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troutpopulation · 5 years

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It Becomes A Chain (Sigma x reader) pt.3

Summary: The whole gig isn't as glamorous as you initially thought. (Plus there's that annoying "Dr. de Kuiper" guy, and that's a whole 'nother mess.)

Ti volti e vedi la tua vita

Come la scia di un'elica

Caruso is playing. You couldn't tell from where. The Song was distorted, and rang out in the distance from somewhere inside your head.

Ma sì, è la vita che finisce Ma lui non ci pensò poi tanto

You're about to die.

E ricominciò il suo canto

You're in the greenhouse and it's dark. It must be night, but you think, you can't see a single celestial body. You stare blankly ahead into the glass and try to make out your reflection, but nothing but the bleak void outside stares back at you. There's a light in the sky.

The moon?

It vanishes. Just as quickly as it appeared, it's gone.

Te voglio bene assaje

The greenhouse glass shatters in slow motion. You can't move. The shard of glass glide eerily towards you and slide into your skin as smooth and slowly as a knife cutting into butter. It doesn't hurt. But you're scared.

You're terrified.

You look at you hands, but the shards of glass have already slipped beneath your skin and were swimming around like fish. Your skin rippled and bumped and protruded with something alive underneath it. It dragged along inside you, slithering, making visceral slicing noises as it grated past your bones.

Ma tanto tanto bene sai

Mounds formed in your palms as what ever was slithering about beneath your flesh struggled to get free. You wanted to scream. The bump raised and raised and burst. Your flesh folded backwards, dry and raw. You didn't bleed. You had no blood. The only liquid inside of you was a sickly yellow fluid that coated the thorny mass of wriggling vines and torn tendons.

È una catena ormai Che scioglie il sangue dint' 'e 'vvene sai

Caruso was playing.

È una cat ena orm ai Che scio glie il san gue dint' 'e 'vve ne sai

The vines writhed, alive without your control.

È u na ca te na o rm ai Che sciog lie il san gu e dint' 'e 'v ven e s ai

Caruso was playing

È a ca na mai Che sci lie il sa e di t' 'e 'v e s i

Pull them back. Move them. Make them stop moving. Do something to show you're in control.

È u at a mai Che sc lie il sa t' ' e i

The greenhouse was glowing in your peripherals. Light. Dark. Light. Dark. But you couldn't take your eyes off of your busted open skin and the viens and ligaments that had been discarded carelessly over the sides of the holes in your hands.

u a t a m i t e i

Caruso was playing.

a u t a i t m e i

The thorn covered vines moved. The raised from your arms, slowly, two twin snakes charmedby the distorted opera that haunted you. You watched as they ascended, up towards a light from an unseen source.

a i t u a t m e i

They snapped downwards, serpents striking and closing around your neck.

Caruso no longer played.

You screamed.

Aiutatemi!

You woke up with a dry mouth in your hotel room, and sat up groggily. You raised a hand and a vine shot forward, curling around the glass on your nightstand. 'Yep', you thought as you drank. 'Still in control.' Your nightmare left you waking up feeling sick. There was some sort of song playing you couldn't place, and you couldn't remember exactly what happened either, but it left a rather unsavory taste in your mouth.

Then again, that could just be your breath.

Go brush your teeth (y/n).

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

Siebren walked from his car to the laboratory. As usual, he parked far away and enjoyed the walk. His hours were flexible, and rarely was he ever late, but he felt like hurrying today. Why was that? It was a good question, and one he asked himself fervently. His work was going incredibly slow, and he seemed not to be reaching the event horizon of any particular discovery. But he supposed it didn't really matter. The quicker he got there, the more time he'd have to work and find that event horizon. He chuckled to himself, his nose crinkling. Alright, Siebren, what was it really? What were you so excited about? His own brain decided not to give up such privileged information, and it wasn't until he entered the lobby that it hit him. Or rather, you hit him. With an apple. Immediately you were upon him, apologizing up a storm.

"Oh my God I am so so sorry Dr. de Kuiper! Are you alright?" You looked like you were about to cry. "Yes, I... I'm fine." He blinked hard, touching the spot below his receding hairline where the fruit had bopped him. His colleagues chuckled among themselves. How ironic, is it then, they said, that the man studying Newton's laws is hit by an apple. You however, saw no humor in it. You apologized profusely, explaining that you had been demonstrating for the others and recognizing him had startled you and the tree had detached from your hands. He looked down and surely enough, on the floor was a sapling with buds of sparsely developed apples. "Really, it's quite alright, Mr. (l/n)." He smiled, and put a hand on your shoulder in reassurance. "Its good to see you again, anyways."

"Oh! Uh, you too!" You smiled sheepishly, glancing away for a moment. "How are things going with what you're working on?" Stupid (y/n). That was a stupid question. You didn't even know what he was working on and he knows that. You were pretending to care just to excuse hurting him through your carelessness. Do you realize how rude you sound right now? "Very slowly," Dr. de Kuiper chuckled, lighting up. "And you? How are the tests going?"

Small talk was going to be the literal death of you. You bit back a grimace at the question and gave a half-assed reply about how you were honored to be here and contribute. You've done this about a million times and at this point, have learned to just smile, nod and interject occasionally with the fascinated "oh wow" or "really?".

"That's fascinating, doctor! Well, I don't want to delay progress. Good luck in your endeavors." You smiled and extended a hand. "It was wonderful seeing you again." Dr. de Kuiper looked fascinated at your palm before he gave it a shake. That's the fucking worst, when people did that.

"Likewise Mr. (l/n)." He chirped. He said something else, but you'd already disengaged, walking back to the small gathering of scientists and apologizing for keeping them waiting. Your face burned with his eyes on your back.

Stop staring at me, stop staring at me, stop staring at me.

You followed the other doctors into the elevator and closed your eyes as you tuned out their murmuring and focused on the lift's melodic music.

You don't know why you thought you'd enjoy being studied like this. You hated feeling... less than human. And here? That's ALL you felt. You should be used to being a guinea pig by now, but never before was anybody ever this on the nose about it. In the hospital and facility you stayed in, you were a patient. When you were hired by farmers to kick-start their farms, they treated you like you were a man with a talent. When you grew food and volunteered at feeding shelters, they treated you like a friend. Here, it was different.

You'd never been in a lab this scale before. You'd never been surrounded by people and not know what they're talking about. Maybe it was because you were away from home, but you couldn't help but feel lost and nervous. You began to regret coming. The doctors ushered you into a large glass tank with a bowl of seeds, and your stomach dropped as it was sealed behind them. Over a PA they asked you to create from the bowl and you nodded, gulping, as you timidly walked over to the container and plucked out a seed. Visible over a woman's shoulder was a reading of your vitals. You were suddenly hyper-aware of everyone's eyes on you as you got to work.

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

Siebren must have been dreaming! That went incredibly well. Did you hear what (y/n) said? He said it was wonderful seeing him again! And perhaps, and now this might be a stretch, but perhaps he might want to see him again! Should he ask him out for coffee? Maybe that would be too forward.

Oh hadn't the night they met been so memorable? He'd saved him from losing his work. That was wonderful.

Siebren ran his fingertips over the gaping hole in the paper he had brought with him to his desk. The power behind that vine skewering the paper was astounding, it was like a bullet! Oh but the man behind the weapon... (Y/n) must be busy, but later on, maybe the two of them could sit down at a cafe, and compare notes? (Y/n) must be some sort of botanist, but maybe he was an astronomer? He was probably a physicist! They could compare notes. Oh, he had so many questions! He burned to know, how did he acquire those abilities? How did he learn such control?

Siebren grinned. The man must be some kind of genius. Finally, he found himself an equal.

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

You left the lab that evening feeling ill. This was turning out to be more stressful than you ever anticipated. You were no genius. You had no PHD, no masters degree, nothing. You felt stupid here, and for the first time in ages, began to doubt yourself. Why had you been chosen to take on these abilities? You had no idea how to handle them! You didn't know shit about plants in space, you didn't know anything about-

Stop, (y/n), breathe.

You do know how to handle them. You use your powers for good. Feeding your community? Planting trees? That's worth more than some shitty degree. That's worth more than some stupid math equation you couldn't read. So what if you failed math throughout school? You helped people.

But maybe if you could understand the science behind it, you could be doing more. Better yet, you'd not have people breathing down your neck and feel so exposed as they watched you grow plants from as many places on your body as you could. You hated how they glanced between you and their screen, judgement on their features. You felt small under the laboratory lights. You didn't want to even see a damn seed anymore.You were sick of being studied everyday. You were sick of the poking and prodding and awful scenarios. They nearly drowned you to simulate lack of oxygen in space yesterday. You complied, knowing you signed up for this but... You were TIRED.

You heard quickly approaching footsteps-

"Mr. (l/n), hello!"

Oh great, it was this guy. He kept popping up randomly this week, always pestering you. Hello, Mr. (l/n)! Mr. (l/n), hello! He couldn't take a damn hint and wouldn't shut up about his PHD. It was patronizing. He KNEW you weren't as educated and he wouldn't let you forget it. You responded with the most auto-generated shit possible and he still insisted on approaching you over and over, offering to show you his stupid research or equations you couldn't understand, or recommend some pretentious, expensive coffee you couldn't afford when you specifically told him your diet is being regulated. And now it seems like even AFTER hours he had to remind you he was better than you! What was it gonna be this time? He's smarter than you? More well liked? More educated? Richer? More handsome? Taller?

You glared at him, eyes red and glassy.

"What." Your voice was thick, and you hated it. "Oh... Mr. (l/n), are you alright?" "Can I help you?" You added, more forcefully this time. "I... This is probably a bad time-" "Yeah, it is." You muttered. "It can wait, never mind." Thank God. "Would you um... Do you need a ride home?" You grimaced. You should just tell him you're walking to yours. Or calling a lift. You looked into it, Uber was available in The Hague.

"Sure. Thank you." You were going to cry, how much more pathetic to this guy could you get? You followed him, tense as you held back exhausted, frustrated tears. Christ, how far did this guy park? You felt like you were walking into a trap. Suddenly you felt scared. "Where are we going?" You piped up, scowling. Vines began to sprout from your palms. This guy knew better than to try anything, you were sure, but in the off chance he did, you were ready now to turn him into a damn kebab. "I park a little far, sorry..." Dr. de Kuiper rubbed the back of his neck. He seemed relieved to speak, as if he'd been holding his breath this whole time. You glanced over at you, but you were shoving your hands in your pockets, nodding. He led you around the corner. Of course, his car was nice as hell. A black Tesla, a new model. Pretentious. You wordlessly got into the passenger seat, getting in before he had the chance to open the door for you. "Thank you for the ride, Dr. de Kuiper," You sighed as you put your hotel into the navigation. "I appreciate it." As if to further taunt you, Dr. de Kuiper beamed. He assured you it was not trouble, and you closed your eyes, pressing yourself back into the seat. This past week had been ridiculously uncomfortable, but this? This took the cake.

"How was work today? Did you make any progress with the tests? I've been dying to ask all week, actually." He chirped. You opened your eyes, glaring at the passing streetlights. "It was alright. I'm uh... I'm honored to contribute. As far as progress goes, I don't know. I don't even really understand what they're looking for anymore. All the math n' science is lost on me." You chuckled. "Major respect to those of you who work here every day... I couldn't. If I so much as see another lab I'm probably going to cry." You glanced over at Dr. de Kuiper. He looked shocked. If you thought this couldn't get anymore awkward, it did.

"I... Uh, I don't mean that literally."

"No, no I got it. It's stressful."

"Yeah... S'probably why I never became a scientist, heh."

"You don't say..."

You frowned. Alright. That was enough. You were getting really damn sick of this guy and his sarcasm.

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

It clicked suddenly. Embarrassment flooded inside of him as the realization shot down his hopes like a firing squad. Those glances you threw at him as you walked away? They didn't mean what he thought they did.

And you weren't the person he thought you were. His excitement had skewed his perception. Perhaps it was lack of socialization, all cooped up there in his lab, but his fantasies had ran wild. He was nearing middle age, but like a young boy he let those few interactions with you go off the rails and he built a false persona of you in his head. How foolish of him.

His heart sank as you recoiled from his comment.

"You can let me out here." You blurted out sharply. "Wh- what? Your hotel isn't for another-" "Please, let me out." You were already reaching for the door and unbuckling yourself as he began to pull over. Oh God, oh God he felt so stupid, he hadn't meant to upset you. What had he said wrong, how could he fix this?

Nothing he could say could fix this. He felt himself dying inside as you slammed the door. Hastily, he parked and got out of the car.

"Mr (l/n), please wait-" "Ohmygoddd-" You groaned behind your hands. He could tell you'd started crying. "I just want to know what I did to upset you, I-" "Look, I get it OK, you're smarter than me, I understand! Please, just stop hinting at that every time you see me? It's not subtle! I get what you're trying to say! You're in charge around here, I understand!" You whirled around, face flushed but you refused to let him see you cry. His heart broke. Had you really, this whole time, thought he was trying to assert himself over you? No, nonono that wasn't right at all! He'd been trying to impress you! He wanted you to like him!

"Mr. (l/n) I didn't mean it like that at all! I was... I wasn't trying to make you feel inferior." You waved, nodding. "Yes, yeah I know I know, forget what I just said, that was stupid." You interjected, voice cracking. "No, I understand how it could have been taken that way, I really do, I'm sorry." Siebren stepped closer. You wiped your eyes, closing them and pursing your lips. Your expression was tight as you let out a deep, shaking breath.

"it's alright. I'm sorry for the outburst. I just... This whole situation has been really stressful. I'm far from home, I'm here alone, I'm being studied like an animal I-" You swallowed. "I'm just overwhelmed." "I understand, I'm sorry, if I'd known I..."

He already hates you, Siebren, you might as well say it.

"Do you want to grab a coffee sometime?"

You looked dumbfounded, brows furrowed. "What?" "I've... been meaning to ask you. I know this is a terrible time, but I feel like if I don't put the offer out there now I wont get the opportunity later. You don't know how many times I've been trying to..." You laughed as if he'd told you a joke. It didn't make any sense. Nothing in this universe made sense. "You've gotta be kidding. This whole time I thought you were, I dunno, subtly threatening me," You sniffed, chuckling. "And you were just trying to ask me out. God, I'm about dumb as shit... I'm sorry about," You gestured around, lips pursed into a tight line. "All of this." You looked aside, that same sheepish look on your face as you had when you'd accidentally beamed an apple into his forehead. "The stress got to me. Shit, this is so embarrassing, I feel like an asshole." "I promise you, it's more than alright. I know what it's like to be overwhelmed." You looked up at him, hopeful. For the first time, you looked like you actually believed what he was saying. "Right. I um... I'd love to, by the way. Coffee. With you. Get some. I mean-" You covered your face, and let out a long monotone groan. Siebren couldn't help but smile. He felt terrible that you'd been so scared and nervous and not told anybody. But, he was glad you finally had somebody here to talk to. He was more than pleased that it was him.

You, the real you, not the one in his head, were distrustful and anxious, cruder mouthed than he expected, and insecure.

But honestly? For the situation, you handled this all very well, he was impressed. You were not the prodigy he assumed you to be. (Though really, that was on him for putting you on that pedestal. He regretted the stress that had caused you, but he'd apologize properly later.) You were not some genius physicist.

The kick was, though, that you did not impress him any less. In fact, he was all the more intrigued.

#Sigma x reader #Siebren de Kuiper #Overwatch #x reader #writing #reader insert

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keyofjetwolf · 5 years

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The Chosen: All the notes and answers to shit you wondered about for years

Hey. Hi there. How are you? I’m good, thanks for asking.

So, you remember when, at the beginning of the year, I said I was officially retiring my Buffy the Vampire Slayer continuation, The Chosen? If this is the first you’re hearing of it, a) SORRY TO DROP THAT ON YOU, and b) you may want to read this post first.

All caught up? Awesome.

I told you guys I’d share my stuff. This right here is that. I’ve searched through countless backups, terabytes of data, the remnants of three computers, AND MY SOUL (not really my soul; it doesn’t have a convenient find option), and I think this is everything. If there’s anything left of The Chosen that isn’t contained here, then it’s almost certainly lost to time and I wave it a fond farewell.

But don’t worry. There’s a lot here.

What I have for you are all the notes, plans, and ideas that I had written during the time when The Chosen was pretty much my entire world. From late 2003 to mid 2005, I was on my Buffy creative shit, and OH THE PLACES I WANTED TO GO. I’m not sure I’ll ever not be sad that, in the end, I couldn’t do it the way I wanted. Still, I’m glad to finally be showing you where we were heading.

I’ll try to give this as much order as I can, but my notes were strewn across a mass of files, and in some cases, I straight up can’t remember what the fuck I even meant any more. Feel free to ask if you have questions! Just be prepared that the answer may have to be an apologetic shrug.

I’m not sure what to wish for you all in the reading here. Closure, of some kind, I suppose is what we’re really all after. So closure it is! Happy closing, friends.

Thank you so much for allowing me to have captured your interest and attention, and for accompanying me and these characters I loved on the journey toward the ending I hoped for them.

** Any comments from present-me will be marked in this format. Otherwise, everything is untouched from how I wrote it whenever-the-fuck ago. Section headers are either as I named them at the time, or taken from the file name.

S8 Ideas

General Ideas

Rogue Slayer girl ' 'Full Circle'; Faith-centric.

Possessing demons ' personification of control ' W&K breakup episode.

Xander gets powers, but in exchange for his humanity. Comes to realize that his humanity is what his friends need, and he gives up the power.

Dawn's key powers are reawakened ' ability to unlock and enter doorways to parallel dimensions/realities and back again. Episode where this happens and she visits a parallel world (where she is the Slayer?). Possibly triggered by Doc, seeking to reawaken Glory?

