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visualnovelzombie · 10 months

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Furry Visual Novel Book Club: Echo Week 15 SPOILERS

Hi everyone, here is the SPOILER discussion post for “Echo - TJ’s Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday”

Links: Previous - Next - Original - Spoiler Free Version

Feel free to respond in reblogs/replies/or asks :D

We begin from the route split by following after Tj, who ran off after Flynn’s tirade. The music cuts and we’re left with the sound of the river. We’re met with three options.

The first two will set Chase’s mood for the next bit of dialogue while the third will lock us out of Tj’s route, which is something we haven’t seen before.

>Leave him be…

Chase narrates that he’s “not exactly graceful with this sort of thing, especially with TJ.”, and then decides to go with the others, giving us the options for the other route choices but not TJ’s.

>Say Something…”

Chase tries to comfort the lynx, but Tj doesn’t respond.

Until Finally…

>Say Nothing…

Chase sits next to Tj and starts breaking twigs in half, eventually annoying Tj.

Chase asks TJ if he wants to go eat, and he responds with a firm ‘No.’ Until Finally…

>Reconvergence

Tj is upset Flynn was so mean in front of everyone. Chase comments that Tj is clearly frazzled because the lynx has allowed his fur to stay unkempt even after sitting by himself for a while. Chase comments that Tj’s inability to express himself fully is part of what’s dragging the Lynx down so much. The two continue to discuss Flynn’s tirade

I would like to note, this is 71 lines into the route, and the foreshadowing is already on thick lmao

Chase speculates that Flynn is after ‘more than the truth’, and we learn Tj saw Sydney drown. Tj becomes angry at Flynn, because the gila hadn’t realized how much the event affected Tj himself. Tj wishes he could go back to the day, and that he isn’t mad he didn’t save Sydney, he knows he couldn’t have… hinting at wanting something else. Chase glosses over that he could have probably saved Sydney from drowning if he was there.

Chase wants to help Tj with what happened, but says he needs to come to terms with it himself first. We’re treated to a brief flashback of the scene… Flynn drags Chase into the water, and forces the otter to get Sydney while Jenna and Leo try to help where they can.

This is one of the few times that Chase acknowledges, at least in some part, that he had SOMETHING to do with it. Which is an extremely rare case in of itself, but especially on this route. Even late on the same day, we see him act angry and unusual, already over protective of Tj. He doesn’t interact this way on other routes, and to me, reads as the Otter ALREADY being pestered by the entity the fandom has dubbed, ‘Mirror-Man’.

Tj expresses being upset again, which makes Chase angry at Flynn for hurting Tj so much. Come Over begins to play, as Chase reminds Tj about their planned hike. The two plan their hike and talk about what their plans for school, promising to meet up one more time before graduating. The two return to the group who have packed everything in the van already. Leo asks if Tj is fine and after a satisfactory answer, is done with the conversation and heads off to work after dropping everyone else off at the motel.

This is part of my Mirror-Man USUALLY attacks Leo theory but is on/after Chase this time, but Leo’s complete lack of interest or pestering for more information stands out to me greatly here. After talking it out with some people, if it isn’t ‘Mirror-Man’ himself that also goes after Leo other times there’s two ‘alternatives’ that I can see work.

1. The entities in general work through mirrors. Like how they all ‘slither’ along the ground.

2. Chase, now already fixated on Tj, is purposely ignoring Leo/not narrating what’s happening exactly. We know from later that Chase’s narration becomes EXTREMELY unstable/unreliable, and I will admit that maybe some of Leo’s aloofness on this route might come from that, instead of another supernatural dealing.

The remaining four spend a lazy afternoon together before coming back to discussing Flynn. Carl tries to defend the lizard but Tj hard pivots the conversation to ice cream. When asked what his favorite flavor is, Chase’s head buzzes and he’s unable to think of an answer, blurting out Vanilla after a few moments. Chase’s headache gets worse and he’s unable to continue the conversation, and closes his eyes.. Very particular things happen over the next few lines:

Chase wakes on the couch, after some time has passed, indicated by the fade in, to the room being dark, Tj and Jenna in bed, with Carl on the floor asleep.

