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tortellini-tankini · 6 years

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Eve`s Lore, Part 1: Backstory, and Ari`s Main AU

Under the cut will be the long (and I mean LONG) story behind my Pastamonsters OC, Eve, including her backstory, her relationship with Ari as her host, her life in the UnderRealm, and some facts at the end. This is for the main lore, as I have also devised a second AU. This also includes some headcanons on how I view Zalgo and Zalga, and also some PM spoilers I have read from @comickit `s blog. Some information may or may not be applicable to the canon PM universe.

This post will have 3 parts, as there is a lot of info that cannot fit into one post, and as well as that, I have a second AU where Eve`s backstory stays the same, but Ari goes through a different plotline after being possessed by her.

Also note that I will leave number marks like (1)(2)(3) next to certain lines to indicate that there will be a fact at the end in regard to it.

Trigger warnings: Murder, death, gore, occult, religion, suicide, and mention of molestation.

Please keep in mind that Eve has no current ties to the cannon Pastamonsters world, and is simply a self insert. Anyways, enjoy!

The Creation

About several eons ago, after Zalgo had already made his first monster, the Boogeyman, he was trying to think of a more unique design of a monster than others he had made. He was reminded of the tale of Adam and Eve, and how it is said that Eve came from the rib of Adam. He was also reminded of the traits of his sister, and so, he began working on his next creation: Eve.

This Eve was clearly nothing like the biblical one. She was about half his height, but still towering at almost 8 ft. Her hair was short but thick, her flesh was gray to represent a medium between him and his sister, Zalga (which shall be explained soon). However, from her waist down, was almost a fur-like coat and talons for feet. Her eyes were a lighter shade of gray with red slit pupils, and her forearms faded into a darker shade of gray like her legs. Her general physique androgynous, with feminine features closer to her face, and masculine features in her body. (1)

And of course, he left room for the monstrous features. Her top canines curled outwards, and her bottom canines grew upwards. She had a thin tail with razor-like claws at the end, and it could whip to make a snapping sound, and perhaps even decapitate someone. She had a wingspan at a staggering 20 ft, and tall horns that measured at 3 ft upwards.

At first, Zalgo considered making her like that of the Boogeyman: just a monster with a higher title. But considering how much power, strength, and capability her had unintentionally given her, he decided to use her for a higher purpose: she would build, train, and lead his army, travel to distant parts of other Realms to bring information, and the most important role of all,

She was to be a messenger between him and his sister, Zalga.

Zalga

On Eve`s first mission to meet in the higher realm with Zalga, she was told to bring a personal message from Zalgo himself. Let`s just say he wanted to see how his “goody-two-shoes sissy” was doing. When Eve first came in contact with Zalga, she felt an impending force of something she never felt before. The presence of Eve`s kind, calm, and collected nature, was completely foreign to this lesser demon. She felt weird in her presence, and almost felt as if she wanted to reconsider what she was doing working for Zalgo.

As time went on and the messages she delivered to her from Zalgo were closer to that of declarences of war, Eve felt more and more in a gray area than she ever did before, and closer to light. Yes, she was falling in love with the light counterpart of her dark lord. Zalga knew of this right away, and she is quick to sense positive energy, as she herself radiates it. Because of this gradual shift towards a light side, Eve`s appearance changes as well. Her hair grew, her horns shrunk, and most noticeably, her slit eyes changed into a bright green. She learned to conceal this, though, as she knew Zalgo would be furious if he knew she were turning to light.

Betrayal and Exile

Eve and Zalga knew that they were on the brink of war, and that they may no longer be in neutral terms if this were to be. Eve confessed her love to Zalga, and Zalga reciprocated her feelings. But all that stood in their way was Lord Zalgo. As Eve was about to carry on with a plan to betray him and strengthen Zalga`s own army in secret, Zalgo soon found out, and incarcerated her in the chasm of eons.

Eve was able to escape using the strength she gathered from other loose souls in the chasm, but this escape was temporary, as she was caught again. This greatly terrified Zalgo, as he realized she was growing too powerful, and was even against him. Zalgo had come to terms with the fact that she could grow too powerful if kept in either the UnderRealm or Higher realm, so he came with the decision to exile her to the OverRealm, where she would roam the earth as a possessor demon, clinging onto human life forms and moving about like a parasite.

Power Exchange

So, as mentioned in Eve`s birth, what is a happy medium of dark and light, when one my be closer to dark? That would be sin. Sin and pleasures. Some may argue Eve carried the intentions of carrying out The Seven Deadly ones, which we all know by now.

