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fictionalfop · 2 years

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oooh! Here goes...1. Derek, 2. Peter, 3. Jackson, 4. Kira, 5. Malia, 6. Scott, 7. Liam, 8. Theo, 9. Lydia, 10. Stiles.

Teen Wolf AU. Ten people were lured back to their past by a simple note that read the same for each one: "come home." They'd all left Beacon Hills, the town struck off the map by a tragedy, and there was no reason to come back. It wasn't home to anyone any longer. But even when it seemed like nothing could persuade their return, they all found themselves headfirst into the same nightmare. And before the night was over, one of them was dead.

Stranded by an unnatural and violent storm, haunted by a twisted nursery rhyme counting down to one... one by one they grew less in number. And what was worse, they couldn't shake the gnawing sensation of betrayal in their bones; that one among them had designed the whole game, and they were merely players in the gruesome entertainment.

But who would go this length just to have fun?

Ten Creatures of the Night went out to dine; One choked on mistletoe and then there were Nine.

Nine Creatures of the Night stayed up very late; One lost himself to dreams of fire and then there were Eight.

Eight Creatures of the Night watching the Beacon; One pricked himself with venom and then there were Seven.

Seven Creatures of the Night puzzling the tricks; One fell on his own sword and then there were Six.

Six Creatures of the Night went out to drive; One ran himself over the cliff and then there were Five.

Five Creatures of the Night wandering the moor; One tripped on aconite and then there were Four.

Four Creatures of the Night struggling to get free; A red herring devoured one and then there were Three.

Three Creatures of the Night walking into the woods; A brother gave his stolen heart back and then there were Two.

Two Creatures of the Night sitting by the stump; One drowned from all the voices and then there was One.

One Creature of the Night left all alone; He gave himself to the darkness and then there were None.

Based on Agatha Christie's genius murder mystery novel of the same name. Seriously, go read it.

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fictionalfop · 5 years

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After re watching all 3 seasons four times, each time with a different sibling, I got a little thoughtful about the Mind Flayer and what it represents to the abused children of the series, aka Will, Billy, and El.

Will Byers

In S1, Will clearly draws a parallel of the creature to the Demogorgon from the DND session. Both as a way of explaining what on earth was happening to him and also perhaps a way of verbalizing trauma. The Demogorgon is a minion of the Mind Flayer, being made to hunt Will down and presumably take him alive so the Mind Flayer can impregnate him.

For Will, the Mind Flayer/Demogorgon hunts him down, terrifies him, forcing him to run from hiding spot to hiding spot. Back in Hawkins, Jonathan said that Will is ‘good at hiding’.

Why is Will good at hiding? Lonnie. Whether Lonnie was ever physically abusive with him is unconfirmed to my knowledge, but he definitely persecuted Will verbally, heaping abuse and insult and ‘you’re not good enough’ on his younger son. His arguments with Joyce were loud and explosive, clearly something that caused emotional and psychological distress to Will. (Also Lonnie kinda slammed my son Jonathan into a wall...so he could easily do something similar to Will, something cruel and cowardly, and brush it off as some manly ‘rough and tumble’)

The first place Will made meaningful contact with Joyce was in a little cubbyhole, where she held the bundle of Christmas lights. It isn’t a stretch to see Will using the same cubbyhole to hide from Lonnie and, in the present, hide from the Demogorgon, stalking around outside, roaring. Harsh, loud sounds...like the voice of his abusive father shouting his name, shouting at Joyce.

So a double nightmare for Will. Also, thanks to Jonathan and Joyce, Will seems to suffer no guilt over what Lonnie did...he doesn’t seem to blame himself for his father’s abuse, doesn’t think he deserved it. He didn’t escape trauma-free, but is more concerned now with forgetting it, with finding his place in the world when he’s already so different by virtue of his isolation and his Upside Down adventure. It was just a ‘bad roll’ that will scar him forever. Something that just happened. Because life is like that sometimes. **cries forever**

Billy Hargrove

Billy’s parallels are a little more obvious. Like Neil, the Mind Flayer strikes with very little notice (and breaks up his date completely and I feel awful for laughing at that but still, lol). Like Neil, the Mind Flayer seeks to exert complete and utter control over Billy, to empty him of himself and put his own personality there instead. Like Neil, the Mind Flayer not only catches Billy, but exhibits violence on him and isolates him from humanity.

