Galleries:
A Lot Tour of Deception Pass and Slightly Beyond - Just what it says. ^_^
The Beginnings - Scans of the original stories. Not for the weak of heart. :X
The Real Deception Pass - Photographs of the real Deception Pass and one of the areas mentioned fleetingly in an episode.
Randomness - Photos of our work spaces and random behind the scenes screen caps and scans.


Creating An Episode:

aikea_guinea: A typical episode starts off with Sara and I giggling insanely over countless emails and phone calls, getting the basic plot worked out. Since we have so many things planned to happen well in advance, we decide what parts we're going to move forward with in each episode. We divvy up the scenes between us, both of us writing for all the characters pretty much equally (though Sara leans a bit more toward Mary/James/Chris and I lean a bit more toward Emily/Tristan/Andy).

rosewalker: I do stupid things like research exactly which kind of wood is the strongest and then fail completely to actually put that into the story.

aikea_guinea: And I fail completely to realize that after getting dozens of emails on the subject that she still has the same type of wood written in that she started with. XD

Scenes get written and passed between us, sometimes read over the phone complete with voices just to amuse us, and always emailed back and forth. Changes are made continually as the episode fleshes out, scenes rewritten to synch better with other scenes. I'm not sure how long it's been since we wrote an episode in order-we tend to jump around a bit depending on what we know has to happen. The rest of it pretty much ends up writing itself.

After an episode is completely written and edited, I print out a hardcopy and go through splitting up the text into chunks that each get a picture. I number these off in order to keep track of everything, and start simming. Days and days later, after countless battles with ADD, the simming is completed. Pictures are renamed to numerical order and the HTML slapped together. Sometimes I even manage to include all the paragraphs and scenes, and fill in the parts that say [insert name of college Mary went to here]. Everything gets posted and then I collapse for a few days before I can't stand it anymore and the whole process starts again.


Commentary on Episode 22:

Mary:"Yes. A porcupine just went down it. Does that seem right to you?"

Mary's journey into the Underworld officially starts by following a porcupine down a hole. This is from an African myth in which a porcupine led the way through a hole to the Underworld.

rosewalker: Our ideas for the Underworld centered around real myths, but we wanted to modernize them. All myths have been adapted to fit the times, so why would the Underworld still look like ancient Greece? Originally, we wanted to start with Sumerian myths, since they were the oldest that had been recorded. However, that research proved far too involved. There were bits missing, the local library sucked, and most of all, we're very lazy. So we decided to focus mainly on Egypt and Greece because they are well known and we wanted people to be able to pick up on things. Initially there was also going to be some more Judeo-Christian content, but it got nixed because the episode was just getting too long. We decided we'll just have to revisit the Underworld in future episodes.

So, here is some commentary on episode twenty-two. I think people picked up on most of these things, but maybe we still have a few surprises for you.

Tristan and Mary's first task is to cross the river. They quickly find out that the only way across is to have a ride, however, the shock that Mary receives was actually not the bridge itself throwing her back; it was the shock from the defibrillator up in the real world. The three bursts of static she experienced beforehand were the shocks that didn't work.

Fortunately, a bus shows up.

Charlie the bus driver is of course Charon, the ferryman. His job was to take the newly dead from one side of the river (Acheron or Styx, depending on which version of the myth you're reading) to the other. But the souls needed to have payment, which was traditionally a coin called an obolus. The obolus has evolved into a penny (sometimes two) in more modern myths. Tristan thought he was a big smarty-pants for specifically bringing two pennies with him, but he forgot to account for inflation. They end up bartering his watch.

The reason Mary is able to conjure money for beer at the pub but not for the bus ride is because an outside force was needed to cross the river. In this case, a legitimate exchange of something valuable. The beer, however, served only to loosen her up enough to let what was already inside out; thus, no outside force was truly needed, only the illusion of one.

Mary chooses to get off the bus at her representation of the Elysian fields. This is the place in Greek mythology where the souls of the heroic and virtuous go. But since she has not yet even found the path to being a hero, she can't get in. The Underworld automatically spits them back out into the Delphaso Mall, which Mary mentions having passed on the way to the Fields.