And so, Eve first began her troublesome journey as a possessor demon in the ancient times of the Romans and Greeks.(2) She would most commonly possess young women from the ages of 17-25. Most of these women, however, consented to becoming hosts of Eve, as Eve was a contract possessor, meaning a pact had to be made with her in order to be her host. In the exchange, Eve would give the women strength, confidence, and an overall “better quality of life.” However, the last part isn`t usually true, as in exchange for these qualities, her hosts must give souls, mainly through the process of murder, and other pleasures and sins.

As more souls and sins are given to Eve by her hosts, she gains more power, and more of her lost attributes are given to the host. For example, the first kill may give the host Eve`s claws, and with enough souls and power, they may gain the ability of flight with her wings. However, that level has yet to be reached for years to come..

Unfortunately, with physical monstrous features becoming prominent in hosts, these women are often exorcised of Eve, if not killed, and Eve is stripped of her power and souls gained, and the cycle of finding a new host and gaining power begins again.

80`s

After being smuggled into America from a European host some time in the late 70s, and with American Occultism on the rise, it`s safe to say Eve was most active during the 80s, until coming across a host whom she stays with up until the 2000s. With having been enveloped in a new era of radical people, mannerisms, music, fashion, and culture, she was intrigued, and soon became one with the personality of this decade. She loved everything about it from the movies like E.T., Alien, and Back to the Future, to the big-haired popstairs like Madonna and Whitney Houston (especially the big hair part).

With her attachment to this decade, it was easiest for her to blend in with the personalities of the many hosts she took on. By the time the 80s was almost at its end, and the 90s was making way, she had taken shelter in a young woman who killed cops in her spare time. But by 2001, the woman she took host in had accidentally become pregnant with a girl, and so Eve was forced to be kept at bay inside her host until the woman`s daughter was in her preteens.

Beginning of a New Century

With the woman`s end of the deal being broken, and Eve was no longer receiving power from souls and sin, Eve grew restless and angry. She drove the poor woman insane, and almost ruined her life entirely, from ruining her relationships, and even almost making her kill her own daughter. The woman could no longer take the torment of the parasite she made her body a home to. She had to get rid of her, but with no friends, no close relationships, and no one to go to, her options for someone to pass the demon to was short, with the only option on the list being her preteen daughter.

On the night of her daughter`s 11th birthday, she set up an altar for a transfer ritual, and tricked her daughter into believing this was a new birthday tradition. The little girl was naive, and when Eve came to speak through her mother`s body with glowing green eyes, she thought it was no more than a magic trick or prank. By the end of the night, the poor girl was unwillingly possessed by Eve.

With the mother realizing what monstrosity she passed to her daughter, she shot herself in the basement, leaving her daughter to the custody of her ex boyfriend.

Ari

Fast forward about 5-6 years later. It is 2019, and the school year is in the beginning of the 4th semester. Ari (short for my full name) is going about her day when she teacher introduces a new student to the class. With sympathy towards the new girl, Ari offers the seat next to her. They grow close as friends, and as the end of the school year nears, they decide to meet for a “sleepover” at the girl`s house. But behind Ari`s parent`s backs, they were planning to make contact with a certain demon who has been named many times before.

The girl explained to Ari of the tragic story of her mother, and how she was misdiagnosed because of the constant demands from the monster she carried. Obviously, at first, Ari had serious doubts. But in empathy for the girl, she claimed to believe her, hoping it would ease her. But that night when they opened the altar for communication with Eve, Ari`s perspective on the occult had immediately shifted from wanting to see proof of demons, to literally talking to one.

To use one`s host to communicate with the new host she was about to make a pact with was supposed to be customary for Eve, but with many Occultists she had been in and out of in the past, they always wanted to skip the talking and go straight for being possessed. But not Ari. She had quite a few questions on Eve`s origins. When she asked Eve of her origin land, she expected her to answer with “Hell” but instead, with the answer being “The UnderRealm”, a light immediately went over Ari`s head.

She had some vague knowledge of the UnderRealm, as, not to be cliche, she was quite a fangirl. She never asked about the monsters there, though, but she did ask about Zalgo. This surprised Eve, and so Eve came clean of her full past. When they were nearing the end of the questioning time, Eve explained her common terms of strength in exchange for souls and sins (The Three S`s as she calls it). Ari thought back on her middle school bullies, and with having a triggering flashback of the boy who molested and humiliated her, she gave Eve a grin and agreed to the pact, with full intentions of getting revenge and giving Eve her souls. Soon that night, the possession process began, and a new Ari was about to be born.

New Host

The possession process was an uncomfortable one at that, but by the end of it, the poor girl who had been infected with this parasitic demon for all her childhood was freed. Or so she thought.

