In which I overthink Hiveswap names in order to speculate wildly :33
So, Jake’s mysterious, vanished wife.
“A. Claire”
Claire, from “Clare”: light, clear, fame
play on “Eclair”: enlightened, to light up (like a sun), flash of lightning (pastries named because they were “gone in a flash”
[insert speculation over whether this is just dark humor about her dying young or whether she was literally gone in a flash]
The french pastry can also be called a “bâton de Jacob” (Jacob’s Staff), after an old tool used in navigation for measuring the altitude of a sun or star. This tool was also called an arbalest and a Ballastella (ballista; beautiful star).
“Jacob” is likely a reference to the biblical patriarch. (“For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am divided into two camps.”) A Jacob’s staff can also refer a conjurer’s staff or wand. In the epic poemThe Faerie Queene, the staff was the tool of a mage/witch in disguise and was associated with dividing things and/or people, usually into two parts. In some traditions, Jacob’s staff was used by Moses to part the Red Sea and was also the staff that transformed into a serpent.
Why is any of this relevant? The mural on Joey’s ceiling was painted by her mom, shortly before she… died(?). The mural depicted the (earth’s?) sun, a la the homestuck symbol for light, and a green star/moon/planet/compass.
This green star is the same one Joey wears on her shirt, and is reminiscent of Doc Scratch and his green sun, as well as the red and green moons around Alternia.
A. Claire had a cherub key, appeared to know or otherwise have some connection to other worlds, and died/vanished mysteriously right before Jake started running around the world trying to gather artifacts related to other worlds and making the key work. Just… saying.
When Joey ends up on Alternia she notes the scrap of paper Dammek has been using to work on his cherub machine looks familiar. (Has there been contact before?)
Joey, meanwhile, has several lines indicating she doesn’t quite remember all the details around what happened to her mother; at least one line suggesting she has seen the cherub key work before; and plenty of indication that, like her mother, she has knowledge and connection to other worlds and is mentally influenced by the key.
She references a green moon, non-earth planets looking familiar when she holds the key, and the sky depicted in the mural being from another planet. Joey’s strife specibus is a light.
Jude meanwhile seems to know a little more about what is going on with his dad and the cherub machine. He has an obsession with the idea of alien abductions. The image on Jude’s shirt is a person disappearing into a flash/beam of light, which is non-coincidentally what it looked like when Joey activated the cherub machine and was transported to alternia.
P.S.:
Additional note about The Faerie Queene, which I mentioned above: one of the primary protagonists is the Redcross Knight
Cheloneuniverse 