Silas was 15 when Aawari was born! Their mother presented a rare, dormant genetic condition that activated itself in all of her babies straight from the fetus stage. So, unfortunately, none of her eggs came to term, they all died before the due date. Aawari and Silas were the only two exceptions!
This genetic condition is what caused both Aawari and Silas to develop bioluminescent tentacles, as well as albinism, in Aawari’s case, and melanism, in Silas’ case.
Their mom eventually died of illness shortly after Aawari’s birth (she had quite a weak immune system), and Silas did in fact become his little sister’s primary caretaker.
The first year of a baby Nautolan’s life is mostly spent underwater, in a shallow tide pool, so Silas had to be there for her almost 24/7! Not that it bothered him. He loves Aawari so much and would die for her.
I’ll admit, while reading The Darkest Minds, I was certain that Slip Kid was the Orange at the start of the book, the one who told the PSF to shoot herself and tried to break them out of Thurmond. I was certain of it! And I was wrong.
a slightly rocky and long attempt at explaining the plot of jasper in deadland
-by somebody who has never seen the show (but has gathered a lot of info from the internet and isn’t sure what to do with it)
Nobody's really written a full plot explanation for Jasper In Deadland so I’m gonna give it a go since I've spent a lot of hours listening to the cast album, scrolling through the tumblr tag, watching interviews and finding clips on youtube to figure out the plot (since it's kinda unclear from the cast album). I originally made this for my own reference but spent a lot of time on it so thought I may as well share what idea I have of the plot on tumblr too (considering a lot of people are confused). It's long and I don’t expect many people to read it because I went kinda overboard and the explanation is lengthy, plus some of these parts might be inaccurate since there's no official plot synopsis online and I didn't see the show, but here's what I’ve gathered/how I personally interpret the plot from the information I have. I hope that this is useful to somebody :)
Disclaimer: This is very long and I’d like to apologize to anybody who has a short attention span. I wanted to include as much detail as I could though and I like having it for reference. I've also included some pictures to break it up a bit and put some useful links and stuff.
Character Stuff
Before anything else I'm gonna give a character description for Jasper and Agnes since it's kind of important to understand their background (it fuels their personalities a lot):
Jasper is 17 years old and his life at home/relationship with his parents is very troubled. His parents are going through a divorce which has made his views on the world cynical. Every day he enjoys cliff diving into a lake by his house and quietly swimming back to the shore because he sees it as an escape from the noise of the world and it’s basically the one place he can feel peaceful. Jasper is a little bit awkward but a huge sweetheart who enjoys hanging out with his best friend Agnes (the one person who understands him). However, when she confesses her love for him he distances himself from her in fear that he'll hurt her because of his messed up life.
I know less about Agnes, but I assume she's the same age as Jasper. She often accompanies Jasper at the cliff but is always too afraid to take the jump (but still enjoys his company). Agnes is also from a troubled background and has a controlling father, so is able to connect with Jasper over this. It's made clear that she is in love with Jasper at the start of the show but he wishes to stay friends because he believes she deserves better than him and is scared of commitment after seeing his parents divorce. Agnes gets kinda annoyed at this and is a little stubborn, but it comes from a place of caring for Jasper. (Also she’s super funny and sarcastic which I love tbh). Eventually, her desire to prove her worth to Jasper (and in attempt to get his attention after he distances himself) gets Agnes into trouble when she attempts to dive from the cliff alone.
Some useful references I used for the plot (I’d recommended looking at these if you have the time,especially the first one!!):
Interview with Matt Doyle (Jasper’s actor): https://youtu.be/0Cp1eHvNtVM (1:38-4:13)
Promotional clip: https://youtu.be/48G11PVU2T0
(update!! i now have the digital booklet with the lyrics and plot synopsis which are definitely worth checking out for a more accurate and updated version of the plot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6180r4DRPG_UE1yUGhTcUlhZGc/view)
Plot
Now for the plot!! I think/hope I got at least 90% of it right lmao, but as I said some parts are just how I interpret it using the information I could find since the cast album is relatively unclear. Most of the articles I read to gather plot from were from the 2014 run of the show at the West End Theater in NYC, but I don’t think they changed to plot too much for the fifth avenue run:
The album starts with the song 'Goodbye, Jasper' which opens with Jasper's best friend Agnes confessing that she loves him after spending the night with him, he panics and doesn’t give her an answer. We learn that he thinks that Agnes is perfect and that he believes he doesn’t deserve her since his life is “too messed up”, so it's for this reason he can't reciprocate her feelings for him. Jasper begins to distance himself from Agnes by ignoring her texts and calls and spends more and more time alone cliff diving and swimming as a form of escape. Agnes, who at this point is desperate to speak with Jasper, has decided that she will jump from the cliff that has always scared her in an effort to prove her worth and commitment to him. She leaves a voicemail asking him to meet her at the cliff to accompany her, which Jasper doesn't open until he hears from another friend that Agnes’ car is at the cliff. Jasper, knowing how much danger Agnes is in, rushes to the cliff to save her but shows up late and is unable to find her until he hears her voice from past the edge of the cliff and realizes that she could be hurt. Jasper dives in to save her, saying that he'd give his life for her, but as he falls he finds himself being transported into 'Deadland' aka the underworld (Sidenote: I love this part it’s SO COOL the music is awesome omg).