As Ari was heavily foaming at the mouth, her veins pumped, and her eyes began to glow faintly, the other girl was unaware of the situation. Before she could say “thank you”, she had Ari- no, Eve`s hands on her throat. Eve had the last word that night, leaving the girl as nothing more than a corpse with a broken neck. When the girl`s “father” called the cops, they ruled it out as abuse from the man, and he was taken into custody and questioned. Ari escaped home that night, and had plenty of catching up to with this new friend inside of her.

New Year, New Us

By 2020, the beginning of Ari`s senior year in high school, her and Eve had already formed a bond like no other host had with Eve before. Ari had a dark mind, and dark intentions since she was 12. All that pent up angst, anger, and rage could never be carried out before, not just because of a lack of confidence in her abilities, but also a lack of the abilities in the first place. Ari was, admittedly, a weak and lazy girl. Eve pushed her new host to change for the better. She`d make her run through the woods at midnight, climb and punch trees, and generally just push this weak body to the edge. It was hell at first, but it all paid off for Ari as a host, and for Eve to carry on her plans in a fit body.

After a year and a half after her high school graduation, the two as a pair had killed many that Ari resented, and carried on many other sins, which was more than enough to give Eve`s host some of her own attributes, starting with her claws, to her teeth, to her tail.

Last Souls

After having discovered the whereabouts of the three infamous boys who drove the girl to the brink of murder-suicide in middle school, the pair devised a plan like no other. Not only would they take their souls through their deaths, but they would make their deaths the most slow, and painful.

For the first two, it was simple torture in an abandoned shed, then leaving them to die to collect their souls several days later. With the collection of their two souls, Eve`s host had reached an achievement that no other host had reached before. She gained her wings.

Their attack on the last boy was the best experience Ari had ever had in her life. With her taking on the full form of Eve, she swooped in on the boy as he was walking home at night, and punted him back and forth in the air, before throwing him into the forest, chasing him like a beast, whipping and cutting him with her tail, before finally ripping him to shreds in the air and dropping his corpse from 60 ft above ground.

That is all the info I could fit into one post, I will work on part 2 and post it soon, and later I may post part 3 for the different AU.

#long post #pastamonsters #my ocs #self insert

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newstfionline · 7 years

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Crusaders and Zionists

By Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, September 02, 2017

A few days ago I found myself in Caesarea, sitting in a restaurant and looking out over the sea. The sunbeams were dancing on the little waves, the mysterious ruins of the ancient town arrayed behind me. It was hot, but not too hot, and I was thinking about the crusaders.

Caesarea was built by King Herod some 2000 years ago and named after his Roman master, Augustus Caesar. It once again became an important town under the Crusaders, who fortified it. These fortifications are what now makes the place a tourist attraction.

For some years in my life I was obsessed with the Crusaders. It started during the 1948 “War of Independence”, when I chanced to read a book about the crusaders and found that they had occupied the same locations opposite the Gaza strip which my battalion was occupying. It took the crusaders several decades to conquer the strip, which at the time extended to Ashkelon. Today it is still there in Muslim hands.

After the war, I read everything I could about these Crusaders. The more I read, the more fascinated I became. So much so, that I did something I have never done before or after: I wrote a letter to the author of the most authoritative book about the period, the British historian Steven Runciman.

To my surprise, I received a handwritten reply by return of post, inviting me to come and see him when I happened to be in London. I happened to be in London a few weeks later and called him up. He insisted I come over immediately.

Like almost everyone who fought against the British in Palestine, I was an anglophile. Runciman, a typical British aristocrat with all the quaint idiosyncrasies that go with it, was very likable.

We talked for hours, and continued the conversation when my wife and I visited him later in an ancient Scottish fortress on the border with England. Rachel, who was even more anglophile than I, almost fell in love with him.

What we talked about was a subject I brought up at the very start of our first meeting: “When you were writing your book, did you ever think about the similarities between the Crusaders and the modern Zionists?”

Runciman answered: “Actually, I hardly thought about anything else. I wanted to subtitle the book A Guidebook For the Zionist About How Not To Do It.” And after a short laugh: “But my Jewish friends advised me to abstain from doing so.”

Indeed, it is almost taboo in Israel to talk about the crusades. We do have some experts, but on the whole, the subject is avoided. I don’t remember ever having heard about the Crusades during the few years I spent at school.

Thus is not as astonishing as it may sound. Jewish history is ethnocentric, not geographical. It starts with our forefather, Abraham, and his chats with God, and continues until the defeat of the Bar Kochba rebellion against the Romans in 136 AD.

From then on our history takes leave from Palestine and dances around the world, concentrating on Jewish events, until the year 1882, when the first pre-Zionists set up some settlements in Ottoman Palestine. During all the time in between, Palestine was empty, nothing happened there.

That is what Israeli children learn today, too.