This is not to say that Neil was controlling Billy and making him behave as he did in Season 2. This is to say that years of abuse with no family/friendship structure to help him made it easy for Billy to lash out at others like that. He fights a war every day alone against Neil and his own personal demons of hatred, substance abuse, and depression, and after the Mind Flayer takes him his body becomes the same kind of battered, abused battleground.

And just like Will says, “the Demogorgon got me” because of his bad roll...Billy’s Mom told him to “watch out for rip currents”. And then, out of nowhere, a force of nature/evil grabs Billy by the foot and yanks him into a living nightmare. I do believe Heather falling into black depths, like water, is purposeful imagery. (If not then I am just a lucky fanfic writer) I believe the Mind Flayer drowns people in their own heads, subsumes them under their own identities. He is the Seven Foot Wave for Billy, but also the rip current underneath. And Billy must try to swim until he drowns.

While I’m sure its been done to death, it’s worth mentioning that El’s act of empathy for Billy...the feeling that he was not alone, that someone cared...was enough for him to stand up to the Mind Flayer.

Which means that if Billy had either been reached out to or made the decision on his own to reach out (both viable. Nobody owes my dumpster son redemption but wouldn’t it be absolutely wonderful if it worked out that way, and nobody had to die alone and abused all their lives that’s what TV is for Duffer brothers yammit), then he would have resisted Neil’s domination and become his own person, scarred but free.

Eleven aka Jane aka El

Finally, El. There aren’t as many parallels here...except the same quality in El makes both ‘Papa' burn-and-die-please Brenner and the Mind Flayer interested in her...her psychic powers. Brenner sees her as a weapon he can point at others. The Mind Flayer sees her as a weapon pointed at itself. Brenner tried to destroy her humanity so there’d be nothing left but the power. The Mind Flayer tried to destroy her so she couldn’t use it. Neither of them cared about or saw the girl.

And neither gives a toss about humanity either. If it could, the Mind Flayer would kill everyone. If he thought he needed to, Dr. Brenner would kill anyone. Both sides of the coin of the same type of monster. They both dehumanized El and reduced her to a pawn on their chessboard.

How did they react to this monster, and to this trauma?

Will fought the Mind Flayer tooth and nail to protect his family and friends. He loved them and it was their love for him that reminded him he could fight...with just a finger, tapping away at Morse Code. He retained a piece of himself until his family could drive away the bully. Like Lonnie, the Mind Flayer fled the house, slamming his door on the way out. Like an abusive parent being kicked out of a family he’d been damaging for far too long. And Will was left behind, battered, bruised, but alive. And he would continue to live despite the scars.

Billy fought the Mind Flayer in a way that, because of the Mind Flayer’s direct control, isn’t as apparent. Saving Karen, unnecessarily revving his car engine outside the mall to warn Nancy and the kids, and of course, the big scene...just standing there and saying ‘No’. Holding his ground. In many ways, just saying No and refusing to budge is far more difficult then walking the other way. Billy didn’t try to run. He caught the Mind Flayer’s tentacle/Neil’s fist, and despite the fact that the last time he stood between a bully and a woman (Neil and his Mom/Mind Flayer and El) and it didn’t do him a spit of good in the end...Billy was willing to do so again. And I will point out that during his final scream, black liquid was oozing out of his mouth. Sure, maybe it was a sign of internal bleeding. But maybe it was a sign that Billy was mentally kicking the Mind Flayer’s ass, and would have freed himself completely if not for that fatal strike. **coughBilly’salivehonksclownnose**

And El? El is so wonderful. Despite being deprived and dehumanized, she didn’t want to hurt that cat. She killed those men after being repeatedly isolated in a dark room that terrified her. She tried to please her Papa, ripped open a gateway to another world, and then blamed herself. When she went out into the world and met kind people, she wept because she realized she had put them in danger. And when Papa returned? Showered her with ‘love’ and ‘approval’ and promised to fix everything?