The scene fades to black, indicating some more time has passed. Chase is in bed next to Tj and is staring at the door.

We’re then met with a dream sequence… Before going into it I would like to point out the two previous scenes both took places at different times, indicated by the fadeouts, and that they were (most likely) NOT dreams. They don’t have the track associated with dreams playing in them, and Chase doesn’t ‘wake up’ from them into this one, like we’ve seen on Carl’s and Leo’s routes. Just bits of time are hard cut by the writing.

I want to talk about this for a bit. We’ve seen Chase dip on Sunday night from the motel room to go do... something that’s never explained. Something odd from how it cuts, and the way this sequence is cut, calls into question how much is really going on. I think the first instinct is to accept he’s just going on a walk the previous night, and this night is just his head hurting. BUT, the way this section glosses over large chunks of the day in just a few lines, reads to me that everything is being directly narrated, IS important.

The important bits I get out of this are: Chase takes pictures of someone, or something. (I don’t remember if they come up later in this route or not!), and/or heads for the night. This is to vague to work with right now, but just more lost time at night with our narrator.

With the second being the time cut to lying in bed. Two things stand out to me:

1. Chase is lying NEXT to TJ. Every other time he’s described lying platonicaly with someone, it’s head-to-toe. That’s how he sleeps in the bed with TJ and with Carl normally.

2. Chase is starring at a door. There are three doors in the room, and we know two are very important. The closet door is where a fox hung himself, but we don’t learn that till Arches. The other door important to the room, is the door to the bathroom. Later on in the route, Chase (and Sam!) are both terrified of what’s in there, the ‘Mirror-Man.’ I’m perposing, at this time, whichever one of them is in control during the night, is sensing that entity or presence already from the bathroom. I’d LOVE to hear other interpretations of this scene though!

Tj is drinking alcohol by the lake. He starts to run away after hearing something, but is eventually pulled back into the lake by a chain. Chase tries to help… but is also chained to the lake.

Chase and Tj are on their hike, with Tj trying to comfort the boiling otter.

...Tj you can’t just say that to Chase, gawd!

After a terrible and awkward attempt at playful flirting, the two continue on their hike. Chase calls into question his understanding of Tj’s sexuality, realizing the two have never discussed it, and how it might intersect with the lynx’s vague faith. We then this is INSANE lore tidbit.

Two hours pass by as the scene cuts, while Old Winds begins to play. Chase, struggling with the intensity of the hike, trips and falls. Tj soaks Chase with another water bottle, much to the otters continued annoyance. Tj is concerned for Chase because HE asked the otter out on the trip. After a bit of rest and… determination on where they should eat, the two continue to the peak of the trail. Tj soaks his shirt with water, showing off his fit form. Chase is … attracted to the sight.

The two make it the peak, resting on a stone bench at the top. Chase enjoys being alone with Tj like this… until a tarantula jumps in his lap.

Tj had pranked Chase with a plastic spider after Jenna insisted upon it. One microaggression later, the two enjoy a nice lunch and we’re treated with a CG

Chase takes off his shirt and the two accidentally touch paws while reaching for a bag of chips, sending Tj squirming off embarrassed. The two make awkward small talk while Tj fixes his fur. The two reminiscent on how they met, with Chase being a bit of bully in the story.

Chase heads off on his own for a second to get shots for his project. Drone begins to play, as some THING narrates FOR Chase inside his head… distinct from Samuel, based off of its font.

Chase either ignores or pays no attention to the entity and takes the shots he needs. Tj finds Chase taking the shots and comments on the otter’s body, making Chase question Tj more. Tj peers over the edge and we’re met with a Choice…

>Shove him.

