed. He had already taken his luggage from the car and now he was waiting for Calypso to do the same so he could lock the doors. She just stuck her tongue out at him instead of replying to his comment.

“Wait, are you planning to move here?” He asked with amusement when Calypso dragged her suitcase out of the car. Even though she would be staying at Waystation for less than a week, she had taken quite a lot of things with her just to be sure she wasn’t missing anything. “Not that I have anything against you living with my family… It’s just that that…” he pointed at the suitcase, “… looks a bit excessive considering we’re not staying that long and we can just drive or even walk back to our flat any time we want to if we need something.”

“You can never be too well prepared in situations like this!” Calypso stated, pulling her suitcase behind her while Festus followed her happily.

“Okay, okay,” Leo put his hand up in defeat and started following Calypso towards the house. “I believe you.”

…

“Calie, Calie!” a young brown haired girl exclaimed happily when the flatmates made it inside the house. “You came!”

“Hi, Georgina!” Calypso greeted the girl. “I did promise you, and both you and I know that promises should be kept, right?” Even at the risk of the trip being very awkward because of everything that was currently going on between her and Leo, she wasn’t planning to disappoint this little girl. She knew too well how that felt.

“Right!” Georgina agreed with her. “So, how has my brother been lately? Super annoying, as usual?”

Calypso was unsure what she should answer to that question, especially since Leo was listening right next to her. “Umm… he hasn’t been that bad, in my opinion… Sure, he has his annoying moments but I think the exams have kept him so busy that he has mostly been behaving himself.” She smiled at the girl, one part of her hoping Leo knew better than to take her too seriously. But then again, they had been bickering since day one, and apparently, he still liked her.

“Yeah, and Calypso has been somewhat behaving herself too, thanks for asking,” Leo intervened, looking slightly annoyed. “Well, what about you, sis? Did you pass all your tests?”

“I did but the math one was super difficult! Maybe you can help me with it when the school starts again?” Georgina gave Leo the kind of puppy eyes that would have been hard to resist for anyone. And sure enough, Leo’s frown melted quickly when she kept looking at him pleadingly.

“Of course I can help! That’s what I’m here for, right?” he answered without hesitation. Then he frowned again. “But where are our mothers? I thought they’d catch us like hawks the moment we arrived.”

“They’re probably busy making a big dinner,” Georgina noted. “I don’t think they’ve talked about anything else except you two the whole day…”

“Really?” Leo asked. “That’s… weird? I do visit here often enough…”

“Yeah, but how often do you visit with a girl?” Georgina pointed out sneakily. The girl was really observant for her age, Calypso thought. She and Leo exchanged quick looks before Leo answered.

“Listen, Georgie. Cal and I are friends. And flatmates obviously. But we are not dating, I hope you know that,” he said firmly, even though Calypso could sense that he wished he could have told her something else.

“Then how come she’s spending the holidays with us? Doesn’t she have her own family to spend it with?”

It was an innocent question, as Georgina had no idea about Calypso’s home circumstances, but it had still hit a bit too close to home to Calypso and Leo knew that. That’s why he rushed to answer for her: “Hey, now, miss Nosy! Cal has her own reasons why she prefers spending the holidays with us, and she doesn’t have to explain them all to you. The main thing is that she’s here and I hope you won’t bother her by asking more of your annoying questions.”

“Now you’re just being rude,” Georgina grimaced at him. “But fiiine, I won’t ask more questions. I’ll go tell moms that you guys arrived.”

“Go do that,” Leo sighed, and rolled his eyes when she was already out of sight. “Sorry ‘bout that,” he told Calypso as he showed her where she could put her outerwear. “For the first 15 years of my life I didn’t have a sibling and somehow I thought it would be great to have one… She /is/ pretty great most of the time but no one told me beforehand that sometimes siblings can be quite nuisances too.”

Calypso’s face fell a bit as she thought about her own sister and how much she sometimes wished she could see her again. Luckily Leo seemed to realize pretty fast that he had said something wrong.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry! I didn’t remember… I mean, I know I’m lucky to have a sister like her, I just… Um, I’m just gonna shut up now.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Calypso tried to calm him down. “It’s an easy mistake to make. I haven’t talked about her a lot to you…”

“As someone who has also lost a family member, I understand why you don't wanna do that, Sunshine. But hey,” he stepped closer to her, sticking his index finger close enough to her chin that she had to lift it, but not close enough that it would have touched her. “You’re visiting casa de Valdez & co and we have a rule here that we should put the nasty stuff behind us, at least during the visit.”

“You mean like, ‘Hakuna matata’?” Calypso asked, having heard the story of Leo loving Lion King as a child. As their eyes met, she could feel the butterflies flying in her stomach again.

“Yep, now you’re speaking my language, babe.”

“Babe?” Calypso raised her eyebrow but was interrupted before she could say more because Leo’s adoptive mothers finally entered the room. Calypso had already met Jo earlier, but Emmie hadn’t been with her and Georgina that time. She had a long, grey braid, and something about her posture told her that the woman had done a lot of sports back in the day. She was wearing an apron over her work clothes and she was smiling at her in a friendly manner when their eyes met.

Jo greeted Calypso first.

“Hello, it’s nice to see you again.” Then she pointed at the woman next to her. “This is my wife, Emmie. You haven’t met her yet, right?"

“Correct.”

“Well, hello dear,” Emmie spoke, shaking Calypso’s hand. “You must be the Calypso I keep hearing so much about. I’m not sure which of these kids has been more excited about your visit; Georgina has been asking Leo every time he visits when he’ll bring you with her. I guess that day is finally here!”

“Oh, that’s sweet,” Calypso mumbled, a bit overwhelmed by the excitement with which Leo’s Waystation family welcomed her. The more she heard, the more it felt like they really thought that Leo was bringing home someone who was /not/ just a flatmate. Despite that, she knew these people were just trying to be polite, so she couldn’t get angry at them. Especially since in different circumstances they may not have been wrong. “Thank you for having me. I’ve been looking forward to seeing this place! And of course I haven’t forgotten that I promised to teach Georgina some baking so I had to come.”

“I hope it’s not too much trouble,” Emmie said, a lot like Jo during the visit to Leo and Calypso’s flat. “Leo has of course told us that you’re a rather busy person these days so we wish you get some resting time too.”

“No, it’s not a problem at all,” Calypso shook her head, smiling at Georgina who was looking at her expectantly. “I like having something to do with my hands; I’m not used to just sitting around.”

“That’s great,” Emmie said approvingly. “I don’t think you will have a boring moment in this household. Now, let us show you to our guest room upstairs and then we can all go dine together.”

“Sounds good,” Calypso agreed and started following the women further into the house.

…

After setting her things into a guest room with a big bed, an old mahogany desk, some flowers by the window and a fascinating looking bookshelf, Calypso was led into the dining room where the dinner was waiting.

“Smells so good,” she told the others before she knew what kind of meal Leo’s mothers had prepared. “Reminds me of something I’ve tasted at home…”

“A little bird told us that you like Greek food,” Emmie said mysteriously.

When Leo had told his mothers Calypso and he would be visiting Waystation, they had asked him what kind of food she liked. Calypso had once mentioned that she missed eating some of the traditional Greek foods she had gotten as a child, so that’s what Leo had suggested. The women of Waystation had ended up making moussaka and along with it (much to Leo’s dismay) some salad with lots of olives in it.

“You didn’t...!” Calypso exclaimed when she saw what was inside the frying pan, clapping her hands together. “I loved it when mum made this when I was a kid! I probably last ate it when I was 10…” Something warm rose to her chest when it sunk into her that someone had seen that much effort to make her feel welcomed. “Thank you so much.”

“You’re very welcome, dear,” Jo said. “We know you’re a very important person to Leo – even though he may be a bit bad at expressing his real thoughts sometimes – so we wanted to make sure that you know that you’re always welcome to visit us.”

“I’m sure I would have been convinced about that even with less effort,” Calypso reassured Leo’s mothers, pretending to ignore the hidden meaning behind the older woman’s words. “But I appreciate it a lot.”

“Guys, I don’t know about you but I’m starving, so can we please skip the pleasantries and just start eating?” Leo asked impatiently, drumming a glass on the dining table with a spoon.

“Some things never change,” Georgina joined the conversation, elbowing her adoptive brother. “Leo’s always so impatient when it comes to food.”

“But Leonidas,” Calypso started when she took a closer look at the salad that was being served, giving him a lopsided grin. Clearly Georgina’s mischievousness was already getting to her. “Are you really that excited about olives? The last time I checked, you weren’t particularly enthusiastic about them.”

Leo seemed a bit less excited about the food when he realized that she was right, but before he had time to comment, Emmie spoke first.

“What? You made Leo eat olives? That’s a story I’d like to hear,” she urged Calypso, and the latter mentioned did not have to be convinced twice to tell the story.

“Alright. One Saturday evening we decided to cook some Greek and Mexican style food just for fun. I of course had some olives in the salad I made and asked Leo to taste it, but he didn’t like it so somehow we ended up making a deal that if I eat one of his chilis, he eats his olives.”

“Yep, and you lost,” Leo pointed out immediately.

“I’ve said this before and I will say it again that it was an unfair bet! Those chilis were /hot/. Olives can actually be consumed without burning your mouth.” Calypso retorted.

“Wait, are you talking about the chilis that Leo has gotten from here?” Emmie asked. “Ouch, Leo, those things really are spicy. I am on Calypso’s side here; it /was/ an unfair bet.”

“Not you too!” Leo protested, crossing his arms. “Nothing happened; she only ate a little and I gave her some bread and milk afterwards. And eventually we both laughed at the whole thing.”

“Wow, brother, that was almost gentlemanly of you,” Georgina stated, clearly proud of the fancy word she had just used. “Calie, he would probably have just let me suffer if I had eaten that chili pepper.”

“Yep, because you’re just a little twerpette,” Leo replied while ruffling Georgina’s hair affectionately.

“Ahem,” Jo finally interrupted the banter. “I love hearing these stories but we don’t want Calypso’s welcome dinner to get cold, do we? So let’s dig in.”

The others didn’t have to be told twice. As everyone was eating the moussaka (Calypso noticed Leo had even taken an olive on his plate to show the others he could) and chatting about various things, Calypso really did start feeling welcomed and she even caught herself thinking that Jo was probably right; she wouldn’t be having a boring moment here.

#caleo #leo valdez #calypso #heroes of olympus #percy jackson and the olympians #trials of apollo #my fics #caleo uni au

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rigelmejo · 4 years ago

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April Progress Update, and May Goals:

*bear with me this is gonna get long.

I’m going to first just look at April goals and see if I did them, then afterward summarize everything I did this month (cause it was a lot more than I planned ToT)

Chinese study plan from April:

1. Read anything

Well, I did read. However my goal to read hanshe to chapter 80 and Zhenhun to the end of the sundial arc never happened. I did read a lot though. I ended up focusing mainly on extensive reading.

Chinese chapters read: 62 (I counted graded readers/小王子 as 1 chapter for every two that I read, but this number is probably still inflated... compared to my normal 20-pleco page chapters I probably read 31-40 of those-kind-of-chapters length wise).

Chinese stories finished: 4 (Pleco Graded Reader Butterfly Lovers, Chinese Short Stories, Mandarin Companion Journey to the Center of the Earth, 小王子 - you can tell this is where my attention went this month).

Chinese Listening Reading Method chapters done: 14.5 (4.5 Silent Reading, 2 Chapters of A History of Humankind, 1 chapter hp, 1 chapter Alice in Wonderland, iffy but like 3 chapters 小王子, iffy but like 4 chapters of the Xiao Mao cat story - I should note that for Silent Reading, 小王子, Xiao Mao I only looked at the chinese mostly so more step 2, and for the others I did step 3 as recommended). Also I realize... I should probably count this with hours instead of chapters, because hours are where the original poster about LR mentioned when milestones are hit. However, being realistic, I do not do things in hour segments so I’m not sure any tracking will be as easy as this way...

A cool thing potentially about L R Method? I found some resources recently that will make this a lot easier (Bidiread is a site that can make parallel texts for you, which made silent reading MUCH easier since the audio doesn’t perfectly match so you NEED to see the chinese even if only doing step 3, to make sure you can keep track of where you are in the text when the audio skips paragraphs). I also found Francais Par Le Methode Nature as videos on youtube with audio and the text visible (is that not simply L R method step 2 but its all comprehensible, i love that book). And I found a few files on youtube of audiobooks with english audio and chinese/english parallel text on screen (a bit backwards in process but i’m curious to test it), one youtube channel who does chinese audio with parallel texts on screen (phenomenal!), and I remembered the site bilinguis exists which is excellent for French if you wanna try L R Method (it has a few french audios with the parallel texts). Also in the case of A History of Humankind - the audiobook for once is very closely synced to the actual chapter start/ends, so it was just easier to do L R Method with.

2. Listen to Chinese Spoonfed Audio, shadowing when I can

YES I did this! I was on 11 last month, now I’m on 15. (so 4 audio this month) Yes I realize that wasn’t a lot of improvement T-T. What can I say I am not very good at being disciplined. However I did learn something interesting this month ABOUT listening to these so I think I might do it more - I listened to some in the background while playing games, then later listened to them again (also why I only got through 4 - I was replaying audios maybe 2 times). And when I listened the second time I could understand nearly all, whereas obviously when playing my game I only caught parts of it. So I suppose what this showed me is partially listening and partially focusing still may have some benefit in helping to learn the info - and well obviously its easier to make time to play audio when u don’t need to focus 100% on it.

I also did some other misc listening to random stuff without any plan: 6? audio 1 of DeFrancis Beginner Chinese Reader, 1 audio of FSI Chinese, 2 condensed audios of Guardian (which was so cool?? also so cool i can follow along so well now??), 1 dracula chapter audio (don’t even ask i don’t know either), tian ya ke audio drama ep 1.

Chinese show episodes watched: 28 (You can see here is where my time went listening wise lol - Two Souls in One is GOOD u might wanna check it out, is all I’m saying, especially if the taiwan drama Bromance was ur thing, or the anime Ouran Host Club, or even Bureau of Transformer to a degree. I watched up to ep 25 and once its all aired to the finale I’m gonna finish it.

Optional going through my hanzi book: I burned out on this, but it was a good use of my time when I felt like writing. I only wrote/studied maybe 30 hanzi, and maybe 50 hanzi+radicals in my Radical-Specific hanzi book. If I continue, I think my goal will be to just continue the Radical-book to completion. Realistically, longer term, I need to go through the freaking Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Character’s book just to get the hanzi and their rough meaning to stick in my head (and learn the pronunciations through well context and vocab how I normally do). Right now I just learn through reading, but its an issue of sometimes I just end up associating one hanzi with the new word I learned but then as soon as I see it in a new word I don’t even remember having seen it before. If I paid a bit more attention to distinguishing I might notice when I’ve seen them before or they’re new, and have more starting info to relate to the character to attach the word info onto. (its a convoluted way of me saying if I have things to connect to each other I remember better even if it makes little sense to connect them - if I know car and pet, carpet’s easier to remember even though it has nothing to do with cars, cry in french ‘pleurer’ was easier to remember once my brain thought ‘plume of tears’ even though that makes no sense. i just remember things better than seeing pleurer and having no idea what to attach it to at all - even if i heard it means cry, if i don’t have a thing to associate it with i’ll forget easier. or melancholy - i had to associate it with melons, and cholly - reminds me of words for sickness so heavy-sick +sad is how i started finally remembering that word cause wow did i look it up over and over as a kid).

---

Japanese study plan from April:

1. continue through nukemarine’s memrise courses.

Okay I did do this!! Congrats! In March I had completed LLJ 3 - Kanji, 289/318 finished in LLJ 4 Tae Kim part 1. As of April, I have completed: LLJ 4 Part 1, LLJ 4 Part 2 51/365, LLJ 5 Core Vocabulary 420/1020. So yeah! Going quite well, in that I consistently did it - I realized for me the best time to do it is playing video games oddly enough, or watching youtube - just do it in between areas, or ep scenes/videos, as a short 5-10 minute break. Since I like taking breaks from things anyway. Like audio, its hard for me to find ways to get myself to do stuff like this (except worse cause I don’t vibe with flashcards).

My goal for May will probably be finish LLJ 4 Part 2, LLJ 5, and start LLJ 6? I can dream right...

Also, a cool note: I found audio-flashcard files that people made of the Japanese Core 2k vocabulary deck and sentences, with english-japanese audio. (If anyone wants a link just let me know). So now if I DO eventually get burned out on flashcards, I could switch to using those. They would work about as well as the Chinese Spoonfed Audio files I have (which work extremely well for me - audio flashcards I just listen to are so much more suited to how I study lol). However, I’d like to stick with Nukemarine’s decks as long as possible while I can focus - they cover grammar explicitly which helps me a lot, and the reading practice COMBINED with constant audio really helps me learn the readings of words. Which is something I need for japanese a LOT more than chinese.

2. continue reading Tae Kim’s grammar guide

Ahahahahaaa hahaaa... did not do it. Nope.

What I did do that was grammar related:

Watched Cure Dolly lessons 1-5 (and will probably watch more as I seem to click well with those explanations)

Read 24 pages of Japanese in 30 Hours while transcribing actual japanese into it (and will probably continue to read it, its so short I should just DO IT in a couple days, it also fulfilled my desire to write stuff)

JapaneseAudioLessons.com - read the wa vs ga explanation, reading the portable japanese grammar notes document right now (its 11 pages I’ll finish it today). I’ve said it before but i really LOVE this resource, and they have so much for free. I absolutely recommend if a beginner wants Pimsleur or Michael Thomas or some other paid resource etc, to just go to this site, download their full lesson grammar guide (its like 311 pages like a real textbook) and go through all their free audio lessons. You will cover a lot of ground (more than Pimsleur or Michael Thomas), and all for free. In addition, I’ve bought some of their kanji teaching books and they’re overall my favorite for remembering kanji specifically (yes more than Heisig’s RTK by far, and more than KKLC - although the Kodanshi book is a good reference to have around). I’m not kidding at all when I say just try this site’s free resources if you’re trying to use free stuff, its the closest I’ve found to an audio only teaching method, or an audio/textbook-like combo, that’s this much stuff and free. (For non free, I actually liked Genki if you do everything in it).

Other misc things done in japanese:

Watched Dracula the Musical in japanese with no subs. It was super hard, but also not so hard. It changed my life. 1000/10 would recommend watching it if you even remotely like dracula OR vampires - featuring a lesbian Dracula/Mina, and more importantly a story change about who kills Dracula, and Dracula and Mina’s agency and choice being the driving force of the ending. These story changes I LOVE and I now want them in more adaptations moving forward, its what I always craved of the ending of Dracula and never got - Dracula as a person (not monster), Mina as a person (not prey), and their choices influencing how the story ends and by whom (versus Van Helsing/the establishment symbol regaining control through annihilation of the ‘threat’ to that norm). Also it gave me a new interest in Japanese plays which is cool. I did not expect to love them this much! Also gave me a boost in japanese confidence, in that I no longer feel as “scared” to try immersing in japanese or in some kinds of content that seemed ‘harder’ - and that was a big hurdle I was too afraid to do, in the past when I studied.

Watched a few more lets plays (lets guess maybe 3-5 sections of 20 minutes?). Persona 2 innocent sin (cool to see me follow along despite not knowing the game), Final Fantasy IX (this one I saved, and could definitely pick up words from since I know some of the story and the lets player read everything - I should look up FFX), random stuff.

Tried to play some games in japanese! I’m going to go with this was about 3 hours. I tried crisis core’s opening to the first save point - it was playable (I can read most of the menus), and I can follow enough text to get the overall gist - however it was draining as so much is text only (I FORGOT how much reading is in this game). Great for reading practice I suppose. Also great in that it definitely reset my expectations about what is ‘doable’ for me - however I do think KH2 is probably still the easiest game i should start trying games with (since I have so many of the controls/menu memorized and can waste less time re-reading the tutorials), and since I know so many words by memory I’ll be able to focus more on grammar (whereas in CC I was glancing through kanji trying to keep up with the live action scenes). A bit too much reading for me to tackle again for a while, it was draining lol. Then I tried persona 3 for psp - first, i like the ps2/ps3 version better ToT. Second, also somehow I could read enough to survive - but the reading again took time, a lot isn’t voiced, and there are not frequent save points. So again I just played to the first save point. That one I may try again before CC though, because a lot more of the language is daily life stuff I could glance through and speed-read-guess lol, or could actually use if I learned it. Also occassionally p3 reads out loud which is nice. I suspect the Visual Novel I got will actually be best for practice (despite me not knowing the plot at all), because I’m guessing more of the lines will be voiced. All this reading would help me more if I could hear it voiced - and I may want to watch more Lets Plays, and Audiobooks on youtube, mainly for that fact: subtitles that i can read WITH audio so i can practice listening and reading together.

Tried reading a bit! First, some mangas I had (though I only read a page of each) - mainly it was just nice to see mangas are more accessible now. they’re about as readable to me rn as manhua were in chinese at 6-8 months in. I can just about follow the main gist, more if I use a dictionary for details. Also thanks to @yue-muffin telling me, learned I can look up words on iphone in the web browser just by highlighting words and clicking “look up.” Life changing. That in combination with me finding some japanese scripts of Final Fantasy games online (and I’ve always been curious what localizations changed), and this has been a little reading I found myself doing just because i felt like it. I didn’t read much - the equivalent of several dialogue boxes (the games i played made me read a LOT more lol). but I liked that i could see their kana when i looked them up, sound the sentences out to myself, contemplate them (so intensive read). Also if you have Speech tools enabled on your phone, you can swipe down with 2 fingers and it will read the page aloud - I used to do that a little with chinese on dual chinese-englist mtlnovel pages since it WILL read both, but Pleco reads chinese better so unless i’m only-listening i switched to pleco for that. But for these scripts it works great! (occasionally it will read all-kanji titles like chinese though lol - not once its into japanese sentences though). I thought it was really cool I could basically emulate what I do in Pleco for chinese, in a normal web browser for Japanese. (Also, for websites, Idiom app seems to work ok for reading Aloud as well - possibly better - but ios iphone “Look up” dictionaries are MUCH better than Idiom app’s).

In summary basically I surprisingly enjoyed reading and might keep trying to do it just because its interesting. However in general, first: I really want 2k words done in Nukemarine’s LLJ courses (LLJ 7 would put me at 1k common words, LLJ 12 would put me at 2k so...), and I’d really like a better grammar foundation (Cure Dolly, or japanese audio lessons grammar, Nukemarine LLJ also obviously fits that task with the grammar portions, really anything). While I want to play games, again I just really realize... how much easier my life will be with a better basis of knowledge first lol. Reading I can do in bite size if I want, but playing games is Draining in between saves right now lol. While i CAN do it right now, unless its a game i really can tune out with (like KH2 maybe) then its just too intensive right now for me to tolerate too much of.

Also, again, I think doing Nukemarine’s LLJ decks as breaks while playing games/watching stuff is working great, going to keep doing that. And listening to audio flashcard files while I have dead time (like level grinding). I have been listening to the Chinese Spoonfed audio, but other options could be: the english-japanese Core 2k audio files, the Japanese Audio Lessons files (which once years ago I’d listen to while excerising). For now I’ve focused on Chinese Spoonfed audio because I know I need to FINISH something before jumping to something else lol.

---

French stuff I did in April:

Listened to 6 chapters of Francais Par Le Methode Nature (and read some of them - oh i missed this book its my fave way to learn and it finally has audio!!)

listened to some bits of audiobooks (i don’t even know why, i don’t know - dracula, frankenstein, carmilla, sherlock)

read a little of Le Petit Prince (idk 3 chapters? browsing my book after finishing in chinese and... ok my heart is still a bit ;-; ... i’m gonna need to recover from this story...)

read a bit of dracula (again... idk why... also it was kind of a L R Method step 2 attempt in that I listened to audio too, but really I mainly just... read)

L R Method: 2 Chapters of Alice in Wonderland (step 2, because I have not tried step 3 yet).

What is funny as hell to me is both how many words I look up when I contemplate intensive reading (again life changed by the fact i can just highlight words and click “word lookup” on my phone). But also how I already... know I can thoroughly read without doing it. Like... yes I can look up a word I fuzzy-know to get clarification, but even my phone auto-gives me french-french dictionary first and sometimes only (is it because my google is in french), i’ve been used to french definitions only for years.. and also like... i know when i read a whole paragraph i get whatever words were fuzzy before? just read some of dracula again today and its fine. its fine. again informational texts are easier for me - but dracula being a lot of letters ‘describing what happened’ suits me quite easily (and somehow manages to be less annoying to me than the english version). like... alice in wonderland was probably the harder for all the quick adjectives/verbs used in just one or two paragraphs when i was still re-remembering vocabulary i used to know lol. Like... in a dream world i’d love to test L R Method and see HOW MUCH it can teach a person. But like... while french would be the easiest to test it with? I kind of realize i’m also at a point in french where i have more benefit just continuing to read in french and listen in french (to fix my poor listening skills). referencing the english is not really... particularly necessary, it just usually slows me down. while i’m missing a LOT of words for fluent speaking/grammatically ok speaking - i don’t think listening reading method would really help me with that, since reading sure hasn’t. if any readng material might it’s francais par le methode nature just because it drills simple correct grammar construction, and reinforces it, and teaches grammar through context. but all my other reading materials... are more comprehension...