Actually, lots of things did happen during those 1746 years, more than in most other countries. The Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman and British empires followed each other until 1948. The crusaders’ kingdoms were an important chapter by themselves.

Most Israelis would be surprised to learn that the Crusaders resided in Palestine for almost 200 years--much longer than Zionist history until now. It was not a short, passing episode.

The similarity between the Crusaders and the Zionists strikes one at first glance. Both movements moved a large number of people from Europe to the Holy Land. (During the first half century of its existence, Zionism brought almost only European Jews to Palestine.) Since both of them came from the west, they were perceived by the local Muslim population as Western invaders.

Neither the Crusaders nor the Zionists had one day of peace during their entire existence. The perpetual sense of military danger shaped their entire history, their culture and their character.

The crusaders had some temporary armistices, especially with Syria, but we, too, now have two “peace agreements” in place--with Egypt and Jordan. Without any real feelings of peace and friendship with these peoples, our agreements do also resemble armistices rather than peace.

Then as now, the Crusaders’ lot was made easier by the fact that the Arabs were constantly quarreling among themselves. Until the great Salah-a-Din (“Saladin”), a Kurd, appeared on the scene, united the Arabs and vanquished the Crusaders in the battle at the Horns of Hattin, near Tiberias. After that, the Crusaders regrouped and hung on in Palestine for another four generations.

Both the Crusaders and the Zionists saw themselves, quite consciously, as “bridgeheads” of the West in a foreign and hostile region. The Crusaders, of course, came here as the army of the West, to regain the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, wrote in his book Der Judenstaat, the bible of Zionism, that in Palestine we shall serve as the outpost of (Western) culture against (Muslim) barbarism.

The Holy City, by the way, remains the focus of a daily battle. Just this week, two extreme-right Members of the Knesset were allowed by the Israeli authorities to enter the Temple Mount area, fortunately without inciting Jewish-Muslim riots as on previous such occasions.

Also last week, our Minister of Justice, (whom I have called “the devil in the guise of a beautiful woman”), accused the Israeli Supreme Court of putting human rights above the “values of Zionism” (whatever these are). She has already introduced a bill which makes it clear that those “Zionist values” are legally superior to “democratic values” and come first.

The similarity is most apparent when it comes to peace.

For the crusaders, of course, peace was unthinkable. Their whole enterprise was based on the aim of liberating Jerusalem and the entire Holy Land (“God Wills It!”) from Islam, the deadly enemy. This excludes a priori any peace with God’s enemies.

Zionists talk endlessly about peace. No week passes without Binyamin Netanyahu releasing some touching declaration about his craving for peace. But by now it is absolutely clear that he does not dream of giving up one inch of land west of the Jordan. Just a few days ago he again publicly confirmed that he will not “uproot” one single Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Under international law every one of these settlements is illegal.

There are, of course, huge differences between the two historical movements, as huge as the differences between the 11th and 21st centuries.

Can one imagine the Templar knights with atom bombs? Saladin with tanks? The journey of Hospitalers from Clermont to Jaffa by airplane?

At the time of the crusades, the idea of the modern “nation” was not yet born. The knights were French, English or German, but foremost they were Christian. Zionism was born of the will to turn the Jews of the world into a nation in the modern sense of the term.

Who were these Jews? In 19th century Europe, a continent of new nations, they were an unnatural exception, and therefore hated and feared. But they were really an unreformed relic of the Byzantine Empire, where the very identity of all communities was based on religion. Ethnic-religious communities were autonomous and legally under the jurisdiction of their religious leaders.

A Jewish man in Alexandria could marry a Jewish girl in Antioch, but not the Christian woman next door. A Latin woman in Damascus could marry a Latin man in Constantinople, but not the Greek-orthodox man across the street. This legal structure still exists in many ex-Byzantine countries, including--you’ll never guess--Israel.

But given all the differences of time, the comparison is still valid, and provides much food for thought--especially if you sit on the shore of Caesaria, the imposing Crusaders’ wall just behind you, a few kilometers from the port of Atlit, where the last Crusaders were literally thrown into the sea when it all came to an end, just 726 years ago.

To paraphrase Runciman, I hope we learn not to be like them in time.

