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Post by counto on Mar 8, 2021 0:59:51 GMT -5
It'd be an interesting fanfic if you'd followed deceased characters from ASOUE into the afterlife.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Mar 8, 2021 13:21:25 GMT -5
March 1st 2016
10:49
Beatrice watched as Lemony examined the door with growing fascination. The way that someone reacts when confronted with a problem to which there is no obvious solution is an excellent method of deducing their character, and Lemony's method seemed to mostly compose of consulting the map that he was carrying with him
'I've been here before' He told her 'But only on the other side.'
'And how did you open the door then?'
'I didn't. Someone else opened it for me. Unless....' He reached in to his pocket and took something out 'I think this might be of some help.'
He held it out her, and Beatrice took it in her own hands. It was a small wooden ankh. 'How is that going to help?'
'Look at the bottom.' he told her
Carved into the wood at the bottom were the numbers 667.
'I think it might be some sort of code, but how it works I do not know.'
'What makes you think that?'
'I was told that it would help me get back here, but maybe that was just a lie like everything else.'
Lemony sighed and sat down, back leaning against the metal doorway. Beatrice thought he was probably correct, it was some kind of code, but that wouldn't explain how it would work. This door was extremely old, there wouldn't be a computer of keypad to enter any numbers in to. Perhaps it was a clue, that somehow the numbers had some other form of significance. Her siblings had stayed at 667 dark avenue many years ago, but they would not have time to go there. If only they had gone another way, then things would have been so much simpler. But that was not the way things were supposed to be. He had to think that it was all his idea, at least for now.
'Maybe' Beatrice said 'It's not the numbers, but the ankh that is important..'
'In Egyptian hieroglyphics the ankh symbolises life, or the breath of life itself.' He told her.
'Well maybe that's it. What is the most important thing in your life, Mr. Snicket?'
Lemony stood up, and for a moment he simply stared at her. His eyes were old and tired, but she could almost see thoughts and ideas spinning away inside them. He looked forlornly at her, and for a second she thought he was about to cry. Instead, he turned and reached up to the top of the iron door, and firmly pressed his finger in the centre of the eye of the VFD emblem.
There a loud scraping noise, like the gate to long abandoned garden creaking open during a winter storm, and the iron doorway swung open. Lemony and Beatrice stepped through, and they find themselves in an enormous, cavernous room. Either side of them were various tables and chairs, and the walls nearest to them were lined with bookshelves. There were several doorways leading off to the left hand side, and to the right there stood a raised dais with an enormous pendulum swinging back and forth. Separating the two sides of the room was a thing stream of water, which grew wider as the room went on.
'We've made it.' said Lemony, and he quickly followed the path of the water to the end of the room. As the stream widened so did the room, where the water turned into a gigantic lake the filled the rest of the space. There was no light, so it was to tell where the water ended and the ceiling began. Lemony ran to a series of steps that descended in to the lake. Beatrice wasn't sure what he was going to do, but the next second a loud sound filled the room. It was a lound bombinating buzzing that echoed all around the chamber.
'I think we should wait here.' Beatrice told him.
'We don't have time to wait we need to - ' But Lemony stopped. A large group of people had begun to emerge from one of the doorways. They were all dressed in black uniforms, and all of them were carrying walking sticks made from a strange dark wood. The woman at the head of the company was carrying a stick thicker and taller than any of the others, and its peak was adorned with the image of the Bombinating Beast.
'It can't be. Esme Squalor!' Lemony said 'What have you done??'
'I'm sorry to disappoint you' said Esme 'But you still don't understand Lemony.' She stopped and stood next to Beatrice. 'He doesn't understand, does he?' she asked her.
'No' said Beatrice, sadly 'He doesn't.'
Two of the uniformed men rushed forward and pulled Lemony's arms behind his back, pushing him to the ground
'But I think you're about to understand, Mr. Snicket.' said Beatrice, as Esme handed her a long, sharp knife. 'That sacrifices have to be made.'
10:57
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Post by R. on Mar 8, 2021 13:25:58 GMT -5
I can hardly describe what I am feeling right now.
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Post by the panopticountolaf on Mar 8, 2021 14:14:56 GMT -5
?!?!?!
Woah.
I have no words.
Great job as always.
Phew.
I think I need to lie down for a while...
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Mar 8, 2021 15:54:20 GMT -5
I can hardly describe what I am feeling right now. I was thinking of you when I wrote this moment. I hope I can do Esme justice for you (though it'll be a few chapters till we properly get to grips with her). Thank you! Hopefully you should now be able to see how the threads are starting to come together, but the knot is far from being untangled I've been trying to keep the pace of 1 chapter per day but may not be able to get tomorrows chapter done on time. If that ends up being the case you might get two chapters on the 10th, which is when we should reach the eleventh hour.
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Post by R. on Mar 8, 2021 16:02:42 GMT -5
I can hardly describe what I am feeling right now. I was thinking of you when I wrote this moment. I hope I can do Esme justice for you (though it'll be a few chapters till we properly get to grips with her). I kind of knew you wrote that for me, and I cannot thank you enough. Could I possibly make a moodboard for a character/ship/book/place/theory of your choice in return?