Anyway in SUMMARY wow i did a lot more than i expected this month!

---

Next months goals!

Chinese May Goals:

***Read anything. Great plan, has been working great. Ideally I would like to: finish Xiao Mao book one, and then either continue another Xiao Mao novel or start one of the other stories rated 2+ ease. I am considering 许三观卖血记 because its about as easy as the little prince, I’ve read an excerpt and its historical fiction so generally practical. Or 流星·蝴蝶·剑 by Gu Long if I want to work on a base in wuxia words from an easier novel. Or 他们的故事 by 一根黄瓜丝儿 if I’m ready to return to it - although this one is longer (the other stories being more like 12-20 chapters) so I’d prefer to save this for later. For any of these - look words up as desired since I’ll read them in Pleco. Ideally as my ‘harder’ reading I would like to either continue hanshe (intensive reading), or continue guardian (extensive reading) - so its a matter of if I want to look words up.

***Continue listening to Chinese Spoonfed Audio (please can i Finish it please ;-;)

Optional: experiment with Listening Reading Method. With the finding of those videos on youtube, I’d like to make my life literally as easy and streamlined as possible and literally just TEST L R Method by doing it with a few of the videos I found. It literally cannot get easier than premade videos with audio.

Other optional: listen to misc audio (I would love the time to watch the tian ya ke audiodrama WITH its subtitles then listen without again), watch shows, read Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Characters (i doubt this will happen), do some of my Radical-hanzi book.

Japanese May Goals:

***Continue: Nukemarine’s LLJ courses - ideally finish LLJ 4 Part 2, LLJ 5, and start LLJ 6. (this truly can be basically my only study method if I can’t do more). THIS IS THE PRIORITY. The quicker I get ALL of this done, the more of a foundation I will have to do Anything else.

Hopefully: Continue some kind of grammar explanation beyond Nukemarine’s stuff - either Tae Kim (unlikely but i was at chapter 10 before), Cure Dolly (i’m on 6), Japanese Audio Lessons Grammar, Japanese in 30 Hours while writing japanese in (I’m on page 24). Again this is a higher priority as it will make anything else easier.

Optional: Reading in any form - so video game time, lets plays, audiobook youtube with captions, actual reading as desired (like scripts). Including this because I know I will eventually try again lol.

Optional: listening in any form - so another musical! maybe listen to japanese audio lessons, or the core 2k audio, or a lets play, etc. I find I’m probably less likely to listen to something but it might happen!

French May Goals*:

*aka if I feel like doing it because french has no real goals at the moment! -3-)/

***Continue watching Le Francais Par Le Methode Nature videos. (There’s only 33, they’re like 10 minutes long or less, its about basics, PLEASE). I remember this book took forever to read 1/3 of when i was an upper beginner, well now surely its less slow going? especially because read aloud its as fast as the speakers voice! so it is not time consuming and i’ve wanted to finish this book forever! i could at least finish it up to where the audio files match to!

Read???? Read??? Honestly I’ve just been wanting to read Dracula and Carmilla in French its a vibe I’ve been in. Its not high priority or anything but hey it might happen. If it does happen, ideally I’d like to listen to an audiobook too around the same time (maybe after, or have the page read, idk). Just because while reading refreshes my vocab, what I really want to build up is listening/pronunciation. To get to a point where I can listen and shadow would be nice.

Tied to above, try L R Method? Not a high priority, though it would be super easy to test! Just because I already started testing it with Alice in Wonderland... but that basically amounts to just reading practice with audio again, for me.

I found Merlin in french so THAT is a thing.

Honestly the only thing I really want to do ‘study’ wise in french is finish that freaking book, especially now that I can listen to audio with it. It’s a nice foundation and I’d really like a refresher/fill in any big gaps in my learning. Anything else about french written here is mostly a reminder to myself to LISTEN to audio when possible, and try and improve that skill a bit if I go and read.

---

Real fast CORE SUMMARY:

Chinese: READ easier stories rated 2+ and keep getting through some, in combination with reading the harder hanshe and Guardian. Also listen to Chinese Spoonfed audio whenever u remember! Attempt some L-R method with the youtube videos you found. Immerse as desired.

Japanese: continue Nukemarine LLJ courses. Also do some grammar study somewhere, and immerse as desired.

French: listen/listen-read to Francais Par Le Methode Nature. Also read/listen as desired - ideally combining the activities.

*in all cases, where possible, combine listening-reading or try to practice both skills. (So reading in Pleco - play audio afterward to practice, play Guardian condensed audio in down time, with audiodramas follow subs when possible, when immersing with anything try L-R like strategies to add practice with both skills).

#rant #april progress #april goals #may study plan #study plan #may goals #may #what i learned from this is... i have no fucking structure guys #im a mess i just do Whatever #only thing close to ANY structure is that with chinese im fairly consistent about reading #someone help me come up with a cleaner study plan?#or is the fact just that this is Just how i study???#do i just need to bounce and do random stuff?

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a-dandelion-dreamer · 4 years ago

Text

Word Wanderings Post #1 – The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

This is the beginning of a reread. I’ve loved this author for years and The Raven Cycle is a particular favourite of mine. Please note that if you haven’t read this book, this post will definitely contain spoilers!

The Raven Boys is the first book in a quartet and juggles a multitude of characters, including our four main characters (Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Blue) and our plus one (Noah). While it does have some external conflict, it is mainly driven by the characters and their relationships with one another. This book is complex and dense with detail, with a structure that is a little unusual. Most books or series have a driving hook that catches readers right at the beginning and is the selling tagline. For example, in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, it’s Percy finding out he’s secretly a demigod, which directly turns into monsters attacking him and his mom disappearing. In the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, it’s the existence of a game that forces children to fight to the death and then subsequently Katniss volunteering to take her sister’s place at the Reaping. In Six of Crows, it’s a crew of six misfits embarking upon an impossible heist.

Ostensibly, the hook of this book is that Blue is destined to kill her true love with a kiss. That’s what it says on the back of the book, and it’s certainly an overarching threat present for the rest of the series. Tied in as well is Gansey’s search for Glendower, a sleeping king Gansey believes is buried somewhere on a ley line. This is another whole-series thread. The real heart of the story, however, is the boys and Blue and their friendship and their interactions with the other messy pieces of their lives and their search to find meaning and happiness. This type of storytelling is not for everyone, especially those who might enjoy more action-driven tales, but it’s the kind of storytelling I love.

(And in writing and other personal creative projects, I think it’s important to let what you love drive you forwards).

Here are three points I took away from reading this book:

Point #1: Keeping readers interested by embedding small mysteries

The trick is to make your readers want to know what happens next. This is something I have trouble with and therefore I’m particularly interested in seeing how other books handle it.

Each chapter in this book is written from a different character’s perspective. I’ll include the first and last lines (which I think are brilliantly done) in the form: (first line/last line). Following that, I’ll describe some mysteries that the chapter raises.

Prologue: Blue (“Blue Sargent had forgotten how many times she’d been told that she would kill her true love.”/”’You’re Maura’s daughter,’ Neeve said, and before Blue could answer, she added, “this is the year you’ll fall in love.’”) – pg. 1-4

We’re introduced to the idea that Blue will kill her true love if she kisses him

Which immediately raises the question: who is he? And how does she get from being determined not to fall in love to killing someone with a kiss?

We learn about Blue’s psychic family, which I think is super interesting

Blue’s half-aunt Neeve comes to town and really hits us with that: “This is the year you’ll fall in love.” Pay attention, that line says.

Chapter 1: Blue (“It was freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrived.”/“’There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve, Blue. Either you’re his true love,’ Neeve said, ‘or you killed him.’”) – pg. 5-16

Blue and Neeve watch for the future dead

Blue, the only non-psychic in her family, sees a spirit for the first time

The guy she’s destined to kill or fall in love with (or both)

His name is Gansey, and now we’re wondering who he is

Chapter 2: Gansey (“’It’s me,’ said Gansey.”/”’That seems obvious,’ he answered. ‘We find out who you were talking to.’”) – pg. 17-28

Brilliant cut to Gansey

This guy is very real and because of the previous scene, we want to know who he is

We learn about his quest, which adds another layer of mystery

Gansey also heard Blue, on his recorder, so now he’s wondering about her

We ask ourselves: how will these two meet?

Also, introduces Gansey’s friends Adam and Ronan

Ronan has a tumultuous relationship with his brother Declan

THEY HAVE A NUMBER FOR A PSYCHIC (guess who belongs to a psychic family)

Chapter 3: Blue (“Mornings at 300 Fox Way were fearful, jumbled things.”/”’Blue,’ Maura said finally. ‘I don’t have to tell you not to kiss anyone, right?’”) – pgs. 29-37

Introduces Blue’s house

Introduces Blue’s relationship with her mother Maura

Neeve scries and learns that something is strange about Henrietta

Again, we wonder how Blue and Gansey will meet. And also, is it possible to save Gansey from his fate?

Chapter 4: Adam (“Adam Parrish had been Gansey’s friend for eighteen months, and he knew that certain things came along with that friendship.”/”’Excelsior’, said Gansey, and shut the door behind them.”) – pg. 38-51

Introduces Monmouth Manufacturing

Delves further into Gansey’s quest (will Gansey find what he’s looking for?)

Adam is suspicious that someone is spying on their search

Develops tension between Ronan and Declan

Chapter 5: Whelk (“Barrington Whelk was feeling less than sprightly as he slouched down the hall of Whitman House, the Aglionby admin building.”/”It was possible that Czerny’s death wasn’t for nothing after all.”) – pg. 52-56

Adam was suspicious in the previous chapter and now here’s Whelk, being suspicious

What is this guy’s deal?

Whelk hears Gansey is researching ley lines and suddenly gets very interested

Who is Czerny and how did he die?

Chapter 6: Blue (“Blue wouldn’t really describe herself as a waitress.”/”Neeve had to be wrong. She’d never fall in love with one of them.”) – pg. 57-64

Blue goes to work at Nino’s, the same place Gansey and his crew are going

Blue’s mother calls: Gansey has scheduled a reading

THEY MEET! This is great. They meet and they both dislike each other. They immediately conflict and neither realizes the other is the person they’re looking for.

The dramatic irony is fantastic

Adam is interested in Blue and Blue is a little bit interested in him

How does Blue end up liking Gansey, who she currently hates?

Truly, a mystery

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WHEN THE TWO MEET AGAIN AT THE PSYCHIC READING???

I could do this for the whole book, but you get the picture. There’s always something the reader is left wondering, even if it’s something small, or a future interaction they’re looking forwards to.

A note: this is particularly effective when it’s tied to personal agency. You want to see what your characters will do, and this means more if you have dynamic characters who make choices.

Point #2: Atmosphere and memorable locations

Another big strength of this book is the personality that it imbues its settings with. Take three examples: 300 Fox Way, Monmouth Manufacturing and Cabeswater.

300 Fox Way – the chaotic, full-to-the-brim house where Blue lives with her mom and her aunt and her mom’s two best friends Persephone and Calla and a multitude of other psychic women, all showcased through background details. I love this house and its aesthetic.

Quote: “Mornings at 300 Fox Way were fearful, jumbled things. Elbows in sides and lines for the bathroom and people snapping over tea bags placed into cups that already had tea bags in them. There was school for Blue and work for some of the more productive (or less intuitive) aunts. Toast got burned, cereal went soggy the refrigerator door hung open and expectant for minutes at a time. Keys jingled as car pools were hastily decided.” – pg 29

Monmouth Manufacturing – the abandoned factory that Gansey, Ronan and Noah have made their home. They live on the upper floor and the description of the space really doubles as a character portrait for Gansey. Use settings to reveal and further describe your characters!

Quote: “The high ceiling soared above them, exposed iron beams holding up the roof. Gansey’s invented apartment was a dreamer’s laboratory. The entire second floor, thousands of square feet, spread out before them. Two of the walls were made up of old windows—dozens of tiny, warped panes, except for a few clear ones Gansey had replaced—and the other two walls were covered with maps: the mountains of Virginia, of Wales, of Europe. Marker lines arced across each of them. Across the floor, a telescope peered at the Western sky; at its feet lay piles of arcane electronics meant to measure magnetic activity.

And everywhere, everywhere, there were books. Not the tidy stacks of an intellectual attempting to impress, but the slumping piles of a scholar obsessed. Some of the books weren’t in English. Some of the books were dictionaries for the languages that some of the other books were in. Some of the books were actually Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions.” – pg 41

Cabeswater — a magical, sentient forest. I love this forest so much. I love the overall portrayal of magic in this series and this forest is my favourite example of that. The trees speak Latin, time is fluid and sometimes the very air manifests your thoughts, so keep a watch on them.

Quote: “The stream trickled sluggishly out of the woods from between two diamond-barked dogwoods. With Gansey in the lead, they all followed the water into the trees. Immediately, the temperature dropped several degrees. Blue hadn’t realized how much insect noise there was in the field until it was replaced by occasional birdsong under the trees. This was a beautiful, old wood, all massive oak and ash trees finding footing among great slabs of cracked stone. Ferns sprang from rocks and verdant moss grew up the sides of the tree trunks. The air itself was scented with green and growing and water. The light was golden through the leaves. Everything was alive, alive.” – pg 219

What can I take away from this? Using small, specific details to make a setting unique and memorable can add atmosphere to your novel, showcase characters and make a reader fall in love with a particular place.

Point #3: Evolving arcs

This story contains a lot of interwoven plot threads. This can be hard to balance (I know from personal experience) but I think this novel pulls it off. It’s very, very good at doing many things at once. The important thing to think about is a beginning, middle and end for different story arcs that you introduce. Here’s one example (of many) from this book.

Example 1: Noah

Oh Noah. Noah is a brilliant example of an arc in this book and also one of my favourite demonstrations of the fact that sometimes you can hide things right in the open.

First mention (pg. 26). Noah goes out for pizza with the crew, but there is no mention of him going to school or otherwise having a life. This theme will continue: while Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Blue have conflict and fleshed-out internal worlds, Noah is a static character. The first time I read this book, I was like Gansey. I didn’t notice how much Noah was missing until it was explicitly called out.

First line of dialogue: “I’ve been dead for seven years,” Noah said. “That’s as warm as they get.” (pg. 47) (IT’S RIGHT THERE, but yet I didn’t pick up on it. Clever, clever.)

Noah’s room is also described as ‘meticulous’. As in, practically unused.

“Noah, we won’t make you eat,” says Gansey. “Need some more alone time?” says Ronan. More little hints.

The character descriptions are honestly so good, worth a study all in themselves.

Noah doesn’t come to the psychic’s reading or the helicopter trip, which the other boys do

Somehow, he has a canny knack for knowing things and sharing secrets.

“Don’t throw it away.” (pg. 165) (to Gansey)

Gansey calls for Noah but he’s not there (pg. 233)

“Blue permitted Noah to pet the crazy tufts of her hair” (pg. 238). Not particularly arc related but SUPER CUTE.

The gang visits Cabeswater again and finds Noah’s old abandoned car, a red Mustang (not that they realize it yet). In the trunk is a dowsing rod, a sign someone else is looking for ley lines. Noah throws up (from the trauma of his murder).

Blue and Gansey visit the old church and find a body. “The face on the driver’s license was Noah’s.” (pg. 274)

THE BIG SCENE IN WHICH NOAH IS REVEALED AS A GHOST (what a brilliant scene)

“Adam,” he demanded, “what is Noah’s last name?”

“Tell me,” Gansey said, “which classes you share with Noah.”

“When does he eat? Have you ever seen him eat?”

“Does he pay rent? When did he move in? Have you ever questioned it?”

These are all questions Gansey asks his friends, but are also questions we must ask ourselves. We have been fooled in the same way as they have.

“I told you,” Noah said. “I told everyone.” (pg. 278)

“The question is: Who killed you?” (pg. 279)

Noah acts like a real ghost (disappears, reappears, knocks objects off desks)

“Maybe moving it off the ley line had stolen his energy.” (pg. 298) (in regards to Noah’s body)

Noah appears, using Blue’s energy. “I want you to know,” Noah said, “I was…more…when I was alive.” (pg. 305)

“You were the sacrifice, weren’t you Noah? Someone killed you for this.” (pg. 307). It turns out Noah, the friend they didn’t realize was dead, was killed in a ritual similar to the one that is attempted at the end of the novel by their Latin teacher, and is the reason Gansey is alive.

Remember: “Someone else on the ley line is dying when they should not, and so you will live when you should not.” (pg. 271).

It’s all very circular and interwoven and very good plotting.

Noah said, “But you already know.” (pg. 309) (In regards to who killed him) JUMPCUTS to a scene with Whelk

“I’m going to fix Noah. Somehow.” (pg. 335) (says Gansey)

She allowed him to pet her hair with his icy fingers. “Not so spiky as usual,” he said sadly. (pg. 353)

“Don’t throw it away,” Noah whispered. (pg. 371) To Adam, this time.

Noah warns Gansey that Adam is gone (he is now 100% a spooky ghost boy)

THE MURDERED/REMEMBERED SCENE (breaks my heart). They’re all in Cabeswater again for the climax of the novel and Noah, who doesn’t exist in bodily form, traces words into the dust on his old car

Noah’s funeral: “Please say something to them.” / “Mrs. Czerny, he’s sorry for drinking your birthday schnapps.” (pg. 406-407) (ouch, my heart)

They dig up his bones and rebury them on the ley line

“Can we go home? This place is so creepy.” … ”Noah!” Gansey cried gladly. Blue hurled his arms around his neck. He looked alarmed, and then pleased, and then he pet the tufts of her hair. (pg 408)

Broadly, the arc looks like this (look how actions lead to consequences which lead to further actions):

The boys have a friend named Noah, who is sometimes there and sometimes not

LOTS OF FORESHADOWING

They find Noah’s dead body

They confront Noah and find out he’s a ghost

The police move his bones so he starts acting like a real ghost

They figure out he was used in an attempted ritual and also that their Latin teacher killed him

The dig up his bones and rebury them on the ley line

Noah comes back

Given what happens later in this series, it’s very important to me that we remember Noah.

In conclusion

What this book does well:

Keeping readers interested by embedding small mysteries

Atmosphere and memorable locations

Evolving arcs

These are just a few things I noticed on my read-through of The Raven Boys. Stay tuned for further Word Wanderings posts and feel free to give suggestions for books you’d like me to analyze!

Personal Challenge: Pick a book you’re currently reading or an old favorite and try to figure out what keeps you reading, whether it’s little mysteries, character dilemmas or rising tension.

#the raven cycle #trc #maggie stiefvater #the raven boys #writing #writing advice #writers on tumblr #blue sargent #noah czerny #gansey #adam parrish #ronan lynch #word wanderings #my post

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irisbleufic · 5 years ago

Note

Happy 2020! Can I tag you to do that 2019 Fic Year in Review thing?

Happy New Year to you, too! Sure thing. I can’t remember the last time I did one of these; since 2019 is the end of a decade, it feels fitting. Here goes…

14 February 2019: After spending 14 of my 15 years (2020 marks the start of my 16th year) in Good Omens fandom working on it, I finally finished and posted the 75th and final installment of Crown of Thorns [The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse] ’Verse. LiveJournal was still the fandom’s primary posting hub when I posted the first-ever installment, A Better Place, on 1 October 2005. The series didn’t get its second installment (The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse) until 2010, but work on the series from that point forward was pretty much constant. 2012 saw a higher number of CoT updates than any year previous; that was also the year I transferred it to AO3.

25 February 2019: I finished and posted the last chapter of my third Good Omens collaborative fic ’verse with @procrastinatingbookworm, Turn In Your Arms. We couldn’t believe there was no Good Omens fusion with Tam Lin, so we went for it. Given our first collaboration in 2018 was a Good Omens fusion with Groundhog Day (Game Over, Insert Coin), that wasn’t a stretch.

27 February 2019: @aspiringjedi and I posted the first of our two Good Omens meta-essays, Making An Effort: Queer (Trans) Masculinity in the Ethereal & Occult Beings of Good Omens. Yes, it’s 1,990 words due to the novel’s publication year. When you’re just under 2,000 words anyway, why not?

28 February 2019: @procrastinatingbookworm and I followed up Turn In Your Arms with a brief sequel, Burn After Reading. All of our collaborations to date have ended up as multi-story mini ’verses.

25 March - 20 April 2019: I went about as livid over Gotham’s Season 5 as I did over Season 3 and wrote Darkroom to address how dirty the show did Bruce and Jeremiah. I had a stand-alone Season 4 fix-it story (focusing on Oswald and Edward, like most of my other Gotham work) called Triage from 2018 that had never quite felt like it was meant to be a stand-alone. Triage and Darkroom became the first two installments of a series called Playing for Keeps, to which I added another 6 stories by April 20th. Darkroom somehow got more traffic than any of my other Gotham pieces since When You Find It, Run over in DDO ’Verse (although those two stories are keystone pieces in much larger series, they can both be read as stand-alones).

4 April 2019: In the midst of working on the aforementioned, @aspiringjedi posted our second Good Omens meta-essay, Southern Pansies: Subversive (Trans) Masculinity in the Ethereal & Occult Beings of Good Omens.

8 May 2019: Brief blip back into Pacific Rim fic! I posted a missing Anthology correspondence/inset ficlet called L’amour, c’est comme la guerre. For anyone who ever wanted more of the email correspondence in Anthology’s final chapter, this fills in some gaps you didn’t know were there.

16 May 2019: Thanks to some behind-the-scenes persuasion from several really tenacious Gotham readers who didn’t want me to abandon it / shut down DDO ’Verse, I completed The Knights’ Tour after almost a year on hiatus from it. This turned out to light a fresh fuse on DDO, because TTK didn’t end up being the final story in the series like I had once planned.

18 May 2019: The only His Dark Materials fic I’ve ever written, also a Gotham fusion, got a belated new final chapter. Gold Dust is sort of an alternate take on DDO ’Verse, one in which Dust and daemons are present.

23 May 2019: I posted what I thought would be a stand-alone Gotham story called The Meaning of This City. It manages to be a marginally less dark and complicated take on the Bruce-and-Jeremiah situation (than Darkroom over in PfK ’Verse, that is) without sacrificing some of the most difficult features of what they need to overcome. More on why this didn’t remain a stand-alone in a bit.

6 June 2019: Good Omens requests came around, one of which led me to follow the Imagine Hastur Ficlets (which themselves exist thanks to the accidental prompts at @imaginehastur) interlude in CoT with The Imagine Hastur Epilogue. This was a sort of neat in-narrative way to deal with having gradually come out about my biological (inter)sex and (nonbinary) gender identity over the 14 years I worked on CoT.

15 June - 1 July 2019: I posted another Good Omens collaboration-set with @procrastinatingbookworm called Have Faith at the series-title level. The two stories in it, You Bloody Snake and Enough of a Bastard, focus almost entirely on Hastur and Ligur. Seeing Aziraphale and Crowley through different (and less favorable) eyes was a weird pleasure; seeing people indignantly realize they were enjoying fic about Hastur and Ligur was even more of one!

15 August 2019: @verumx persuaded me to watch Jamie Marks Is Dead with her and @one-eyed-bossman, and then implored me to fix it. Using Our Words is the stand-alone that resulted, which is no shock given I can’t resist ghost stories. It’s unique among this year’s stories in that it may be the only genuine stand-alone aside from the Gotham piece called Gold Dust.

17 August 2019: After an experimental in-character snail mail letter-writing exchange that lasted about 6 weeks, @verumx and I transcribed the letters and framed them in a piece of collaborative Gotham fic, We Were All Forgiven. Since about late April, I had been getting progressively sicker and sicker (didn’t know yet that I had cancer). Keeping busy as things got worse helped at least in the psychological sense, but by mid-August my exhaustion and difficulty eating were hitting their peak. I was hiding it from everyone except my partner.

1 September 2019: Returning to two stories I’d written for Batman: Europa, I created a series umbrella called Once Is Not Enough and explicitly placed London (Letting Go) and Five Love Affairs under it as companion pieces. Between Thursday Friday of this particular week, I experienced an increasingly more frightening set of symptoms that landed me in the ER and got a sequence of diagnostic tests finally rolling.

22 October 2019: After receiving a diagnosis of colon cancer on 10/1/19 and starting medical leave Monday of Halloween Week, I decided to complete the sequel to The Meaning of This City, which was a Gotham piece I’d left hanging mid-progress for weeks. The Maze of Your Ingenuity was hard for me to complete due to constant blood tests, CT scans, and outpatient procedures in the lead-up to my Thanksgiving Week major inpatient surgery, but I did it.

23 September - 11 December 2019: My longest Gotham fic ’verse (Delicate, Dangerous, Obsessed, a.k.a. DDO), having refused to die even once The Knights’ Tour was complete, got an entirely new ending stretch of stories focusing on, of all people, Jerome Valeska and Five (514A). They were the only two characters from canon who I had mentioned and/or shown briefly in passing earlier in DDO, but whose arcs from canon (and onward into my fic) I had done nothing to wrap up. Challengers, Thicker Than Blood, Take This Waltz (It’s Yours Now), Finally Fair (In Love and War), and What We’re For (And What We Want) may, collectively, be the best writing I did during the entirety of 2019 (unless you count what I wrote in February to finish CoT). The experience of terrifying, unexplained illness and harrowing treatment was entirely too timely to one of my two protagonists in this set of stories. They were worth their weight not just in distraction, but also in catharsis. Five survived, and so did I.

