As part of the Arkham Round Table's strategy to bring down the cybercriminal Azathoth, Diana sprinkled many references to The Woman in Blue and Azathoth's house of horror in The Locked Room.
Warning for minor spoilers for the Caffrey Conversation AU.
The boarded-up house on Birch Street with its creepy staircase is a nod to Azathoth's house of horror. That evil place was described in an earlier post, Echoes of The Woman in Blue. In the house of horror, Neal and Peter climbed a staircase to the top story where they encountered a series of traps. In the current story, the staircase likewise leads to a trap.
Inside the locked room, the faded wallpaper is the same as what was in the dining room where Neal was attacked. In The Woman in Blue, Azathoth appeared as a holographic image on Neal and Peter's cell wall. Now they actually travel through the wormhole to another non-Euclidean realm. In the locked room, there's also an image on the wall, but it's of a ruby crystal that acts as the gateway to a wormhole.
Azathoth appropriated Lovecraft's symbol of the glowing branch. Diana also makes use of a symbol—the starfish. In an ancient book in the locked room, Neal and Peter find the symbol next to an illustration of Azathoth.
In The Woman in Blue, Neal and Peter make their escape through an upper-story window. After holding the rope for Peter's descent, Neal suffers a flashback of Klaus plunging to his death. Neal freezes and if Peter weren't there to urge him to jump, he could have been killed. In the past few months, Azathoth appears intent on keeping Neal's feelings of guilt about Klaus alive. Peter is concerned that Neal will suffer a relapse of PTSD and is determined to send a signal in this story. Peter instructed Diana to make the experience in the locked room much more positive. This time it's Neal who's the strong member of the team. He fights the dragon-like creature. Peter is injured, not Neal. And by persuading Peter to reenter the wormhole, Neal likely saved his life.
Will Peter's strategy work? That is as yet unclear. But Peter will be glad he made the attempt when the action unfolds in the next story, Echoes of a Violin.
The Locked Room on Archive of Our Own
The Locked Room on FanFiction
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