[731] Tired

That is creeeepy.

What's messed up is the fact that Annie could actually be suffering while Gamma simply smiles, unknowing, and brushes cheeks with her.

Granted, this may or may not be the real Annie, or perhaps the Zimmy we know is actually an amalgam of young girls who've stumbled upon Birminghell and had been molded into a form that allows it to continue existing, like a really proactive parasite. This form, needing to be consistent, is the physical shape and personality that we all know and love as Zimmy Zimmy Zeta.

Also: when Zimmy "forgets who she is" it is actually this process occurring.

Also Also: Once again, this is not what I actually think is going on, rather I came up with it to make the situation as horrible as possible.

Whew, speculation over (I suppose now there can be very little reasonable doubt whether it's Zimmy or Annie we were seeing since 2 pages ago).
I'm wondering if that's how Gamma "tunes out the static". A constant influx of positive, or at least... normal thoughts. A background anti-noise if you will. Maybe she's better at it than Annie not because of some as of yet unknown innate quality, but because she puts conscious effort into it?

Not so fast. The girl we're seeing is clearly tired, borderline passing out on the spot. Zimmy never needs to sleep.

If Annie was made very tired for some reason, and had been walking and talking with Gamma who keeps calling her Zimmy, not to mention all the weirdness going on with the buzzing, then it would not be unreasonable to accept that she made a momentary slip of thought in calling herself Zimmy.

That's a very strange interpretation to get from this. What makes you think that?


Hmm. That would make sense, I think.

My eyes can pick out individual lines of the text, but trying to read it all makes it blur together. Anyone (like, say, the person who wrote it, hint hint ) want to try posting a transcript of the mess?

Arguments could still go either way as to whether this is Annie or Zimmy. People could use this update as evidence for either side, and undoubtedly will.

She never *sleeps*. That's quite a big difference from "needs no sleep". And I suppose it's still damn hard for her to stay awake all the time, she just sort of got used to it, because the alternative is way much worse. Maybe because of what she is, she can refrain from sleep indefinitely long (there has to be something, after all humans can die from sleep deprivation), but I bet the need is still there. Not unreasonable to think that if she started believing she is Annie, she might delude herself about whether she could finally sleep now. Maybe that's what kicks her out from such spells of thinking she is somebody else... starting to fall asleep. And whatever it may entail for Zimmy.


OK, fine, speculation not over. But it's a pretty good argument for Zimmy-not-Annie theory, or a fine bit of authorial misdirection, I suppose ;-)

Okay, I know this is quite far-fetched and probably not true, but just bear with me for a moment.

We all know that Zimmy needs Gamma to "tune out the static". But what if the static was caused by Gamma in the first place? That "buzz" in Annie's head right now doesn't look much better than static to me, at least. What if Gamma was harming Zimmy covertly, and helping her openly, in order to keep close to her? Not quite unsimilar to how Zimmy helps Gamma openly by translating for her, but "harming" her covertly by translating incorrectly when she thinks it will help her keeping Gamma close to her. Or for a more crass analogy, like a drug dealer, who "helps" the addict by supplying what he needs, while being the cause of that need in the first place.

What Gamma would get out of this? I don't know, maybe she's some sort of etheric leech who feeds on Zimmy's happiness?

I am aware that there's at least one major flaw in this logic, but well, as I said: it's probably not true.

Well, for one thing, Annie wasn't getting all drowsy and having the black crap start building under her eyes before she encountered Gamma, so...



Courtesy of 4chan /co/, there's this 'enhanced' image that should be easier to read:

I believe it's Gamma speaking telepathically to Annie (thinking she is Zimmy), who shouldn't be able to hear it but does (barely) because of her medium abilities, and it's causing her a major headache.

The stream in the the two panels before the last (and possibly all three last panels) goes across.
So it forms more complete sentences as follows: (in bold the letters we can see, in brackets the contents of the assumed gaps)
Sometimes but th{at's} ok
remember and I k{now} you love me too and we should get....
{we}'re almost {the}re and maybe your friend

I don't have the time right now, but I'll make a better transcription letter today, figuring out the first half-lines too.

I agree!

With the first half line and joining all three panels gives us something like:

[P5]...of you all the [P6]time, zimmy, and I know that you care about me [P7]xxxxxxxxx you forget
[so]metimes but th[behind "I do it because I"] no matter what happens deep inside you you w[ill]
[re]member and I know you love me too and we should get [behind head]sure you're not hungry
need to rest [...obscured by "love you, Zimmy" and head] the iron leaning isn't too
[...we']re almost there and maybe your friend [obscured by head] who this Annie is if it is just
[...]and out of [......................] is a person [.......................]n our lives but we can

Spooky!

I hadn't considered that possibility; Gamma always struck me as, if anything, possibly one of the most saintly characters in the webcomic (you'd have to be a saint to be constantly devoting yourself to the well-being, even at your own expense, of someone as disagreeable as Zimmy - though Gamma's the one person whom Zimmy is never abrasive towards). But maybe.... Tom's certainly pulled other surprises on us before.