#good omens #gotham #wayleska #fic year in review #fanfiction

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wessasaurus-rex · 5 years ago

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One Piece: Chapter 973 - Predictions

It is interesting to see the 20 years idea came from Oden. In the end, it seems that by having learned of all the secrets of the world, Oden had a much better understanding of the overall picture than Toki. After all, the end of the void century might have been a very chaotic time and Toki was maybe too young to understand what was going on.

An updated timelinel:

41 years ago: start of the flashback, the Mountain God incident

39 years ago: Oden becomes Daimyo of Kuri. The same year, Roger reaches Lode Star and realizes there might be another "last island”

38 years ago: the incident at God Valley

33 years ago: former Rocks pirates start recruiting. Kawamatsu, Inu and Nekko join Oden

30 years ago: Oden joins WB and leaves Wano

28 years ago: Roger realizes he has a terminal disease, he goes to the twin capes to recruit Crocus and starts his last journey. Momonosuke is born on the Moby Dick.

26 years ago: Hiyori is born on the Moby Dick. Oden is poached by Roger and leaves the Whitebeard pirates for a year. Roger is shown the road poneglyph from Zou.

25 years ago: Roger and his crew reach the final island and name it Laugh Tale, they then disband. Oden comes back to Wano, then starts to make a fool of himself.

24 years ago: Roger turns himself in to the Marines and is executed.

23 years ago: Moria clashes against Kaido. Ryuma's grave is robbed.

20 years ago: Oden and his men attack Kaido, they are defeated and captured. Oden is executed but saves his retainers. Momonosuke and Kinemon are sent 20 years into the future.

I really hope that there is more to the reason behind the start of Nekos and Inus feud. A 20 year long hatred for eachother just because Neko rejoiced ? Why would Inu hate him for that ? Neko didnt provoke Orochi and Kaido, Oden himself said their minds were already set on killing him anyway. Now, to some prediction:

Chapter 973: This chapter is the last in the flashback. Usually Oda doesnt match the end of a flashback with the end of a chapter, he likes to transition in and off of it between his panels. Toki's mind is set on sending the scabbards 20 years into the future. Now they only have to come to her. At the start of the chapter we will switch back to Kinemons party fleeing the Flower capital. Shinobu may have to sacrifice herself to stall Orochis men in pursue. Along the way, as we know, the argument between Neko and Inu will get worse and they will eventually fight among themselves. That will enable Orochis men to capture them. The other scabbards will not stop and continue rushing back to Kuri. They will find that Odens castle is already in flames, attacked by Kaidos crew. Kaido is inside the castle, preparing to eliminate Odens family. Denjiro and Ashura will attack Kaido and drive him off to buy some time. Toki will then explain her power to the scabbards and send Kinemon, Kiku, Raizo, Kanjuro and Momo 20 years in the future. She will then entrust Hiyori to Kawamatsu and tell him to go into hiding. Finally, she will tell her prophecy as the castle will collapse in flames. I believe that a this moment she chose to teleport 20 years in the future to see if the scabbards would succeed. It is possible that she chose a date further back in time than the scabbards and that she hasnt even reappeared in the present a this stage. If she decided to do that, I dont think it would be shown just yet in the story. In the second half of the chapter we will have the last panels from the past and transition back to the present, on the shore where the scabbards were awaiting their allies. Their argument will be interrupted when an arrow with a message will land close to them, an arrow shot by Usopp from far away and bearing a message from Luffy.

I think this 3rd act needs to address two more plot points regarding Wano's intrigues before the raid on Onigashima takes place in the fourth act. Who is the traitor, and who really is Kyoshiro ? There are chances these two intrigues are linked, and will be solved together. And for that, the plot needs to move back to the flower capital.

So about Kyoshiro. I do believe in the theory where Denjiro and Kyoshiro are the same person. There are several clues leading to that. First, there is the fact Kyoshiro is not loyal to Orochi, at all. He has also been introduced in the first act along the remaining scabbards. Kiku: chapter 913, Kyoshiro: chapter 919, Ashura: chapter 920, Kawamastu: chapter 920. Conveniently, he is also a samurai and money changer. When he finds the card with Kinemons coded message for the rebellion, he seems to understand it. For the record, only those who secretely swore 20 years ago to rize up when the time is ripe were meant to understand the message (so those who had a crescent tatoo on their ankle). He also talks about Toki's death like a first-hand witness. But who was there when she died ? Kaido, his men, maybe some retainers of Kuri and probably Denjiro and Ashura. Where Im getting is that story-wise Kyoshiro was left behind in the capital on purpose. He will join the uprising and enable the thousand or so captured samurai in the capital to take up arms (which will bring their forces to ~5000, the ideal number Kinemon was hoping for at the start of the arc). He will also potentially help in finding the traitor if there is any.

Speaking of the traitor. I tried spinning the problem in every direction I could think of. There are too many possibilities still when you consider that important info might be withheld by Oda. For instance, it is possible that Shinobu was captured and tortured 20 years ago, had her spirit broken and now secretely serves Orochi. Which would explain the contrast between the thorough and badass Shinobu from the past and the goofy and somewhat incompetent Shinonu from the present. Or the two are not the same person and the present one is an impostor. Still too many possibilities, and not only regarding Shinobu.

A word regarding Luffy/Joy Boy. I really don't think Oda is taking the path of some "reincarnation". I think only the will/drive for freedom is surviving and passing from individual to individual. But all is not about the will and ideal. One can only accomplish so much without some sort of natural power. Some people are forces of nature and blessed with attributes such as conqueror haki/ ability to hear the voice of all things/ ability to turn all the people around you into allies. There is one or more of such type born with those attributes in each generation. All of them will not use these abilities for good purposes. All of them will not become explorers or pirates, all of them will not have the opportunity to reach Laugh Tale and learn the secrets of the world. And even if they did, we understand now that they need at least the help of Poseidon to do anything about it. I think Montblanc Norland was a predecessor of Luffy and Roger. He ran out of luck and got executed before accomplishing more. Roger was a "chosen one" as much as Luffy and Norland but was too early and he understood it. He was still the first to reach the last island since the void century and decided to make good use of this feat for the future. With Luffy we are only following the story of that one capable man who came at the right time, who was by any means luckier that all those who preceded him. The reason Oden really believes in the coming of a new Joy Boy in 20 years is because of what he heard from the sea kings and the actions of Roger. By talking of the One Piece and initiating a new pirate era, Roger ensured that the capable individual(s) of the next generation had a pretty good chance to strife for freedom and try to explore the whole world and its history.

#one piece #one piece chapter 973 #monkey d luffy #oden #oden kozuki #kozuki oden #kozuki momonosuke #momonosuke #gold d roger #gold roger #one piece chapter 972 #wano country

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clevercatchphrase · 5 years ago

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Just some numbers and figures~

So! I finished my fan fiction, You Monster, this week, and it took me exactly 3 and a half years to write/edit/publish. This post at the time of writing, however, is being written a few days before the final chapter goes up, just examining some numbers and trends around the wordcount and posting rate of my fan fic, because i’m obsessed with numbers and such, and i’m just trying to chew up time and keep myself occupied before the last chapter goes public. There’s literally no point to this post other than to marvel at how long this story is and how long it took me to get it out there, and reflect on what happened to me in The Real World during that time. Care to join me?

In Microsoft Word, this entire story is 609 pages and 209,235 words. The word count is slightly higher on AO3 (which I consider the definitive draft), partly because AO3 counts formatting tags as words for some reason, and because if I make little adjustments to the story, I’ll do it on AO3, but not on the original word file (or corresponding tumblr post for that matter) because I can’t be bothered to.

According to AO3, I started this fic on January 3rd, 2016, smack dab in the middle of my winter break in my last year of college. I probably started writing it a few days before, maybe in december. I’m not really sure, but I’m kinda surprised I started it so early in the year, especially since I was writing by the seat of my pants for the first 14 chapters or so.

The following pictures highlight what days/months chapters were posted, according to AO3 (I personally think there might be a discrepancy or two due to timezones)

Chapter-wise, the first third of this story (Chapters 1 through 12) was written and posted in 2 months, and TWO THIRDS of the entire story (Chapters 1 through 25 (rounding up)) were written in the first YEAR.

Wordcount-wise, HALF the story (roughly 100k words) was written in one year.

There was a dramatic drop in productivity at the middle/end of 2016 due to Real World Stress, mostly me graduating & getting a job, the presidential elections, and learning a family member was starting to have kidney failure.

God, 2017 was a bad year for me, productivity-wise. In early June I lost said family member due to their kidney failure, and was completely unmotivated to work on You Monster for the rest of the year. I remember forcing myself to write for NaNoWriMo that year, and it helped snap me out of my funk, but I didn’t like how the writing came out and kept pushing off revising and editing the drafts for several weeks. I also remember getting really sick on christmas eve/day with a terrible flu, which made me unable to post the next chapter until January.

I actually felt a lot better mentally and emotionally in 2018. I WOULD have written more in early 2018, but that was also when the Hiveswap Comic Contest started, and lasted for 3 straight months with me doing nothing more than drawing comics for 12 consecutive weeks. Then, after that was over, I started thinking/planning more seriously about writing ANOTHER story, which later became Ghost Switch, and I offically started that halfway through 2018. I originally thought about making Ghost Switch a written work, but it was basically going to be another re-telling of Undertale, which was what I was doing with You Monster anyway, and I didn’t want to write all of that out again, so I decided to make it a comic instead. It was a great decision for me art-wise, because now I’m improving my art skills through weekly comic pages, but it was also a terrible decision art-wise because now I GOTTA KEEP DRAWING POSES AND BACKGROUNDS AND DRAWING PEOPLE IS HARD.

Back to the point- I forced myself to write this fic again for NaNoWriMo that year, and was terribly upset that I still didn’t finish. But this time, I forced myself to revise and edit my writing until it became something I could tolerate, and posted the next chapter in January (again, but this time because my writing needed far more revisions than last year’s nano draft)

Getting back into revising and editing DID seriously help me get back in the groove of Wanting To Write, but it was a little trickier now that I was also drawing a comic, and it was hard to manage my time between the two, because when I write, I do it for great stretches at a time. I mean, like, 4 or 5 hours straight of writing. Same goes for comic making, too. sketching the pages can take me two hours, and cleaning/inking/coloring them can take me anywhere from 4 to 6 hours.

Hm. If I included the other fics I wrote during this time, I get the feeling these calendars would look a lot more active and colorful. Maybe i’ll do that for myself later, so I can see how much I posted in 3 years.

This year, I was absolutely determined to finish this story, even if it killed me. I was still struggling to manage my time between writing and art, mostly dedicating a few weeks to make a buffer of comic pages so I could have a couple of weeks dedicated to writing. It was time consuming, and I felt bad when I worked on one but not the other, but I finally got my breakthrough in May, when I had to take multiple trips to an automotive shop for several different car repairs. Instead of just leaving my car there and going home, I brought my writing spirals with me and just wrote and wrote and didn’t stop writing while I waited in their loby. I finally finished the rough drafts of my story after being stuck for 4 hours in a Pepboys, and spent two more full days typing it out. Then, I rested for a week, and spent 3 more revising and editing the remaining bits. I was hoping to get the whole thing done and posted before July ended, but that did not end up being the case. For me, when we finally get to August, we have entered “the end of the year”. Ah, well. Even though I didn’t get the story completely posted before August, I can still take pride in knowing I finished it before the year was half way over~!

NOW FOR SOME NUMBERS!

I personally divide this story into 5 arcs, Ruins, Snowdin, Waterfall, Hotland, and New Home And Beyond (Which is basically anything that can happen after you unlock the true lab in-game)

Ruins

The Ruins arc I consider everything in chapters 1 thorugh 12. It is simultainiously the longest arc (chapter-wise, with 12 chapters which as mentioned earlier, is 1/3rd of the story) and also the shortest arc, only taking up 24k words (Which is an 8th of the entire story, or roughly 12.5%).It was also the quickest writen arc, as it was primarily prologue/first act material. Pretty much all of it was written in that first January. It’s 80 pages long, or 13% of all pages

Snowdin

The snowdin arc (chapters 13 to 22) is just under 25% of the entire story, coming in at 49 thousand words (on the nose!) It is the second longest arc in both word count and in number of Chapters (10, to be exact~) It took me roughly 4.5 months to write this arc. We also spend the most physical in-story time in Snowdin. Almost 3 full days, which is half of the story’s timeline (not counting the 7-8 years in the Ruins. That was all set-up) It’s 172 pages long, or 28% of all pages.

Waterfall

The Waterfall arc (Chapters 23 to 28) is the longest arc wordcount-wise, making up another 25% of the story, coming in at 53.6 thousand words, and dead center when it comes to the number of chapters it makes up (which is 6). Looking at this now, litterally half this story takes place in Snowdin and Waterfall. Roughly one full day is spent in waterfall, from noon of the first day, to roughly late morning of the second. This arc took me 11 months to write/post, and if you read the notes for these corrisponding chapters, you can tell I was not having a good time during it. It’s 178 pages long, or 29% of all pages.

Hotland

The Hotland arc, (chapters 29 to 32) Is the shortest arc chapter-wise, with only 4 (10% of all chapters), and second shortest arc wordcount-wise, coming in at 36 thousand words, or about 18% of the story. It’s also the shortest in-story arc time-wise, seeing as you only spend about half a day here. I did not like writing the hotland arc! Mostly in part because Hotland is my least favorite region in the game. Chapter 32 is probably my least favorite out of all of what I’ve written. It was difficult figuring out what to do with Alphys and Mettaton, seeing as their interactions with you in game heavily focus on you and your human-ness. I am quite glad that each chapter was pretty neatly divided by in-game floors. It was a good way to know where a chapter could end and when I could give the characters some breathing room. It took me over a year to complete the Hotland arc, and most of that time was because I didn’t want to revise and edit what I wrote. It’s 123 pages long, or 20% of all pages.

New Home and Beyond

I don’t consider the True Lab part of Hotland because of in-game story reasons. You can’t access it until you’ve gone to New Home at least once, and once you enter it, you cant leave until you finish it, which, again, takes you to new home. Honestly, once you get to the true lab, you’ve won the game. There is no way to ruin your pacifist playthrough once you get to the lab, and while the amalgamates may kill you, you can’t “lose” once you get this far. That’s why I consider Chapter 33 the start of the New Home arc even though in my story we haven’t seen new home yet (mostly because there are no saves or resets in this story, so we kinda couldn’t have gone there first).

The New Home arc is the second shortest chapter-wise, making up the last 5 chapters (13% of all of them), and is dead-center when it comes to word count, finishing with 46.5 thousand words, or roughly the last 25%. I was actually really excited to write everything from chapter 34 to 36 after having been fantisizing about it in my head for the last two years. I gotta be honest, the end of chapter 37 gave me some trouble. I was still making edits up to a few days before it went public, but I think I got the feelings I wanted across~ It’s 161 pages long, or 26% of all pages.

Extra???

I started keeping a word file for bits of dialogue and scenes that I originally wrote in my spiral, but ultimately cut for one reason or another. Mostly these are just sentences and snippets that sounded redundant, ooc, or were just an alternate dialouge I decided not to use. I didn’t start doing this until chapter 28, according to my files, but according to the masterfile, there were 6.4 thousand words I ended up not using.

There are, in fact, several bullet points I had originally planned and ended up not using, such as Sans ASKING Undyne to keep an eye on the kid while they were in waterfall, which sounded hypocritical after I wrote him coming to peace with them, as well as having Asgore tuoring the Underground that week, and thus Sans, Papyrus, Undyne and Alphys having to hide Frisk from him once they become friends. (the painkillers Alphys also gave frisk were actually supposed to induce drowsiness in Frisk, making them fall asleep so Alphys could keep them from going to New Home, but this was a point I dropped at the absolute last minute, and you can tell if you re-read chapter 29, because it’s hinted at, but the painkillers are never mentioned again. I figured that plot point was a little too dark for Alphys’ character)

Fun Fact: the zalgo text in Chapter 27 DOES actually have dialouge in it, if you know what to look for. Only one person has asked about it, but no one has yet to decifer it.

AT A GLANCE:

ARC LENGTHS (CHAPTER WISE) SHORTEST TO LONGEST

Hotland (4 Chapters)

New Home and Beyond (5 Chapters)

Waterfall (6 Chapters)

Snowdin (10 Chapters)

Ruins (12 Chapters)

ARC LENGTHS (WORDCOUNT WISE) SHORTEST TO LONGEST

Ruins (24k)

Hotland (36k)

New Home and Beyond (46.5k)

Snowdin (48k)

Waterfall (53.6k)

ARC LENGTHS (PAGE COUNT) SHORTEST TO LONGEST

(Same order as above)

TIME TAKEN TO WRITE/PUBLISH, SHORTEST TO LONGEST

Ruins (1 month)

Snowdin (4.5 months)

New Home and Beyond (~6 months)

Waterfall (11 months)

Hotland (>1 Year)

Other Numbers For Some Reason

Chapters 1 through 19 make up the 1st 50k words (this when Frisk falls into the underground, up to Sans attacking them in the kitchen) 19 chapters

Chapters 20 through 26 make up the 2nd 50k words (when Frisk decides to seek asgore’s help, to when Undyne cuts the bridge) 7 chapters

Chapters 27 through 31 make up the 3rd 50k words (when Frisk dislocates their shoulder to Flowey killing the messenger spider) 5 chapters

Chapters 32 through 37 make up the 4th 50k words (When Mettaton decides to change the programming, to Frisk’s final choice) 6 chapters

Only 5 chapters exceed 10k words, they are chapters 22, 27, 28, 33 and 36

Here’s a visual representation of all the chapters and their word counts in relation to one another. I was so startled by the spikes of chapter 22 and 28 that I had to go back and skim the chapters to remind myself what went down in them and why they were so long. Chapter 22 is papyrus trying to keep the human in snowdin while sans runs some errands, and then the human discovering the skelebro’s deceit. Chapter 28 is the human realizing Undyne tried to murder them, and then escaping from waterfall. I distinctly remembering saying I could have split chapter 28, but I was so tired of writing waterfall that I refused to do so because I just wanted it to end already.

I find it absolutely hilarious how consistant my word count was until chapter 20 (chapter 15 is an outliar), and then everything went off the rails.

Here’s a graph of the total word count, shown to you NaNoWriMo style~ (I spent way too long in excel making both of these charts, please validate me)

The climb definitely looks a lot less drastic here, as it is always building on itself, but if you look closely, you can see one or two inflection points, roughly around chapter 20 and 28.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m so glad to finally be done with this story. It’s certainly deviated from what I originally planned, but I think all the changes are for the better. Now I can think about writing other things, like the PTA!AU shorts I’ve been meaning to do. It was fun and it was challenging, and this is literally the longest thing I’ve ever written in my life. Will I ever make a story this long again? Maybe?? If I ever encounter another game with as much character and worldbuilding as Undertale that also just hits me in the feels the same way, I might, but for now I’m going to focus on other projects (most of them still undertale related, but shut up)

Got any questions, comments, concerns for my fic? I’m so glad it’s done, now, and I’d be happy to talk about my thoughts behind it~

#Undertale #Fan Fic #My Writing #Long Post #you monster #I still dont have internet so I'm gonna push this up in the queue

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years ago

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How old is Spider-Man?

This panel from a recent Nick Spencer ASM issue has gotten people talking about Spider-Man’s age.

Frankly you can No. Prize the dialogue any number of ways. MJ misspoke. MJ was rounding down to make him feel better. MJ was being sarcastic.

Regardless the fact is Peter is absolutely not in his mid-20s.

But then just how old is he really?

Short version: he’s in mid thirties

Longer version: Jessica Jones was stated in the mid-late 2000s to be 30ish meaning she’d be in her mid-30s now. Peter and her were in the same class meaning they’d be roughly the same age.

Essay length version: See below.

Okay so Peter was obviously 18 going on 19 in ASM #28 when he graduated high school.

In ASM #39 the Green Goblin from a distance estimates his age to be 19 or 20. In ASM #41 Aunt Anna states Peter is nearly 20, meaning he was 19.

If Peter was nearly 20 in ASM #41 then it makes sense that by ASM #121, Gwen Stacy’s death, he’d definitely have become 20.

This works out even when you apply Marvel Time, which generally has 1 year for Marvel characters passing for every 4-5 real world years. It isn’t a hard rule so it wasn’t like Peter was nearly 22 when Gwen died.

That’s made clear by the fact that we’re told and shown repeatedly that between Gwen’s death and Peter coming face-to-face with her clone (ASM #144) roughly 2 years have passed, which is about how much real time has passed as well. So when Gwen’s clone shows up Peter is about 22.

The 1990s Clone Saga was also given a repeated time stamp of being 5 years after Peter first encountered the Gwen clone along with his own clone (later named Ben Reilly). This means Peter was 27 at the start of the 1990s Clone Saga.

Mary Jane, at least pre-OMD, had only just started showing signs of being pregnant at the start of the Clone Saga and the Clone Saga ended towards the end of her third trimester meaning the entire era lasted 9 months for the characters. The Clone Saga explicitly ended on Hallowen (it was part of the Green Goblin’s plan) and the very next story after the Clone Saga (Spectacular #241) informs us that it’s early December.

So from the start of the Clone Saga-Spec #241 over 10 months elapsed meaning Peter is either 28 or at least almost 28. This was all the way back in 1996 by the way so immediately the idea that over 20 years later Peter is still in his mid-20s is ridiculous.

We don’t know exactly how much time passed between Spec #241 and the end of the Final Chapter, although it is highly unlikely to be less than 2 months meaning by the Final Chapter arc Peter MUST be 28.

In ASM vol 2 #29 (the arc just prior to J. Michael Straczynski taking over) references are made to a big battle Spider-Man had across the city with a Goblin super villain a year before.

There are numerous options for which Goblin villain this could be and which exact battle. However given that the issue was written by Howard Mackie (the primary architect of the era the issue was wrapping up who also hated continuity) it’s safe to presume it was a story he wrote. And he happened to have written two Spidey/Green Goblin battles in then recent memory. One at the end of the Clone Saga and another in the Final Chapter arc. For various reasons the Final Chapter arc seems much more likely, meaning by the start of the JMS run Peter would’ve been at least 29.*

The first JMS arc introduced Ezekiel and Morlun and in the Book of Ezekiel arc, Ezekiel states that Morlun first appeared a year ago, meaning Peter would be at least 30 and this was in 2004!

From here things will get a bit more up in the air. We don’t know how much time elapsed between:

- Book of Ezekiel and One More Day/Peter and MJ’s post-OMD break up. At least a few months though.

- Peter and MJ’s post-OMD break up-Harry Osborn’s party seen in the epilogue to One More Day

- Harry’s party and ASM #546 which was the start of Brand New Day in earnest

However in ASM #601 Peter says (I’m paraphrasing) that MJ has reappeared after over a year. Technically it was less than that but only the readers saw MJ, not Peter. It is unclear if Peter’s statement is meant as it’s been over a year since he and MJ broke up or since he caught a fleeting glimpse of her at the end of OMD at Harry’s party. Either way though Peter would be at the absolute minimum 31 in ASM #601.

We also don’t know exactly how much time elapsed between ASM #601 and ASM #700 nor between the latter and Superior #1.

We do know Superior #1-31 occurred across a year though, putting Peter at minimum at 32.

We equally don’t know how much time exactly passed for Peter between ASM vol 3 #1-18.

However most Marvel titles ended their runs 8 months prior to Secret Wars (2015) #1, with those 8 months used to give them time to resolve any plotlines they needed. Since ASM vol 3 #18 didn’t use a time skip to wrap things up its safe to presume it did in fact end 8 months before Secret Wars. Most Marvel titles after Secret Wars began 8 months after the last issue of the series, including ASM vol 4 #1.

This means that between ASM vol 3 #18 and vol 4 #1 16 months passed, making Peter at minimum 33.

We also do not know the amount of time between ASM vol 4 #1 and current issues.

However given the Secret Wars time skip and all those other undisclosed time periods discussed above that would be at least a month a piece it’s logical to presume at least 1-2 more years elapsed.

So currently Peter Parker is at minimum 34-35

#Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Superior Spider-Man #Clone Saga #mj watson #mjwatsonedit #Mary jane watson Parker #Mary Jane Watson #Howard Mackie #Green Goblin #Aunt Anna #Anna Watson #One More Day #j. michael straczynski #Nick Spencer #Gwen Stacy #Harry Osborn #Norman Osborn

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snkpolls · 7 years ago

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SnK Chapter 105 Poll Results

RATE THE CHAPTER

1,749 Responses

78.5% of the fandom reacted positively to “Assassin’s Bullet”, rating it a 4 or 5. While still high, this is down 20% from last month.

