[682] You just need to exercise it

If she's going to mead Jeanne again I guess she has to be stronger. Jeanne could after all inflict effect Annie in that state.

I'm reminded of a book by C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce. The narrator arrives from Earth at the foothills of Heaven and find that everything in Heaven is far more substantial than earthly matter. So to a person from Earth, the local apples are far too heavy to lift and too hard to eat, and it's a pain to walk anywhere because the grass cuts your feet. In fact, the narrator even tests this by trying, unsuccessfully, to pick a daisy.

Interestingly, Lewis says in the introduction that he borrowed the concept from a short story about time travel. A guy traveled into the past and found that he couldn't move any physical objects, because the past can't be changed.

"Try to pick this flower... and while you're at it... Rub my belly"

It has to be said that Coyote is looking pretty terrifying here.

The trick of being able to move stuff while in the ether would be pretty neat actually. She'd be able to move stuff in locations far away from her physical body. It's the perfect alibi.

Is the flower actually standing in the physical world?

We are seeing it colour - not black and white. That seams to suggest, that it's part of the etherium. Also - the way it stands there in the middle of a neatly trimmed lawn somehow seams too "dream like" to be in the physical plane.

Those square panels are very untypical for the etherium, though.

Could it be a kind of "simulation" that Coyote has created for this purpose? To me right now that seams like the most plausible explanation.

So - when/if Annie succeeds in picking the flower, will she move it from the "simulation" to the "real etherium" or even to the physical plane?

I guess the next few pages will show us that

Also - does anyone know what kind of flower it is? Wouldn't surprise me if there's a load of symbolism in that.

edit: Coud be a viola. Hmm...

This would be an incredible and terrible power.

Would teaching Annie this trick count as a gift from Coyote, and if so, will Annie remember that Coyote's gifts are not perfect?

Look that book. love pretty much anything by C. S. Lewis, for that matter.



My first thought was that the flower was a simulation as well. Now, I'm not so sure. It could be a real flower in the forest outside of the etheric plain... I'm just not sure how Annie could see it as it's pictured though. Welp, I think I'll stick with simulation for now.

edit:
Good point! I sure hope so, if it is indeed a "gift." Somehow, I don't think it qualifies. Coyote is teaching Annie an ability, not giving it to her.

The chapter will end with Annie short-circuiting Kat's brain using the trick learned off-panel. First the moon, then picking flowers with your BRAIN!

Not all plants are colored inthe ether.

And the Court themselves have made clear that they take pains to sever any ties to the forest in their plants . . . which could affect their appearance in the etherium.

Of all things, this reminds me of the movie "Ghost", directed by Jerry Zucker.

Yes, grey and lifeless, like the "Next Comic" button pointing forward to pages Tom has not yet released.


Win.

This is what I have been thinking about alot today.
You guys have heard me before, praising Tom on his ability to design well-flowing pages without panels. What he does today, though, is mix the style of panel-less pages and panels together, which serves to communicate what's going on here SO WELL.

So, whenever Annie enters the etherium, Tom draws the experience with no panels. This has been true since the first time Annie has done so. (here and here!) Actions taking place in the physical world are bound in panels. So, today, when coyote asks annie to pick the flower, this flower is presented to us within a panel! Annie, outside of a panel and thus in the etherium, reaches into a panel (into the physical world) to show us she cannot touch it. When she is in the etherium, she cannot interact with things in the physical world. This simple in-panel/out-of-panel interaction tells us so much!

Something else I've noticed. Juxaposed panels communicate the passage of time- put two panels together, and it feels that the first is one moment and the second is the next moment. Tom's panel-less pages convey a a sort of suspension of time to me. The last few panels of today's comic, the repeating panel of the flower, really strongly communicates that time is passing.
I predict that the events in Monday's comic will take place at some point much later.

I find this whole page absolutely breathtaking from a design and storytelling perspective.

P.S. I've only just noticed that on this page Anja has crazy hair in the etherium, too! XD