[614] who's there?

all i can say is GAHHHHHHHHHH. or quoteing mythbusters when they droped a frozen turky on a zombie dog.. "that is messed up"

i guess we now know why is acting so wacked out.

Thin air or not, that was exactly my first thought.

There is a silhuette of Jack behind Jack. Is he, like, detatched from himself? Like a part of him still being stuck in Zimcity?

They serioulsy need to have a talk. One with slightly less hostility from Jack, though.

The more I think about it... this page raises SO many questions.

What's the exact nature of Zimmy's ability? Is it etheric in nature? Is it a corruption of typical etheric energy? Is it contagious to anyone who gets pulled into Zimmy World? Did Annie get pulled into Zimmy World because she is etheric-abled? Is Jack, therefore, etheric-abled, and that's why/how he got pulled in? Or is he just some poor bloke? Did he already have a propensity towards whatever he's displaying now? Or is it a product of being pulled into Zimmy World? How did Annie escape getting the same "infection"? Is it because she's already etherically-enabled?

What exactly did Jack do in the last panel? Was it a deliberate action on his part, or was it the result of positive-energy Annie and negative-energy Jack getting too close together in the etherium? Did Jack see Annie? Or is his etheric manifestation passive, and he actually can't see into the etherium at all? Why is Jack grey, like non-etheric things are grey, if he is etherically-abled? Is he just a carrier for the etheric "gunk" that he picked up in Zimmy World? Is there any doubt anymore that he picked up SOMETHING from Zimmy World?

Speaking of Zimmy, what would happen if Annie visited Zimmy in the aether? What would SHE have hanging off of her head? Was the place they "went"--Zimmy World--a part of the regular aether-sphere, or was it a manifestation/hallucination of Zimmy's doing? What about Zimmy's and Gamma's telepathy, is that happening within the aether-sphere? Would Annie (or Reynardine, or Anja, etc) hear them communicating telepathically if they were nearby in the aether-sphere?

See, like I said... LOTS of questions. And I don't think I even hit them all.

I noticed that too. I think he's going into the ether and it's interfering with her.

Here's another idea: I think the spider is some sort of parasite. It looks like it's sitting on him, rather than being a part of him (notice the leg over the eyebrow). Maybe the cobwebs on his face reflect the degree to which he's been infected. Maybe Zimmy in the ether is so covered in cobwebs so you can't see her face - or her eyes.

<shudder again>

Was my point the second too vague? o.O

So anyway... It looks pretty clear that Jack can sense Annie is hovering around him in the aethersphere. What we don't know, though, is whether this would be true of any human anywhere. We just haven't seen anything to point us in one direction or another, as far as whether an average person gets a "funny feeling" when someone is spying on them from the aether. The only information at all that we have is Reynardine telling her that it's not a good idea. Although that statement might have just been a cocky line from him as he caught her.

There's also the possibility, though small IMO, that holding a blinker stone--even one that isn't your own--might make you feel "funny" when someone was using said blinker stone and etherically near you. What's that mean, anyway... etherically near you? How far from her blinker stone could Annie "astrally travel"? I suppose that's another question that I should have put in my big post above.

I suspect that what we're seeing in the last frame is an interference or dissonance between Annie's positive etheric energy, and a negative etheric energy. I don't know yet whether that negative energy is Jack's, or whether this is a demonic taint that has an etheric reaction to Annie's presence on its own. For some reason, here, I'm reminded of the Venom suit from Spider-man. I fear though that over time, that will prove to be a gross and naive analogy.

I want to believe that Jack has no presence, and no vision, into the aether-sphere, because he is still just grey, like an average non-etheric thing. But I have a feeling that by the end of the week, if not sooner, we will know whether or not Jack "saw" Annie.

Here's another small point: Eglamore just woke them up. Most (not all, true, but most) people are still in their tents. Jack, however, is fully dressed and sitting outside, pondering the blinker stone.

Maybe he isn't sleeping as much as he used to?

Annie didn't know. Kat didn't know. Nor did most of the other campers. I have a feeling this is something new to him. But if he really did stay up all night pondering the blinker stone, well...

A blinker stone acts a lens for thought. Some people can use them easily, and even develop their psychic abilities to the point where they don't need the stone.

...that may not matter for long.

As far as the spiders... my intuition has been that Jack had some kind of encounter in Zimmy's Birmingham, possibly involving the Nobodies. Without the ability to act as a psychic filter (like Gamma, and to a lesser extent, Annie), there seems to be some kind of danger; Zimmy knows enough to be afraid of them, even though the city is her twisted etheric halo.

Said intuition also implies to me that that BLINK is about to have a side effect. Either way, though, the next page will be interesting.

One last thing.

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

First of all: look at Zimmy in the second panel here.

Well, my opinion is that Zimmy's 'power' is actually a curse, or something of the sort. If the spiders represent said curse, that would mean some of it managed to get on Jack. In the bottom panel, we can see that it repels Annie, so that would explain why it did not get on her in Zimmingham.

Also, I think that the only person who would not go insane after seeing Zimmy in etherium is Annie, and possibly Gamma(nope, not even her).

Here Anja asks Annie how far she can see. Granted this isn't exactly "astrally traveling" but have we really seen her moving away from the stone whilst in the etherium? It does, however, imply that one can see as much as one's mind allows, and since Annie is "such a natural" she can see into the horizon, I'd assume in any direction.

Absolutely not.

My money is on "a little of column A, a little of column B".

Don't worry, Uly, I reckon the spider on Jack's face is too big to be a Moneyspider.

Anyway, this page is beautiful and creepy at the same time. I am really worried about Jack now, I hope Annie can help him.