Monster that eats body parts to rejuvenate them.

Emotion sucker.

Incubus that tries to seduce Buffy in her dreams.

Siren/rock group ' playing in club.

Faith/Buffy/other Slayers hunted for sport.

Super Slayer, enhanced by the DC. Big Bad? Guinea pig.

Legion of Super Slayers, created from life force of girls who reject the offer to join the DC.

Things to Name and Figure Out

The name of the new town.

New town is in center of three-Hellmouth triangle, consisting of Cleveland, Ohio, Syracuse, NY, and Washington DC. The gang is settled in a fictitious town in Pennsylvania, not far from Williamsport.

Name derived from three? Trinity, Trillium, etc.

The name of the Bronze replacement. (The Vortex?)

The name (and personality) of Kennedy's new Watcher.

The name (and personality) of the turncoat (the girl Giles talks to in Ep #1)

The name (and personality) of the girl Faith recruits (future cannon fodder)

Better name for the Dark Council.

Better name for the Dark Coven.

Assorted Ideas and Quotes

Scene: Someone shopping at a local bulk warehouse place. How much to Slayers eat? A LOT.

Possible use for the drug from "Helpless" that neutralizes Slayer powers?

Scene: Junior Slayers fighting monster. One says "You ARE the weakest link... Goodbye!" The others make fun of her for using such an outdated pop culture reference. She pouts that they should add a class about banter to the Slayer curriculum.

QUOTE: "D'you ever think sometime we should, you know, run AWAY from the blood curdling screams?"

QUOTE: Buffy doubts Tara's return. Willow: "What, you hold exclusive resurrection rights?"

QUOTE: Tara and Dark Coven guy. Tara: "She'll kill me. After I do this...Buffy will kill me." DC: "After you do this, will you care?"

QUOTE: "Excessive? I think you and excessive have already met in a head-on collision and exchanged insurance information."

QUOTE: Tara talking about doing stuff with Dawn: "You know, shopping, getting our hair done ... girl things." Willow: "I like your girl things."

QUOTE: Someone's sick, but denying it. They cough, get an accusing glance. "I just have something stuck in my throat." "Yeah, it's called ILLNESS."

QUOTE: Faith to somebody, possibly a young Slayer, who goes on at length about what they're going to do to a bad guy or deal with some serious challenge or something similar. "You're full of crap, you've got no idea what you're talking about. (beat) But you mean what you say, so that's gotta count for something."

Notes

1st ep

fate of SS's

Dawn's powers

X taking Watcher's courses

G distancing

W going to grad school

B/T going back to school

prophecy bits

G gets ring

Buffy bit - blood

Ante released

Season 9 Ideas

based on 7 samurai - group of people want to come in and hire the seven to clean something out

something happens where buffy or dawn disappears and the other goes to find them

core four have notoriety as evil forces (four horsemen) with some other community

sdhs reunion episode

"Demon that draws strength from guilt, hate, love, etc. Especially bad if it gets hold of Faith..."

---

I had a really cool thought about Buffy and relationships while I was in there though, which I think I'll have to work into The Chosen.

A common thread in each of her big relationships (Angel, Riley, Spike) is that when she tells them she loves them, they don't believe her.

Well Angel does, but he doesn't think she loves him enough. When he leaves, it's despite her telling him over and over that she loves him enough that him being a vampire and them not being able to do "normal" things doesn't matter. He doesn't believe her, and so leaves.

Riley tells Buffy during their big pre-him-leaving fight, that when she says she loves him, he "doesn't feel it". His disbelief in her and her words causes him to leave.

Then there's Spike. Final episode, Buffy finally tells him that she loves him. "No you don't. But thanks for saying it." And then he dies.

At this point in Buffy's life, there are a lot of reasons why Buffy wouldn't want a relationship in my opinion. But not the least of which is the fact that she MUST be able to answer the question of why none of these guys she loves ever believe her? (Even if you don't think she did love Spike, to Buffy I doubt that would matter -- HE didn't believe her EITHER [and how dare he not believe me, by the way!]).

It's a concept I just managed to sort out (in the shower, of course), and I don't think it's an "obvious" connection, but I do think it's an extremely valid one. I think before I'm done, I'll have to work this into the story somehow. And not resolve it, because I don't think it's easily resolved, and I think it's an issue outside the scope of what I'm trying to do, but I think the issue should be raised.

Season 9 Episode Ideas

Episode where everybody speaks in rhymes. Possible reintroduction for Faerie character?

De-aging episode, Giles' 50th birthday. Courtesy of Ethan Rayne. ("Many Happy Returns"?) Zaps Giles, Willow, Buffy and Xander back to four or five or so, leaving Tara, Faith and Dawn to look after them.

Episode dealing with the murderers in the group: Faith, Willow and Giles. Finch's son/daughter hunts down Faith to (confront? get revenge?) for his death. Sub-plots for Willow/Warren and Giles/Ben. Interesting to note that Faith is the only one who has ever shown any regret for her murder.

Herculean labors parallel. Xander? ("Labor Day"?)

Seven deadly sins with each main character embodying one of the sins? The one least like themselves?

Buffy: Greed

Willow: Sloth

Xander: Pride

Giles: Envy

Tara: Wrath

Dawn: Lust

Faith: Gluttony

Some other Slayer in the past, fighting an enemy that arises today. The gang have to read through the old Watcher's diaries to learn about him and how she defeated it. Shows this old Slayer and her Watcher via flashback. Maybe our Big Bads?

The characters get sent into Faerie Tales where they're forced to sort of act out the tales they're in.

Inanimate creation of some sort (puppet like) who makes other inanimate objects come to life. Specifically mannequins, by switching them out for real people. Some Scoobies, of course, fall victim to this.

Xander getting set up on blind dates. Amusing segment where Xander explains to date after date about what happened to his eye, each reason becoming more and more outlandish. Finally he just gives up and tells the truth - "It was gouged out by a crazy preacher man." The date laughs: "You're so funny!" Could end with Xander getting fixed up with the girl we introduced in S8 and possibly have seen a few times since then - Xander's love interest.

Revisit ideas: nameless, faceless army for the good guys, what are we doing with our army?

Tara dealing with family issues. Why am I back? Madrigan as new father.

Banan the collector

Alt world where Core4 seen like 4 horsemen (Title: "The Four"?)

Conversation where some characters are guessing who would've been the next successor to the Slayer line.

"Other side" episode with dead characters

Buffy/Dawn ep about Buffy's role in Dawn's life. Seeing the others intreract with her, wondering what her place is in Dawn's life. Parallel with flashbacks about VS and her sister. Starts with Buffy finding Grip and Dawn making out, leads to Buffy giving Dawn "the talk" and failing miserably. ("Sometimes, after you and a guy ...... they CHANGE.") Dawn learns nothing, goes to Tara from there, who knows nothing about having sex with a guy, but is supportive and encouraging. Buffy overhears and then begins to try to find how she fits into Dawn's life. We learn at the end that although B/D are vastly different from the VS and her sis, the bond is still just as strong.

Willow (and Tara) meeting up with Willow's parents again.

Big Bads

Vampires, return to the simpler times a bit. Not apocalyptic, but personal. Female vamp with a real mad-on for Buffy. Pissed because Buffy failed to save her? Also possibly some sort of vampire army. Fem is a modern-day Sun Tzu, right hand to this guy in charge of everything.

Addition (3Jul04): After some discussion, we're leaning toward making the femvamp a Slayer who was turned waaaay the heck back when. Possibly held or captured by some other vampire later on in life, and she was released by the head of the army, thus earning her allegiance. Maybe she's Japanese and thus very honourable? If we take her from 1600 or 1700's Japan, that might work out well. Might also give added weight to why her soul has no bearing on halting her quest for vengeance - honor demands that her sister's death be avenged. Possible imagery: maybe she was tortured by whoever held her? The mental image of big ol' cross scar over her eye is intriguing.

Season 9 Episode Chart

Notes

Need to work out (soon!) everybody's hell stuff so it can be incorporated into earlier episodes.

Willow versus hacker vamp idea. Why? What's at stake? Possible fill for humour ep at 9x16?

Corollary: Replot Willow's arc through S9 and possibly into S10.

Get new prophecy for Giles.

Work in at least one other prophecy stanza this season. Important to figure out soon. Who, when, how?

** This was a chart which doesn’t translate well to Tumblr, so I’ll break the cells apart and show column separation with ||

Updated - 22 June 2005

Ep # || Monster/Conflict || Plot Developments || Focus

9x01 || Vamps || Buffy kills Hitakno || Group

9x02 || Dante || Faith comes home || Faith

9x03 || Slone || Sunnydale HS reunion in LA || Group

9x04 || Vamps/Demons || Yuugana arrives in Trillium, Xander quits the Council || Xander

9x05 || Belastung || Tara goes home. || Tara

9x06 || Ethan || Giles birthday, Scoobies regressed || Giles

----------------- NOT YET AIRED -----------------

9x07 || Slayer || Demon girl on run from Slayer. Buffy and Slayer at moral odds. Dawn key powers awaken fully. || Buffy/Dawn

9x08 || Amy || Amy cashes in on Willow's debt. (Fake) Buffy accompanies. || Willow

9x09 || D'Hoffryn || Xander makes a wish that Anya hadn't died. || Xander

9x10 || The Furies || The Furies drive Finch's child to revenge. While they're here, they decide to spread the love. || Faith/Giles

9x11 || ??? || Funny episode - Camping trip? || Group(??)

9x12 || Yuugana || Faith visits Hazel's parents (Xander accompanies). Upon return to Trillium, is attacked and nearly killed by Yuugana. || Faith/Xander

9x13 || Yuugana/General || Sister's parallel. Buffy and Dawn, Yuugana and Hitanko. Yuu's backstory. General arrives, drains Willow and Dawn. || Yuugana/Buffy

9x14 || Yuugana/General || Buffy insists that the gang re-ensoul Yuugana. They do so; it makes no difference. Buffy attacked, put in coma. || Buffy/Group

9x15 || Antediluvian || In an effort to save Buffy, Tara, Xander, Dawn and Kennedy go in search of Ruth, and the Antediluvian. || Tara/Group

9x16 || ??? || Funny episode - ??? || Willow(??)

9x17 || The General || The General's plans come to fruition. || Group

9x18 || Giles' Demon || A demon Giles thought defeated years ago comes back to continue their arrangement. || Giles

9x19 || 7 Sins || The Seven Sins are unleashed on the Scoobies. || Group

9x20 || The General/Yuugana || The General releases Yuugana and they formulate a new plan involving Dawn. Yuugana kills the General and takes Dawn as bait. || Group(?)

9x21 || Yuugana || Part 1. Yuugana takes Dawn into the Private Hell place where she was recently kept. The Scoobies must follow. || Group

9x22 || Yuugana || Part 2. The Scoobies fight their way through their personal hell. Buffy vs Yuugana. || Group

Original Chart

** “VS” stands for “vampiric slayer”, so Yuugana before she had a name.

Ep # || Monster/Conflict || Plot Developments || Focus

9x01 || Vamps || Buffy kills the VS's sister || Group

9x02 || Serial killer || Faith comes home??

9x03 || ?? || Sunnydale HS reunion in LA || ??/Group(?)

9x04 || ?? (vamps?) || VS arrives in Trillium || ??/Group(?)

9x05 || ?? || Tara goes home. VS denied immediate revenge. || Tara

9x06 || Amy || Amy collects on debt. Wants Will to help her get a book. || Willow/Buffy

9x07 || Ethan Rayne || Giles birthday/regression || Giles

9x08 || Doc || Dawn & Doc - Key powers fully awoken || Dawn

9x09 || Finch's child (furies?) || Murderers haunted by past || Faith (lesser: W, G)

9x10 || D'Hoffryn || Xander's wish (Anya) || Xander

9x11 || VS/?? || Sister's parallel episode || Buffy/Dawn

9x12 || Monster in woods || Camping trip (Tara and blade of grass) || Group

9x13 || VS || Buffy vs. VS -- VS ensouled, Buffy drained || Buffy

9x14 || VS minions(?) || Buffy injured. Group goes after Antediluvian || Tara/Group

9x15 || ?? || "Labor Day" (Kenn still around) || Xander

9x16 || artifact || 7 Deadly Sins || Group

9x17 || Computer Program || Willow and the computer program || Willow

9x18 || ?? || Faith visits Hazel's parents || Faith/Xander

9x19 || Demon || Demon that's possessed Giles. Comes every 10(?) years. || Giles

9x20 || General || Fight with General - General loses || Group

9x21 || Demon Dimension || Four Horsemen ("Four"?) [Abortive attempt by VS to separate Buffy from her strongest allies?] || B/W/X/G

9x22 || VS || Big battle -- Buffy vs. VS || Buffy/Group

Yuugana

need: how does Buffy come to believe what she does about Yuu? Conversation beforehand? Difficult. Why doesn't Yuu just kill her? Could make threat, but then Buffy is gambling with everyone, and makes no sense why Yuu nearly kills Buffy later. (Especially as threat will come when Buffy falls unconscious.)

Buffy must be able to draw conclusions ahead of time. Paint picture of Yuu that Buffy will be privvy to. Draw parallels b/w Buffy's life and Yuugana's life. Buffy will internalize.

NEED: When/How will gang find out that she is Yuugana? When will this name be dropped? How? May be good if we can draw General as being very, very powerful. They're afraid of him. Getting Yuu on their side would be huge in fighting him.

Idea: General nearly kills Dawn, draining key powers. Yuu saves her. Buffy thinks it is because Yuu knows what it's like to lose a sister. In truth, Yuu isn't ready for Dawn to die yet - that will be the most painful blow of all.

buffy believes -- utterly believes -- that Yuugana will be good if given her soul. Spike was good, Angel was good ... maybe all vampires can do good if given the chance? Who is she to be judge, jury and executioner?

Internalized: this could be me. What would I do if someone killed Dawn?

** I found two sets of Season 9 character arc notes. The first set are what I think what I was mainly working from, but I’m not 100%.

Character Emotional/Plot Arcs – Season 9

Season Theme: Consequences

Buffy

Will be target of the Big Bad’s wrath as a consequence of killing the BB’s sister early in the season. Buffy’s primary emotional arc will be in the realization that every action, even the most seemingly natural or inconsequential, has far-reaching repercussions, that affect not just Buffy but those she loves.

Willow

Willow’s emotional arc returns to one that was never resolved or given enough attention (or mangled thanks to magic=crack) – control issues. Throughout Willow’s history on BtVS, she’s exhibited time and again a deep NEED to control the things around her. Her need for this never changed, save for her becoming so paranoid she was afraid to breath for fear of killing everyone in S7. Her catalyst for these deep-seeded emotional problems re-emerging stem from a few basic changes. 1) Tara’s back, and Willow doesn’t think she can take losing her again. 2) The Big Bad has made things very, very personal. And Willow remembers only too well what happened last time a Big Bad vampire took things personal. 3) This Big Bad is smart. Really smart. In some ways, even smarter than Willow. And for all the enemies they’ve faced, Will’s never had to go against someone who’s been able to out think her before. And she freaks.

We’re going to have to be careful with this one, though, because we don’t want a return to “Willow Uses Way Too Much Magick” again. We’re therefore going to have to find others ways in which Willow exercises that control trigger finger. Her computer skills could certainly help out to a degree, as well as her smarts, but we’re going to have to be careful. We definitely don’t want a rehash of S6’s problems. Willow is – or very much should be – wiser than that now. And while Will has sort of always had a bad case of “the ends justify the means”, we don’t want a rehash. So care is needed.

We could help to show this by maybe having Willow do something like casting a really powerful protection spell that somehow backfires. What will be vitally important here is taking care to make it very clear that Willow isn’t relying on magick for every little thing (no spells for decoration or closing curtains) … the magick is simply her most powerful tool for keeping everyone safe. This should NOT be about black magick, but about a need for control.

NOTE (4Jul04): After discussions, will probably meld Will's character arc with the fact that Buffy and others (Tara and Giles probably excepted) don't fully appreciate or realize the pressures they put on Willow to come up with the answers and be the big gun, while simultaneously not wanting her to go too far. Magick is bad, except when they need it. They don't accept their own consequences for the actions they push her toward. This still feeds into Willow's character flaws above - her need to protect everyone, to be the best, to keep the nasty stuff at bay.

Xander

Xander, being the human element, will have the root of his emotional arc derive from one of the most basic of human desires: to live forever. Not in the biologically immortal sense, but by wanting to live on long after he’s died. Xander realizes that of all his friends, he is the one that history is least likely to remember. The odds on him being studied in school centuries from now are next to nothing. Buffy will be recalled as the world’s most successful Slayer. Willow as the witch whose spell changed the world. Giles as the founder of the new Watcher’s Council (and new world order?) Any history mentioning Willow is almost guaranteed to include Tara as well. Dawn and her Key potential is fascinating and going to be mentioned … but Xander? There’s nothing so remarkable about Xander, he feels, and thus begins his quest to somehow ensure his own immortality to history.

This might somehow be triggered by the emergence of a new sort of threat. With Slayers all over the world, there’s absolutely no way that NOBODY is going to notice them. Even if people in the Buffyverse have shown time and again that they’ll simply ignore what they either can’t or are unwilling to understand (gang related, PCP), not everybody is so willing to pull down the veil. Thus begins the emergence of a conspiracy theorist, someone who somehow has managed to trace his story to Slayer Central. In doing so, he somehow manages to put a level of importance on each of the Scoobies … except Xander. Which stings.

Xander would eventually come to realize that while history may not remember him, those he loves certainly will, and when all’s said and done, that’s enough for him.