I hope that this is "Gamma's influence duping Annie into believing that she's Zimmy" (I liked scalesandfins' comparison to the Green Witch in "The Silver Chair") and not the off-stage switch that people have been proposing since last Wednesday; the former makes more narrative sense to me.

If Gamma was a parasite who bleeds away Zimmy's overabundant energy then I'd expect Gamma would look really strong and healthy, and wouldn't need to stay awake as much as possible. A happy-thought stream-of-consciousness could well be how Gamma helps Zimmy keep control; we do already know she can communicate with Zimmy via telepathy so I think it's likely.

Now, Jack shouldn't know how Gamma helps Zimmy...

...but the spider would know, and that means that even if this is how Gamma helps Zimmy it isn't necessarily the real Gamma. Either way it's not helping Antimony at the moment. It looks almost hypnotic.

I didn't notice it at first glance but Antimony is crying in the last panel. Aw.


[random]There's only half of the "n" in bin left but I think that fragmented line in panel 2 says "I think they should get somebody to clean them up and put them into the bin but it's not so bad." [/random]

This is my first post. Been a long time lurker and this took a while to do. This is what I think it says.

frame 1

{i}sn’t it are you tired we can rest do you have a headache look out for the busses remember to cross when the green man
ing but not when he is dancing I’ll help you across that is a funny sign don’t you think can you tell me what it says I think
ps here are better than the ones on the other side of the bridge right I think they look nicer do you like the colors zim{my}
{h}ope you do so you remember when they put all the lights up at christmas time and everyone is busy rushing here and there a{nd}
the one time of the year you don’t mind all the people and that makes me so happy to see you happy like that zimmy I rea{lly}
{ca}n’t wait for christmas again and everything looks so different and all the strange food they have and the different sound{s}
{bu}zzing in the air but not in a bad way in a way that makes you close your eyes and just listen to the sounds lie the sound o{f}
{th}e air vents behind the building when they are just humming and humming and it’s almost like you’re drunk but again not in

frame 2

{a}bout today I think they should ge{t}
{s}omebody to {c}lean {t}hem up and put
{the}m int{o} the {bi}n but it’s not so bad
ks kind of nice don’t you think do y{ou}
{r}emember how much I like when yo{u}
[....................................]y we should to th
[......................................] find a magazin{e}
[.......................................] n look at th{e}
[.................................... ] {c}an read t{he}

frame 3

{l}ack they would [..............................]
{d}on’{t} you think s{o}[...................]
[......................................................] ni
[..........................................................]
[..........................................................]
[.........................................................]t
[.................................................] n[..] l
[.....................................................]ey I
[....................................................] and
[...................................................]ve on
[...........................................]{c}olou{r}
[.........................................]{ju}st lik{e}

frame 5

{so}metimes but th{e}
{re}member and I k
{n}eed to rest
{we}’re almos{t}
[................]ed out o{n}
[..................]he raili{ng}
[...................]almost
[....................]y look I
......................]the sky
[......................]{h}ave to
[..... .................]sun is r

frame 6

I do it because I love you, zimmy

o{kay}[............]su[..............]{b}ut no matter what ha{ppens}
you love me too and we should get[..............................]
[.........]k[.......]you[....................]ke y[.........................]
ro and maybe your friend[............................................]
[....................]s a perso{n}[........................................]
[.............. ]{an}d done[..............................................]

frame 7

{ru}ns deep inside you you w{ere}
sure you’re not hungry
{t}he iron leaning isn’t too {far}
{w}ho is this annie is if it is jo
m our lives but we can
{p}encil drawings that po
{som}eone forgot to rub the{m}
off the windows looks l{ike}
{s}ometimes it catches yo{u}
{tha}t’s quite funny it’s like
{b}ecause it’s hard to see

So Gamma is really Gamma, and Annie is really Annie, and Gamma really believes that Annie is Zimmy, though we don't know why.

And Gamma is helping "Zimmy" in the way that she normally does... by feeding her stream of consciousness thoughts into their telepathic link, which counteracts Zimmy's static. Most of the time.

Only in this case, because Annie is actually Annie and not Zimmy, there's no static to counter, so it's overwhelming her, giving her the symptoms of being drunk. (Evidence: the bubbles, and Gamma says so in one of the panels)

Unanswered questions: Why does Gamma think Annie is Zimmy? Why does Gamma understand Annie's English, and Annie Gamma's telepathy? Why does Gamma not know a person named "Annie" at all? ("Maybe your friend will know who this Annie is") Why, if they have touched and Gamma is working her magic on Zimmy, are they still in Zimmingham?

Theoretical answer: This entire thing isn't Zimmingham per se, but is one of Zimmy's memories of Birmingham. The buildings, Gamma, the whole situation is actually a replay of one of Zimmy's memories, told from her point of view with Annie as the unwitting passenger. It happens to be a good memory, but its effect on Annie is very different. And the memory/dream has changed slightly with the presence of Annie and Jack in it. And where did the dream/memory come from? I'm guessing from Jack's spider, who was a manifestation from Zimmingham in the first place... and Zimmingham is a nightmare-riddled replay of Zimmy's memories too, so, effectively, this -is- Zimmingham, but not as we've ever seen it before.

That's my theory anyway.