"Did you not understand the contents?" - Isayama, probably

I cried because of a work of fiction for the first time because of chapter 105. Isayama has achieved something not even Up or Infinity War could not. Great writing on Isayama's part & I am excited to see where he takes this story to next. Also, WERE GOING BACK TO PARADIS AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

Holy fucking shit. I read the chapter before work and I lost my mind. I couldn't process anything and then Sasha was shot. I flipped! An amazing and incredible chapter.

My reaction to chapter 105 is basically just lying face-down on the floor.

EDITOR-KUN; YOU FAILED THIS FANDOM!!!!!

Depressing. Amazing. I'm dying.

ASIDE FROM SASHA’S DEATH, WHAT MOMENT WAS MOST EMOTIONAL FOR YOU?

1,722 Responses

Connie’s sweet OT3 embrace and admission that Jean and Sasha were special to him topped the list of emotional moments. “All of the above” and Eren’s mental breakdown at the news of Sasha’s death came in 2nd and 3rd.

At this point I numb myself and just ignore each chapter after I read it because it's getting too painful and I just wanna live my life you know

Attack on Suffering

Connie can not catch a fucking break.

Potato girl's death hit me hard, especially after that look on her face when Connie hugged Jean and herself. Poor Connie, the new master of suffering!

This chapter has had me so depressed. It's been days and I'm still not over Sasha, I still can't believe Potato Girl is gone forever. I'm worried for Eren, for what this loss of faith from the others will do to him, for the distance between him and Armin and Mikasa. Their strained dynamic is HEARTBREAKING.

WHICH MOMENT SURPRISED YOU MOST?

1,694 Responses

In a chapter filled with great moments, leaning the identity of Rope-kun was picked as most surprising with 30% of the vote. Confirmation that Zeke was working with Paradis came in a distant second.

I hate this. I have resisted SO HARD, for SO LONG. One hundred and five chapters later, I'm finally (FINALLY) invested in a Levi storyline. How dare you, Isayama? How dare you Jaime Lannister me this way?

I can't believe the paid actor bs was actually true lol. But I'm sure Zeke has his own objective and isn't actually on Paradis side even though they might benefit from his plans.

On chapter 105: arguably the best chapter so far in my opinion. It had so much going on. I was so excited to see the Zeke betrayal theory confirmed. Also even though Sasha is dead I feel really bad for Gabi. She's as much a victim in this as everyone.

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW CHOKED UP WERE YOU OVER SASHA'S UNTIMELY DEATH?

1,743 Responses

We knew it was coming, we’ve been talking about it for years, still more than half the fandom was profoundly affected by Sasha’s death. At the other extreme, 22% expressed ambivalence.

SaShAaAaAaAaAaAaAaaaaaaaaaaa I will still be crying next month

I feel nothing about Sasha's death, mainly because she was saved by the editor before something I dislike happening. Another motive for my apathy related to her death is because of the massive nosense hate Gabi is receiving. People forget she's just kid, brainwashed and she doesn't know Paradis like we do or Reiner does.

Erwin was my favourite male character and Sasha was my favourite female character. Isayama Sensei, I don’t feel so good…

I can't really bring myself to care about Sasha's death. She's been dragged along for over 70 chapters now and it was time for her to die.

I have mixed feelings about Sasha's death. On the one hand I think had she died when she was supposed too, I would have felt more emotional about it. On the other hand, I'm glad there was another girl from the 104th still there during the RtS arc, and I liked her reactions there as well.

I'm still not over it and will probably be mourning Sash for the rest of my life.

I am still sad! I will be heartbroken if we see Sasha's family in the next chapter

WHOSE REACTION TO SASHA’S DEATH AFFECTED YOU MOST?

1,692 Responses

Isayama outdid himself with the various expressions of grief in this chapter. The fandom was divided three ways, but it was Connie’s quiet heartbreak that prevailed by a slim margin.

Now my two favourite SnK girls are dead. I knew that this could happen, but being killed because of Marcel or by Gabi... It was really twisted. Mikasa's cry broke me, because she was one of Sasha's best friends.

Eren's reaction to her death was very disturbing. At first I thought he was overcome with grief and crying, but upon further inspection he was laughing like a maniac.

we knew sasha was going to die for years now but that fuck! that really didn't have to happen!

Why did sasha have to die isayama :( She was a gorgeous woman with a great personality and just fjsfkskfkd FUCK OFF CONNIE DIDN’T DESERVE THIS KIND OF BIRTHDAY PRESENT

Isayama, why?

THE FANDOM IS DIVIDED ABOUT SEVERAL CHARACTERS. WHAT’S YOUR OPINION ON THEM?

Falco is best boy and Floch is worst. Isayama scored only marginally better than Zeke. Levi received 60 more marriage proposals than Eren. Yelena got the highest number of kisses.

We did some digging into the poll numbers to see which platform was most compassionate when it comes to Gabi. Discord and Instagram were the kindest, with 61% and 64% of respondents selecting “marry/adopt” or “kiss”. Tumblr was next with 54%. Reddit was the harshest. 2/3rds of all reddit respondents selected “kill” for Gabi.

OMG throw Floch out of the zeppelin the fucking shitbrain smartass.

WTF happened to Floch I thought initially he would be a voice of reason but evidently not…

Falco you cinnamon roll, too precious for this world, so pure and smol.

Gabi should feel the might of Ogweno's knee for all eternity.

Gabi is a precious bean! Don't talk to me or my daughter ever again!

Gabi can do us all a favor and swerve into oncoming traffic

Eren did nothing wrong

eren is irredeemable and now the villain.

Wanna kill and marry Eren at the same time.

I'm flying to japan to fist fight isayama

Definitely wanna marry Levi. Wanna hug all 104th squad (even sasha) and also the warriors and kids, they deserve it.

Isayama's story is practically screaming against wanting to kill traumatized kids, no matter their actions. *side eyes fandom discourse on Gabi, wonders if humanity is doomed*

Kiss Isayama, maybe If you gave him some Love, He would stop being so cruel.

IT’S NOW CLEAR THAT EREN ACTED WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE SURVEY CORPS. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT THE SURVEY CORPS IS BEING TOO HARSH ON HIM?

1,716 Responses

Eren received quite the scolding when he arrived on the airship. Nearly half of the fandom agreed that he deserved the harsh treatment, while about 28% of the fandom thinks that the Survey Corps could have handled the situation a little better.

If only the blimp’s door would’ve been closed earlier. I’m hoping the SC does realize that they’re being too harsh on Eren in upcoming chapters.

Honestly I'm surprised they threw the blame. Not actually surprised surprised. But in the past it was always push forward and keep moving with no regrets. And it seems they have fallen back on that. I think even though Eren's actions aren't justified and I don't think he's an innocent bean, but he managed to take a lot from the enemy with his move, with a minimal loss.

Eren didn't do anything that the SC hasn't done to him many times. Using him as bait is always their go to plan.

Erwin didnt lose an arm for this.

I see a lot of people excusing Eren's actions because things mostly worked out in Paradis's favor. However, that doesn't mean that A) it was a good decision, B) the survey corps couldn't have come up with an even better plan that--among other things--may have lessened civilian and foreign diplomat deaths, had they been given the time and opportunity, or C) that Eren should be let off the hook for going AWOL and teaming up with the foreign operative responsible for their commander's death. I still like him as a character, but Eren did a fucked up thing that is sure to have international consequences, and he more than deserved that kick and the distrust of his allies.

WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT EREN’S ACTIONS?

1,677 Responses

We still don’t know the full story behind Eren’s actions, but regardless of his intentions, many people were hurt in the process. 46% of the fandom believes that Eren’s actions will result in a positive outcome, while over half the fandom is either undecided until they have more information, or cannot look past what he did at all.

Team Eren! The losses are nothing compared to the gains. The world had declared war anyway, and they'd already de facto been at war for a decade. Wiping out an entire fleet, capturing the Warhammer, and successfully extracting Zeke was more than worth it. Very said about Sasha though, of course. Can't wait to go back home to Paradis again. Falco and Gabi are going to have their minds blown.

I believe that if Eren and the SC worked together with their plans and made compromises for one another then the result could've been even better, since Eren would have an entire military intelligence to help and not a man [Zeke] that can't truly be trusted.

He acted independently without the approval of the Paradise Government to terrorise a festival full of civilians. His actions resemble a terrorist, arrested is being let off easily. Jean is right about the situation, Eren is the biggest reason Sasha is dead, he manipulated the Military Operation in which she died.

Eren told Reiner he now understands RBA's actions...but neverthless he's repeating them, even more cruelly perhaps. If he won't understand that the cycle of violence must be stopped in order to reach real freedom then I don't think he will ever get a happy end (beside the fact that he's going to die at 23 anyway)

I'm glad that we finally got confirmation that Eren was just his usual egoistic self that went on his own and everyone has to save his sorry ass. Again. Bless Hanji for calling him out and roasting him once again. Can't wait to see another jail time for Eren. (Though I have the feeling he will get around it or that it will be skipped.) Too bad Eren just doesn't give a flying fuck about being punished or losing the trust of his comrades as long as he got his will.

Give eren a break please. He deserves it.

Erwin is turning in his grave.

Erwin would have called Eren a hero.

JEAN BLAMES EREN FOR SASHA’S DEATH. DO YOU?

1,685 Responses

Jean didn’t hesitate to call Eren out for being the catalyst for Sasha’s death. 49% agree that Eren isn’t solely to blame and that many parties are responsible, while 11% agree with Jean completely.

Death happens in random ways, if it’s heroic or humble, no one should get blamed for it since it is gonna happen one day or another,

In the end we can all blame Ymir Fritz for this fucked up planet this story takes place on.

War means death and they are clearly in war. So many people already died and Sasha was one of the many victims of war. She was not murdered by Eren or his decisions in my opinion.

None is at fault or everyone is at fault. Early celebration, no spotter for the guy that had yet to board the zeppelin in enemy territory, Eren forcing their hand to act prematurely all being part of it. But none can be single-handedly blamed.

War is hell. People die. If Eren didn't invade, they'd get invaded, and someone would die.

I think he's very emotional at that moment and is blaming Eren but in reality there are a number of attributing factors.

bit of all of these, but mostly war is war. it's amazing beyond belief new-squad-levi all survived as long as they did, and thru everything that has happened thus far. I'd argue the casualties had Paradis not taken the initiative blow could have been that much more devastating

ZEKE FAKED HIS DEATH AND IS TRAVELING TO PARADIS. WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS?

1,683 Responses

With one big Zekeret out of the way, we asked the fandom whether they feel he is to be trusted or not. Nearly half the fandom agrees that Zeke’s only real alliance is with Eren, sharing a goal to free Eldia. A small 10% believe his intentions are genuine. The remainder of the fandom is still wary about his intentions altogether.

Do NOT drop your guard. I trust Zeke about as far as I can throw him, and since my 100-pounds-soaking-wet best friend can beat me in arm wrestling, it's safe to say that that's NOT very far.

He's too cold - I don't trust him in the slightest. He probably still wants to end this tragic history - but in a final-for-all-humanity kind of way. He must be stopped!

I don't think he's being 100% genuine. I think he has his personal goals and his own versions of a free Eldia. There will be so Sure, he's supporting Eren but, I still think that he has his personal agenda, so I don't know if he just wants to free Eldia just because.

Zeke is concerned with Zeke. I think he was once tasked with the Owl's legacy as well, but now wants to double-cross everyone.

Zeke wants to try sour cream really badly

I believe that Zeke is working more or less for his own goals which is a free Eldian continent. Any alignment with the SC is because heads like Hanji support that ideal. Zeke also has personal interest in his brother and I doubt that he would stay on the SC or even Eren's side all that long if they conflicted with that goal.

DO ZEKE AND EREN HAVE THE SAME GOAL NOW THAT THEY CAN ACTIVATE THE COORDINATE?

1,686 Responses

For now it seems that Zeke and Eren likely allied due to a shared interest to free their people. But 55% of the fandom believe it’s too early to make that judgement call.

I'm unsure the Yeager brothers have quite the same desired outcome in mind. I wonder if they have different ideas of what "saving Eldia" actually means; On Zeke's part it could be saving all of them period. On Eren's, it may just be Paradisians. And if a disconnect like that exists, I can only imagine what their vision is of how to accomplish it. I think Eren's heart is still trying to stay in the right place but his mind can't be trusted to make sound, beneficial decisions.

I believe Zeke has his own agenda and it worries me. There is also the chance of Eren coming in terms with sacrificing Historia when "royal" Zeke starts doing his own thing.

Zeke is working with eren for as long as it conveniences him, but as soon as it doesn’t go his way he won’t hesistate to turn on him

Not at all. Zeke is the least trustworthy character of the series, I wouldn't be surprised if he was actually manipulating Eren. I wouldn't trust Zeke as far as I could throw him.

I'm a bit worried about Zeke's influence on Eren and his true agenda...as much as I want to believe Zeke is a great big brother, I'm still a bit suspicious.

ARMIN AND EREN'S REUNION PARALLELS THEIR REUNION IN THE UPRISING ARC, ALTHOUGH THIS TIME NO SMILES WERE SHARED. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THEIR RELATIONSHIP MOVING FORWARD?

1,685 Responses

Now that we’re starting to see the effects of EMA separation, it’s clear that Eren and Armin’s relationship is strained. Almost half of the fandom believe that they will work through it and remain friends, while many are apprehensive and think that things can go either way. Only a small amount believe that their friendship is still solid, and just a slightly larger amount believe their friendship is dead.

I expect them to become more distant while still caring about each other. Isayama stated that they would chose different paths anyway.

Eren has become shady, untrustworthy and even more reckless in a colder sense. Armin is less warm hearted, still quite emotional, and it probably hurts to see his best friend, Eren, become what he has. Mikasa has clearly grown. She doesn't care for Eren as much as she did before, and while she definitely still does care, she's less impulsive and shortsighted to what Eren has become. They've all grown. They've all grown as individuals. They've all grown apart. They say you become what you hate the most, which is only relevant in certain circumstances, but it's never been more represented than by Eren.

LEVI COMPARED EREN TO THE PEOPLE HE USED TO SEE WHEN HE LIVED IN THE UNDERGROUND. WHAT DO YOU THINK HE MEANT?

1,686 Responses

Levi expressed a sad and disappointed look at Eren as he likened him to the people from the underground city. 53% of the fandom believe that this is due to the lack of passion in Eren’s expression, while a good 33% believe it has more to do with Eren’s underhanded behavior by defecting from the Survey Corps.

Eren reminded him of his younger self.

I think Eren may have reminded Levi of his childhood, (while Eren was sitting there). Eren has become filthy, shady, untrustworthy, rogue and looked lifeless- much like the people of the Underground.

Is Eren's comment "did you not understand the letter" a reference to Levi's lack of education during his upbringing?

when Levi first met Eren, he decided to look after him because he saw something in Eren, a fire, a desire for life. now that fire is nowhere to be seen, Eren is just doing what he has to do to survive, like the people in the underground. Levi used to be one of those people and it’s not a coincidence that Eren’s expression parallels that of young Levi. So we could say that Levi didn’t expect Eren, of all people, to become like that.

Eren is evolved from edgy teenager to protagonist od scandinavian crime stories. He only need alkoholism to fullfile the picture

I believe it was a response to Eren's impertinence in asking whether Levi did not understand the contents of the letter, Eren said it in a challenging way, or could be a commentary on Eren's miserable state, but I believe it to be the first, this was my first impression while reading the chapter

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GABI WILL BE SWAYED ON HER VIEWS OF PARADIS?

1,654 Responses

Close to 70% think Gabi will soon learn the difference in offering someone less than half a potato. In Marley it makes you the worst of all the devils, but on Paradis, that makes you best girl.

I might be in the minority but I really like Gabi, I find her really interesting and she has the potential to act as a foil to Eren. She has the opportunity to see the other side of the conflict and change her ways and possibly help put a stop to the fighting.

I'm excited to start seeing what paradis has been up to and what falco and gabi will think of the walldians

She's been indoctrinated, mistreated, and trained to kill her whole life, which is an absolutely sickening thing to see happen to a child. I do hope that by going to Paradis she may finally start seeing things the way Falco does.

She has been raised in pro-marley family, she strongly believed that people from Paradis were evil, she saw death of her best friends and believed that her goal was lost because of attack. I believe that Gabi will change her mind about the whole situation soon.

Yeah, yeah, we all get that she has her own perspective, but she is crazy. She acts out of impulse and has a one track mind

I would like to see Floch shouting with Gabi. Or pushing her off the zeppelin.

gabi saved the manga, let her kill more

GABI CALLED FALCO INTERESTING THINGS DEPENDING ON WHICH TRANSLATION YOU READ. WHICH WOULD YOU WANT ON YOUR TOMBSTONE?

1,685 Responses

Over forty percent thought the Scottish ”You’ve been a great cunt” would summarize their life. An almost equal amount preferred being called either a great bastard or a great friend. Only 17.5% want people to think of them as a great guy once they’re gone.

Surprisingly enough nobody mentioned Falco being a great cunt in the comments. Gabi on the other hand...

HANGE HAS LOST ALL TRUST IN EREN. HAVE YOU?

1,693 Responses

While more than 72% still have confidence in Eren, more than a quarter of the fandom now views him as untrustworthy.

Whatever Eren does, I feel like he's justified because he only has what, a fucking year left and he's just trying to fix what he can. He knows that he is going to die and doesn't give a shit because he cares about the greater good, even if that means losing all his trust from.. well everyone.

"Hange has lost all trust in Eren. Have you?" I have. If 'Humanity's Greatest Hope' suddenly ran off and had some of our people killed for his own plan, then manipulated us so that we had to go along with said plan, (without trying to 'make a compromise'/'have a mature discussion about it'), I would lose all trust as well.

Everyone's deaths are on Eren's shoulders here. He went off like a loose cannon and acted on his own, putting everyone at risk. The Survey Corps losses are his responsibility and his alone.

Excited for the next coz we're most likely see Paradis after 4 years timeskip. I'm still bitch about Hange saying losing their trust in Eren. RIP Sasha Blaus

Eren betrayed their trust, but in return he got what he needed with very minimal casualties. And it's not like he didn't care.

TRAPDOOR-KUN WAS REVEALED TO BE ZEKE’S FOLLOWER YELENA. WE’RE ASKING THE REAL QUESTIONS HERE. IS SHE HOT OR NOT?

1,676 Responses

The “nays” prevailed by a razor thin margin. When we segmented this data by single platform we found Tumblr to be far more appreciative of Yelena’s appearance. 60% of Tumblr users selected “bae”. The opposite was true of Reddit where 62% selected “nay”.

bless this chapter for giving us lesbian Pieck and another ship with a great height difference and blonde/brunette visuals (eruri, yumukuri, kenuri, reibert... I see what you do there, Isayama).

I'd let Yelena lead me to a trap door.

Yelena X Levi

Yelena x Pieck

Yellena/Zeke fics when?

WILL EREN EVER GET HIS SHOE BACK?

1,638 Responses

72% hope the boi gets his shoes back in chapter 106. We have nothing more to say about this, but it’s a good place to drop some of the cracky comments we received.

Did they bring sour cream to the party on the airship?

its laurel not yanny

"THATS IT! NO LOBOV! IM MAKING MY OWN POLL!"

2/10 not enough snails

I've seen official art of Levi being a chef before, I'm wondering what kind of meal he's planning to turn Zeke into. A Beast-Titan Burger? A Zeke Zucchini? Or perhaps an Ackerman sandwich?!

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF LEVI ALLYING WITH ZEKE?

1,668 Responses

While 17% of the fandom enjoyed Zeke and Levi’s exchange and appreciate their dynamic, 74% agree that Levi is getting no pleasure from this alliance and is cooperating strictly because humanity demands it.

it was really interesting seeing them interact, the tension was palpable and the conversation hilarious (though I know it was pretty serious).

Almost shipping Zevi but I want to keep my pov rational and logical so yeah, they hate each other but they'll work together for the mankind's benefits

As the supreme lord of ironic Zevi shipping, I am torn between that and the canon facts that Levi wants to gut him.

Clearly he is there for Levi's fine ass

I have no real opinion but I’m slightly disheartened by the first option for this answer. This might be one of the more disturbing ships.

He will keep his promise and kill Zeke in the end. Whenever that will be.

I love the hate-flirting but for real, Levi loved Erwin and has to get revenge for him

SNK is going to become the first mainstream goru-omorashi-amputee yaoi series

They hate each other but have to work with each other given the circumstances but really I'm super into enemies-to-lovers ships

Ohohoho, ahahahaha, ahahhahahahahahahahhahaha. All 3, really.

You guys are disgusting, I hope Zeke dies soon horribly

wtf dude?

DO YOU THINK YELENA IS AN ACKERMAN?

1,679 Responses

Almost 90% of the fandom believe Levi and Mikasa will remain the sole Ackermans of the story. 10% believe Zeke might have found an Ackerman ally of his own.

Hope Yelena is an Ackerman. That way we will have a person whose strength is comparable to Levi or Mikasa, but she is from the enemy party (is it really an enemy party or not. idk even.) It will be very interesting to see if Ackermans work for different sides.

Yelena will 100% be this series Brienne of Tarth, but unfortunately I don't think Zeke will get a redemption arc like Jamie Lannister did.

Chapter 104 Questions

THERE'S BEEN SOME COMPARISONS BETWEEN BERT AND ARMIN'S COLOSSAL TITAN FORMS. WHICH IS TRUE FOR YOU? CHECK ALL THAT APPLY.

The majority feels both Bertolt’s and Armin’s Collosal Titan are a good reflection of their respective owners. 37.8% think both titans are impressive as well. Bert’s (33%) iconic Colossal Titan is prefered over Armin’s (20.7%). When asked which CT is more powerful, four times as many people seem to think Bert’s was. And 21.5% can’t be bothered with this question at all.

DID JEAN HESITATE TO KILL FALCO?

1,646 Responses

Nearly 6 of 10 respondents think Jean hesitated to kill the cinnamon roll. 22.1% think he was ready to shoot a hole in the vanilla bean donut, while about 1 out of 5 people aren’t sure.

jean hesitated to kill falco but he still aimed perfectly at him and pulled the trigger if it wasn’t for pieck shifting the spear direction with her steam falco would have been killed. blown to pieces.

keep the kids away from him will you?

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE ARMORED TITAN'S NEW FORM?

1,709 Responses

Just when we thought Reiner couldn’t become any more beautiful, Isayama gives us the doki doki version of the armored titan. Unfortunately only 25.9% agree with us. A similar number of people just want Reiner to die. Maybe it’s because you wish to be his mercy angel, maybe because the unarmored titan now haunts your dreams and you’d like to be able to sleep again. That’s what 26.9% of you at least seem to hope for. Over a fifth of all respondents just wants Beardner back.

Reiner looks good with the beard but isayama doesn’t know how to draw facial hair properly most of the time so i hope it’s gone for good

Just let Reiner die man, he’s gone through so much just let him R E S T

It feels like Reiner half-assed his transformation and what we saw was the result.

RIP plot armor

WHO GOT THE WAR HAMMER TITAN'S POWER?

1,670 Responses

It seems obvious that Eren got the Warhammer titan, but 12.3% of you are still holding out hope that Porco drank the Tybur flavored protein smoothie.

WH’s death was unexpectedly brutal.

I don't see why it's believed that Eren didn't get the warhammer power. You could see the flash that we have seen before, along with the expression in which is the same of when he receives memories.

Why is there still discussion over who got the WHT? We got a very clear shot of Eren getting some sort of "flash" while inside his Titan. I'll watch the live-action movie if I'm wrong.

IS PIECK GOING TO SURVIVE?

1,662 Responses

The verdict is clear: 87.5% think Pieck will live. Let’s hope she’ll be able to meet Yelena again before shifteraids strikes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

I know we've seen Ymir survive much worse, but I think Pieck might die. Her pantzersquad is toast, Zeke is gone, I can't imagine Pieck as she is will be useful without either to support her. I think she's on death's door and they're going to try to pass her power onto Colt.

I do hope that Pieck's not gonna die yet. Isayama already killed a major character. And he once stated in an interview that he would kill jist one for now.

she's probably safe for now, but I don't see what else she'd be needed for story-wise now that she's revealed Zeke was a traitor

I'm mad Pieck is still alive.

WHO WILL BE THE MOST DEPRESSED GOING FORWARD?

1,684 Responses

“You get a clinical depression! And you get a clinical depression! EVERYBODY GETS A CLINICAL DEPRESSION!” More than half of you think Reiner will be the most depressed, while almost a ¼ of all respondents think Connie will be. Porco has about 13% of all votes.Most of you think Pieck will be okay (or more okay than anyone else on the list).

ALL OF THE ABOVE

gheez stop providing me more depressing options

Omg, you are cruel people, I can't choose one

The fans. We cannot watch, yet we cannot look away.

the state of all the Survey Corps members (except for Floch, fuck him) is, in my opinion, the worst. Reiner's is obviously horrible, too; but for some reason, the fact that he's so okay with giving up almost makes me less worried about him. Death, for me, has always been sadder when the person who passed had adamantly wanted to stay alive.

when Reiner wakes up and wants to die because of everything that happened, let me die with him

A couple years ago one Connie was half of Reiner in terms of height, and now he has half of Braun's agony, great character development for my boy

I think Sasha dying was something that needed to happen but can Connie catch a fucking break, Isayama, holy shit

Me T____T

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES?