The Delphaso Mall is based on the Greek Asphodel Meadows. This is the place where ordinary souls went after death. They were neither heroes nor villains, and were pretty much bored senseless with no real purpose.

aikea_guinea: I based the Delphaso Mall off Westland Mall in Westland, MI. I spent many an hour wandering its hallways in my youth, and it always seemed to feel stuck in some sort of odd time warp. The map Tristan and Mary are looking at is an actual map of Westland Mall.

rosewalker: Oh my god! And here I thought you were just reading my mind. I was thinking about Westland Mall when I wrote that part. Actually that's where I took my real life cereal survey.

Moving on…

You'll note the use of anagrams. Mary isn't exactly up on her mythology, so it's not clear to her where she is or who all of these people and creatures are. There are a few anagrams and some similar-sounding names used. But when things break free to the real world, Abigail is able to recognize them for what they really are (or at least what the ancient Greeks called them!)

Tristan mentions the 'Pandimensional Physics of Lucky Charms Pancakes'. This has nothing to do with mythology, but Danielle and I used to spend the night at each other's houses and we'd put anything we could find into pancakes for breakfast the next morning. Lucky Charms pancakes were one of our favourites.

The next person we meet is Matt with SHU Research. Matt is our version of a manifestation of Ma'at, the ancient Egyptian concept of law, morality and justice. 'SHU' was taken from the Shu Feather, which is the feather used to weigh Mary's heart against later.

Ma'at is associated with the 42 declarations of purity. The version of these declarations we used is as follows:

1. I have not killed, nor bid anyone kill.
2. I have not committed adultery or rape.
3. I have not avenged myself nor burned with rage.
4. I have not caused terror.
5. I have not assaulted anyone nor caused anyone pain.
6. I have not caused misery.
7. I have not done any harm to man or to animals.
8. I have not caused the shedding of tears.
9. I have not wronged the people nor bear them any evil intent.
10. I have not stolen nor taken that which does not belong to me.
11. I have not taken more than my fair share of food.
12. I have not damaged the crops, the fields, or the trees.
13. I have not deprived anyone of what is rightfully theirs.
14. I have not beared false witness, nor supported false allegations.
15. I have not lied, nor spoken falsely to the hurt of another.
16. I have not used fiery words nor stirred up any strife.
17. I have not spoken nor acted deceitfully to the hurt of another.
18. I have not spoken scornfully against others.
19. I have not eavesdropped.
20. I have not ignored the truth or words of righteousness.
21. I have not judged anyone hastily or harshly.
22. I have not disrespected sacred places.
23. I have caused no wrong to be done to any workers or prisoners.
24. I have not been angry without good reason.
25. I have not hindered the flow of running water.
26. I have not wasted the running water.
27. I have not polluted the water or the land.
28. I have not taken God's name in vain.
29. I have not despised nor anger the Gods.
30. I have not stolen from God.
31. I have not given excessive offerings nor less than what is due.
32. I have not coveted thy neighbor's goods.
33. I have not stolen from nor disrespect the dead.
34. I have remembered and observed the appointed holy days.
35. I have not held back the offerings due to the Gods.
36. I have not interfered with sacred rites.
37. I have not slaughtered with evil intent any sacred animals.
38. I have not acted with guile or insolence.
39. I have not been unduly proud nor acted with arrogance.
40. I have not magnified my condition beyond what is appropriate.
41. I have done no less than my daily obligations require.
42. I have obeyed the law and committed no treason.

Tristan, meanwhile, takes a completely different test, since he's not actually dead. Exactly. His test is based on the one and only mall survey I've ever participated in, which was, in fact about breakfast cereal. The cereal in question was Rainbow Bright cereal, and the interviewer seemed really keen on knowing which prize interested me most: the hologram or something else that was nowhere near as cool.

Mary's test is inconclusive, and she moves on to the exam room, where the Egyptian heart-weighing ceremony takes place. In this tradition, the subjects heart is weighed against a single shu feather; the feather of truth. The heart and the feather must weigh the same. If they don't, the person's heart is devoured by the demon Ammit (Tim!).

