Tovaangar

"**Tovaangar**" is the fourth episode in the first season of *City of Ghosts*. It is the fourth episode overall.

## Synopsis

The Ghost Club goes to the park and meets Jasper, who hears a voice in the trees. Later they learn about Tongva~~Indigenous people of Los Angeles.

## Plot

We start with Zelda explaining that she starts each episode with maps of all of the places in Los Angeles they know, but wonders who named them, and what they were called before they were named. We then meet Jasper, who talks about how he loves the park near his house; he loves being outside with the plants and the animals. Now with Eva, Jasper explains that he heard a voice by the trees when he was all alone.

Jasper and the Ghost Club decide to ask around the park, to see if anybody else had heard the voice; so they head off.

The first person they ask talks about how he hasn't heard that voice, but everything has a voice; from plants to dead relatives. He introduces himself as Mr. Craig, one of the Tongva (indigenous peoples' of Los Angeles). He talks about how he's connected to nature, even those who aren't humans, even without ever knowing them. Jasper then says that she is also Tongva, according to her mom, and then says she heard the voice. Nobody else heard the voice, but when she says that the voice was singing a song and then saying "paar", Mr. Craig tells her "paar" means water, and that is actually an ancestor. They find a strange red string, and decide to follow it.

After one million days, as Peter puts it, of following the string (more accurately, 5 minutes), they come to a dead end. But then, another red string falls down right in front of them. They all look up to see a black bird, which drops yet another red string from it's beak.

Mr. Craig says "he's seen the string before", so they all decide to go to his friends for help. As this happens, the bird drops yet another red string at the picnic table they were gathered at.

Megan, one of Mr. Craigs friends, gives a poem about what *Tovaangar* was like before industrialization. This is conveyed through peg dolls in nature. We then meet Mr. Craig's other friend, Mercedes, who talks about how she used red yarn, and how the yarn represents possibilities. She says that she uses yarn to make maps of the land as well.

Jasper says he hears the voice, but is sad because nobody else hears it, and he can't understand it. Megan tells him to sing what he hears, and she translates. As Jasper gings, every begins to hear the voice. The black bird from earlier flies down to them, and reveals that she is the voice.

Aawkut, the bird, explains that she came to Jasper because she saw he was her family. She left clues so that eventually everybody could hear them. She talks about how the animals and the plants are lonely, so speaking the Tongva language, even just a single word, helps.

Later, everybody gathers for a picnic of traditional Tongva food. They show their new map, that uses all the tongva names, ad then sing a song in tongva as the bird flies happily above them.

## Characters

### Major Characters

* Jasper
* Mr. Craig
* Zelda
* Megan
* Aawkut

### Minor Characters

* Jasper's moms
* Mercedes D
* Thomas
* Peter
* Eva

## Trivia

* This is the first episode to contain no ghost whatsoever. They did find what they were looking for, but Aawkut was an ancestor, rather than a ghost.

### Cultural References

* Many words were used from the Tongva language, like shahoovenax and Tovaangar.