1,665 Responses

Reddit reigns supreme, but compared to previous months, Tumblr is up 5% while Reddit is down the same amount. Discord participation is also up marginally.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER?

314 Responses

We received over 300 responses, and several of those weren’t even in English:

Должен же уже кто-то наказать Эрена?

Кто-то должен наказать тебя за ответ не на английском.

PAS SASHAAAAAA VOUS AVIEZ PAS LE DROIT DE LA TUERRRRRR :'''''''(

Où était éditeur-kun?

Jokes aside, enjoy more of the comments from this chapter:

Finally, the meat of the story

We got dem zekerets

I'm really worried about this new Eldian empire, that is not going to go well. So many questions to ask about what was happening on the Paradis side during the timeskip, I think it is time for some flashbacks in the next couple of chapters.

Fuck this whole depressing reality.

I just really want Zeke to die at this point. I don't care how he's working with Eren or the SC. It's his fault Erwin died, he ruins everything, he fucked over Reiner and Bert, and he's obviously going to fuck over the SC too.

I feel like everyone will (soon) have to come to terms with the fact that the Yeagerbros' plan was the right/only choice, as shown by them going silent after Eren and Zeke point out the benefit of this operation.

I refuse sasha's death

CHARACTERS ARE DYING AGAIN!!! I AM HAPPY WHILE SOBBING!!!!!!

I feel that everyone jumps to conclusions EVERY chapter, because you’d think we’d know by now that not everything is what it seems and Isayama enjoys messing with us.

I think this chapter was not criticized enough. It was basically a vomit of revelations strung together with some cliche plot

I wonder how Historia will react to Gabi and Falco upon learning of Sasha's death. I'm also curious to see how she will react seeing Eren again and meeting her relative from overseas. You know where these thoughts are going: I want to see older Historia next chapter!

Levi beating the shit out of eren is Big Mood

I'm really not upset with Jean; it's unfair of him to say that, but he's always used anger as a way of dealing with things; the fact that Eren has fucked up already makes it easy to redirect his anger.

Dina is alive and Zeke is visiting her for mother's day

It's good to see that the SC members still have their minds right (except Flocke, but he's a fucking meme), and I hope to see how Hanji acts. I've seen her too impotent in this chapter, unlike how she was in Kenny's arc.

Petition to let Levi enjoy his 40s onwards in goddamn peace.

I believe the end almost always justifies the means, but the thing is... it's important to plan, to avoid any unnecessary evils. Impulsive and reckless natures always annoy me because they often don't avoid those unnecessary evils, if anything they cause more.

Why do Hange and Levi suck at aging?

105 killed me and then killed me again. but then zevi being officially canon and jaegerbros interaction revived me and sudddenly everything is ok. anyways, kidding aside, it was really interesting to see the changes in the sc members' relationship and dynamics with eren, especially armin and levi 👀

105 is absolutely my least favorite chapter this arc. so rushed and boring.

for the god of love please let Levi die. Being forced to work with the man he swore to kill is just humiliating.

I can't wait for Levi to kill Zeke. Part of me worries Isayama is gonna rob him of that chance because fuck happy endings but maaaaaaaan I hope it's epic.

The grand ironic tragedy. An Eldian believing anti-Eldian propaganda kills another Eldian to avenge Eldian friends.

Where the hell is annie

It was great, hoping for an information dump next chapter, along with Annie returning soon and Reiner suffering even more (is that even possible?) after he's now pretty much lost everything he cared about.

Zeke's "free Eldia" line is shady af

Zevi is real, but not really. Protect Gabi at all costs. Flock is my boy. Zeke is trash but also god.

I hated it, and I hate this arc, and I hate all the side characters, and I don't care about any of it, and I can't freaking believe Isayama made Eren turn his back on all the morals Eren is BUILT on. I feel betrayed. So angry.

Boring chapter the only thing i enjoyed was gabi being an absolute badass. zeke and levi’s conversation was cringy af.

I just need the Warriors and Warrior Cadets to be okay and ALIVE throughout the series to the very end. I can't wait to learn more about Yelena and if Porco actually got the War Hammer, while it's unlikely, I've been wrong before.

The story feels completely different than it did when I first got into it. I’m wondering how Isayama plans to wrap things up after everything we’ve seen.

I just have so many feels for this chapter. After all the action in the previous ones, this one landed a punch straight in my gut. Thanks, Yams, I hate this.

I'm glad the battle is over. This turn of events offers new perspectives around. Between Falco and Gabi going to Paradis, Zeke probably having his own goal, Marley rebuilding after purging the unnecessary elements, there's plenty of material for a final arc.

Can we get the next one please? I can't take all these damn cliffhangers. I WANNA FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!

this was an excellent chapter. The tension felt from the scenes in it was so strong you could slice it. Connie's reaction is quite heartbreaking and frankly, I felt quite uncomfortable just seeing the looks Armin gave Eren and Mikasa. They've all changed quite a bit. Even when Jean blames Eren for Sasha's fate, I felt like it was more out of grief than ire.

Can't wait for Reiner to come back

I had genuinely hoped that over time, more people would sympathize with Gabi, especially since shes a kid and has worked her ass off to make a better life for her and her family. Turns out, people only seem to hate her more now. I'm not thrilled that she killed Sasha but in her perspective she's an enemy and part of the reason her friends and allies were killed. War has two sides, people! That's kinda the whole point of the marley arc…

The new chapters are my sole reason for living now

I've been seeing a lot of hatred for Gabi this month, but I honestly can't get mad at her. It's understandable for people to be angry (especially big Sasha fans), but I really feel bad for all the shit she's gone through and how completely brainwashed she is.

each chapter makes me love and appreciate the warriors even more

I`ve seen people saying this chapter is the worst because of how easily Levi and Zeke "became friends” and are provoking each other. To me, it's clear that Eren forced the survey corps to capture Zeke to fulfill his unknown agenda, and that Levi hasn't forgiven Zeke for what he did to Erwin + 200 other Survey Corps members. I also hope that Zeke is just continuing Eren Krueger's secret plan (giving the Attack Titan to Grisha so he can get the Founding Titan while Zeke stays on Marley as a double agent). That would be the most badass plan in all history.

DO U EVEN READ THESE

We read each and every comment!

Thank you for participating. The poll for chapter 106 will go up on June 10th!

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andrewmoocow · 6 years ago

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Gravity Soul chapter 10: Weirdmageddon Take Two, Gravity Falls No Longer Safe? (originally posted on September 28, 2018)

AN: And so begins Weirdmageddon once more. Greetings loyal readers to the final arc of Gravity Soul. With Gravity Falls now no longer safe from the madness of Kishin Cipher, the Mystery Meisters now fresh off of rescuing Pacifica must find another place to hide from him and pull off one last plan to stop him. Also in this arc will feature the usage of the Vigenere cipher which means whatever word that is highlighted in bold in the author's notes will be the key needed to decipher it. But enough for now, let's all return to the BUNKER. TIZOXZNYF DLV EUEUIJU MRMVVUM JOVV UBBEKYU NB LI CPMG LYK GCANMEH NUOQ TPGRC EK B WBCX KIY XOIGFL AOZVS CADIEEYQ DLVN NB LI WPOAN FLU HBG MK'T NUO SKIYE GEP BLBERU

They thought it was impossible. They thought they would come out of that mansion with at least a few physical scars. But no. They received mental scars instead from what the fusion of the dream demon and the Kishin inflicted on them. The rescue party looked upward at Kishin Cipher cackling maniacally with his head tossed back and hands in the air. He had won and Weirdmageddon began anew. "W-we lost." Kid stuttered in sheer disbelief, at both the monster's victory and his previously unknown connection to Asura. "And did he just sing a big musical number about how everything has gone to hell now?" Black Star wondered. "I mean, it honestly was a catchy tune, but was it necessary?" Stanford and Maka on the other hand had their backs turned away from the others and mourned the sacrifices of the people they cared for the most. Ford had lost his brother, his best friend, the very person who had spent thirty years trying to rescue him and now in a cruel twist of irony, he was the one that needed saving now. Maka had lost her weapon, her partner, the boy who had put his life on the line for her own safety, and now he was gone. "Soul..." "Stanley..." It wasn't long before the two of them embraced while breaking down into tears as the others looked on. Dipper tipped his hat in silence & Mabel cried as well and Crona & Spirit, the only family Maka had left now, tried to comfort the girl. "So where do we go from here?" Wendy asked. "FOOLS!" Excalibur cried breaking the silence. "There's no use in staying here now that Kishin Cipher's reigning supreme, so I suggest we find somewhere to hide." he declared. "But where? Pretty sure we can't go back to the Mystery Shack right now." Soos answered before the Holy Sword cut him off. "FOOL! Isn't there some kind of secret hiding place in these woods?" "Oh that's right, there's Ford's secret bunker!" Wendy suddenly realized. "We just gotta find it, rest up in there for a while and then form a plan!" she stated. "Good plan there Wendy, but where is it?" Tsubaki wondered. "The entrance's disguised as a tree, so we just gotta keep knocking on wood until we hit metal." "Yeah, Wendy's right." Dipper agreed wiping the tears from his eyes. "If only we still had Journal 3 with us, then we'd navigate it easily." he added glumly. Suddenly they all heard a rumbling noise that quietly erupted through the forest before an entire stampede of cryptids from across Gravity Falls charged right through them. "Hey pigtails, move it!" one of the gnomes shouted. "We're fleeing here!" a unicorn snidely added. "Whoa, what are they all running for?" Patty wondered. "And was that a unicorn?!" "You should get going too little one, Weirdmageddon is back!" a large bear with multiple heads stated before staring off into the distance with fear. "My lord, they're coming!" Just then, a group of demonic looking bears bounced across the trees with their teeth bared and eyes full of primal hunger. "Oh no, they're bouncing here and there and everywhere!" Soos cried. "Mass chaos that's beyond compare!" "Well what're we waiting for, to the bunker!" Dipper exclaimed preparing to lead everyone out of the forest before turning back to find Melody, Ghost-Eyes and Pacifica's mother still standing there. "Wait, aren't you coming?" "Sorry Dipper, but I think this might be too dangerous for all of us." Melody said. "We'll all still be here when you get back, hopefully." "Be safe out there Gideon." Ghost-Eyes said to his fellow ex-inmate. "You too old friend." Gideon replied and they fistbumped. "Pacifica, I want you to know that no matter how you feel about your father and I, we'll be there cheering you on against that monster." Priscilla said hugging her daughter. "And remember to thank your friends for saving us as well." "I will mother." Pacifica replied before they broke. "I promise I'll come back for you." Soos promised Melody. "I know you will dude." his fiancee replied and then they kissed. "All right, let's get moving everyone." Maka commanded and thus the remaining Mystery Meisters set off for the bunker.

"Anything yet guys?" Mabel asked as Black Star kept knocking on the trees hoping that one would lead them to the bunker. "Seems like we've been walking and hiding forever." "Nothing Mabel, we're getting in a rut." the ninja replied before they hid behind one of the trees away from the gaze of an Eyebat. "We need to be very very quiet everyone. Kishin Cipher's forces could strike at any minute." Ford stated quietly and they continued on their way. As the party snuck around the forest, they found numerous monsters unknowingly on their tail, such as a large humanoid vulture creature that made a strange whimpering sound, a strange dark blue android with a green symbol on its chest & red fins sticking out the back of its head, a bipedal jackal wearing a silver mask, a muscular humanoid beast with flaming facial hair & a burn scar over his left eye and many more, all looking to kill on sight. "Yeesh, these are nothing like what we've faced before." Dipper commented examining all the new beasts that had been unleashed when suddenly, he laid eyes upon a strange being whose body seemed to be made of various pipes. "And what even is that thing?" The boy felt himself edging into insanity little by little before he quickly covered his eyes in fright. "Hey guys, I think we found it!" Liz called pounding on a strangely metallic tree. "This seems like a good place to hide." "This is the exact place where I found Journal 3." Dipper stated. "I was only told to put up signs for Stan one day and then there it was. Where it all began." he explained. "We can recap last summer later, let's open this baby and get inside!" Wendy exclaimed preparing to scale it with her axe. "Wait, you're going to do it like that?" Black Star wondered. "Of course dude, it's how we opened it in the first place." the cashier said. "There's this little branch that's hiding a lever all the way up there." "Well there's no need for climbing, let a ninja handle this!" Black Star boasted using his ninjitsu skills to race up the tree and jump, grabbing onto the aforementioned branch and pulling it, causing the grass surrounding it to collapse into a spiral staircase leading to the entrance. "Boo-yah!" "Well hornswaggle mah goat-knees, just like old times!" Fiddleford exclaimed doing a quick victory jig. "Now come on sprouts, I can show y'all around!" With that, the hillbilly forgone taking the stairs and jumped down the entrance to the door. "Now come by, it brings back memories!" "Just as long as there's no dust to make me asymmetrical." Kid flatly stated walking down the stairs with the Thompsons behind him and soon, everyone else all except for Ford who was looking off into the distance with a solemn frown. "C'mon Mr. Pines, Kishin Cipher's minions could be coming any minute!" Eruka called for him. "Oh, terribly sorry everyone!" Ford stuttered trying to hide his emotional pain as booming footsteps sounded from afar. Luckily they were all able to get in and close the entrance behind him before one of Bill's henchmaniacs did indeed come across the bunker. "Uh boss, those mortals are gone!" the beast announced scratching his head with one of his eight-ball eyes becoming crooked. "Oh hush up 8-Ball, we can find them later!" Kishin Cipher said floating down to meet his minion's gaze as the other monsters roaming the forest gathered around their new master. "We'll focus on terrorizing all those stupid humans for now, but the reason why I broke you all out of the Nightmare Realm," the fusion stated before he stabbed a finger into his temple and rapidly drilled into it. "IS REVENGE!" The abominations cheered and chanted Kishin Cipher's name as one of the new monsters stepped forth. "Oh yes master, we are forever at your command!" the female beast cried bowing before him. "My pelt is now your pelt!" "Aw shucks Kaguya, you're just too kind!" Kishin Cipher complimented stroking her head and making her purr. "But my lord, what about those children?" a sharply-dressed humanoid being with a deformed face wondered. "Oh don't worry White Rabbit, I already got a few guys after them." Cipher answered before he projected an image of a snake, a spider and a scorpion crawling around.

Stepping further into the bunker, the Mystery Meisters finally came across the shelter which contained various weapons, food supplies and a small bed. "Wow, did you build this for some kinda apocalypse? If so, then I should've really brought a fire-shooting guitar along!" Patty exclaimed amazed at the room but Kid on the other hand wasn't as happy. "Did you even take symmetry into account Stanford?! Everything here is horribly unorganized!" he screamed trying to clean everything up. "Just messy, messy, messy!" "Looks like we're gonna be here a while. Who's up for some High-Flying Beans?!" McGucket asked rifling through their rations before he came across a familiar candy. "Hey waitaminute, is this my Smez dispenser? So that's where it went!" "Fiddleford's right, we might be in here for quite a long time, which is why I've gathered rations to last us until 2070." Ford explained. "In case any of us go hungry after like twenty years tops, we might have to resort to cannibalism." he remarked. "Wait, so we're gonna stay down here while all those monsters run amok?" Dipper asked. "We haven't lost yet Ford, we just need to think of a-" "WE HAVE LOST, WE LOST EVERYTHING!" the surviving great uncle suddenly exploded spooking his young partner and realized just what he had done. "Oh my goodness, I am terribly sorry Dipper! I didn't mean to blow up in your face!" "It's okay Ford, I know where you're coming from. It's horrible we lost Stan, but that's not important right now." Dipper reassured the older man. "Right now, we just gotta find a way to stop Kishin Cipher." "Thank you for that kid, but I think I should just sit down for a while." Ford stated taking a seat on the bed. "I still can't believe it, Bill took my brother after he spent years trying to bring me back." he mumbled. "Somehow I feel that is just cruelly ironic." "You talking about your brother?" Maka asked sitting down next to him. "I feel you Mr. Pines. In fact, I lost my weapon & best friend at the same time yet I'm not randomly screaming in everyone's face." she said. "I know Maka, but I've known Bill far longer than any of you." Ford said starting to choke up before crying. "In fact, I thought he was my friend." "Wait, what?!" Black Star shouted dropping a crate he was moving onto Spirit's foot. "You and Bill were actually bros once?!" he asked. "How long ago was it? Please elaborate." Stein said taking a puff of his cigarette. "It was when I was much younger, around Spirit's age, when I first met Bill." Ford stated beginning to reminisce on less traumatizing times.

"It was when I hit a roadblock in my research of Gravity Falls, and I thought there was nothing else left to discover until I met him in my dreams." Ford narrated picturing his younger self resting under a tree in the forest before the greenery turned into something bizarre. Examining his new surroundings, Ford then came face to face with a peculiar triangular creature who greeted him in a polite yet screechy tone. "Hiya smart guy!" the shape said, his voice echoing throughout the strange realm. "Whoa, don't have a heart attack! You're not 92 yet!" "Who are you?" the young scientist asked. "Name's Bill, and you're Stanford Pines, the man who changed the world! But I'm getting ahead of myself, let's relax." the creature, now named Bill, stated making a teapot and a chessboard appear out of thin air. "Have a cup of tea!" "He claimed to be a muse that chose one brilliant mind once a century to inspire. But of course it was all a lie." Ford continued in the present day. "I allowed him to take control of my body whenever he pleased. I trusted him like a research partner until I got a glimpse of Bill's true plans." Much later on, Ford and Fiddleford stood in front of the universe portal that they unknowingly helped Bill Cipher construct with a crash dummy for testing. "Are we clear Fidds?" the younger Pines asked his lab partner, who was unaware his foot got tangled with the rope tying the dummy down. "I'll take that as a yes! Ready and..." Suddenly Fiddleford felt himself sucked in along with the dummy when they released it, only saved by Ford at the last moment before the portal would swallow him whole. "I got ya buddy!" Ford shouted tugging the rope and pulling his partner back to the ground. "What is it? Is it working, what did you see?!" The only words that came out McGucket's mouth was complete gibberish before he rose from the ground, his eyes widened in horror. "When gravity falls and earth become sky, fear the beast with just one eye!" he chanted to Ford's confusion. "Fiddleford, get a hold of yourself! You're not making any sense!" Stanford cried trying to put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder before he jerked away. "This machine is dangerous! You'll bring about the end of the world with this!" a now paranoid Fiddleford screamed. "Destroy it before it destroys us all!" "I can't destroy this, it's my life's work!" Ford tried to argue but his words fell on deaf ears as his partner stormed away. "I fear we've unleashed a great danger on the world, one that I'd just as soon forget. I quit!"

"I never learned just what he saw on the other side, but speaking in present tense I can only assume it was one of Bill's hangouts." Ford concluded his story. "Well is there anything in this bunker that can help us?" Tsubaki wondered. "Maybe if we can go deeper we'll get some answers!" Free replied tearing off a porthole that led to another room, this one consisting of various metal cubes lining every last corner. Going through the porthole, the room seemed almost normal except for a particular design on one of the tiles. "This security room is designed to crush intruders who don't have a code to reverse it. Now be sure to not step on that tile." Ford explained before he pointed to that specific tile. "That is the tile that could seal your dooms if someone presses it. Got it memorized?" "You got it." Free stated before he tried to step on the tile. "Ooh, what's this button do?" he asked and Soos grabbed him by the arm, keeping him away from the tile. "Sorry dude, you don't wanna press that. Might kill us all." Progressing further, they discovered a surveillance room connected to what seemed to be a laboratory given the presence of various cryogenic tubes, one of which was heavily damaged. "Seriously, how the hell did you build all of this without anyone noticing? And where did you get all the supplies too?" Black Star wondered before noticing something odd on one of the screens. "Hey, get outta there spider!" he said trying to squish it and realizing that it wasn't resting on the screen, but inside the lab itself. "Uh, Ford!" "Something the matter Black Star?" Ford asked the ninja. "You ever got any giant spiders in here? Cause I've already found one." he pointed out, much to the scientist's shock. "My word, how did that thing follow us in here?!" Ford cried racing to grab a rifle. "That thing could be one of Kishin Cipher's monsters, so I'm gonna need some help!" "You can count on me Sixer! Like I said before, just like old times!" McGucket declared arming himself with his sonic banjo. "We're with you as well Stanford." Stein added already commanding Spirit to transform into his scythe mode. "Okay then, let's move out!" Ford declared before Crona stopped him. "Wait, what about us Grunkle Ford?" "The rest of you stay in here and keep watch while we're gone! If anything happens, be on your guard." Ford stated before he, McGucket, Spirit and Stein departed the observation room to hunt down the spider, leaving the kids, Soos, Wendy, Blair, Excalibur, Free, Eruka and the Mizunes behind. "So what do we do now? The grownups all leave to kill spiders and we're stuck here doing nothing." Patty wondered unknowingly leaning on a red button on the console, causing one of the tubes to deactivate. This tube in particular contained what looked like a frozen Dipper screaming in terror that was ready to melt. The real Dipper gasped in horror, realizing just what this other him was. "Patty, what did you do?!" "What did I do?!" the Thompson asked. "You just released an evil experiment that tried to kill us when we first came here dude!" Wendy answered. "You sure about that guys? Looks like a frozen Dipper to me." Liz commented. "Exactly, that thing's a dangerous shapeshifter!" "Well what are we waiting for, let's go kill it!" Black Star shouted picking up Tsubaki and charging through the door that led to the lab, pretty much knocking it down. The rest of the party followed him behind ready to take on the beast.

Meanwhile with Ford's group, he, Fiddleford, Spirit and Stein crept through a long & winding tunnel system in search of the spider. "I don't think I remember ever digging such an elaborate passageway in here." Ford commented. "Did you Fidds?" "Nope, not the slightest clue!" McGucket replied before he dropped down and sniffed the ground to track its scent. "Think it went thataway!" he shouted pointing in the next direction like a dog. "Good work McGucket, though I'm not sure if that was really necessary." Stein stated and they moved onward. Going deeper through the caves, the four finally found the spider in a large open space that made it ripe for the squishing. "Okay everyone, be silent. I've only got one shot at this." Ford whispered aiming his rifle at the giant spider. "Ready, aim..." Just then, a snake loudly hissed breaking his concentration and firing, sending the bullet flying across the area. "What was that?!" "I think that was a snake!" Stein exclaimed. "Wait a minute. Spider, snake." he muttered then coming to a startling conclusion. "Oh no!" "Something the matter Frank?" Fiddleford asked before his mouth was hastily shut by the Meister. "Don't make a sound, they might hear us!" he cautioned them. "And yet you're making a sound right now!" Ford replied. "Kinda hypocritical much?" "Touche." Stein responded and just then, they heard a woman say "Vector Plate.", spawning an arrow under them & sending them flying toward the snake & spider. "Is this the scientist you told me about dear sister? I never seen someone with six fingers before." the gargantuan arachnid remarked before it transformed into a beautiful pale-skinned woman wearing a long black sleeveless dress. Spirit & Stein knew exactly who this was. "Arachne?!" "That's Arachne? And they're sisters apparently." Ford commented getting up and dusting himself off. "I don't see that much of a family resemblance." "Hello again Meister scum. And I see you've brought some new blood for us." Arachne greeted Stein. "It certainly has been a while Stein, pity that you abandoned me when you fell to madness." Medusa added. "Listen to me Stein, don't fall for her games!" Ford cautioned the Meister. "From the looks of it, she could trick anyone and then backstab-" It was then Ford came to a startling realization. A genius scientist that became close with a manipulative creature colored in black & yellow that was slowly toying with him. Why did that seem so familiar? It was almost like reliving the time he spent working with Bill, believing him to be a kindred spirit. "Weren't you all supposed to be dead?" Spirit asked. "I was until my sister requested that our new master bring us back to life." the elder Gorgon sibling answered. "Wait, what do you mean 'us'?" Ford wondered fearing if she was talking about someone else. His suspicions were confirmed to be true as another witch, this one looking much younger than the other two with a bizarre covering on her head that resembled a scorpion's tail at the end. "Meet our youngest sister, Shaula." "Wait, there's three of them?!" Ford exclaimed turning to Stein and pointing an accusing finger at him. "You only ever mentioned the two!" he shouted. "Well to be fair, how she was defeated was pretty embarrassing." Stein tried to defend himself. "I mean, she was killed by students of the NOT class!" "Silence!" Shaula boomed glaring at the pair of geniuses. "Kishin Cipher has resurrected all three of us to be his loyal servants and our mission right now is to kill all of you & those brats as well." she declared. "And as for my humiliation, he made sure it won't happen again and made me stronger." "Heads up y'all, looks like we're in for a rumble!" Fiddleford exclaimed picking up his sonic banjo as the others took up arms against the Gorgon sisters.