As Jasper falls into Deadland his life flashes before his eyes, and we get to go through all of his important memories with Agnes and !!! it's so cute the music is all bouncy and upbeat. It goes through the day they met, the first day Jasper takes Agnes to the cliff (Jasper cliff jumps and tries to convince Agnes to jump aswell, but she can't work up to courage to do it). ALSO THIS PART IS REALLY COOL because in this memory Jasper dives and goes underwater and he sings about how he feels weightless underwater, and the music is all floaty and he sings about how he likes cliff diving so much because there's no pressure both literally and metaphorically underwater (since he sees it as an escape from his difficult home life). He sings about how there's no other distractions from family life/stresses except for cliff diving, swimming and his best friend Agnes who he enjoys spending time alone with. The final memory is his last night with Agnes. After that, the memories and voices around Jasper begin to taunt him - blaming him for Agnes' death because he couldn't love her and now she's dead and gone with no way to undo it. Jasper realizes that Agnes is the only thing in his life that’s worth saving, and decides that there must be another way to save her. He proclaims that he will find Agnes and bring her back to life. The voices are like 'good luck!!' and Jasper crashes into the River Lethe in Deadland.
Jasper is guided to the gates of Deadland by the ferryman (named Lester??) who is like Deadland’s version of Charon I’m guessing. Jasper is confused that he has ended up in the underworld, since he is still alive and couldn’t have died in the first place because all he did was jump from a cliff that he’s jumped from hundreds of times/barely even hit the water before being dragged into Deadland. Despite his confusion, Jasper is still determined to enter Deadland to find Agnes.
The next song is 'What is Life', which takes place when Jasper arrives at the gates of Deadland and encounters Cerberus - a giant three headed dog that guards the gate and is interested in finding out what the point of human life is. Cerberus is against letting Jasper through the gates since he is a living soul and decides that they will eat him instead as maybe this will give them the meaning of human life. Jasper tells Cerberus not to eat him because he knows the answer to their question, but will only answer it if he’s let through.
This prompts the song 'The Killing', in which Jasper shares his cynical view on human life from his own experiences, telling Cerberus that life is awful people and humans waste all of their time. He uses his mother and father as an example as they are constantly searching for 'a killing' aka something to give their life worth. For his mother this is a desire for money and riches and for his father this is ‘ways to get dumb’ such as alcohol. This gives us further depth into Jasper’s troubled home life and relationship with his parents. He goes on to talk about how people are either ‘A or B’ except for Agnes, who gave him more than a killing and showed him that his life is not a waste and that it can be fulfilling. She gives him hope but he believes that she is just shielding the truth - that he will die wasting all of his time in the same direction as his parents. At the end of the song he says that he’ll save Agnes to prove that he's not just wasting his life or his time.
This brings us onto ‘Mark This!’ Cerberus is happy and amused with Jasper’s explanation of human life, so agrees to let him through - but warns him that the River Lethe's water has the ability to wipe memories of life, and if he stays in Deadland for too long he will forget his life completely and join the dead forever.
The gates open and Jasper enters the city circle of Deadland. (Sidenote: deadland is divided into 'circles' like in Dante's inferno and the city circle is the main one). In ‘Deadland Welcome’ we get introduced to Mr Lethe who is like…the ultimate undead capitalist/famous business man in Deadland that sells water from the River Lethe to the unaware residents of Deadland - telling them that his water is scientifically proven to keep them happy if they stay hydrated (although we know that it really just ensures that their memories of life stay wiped). This is because if the citizens of Deadland remember their lives they will stop investing in the water and chaos may ensue, which would jeopardize Mr Lethe’s power over them.
Next we get introduced to ukulele playing tour guide Gretchen, who un-enthusiastically leads a tour group of newly dead people. Jasper is on the tour and asks for Gretchen’s help to find Agnes because he believes that they are both still alive and in Deadland by mistake. Gretchen declines, hands Jasper a map and then waves him off, but he grabs her arm to try and stop her. As he makes contact with her she gets a small flash of a memory of her life which she had since forgotten. The news spreads, and the citizens of Deadland begin to find out about Jasper, the fact that he is still alive and his ability to provide people with memories of their life. Jasper goes up to a bunch of citizens to try to get some help with finding Agnes but makes contact with them - causing them to begin to gain their memories again (sidenote: we know if Jasper has touched somebody because there's a little 'ding' sound which you can hear in the song). Jasper gains a lot of attention for this which causes a frenzy of people running after him/trying to touch him.