Finally, we meet Persephone, AKA Stephanie. As the myth goes, Persephone was innocently picking flowers in a field with some nymphs, when Hades showed up and took her to the Underworld. When I reread this while doing research for this episode, all I could think was, "Yeah right, a teenage girl innocently picking flowers with her friends, and all she wants is to go home to mommy. She was probably off smoking in the school yard with her friends!" And that lead to the idea that maybe she wasn't exactly an unwilling participant when Big Bad Hades came for her, and that her little nymph friends were just covering for her so she wouldn't get into trouble.


The next people we meet are the Fiseurs, or rather, the Furies: Margaraet (Megaera), Alex (Alecto) and Ticia (Tisiphone). They become very interested upon hearing that Andrew has plotted to commit murder, and sent Karrie (Ker) after him. Since this would really screw things up, the gang saves Andy's sorry butt. The Furies are a little pissed. I'm sure we'll hear more from them soon.

Meanwhile, Emily is out running around, and runs into Joseph Saints. Yes, the patron saint of real estate. He's working for Duat Real Estate - Duat being the Egyptian Underworld.

aikea_guinea: Catholicism is filled with Patron Saints for just about anything you can imagine. It's said that if you're trying to sell your house you should bury a statue of Saint Joseph upside down in the yard. We were so tempted to play into that, but it never quite worked itself out.

Emily's experiences in the Underworld are vastly different from Mary's. Episode 20 is essentially her life flashing before her eyes as she dies. I chose to have Azrael enter her flash back around the time she met Mary, which is when Emily first felt truly alive. As we follow her through key points in her life we see that Azrael is getting closer and closer, until he's nearly breathing down her neck. When Emily's soul finally leaves her body we have a scene with Emily in a graveyard standing over Mary's grave. Dying can be very confusing, so Emily's transposed her own death with Mary's.

Azrael is in charge of leading Emily's soul to its final resting place, but as she brought herself to the Underworld he cannot take her there straight off. It's almost as if her soul has its own trials to go through just as Mary and Tristan are facing their trials. He takes the form of someone important to her in her life- Andy -in order to ease her through the transition. Of course, with Glass mucking about with things up above with his concealment spells, Azrael doesn't realize that there were better forms he could have taken.

During Emily's time in the Underworld there are several occasions when she becomes aware of the physical damage she's done to herself in the 'real world'. These were meant to synch up with Tristan and Mary making their way through the Underworld and getting closer and closer to her.

rosewalker: Mary and Tristan then run into who Mary believes is Sigmund Freud, but who is actually Sherlock Holmes. She refuses to even interact with him, and hopefully the symbolism of this will make sense as the story progresses.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch hospital, James, Deanna and Abigail are apparently trying to explain how Mary ended up dead from severe hypothermia in the middle of a warm spring night in the city. Apparently their explanation involved the movie "The Day After Tomorrow," starring Jake Gyllenhaal, in which some very sudden and bizarre weather freezes much of America in a matter of hours.

Mary goes on to play the Mirror of Truth game, but leaves before she can find out how Chris, and Aaron, and Tim see her. Tristan finds it odd that the vampire Tim who had only been in Mary's life (afterlife?) for a matter of seconds would be on the wheel. Why yes, Tristan, that is odd. Perhaps Mary knows someone else named Tim?

On to the court, where Mary faces Minos, Rhadamanthys and Aeacus, the three judges of the Underworld. Of course she has no idea who they are or what their names could be, so in her afterlife, they're all named for people who have the last name of "Judge"; Chris, Mike and Reinhold.

aikea_guinea: I just sort of wanted to jump in here and state for the record that Reinhold was hands down the ugliest sim to ever grace my computer. That is all.

rosewalker: Tristan feels that he's passing some sort of test when he allows Mary to vomit into the pocket of his trench coat, and in fact, he is. This scene was taken from one of those stories you hear and immediately say, "Now that's love." A friend of mine went to a wine tasting with her husband in California, and had a little too much of a few too many wines. She realized she was going to be sick on the bus ride home, but being stuck on a bus with no bathrooms going 70 mph down the freeway left her very few options. Her husband was wearing a trench coat with large pockets, and let her use them. Tristan doing this for Mary shows her that she can depend on someone else, which allows them to get through the challenges to follow.

And yes, the Elysian Fields are modeled after the Michigan Renaissance Festival. The first time I ever went to this Festival, it was pure magic. But after being a season pass holder for several years, you start to realize it's the same thing over and over, the same shows, the same music, the same beer and badly fried food. The only real joy is in the company you have. And that's the sort of atmosphere I wanted to create for this particular region in Mary's afterlife.