Back in the lab, the remaining Mystery Meisters were now face to face with a currently defrosted cryogenic tube and out of it, came an exact double of Dipper looking furious. "You!" it shouted in a deep voice pointing at Dipper, Mabel, Wendy & Soos. "You forced me into that contraption and left me to perish!" As it spoke, the Dipper clone transformed into a white-skinned insectlike creature with misshapen arms, one more slender with three fingers & the other swollen with a claw. "And I see you brought some fresh new faces for me as well." "That's what that shapeshifter looks like? I would comment on how horribly asymmetrical it is, but I'm too horrified beyond words!" Kid squeaked fearfully as the Shapeshifter took on the form of Maka. "Now then, which one shall it be?" it wondered emphasizing each word by transforming into Crona, Black Star, Tsubaki, Kid, Liz & Patty in that order. "Why not everyone?" it emphasized some more by turning into Eruka, Free and Mizune before its form changed into a terrifying amalgam of everybody he previously transformed into making them scream loudly in terror. "KILL IT WITH FIRE!" Pacifica hollered grabbing Liz, turning her into her weapon form and fired repeatedly, but the creature dodged the bullets by zooming off. "Where'd it go?" the formerly rich girl panted dropping Liz to the ground. "More importantly, where did you learn to fire like that?" the cowgirl weapon asked. "Got it from all my experience playing Bloodcraft: Overdeath." Pacifica answered boastfully. "PLATINUMPAZ level 100 to be precise." "You're PLATINUMPAZ? That's why I always get creamed whenever I face you!" Black Star exclaimed. "We can talk about video games later dudes, anyone know where that shifter guy went?" Soos inquired. "And more importantly, did I always have two big sisters?" Patty added remarking upon the sudden appearance of another Liz. "That is utterly preposterous Patty, our Liz isn't nearly as busty!" Kid stated clutching both of their assets. "As we should know, you aren't very symmetrical! Especially your chests!" This observation earned him a good smack on the head from Liz. "Well this is something only the real Liz would do!" "Wait, if that's the real Liz, then who's-" Tsubaki asked before she came to a shocking conclusion. "Oh no." she muttered frighteningly as the second Liz laughed before it transformed back into the Shapeshifter. "You discovered me far too easily!" it said. "But enough about you, I think it's about time I get revenge on you Dipper!" "Get back everyone, I'm going in alone!" Dipper ordered bravely picking up Excalibur. "Are you crazy Dipper?! Let me come too!" Wendy exclaimed pulling out her axe. "And us too, since we're going for a whole sharp weapons thing here!" Ragnarok added forming into Crona's sword. "Ah, we engage in a swords and sorcery type battle, I see. In that case!" The shapeshifter then formed a pair of its own swords out of its arms. "So be it!" "Okay change of plans. Me, Wendy and Crona will take on the shapeshifter while the rest of you take cover!" Dipper explained. "You got it broseph!" The others raced back into the adjacent room as Dipper made the first move, clashing Excalibur with the Shapeshifter's makeshift sword while Wendy scarred its other arm and Crona stabbing it in the back.

"I'm like really sorry for letting this happen guys." Patty hurriedly apologized dropping to her knees. "If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, just say the word!" "Hey chill out sis, it was just a button." Liz assured her younger sister. "And besides, it's not like you gave away something that could end the universe as we know it." Her comment accidentally sent shivers down Mabel's spine as she turned away nervously stroking her hair. She knew she couldn't keep mum about a certain event last summer no longer, but feared that if she spoke up about it right now it would result in being ostracized from her family. "Uh, are you okay Mabel?" Maka asked her. "What, no! I'm fine, perfectly fine!" Mabel exclaimed shyly, still not wanting to give away that secret she was keeping for months. "You know what would be great dudes? If we had some popcorn with us, cause this fight is heating up!" Soos exclaimed bringing attention to the fight going on next door. "Kinda like a fighting game!" "Yeah, get 'em Crona!" Black Star cheered the son of Medusa on. "Yeah, give that thing what for DP!" Pacifica added. "You can do it Wendy!" Soos exclaimed waving his arms around. "C'mon guys, do the wave with me!" Everybody complied doing the wave, all except for Mabel who remained silent in the corner and Eruka, Free & the Mizunes who had transformed into their animal forms and snuck away.

The four-way battle raged on with Dipper now getting a better grip on the sheer awesome power of Excalibur as he clashed with the Shapeshifter. "Look man, we don't want any more trouble then we've already caused, we just want to find shelter in here away from the flipping apocalypse!" "You have denied my freedom to roam the outside world and seek revenge, and now I shall deny you and your comrades the freedom of life!" the Shapeshifter roared before it suddenly heard a croak coming from the dark corner. It then immediately snatched Eruka from her hiding place and held her hostage. "Surrender now or this little toad gets it!" "Hey, let my little buddy go ya stupid Xenomorph!" Free shouted tackling the experiment from behind. "Think you can copy a werewolf like me big boy?! I'd like to see you try!" he challenged only to be smacked aside. "You are insignificant to me now. Leave or face death." "Well we're outta here! Dipper, we're gonna go look for Mr. Ford." Eruka explained hopping away to find the author. "And if you don't make it out, we'll tell him you're sorry." With the traitorous minions of Medusa now gone, the battle restarted with the Shapeshifter now preparing to attack Crona, but Wendy was quick to put herself in its path and slash the monster's mouth off, causing green blood to spew everywhere. "Always wanted to do that." "All right, go Wendy!" Ragnarok exclaimed. "Makes me wonder how that old man is doing."

Speaking of Ford, he was currently backed into a corner by Arachne, his rifle now out of ammo. "Seriously, what even kills you?!" he screamed deciding to just beat her over the head with the empty weapon itself. "I would say, but it would be foolish of me to do so." the spider witch snidely answered slashing him across the face with her fan. "AGH!" "Stanford!" Stein cried out temporarily distracted from Medusa, which led her to stab him from behind with an arrow. "Why continue to show concern for these fools when you can return to my side Stein?" she asked the bleeding genius picking him up by the shirt collar with a seductive, manipulative smirk on her face. "You are the most powerful Meister there ever was, and yet you continue to serve as Death's flunky." "Well at least I actually care for people. The only person you ever show concern for is yourself, everybody else you just lie to and use for your own gain." Stein wheezily remarked with a bold expression. "I know someone who has been through almost the exact same situation and I refuse to go through this again! Let's go Spirit!" "Right old chum!" Spirit replied being picked up by his Meister and activated their Soul Resonance. This caused stitches to appear at the three sisters' feet and tying them down to the ground. "Whoa nelly, they're knitted at the soles!" McGucket shouted enamored at the duo's techniques, using it as an opportunity to smack Shaula in the face with his banjo. "Quit hitting me you oafish hillbilly!" "Get down Fiddleford, I'm coming in for the kill!" Stein exclaimed preparing to land the final blow on the sisters before he felt something soft and squishy be stabbed on his scythe. "Uh oh." The object exploded revealing it to be one of Eruka's tadpole bombs and blowing him back, much to the frog witch's embarrassment. "Oh my God, I'm terribly sorry sir! I didn't notice you were already attacking, I just believed you needed help! Oh please forgive me!" "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with the kids?" Stein asked them. "We thought you needed help against that giant spider but it turned out she's the sister of our ex-boss!" Free stated laughing nervously. "And speaking of the kids, your great-nephew is kicking the ass of some weird alien thing alongside the redhead and Crona." "Weird alien thing?" McGucket wondered. "Hey, I think he's talkin' 'bout Shifty!" he realized with a snap of his fingers before becoming scared. "Oh no, I think he's talkin' 'bout Shifty!" "Wait, that's what you called that monster? It transformed into all of us when we accidentally unfroze it and is now after Dipper, Crona & Wendy!" Eruka exclaimed. "I can explain later. Now let's move!" Ford commanded preparing to race back to the lab before he felt his feet slip off the ground. "Oh right, almost forgot about her." "We don't have time for you anymore Pines, but we'll keep on watching." Medusa threatened and the trio faded into the shadows cackling, their eyes being the only thing visible before finally vanished. "Well that was...ominous." Spirit remarked. "Now then, you were saying?" "Right, let's get outta here!" Ford stated racing out of the cave and the others followed.

"Any final requests brat?" the Shapeshifter snarled despite it having lost its mouth, now pinning Dipper against the wall as the boy tried to attack with Excalibur. "You can't stop me! I have the single most powerful weapon in the world!" Dipper declared holding the sword in the air before it was snatched out of its hands. "No!" "The most powerful weapon in the world? Doesn't seem to look like much." the experiment commented examining Excalibur before the Holy Sword spoke up. "FOOL! I'd think twice before insulting the legendary weapon of King Arthur himself!" he declared to the monster's shock. "It can talk?!" "Yes indeed. Allow me to introduce myself. I am the Holy Sword known as Excalibur, sought after by Meisters far and wide to gain my ultimate power." Excalibur rambled. During his long-winded speech, not even the Shapeshifter was safe from making the Excalibur face, despite again losing its mouth. "Is he seriously this obnoxious?" "You have no idea." Dipper replied. "Now's our chance!" he exclaimed, giving Wendy & Crona an opening to strike the beast down, making him drop the young detective and the sword. "Are you ready Excalibur?!" he asked. "As a matter of fact, allow me to take this one boy." Excalibur said turning into his weapon form and hovering high in the air. "Holy Explosion!" he shouted zooming towards the Shapeshifter and stabbing him in the remains of its head and emitted a powerful explosion, finally killing it for good. When the dust cleared, all the three of them could see was Excalibur silently dusting himself off next to the green blood-covered remains of the Shapeshifter. "Where did that explosion come from?!" the voice of Free exclaimed running closer to the lab. "It came from here! Hopefully the kids are okay!" Ford replied finally entering the battle-damaged laboratory where they found Dipper panting and the Shapeshifter's corpse rotting. "Shifty..." "I am so sorry I had to do this Ford. But he tried to kill us once and we couldn't let him do it again." Dipper apologized putting a comforting hand on his great uncle, now mourning the death of the creature. "I accept your apology Dipper, but I feel like this is partially my fault as well." Ford stated remorsefully. "When Fiddleford and I raised it, it slowly became dangerous for some reason which led me to try and imprison it." "And we all know how badly that failed!" McGucket exclaimed killing the dour mood. "Oop, sorry. Carry on y'all." he then quickly apologized. "Now where the others at?" "That was totally wicked!" Black Star screamed in excitement as the aforementioned rest of the party burst out from the security room to congratulate Dipper, Crona & Wendy. "I mean, the way you weaponized Excalibur's annoyingness to kill him off was alphanumeric!" he shouted. "Try and guess which word I made up?" "We can all talk later. What happened to Mabel?" Dipper asked. "She's still with us, but she's been rather quiet for some reason lately." Kid stated. "No matter, now we have to contact my father! Maka?" "Right Kid." Maka obeyed stepping up to the cryogenic tube, fogging up the glass and writing the number needed to contact Death. "42-42-564, whenever you want to knock on Death's door." the girl Meister chanted causing the glass to turn into an image of Lord Death. "Oh hello there everyone! I see you've got Pacifica back, good show!" the Shinigami applauded the Mystery Meisters before he realized something was wrong. "Hey, what smells like dead alien body? And where are Soul & Stanley?" The party was silent for a few moments before Dipper put his hat over his chest. "They're gone." he revealed. "They gave themselves up to Kishin Cipher to save us and got turned into monsters like what happened with Pacifica's dad." "And then the guy unleashed all sorts of fresh hell all across Gravity Falls, complete with his own big showtune!" Patty shouted, much to Death's horror. "No, it can't be!" he gasped. "In Layman's terms Mr. Death, we're gonna need somewhere to hide until we're ready cause Gravity Falls is definitely no longer safe!" Soos said. "You got any place for us to stay sir?" "Oh yes, you can room with my students in Death City and train to stop Kishin Cipher." Lord Death suggested. "Thank you old friend, but first I would like to have a word with my new Meister." Excalibur said. "Mason Pines, please step forward." "Wait-what-how did you know my real name?!" Dipper exclaimed in confusion before the sword cut him off. "FOOL! I shall answer later, now take a knee my boy." he commanded, making the young man think he was being knighted. "His real name is Mason?" Pacifica tittered, causing Excalibur to silence them as well. "And you shall stay quiet as well!" "Yes sir." the rest of the Mystery Meisters complied bowing before the boy and the sword. "Mason Pines, for your sudden expertise in mastering the art of the sword, learning how to properly resonate with me and using my abilities to stop a great evil. I hereby anoint you as my newest Meister." he announced knighting Dipper with his cane. "May I wish good fortune upon you my friend." "Aw look, you made a new friend Excalibur!" Death exclaimed cheerfully before he began musing on how to move everyone to the Academy. "Now how can I create a way outta there?" he pondered before Eruka spoke up. "I believe Free and I can help out." "Oh, a witch helping us out? The last time that ever happened, we were quickly betrayed." Stein commented as the witch and the wolfman began combining their magic to create a gateway to Death City. With various mathematics symbols beginning to circle around a green entryway, the entrance began giving off a heavenly glow that left the duo exhausted. "Now before anyone says we pulled it out our butts, it's partially true." Free panted giving a thumbs up. "Spatial Magic and Magic Calculation, an unstoppable team." Eruka wheezed in reply. "Excellent, thank you for your assistance. Now come along, to Death City we go!" Ford exclaimed charging into the portal before Stein, McGucket, Spirit, Gideon, Black Star, Tsubaki, Blair, Waddles and Pacifica ran in after him. When almost everyone had exited the bunker into the portal, Dipper, Mabel, Maka and Crona were the only ones left to find that the witch's former cronies were being put back up on their feet by the Mizunes. "Aren't you coming with us too?" Mabel asked Eruka. "I would like to Mabel, anything to get away from this hellhole, but your town is in trouble and without you around, we might as well stay behind." Eruka answered reassuringly hugging the human girl. "And I just want to say, thank you both for helping us." "Yeah, we're gonna miss you little rascals!" Free exclaimed nearly crushing Dipper in a bear hug. "Gonna miss you guys too, now please stop crushing me!" Dipper groaned before being dropped to the ground. "And thank you for helping us get home." Maka stated gratefully. "Now good luck on protecting Gravity Falls while we're gone." "Uh guys, I think the portal might close any minute now!" Crona warned his friends as the gateway to Death City began to slightly fizzle out. "Oh right! Thanks for reminding us Crona." Dipper exclaimed before he ran into the light followed by his sister and Maka. "We'll see you guys later!" The last one to step into the portal was Crona, but only after he gave Free & Eruka one last hug. "I hope you'll all be okay when we get back." the Demon Swordsman whimpered. "Don't sweat it squirt, we got the skills to survive." Free assured Crona pushing him into the light. "Now go on, be with your friends." Crona put on a final smile before he faded into the light and the portal finally gave out, leaving the room almost deserted. "Well then, let's get crackin'!" the wolfman declared preparing to move out. "C'mon you three-eyed bastard, Papa Free's ready to get the belt out!" The Mizunes chittered in agreement scurrying behind and Eruka, turning back to examine the room hoping that her new friends safely escaped to Death City, being the last to leave, the only current occupant of the room being the decomposing corpse of the Shapeshifter.

Mere hours after the bunker was left completely empty, Kishin Cipher suddenly appeared and forced the Gorgons to kneel before him. "So, let's set a few things straight." he said in a polite yet livid tone. "I assigned you all to follow the Pines and those moronic Meisters into the bunker to kill them all." As Kishin Cipher continued, his voice grew deeper and his body turned a haunting crimson signaling that he was furious. "AND YET YOU ALL FAILED TO DO THAT TO EITHER OF THEM! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN YOU IDIOTS?!" "Please forgive us master, Screw was about to kill us when one of my former minions intervened and still they won over us!" Medusa begged for mercy. "Which one, the brain-dead mutt, the whiny frog or those pesky little mice?" Kishin Cipher sarcastically asked returning to normal. "And speaking of which, you might as well found me a new one!" Kishin Cipher then hovered over to the remains of the Shapeshifter and brought him back to life, albeit still with his mouth & an arm missing and various scars. "Good old Shifty! I've read a lot about you in Fordsy's journals, but I never thought we'd meet in person one day!" "Bill Cipher I presume?" the newly revived experiment asked. "Close but no cigar Stitch! Call me Kishin Cipher, the God of Weirdness & Madness and new master of these lands!" the Dream Kishin declared causing reality to spin around like a carousal and then stopping. "So, how'd you end up like this?" "There was this boy with an annoying sword who had put an end to me." the Shapeshifter answered to the horror of Kishin Cipher. "Wait, Pine Tree has Excalibur now?!" he exclaimed in shock. "I may be an utter pain in the ass to every one of my victims, but even I know where to draw the line!" "I need revenge! Make me your slave and I promise I shall be your greatest ally!" the creature begged him. Kishin Cipher contemplated for a few moments before finally accepting. "Okay then buddy, you're now mine!" he exclaimed. "But first you're gonna need some new threads." With a snap of his fingers, the Shapeshifter felt itself transform from a bizarre alien creature to a black chameleon-like beast with white markings lining its body, blood red eyes and a large heart-shaped hole in its chest. "So how's the new look dahling?" Kishin Cipher inquired with a proud look on his face admiring his work. "I feel so reinvigorated master! Please tell me when we can kill the Pines?!" "Up bup bup, don't get excited so soon! We still got other things to do." Kishin Cipher declared before he created a portal that he, the Shapeshifter and the witch sisters stepped into, no doubt to somewhere to plot their next scheme.

And so Weirdmageddon commences. With out heroes now being forced to retreat and the villains gathering forces, me the author and you the readers are left on the edge of our seats to learn what happens next. Will Ford make peace with his inner demons? What will happen when Mabel's secret gets out? Is there any way of stopping Kishin Cipher now?! Tune in next chapter, same Soul time, same Falls channel!

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austinpanda · 5 years ago

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Bangor Bound Ch. 9

Monday, Sept. 16 - Tuesday, Sept. 17

So of course I got sick and threw up as soon as I was awake at 6:30 this morning. I believe I’m the next evolutionary step; I don’t have to be awake to be acutely aware that the walls of the garbage masher just started getting closer together. At 6:30 I woke up, and all at once thought, “It’s Monday again, I’m leaving for Bangor in 11 days, I don’t have a place to stay after the first day’s drive, I don’t have a place to stay after the second day’s drive, and I don’t have a place to land in Bangor. And I don’t have half of our money yet, and I have a guy trying to get me to move into his apartment that’s making me VERY nervous.

Let us start with the guy, because he was most of yesterday, which was Sunday. He’s got a big house with an apartment in it. It has three bedrooms. It’s been professionally cleaned. It has all-new, stainless steel appliances. It’s on a river. It’s beautiful. It’s affordable. It’s almost too good to be true! There are, however, a few red flags. The guy doesn’t do leases. You’re just there month to month, as long as it works out. When I asked him why, he said it was for his protection, in case things didn’t work out.

More red flags: He doesn’t want any of my information. He never asks for my name, or social security number, or phone number, or work history, or rent references, or anything. He just wants first and last month’s rent. He says a couple of quiet guys with an indoor cat is best for him, because he’s fussy about who he rents to, and doesn’t like children running up and down the stairs, etc.

More red flags: It’s important that we do the deal quickly, because he has others who are looking at the place. No problems renting it, but it’s losing money as long as he doesn’t rent it. So it’s important that I pay him now. I offer to give him a couple of hundred to hold the place, and he comes back with, “So what do you think? Want to send money ASAP please? Losing money here?”

I think I may be passing up an actual opportunity for something awesome here, but I also think I’m passing up an opportunity for a scary guy to not communicate with me very well, possibly leading to a horrible landlord/tenant situation. And I guaranteed that the situation would have another uncomfortable chapter because I emailed him and said, “Okay, how should I send you the couple hundred?” And then I emailed and said, “nm I’m just going to look for something else, sorry for my confusion, sorry, thank you, bai” And then I got Zach to show me how to block this guy, so I don’t get any other emails from him.

Today, a few things huge things happened in quick succession.

Zach started a shower. I started house hunting. I thought, “I’ll check Fidelity Net Benefits and see if I can request money from my retirement and roll the rest over today.” Turns out I CAN!!! I’m getting about a quarter of my retirement savings turned into cash, for my move to Bangor, minus a bunch for withholding. The website made it take about five minutes. It’ll be direct deposited. I’m rich, biyatch!! Sort of, kind of, etc.

My next step, and this was both large and heroic on my part, was that I got us a place to land in Bangor. I spent two hours making three hotel reservations. The first is in Nashville, the second in Buffalo, and finally a week at the Ramada in Bangor while we house hunt. This means pretty much all dates have been decided. Here they are:

Wednesday, September 25 - two U-Box pods and some movers arrive at 2:00. They deliver the pods, then fill them with all our stuff. By this time we need to be completely packed. Everything that goes in the pods needs to be ready to move. By the end of this day, we’ll have two full and locked pods in the parking lot, and the only stuff left in the apartment will be that which gets to Bangor in my car.

Thursday, September 26 - We clean our empty-ass apartment and do whatever final, last-day shit we have to do. Not sure what we’re going to sleep on. The cleaning won’t take long, because...you know...the place is already clean NOW, dammit. :)

Friday, September 27 - We wake up and begin the 13-hour trip to Nashville in my car, Beige Lightning, with my cat, Samuel L. Jackson in the backseat kitty condo I’ve built for his lazy ass. We drive through A large swath of Texas, Arkansas, and Tennessee. This is, I predict, the period of greatest police peril. Two gays and an African American cat who’s probably a pot-head, trying to escape The South. Hopefully we arrive in Nashville and acquire our hotel room at the Super 8 by Wyndham Nashville West without incident. This will be the longest leg of the trip. The other two legs will be about 10 hours each.

Saturday, September 28 - We wake up, toss the kitty in the car and begin the second leg of our journey, the one from Nashville, Tennessee to Buffalo, New York. I know a guy in Buffalo who’s gay and would take off all his clothes and rub his bits on me if I asked him nicely! I shan’t, because, you know, that ain’t how my marriage works right at this moment, but it’s still a great feeling, the virtual bit-rubbing (the newest crypto-currency!). We spend the night at the Red Roof Inn Plus+ University at Buffalo-Amherst. And by the way, if they say Plus and use the plus sign, does that make it a minus?

Sunday, September 29 - We wake up, load Beige Lightning, and begin the final leg of our trip, from Buffalo to Bangor. This final leg of the journey will take about ten hours, and the first half will be driving from the far left side of New York state to the far right side. We exit the east side of New York, and enter the west side of Massachusetts. We drive from left to right across Massachusetts, arcing northward, until we hit New Hampshire. We’re in New Hampshire for about 30 seconds--we drive through but a tiny portion of the state--and then we’re in Maine.

By this point in our journey, the fall colors will have arrived in the state of Maine. (I’m paying extra to be certain of this.) So the trees will all be a beautiful multicolored stained glass collage of gold, orange, and red. Everything will look like a postcard. When we drive by a house on the side of the highway, it will be quaint, and rustic, and have pumpkins out front, along with that corn where the kernels are all different colors. And little gourd things. Many of the towns we drive through will be in the middle of their annual harvest festival and parade. For a brief period, my car will become part of the parade, and when the people see from my license plates that I’ve just come from Texas, they’ll throw mardi gras beads, and candy, and poutine into my car, as a way of saying, “Welcome!”

We arrive in Bangor. Time stops for a few seconds when we drive over the line, while all the time lines readjust, and the city expands to accommodate two chunky white guys and their cat, and this is when the first snowfall begins. We’re not going to be driving a moving truck, and Beige Lightning is sporting brand new tires, so a little snow won’t imperil us. We check in at our hotel, Ramada by Wyndham Bangor, the hotel with the shortest damn name in the whole world, only four words. I’ve pre-paid for 8 days at this place. And we’ll unload the car in a gentle snowfall, while the cat’s eyes become enormous with awe.

I sincerely wish we could have a home already there to move into, but the way in which we’re doing it has a couple of advantages. I won’t be at the mercy of crazy no-lease guy. I’ll be able to house hunt while actually there in Bangor, so we can visit places, and speak to people directly. I predict house hunting will require more effort, but produce better results this way.

Me: Give me an apartment!

Then: But you aren’t employed!

Me: I know. (whipping out bundles of cash) Will MONEY help fix that? Mwahahahaha!

And finally, one reason why I don’t mind spending three days driving to a state I’ve never visited before, with no home to move into once I’m there, is because...part of what makes this a legitimate adventure is the fact that its conclusion contains some degree of uncertainty. Yes, it’d be nice to drive there with all our plans set and all our questions answered, but that’s inconsistent with reality, and robs you of the growth you experience through facing your fear and surviving the adversity. It’s not that it has to be scary or it doesn’t count. It’s that, if you had to do it while scared, at least it’s a greater accomplishment. And that, I hope, will feel good forever.

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snapadoodlez · 7 years ago

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12th Doctor series playlists: series 8 & ‘Last Christmas’

Here is the final playlist I’ve made in my Twelfth Doctor series playlist collection (until the 2017 Christmas Special, that is). This one is for Peter’s very first season as Twelve: Series 8 and ‘Last Christmas’. Similar to my other playlists, it’s organized so that the listener can (more-or-less) relive the story by listening to it from beginning to end.

The Spotify link can be found here: https://open.spotify.com/user/sirenssongs/playlist/3edfNpeuti7HQDR1xcrYCt

As in Series 8, the emotional arcs here are Clara & Twelves’s new dynamic, Clara & Danny’s relationship, Twelve’s self-discovery, and the new Twissy chapter in the on-going doctor/master saga. Fair warning: this is the most heavily“Broadway” out of the Twelve Series playlists, but I think it works for re-telling the story.