Giles

Giles’ arc will come out of an inevitability – his age. One of the earliest episodes will be reflecting on the fact that Giles is now 50. He’s done such a good job with the Council that much of the bureaucracy continues without his direct involvement. He’s not really keen on that side of things anyway, so he’s not sorry to see it go. But what he does want to do instead is get into the thick of things physically. But, unfortunately, he simply can’t anymore, and it’s a lesson he very much doesn’t want to learn. Giles will ultimately come to realize, however, that while he can’t swing a sword to match the Slayer, what he DOES have is his incredible mind, which will certainly be put to great use in the confrontations with the Sun Tzu-like Big Bad. The fight could not be won without Giles’ intellectual input.

Tara

Tara will spend much of her arc wondering about her place. When she was alive, she had some difficulty in fitting in. And it wasn’t until just before her death that she really started to come into her own. A year and a half has passed now, however, and things and people have changed. Tara aspires to be more than just an extension of Willow, and as voiced in “Family”, she wants very much to feel useful to the Scoobies.

But Tara’s need to find where she fits extends beyond simply within the Scoobs. Tara has a very definite sense of nature and balance, and her being brought back from the dead is something of an abhorrence to her. She can’t quite shake the feeling that in order for her to have been brought back, something had to go out in her place to keep the balance. What that may have been disturbs her beyond words.

How exactly these issues become resolved is currently unclear. Tara should certainly remain the moral and emotional center of the Scoobies. She has more power now, but power was always Willow’s contribution, not Tara’s. On the death thing, perhaps something mystical helps her? Maybe the big Wicca chick we bring in at the end of S8 can help somehow? Show that Tara’s coming back was, in its own way, as natural as her passing was UNnatural. Her return is, in and of itself, a righting of the scales.

Dawn

This is a big year for Dawn. She’s a senior in high school. She’s turning 18. She’s becoming an adult. Oh, yeah, and she’ll finally figure out that she’s got all those Key powers still. Dawn’s story will be about transitions. From childhood to adulthood, from being just a normal (as normal as she could be) girl to having all those powers as the Key and whatever that implies for her. We will also need to decide this year where Dawn’s going to college (her awakening Key powers could be a good excuse to keep her local).

Faith

Faith’s story is going to be about guilt. Hazel’s death at the end of the previous season happened right before we ended the whole thing, so at that point we will have gotten to see precious little carryover. This is the time to dwell on that. Faith would feel tremendous guilt over Hazel’s death – Faith is the one who recruited Hazel, who brought her there. She was Hazel’s mentor, and Hazel sacrificed herself for Faith. We don’t want to retread over the “do I belong here?” line, since we’re dealing with that in S8, but Faith should certainly be questioning whether or not she should be leading little girls into dangerous battles. It’s one thing for Faith to risk her life night after night, but another entirely to be responsible for the lives and deaths of others. Unsure how this will resolve, but it seems the logical arc for Faith given the closing of the previous season.

Big Bad

NOTE: We’re going to have to come up with a really good reason why Willow just doesn’t ensoul the vamp chick … or she does and it makes no difference at all. Could be an interesting commentary about vampires and souls. Hm.

The more we’re discussing this, the more we’re liking this idea. The notion of souls in the Buffyverse has always been sort of hazy at best. Loosely, they seemed to be of the opinion that getting a soul somehow made you good … but there are countless number of humans in the world (and the Buffyverse – look at Warren) who are human and, one therefore assumes, have a soul. Yet they are still capable of great evil. Even more so than some demons that they encounter. So despite however neat and pat Buffy likes to make it sometimes, a soul does NOT automatically mean that someone is going to be good. And maybe that throws her for a hell of a loop. Willow ensouls the BB, but it doesn’t make one bit of difference. Vengeance is, after all, as much a human emotion as anything else, and the BB still wants Buffy to suffer horribly for what she’s done. At most, the BB may feel some measure of guilt for the people that she’s had to kill over the past 300 or 400 years (however long she’s been vamped), but as it turns out, she doesn’t. She looks at it with the detached, cold impracticality possessed by Slayers – she did what she had to in order to survive. Maybe she wasn’t a fan of torture (we’re painting her very logical and such, so this should work okay), and simply did what she needed to. The Slayer in and of itself is very predatorial and most definitely a survivor – there’s not necessarily much difference between them, and this will further demonstrate that fact.

This could also further add to Willow’s continued feeling of being out of control. This SHOULD have worked and didn’t.

Season 9 Character Arcs

Buffy:

Buffy's arc will deal with a continuing gray area between what is good and what is evil. What is a soul really? Does having a soul make you good by default? The vampiric Slayer will prove that's not necessarily the case. Additionally, Buffy will be trying to sort out a few things about her life. What does she ultimately want to do? She could very well be the first Slayer in history to die of old age. Does she want to be involved with that all her life, or does she want more? Would Buffy maybe like to return to school? (Might be fun to have her and Tara going back to school together.) Around midway point, Buffy is nearly drained to death by vamp Slayer, she must rely on others to take care of her - doesn't always have to be the strong one.

Willow:

Willow will come to the realization that her magick is of no use against the Big Bad this year. What is Willow without her magick? What else can she contribute? Progressively, other things may fail as well, so that Willow is systematically deconstructed and having to find her true purpose and how she can contribute outside of her raw power.

Xander:

Xander will explore his roles this season. He's said that he won't be forgotten or shoved aside, so then the question becomes, how will he contribute? It's up to Xander to answer this question. He tries his hand at a variety of roles - maybe a Watcher, maybe a husband (though he's already "failed" at that one). Come the end, he realizes that his role is support, and it's the role he's always fallen into naturally.

Giles:

Giles is pulling away from the others. He's beginning to see the Slayers as nameless, faceless people. He realizes that he'll have to sacrifice them - and some part of himself - again at some point in the future, so he's subconsciously distancing himself from the pain. He's slowly becoming the Old Council. Comes to realize that while he may have to distance himself from the body as a whole, it doesn't mean he shouldn't have any attachments at all. And that he can be those two people - the one that can love them, but still sacrifice them for the greater good if necessary (which will work, as Giles will ultimately sacrifice himself, NOT for the greater good but because he doesn't want them to die). ** Which may be a good time to point out that I was going to kill Giles next season, kisses.

Tara:

Tara's quest this year will be for her place. She's died and come back, but this isn't "right". There is a balance in things, and she feels she's upset that balance. She'll explore her past and her family to find out why, in a grander sense, she's back and how she fits in now.

Tara and Willow:

Tara discovers that Willow has somewhat enshrined her as a result of her death and return. Willow caves to Tara almost constantly, and it's beginning to affect them both, but Willow can't bring herself to fight with Tara as a result of what happens every time they fight. She doesn't want Tara to go away again. They must fight, they have to learn that it's okay. Tara pushes it with Willow and makes it happen. Maybe when Tara goes to visit her family, that's the catalyst.

Dawn:

Dawn becomes victim of the time-old adage, "be careful what you wish for". She's always wanted to be a Scooby, but now that's beginning to conflict with her other desire to be a regular teenaged girl and her other big desire: to be an adult. All these worlds are colliding and Dawn's not sure which is more important. Blows off Scooby things for friend-things sometimes. Blows off friend-things for Scooby-things.

Re Grip: They're getting closer, but she keeps having to put off things with him due to Scooby situations. Grip notices and (kindly) confronts her, wondering if she really just doesn't want to see him anymore but doesn't know how to tell him. When he finds out about the baddies, he'll back away, needing time to process. Poor Dawnie.

Faith:

Faith will spend the season getting back onto the redemptive path she's been on for years. She doesn't feel bad that she killed Judith and is wondering what the means (somewhat like when her mother died). She'll learn that just because she's stumbled doesn't mean she's fallen. She begins in England, hiding out from Trillium. Thinking she should go solo, it was easier when she didn't have anyone else to worry about. Doesn't want to go back, but Kennedy pushes her. Once back, Faith avoids everyone. Should Giles maybe get Faith into therapy?

Buffy agitated that Faith isn't really being punished. Faith points out that a lot of people around Buffy are killers and they've never been punished either. Buffy needs things black and white, Faith is another shade of grey and it's getting harder and harder for her to do her job.

Xander gets to the heart of things too much, and Faith doesn't want to deal with that. Finally it's Willow who lets Faith know that there's someone who DOES understand. It's the first step in getting Faith back into things, but she still doesn't want to teach.

Maybe at some point in the season, Faith takes off? If so, Xander should probably pursue. (Might tie in nicely to Xander's "what's my role?" arc. Perhaps he has a job interview or something that he can't miss out on that will further define him, but he misses it because he has to help Faith, and that's the choice he makes) Could be where Hazel's death gets resolved. Goes to Hazel's house and parents for that?

Faith's murder issue will probably come to a head when she's face-to-face with Finch's child. Kid wants revenge, and Faith understands that. States how it won't make anything better, but gives up and says that if s/he wants it so bad, just take it. S/he doesn't, of course, which would probably disappoint Faith to a degree.

Maybe show Faith just starting to teach again at the end of the season, rather than some big culmination. Maybe she's forced into it when the VS keeps the other Slayers occupied? Buffy would be elsewhere at the time.

The Big Bad

** These are some of my earliest notes, as reflected in how I’m using my placeholder names like “Dark Coven”. A lot of it deals with what happened in S8, but it outlines the larger arc, which would have come to a head in S10.

What the Bad Guys Want

The Dark Coven is seeking to reawaken The Old Ones. As per Giles in “Welcome to the Hellmouth", the Old Ones were driven out when the lost their "purchase" on this reality. The last vestiges of the Old Ones fed on a human, mixed their blood, and created the first vampire. This proves that humans were around during the time of the Old Ones. He also states that vamps, demons and some magicks are leftovers from the time of the Old Ones.

The Dark Coven is a group that has been around since the time of the Old Ones. They are in allegiance with them, and are currently seeking to free them. In their current incarnation, they are very, very close (comparatively speaking). The Old Ones are sealed away somewhere by a series of extremely intricate locks, well nigh impenetrable. But they actually are already well on their way to opening them.

More than anything else, the DC is a master of manipulation with OODLES of patience. They've been working on freeing the Old Ones since their imprisonment. As is eventually revealed, they have been twisting events with the Scoobies for years, bringing them to the point where the Old Ones are ready to be freed.

When the Old Ones Roamed

They were, quite simply, lords of their domain. They are few in number, but unfathomably powerful. As with many nigh-omnipotent beings, however, they became bored and complacent. They began to tinker with things and began creating demons, unleashing them on the world. The demons, however, were little more than slaves, and no matter how evil, nothing much likes being enslaved. The demons, together with humans (quite possibly including the Shadow Men from "Get it Done") were able to ensnare the Old Ones -- you can't kill them, but they were imprisoned. Once the Old Ones were gone, their power slowly vanished, diminishing their partners/lackies/etc. (like the DC), and leaving the created demons and humans to fight over the rest of the land.

Season 6 Manipulation

The DC, although powerful, are themselves, collectively, unable to open the remaining locks (if they could ever open any at all). However they soon discovered one girl, Willow Rosenberg, who had the innate ability to channel the energies necessary to set things into motion. She just needed the right motivation to get the power.

Exactly how far their manipulation into these events goes, we don't know. What is for certain is that they fixed it so that Tara would be shot and killed by Warren's stray bullet. (The reasoning for this idea: there's absolutely no way the bullet could have possibly killed Tara in the way it did. Warren was in the backyard, running away and shooting upwards. Tara was standing by the bedroom window on the second story. The bullet shot through the glass, and through her, at no angle at all. Obviously in-show this was done for dramatic purposes, but they left a door open for outside creative interpretation and I’m going through it.)

As they knew it would, this prompts Willow to become hell-bent on revenge and absorb enough power to destroy the world. She goes to Kingman's Bluff, raises the effigy of Proserpexa, and begins to funnel her energies into it. Had she done this enough, she would have raised one of the Old Ones herself (or Proserpexa could have take the next step in unlocking one of the doors), however Xander interceded and saved Willow before this could happen.

NOTE: Perhaps Xander's interception is what was actually needed here? I always found it interesting that he completely blocked and seemingly absorbed all that power Willow was throwing at the effigy without even blinking. Was this maybe super-charging him for something? Could this maybe be key to what they will need to save him from later on? (S10 stuff.)

The Proserpexa angle maybe have been removed, but the DC didn't mind -- Willow had now unlocked enough of the power within herself to open another lock.

Season 7 Manipulation

This stems from a whole lot of S7 never really standing up to much scrutiny. Take, for example, the scythe. Caleb and the First spend SO much time and energy in uncovering the scythe, claiming to know how very important it was to NOT allow Buffy & Co. to get it -- when if they hadn't even been trying to get it, Buffy wouldn't have ever known it was there. This in and of itself seems to make ZERO sense, particularly since it never seemed to be that the First could use the scythe himself -- it was all about keeping it from the Slayer. So, very stupid to not only sit on the darned thing, but to ACTIVELY BRING YOUR ENEMIES TO IT (the "trap" in "Dirty Girls" leads Buffy and the Slayers to the vineyard, They never would have bothered going there otherwise).

My reasoning: The First is also an Old One. And he set his plan up specifically to fail. He himself is immortal, he cannot die. And he doesn't really give a crap about ubervamps and Bringers. Their plan all along was to make the Scoobies unleash the scythe to awaken all the Slayers.

Why? As mentioned in "Get it Done", there is a well of Slayer power. That well is usually filled nearly to capacity. It was, after all, only being used by Buffy, and then Faith. The fact that the emergence of a second Slayer did nothing to diminish either's power indicates that it's not shared on that kind of level. In addition, the awakening of all the Slayers at the end of "Chosen" didn't seem to cause any sort of power drain. Instead, we theorize that the well is deep, but has a finite capacity. When Willow did the spell, she in essence pulled the stopper on the well and drained it dry. This well, however, happens to be one of the keys to freeing the Old Ones, and once it drops to a certain level, the "door" that it locks is open.

Moving on -- The Chosen

When Slayers die now, one is not called in their place. There is a finite number of Slayers in the world now. When they die, their Slayerness returns to the well. Only once it reaches a certain level (presumably it's "default" state, pre-spell) will the "natural" process resume. The DC obviously don't want this to happen, as once it "refills" to a certain point, the door will close again. Hence their working with the Assemblage of Merodoch (previously, "Dark Council"); by harnessing and funneling the Slayerness into an already existing Slayer, it does not return to the well, hence no refill.

But that isn't the only reason the DC are working with the Assemblage. The AoM also has another key: an angel that they're keeping chained up in the deepest sublevel of their headquarters. This angel has, perhaps, been around as long as the Old Ones themselves. Perhaps he even aided in imprisoning them. He was captured shortly thereafter, however, and has remained that way ever since (we're talking pretty close to pre-recorded history here, as long as the Slayer line has been in existence, possibly longer).

Idea: The angel can only be freed by a descendant of one who imprisoned him in the first place. Maybe a Giles?

He is a key -- maybe something he says? His true name, perhaps? The DC want him, but the AoM have him and won't give him up. They have said, however, that once Order is restored to the world, they will provide the DC with the means to do whatever they need to do with him. The DC is okay with this -- they're currently getting something from the Council (someone to alert them to the need to funnel Slayer energy and someone to keep all that tiresome business together while they focus on the really important stuff).

Like good ol' Willow Rosenberg.

They call Willow "The Sangerand" ("the bloody"), and they should absolutely not be done with her yet. Willow's independent further role, we don't yet know, but she commands their greatest amount of attention. Her, and Tara. ("The Curat", or "the pure"?)

When they resurrect Tara, it is ostensibly under the guise of killing Willow. However the true reason is to fulfill Tara's part of this prophecy (which includes her death, resurrection and making the choice to not kill Willow), possibly including the sharing of power that Willow will need to do to save them.

Thinking on it, it would be cool to have each Scooby play an important role somehow in all of this. Sort of like their being together in this way was a fated thing. "The Chosen" indeed.

**ADDENDUM** I really like this idea of each Scooby playing a particular role. This could still lead up to the eventual death of Giles, which in and of itself will provide the beginnings of the Coven's downfall. They do whatever they're doing to Xander, which will kill him - but that won't matter because his role in unlocking the door will be done. Will is going to be doing the spell to save him, which will kill her in turn, but that's okay too because her part is also played in releasing the Old Ones. Giles, however, has NOT yet done his part, and he completely surprises everyone when he takes Willow's place, thereby saving both Will and Xander. This totally throws the Coven for a loop, though obviously they must still be able to do what they need to without Giles, else their plans are over with right then and there. It's crucial that his sacrifice NOT be part of the DC's plans, else it takes away from its poignancy.

Will need some sort of prophecy-type thing detailing what is needed to be done to release the Old Ones. Should be nice and vague, but with meaning once you figure it out.

