[1040] Heh, then I'm gonna look somewhere else

I love that last panel! ^___^

Also, BAD Annie!

Damn, Zimmy, that grin.

Officially my new favorite character.

She probably thinks its hilarious that Carver's skiving off her friend.

I think this is the end of the theory that it's anyone's memories but Annie.

So she doesn't hide her emotions from Kat, except she feels guilty for copying her homework.

She's dreaming about copying Kat's homework.

I like how the homework was under the mask: even in her most vulnerable place, where she is closest to Kat, she is still hiding something.

Heh, spazzing out pigeon is the best pigeon.

Also, there be spiders ahead!

HOKAY guess we aren't in Kat's head.

I'm really liking this dream sequence though. It's interesting how so much is melding into this environment (Its interesting how Kat is portrayed as responding within the dream in the form of her younger self, but the dialogue still suggests that she is still only able to tell what's going on based on what Zimmy tells her), and its interesting to see how the different characters are influencing the environments. Although I guess it's mostly Annie's dream and then Kat's headbird.

But then y wuz Rey, Robot, and Shadow unresponsive? Is hospital also part of dream?

Last panel is super awesome!

Very good question actually, she wasn't even in school in her earlier years and didn't have the same evaluation system.

My guess is it's part of the I'm Completely Fine and Adjusted persona Annie took on after her mum's death, she avoids showing any vulnerability, and thus humanity, by hiding her emotions and any possible flaws.
Admitting that she's struggling at school breaks the mask, and she's guilty because she subconciously knows that she should be able to open up to Kat about this. But after spending so long perfecting her mask she's finding hard to let go of it.

Alternatively, it could be part of living up to everyone's expectations of her. Everyone tells her how her mum was so incredible and completely mastered everything etheric and her dad was so calm and smart and so awesome at everything scientific. So Annie tries to live up to the image so people won't think she's dumb.

This is one of my favourite GC pages ever and I still have no idea exactly what is going on.

About the last panel- if Annie's mask is symbolic of how her placid persona is a facade covering up her emotional turmoil, then Zimmy holding it UPSIDE DOWN in front of her own face has some implications, right? Like, just a brief bit of symbolism about how, I don't know, Zimmy's constant aggression and negativity similarly mask her suffering? A mask she only lifts around one person?

I mean, or maybe she's just a chick holding a mask. Like, I don't even know.

I don't think she will, Kat's inability to see what's happening may be part of her lack of etheric aptitude, like Jones, who has been stated as unable to use a blinker stone.

Green boys, naked women, rotating knives and cherry stains: all normal here sez Doc. Zims.

I think Kat suspects Anne's cribbing, so not quite ready to give up the Kat's Dream theory... yet.

'Somewhere else' = Kat's Brain? Point!

It's probably showing my age to say that the last panel calls to mind an old Bowie album:
"Zimmy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars"

Somewhere else is probably just another one of her dreams. That's why the spiders are in the background because they are transitioning to the next dream.

NICE GIRLS GET A LOLLY

I agree with the person who said the cheating is part of Annie's DON'T LOOK NOW BUT IM A NORMAL HUMAN LIKE YOU facade. She doesn't want anyone to ask why she spent her formative years in a hospital, watching pretty much the only person who's ever loved her to her face die slowly.

Better to just cheat a little.