I’ve included the full track-list and guide below the “Keep Reading” line. I know I’m going to miss Peter dreadfully, so hopefully this’ll be a nice easy way relive his incredible run as The Doctor. I’ll probably do an embedded version later and a master-post with all the ‘Twelve’ playlists soon: In the meantime, enjoy!

*Note: I realize the last song, “When You’re Home”, also starts out the s9 playlist: I thought it bridged the gap between the two really well, and I couldn’t decide where to put it. So both playlists it is! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

1. Sparks - The Who

“Any moment now, he’s a coming… but times change, and so must I.” “I think it’s going to be a whopper.”

2. Why Can’t the English? - My Fair Lady

“Have you regenerated? I remember you. You're Handles. You used to be a little robot head, and now...you've really let yourself go.”

“Why do you keep talking like that? What's gone wrong with your accent? You sound the same. It's spreading. You all sound all English. Now you've all developed a fault.”

“Oh no, that's good... I'm Scottish… I can complain about things, I can really complain about things.”

3. Just You Wait - My Fair Lady

“No. Don't. Don't smile. I will smile first and then you know it's safe to smile.” “Are you cross with me?” “I am not cross. But if I was cross it would be your fault and. Yes, I am cross.”

“Nothing is more important than my egomania.”

4. Poor Baby – Company

“Well, if neither of us placed that ad, who placed that ad?”

Missy plays matchmaker. *

*In my head for this song, she’s droning on and on about the Doctor’s loneliness to Seb. Oh Seb... you sassy Interface... how I miss you.

5. I Don’t Know His Name - She Loves Me

“The Doctor regenerated in your presence. The young man disappeared, the veil lifted. He trusted you. Are you judging him?” “I am not sure who you think you're talking to right now, Madam Vastra, but I have never had the slightest interest in pretty young men... Just because my pretty face has turned your head, do not assume that I am so easily distracted.”

“When did you stop wearing your veil?” “When you stopped seeing it.”

6. Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down and Out) - Leslie Odom Jr.

“You look at me, and you can't see me. Have you any idea what that's like? Please, just see me.”

7. Something There - Beauty and the Beast

“Thank you.” “For what?” “Phoning.”

“I..I don't think that I'm a hugging person now.” “I'm not sure you get a vote.”

8. Roll Away Your Stone - Mumford & Sons

“Clara, be my pal and tell me... am I a good man?”

9. Mix Tape - Avenue Q

“Er… are you going to the leaving thing tonight for Cathy?”

“Um……No, I'm not.”

“Oh, okay, never mind.”

“Good night.”

“Change your mind…I'm going… I'll give you a lift. Why not?”

10. Tonight At Eight - She Loves Me

“Are you going to look that terrified when you take me out for a drink?” “I… I absolutely promise I won't.” “Play your cards right and you might.”

11. Tango Tragique - She Loves Me

“I am trying to have a date. A real life, inter-human actual date! It's a normal nice, everyday, meeting-up sort of thing. And I would just like to know, is there any other way you can make this any more surreal than it already is?”

“I made a joke.” “A not-funny joke.” “Yeah, well, do you know what I'm making now?” “A fuss?” “An exit.”

12. Ice Cream (Reprise) - She Loves Me

“Hello. I'm Clara Oswald. I'm a bit tricky, sometimes a bit up myself, but I think that's basically everything you need to worry about.”

“Hello. I’m...I’m sorry.”

“Also, I mouth off when I'm nervous and I've got a mouth on me. Seriously, it's got a mind of its own. I’m really worried it wants to go solo.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. Or say something nice.”

13. Valley Forge (Demo) - Lin-Manuel Miranda (The Hamilton Mixtape)

"You loved the army.” "Yep. And then one day I didn't.”

“When did you get to become so wise?” “Same way as anyone else. I had a really bad day.”

Danny has memories he’d rather forget.

14. An Open Letter (feat. Shockwave) - Watsky (The Hamilton Mixtape)

“Look, take him away. Shut him up, shut him down. Up or down, it doesn't matter to me. I've got a lot of work to do. Again. “ “Will you be okay?” "Why wouldn't I be okay? I was fine till you two blundered in.”

"How stupid do you think I am?”

"I'm willing to put a number on it.”

“Well, is there anything I can do?”

“Yes. Yes, and this is very, very important. Leave us alone!”

“When this is all over, you can finish the job.” “How do you mean?” “Well, you've explained me to him. You haven't explained him to me.”

15. Enough - In The Heights

“Now, Time Lords, do you salute those?” “Definitely not...And you can get out of my Tardis!” “Immediately, sir.” “Doctor, this is stupid, this is unfair!”

“Do you love him?”

“No.”

“Really had enough with the lies.”

“Not in that way.”

“If he ever pushes you too far, I want you to tell me, because I know what that's like. You'll tell me if that happens, yeah?” “Yeah, it's a deal.” “No. It's a promise.” “Okay. I promise.”

Clara is soooo over it. And so is Danny.

16. Sunrise - In The Heights

“I am so…”

“I know.”

“And I just get nervous.”

“Me too.”

“I don't even know what I'm nervous of…”

“I'll show you. So, listen. If you listen to nothing else, listen to this...”

17. Ain’t It Fun – Paramore

“There are moments in every civilization's history in which the whole path of that civilization is decided... Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now... Kill it. Or let it live. I can't make this decision for you.”

18. Get Gone - Fiona Apple

Don't you dare lump me in with the rest of all the little humans that you think are so tiny and silly and predictable. You walk our Earth, Doctor, you breathe our air. And you can damn well help us when we need it.

Go on. You can clear off. Get back in your lonely, your lonely bloody Tardis and you don't come back.

19. There’s a Fine, Fine Line - Avenue Q

“I'm done, I'm done. I am finished with it...It's over. I'm finished with him, and I told him that. What is that face for? Why don't you believe me?” “Because you're still angry. You can never finish with anyone while they can still make you angry.”

20. A Hymn To Him - My Fair Lady

“No, that was me allowing you to make a choice about your own future. That was me respecting you.” “Oh, my God, really? Was it? Yeah, well, respected is not how I feel.” “Right... Okay...”

“Human emotions are confusing.” - Twelve (probably)*

*Note: for the purposes of this playlist, you can just replace “woman” with “human” and “man” with “timelord” for this song (Henry Higgins’ many issues in My Fair Lady is a discussion for another day); For all it’s faults, I can’t think of another song that exemplifies the whole “emotions confuse me” vibe as well as this one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

21. The Party’s Over - Leslie Odom Jr.

“I just thought this would be a good one to...”

“To end it. Yeah. It is. It's a good choice. A good one to end on.”

22. Don’t Wait Too Long - Tony Bennett

“To our last hurrah.” “Our last, yeah. I mean, it's not like I'm never going to see you again.” “Isn't it?” “Is it?” “I thought that's what you wanted.”

23. Style - Taylor Swift

“Was that Danny? What did he want?” “He's fine with it.” “Sorry..?” “Danny. He's fine with the idea of me and you knocking about... Oh, to hell with the last hurrah. Let's keep going...I've had a wobble. It's a big wobble, but it's fine... Now, shut up and give me some planets.”

“You can't really tell if something's an addiction till you try and give it up.”

24. You’ll Be Back – Hamilton

“Now, that was surprising. And I love surprises.”

Missy anticipates her return.

25. I Think I’m In Love With You - Jessica Simpson

“Okay, before all of that. Before all of the stuff That I did wrong… I love you.”

“Danny, I love you. And you are the last person who's ever going to hear me say that.”

26. Without You – Rent

“It's a terrible thing. Just a terrible, terrible thing.” “It wasn't terrible...It was boring.” “Boring?” “It was ordinary. People just kept walking with their iPods and their shopping bags. He was alive, and then he was dead and it was nothing. Like stepping off a bus.” “He deserved better. And so did you.” “I don't deserve anything. Nobody deserves anything. But I am owed better. I am owed.”

27. No Good Deed – Wicked

“Danny Pink. Is dead.” “And?” “And fix it. Change it. Change what happened. Save him. Bring him back.”

“One last chance. And I don't care about the rules, I don't give a damn about paradoxes. Save Danny. Bring him back or I swear you will never step inside your TARDIS again.”

28. Blank Space - Taylor Swift

“Hello. I hope you're well. How may I assist you with your death?”

“Who are you?” “You know who I am. I told you. You felt it. Surely you did.” “Two hearts.” “And both of them yours.”

“Oh, you know who I am. I'm Missy.” “Who's Missy?” “Please, try to keep up. Short for Mistress. Well, I couldn't very well keep calling myself the Master, now could I?”

29. Coin-Operated Boy - The Dresden Dolls

“You see, Doctor? The power to slaughter whole worlds at a time, then make them do a safety briefing. Everyone who ever lived, man, woman and child, is now at my command. An indestructible army to rage across the universe. The more they kill, the more they recruit. Happy birthday.”

“All of this. All of it, just to give me an army?” “Well, I don't need one, do I? Armies are for people who think they're right. And nobody thinks they're righter than you. Give a good man firepower, and he'll never run out of people to kill.”

“Why are you doing this?” “I need you to know we're not so different. I need my friend back.”

30. Who Am I? - Les Misérables

“I really didn't know. I wasn't sure. You lose sight sometimes. Thank you! I am not a good man! I am not a bad man. I am not a hero. And I'm definitely not a president. And no, I'm not an officer. Do you know what I am? I am an idiot, with a box and a screwdriver. Just passing through, helping out, learning. I don't need an army. I never have, because I've got them. Always them. Because love, it's not an emotion. Love is a promise. And he will never hurt her.”

31. History Has Its Eyes On You – Hamilton

“This is not a good day. This is Earth's darkest hour. And look at you miserable lot. We are the Fallen. But today, we shall rise. The army of the dead will save the land of the living. This is not the order of a general, nor the whim of a lunatic. This is a promise. The promise of a soldier!”

32. Unworthy of Your Love – Assassins

“Ten zero eleven, zero zero by zero two” “What did you say?” “The current coordinates of Gallifrey. It's returned to it's original location. Didn't you ever think to look?” “You are lying!” “We can, we can go together, just you and me. Just like the old days.” “You'd be clapped in irons.” “If you like.”

“Seriously. Oh, Doctor. To save her soul? But who, my dear, will save yours? Say something nice. Please?” “You win.” “I know.”

33. For Good – Wicked

“Me and Danny, we are going to be fine. Don't you worry. You go home. Go home. Go be a king or something.” “Yeah, I might do that.” “Or queen, you know. Whatever.” “Yeah, queen, that would be good too.”

“Doctor? Travelling with you made me feel really special. Thank you for that. Thank you for making me feel special.” “Thank you for exactly the same.”

Last Christmas

34. Little Saint Nick – The Beach Boys

“Hello? Doctor? You know it can't end like that. What do you want for Christmas?”

Here comes Santa Claus.

35. One Last Time – Hamilton

“Five minutes. You can miss me for five minutes a day. And you'd better do it properly. You'd better be sad. I expect my five. But all the rest of the time, Clara, all the rest of the time, every single second, you just get the hell on with it. Clear?”

“...When I wake up, you won't be there.”

“Do you know why people get together at Christmas? Because every time they do, it might be the last time. Every Christmas is last Christmas, and this is ours... But now it's time to wake up.”

36. When You’re Home – In The Heights

“No one ever matched up to Danny, eh?” “There was one other man, but that would never have worked out.” “Why not?” “He was impossible.”

“The TARDIS is outside.” “So?” “So, all of time and all of space is sitting out there. A big blue box. Please, don't even argue.”

“Merry Christmas, Doctor.” “Merry Christmas, Clara Oswald.”

#doctor who #series 8 #doctor who fanmix #playlist #twelfth doctor #clara oswald #clara #whouffaldi #twelve x clara #danny pink #clara x danny #clara x danny pink #missy #the master #twissy #last christmas #spotify #whovian music

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tardisgirlepic · 8 years ago

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Ch. 15: Doctor Mysterio Analysis Part 2: Brains & the Eye of Harmony

Much of the foreshadowing for Season 10 and what’s going on in general depends on our understanding of the Library Metaphor and the little girl in it, the big “C” helmet/eye metaphor (the Eye of Harmony), as well as the Dinosaur, Fish, and Religion metaphors.

It also hinges on, among other things, our understanding of other symbols of the Great Work and the ideological war foreshadowed since the beginning of nuWho. It has been foreshadowed with every Classic Who Doctor, too. In fact, the 1st Doctor’s story “The Romans” ties into what is happening in TRODM and Season 10, and it contains metaphors for Fish, Religion, the Eye of Harmony, and the Great Work that we see in nuWho.

In fact, the 1st Doctor was helping to build the Eye of Harmony in the subtext and enslaving people to put in it. The Doctor was directly compared to Nero, a tyrant ruler, which is probably one of the reasons why the Great Intelligence calls the Doctor a tyrant. I’ll show you the subtext in a later chapter.

Examples of 3 Metaphors

Here’s the 12th Doctor in “Time Heist” looking into the fishbowl at a live goldfish and a castle, foreshadowing his stay in the confession dial castle. The Fish metaphor symbolizes the 12th Doctor, prison, self-sacrifice, and other characteristics that we’ll examine in the chapter on the Fish metaphor. Some type of visual representation of fish or mention of fish occurs throughout DW, including the Library with 3 different types of fish references. Of course, fish are especially prominent with the 11th and 12th Doctors.

To give you some understanding of the magnitude of a couple of the most used metaphors, there are at least 8 different symbols of the Great Work that DW uses, and most of them appear in TRODM. (Some have been used since the 1st Doctor’s episodes.) As for religious symbols, they number in the double digits. I’ve counted about 10 different types of Christian crosses, just on their own, each with it’s own meaning. Also, there are numerous pieces of religious artwork, statues, etc. Additionally, Fish are both a symbol of the Great Work and a religious symbol, among other things.

DW draws on symbology from many religions to tell the story, so not all of it is Christian symbology. However, Christian icons shows up in almost every episode because crosses are commonly used, for example, in window grills, door designs, and other architectural features. Symbols become important when characters are near them and cross their paths, like the Fish and the Doctor above.

Here is an example from “Heaven Sent” of a nearly perfect Greek cross (4 equal-length arms) in a carefully crafted camera shot. The cross is shown in the castle window behind the 12th Doctor, who is in shadow, which is significant. These crosses (in perfect form) are ubiquitous in the Library and in the 12th Doctor episode “Into the Dalek.” They usually refer to the Church rather than Jesus’ suffering. This ancient cross can be seen on ancient gravestones in Roman catacombs, among other places. We’ll look at various crosses and other religious symbolism in depth in their own chapter.

Classic Who Visual: “C” of Brains & Black Hole = Eye of Harmony

The best single visual that I’ve seen of what the brains are is something I discovered after starting this meta/handbook. I hadn’t watched much of Classic Who, except Tom Baker, the 4th Doctor, and a few other episodes. Therefore, most of my ideas have come from just watching nuWho. However, when I went back to watch various Classic Who episodes, especially the 1st and 7th Doctors in September and October, I found some fascinating surprises.

The Doctor’s Calling Card from Classic Who

This calling card, shown below, is one of my favorite finds and totally meshes with all the other subtext that I’ve been showing you. The Doctor left this card in the 7th Doctor episode “Remembrance of the Daleks.” (Once again, he is connected to the Daleks.) While I understood some of the symbology, the big “C” was puzzling. (It’s part of the Question Mark, which obviously is the Doctor.)

I was so excited when, a few days later, the TRODM trailer came out with the big “C” room of brains! I couldn’t believe I just found this in Classic Who, and a few days later I got the definition in the TRODM trailer. It only took 28 years in real time between the 2 episodes! That was the missing piece I needed to figure out what the backward “C” meant, along with the black glob and the eye in the middle.

I’ve decoded more of the card than I labeled. It gives us a lot of information in multiple ways, so we need to examine this in sections.

Please note that this card doesn’t, I believe, quite accurately reflect the 12th Doctor because he requires a couple of color changes with the black stripe and the black hole. I believe the black stripe on the card represents the first level, the Blackness (nigredo) stage, of the Great Work. Therefore, the color should be yellow or red now. Also, the black hole should be red. There may be other changes, too, that I’m not aware of, but the card is still very applicable.

The card is divided in half by the black diagonal line. The dark side is on the upper left, and the light side is on the lower right, represented by the square of gold, which is part of the Doctor Who question mark. The Doctor’s card reflects the light and dark patterns that we looked at in the previous chapter.

TRODM’s big “C” of brains and the black hole forms the Eye of Harmony, which is represented on the card by the upside-down Doctor’s eye. This is part of the reason we keep seeing the 12th Doctor upside down.

Time Lords use the Eye of Harmony, also known as Rassilon's Star, as a power source for time travel. It harnesses the potential energy of a black hole.

In order to understand what this really means, we’ll have to examine the Body Part and Astronomical metaphors. But first, I want to mention a few things about the Library because this card directly relates to it.

A Quick Look at the Library & CAL

The Library, featured in “Silence in the Library” and its 2nd part “Forest of the Dead,” is a brilliant metaphor that foreshadows Season 10. It has to show up again, albeit maybe not quite in the same way or location, because it is a metaphor. It’s not what it seems. In fact, the Library is an epicenter of the long story of DW and contains several metaphors for the 12th Doctor. Both Library episodes are so important that the subtext in most other episodes eventually links back to them.

Moreover, not only does the Library symbolize things we’ve been discussing, for example, dreams vs. reality, hairdryers (mentioned in canon), fish, dinosaurs, and the Great Work, but also the Library relates back to Classic Who in multiple ways, including the 4th Doctor story “The Brain of Morbius.”

We can use the Library episodes to help us understand what is going on with the Doctor and TRODM.

Here is an example of how dinosaurs relate to the Library. The image below is from “Silence in the Library.” The little girl, CAL, is a Dinosaur with a disembodied mind, which is symbolized by the headless dinosaur behind her. She is a mirror of the Doctor.

What we see here is an illusion, just like what we are seeing with the Doctor. CAL no longer looks like this little girl she used to be. She was dying when her mind got uploaded to the Library computer. Essentially, she is the computer. This form in the shape of a girl is from her memories, just as the Doctor’s form is, most likely, from his. CAL is such a huge metaphor, and we’ll examine her in depth in the chapter on dinosaurs, superpowers, and “The Brain of Morbius.”

There are 2 things I do want to mention about her powers, which actually are defined in canon by the Classic Who reference to Morbius. First, CAL is causing books in the Library to fly off their shelves with her mind. Second, it’s her fears, anger, nightmares, and negative emotions that are causing havoc in the Library. The Vashta Nerada are a metaphor for her fears and anger. She unknowingly creates invisible monsters, just like Morbius created invisible monsters. Metaphorically, she is a Black Hole, which ties back into the Eye of Harmony. I’ll show you how this is tied into the Doctor in a few minutes.

The Library episodes give us an outline of what the very long DW story is about. They also foreshadow the ending, so to speak, of this very long arc. Of course, the story never ends, but the 12th Doctor has a special role, and his arc is taking us back to the beginning, just like Ohila said in “Hell Bent.” (Check out his opening credits. While his TARDIS comes from the past timeline into the future timeline, both timelines are going backward – counterclockwise.)

As an example of going backward, in the subtext, we are getting to see how Time Lord society was built and who the Master/Missy is. In another example, the Doctor and Clara’s escape in the original TARDIS from the Cloisters in “Hell Bent” gives us an idea of what happened in the 1st Doctor’s escape with Susan, the person he called his granddaughter. This ties into, for example, the Great Work, Rome/Pompeii, the Library, and Vikings. I also believe DW is showing us why Time Lords have a limit of 12 regenerations. Basically, we are getting backstory for the 1st Doctor.

I am expecting a good deal of this to become canon with the 12th Doctor because of who he really is and what the war is about. And we are finally getting close to the truth.

Anyway, DW frequently tells multiple parts of a story in an episode because they are typically outlines, so we may get parts of the past, present, and future mashed together. For all of us enthusiastic subtext readers, it’s our job to sort out parts of it before it becomes canon. For example, in TRODM, we get information about young Grant, adult-looking Grant, and the 12th Doctor (3 versions of the Doctor: past, present, and future). They tell us different parts of his story in one episode.

BTW, if I use the term “I believe,” “I think,” or something similar, I’m proposing an hypothesis.

Some Points about TRODM and the Library

As with everything, TRODM and the Library episodes are very complicated, so I’m going to list some points first before I show you the proof in separate chapters:

· The little girl in the Library, CAL, is a mirror of the 12th Doctor – The Ghost; this is why we saw subtext in “Human Nature,” showing the Roman Doctor trapped in the Library

· Dinosaurs in the Library show up in 3 places because they are a metaphor for the 3 faces of the Doctor; also, like Grant and the Doctor, dinosaurs represent CAL, so she is a dinosaur

· The dinosaur metaphor is a symbol of not only The Ghost and immense age, but also immense powers; CAL has much more mental power than it appears; this goes back to the 4th Doctor episode “The Brain of Morbius” and the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet, which is the inspiration for the DW episode; we do see some of CAL’s abilities, but, as with everything in DW, they are camouflaged. DW canon states that Time Lords have deadly mental powers, among other things.

· The Library metaphor is actually a prison because people fear The Ghost, but it’s much more than a prison and torture chamber; I believe, the Time Lords/Sisterhood of Karn/ Sibylline Sisterhood/Harmony Shoal have been using the Doctor for security, prophecy generation, and a source of energy and immortality, among other things. Who exactly are the Time Lords? They look human, but they are not. (Time Lords and Daleks originally came from the same planet, Skaro, in the subtext of the 1st Doctor episodes)

· While imprisoned, the Doctor is unknowingly used to create an army (shoal) of shadows/ghosts/quantum shades/fish (who wouldn’t want an army of Doctors); this is why I believe he is the epicenter for the Time War and why he blames Rassilon and the other Time Lords on the High Council; the war is happening again, but this is a different type of war

· The Library is actually a djinni trap and most likely connected to the raven in “Face the Raven”

· The Black Archive of UNIT, a metaphor, is most likely connected to the Doctor’s imprisonment; also, the Archive may be connected to Skaro

· The stone computer in the Library, in Pompeii, and in the Cloisters on Gallifrey are connected

· Like CAL, the Doctor will be self-destructive until he is united with his family (him being part of a bomb in TRODM was a metaphor for this)

· Until the Doctor gets totally free, he will be used to create more monsters; he is the Empty Child; the Mother of God consciousness has to come and claim him, so he has to have one more alchemical marriage (Lucy played the Mother of God consciousness, but she represents, I believe, the soothsayer in Pompeii and the Sibylline Sisterhood, which most likely connects back to the Sisterhood of Karn); as per the Great Work, the Doctor has to remember Clara to be totally free

· Fish, fishing, or representations of fish show up in the Library multiple times in 3 different ways, including a live goldfish; Fish represent the 12th Doctor because, for one thing, they are a symbol of the variant 12-step version of the Great Work (The Dr. Strange movie uses almost the exact symbol of projection that DW has in the Library; Projections = Ghosts); Fish represent the Sun stage of the original 4-step version of the Great Work

· Fish also represent a religious aspect, and this war with Harmony Shoal has been foreshadowed and couched in religious terms and symbols since the beginning of nuWho; there is some religious symbology in Classic Who, too, but I’m much more familiar with nuWho

· Understanding the religious metaphors shows the scope of this ideological war and what the Time War really means; when I figured it out, it was shocking to me, and I could see why the Doctor thought he had to destroy his people

· This war represents a slave revolt, a revolution that threatens the universe

· The universe is not as it seems

· In “The Forest of the Dead,” the 10th Doctor mentions hairdryers and drying hair 2 times in the Library (we previously examined how the big “C” structure in TRODM connects to hairdryers and the Animus); River also mentioned the Doctor showing up on her doorstep with a new suit and a haircut, which is connected to hairdryers

· Doctor Moon from the Library is associated with the hairdryers

· The big “C” structure relates to hairdryers and to the Eye of Harmony, a Classic Who reference

· Doctor Moon tries to keep CAL thinking her dreams are real, and the scary stuff in her life are just nightmares, when the opposite are true; Doctor Moon seems very much like the Dream Lord but with a personality change; the Dream Lord’s dream scenarios actually are quite close to the truth and tie into TRODM and the Library

· CAL forgot her true nature because of Doctor Moon’s deceptions and because of the stress from 4022 saved people in her head all chatting away

· Brain swapping in TRODM is a metaphor for a being of pure consciousness possessing someone’s body. This is like what the Master did in the 1996 Doctor Who movie.

· Mr. Brock in TRODM got eaten, so to speak, and transformed into an alien in a human body (possessed); in the Library some of the Lux expedition got eaten by the Vashta Nerada and uploaded by CAL to CAL. Those eaten and those saved got transformed into minds of pure consciousness; CAL, too, died (body) and got transformed into some cyborg-type being with her face actualized on the Control Node; Donna, too, died (body), so to speak, and got transformed; she and CAL were both wearing purple; CAL is a mirror of Donna, too. Donna is a mirror of the 12th Doctor

· DW draws inspiration from many novels and stories, including The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Forbidden Planet, Les Misérables, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, The Gruffalo, all types of myths, etc.