The voice narrates Tj’s corpse lying at the bottom of the Canyon… and we’re given the other two options to choose from.

Notable because Chase almost never, if ever, questions Sam outside of the Murder Pit where Sam is the most separate.

We’re given the option to only Grab him and do nothing…

>Grab him.

Chase scares Tj and the two end up flailing around away from the cliff, locked in each other’s arms for a few moments.

>Do nothing

Chase doesn’t want to actually scare him off they cliff so the two stand there for a few moments.

>Reconvergence:

The two try to yell into the canyon, trying to get it to ‘echo’ back to them. The sad and nostalgic track, Canyon, begins to play.

The two comment on the quality of Echoes in Echo. Chase laments the town, while Tj wishes everyone could have come today. The two share an intimate moment for a second, until Tj gets a text message. It sours the Lynx’s mood, but he lies to Chase about it, the music cutting once the lie starts. The two head back home.

...

The two plan the rest of the trip, and tell Jenna to meet them at the diner for dinner. Upon arriving, Jenna remarks on Chase’s… ottery smell. Janice comes to take the groups order, happy to see the trio after they graduated. She also remarks on the mudslide musk in the area, blaming it on another patron. The coyote talks about needing to do some housework in a relatively polite conversation, resulting in Tj volunteering him and Chase for the job. After Jenna and Chase chide Tj for agreeing to the work, Jenna makes another musk comment towards Chase. The otter storms off to the bathroom to clean up in a fit of rage.

Chase tries to alleviate his headache by washing his face in the mirror… but it suddenly continues to worsen.

Chase sees a twisted reflection of himself in the mirror and becomes extremely disoriented. The non-diegetic music and sound effects is described IN text from Chase’s narration, quickly becoming diegetic. Chase writes the episode off as a migraine. Chase cleans up the musk under his armpits, then drops his pants to clean under his tail….

Chase returns to the table embarrassed, passing TJ on the way. Chase makes conversation with Jenna, and learns about Carl’s party tomorrow. Jenna lets slip the Tj wanted to see Chase the most during their trip back home. Jenna shows Chase a stick figure recreation of the prank that TJ had drawn, before heading out back to the motel to grab her purse. Tj returns to the booth.

Chase tries to explain the situation and Tj says its fine… even saying it was kind of cute.Come Over starts to play. Chase ribs Tj, playing gay chicken with the lynx… thrilled to be doing it with a guy again, let alone Tj. Their eyes meet again, and Tj smiles.

Another dream sequence…

Leo is driving Chase’s car on top of the lake, ‘shooting’ Chase with a finger gun from across the water. Tj swims after the car…

The dream sequence CUTS, with NO fade or dissolve, something very peculiar for the novel. Something intentional (IMO). A new track, ‘Unease’ plays, distinct from other Dream Sequence tracks or events. The background is Echo Canyon, now black and white, labeled ‘canyoneg’. Tj is lying at the floor of the canyon, maggots eating him. A paw reaches towards the lynx…

The dream fades back to the lake, unease still plays. Six bodies float in the water.

Chase knows something isn’t right. A tool-shed sits on the edge of the lake, one that doesn’t exist. It opens, and the scene cuts…

Okay, a LOT happens with this one. We get our usual dream sequence intro, with everyone doing weird shit on the lake as usual. BUT, this dream is interrupted. By a different force than usual, something showing Chase new kinds of nightmares. The lack of fadein is EXTREMELY noticible, especially when 99% of transitions has them. Some new entity has hijacked the dream. Something connected to the maggots from earlier... the ‘thing’ that is narrating FOR Chase. Something that isn’t Sam. The ominious paw is concerning and something we’re not super familiar with. It’s to vague to speculate on, even with TSR ghosts (as an addage not a planned explanation)