El had learned that, regardless of his ability to ‘fix things’, whatever lurked in Papa Brenner was evil, and would hurt her, and all the good people he’d left as a trail of bodies to get to her. She may not have had a single clue how to fix everything, but she had the absolute courage to try. She rejected evil and took responsibility for the entire world in a single moment, and I don’t think she can be praised enough for somehow rejecting years and years of brainwashing to make a choice that many of us today would hesitate over.

And El isn’t amazing because she had friends. Billy wasn’t so damaged and hurtful because he didn’t. Will didn’t retain his sweetness simply because his Mom threw Lonnie out. Friends and family don’t guarantee your moral state or even your social state. There are innumerable factors that get thrown into the mixing pot that makes up a person. Love, education, perception, inspiration, and outside treatment...these all get thrown against your inner reasoning, inner strength, and you make choices. Sometimes against impossible odds, against unavoidable failure, but you always make choices.

These children all chose to fight against the monsters that abused them, that tried to destroy them and everything that made them who they were. When their nightmares became real, and the Upside Down responded in kind, joining forces to torment them and echo what they’d already suffered from their ‘father figures’...they fought. The spark that was their spirit could not be quenched even when they were never quite the same. Even when they died. And that to me is an unbearably beautiful thing.

#billy hargrove #stranger things #will byers #mind flayer #lonnie #neil #i am so sad rn #babies #protect #monsters #eleven #jane #joyce

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fictionalfop · 5 years

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Well if you watch the scene closely she has a few seconds before she says his name, and Billy just puts the bottle down. So either he looked like he was about to drink it or he was holding it in front of his body, with the Mind Flayer having sensed her presence.

I feel if she saw him drinking then after her pause she would have said his name more urgently. I think she only saw him hold it and put it down...assuming it was part of his job at the pool. That maybe he was fetching it for himself or someone else to clean something.

Either way, she was already in a compromising position with him so her focus was on extricating herself from the relationship with as little emotional damage as possible to them both. His anger and EXTREMELY sweaty face she probably just chalked up to what she’d said. (That sweat tho)

Which is kind of ironic and really sad because her saying, “I have a family and I can’t leave them” is what Billy wished his own Mom had said/done, and must have given him some of the willpower he needed to not kill her.

Whatever problems I have with Karen I do feel like she’d say something if she saw someone drink ammonia/chlorine/bleach in front of her.

so u mean to tell me Karen literally watched Billy drink fucking chlorine and didn’t question it whatsoever

#karen wheeler #billy hargrove #st

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fictionalfop · 5 years

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That sounds super cool and now that headcannon must fight my headcannon because I love yours more thematically. :P I mean the Duffer Brothers haven’t explained much about the Upside Down anyway, so the whole mirror thing is perfectly valid. From Mr. Clarke’s talks it all seems to be more about ‘other dimensions’ then ‘parallel worlds’, so fundamental rules don’t apply in many cases, I’d think.

I’m just interesting. Has anyone noticed that Billy suddenly became a right-handed person in season 3? I’ve checked. In 99% of his actions he used his right hand, even when using his left hand is more comfortable. But that’s very strange because Billy is a left-handed person! What could it mean? I don’t think that’s a mark of possession. Mind Flayer is the rational thing, he needs an effective host. Does anyone have any ideas?

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fictionalfop · 5 years

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While I’m working on the sequel, here’s my tribute to Daedelic’s Night of the Rabbit…and the Marquis, and his lovely, tempting story, his fall from grace that was never fully told.

#the night of the rabbit #night of the rabbit #daedelic entertainment #gaming #fanfiction #marquis de hoto #aro molena #rabbit #white rabbit #my writing #sorry I've never done anything here before and this is what I choose to show up on the first day with?