#Israel #Crusaders #Steven Runciman #Uri Avnery

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thewebofslime · 5 years

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Jeffrey Epstein, the well-connected sex criminal who died by suicide in federal custody, owned a 70-acre private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands known as Little St. James. The island's southwestern corner features an unusual blue-and-white striped building that resembles a temple or place of worship. The building has inspired countless conspiracy theories, but none of them have adequately explained what was inside the building or what Epstein did there. Insider explored the most prominent and tantalizing theories about the building, including that it is a monument to an evil Canaanite god and that it is a crypt. A piano tuner who lives in the Virgin Islands told Insider that he visited the building twice in 2012, and described its interior in detail. Visit Insider.com for more stories. An entrance to an underground lair. An altar to an ancient deity. A monument to sexual predation. A defiant gesture, like a raised middle finger, toward the rest of the world. These are just a handful of the various theories to sprout from the discovery of a strange, blue-and-white structure on Little St. James, the private Caribbean island once owned and inhabited by the deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein allegedly masterminded an international sex trafficking operation, accumulated inexplicable sums of money, and organized his professional and personal lives around a private, inaccessible island — all while plying his way into the upper atmosphere of the global elite. The outlandish temple, with no clear history or purpose, provided the perfect detail: an otherwise minor plot element that promised to illuminate the whole story. Still, no theory has convincingly explained why Epstein erected the building or what may have happened inside. The persistence of this mystery is especially remarkable given the intense public scrutiny of Epstein and his circle since his arrest in July. Someone, somewhere, must have a clue. Right? In the two months since Insider highlighted the structure, I've received dozens of tips about its true purpose. Most of them had no basis in fact or reason. But along the way, I found the closest thing yet to the truth: an eyewitness account of the temple's interior, from someone who stepped inside long before it became a symbol of its owners' dark secrets. Before we get there, however, let's run down the most popular — and probable — explanations. Theory 1: It's a facility for child abuse or sacrifice A favorite among online conspiracists, this theory combines the more fantastical elements of the Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracies, including cryptic allusions to pagan deities and underground chambers for abusing and murdering children. There are several variations of this theory, but many of them seem to stem from the presence of two bird-like statues perched on the building's roof. One reader claimed the statues depict a deity of the ancient Canaanite religion, whose adherents practiced child sacrifice: "It's actually an 'owl,' and it's actually the same as the great 'owl' at Bohemian Grove ... the 'owl' is Moloch, a satanic entity that demands child sacrifice." Another reader sent an annotated photo, seen below, of the building that described the statues as harpies, the half-bird, half-human creatures of Greek and Roman myth. The same photo compared the building's exterior to the striped flag of Greece, and noted that "sex between adults and minors was common in ancient Greece." An annotated image of the temple-like building. Anonymous Both hypotheses are shaky. Regarding the first: I was unable to find a historical example of Moloch being depicted as an owl, an idea that some authors have traced to Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove, a 2000 documentary filmed and produced by the radio fabulist Alex Jones. The title refers to a private campground owned by the exclusive Bohemia Club in San Francisco, whose members conduct elaborate ceremonies involving a gigantic concrete bird known as the "Owl of Bohemia." Jones refers to the owl statue as "Moloch" throughout the film, but never explains why. Regarding the second: The mythological harpy possesses the body of a bird and the head of a human. The available photos of the statues, by contrast, show distinctly avian heads. There is a legible correspondence between the building's exterior and the modern Greek flag, and ancient Greek culture did promote sexual relationships between adolescent boys and adult men. But even if the building's motif alludes to the sexual culture of a society that ended more than 1,400 years ago, Greek pederasty was a male phenomenon. Epstein's victims were young women and girls. (Confusing matters further is the disappearance or destruction of some of the building's architectural elements. During Hurricanes Irma and Maria, its golden dome blew off and was never replaced. The statues in front of and on top of the building, including Poseidon and the bird-like ones on the roof, appear to have vanished around the same time.) In any case, these theories assert that Epstein built a designated structure to conceal his criminal activities and that he incorporated a series of obvious clues about those activities into the structure's design. This doesn't quite compute. If Epstein wanted to perpetrate crimes without interference, why would he do so in the most conspicuous building on his private island? Verdict: Almost certainly not true. There is no clear evidence that Epstein constructed a special facility for abusing children or sacrificing them to Moloch or any other deity. Theory 2: It's a gym In July, ABC News spoke to an IT contractor named Steve Scully, who said he worked for Epstein and visited Little St. James more than 100 times. Scully claimed his client used the building for exercise: A colorful building that some news reports have called the "temple" was actually a gym when Epstein worked out when he was on the island, Scully said, noting in an interview with ABC News that the gym had a