The next number is ‘Jasper In Deadland (Lethe Style)’, in which Mr Lethe notices all of the commotion being caused by Jasper. He is not happy that this 'alive boy' is roaming the city, and worries that Jasper’s popularity and ability to give citizens flashes of memory will give them a chance to question Mr Lethe’s authority and damage his business. He decides that Jasper needs to be kept an eye on so sends out two of his accomplices (Loki and Hel, who aren't mentioned in the cast album) to track Jasper down and capture him.
(Sidenote: this is a good time to mention that throughout the show we get cool little easter eggs of some greek,roman, norse, and egyptian mythology figures like Loki and Hel who are Norse gods!!)
Meanwhile, Jasper (who has been drinking Lethe’s water and, like everybody else, is unaware that it erases memories) is already having a hard time remembering things from his life and has a headache. He runs into Gretchen again who explains that this is the start of 'The Forgetting'. It's a gradual process, starting slowly at death and then escalating. She explains that some people will desperately try to stop the forgetting and cling onto their life by writing it down, but in the end this is useless and most people throw away their documented memories in the end because they serve as a painful reminder of all of the people they'll never see again. We find out that Gretchen has first hand experience in this because she also tried to hang onto her memories and write them down, but it proved to be pointless so she threw them away. She explains that the final stage of the forgetting is forgetting yourself entirely, which is when you ‘suddenly feel okay’.
Gretchen, who has now warmed to Jasper, finally agrees to show him around the city and its most popular areas to see if they can find Agnes - prompting the song ‘Living Dead’. Gretchen warns Jasper that Deadland is essentially paradise so if they do find Agnes she may not even want to leave. It's in this song we start to get the idea that Gretchen might be developing feelings for Jasper. Egyptian mythos Osiris has a great solo in this number in one of the clubs in the city - Club Helheim (which is a reference to Norse mythology).
Since they can't find Agnes in the city circle, Gretchen and Jasper decide to move onto the next circle of Deadland - The Great Gulf. They need to exit through the city's outer gate which is guarded by egyptian mythos demon Ammit. Ammit tells Jasper she'll only let him through if he tells her what's weighing down his heart, but if he can't tell her she'll eat his heart (cue the 'Hungry for you heart' song). Jasper confesses to Ammit that the reason his heart is so heavy is because of the guilt he feels for being the reason that Agnes is dead, heavily blaming his lack of ability to connect with people. Despite the fact that Jasper has confessed and essentially ‘won’, Ammit still eats his heart and Gretchen quickly volunteers to give Jasper her heart since she is dead and doesn’t need it anymore.
They travel into the great gulf, where they find themselves on the brink of a massive pit with no way over, while Jasper continues to lose his memories.
It becomes apparent that there is no way to get over the pit and Gretchen wants to turn back, not only because she feels that this challenge is too difficult but also because she’s falling in love with Jasper who only seems to have his sight set on Agnes. To encourage Gretchen, Jasper sings an uplifting song and shares his life motto about taking life 'Stroke by Stroke', which is a metaphor for taking risks and pulling through difficult situations (which is something he has struggled with in his life). He decides to take a risk and jump into the pit, which is highly discouraged by Gretchen but since it looks like their only option Jasper jumps in anyway. The risk pays off and instead of falling Jasper lands on a glass bridge, which couldn't be seen from the ledge since the glass created an illusion.
Gretchen is still hesitant to jump and is worried that they'll fall in, but Jasper tells her to trust him and take his hand. As Gretchen touches Jasper's hand she begins to regain important memories of her life (‘The Remembering’) and she discovers that she was Agnes all along, but had forgotten herself completely before Jasper arrived in Deadland (and therefore didn't look like herself anymore and became Gretchen). Agnes is happy when she realizes that Jasper came to find her and assumes that he did it because he loves her. Once again Jasper denies loving her and Agnes is shocked at him, but before she can say anything else the glass bridge begins to crack. She warns Jasper by calling out his name and telling him not to move but he has reached the final stage of ‘the forgetting’ and forgotten himself completely - not even recognizing his own name.
The glass cracks, and Jasper and Agnes fall into the pit and find themselves in a vast wasteland where they encounter some strange characters, and are eventually caught by Loki and Hel and act 1 ends.