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Mar 8, 2021 16:05:11 GMT -5
Sure, I'd love to see it. Reading your thoughts about Esme is one of the main things that inspired this story, and I would say that she is one of the three main characters of the story, though this would obviously not have been clear from the start.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Mar 9, 2021 11:51:36 GMT -5
March 1st 2001
10:57
‘It didn’t begin with my father, though it was certainly the end of him. The Inhumane Society, VFD, UNIT, they could all only get so far. Only Fortuna Juvat have ever come close to learning the truth, but how close they came I cannot say’
‘My sister spent many years trying to infiltrate their organisation, but I was never sure how successful she was. I know that itt was how she came to find the pocket watch though.’ Lemony indicated to Ellington's hand. ‘That pocket watch, to be precise.’
She smiled ‘It is fascinating isn’t it? To understand its complexities one has to know the end result, and the end result is so far away from us. But it's not the minutes inbetween that matter, only the hours.’
‘For a long time, there were those who thought they could use the watch to control the Beast. For many of us volunteers it was our last hope.’
Ellington laughed again. ‘I always found that curious. Just because you have a watch that does not give you mastery over the hours, minutes and seconds that make up your life. If anything, those who watch clocks are the slaves, and time itself their master.’
‘But we are not talking about time, or clocks, we’re talking about something far more dangerous.’
‘The Unknown is only dangerous to those who fear it. Tell me Lemony, do you know what your sister learned?’
‘More than I expected clearly. Did she give you the watch? Or did you pluck it from her cold dead hands?’
‘Your sister died long ago and far, far away from here Lemony, you know that. She gave it to me because she trusted me.’
Lemony snorted ‘I don’t think anyone has ever trusted you, Ellington’
‘Perhaps not, but I’m not part of VFD, and for Kit that was enough. You know of course, that Kit had found the watch in the remains of the Baudelaire mansion. She had contacted you for advice She didn’t know what she could do to keep it safe again after all these years. It was you who had suggested a way to contain it, and so that was what we presented to the world. It was a lie, of course. Kit gave the watch to me almost 20 years ago, and in all that time I have shared my secret with nobody. But you’d know all about a lifetime of secrets, Lemony.
‘After the fire at Hotel Denouement I have had no choice but to continue my work alone, and I have grown steadily closer and closer to getting what I want, what I am owed. I have researched every possible myth or legend, the works of the inhumane society and VFD are vast, and for every truth there are a thousand falsehoods, but piece by piece I have threaded the whole thing together.
The Great Unknown, the Bombinating Beast, they are one and the same, but I still don’t know if there is just one of them or many. I do know that it grows ever more powerful, I know that the network of tunnels through which we are currently walking were created for the same reason as VFD itself – to protect the Great Unknown, and to stop it from spreading across the world. And I know that the relationship between Fortuna Juvat and the beast is symbiotic, neither is the slave or the master. But they are clever, and cunning, and they will not help me unless I give them something in return. Something they want..’
‘And what is that?’ Lemony asked
‘The watch. But I will not give it to them without good reason. I still need it for something.’
They had reached what seemed like a dead end, but Ellington knelt down and opened a small hatchway in the ground, filled with water ‘As I have said, the watch on its own is meaningless, but paired with it’s master there is much it can do. When the time reaches the hour its master will arrive, and then we will do the impossible. Now, Lemony, we need to go through this tunnel. It will take you underwater, but if you swim after me will emerge in a lagoon after a few moments.’
Ellington slowly dropped into the water, until just her head remained above the ground. ‘This is the part where I need you to trust me’
‘I’ll trust you.’ Said Lemony, uncertainly. ‘If you tell me what you aim to do, what is that you believe you are owed.’
Ellington chewed her lip for a moment, before looking up at Lemony. ‘The beast devoured my father, Lemony, at your hand. I’m going to destroy it. And you, my friend, are going to help me.'
10:59
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Post by R. on Mar 9, 2021 12:19:10 GMT -5
Fascinating, but what I don’t understand is why Ellington is upset with the Bombinating Beast but seems to be getting along fine with Lemony despite the fact that he killed her father.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Mar 9, 2021 12:25:09 GMT -5
This an interesting question, and one that will most certainly be addressed in later chapters.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Mar 9, 2021 12:31:41 GMT -5
Oh ... this is getting better and better and I just hope that you will compete next year instead of the best creative writing. (I'm just kidding).
I think I am beginning to understand why Beatrice called the Baudelaires siblings: you are using the resource I used when trying to defeat the secret letter from TSS: in THH a bearded man explains that members of the same organization can be called brothers and sisters.
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Post by R. on Mar 9, 2021 13:14:25 GMT -5
I agree with that: I am beginning to wonder if that letter was addressed to Kit at all.
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Post by Isadora Is a Door on Mar 9, 2021 13:26:10 GMT -5
I think I am beginning to understand why Beatrice called the Baudelaires siblings. As Hermes has said, she calls them sibling as that is the Baudelaires treated her and thats how she seems them, it's no more complex than that. I love how all the right questions are being asked by people as they read the story, however. Ive sturggled in the past before to get a good balance of questions being solved and questions being asked, and I hope ive got it correct this time.
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Post by Optimism is my Phil-osophy on Mar 9, 2021 13:32:43 GMT -5
Thank you for clarifying this detail.
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Post by misstastrophe on Mar 10, 2021 1:50:16 GMT -5
this is wonderful! very intriguing, i thought of the THH reference and wondered if that's what you were going for... glad to see i'm not alone.
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