memorable feature—a massive framed photo of a topless woman. This account is believable, including the framed photo, except for one key detail. Scully told the network that he worked for Epstein for six years, between 1999 and 2005. He later told the Virgin Islands Daily News that, at the end of those six years, he cut off contact with Epstein entirely. But, based on historical satellite imagery from Google Maps, the blue-and-white building first appeared on the island sometime between 2009 and 2013. I was not able to make sense of this discrepancy. Maybe Scully never entered the building, and only heard about its interior from someone else. Or maybe he visited the island, and entered the building, sometime after he stopped working for Epstein. I wasn't able to reach Scully, either. An email address found via public records no longer works, and a phone number associated with one of his companies was disconnected. Kaitlyn Folmer, a producer at ABC News, passed along my contact information to Scully, but I have not yet heard back. Verdict: Plausible, but the supporting testimony is inconsistent with the chronology of the building's construction. Theory 3: It has something to do with ancient Egypt One of the more remarkable features of the building is its exterior treatment: Wide, horizontal stripes, alternating between azure and white, that bend toward the tops of the windows and door. The design slightly resembles ablaq, a masonry technique used in mosques that involves layers of darker and lighter stone. Conspiracists have also pointed to a public bath in Syria, the family crest of France's House of Lusignan, and the set of Ellen DeGeneres' day-time talk show, Ellen. Some of these similarities are debatable, and some are absurd, but it is difficult to ignore the sense that the building resembles something. "I wonder if it's a mausoleum with an Egyptian theme," one reader wrote. "The colors, design and direction of the stripes are strikingly similar to the design in Tutankhamun's Nemes headdress." A different reader added: "The statues look similar to those of Horus, the Egyptian god of the sky, wearing the Pschent, the double crown of Egypt. Horus was in control of the sun and the moon. Celebrated at winter solstice." This is a tricky theory to parse. The building undeniably resembles the blue-and-gold fabric headdress worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt. But it's not quite the same color scheme, and it would be difficult to prove, in the absence of Epstein's own admission, whether the resemblance is intentional or not. As for the statue, or statues, of Horus: The available evidence is inconclusive. None of the available photos and videos that depict the golden statues are detailed enough to determine their precise identities or if they even have one. Verdict: Certainly possible, but still unproven. Theory 4: It's a burial ground for his parents Shortly after my original post about the building was published, a reader in St. John emailed: "I have it on good authority his parents are buried there. That would explain your question about the door lock," which curiously appears designed to prevent people inside from leaving. "The other thing I remember," the reader later added, "was the Golden Owl on the roof pointed in a certain direction and that had [some kind of] meaning. I almost want to say it was the direction of where the parents lived." The reader explained that "this particular knowledge is from the boat captains that frequent the area." The reader did not want to be named, but I was able to verify their long-time residence in the U.S. Virgin Islands. And it would be strange for a reader to use their real name to lie about what a local boat captain told them about a particular building on Jeffrey Epstein's private island. Still, the boat captains are mistaken. A death notice for Epstein's father, Seymour, appeared in the Palm Beach Post on December 16, 1991; a notice for his mother, Pauline (under her nickname, Paula), appeared on April 23, 2004. Both said that funeral services would be held at Menorah Chapels, later known as Menorah Gardens & Funeral Chapel, in West Palm Beach, Florida. A representative for the facility, now called the IJ Morris Star of David Cemetery, confirmed that Seymour and Pauline Epstein are interred in a mausoleum there. Verdict: Initially believable, but provably false. That said, it's possible Epstein designed the building as a future burial ground for his parents, but never got around to having their remains shipped to the island. Theory 5: It's a music room This theory is based on three separate accounts. The first was published by the Associated Press in July: Epstein built a stone mansion with cream-colored walls and a bright turquoise roof surrounded by several other structures including the maids' quarters and a massive, square-shaped white building on one end of the island. Workers told each other it was a music room fitted with a grand piano and acoustic walls. Its gold dome flew off during the deadly 2017 hurricane season. The second account was published by NBC News in early August. According to reporter Rich Shapiro, an unnamed architectural firm submitted blueprints for a domed, single-story building on Epstein's behalf to the Department of Public Works of the US Virgin Islands. The documents clearly show a building designed to show off a grand piano. But, as Shapiro acknowledged, the actual building substantially deviates from the blueprints, which describe an octagonal structure surrounded by a covered porch, with internal partitions for a bathroom, closet, and living room. The actual building, by contrast, is shaped like a rectangle and has no covered porch to speak of. The third account came from a reader: Mr. Epstein did in fact have grand piano in that 'temple,' but the roof leaked because the AC units are on top, and the roof is flat. The piano was a 50's Baldwin Concert Grand...so huge they had trouble getting it across the island and installed there...it wouldn't fit the first time they tried (it was 1200 lbs). The leak was ruining the top of the piano, and the flooring. There were theater drapes in the room, and furniture. No stairs, no elevator. I know this