Doodle-Spooder

So I've been thinking about the Tremaine/Calloway farmland and everything that seems to be surrounding that little storyline with Julius and Duke/Bo.

Personally I think that I've always just assumed that we would be investigating the farm(s) on the night of Avery's party. That always made the most sense to me, I think that Avery in general has a lot of connection to this storyline (mostly because of their friendship with Julius and their whole plant thing they've got going on) so I've always thought the most natural way to incorporate Avery into being a major part of an episode would have it to be focused around their party, that way there's a reason for Avery to be included even if the player hasn't been actively trying to interact with Avery.

It also seems to be a lot less serious/connected to the rest of the scarlet hollow mystery. I don't think that there would actually be a seal/carving at the homestead. All of the other seals have been found in areas that were all either created by or heavily associated with the scarlet family and I think that the homestead is pointed out as being one of the only places that isn't associated with the scarlet family. I honestly don't know but I really don't think that a seal would be there? I could always be very wrong but right now it seems very unlikely to me.

In my head I think that it would sort of be a “calm before the storm” (aka the nightmare that will be Sunday/the funeral)

Now onto my theories for what might be going on there at the farmland, I think that I have two pretty good ones?

Number 1: ditchling stuff

We know the ditchlings are growing bolder by the days and are just continuing to grow in population.

Sybil says that they aren't harmful to people but she very well could've been either not revealing that possibility in order to not cause anyone to freak out (which makes sense considering that Stella (+mc if they're there) already would've been freaking out cause of duke/Gretchen being dead) or she might just not know that there is a possibility for ditchlings to start attacking people. She's probably never seen such an extreme excess of ditchlings all in one small-ish area so it makes sense if she doesn't know what happens when ditchlings need to keep reproducing after all of the natural animals have been killed off.

The idea that they aren't normally harmful to people, but could be, has also been brought up multiple times in the game (by Kaneeka and the dog militia I believe?) I think one of the members of the dog militia brings up the point that the ditchlings might begin to go after people now that they've torn through all of the wild life.

I feel like this could've possibly happened to Julius, when talking to dr.kelly at dinner you can ask if any sick animals have come into the clinic and Reese will say that someone brought in a sick looking cow that had “lumps all over it” and stella and kaneeka will mention how it sounds like what the ditchlings are doing to the animals.

Julius and the calloways are the only farmers that we know of in game and neither Duke or Bo mention anything about a cow of theirs being sick so it could be inferred that the one who brought in the sick cow was Julius (it's also possible that it's just some other random person in town who happens to own a cow but for the sake of this theory let's just assume that julius is the owner of the ditchling cow)

We don't really know anything about how the ditchling “hatching” process works or how long it takes for them to gestate. This person brought in the cow sometime last week. So at most it could be assumed that it takes one week and a few days at least (which seems to line up with what we see in game. With the ditchling population rapidly increasing in only a few days- they had already been laying eggs for weeks in advance of the MC arriving)

Not all animals that are infected with ditching eggs are immediately taken to a ditchling nest. (ex: the deer in episode 1) Which makes sense, ditchlings aren't particularly strong, the opposite actually as we've been shown time and time again that people (and dogs) can easily beat off and kill ditchlings. I don't imagine that they could carry a full grown cow, but they also don't really need to. The hatching process seems to be fatal. So it's not impossible that Julius was able to just keep the cow on his farm.

That combined with the fact that the Tremaine/Calloway property seems to be a beacon for ditchling activity doesn't paint that pretty of a picture. The ditchlings in episode 1 only attack duke because he starts threatening to shoot at them (and was beginning to do so) so looking at julius, a man who is confirmed to have his land rigged with traps and is also way less friendly than duke is, i don’t think that it’s that much a stretch to assume that the ditchlings had less than nice behavior to him.

Julius has been missing for days and hasn't been answering when duke/Bo tried to talk to him. So I don't think that he's okay, he could be, but I don't think that he is.

So maybe his half of the land is basically like another ditchling nest? I think that would be cool. Perhaps it's another reason why the ditchlings seem to be constantly trying to swarm the calloway's farm, cause they think that it's another part of their nest. (Even the ditchlings can't tell where the property lines are!)

Number 2: “ginseng babies”

I think this one is a bit more out there, and possibly a lot less likely, but yeah.

“Ginseng babies” are a cryptid that you can read about in the library in episode 2 if you have the book smart trait. It's said that if you dig up a ginseng root on the night of a full moon, it will cry like an infant, and leave blood in the earth when it's torn free.

iirc black tabby games said that the cryptids you can read about in the library are hints/foreshadowing for stuff in the game but they aren't literally the cryptids (like with Reece and how people think he's similar to the jersey devil (another cryptid that you can read about with the booksmart trait that's also pointed out for not really fitting in with a book of Appalachian folklore))

So my idea was, what if some of the plants that grow on the Tremaine/Calloway property are alive? As in they could literally just get up and walk away? (Do you see where I might be going with this?)

Let's talk about big Betty:

Big Betty is a 2000 lb pumpkin (if I'm remembering correctly) and Julius is accused of having stolen it.

Now I don't know how big or heavy a 2000 lb pumpkin would actually be or if a person could reasonably pick that pumpkin up and carry it back to his home by himself. And I really don't want to sound mean or anything, but I don't think that Julius could just carry big Betty away. Also I think that duke literally says something in episode 3 about how he'd love to see Julius try to make off with a 2000 lb pumpkin all on his own.

Julius has basically been M.I.A since Tuesday night, I don't think he's actually seen after the scene in the diner on Monday but I'm pretty sure that duke and Bo mention that they caught him trying to make off with big Betty sometime Tuesday night. Strangely, if Duke is dead big Betty actually disappears earlier (Bo mentions that she's gone on Wednesday instead of her being gone on Thursday) but again I really doubt that it was actually Julius that carried off a huge 2000 lb pumpkin.

Like, again I really don't want to sound mean or anything but like look at julius???

I really don't think that this man managed to carry off a 2000 lb pumpkin by himself.

So naturally, after thinking about it for a bit, I came up with the idea that maybe big Betty moved herself. My thought was “maybe “ginseng babies” are just that. Babies”

Babies of what? Probably some big old plant monsters.

That's basically my whole idea, I don't really have much else to say about it.

(Also side note but when I was originally writing this I had been a little rusty with the info on duke and Julius so I kept accidentally writing big Betty's weight as 200 instead of 2000 but when I actually look at someone's gameplay I realized that big Betty weighed closer to 2000 than 200 and I was like “yeah i definitely don't think Julius carried that off by himself”)