Astronomical and Body Part Metaphors & the Brains

In order to understand that big “C” room of brains and the Eye of Harmony, we need to take a closer look at the Astronomical metaphors, as well as a look at the Body Part metaphors. The meaning of the “C” of brains involves both of them. DW follows the Norse tradition of personifying units of time and elements of the cosmology as deities or beings. Also, DW personifies devices as body parts. They all are interchangeable since DW is telling the story in so many ways.

Astronomical Metaphors

While astronomical objects may be what they seem, we always have to be on the lookout for Astronomical metaphors.

We’ve seen how DW uses astronomical objects as metaphors that refer to people. For example, the astronomical body of a sun or star can become the Sun metaphor, referring to the Sun stage of the Great Work and to anyone who reaches the Sun stage.

Also, we looked at how the moon keeps the Earth stabile, just as a companion keeps the Doctor stabile. While we examined the Moon metaphor, which implied that the Earth metaphor was the Doctor, we never examined the Earth and additional Astronomical metaphors.

Earth Metaphor

The Earth metaphor, of course, represents the Doctor, but anyone can become one of his faces. Martha, for example, becomes a hidden face of the 10th Doctor in her first episode “Smith and Jones.” The hospital she works at gets moved to the moon with the Doctor, so this actually symbolizes an integration of the Earth and Moon.

Here’s Martha looking out the window. Her reflection is next to the Earth, so she is a face of the Doctor. The Doctor even kisses her unexpectedly to stall the Judoon, so he can stop the Plasmavore. It is a genetic transfer, and actually it represents an alchemical marriage and another way to show the integration of the Earth and Moon. At the end of the season, she walks the Earth, spreading stories of the Doctor; rescues him; and saves the world from the Master. She really is a face of the Doctor and becomes a medical Doctor, too.

Earth Metaphor from “The Stolen Earth” & “Journey’s End”

http://www.whoviannet.co.uk/info/scripts/thestolenearth.php

In “The Stolen Earth,” 23 planets plus the Earth are stolen simultaneously, and 3 other planets are stolen much earlier. The 10th Doctor tells Donna that someone tried to move the Earth once before a long time ago. (That first move seems like what we are going back to with the 12th Doctor because that started the whole problem.) After picking up the trail, the 10th Doctor and Donna end up in the Medusa Cascade. He says he was in the Medusa Cascade as “just a kid” of 90 years old.

Earth is a metaphor for the Doctor, and the number 27 is special because (12 x 2) + 3 = 27. There are two 12th Doctors plus the three extra planets refer to the The Ghost and 3 hidden faces of the Doctor. This means the Daleks symbolically steal The Ghost and are going to set off a reality bomb. That’s really interesting since the 12th Doctor represents The Ghost, and he is waking up to reality.

There are three 10th Doctors spelled out in canon in the 2nd part of the season finale, “Journey’s End,” foreshadowing some of what is happening now. Basically, the 2-parter gives us 3 new beings even if they don’t look like it.

· Meta-crisis Doctor – 10th Doctor regenerates into the same face using his preserved Hand as a repository for excess energy – he is supposed to be fully Time Lord

· Donna touches the Hand of the Doctor; she absorbs it’s energy and becomes the DoctorDonna – ½ human and ½ Time Lord – Donna’s body with the Doctor’s Time Lord brain; it’s why she needs her memory wiped of the Doctor in the end

· ½ human and ½ Time Lord version of the 10th Doctor, who is created when Donna touches the Hand; he gets ½ his genes from Donna and ends up staying with Rose because he has 1 heart and would age; according to the 10th Doctor, this version “destroyed the Daleks. He committed genocide. He's too dangerous to be left on his own.” That’s interesting since the fully Time Lord version supposedly destroyed his own people and the Daleks.

Some of what is happening to the 12th Doctor mirrors that of Donna, like the insectoid in “Turn Left” vs. in insectoid in TRODM. Both are being controlled. Also, Donna had a memory wipe vs. the Doctor’s memory block. They both were in Pompeii, albeit Capaldi’s character, Lobus Caecilius, was not called the Doctor. BTW, he put on a gold beetle in “The Fires of Pompeii,” so the beetle was controlling him.

CAECILIUS: Metella, my love, have you seen that clasp? The beetle one. The Egyptians do love a scarab.

The Egyptian reference is to River, who dressed up as Cleopatra in the “The Pandorica Opens,” shown below. It’s also a reference to Cleopatra being one of the Doctor’s wives. River is one of the people controlling the Doctor. (We’ll examine more proof in a few minutes.)

The reference to the “The Pandorica Opens” is also a reference to the Pandorica, itself. We know Caecilius is actually a prisoner in “The Fires of Pompeii.”

RIVER: A box, a cage, a prison. It was built to contain the most feared thing in all the universe.

The Pandorica was built to contain The Ghost/Merlin. In fact, there were 2 Doctors in “The Pandorica Opens” and its sequel “The Big Bang.” The Doctor from the future was actually the 12th Doctor. He is the one who flew the Pandorica into the Void and rebooted the universe. Essentially, he destroyed the universe to build a new one. Everyone’s lives changed.

Interestingly, there is another connection here with “The Stolen Earth” and “The Fires of Pompeii.” The home world of the Pyroviles, Pyrovilia, was one of the 3 planets stolen by the Daleks at a much earlier date, so they are part of The Ghost. Pyrovilia was stolen 2000 years earlier by the Daleks. It’s why we saw the Pryoviles, the enemies of the Doctor, in Pompeii nearly 2000 years ago.

From the TARDIS Wikia: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Pyrovile

A group of Pyroviles escaped in an escape pod, which crashed on Earth. The Pyroviles were obliterated in the explosion and eroded into dust in the core of Mount Vesuvius. They waited for thousands of years until they were awakened by an earthquake in 62. They influenced the soothsayers of Pompeii into creating a ventilation system, allowing the remains of the Pyroviles to be breathed in. These affected people, who were able to tell the future accurately from the time rift which formed around Pompeii.

So the Doctor as The Ghost has a relationship to Pyrovilia beyond what we saw in “The Fires of Pompeii.” Karen Gillan who plays both Amy Pond and the soothsayer in “The Fires of Pompeii” is turning into a Pyrovilian in the episode, a living rock person. Also, Amy Pond thinks she is turning into a Weeping Angel in the 11th Doctor episode “Flesh and Stone.” There seems to be a theme here. Amy is also one of the hidden faces of the Doctor.

The other 2 Ghost Planets stolen are

· Adipose 3, also known as Breeding Planet One. Donna mentioned she was dieting in the Library dream, which is a reference to Adipose 3 and “Partners in Crime,” where it featured.

· The Lost Moon of Poosh, but we don’t have canon information on that. Is the Lost Moon of Poosh the soothsayer? Caecilius probably represents Pyrovilia. His first name is Lobus, meaning pod. There was an escape pod or something similar that the Pyroviles came in. I believe Caecilius’ DNA is being used to create an army.

BTW, Caecilius wanted to get rich as a human. We know the Doctor would never do so as a Time Lord. And the 10th Doctor, as a human, had young children fighting in the conflict with the Family and also had young Latimer beaten. We know he would never do that either as a Time Lord. The implication may be that the beetle is like the human side, which is controlling the Doctor.

Black Hole Metaphor

Black Hole metaphors are either mentioned or linked through a reference in 4 of the last 4 episodes through TRODM. They have everything to do with what has been happening to the Doctor, even if it doesn’t look like it.

The actual definition of a black hole is so interesting, especially when we consider that the Doctor is a Sun.

A black hole is a place in space where gravity is so great that nothing, not even light or time, can escape its pull. At the end of its life, a giant star consumes all of its energy sources; explodes catastrophically in a supernova; collapses due to very strong gravitational forces; and forms a black hole. Black holes distort the space around them and pull neighboring matter into them, consuming planets, stars, and anything else that gets too close.

Another way a supernova can occur is if the remnant of a small, compact star, like the white dwarf, suddenly re-ignites in nuclear fusion. This explosion blows the star apart, so there is no black hole. All that is left is the companion star that was feeding it. (Compact stars that eat enough material from its companion can eventually become black holes.) Cataclysmic Cosmic Events and How to Observe Them by Martin Mobberley.

Because supernovas play a significant role in enriching the interstellar medium with the heavier atomic mass chemical elements, I can see Time Lords potentially exploiting this as a metaphor. Furthermore, the expanding shock waves from supernovas can trigger the formation of new stars, so supernovas are a way to breed Suns. (We’ll examine this in a future chapter.)

In “The Satan Pit,” the 10th Doctor tells Rose that the Time Lords, "practically invented black holes. Well, in fact, they did."

He could mean that Time Lords created/affected the laws of physics in the universe, which would make sense in the current situation. However, I know he means, at a minimum, manipulating Sun metaphors to become Black Holes.

The Black Hole in the episode “The Satan Pit” is actually a metaphor for what we see happening with the Doctor. We’ll examine this in a few minutes.

The metaphor of the Black Hole in DW has a broader meaning than just eating things and not allowing things to escape. A Black Hole is someone who is at the Sun stage of the Great Work and then explodes with anger or madness (produces a metaphorical supernova) and causes a great deal of damage, usually making things disappear. That damage can come in different forms, which can be eating; killing; uploading minds (essentially killing the body); creating ghosts, zombies, or beings of pure consciousness; etc.

For example, in “Face the Raven,” the Doctor is on the verge of becoming a Black Hole once Clara died. He is exploding with anger and grief, but he is teleported into his confession dial. Therefore, his anger is contained for 4.5 billion years.

In another example, in “Hell Bent,” having escaped his confession dial, the Doctor, who has gone mad from his torture, grief, and solitary confinement for 4.5 billion years, kills the general before storming through the universe to save Clara. He causes destruction, and we’ll examine that in a future chapter.

In yet another example, the body of Hydroflax in “The Husbands of River Song” contains a split quantum actualizer, so its power source is a perpetually stabilized Black Hole.

River says that Hydroflax eats people. The robot metaphorically eats Ramone and Nardole. Eating can mean uploading people’s minds, which we’ve seen quite a few times. This is what happens with CAL in the Library, so she metaphorically eats people. Decapitating people suggests the body dies (or it is a robot if it lives), and the mind is pure consciousness. Therefore, Nardole is a ghost.

The distortion that a Black Hole creates would most likely be an incredibly powerful perception filter. We saw one of those with the little boy George in “Night Terrors,” who is a mirror of the Doctor. He made his adoptive parents forget that they couldn’t have children and that he wasn’t their real son. In fact, the 11th Doctor was scared of the monsters George was creating. We’ll look at this in more depth in a future chapter.

Red Holes in TRODM

The gemstone the Doctor gives Grant was formed in the heart of a red hole. The heart symbol goes along with the name of the gemstone: the Ghost of Love and Wishes and is significant in other ways, which you’ll see. The Doctor tells young Grant about the gemstone: http://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=555&t=30354

The Doctor: Well, it's more than a gemstone - it's also like a kind of onboard computer. Come here. Can you see... Can you see that little yellow star at the end of that curve? It comes from near there. Formed in the heart of a red hole and stabilised in pure dwarf star crystal! The gemstone is intuitive - it knows what you want and draws energy from the nearest star to make it happen. There's only four of them left in the universe. The Apocalypse Monks of the Andorax called this one the Hazandra - the Ghost of Love and Wishes.

Red holes are real astronomical objects. They are similar to black holes, but without, for example, an event horizon. That is significant because things will be able to escape. We don’t need to know more about them. What’s important here is that the red matches the Red stage of the Great Work, so this is a kinder, gentler version of the Black Hole. The Black Holes most likely go along with the Black (nigredo) stage, White (albedo) stage, and Sun stage of the Great Work.

Interestingly, the Doctor specifically mentions a dwarf star. I’m sure this is significant, as it’s contrasted with the giant metaphor of a star that produces a supernova. Dwarf stars wouldn’t produce supernovas, unless their cores reignite. If they are even capable of producing a supernova, they are much less likely to produce a Black Hole. Therefore, that Black Hole on the Doctor’s calling card, along with the stripe, should most likely be red.

Body Part Metaphors

There are only a couple of named Body Part metaphors that I can think of. There are the Hand of Omega and the Eye of Harmony; both are connected.

The Hand of Omega

In the previous chapter, we looked at the image below of the half-faced man and his prosthetic hand hanging from his lapel. It looks like he has 2 left hands. I believe this weird hand is a Classic Who reference to the Hand of Omega. Omega was one of 3 original founders of Time Lord society, along with Rassilon and the Other.

It’s interesting and, I believe, significant that the 10th Doctor kept his chopped-off hand in a container. Is it the Hand of Omega?

What I found fascinating was that in the 7th Doctor episode “Remembrance of the Daleks,” the Hand of Omega is actually a device called a remote stellar manipulator. In the image below from the TARDIS Wikia, the Hand is inside this metal box, which is the size and shape of a coffin. The box follows the Doctor around by levitation and responds to his voice commands. It’s one of many really mysterious and fascinating aspects tied to the 7th Doctor.

Here’s an image below of the actual remote stellar manipulator. This looks like a plasma globe where the girl’s hand creates an attractive path for the energy.

The Hand has the ability to turn stars into supernovas to fuel Gallifreyan time travel.

Is the Hand really a body part? Or is it a device? It may be both in the form of a sentient device, like the Time Lord device the Moment, where the War Doctor talked to it through its Bad Wolf interface in “The Day of the Doctor.” DW is telling the story in multiple ways, so we are seeing these metaphors show up in different forms. These Hand and Eye metaphors are partially why we see patchwork people and ships with human parts. DW is mixing its metaphors, so to speak.

Regardless of what form the Hand is in, I’m sure it is a reference to The Ghost since (1) it’s in a coffin; (2) it’s tied to Omega; and (3) it turns stars into supernovas.

Here is an image below of one of the Omegas from “A Good Man Goes to War.” Check out Melody Pond’s nameplate information on her crib. She has her own bar code, like an engineered product. Also, not only is there a Greek letter W (Omega, yellow arrow) on the nameplate, but also there is a Greek letter b (beta, red arrow). That has to mean that Melody is not the first version.

At a minimum, both River and Clara are unconsciously manipulating the Doctor to explode when they die. Also, Missy was manipulating him to explode, and Amy Pond has a role in this, as well.

That’s why he is going back to his past and changing himself to be a kinder, gentler, wiser person, so he is a Red Hole, who extends mercy and is less likely to hurt people unnecessarily. I’ll show you an example below, and we’ll examine this more in a future chapter.

With that said, that doesn’t mean he won’t bring the end of the universe. What I envision is that people are trapped in a virtual reality and think it’s real. They don’t want things to end, so they are going to fight back.

BTW, there is subtext that links the Doctor’s, granddaughter Susan, to River. River, Susan, and Merlin are all linked to trees. Also, Susan is linked to a clown (I believe it was through marriage, if I remember correctly), and the clown is linked to the 11th Doctor. River and Missy are linked, too. This is all something we’ll examine in a future chapter.

The Eye of Harmony

The Eye of Harmony is made of the Brains in the big “C” room, which is metaphorical, just like most things in DW. We’ve seen how the Eye was created, but you might not have recognized it. I’ll get to that below.

The simple definition in the TARDIS Wikia is that “the Eye of Harmony, also known as Rassilon's Star, was a power source for the Time Lords from which time travel was possible.” Not only does the Eye supply energy for the Time Lord home world of Gallifrey and their time travel technology, but also it is the heart of a TARDIS.

The 4th Doctor realizes in “The Deadly Assassin” that the Eye of Harmony symbolically describes a black hole contained and balanced against the mass of the planet Gallifrey by Rassilon's engineering.

The Time Lords harnessing the potential energy of a black hole sounds quite impressive.

In fact, the same engineering is used with a Black Hole and the Planet Krop Tor in the 10th Doctor two-part episode “The Impossible Planet” and “The Satan Pit.” So we get to see how it works, at least in part, which relates back to the 12th Doctor, Clara, River, and the ideological war set up in TRODM. It’s a prison that holds a giant Beast and an incredibly powerful energy source. Before we get to that, let’s look at a few other things.

This Black Hole and Planet combination is used again in the Library episodes, although nothing is said directly about this. We have to infer it from the metaphors, but it relates directly to TRODM. This is really the epicenter of the ideological war. We’ll examine this in a future chapter.

Here’s what the TARDIS Wikia says about the creation of the Eye: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Eye_of_Harmony

The Eye was created by suspending time around an exploding star in the act of becoming a black hole, harnessing the potential energy of a collapse that would never occur. According to the Eleventh Doctor, you would "rip the star from its orbit, [and] suspend it in a permanent state of decay." (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS)

The description of the Eye of Harmony is very metaphorical. Once we apply the Sun metaphor, the Eye of Harmony takes on a whole new, dreadful meaning.

We’ve seen how this works:

The Hand of Omega was used (Missy used Clara) to make the 12th Doctor explode (into a metaphorical supernova) with anger and grief in “Face the Raven” when Clara died. The Time Lords, metaphorically, ripped him from his orbit by teleporting him into the confession dial in “Heaven Sent,” where he was suspended in a permanent state of decay, dying over and over in his prison for 4.5 billion years. We’ll look at this more in a later chapter because there is a lot more going on in “Heaven Sent” than it appears.

So this is how the Time Lords used the Doctor to create Harmony Shoal. And this is exactly how it relates to the Doctor’s calling card.

In the image below from “Heaven Sent,” there are 2 other reflections in the teleporter chamber with the 12th Doctor. Therefore, there are 36 brains in the confession dial = three 12th Doctors. The Doctor is the embodiment of the 36 brains. He and they are ghosts. Two shadows mean death, and he’s had 2 shadows since Season 8.

So 4.5 billion years is an eternity. People are bound to forget about the Doctor. BTW, people on Gallifrey didn’t even know the true nature of the Eye.

The Eye has an interesting history:

According to The Book of the Old Time, Rassilon, "with a great fleet" found the Eye of Harmony in a "black void" and returned it to Gallifrey at which "the people rejoiced". (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

In the time of the Fourth Doctor, the Eye of Harmony lay secretly under the floor in the centre of the Panopticon. The Time Lords had forgotten its location, some believed it to be mythical or no longer in existence. The Eye was controlled by a crystal-shaped access system (TV: The Deadly Assassin)

The Panopticon, a main room in the Time Lord Capitol, is an interesting term because the definition means a building designed so all parts of the interior are visible from a single point. It was first designed for a prison system, but it can apply to a hospital and library. This is important because everything points to the Library <=> the Cloisters on Gallifrey <=> Panopticon <=> Pompeii. Also, believe it or not, the hospital is also applicable because the Doctor is healing.

According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon , the English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century created the Panopticon design. “The concept of the design is to allow all (pan-) inmates of an institution to be observed (-opticon) by a single watchman without the inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched.” Also, “Bentham described the Panopticon as ‘a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.’” Additionally, “Elsewhere, in a letter, he described the Panopticon prison as ‘a mill for grinding rogues honest.’”

So the Panopticon is more than it appears in the Classic Who episode “The Deadly Assassin.” The power of “mind over mind” is exactly what this ideological war entails.

The Doctor is being watched and has been watched for a long time. There are eye symbols throughout the 11th and 12th Doctor episodes. However, this concept of watching the Doctor goes all the way back to the 1st Doctor. It looked to me like the Daleks were the ones watching the Doctor in the 1st Doctor’s episodes. Also, it looked like the Doctor and companions might have been miniaturized.

Regarding Rassilon finding the Eye in the “black void,” that might be a reference to “The Big Bang,” where the 12th Doctor flew the Pandorica into the Void. According to the TARDIS Wikia, the Void is what “the Time Lords call the emptiness found between all parallel universes, different dimensions, and other realities. It is known to the Eternals as 'the Howling’ and to others as ‘Hell.’” Among other things, time does not exist there.

The Doctor may very well be in the Void. There are 2 images in “Under the Lake,” where we see images that together refer to a Void-like place called the Nexus. The first is the Doctor standing against the wall mural showing 3 original Star Trek crewmembers in a boat on one side of him and Jörmungandr, the sea serpent from Norse mythology, wrapping around the boat, but it’s head is on the other side of the Doctor.

The other image is from the crossover movie Star Trek: Generations. The number 1701B refers to ship designation of the Enterprise-B. In the movie, Kirk, who is presumed dead, ends up in the Nexus, which is an extra-dimensional realm where time, like in the Void, has no meaning and anyone can experience whatever they desire. In TRODM, we have the gemstone – the Ghost of Love and Wishes – which sounds the same, as far as getting whatever the owner desires.

The Matrix seems a likely location, too, especially since it’s tied to the Cloisters on Gallifrey and the stone computer. It just so happens that Caecilius was helping to build a stone computer in Pompeii, and there’s a computer that looks like it has stone components in the Library.

Wherever he is at, it’s all pointing to the Doctor being in an alternate universe. River and the Doctor’s picnic on Asgard suggests this too. They are in a different dimension there.

Since the Doctor has 3 parts, it’s possible he can be in 3 different locations at one time.

My hypothesis is that the Eye of Harmony can be used to generate prophecies. That is consistent with what is happening with the Matrix generating prophecies.

The Eye of Harmony has other functions, too. The Doctor Who movie showed that opening the Eye would allow the Master/Missy to see what the Doctor saw, so they could find him. This may be why the Doctor also has a vision impairment problem, including, perhaps, blindness. If he looks into the Eye, the Master would be able to take over his body.

TARDIS: Mind, Eye & Heart

Also, although not a named body part, we could include the TARDIS as the Doctor’s mind/storeroom (“Heaven Sent”) and wife (“The Doctor’s Wife”). The TARDIS actually uses the Eye of Harmony as its heart. After all, it is sentient. BTW, it’s interesting that the TARDIS is a metaphor for both the Doctor’s mind and wife, and it mirrors the telepathic link he has with her. There is also something more going on with integration through the Great Work. While I mention a bit below, it’s complicated and a topic for a future chapter.

It’s interesting, too, that I saw the 1st Doctor building a sentient TARDIS. (I need to watch more episodes to learn more about it.) Controls moved on their own, and weird things started happening, like an invisible, possibly dangerous presence was in the TARDIS.

The Boat Metaphor

The Eye of Harmony and what has been happening to the Doctor has a lot to do with the TARDIS and the Boat metaphor. A Boat refers to someone or something that, like an ark, carries others to safety, on adventures, etc. In the Library, CAL is actually a lifeboat to all the people trapped there by the Vashta Nerada. She uploads them to her mind. In fact, CAL has a yacht (red arrow) associated with her. The people she uploaded live their lives of pleasure unaware they are in a virtual reality. For CAL, life isn’t so pleasurable due to her nightmares, which turn out to be real.

Since the Eye of Harmony is actually a prison, the Boat metaphor can come with chains.

The 12th Doctor is a prisoner from the very beginning of his first episode, “Deep Breath.” Check out the chain. In fact, at one point, his head looks like it is hanging from the chain. Here, it looks like his head is hanging from the rope. He’s not the only prisoner. Clara, Vastra, and Jenny, are too since they are associated with chains in the same scene. But that’s not all.

The Doctor (red arrow) and Clara (white arrow) are associated with the boat. Clara is a face of the Doctor. Jenny and Strax are too, although the camera has to pull out to make them out. This is where the Doctor fell face first into the dirt, and the TARDIS Cloister bell rang, telling us of an impending disaster. He is the T-Rex that died (The Ghost) to give 1 inch of its optic nerve to build the Eye of Harmony.

His death (T-Rex), I believe, represents CAL (The Ghost) dying and getting uploaded in the Library. I also believe this is how the Time War got started. We’ll explore this hypothesis in a future chapter.

In another example, the Star Whale, shown below, from “The Beast Below” is a Boat carrying the Starship UK on its back, using its great power to propel the ship and be its pilot.

The Star Whale, itself, is a metaphor for the Doctor. Amy Pond and the visuals clearly draw a comparison of the Star Whale and the Doctor. For example, “the last of its kind” keeps coming up over and over in the episode, which is a metaphor for the Doctor. Amy, below, near the end of the episode uses a different variation “the very, very last.”

AMY: Amazing though, don't you think? The Star Whale. All that pain and misery and loneliness, and it just made it kind.

DOCTOR: But you couldn't have known how it would react.

AMY: You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?

In fact, in “The Husbands of River Song” the Doctor made a reference to being a Star Whale. The Doctor refuses to bow to the king because the Doctor was carrying the weight on his back before. Obviously, he is now revolting against the monarchy as he’s been driven to madness after his stay in his confession dial (being tortured as a Star Whale) and sees the truth of what has happened.

DOCTOR: Yeah, my back's playing up. It simply refuses to carry the weight of an entirely pointless stratum of society who contribute nothing of worth to the world and crush the hopes and dreams of working people.

The question is how is the Doctor carrying all those people on his back? Has he uploaded them to his mind, like CAL? That is one possibility. I believe he’s in an alternative universe, like the Matrix or Void or something like CAL’s mind, so there are various possibilities. The alternate universe could just be his dreams, but I think it is more than that.

#doctor who #twelfth doctor #river song #the return of doctor mysterio #tenth doctor #eleventh doctor #rose tyler #amy pond #rory williams #amelia pond #clara oswald #twelve x clara #twelve x river

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