because my friend ... has been in that room several times to tune the piano. The reader supplied their friend's name, and I confirmed that a person by that name has worked as a professional piano tuner in South Carolina and Florida. But when I called that piano tuner, he told me: "I've never been to Jeffrey Epstein's private island. I don't know who gave you my name." He didn't recognize the name of the reader who referred me to him. "It is true that I am a piano tuner with the Piano Technician's Guild," the piano tuner said. But he denied tuning pianos outside of Florida and South Carolina, or ever visiting the US Virgin Islands. When I went back to the reader, they sent me a link to a YouTube video about Little St. James, and claimed they had corresponded with the piano tuner via the comments underneath it. Indeed, someone had left several comments about entering the temple, using the piano tuner's name. "Was there a few times to tune his piano," one read. "Never saw [Epstein] though." Another comment read (minor typos have been corrected): Every time I was there it seemed some kind of repair was being done to structure. I know there were many issues with the roof leaking and had go there and move the piano and cover it because they were putting up scaffolding to repair the roof that was leaking on the piano. Not a lot in there except an absolutely huge 1960s Baldwin Model D concert grand piano and some furniture. The piano tuner's denial is one reason to question this account. The piano tuning industry is quite small, and while the piano tuner has a somewhat common name, I was unable to find a second piano tuner with the same name. A second reason for doubt is yet another comment left by the same user: I didn't have any idea what was happening there at the time, it was early 2000s, so I really didn't pay attention to little details. I was just too excited to be on this beautiful island with a day to myself and this amazing piano. Those benches were there, sat there when I went out for a cigarette. Remember: The building was erected between 2009 and 2013. But the YouTube user said he visited the building in the "early 2000s," long before it appeared in satellite imagery of Little St. James. For this reason alone, it is unlikely that this person ever stepped foot inside Epstein's temple. Verdict: This is easily the most plausible and supported theory, but the available evidence is inconsistent. So, what was the temple for? By mid-August, after speaking to the piano tuner who never tuned Epstein's piano, I was blocked and bewildered. I felt no closer to understanding the history of the building or the local lore around it. Wild rumors about child sacrifice and pagan symbolism were one thing; they came with the territory of the internet. But why would at least three people—the boat captain, the contractor, and the YouTube user—convey superficially plausible stories about the structure, sometimes in exacting detail, that didn't withstand basic scrutiny? I had other doubts, too. Soon after Epstein's arrest, a YouTube user named going by the name Rusty Shackleford began posting a series of remarkable videos captured by an aerial drone flown repeatedly over and around Little St. James. It was Shackleford who captured the jaw-dropping scene of FBI agents executing a search warrant throughout the island: But my doubts stemmed from two earlier, less-noticed videos that featured close-up views of the blue-and-white building. As you can see in first clip below, the arched, medieval-looking "door," the one facing the island's interior, is in fact mural painted to give the illusion of depth. Indeed, all of the temple's external archways were illusions, painted onto the building's featureless flat surface as a trompe l'oeil: In a second video, Shackleford's drone captured a portion of the building's interior, seen through one of the side windows. You'll notice what appears to be construction-grade scaffolding, two stacks of small mattresses, and an easel: These developments were mystifying. Why would Epstein, who had access to seemingly unlimited amounts of capital, choose a mural of an elaborate door over the real thing? And what was the significance of the mattresses? The footage gives the impression of a makeshift storage locker, a discreet place to stash seasonal implements, but wouldn't Epstein have had other places to keep extra mattresses? The assumption that Epstein acted according to a certain logic, and that logic could be ascertained through research and reporting, seemed less and less certain. I began to question the whole point of the exercise. How much more time and energy was I willing to spend on a story with so many dead ends? Did it even matter what Epstein used the building for? Every reporter has a personal theory of journalism — a mental model of the entire process that explains why they bother with it in the first place. One might think their job is about informing readers, or speaking truth to power, or helping people live better lives, or bringing about societal change, and so on. My own theory is that journalism is about solving mysteries — identifying the unknown and finding a way to know it. That is a little embarrassing to admit, with its connotations of Scooby Doo and alien abductions. But it's why I do it. Yet here was a seemingly solvable mystery for which I could not find a solution. I found myself embarrassed to discuss my progress with my editor and colleagues, as each additional clue turned out to be a false start. The piano tuner's account provided the final clue. The episode with the piano tuner gave me one last idea. Most professional piano tuners are listed in a directory maintained by the Piano Technicians Guild, a Kansas City-based group that tests and certifies piano technicians in the United States. This was how I verified and contacted the first piano tuner, who said he never serviced Epstein's piano on Little St. James. Using the same directory, I looked up piano technicians located in the Virgin Islands. After all, if Epstein did indeed keep a piano in the blue-and-white building, there was a decent chance he needed someone to occasionally tune it. (For pianos in regular use, the recommended frequency