Six bodies, for six fiends (Carl, Leo, Tj, Flynn, Jenna, Sydney) on the lake. As if the entity is telling Chase that he SHOULD kill his friends. This is how ~I~ read it, but we know there’s been many other drownings related to the lake, but the number lines up to noticeably for me. There’s also the case of the shed... WHAT does that mean? The only other shed we get mention of that I can remember is Chase’s grandfather’s shed (which WAS a peculiar mention), or somehow foreshadowing Janice’s eroded shed for the next day? It seems to specific for that. There’s also a shed in the LATEST TSR build... but they aren’t thematically linked at all really so I don’t want to discuss it. VERY VERY specific, for something that I can’t substantiate at this time. Maybe some more bits out of the remaining routes that I forgot will help fill us in?

One last thing is the ‘This isn’t right, this isn’t me. what is this?’ To ME, this reads like something has taken control of Sam’s nightmare powers. Before this line, I would have just called it normal foreshadowing dreams, but the part of ‘this isn’t me’, makes it sound like it usually is a ‘me’. It was pointed out that Sam is always refereed to as ‘you’ usually, but why would Chase say ‘this isn’t me’ in this circumstance? If he was lucid dreaming, enough to say a line like this, it would have been ‘This isn’t normal?’. The rest of the lake based dreams are definitely ‘normal’ for the otter. But the lack of chains, introduction of maggots as a motif, and unknown presence appearing on the scene before cutting IS new. These are things I missed/forgot when I shotgunned this route AND Flynn’s route on the same day for sure... and raided till 2am right after, completely frying my already fried brain so...

Jenna and Chase discuss going to Carl’s as Tj showers. Tj finishes, and rushes to grab his shirt that he had forgotten, before running back into the bathroom embarrassed to finish dressing. En route to Carl’s house, the scene with Janice plays out the same…

We cut to Carl’s house, the ram unable to be found. Flynn is cursing as usual… but Chase asks him to stop. Leo boosts Jenna into the window again, and she unlocks the door for them. While Flynn searches for Carl, Chase and Tj discuss going to Janice’s later. Tj decides he wants to make sure she’s okay, and Chase agrees to go along. Chase recalls ditching Tj at Duke’s place while him and Carl got junk to build the ram’s tree-house. Chase comments on the bullying stemming from being two years older than Tj. Chase is sent to search outside while Tj is sent to search in the basement... definitely enough time to plant the the scavenger hunt...

Chase walks back inside after some reminiscing and…

Followed by Jenna walking by, indicating it wasn’t her orange tail walking down the stairs.

Presumably John? Showing that he isn’t always attached to Jenna? The children probably wouldn’t have a ‘fat’ tail... but that begs the question. Why is the tail orange? The only orange foxes important to the universe are the Byrnes (who would have maybe existed, at least in concept, by this point), but why would any of them be here. Is this a simple case of the writer going ‘oh fox tail, orange!’, forgetting the blonde/yellow complexion of the Begays?

In the basement, Chase walks into Flynn talking to Tj. Flynn apologies for sending something, presumably a text, to Tj yesterday. Flynn holds Tj by his shoulder, dropping his paw once he notices Chase step into the room. Flynn walks out of the room without a word, and Tj frantically grooms himself in front of a mirror. Chase tries to comfort Tj, but the lynx is to frazzled to talk about it. Chase offers to go out and walk with Tj around town to look for Carl, and the two head out.

The two talk about school, Tj going in depth about his schooling as an athletic trainer, and how he’s enjoying it and sports in general. Chase receives a text from Leo, stating they found Carl and that the party is cancelled because Carl isn’t feeling well. The two debate on going to Janice’s. Chase is worried she’s tripping on something while Tj argues she doesn't use drugs… Tj guilt trips Chase to going with cuteness and the two head over to Janice’s.

