Gifts

> *"That's what it d-does. G-give the b-botfly what it w-wants, feed it, help it become, and it g-gives you what y-you want. It's n-not p-perfect, not the way you w-would l-like maybe, but you g-get enough to k-keep you c-coming back. I-it m-makes you useful. Y-you d-don't even h-have to know it exists t-to m-make th-the deal. J-joesephine certainly d-didn't. You j-just have to be c-close enough f-for it to n-notice you."* - Bina, sick
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Gifts are powers granted by the Botfly, for reasons unknown. Theories include an attempt to bribe or bargain, a trick or trap to convince people to act in a manner beneficial to the Botfly, or even out of well meaning ignorance.

 Gifts are different for each person who receives one, and appear to be connected to an intense desire that the characters have. These gifts all have monkey's paw style "twists" in the form of a terrible price or limitation.

## Evolution of the Idea

### Bina in the Moment

> "Have you ever thought that all this, the Moment, the Viewers, the journals, the whole time travel *thing.* Have you ever thought that it might be just - you know - a *trick?*"
>
>

Bina spends her first two days in the moment trying to decide if time travel is an inherent property of the Botfly. She eventually comes to the conclusion that the Botfly is giving different things to different people, and none of them really make sense. Kendra agrees that Josephine's tile is "like a child's understanding of quantum physics." They agree they find the physics of time travel suspicious, but also that it's too powerful to ignore.

### Keeping it a Secret

After rescuing Elizabeth, Bina asks Kendra not to tell her about the Botfly, out of fear that the more people know of it's existence, the more likely it could find a human with a truly horrific desire. Despite being incoherent due to fever, Bina suggests the Botfly might be so hungry, it'd do anything for the attention that feeds it. Kendra hopes she's wrong, but agrees to trust her instincts.

### Amie's Whole Thing

I'm not writing this tonight, sorry. - Nate

### Five True Things

On update 1512, Zach surprised everyone by adding an authorial "Word of God" confirmation that Kendra does have a gift, indirectly confirming that yes, gifts exist and the Botfly is handing out some kind of supernatural woo-woo based on a person's deep seated desires.

### Emmie's Recap

At the Chalet on top of Mt Royal, Emmie discusses all the gifts known to the characters with Amie. He goes over how each gift seems like it could fulfill the person's desires, but actually cannot. With everyone except Amie, the drawbacks could be explained as the Botfly not really understanding life and death or physics or time well enough.  But Amie's gift proves that the Botfly is intelligent enough to comprehend Doctor Who and the characters and relationships between characters and Amie's desire to be the Companion, yet still chose not to actually grant Amie's true desire and sideline her in her own fantasy.  Based on this Emmie has come to the conclusion that the Botfly is intentionally malicious and needs to be killed.

## List of Gifts

### Known Gifts:

#### Amie

Amie's gift can be summed up as "the gift of Doctor Who." It can alter events to conform to tropes and plot lines found in the British Sci-fi show, "Doctor Who," and perhaps more generally to common TV tropes. It is based on her love of the show, wanting to be the Doctor's Companion, and finding herself in a situation that on a surface level resembles the show.

It has produced a diverse array of effects, including allowing Bina to fight off a panic attack (which "never happens), making people act in unusual or out of character ways, and perhaps even summoning the Hound. Anything may be possible, as long as it "cinematically interesting". It is sometimes accompanied by a shift in art style to include brighter, unnatural colors.

#### Bina Miryala

Bina's gift is time-travel, although Bina herself initially rejected this theory. Her gift may be the most benificial to the Botfly, if it is trying to widen the cracks in space-time. It is based on her desire to take back mistakes.

#### Gregor Petrovich

Gregor's gift appears to be reanimating the dead, creating the Hound and Naughts. Which are monstrous versions of his deceased beagle, Piotyr, and dead workers from the factory. Though the Hound comes when he whistles, according to Bina it is merely the broken, waterlogged corpse of his beloved dog.

#### Josephine Dubois

Josephine's gift was the discovery of a way to create enough electricity from people's sight to potentially power the entire world. It stemmed from her desire to make a profound discovery in the field of science, but the discovery itself did not make sense and could not be proven mathematically. The gift, as assumed by Bina and Kendra, was actually a way for the Botfly to garner attention, a thing it apparently needs.

### Confirmed, but Unknown Gifts:

#### Kendra Valcourt

Kendra has been confirmed to have a gift out of story, but the nature of her gift is unknown. Zach has confirmed three additional things regarding her gift:

1. "[...] Kendra's gift has nothing to do with her technical expertise. She's very smart and has spent most of her life intending to design and build airplanes and space ships. Her lack of formal education does not indicate a lack of knowledge."
2. "[...] Kendra's gift is subtle, it's unlikely that anyone in the story will figure out what it does, though there is a conversation that is coming up where it may be possible to find out." As of October 27, 2017, this conversation has either not come up, or failed to go in a direction that revealed anything about Kendra's gift.
3. "[... I]t would be considerably easier to figure out *what* Kendra's gift is, as it has been mentioned in passing a few times, than to figure out *why* the Botfly gave it to her. The answer to that is heavy spoilers."

Things people have speculated may be Kendra's Gift:

* Badass Eye Lasers
* Emmie
* Taking theoretical knowledge making the leap in logic to practical application,  though this probably contradicts point 1 about her technical expertise above
* "Looking before she leaps"  Allowing for smoother and more controlled time travel. As noted by Bina when falling between times *"What if she saw where she was going because Kendra was there."*  Kendra's Gift could allow the mechanics of time travel or possibly other Botfly powers to be more perceivable and therefore manipulable or controllable.
* Keeping people she cares about safe
* Not dying
* Getting other people involved in the plot
* Many more I'm sure, but these are the ones I could find

#### Elizabeth Miller

Elizabeth was confirmed to have a gift in the same author's note, but nothing further is known. One possible thing it could be is getting to be more in command, or more like the X-Files. Elizabeth has shown frustration with her job being compared to the X-Files and a desire to be taken more seriously as an agent . Shortly after seeing the botfly while time travelling  she is able to step up and actually be in charge in charge of a very real paranormal situation in the hospital and even have a shootout with a villain.

### Possible Candidates for Gifts, Completely Unconfirmed

#### Emmie

He saw the Botfly in the hospital basement  and has a deep desire to "worthy" of the opportunities he has had and the life he leads, which a Gift could theoretically be based on

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/950
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/773
3. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1409
4. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/777
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/776
6. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/788
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 In which Kendra retains her feet, "Notes." http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1512
8. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1566
9. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1569
10. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1070
11. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1160
12. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1152
13. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1226
14. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1230
15. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1210
16. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1158
17. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1172
18. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/613
19. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1kdhw0p
20. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1kdcpoy
21. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1kdcynu
22. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1kdcuck
23. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1512
24. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1khinj6
25. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1kdks16
26. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1kfo2ff
27. ↑ http://disq.us/p/1khinj6
28. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/962
29. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/956
30. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/992
31. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1134
32. ↑ http://www.all-night-laundry.com/post/1419