Scooby Designations

Willow: The Sangerand ("the bloody")

Tara: The Curat ("the pure")

Xander: The Vedere ("the sight"), The Asar ("all-seeing eye") -- "The Baani" ("The Architect" - Urdu)

Buffy: The Kusari ("the chain"), The Revenire ("the returned"), The Gula or The Bau ("Lady Who the Dead Bring Back to Life")

Giles: The Verhaal ("the history"), The Shoukin/The Infria, ("redemption"), The Shin'ar ("Land of the Watchers")

Faith: ("the dark"), ("the restrained"), ("the wild")

Dawn: ("the cherished"), ("the gateway"), ("the portal"), ("the key")

The Prophecy

Opening Quatrain

Buffy :: The Trimarga :: Three Path A heartbeat thrice begun A death mark thrice given All roads lead to the town of three When her spilled blood shall spill again

Willow :: The Sangerand :: The Bloody Blood flowing, blood taken Forces awoken, decline and ascent Blood given, life exchanged Freely, she will fall

Xander :: The Baani :: The Builder Grief and rage, life's destruction Mind and body, life's cohesion Heart and spirit, life's devotion Melding, merging; essence anew

Giles :: The Tezan :: The Way Forger of paths, the first and his kin The demon wields the plague of black Summoner, banisher Pierce the barrier, paths renewed

Tara :: The Curat :: The Pure Birth and rebirth, the cycle complete Connected to evil, untainted Power innate and power borrowed Through the light she will free the ancient one

Dawn :: The Amelatu :: The Gatekeeper Living energy made flesh and form Younger in life, older than death Truth altered, life shed And the walls will fall

The Slayer Well Solitary hunter, night's enemy She alone will stand When the well is drained and strength is shared One becomes Many

Closing Quatrain And so it is written Seven locks hold fast The masters expelled, the world cleansed Until the Chosen play their part

Seven keys for seven locks From the first to fall, five score and one If all locks turn, the door lay open And the Old Ones shall reclaim the Earth

Buffy: The Trimarga ("three path" :: the triple path of Knowledge [jnanayoga], Devotion [bhaktiyoga] and Action [karmayoga]). Three times her heart has started beating, three times she's been marked by a vampire (Angel, Dracula and the Vamp Slayer [yet to happen) and in town of threes(??). Something to do with blood - some of it needed to open the lock. Blood of a Slayer is already potent, and Buffy's was obviously enough to close the portal in place of Dawn.

Willow: The Sangerand ("the bloody"). Willow will cast a blood-sacrifice spell, that will enable her to willingly exchange her life for another. It has to be this spell based upon how Mads and the others are killing Xander. Very, very powerful, only she can do it. The flow of the energies will open the lock.

Xander: The Baani ('the builder"). Xander is the "incuabator" for two very powerful magicks. They don't impact him directly, but it is his nature - his very self - that will enable them to merge within him to create something new. The first blast came from Willow on Kingman's Bluff. The second, from the orb destroyed in "Win, Lose or Draw". Madrigan will take Xander around the mid-point of S10 to extract the magicks from him. It will kill him in the process, but that's of little concern.

Giles: The Tezan ("the way"). Giles' role is to obtain a ring that has been in his family for generations upon generations. Unknown to those recently, the jewel of the ring actually contains a demon - a demon that was the original cause of the Black Plague in the 1330's. Giles' ancestor, a powerful warlock for the Council, was the first human to pierce the barrier between this dimension and a demon dimension where he summoned a demon and bound it to his service. The demon was sent to China, where it was supposed to take out a group of other demonic creatures trying to open a Hellmouth there. It did indeed do that, but not before starting the plague. The Council, rather than destroy the ring and banish the creature, said "We'll control it better next time." The ring's purpose was eventually lost,. Giles is supposed to release and then banish the demon, again piercing the dimensional barrier and opening that lock. ** He dies instead, sacrificing himself to save both Willow and Xander. Oops.

Tara: The Curat ("the pure"). Tara's lock will open upon her freeing the Antediluvian. The Antediluvian is an angelic creature that was captured by Robespierre's ancestors. Its imprisonment means the lock is sealed - its freedom opens it. Tara is able to free it due to her lineage as a witch, her purity of spirit, her completed cycle of birth and rebirth, and (by binding with Willow) her immense white magick power creating the necessary conditions. Ruth, Tara's grandmother or great-grandmother, was also thought at one time to have been the Curat, but was not. However she does recognize the qualities within Tara. (Perhaps the Antediluvian, despite its imprisonment being a good thing, can do great good if it's released?) ** Later in S9, Tara and Co. would have freed the Antediluvian to save Buffy after Yuugana’s attack.

Dawn: The Amelatu ("the gatekeeper"). Dawn herself is able to open the lock. Not a lot of detail here. We'll need to sort out somehow or another that Dawn will do this ... or perhaps she already has? There seems to be little better time for Dawn to have opened the necessary lock than when all the dimensional walls were coming down.

Additional Lock: The well of Slayer power being drained. This was done by Willow in S7, but is not Willow's specific key.

Additional Info: Once any lock falls, there is a "timer" of 100 years for the rest to fall, or they all lock again.

** It may not escape notice that Faith is not part of this prophecy. That became by design, not oversight. I loved how this idea of “The Chosen” worked into the larger series theme, but I also hate the ideas of fate and destiny being controlling factors. Faith was going to be my argument against all that. When all the prophecy pieces were revealed, Faith would (rather defeatedly in her Faith way) note that she had no part to play. But she is the embodiment of being Chosen, as the characters choose to have Faith by their side and fuck prophecy anyway. Their unreserved acceptance of Faith, and Faith’s acceptance of THAT, would have been the culmination of her character arc in S10 (and my series).

S10 Ideas

Something to do with tarot cards, with each member maybe being a particular card?

Several characters get thrown back in time to an earlier season. Dawn especially should go, as she wasn't around then.

stained glass idea. couples. Buffy left free. Valentine's day ep.

"The Impossible Dream" - Man of La Mancha lyrics

Faith having conversation with Kendra -- result of illness, injury, or prophetic dream

** An episode I was definitely going to do, but frustratingly can’t find any notes for (making me feel there must be SOMETHING else out there somewhere but fuck me if I know where) had Willow and Tara going to Los Angels and visiting Lorne’s bar, Caritas.

S10 Ending

Everyone ends on a thematic note, their actions in the final battle bringing together 10 years of development:

Giles's sacrifice makes victory possible - by finally following his heart rather than his duty he saves the world.

Xander, by virtue (and surprise) of simply being Xander, strikes the final blow.

Willow succeeds only by keeping herself in check, refusing to break and believing that she can win.

Buffy's victories come from not only sharing herself (mentally to Willow and physically to Faith and Kennedy) but truly, finally, accepting that she's not in this alone.

Dawn makes the sacrifice she was destined to make from the moment she was created.

Tara is the touchstone, giving the strength and support to everyone else and the lifeline that ultimately saves Dawn.

Faith has no greater role handed to her by fate -- but she's here and kicking ass so screw you, fate.

(work on Kennedy, she ends up fighting w/ Buff and Faith, but does she start there? maybe she and Faith start with Tara and Dawn?)

IDEAS

Seneca final battle. He's winning. Standing over Buffy, gloating smile. Then he finally speaks. Something like, "I've waited a long time to--" Then he gets skewered (Faith or Kennedy, maybe both.) He can't say anything else, just gurgle. He dies, and the Slayers stand over him.

Buffy: "Blah blah blah. You know, just once I'd like to meet a bad guy who knows how to keep his mouth shut."

Kennedy: "No lie. Still, I wonder what he was going to say?"

Faith: "Who the hell cares?"

Buffy HAS to be part of final Madrigan fight. She goes initially with Xander and Willow. Xander gets struck down by Mads, seemingly dead. Buffy gets nailed too. Willow needs Buffy to get through this though, and Buff gives Will her strength (flashback to "Same Time Same Place" as well as early Chosen w/ Willow and Buffy being so attuned -- see, not a throw-away plot point! Planned all along!) Leads to good "final" conversation/bonding with them as they search for Madrigan in the mental plane.

Earlier in the season, Madrigan extracting the magick from Xander. Very painful for Xander. Madrigan talking to him though, very chatty, very casual. Xander trying to dig for info, Madrigan clearly seeing through it. He likes the cliche though (exposition while acknowledging how clunky and stupid it is to have exposition here). Mads being real bastard (passively though) to Xander this whole time, noting how Xander isn't even really important in and of himself, it's only what others do with him that counts (maybe include little side wink-nudge point, it's what's inside Xander that matters). Mads ends the conversation by apologizing. "Sorry dude, this has gotta suck for you. Hey, you know what I like to do when I'm down? TV! You like 'Murphy Brown'? I've been Netflixing it." He and Seneca proceed to sit down and watch while Xander is essentially tortured behind them. Mads just turns up the volume.

Season 10 Final Fight

Buffy, Kennedy and Faith will go after Seneca.

Willow and Tara will be walking along in the facility when they're attacked. Tara is thrown away from Willow, who is then going to be caught behind an impenetrable shield with Madrigan. He wants to face her alone on an astral plane of sorts. Tara can't join her. Willow is depowered somewhat as a result of the spell she was casting to save Xander. Madrigan wants to fight her, however. Will surprises him - she thought like him and figured he would do this. As a result, Xander is piggy-backing with her, and she's not alone. Madrigan says that he knows Xander, and Xander won't kill him. He's wrong. X: "He don't know me very well, do he?"

Meanwhile, the door to release the Old Ones is opening and they can't stop it. Or they think they can't. Dawn realizes that she, being the Key, can. She begins to do so, but it's taking so much power, it's essentially killing her. Dawn is reverting to pure energy form. Buffy screams at her, tells her not to, but Dawn says she's spent the past five years wondering - feeling, even - that she should've died on that tower. Now she knows that she wasn't supposed to die, she was supposed to live to do this. "This is the job that I have to do." Buffy can't stop her. Tara fights though, won't let Dawn go. Tara eventually passes out and Dawn disappears. The energy is gone and so is Dawn, but the door is closed and locked again.

Not long after, Buffy goes home. Willow and Xander are with Tara at the hospital (she’s drained but okay). Buffy seems to be alone. She's completely dispirited - Dawn is dead. She enters her room, only to find Dawn there. B: "What are you doing here?" Shades of Dawn's first appearance. Turns out (as we'll learn in the final episode) that Dawn has given up all of her Key powers - for real this time. She is now, completely and utterly, a very real, very normal girl.

** And finally, I give you all with this. It’s a rough sketch of the scene after Giles has died, so would have come about 2/3rd of the way through Season 10. I wrote this in 2004, about a week after the death of my grandfather. I like to think that, if I’d gotten that far, this would have been one of those moments that would have stuck with you. I certainly would’ve tried.

Giles Death Reactions

These are a sequence of silent scenes.

We first see Faith in a darkened training room. She's punching a punching bag.

We're in Giles loft, the lights all dark. The door opens, and Hannah's standing there, on the threshold. She doesn’t enter.

We're in a hospital, private room. There are two beds. The one on the far left contains Xander. He looks gaunt, pale, near death. But breathing. His heart monitor gives a steady readout. Dawn sits next to him, inbetween the two beds. Tears are streaming down her cheeks – simply falling, she's not sobbing. She watches Xander with a fearful, worried expression, then turns to the next bed. There's Willow, also pale and drawn. She doesn't look well either, though not quite as bad as Xander. Tara sits on the other side of the bed, as close to it as she can possibly get. One of Willow's hands is held up in both of hers, Willow's fingers resting on Tara's lips. Tara's eyes are red – she's obviously been crying too. She meets Dawn's gaze. Neither smile.

We're in Giles' office. Buffy is standing in the doorway. Her face is blank.

We're back in the loft, Hannah's position mirroring Buffy's. She walks inside and finds herself drawn toward Giles' stereo system. She runs her hands over the CD collection, full of albums and songs from their past.

Faith's punching of the bag increases. She's venting, her jabs more vicious, more focused. Over her shoulder, we see Kennedy watching.

The hospital. Dawn runs a hand through her hair and wipes her eyes after watching Xander intently. She turns to Willow and watches as Willow opens her eyes and blinks. Dawn watches in surprise, and Willow seems to sense the scrutiny. She turns to Dawn and smiles – just a small smile, a pained one, but it's something. Dawn's face breaks into an expression of pure joy and relief, and she says something. Tara has either been locked in thought or asleep, Willow's hand clutched to her forehead, but her head jerks up at Dawn's words. She focuses on Dawn for the briefest of moments before her eyes go back to Willow. Willow is already looking at her, and she smiles again, a bit stronger this time. Willow says something too, and it causes Tara to laugh. The laugh turns into a sob of relief though, and Tara kisses Willow's hand several times then leans over and kisses her forehead. Will is weak, but is able to give Tara a one-armed hug, kissing her on the cheek, then turning to Dawn and extending her other arm. Dawn is there in a heartbeat, also crying in relief.

Giles' office. Almost trancelike, Buffy moves further into the darkened office, which is lit only by the lamp on the desk. As she walks, her eyes are drawn to things. The rows and rows of books that Giles surrounded himself with. The bookcases that Xander built, not only filled with books but also decorated with knickknacks – various small statues and effigies and an Owl plushie. She looks to the opposite wall, where hangs a variety of pictures, but dominating them all, easily the biggest and with the proudest placement, is a picture of Giles, snapped at a moment none of them were expecting. He was obviously the victim of a random group hug attack – Buffy, Willow, Xander, Tara and Dawn, all hugging him fiercely. Giles has that look on his face where he's trying hard to be annoyed with them, but is secretly loving every moment. Buffy's movement into the office hasn't halted, hasn't slowed from its already snail's pace. She's at the desk now. Bathed in the warm glow of the lamp, she sees a cup of tea, only half-drunk, as though Giles will be returning any moment to finish it. Most prominent, however, are the sealed envelopes on the desk, several of them, each bearing a name. We see Buffy's name on the top one, and can see hints of other's beneath: Willow, Xander, etc. Giles' glasses rest nearby.

Faith is almost in a frenzy of kicks and punches now. Her teeth are clenched and she looks like she wants nothing more than to have the bag turn into the Grim Reaper himself so she can pound the crap out of him. A hand rests on her shoulder, and Faith whirls around to see Kennedy there. Faith looks like she might just start beating the shit out of Kennedy as well, but then Kennedy takes Faith's hand and puts a stake in it. Faith looks down at it questioningly, then looks to Kennedy. Kennedy holds up her own stake. Faith's eyes narrow and she nods, just slightly.

Hannah's by the window in Giles' loft, simply looking out, looking at nothing in particular. She hugs herself and her head drops as she starts to softly cry.

In the hospital room, Willow casts an anxious look at Xander still motionless in his bed. She looks first to Dawn, then Tara, who says something that causes Willow to relax considerably. She smiles, but soon realizes her smiles aren't being returned. She again looks questioningly from one to the other, but neither speak. She's getting really worked up now, scared, and Dawn starts to say something. She doesn't get far, though, before she can't speak any more. Willow turns immediately to Tara, who picks up where Dawn left off. Willow watches, still afraid. Then the fear turns to disbelief. She's starting to cry now and she shakes her head in denial. She looks to Dawn, looking for someone to tell her that what she's heard isn't true, but Dawn can only cry. Willow looks back to Tara again and says something, begging for it not to be true. Tara can only look at her with sympathy and matching pain as Willow dissolves into tears.

Giles office. Buffy is sitting in the corner, her back against the wall, curled in on herself. We can't see her face, but her shaking shoulders tell us all we need to know. She's hugging the Owl plushie for dear life.

CUT TO BLACK

** And that, my friends, is that.

#jw writes stuff #btvs: the chosen #IT TOOK ME LONGER THAN I THOUGHT #and now i'm officially drained and exhausted goodnight

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fountainpenguin · 5 years

Text

A T.U.F.F. Timeline

An analysis of “T.U.F.F. Puppy” society and how it relates to my headcanoned Hartmanverse timeline (Healthy suspension of disbelief required). My intention was to unite all four Hartman shows in the same continuity, so alternate universe explanations were ruled out for this analysis.

If you enjoy reading my Hartman show ‘fics, I highly recommend skimming through this post so you won’t be confused down the road; this is now the official Riddleverse canon and references to it are fair game in my ‘fics. Plus I worked really hard on it and if you read it I will be glad (The post is about 5000 words; TL;DR found at bottom).

I will update my sideblog’s timeline(s) to include this information if you’d like to see it all laid out that way instead.

OH THE HUMANITY

First things first, humans are confirmed to exist in the TUFFverse. Evidence can be found in the episode “The Good, The Bad, and the Quacky:”

This TV card (assumed to be an in-universe card) depicts a human who walks upright and wears clothing. The implication is that humans in the TUFFverse are not treated as pets, but are considered a sapient people.

Furthermore, when skull decorations appear, they’re always modeled after human skulls. The skulls in Snaptrap’s skull collection appear to be human too.

HERE is a link to the Digital Morphology library if you’re interested in browsing its collection of animal skulls. Here is Dudley’s [stylized] skull compared with the skull of a Labrador Retriever, offering evidence that the animals have retained much of their animal anatomy and don’t have human skulls:

We could possibly conclude that Snaptrap has gathered human skulls over the years because he considers them an interesting collectible from the days of an ancient race. However, there is still evidence that humans are alive in modern TUFFverse times:

In “Dog House,” we see the skeleton of a hostage Snaptrap claims to have chained to the water heater himself. This skeleton appears to be human due to the shape of the skull and the lack of ear and tail bones.

In the episode “The Booby Trap,” we learned that it’s illegal to harm an endangered species. We can conclude that humans are probably not endangered species in this time period, because even though Snaptrap is a villain and might not have an issue with killing people, he probably wouldn’t have left an endangered species to starve in the middle of an open room that’s frequently visited by T.U.F.F. agents.

With this evidence in mind, we have reason to doubt that humans are extinct in this time period. Therefore, we can conclude that the Chameleon’s neighbor (Mrs. Ungerman) is a human who doesn’t shave her legs, and that she’s not an animal with balding legs, human-like feet, and a tail kept out of view:

We can assume that humans and animal people are both alive and thriving in the "T.U.F.F.” time period, and that they live alongside one another. However, it seems that there are fewer humans around, or that they avoid associating with the animals for the most part.

