Amycus

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Okay. alt_amycus needs his own discussion: two posts in an evening. And, omg, I'm terrified for alt_terry!

What do you suppose Amycus's "new regimen" lists mean?

I.
4L x 3D
Tx30
CCx4
results marginal

pigeons

II.
4L x 2D
2 pair trousers
5 CC but scattered.

I thought the first one was some sort of list of punishments in code, but "2 pair trousers" doesn't seem to fit. Perhaps he's trying experimental pigeon extermination strategies? But again, "2 pair trousers"? Am I making this harder than it needs to be?

Comments

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

The idea that it's a punishment record is intriguing -- if it relates to boot, maybe the trousers are part of a new, purely experimental strategy of reward as well as punishment?

CC might be Cruciatus Curse?

If it's a punishment record, the first line might be the list of transgressions -- 4 late, 3 default? Then a summary of punishments (Tx30 sounds ominous), then the results.

Need more info! *admires evil player*

[brimtoast.livejournal.com]

L for live, D for dead?

[qwerty88.livejournal.com]

Terry noted the need for new trousers as well in comments.

http://alt-terry.livejournal.com/7703.html?thread=43031#t43031

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking. I'd missed that development. Wish it were harder to imagine how his trousers came to be split across the seat (in addition to general wear and tear and boot's growing, there's punishment). I keep coming back to that as bearing some relation to this set of cryptic lists.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

T = tears? (rips rather than weeping)
T = transfigurations? (what else besides the dog might Terry have been temporarily?) If Terry turns up missing again, I'd suggest Minerva check out the pigeon population.

Benign possibilities are out there, too, of course:

L = lunch; D = dinner

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

If he refers to dead anythings, you'd think we'd be hearing about it from others, too (stench in that corridor/classroom; piles of pigeon bones out by the greenhouses; something )-- or maybe not.

[alt-player.livejournal.com]

alt_terry's rather terrified for himself! He's not looking forward to tonight.

Don't know whether you've noticed, but Terry's journal has a new icon, sort of in "honor" of his master's joining the journal project. It's called, "Him."



--Terry's Player

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

ouch.

Thank you for pointing this out. I just looked at all Terry's icons and realise there are several I haven't seen before.

alt_terry's rather terrified for himself! He's not looking forward to tonight.

I'm rather expecting that we may see a Word-of-the-Day post again. I wonder if he works on those in advance. The last one seemed so well developed for a moment of extremis, that I wondered if he had a (mental) pile of them ready to go. Still, he had to write it out, and that seemed pretty amazing under the circumstances.

Of course with tonight's event, I wonder if a Word-of-the-Day post would give away the code by making its meaning especially obvious to the Carrows. Perhaps with all this advance notice of the "soiree" in the journals, Hermione and Pomfrey know to expect that Terry will need them without his having to send the signal?

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Or lashes/licks x defaults?

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

Don't know what to make of "pigeon." Maybe it's a scribble, since he's got pigeons on his mind?

L = lunch; D = dinner

Nope, definitely don't want to think about pigeons. :)

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

bleagh.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

You know, my first thought -- though I couldn't get anywhere with it -- was that they might be a kind of physical direction, if Carrow were hunting for the stone. L, D -- left, right (levo-dextro, as in chemistry? Where else are L and D alternatives?). Then steps, tiles. No idea about CC as a direction -- counterclockwise?

Of course, this explains neither the trousers nor the pigeons.

Perhaps Terry wears Long.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

These are the Carrows, after all. :)

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

I like that line of thought but agree on its limitations. I've been trying to think of what other things might be enumerated or remarked on by this list: an inventory of things (which easily incorporates the trousers); observations about student infractions (but I think we've established that the trousers must refer to Terry); an exercise regimen for himself (but can't figure out what the letters signify in that case); a list of contacts where the letters represent names (but why the "x" between L and D?).

I note that the two series do not seem cummulative: in the first series, we have 3D and in the second series, 2D. Furthermore, "Tx30" in the first series shares the same rank with "2 pair trousers" in the second series (T is probably not "30 pair trousers" -- if it refers to Terry, at least -- and, in any case, to go from 30 to 2 is not a matter of adding up).


I await further posts from alt_amycus with morbid curiosity.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Also meant to remark that I've tried and failed to work the observations "results marginal" and "but scattered" into my theories.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Yes. Perhaps this is the place to say that I was rather hoping they'd fail to cast either one of the Carrows. I'm not entirely convinced that what they represent needs to walk on stage. However, we've got Evil Character #1 now, and he's being interestingly played, so I'm on board and watching for developments.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

Maybe CC could be a result. 4 is marginal, 5 is better but he doesn't like the way the results were "scattered." So, he's improving some sort of process. Reducing the D's from 3 to 2. He's thinking about pigeons -- is there something pigeons are or do that give him an idea for process improvements? Could tie in with the idea of reward vs. punishment -- if you want to have a pigeon for lunch, you don't chase it, you draw it closer with bread crumbs. (Wasn't there a passage about something like this in the game not long ago, or am I mixing up memories?) So: replacing Tx30 with pants.

This is sort of wonderfully absurd, no?

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

There's an interesting range of evil among the characters, perhaps from cowardice to callousness to arrogance to something more perverse. So the Carrows nail down one end of that line, possibly even a step beyond Bella. He's definitely being interesingly played!

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

Terry posted about birds. About a boy in the camps who was cruel to birds, so they avoided him, and about his own experience of encouraging their presence while he eats lunch. (I'm too lazy to go look up the details, but I think that was the gist, and I'm certain it was Terry himself who made the post.)

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

You pose an interesting question: are the Carrows more evil than Bellatrix?

Are we simply more invested in the Carrow's current victim? Are we more closely aware of their deeds and more distanced from the details of Bella's daily life?


Edited for oh, my eyes, that apostrophe! and, um, general stupidity.

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

I miss Bella, actually.



*pokes her*

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's fruitful to get into more or less, as opposed to just creating a typology evil, like an encyclopedia of wrongness. Bella is vicious and arrogant -- she enjoys getting her way and threatening/hurting people who interfere. But it seems purposive and controlled; she can be trusted with political missions and seems to have some sustained (if distorted) family relationships. Carrow seems to enjoy inflicting pain for its own sake -- hard to tell from just two posts, but there seems something unhinged about him, a sort of manic and playful perverseness that makes him seem completely disconnected from normal relations with people. Among the kids, Theodore seems a bit like him potentially. Not quite sure which of the kids might be a potential Bella.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

With a long stick, I hope, for your sake.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm liking the idea that the pigeons remind Carrow of something, give him an idea for a new approach. To, um, whatever it is he's doing.

[black-dog.livejournal.com]

I vote for conversational rules in these comments! If I went back and fixed every embarassing apostrophe or mis-spelling or grammatical lapse I made, there'd be deleted posts and muddled threads trailing behind me everywhere. :)