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fictionalfop · 5 years

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Maybe the Mind Flayer made him more ambidextrous (it can control the brain/body, it can give him superhuman strength, so it can make changes in brain chemistry) but switching over to mostly right-handed? I can only think that maybe when it reformatted Billy it made him right-handed like Will or the other 90% of humanity. Some kind of manufacturing oversight in its attempts to mimic human form and behavior through Billy. But my new head cannon thanks to you is that the Mind Flayer made Billy ambidextrous. :)

I’m just interesting. Has anyone noticed that Billy suddenly became a right-handed person in season 3? I’ve checked. In 99% of his actions he used his right hand, even when using his left hand is more comfortable. But that’s very strange because Billy is a left-handed person! What could it mean? I don’t think that’s a mark of possession. Mind Flayer is the rational thing, he needs an effective host. Does anyone have any ideas?

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fictionalfop · 5 years

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Look, I don’t deny that some people focus very sharply on simply ‘winning’ the Pro-Life argument. That they don’t care or don’t seem to care about people in need after birth. I don’t deny that, just as I don’t deny that there are people who become pregnant irresponsibly, in some cases willy-nilly, and kill their babies because the child, despite having no choice in conception, is an unwanted burden. Or relatives who will force an unwilling mother to get an abortion to save face. Even people who never have or never will be pregnant but support abortion because it pleases their voters. Who, if their voters changed their minds, would switch their stance in a heartbeat.

While there is nothing to excuse it, it is worth mentioning that roughly 11 pro-choice doctors and personnel have been murdered in the last 15 years. But that is not who we are.

Just as, I hope, the multi-state allowance for late-term abortion of fully-formed, fully cognizant infants, is not who you are. Nor, I hope, do you support the voices clamoring for abortion of the infant even up to the moment of labor.

In any conflict, there will be bad apples on either side. I don’t argue about the bad apples. It’s not about my ‘allies’, some of whom I’d rather not be associated with or who bring shame to the movement. It’s about the babies, and how our society needs to stop murdering and dehumanizing them, or making desperate measures an easy, universal right. I'm not pro-life because a portion of the people aligned to me are terrible or nice. I’m pro-life because I believe abortion is vile and wrong. That is my belief.

There are unselfish Pro-Lifers out there right now helping those less fortunate, being kind to those facing the terrible burden and spiritual scarring of unwanted pregnancy, regardless of what they choose in the end. There are mothers with a terrible choice to make out there, who have been assaulted sexually, or are suffering mentally. Or are being faced with the choice between her own life and her child’s. Those are the ones we should be helping, whether by preventing rape in the first place, punishing the offenders, or having safe and wholesome places to receive the child should the mother need to pass on the responsibility. (fixing the foster system, something we desperately need to do, without waiting for the Pro-Life/Pro-Choice debate to end)

So, while George Carlin is speaking the truth, it is calculated, passionate sensationalism, and only correct about a select group of Pro-Lifers. It isn’t anything we didn’t already know about human nature.

Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice isn’t about whether everyone is nice or not...it’s about the issue itself, and what is moral and just for these little ones who are far more helpless than the rest of us. This is when we sit back down again and get back to debate or discussion. Is a fetus a person? Does this concept damage human value? Society? Are we really doing everything we can to help the mothers? After we get them born safely, we can see about making sure they grow up better than the rest of us. After all, they need a chance to try.

Watch: George Carlin spoke the truth about pro-lifers in 1996 — and it’s still being proven today.

#pro-life #pro-choice #abortion #anti-abortion #political #sorry

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fictionalfop · 7 years

Conversation

Vivienne: I have heard of the life of the Saarebas, Iron Bull, but I'm curious about your viewpoint.

Iron Bull: It's sad, mostly. The magic appears late in childhood just like it does for you folks. Some kids go years learning to be a baker, or soldier, or builder and then one day... that's all gone.

