Ok, here I am. Super late, kinda cranky (having to adult all day does that to me). But oh well. It's almost rollover and that sort of almost maybe makes up for laundry.
Basically I've just gone through and collated everything we have (that I didn't miss) and tried to put it together comprehensibly. I'll add the results of this evening's interrogation later. For now here's what I've got:
Category I: Clues.
i) STEALTH. In connection with this one, tracker dogs have been mentioned, as have cats. As far as I know neither idea was followed up. I'm assuming "stealth" refers to a pet or post content, as it's supposed to point to that first elusive hint and the comment referring to THAT (on pg 25 if anyone cares to check) mentions posts and accounts, while the "stealth" paragraph itself [pg 28] refers to posts and pets.
Personally I've made no headway with the "stealth" thing. Hopefully someone stumbles across the relevant hint soon. (I'm looking at you, "rest of the Bentley squad which I'm only assuming even exists." Halp meh.)
Related left-fielder: y'all want to search Bentley's posts and pet groups for the terms "here" "there" and "everywhere"? xD I'm at that point myself. And he DID say that "everywhere...lies the potential for hints" [25] as well as "if you found nothing here, there, or everywhere" [141]. Hey, no idea too harebrained right?
ii) "[D]ouble meanings are my typical verbal weapons of choice." [250] Most notably in 2016, when the names of various energy drinks kept popping up in Bentley's posts (ultimately leading to "red bull), seemingly innocuous word choices have turned out to be major hints. Time to be paranoid about EVERY TURN OF PHRASE guys. (We might also note that the sounds of words are also important--as the words "abominable" and "adorable" also pointed to "bull" at that time.)
a) Pg 25, first post states that "something resembling a clue" has been constructed. As far as I know this clue has never been reliably run down. The words "hunt" and "frisk" seem suspect to me, and these are followed up by confirmed hint "stealth."
b) Pg 141, "You must not have looked hard enough, if you found nothing here, there, or everywhere." Debut of the breadcrumb analogy, which for some pointed to a fairytale theme such as hansel and gretel. I'm inclined to think that reference is a filthy, filthy lie designed to throw us off the case, but I have been wrong before. Very wrong. Often.
c) Pg 256, I am basically told to go fly a kite. (catch wind, fly that kite.) As pointed out at some point by Ranger of the North, we keep getting references to right and wrong paths, following the trail, etc.
d) Pg 285 and now we're getting "giving tree" and "fruit" references. So help me, if one of these dogs starts sprouting figs...
e) And on pg 329, the analogy switches suddenly to marksmanship. Somebody call Robin Hood.
Conclusion: I need a Pun and Oblique References expert on this case with me, stat!
iii) Lion King gifs. Notably in 2015, the gifs pointed to a specific pet which bore a significant physical similarity with that year's pet. This year's gifs are mostly from this scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_OMPrqhA_4 a) If we want to be literal about things, we could note that the subject of these gifs is mostly grey fading to darker grey on the extremities, with lighter-grey belly and a shaggy ruff of the same color. Bentley HAS said he likes greyscale, and we DO have some greyish pups.
b) Early(ish) in the thread, we get three "look harder"s and then an abrupt "STOP!" which in retrospect probably meant that we had already skated by at least one relevent comment by that point. "STOP!" is on pg 172, along with "to find it, you must look beyond what you see." On page 140 (which is within the range suggested in a later post) DarkCrab21 links to a dressup from Sept 3rd:
http://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=3572644 This suspicious-looking character has wings, a heart on his shoulder, and eye markings reminiscent of one or two of our current pups. I suspect he may have bastard children running around in this litter.
c) Searches of the group "Pride Rock" have so far yielded no useful results, and I'm inclined to think that group will continue to be as useless as Simba's brain.
d) I will probably sink with the good ship "Upendi Azali Is Relevant." But I mean look at her.
She has very little color to her, and also has a Mother Earth type vibe that makes me think of earlier theories about this year's pet having potential connections with the being mentioned in Solathrai's story that was capable of resurrecting mortals.
Category II: Patterns.
i) Very, very early on--still in double-digits early--we started trying to connect Bentley's pets with zodiac signs and cycles. Aaron's theory, stated but not seriously pursued at that point, was that Caer=Virgo, Lir=Capricorn, and Solathrai=Taurus. I eventually followed that with a supposition that this year's pet begins a new elemental cycle. IF this year's pet follows the previous pattern of being more or less reminiscent of a specific zodiac sign, we may be able to expect it to exhibit traits associated with one of the remaining signs.
a) One thing mentioned but immediately dropped was Vetra's suggestion that Ursa Major could be relevant to this year's pet. Not sure what their reasoning was behind citing that particular constellation, but it WAS brought up early in the thread and never pursued.
b) Combining the "resurrection deity" theory with the "zodiac" theory led to a conjecture about this year's pet being at least partially based on the sign Cancer. This is another idea that was brought up and almost immediately dropped, though it does fall outside the range of suggested pages where the near-miss theory may be found.
ii) The Caer mythology. Soundofdrums's theory (the "warmest thus far" as of pg 250): Maybe, instead of looking at the stories just for background, we can look for patterns in the stories, or look for patterns in the hints. Instead of just looking at everything as a whole, we can look beyond what we see at a glance, and we might find something there? So: Caer is a dreamer and a protector of dreams, who brings hope to those who are threatened. Lir is a rescuer, determined to redeem himself from some perceived sin, and his story also marks Caer's (presumably) first experience of fear. Solathrai's story centers on time and mortality; resurrection is a power that exists but is seldom used; Caer's race appears to be dying out; mortals are still beset by the same threats with fewer carriers of hope to aid them. IF this pet fits into that mythology, we may be able to expect it to have a theme that relates to and advances the themes of the previous stories.
Category III: MO.
i) Style: "I can’t see blue." (used it anyway)
"I also don’t like doing spots." (did them anyway)
"I have this bad, bad habit of making complicated designs. If it’s too simple, I get suspicious and start thinking it’s not done, so I just keep going until it’s darn near impossible to draw." (yeah, I can see that)
ii) Coloring: The aforementioned Sept 3rd dressup has the following caption: "I love anything on the greyscale end of things. ^^;; Black, white, iron grey, silver, gunmetal... just... all of it."
iii) Past midstages:
This is all I've got up to this point. Based on Upendi and the Sept 3rd dressup, I'm personally keeping an eye on the greyer-looking pups. But I'm not ruling anyone out at this point.
Now to go back through and see if any of the new info jumps out as relating to the old...
— i love you!!