Tristan: "Mary, this is a hedge-maze."

The hedge-maze is sort of an in-joke between Danielle and I. One of the versions of the stories centered around a hedge maze located in James's back yard. All of the characters kept getting lost in it and were constantly passing out, either from head trauma or from god-knows-what. I have no idea why we never sent any of them to the hospital after they'd passed out for the third time. It was just silly, so I wanted to have it in the Underworld.

After they conclude their rescue of Emily, they try to get back on the bus to cross the river. Of course, the bus is only one way. Only certain people are allowed to travel in the opposite direction, such as…. Persephone. Fortunately this episode took place in the beginning of spring (yes, I realize it's nearly fall now in real time), when Stephanie was leaving her winter home. She offers them all a glass of Lethe champagne. Lethe is the river of forgetfulness in Greek mythology, and drinking from it will cause complete forgetfulness. It was also believed that souls would drink from Lethe before being reincarnated, so that they would not remember their past lives.

Tristan: "Did you know that in Western culture the magpie is seen as a thief and ill omen, but in Eastern culture they foretell happiness and good luck?"

aikea_guinea: I'm fascinated by the differences between cultures, how a single thing can be seen as 'good' for one group of people and 'threatening' to another. I was digging around for pictures of magpies for unrelated purposes while I was left with Tristan saying [insert something geeky here]. I just went with it.


Things You May Have Missed - Some Secrets Revealed:

rosewalker:
-It took forever for someone to point out that James remembers Mary's middle name even after their memories were wiped/restored. He still calls her Mary Jo.

-When Chris was snooping through Mary's room, all of her things were alphabetized, from her CDs to her sock drawer.

-When Mary is in the tub of ice, she's singing the same song that James' dream-version of her was singing in his dream world.

-I think this was an obvious one, but... In Episode ten, Emily recounts seeing a vampire when her and Mary were teenagers. During Emily's flashback sequence, we learn the vampire was Chris.

-In episode 11, Tristan is wearing a Blue Sun shirt (from the series Firefly). He's such a fantastic geek.

-There is an ungodly amount of foreshadowing in the dream-world episode. I can't even get into all of it. But I will say that most of Mary's dreams are stolen directly from my own dreams, just pieced together to fit her situation. James' dream was full of symbols. And more Mary/James love - they both dreamed he was replaced by David Spade.

-In episode 16, Elise calls Markus "Marky," because I am incapable of writing a Mary & Markus scene without both of their names degenerating into "Marky" in several places.

aikea_guinea:
-Deception Pass opens with a passage from Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’. When I was contemplating starting this up again I had some vague ideas but wasn’t really sure what to do with any of it. When I flipped the book open to a random page for a random quote and got 'Wednesday said, "You have already lost everything. I am offering you the chance to take something back." The fire blazed high as he spoke....’ it fit what I had in mind for Emily so well I knew it was time to start ‘the stories’ again.

-The original ‘This Velvet Oblivion’ backdrop used a Buffy font and a picture from a Cure single. It was one of the first custom things I made.

-In Episode 4 Part Two, Emily goes jogging—“Without turning on any lights she crept quietly down the stairs and out the front door. A flicker of deja vu danced on the surface of her mind before she got caught up in the sound of her shoes on the pavement.” It’s later revealed in Episode 20 that she left Ian by creeping out of the apartment without turning on any lights.

-Both Tristan and Emily have a painting of Ophelia hanging over their beds.

-Speaking of paintings, Tristan has a painting of ‘Tristan & Isolde’ by J.W. Waterhouse hanging in his front hallway.

-Ace, Chris’s sidekick from the beginning of the series, can be seen locked up in Andy’s lab in Episode 17 Part 12.

-In Episode Six Part Two, James mentioned Markus’s ‘Jamaican grandmother’.

-Andy was giving Emily Valium as early as Episode 7 Part Two.

-Ian is in line at the airport Cinnabon in front of Markus in Episode 16 Part 2 and at the Xenon in part 17.

-The lemon cake Tristan makes in the Zombie Episode is based entirely on the cake my mother made for my wedding.