Vivienne: You sound as though you pity them.

Iron Bull: Well... yes. In theory, they're no different from anyone else. The Tamassrans—and the Ben-Hassrath—protect everyone from their own mistakes. They're people too, just serving the Qun, but too many Qunari are afraid of them.

Vivienne: Not you, though?

Iron Bull: No. Everyone who takes that burden and lives a good life with it has my respect.

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fictionalfop · 7 years

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I was able to play through and beat all the games on Windows 10. Revelation needed a patch or two but worked from the CD. Exile is very self contained in a little CD-Mount file form. Riven and Myst and Uru all work with Steam, if you have that. Uru Live too.

I did have to do some tweaking (compatibility mode, administrator, patches, ect), struggling, and cursing here and there, but if anyone needs help with a particular game, let me know and I’ll try to help!

I just learned that Myst, Riven, Exile, and Revelation don’t work on Windows 10 and are never likely to be updated for it and there is a great sadness that those worlds are never going to be open to me again. Like I’d had this assumption that one day I was going to go back and play them all, but they’re… just sort of gone now. It’s not even that they no longer exist, they’re just… inaccessible… probably forever… That was one of the wonderful things I was hoping to share with people at some point. *sigh*

Those games were an incredibly inspiring thing for kid me. They are still inspiring to now me. I loved exploring them. I wish they weren’t gone.

Maybe I’ll go watch playthroughs of them on youtube or something once finals are over. It won’t be the same, but it’ll be something.

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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I had that bug too, for the longest time. My computer-genius little brother fixed it for me. He lowered the resolution, bit by bit, until the view worked again. Hope this helps!

This was the weirdest bug. The tower was correctly rotated, the keys were fine, I could see the sky from downstairs, but when I climbed up, it changed to these.

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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Proud Mop Supporter

To my dear followers, I, Fictionalfop, am writing to you today because we are facing a crucial decision. Our government and our economy sucks, and our choices for the future aren’t much better. And now it comes down to these four candidates, who have done their best to sway us with their long, sticky, silver tongues. The choice, to me, is easy. A vote for Wretched Tooth is a vote for a dictatorship. Whose truth will be tolerated? His, of course. And who decides what the truth is? Why, Wretched Tooth. Is there a chance for other truths? Probably not. And since Justice and Truth always walk hand-in-hand, than it will be Wretched Tooth’s Justice that hunts us down for disagreeing with Wretched Tooth’s Truth.

And Deborah is an advocate for hard work, apparently. And purple hats. Both of which are good things, I grant, but not enough to uphold the Leaning Tower of Pizza that is our country. Deborah should be Vice-President, if you ask me.

Rick is dependable, all right...he’s a story we’ve been told a thousand times before. “I am perfect. I am the Tumblrian Dream.” But now we know the dream is an hollow, endless nightmare we have been repeating for generations. Empty promises. Nothing you haven’t seen or suffered from before.

But Mop isn’t like these others. Mop is a sweet, kind, thoughtful reptilian being. He cares about the water, and the internet, and coats and chairs. But most of all, he cares about YOU. About US. If I have to ride the present establishment into Hell, I want to have Mop there at the front, turning round as the flames leap up on either side, so he can offer me a glass of water and give me his widest, sweetest Gecko smile. Because he doesn’t care about Hell. He cares about you and me. Do the right thing. Vote for Mop. Yours in solidarity, Fictionalfop #ElectMop

#tumblrdecides #ElectMop #MopIn2016

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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If you see this, re-blog and say a Hail Mary for all seminarians.

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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Ah, thanks for that info!

I finished and was thoroughly shocked by the Book of the Black Ships...the name-swap, Gehn, Atrus looking like a perfectly sculpted Jedi Knight. The Pirates were interesting, but also disgusting, and kind of a Cheap N Easy way of explaining the boys’ fall into darkness in a matter of days. (Eating living fish fresh from the deck, flaunting the power to flay people alive, sporting glow-bone decorations, ect.)