Act 2 opens, and we are shown a memory of Jasper and Agnes’ last night together - where they decide that they can live the best life together despite all of the drama and setbacks in life. We are then taken back to the present time - and as confirmed by tumblr user jasperindeadland who saw the show in person (if you're reading this thank you for being so helpful!!) Jasper is taken to Mr Lethe who (in the 2014 run of the show at least) allows Jasper to regain his memories. This is possible because Mr Lethe has files on Jasper's life that allow him to remember it (we'll come back to why Mr Lethe is being so generous and giving Jasper his memories back in a while). Jasper remembers his problems at home with his parents, whom he feels invisible to, but also remembers positive times he's had with Agnes - specifically their final night together.
Meanwhile, Agnes has been taken to the hellish circle of Deadland on Mr Lethe's orders. This part of Deadland is ruled over by 'Little Lu' aka Satan. The song 'Beat and Broken Spirits' takes place and we meet some of the spirits that are being punished by laboring away in Mr Lethe's factory. We meet more mythos figures such as Sisyphus the greek king who outwitted death, the evil daughters of Danaus, and Brutus (the guy that stabbed Caesar).
Back to Jasper and Mr Lethe, we find out that Mr Lethe gave Jasper his memories back because he wants to make a deal. Cue the song 'Awful People', where Mr Lethe sings about how awful the world is and how miserable its people are (which is a similar view on life to Jasper’s own in ‘The Killing’). Mr Lethe tells Jasper that the miserableness of life could all end by getting Lethe water into stores in the living world so that living people could pay to forget their life and their miseries. He explains that Jasper is the only living soul who can travel between the living world and Deadland whenever he wishes, and so he needs him for this plan to be successful. He tries to blackmail Jasper by promising that if he agrees to the deal he'll let Agnes safely return to the living world but if he does not Agnes will be ‘tortured and tormented until she’s pulp’.
While this is happening, Agnes breaks free from the factory and helps the other souls to escape too, before rescuing Jasper from Mr Lethe. Once escaped, Jasper and Agnes find their way to Elysium - the final and most peaceful circle of Deadland. In the song ‘Elysium’ Agnes suggests that the both of them stay and live there forever rather than returning to the living world. Jasper questions this, asking if it would even be a life, and Agnes reminds him of their struggles back in the living world and how they wouldn't matter anymore in Deadland. Jasper agrees with her and realizes that it's not wrong to wish to stay in a beautiful place like Elysium, so agrees that they'll stay in Deadland - 'living dead' together.
At this point, Eurydice appears to Jasper to convince him to return to the living world with Agnes and have a life together. (Sidenote: This is probably a good time to say that Jasper In Deadland is a retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice which is worth a read). Jasper tells Eurydice that there's nothing left in the real world for him and Agnes and that he's through with all of the awful people there. Eurydice sings Jasper the 'Lifesong', telling him that while he will face struggles in life that's just a part of living and there are also many beautiful things about it. Plus, Agnes will be there by his side through it all.
Touched and inspired by the song, Jasper considers Eurydice’s advice and agrees to return to the living world with Agnes. Soon after, Pluto and Persephone (king and queen of the underworld) show up and Jasper and Agnes plead to return to life. We also find out that Persephone is leaving Deadland on that same day to go to the living world to change the seasons/bring about spring and summer. Just before Pluto can grant Jasper and Agnes life again, he discovers that they cannot both return as they only have one live heart between them - therefore one of them must remain in Deadland while the other returns to the living world. In ‘The Trade/The Swim’ Jasper decides that he will make the ultimate sacrifice and give up his life for Agnes so that she can return to the living world and have a full life. Agnes is reluctant at first but Jasper insists, and promises that he will be right there in Deadland waiting for her. Persephone is touched by Jasper's gesture which softens her heart and she decides that she will stay for one more day of cold winter in Deadland and delay spring/summer to grant Jasper and Agnes the opportunity to share one heart and leave Deadland together. However, Jasper must take the important role of leading Agnes up through the River Lethe and back into the living world. She warns them that while they swim back up Jasper must under no circumstances look back at Agnes, or else she will fade away and stay trapped in Deadland - never to see each other again.
With the help of Eurydice and Persephone, Jasper successfully leads himself and Agnes up through the River Lethe and out of Deadland. As they resurface, Agnes' body is still seemingly lifeless and Jasper cries out once again that he would give his life for her, and finally tells her that he loves her. Persephone hears Jasper say this and is touched by his courage and love for Agnes, and begins to make it snow. Agnes then regains consciousness, excitedly telling Jasper "I did it!! I jumped in!! You would have been so proud of me!!" and he kisses her.
Jasper recognizes the snow as an ‘act of god. or goddess’ referring to Persephone. This prompts the song ‘One More Day of Snow’ (which is the cutest song ever), and the characters appreciate the snow and the beauty of life. Jasper and Agnes vow to love their fate and their life, and then share a kiss as the show ends.
So that’s it!! aaaaa congrats if you made it this far im sorry it’s so long!! If you have any more information on the show or any plot points that I've missed feel free to let me know so that I can update this!!