Most likely, human communities are still scattered throughout the world, but animal people are the most dominant lifeform (An estimate based on the lack of humans seen in the show and the existence of all the animal puns; in the FOP episode “Abra-Catastrophe,” we also saw an increase in animal puns once animals had become the dominant people of the planet). Assuming that all the animal people can be classified under a single racial label, I would argue that the animal people are by far the dominant race of the planet during this time and that fairy godparents are assigned to animal kids as a result.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

In order to fit “T.U.F.F. Puppy” in the same continuity as the other Hartman shows, I’ve chosen to set it in the future, long after FOP, DP, and BIaB are over. In addition to the existence of animal people, background clues such as the circular doorways, blasters, and elaborate monorail system suggest “T.U.F.F.” is set in a slightly futuristic time period anyway:

A few people suggested that I set “T.U.F.F. Puppy” in the future after a magical war wiped out the humans (most if not all of them). Initially I resisted the idea because it interfered with some fanfic plans (I’ve established in my works that Poof and Foop attend school together, I’ve never mentioned a war, my plan has always been that global warming would flood the planet within a few hundred years and I had a big humans-become-mermaids plot set up, etc). Besides, my preferred genre is contemporary slice-of-life in a fantasy world, and I’m already writing the War of the Angels in two different stories. Trying to make yet another series of magical battles unique sounded like torture.

However, while watching “T.U.F.F.” it became apparent to me that there was no possible way to fit the show in my timeline if I didn’t discard my mermaid plans and prevent global warming floods, unless I wanted to set it during the 2000s with the other shows. The struggle of incorporating “T.U.F.F.”’s animal people and technology in modern times while maintaining the integrity of the other Hartman shows appealed to me even less. So, Riddleverse canon no longer includes a flooded planet plot, and the 130 Prompt “All I Ever Wanted” will soon be updated to reflect this (i.e. the will o’ the wisps will resettle in Pixie World due to a magical war pushing them from their homes rather than floods, and I’ll make changes to some future prompts I’ve been working on as well).

Fairy World’s timeline (that is, the emergence of certain aesthetics, beliefs, and technologies throughout Fairy World) roughly parallels ours, albeit at a different speed (the War of the Sunset Divide stands in for World War I and the War of the Angels stands in for World War II). Fairy World is currently paralleling the 50s (Butch said he designed Cosmo with the 50s aesthetic in mind). Because of this, I designed my version of older Poof with a counterculture aesthetic.

That means that a magical war paralleling the Vietnam War, which filled the 60s and 70s, would fit in Poof’s youth (He’s our flower child, and what’s a flower child without a war to protest?) Keeping with the parallel, I envision this would be a very long war (much longer than either of the two before it) with more and more fighters gradually drawn in.

My take on the Beasts is that they came into existence when regular animals were contaminated with leftover magic (known as “stinky magic” in FOP canon) that infected their food and water sources. I’ve already established in my ‘fics that this contamination was caused by mere magical pollution, so I imagine that a magical war would result in even higher concentrations of stinky magic on Earth (Note: The War of the Angels took place in Fairy World, Anti-Fairy World, and several planets throughout the galaxy and wasn’t centered on Earth itself).

We saw in the FOP episodes “Talkin’ Trash” and “Dust Busters” that Fairy magic, when left to fester, can have bizarre effects on the things around it, which is why I finally decided to be okay with discarding my original timeline plans in favor of a magical war. I haven’t made plans for this war yet, but I do know that I want it to take place on Earth. I want a magic-contaminated landscape to make the Chameleon’s anchor tree a legitimate plant, since he insists he grew it himself:

I imagine the creatures and plants now found in the Petropolis Rainforest were also affected by a magical war. Bringing more magic into a show that has anthro animals and extreme cartoon physics can only help, not hurt...

THAT’S ANCIENT HISTORY

If we argue that “T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the same universe as the other Hartman shows, how do we explain the museum exhibits seen in the episode “The Curse of King Mutt”? After all, we see no humans here.

It’s important to remember that the universe we are playing with isn’t simply “Our world but with fairies and ghosts.” Beasts exist too. They were only driven underground officially in the early 1800s, meaning that they left their mark on the timeline throughout history. It can be argued that the cavemen and King Mutt seen above were Beasts who lived in ancient times in this universe (which seems more plausible than mummifying practices re-emerging in the future following a magical war that wiped out most of human society).

I imagine that after Beasts were forced underground, humans weren’t keen on showcasing moments of history that honored their kind. Historic Beast accomplishments were swept under the rug until Beasts filtered above ground again and earned respect in society; specifically, in a world dominated by animal people, the history of animal people would be more important than it was when humans dominated. During Timmy’s school years, Beasts might have appeared in history books, but only as passing mentions, and mostly in the context of the Creature Wars. Beast accomplishments would be ignored.

Is it reasonable to assume that the canine figures above could be Beasts? Perhaps. After all, not all Beasts are hybrids like Bunsen, or appear to be living pieces of furniture. Some, like Wolfie, resemble anthro animals:

My headcanon for Beasts is that they came into existence when regular animals were contaminated with Fairy magic, then bred and passed on strange abilities to their offspring. Over time, Beasts gained the ability to breed with other Beasts that their ancestors wouldn’t have been able to reproduce with (Bunsen shows both guinea pig and squid traits, among other things).

The animal people we see in “T.U.F.F.” are also able to crossbreed. Dudley was confirmed in “Purr-fect Partners” to have goat ancestry. Bird Brain belongs to an entirely new species (flightless blue-bottomed boobies) who most likely resulted from booby-descended Beasts crossbreeding with flightless birds (probably the takahē). The Chameleon appears to have gecko or anole genes since he can stick to walls, and perhaps snake genes as well since he sheds his skin as a whole instead of in pieces.

(Note: The Chameleon claims he sheds his skin “every night.” He grows it back within a few hours. This is most likely a rapid healing adaptation that resulted from having latent Fairy magic in his system. He flushes injuries off his skin very quickly and can partially regenerate. Some lizards - again, anoles - can grow their tails back if they lose them, so I imagine the Chameleon might even have the ability to regenerate arms and legs again if injured.)

For classification purposes, I will henceforth refer to the animal people as Animals, with the capital A, to distinguish them from the Beasts (This is a time period / show difference, so Wolfie will still be classified as a Beast).

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

We’ll now take a close look at Petropolis and estimate when it was founded. The city itself is a blend of futuristic and old-fashioned, making this a world where corded telephones sit side by side with shiny computers, high-tech wall lamps provide the light to read messy bulletin boards, and automatic doors slide upwards to reveal kitchens full of stovepipes. Split-level rooms with a metallic aesthetic are accented with wooden borders. The raised speedways throughout the city are supported by columns of Grecian design, and populated with a mix of sleek, modern cars and old, boxy trucks.

Petropolis is confirmed to be in California (“The Booby Trap”). It appears to parallel Los Angeles since its population (3,792,621; revealed in “Dog House”) is exactly the same as the population of Los Angeles according to the 2010 census. Notably, previous analysis of Dimmsdale, given its history of being settled by the British rather than the Spanish, has already removed Los Angeles from the equation in my fanfics (Dimmsdale stands in its place, with the Dimmsdale sign taking the place of the Hollywood sign).

With Dimmsdale and Petropolis both taking the role of Los Angeles in their respective shows, and with “T.U.F.F. Puppy” set in the future, we can suppose Petropolis was built on the remains of Dimmsdale in the future after Dimmsdale was wiped off the map (presumably due to that magical war; I’ve already established that Fairy World’s capital city is located just above Dimmsdale, which would make it a prime target in battle).

I also like the idea of setting Petropolis on Dimmsdale’s remains because in FOP, the Rainbow Bridge to Fairy World is confirmed to touch down at the edge of Dimmsdale. If Petropolis is built on Dimmsdale’s remains, we can parallel the Rainbow Bridge poetry series intended to help people grieve for their lost pets.

The founder of Petropolis was Daniel Boone Loony, and it was revealed in “Legal Beagle” that his great-great grandson, George, lives in the T.U.F.F. agency’s stairwell.

Let’s estimate George’s age at 30 for the purpose of this calculation. Assuming that the Animals live human lifespans, we can estimate Petropolis was likely founded 110 to 165 years before the series (For this analysis, we’ll call it in the middle of those estimates and say Petropolis was founded approximately 135 years before the show takes place).

We’ll keep that in mind as we shift to another “T.U.F.F. Puppy” town that’s hinted to be older: Critter Creek. Critter Creek is described as an old Western desert town despite being quite modern by our standards:

It’s implied the town was founded by Gold-Digger Gary (or if it wasn’t founded by him, he was one of its prominent early citizens). If Gary’s statue is accurate, he is clearly an animal, not a human, so we can assume that animal people were sapient beings who walked upright, wore clothes, and were capable of founding towns more than 135 years ago. (Side note: A presumed relative of Dudley’s fought the Loch Ness monster 100 years pre-series).

Since Critter Creek is described as an old Western town, we can expect it was built perhaps 100 years before Petropolis. Clearly, the town has grown over time into a booming city full of skyscrapers and monorails, which exist side by side with buildings of wood and stone:

Critter Creek presumably began life as a wooden town and rapidly expanded as technology improved. In fact, technology seems to have improved so quickly that Critter Creek just kept expanding without knocking down its previous wooden buildings, which were still in perfect living conditions and weren’t worth bulldozing. This rapid development may have even occurred within a single lifetime. In contrast, Petropolis appears to have been designed deliberately with its futuristic layout, suggesting its materials were available from the start.

I imagine, then, that a lengthy magical war ended up shifting to Earth and that Dimmsdale was wiped off the map. Many humans didn’t survive this war (Perhaps magical toxins filled the air and turned some of them into objects, plants, animals, or just killed off a lot of them). The humans that did survive migrated to cities that were still standing where they could access resources (especially fresh water; many water sources were likely contaminated with stinky magic in high concentrations humans couldn’t handle).

We saw in “T.U.F.F.” that Animals seem to be running the northern hemisphere; Animals lead many countries and undercover fighting forces of Animals exist around the world. The capitals of Fairy World, Anti-Fairy World, and Pixie World are all located in the northern hemisphere in my headcanon. The skies above the southern hemisphere are far less populated by magical beings, so it’s possible that the magical war ravaged the northern hemisphere and left the land nearly inhospitable to humans. Humans still exist in “T.U.F.F. Puppy,” and some do still live in the northern half of the planet, but the remaining human population is small and most have shifted to the south.

You know what else is interesting about this “only the northern hemisphere is ruled by Animals” theory?

There seems to be a canon distinction between the two halves. Humans are presumably more common in the south while Animals dominate the north.

DAWN OF AN ERA

Critter Creek was one of the early settlements to spring up after the war. Judging from its name, it wasn’t founded by humans. Buildings were constructed of wood because those were the building materials available at the time- in the wake of the war’s destruction, building many homes and shops quickly was a priority. Once people were settled, they could begin expanding their towns. The technology had already been invented, so implementing it didn’t take long once people were back on their feet. As a result, in modern “T.U.F.F.” times we have a society that blends futuristic and old-fashioned technology.

The T.U.F.F. agency itself (and its counterparts around the world) likely sprang up shortly after the war. I imagine it was a chaotic period for several decades. Humans were learning that much of the northern hemisphere couldn’t support them now that uncontaminated water was hard to come by, while the Beasts most resistant to the stinky magic toxins (AKA the ones from family lines who were least affected by it, AKA those who most resembled animals since their biology wasn’t altered as extremely) were able to survive. Beasts who were less resistant to stinky magic continued producing genetically unstable children who were less adaptive to the environment than the more stable animal-like Beasts.

It’s worth noting that in “Hide and Ghost Seek,” Keswick was convinced there is no scientific evidence of ghosts. Such evidence, it would seem, was lost during this period of chaos. By modern “T.U.F.F.” times, Ghosts were presumably spending most of their time in the Ghost Zone. Stable portals between the Ghost Zone and the Living Realm (the Fenton portal and Vlad’s portal) have likely been damaged by this point, so Ghosts only occasionally slip out of the Zone. I imagine that during this chaotic time, the northern hemisphere looked like the bad future we see in Danny Phantom:

Bleak and destroyed. Water sources and farms were contaminated with magic, abandoned by humans and left for surviving Beasts and animals. I wouldn’t mind headcanoning that TUFFverse future Amity Park looks a lot like it did in the bad future here. Amity Park has always been a high-tech city, after all, and various shields probably went up eventually, whether Danny Phantom was evil or not.

So you have this sci-fi human empire in Minnesota that survived the magical war due to it having shielded itself (while most of the country mocked it, I’m sure). It likely expanded to be a huge metropolis bit by bit, drawing in humans from across the nation who sought shelter and resources. Humans still exist in TUFFverse America, but are not widespread. For the most part, Animals rule.

Critter Creek was built in this kind of desolate world. People scavenged for technology, and banding together helped people survive. Many people who got their hands on advanced tech chose to pillage others. Thus, we see the rise of criminal organizations and rogue troublemakers alike. T.U.F.F. and its counterpart organizations sprang up when vigilantes with a strong moral code desired to protect people. In “Internal Affairs,” we saw the Chief viewing old black and white films that depicted him as a young field agent. Most likely, anything high tech that had been scavenged was claimed by powerful forces like T.U.F.F. and criminal organizations, forcing the general public (including news crews) to rely on older technology.

Critter Creek was most likely built away from old, destroyed cities and its main purpose was to provide shelter quickly with the materials available. Sending a helicopter from Petropolis was considered a reasonable way to pick Dudley and Kitty up after they visited Critter Creek in “Golden Retriever.” The city seems fond of neon, so it’s possibly located in Nevada, not far from Las Vegas, where scraps of neon might have been available.

From its name, we can assume it was built by Beasts who survived the war. Over the next several decades, those who couldn’t adapt to the extreme magic contamination died off, and the more animal-like Beasts survived. This perhaps took 125 years, which allows time for a few generations to pass but doesn’t last too long (People do have access to advanced technology, after all, and sooner or later it will be put to use). That’s the same amount of time between Gold Rush times (1849) and the 1970s. Now imagine having access to advanced technology in that time period and gradually learning how it works and how to build more of it. Presto! A blended old West and futuristic city.

~150 years after Critter Creek was built, Petropolis was founded by Daniel Boone Loony over the ruins of Dimmsdale, which were deemed hospitable by that point. If he’s anything like his namesake, he likely fought his way through the wilderness to the site; Daniel Loony might have been his birth name and “Boone” a nickname added on later. The Petropolis Rainforest is a canon area surrounding Petropolis, and is known for its strange creatures and plants. If Dimmsdale was blasted with magic during a magical war, it’s likely the rainforest sprang up around the ruins over the next several decades.

This store that exists in “T.U.F.F.”-

-is a pants store that was rebuilt by Animals where a pants store used to stand in Dimmsdale. The store was damaged, but the merchandise sold there was obvious, so after it was fixed it continued to sell large pants. After ruling out alternate universes, that’s the best I can do with the 1980 timestamp. Expect me to slip a mention of a pants store into one of my FOP ‘fics (either Come What May or Along the Cherry Lane) just because I can.

~135 years after Petropolis was built, we have the present “T.U.F.F.” day and age. As water sources were gradually purified, a few humans migrated out of the safezones where they’d hidden and began to mingle in Animal-run towns. Advanced technologies, which had been seized by powerful organizations, gradually made their way to average citizens, so old films were replaced with color TV, corded phones with cell phones, and so on.

Year 0 - Just after the war; Critter Creek was founded by surviving Beasts in the next few years.

Year 150 - Around the time Petropolis was built.

Year 285 - Around present day; this is when the show takes place.

YEARS IN REVIEW

So if we’ve established that “T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the future, when might it take place? I did some calculations using timeline clues (which I decided not to include in this post due to length) and determined that the show spans about a decade of time.

Butch mentioned in one of his videos that Snaptrap is 35, so I’ll say he was 35 about halfway through the show since that’s nice and average. That puts him at 30 when the show starts and 40 when it ends. The Chameleon seems slightly younger than him, so I’ll say he’s 30 when Snaptrap is 35. Bird Brain was confirmed to be 23 at the end of Season 1, so we’ll mark him down as 25 midway through Season 2. Let’s say Dudley was 22 when the series started, so he’s about 32 when it ends- still in his prime the whole way through.

Kitty is a bit older than him. She mentions in “Toast of T.U.F.F.” that she attended 8 years of “secret agent college,” and she probably spent 3 years at a university before that starting at age 18 for a total of 11 years of schooling. Then we’ll give her 5 years of field experience before Dudley arrives (4 with her former partner, Jack, and 1 on her own). 18 + 11 + 5 puts her at 34 when the show starts. At the end of Season 2 (“Pup Goes the Weasel”) Dudley guessed she was 30 and Snaptrap guessed she was 42. Snaptrap’s made clear that he’s into older women, so this works with his crush on her.

In the latter half of Season 2 (“Sob Story”) we see the Chief’s credit card due to expire in a year that ends with ‘19.

We can conclude that “Sob Story” (Year 9 by my tentative calculations) takes place either in a year that ends with 19 or a few years prior. 2019 is off the table, and so are the next few hundred years.

In “Quacky Birthday” (two years prior) Dudley marked his birthday on his calendar. I chose to work with this calendar because it’s also in Season 2, just a few episodes before “Sob Story” (though one of the episodes between them, “Agent of the Year,” takes up a year on its own, and “Crime Takes a Holiday,” which is also between them, is confirmed for January).

We can assume the thin boxes along the calendar’s top are labels for the days of the week, and that his calendar begins with Sunday. Many cartoon calendars begin with the first box and aren’t meant to be interpreted literally, but I went with it anyway because it’s what I had. I began searching for future calendars to see if there were any with the 1st on a Monday shortly before a year that ends with 19 (since if the card is due to expire in a ‘19 year, it can’t have been issued more than a few years before). Here is what I learned:

May 1st occurs on a Monday in x017, x417, and x817 years when x is an even number. When x is an odd number, May 1st occurs on a Monday in x217 and x617. Therefore, we can cross-reference Dudley’s calendar with the Chief’s credit card expiration date and argue that “Sob Story” (episode with Chief’s credit card; Year I in my notes) is an xx17 year. The first 5 or fewer episodes of the series (Year A) would take place in an xx09 year (Episode 3 is confirmed August and Episode 6 is confirmed March, meaning the year changes in between unless we start rearranging things).

Based on this, we can determine where I can set “T.U.F.F.” in my headcanon to the year if we can just determine the century. That means turning to my FOP timeline to figure out when the best place to set a magical war is, keeping in mind that I want it to be a few thousand years in the future at most- nowhere beyond the year 10,000. I don’t want to go too far forward since although the technology in “T.U.F.F.” is fairly advanced, it isn’t THAT advanced.

Looking at my timeline, I actually don’t have anything going on between the original Cavatina drama (1,000 years post-series) and Poof and Foop being tweens (about 123,000 years post-series). So I have plenty of space to put a war, especially now that I’m no longer planning to work mermaids in there.

Fairy World is currently in its 50s aesthetic period, and has been since before Cosmo and Wanda were married. The Vietnam War officially began in 1955, so this magical war is due to happen fairly soon after Timmy Turner’s time period. I can’t have the war going on during the first few years of Cavatina’s life, so setting “T.U.F.F.” in the early 3000s won’t work for me.

I want the war to be going on for some time before Dimmsdale is hit, but I also want it to continue going on for a long time afterwards (I want Fairies to be too busy with the war that they can’t afford to pause and rebuild America, and again, I don’t want human technology to be TOO advanced at this point).

With that in mind, I think I’m going to start this magical war in the 3500s. We’ll assume it’s between the Fairies and the Anti-Fairies. At first, the fighting is contained to the cloudlands. Then the first human city to be targeted, Dimmsdale, is destroyed around the year 3700 by the Anti-Fairies, which finally spurs the Pixies into action. Pixies generally stay neutral, but when magic strays to Earth and starts causing chaos, they’re going to get involved (Plus, Fairy World’s capital city is right above Dimmsdale, so perhaps it was the target and that would get the Pixies involved too). This sets “T.U.F.F. Puppy” 2000 years in the future, which is nice and easy to remember. The magical war continues for hundreds (or thousands) of years.

I have a few ideas I can draw on for this war... Somewhere in my plans, there’s a block of time where Anti-Cosmo vanishes without warning and Anti-Wanda and Foop are left to run Anti-Fairy World without him for a few hundred years. I was originally going to set the one-shot in question 100-500 years after FOP ends, but I can easily bump it forward by a thousand years. I’d really like to see an entire war play out while Anti-Wanda and Foop are in charge and Anti-Cosmo is nowhere to be found...

Currently, the story that discusses this “Anti-Cosmo is AWOL” time period is the 130 Prompt “You’ll Never Know,” which is scheduled to post 7 prompts from now (probably January 2020). Keep your eyes out for that one if you want to see a glimpse into the war, because I don’t plan to write an entire ‘fic about it. The prompt will begin either immediately after Dimmsdale is destroyed or immediately before it. That will be fun.

We concluded earlier that “T.U.F.F. Puppy” begins in an xx09 year. Based on my calculations (which were based on the order the episodes were produced with very little rearranging), we can now assume that the series begins in the summer of 4009 and ends in the summer of 4018. I believe this would put the TUFFverse roughly 65-80 generations after modern times.

The biggest issue I have with this timeline at the moment is getting the populations of Critter Creek and Petropolis to 3 million+ each. We’re going to assume that many Animals give birth to entire litters (despite the fact that each mom in the egg maternity ward in the episode “Bad Eggs” appeared to have only one or two eggs) and just roll with it.

TL;DR

In this post, we concluded that-

“T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the future long after “Fairly OddParents,” “Danny Phantom,” and “Bunsen Is a Beast.”

A horrible magical war devastated the land. Amity Park survived intact, protected by a high-tech shield.

The Animals are an anthropomorphic people descended from the Beasts. They are capable of crossbreeding with other Animals and have inherited their ancestors’ resiliency to a great deal of physical damage.

Humans are still around in this time period (Side note: They’re incapable of breeding with the Animals due to the differing levels of latent Fairy magic in their systems).

The Animals rule the north hemisphere while humans rule the south.

Animals are considered the most dominant race on the planet and fairy godparents are assigned to Animal kids, not human ones.

“T.U.F.F. Puppy” begins in the year 4009 and ends in the year 4018.

So, this is how the four Hartman shows fall in my united timeline.

FOP - The fae population has been around for millions of years, and will continue for millions more. They’ve devised elaborate interaction systems that allow them to gain supplies from and trade goods with some groups of people while remaining a mystery to others. Despite their magic powers (or perhaps because of them), the fae fear being taken advantage of by the wrong people. They won’t hesitate to cut ties with individuals or entire societies if they deem that’s what’s best for their people.

DP - Ghosts have always been hated and feared, and for the most part were driven into the Ghost Zone by the mid 1600s. Even before then, large populations didn’t roam the land; Ghosts tend to be territorial, solitary creatures who don’t travel in groups. Mostly they remain in the Ghost Zone, though some have their reasons for wanting to slip out.

BIaB - Beasts were driven underground in the early 1800s; the small town of Muckledunk, founded in 1805, guards a known entrance to Beast World. Before this, Beasts roamed the land and were treated as intelligent, dangerous monsters. Their earliest ancestors (animals contaminated with Fairy magic) came into existence about 250,000 years before the year 2000.

TUFF - The Animals are descended from families of Beasts who were still biologically close to their early animal ancestors (AKA Beasts who were affected by stinky Fairy magic enough to develop into an anthro race, but weren’t harmed to the point of genetic instability). “T.U.F.F. Puppy” takes place in the early 4000s, and the Animal society we see in it grew from a land left devastated after a horrible magical war.

There it is! Thanks for reading, and please enjoy my fanfics! Now that I’ve finished analyzing “T.U.F.F.,” ‘fic updates will resume this summer (that’s 2019 for anyone analyzing my own timeline down the road).

#No 'fic update but you get this instead #I just really needed it off my plate #Eyyy Hartman gang!#ridwriting #Timeline #Spy dog show #FAIRIES!#Beasty such a beaut #Going ghost!#screenshots #Long post

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wolfliving · 7 years

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Some Computer Science Issues in Ubiquitous Computing, 1993

*It’s always good to refer to the original texts. It’s okay that the semantics drift after a while, but that’s how you can see how and where they are drifting.

“In 1988, when I started PARC's work on ubiquitous computing, virtual reality (VR) came the closest to enacting the principles we believed important.” Yeah, see, back in 1988, what was to be the Internet of Things was originally Virtual Reality, but then...

Mark Weiser would have been 65 this year, he could have easily seen all of this in one lifetime. Every day is a gift.

Some Computer Science Issues in Ubiquitous Computing Mark Weiser

March 23, 1993

[to appear in CACM, July 1993]

Ubiquitous computing is the method of enhancing computer use by making many computers available throughout the physical environment, but making them effectively invisible to the user. Since we started this work at Xerox PARC in 1988, a number of researchers around the world have begun to work in the ubiquitous computing framework. This paper explains what is new and different about the computer science in ubiquitous computing. It starts with a brief overview of ubiquitous computing, and then elaborates through a series of examples drawn from various subdisciplines of computer science: hardware components (e.g. chips), network protocols, interaction substrates (e.g. software for screens and pens), applications, privacy, and computational methods. Ubiquitous computing offers a framework for new and exciting research across the spectrum of computer science.

A few places in the world have begun work on a possible next generation computing environment in which each person is continually interacting with hundreds of nearby wirelessly interconnected computers. The point is to achieve the most effective kind of technology, that which is essentially invisible to the user. To bring computers to this point while retaining their power will require radically new kinds of computers of all sizes and shapes to be available to each person. I call this future world "Ubiquitous Computing" (short form: "Ubicomp") [Weiser 1991]. The research method for ubiquitous computing is standard experimental computer science: the construction of working prototypes of the necessary infrastructure in sufficient quantity to debug the viability of the systems in everyday use, using ourselves and a few colleagues as guinea pigs. This is an important step towards insuring that our infrastructure research is robust and scalable in the face of the details of the real world.

The idea of ubiquitous computing first arose from contemplating the place of today's computer in actual activities of everyday life. In particular, anthropological studies of work life [Suchman 1985, Lave 1991] teach us that people primarily work in a world of shared situations and unexamined technological skills. However the computer today is isolated and isolating from the overall situation, and fails to get out of the way of the work. In other words, rather than being a tool through which we work, and so which disappears from our awareness, the computer too often remains the focus of attention. And this is true throughout the domain of personal computing as currently implemented and discussed for the future, whether one thinks of PC's, palmtops, or dynabooks. The characterization of the future computer as the "intimate computer" [Kay 1991], or "rather like a human assistant" [Tesler 1991] makes this attention to the machine itself particularly apparent.

Getting the computer out of the way is not easy. This is not a graphical user interface (GUI) problem, but is a property of the whole context of usage of the machine and the affordances of its physical properties: the keyboard, the weight and desktop position of screens, and so on. The problem is not one of "interface". For the same reason of context, this was not a multimedia problem, resulting from any particular deficiency in the ability to display certains kinds of realtime data or integrate them into applications. (Indeed, multimedia tries to grab attention, the opposite of the ubiquitous computing ideal of invisibility). The challenge is to create a new kind of relationship of people to computers, one in which the computer would have to take the lead in becoming vastly better at getting out of the way so people could just go about their lives.

In 1988, when I started PARC's work on ubiquitous computing, virtual reality (VR) came the closest to enacting the principles we believed important. In its ultimate envisionment, VR causes the computer to become effectively invisible by taking over the human sensory and affector systems [Rheingold 91]. VR is extremely useful in scientific visualization and entertainment, and will be very significant for those niches. But as a tool for productively changing everyone's relationship to computation, it has two crucial flaws: first, at the present time (1992), and probably for decades, it cannot produce a simulation of significant verisimilitude at reasonable cost (today, at any cost). This means that users will not be fooled and the computer will not be out of the way. Second, and most importantly, it has the goal of fooling the user -- of leaving the everyday physical world behind. This is at odds with the goal of better integrating the computer into human activities, since humans are of and in the everyday world.

Ubiquitous computing is exploring quite different ground from Personal Digital Assistants, or the idea that computers should be autonomous agents that take on our goals. The difference can be characterized as follows. Suppose you want to lift a heavy object. You can call in your strong assistant to lift it for you, or you can be yourself made effortlessly, unconsciously, stronger and just lift it. There are times when both are good. Much of the past and current effort for better computers has been aimed at the former; ubiquitous computing aims at the latter.

The approach I took was to attempt the definition and construction of new computing artifacts for use in everyday life. I took my inspiration from the everyday objects found in offices and homes, in particular those objects whose purpose is to capture or convey information. The most ubiquitous current informational technology embodied in artifacts is the use of written symbols, primarily words, but including also pictographs, clocks, and other sorts of symbolic communication. Rather than attempting to reproduce these objects inside the virtual computer world, leading to another "desktop model" [Buxton 90], instead I wanted to put the new kind of computer also out in this world of concrete information conveyers. And because these written artifacts occur in many different sizes and shapes, with many different affordances, so I wanted the computer embodiments to be of many sizes and shapes, including tiny inexpensive ones that could bring computing to everyone.

The physical affordances in the world come in all sizes and shapes; for practical reasons our ubiquitous computing work begins with just three different sizes of devices: enough to give some scope, not enough to deter progress. The first size is the wall-sized interactive surface, analogous to the office whiteboard or the home magnet-covered refrigerator or bulletin board. The second size is the notepad, envisioned not as a personal computer but as analogous to scrap paper to be grabbed and used easily, with many in use by a person at once. The cluttered office desk or messy front hall table are real-life examples. Finally, the third size is the tiny computer, analogous to tiny individual notes or PostIts, and also like the tiny little displays of words found on book spines, lightswitches, and hallways. Again, I saw this not as a personal computer, but as a pervasive part of everyday life, with many active at all times. I called these three sizes of computers, respectively, boards, pads, and tabs, and adopted the slogan that, for each person in an office, there should be hundreds of tabs, tens of pads, and one or two boards. Specifications for some prototypes of these three sizes in use at PARC are shown in figure 1.

This then is phase I of ubiquitous computing: to construct, deploy, and learn from a computing environment consisting of tabs, pads, and boards. This is only phase I, because it is unlikely to achieve optimal invisibility. (Later phases are yet to be determined). But it is a start down the radical direction, for computer science, away from attention on the machine and back on the person and his or her life in the world of work, play, and home.

Hardware Prototypes

New hardware systems design for ubiquitous computing has been oriented towards experimental platforms for systems and applications of invisibility. New chips have been less important than combinations of existing components that create experimental opportunities. The first ubiquitous computing technology to be deployed was the Liveboard [Elrod 92], which is now a Xerox product. Two other important pieces of prototype hardware supporting our research at PARC are the Tab and the Pad. Tab The ParcTab is a tiny information doorway. For user interaction it has a pressure sensitive screen on top of the display, three buttons underneath the natural finger positions, and the ability to sense its position within a building. The display and touchpad it uses are standard commercial units.

The key hardware design problems in the pad are size and power consumption. With several dozens of these devices sitting around the office, in briefcases, in pockets, one cannot change their batteries every week. The PARC design uses the 8051 to control detailed interactions, and includes software that keeps power usage down. The major outboard components are a small analog/digital converter for the pressure sensitive screen, and analog sense circuitry for the IR receiver. Interestingly, although we have been approached by several chip manufacturers about our possible need for custom chips for the Tab, the Tab is not short of places to put chips. The display size leaves plenty of room, and the display thickness dominates total size. Off-the-shelf components are more than adequate for exploring this design space, even with our severe size, weight, and power constraints.

A key part of our design philosophy is to put devices in everyday use, not just demonstrate them. We can only use techniques suitable for quantity 100 replication, which excludes certain things that could make a huge difference, such as the integration of components onto the display surface itself. This technology, being explored at PARC, ISI, and TI, while very promising, is not yet ready for replication.

The Tab architecture is carefully balanced among display size, bandwidth, processing, and memory. For instance, the small display means that even the tiny processor is capable of four frame/sec video to it, and the IR bandwidth is capable of delivering this. The bandwidth is also such that the processor can actually time the pulse widths in software timing loops. Our current design has insufficient storage, and we are increasing the amount of non-volatile RAM in future tabs from 8k to 128k. The tab's goal of postit-note-like casual use puts it into a design space generally unexplored in the commercial or research sector.

Pad The pad is really a family of notebook-sized devices. Our initial pad, the ScratchPad, plugged into a Sun SBus card and provided an X-window-system-compatible writing and display surface. This same design was used inside our first wall-sized displays, the liveboards, as well. Our later untethered pad devices, the XPad and MPad, continued the system design principles of X-compatibility, ease of construction, and flexibility in software and hardware expansion.

As I write, at the end of 1992, commercial portable pen devices have been on the market for two years, although most of the early companies have now gone out of business. Why should a pioneering research lab be building its own such device? Each year we ask ourselves the same question, and so far three things always drive us to continue to design our own pad hardware.

First, we need the right balance of features; this is the essence of systems design. The commercial devices all aim at particular niches, and so balance their design to that niche. For research we need a rather different balance, all the more so for ubiquitous computing. For instance, can the device communicate simultaneously along multiple channels? Does the O.S support multiprocessing? What about the potential for high-speed tethering? Is there a high-quality pen? Is there a high-speed expansion port sufficient for video in and out? Is sound in/out and ISDN available? Optional keyboard? Any one commercial device tends to satisfy some of these, ignore others, and choose a balance of the ones it does satisfy that optimize its niche, rather than ubiquitous computing-style scrap computing. The balance for us emphasizes communication, ram, multi-media, and expansion ports.

Second, apart from balance are the requirements for particular features. Key among these are a pen emphasis, connection to research environments like Unix, and communication emphasis. A high-speed (>64kbps) wireless capability is built into no commercial devices, nor do they generally have a sufficiently high speed port to which such a radio can be added. Commercial devices generally come with DOS or Penpoint, and while we have developed in both, they are not our favorite research vehicles because of lack of full access and customizability.

The third thing driving our own pad designs is ease of expansion and modification. We need full hardware specs, complete O.S. source code, and the ability to rip-out and replace both hardware and software components. Naturally these goals are opposed to best price in a niche market, which orients the documentation to the end user, and which keeps price down by integrated rather than modular design.

We have now gone through three generations of Pad designs. Six scratchpads were built, three XPads, and thirteen MPads, the latest. The MPad uses an FPGA for almost all random logic, giving extreme flexibility. For instance, changing the power control functions, and adding high-quality sound, were relatively simple FPGA changes. The Mpad has built-in both IR (tab compatible) and radio communication, and includes sufficient uncommitted space for adding new circuit boards later. It can be used with a tether that provides it with recharging and operating power and an ethernet connection. The operating system is a standalone version of the public-domain Portable Common Runtime developed at PARC [Weiser 89].

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FIGURE 1 - some hardware prototypes in use at PARC

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FIGURE 2 - Photographs of each of tabs, pads, boards (at end of paper).

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The CS of Ubicomp

In order to construct and deploy tabs, pads, and boards at PARC, we found ourselves needing to readdress some of the well-worked areas of existing computer science. The fruitfulness of ubiquitous computing for new Computer Science problems clinched our belief in the ubiquitous computing framework.

In what follows I walk up the levels of organization of a computer system, from hardware to application. For each level I describe one or two examples of computer science work required by ubiquitous computing. Ubicomp is not yet a coherent body of work, but consists of a few scattered communities. The point of this paper is to help others understand some of the new research challenges in ubiquitous computing, and inspire them to work on them. This is more akin to a tutorial than a survey, and necessarily selective.

The areas I discuss below are: hardware components (e.g. chips), network protocols, interaction substrates (e.g. software for screens and pens), applications, privacy, and computational methods.

Issues of hardware components

In addition to the new systems of tabs, pads, and boards, ubiquitous computing needs some new kinds of devices. Examples of three new kinds of hardware devices are: very low power computing, low-power high-bits/cubic-meter communication, and pen devices. Low Power In general the need for high performance has dominated the need for low power consumption in processor design. However, recognizing the new requirements of ubiquitous computing, a number of people have begun work in using additional chip area to reduce power rather than to increase performance [Lyon 93]. One key approach is to reduce the clocking frequency of their chips by increasing pipelining or parallelism. Then, by running the chips at reduced voltage, the effect is a net reduction in power, because power falls off as the square of the voltage while only about twice the area is needed to run at half the clock speed.

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

Power = CL * Vdd2 * f

where CL is the gate capacitance, Vdd the supply voltage, and f the clocking frequency.

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This method of reducing power leads to two new areas of chip design: circuits that will run at low power, and architectures that sacrifice area for power over performance. The second requires some additional comment, because one might suppose that one would simply design the fastest possible chip, and then run it at reduced clock and voltage. However, as Lyon illustrates, circuits in chips designed for high speed generally fail to work at low voltages. Furthermore, attention to special circuits may permit operation over a much wider range of voltage operation, or achieve power savings via other special techniques, such as adiabatic switching [Lyon 93].

Wireless A wireless network capable of accommodating hundreds of high speed devices for every person is well beyond the commercial wireless systems planned even ten years out [Rush 92], which are aimed at one low speed (64kbps or voice) device per person. Most wireless work uses a figure of merit of bits/sec x range, and seeks to increase this product. We believe that a better figure of merit is bits/sec/meter3. This figure of merit causes the optimization of total bandwidth throughout a three-dimensional space, leading to design points of very tiny cellular systems.

Because we felt the commercial world was ignoring the proper figure of merit, we initiated our own small radio program. In 1989 we built spread-spectrum transceivers at 900Mhz, but found them difficult to build and adjust, and prone to noise and multipath interference. In 1990 we built direct frequency-shift-keyed transceivers also at 900Mhz, using very low power to be license-free. While much simpler, these transceivers had unexpectedly and unpredictably long range, causing mutual interference and multipath problems. In 1991 we designed and built our current radios, which use the near-field of the electromagnetic spectrum. The near-field has an effective fall-off of r6 in power, instead of the more usual r2, where r is the distance from the transmitter. At the proper levels this band does not require an FCC license, permits reuse of the same frequency over and over again in a building, has virtually no multipath or blocking effects, and permits transceivers that use extremely low power and low parts count. We have deployed a number of near-field radios within PARC.

Pens A third new hardware component is the pen for very large displays. We needed pens that would work over a large area (at least 60"x40"), not require a tether, and work with back projection. These requirements are generated from the particular needs of large displays in ubiquitous computing -- casual use, no training, naturalness, multiple people at once. No existing pens or touchpads could come close to these requirements. Therefore members of the Electronics and Imaging lab at PARC devised a new infrared pen. A camera-like device behind the screen senses the pen position, and information about the pen state (e.g. buttons) is modulated along the IR beam. The pens need not touch the screen, but can operate from several feet away. Considerable DSP and analog design work underlies making these pens effective components of the ubiquitous computing system [Elrod 92].

Network Protocols

Ubicomp changes the emphasis in networking in at least four areas: wireless media access, wide-bandwidth range, real-time capabilities for multimedia over standard networks, and packet routing.

A "media access" protocol provides access to a physical medium. Common media access methods in wired domains are collision detection and token-passing. These do not work unchanged in a wireless domain because not every device is assured of being able to hear every other device (this is called the "hidden terminal" problem). Furthermore, earlier wireless work used assumptions of complete autonomy, or a statically configured network, while ubiquitous computing requires a cellular topology, with mobile devices frequently coming on and off line. We have adapted a media access protocol called MACA, first described by Phil Karn [Karn 90], with some of our own modifications for fairness and efficiency.

The key idea of MACA is for the two stations desiring to communicate to first do a short handshake of Request-To-Send-N-bytes followed by Clear-To-Send-N-bytes. This exchange allows all other stations to hear that there is going to be traffic, and for how long they should remain quiet. Collisions, which are detected by timeouts, occur only during the short RTS packet.

Adapting MACA for ubiquitous computing use required considerable attention to fairness and real-time requirements. MACA (like the original ethernet) requires stations whose packets collide to backoff a random time and try again. If all stations but one backoff, that one can dominate the bandwidth. By requiring all stations to adapt the backoff parameter of their neighbors we create a much fairer allocation of bandwidth.

Some applications need guaranteed bandwidth for voice or video. We added a new packet type, NCTS(n) (Not Clear To Send), to suppress all other transmissions for (n) bytes. This packet is sufficient for a basestation to do effective bandwidth allocation among its mobile units. The solution is robust, in the sense that if the basestation stops allocating bandwidth then the system reverts to normal contention.

When a number of mobile units share a single basestation, that basestation may be a bottleneck for communication. For fairness, a basestation with N > 1 nonempty output queues needs to contend for bandwidth as though it were N stations. We therefore make the basestation contend just enough more aggressively that it is N times more likely to win a contention for media access.

Two other areas of networking research at PARC with ubiquitous computing implications are gigabit networks and real-time protocols. Gigabit-per-second speeds are important because of the increasing number of medium speed devices anticipated by ubiquitous computing, and the growing importance of real-time (multimedia) data. One hundred 256kbps portables per office implies a gigabit per group of forty offices, with all of PARC needing an aggregate of some five gigabits/sec. This has led us to do research into local-area ATM switches, in association with other gigabit networking projects [Lyles 92].

Real-time protocols are a new area of focus in packet-switched networks. Although real-time delivery has always been important in telephony, a few hundred milliseconds never mattered in typical packet-switched applications like telnet and file transfer. With the ubiquitous use of packet-switching, even for telephony using ATM, the need for real-time capable protocols has become urgent if the packet networks are going to support multi-media applications. Again in association with other members of the research community, PARC is exploring new protocols for enabling multimedia on the packet-switched internet [Clark 92].

The internet routing protocol, IP, has been in use for over ten years. However, neither it nor its OSI equivalent, CLNP, provides sufficient infrastructure for highly mobile devices. Both interpret fields in the network names of devices in order to route packets to the device. For instance, the "13" in IP name 13.2.0.45 is interpreted to mean net 13, and network routers anywhere in the world are expected to know how to get a packet to net 13, and all devices whose name starts with 13 are expected to be on that network. This assumption fails as soon as a user of a net 13 mobile device takes her device on a visit to net 36 (Stanford). Changing the device name dynamically depending on location is no solution: higher level protocols like TCP assume that underlying names won't change during the life of a connection, and a name change must be accompanied by informing the entire network of the change so that existing services can find the device.

A number of solutions have been proposed to this problem, among them Virtual IP from Sony [Teraoka 91], and Mobile IP from Columbia University [Ioannidis 93]. These solutions permit existing IP networks to interoperate transparently with roaming hosts. The key idea of all approaches is to add a second layer of IP address, the "real" address indicating location, to the existing fixed device address. Special routing nodes that forward packets to the right real address, and keep track of where this address is, are required for all approaches. The internet community has a working group looking at standards for this area (contact [email protected] for more information).

Interaction Substrates

Ubicomp has led us into looking at new substrates for interaction. I mention four here that span the space from virtual keyboards to protocols for window systems.

Pads have a tiny interaction area -- too small for a keyboard, too small even for standard handprinting recognition. Handprinting has the further problem that it requires looking at what is written. Improvements in voice recognition are no panacea, because when other people are present voice will often be inappropriate. As one possible solution, we developed a method of touch-printing that uses only a tiny area and does not require looking. As drawbacks, our method requires a new printing alphabet to be memorized, and reaches only half the speed of a fast typist [Goldberg 93].

Liveboards have a huge interaction area, 400 times that of the tab. Using conventional pulldown or popup menus might require walking across the room to the appropriate button, a serious problem. We have developed methods of location-independent interaction by which even complex interactions can be popped up at any location. [Kurtenbach 93].

The X window system, although designed for network use, makes it difficult for windows to move once instantiated at a given X server. This is because the server retains considerable state about individual windows, and does not provide convenient ways to move that state. For instance, context and window IDs are determined solely by the server, and cannot be transferred to a new server, so that applications that depend upon knowing their value (almost all) will break if a window changes servers. However, in the ubiquitous computing world a user may be moving frequently from device to device, and wanting to bring windows along.

Christian Jacobi at PARC has implemented a new X toolkit that facilitates window migration. Applications need not be aware that they have moved from one screen to another; or if they like, they can be so informed with an upcall. We have written a number of applications on top of this toolkit, all of which can be "whistled up" over the network to follow the user from screen to screen. The author, for instance, frequently keeps a single program development and editing environment open for days at a time, migrating its windows back and forth from home to work and back each day.

A final window system problem is bandwidth. The bandwidth available to devices in ubiquitous computing can vary from kilobits/sec to gigabits/sec, and with window migration a single application may have to dynamically adjust to bandwidth over time. The X window system protocol was primarily developed for ethernet speeds, and most of the applications written in it were similarly tested at 10Mbps. To solve the problem of efficient X window use at lower bandwidth, the X consortium is sponsoring a "Low Bandwidth X" (LBX) working group to investigate new methods of lowering bandwidth. [Fulton 93].

Applications

Applications are of course the whole point of ubiquitous computing. Two examples of applications are locating people and shared drawing.

Ubicomp permits the location of people and objects in an environment. This was first pioneered by work at Olivetti Research Labs in Cambridge, England, in their Active Badge system [Want 92]. In ubiquitous computing we continue to extend this work, using it for video annotation, and updating dynamic maps. For instance, the picture below (figure 3) shows a portion of CSL early one morning, and the individual faces are the locations of people. This map is updated every few seconds, permitting quick locating of people, as well as quickly noticing a meeting one might want to go to (or where one can find a fresh pot of coffee).

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Figure 3. Display of CSL activity from personal locators.

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PARC, EuroPARC, and the Olivetti Research Center have built several different kinds of location servers. Generally these have two parts: a central database of information about location that can be quickly queried and dumped, and a group of servers that collect information about location and update the database. Information about location can be deduced from logins, or collected directly from an active badge system. The location database may be organized to dynamically notify clients, or simply to facilitate frequent polling.

Some example uses of location information are: automatic phone forwarding, locating an individual for a meeting, and watching general activity in a building to feel in touch with its cycles of activity (important for telecommuting).

PARC has investigated a number of shared meeting tools over the past decade, starting with the CoLab work [Stefik 87], and continuing with videodraw and commune [Tang 91]. Two new tools were developed for investigating problems in ubiquitous computing. The first is Tivoli [Pedersen 93], the second Slate, each based upon different implementation paradigms. First their similarities: they both emphasize pen-based drawing on a surface, they both accept scanned input and can print the results, they both can have several users at once operating independently on different or the same pages, they both support multiple pages. Tivoli has a sophisticated notion of a stroke as spline, and has a number of features making use of processing the contents and relationships among strokes. Tivoli also uses gestures as input control to select, move, and change the properties of objects on the screen. When multiple people use Tivoli each must be running a separate copy, and connect to the others. On the other hand, Slate is completely pixel based, simply drawing ink on the screen. Slate manages all the shared windows for all participants, as long as they are running an X window server, so its aggregate resource use can be much lower than Tivoli, and it is easier to setup with large numbers of participants. In practice we have used slate from a Sun to support shared drawing with users on Macs and PCs. Both Slate and Tivoli have received regular use at PARC.

Shared drawing tools are a topic at many places. For instance, Bellcore has a toolkit for building shared tools [Hill 93], and Jacobsen at LBL uses multicast packets to reduce bandwidth during shared tool use. There are some commercial products [Chatterjee 92], but these are usually not multi-page and so not really suitable for creating documents or interacting over the course of a whole meeting. The optimal shared drawing tool has not been built. For its user interface, there remain issues such as multiple cursors or one, gestures or not, and using an ink or a character recognition model of pen input. For its substrate, is it better to have a single application with multiple windows, or many applications independently connected? Is packet-multicast a good substrate to use? What would it take to support shared drawing among 50 people, 5,000 people? The answers are likely both technological and social.

Three new kinds of applications of ubiquitous computing are beginning to be explored at PARC. One is to take advantage of true invisibility, literally hiding machines in the walls. An example is the Responsive Environment project led by Scott Elrod. This aims to make a building's heat, light, and power more responsive to individually customized needs, saving energy and making a more comfortable environment.

A second new approach is to use so-called "virtual communities" via the technology of MUDs. A MUD, or "Multi-User Dungeon," is a program that accepts network connections from multiple simultaneous users and provides access to a shared database of "rooms", "exits", and other objects. MUDs have existed for about ten years, being used almost exclusively for recreational purposes. However, the simple technology of MUDs should also be useful in other, non-recreational applications, providing a casual environment integrating virtual and real worlds [Curtis 92].

A third new approach is the use of collaboration to specify information filtering. Described in the December 1992 issue of Communcations of the ACM, this work by Doug Terry extends previous notions of information filters by permitting filters to reference other filters, or to depend upon the values of multiple messages. For instance, one can select all messages that have been replied to by Smith (these messages do not even mention Smith, of course), or all messages that three other people found interesting. Implementing this required inventing the idea of a "continuous query", which can effectively sample a changing database at all points in time. Called "Tapestry", this system provides new ways for people to invisibly collaborate.

Privacy of Location

Cellular systems inherently need to know the location of devices and their use in order to properly route information. For instance, the traveling pattern of a frequent cellular phone user can be deduced from the roaming data of cellular service providers. This problem could be much worse in ubiquitous computing with its more extensive use of cellular wireless. So a key problem with ubiquitous computing is preserving privacy of location. One solution, a central database of location information, means that the privacy controls can be centralized and so perhaps done well -- on the other hand one break-in there reveals all, and centrality is unlikely to scale worldwide. A second source of insecurity is the transmission of the location information to a central site. This site is the obvious place to try to snoop packets, or even to use traffic analysis on source addresses.

Our initial designs were all central, initially with unrestricted access, gradually moving towards controls by individual users on who can access information about them. Our preferred design avoids a central repository, but instead stores information about each person at that person's PC or workstation. Programs that need to know a person's location must query the PC, and run whatever gauntlet of security the user has chosen to install there. EuroPARC uses a system of this sort.

Accumulating information about individuals over long periods is both one of the more useful things to do, and also most quickly raises hackles. A key problem for location is how to provide occasional location information for clients that need it while somehow preventing the reliable accumulation of long-term trends about an individual. So far at PARC we have experimented only with short-term accumulation of information to produce automatic daily diaries of activity [Newman 90].

It is important to realize that there can never be a purely technological solution to privacy, that social issues must be considered in their own right. In the computer science lab we are trying to construct systems that are privacy enabled, that can give power to the individual. But only society can cause the right system to be used. To help prevent future oppressive employers or governments from taking this power away, we are also encouraging the wide dissimenation of information about location systems and their potential for harm. We have cooperated with a number of articles in the San Jose Mercury News, the Washington Post, and the New York Times on this topic. The result, we hope, is technological enablement combined with an informed populace that cannot be tricked in the name of technology.

Computational Methods

An example of a new problem in theoretical computer science emerging from ubiquitous computing is optimal cache sharing. This problem originally arose in discussions of optimal disk cache design for portable computer architectures. Bandwidth to the portable machine may be quite low, while its processing power is relatively high, introducing as a possible design point the compression of pages in a ram cache, rather than writing them all the way back over a slow link. The question arises of the optimal strategy for partitioning memory between compressed and uncompressed pages.

This problem can be generalized as follows [Bern 93]:

The Cache Sharing Problem. A problem instance is given by a sequence of page requests. Pages are of two types, U and C (for uncompressed and compressed), and each page is either IN or OUT. A request is served by changing the requested page to IN if it is currently OUT. Initially all pages are OUT. The cost to change a type-U (type-C) page from OUT to IN is CU (respectively, CC). When a requested page is OUT, we say that the algorithm missed. Removing a page from memory is free.

Lower Bound Theorem: No deterministic, on-line algorithm for cache sharing can be c-competitive for

c < MAX (1+CU/(CU+CC), 1+CC/(CU+CC))

This lower bound for c ranges from 1.5 to 2, and no on-line algorithm can approach closer to the optimum than this factor. Bern et al also construct an algorithm that achieves this factor, therefore providing an upper bound as well. They further propose a set of more general symbolic programming tools for solving competitive algorithms of this sort.

Concluding remarks

As we start to put tabs, pads, and boards into use, phase I of ubiquitous computing should enter its most productive period. With this substrate in place we can make much more progress both in evaluating our technologies and in choosing our next steps. A key part of this evaluation is using the analyses of psychologists, anthropologists, application writers, artists, marketers, and customers. We believe they will find some things right; we know they will find some things wrong. Thus we will begin again the cycle of cross-disciplinary fertilization and learning. Ubicomp seems likely to provide a framework for interesting and productive work for many more years or decades, but we have much to learn about the details.

Acknowledgements: This work was funded by Xerox PARC. Portions of this work were sponsored by DARPA. Ubiquitous computing is only a small part of the work going on at PARC; we are grateful for PARC's rich, cooperative, and fertile environment in support of the document company. Bern 93. Bern, M., Greene, D., Raghunathan. On-line algorithms for cache sharing. 25th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, San Diego, 1993.

Buxton 90. Buxton, W. (1990). Smoke and Mirrors. Byte,15(7), July 1990. 205-210.

Chatterjee 92. Chatterjee, Shalini. Sun enters computer conferencing market. Sunworld. pp. 32-34. Vol 5, no. 10. October 1992. Integrated Media, San Francisco.

Clark 92. Clark, David D., Shenker, Scott, Zhang, Lixia. Supporting real-time applications in an integrated services packet network:architecture and mechanism. SIGCOMM '92 Conference Proceedings. Communicatins architectures and protcosl. August 17-20, 1992. Baltimore, Maryland. Computer Communication Review. Vol. 22, no. 4, October 1992.published by Accosication for Comptuing Machinery, New York, NY. pp. 14-26

Curtis 92. Curtis, Pavel. MUDDING: social phenomena in text-based virtual realities. DIAC - Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing. May, 1992 Symposium Proceedings. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. Palo Alto, CA.

Elrod 92. Elrod, Bruce, Gold, Goldberg, Halasz, Janssen, Lee, McCall, Pedersen, Pier, Tang, and Welch. Liveboard: a large interactive display supporting group meetings, presentations and remote collaboration. pp. 599-607. CHI '92 Conference proceedings. May 1992. ACM, New York, NY.

Fulton 93. Fulton, Jim and Kantarjiev, Chris. An Update on Low Bandwidth X (LBX). Proceedings of the Seventh Annual X Technical Conference, January, 1993, Boston, MA. Published in The X Resource by O'Reilly and Associates. (to appear)

Goldberg 93. Goldberg, David, Richardson, Cate. Touch Typing with a Stylus. to appear, INTERCHI '93.

Hill 93. Hill, R.D. , T. Brinck, J.F. Patterson, S.L. Rohall, and W.T. Wilner. The RENDEZVOUS Language and Architecture: Tools for Constructing Multi-User Interactive Systems. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 36, No. 1 (Jan. 1993). (to appear)

Ioannidis 93. Ioannidis, John, Maguire, Gerald Q., Jr. The Design and Implementation of a Mobile Internetworking Architecture. Usenix Conference Proceedings, Usenix '93. January 1993. to appear.

Karn 90. Karn, P. MACA - A New Channel Access Method for Packet Radio. Proceedings of the ARRL 9th Computer Networking Conference, London Ontario, Canada, September 22, 1990. ISBN 0-87259-337-1.

Kay 91. Kay, Alan. Computers, Networks, and Education. Scientific American, September 1991. pp. 138-148.

Kurtenbach 93. Kurtenbach, Gordon, Buxton, William. The Limits of Expert Performance Using Hierarchic Marking Menus. to appear, INTERCHI '93

Lave 91. Lave, Jean. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. New York, NY. 1991.

Lyles 92. Lyles, B. J., Swinehart, D. C. The emerging gigabit environment and the role of local ATM. IEEE Communications Magazine. April 1992. p. 52-57.

Lyon 93. Lyon, Richard F. Cost, Power, and Parallelism in Speech Signal Processing. Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, IEEE, 1993. May 9-12, 1993. San Diego.

Newman 90. Newman, William M., Eldridge, Margery A., Lamming, Machael G. PEPYS: Generating Autobiographies by Automatic Tracking. EuroPARC technical report. Cambridge England.

Pedersen 93. Pedersen, Elin, McCall, Kim, Moran, Thomas P., Halasz, Frank G. Tivoli: An Electronic Whiteboard for Informal Workgroup Meetings. to appear, INTERCHI '93

Rheingold 91. Rheingold, Howard. Virtual Reality. Summit Books. New York, NY. 1991.

Rush 92. Rush, Charles M. How WARC '92 Will Affect Mobile Services. IEEE Communications Magazine. October 1992. pp. 90-96.

Stefik 87. Stefik, M, Foster, G., Bobrow, D.G., Kahn, K., Lanning, S., and Suchman, L. Beyond the chalkboard: computer support for collaboration and problem solving in meetings. CACM 30, 1. January 1987. pp. 32-47.

Suchman 85. Suchman, Lucy A. Plans and Situated Actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Xerox PARC Technical Report ISL-6. February 1985

Tang 91. Tang, John C., Minneman, Scott L. VideoDraw: A video interface for collaborative drawing. ACM Trans. on Office Information Systems. Vol 9, no 2. April 1991. pp. 170-184.

Teraoka 91. Teraoka, Fumio, Tokote, Yasuhiko, Tokoro, Mario. A network architecture providing host migration transparency. Proceedings of SIGCOMM'91. ACM pp. 209-220. September 1991.

Tesler 91. Tesler, Lawrence G. Networked Computing in the 1990's. Scientific American, September 1991. pp. 86-93.

Want 92a. Want, Roy, Hopper, Andy, Falcao, Veronica, and Gibbons, Jonathan. The active badge location system. ACM T. on Information Systems. Vol 10, No. 1 January 1992. pp. 91-102.

Weiser 89. Weiser, Mark, Demers, Alan, Hauser, C. The Portable Common Runtime Approach to Interoperability. Proceedings of the ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, December 1989.

Weiser 91. Weiser, Mark. The Computer for the Twenty-First Century. Scientific American. September 1991. pp. 94-104.

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femmesfollesnebraska · 7 years

Text

Kristy Deetz & Reni Gower, artists/curators

Kristy Deetz (above) and Reni Gower (below), co-curators of FABRICation, a touring exhibit of seven textile artists, opening Jan. 19 at The Art Museum of West Virginia University, generously share with LFF about how they came to be artists, their artistic processes, feminism and collaboration and much more...

1. Where are you from? How did you get into creative work and what is your impetus for creating?

Kristy: I grew up in a large family in eastern Ohio. We often spent time on family farms and hiking in the woods. The feeling of being connected to nature and examining it closely was an extremely pleasurable activity that encouraged me to find interconnecting patterns that echo through nature and our spiritual, emotional, and intellectual lives. My parents also encouraged all kinds of creative activities. We received music lessons and studied or took classes in whatever art form or athletic activity interested us. One holiday I received an acrylic paint set in my Easter basket. My parents instilled in us a love of learning. My mother is particularly creative, curious about all kinds of things, and interested in the arts. My father is interested in how things work, engaging the world with preparation and logic, and he values tenacity. Both my parents have an incredible work ethic. We also had lots of pets including a lamb, pheasants, chickens, guinea pigs, dogs, cats, birds, fish, turtles, salamanders, and rabbits. I had a large, white rabbit named Alexandria that grew to be twenty-five pounds and had many babies—some of which she ate. She ended up at a farm auction and finally as someone’s dinner.

Reni: While I have lived in Virginia for 35 years, I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and still consider the Midwest my home. I’ve always had the support of my family. No one ever tried to dissuade me from being an artist. Though both were naïve artists, my paternal grandmother painted as a young girl and my father painted after he retired. When I showed interest, I was always encouraged. My first grade teacher also informed my mother, I was a born teacher. What she saw in me, I have no idea. Nonetheless, teaching has proven to be a good career path. Whether in the classroom or alone in the studio, I have experienced many creative opportunities that continue to motivate and inspire me.

2. Tell me about your current work and why it’s important to you. What do you hope people get out of your work?

Kristy: I have several solo exhibitions coming up that will feature my recent Through the Veil and Holiday’s Unfolding series. www.kristydeetz.com

Holidays Unfolding, a new evolution of my Through the Veil series, investigates the trope of drapery and the idea of Still Life, not as Nature Morte (or “dead nature”) but as Nature Morte Vivante (vivante implying “fast moving action and a certainly lively quality”). The work also examines contradictory feelings that accompany loss, nostalgia, or ubi sunt to become a meditation on mortality and life’s transience. In this series I explore new possibilities between the interface of painting, textiles, and digital technology while producing an end product that maintains the nuance and richness of slow work made by hand.

The painted fabric, ellipses, and patterned fabric in these paintings act as limina or thresholds that, along with the accompanying images and forms, place the viewer into multiple, often conflicting, layers of space and meaning. In the series the Rabbit or environment may be stretched or manipulated through Photoshop to create a sense of instability, heightened emotion, or a digital sifting. The paintings good-humoredly deconstruct imagery from my own painting history, as well as pop, outsider, and high culture to create new “spaces” of meaning. The paintings use dark humor, visual puns, symbols and metaphors, moments of silence, art historical allusions, cultural collisions, and spiritual conundrums to play with style and pictorial/formal construction.

Valentine’s Day Exploding (below) presents an exploding pink still-life table suspended sideways on the right side of the painting. The soft, draped fabric on the table stretches and then explodes like glass as a result of some cataclysmic event. The framed image reveals the essence of the patterned fabric. Dying leaves rise upward behind three overly ripe pears that sit on a drapery-covered table in front of wood grain that is illuminated at the top right. Circled with symbolic light rays, one of the pears moves away from the others. The frame around the three pears comes from a Victorian Easter card to heighten the sense of nostalgia. The pink Rabbits have expressions of resignation as they are tossed around the painting and go in and out of rabbit holes. Embroidery highlights various movements within the painting including that of one Rabbit that jumps out of a hole and begins to break apart as it moves toward the explosion. Roses fly around in the explosion as well as play games of hide and seek in the drapery. Votive images of sacred, flaming hearts with crying eyes act as both stabilizing compositional elements and expressions of internalized sorrow.

Reni: My work will be featured in numerous one to three person exhibitions this spring. I also have several curatorial projects with catalogs traveling across the country. www.renigower.com

Mixed Media Paintings and Works on Paper: My mixed media artwork is a blend of painting and sculpture that has evolved from flat collages (91” x 26” or larger) to three-dimensional constructions (91” x 104” x 73” or smaller). Paint is applied to a variety of materials (canvas, cheesecloth, nylon and aluminum screens, plastic, rug-hold, wood) that are suspended in layers of various widths from wooden support structures. Alternatively, my works on paper and encaustic pieces are highly detailed and transparently or opaquely layered illusions. In all approaches, I blend fluid improvisational painting methods with repetitively structured and analytical ones to create complex images that counter visual skimming. I incorporate the circle as a repetitive decorative motif, as a metaphor for binary code, and as a cultural symbol of continuity and infinity.. Through intricate patterning, I combine these references to contrast passive technological consumption with the redemptive nuance of slow work made by hand. By creating a private space within a public one, my art quiets the mind and encourages contemplation.

Papercuts and Pulped Paintings: For these works, I create interlocking stencils based upon Celtic knotwork and Islamic ornamental tiles. For the papercuts, the stencils are traced and hand cut into single sheets of paper. For the pulped paintings, the stencils are used to create complex patterns in handmade paper with pulped painting techniques. Using only a box cutter or squirt bottle, I work slowly to create artwork that fosters mindfulness. Enticed through touch, repetition, and beauty, this work also encourages a physical and contemplative slowing down. By embracing the redemptive effect of highly focused methodical work made by hand, these works transform a shared encounter into a meditation that quiets the nonstop noise of our time.

3. Does collaboration play a role in your work—whether with your community, artists or others? How so and how does this impact your work?

Kristy: FABRICation is the longest collaborative project I have been involved with. I serve as co-curator with Reni Gower, Professor of Painting and Printmaking, at the Virginia Commonwealth University. FABRICation is a traveling exhibition that will be on display at the Art Museum of West Virginia University, Morgantown, from January 15-March 15, 2017. By the fall of 2017 the show will have traveled to 13 venues and is available November 2017 and beyond. FABRICation features the work of seven women artists (including work by Reni and me) that incorporates a textile sensibility through elements of fabric and fabrication.

Collaborative projects bring more people into the conversation. Collaborating makes me aware of new perspectives that I can bring to my teaching. I am a Professor at the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay where I teach painting and drawing.

Reni: My traveling curatorial projects and mentoring activities come from a core belief in being generous and as such creating opportunities for others. Often co-curated with others, my projects are ultimately expansive collaborations with many artists, venues, and audiences. Projects currently traveling include the following:

FABRICation (co-curated with Kristy Deetz) brings together works that incorporate a textile sensibility through elements of fabric and fabrication.

With traditional hand papermaking at its core, Pulped Under Pressure (co-curated with Melissa Potter) underscores important contemporary issues steeped in history and craft. Enticed through touch, these works encourage a contemplative slowing down even as they urge acknowledgement of some of the most pressing issues (environmental crisis to global marginalization) facing civilization today.

By addressing the fundamental geometry embedded in two-dimensional art, Geometric Aljamia: A Cultural Transliteration (co-curated with Jorge Benitez) acknowledges ongoing hybrid connections between Europe, the Mediterranean basin, and the Middle East.

Heated Exchange / Contemporary Encaustic features the rich versatility of working with pigmented hot wax.

Kristy Deetz: Valentine’s Day Exploding, 2016, Acrylic Paint on Digital Pattern Printed on Silk Stretched over Canvas with Image Transfer and Embroidery, 36”x36”x1.5”, photo courtesy of the artist.

4. Considering the political climate, how do you think the temperature is for the arts right now, what/how do you hope it may change or make a difference?

Kristy: To be an artist is to be a free thinker. Free thinking leads one to consider the well fare of others or others as self.

Reni: Given our troubled times, it is more important than ever for an artist to speak out with a strong voice that inclusively recognizes our shared humanity despite perceived difference. My work is inspired by sacred geometry, which is thought to convey sacred and universal truths by reflecting the fractal interconnections of the natural world. By reiterating these patterns and ratios, my work unlocks the language of abstraction through the collective recognition of geometric perfection that is evident in ethnic patterns all around the world. This commonality creates connections. As such, my work is a perfect conduit for cross-cultural conversations that embrace and celebrate diversity.

Reni Gower: Fragments: Chapelle, 2015, Mixed Media: canvas, acrylic, cheesecloth, plastic, aluminum screen, rug-hold, wood, 64” x 63”, photo courtesy of the artist.

5. Artist Wanda Ewing, who curated and titled the original LFF exhibit, examined the perspective of femininity and race in her work, and spoke positively of feminism, saying “yes, it is still relevant” to have exhibits and forums for women in art; does feminism play a role in your work?

Kristy: Through the years, at different stages in the development of my artwork, or in specific pieces, I have used my own “voice” as a way of revising the painting canon. I am a strong believer that feminism should make us all humanists.

My Drapery Paintings on carved wood (from the early 2000’s) invoke and reinvent European canonical painting. A drapery may stand in for the body, free of specific gender connotations while still creating a human presence. The often-carved surfaces in the painting construction, along with the illusionistically painted drapery images, blend painting and sculpture, object and illusion, allowing the referents to resonate on multiple levels. These paintings operate as texts (and often include text) offering layers of meaning to those viewers who take the time to engage them.

I am also interested in eco-feminism. This concern has moved in and out of my current Through the Veil series and is also a component of an on-going “book” series. Earth Texts comprises a series of thirty-five wooden relief sculptures (carved, burned and painted with encaustic) that create visual metaphors of the book form as well as autobiographical explorations. Playing off concepts like frame narratives, in medias res, and earth digest, these pieces operate in one sense as visual puns and connect ideas of language to both earth and body.

Through interplay of forms each piece seeks to explore what we know or how we behave. Books embody text, and the "text” connects internal and external landscapes in a search for answers to human dilemmas. The plywood represents nature destroyed; construction of the art piece from the recycled plywood represents nature re-empowered or its pattern newly disclosed. The tactile paint surface, created through layers of encaustic (wax and pigment), serves as “skin,” unveiling greater complexity beneath.

Reni: While Feminism does not overtly play a role in my work, I would not be where I am in my career today without recognizing the many strong female shoulders I stand upon. As a highly active researcher, (artist / professor / curator), I also take my role as a visible role model for young artists (especially women) very seriously.

6. Ewing’s advice to aspiring artists was “you’ve got to develop the skill of when to listen and when not to;” and “Leave. Gain perspective.” What is your favorite advice you have received or given?

Kristy: “Operate from a position of strength.”

Reni: Having taught professional practices for many years, I can assure you there are many strategies that can help an artist sustain a creative life. My best advice recognizes there are no absolutes and that one’s personal definition of “success” will be the guide to the “right” questions for which there are no “wrong” answers.

Ten actions I often share with my students include:

Prepare: Learn your craft. Nurture your passion. Practice / Persevere: Success is 1% inspiration and 99% persistence. Seek clarity: Resist ambiguity for ambiguity’s sake. Know your precedents: Study history, so you understand the context of your work in light of its trajectory. Be present in the world: Listen carefully and engage with empathy. Know your facts and value disparate views, before you distort or distrust them. Cultivate networks: Construct bridges that foster reciprocal relationships rather than ladders that climb over others. Be Confident and Brave: Locate the strength to stand in your truth. Value Integrity: Never sacrifice your honor to achieve a goal. Get Started: Avoid excuses. Keep Working: Keep Working…Keep Working. -

KRISTY DEETZ www.kristydeetz.com

Reni Gower www.renigower.com

FABRICation January 19 – March 19, 2017 McGee Gallery, Art Museum of WVU

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 19, 2017 6:00 p.m. Program with visiting artists Kristy Deetz, Virginia Derryberry and Reni Gower Grand Hall, Museum Education Center Reception to follow

http://artmuseum.wvu.edu/

Les Femmes Folles is a volunteer organization founded in 2011 with the mission to support and promote women in all forms, styles and levels of art from around the world with the online journal, print annuals, exhibitions and events; originally inspired by artist Wanda Ewing and her curated exhibit by the name Les Femmes Folles (Wild Women). LFF was created and is curated by Sally Deskins. LFF Books is a micro-feminist press that publishes 1-2 books per year by the creators of Les Femmes Folles including the award-winning Intimates & Fools (Laura Madeline Wiseman, 2014), The Hunger of the Cheeky Sisters: Ten Tales (Laura Madeline Wiseman/Lauren Rinaldi, 2015) and BARED: Contemporary Poetry & Art by Women (Edited by Laura Madeline Wiseman, 2017). Other titles include Les Femmes Folles: The Women 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 available on blurb.com, including art, poetry and interview excerpts from women artists. See the latest call for work on the Submissions page!

#FABRICation #art museum of wvu #reni gower #kristy deetz #textile art #contemporary art #feminist art #women in art

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