[580]it's obvious...

robots can't eat, so she can not enjoy the chocolate. and it's obvious that parley is only hanging in because she get's to hang with the smitster.

Okay... it is far too obvious, but it has to be said: Does anybody else remember a white background just like this from where Morpheus explains Neo the Matrix?

If its good that todays page has no reflections, is this because it would show someone up for not having one?

When Tom said that, I think he meant that he thought that the reflecting floors on the previous page had distracted too many readers. (Though I shouldn't be surprised, since so many of the comments on past pages have revolved around side-elements - the boy in the assembly whom many readers mistook for Alistair, the two boys overhearing Kat's scream as she first sets eyes on Ketrak, the pop culture references, Robox, etc.) Maybe part of the purpose of the white background is to ensure fewer side-elements to draw the readers' attention away from the story (though it probably leads, instead, to their talking about the white background instead of the conversation - sometimes you just can't win).

Parley's probably confirmed our suspicions all the more about why she's continuing to train as a medium (and even her pretext indicates that actually being a medium is low on her priorities).

I wonder if there's a hint of envy in her remarks about Annie - not about Annie being the most probable candidate as medium, but that she generally seems to have a privileged status in the eyes of the Court (from Parley's perspective). Back in Chapter Fourteen, when the Headmaster's talking to Annie after Coyote's departure, Parley has a sour look on her face. I suspect she was thinking something along the lines of "That kid causes all this trouble by falling off the bridge, and they're *rewarding* her." (And maybe even, except that would probably be too metafictional, "When you're the main character, you can get away with anything; an extra who'd caused half the amount of trouble she had would be expelled in a hurry.")

To be more precise, Parley, it's obvious that Annie is best suited to the position of medium. She IS a natural medium. However, her choices may factor into this as well, and there's no guarantee she'll decide to take the job. It seems just a little too obvious, and this comic has repeatedly shown us that we should never trust the obvious.

"We need Blinker Stones..... lots of them".

*SWOOOOSH*

Oh, they are those chocolates. And the kids are eating them because Jones is a robot (and Gamma's mom). It all makes sense now.

Nice of Jones to share the chocolates with the kids. I have to wonder though why it is that she still feels compelled to be carrying around those flowers. Maybe the chocolates and flowers are part of the next simulation game and Dr. Disaster was only giving them to Jones as a sort of apology gift to screw around with the medium's minds. I bet the teachers do that all the time at the Court.

It took me a minute to figure out the timeline here. (changing for new sim --> Annie and Smitty in the hall on the way to the new sim --> the new sim.)
...It's really obvious now that I've written that out.


She has a secret passion for gardening

Parley, we see you looking at Smitty in the next-to-last panel. And Smitty, we see you giving Parley that wary look in the last.

While I don't find her obnoxious, I do notice that in Medium Beginning she was smiling a lot, even while headlocking Smitty, and in this chapter she is all scowls.

And it's possible that the Court might end up deciding to pick Smith or Parley for the role, on the grounds that their skills and characterizations are more amusing, while Annie, although extremely effective, has more of an understated, "straight man" tone about her that the faculty finds less entertaining than Smith's "order-out-of-chaos" ability or eyebrows, or Parley's constantly pushing him about.

I believe that Surma left the court because of her illness. And for the record, Parley (who was only 14 or so at the time) knew Annie's mother as "Surma Stibnite", not Carver. Nowhere was it ever stated that Surma and Anthony got married. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but there's no evidence either way.

Edit: My point about Parley's age was that Parley would have been only 3 when Annie was born, and she wasn't born at the Court... therefore there is no possible way that Parley knew of Surma directly, as Surma left GC when Parley was a wee little child. Therefore, if Parley knew Surma as Surma Stibnite, it could only be because that's what people called Surma after she left.

So people at the Court (Anja, Donald, James) knew Surma, knew where she was, knew that she had a child, and yet still Parley was told Surma's name was Surma Stibnite. That tells me that either Surma and Anthony were not married, or Surma chose not to take his last name... I have to acknowledge that possibility I suppose.

I think her expression mostly conveys annoyance at Parley for complaining, but I think her expression is also slightly hurt. Parley is basically calling Annie the teacher's pet, ignoring the fact that Annie never seeks out attention and is a hard worker.

But would Annie bear her father’s name when he wasn’t married to her mother? Maybe it’s possible in the UK, I don’t know.

But married or not, my point was that Coyote had no idea there was anything going on between Surma and Carver. When he learned that Surma had a child, he immediately concluded it must be Eglamore’s, so when he had seen Surma for the last time, it must have been before the breakup with James.

Surma fell ill after (or when) Annie was born, so I guess she had already left the Court at that time. Although she might have continued to be available whenever the Court needed a medium, only it never happened.