The two make it to Janice’s house. The coyote is completely nonchalant, as if not remembering the incident at all. She tasks the boys with removing a mass of weeds and moving firewood, promising refreshments and cookies for the two. Chase contemplates leaving, before Tj soaks himself with hose water and offers it to Chase. Chase soaks himself and the two get to work. Come Over starts to play.

Leo texts Chase asking where he’s at, and once Chase tells him, Leo doesn’t respond anymore. Chase takes off his shirt due to the heat and teases Tj with the ‘show’. The two make plans to go to the diner in the evening, but are interrupted by Tj spotting a tarantula in the weeds.

Janice comes outside due to the two boys screaming. She admires their twink bodies, causing Tj to become flustered. The two get back to work but are unable to find the tarantula again. After finishing, Tj offers some sports medicine advice to Chase, rubbing one of the otter’s tense muscles… after a promise for a full massage later, the two start on the pile of wood.

I’m not sure how to read Tj seeing a phantom tarantula. I’m assuming it signals that he went through some kind of flashback/dream sequence like Chase does in a bit upon seeing the spider. As it is most likely he’s already setup the Scavenger hunt earlier in the day, I don’t think this is Sydney a possessive Echo taking it’s roots in him. Maybe this is just the simpler explanation of Spiders representing guilt. Janice sure has a lot of guilt built up (rip Sam), and the spiders coalescing around her and the center of town makes sense. Chase AND Tj are both feeling really guilty to, maybe it’s just that simple explanation.

Chase comments on Tj faking the tarantula, saying how it’s stressed him out. As Tj returns from Janice’s house with a plate of cookies, Chase sprays him with a water hose. A new track, “Tj Theme’, starts to play. Chase is callous and carefree, eating the cookies and openly flirting with TJ… who is reserved and anxious as the upbeat tempo track continues to play in the background. The two continue working, Tj feeling worse and worse as the day continues. The track continues to play... The two continue their spider-infested laborin the gayest-twinkiest way ever, but make short work of the pile. Chase offers to go hiking tomorrow, trying to invite everyone.

Tj’s Theme being Chase completely overstepping any semblance of his feelings and being a creeper really fucking sets the mood for the theme of route......

The pair are about to plan it out, when on the last plank of wood, only for Chase to see a tarantula on the backside of it. The music finally cuts. Chase passes out and we’re met with a dream/flashback…

Sydney, a blue eyed otter, is talking to Chase. Both of them are young children. Sydney starts rough-house playing with Tj, the lynx losing on purpose to get out of it. Sydney starts to strangle Tj with the lynx;s shirt. Chase yells out ‘STOP’, before his view shifts to the present.

I will say. The absolute jaw-drop of Sydney being an otter, and HOW MUCH that calls into question him drowning completely missed me the first time through...

Chase wakes up from him passing out, puking up the snacks. Tj pulls Chase inside to cool off, where the Lynx agrees to more manual labor.

The two walk back towards the diner, arguing on the way. Upon arriving at the diner, an old friend takes their order. Julian, a white deer, catches up with the two. Chase stays out of the conversation, glad when Julian eventually leaves. Tj is upset that Chase called him Toby after waking up from the dream sequence, but doesn’t press the issue. Bittersweet starts to play as Chase realizes how he’s made TJ uncomfortable.

FURSONA

Chase asks Tj if he wants to try and find closure about Sydney. He wants to go to the lake with everyone except Flynn and talk about it. Chase confirms that Tj didn’t see the tarantula that caused him to pass out…

We’re met with another dream/flashback where Chase bullies Sydney for bullying Tj… Almost like it’s a cycle of abuse or something...

-------------------------

That concludes Tj up until Wednesday. Thank you everyone for taking the time to read and interacting <3 Some very... interesting stuff is being done here. Howly, the author, is really getting into using the medium to its fullest potential, and we’ll see more of that as we continue on.

Next Weeks Reading Assignment is just TJ’s Thursday! End on this line:

"He runs up the road and back toward town, disappearing into the bright sunset."

Or this Day Card: