Topher Lydon

STOKER AIN'T BAIT

Outside Washington D.C. -1993 – December 9th The low winter sun, a pale, anemic disk in a sky, cast long, distorted shadows across the rifle range. The air was a crisp, biting cold, a clean, sharp scent of gunpowder and frozen earth that bit at the nose and made the breath plume like twin white ghosts in the stillness. Henry stood, a silent, solitary figure, his heavy flannel coat a somber island of warmth in the vast, indifferent landscape. The wind,

shhhhhhhhhhhhhh don't give 'em ideas...

Never, that one's 100% Sprog-smitten. Team WestxPeter till I die

This is becoming a book, I never intended this. This was just a project to allow me to process past trauma that defined who I am. What made me, what I was who I was, and who I would become. The early 2000s. I was there in Ottawa on Y2K, shivering in the crisp night air as the countdown malfunctioned and the giant clock on Parliament Hill flickered and died. A profound silence fell over the crowd as we all held our breaths, wondering if that was it. The world seemed to pause for a second, bu

Right so the first chapter of Carter's Order is penned. I am going to get to work on this one this week and see where I am with it.

You know if you say @Jeff Burton 's name Three Times....

:: glances genuinely scared in the direction of HE THAT SHALL NOT BE NAMED ::

Shirley not

This is specifically what Sinjin/Madam Woo worries about, and also what Thomas worries about. Thus both of them keeping him tethered to Stoker, without that tethering Thomas's prophecy of a hollow God of Knowledge would come to pass. Thomas, for all his monstrous image, genuinely seems to care about Hugo. The Aggregate of Self reflects the truth of a person, both the Evil and the Good, and he is so very, very old. These are my thoughts at this point, looking back over the writing as a reader not the author.

Which one? These are nested loops. She also only has her watch long enough for her meetings with Hugo, in New York, in 1953 While time progresses linearly through a year 1, 2, 3, 4 at the start of a new year in the Static streams, it starts again in the dynamic streams. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. So if you are sitting on December 2nd 1953, theoretically I can loop back to that date every year ad infinitum. I can wait 364 days and visit you on December 1st, or one week to visit you Dec 9th. As long as Dottie has a watch, if Hugo tries to repeat Dec 2nd directly, she will know. He VERY specifically resisted that urge in the last chapter because he cannot afford her realizing he is looping his years, while she simply thinks in weeks. @Jeff Burton did warn me that this might be a little complicated. Hugo has had 10 chances at Dec 2nd so far, but he has only gone there once. This is the limitation of his side of the plan. What he is doing to counter this is he is visiting, studying, and picking apart the lives of everyone in the bar on the dates of the meetings. They have no memory of him, but he knows every aspect of their lives by this point. Information is his weapon. Billy specifically, has a weakness. And Hugo is becoming Ruthless.

I want to tell you, I do... it's so blindingly simple and very Hugo clever.

New York City -1953 – December 9th The air, a familiar miasma of old smoke and desperation, hit Wojciech first. The disorienting lurch of temporal transit, a sensation that had once made him weak with nausea, was now as commonplace as a footstep. To Dottie, it had been a single week since their last agonizing encounter in the Tides of Time lounge. To Wojciech, it had been ten long years. Ten years of looping, of training, of preparing. Ten years of separa

Even Thomas knows better than to anger the mighty @Jeff Burton

I believe I cover this, or more specifically Sinjin covers this in a conversation with one of our protagonists, at a point, where it is... important... in the future... um... I can't say who, or what, or why without a spoiler.

No no.... um the baby dictator of a party popular in Germany during the 30's - 40's. Who had a distinctive moustache and a penchance for marching in goose-step

unfortunately he would have to go and shoot her before she could organize them. Kind of Baby No-No Moustache Man situation.

It has always been the gold standard by which I hold other relationships, dates, etc. Duncan always put me first And I mean it, I would give anything and everything for just one more moment of his smile.

so very true.

I don't know if a groundskeeper in rural England would have encountered one in the two years between... or if he had, would Stoker even pay attention? I see him as more the type to go to the world's fair and stick close to the food concession stands... far more interesting.

I’ve been asked how much of this is real. And my answer is as much of it as I can. I admit I am not the most reliable of narrators; I state things and then contradict myself a little later as the honesty shines through. This is raw, and my thoughts, reflections, and admissions often hit me as I type. So it isn’t for me to judge myself; it’s your job, dear-reader, to decide. Because when I am long gone, this work will still be around in some form, and I was taught long ago by my mentor

It's something I promise to write about in Carter's Order. You lot have me curious as well.