twice a year.) The directory returned a single entry: A piano tuner named Patrick Baron. So I sent him an email, and left a voicemail, asking if he had ever tuned a piano for Epstein. Then I tried to put the whole story out of my mind. If this didn't work, I planned to drop it altogether. Three days later, my phone rang. It was Patrick Baron, and yes, he had tuned Epstein's piano. A different piano tuner visited the building in 2012. Baron recounted his experience visiting Little St. James over several interviews with Insider. He never met Epstein, and he didn't recall how his staff originally contacted him — maybe been through another client, or maybe through the online directory. According to a calendar he kept at the time, Baron went to the island twice: in August 2012 and October 2012. On each occasion, Baron traveled to a dock in Red Hook, a town on the eastern end of St. Thomas, where he boarded a small boat that took him to Little St. James. Baron didn't recall much about the boat's captain. But he does remember who greeted him on Little St. James. On the first excursion, he met a woman named Karen, who seemed to serve as the island's project manager. On the second excursion, he spoke with a woman named Monique who filled a similar role, though she never actually greeted him in person while he was on the island. To support his account, Baron provided three phone numbers, one for Karen and two for Monique, that he used to call them in 2012. The first two numbers appear to have been disconnected, while the third, for Monique, went to a voicemail greeting for Southern Trust, a company that belonged to Epstein. When I called back a day later, I spoke with a woman who denied any knowledge of Southern Trust or anyone named Karen or Monique. Then she hung up. After briefing Baron about the various projects she was managing, Karen handed him off to another employee, an older man who belonged to the island's maintenance staff. That man drove Baron in a golf cart to the building where the piano had been placed. The ride took about five minutes, along a path lined with palm trees. Baron described the structure as a "relatively small building" near the island's coast, far away from the other structures on the island. It had a large glass door that faced "almost directly south." Atop the roof were statues that resembled "gargoyles." The color of the building — perhaps the most distinctive quality of the temple — was a "dull pewter." He didn't recall seeing any blue and white stripes on the exterior. When Baron mentioned this, my heart sank. It suddenly occurred to me that he could have tuned a piano in one of the other buildings on Little St. James. But every other detail seemed to match the temple. When I emailed Baron several photographs of the building, taken from different angles and elevations, he called me a few minutes later: "That is definitely the building." I asked if he was sure. "Absolutely. That's the right location, that's the right shape." In other words, it seems as if Baron encountered the building before Epstein applied its distinctive striped exterior, including a realistic mural of a large wooden door. Inside the temple, the piano tuner saw a Wurtlizter grand piano and a portrait of Epstein and the Pope. After the golf cart driver dropped him off, Baron entered the building. Here's what he remembers about the interior: The floors appeared to be made of wood, and were covered with a large Oriental rug. The interior had two levels, with the the first four to six feet of the interior at ground level and the rest on a slightly raised platform accessed by a single step. To the right, against the eastern wall, was a grey, non-descript couch or sofa. Directly ahead was a long desk, around ten feet long, made of dark wood. Behind the desk were several columns of floor-to-ceiling bookcases. The bookcases went high enough to require a ladder. But there was no ladder. The bookcases were filled with hardcover best-sellers (Baron didn't notice "anything scholarly"). To the left, against the western wall, was a small, black grand piano. According to Baron's notes, it was manufactured by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, whose piano-manufacturing operations were acquired by Baldwin Piano Company in 1988. Above the piano hung a portrait of Epstein and the Pope. (Baron wasn't certain about which specific Pope, but when I showed him photos of the most recent three, his best guess was John Paul II.) The interior consisted of only one, large room; there weren't any doors or stairwells that may have led to other rooms. On both visits, after Baron finished tuning the piano, the same golf cart driver took him back to the island's dock, where the same boat captain returned him to St. Thomas. Baron is almost certainly not the only person who stepped inside the blue-and-white building. Nor is he the only individual who has publicly claimed to do so. But he is the only visitor to offer a plausible and chronologically sound account of the building's interior. I asked Baron what he thought the building was used for. "Even in the condition that I described it in ... it was sort of a temple," he said. "When you say 'lair,' there is a connotation to that," he continued. "When you say 'study' or 'retreat,' there is a different connotation. I could have accepted it as a study or retreat, until I knew more about the man." "I went in there knowing absolutely nothing about [Epstein], except that he was wealthy," he said. "And after doing the job, and talking to some of my other clients on St. Thomas, and they filled me in on the scandal, my perception of that room changed from a study to a lair." We now have a much clearer picture of the building's ostensible purpose. Based only on its furnishings, Epstein likely used the building to play piano, read books, work, and maybe relax. The music room theory, it turns out, was the closest thing to the truth. That might sound exceedingly mundane, the most boring answer to a tantalizing puzzle. But it also points to yet another mystery, one that may never be answered: What was Jeffrey Epstein doing on the rest of his island — and with whom?

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