I think the only thing I really liked was Catherine’s appearance...minus the pirate-bandanna on the alternate cover. She looked more like Riven Catherine than she did in Exile, I think. But still not quite at all good enough.

I think, concerning the boy’s costume, hair, the Pirates, ect...I think they were going for ‘out of this reality’ and got ‘out of this planet’ instead. It all feels very spacey and star-wars-ish to me. I felt like they had linked into a space-station.

Of course, my chronic starvation for something, anything that’s Myst-related forced me to read it twice. Maybe more later. I’ve got a PDF of edition #0, which is another bizarre foray into D’ni culture, I suppose. Wouldn’t mind having a physical, but I certainly wouldn’t break my wallet for it!

All the pieces have been gathered. Now they must be safely contained, but their prison isn’t built yet. Where can they be securely kept until then?

#myst

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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I recently purchased the Book of the Black ships, the one in the middle. But I thought there were only two Dark Horse comics for Myst. Is the one on the right a combination of the two stories?!

Awesome collection, by the way. Congratulations. :) I have mine stored in a plastic pocket with thick cardboard backing to keep it immaculate. It feels so fragile!

All the pieces have been gathered. Now they must be safely contained, but their prison isn’t built yet. Where can they be securely kept until then?

#myst #plz educate me #dear lord what is wrong with Gehn in the third cover

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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Nelojoe

Sounds like a mixture between a custard product, a horse’s whinny, and your average Joe. Which makes him being a dragon all the more twisty and surprising, I guess. :) Especially since I’m a girl.

YOUR DRAGON NAME

last two letters of your first name

middle two letters of your last name

first two letters of your mother’s name

last letter of your father’s name

mine would be Urlelan. Reblog and tag this with yours!

#dragons #I BREATHE CUSTARD ON MY ENEMIES #I AM NO MAN #FEAR ME

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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So while not directly created by Eru, he refers to the Dwarves as being among elves and men, "the children of my adoption and the children of my choice." After the Last Battle they count their purpose to be rebuilding the world and creating Arda Unmarred, as it was in the beginning of days. The only uncertainty is if they will sing in the Second Music of the Ainur. Men are confirmed to sing it, elves are unclear... but dwarves? Who knows. Even the Valar are unsure what the next song will bring.

Thank you for the original source! I need to go back and reread the books, I really do. And get out of here, you’re not only a Myst fanatic, but a Middle-Earth fan too?? Perfection!

On a sillier level, Dwarves won’t sing...they’ll beatbox, of course, and throat-hum. Hobbits will whistle, I suppose, since the Great Music seems to be Acapella only.It’ll be awesome. But I do wonder, of all the obvious questions, why Tolkien left their fate so vague. But then again, I wonder about Ents and Tom Bombadil, where they fit in. I wonder aLOT about Tom, actually.

Sorry my blog is so small...as you can see, all I really do is blurt out half-studied nonsense when I feel strongly about something. Your blog is amazing!

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fictionalfop · 8 years

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I just started playing Myst V, and I’ve been wondering about that myself!

The first thing I concluded was that the Eye over Catherine must have something to do with the beautiful, mystic way she sees the world...through her dreams. Perhaps, through dreams, she sees life the way it is, even clearer than others do...the spirit behind the machinations, if you will.

As for Sirrus and Achenar, perhaps Achenar is the boy with the circle, because in the end he came back to what the Maker first created him as and intended him to be: redeemed. Caring. Remorseful. His redemption brought him full circle. And perhaps Sirrus is the line, because he continued to follow his headlong trek into destruction. Of course, from a sillier, physical point of view, Achenar is bulky and broad, while Sirrus is thinner and taller? :P

I’m not sure what is hanging over Atrus’ head though...a shape with equal sides, symbolizing his restricted rules of writing, his rational logic? A Linking Book? My guess is as good as yours.

Love your blog, by the way! :) Mine’s an empty tomb. I just come to enjoy.

Has anyone ever figured out what this thing represents?

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